All right, everybody to night's episode of Wrestling Magic.
We're just going to talk about what happened at the Royal Rumble because wrestling right now, and like my usual joining me tonight is going to be the gardner Michael Gross, hey man, how.
You doing great?
How are you doing over there in the UK?
Not too bad?
It's been interesting over here, to say the least. Don't give it that much.
How cold is it over there right now?
I just went for a run not too long ago, and it was about forty ish degrees.
It's not terrible, not too bad. What about where you're at?
You know? Two days ago it was seventy degrees in Louisville and today it's thirty degrees in Louisville. So my skin is taking a beating. My nose runs one day and then I swept the next. I don't get it here, man, But I gotta ask you, because you said you're taking a run. Don't you have something coming up? Uh?
Yeah, you know, just my typical racing stuff. I try to keep the locations private for safety reasons. But yeah, I'm gonna be doing another marathon sometime soon, so it should be fun.
I'm really excited. For it.
It should be in the next couple of weeks. Well, how was how was the last marathon that you did?
Uh?
Last actual marathon I did was back in Okanawa a little over a year ago. It was amazing and I kind of miss it that. People were incredible. They were like so many people in the crowd, just on the sides of this entire race, like on the sides with like these little jello cups they're handing out to everybody. And there were people like this light acane spray. I remember run up to them and like just point to whatever body part was hurting. They would get in there and like spray the crap out of it.
And he would just go numb.
And I remember one guy he got to my knee really well, like he got into every little crease and everything through my pants.
I was like, man, I don't know who this dude is. He must have been a doctor. I don't know how you did that that well. And I just kept going.
I was like, man, these guys are good. They really know what they're doing.
But yeah, what's going on with you, dude?
That was an Okinawa, yeah, back and ok Oh my gosh, So did you eat a lot of authentic Japanese food while you were there in ok.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
I mean a friend of mine who uh I got to see out there, and I'm really happy that I did. He took me out to uh Cocasai, which is like the big touristy place, and I remember I told him I wanted to have ramen and.
He saw me.
He's like, Okay, we're not going to go to any of these main big places here. I want you to pick a dark alleyway. We're gonna walk down there. There's gonna be a random red light that says ram and above a door that's gonna have the best ramen.
Of your life.
Or we're just walking along. I find a random dark alley way, I'm like, all right, this is the one. He's like, okay, we just walked down there. He was dead right. I still couldn't believe it.
That's really awesome. Well, today we're going to talk about our reactions to the Royal Room. Okay, and you and I both watched it. We both have our own opinions on it. I think we have some shared opinions. I mean, obviously you're my nephew, so everybody knows that mystery is over.
And also something I want to say is thank you for all the work that you've done as far as your interviews and everybody that you and Scully have looked up a lot of people don't know this, but to get these interviews with retired wrestlers, King, Scully and Maverick have looked up these people, researched these people, and taken their own hard time to get these people on the show. And I can be present for some of these interviews.
I can't be present for some of these interviews. We all have a work life, we all have a regular life, and I just want to personally thank you for all the content that you've been going out of your way to create in every contact that Scully has found, because it is really amazing to me how much of the Wrestle Magic team are trying to create and contribute to
wwepodcast dot com. And you know, I know Rocky'll be back in a little while, and you know Memphis Mark has taking a sabbatical, but he's going to be doing some work with me soon as far as some show ideas that he and I have had. Creating content is not very easy, folks, and especially doing interviews with famous retired wrestlers is very very important to how you format, how you talk to them, how you ask them questions.
Like for instance, when you talked to Raven, one of the precursors for when we got him on the show was he didn't want to be asked the same old questions. So that was that was really amazing that you and I had worked but mostly you on questions for Raven to come up with ideas and things for him to actually think about. So, you know, I just want to give like a big hats off to you and everybody you know, should really really appreciate the fact that you and Skully have done a lot of work as far
as finding these people. You've done a lot of work as far as interviewing these peop people, and you know, I just it amazes me. I think that you deserve a little break for a while, and so why don't you take a little break? You know?
Yeah, I uh, man, I really appreciate that. And I know Scully will appreciate that too. You know, he's uh, he's kind of stayed on the outside. He kind of feels weird about jumping in with some of these guys. Think he's a little shy honestly, but honestly great person and I'm really proud of him for helping me out with that as well.
And we both help each other find.
Some of these guys, and it's like, hey, what do you think about trying to get this dude, and like trying to figure out every way that we can contact some of these guys, and it can be a real pain and sometimes the research it can be insane, looking up every little thing that we can to find something that nobody's really asked about before, or try to find something that would be interesting to ask about. It really, uh means a lot for you to say that about.
It, But yeah, you know, in ways, you're you're you're my hero. Okay, my nephew is my hero. So it's you. You followed in your uncle's steps as far as loving wrestling, and you're living in a Mason life. You're living in a foreign country, you're defending the country. You fix airplanes, you fix aircraft. I mean, you're doing something that is most of service that some of the people who listen to the show will never understand or have the opportunity
to do so. For that, I applaud you you're my hero.
Thanks man, and I do think I'll take you up on that break here soon, probably take a couple of weeks off just to relax, decompress, not think about everything all at once instead of, you know, dealing with work life and this at the same time and just kind of doing a round robin every day. It kind of felt like, for a little bit, just I get this
done today, get that done. Am I stepping into the next role that I need to And it could be a little backbreaking at times, but honestly, it felt worth it, and it's very rewarding now that a lot of it is over. But I don't want to keep talking about this too much.
Guys. Sorry about that.
A little bit of a side conversation there, But we're gonna get into the royal rumble.
So let's get into it.
Man. Let's give the people what they're paying or not paying to hear either way. I don't blame you guys for that. So let's start off with the woman's royal rumble. So what are your thoughts on it?
Man?
Going into it?
I mean, everybody knew Charlotte was coming back. That was a worse kept secret than Penta coming in so I kind of felt that she was gonna win it like this seriously felt like Vince was talking into Triple H's ear. As far as booking this, think, honestly, the person I wanted to see when it was Selena Vega. I think that she's incredibly talented. She's incredible, I mean, just an incredible,
incredible manager and wrestler and performer. And I just don't see why they didn't give her a shot because at this point, Player's done it all. Does she really need to match her dad with sixteen world championships? Come on on, we don't need that. Also, some thoughts I had from it real quick is, uh, Piper Nivin, I'm not a fan of the whole wrestling talk show thing. I mean it works maybe one segment, but not multiple segments in
the night, and they kind of dumbed it down. But wouldn't it be awesome if Piper Nevin brought back Piper's Pit? No one has How has nobody thought of this yet? How has nobody said that's a great idea, Piper Kniven Piper's Pit. Now, maybe Roddy Piper's family or a state won't allow that because it was trademarked or something to that degree. However, I think that would be really awesome for her and that could boost her career quite a bit. Yeah,
I can say that's that's just an idea. But anyway, as I was watching it, I saw a lot of sorry, folks, I'm changing up my garbage right now. I saw a lot of really talented women go over that top rope and the predictability of Charlotte. It just it didn't do anything for me. And I'm a big Charlotte fan, but oh geez, you know, I just don't get why we have to put her over and have her headline in WrestleMania one more time when she's had so much times she's been in the spotlight. We get that she's a
top star. It's just very very sketched me. The other people I would have put over in this lived Morgan, because she's worked her tail off and it's a beautiful tale to get where she is. And I really appreciate that Zoe Stark just because I think that they cooled their engines on her for no good reason. And I think Zoe Stark could have been something for WrestleMania and maybe uh Raquel Robergos. So, you know, Jordan Grace, it's
too early. It's too early, and I think it would be a slap in the face to everyone in the woman's division for Jordan Grace to take it right away. I'm a big fan, a huge fan of first However, I'm not a fan of someone taking spotlight right away. So I think that they did the right thing with her just sticking around, having some eliminations things like that. I think that the real money is going to be Jordan Grace against being Uncle beell Air. Just two powerhouses going.
