Ww podcast listeners, Welcome to another Wrestling Magic episode here with Rocket Tea, the Gardner and mister Maverick himself. As we know, it's been a big week in WDWE Summersdam just took place on August third, coming out of the Cleveland Brown Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. The event they set a new record there with fifty seven seven and ninety one fans, But one of those fans was our very own Maverick Fellas.
What's going on?
And I'm living the dream over here in Louisville, just taking care of some stuff and trying to figure out a few things in my life. But you know, it's always the same wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, And unfortunately I couldn't be in Cleveland.
Where I grew up, but my nephew could.
And Maverick is going to share I think, something beautiful and unique with us, just like when he was alive at Wimbley last year for what was all in So, Maverick, why don't you want you say hello to everybody and start giving us a little background on the show.
All right, guys, glad to be back on the show with YOUTWO. It's been a little while, so going up to Cleveland. It was a nice little event because Michael I went up with your brother Tim, and as we were driving up, believe it or not, we looked over at the Uni Lot, which is a big thing in Cleveland. Usually it's where everybody parks when the Browns games are
going on. So we look over off the highway, freeway whatever you want to call it, and Alsodden, we see this dude dressed up as the Ultimate Warrior just running down the street and he's like shaking the fences and everything, just having the best time of his life. And he was in pretty good shape too, so it looked the part very well, and you know, shirtless and everything, and we're like, wow, I think we're in the right place.
And there's there's always an Ultimate Warrior and there's always a macho man every rest event.
Hey you got that right. And there was a few matra men around, but not quite as eccentric, I guess we could say just none were running around being too crazy with it. But uh yeah. So we get to the stadium and everything, after getting parking situated, obviously, everything was made pretty easy for us. We went out. We saw where the what is it called the pre Show was being filmed, and everything didn't get too close to
that just because that's where the gigantic crowd was. But they didn't open the doors until a little bit later than what we were hoping because they had said four thirty. They didn't opened until about four to fifty five. So we're all standing there just waiting at the gate, like fifty thousand of us, just all sweaty and everything, and it's just like, how this's getting worse and worse by the minute. Eventually we get inside, and you know, the fans were pretty lively. It was pretty nice to be
in there. Not gonna lie.
What were some of the chants that were going on when you were waiting in line?
There's always chance going on? Uh in Lockclaire.
Yeah, there's a couple of Rick Flair wu's going on, But there was a lot of just open up and everything like that. I remember, Yeah, everybody was just getting more and more annoyed the longer we were out there. Cleveland was not happy about having to stand outside for that long.
There was a temperature out there when you were standing.
I think it was close to ninety degrees that day, which I know it's not that hot to some places, but for us in Ohio, it's kind of that's a bit much.
So you go ahead. I just gonna say, just out of curiosity.
When they get those doors open, was there just like merch stands everywhere?
So I did forget to mention. So outside where the pre show thing was, there was a few trailers that had merch stands inside of them. There was some food stuff out there as well. Once we got inside the stadium, there was a couple of merch areas you could get belts, shirts, whatever, but it was more food. And I'll be honest with you, I was really happy with the placement of a lot of the stuff within Brown Stadium. I was pretty happy to see where they had. Everything was pretty much everywhere
you can need and couldn't really get lost either. Everything was marked very well.
I want to backtrack just a little bit because you're stationed in UK. So how did y'all decide to go to Summers? I'm just like, whoh, we want to go? It's in Cleveland. It was a convenient.
You said you went with Uncle Tim, So did y'all? Like?
What is what was that process like deciding to go?
Well, so I was planning on coming home and just decided, Okay, this is the time period that I just saw that SummerSlam was in the area, and I was kind of looking at the prices. It's like, you know, I can get this. I can get pretty good seats. And I decided, you know what, how often am I going to be able to say that I got to be at a wrestling event in Cleveland Brown Stadium and something as big
as SummerSlam. So I decided, you know what, I'm going to get tickets if Tim wants to come, because that's who I'd prefer to hang out with that day. Cool. If I have to go with someone else or even eat the money for the ticket, I'll do it, but prefer to go with Tim for sure. And he was happy to go as well, happy that he was able to experience it with me.
So y'all are from Ohio? Yes?
Yes? Originally?
Oh okay, I didn't know.
They didn't know they We never got that information out. So if we're me learning and the listeners learning a little bit more about you, okay, So that makes perfect sense.
All right?
So back to get in the gate? Uh March Stands? What was Is there anything unique at the March Stands? I know they have to Cleveland, Ohio belts. I know those are going to be the custom ones. Anything else that stood out on the marchdands.
Uh, So there was a few of them that I noticed had certain hoodies and certain it almost looked like a jerseys that just said Cleveland at the top and uh, some Summer Slam stuff over it, and certain things that were like browns or Cavaliers or Indians colors, depending on
what you were looking for. So there was a couple of unique things that were specifically Cleveland branded, but they all said Summer Slam on them as well, which I thought was nice and I should have grabbed something, but I just my mind blanked and I was just excited to be there.
So how was it getting through you know, ticketing and all that and finding your seats, you know, taking everything in. I'm sure your uncle Tim Pearlly grabbed a beer you wanted a hot dog or something like that, and then headed down. How long did it take you to get to your seats with all the people filing it at the same time?
And where were you sitting? If you can, if you can give us some perspective.
So I was sitting in the section that is the first section that's not on the field, So I was in the stands, but it was ten droughts back from the wall, basically.
On the bottom bowl the first level, yes.
First level if you want to look it up, guys, section one to eleven in Cleveland Brown Stadium. It was a pretty good site as well. I could see the ring and everything almost perfectly, and then looking up at the jumble strowan or whatever you want to call it, that they had it above the ring. You could see the wrestlers were the exact same size when you look down in the ring, So I thought it was fine.
Where I was. That's pretty nice.
Yeah, maybe you can drop some of the pictures in discord for the listeners. You know, we're still fitting the effects with summers lad we still got Friday night coming up here under the horizon, so we noticed be some more fallout, so I'm sure the listeners would love.
To see those see those pictures. So no merch.
But you said there was a couple of things that were unique to the stands. There was there any pre well it was on a pre show. Anything on pre show before we had our first match. We know that jelly roll opened up how was that for you?
