What's up everybody. Welcome back. This week, Jeff and I are getting into everything. We have time to get into the Triple H era, the Rock and Cody Rhoads will Ausprey. We're gonna get into all of it and more this week on Wrestling with Freddy, and don't forget Thursday, the saga will continue of me trying to sell my own federation. You guys can hear the ongoing story on Thursday as well. Appreciate you guys for listening. Let's start the show now.
Your Mate Events introducing the hosts Wrestling Win Forreddy, Chef Ted and for Ready Price Soon.
Mister Jeff, how are you, sir?
I'm feeling good, buddy, how are you feeling.
I'm good. You're back in town for a little while. Are you going back on the road.
Same schedule, you know. I'm gone on the weekends, back in the on the weekdays. I was just in New York. I was stuck in West Virginia for a day.
Yeah, I got family in West Virginia. Take it.
It's a great place, but not much going on. A lot of woods, a lot of oh yeah, yeah yeah.
Comedy in the Woods was the name of the show you did.
I mean, it was like a corporate event, and they were like people. They treated like Iraq. They were like, hey, thanks just for coming out here, man, we really appreciate you. Just coming out here really means a lot that you were willing to come all the.
Way out here. Can I ask a comedy insider question and you can say, I'm not answering that a few to them? Of course, do the corporate gigs pay better than the comedy clubs or do the comedy clubs pay better?
No, corporates pay the best. Corporate and colleges but college I don't even know if colleges do comedy anymore, but colleges and corporates.
Colleges are angry at comedy, and they're used to love comedy, but now they're very angry at comedy.
It's weird too, because these college kids have Netflix. They'll listen to all the edgiest comedians, but if one comes to their campus, they're like, can you believe what he said? It was all bad and terrible and sexist and racist, you know, But like they'll watch like Pete Davidson or I'll watch like, you know, celebrities on Netflix do stand up comedy, and they have no problem with it. It's very confusing.
You said it best, and Jimmy Carr has said it best. Your version was I'm sorry the way I tried to make you happy didn't work, which I love. It's just so simple, and Jimmy' says, oh, I'm sorry, And then when they go you didn't mean that, he goes, oh, so you acknowledge I can say things I don't necessarily mean. I like that, and I think those are the two They're very opposite end of the spectrums, but they're the two best ways to defend comedy, which shouldn't need to
be defended. Neither of these philosophies should have to exist.
Yeah, I don't like the way you tried to make me happy, That's what they say to me.
Yeah, that's what's the joke.
But it's also like I always think about it, like on Instagram, someone like I'll post like a video of my stand up, or yeah, I think this goes for everybody, not just me. You'll post something on Instagram.
You know.
It's like, I'm Freddie Brunce Jr. Here's you know, the thing I'm doing. And then if someone talks trash you're like, dude, I'm sorry that you're not enjoying my free content.
And I'll always get a couple of people that I'll just be like, you look old, Stay off Instagram. It's like show bro, take it easy, dude.
I didn't sell it to you, and it's not like it's not like you paid one hundred dollars something. You're disappointed with.
The product, Like, Bro, it's a miniature figurine that I painted. Take it easy, dude.
Great, exactly.
All right, let's talk some wrestling. There wasn't a ton that happened this week, but there are things that are worthy of conversation. The first and probably most important is the now defined Triple H era in wrestling. It and
it's beginning. I think you and I have and other podcasts have have spoken about how it's been sort of the Triple H era for for quite some time now, and every once in a while, Vince would kind of come in and try to undo everything in one episode a raw that nobody would like, and everybody go why that episode sucked, And then as like news comes out that he was, you know, still being involved once in
a while. That sort of confirms those beliefs. You can kind of tell on commentary when Michael Coles loose versus when he's tight. Go ahead, real quick.
You know, the recently grumpy and bittered Ronda Rousi claims that as long as Bruce Pictures is still in WWE, that means Vince will always be in it. So she was alleging that Vince is still giving stories and ideas and things to Bruce, and Bruce will be pitching them in during this triple H era. That's what she was alleging. So what do you say to that.
Well, I have no idea. I mean, you can allege anything. I could allege. Holly Holm, you know, was a better fighter than she was. But I'm not a fact jack. I'm not going to but you know she can. I think maybe she had a book or something and maybe that's why she was, you know, saying controversial things. Maybe she's trying to sell something, or maybe she just doesn't like wrestling and wants to, you know, do damage to the business and she feels it's done damage to her. Maybe I have no idea.