It's like a female hoss mash match. I should say, Naya Jacks, what were your thoughts on Nia Jackson this one?
So I'm really not Anyjacks fan. I'm very open about that, and you know, I feel like the shouldn't be a problem. If anybody disagrees that, I really don't care. That's just my opinion. I'm not really a fan of her, but I do think that if she were to have won the match, at least this is kind of understandable for storyline purposes, like, Okay, she's pursuing the title that she just lost. Cool, this makes some sense. It would align kind of well because now she gets that chance to
go after Tiffany for the title again. But realistically, I don't know. I've never been impressed with Nia Jack's performances. She can be a heel, but that's just because I already don't like her. That's kind of a problem. It's not even like heel heat. It's go away heat to me.
So I really am not a fan of hers.
And her performance was okay. I didn't think her eliminating like half of the rumble was really necessary.
In that one move. I thought it was just kind of not there. That's not how that should have went.
But otherwise, I will say, there's a lot of names that I feel like I would have been okay with winning the Women's Royal Rumble, but there's a lot of names that I would not have okay with honestly. So first off, the Big Veterans Returns, we had Tris Stratus. Now, I wouldn't have wanted her to win, just because, well, let's face it, she's well past her prime and her
wrestling days are kind of behind her. I think it's time for her to just keep putting the spot on it and others, and that's what she did, and I'm very happy with that. But then you have Nicki Bella coming out. I'm like, who asked for this?
No? But when? When? When was Nicki Bella really a wrestler? And I know everybody's gonna be like eight it was between two thousand. No, she was guarded, she was pants, she was terrible in the rain. Everybody knows that she was made fun of her, how many botches she would make, and how badly scripted and how she would like say what she was gonna do.
I mean, everybody knows this, and so somebody out there is gonna say, oh, it's a Hall of Famer. Okay, so it is Drew Carey. Is he a great wrestler?
Yeah, exactly, Pete Rose, I mean, come on, it's so silly, like let's let's not like bathe ourselves and oh they're a Hall of Famer this or that. The other fact is that was like it was leaked that she might be back. But did anybody care because my answers, no, she got a pop because they just wanted to see her wiggler booty and walk to the ring and do two or three really bad moves and then just get thrown over. Also, though, what did you think of Stephanie
the coour? I think I'm saying that right here.
I yeah, how exactly to say her name? I'm not gonna lie. I I probably watched it too, but I think she's a very good performer.
This match, I don't know.
It didn't really feel like you saw a whole lot of her highlighted, so I can't really say, but I've seen her work prior to this, and I think that she is a great performer this match. Honestly, well, this is how I feel about most larger numbered contestant matches like this. I feel like it puts a spotlight on somebody for like five seconds, and then it pulls to somebody else. So I feel like everybody pretty much gets a very slim look at their talent. You're not gonna
see all that much out of it. But overall, it's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just another one of those gimmicks to get people in seats, and it's okay, there's nothing wrong with that. I actually enjoyed most of this women's match, except for as soon as that number thirty hit and here comes Nicki Bell.
It's like, come on, man, seriously.
But the overall match wasn't bad necessarily, I will say it's relatively good, but I feel like it could have been a lot of others that should have won. I don't hate Charlot Flair by any means. I think she's very talented, but at the same time, I feel that the Undertaker was extremely talented, but he was not a champion every five seconds. Also, the fact that she has fourteen championships already, does she really need another one right now? I think she should be, you know, letting someone else
take the spotlight right now. It seems a little ridiculous that she's already at fourteen and how many years she been wrestling. It's nowhere near her father's legacy. It's just kind of rushed. It feels like, and I get it. They're probably trying to do it because it's like, Okay, it seems like women wrestlers don't really like last as long career wise as men do. So maybe that was their thinking, was like, Okay, we're gonna try to rush it so that she can beat his record. But it's
not going that well with the fans. A lot of fans are like, Okay, we get it, you're the best blah blah blah.
Who cares.
I think even Alexa Bliss cut a promo want Her like that a long time ago, and it was pretty funny. But the point being, I just don't think who was necessarily right instantly come back, instantly win. Sometimes it works, but that's when the crowd's already really behind you. And if you guys check, he got pretty badly ratioed on YouTube for who is actually liking and disliking this one? It's not very much a great reviews favor so it is what it is. I don't hate this, but I will say I'm not.
Really for Charlotte winning.
I think it could have went to a lot of other stars who could have used this push.
And really, even if it's.
Just for that WrestleMania moment to get there, push a little bit higher and they still lose the match, it's still okay. You just had a you know, title match Mania.
Who cares.
There's a lot of names that could have been in there. I mean, honestly, I would have been okay with seeing Bailey in there. I would have even been okay with seeing Nia Jacks win it. And I'm not a fan of hers. That's kind of sad, but it is what it is. What it at least made some storyline sense, and I would have said, okay, fair enough, hands off.
Well looking looking over the participants, some people that I thought would be like I said, I thought that, you know, Jordan Grace, it would it was too early. Raquel Rodriguez would have been fun. Not Piper Kniven. I think she's she's great and she's an entertainer, but her time is about a year from now, a year from now, and they can build a storyline around her. I think that
she'll have something. Shanna Basler, how about Shanna Basler, the woman that retired round to Rousey, you know from from WWE, that is a great winner. Zelena Vega. Zelena Vega to me is still the one that I really want to see. And I also want to say a welcome back to elect A Bliss because I'm a big fan of a Lexa Bliss. For as small and petite as she is,
she is an amazing performer. And if people don't remember, you know her her run at the top of the car when she was the Woman's Champion, especially when she was going against Rowsy and she e vicerated Ronda Rowsey.
On the MIC.
I mean a vicerated her with promos. I don't see how you couldn't say, okay, she could be the top. But so out of this, who do you think look the strongest? Or who do you think look the weakest? Or you know, look Maxine dupri Do I think she'll ever do anything?
No?
You know, Bailey shyes, she should have done something, but Basler obviously should have done something. Natalia Natalia is way past her prime and she's so good though, but she enhances so much talent. And I'm not saying she's an enhancement talent. She just anybody she's in the ring with, she makes that much better. She was trained by to Hearts. They know how to train people, so, you know, but you have to look at realistically, who's gonna win this,
who's not gonna win this? Who belongs in this? Who does not belong in this? And everybody knew Jordan Grace was going to be there. It was just a matter of time. And as far as she goes like that girl is, she's a year away, just like Piper Niven is. I think that the two of them could write a great story one year out and have like one of
the greatest female matches ever. I know I sound crazy when I say this, but I really do because Jordan Grace is strong as hell and Piper Niven, for her size, is agile as hell, and I think that Piper has a lot more to offer than people think. So but you know, I'm looking at even Sonya Deville could have done something more in this. This is just it makes
no sense to put it on Charlotte again. So that's how I feel about that, and that's it was a great female royal rumble, but it was a really bad result. It makes no sense just to keep going to the same well. If the well is dry, you dig a new hole, right.
Yeah, And honestly, I kind of felt like I am a fan of Roxane Perez. I honestly feel like she could have been a okay choice for it.
I would have been fully supporting that.
There's some of these talents where I'm thinking, okay, still NXT not quite there yet. Like you said, Jordan Grace, I feel like, yeah, I'd say about a year out, maybe even a little bit less time, but I'm not going to put it past like seven eight months I think would be reasonable to become potential champion, but not anything than that, just because I know that she is talented. She was in TNA for years and she's one of those people that I could watch most of her matches
and be okay with. I mean, I kind of felt bad for in TNA. Where for to end before she left. All of a sudden, Tae brings back Tessa blanchert and rumor has it she did not want to work with Tessa. It kind of shows maybe there's a little bit of a heat there.