So a couple of things were going on at that time, So in the section that I was in, the sun was just bearing down on us, and it was kind of hard to see the ring at that moment. But then as Jelly Rull started performing, and honestly, he sounded pretty good, and I didn't mind looking away from the ring at that moment. And then the sun started to go down just enough so that the stadium's structure was
blocking it. So then at that point it's like, Okay, they planned this pretty well with timing and everything, so it wasn't going to be an issue. So honestly, I was pretty pleased. And Jelly Rule sounded good. I'm not like a huge, huge fan of him or anything, but he's not somebody that I'll ever say that I'm like hating on. He sounded pretty good that night, and I thought he did America the Beautiful very well.
Michael, how do you feel what I'm hearing here is that showet Jelly Roll has eclipsed the sun.
That's what I'm getting out of this right now. I hate to say that that's just wrong. Actually, I do stand up for what Jelly Role has done as far as going to Congress to get and fetamines taken off the streets. Uh, nobody's seen those YouTube clips. I highly recommend that you see this because the stand that he's taking against drugs is very, very important. So while he's not a musician that I listened to at all, uh,
he's a human being that I get behind one. Now, with that being said, as far as people opening up in a particular venue, I always liked somebody who is more indigenous to it. However, Cleveland, it's it's a hodgepodge of what you could get there, like Machine Gun Kelly. Come on, No one wants to see that anymore. And yeah, I mean the biggest, the biggest rock band. Well, one of the biggest rock bands that never really got mainstream success from Cleveland was a band called mushroom Head, mostly
because they were ripped off by lip Not. But the fact is, if you put the original lineup up there and you said mushroom Heads or Cleveland's own mushroom Head, the place would have come unhinged. But of course their act is not going to play America the Beautiful.
So I was okay with it.
I mean, I have nothing against it, honestly, it's just it's something just to add to say we had one more name in the place. A lot of times they'll play America the Beautiful or anything else off camera before like pre show or before the show actually starts so they can get right into the action.
So it was I think it was.
Very tastefully done, and I'm glad that he could help out getting you some shade.
All right, Moving on, So, you know, everybody's been given their reviews like crazy. Everywhere you turn, someone's reviewing this thing. We're lucky we have the in person perspective from you, Maverick. We know we had two turns, three title changes, the blood of Food between Punk and McIntire get hotter, and we had the travel Chief return. So let's just stop with the tart. What's at the top. The big thing I died to live and mommy match was the Dominick turn.
This was job.
Yeah, this was jaw dropping for me. How did you feel? And then how did the people are around you in your area or just in the in general the whole stadium respond Because I felt like the stadium being open, I didn't get to really hear how the people felt.
Uh So let me think here so match itself was pretty good. I remember Tim and I were both saying, you know what, it was very serviceable. I really enjoyed watching it, and then afterwards seeing the turn from Dominic. I remember some people were kind of saying like, how could you turn on mommy? But then other people were kind of like, I would I mean it's lived, and then other people around me were just like why wouldn't he And just looking at the both of them, it's like,
you know, I could understand either way right now. And that's kind of where a lot of us sat. And it was fun hearing every buddy all at once just scream oh as soon as he kissed her, that was that duge deal.
That's pretty much what happened here in my household between me and mister rocket Tea.
I said that, Oh. She was like how could you? And I was like why why would you?
Uh?
This match opened up twenty minutes, so between from from bed to bell, I mean, you're right, very so service will match? Uh Gardner, did you catch anything live or did.
You even get to watch watch it? Yeah?
I watched it live, and I gotta say, like, on a one to ten scale, I gave this match a solid six point five when my expectation was a four point seven. So I love the fact that week by week Dominic looks.
Sleazier and sleezier.
I mean that mullet mustache combo. In the nineties, we call that like the pedophile special. Okay, So it's it's he's taking it like a butt, like he needs to trim that thing.
Okay, like he needs to shave.
That caterpillar off his off his upper lip, or trim that down and trim that mullet a little bit.
We get it.
You're trying to be Eddie. Eddie never looked that sleazy. Eddie looked greasy. He didn't look sleazy. I kind of felt it was coming. But I really enjoyed the match. I enjoyed the athleticism. Very few minor botch takes. Nothing that really stands out to me, just once or twice, an accidental spin around when you should have been there
in front of them kind of thing. But they recouped for it really fast, and they were good with the camera as far as quick cuts to the audience for reactions, so we didn't pay attention to maybe a missed spot. It was very low in miss spots. And to believe that, to believe that Live can be in Rhea's world is now very much appropriate, and we can elevate Live to that higher tier the Charlotte Teer. Maybe she gets Sasha banks old spot, you know, because Sasha could go and she was smaller.
Live can go. She's smaller.
It creates also the dynamic of taking on smaller opponents. When Alexa bliss Or initially comes back and you know, Ali Yes helped me out here, Tia Trinidad Malchi Black's wife Selena Vega, I mean, she can really go. So we have a smaller person who can fight a mid
sized person who can fight a larger female. So we have something really good going on with Live, I think, and I think that she can play this pretentious role and this I'm so hot roll way better than like Carmela or some of the other people before her could. So I rather see her in this role than somebody like Alexa, who I think is going to be a better fit with the Wya at seven. But that's just me and so Rock, what did you think?
Like fully for the result? Man?
I was I was so happy with from top to bottom, the entrances, the story they told the pace that they fought, the interference from Dom, the two Oblivions, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I know Matt had set this stat as early as last month. But the Oblivion Lives finish has been one of the most protected moves in the sense that nobody has kicked out of it. I believe that Rhea's kickout is the first ever for the first Oblivion that we saw, so I think she
actually did something. There's some history there, but it was the finish for me that really did it.
And then.
As soon as the bell wrong, you saw camera Panta Doom the smile, and as soon as I saw a smile, I knew, and then the way they had the camera on her when she was holding the belt right before he came up and embraced her, it was perfect camera work.
It was just it was great.
So yeah, I'd like to add in real quick, I don't mean to cut you off, Rocky ahead. The one thing that I want to add in that I did see was as soon as Dom took the chair out of Ray's hands. That was something that the crowd around me it was like really concerned and starting to say, like he's starting honor that was the start of it for us, it felt like and that kind of put
a seat in my head like could it be? I couldn't tell at that point, and then it eventually did happen, you know, And that was kind of that moment where everybody lost it for a second in the ring or in the arena.
