Paul Heyman Chooses Seth Rollins! WWE WrestleMania 41 Night One Review!

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We will all support WrestleTalk. WrestleMedia, but then Main Eventia, am I right? Sorry, sorry. So it starts off as WrestleMedia or WrestleMedia. But then I changed it into WrestleMainaventia. But like, what are you trying to say about the main events? I'm trying to say that the rest of the show was pretty meh. But then the mania event, wow. Wrestle meh. Nah.

I'm Oli Davis. I'm joined by Luke Owen DAD. It's WrestleMania weekend. We've already had the WrestleMania night one live reactions for you with Luke, Dan and the rest things boys.

But now we've got a review of that show with me because I don't stay up late anymore. No, you can't hack it, can you? No, I only stay up late if there's a casino involved or... a strip club well i mean there's a casino involved with this it is in in vegas yeah so surely that should have actually been you should have done the live reactions then if that's one of your caveats Like, you should be doing this and AEW double or nothing live reactions and that is it. Because I've got a problem.

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can't work to wrestletalk.com forward slash support or read out every single one over five us dollars before the end of the show as we get on with our wrestlemania 41 night one review and opening with The only good thing on the show. The only objectively great thing on the show, I should say, because Bret Hart did also roll his eyes. That was one of my favourite things in the whole show. Yeah, I thought there was some good stuff like across the night

Oh, like what? Well, I thought that the final stretch of Jane Gunther was really good. I actually quite like the story that they told. The final, final stretch? Yeah, including all of that, because I think there is more to it than just the tap, which I did enjoy. I really enjoyed Jacob Batu and LA Knight.

And I had a great... time with what was the other match that i really was actually that one you know it's the one that stands out in your brain you know there was also new day war raiders i was just about to say the tag match but that's the one i'm thinking of is from stand and deliver with hang and tank

Hank and Tank and Fraxium, the Women's Fatal 4-Way, and the Men's 3-Way in the main event. Well, I heard on the Wrestling Observer Radio that they were ranking... the men's three-way on stand and deliver, the women's four-way and the tag match. as the second third and fourth best matches of the day in wwe so it goes

triple threat main event of WrestleMania, then those three on the developmental show of WWE, and then the other six matches of night one, I guess. Yeah, I mean, overall, as a night one of WrestleMania, It was actually broadly fine. I think the tag match, the New Day War Raiders tag match, really brought down the vibe, certainly when looking at our live reactions and our live chat.

that people were not into that match and were just puzzled to be like, why is this on WrestleMania? This doesn't feel like WrestleMania. And it felt like the show then kind of struggled to get a little bit back from that. Oh, Jaden and Naomi. And I really enjoyed that. It's the other matches. Yeah.

I think once the Jacob Fatu match happened, I kind of felt the live chat switch a little bit. Be like, okay, now this feels like WrestleMania. It was a bit split on Tiff and... which is weirdly one of the ones that i just really enjoyed yeah and i didn't particularly uh but then that main event i think was universally uh beloved although speaking of gambling um have you got my 20 quid still still your jam that champion by the way oh hello

hold the phone everyone do you want to give context for what this is so back in november i placed a 10 pound bet with you about kind of what it was now i thought i said like roman reigns is going to be is the bloodline versus the og bloodline And I can't even remember what it was now, but I was like, Roman's going to lose. And you were like, no, he's not. And then he did. On the Netflix Raw or something? No, no, it was in November. It was like one of the Saudi shows or something.

And so that was for £10. And then because you are a scumbag, you've not been paying that back. Well, I've got. Actively avoiding it. Bast gambling. Actively avoiding it. that uh jay uso versus gunther would open wrestlemania which i had said the day after the royal rumble would open wrestlemania because of course it was going to open wrestlemania but then i said uh Oh, look at this, everyone. A crisp 20 pa...

I asked the accountant, I can't write this off as an expense. That's my personal money that I went to an ATM to get out. Do you have to charge for it? No, no, it was a charge free. Beautiful. Look at that, everyone. 20 pounds. I didn't know they did them anymore. Finish the story. Well, yeah, well, I thought that there would definitely be one title retention that shot.

But you also picked Tiffany to retain. Yeah, which I thought was also pretty evident that she was going to retain. I was like, Charlotte's obviously going to win on the journey to break John Cena and Ric Flair's world title reigns record. But yeah, Tiffany retained. I thought Gunther was going to retain and Charlotte was going to win. I should say, I was off everything else though. Like, I got those two and I got Jacob winning and Jade winning.

But I thought the War Raiders were going to retain because I was like, this feud is so cold and I think surely there's a big E involvement in here. And I thought Punk was winning the main event. And I had Rey Mysterio to be El Grande Americano. But then once he got replaced by Phoenix, I was like...

Beto Americana's going to win. And actually, he probably was going to beat Rey as well. I think so. Because he's going to go down to AAA. Yeah, to WWE's credit, for what was a totally predictable card full of multi-man matches... There was only one multi-man match and a lot of the results went in different directions. There was way more multi-man matches on NXT Stands and Deliver, which was actually all multi-man matches except for the opener between Ricky Saints and Ego Page.

Well, let's get to the only main event and the only multi-man match on this show, which was the main event of Seth Rollins versus Roman Reigns versus CM Punk.

55 minutes left of the broadcast by this point. Well, we thought it was going to go longer than that because the post-show was scheduled to start at 4.45 and it was like... three o'clock and so we were like they've got an hour and 45 minutes to do this match well i think roman's entrance was just a normal entrance otherwise you're probably looking at 45 minutes more yeah

We had an excellent video package recapping everything that happened, and that was to Machine Head's song Sail Into the Black. Yep. So... enormous credits to this video package uh number one it made a machine head song sound good um number two I'm kidding, of course. I just don't mind machine.

But number two, and I think more importantly, we all made fun of that segment on SmackDown where they would all brawl and then one of them would stand tall and point at the WrestleMania sign. I remember sexing mechs from Guerrilla Position and WrestleMania can rest things.

i mean it's for the video package yeah and then it was in this video package i was like hot damn looked awesome like it looks so cool in the video package uh so they all get their own cool entrance apart from right where Seth comes out with a flamethrower, because he's going to burn it down, of course. And then the lights cut out. He was wearing a black outfit before.

Lights cut out and the lights come back up and he's now wearing an all white outfit. Yeah, I thought it was going to be in shield gear. I thought the lights would go out and they'll go like Sierra Hotel India. Oh my God, Jon Moxley. Did he get shouted out in this match? Yeah, he did, yeah. Yeah, I was there. I was like, that's a shield game. Then he came out in all white. I was like, huh, okay. And really, when you think back on the match,

All the signs were there to tell you what the main event swerve was going to be. And actually what I really liked about the main swerve, not to just jump to the finish up. is you can look back at all of the promo segments leading up to this and be like, oh man, they plotted this out really well.

It doesn't feel like it's a swerve for swerve's sakes. No. They planted all of the seeds in the promos and in the angles to tell you that this was going to happen. To the point where we had quite a few people on the champion. I can see one already. I think Cephalon's going to side with Paul Heyman. I didn't personally see it coming. And I think that's mostly because I didn't.

want to see it but um i and i was like i think punk's gonna win because punk's gonna be facing cena i was in that old school mindset of like if you're going for a title you'll probably win a match But, you know, we've got guaranteed money now. I don't even care about the main event. I don't get more money this way. But I really enjoyed actually how they plotted this out and including this.

On the white outfit and also the Paul Heyman turn, I've seen a couple of people go like, like seen definitive patterns. but then they admit that it's not a complete pattern and then go, but great, isn't it? So I've seen someone go, oh, wow, every time Seth wins, every time Seth wears white, he wins. apart from, and then they list off like three times.

It's like, okay. And then I saw someone else go, well, never team up with Paul Heyman because he will always turn on you. Like Big Show, Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns. Rybaxal. Cesaro. They just stopped managing them. Anyway, that was Seth's entrance.

And then Roman Good, like a normal entrance, but with no Paul Heyman. When he got down to the ring and there was no one to take his Oola Fala, it was sad. I felt for the guy, even though he never turned babyface. He's still a heel. And then Punk's one. Not only did he get his own special video package with his old... Was it called This Fire Burns or something?

switching games fire water burn by the bloodhound gang oh that would be so much better we don't need the water let the mother would have been good for seth as well yeah and um Yeah, so he has that. It kind of reminded me of when he came out in AEW against Max and he used his old ROH theme tune. Oh, that remix of the Terminator theme.

No, what I loved is they played his very first promo from WWE that he had when he was on ECW. Babyface. When I say babyface, I literally mean a child's face with sort of a little stubbly beard being like, I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I'm addicted to this business. I'm addicted to pro wrestling. He's straight edge and other stuff. But it's cut with modern day punk who I adore with his little salt and pepper beard. Proper old man Logan in the ring.

and he is doing it line for line alongside young babyface punk. I thought it was a really, really great presentation. then he comes out and living color are there on the stage i guess they played the video package so they could get living color in place yeah um and

You have often mocked their entrance at WrestleMania 29. Yes. He just comes in a bit off. It's because they don't do the full. Because usually they would go like... but they kind of just go straight he was expecting a few more bars and then it's like oh the drums But thankfully he got to do it again and he hit it perfectly this time. Punk comes out. He's all smile.

giving everyone a hug he's got everything he wants he's got the main event of Wrestlemania that he did interviews all this week saying he's not actually that arsed about he's got Paul Heyman by his side he's got Living Colour playing him out he's got everything he wants here everything that's coming at Milhouse

And I'm sure it will remain that way for the rest of this match. And he got on his knees to the what time is it? And Paul Heyman gives him his watch instead. And then kisses him on the head. God damn it. Maybe it's just because I was so invested in Heyman and Punk. That's why I couldn't believe the idea of him going to set. I could believe the idea of Roman turning on it or Heyman turning on Punk for Roman.