But you know, I have no sources on that.
Besides what we read that you know there's tension that she did not want to work with her.
I have no sources to site really with that.
But still being said, I do think that both have a shot there between rox and Emperez and Jordan Grace.
But it is what it is.
Charlotte Flair got it, you know what. We'll see where it goes. She even made her decision yet.
For who she wants to face, No, I would think so. I mean, I didn't have a chance to watch raw last night. I'm a busy man. We're all busy men, so and ladies out there by the way, We're not discriminating, but you know, I also look at like the people who like Naomi, why just why, I get it that you're married to one of the Smoans and they love the Smoans, so but one of the Oos, I believe.
But I don't want to see Naomi like competing in a WWE ring if it's gonna be the so called hierarchy of professional wrestling, Like Naomi does nothing for me. I people like she's been there forever. Bob Holly was in WWE forever and he never wore the men's championship, and I believe Naomi has. And it's just like she still does Diva era moves that they call it a hip check, but it was the rear end and it just,
you know, I look at that. I look at Canvas Loray like she's not there on that tier yet she needs to spend some time down to next t I like her as a performer and as an appearance, However, I don't like her as a wrestling performer. Bfab. I mean, she had no chance. Come on, I still think Chelsea Green should have had a chance. But that's how I feel about that.
Yeah, I agree there, I mean, I kind of feel like Naomi is it's almost like the last of the Diva's era before her, I want to say, it was Alicia Fox and then Naomi's like the last one really raining at this point. That's like still doing the diva moves and everything. And then when they brought back Eva Marie for like what a month or two, then it was like, oh great, here we go again.
But he got Nikki Bella.
I mean she's not so you know what I mean, I know, I know, just being facetious, that's fair. I mean, we can always have fun with that. But anyways, so we could just go ahead and table that for now. So actually, I want to give one quick shout out because I got into the discord for everybody that's on the Patreon and everything, and honestly, that was a really fun time. Everybody that was in there during this whole event.
We were all having a lot of fun just talking during this and you know, I appreciate all you guys.
It was a lot of fun.
So yeah, shout out to everybody that was in the discord. But anyway, so the next match was WWE Tag Team Championship between MotorCity machine Guns and DIY and man, I've been a Motor City Machine Guns fan since probably like two thousand and seven. They are one of those teams that I could watch at almost any point and I'm gonna be impressed this match.
It was okay.
I'm not really a fan of interference finishes at almost any point. I understand for storylines it does help drive certain things, but there's gonna be that part of me that's like, this's the MotorCity Machine Guns. I'm nostalgic with them. I don't like seeing them lose that much, but dy not.
A bad team. I kind of like them.
I think that they're good, but it's gonna be that nostalgic feeling.
I'm gonna have that bias from the beginning.
I'm not gonna lie I have a bias towards MotorCity Machine Guns because they are kind of half of what kept me interested in wrestling at one point. Because I must say, it was like around two thousand and eight, two nine, and where are starting to get bored of it? Switch channel to TNA and I'm seeing Jayleethal doing springboards in the ring, hitting the ropes and coming back. I'm
seeing MORTC Machine Guns doing suicide dives. I got back into it because of these guys, so kind of have them to thank for sitting in this seat and making this podcast.
Now with you there, Michael, So what'd you think of the match man.
Too much Hot Potato with the tag titles? First of all, MotorCity wins the tag titles on their very first day in the company, which cool. It's a great way to blow the roof off the place. However, for them to lose the titles almost immediately, what weeks?
A month?
Two months? Maybe a month? It Yeah, and it didn't even feel like two months because we're used to episodic TV. We all felt like it was just a week. It really felt like a week. So this is it made sense to keep the titles on DIY, to keep them more, to keep the titles more important and prevalent. However, I mean, it was just I love the machine guns. I love MotorCity machine guns. They are just amazing, amazing tag team.
And all the hype they did for them, all the the pre recorded everything that they did to you know, make sure that you knew that the machine guns were coming once again, another not well kept secret. I just didn't understand why they had to drop the titles, and then now they have to go for the titles again, but they lose to a team. Look, I've got pictures
with Di I Y. I've met those guys. They're very, very nice and I don't know if I've ever shown you that, but pictures of me and Johnny and tomasco Champ. I think, great guys. I don't understand why that they're they're making this program as prevalent as it is with the fact of it would have been more if the machine Guns lost it on of three to DIY tonight or when it happened, as opposed to them trying to get it back. So what's your thoughts on that psychology?
I mean, it makes a lot of sense, and you know, now that I think about it, I'm starting to think maybe they want to try to push for Areway Tag match. Maybe they're trying to kind of recreate that old school parties Dudley's and Christian and Edge kind of Trio tag match sort of thing. Well not Trio's tag but you know what I mean, three different tag teams at the same time. So maybe there's a chance that they're trying to push for that. I could see them trying maybe
not for like a TLC sort of match again. But maybe they're trying to really open up the tag division a little bit more with this. I don't know, but I do kind of agree with you. They should have done it differently, and yeah, losing the titles to them that way would have made a little bit more sense. And I'm just not a fan of interfering. Uh finishes when it comes down to tag matches, especially unless it's like their manager or something. Then it kind of makes sense.
I'm okay with that. That's what a manager should be doing. Your tag team partner should be the one that's jumping in and breaking up the pins and everything.
That's how it should be.
No matter what, I don't like seeing anybody else do any kind of interference during a tag mag It kind of ruins it for me, you know.
What I mean.
No, I get you on that, you know. And so as far as the street profits, but let's talk about that. What First of all, Dawkins is in great shape. He's in probably the best shape I've ever seen him in his life.
Oh agreed, He's definitely uh looks like he slimmed down a little bit, and I'm kind of impressed, honestly.
And everybody talks about like, you know, Montes Ford's a future world champion. I get news for you. He's not. He's not, you know. And they said the same thing about Edgy's too skinny. But no, Dawkins, they're excuse me, Ford is not going to be a future world champion. I don't see it now. I could be wrong because we got to look at our main event tonight, but brass tacks and baseball bats. When it comes down to it, Ford is a like one trick pony. He was the
better of the two. He was the Shawn Michaels versus Dawkins as the Marty Jeanetty. And I hate to say that because Dawkins, if you're listening, I do think that you're a very talented person, and I really think that you getting yourself into great shape means a lot. But the fact is, if you've been saddled with this tag team gimmick this long and they haven't done a split up, you're gonna be there for life. It's just foregone. You're
going to be there for life. So but with their interference and that being like what happened and then the beat down at the end, what was your feeling about the beat down at the end.
It just wasn't really necessary at least I didn't feel like it was.
And I'm just not a fan of it. I am.
I don't really know where to put my feelings for it, because it's like it just felt strange to watch, I mean for me anyways, I'm not so I like the Street Profits to an extent, but just the way that the match went, I.
Just didn't really understand it. What about you men?
Basically the same way like my What killed me with the Street Profits years ago was the fact that the team was overexposed. And this is when the whole like, you know, montes Ford is going to be the next WWE champion and everything else, and he does these crazy jumps and everything else. Honestly, and I hate to say this, folks, he was a Portman's version of ar Fox. And if you don't know who ar Fox is, he is on AW and he does some crazy stuff too. I mean, it's just it is what it is, okay, And they
mimicked that when they put that into montes Ford. Now I'm not saying he's not a terrific athlete or he's not a terrific performer. I just think that he's very overrated and for them to bank on that for so long, thinking that, you know, Ford was just going to be this guy that was going to be so innovative. They screwed up on that, and the fact that you know they put they overexposed Bianca too. That's why she's played
hot Potato with the belt quite a few times. She always looks like gold when she comes out of it. But let's be honest here. You know, you never say, oh my god, that Bianca bel air match, Oh my god, did you ever see that? It's just it's her presence and her charisma as opposed to an actual incredible match. So that's what I have with that. But the point is, I just wish it's two out of three so you
don't need interference. Yeah, I mean, I hate to say they could use the old good you know, Lucky roll up the Move of Doom and its Dangerous movie WWE exactly. So that's where I am with that. You know, I'm rambling a little bit, but I'm just trying to be honest on how I feel. So, yeah, that's it.