I should say, yeah, I felt that too, But when I saw the smile, I knew and I'm okay with it. I know a lot of people are not I am, but let's move on. So our first match had a title retention. Our second match had a new champion, new Intercontinental champion, Braun Breaker. We know people are saying, maybe it's too soon. What was atmospher like for that match? And then Michael tell me what you think it might have been too soon for him?
All right?
So that match it felt fast in my opinion. It didn't really feel like it went very long.
But twelve minutes, yeah.
It felt well. I guess we did could just come off a twenty minute match earlier in that so it did feel quicker. But I remember just thinking like, he's not bad, He's pretty good in the ring. The match itself, I had no complaints about it's just how fast it went. It kind of made me question like is his stamina loo or is there something else that could be wrong here? But at the same time, you don't need every match to be, you know, twenty thirty minutes, So I get it.
But I do really like Sammy's ayn. I'm kind of a mark for that guy. But you know, I think Braun maybe as intercontinental depending on how long he keeps it. This could be a good or bad thing. Only time's really gonna tell, honestly, all right, So I'm.
Gonna get into how I feel about this.
This is a difficult match to watch for me, not because of the performance, but because the fact that I like both people. I've never been a fan of someone just getting the rocket straight out of the gate and strapped to the moon. And of course Braun already had one speed bump with Sammy. With the fact is I do think it is a bit early. I think that there's other stories that you could tell with Braun, as far as not putting a title on him to build
him up into the next upper echelon. In fact, instead of a title, I would push him up until next year's King of the Ring and they make him King of the Ring without all the speaking in you know, the thick English accent and carrying a scepter and cape. But I think it would be better for him to have feuds with like mo over them is no one likes him. Take out Waller, you know, take out go to battle with Seamus, you know, tie that up, so
Seamus isn't in the upper tier. These are the people that you could build the next year with him above and then go into the King of the Ring tournament, win the King of the Ring and then you.
Can get.
Yeah, well you could either get the title match at SummerSlam or you know, you could still be slid into the intercontinental tier now that the belt actually means something again and it's starting to have more credibility. Uh, the fact that they've played hot potato with it since Goonter law, that's that's not It doesn't say much for Sammy being the one to this phone Gunter. It doesn't say much for Gunter. And what's it gonna say for Braun if they take it off him right away when his next
challenger say braunz Stroman. So that's another guy you want me to believe in? Broun Breaker having go into a few with braun Stroman.
There's a lot of.
Potential to build this character and this particular athlete, in this particular wrestler without putting a title on him this early, and without damaging Sammy's credibility as a person with butterfingers every time he touched his goal.
So that's how I felt about that.
Quick side note they spelled his name with two k's. Yeah, I'm just really realizing that looking at the match card here. Wow, all right, all right, all right, so I know the atmosphere jumped up for our next match, the United States Championship match. This was our one of our other title changes of the night. What was the atmosphere like there for you, MAV? What was going on with this match?
All right?
So they did a pretty good job of playing it up before the match had started, and there wasn't really too much of a mention of Logan Paul being from Cleveland, at least not in the stadium, but I remember everybody already knew and then seeing him come out in the browns colored gear, you know, the brown and orange people saw it but didn't really say much about it, and
seeing MGK come out, some people were for it. Some people were just like meah, and people were still going nuts for La Knight when he came out up to that point. That was the biggest pop and it was really nice to see La Night perform live. I will say the match itself wasn't bad. It had a couple of high spots. I really liked seeing Logan Paul. However, after he did whatever it was that it was off
the ropes to the outside. There was a point where the crowd started chanting you still suck, and it kind of brought me back to some old matches that I was thinking about. But overall, match was very good. The crowd was really responding to it a lot, especially the younger fans were really behind La Night. But honestly, I've got to say I'm really happy with the match result because Night I felt like he really deserved it after
watching just that one match. I haven't seen much of him up until now, but that was very well done and I really can appreciate seeing they didn't just give it to the kid because it's his hometown. They just said, you know what, it's not always worth that this other guy he'll get a bigger pop out of.
It or whatever.
So h Gardner, what do you think then?
The biggest disappointment to me was not having an appearance by Caine. Now you're gonna ask me why, because last time I saw Machine Gun Kelly Caine was choked slamming him to.
Hell in Cleveland. I remember that, and.
I think he's done it more than once. So it would have made my day if if La Knight got in some kind of turmoil Machine Gun Kelly was trying to help uh Logan Paul and then out of like from under the ring, Cain comes out and La Night like laughing, maybe even like a little pre record like I've got an insurance policy for your friend. That that could have been a little bit of fun. But it didn't spoil them. The match was great. There was a
lot of good high spots balanced out. I give Logan his props because I'm never a fan of celebrities crossing over into wrestling. But this guy's done his work. This guy has done his work, and in real life, he's tough his nails, and he's very credible as far as being a wrestler, and I gotta say like the selling, he's improved on his selling so much. Now as far as La Knight goes. I've been following Eli Drake. I
still call him by his old name. When he was performing in TNA all the way through NWA and everybody knew that he had the tools, and he washed off the stink of Max Dupree really fast. A lot of people can't wash off that stink that they get from a bad gimmick or a bad angle. Just ask shins Kakamura. With the loss of Gender Mahal, It's just it's always going to plague him for the rest of his life. So to watch La Night, Eli Drake, whatever you want to call him, get his comeuppance on the big stage,
that was really rewarding. To be the person who took out a guy who's legitimately beat up tough people in real life.
Is come uping. There's a positive upside to.
This whole angle and whole grind that they're going to put into it. What I see a rematch? Could I see? This is the only one time I could say a little bit of hot potato between the two trade it back two months at a time, and then put it back on La Night for a while, and then when La Night eventually loses the title, it would still be to a bitter Logan Paul interfering, which would be another big blowoff match. So out of the two guys, we could get a series of six matches, but we'd all
be rewarded by it. So that's kind of where I am on this whole situation. But they did the right thing, and honestly, I was really happy with it, and I don't think.
The match could have went better.
There was a couple of slop spots, but I watched for that stuff because I've been watching this well over thirty years.