No what I'm saying, Like she's saying that Bruce Pritchard will forever be that link as long as Vince is alive, he'll be able to.
Even if that's true. Triple H is a really sharp guy, and if he doesn't like the idea, it's not gonna make it to TV. And I think you can see that with the type of storytelling he's done. Everything has felt very much down down the Triple H pipe and not so much down the Vince McMahon eighties and nineties pipe. It's been much or really just eighties. It's felt very different for months before WrestleMania, and hopefully we'll continue that
way because I've really enjoyed it. They've had a couple misses, but so has a dubs sure, and you know, it's the curse of live television. It's either going to go really well or it's going to die very rarely. Do you go, eh, well, let's talk about it. Triple H came out, he think the audience. He did his wrestler guy voice. His wrestler guy voice is so much cooler because he sounds tough like this. Normally he's like, hey, how you doing, and he's like, says this super nice
guy voice, but he does the tough guy voice. He introduces Cody Rhodes and Cody Rhodes is now the new face of the franchise, the face of the video game, the face of the new era. And they played a really nice video package for Cody that kind of showed his history in the company, and they even showed a little bit of Japan. They didn't show that he helped
create aew, they didn't show any of that. They still won't acknowledge them, but they did acknowledge Japan in one clip, I think, and I thought it was really nice and sweet and charming, and I thought Cody cut a really smart promo, not his best promo, but a very smart promo, and you got a taste of what you're going to get. But I'll say this, there's no story here, and there
shouldn't be. They haven't had time to start a new story yet, So I think we need to give them time and trust them since they did this last year and built it up for a year and in one case a two year, your story to now allow these new storylines to develop that I'm sure they've been working on. If this is in fact the Triple H era, what about you? Did you You're not the biggest Cody Rhodes guy. I get the feeling did you Are you liking him as Champ? Are you not buying it?
I don't know what my problem is with Cody Rhodes. I've just I feel like I pick a guy that I like and then I just like them forever, and then the guys that don't really grab my attention that much is very hard to win me over. But yeah, Cody's fine. I'm like it right in the middle on him, He's good. I like it. I you know, somebody had to beat Roman eventually, and this is the guy they picked. I will say this, speaking about the era thing, this Triple H era, Gosh, they can't shut up about it.
Uh, there's a lot of it. There's a lot of talk of trying to redefine the company. I liked it more when it was more organic and we were just seeing it. Yes, I like it more when we say it than when they say it.
Yeah, I mean like because they keep saying it. It's in the press conference, they're saying it. It's in the opening of raw they're saying it. It's like, we really get it. You know, there's a different era here. Do you think that in the past we even discussed the era that we were in.
No that's what I was I was trying to elude at the beginning of the show, as we talked about his influence and how strong it was and how much more we were enjoying the stories months ago, long before it was it was defined as it. But I guess, like, once Stephanie says it, then that's when it Yah, So it happened. It was It started on Saturday according to WWE, even though it started before that. But they do change a lot of facts in their documentaries. I was a
part of a few of them. They don't always get the right people. But yeah, so she said it on Saturday, So I guess that was the beginning, and we'll judge him from here. I thought we should have judged him from Bloodline forward for the last two years, because that was his story and that creative team story, not just not all credit goes to Hunters. They have writers working on that stuff NonStop. But yeah, man, I think it's gonna be good. Like we've already been saying, this is
a renaissance for wrestling, a rebirth of wrestling. So wrestling's already been good and I'm cool to everyone's talking about the new era, and I guess we're supposed to talk about it, but I feel like we talk about it every week because we were already down with it, were already, we already liked it.
I just wonder, do we have this change in of the era if the Vince McMahon scandal doesn't happened, you know, oh yeah, well that was the end of a chapter. Are they really just saying Vince is gone? I mean, you can call it an era all you want, but it feels like they're really just saying, hey, things are they're going to I mean inevitably going to be different, which is exciting for fans.