So let's move on to the next one, because I don't know, I feel like that match just doesn't really have anything else to be said about it. But so the next match being the undisputed WWE Championship, a ladder match, ah Man Cody Roads versus Kevin owens Man. Is it me or did they feel like did this feel like they were trying to be too extreme to an extent?
What do you think?
Oh? Absolutely absolutely, And while it was cool and it was fun, and yeah, they tried to be a little too extreme. Kevin got split open pretty bad. That was just insane. And did you notice, and this is my most happy moment of this whole thing, they never did the slow ladder crawl.
So I noticed there was no slow ladder crawl, but I noticed that Cody Roads at the very end was on top of the ladder for a long time before he actually pulled the belt down.
Yeah. I don't know what that was all about. I really don't, but you know, I just appreciate the fact that they didn't insult our intelligence with the slow ladder crawl, Like, oh, I'm so fatigued, but I just gave a guy like five body slams and two backbreakers. You know, it's like what And I just found it really really amazing that they didn't do the slow ladder crawl. They found ways around it. I love the fact that they broke out the baby ladder. What do you think about that?
The baby ladder?
Oh my god, that was like that was actually the best parton my I think, and just the fact that they made use of one as well, Like there's no way it could possibly be used to actually climb up for that, so they found a way, and you know what, it was better than.
MLW's a barbed wire ladder. I'll give it that.
But yeah about that. The only time that I've ever seen a believable slow climb was Jeff Hardy versus Under Or two thousand and two. But that's because Jeff Hardy was taking such a beating the whole match, so then him like crawling up the ladder, he.
Just looked beat up. So it made sense.
So I think that that was the double turn. That's my favorite face face, the heel turn.
Yeah, exactly, And it made sense like, Okay, a small guy just got his butt kicked, he's got a second to climb the ladder. Yeah he doesn't look too good. He's really going slow up it. It makes sense there, But yeah, I'm kind of glad that they really did well with this match and it was good.
But to an extent, it felt.
Like they were trying too hard to be extreme, and to an extent that can be great. In other ways, it can be absolutely terrible. I mean a lot of people made fun of AW for that when they did certain things. But you know, I don't want to be that kind of guy to say, oh, well, wwe can do it, but AW can't. It's kind of hypocritical to be that way, and I hate that. But I did think they did well certain things and it was enjoyable. They really tried their best on this, and I'll give
him credit. I think Kevin owns he was a great performer. I want to see him as a world champion at some point, but I don't know if now was the time.
To be honest with you.
Man, it's definitely not the time for him. I mean, they got to cool him off for a little bit. He's been the champion a few times, so obviously, you know, putting a belt on him doesn't really mean that much at this point. I hate to say it like that, but to be a performer, to do what he does every night insanely, I mean I really thought he was dead after that Alabama slam. I really thought he was
dead at the end, and I was. And then when they picked him up, even Cody did the hand squeeze if you if you guys rewatch, there's the hand squeeze, which it means I'm okay, and it's a it's a kfa thing that people do, and the referees were doing it. I mean, they had all kinds of people out there. They thought he was dead, and I really thought his neck is broken, like I thought he was dead, and then, you know, to continue the match. I don't know the pain he went through, but I don't want to. I
don't want to feel that kind of pain. So for the effort, I give an A. For execution, I give it a B be minus because it was too much extreme. Yeah. So, and how do you have a street fight when you're not in the street, right, I mean, they could have pre taped this and had it take place outside, and you know, we could we could have got just we could have had just as great of any kind of result that we did.
So I kind of agree and disagree on that one, because then that takes away from everybody that's in the stadium actually watching the show. I would not want to watch that on a big screen in front of me if it was pre taped that I would not be a fan of that. Just my opinion personally, But fair enough, we can disagree on that kind of stuff, and that's kind of what's nice about being on these kind of shows. Yeah, definitely, but yeah, so Kevin Owen's very talented. And uh, I'll
be honest. The first time that I ever saw Cody Rhodes really do anything extreme was when he was in Ring of Honor and I remember watching it was Matt Tavan versus Cody Rhoads matches of the Craft twenty eighteen. First show I ever went to everybody, So while we were there, it was me and your brother Tim were in Columbus, Ohio.
While we're watching the show.
It was a first blood match Matt Tavan Cody Rhodes for I want to say, it was the TV title or something, And I remember the finish actually was entertaining and I really liked watching it just because they did all this extreme stuff. But then the ending was Matt Taven came running at Cody Rhods with the belt, Cody Roads punches the belt goes down. He's like holding his hand and like in a ball for a second, and then you can tell he's doing something to his hands, like you know, KFA show stuff.
You kind of look away from.
It just to keep the disbelief.
Alive or whatever you want to call it.
He gets up, he starts punching, even in the face, and then the ref picks up his hand. Everybody thinks Cody won, and then then announcer says winner of this match, Matt Taban.
Then you see.
Cody's hand is bleeding. It was pretty cool finish, I thought. So that was the first time I ever saw Cody do something extreme, and this was cool.
But just not the same level. I thought this was too far.
Honestly, in a few ways, I thought it was a little too dangerous for them.
But you know what a foreffort.
I do think B minus for execution, though I do agree with that one hundred even though the baby left. Yeah, sometimes a little less is more, and that this is a case where a little less is more exactly.
So you know, they made their point. If this feud keeps going, when you know, maybe this is I think this is their way of giving Kevin Owens some time off the family and whatever else, maybe needs a surgery, whatever. But the point is if if he is really needing time off, like there's there was, this could have been like five minutes sooner. This match could have been shaped five minutes off and you didn't have to have as many high spots. And like I said that Alabama slam,
I mean that made me sick. And I'm not like, how do I put it. I'm not trying to talk trash about it. Just the way his head hit, I really thought he had broken his neck and died, and I was just like, wow, I'm watching an unfortunate manslaughter on TV.
So yeah, man, I hear you.
And there's nothing wrong with being concerned with your fellow man saying it made you sick. I understand you don't mean it like in a bad way. You mean it like, hey, I was concerned at that point for that dude. He it looked like absolutely broke something. That's not nothing negative about that. But anyways, we can table that one as well. So last match of the night, the thirty man Royal Rumble match.
Now, before we.
Get too into it, I do want to say it felt too predetermined for something that's supposed to be random people coming out one at a time. And I understand the whole thing is predetermined. I get it, but like you start off with two lucidors, specifically, when they keep comparing them every week, and then towards the end you have all these huge name stars all at.
The same time. It feels like, isn't this supposed to.
Be like a drawing sort of thing where they go and they get a number handed to them, like oh, yeah, you know, doing the bingo thing or whatever with all the balls inside the cage, and then it rolls out and then it's like, oh, I'm number twenty eight or whatever. No, this felt very, very too exact and two put together. And it's not a huge problem to me, but it is kind of annoying, you know, it's not it just
doesn't feel random enough to an extent. And I hate to say it that way, but it just felt so overproduced.
What did you think, Oh, way overproduced, And for everybody's expectations going into this and all the rumors of who might be coming back, who might be the surprise entrance, it was it fizzled. It fizzled out really really hard. I mean, I don't know who I show speed is. But I'm also fifty years old, so you know, for him to go out that that was stupid, that was just inane. For Logan Paul to be the last entrant, that was inane. I mean, you're getting booed that bad.