What about you rock Well, Like I said, this is what I knew.
The atmosphere had started to go up on this when I could hear it in the crowd. I love Logan Paul's gear. I love the guy's gimmick, his presence. He just understands how to be a jerk, how to work the fans, how to talk, how to walk. He just he gets it coming out of and the gear saying you're from the city, but you're really not, because you're from the suburbs of the city.
It's just it plays into that hero so perfectly.
This kid is just be honest, ears a lot of fun to watch. I do need to correct myself, though there was four title changes on this night, not three. So moving on into the next title change of the night, w W Women's Championship match, Queen Naya Jacks win's your first woman's title from Bailey WW with this title to be exact, what was this like where there are cheers for Bailey, where their booze?
How do people feel.
About the night wind because I know a lot of people have mixed reactions about this one.
All right, so this one, this is where the crowd actually died out for a minute, and I remember seeing so many people leaving the stands at that point once Naya came out. That was what seemed like the bathroom break in the stadium for a minute. And as I'm watching, there's some people that were all over Naya, And honestly, there was a lot more cheered for Bailey, and it was interesting just to hear that people are now more behind Nya than they used to be. But they kept
calling her queen and everything. I'm kind of sitting there like, all right, she did win Queen of the Ring and everything, but you know, I want to see better performances out of her because I haven't seen her I'll be honest with you guys, I haven't watched Smack Down a Rod leading up to this, so this was just kind of I went in and was kind of blind to a lot of things. But seeing the match overall, I didn't
think it was bad. But the crowd reaction because everybody kind of left and went to the bathroom for a lot of it, it wasn't as big of a deal, and overall the match was fine. It was service bullet to be. It was just solid five out of ten. Nothing special, but nothing bad, you know.
I mean the match run fifteen minutes.
There were some good spots, there were some good trade backs. Gardner, are you guys having to say, let's hear it.
Fifteen minutes is about five minutes too long for what I would have put into this.
So my next thing is.
With this, is she going to join the bloodline or is she just going to injure her next opponent.
I do have one other thing to add though, real quick. I've just forgotten about it, but Tiffany Stratton coming out with the money in the bank. What I would have wanted to have seen after Naia won it was if Stratton would have cashed in on her directly after that. That's what I would have liked to have seen.
I mean, the build is there, and I think that they wanted to give us a slow tease, so we'd wait till Monday or Friday. However, I just there's nothing about this that excites me. Bailey's very talented, very underrated, and of course that was her gimmick for a long time, but really she is, and she is an upper echelon. She was one of the four horse women. She is way better than anybody ever gives her credit for. And I mean Nia was fired for being a klutz. N
I was fired for being sloppy. So you know, I get that her family, I oh, let me put it this way. I get that her family is basically the most important family to pro wrestling right now. However, she's the weakest link on a chain to the biggest family in pro wrestling right now. I mean, she hasn't screened my hole yet, So we'll see if that happens on another championship run, or we'll see if she injures somebody.
If she injures somebody, I see, you're getting her walking papers again, because it's at this point it's like, how long do we have to fire you for you to get together? So I think this is a premature award, and I think that there are more talented women who could hold that strap. And I think there's more talented women that they out of the company that could hold that strap, like Asasha Banks, like a Tony Storm.
But yeah, we're rewarding someone who hurts people.
So my whole well, they're gonna definitely give her some runway with it. I mean that's kind of the point, like you said, the most important family. So we'll see how the fans continue to react to her. We'll see what kind of storyline they give her to really sink into.
And to add to your to your thought real quick, Maverick, about wanting to see the cash in from Tiffany that's still there, because Tiffany can help or be ringside anytime Nya has a defense, and she can still we can still see that at any point she can still cash in attack Naya or Naya maybe has you know, maybe a some kind street fighter, whatever kind of match that words her down. Tiffany can still catch in at any time.
So absolutely that would work. But let's move into our only non type match or just no title match at all involved in this match at all. The six month oh seven month blood feud leading it back for Royal Rumble Seem Pump versus Drew McIntyre. Special guest referee Sef Franklin rawlins.
I know the crowd was into this one. Oh, I was pumped for this one.
Yeah, we were all into this one. This one was honestly a very good match, and the story behind the bracelet, as silly as it was, it even got me even more into it that I'm like, what has been going on in this story line? But they're fighting over this bracelet.
I think it's a perfect example that a title they say is a prop, but he's using something of entitlement as a prop and it's it's working. It's giving us a real reason to watch. We're getting a real story here, a real invested story, and it's between three people. So
this is gonna last six months. It ties up three very talented people, but three talented people, and that's the thing that is awesome because that is a way of keeping good workers working together and not putting them in stupid ass storylines with you know, a town down or something like that. And it's nothing against those guys, they're just not in the same league. So you see them go up against the seeing Punk or Drew McIntyre or god forbid a tag team of the two, you know
they're going to get mowed over. So I love the fact that these three are going to be intertwined for a while, and these three are going to be hurting each other for a while, and these three First of all, let me start out with everybody knows that I'm a huge fan of my twin brother Punk, And the other thing people should know is I believe that making Drew win was the right decision, yep, And I feel that they did it in the best way. I think they did it in a very great storytelling way. I only
counted one botch in the match. I think that was Punk's initial lift when he couldn't quite get him straight. But aside from that, I mean, you've got Seth playing mister Miniacle, you have Drew playing the Scottish psychopath again, which I love. No more sword, no mosch, stupid music, no more, no more god awful. But he had a title reign and they just squandered it. And then you have Punk being Punk. That's all you need. The match was great. You couldn't tell Punk was almost fifty years old.
I mean you can, but he's still better than you know, like the miz So. But like, seriously, he's he shook off his ring rush that he showed in AW. Obviously he's taking his time down in XT coming in as a coach down.
There, very serious as his rehab.
So there was no there was no bad tire on that car and that vehicles still driving.
I agree.
Yeah. The thing about it has already been going on since they were a Roambu January. This is gonna be few to the year, like hands down.