Yeah, I think there are one hundred percent saying that by just saying it's it's a new era. But I think that's how all eras kind of begin and end is some there has to be some vanquishing of the old guard in order for the new guard to move in. It's the same in like the fight game. The same in basketball when the young team isn't quite ready yet and get held down and the refs aren't given them the call because they're the stars, and then eventually they're
the stars and they're getting the calls. You know, it's the same in wrestling where you look at the guys that are going to be a champion. Cody was a homegrown guy. He came up in WWE. He left, but he came up during WWE. And they're always going to take better care of their homegrown guys, then they're going to take care of the outside guys, right like we saw. La Knight is a self made man. He is self made. WWE did not make La Knight. La Knight made La Knight.
He made himself, so there was no chance he was going to beat Roman Reigns for the championship. WWE will claim credit for making Cody. I feel like Cody made himself outside of WWE. I think a lot of people would agree with that. But he is a face that they can say he's one of ours, one of our guys,
like Roman was homegrown, one of ours. I think that's what and I think it's subconscious, but I think that's why AJ Styles and La Knight didn't get the story that the other all the other characters got because all the other characters were homegrown guys and those two are not, and and they got less attention. It felt like they
rocked their match. I thought their match was awesome, but I just didn't care about their reason why because it was just one dude buying a plane ticket to Australia to wreckon other dude's match, and then for the rest of that story, the dude who bought the ticket and wreck the match is the victim because the good guys doing a home invasion. Basically, oh, and this kid is in it like it was just a weird It didn't. It didn't feel like it got the tender love and
care that the other stories got. And those dudes I felt deserved deserved a better a better reason why. But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.
I will say it's a lot easier to push a guy who's been in the in wrestling forever, you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah, from footage of these guys, you know, running around as kids.
I mean, but it's not their footage, right, And WW has this weird thing where it's like if they don't own it, if they can't control it, it doesn't exist. I don't and I don't know why they insist on it, but and I could be wrong. I'm just saying it feels that way. It feels like that's why the guys that and the girls that aren't homegrown talent don't get the same love. They just don't get the same love. Does you feel that or a theory? Shit?
No, I agree with that one hundred percent. It does feel like that. But it's like if you imagine being a guy like La Night though he's going I one of my sorry that my dad didn't wrestle who, my grandpa didn't wrestle who, my mom didn't book and my aunt wasn't involved in. Sorry, I wasn't at a wrestling school, like when instead of daycare. You know, it's like you can't really do much when you just have a wrestling dream and then these guys are just like in it.
You know, if I'd have told my dad I wanted to be a pro wrestler, to be like, what the hell's wrong with you?
What do you?
Some sort of mental idiot? You know, but like the you know, if Cody Rhoades tells us dad, I want to be a pro wrestled and it'd be like, yeah, Jack, we got you. You're gonna be cool, you know, like yeah, they'll make it happen, you know. So it's just I don't know.
No, that's exactly what I'm saying though, It's just it's it's weird. I don't know how we got on that. It's my fault that we got sidetrek, but but yeah, it just felt weird, and it's been it's been stuck in my it's been like stuck in my head since since I watched the match as to why I didn't like it, and it was because of the story. And I'm like, well, why didn't I like the story? And it just it felt like they didn't give it the
same kind of care and they could have. La Knight is a frigging star and aj Styles is a walking, talking, living legend and they just deserve Anyway, let's talk some SmackDown, because a lot more happened on SmackDown. Paul Hayman, the Man, the Hall of Famer, with Sola Sokoa and Jimmy Usso they came out, they discussed WrestleMania. Roman Reigns wasn't trying to blame anyone. He was taking full accountability bloodline loss straight up. And then uh, there's a little confrontation backstage
and some talk of consequences. There's gotta be consequences for this loss. They're not able to get into the champs locker room now because they're not the champs anymore. It hurts and you can see Soeca's egos really pissed off. Later in the show, Tomatonga makes his debut. So Big Tomatanga the adopted son of Haku. We all know and love Haku. He's the friggin man. If you watch Dark Side of the Ring, he was super funny. On episode Lately,
Tomatonga made his debut and there were consequences. They beat the hell out of Jimmy Usso. They beat his ass and put a chair around his neck and smashed him in the corner. And I'm assuming this is the end of Jimmy's involvement with the Bloodline. I don't know where he could go from here. They can't damage the character and make him beg for his spot back because that weakens the Jimmy character, who's already lost the WrestleMania match.
So I think it means he's going to team back up with Jay and there can be a Tomatonga solo so CoA versus the USOS who have reunited. Jeff, what do you think about that?