No one wants to see you in the ring right now. You have to work a program, a proper program, and for you to be number thirty when people are hoping that it would be some kind of legend or somebody who was actually important to wrestling period, it's kind of pathetic that Logan Paul was the last one to go in. And then I look at it and it's like, okay,
we start out with Raymisterio and Penta. I mean it's awesome, but if you look at the beginning of the matches when they first started wrestling each other, I don't know who botched what, but it looked so so like incredibly scripted in the ring.
Did you notice that, Yeah, everything felt really I don't know, it felt slow in the beginning, and I don't like to use that word for this, but it felt slow, overproduced. And I'll be honest with you, when you see two guys going at each other and then you see Pentas just sitting in the corner, just watching the whole thing, and we were talking about this a little bit of the discord, like, man, he wants no part of this. He's just grabbing some popcorn. He don't want to be
anywhere near this one. I think it was a Roman and somebody, maybe Roman and Jacob or somebody like that. But either way, it was just like, man, is this even I don't know. It just felt too overproduced, too fake, and yeah, that kind of drove my opinion to this match down, So I agree with you there.
All right. So looking at the people that were in this match, in this Royal Rumble, first of all, everybody knew Joe Hendry was gonna come out, and while he didn't eliminate anybody, and he got eliminated by Roman Reigns, and that got a big boo from the crowd, which I thought was amazing. Still, the fact that Joe Hendrick came out come on. But then I look at like people who shouldn't never like Tazawa, what was the point of that. It was just to put the I Show
speed in there. That is a Vince McMahon going through Triple H's ear move. It's so stupid. I do not get it. It's like Tazowa would never have a chance, neither would Otis. But yet let's put Otis in the Royal Rumble because that makes sense. No, it doesn't. He's never gonna be a world champion. Trying to look at other people that, I mean, the Miz God, he shouldn't be in anything. And Dominic Mysterio he's cool, but and he grabs heel heat, but he's not a top name.
He's not Okay, people will disagree with me on this, but honestly, he's a top heat getter. But do you really think if Dominic Mysterio and Roman Reigns locked up or Drew McIntyre that Dominic Mysterio would have a prayer in hell? Probably not sore they some of the people I was hoping that would be in this weren't. One person that really disappointed me. A person I'm big on and I think that has a very high ceiling is Ludvig Kaiser. I think that Ludvig Kaiser is way talented.
There's a reason he's on TV every week. There's a reason he is very, very talented. And I just think that if they actually let him win once in a while, that this guy could draw a lot more money that they're even seeing. And his best money is going to be his baby face instead of a heel when he becomes a babyface. Holy biscuits, you're talking about a guy
that has no potential because he has something. He has a look, he has a build, he has a wrestling acumen that is just amazing, and yet he's treated like
terrible material every week. It was nice to see aj Styles back, you know, honestly, I who I wanted to see in the Rumble and you probably know this is Nick Oldis And well, if for all the listeners out there, if you've never seen Nick Oldis wrestle his matches with Cody for the NWA Championship, and I believe the first three all in just mind blowing, mind blowing, like Nick Oldis is a great wrestler, and so I'd like to see him in the ring one more time because he's
younger than me. He's ten years younger than me, I think something like that, and he can just wrestle. You know, other people I think that shouldn't.
Have been in.
I mean, didn't I want to see Logan Paul in it. It was so stupid hav him come out number thirty. I get it, he's a tough guy, but he's a tough guy against limited people. I mean, sure he could probably beat my ass, but I mean, let's be honest, I don't see him slugging out with Drew McIntyre Roman Reigns. I mean, I don't see him slugging out with Shinsky Nakamura. So you know it's or Jacob fat too, who had the most eliminations. By the way, that's valid.
I mean personally, part of why.
I say I think this match was overproduced. Number twenty nine was La Night and mean logan Paul, Yeah, SummerSlam.
Guess who lost that match.
So once again it's just overproduced to me because you know you got Sina, Punk Rollins all coming out in succession. It's like, come on, man, you're putting too much star power all at the end here.
It kind of just who's too overdone?
And personally, I don't know if you'll agree with this. I think they should have put aj Styles at number thirty if this is the roster they were going to keep, because then AJ Styles at thirty at least it's a return. If nothing else, that is a nice surprise for everybody no matter what. And hey, he doesn't have to win the match. Just because you're thirty doesn't mean you're automatically gonna win. Hey, Ray Mysterio was number two and he won the whole match before.
It doesn't make a difference here.
But I do agree with you don't or yeah, Dominic Mysterio is not quite on that level yet. Maybe in a couple of years, if he really bulks up, he could really make a name for himself. Or maybe if he really innovates his offense, he'll get a little bit better.
I do think some.
Of these names just didn't need to be there. I show speed did not need to be there. I'm tired of seeing YouTubers in WWE. It's one thing if they really put in the work. I give Logan Paul credit. He has put in the work and he has really been doing pretty well. His matches aren't bad, but he's got so much go away heat and I'm already.
Not really a fan of the guy.
Plus he has to use my first name againey Cloud. I'm just kidding, but it is annoying whenever I hear that. I'm not a fan of the guy. I don't think he's the greatest. I don't think he really is going to be a world champion anytime soon, and if he is, that is a disservice to the fans by the company.
And that's just how I feel now, Jay Uso winning.
I'm kind of split on it, just because, well, between him and Sena, I kind of wanted to see Sina continue on his retirement tour and just be able to have that road to WrestleMania. But at the same time, I'm glad that he is putting over the younger talent instead. Even if it's not the best talent to do that with, He's still doing the right thing as the soon to be a retired star and give it up for the next guy.
I'm glad that he's doing it that way.
But did you see Sina's face when he was standing out on the apron against Uso before he got eliminated and he like looked at the floor and then looked back at Jay. What the heck was that?
I don't know, you know, I thought that was kind of a curiosity thing, and I'm like, what's going on here? And maybe it was just like a glitch in the floorboard floor boards or something like that. But I mean, I don't get it. I don't know what's going on there. But you know I I would have actually preferred Sina going over in this match. So we're gonna talk about main event Jayu so whereas I like to call him
lame event Jayu. So. So his thing is called yeat, Well that's a slang for throwing things, So yeat, yeat, yeat that means throw, throw, throw, And it makes Pac McAfee look like an idiot every week when he gets up and just throws his arms up like it really idiotic human being. And so they do this like every week, and oh, he's selling so much merchandise and he's we put we put this on him because like he's so
in touch with the fans. Well, if you look at when Fondongo would come out, people would do the Fondngo dance. So where's fon Dongo's royal rumble? I just I where's his win? I just don't know. I can't figure that one out. So honestly, I see this as lame event jay usso losing it resumting if he wins, it's a disservice to everything because he's lost every main event he's been in. I mean this, this guy's gotta lose his his entitlement to this, or he has to I don't know,
there's there's something he has to prove. He couldn't beat Gunther excuse me, Walter, he couldn't beat him. He couldn't beat anybody on the main event. So for this to be the next step, it's just sad. This is pathetic. And I see like the twin exchange happening with this one, Like you know, like one twin swings the swing under the ring and then the other twin comes out. Maybe the dude the freebird rules with the twins. Are you
listening to me? Wwe? I bet you are, And you know that's that's the way they might defend the belt, and so both twins are all of a sudden magically champions. This thing reeks. It stinks to high heaven, it does. I mean, it reeks a bad fish and bad potatoes. That's that's what I think about this. That's fair.
I mean, Harmey was hoping that seem Punk this time around would have gotten his roll rumble wins so that he could have his WrestleMania.
Main event like he's always wanted.