It could be. And something that the crowd really uh went nuts over was just seeing Robins put on the bracelet and I just thought it was so goofy looking for a minute and I'm kind of questioning it. I asked the guy next to me that I didn't even know, like, hey, so, what the heck's is significance of it. He's like, yeah, this guy's like wife's and his dog's name on it or something. I'm like, that's it, and Seth's putting out I thought it was like he's just wearing it for
the moment until the match is over. To give it back to Punk or something, but then ended up being a bigger part of the match. And it was like, I've never seen grown men fight over a bracelet. I've seen them fight over the belts, but this is a new one. I've seen them fight over the custody of Dominic Mysterio, but never a friendship bracelet like this.
I got to ask, who do you think produces this, because I'm gonna bet that it's Punk Rollins and Drew that kind of came up with this, And of course Punk's producers a steal and you don't hire Punk without Ace, so I'm sure he had something to do with it. Now you have arn Anderson back, Now you have Spie Go back. There's a lot of brilliant minds who could have put into this and said, hey, this isn't a title, but this is something that you guys could each steal
from each other and have rights to. And it makes one man man mad and the other two vindictive and vengeful towards each other.
This is brilliant, and it's so brilliant over like you said, apprenticeship brace it was it ninety nine cents, maybe not even I mean, these are these are bracelets that are made in daycares like. But the significance of AJ's name, Larry the Dog's name on there. Punk's just it's just the mass these masterful guys putting his storyline.
Together and making everybody care. That's just. That's how good resting his right now, that's great.
So let's move into something that was I don't know if this is better, but this is it was also great, and that is our new world heavyweight champion.
That ring general Gunter.
Thoughts all right, So this match starting out, it was almost even with the chance for both of them because Priest has I want to say, he's come a long way. I mean, I remember seeing him as a evil Martinez I believe back in roh and he's come a long way. I really enjoyed seeing him enter the ring as he is now and then seeing Gunther. I think he's gained a lot of respect over the last couple of years.
He's really done great work. His Intercontinental run was very, very good, and I can really appreciate all the improvements that he's made, especially to his physique. He's really slimmed down a little bit more. But match itself awesome. I have no other words really to put it, And I thought that the title change was still tasteful. But Finn turning, I didn't really expect to see that, but it was pretty cool to see it happen once again. And Finn,
I don't know what it is about. He can make just such an evil looking face like that, just so scummy for a minute when he turned on him and just staring at him with like just that disdain. You can almost feel it when we were watching it live like that, and everybody felt it around me. Gardner, would you think I love this?
I absolutely love this.
First of all, I think that putting the title on Priest was premature. I get that he was a McMahon guy. He has the look he has to seek. He's not a bad performer at all. He's not in the same league as Gunther. I mean, I still have a hard time not calling him Walter because I watched him for over ten years as Walter. But the fact that this was built about two upstarts. One one won a title because he took advantage of money in the bank. The
other won the title because his friend turned on him. Now, if this builds Balor versus Priest, I hate it because I'm a huge Balor fan too, and he's being underutilized and I don't want to see him really just become fodder to Damien Priest. What people don't realize is, originally when they ousted Edge from the judgment day, it was Balor who was the leader. But it was the push, the non forgiving push that Vince McMahon was trying to give Damien Priest because it was one of his guys.
That's what put him in more of the driver's seat. And then of course Ripley has a charisma that's unstoppable and that's what put her in the passenger seat, and everybody else took the backseat, and it was really sad and for Finn, I hope this catapults him back into main event caliber matches, main event cal feuds, and more main event caliber everything, because he deserves that. Now, with that being said, though the match itself was great, it
was a hass match. We had a lot of like just it sounded like people were snapping celery every time they hit each other. It sounded like people were snapping carrots every time they hit each other. I know, I'm quite the gardener, but that's what it sounds like if you really do it right, and I can't tell you it was a great match. How long did it go?
Rock? Twenty five minutes?
And I think it was probably five minutes overdue, especially the fact that you saw Ballor go for the leg once then back off, so we all knew the finish at that point, so I wish they would have finished it then maybe at least shaved two minutes off at that point. That's the only complaint I had with it,
aside from that the right winner. This has been a long time in the making, and obviously, when the Undertaker himself says on his own podcast, if there's anybody from today's era you'd like to have a match with it WrestleMania, He's like, gunther No, I mean, could you match those two in their primes?
I'd love to. I'd love to.
How about this gun Through tagging with Priest against the Brothers of Destruction all in their primes?
Oh god?
How we got that Boss match Man Boss.
Match Fantasy book and stuff all day?
But okay, we have got the Bootscooter and boog Yon so.
Blood rules match for the Undisputed WWE Championship, also twenty five minutes long Cody Roads versus Solo Socoa. Real quick, how did y'all feel about Cody accepting the.
Blood Line match?
We know why it was done, but before we knew on Friday, when he accepted it on SmackDown, I mean, people were like, this has got to be the dumbest baby face in the history. Why would you accept another blood line bulls match? Your backup has been taking out. I mean, obviously we know what happened, but what did y'all initially think or feelings about it?
Dumbest babyface in the history, honestly. Honestly, there's always that one storyline where they knew one thing too much. That's why they accept it. You know, they don't show it till that day, but we can all figure it out. Everybody knew Roman was coming back. I think everybody and their brother knew that Roman was coming back, so we knew that there's gonna be some kind of protection. To me, the highlight of this match was before the match, and
you know what that is. When he's going through the Arn Anderson going through the back put back back curtain right through Gorilla and Arn did the gun motion, but he didn't put the thumb up because you know WWE, and he said, I made some calls and have some backup. You knew right then that Roman Reigns was going to take you know, make a personal appearance. So it wasn't a surprise on who was going to win and how it was going to happen and how it was going to go down. It was just who was going to
show up and back them up? And it was It was a good match. It's it's actually exactly what I expected. Another one that could have been shaved five minutes off.
Yeah, mav the Cody's entrance, the camera following him from the bus with Pharaoh.
The dog walking back all the way through.
What was there? How was the crowd during that time? Right there?
They all got on their.
Feet, Okay, anybody yelling, hurry up, anybody like just anything?
Sound?
Actually it was actually pretty quiet from what I remember, but seeing what was going on, everybody stood up immediately seeing Champs about to come out and seeing arn Anderson, everybody had this wave of just WHOA for a second, you know, but uh, I just remember him coming out with that uh that helmet that he had on. People kind of got a kick out of it. Some people were giving a little extra into their cheering for it.