But I never saw Seth as a viable option. But also partly because I agree with what you said. That I didn't maybe want... But I think it will be good. Well, that's the thing. Now that it has happened, what I'm hoping for, my real hope for this is, this is a character reset for Rollins. No more wacky costumes. different promo style this is like you know the way you know not again not to just completely skip ahead to the end

Commentary worth putting over. This is a heel turn. He has sold his soul to Paul Heyman the same way that John Cena sold his soul to The Rock. This is a full character reset for Seth Rollins. so i want to see that continuing with a whole new presentation for him because what you don't want is to have this top heel come out with a song that everyone sings along with don't you want paul hayman to dress up in one of the wacky outfits

No. They can come out together. Yeah, with their big wacky boots together. Yeah, and their big sunglasses and hats. So by the time all the entrances are over, we've got 35 minutes left. a good amount of time for the end of the show. I guess you didn't know this. I was watching it once the event had completed so I could see 35 minutes left. And then because there's so much context for each guy. and their relationship with each other guy in the match, every pairing off felt awesome.

So Seth and Punk, they've had this long running feud since Punk came back. They're brawling all over the place through the crown. Seth and Roman, like Roman hates Seth for what happened at last year's WrestleMania, but Seth's trying to say, hey, side with me. Let's team up against Punk. Yeah. And then every time Punk and Roman fought...

It cuts to Paul Heyman on the outside and he's looking conflicted. Because he doesn't know really what he wants from this match. He's very happy that he is with his best friend CM Punk. But also, that is his tribal chief in the ring being beaten up. So really good interpersonal work. And then the... Just the plotting out of this match was brilliant. People did pair off, like I said, which usually you don't get in modern triple threat.

but it worked for this story. And then it meant more when everyone just started doing three-way spots from about midway onwards, which really started with the Doomsday device, which Punk loves hitting. And then Seth counters this spear into a pedigree and then hit a stomp. But then he had to kick Punk out of the ring. to make the cover and it was that kicking punk out of the ring that gave roman just enough time to recover and kick out yeah uh putting over the sort of

The problem with a triple threat, that if you want to win it, you need to incapacitate both guys. I thought they worked this so, so well, and the crowd were on fire for this match. A crowd that I thought were... off and on all night long

They weren't given much to work with. No, and there were some, you know, oh, it's an open air thing. The sound travels up. Maybe they're not mic'd properly. And then whenever the stars came out and the main event of the crowd were going wild, I was like, no, I just don't think they were into much of what was going on previously. They want finishes and they want entrants.

And that's what they got here. I'm not even just saying like that. It just felt like they weren't there. They certainly were not there for the War Raiders New Day tag. I didn't even feel like they were really there for Jey Uso with the eating and everything. But when it came to this main event and these three guys, but like crucially, and I think that is the power of this match and how well they work. Everyone bought every finish as a finish.

Seth Rollins hits the pedigree and hits that stop. I was like, oh my God, that's it. The match is over. Paul Heyman's right there. 15 minutes in. Exactly. Your MacGuffin has stood right here, has not got involved in a finish yet. Of course, this is not the finish. But even here in the room, we were like...

I felt like that could have been the finish of this match. So I think that they remarkably managed to make each one of these, even though they hit like 20,000 finishes each and kicked out of 25,000 finishes. Every single one of them didn't feel like it was diminished. I don't know if this is recency bias, but... I think it might go down as one of the best triple threats of all time. Definitely top 20. Yeah. Is that enough to say one of the best?

Yeah, I mean, there's so many of them. It's number 17? There's so many of them, so yeah, I guess so. You know, I think of, like, what are the other great triple threats? Unbreakable. There's the Royal Rumble one. Unbreakable TNA. The one from WrestleDream last year, the Osprey to catch the Ricochet one. There's the AEW one with Pat Cassidy and Kenny Omega. Yes, from Double Nothing. There's Michaels, Triple H, Benoit. Benoit.

Yeah. Some people would go to bat for Michael's Triple H and Cena, which is a very good match. So saying all of those, where would you put this?

well this has also got the added benefit of the the drama aspect of it because there was all the the pyro and ballyhoo for like you know and the the overwrought drama of things you've got the big it's a mania main event so i think that elevates it some yeah i think it could be in the conversation certainly if you're talking about top 20 yeah but that top what about top 10 I'd have to, you'd have to present to me like your full top 10. Shaq, can you sort of crowdsource a top 10?

Top 10 triple threats ever. Someone there has got like Danielson, Edge and Roman from WrestleMania. Oh, I think I enjoyed this more. I think I would say I enjoyed this more as well as that. Gunther Seamus Drew. Oh, okay. That's better. That was better than this. This is a fun game of higher or lower. Like, actually, it's a very good question to ask, but like... Trick Williams and Obafemi from the same day. I've not seen it, but would you put that?

You've seen both. I would say I'd put this above that. um but hot damn it was a great match at standard liver my favorite moment of which is when um trick williams is supposed to run in a breakup a pin and siobhan evans realizes he's not going to make it in time and literally looks up sees him and then goes to him kick out So the reason I went down that particular tangent was because you were saying people were buying into the finish.

even though Paul Heyman the MacGuffin was right there. That is so incredible to do for match layout for the actual performances. Because usually, and we see it all the time when, I can't think of a recent example, but it's like the audience are just waiting for so-and-so to run down. Think of all the bloodlines.

Oh, I'm enjoying this match, but when is the action and the drama going to kick off? Backlash 2000 is one of my favorite WWE main events of all time. But that is a crowd that you can watch, literally cranking their neck, looking at the entranceway, waiting for Steve Austin. I think it's because there wasn't just Heyman drama. There was In The Ring drama, like Seth trying to get Roman to do the shield powerbomb on Punk. And Seth is yelling at... You haven't got a bloodline. Mox has left you. Mox?

John Moxley got a verbal shout-out in the main event of WrestleMania. By that name as well. Not Dean Ambrose, but John Moxley calling him Moxley. The lunatic freak! has left you. Also, credit to the video package as well. They've done such a good job of cutting Moxley out of shots. And Kurt Angle. But not Triple H. He's always going to be there. I rolled my eyes.

My favorite one, though, is they've managed to find a shot where the shield is squaring off against Punk, and Punk is stood in the middle of them, framing Moxley out of the shot. So it's just Seth and Roman. I was like, oh, that's a wonderful shot to have.

It's a bit like Back to the Future, isn't it? Dean Ambrose just fading from all these archives. That's because either that was just like, is that Crispin Glover? I don't think that is Crispin Glover. That feels like a guy wearing a Crispin Glover mask. So Roman's selling of this was... I thought, because he gets out the ring and he's really like.

sort of conflicted over whether he should team up with Seth here to take out Punk, but he wants to take out Punk because he loves Paul Heyman, or at least values Paul Heyman. And then he fires himself up and he's like, let's do this. And Seth's like, yes. and he goes up to him, and Roman just whacks Seth. And the crowd boo, because the crowd want to see the shield do the thing. Yeah.

But Roman then immediately powerbombs Punk through one table and Seth through the other. Yeah. So the crowd started cheering again. It's really good crowd control. Very, very good. And again, rolls Seth back into the ring. I was like, I think this is the finish right here. I think he's going to win it. Despite the fact, again, the MacGuffin has not done anything yet.

Yeah, so they go back and forth. There's a submission exchange with everyone's got submissions. It's a guillotine. It's an anaconda vice. It's, you know, Seth Rollins is one. the sharpshooter he's always doing it it's just a puncture stage like look at the sharpshooter please it's the wrestlemania main event please look at the sharpshooter

Roll my eyes again. And then there was this amazing, amazing sequence that was kind of actually my favorite move exchange of the match. I see a lot of people send others, rightfully so, like the spear into the pedigree. So Punk hits a GTS on Seth. Seth kind of hangs in the air on his feet. Roman Spears Punk, but has... Seth falls back down. He stomps Roman. So everyone has hit this sort of chain reaction sequence of finishes on each other.

while not no-selling anyone's finishes. I thought it was terrific. So great. And then... The MacGuffin kicks in. Paul Heyman was activated. He goes and gets the shield chair. The way you said that was like, you're playing 2K25. And you've triggered the bit in the sequence where the movie starts. It's in the showcase mode where it's like, and now you're Paul Heyman. You've got 30 seconds. Go and get a chat. Oh no!

so he goes and gets the shield chair and they have framed it the same way they did with brock and roman where like they are both sort of there's a gap between them for a chair to go And it looks like Paul could slide in the middle. Who's he slid it to? But no, he very purposefully slides it to CM Punk to use. A great subversion of the expectation.

and then he gets in the ring and immediately also he's turning on punk then why is he getting in the ring why is he standing at the bit where the backswing would hit him in the head I didn't know this at the time, but I've watched it back. Yeah. And yeah, that's like a bit weird. I would say this is the only bit I thought was slightly clunky is how do we get Paul Heyman in the ring? Answer. He just gets in the ring. Yeah. And the low blows punk.

And he starts shouting at him. He's like, you made me do this. He is my tribal chief. I didn't want to do this to you, but you made me do this. And he grabs the chair and he hands it to Roman Reigns. And again, in the room, we were all like, oh, the fix is in. Roman's selling here again was amazing. So he's like initially shocked, but then...

Because he's got such bright white Hollywood teeth. He's got new veneers. When he smiled, he was like, of course. Of course Heyman's on my side. When he smiled, all the lights reflected off of them. Pyro came out of his mouth. So you said the fix was in, like you figured out that he was going to turn on Roman as well. A lot of us in the room, I don't know if I can conclude myself within this, but a lot of people in the room were like, okay.

there's another swerve to come, particularly because Heyman stayed in the ring. And then, and I, you know, I don't want to sort of nitpick this too much. And this isn't a nitpick or anything, but it did make me laugh in the moment. is um you know that bit in garth merengue when he said i know writers that use subtext and they're all cowards there's paul hayman so seth is on the ropes and paul hayman goes look it's just like the shield yeah

Yeah, Seth's there. He's on the ropes during all this. He's like, oh. Oh, I hope no one whacks me with a chair. Stupid sexy Rollins. Anyway, Roman's very happy with this. He stands up. He's got the chair. And Heyman Yeh is right in his backswing territory. Heyman drops down to one knee and hits a low blow. And not just a low blow. He uses his forearm...