Even if he wouldn't win it, I don't care, but the guys wanted, yeah exactly, let him have his one time for the one time. But I have this weird feeling that they're going to try to play this out a little bit more and have some sort of thing between Punk and Sina so that his last match will
probably be against Punk. That's my thought on it and what I think is going to happen storyline wise next, just because I think that'd be probably with the best for business, unless they want to really put somebody else over and have seen a pass the Torch next. But I think rivalry wise, with everything that happened before Punk left with the title the first time, I think this would look pretty good at least on paper, But who say, what will happen in reality.
At the moment. What do you think about that?
It could work? It could really really work. It could headline next year's WrestleMania. However, I'm concentrating on this year's WrestleMania, and there's other people that we've kind of passed over. What about La Knight and the whole controversy with he and Logan Paul as far as all the other stars being really really peoed about that.
Which controversy are you talking about specifically?
I'm sorry, I'm a little bit out of the loop, but I'm kind of trying to catch up, guys.
It's hard being in the UK and trying to watch this stuff.
I'm not gonna lie to you guys, just because that means I have to either stay up super late or I've got to catch up after work. So can you please enlighten me on that?
So Drew McIntyre was removed or he got dumped out of the Royal Rumble, and then he got mad and he was visibly angry backstage and grabbed all this stuff and left, saying that other wrestlers needed to get all
their moves in. And apparently, as it's been reported by the Dirt Sheets, it was about Logan Paul and La Night because they worked program last year, and he was a little pod because basically they didn't give him his moment in the Royal Rumble and there was like this really big discrepancy about like he's he didn't get camera time because they wanted to concentrate on the two of them.
So there's that. That's that little controversy, and apparently he was pretty mad, and Drew's a pretty big guy, so I wouldn't mess him off.
Nice little catch there.
Well, I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but I know Drew is somebody that i've respected for a long time since he was.
First in the company.
I really liked him when he was in SmackDown.
Teddy Long was still the GM of it back then.
But honestly, I think he kind of does need to check his ego a little bit on this one step aside a little bit, let the young guys come in and do their thing, or newer, I should say, because La Knight's a little bit older than most people that are in the ring now, so it is what it is.
I think he does need to check his ego just a little.
Bit and just let these newer guys that are really up and coming and really popular right now do their thing.
I'm not gonna lie to you. I truly believe that.
Drew McIntyre's best work was when he left WWE for a while. He might disagree with me, but I saw better in him at that point, and I really feel like he kind of needs to just check himself and step back a little bit, step back up.
When the time is right.
I don't think right now is necessarily his time. He had his championship run for a little bit and I enjoyed that, but I just don't think that was really the time that he needs the belt.
Man.
I don't think he needs the belt right now. I think he can grow into an Undertaker kind of character where you don't need the belt. You can be a character that's a top tier without a belt. Yeah, and they only used if you look at the Undertaker's World Tuttle rings, it was very much transitional, So I can
go with that. But I really like Drew and I really think that like he deserves a lot more, and I understand why he was kind of pee oed about everything, but I mean, son of a fish, dude, he should have been in the ring longer than Logan Paul Well and especially his his Hell and the Cell match with with CM Punk. It's just like, how are you missing a bigger boat on this? And they are definitely missing
a bigger boat. So I think that there's so much more for him than they're actually allowing at this point. So I was disappointed with his his throwout. I was disappointed with aj Styles, but I know Styles is way on the end. I mean he's almost my age. He's going to be forty seven, forty eight something like that, and he still has it. He still has it.
But like we talked about, maybe an episode or two ago, he was in one of the last tapings of w CW Thunder.
Yeah, a lot longer than most of these guys.
And even though he may not have been around WWE during Sena's run, he was in TNA still doing this stuff and he was great then.
He's great now.
Love seeing Styles, but you know, he did just remind me about Yeah, I still can't believe. Do you remember wasn't it CM Punk and Drew McIntyre fighting over the friendship bracelet in that match at a Summerslamp.
Yeah, but that was great writing because they're fighting over a bracelet and we actually embraced it. That's kind of weird that I said it like that. I feel like Doctor Seuss, But yeah, yeah, I do, And I mean, how do you do it better? How do you write a story? I mean it's like the what do you call the thing that Roman Reigns wears? The the Ufalapa or whatever it is.
I don't even know what it is. Honestly, I'm not really a bloodline fan.
But the fact that they feuded over that it didn't have a title. There was no world title, no US title. It was just the rights and how much you cared about something. That's what I like about this new storytelling. I just think that they did terrible story telling with jay Uso winning the Royal Rumble and jay usso nothing against you. You're a great performer. You're always going to
be a twin tag team performer to me. And I hate to say it, but I if they put the belt on him, any belt, any championship on him at WrestleMania, it's just so stupid because he says yeat and people will, well, what about you know, Daniel Bryant. Daniel Bryan was one of the best in ring technicians I've ever seen in my life. Jay Uso isn't. He's just a high flyer. You have a catchphrase, congratulations. I just don't get it. That was a terrible ending. It was an absolute terrible ending.
I mean, honestly, I would have kept you know, people don't get very happy about l A Knight, but because of his age, but screw it. I would have put La anybody Punk Rains, even Rains. It would have booed out the building. But I see it more credible than jay Uso. He's lame event jay Uso for a reason.
I just thought about something. What if they want to put the title on him so they can give it to someone else like transitional situation. Yes, but my mindset is also going to what if they're trying to lower it to a much lower weight class instead of having Because let's be realistic, Roman has held it for a long time. It's kind of been held into almost like
a Land of Giants sort of thing. Yes, so if jay Uso were to win a title, I think it'd be more credible or a lot easier to see somebody that, you know, let's throw a name out there that we know of that would be able to beat jay Uso.
Let's be realistic.
I think La Knight could be jay Uso, and I think it would look believable.
At that point, I think might be their.
Way to try to push that down the road and be like, okay, we can have Dominic b j Usso this looks like it's possible, unlike having it on Roman or brock Lesner or anybody like that.
I mean, it's a good idea as far as the transitional champion goes. However, I don't buy into it. I really think that everything that I've heard from Triple H is basically or what I've heard as far as Triple H says it like, oh, he has a great fan reaction, Well so did Scotty Too Hotty? True, but you didn't let him win the Royal Rumble. When Scotty Too Hotty would do the worm and a few people can't understand who I'm talking about. Just YouTube it. And when he
would do the worm, the place would go crazy. It was almost Road Warrior Pop that big. And it was just disgusting to me to see, like Jay Uso, who has lost every main event challenge he's ever had to be the one to win the Royal. This is going nowhere, This is pants, this is terrible. I'm hoping that there's some kind of booking that's going to intertwine and try to fix everything. Now, we do have two world champions.
We have Cody and we have Gun there. Obviously, Jay is going to go after Gun through Walter whatever you want to call him, I still call him Walter. So elimination Chamber has to be a babyface and go against or excuse me, yeah, we're gonna have to have a baby or not a babyface but a heel go against Cody and my thought processes, can you also turn Cody heel before then and have another babyface? So this is
it's very interesting. I hate elimination Chamber. It's my second most hated pay per view behind Money in the Bank. I don't like these station pay per views. Like I said, I grew up in the territory area, and you know, you didn't have all these like stipulations. And if you had a stipulation, it was one time and it made a lot of sense and had an impact. When you have it every year and everything repetitive, it's just it's pants.
So I don't know going forward elimination Chamber. So now, obviously if jay Lous is going to be a babyface, and obviously he's going to have to face gun Through unless Gunther loses the championship. Walter, sorry, who do you see going against Cody or do you see Cody doing a turn?
You know, thinking about it with everything that happened in that Kevin Owens match, starting to get a little bit more brutal. What if they do to a turn, because the way that they could lead into it is like the next match he just goes kind of ballistic against another face, maybe grabs a chair or something, really gets beyond brutal and then and kind of goes off the
rails with it. That could be a way to make it so it's like, Okay, he's turning heel, but more of a crazier heel at first, and then slowly just sent into madness that way from the titles and have somebody take it off them.