But up to that point I thought it was going to be the loudest pop of the night because I was like, I don't know if Roman will come back. The Rock could come back for all I knew. But that point, everybody was pretty excited to see Cody come out and a match itself very good, but it felt a little long towards the end. I'll say this bloodline rules stuff I'm not a huge fan of. I find it is just like one of the cheaper kind of gimmicks that WWE's come up and kind of shove down
our throats at this point. It's not really conducive to anything. In my opinion. It works for the characters right now, but I just kind of hate seeing it because it's like, Okay, we know what's about to happen next. There's always going to be these goons almost that are going to run in and start helping the champion, and I find it gang war ish. I'm not really sure. It feels like just something that's not really necessary to an extent, I get it, but I'm just not really a fan of it.
But then seeing Orton and Owen's come out, I was kind of like, all right, fifty to fifty shot between Roman and the Rock being the last ones. I mean seeing Rains When he stepped out at the very end, that's when the crowd really really popped, and it was the loudest that I had heard that night. It was absolute hands down, and I was very enjoyable to be a part of that crowd. Even though I'm not personally Rainsman,
I kind of find him boring as a character. I don't really like the tribal chief constantly being shoved down our throat because I felt like he wasn't a fighting champion half the time, so I never really cared for him. But that night I felt like, you know, he paid your dues, and it looks okay right here. How he hit solo with the spear, I thought, you know, looked pretty good this time. It's not minding him so much right now.
If you watch the slow motion or the still photos of that spear, the way Roman had his legs almost at that ninety degree vertical angle and the way they were spread out in the still photo, you can you can you.
Can feel the impact. That's how I know how great it was.
Whenever you say that you weren't really filling the travel
chief character because he wasn't a fighting champion. Well that's the great thing about wrestling, because now that he comes back as just a fighting tribal chiefe, whether he champion or not, as a babyface, all those feelings that you have towards him before they get to change because there is an elite level status that Roman Reigns lives on that because when you're the biggest hell for the last four years, people he and want you to leave and
you drop the title which everybody was wishing, praying for, and then immediately a week or two later they're wanting you back and you've done nothing that.
Is It's just absolute, it's god mode.
So this is just the start of what we're going to get going towards wargames, right, that's whatever its.
Project war Game Survivor series.
Yeah, I.
I'm curious.
I mean, it's everybody knows it's going to be Old bloodline versus New bloodline. So it's gonna be Sammy joining up the USO's with Roman. I mean, it makes the most sense versus Tagalo Tomatonga, Jacob Tattoo and Sola. My next question though, is so what is the injury status?
Does anybody know of Jacob the two?
Uh So, after that spot where he went outside the ring to hit Cody, he was holding on to his ankle. Now, some reports are saying that he was told to sell his ankle afterwards, but I'm not sure if it was supposed to be to that extent, because he really looked messed up. I'm not too sure if it was supposed to happen like that. He might actually be hurt right now. I don't know of any reports or anything that say he actually is. I haven't seen anything yet, but that's what I saw that night.
Well, that report of him being told to sell the ankle make sense to me, because why else wouldn't if he jumped in and and attacked Roman, right, So that was actually kind of perfect.
They're actually not seeing the bigger picture here, Rock. It means he's going to go into a blood feud with Chad Gable.
I don't think so, because there's actually I don't know if either one of you know this.
WW has signed.
HICKELOA six four two sixty five the adoptive son nephew of Haku, making him the half brother Tutamatonga and Tongaloa. So yes, it makes the most sense for Sammy to fill that fourth spot. But there's another bloodline member that's signed to the roster.
Oh Hiccoloa. I thought was actually uh Tongaloa Nokia. Okay, I got who you're talking about.
Okay, dude.
They're just rating Japan left and right. There's nothing left of the Bullet Club.
Oh wow.
If they actually signed him, I could see him in that spot. But I still see Sammy zan as like special guest referee.
Or something like that.
It's on five, but yeah, that's I think that would be not make the most sense, but I want to make it the bloodline versus blood line.
But they also have Zilifa too in the pipeline, and I think that's Rakishi's youngest son or something like that.
So he he thought he I thought he was AMaGA son.
It made one of the two, one of the two.
Anyways, I saw him here in Houston a few months ago.
A booker t show fast fast grass of a little pit bull. U he does uh whenever the.
His finishers is basically are running some moments spikes when they're when the opponents on their knees. He hits the ropes twice and does a little sideways running some moments Spike pretty cool, like a little dart.
So mav post show, fireworks everything else.
What was it like?
So post show we were seeing Roman standing outside the ring. There are some fireworks going off for Cody. He gets the title back and everything, but it felt like he wasn't really showing it off to the crowd as much. He was kind of kept looking back to Roman, and Roman kept just staring in the ring between Solo and him. Overall, it was a nice atmosphere. Everybody was going home happy. A lot of people as soon as that match ended were just getting up and leaving because they wanted to
be traffic or whatever, which wasn't going to happen. Everybody was going to get clogged up anyways. But yeah, I remember it was a really cool atmosphere to be a part of. Just at the end of that And even though I'm not really Roman fan, that one moment still was like, you know, he did pretty good this time no matter what, and I can't take that from him,
And very enjoyable to be part of Cody himself. God, I remember seeing him in roh in a First Blood match with Matt Taban for a I believe it was rh's TV title and seeing him back then, that is when I thought he has moved past the stardust. He's gone so much further. Really is a testament to it. That was my thought before leaving the arena and everything. But overall happy with how the night ended. And one thing that we kind of left out there was the segment. I don't know if you guys got to see it,
but we did in the stadium. We got to see. It was a Jelly Roll giving a choke slam to Waller, and you know what, he did it pretty well. I think Waller jumped up high enough for him to make it look great. But it was probably one of the best choke slams we've seen in years. I don't know if Waller really sold it that hardcore that it just looked that good, but man, it really was very good, and I give credit to it also our truth mentioning the Rock and Roll Express. That was a pretty funny
moment because I nudged him right beforehand. I was like, yeah, they're gonna bring them out, and then they actually said their names and miss of course corrected them, and we just kind of sitting there laughing for a second, like there's no way that they could possibly bring those two ancient dudes back out of here.
There's no way they still wrestle.