Moving it from side to side to grind the dick. My mate texted me. I've never seen a low blow like it. He said, he went with the low blow on Roman like he was rooting for keys. Where are the keys? Where is it up there? It's, um, yeah. I mean, I get like, it looked, I suppose it would be more painful. Yeah. Just grinding against it. Yeah. I mean, I will say, as a reckless teenage youth who was very much influenced by MTV's Jack.

I remember once my mate kicking me so hard in the nuts that he brews them for over a week. How do you know they're brews?

because a it was super painful and then you sort of like look under and you could just see this bruise just oh yeah it was it was one of the worst pains i've ever experienced in my life did he leave his shin there and waggle it back and forth well that's the point i was going to make that was like sudden impact I think if he'd have just gone there and to say that I don't know if I think I'd have just gone completely numb from that pain. And I wouldn't have felt any of that extra bit there.

But I think all of the actual impact and pain would have been from the initial hit as opposed to the little rooting around. Yeah, but maybe in a month's time. It's the back and forth motion that you're really feeling after the trauma has initially gone. He'll wake up in the middle of the night being like, they're rooting around. That's what hurts the most. I hope Hayman... incorporates this in the entrance. Just a little forearm waggle. And yes, Seth turns around. It's all part of the plan.

Seth gets the chair. He hits Roman in the back again. So we've had two WrestleMania main events now where Roman has lost. because he got obsessed with hitting Seth with a chair. And it is, they have really, like, the mythology around the Shields chair shot is just, like, it's ingrained within WWE now. Like, this is just... It's so much of it. This is.

the modern day Hogan slamming Andre. And it's just like everything else is like, oh my god, it's just like when Hogan's, but it's always these two same guys. I don't mind it. I think it's incredible. It's like WWE's modern creation. And it's quite something if, you know, go to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk. Luke and I did a whole 30-hour series on the breakup of The Shield. That was a panic angle. Yeah. They were just like, rating's down. Should we break up The Shield?

Yeah, okay. Yeah. Like two days out from the show. It was not the original plan to break up the shield. Well, actually, they were supposed to do it earlier in the year. But yeah, I thought this was tremendous. And I should say as well, I love the fact they keep calling back to this breakup of the shield because that's character work and it's tied within the DNA of who Roman Reigns is and the DNA of who Seth Rollins is. It makes them feel...

three-dimensional characters. So Seth's promo... on monday night raw you know we were kind of kind of joking about it where he said uh the winner will be i will have the future of this business in their hands and i can't let it be punk I suppose now he has Paul Heyman. Yeah. That has a lot more weight to it. It's also, he was warning both of them that Paul Heyman is a snake and he's not to be trusted.

and he was right because they had planned to screw them both over yeah i don't looking back a really great build um well A really great build in retrospect. That's it, right? Which, that really does mean something because you've hidden something in plain sight. Was it a really enjoyable build to live through? Some weeks, yeah. But some weeks, no. Yeah. Some weeks, repetitive.

So while it is really good now that we've seen the whole feud wrap up at this chapter, at least, let's not get carried away and think it was a home run every week. Completely. I think it's... Maybe it's a good comparison piece, I don't know. But the discussion point, like Santi Zap was talking about this on Wrestling Is Cool. And I know he was not alone in talking about it. the idea of comparing it to WrestleMania 30.

which had a dreadful build going into it but ends up being an all-timer wrestlemania and there was this expectation going in being like i saw in our live chat and our comments

Hey, the build for Mania 31 sucked, but the show was awesome. Maybe the same thing here. The build sucked, but the show will be awesome. This is slightly different in the fact that it's not like Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair where... terrible build awesome main event no one ever thinks about the build now this is not great build matches awesome and it's making people go back and be like oh i missed it maybe it was actually great build

I just didn't appreciate it at the time that it was great build. And maybe Triple H is right when he's telling online critics that he wants to tell them to FR. I wouldn't go that far. No, I wouldn't go that far either, but I think it's such a good match and such a good angle that it can have that magical effect to make people re-evaluate. what was in some cases mediocre work and overblown.

But the 31 and 41 comparisons are very good. Heist of the Century and then Betrayal of the Century. What was the comment? We had that on our WrestleMania review. That was from Spammy the Hedgehog. Great name. Thanks there. So, yeah, I said I'd read out the best ideas for what happens next, and we've got a... We've got this one from Ironman99iffy or 99ify.

So, is Jay about to have a month-long title reign? Because I feel like Seth has got to get the belt as soon as possible. This isn't even me hating on Jay. The Seth-Hayman dynamic, it's far too interesting to not have the title in... So we were talking about this with Jay winning the belt.

whether or not if there's a draft coming up they switch the titles so the world title goes over to SmackDown the WWE Championship with Cena holding it goes to Raw which I actually do think makes a lot of sense because Raw is The main show. It's the one on Netflix. It should have a world title that people give a damn. And you can just put the mid-card world title on SmackDown. You can give guys like LA Knight can kind of climb up the ladder and start going for that belt.

But I do think that Seth should be involved in that world title.

scene. Not saying that Seth is a mid-carder, but I think that he could actually help elevate title somewhat but also you've got the hayman involvement in there paul hayman going up against jay uso going against a former bloodline member that he was a manager of with his new client going after his world title I think there's some really that would be the first thing I would do is doing Seth versus Jay because Jay needs a big program coming out

because he hasn't got any other top heels to work with. So why not work with the top heel? Does Seth get a faction? Uh-oh, are you talking sword? Am I talking sword? Well, I originally envisioned S.W.O.R.D to include Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens. I don't think that works now. Of course, Owen's got injured. I feel like Drew is going on for different things.

But I do quite like the idea of Seth getting a faction off of this. Bring back AOP again? Yeah. Hiring for a third time. Third time the charm. But like as a... Oh, that's fun, actually. Not mock as in parody, but it's, yeah, Seth as the architect saying, hey, I built the shield. I can build a better faction than the bloodline. It's my time. It's my turn.

It's actually, that's a really fun idea. Does Becky Lynch join up with him? Well, if she's coming, she's probably baby face, right? If she's coming in for this Lyra thing. Yeah, but then that's surely built for someone to turn on someone. Yeah, I guess so. Maybe. Maybe. Paul Bailey. On BBC iPlayer. The last five years has just gone bam. Stacey Solomon and Jo Swash are opening their doors to their home. People's Cottage is a lot like our relationship. Constantly working on it.

And their perfectly imperfect family life. We have more arguments parenting together than we do parenting separately. I'd like to get myself down to the level of the kids. You bring them down! Watch on BBC iPlayer. What makes a good bet? At Virgin Bet we think it's... A simple bet. A responsible bet. A last-minute winner when you're down to 10 men, kind of bet.

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That whole match ruled. They had me convinced three times that it was over before it really was, but I'm so happy right now. Seth's my guy, and I can't wait to see where this goes. Yeah, me too. Like, this is, as I said, this is the most I've been into Seth for a while.

I've seen some people say that he should join in with Cena and Travis Scott, but I don't think that this is a very separate thing to that, and I'd quite like to keep it a separate thing from that. But I am super excited. This is the most I've been invested in a Seth Rollins storyline.

Since the Monday Night Messiah, maybe? But he's done good work this year. Yeah, he's done good work, but me being actively invested in his character. I just want to give a shout out to James Markin, our moderator today. made the most hideous colour scheme for our chance. So he's got red text and blue text. So the first two words are red text, and then the second ones are blue text, some of which is capitalized, some of which is not, some of which are all caps, some of which are not.

But then he's got a black background. On all of it. It's called this next section, RIP Roman's Balls. Effing yes. A zillion times yes. I told you. New Paul Heyman guy Seth Rollins. I wanted it. I got it. I screamed full of joy. I was so giddy. He ain't there to take no pin. Nuh-uh. He's getting the damn pin. Bye-bye outfits and stupid song, hopefully.

Heyman is justified. Roman don't care about no one but himself. The favour was for Roman's sake, yet he never showed gratitude or understanding. Punk just used Paul for the favour and to mess with Roman. Low blow to both. Good. You had it coming, Seth. was right. I agree with most of that. And again, I'm really hoping this is bye-bye to the outfits and the song. The one thing I would say, I don't think the punk did this to screw with Roman. No, no. He genuinely loves Paul Hayman. Yeah.

James Zimmerman. Howdy folks. 95 minutes of wrestling on a four hour show. Is that true? They were short, Matt. And 35 minutes of that was the main event. That can't be right, can it? I know, I think the middle four were 10 minutes each. and that the other two were like 15 minutes so 16 minutes 9 minutes 9 minutes 10 minutes 7 minutes 19 minutes 32 minutes Damn. Yeah, it's not a lot of wrestling, is it? But hey, entrances.

I'd rather have a four hour wrestling show filled with four hours of wrestling. Glad to see Seth Rollins win. Jam that jam. James Krause really enjoyed Charlotte versus Tiffany. The triple threat main event was pure fear.

of paul hayman sitting there in black and white and pure cinema emblazoned across the image well it is i think people are now turning around to mock that as a phrase because it is nonsense and always has been The Pain Train writes, if the result of the main event means the end of the loud outfits and crowd sing-alongs to that stupid theme song, you're absolutely right, Sullivan, then I am all for it.