I'm sure who they are.
Nice fantasy booking, you know, very nice, very very nice, because at least that's that's a path and that's something that they can do. And he's obviously played a heel before with Bullet Club and everything else, so you've got something there. I mean, I just think that right now, Cody as the champion is stale. Yeah, it's it's incredibly stale. And I'm not trying to be like a Cody hater or anything like that. It just it's stale. Stale was yesterday's bread stale.
I think one of the problems is WWE has grown too accustomed to having these really long title reigns, and that's not necessary. You can have well the title for I would say, even like six months would have been Okay. I think we're coming up on almost a year at this point, because we're coming up on Mania soon, aren't we.
Well a couple months, yeah, a couple of months, and I mean, who's he faced Kevin Owens?
And I mean there's been a lot that I haven't seen. I'm not gonna lie to you, but yeah, I mean he's faced Solo.
Didn't he?
Yeah? Who? Why was he not in the Royal Rumble? But the curates as Owl was. These are questions that we have to ask, Like, first of all, we know a Curates owl is never gonna win royal rumble. He's never gonna be part of a royal rumble. Now there's Otis. But yeah, they were in there, and the only person part of the bloodline was Jacob Fattu, who you noticed was wearing different gear. Mm hm, I I you know, I don't see Solo should have been in that, and
they had no answers for that. I haven't thought that maybe Kine would come out because at one point before Roman reigns and they pushed him to the moon, Kine had the most Royal rumble eliminations in one match ever and I think he holds the record for the most ever in history as far as running record. And so I was like hoping, like I'm a big Cane fan. Everybody knows I'm a big cane Mark whatever, but brass tacks and baseball batsman, this thing with so much hype.
It wasn't slop. It was just like such a letdown. And like they piped in sound, they piped in yeat. I don't care about that. The fact is this is going to be a letdown for WrestleMania. So unless they find out some other stipulation to get rid of the title or the title opportunity off ju so they're dealing with a lot in their hands because this.
Is not good. This is just not good.
I don't see this as a moneymaker and people can tell, oh, I'm not in touch, whatever, guys, this is not good. But this is really not good. So I mean I think that out of two I would take in Selena Vega and for the main event. I mean, I'm a huge punk fan, but I could have taken I could have taken Sena for his last tour. Where was Randy Orton?
Yeah, that's another one.
Personally, I think, like you said, uh Tizawa or Otis, I think they could have used more TNA talent just to promo, like, hey guys, yeah, we got that new deal with TNA, and so here's some more of their stars. You know, let Ace Austin come running in. If he's still a TNA. It's been a while to really watched, but he.
Was one of them.
Nick Demigler, Yeah, I mean that that would have popped. It would have popped bigger than Otis. You know, there there's so many names that they have over there they could have used. But I think that the bigger names that they have, they they you know, it's not like a two way contract. I think that's one of those deals. Joe Hendry and and John Cena I think is gonna be money. I think that John Cena's next world title, when he breaks the record, is going.
To be the TNA title. That'd be interesting.
It's a world title. I'd like that it's a world like that they actually recognize it as a world championship, you know, that'd be really funny if the push at the very end for Sena passing the torch goes to Joe Hendry, that would be really awesome.
I would actually know that.
In the end. What did you think? Who would did you want to win the men's role? Bal like period, Like, let's start a storyline going into Mania. Who would it be?
Well, who I personally wanted, Well, who I thought was just going to be CM Punk, who I kind of wanted. I would have been happy to see Sammy's Ain go in, and I think that could have been something, but I'm not sure it would have been the greatest thing for business. But I would have been happy to see Sammy's ain because you know what, He's been up and coming for a long time. I don't recall him ever really being a champion, but I think he's one of the greater workers in the company right now.
And I'm kinda I don't want to say I'm.
Tired of seeing Kevin Owens versus Sammy's Ain because they always put on a good show, But I don't think we need to keep having that match rehashed every what six to eight months. It seems like they continuously seemed a.
Feud all the time. I'd like to see him in a little bit bigger of a picture, you.
Know, absolutely, I like that. I like sam Zain's That's a really cool That's a really good sexy pick because it would have been something that nobody saw. And I feel like Wrestlemnian is gonna be Sammy Zain versus Kevin Owens again, just because the end of the Cody match. However, me, of course, I want to see him punk. Everybody knows him fan, uh for me. Also Finn Dollar. I'm a huge Finn Dollar fan, and the fact that he's been treated as toilet paper for like the last two years
is just beyond me. So I think that that could have been an awesome matchup. As far as who goes against who, I would also say, and also with the females matches, Alina Vega Zelena Vega period, because she deserves it. She's worked her boutet off hard, and I think that she's just a great presence outside and inside the ring,
and I think that she's just a great worker. And for the guys, Drew, I'm still gonna throw Drew McIntyre out there, just because you know, he gets his WrestleMania win in front of nobody in the bubble as far as the pandemic went, and you know, outside Drew, I mean even Sina. I hate to say it, but you know I was tired of him. But let him lose it WrestleMania. It'll mean something. So that's where I am with that.
Hang on, what if I hey, isn't elimination chambers the main event usually.
A title match?
It's yeah, you get a claim to a title match. No, I mean like, isn't the match itself a title match? And isn't that how seen? At one point lost the title to Edge because he just finished going through the entire elimination chamber to win his.
Belt back and then Edge came out and cashed in on him.
That might have been a stipulation one time. I'm not quite sure because it's always been my least favorite. I didn't watch it because I was angry at it. I was like, I hate stipulations, meaning more than undercard titles. That's right, But so I mean, go ahead, that were to be the case. But if they have seen a winning an elimination chamber and then WrestleMania comes around, Sina's champion, he still goes to WrestleMania is the main event and
then out comes ju So toa face him. Now you have that little bit of a rivalry at the very end of the Rumble because they went up against each other, shake hands in the middle, go on, go for their match.
Maybe it's a good overall match. Seeing the loses the title, breaks Flair's record, and that'd be the end of his career.
What do you think.
That's some good fantasy booking right there. I love it. This is why we're related. But I also see I don't know, I see I see he and Joe Henry. I I really think that WWE is going to go after Joe Henry hard after his contract is up. I mean, how would you not? Yeah who The last last pop like that for somebody who wasn't on the main roster was Adam Cole. And I'm telling you, I really think that now Joe Henry is going to be one scene
as opponents. And I think that Sina will win the TNA Championship because they recognized it for the first time as a world championship. That's a pretty big thing when they used to recognize nothing. So I think there's some money there there's some money on the table. I mean, there's definitely money on the table on that one, and you know it's there. Do you want to soak up all the biscuits and gravy with your your bread or do you actually want to eat the biscuits and gravy.
It's there, it's right there, So I think that that's going to be to me, that's smart booking. So we'll see what happens with that. But yeah, so that was Royal Rumble in a shell for me.
Fair enough. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think we broke down pretty well.
I think the future only tell what's going to happen next. And I'm really, ah, it looks dismal right now, but I think there's fixes that can be made. I think we can get somewhere in the future with this.
It's just gonna look a little weird right now.
Trust the process. Leaving a triple H's hands. He's done relatively well so far. She's gotta trust.
Him absolutely absolutely. But like I said, this was a pretty piss poor result to the Royal Rumble, and I just wish that, you know, you had anybody else but the two that are going in because it's just it's not making sense and it's not gonna write storylines down the road. So you know, people can argue, well, maybe sammy' zay and jaygo at it whatever. I just I don't care. It just doesn't make sense.
I mean, yeah, and honestly something that I'm just happy about.
Logan Paul didn't win. That was such a disappointing number.
Third.
Last time there was a number thirty that that was that disappointing was when raymis Stereo came out instead of Daniel Bryan and the whole place just went bonkers and bizarre and they were just like pissed so and it is what it is.