They wrestle for NWA and Billy Corgan. Oh my god, I tell you this is a funny story. I'm going an segue for all of you who know who the Rock and Roll Express are. They were like twenties heart throb tag team from the early eighties, feted with the Midnight Express, who were managed by Jim Cornett, who's the king of wrestling podcasts. He's number one Louisville. I'm number two, guys,
So the Rock and Roll Express will not retire. Now, about ten twelve years ago, they were out on Beale Street and I had a bartender who's into wrestling as much as I am.
His name's Nighthawk.
Now, you can't understand a damn thing, the guy says, because he has four teeth and they're oddly misshapen and out of space, so we call it speaking hawknees. But he sees them out there, so he goes out and talks to him, and I'm looking out the window like just running the place, and I was like, who's Hawk talking to? And I was like, I recognize those mullets and those bandanas tied around their thighs. That's the Rock
and Roll Express. So went out there and I said, guys, it's a big pleasure to meet you, Michael Gross, very big pleasure to meet you.
Shook their hands.
Look, guys, I want you to be careful about tonight. They're like, why, what's up? I said, I heard there's a tennis racket on the street, and they both got angry and walked off, because that's a homage to Jim Cornett who always used to whack Ricky Morton in the back with a tennis racket so he could take the loss of the Midnight Express. So that was my limited meeting with the Rock and Roll Express. But these guys
are in their seventies and they will not retire. If anybody saw the Final Deletion back from twenty sixteen seventeen, the Rock and Roll Express, they'd show up at the tag team version of The Final Deletion.
It was like a tag team thing. And then all of a.
Sudden, the doorbell rings and Matt Hardy opens it and he's like the express that rocks and rolls and it ends up with the hardy boys versus the rock and rolls on a scaffold that's being lifted into the sky.
God, that cinematic stuff was so bad.
But the point is it wouldn't have surprised me if they came out, if they weren't probably indebted to Billy Corgan and the NWA, that would have been hilarious. I probably would have greased my drawers.
Well, to say the least, MAV.
I was absolutely happy for you, but one hundred percent jealous of you. I mean, god lest SummerSlam. I mean, geez, I know, I think Michael, you know this. So I've been to WrestleMania, I've been to Rumble. I want to go to a Summer Slam, and I want to go to the Survivor Series. I want to be able to say I hit the Big Four. But Survivor Series are part of the Big Four? Are they moving money in
the bank in that slot? Yeah, Survivor Series, Okay, because I know what these Crown jewels being a big thing, you know, overseas and money in the bank trying to become a stadium. I didn't know if that was going to be a stadium show.
Now that you've integrated Survivor series of war games. Now it's actually palatable and watchable as opposed to like a goofy novelty that we bought into in the late eighties. So I Survivor series is not going to go away. It's just going to be Survivor series war games until it's just war games, because war games was.
Such a better concept.
But you know, it's funny because the only live events I've ever been to. I went to smack Down a couple of months ago, and it was so future I walked out, And mostly it was because I sat between two rather large, unique smelling women and their unique smelling bad breath, and they were very bad marks and every time a bad guy came out, they would boo and I'd have to smell that breath, and their bodies didn't
smell much better. I don't know why they just couldn't have sat together, but and it was just just not palatable. So that you know, that's like, And I've went to two raws with my good friend Sean Boyce back in Memphis. We were lucky enough that had a friend who had a skybox who would uh of a wrestling game.
He didn't like it.
He'd say, you know, you guys, take these tickets. And I was there for the third return of Chris Jericho, so yeah, that was It was just you know, like Sean was talking talking me up about it. He's like, yeah, we're Jericho's going to be there. There were pictures of him in the Nashville Airport.
And all this stuff, and I was like, okay.
And that night, coincidentally, when we got out, we went to a bar I used to run on Beale Street called the Blues Hall, and someone produced a scorpion pepper and Shawn's known for eating hot peppers, and so they're like, if you can eat it and keep it down.
For ten minutes, we'll give you like fifty sixty dollars.
I think it was Rodd Bobby Blue Bland's son, the godson of bb King. So he gives us to us and Sean eats it and he's sweating profusely, and we just started doing the whole chant of the boots to ass is boots to asses, and he kept it down for ten minutes that we walked out back and he's like, oh my god. He's like that's one of the hottest peppers I ever had. But yeah, so that's you know.
I went to that.
I went to an original oge c W show. I went to go see your uncle Tim Russell once or twice. I was supposed to go to a couple of LUCA shows that didn't happen. I'm trying to think if I've been to anything else. I was supposed to go to a w CW Thunder, but I worked at a four h camp and couldn't leave for the night. So I
haven't been to anything like this. And now, Maverick, you've been to a record breaking all time attendance record at Wembley, right, and you've been now to the all time attendance record breaking for wrestling at the Cleveland Brown Stadium.
Correct. The only other events that I've been to was a WWE house show back in what was it which taft Falls, Texas, which if you guys didn't know, that's where Keith Lee is actually for and also where they have a Wrestling Hall of Fame. But the only other one before that was the roh Paper view Masters of the Craft, which was a lot of fun. Me and Tim really enjoyed it. That's where I got to see Cody and first blood match and everything. Pats West was.
It's my first.
Introduction to Darton Castle, Dalton Castle, Evil Martinez who's now Damian Priest, And honestly, I was just probably the Knight that really kept me interested in wrestling, because after that, I was like, I want to keep watching this after seeing it up close again. But yeah, been a couple of interesting shows, but I want to go to a Mania one day maybe if you know, the opportunity comes, but not going to hold my breath if it doesn't, you know.
Yeah.
So I had the two Manias in Houston seventeen twenty five, a handful of rows of smack downs with the one event that was in WWE two thousand and eight, Victory Road TNA main event.
Booker T versus Samoa Joe. You love some Booker T, don't you? I do?
But what was cool about this event because teenage was so hot. Dixie Carter was walking around with the belt, letting people will take pictures and touch the belt, the world title belt.
Please be a viewer after this, Please be a viewer.
After I got to touch the TNA title and take a picture with it, I no longer have the picture because it was on an old phone.
I didn't have backed up. But that would never happen again.
But all right, guys, we got to close it out.
So I want to I want to share a couple of things real quick. So I was looking up attendants. Okay, So, Rock, do you have your computer open or something that you can look up the attendance for sure?