Also, justice for Bayley. Not as bad as Mania 37, but still terrible treatment. Yeah, so if you haven't seen, Bayley is not wrestling tonight. She was taken out of the Lyra Valkyria tag match. Don't give the spoiler. I know you kind of said...

Oh, no, no, yeah. It's just reports and rumours at the moment. Maybe people... I try and stay away from stuff like this on my... i should also say as well i didn't know it was a report and so because we we said yesterday that's what we figured it was going to be the second that she got taken i was like you need to find a replacement i was like oh becky said in the week i'm retired now so that it's definitely her

that was my that was my vibe on it as opposed to it being sort of like that's officially confirmed but yeah she was taken out and according to PW Insider it's not because she's actually injured it's taken out for storyline reasons this has been planned for a while that Bayley was going to be taken out of this

And apparently the backstage feeling is a lot of sympathy for Bayley because she's so respected in the locker room. And it's quite unfair. They feel like it's unfair. I'm paraphrasing, but they feel like it's unfair that she's been taken out of wrestling. I feel like it could build something down the line though. You know, this could be the start of a... I hate to say it, but I'm...

I'd say watch this one play out. And it could just be. I mean, it works so well with Jade and Naomi. We've now got another whodunit, who attacked who backstage. Did you see Becky backstage in the main event? Yeah, Dale showed the video. She was actually having a lovely time.

Kenneth Jones. We just time-travelled back to 2021. AEW and NXT had better shows than main roster WWE. A WWE pay-per-view had a lame build, lame undercard, a good Charlotte match, a good Seth match, and a twist in the bloodline story. This was a 2021 Vince book show. No, Kenneth, because all the finishes at least made sense. Yeah. One of the biggest differences between the Levesque and Vince era.

that every single match from the starting match right through to the end had bonkers finishes that actively worked against the story and what you thought was going to happen, and it didn't protect anyone. Levesque at least he books boring finishes predictable finishes a lot of the time but at least they make sense they're logical and consistent and credit to them as well and no interference in any of the other matches

because all of the interference was saved for the main event. I think that's a really important thing. Matty Ruck. I feel like internally they are writing this story with an Ambrose return in mind. This S.H.I.E.L.D. story can't just end with Rollins and Reigns not suggesting tampering, but I feel the story is being written with an eye for Ambrose to return eventually. From what I've heard and what people have said to me,

I would be very surprised if Moxley went back to WWE. I would be very, very surprised. But maybe they are writing it with the hope that he will do. But yeah, from what I've heard... It would be a huge surprise if you... Ghost chaos. The one thing that I really liked about Seth Rollins is his acting towards the end. How he acted smug about his awareness of Paul Heyman's betrayal. To be honest, I was literally awring, even though I could feel that this was happening. It was awesome.

Yeah, I think Seth is a really good performer, and even alongside punk and romance. He has probably been the standout performer of the Feuds build. Yeah, it's always the unfortunate thing with Seth is that he feels like Captain Third Wheel, but he is a very important wheel to keep this thing moving. Italian Josh, hi lads, was hoping for what Luke said last week. Big E getting involved in the New Day match to justify not having the SmackDown tag belts on.

But nothing, just disappointed in trips for this. Also, I don't care what anyone says. For me, LA Knight versus Jacob Fatou was the best match after the main event of Nightw- That's fair. I agree. I agree with that. I don't think many people would disagree. I don't care what anyone says. I'm going to say a popular take that most people agree with. I don't care what anyone says. This match was the second best of the night.

And the Lucha match was so funny and great. Grande might be Chad's best gimmick yet. They're different people. Overall, I don't care what people say. I have fun. happy maybe you will care that no one has anything to say about

What do you think? It's Eric Bischoff talking about Dynamite beating Nitro. Look, I don't care. I don't care that they did it. I'm glad that they're happy because it clearly means a lot to them. It means nothing to me and I'm not bothered about it, but they're happy and I'm sure Tony... Enjoyed every match in some capacity, except for the New Day one. See you tomorrow for the Night 2 review. See you then.

See you there. Kuzu writes, I missed most of the show last night since I had no real interest in the card, but I made it home in time for the main event and boy, did it not disappoint.

Seth absolutely needed that. Hopefully the cuck jokes are over for him, and even Roman impressed. Yeah, that was the sentiment we had in the room as well, is that Seth needed... cuck jokes for seth in terms of he was the third man as in like you know really what people were interested in was punk versus roman and seth was just also their watch

But it's Roman and Punk who have the sort of the lover between them going to the other person. Yeah, but, you know, they're fine. If anything, Seth proved himself. The ultimate cucker. Because he got Heyman in the end. I would disagree because they were trying to F Paul Heyman in this sense. But the story was Seth was watching them try to F Paul Heyman. Seth F. M. Rollins.

Eitken Gordon writes, even before night two begins, last night's main event is the best match of Mania 41. Roman's dive over the barricade was unexpected and epic. Also, I knew those announced tables look suspicious. Keep up the great work, guys. Beautiful announced tables as well. Made to look like poker, like the blackjack tables where the dealer is. But I particularly loved that it was a table where if you just remove one dowel, the whole thing just collapsed.

I think Knight 2's card has a lot better... matches on it. Yeah. So you've got the women's triple threat. I think Drew Priest It's going to be really good. You've got the Intercontinental four-way. AJ and Logan. AJ and Logan will be spectacular. And you've got Cena versus Cody, which will have a lot of...

Well, hopefully no Cena sleep selling because he'll be on top. Yeah, but I think that's probably worse, isn't it? It's Cena working over Cody. Do you remember the rock matches when Cena was on top? Yeah. And finally for now, Michael Carson have a question about the whole Seth Roman thing. Why was WWE so focused on the breakup of the shield to fuel their beef as if the shield reunion never happened? We don't talk about Superman 3 and 4.

Superman 1 and 2 happened, and then Bryan Singer made Superman Returns as a direct sequel to Superman 2. It is in canon, but it is messy, so we're just going to all ignore that part. Yes. In the same way that Roman had already expunged his demons of the shield breakup. I think like twice over before last year's WrestleMania, but all of last year's WrestleMania was built around. He finally got rid of his demons with a shield chair shot.

Do we have the little Patreon promo? Did you manage to load that? Oh, I have not got it on me today, no, but I'll be loading it for tonight. stream well go to patreon.com forward slash wrestle talk then to sign up there because there's loads of extra content including this friday where luke and i are going to be trying to predict wrestlemania Yes. So we did last year predicting WrestleMania 41 way too far in advance.

And we're going to do that again this year. We're going to do predicting WrestleMania 42, way too far in advance. But for Patreon, going to do something a little bit fun, a little bit different. We're going to try and predict WrestleMania 52, ludicrously too far in advance.

I've been thinking about this more than the 42. I'm really trying to make it so it could actually happen. Me too. I mean, I'm trying to think about it so logically. I'm checking people's birth dates to make sure I was like, how old will they be in 10 years time? I'm looking at people's kids. Yep, me too. Sounds weird. But yeah, I'm going online. I'm checking out people's kids. That's what I'm doing.

Kids don't have to be young. No. They're like 18-year-old kids. Yeah. Gork. 21-year-old kids. 21-year-old kids. They're all kids. They're all kids here. They're all kids. They're all kids as someone. I was turning 40 this year. So anyone in their 20s is a kid to me.

um but yeah so that's over at patreon.com forward slash rest talk really uh looking forward to doing and also we've got the the complete rock versus john cena series that we did which has got all the public episodes we put out but the patreon bonus exclusive ones as well where we reviewed raw 1000 elimination chamber 2013 And unfortunately, Act of Survivor Series 2011 or so, unfortunately, WrestleMania 32. Oh, it's long. Yeah.

Right. This show, please keep getting in your chats to wrestletalk.com forward slash support or read out everyone over five US dollars before the end of the show. The opening video package of WrestleMania 41 was pretty good. Again, hyping everyone up, showing how wrestling's cool now. Look at all the pop culture clips. Here's Rick and Morty. The three-hour pre-show.

had and you know we can talk about this a little bit because it crops up throughout the night so much of like man triple h work here he's done so much to make wrestling feel cool and special again god what a guy which is uh less cool when you see the production notes from triple h yeah on the format sheet can we talk about how good a job i'm doing And he spoke for so long at, like, what, 4 a.m.? Yes. Whatever it was? It got to about 4 a.m., yes. 67 minutes his Hall of Fame speech was.

67 minutes. And all those stand and deliver NXT guys, like, I can't leave the boss's birthday party. Even though I've got to be at work in two hours. There were reports there were wrestlers asleep in the audience because it was. 4am and they were like just ready to go to bed and there's Triple H being like also I would like to thank this person who without I would not be here today

Vince McMahon. Yeah. And then, and here he is. And then being like, oh, so yeah, let's talk about Vince. Ooh. Well, that might meet up. Do you want to? Because you don't have to. Yeah, so we got that. Apparently the opening video was actually from Dana. Sorry, I got that wrong. So there's slightly less Triple H on this show than I thought there was.

The show opens properly and Pool of X in the ring already, he's standing there and everyone's like, woo! And then his music plays. It's like he was surprised by it. I'm not supposed to be here right now. Sorry, it's not about me. It's actually about... The talent in the back. Biggest WrestleMania gate of all time. Yeah, but don't worry. He will be back. He will be back in this show.

The opening match was Jey Uso versus Gunther, which was a big, big entrance. A guy called Salvatore Bagani, I think. That's why he said his name. He was the DJ, so he's doing some DJing. Then loads of people run down with flags on the entrance ramp that say Yeet. And then there were some cheerleaders lining the sort of concourses. They're also dancing. And then Jay, poor old Jay, is serious.

So he's sort of, I am in the serious part of my feud. So he's not coming down here and doing yeet, yeet, yeet. Then all the music stops. Let's play it again. Because he wants to avenge his murdered brother. Yeah. So I don't know if this fully works. Yeah, so the whole point of Jey Uso winning the Royal Rumble is that you could have the visual of 60,000 people yeeting in a building.