Man.
Royal Rumbles one of my favorite matches, and like I told you, I watched the first one on the black and white TV in my bedroom in nineteen eighty nine or eighty seven or whatever year it was. It just comes down to the fact that it's one of my favorite things and sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I didn't hate it. I just it wasn't in a plus today it wasn't.
Yeah, that's fair. It is what it is.
Time will tell hope for a better one next year, but for now, we're here. So with that in mind, you guys know where to reach me. That means it's MAV at Twitter x whatever you want to call it. As usual, just something nice for somebody you never know who needs it. Somebody's always got to need to pick me up at some point.
How about you, Gardner, you want to sign off?
Yeah at one four four, Captain, Uh, you know how to reach me. Michael Gross and uh, you know I'm always on the show and MAV and I are always doing stuff. But I also want to give a movie recommendation out. So my movie recommendation is a mystic film by Alejandro Jodawaski. I recommend El Topo. If you don't have a chance, you should watch the previews for al Topo and you realize it's supposed to be the best movie ever. And when you watch it till the end, you go, what the hell? Oh why am I not
surprised with this one? It's it's I gotta send you the link for that. But you got you got to watch the trail on YouTube. Everybody out there watched the trailer for the movie al Topo, and it starts out with be prepared the best cinematic experience you've ever had in your life. I'm like, well, son of a Fish, let's go Alejandro Jodwawski presents Eltopo. And then you watch the movie and you go, huh, it's just one of those things. And next time I see map, we're actually
going to watch this movie together. You and I are going to watch this movie together. You realize, huh.
So yeah, I remember as a kid, you showed my mom the trailer, and I remember we were all sitting there in the living room.
Like what was that.
They all sat there just so confused for a few minutes after, and we couldn't stop talking about it for a couple hours, it felt like.
But I had gotten El Topo t shirts for both myself and your uncle Tim, and then I bought your uncle Tim and El Topo hoodie and he was just like stop, just stop, and I was like, no, El Topo lives. Jeddawaski is actually a great Hudawaski. I don't know the silent jay, I don't know how it's actually pronounced,
but he's actually a great director. He actually was directing the original version of Dune, and then they because his budget was way over the top, they let him go and they hired David Lynch, who just recently passed away. And David Lynch did Dune. But you can find a really awesome documentary called Hudawaski or Jeddawaski's Dune, and it shows you, like all the things he had scripted out, and it'll just blow your mind. Like the guy was a great director. But Altopo, I don't get it. And
al Topo is so weird. It's a Western and it's just so incredibly weird that it created a cinema craze called midnight Madness. So when people would go to watch basically like midnight movies in movie theaters, El Topo was always playing and that was like the first movie that started midnight madness. It was so bad it was good that it would only play it midnight. So that's what
I got, all right, So my recommendation. This past week, I actually watched this movie for the first time, and I kind of had a similar reaction in al Topa in a way, but not quite as confused. But a movie called Pearl It's on Netflix. It seems like psychological horror. I enjoy certain aspects of it. There are certain things that are great about it, Like, I really love that they brought in some things that were used specifically in like old timey movies back when it was black and white and stuff.
The way that they did certain things like putting words on the screen, it looks exactly like how they.
Used to do it.
And then there's certain things where I'm just very lost and very confers used. The story itself is wild and kind of messed up, but watching it as a horror movie, it's not bad. I do recommend it just for the one time watch. Honestly, have you seen it before?
Is that the one that stars me a goth?
I think so?
Yeah, okay, so that's part of a trilogy.
Really yeah, it's X.
And then oh, I can't remember the other one and then Pearl And basically it's about a woman. My my friend Josh Lindsay and a big shout out to him because I love that guy. He's like a brother to me. Josh Lindsay introduced me to it, but I think we watched X and basically it's it's you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna look it up before I you know, perjure myself on air with everybody, but I believe it's it's part of the trilogy, So we're gonna give me five seconds, okay.
Okay, no problem, we can always fill the air a little bit more.
But yeah, I mean.
The movie itself was strange at certain points and had me very confused why certain things were happening, But towards the end of it, you know, just.
The horror aspect was pretty cool.
So it's Pearl Max scene and X. Okay, so you have to find the order to watch them in and then once you find the order, it makes a lot of sense. So X I think was the one I watched with Josh or jay Man as I like to call him. No, it was maybe Maxine hold on some of us dish, But basically it talks about this woman or the story takes place where this woman she lives on a farm, and it's old school life and everything else. And was the direction like the director's view, like really crazy and cool.
It was pretty wild. I'm not gonna lie. I'm trying to kind.
Of look up as well what the order is supposed to be.
It seems to be a little confusing and vague, but it was like seem like a normal life sort of thing.
In the beginning, then you start to.
See like psychopathic traits from a certain character, and then you start to see things unfold later on and just how wild it gets. But I don't want to spoil too much, guys, but yeah, recommend the movie Pearl for.
I think Pearl is the first. So I do believe. I've seen that with Josh, and that's where they have to feed Theta the alligator.
I didn't want to say it, but yeah, I was just gonna try to find.
A way to hint at it, all right.
So so a couple of years ago, I went to go visit my friend in Golf Shores and he's like, you got to see this movie. It's crazy. I was like, okay. He's like the sequel is she becomes a porn star. I was like what, And that's X I believe, and then Maxine, I believe is the third. Now if I'm if I'm reading everything right. And so we watched this movie and of course we're drinking a few beers and whatever else we're just I was just like, this is crazy,
and Josh he just gets those big guys. I keep watching and uh, I was actually telling my friend today how I wanted to get an ax alabo and do you know what that is?
Yeah, it's that Uh, I'll be honest, I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it's like that little water lizard thing.
Yeah, but it always smiles and I was gonna name it feed Him. And so I was actually telling my friend that today. So it's really weird that we mentally vibed on the same movie today. And this is not playing folks, this is just us being us. And uh so the movie is very intense. It's it's very much you'll broken down before you get built up again. Let's just put it that way. And it has an ending where you go, okay, so what's going to happen next?
It make to me. It made me want to know what was going to happen next, which would be I believe X and then there's mac thing.
That ends up.
But also with the movie, the ending, it almost felt like it was the end of like some old timey TV series. So that makes so much more sense now that I've saw the movie. I didn't realize there were sequels to it already.
I love the ending. I love the direction, like the smile at the end.
Yeah, and how it just got gradually worse and everything. Yes, I don't want to keep spoiling it for everybody that's listening, but yeah, that's a recommendation for this week. Guys, pearl any songs songs for me? This week didn't.
Really have any that were off the top of my head. Man, what about you?
You know it's an oldie, but I love it so much. Is I'm gonna say, Shwine, you're my disease. It's it's butt tick from Japan with km FDM and Raymond Watts, the guy I told you about from Pig that I wanted you to see in London. Amazing, amazing, just amazing. Just listen to your my disease. Bye bye, Shwine. Okay, aside from that, we have anything else to say. And I want to say to everybody on Rustling Magic, thank you to the team, thank you to everybody who's been
part of us. MAB needs a break. I need I need some breaks too, and but I'm still going to work through a lot of stuff. And I just want everybody to know that we care about you. We love you. You know, everybody from the WWE podcast family loves you. We just we just want you to keep listening because that's what we do.
I cam Man.
So my final thoughts on this tonight song recommendation, I actually did find one.
It's called Sleep when I'm Dead by Jack.
Kaye's pretty interesting sound I've found kind of recently, with a little bit of acoustic guitar and everything, I've been getting into just that old style that's actually kind of new where it's newer music with an older style to it.
I'm kind of enjoying it. But along with that words of my friend Memphis Mark.
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss a show, or head to WWE podcast dot com and for all of these shows add free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you next time.