Sure? Do so?
Do you think, okay for a stadium, either the black Hole in Michigan or Ohio State's Horseshoe would be the two biggest stadiums in the United States?
Okay, in the US?
Yes?
And then you okay. However, if they could swing it, look up the attendance of the Indianapolis Speedway. That's gonna blow your mind.
Where's that for the black Hole? There we go, Let's give me a second. I just gotta be here somewhere, Tennis more buck.
Is what is this?
The black Holes where the Michigan Wolverines play football? Okay, and it seats over one hundred thousand, just like Ohio State does. With them being rivals, one will take out a concession stand and add twenty more seats just to have bigger attendance. Than the other, and they do this back and forth they have for ten years.
It's it's kind of funny.
But each stadium seats well over one hundred thousand people, and I've been outside of the horseshoe at Ohio State.
It's ginormous.
However, if you really wanted to set the biggest attendance record ever, I would say the Indianapolis Speedway.
I believe that seats.
Around two hundred and fifty thousand people. Jesus, I don't know, Rock you you're your producer.
I'm still looking.
I'm still looking at he's pull up on these other articles to fifty.
Well, if I remember right, I want to say, wasn't WCW's collision in Korea show like half a million people or something.
Over three days? Something like that over three days.
I'm seen a lot of stats here, some of the highest record games there.
And it's not in the US.
Yeah, so I'm not seeing the one that you're talking about, but I'll take your word for it.
Well, let's take a look Indianapolis Speedway. I'm taking a look right now. Okay, you're gonna so I'm a little why are you looking at that?
I'm a little disappointed because now that Dominic and Reo broken up, I'm gonna have to take down the autograph poster I got out of them. It's like, right here and Alex will happen together. I can't look at it no more.
Are you ready? Are you ready for this?
Yeah? Indianapolis five hundreds attendance record is three hundred and fifty thousand, which was set in twenty sixteen for the hundredth running of the race.
Yeesh, wow. Now talk about cagged up traffic.
Now, you would have to make so many accommodations and I don't know if that's you know, I I just can't fathom how big that is. And I want to go see it myself to see if it actually could see three hundred and fifty thousand people. But I mean, I couldn't think of a bigger How would you sell that out?
You know?
Yeah, that's true. It would have to be a mania or something, and you'd honestly you said, it's a racetrack, right, Yes, Where do you place the ring at that point, just in the middle of it all, and then have seats all the way leading up to it potentially becoming like half a million at that point basically you'd.
Have to have the ring rotating around the actual track like a like a little two chu train track and have it rotating around all day.
And that had to be a three day mania.
Oh my god.
Probably.
I mean with the size of the place, you could put three rings in it.
Okay, because of the way it's designed.
All on on the grass. So I mean it's it could be done. It could be done, and you alternate so different people have different main events and things like that. But if it can actually seat which I believe comfortably like two hundred and fifty something thousand, that that could be the biggest ever in the United States, that is.
I mean.
Shoot, So all right, as we.
Sign off first of all with the theme that they're going to be going overseas soon. Don't we have that crown jewel coming up?
Right?
It's September, I believe, let's find out. So what do you want to go into team?
Well, the theme today is going to be your best or favorite foreign movie.
Man.
Before we were talking, you said you had one right away.
So I thought about one earlier, but I'm going to say a different one because you know, I'm a fan of slum Dog Millionaire that's probably one of my favorite foreign movies. What about you, Mike.
Are you gonna say that? No, no, no, I was gonna say that one you took it. It looked so hard.
I'm so sorry.
It's okay, It's just I was I couldn't think.
And that I remember as I was through researcher.
But okay, Gardner, Well, you know a lot.
Of people will go something that's ah appetizer ish, like Snatch, which is a fantastic British film. However, I'm gonna go in a little bit different direction. It's The Devil's Backbone. I think I've actually mentioned it on Wrestle Magic once or twice before. It is a child's horror movie done by Guillermo del Toro.
Uh.
It's set in the Spanish Revolutionary War. It is the Shining meets childhood horror, and it's brilliant, brilliantly written, and the cinematography on it is mine blowing. It is the precursor to Pants Labyrinth. If you've never seen Pants Labyrinth, I highly recommend that. So if you like Pants Labyrinth and you love The Devil's Backbone and it's one of those that you just can't kind of look away from
because you just got to keep watching. It's not disturbing, it's just you realize that their plot holes until the end when they tie up everything, and you say, man, this is a good movie.
Enough, Rocky, I was gonna Pinstone dumb Millionaire.
I don't watch.
I can't think of any foreign much MOREGN movies that I watched. Mostly everything I watch is wrestling.
Uh, I'm sorry.
I do highly recommend the Dead Will Ring movie.
Wants to watch it twice? But Foreign? You mentioned Snatch?
I remember that one as a good British film.
I just drew a complete blank. Man, I'm sorry.
Even in the research I found Kim Down like I know that one. I like that one.
And then well, rock have you ever seen Lockstock and Two Smoking Barrels?
No?
If you like Snatch, you'll love that movie too. Okay, just trust me on this one. Remember a lot of your James Bond was made oversea. Well not a lot, but I mean Moonraker was made in outer space.
Okay, you got me on that one. Godzilla minus one I saw that one this year.
Did you ever see shin Godzilla? That was a great one.
Oh my god, I hated that one.
You hated shin Godzilla. I loved it.
I found it so weird.
All right, so sign offs. I'm your gardener, Michael Gross. You can reach me on exit one four to four. Captain, I love to talk wrestling. If you want to be on the show with us and you have ideas for the show, we will credit you and we will definitely take care of you as far as if you know how to talk wrestling with us and you want to have some chemistry and see what you can do, we'd love to have you aboard Rock.
I could tease youre zero seven on X as well. And just like you said, with those ideas, just throw them out and we'll make them come to life. MAB sign us off.
All right.
You guys know where to reach me at maintenance, MAV on X, Twitter or whatever you want to call it. Do something nice for somebody you never know who needs it out there, and uh yeah, I think this is another good show for us, guys. Honestly, SummerSlam was big success overall. I would say, no matter what, that was a lot of fun to be there and I think I think we covered it pretty well. So thanks for shoving me on the show again. Good night, guess good night.
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