And I don't know, maybe it's just me. I felt like they didn't really get that shot. No. It didn't really feel like it was... I mean, there have been reports from buildings that Yeeting has been getting less and less over as we've gone between the Royal Rumble, because the build has been so long between the Rumble and Mania. The appeal of yeeting has diminished somewhat. It's not at the height that it was in February.

And yeah, it just felt like we didn't really get that big 60,000, a sea of 60,000 people yeeting. And everybody felt like we got that moment. Gunther just got a normal entrance. And then the match, it goes for about 16 minutes. and was interesting for three yeah the final the final as well yeah um i don't i feel i do feel like they struggled with not knowing what their story was because as you've pointed out this was a 10-week build

way too long for the sort of story they're telling. And because of that, they kept changing the story to give it artificial... And this match kind of told the story of, I'm not scared of you anymore, I suppose. Like, J right-hands Gunther in the second move. Gunther drops to the floor. Oh, I've underestimated you. But Gunther didn't underestimate him on Monday. That was when he was taking them serious.

yeah and it also has forgotten so like the reason why this story has been a mess is because they literally had a two-week gap Where in one week, Jey Uso bested Gunther and stood tall and posed with the belt. And then the following week was like, I don't know if I can beat him. Mate, you literally did it last week. And here again, it's just, I don't think they were fully following on with the story that they've been telling in the last few weeks of this, which is this.

angry Jey Uso that's looking to get revenge like he should have been like kind of like what Charlotte and Tiffany did where they just went at each other immediately There felt like there was no fire and urgency from Jey Uso because his story actually became more, no, I'm in your head. You're no longer in my head.

And I'm going to do mind games to you. But what we ended up was Gunther working over Jay and then Jay making a comeback. But then Jay would also start laughing at Gunther's chops. Like, I figured you out, I am. I think if the end goal always was to get that visual, which they didn't, I agree, I don't think they actually got the whole crowd. Then have Jay stand tall on the go-home show. Have him come into this event with super confidence, kick off the show with the enormous yeet entrance.

have this match go 10 minutes. It did not need to be 16 minutes long. And then have another Yeet entrance at the end. but jay jay jay looked like he was um serious as he should be that's what the feud was about by this point he came in serious he didn't want to smile didn't want to encourage the crowd loads because he's trying to sell the drama of it all Yeah, I felt like it undermined the whole reason we were in this place.

If I may, though, I really liked the final stretch of this, and it did make me... kind of appreciate the match overall because what they did in the final stretch i thought was really really great is that jay threw everything that he had at gunther he had his spears and his splashes but because jay is now this more confident wrestler Jay started doing Gunther's moveset on...

so like jay hits the power bomb german suplex jay is doing gunther's like he's like downloaded gunther's moveset and then just put it into his creator wrestler instead Which is also why I quite like the finish. You know, he hits a German suplex, he hits a Gunther powerbomb, then hits a trio of splashes.

And then locks in Gunther's sleeper. And Gunther is a smart enough wrestler to know. He's putting my own finish on him. I should make my own finish look good. And he taps out to it. And people are like, oh, he tapped out far too quick. But I think that was going to just try to make protecting his own finish. in a way. I actually really liked the final stretch of this and I thought it made Jay look really, really good and special and I don't think it diminished Gunthus.

somewhat. I disagree quite a lot, I'm afraid. Don't you? I think particularly with submission-based finishes. A lot of the intimidation and the importance of those finishers is that it is a specific person. So Gunther doing a sleeper. Oh my God, like that will kill people. That is a genuine match finisher. It's a transition rest hold. Yeah. Right. We're going to outbreak. So especially that Jay hasn't set up the sleeper as something he's been working on in the build.

When Jay puts on the sleeper, like a lot of people do just generally in WWE matches for wrestling, and Gunther taps out right away. I do get that, yeah, you want to protect your own finish. I don't think it worked or came across in that way at all. It's also the move that took Jimmy out. as well. A much stronger version of that would just be to have him pass out.

have him get up like he's gunther he's unstoppable gunther like crashing and destroying buildings he's trying to he can't get jay off because jay now has like this no i must be And then Gunther just collapses and passes out and goes to sleep. Yeah. And that's how the match ends. I don't dispute that that is a better fit.

and actually that's a really a good way to win this match off but as it as it was i actually quite liked i thought it was quite effective i was very surprised i will you know not to say i was very surprised that jay not only like not one clean because i thought there was going to be some jimmy interference some jim to fear I was surprised that he tapped out as quickly as he did.

Yeah, because I think only Jay and Ilya Dragunov have ever made Gunther Tap now. That works. Yeah. I mean, I enjoyed the final few moments of this. But overall, it was the match people expected it to be, just with a lot less superkicks. Yeah, and not like... Not a great Gunther match. No, it's probably one of Jay's best matches, though. I'd say this is probably one of Jay's best singles matches he's had in his WWE run. Like that and the Braun Breaker match.

Or this and the Brunberg matches. But it's not even in the top 30 Gunther matches in WWE. And I really think this is... the end of the worst Leveque era time. Yeah. In terms of what it could have been and what we ended up getting, what the hell did they do with Gunther's World Heavyweight Champion? should say as well my god world title reign because we're about to change the tag titles and that was equally as uh forgettable yeah and bad yeah oh yeah well done

But I don't care about the tag titles. In terms of disappointing, you had a whole template right here that worked. There's some celebrities in the crowd. Rick Rubin's there. Chris Angel. Yeah, well, they're in Vegas. Haven't seen him for a while. George Kittle. And I thought he's getting involved in a match. Yeah. He's getting involved in the next match. Where's the football guys? Didn't happen. because the New Day then took on the War Raiders.

They played a video package recapping December's amazing heel turn against Big E. This video package. You want to talk about gaslighting an audience into thinking this has been a wicked heel run that's led to loads of great angles on TV and... The bill to the War Raiders and New Day has been so like blood filled and hate filled and not two weeks long. It's a shame because it's there. The whole locker room turn against the New Day.

The War Raiders included. The New Day start to take out the War Raiders next, just like Big E had a neck injury. And that's what the video promo told me. That is not what they told me on screen. No. It's incredible how much this worked. New Day were coming out dressed as... Giant Gonzalez. Yeah. WrestleMania nine. Yeah. Last one from Vegas. And yeah. Then Woods George act with George killer at ringside. And I thought, hello, we're getting a celebrity spot.

But no, it was mostly Clash of Clans. And that's what they focused on. Yeah, the War Raiders came out dressed in Clash of Clans. And I'm like, you dorkified these lads, something fierce. Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk. We're not above it. Yeah, but we're not coming out dressed as patriots. If we could. We're coming out dressed as Ollie and Luke from Patreon. So that's true, yeah.

So this was, you know, it's the War Raiders. They're very impressive. They do the crossbody. Ivar does the sentons. It's all fun to look at. a filler match on weekly tv yeah i think if this had been a raw main event i think the action would have been better and the crowd would have been hotter this was Remarkably un-WrestleMania. New Day, I think it was Kofi, sort of.

stopped an Ivar springboard, he hurt his neck, and then Kofi held down the leg during the pin. New tag team champions, and they quickly run away. Why was this not the SmackDown TLC match? Which is happening this Friday on SmackDown. Absolutely insane. Well, they would have only got 10 minutes. We just proved that it was 90 minutes of wrestling on a four hour show, which means there was time to do more wrestling on the show. I think this match would have been better as a Raw main event.

Oh, it would have been. Absolutely. I completely agree with you. Maybe a 10 minute TLC on WrestleMania. It doesn't have to be 10 minutes. I don't know what you want me to do. Because O'Shea, Jackson, Michael Che and Jelly Roll are in the crowd. They've got four hours to play with. They could give this a lot of time. They could have shaved off.

and I think they could have done 10 minutes off the Gunther match and put it into this TLC match here. You'll have a six minute world heavyweight title match. It's a J versus Gunther match. Like I don't need an epic. I think it is.

workplace negligence that there was no the smackdown tag titles were not defended on this this is gross misconduct triple eight it really is it is did you hear what happened on smackdown when they announced the crowd booed the announcement they were doing a TLC match because it's not at Wrestlemania and it's on Smackdown

Do you know what's mad about that? The amount of TV time they've dedicated to that tag division compared to the amount of TV time they've not dedicated to this one. And this one gets on WrestleMania and nothing happens in it. STAGGERING STAGGERINGLY BADFORM Naomi then took on Jade Cargill. They had, again, another 10 minute match. They had...

Fun entrances. Naomi got caution, yellow caution tape that she broke through. And Jade Cargill, I believe it's a local weatherman. He's doing like a weather report on a green screen. for the allegiance stadium. Oh, but there's a storm coming. This, this is one of the WrestleMania entrances. This was. so hokey and rubbish. It was really camp. Yeah, it was like...

This is a serious blood feud. And you've got a guy who's like, there's a weather report outside, and I think the wind is really picking up out here. Rubbish. It looked like we'd done it, but if we'd have done it, it would have looked better. yeah it didn't quite fit jade and jade just looked a bit um i don't know if off's the right word but she looked jacked in when she came back at chamber like you know normal cargill shape

She looked quite small here. Oh, I didn't notice anything. In comparison. But I never noticed those things. Usually you hear about people getting into WrestleMania shape and, you know, Roman looks fantastic in the main event.

But yeah, I just thought one of Jade's main appeals is like, look how muscly I am. And in this one, yeah, she didn't look as... as power buff as usual what she did in the match though was look very very good yeah she did all the strength spots like naomi was perfect to be in the ring with her here to effectively naomi's role in this match was make jade look good you know this CM Punk joke of like making sure Roman looks strong like this was make sure Jade looks strong and

And I think that they did that absolutely perfectly in this match. I really enjoyed this match. And I thought they did a really good job. It was the right length. It's Jade's best work since coming into WWE. I had a great time with this. Again, I didn't really see it that way. I thought no, I definitely agree on Naomi. I thought she was excellent. I feel like she worked most of this match. She dominated the opening part as well, which I really liked.

But then it wasn't just like how she looked. It was also just. Whatever she had in AEW in that first bit of the WWE. She didn't have the posing, she didn't have the crowd control. Which is weird as well, because the one thing they always said about Jade is that she had such bad training in AEW that she needed to come into WWE and learn how to work. And if anything, she's having worse matches now. I don't know if it's a case of her aggressive.

or if it's just AEW knew how to present her better. But I think Jay Cargill looks significantly... less good than she did three four years ago i think i would disagree on that one i thought she actually looked really good The power spots were done. They were excellent. You know, beating her right in the face. It looks good because she actually kicks people in the face. And she hit this wicked electric chair powerbomb that I was like, never do that move again. That was crazy. You've done it once.

And no one got hurt? Never again. Never do that again. Yeah, so she did that and then Heather J did to win. Yeah. Again, I mean, this was fine B-level pay-per-view stuff. Didn't feel like WrestleMania, but I enjoyed it. Cardi B's hosting SummerSlam, though. There's two nights of that as well now. Biggest SummerSlam gate ever. When Jacob Fatou came out, I changed. And I feel like the crowd changed as well. I was like, I was just...

WrestleMania was just somewhat wafting over me up until this point. And Jacob Fatu comes out like, I'm actually into this person. Not that I'm not into Gunther, but I knew Gunther wasn't going to win. Well, you know, it was predictable the way that would go. And everyone else, you know, the New Day War Raiders build, not really there. Cargill and Naomi was fun, but it's not.

I'm hardly on the edge of my seat waiting for the conclusion. But the idea of Fatou winning the title at WrestleMania, it felt like watching Owens at WrestleMania 32 in that opening ladder match. With that said... Yeah, well, you know. Oh man, I haven't thought of a WrestleMania entrance. Can someone run down to the local costume store and see if they've got a werewolf mask? There's one here for $3.99. That'll do. Just get me that one.

uh yeah but once you get the match actually started this match was really good i really really enjoyed this much like the the war raiders uh tag run not a lot to be said about la night's second run as us champion probably shouldn't have lost it to nakamura in the first place because there was nothing for nakamura's reign either but yeah so i was

In a way, unsurprised that Jacob won because it felt like this match was designed to crown Jacob Batu. Oh, yeah. But in the same way, I was like, man, they've done very little with LA Knight as US champion. It feels so quite soon to be taking the belt off. The second move of the match, I feel like, got everyone instantly hooked. And it was LA Knight goes for the blunt force trauma.

And Fatou just like, boom, stands up out of it. It was so cool. And then I've not really got any more notes until we get to the finish, other than it was good back and forth intense action. Again, 10 minutes long. It's a shame that the big spot of the match is not the finish. because LA Knight was not going to win. Because I think if that was the finish.

that would be like a you could put that in video packages for for and you can do now it's just that it's it's almost a shame that it wasn't the finish it was so close though so what it was fatu goes for his moonsault and somehow how did they think this up yeah L.A. Knight catches Fatou, like, you know, he revolves over. Insane. It was so cool. It could have been the finish, but...

Fatou just grabbed that bottom rope right before the three. It was a great near four. Superb. But then Fatou just like fires back, hits this awesome, you know, sort of diving headbutt thing off of the top rope onto LA Knight. two moonsaults to finish him off. Yeah. And he wins. New champion, all the titles changed hands so far, and Solo Sokoa wasn't there to interfere. He was only there for the entrance, and that was it. Yeah, I enjoyed this. After that, we got El Glande Americano versus Ray.

Phoenix. Yeah. In this, they replayed what happened on the pre-show, the pre-show announcement, which is that WWE have bought AAA and... Insane. This is insane. But also it makes perfect... It is, you know, global localization didn't work. So we're just going to buy everything instead. Disney, we tried to create properties, but then we realized it's tough to make properties. We may as well just buy the ones that already exist. That's actually an easier thing to do. But why do the AAA one?

because triple a offered because like melton's about this resting up there resting up to have a radio triple a have been looking for ww to buy them for 20 years they have been desperate for someone to buy them for like two decades

because they're looking for someone to inject some money into it because they are not competing against CMLL at the moment. CMLL are absolutely killing it right now. And AAA... are not they have had a rough few years i last year i think it was like voted the worst promotion um and it's quite rightfully so because i don't think they're putting on great work

Well, they never have. We used to work with AAA back in the 2010s. We used to, with Dave Bradshaw, used to do the English commentary. My God, I would sit through those tapes. that he had to do the recordings over. They were crap. Yeah, he... We actually were joking about this just the other day, how much he hated the Psycho Circus. Yeah, all the psycho clowns and murder clowns. Some of them were good, but...

There was a lot of bad stuff on those shows. The booking of the heel and face referees I never got on with. Del Rio is their champion at the moment, the mega champion. Back in the day, you had sexy stars shooting on people.

They're not a great company. Yeah. It is really funny. They're very carny. It's very funny that Del Rio is their current champion, but they were like, but look at Vikingo. Like, because Vikingo is exciting and Vikingo is so awesome. Not like El He Heard El Vikingo, just simply. Viking like he's Prince. He's also, this was a guy that was on AEW.

Yeah, that's very true. And now here he is. He's in the front row of WrestleMania. And it's good for WWE as part of their wrestling monopoly. I think that they will buy... And a UK promotion at some point in the near future. And Noah, I reckon. I think Noah's next on the list. And Marigold. Yeah, they'll buy Marigold and... This whole idea of doing NXT Japan, NXT Mexico, NXT Europe, I think that's all out the window.

And they're just going to buy properties. And just, you know, that's how the monopoly works. And, you know, there's some really very interesting, conflicting thoughts on this. I actually do recommend that people listen to this most recent Wrestling Observer Radio talk. because Melston Ave has a very good discussion about this and there's a lot of like with the feeling within the Mexican sports community, is this is bad news because this is going to kill the independent scene in Mexico.

because it might lead to AAA, now they've got money, to run more shows in competing areas and get those fans away from it. And it could bankrupt a few independent promotions. It could be bad news for CMLL because they won't have the money to compete against AAA to offer more money to sign their talent. They'll be sending down WWE talent like Andrade, Penta, Rey Fenix and all these... who will be draws for AAA competing against these other Mexican promoters.

Yeah, it's the fans always go where the stars are. Yeah. If they've suddenly got all that money, they'll sign all the top stars. Just like in the territory days, that's what Vince did to kill the territories. It's funny as well, because I think a lot of people haven't realized that AEW haven't been working with AAA.

for like a while now because we had a few ultra chats in being like i'm sure tony khan's crying over this and i'm like he's not worked with them no they screwed him over because they dicked him over they like you know there's the story i think of somebody i actually forgotten about this since i was reminded of FTR with the AAA tag champions were sent down to AAA to drop those belts. to Drillistico and Dragon Lee. And then Dragon Lee had signed with WWE. He pinned Dan.

and immediately vacated the tag tiles and said, I've signed with WWE. And they'd orchestrated with ESPN to do this big announcement that Dragon Lee had signed with WWE. Completely smegged over AEW and Tony Khan, and they were pissed about it. So yeah, I don't think he's particularly upset about this because he's been in bed with CMLL for the last few years.

Well, Drillistico, not Drillistico, Dragon Lee might have been a better replacement here than Rey Fenix. It was a shame. So El Grande, Americana and Rey Fenix had the next match. Rey Fenix replacing Rey Mysterio, who's torn his groin on SmackDown. Really bad timing. But, yeah, I didn't like that Ray Phoenix had to lose so soon after his debut. I think this would have made more sense. Yeah, who's also in the LWO. He's been in the feud with American Maid.

Great match, though. Yeah, really good. For the time they got, for the seven minutes they had, a 540. from el grande americano yeah a reverse 450 it was absolutely bonkers um really really fun like Grande Americana was like a timeless Tony Storm entrance. They put the sepia tone over and a mariachi band playing him down to the ring.

The crowd apparently were so into El Grande Americano. It's a fun gimmick. And, you know, it looks to be continuing because he got the win here. I thought this might have been the end of it, but... he's clearly going to be sent down to triple a he can do some stuff because he got in the face of vikingo in the ring outside the ring So, and Vakingo got into kind of console Ray Phoenix afterwards. So maybe that'll be like one of the first AAA matches they do is the Americana.

And they did also announce they're doing a joint show on June 7th. Worlds Collide. In Worlds Collide, it is WWE, NXT and AAA doing a joint show. Well, yeah, Forbidden Door, but you just own all the things. It's big, it's dangerous, but it is definitely big. The, again, title of my sex tape. The, what was I going to say there about, oh, it's weird that Phoenix got a WrestleMania match before Penn.

I mean, only by days. I know, but it's just the order of days. I wouldn't have seen that coming. No, yeah. I mean, it's very, it's kind of fun that Phoenix and Penzo are getting their WrestleMania, you know, debuts this weekend, considering that literally like two months ago, they were still under AEW contract.

Alicia Taylor made a mistake and she billed El Grande Americano from the Gulf of Mexico, which WWE have dropped from the presentation. Gulf of America. Sorry, Gulf of America, yes. And Michael Cole and Pat McAfee. Mexico, yeah. Because they were trying to move away from the political side of this. Conspiracy theory. They did that on purpose. Oh, interesting. I like it. Tell me more. No, no, no. They're dicks. I've got nothing more than that. Yeah.

oh we've just uh we've just acquired triple a yeah and we're just going to do this as well it is with dicks it is very funny for them to do this video package about how they've acquired this quote unquote traditional lucha libre company which many people have pointed out has not been a traditional lucha libre company since the mid 90s um and then they present this match next where an american is coming out pretending to be a lucha libre star and then beating a lucha libre star

He is a Lucha Libre star. But yes, he won. So with the loaded mask. This will likely continue with other luchadors and down in AAA, which will be really fun. It will be. After that, we had Shawn Michaels come out to announce... That it's a 61,467 sellout attendance. This was my other big laugh of the night. Did you see the size of the font?

on his cue cards. No. He didn't have his readers on. So when he sort of span around, you could see the size of the font on the card was about the size of the card itself. So he couldn't get the number wrong. Hilarious. But after that, we got the second-to-last match, the semi-main, some would say, Charlotte Flair versus Tiffany Strada.

Charlotte just got a normal, well, she got driven onto the stage in a Rolls Royce, but Tiffany's entrance was awesome. It was three Barbie style boxes. She was in one of them, but there were video versions of her in the other two boxes. Just like a Barbie. Yeah. I thought it was great. Very funny because when she came out of the middle one, Pat McAfee, and I'm not a big Pat fan, he was like, oh, she was in the middle one. I was confused at the start. Oh, come on, man.

Like, I know that AI is pretty impressive these days, but it was quite clearly she was the one that was in the middle because it was the only one that didn't look like a video. I thought it was a wicked entrance though. Really, really cool. Apparently, Tiffany said on the post show, because I was doing some clips and stuff, and I was watching a bit of the post show.

She said that this has been in her mind for ages now as a WrestleMania entrance is doing like the Barbie boxes. And I thought it made her look awesome. So she, this was, I enjoyed this match. Not because it was a perfect match or because it was worked seamlessly or because they remembered all their spots. Because it was just That weird promo.

I hear Nepo Baby so much. Like, you know, people say Nepo Baby all the time, particularly after the White Lotus series. So my partner at home just like Nepo Baby, Nepo Baby. Every time I hear Nepo... My head goes, Nepo Queen. That's how much I've gotten into this view because that promo segment between them was a car crash. And it was a refreshing car crash in an era where everyone is professional under Pulavec. Yeah, I am on the opposite.

train of thought on this one. It's a taste thing. It is a taste thing. I have no taste. I am all for workshoots. I think workshoots are tremendously exciting, and I think... think that that's one of the really fun things about doing wrestling but what about shoot shoots but yeah just like wrestlers going out to be dicks to make their opponents look bad and in the process making yourself look bad i don't see the point in that whatsoever

I do not know who she has learned this from, but it is a bad habit that she has got where she just thinks the best way to make herself look good on screen is to make someone else look really bad.

I don't see the point. There's so many aspects of Charlotte's psyche that I can't grasp because they're... that they contradict themselves all the time she'll do a lovely interview where she seems really emotionally self-aware and then she'll go out and be like what feels like a a very real bully or How she works matches where she is definitely the heel. And then she does a baby face sympathy spot and gets annoyed at people for not.

getting into her kayfabe sympathy spot because they start to work over each other's knees which i found quite fun it was just like i'm gonna work over your knee charlotte because that's the one that was surgically repaired and stuff or maybe it was the end Just the leg in general. She had like the knee brace on. So yeah, it was. Yeah. So Charlotte's like, well, I'm going to beat up your knee. And that makes sense because of the figure eight submission and stuff. But, um.

Yeah, I know. I got into the sloppiness. I thought this match was sloppy, messy, and also at the same time, overly rehearsed. Yeah. Because there were times where they both just stopped and looked at each other with like a, what's next? And then, oh yes, we'll go into the next sequence. Oh, stop. Oh, I'm just slightly out of position. I'm just going to move over. I thought this was pretty bad.

I actually thought this match was going to be really good because Charlotte Flair always shows up at WrestleMania. She's always having the best matches at WrestleMania. Go back to her history of this. The Ronda one notwithstanding maybe, but you can certainly look at the two reaffirms. And being like, she just always has these banger matches at WrestleMania.

This was not Charlotte at WrestleMania. I thought this was, yeah, sloppy, chaotic, and overly rehearsed, and just not particularly... good the best thing in this is that Tiffany won yeah But it really cost her because she had like a big bump on her head, bit of blood on her forehead.

And yeah, a bunch of chipped teeth in the front row. I can't claim credit. That was an old shot that came in. I will actually find out who that was from because it really made us laugh last night. But yeah, Tiffany moonsault to win and retain. Really good. Well, good result. I meant really good result. Yes, very good result because it was the result that I was hoping for.

and i think it's the right result because if charlotte had won the story is you're not good enough and then charlotte's proven right so it's it's for the best it's kind of what i've got with io tonight Io has to win tonight because the story is, you're the least important thing in this match. So if she doesn't win, it just proves them right. Where do you think Charlotte goes from here? Home? Honestly, I don't know. Because this return has not...

She was supposed to come back as a babyface. It hasn't worked. So they've pivoted to making her a heel. That's not working either because Charlotte does not endear herself to people both backstage and on screen and with the fans. And so it's just, I don't know, man. I don't know what you do now. Yeah, I can't see her fitting in. I feel like her losing and her behavior has surely sort of...

made people in the locker room think differently of her. Westhead was the person who came up with. It's too few times. Yeah, I know, I agree, because the report from Fightful about the going-off script segment was... that the women's locker room is just like oh yeah you've just got to expect this from charlotte she will go off script to make you look bad and it's almost it's a challenge that she feels like she has

that you now have to step up to be at my level because I can go off script and I won't get in trouble for it. So it's now up to you to try and come back. Feels like a very Vince-era mentality that doesn't... I thought didn't exist as much or at least a top level where it's kind of feels company endorsed. Like, hey, go out there, Bob Holly. But with words. Yeah.

I was not a fan of this match, and I think that Charlotte will certainly stick around though, particularly because if they've got Evolution coming up, she will be a major part of the... And then we got the main event, but just before then we had a recap of the Hall of Fame and we get to see Triple H. Linda McMahon was in the audience? I thought I saw. She was at the Hall of Fame, surely, yeah. Yeah, she was.

It's weird seeing Trips' mum and dad. Yeah, he probably looks like his dad. And then all his daughters are very nice. And then, as is customary, you've got the Hall of Fame class on the WrestleMania stage. And then out walks the headliner. Triple H gets his music played a second time tonight, which is so, so devious because it really makes like. If you had just started watching wrestling five years ago, to you, Triple H is the biggest star in the history of wrestling.

Oh, and Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart are sharing a star on the end that Triple H goes to shake their hands of like every other guy up there. But beautifully. Brett sees through all of it, and Brett rolls his eyes. And it's so brilliantly Brett. Apparently, some people are saying that he's reacting to something Stone Cold said to him.

Brett is reacting to Triple H, a man he famously dislikes. He called four out of ten. On this channel, in fact, I actually said he's a four out of ten wrestler. shaking his hand and Brett being like, yeah, he's done this to make him look better than us. Well, I mean, if you're Brett Hart,

In all fairness, this is the guy who literally orchestrated the screw job walking down and being like, hello, I'm a bigger star than you are. Because I got you screwed at Survivor Series 97. I'm now in charge of this place. Do you think Triple H should- Went up to him. I was like, yeah, you're right, Steve. Yeah, congratulations. F*** you, Brett. That was my one F. We're 85 minutes into the show. I thought I'd sneak one F.

But yes, overall, that is the show. I thought it was really, really a middling pay-per-view. Nothing bad on it. Just really. mostly uninspiring until the main event that was uh at least in the top 20 triple threats of all time there's some the chats that came in yesterday on the live reactions i think kind of sum up a lot of my feelings on this which is that This was a good show and most of the matches were good and enjoyable. And as a show overall, I did enjoy it.

It did not feel like WrestleMania. except for the main event and the main event angle, but nothing else really felt like WrestleMania. And I think that Night 2 has got quite an easy task to get over what we got here on Night 1. And I think it will do that. And I think Night 2 will feel like WrestleMania. But Night 1 certainly did. It felt like a very good preview. It's almost like there's not two real knights.

Let's see what you all think on the chat gables. WrestleTalk.com forward slash support. Please send in your chat. We'll read out every single one over five US dollars before the end of the show. James Markin, our moderator, has said of the chat document's horrible layout. Hey, don't blame me, Oli. Blame WWE for the bad colour scheme with the Mania logo. Also, thought this was a C-plus show with Naomi vs Jade and Triple Threat being the only real highlights. Oh, not Fatou and...

Leo S says, Hello, gent. I was content with Jey Uso beating Gunther, but making him tap so quickly is a disgrace. The three splashes should have been enough, and it makes Gunther look so weak compared to the Dragunov finish. Here's Hope and his book Stronger Post Mania. Christopher Hines. Well, I don't think so, because I think Seth is going for that title. Yeah, I hope so. Christopher Hines. I guess I don't know what Gunther does next, then probably goes away for a bit. Intercontinental title.

Definitely a mixed bag last night. That first hour was a bit of a dud. Gunther tapping out instantly was mad, and the tag match had no business being on the card without a big E run. TLC for the SmackDown tag titles would have lifted the crowd. I agree with that. Having a stipulation for that second match would have changed up the energy from the Yeats. Compared to Mania 25 to 28 that I've rewatched recently, the baseline match quality is much higher.

I wonder if the reason this show felt mid is because the production of weekly TV has leveled up a lot in 2025. and ple's have stayed more or less the same i think i would disagree with that because i think the wrestling on tv for the most part sticks to this kind of the formula we were talking about this from the the raw we were at with in the o2

But also, they have more interference, distraction. They do all of that stuff on TV, then tend not to do that on the pay-per-views themselves, like what we saw last night at WrestleMania. say it's slightly different to that i think it's what aew sometimes struggle with is they they have like five star matches on tv so then when they have a five star match on paper you're like yeah cool but i also saw one on tv i think the main events of weekly tv

That's what's gotten really good. And that's what I'm thinking here. I'm like, well, New Day versus War Raiders isn't better than just a random match on Raw. But a raw main event would be way better than that. Texas Goose. Tag match was the only low point for me. Could have been Chelsea or the SmackDown TLC they have planned and been much better. J drops the belt to Drew by SummerSlam and Cena and Drew run things as the top two heels working for The Rock.

Also, Seth is there. I don't foresee a long title run for Jey Uso. My issue with this entire pay-per-view, women's intercontinental and US championships needed to be defended as it continues to undermine them, and the World Heavyweight Championship should have closed the show as it has stakes for one of the main titles that represented a faction.

I mean, I don't know if you can look at this card and look at that main event and be like, yeah, I think Jay and Gunther should have closed out this show. Yeah, and also the women's I see in US titles. Like, if they got matches on the card, I think they just feel like token matches. If they had a build, sure. That's it, because they have done no build for them to make, particularly poor old Lyra. Chelsea's doing great work, but I think that's down to Chelsea more than it is.

Sam, really don't understand the hate for this man. apart from the New Day match think every match was at least a 7.5 out of 10 and the main event was like a 15 so think the night was probs 8.5 out of 10 but that's the thing is I don't think people hated this show and I think that's where I would disagree that people don't hate this They just thought it was mid. There is a middle ground between hate and like.

Ghost chaos. Just one last thing. I felt that Charlotte versus Stratton's match was very messy. However, I feel that it needed to be messy and it made me feel that Stratton has it down as a women's champion. I do want Charlotte to have a retrospection storyline this year. uh yeah that's kind that's kind of what i am feeling yeah it just wasn't that the crowd is going to go with it because it is fine for you to have the right i compared it to brit baker on last night

um live stream remember brit baker came out for that promo where she was talking about her real life struggles with the injuries and stuff and the crowd were like boo we're bored of you brit baker get out of the ring i feel like charlotte's in the same position now i don't i think even if you did a retro oh, I need to really go away and think about myself and apologize. I don't think the crowd are going to give her the chance.

Looks like I'm the only one who enjoyed the show. Tag match lacked heat, Gunther tapped too quickly, and Tiffy vs Flair was a bit rough at times, but I enjoyed the show overall. The main event was amazing. Excited for this new season. of Seth's character. But you're not the only one, Kevin, because I think that's most people's thoughts on this show. Heiko, I feel like the mania vibe started to trail off when Gunther Taff...

Jay winning as the logical finish, but the tap felt flat. Just me? I am hyped for the possibility of the Kingo vs. Amelicano. Dormammu. Gunther tapping out plays into character motivation he's had for a while now. He's a hypocrite. Isn't that what you think of when you think of Gunther? Yes. Ring camp, ring general. I know. He's a hypocrite.

He preaches the sanctity of the ring, yet cheats and desecrates it. Of course he's going to tap to his own move. He can't get out and so he saves his own skin. Also, when Elia tapped out, couldn't the... He did so nearly instantly. Gunther clearly has incredibly low submission defence and can't take what he can dish out. In all seriousness, it's a great character beat for Gunther and I'm intrigued what comes next. With all due respect, I disagree fully because that is not what I...

from Gunther is a character that is weak and selfish and what was the other word? Hypocritical? That is not what... Walter is. You don't want chicken S-word heel Gunther. Funnily enough, no. Hannah Allen writes, Hello, lovelies. Well, gosh darn. Honestly, Pat McAfee jokes about LA Knight eating Fatu's I guess that's ass. I don't remember that. And he squirt joked during Triple H's spit. The dude wipes chat and Heyman's extra selling on that second low blow. I laugh so hard, guys. So much fun.

Lots of love jam that jam. We had a lot of chat about dude wipes on the stream last night. Yeah, and there was a moment when he did the spit and Pat McAfee made a joke about his wife squirting. It's a different era. It's not PG. Netflix will censor someone throwing up the middle finger, but Pat McAfee can make squirt jokes.

Agent X, I was worried that with them saying Charlotte would be on Stephanie's podcast, Charlotte wins, lol. But now I'm wondering if something is actually wrong and Charlotte can't go anymore. And this was a passing of the torch, man. Charlotte retires Wednesday. Wednesday. The day after NXT. I don't know. It's really thrown me. It's to help me when I've got my slow news Thursdays. Just a tweet. Peace. Just a screenshot image of a notes app. Yeah. Statement.

I mean, I don't know if it is a case of Charlotte can't go anymore. This didn't feel like Charlotte's at WrestleMania, I will say. And when people come back from an injury as bad as the injury she had, you know, you do have to change up your in-ring style. You may not be the wrestler that you want.

were and that really will be a huge shame um although i've not listened to stephanie's podcast and i probably won't i have heard one person say it's the worst thing that wwe have ever produced that says Michael Carson. Hope EO wins. I agree she needs it the most. I also have a feeling Jade is going to take out Bianca. On another note, I think Bala gets kicked out at Judgment Day either tonight or on Raw as I see Liv helping Dom win the title.

Agreed. Agreed, yeah. Also, and with that, we kind of had Liv and Dom as this power couple with the Women's Tag Championships. But if, you know, we're getting a replacement partner, and if that replacement partner is Becky, Surely Becky's winning the titles, right? The Cena-Cody match? Yes, very much so. It's the main thing I've been looking forward to all weekend.

Yes, because I'm super into John Cena and yes, I'm super into Cody Rhodes and yes, I'm super into the story they've told. No, because I don't think the match will actually be. The work rate of the match is what I'm not looking forward to. It'll have 15 minutes of stuff and then... Run ins. The Rock's music's going to hit. It's going to be awesome. What are you talking about? The Rock just recently put on Instagram. He's in Hawaii. He's in Hawaii. He's for sure definitely in Hawaii. And he can't.

he just won't be able to make it guys he with a with a picture of today's newspaper I also have a feeling Jade is going... Oh, I've read that one. This is back to Kat. I'm of the opinion that Cena hasn't put on a good singles match since 2017. At best, I think it will be average. At worst, this match is going to dry. Jack's ears. Luke, you make being bald look sexy. Thanks. Who are we thinking Randy is fighting tonight?

Who are we thinking Randy is fighting tonight? I got my money on Matt Cardona. It's woo-woo time, lads. What? Well, that's more bonkers than Charlotte retiring on a Wednesday. Where's Matt Cardona? I guess he's not signed anymore, right? He was signed, but then he never debuted. Oh, with WWE? I think so. Was he? Was that Eric Young? I always get them two mixed up. It's Eric Young.

Was that a moss? Oh, he's getting a moss and Matt Cardona mixed up. They brought back Matt Cardona early from his Noah tour. Also, do you think they will induct Cena in the Hall of Fame next year? Yes. He'll headline next year's Hall of Fame. I think it'll be out.

If it's Aldis is the most logical answer, Rusev is the most fun answer. Yes. Rusev day with Aidan English singing. And Aidan English did put up on Instagram that he's flying out of Vegas. He flew out of Vegas yesterday because the TNA did their pay-per-view. Mike Minor. It kind of made sense for Gunther to tap out so fast to Jay. The three splashes knocked the wind out of him.

Even Monster need air to breathe. I think it makes sense for Gunther to tap out so fast to Jay. Oh, it's the same again. To him applying a choke is better than going straight for the pick. I didn't mind it. And finally for now, Mr. Pooh Man. Also, when Elliot tapped out Gunther, he did so nearly instantly. Gunther clearly has...

Incredibly low submission. We had all this previously. This is one who's got... Yes, but this one's called Mr. Pooh Man. It's got the... Dormammu said it earlier. He's got low defence. Well, Mr. Pooh Man's paid his dollars. I'm going to read it. Gunther clearly has incredibly low submission defense and can't take what he can dish out. In all seriousness, it's a great character beat for Gunther, and I'm intrigued what comes.

I think you chatted that in with the 20 pounds I sent you so you can have the last word on whether Gunther tapping out instantly was a good thing. I didn't say it was a good thing. You said it was the best thing on the show. said i didn't mind i actually quite liked it but i wouldn't say it was a like a great finish or anything like that well what's happening mr poo man's chat has changed on the dot

Now it reads, yeah, it was pretty cool. Some matches felt kind of rushed. I think that we just caught James in 4K there making a mistake on the jack dog. You pay them off. Do we have a vote going? We do indeed. I'm just going to quickly close the poll here. It is split, I will say. 46% thumbs up, 46% in the middle. Well, no one's saying it's a bad show. No. 8% are, is that right? 46 and 46? Yeah, so that's 94, right? 92?

Two, yeah. Eight percent. Eight percent. But yeah, still. Wildly, wildly in the middle, I'd say. Above average. I give that a 3.5 out of 10 overall. Going by those numbers. Which is roughly what I gave it. A 3 out of 5 shot. maybe yeah 3.5 because that main event was so good and as I said earlier good it just did not feel like Wrestlemania at times Well, thank you very much for joining us all. Please make sure you are subscribed because we have WrestleMania night two live reactions this evening.

It'll be you. It'll be Dan Layton and Adrian Arturo from Hustle Wrestling, who we saw on the Royal Rumble live reactions we did. We will all be in studio giving our live reactions to WrestleMania Night 2, and I'm very excited. And tomorrow, it'll be me and Luke back again. I'll have my WrestleTalk News review and we'll be doing another one of these lovely podcasts. And the day after that, we'll be doing the Raw After Mania review as well. It doesn't stop. We're going to rant.

So please make sure you're subscribed. Leave a comment down below again with what you thought of the show and go to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to watch loads more exclusive videos that you can't get on the YouTube channel. But for now, I've been Oli Davis. This has been Luke Owen, DAD. Jam that jam. Jam that jam. What makes a good bet? At Virgin Bet we think it's... A simple bet. A responsible bet. A last-minute winner when you're down to 10 men, can I bet?

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