I think that this will go on my long campaign of stop having the Bloodline fight inside themselves. I keep saying it every week, but it's like, why does this storyline have to be so civil war. Let's have some real wars. I'm tired of the civil war between the Bloodline. It is cool to see a new member. I was doing my little nerd research when he came out and was like, everyone was going, Oh, when he comes over,
they'll probably put him in NXT. They'll probably make this guy have to like, you know, cut his teeth a little bit before he just you know, he's not just going to be right in the bloodline right away, the Tomatonga guy. But then no, he's he's in it. He's right in the Bloodline, which I love. So I thought that was cool.
The Roman reign's reaction will be interesting because then we'll know is he in it or did Solo kind of go off and do his own thing. You've made this point before about the infighting that's going on, and I think there's something to that. Man. As long as there's infighting, they can't be dominant, and when they were dominant, the story was really really good. So there's no reason that their story needs to be done with Cody, but it
is done. So who's next for the Bloodline? That's the thing, And I guess I go back to what I say earlier. We have to give them time to come up with a new story.
Yeah, absolutely, and I hope that they do something cool with it.
I feel like the Bloodline should get a hall pass and get to skip school and not go to wrestling school, like they should be beyond that. So I hope they don't nxt any of the Bloodline and that should be a part of their story anyway. Like when guys go back and wrestles like yo, it gives them something to be a heel about, like yo, I'm better than you. Deal with that, like you're a scrub and I'm on the main show. I want to move to Wednesday night.
We're going back in time. We're going to aew Dynamite. Dynamite is not had the strongest of shows lately. This was not the strongest show either. However, Will Osprey came in. We love Will Osprey, or at least I do. I know Jeff does too.
Yeah, he's great. I mean, how could you not love him? The kid, he's a star.
Well, WW didn't love him enough and he went to AEW and he addressed in his promo this quote that hunt that Triple H had had made on I don't know what ESPN, probably some sports network thing about if you're not up for the grind of the WWE, we don't want you. And he addressed the grind in his will Osprey way, coming off like Tom Hardy and Venom, but using his real accent and steady of the American one, just coming off awesome, cool, smooth.
Took a dig, took a dig at Triple H.
But he does it in this dignified way where he says, here's a painful jab, just to let you know I heard what you said, and now you can hear what I said too. He did instigated, he responded to it, and I'm fine with people having any sort of response they want when they've been attacked or they feel they've been attacked, right.
But also, don't you think that Paul or sorry Triple H. His little jab wasn't at will Ospray as much as it was at ae W A E W will No. AW is a lighter workload, it really is, but it was why they're over there.
I think it was directly focused at will Osprey one hundred percent because he had negotiated with them and he turned them down because they offered him an NXT contract and so he's like, nah, dude, I in't about that man, Like you're not paying me seventy thousand for me to do my shit, Like my stuff's worth more than that. Yeah,
And he can make millions at AW. And so that's why the jab was made because he because Will had talked about, you know, his love for a why he chose AW in an interview, and so that's when the little you can't handle the grind. So I loved his comeback.
I love it too.
I thought it was awesome, and I think comebacks are allowed and all bets are off when somebody's gone in on you. And I really do think it was directed right.
But I don't disagree with Triple Ah. You know, when when talk to any of these old dogs who went over to WCW, you know, rest in peace, Scott Hall, but like talk to Kevin Nash, talked to Alex Luger, talked to Brett Hart, they were like, we're gonna get more money and we don't have to travel as much and we get to you know, we don't have to work as as often. That's better for our bodies, it's better for our families, it's better for our wallets. All
of that's true. But yes, it's a lighter workload, like it is just one hundred percent. In fact, they brag that it's a lighter workload. I think that, you know, he's saying, oh, yeah, he wants the lighter workload. That's his dig. But it is also like, yeah, all you aew guys have a lighter workload than what the machine is doing over at we.
By the way. Pretty soon, ww, he's going to have a lighter workload because TKO's taking away a lot of the live event. The house shows that they do, so even his guys are going to So that's another reason why I support Will and this as far as these two characters going back and forth, and I do think it's character work. Everything that said publicly is a work. He's doing that dig on purpose in character, and I think Ausprey is smart enough to know that. So all none of this is real, it's all Ever.
Renee sold it good too, you see.
She's amazing though, like she sells for everybody. Renee is awesome. She's the best announcer in the biz. She sells for everyone. She's also made I think the other talent around her better as far as the other announcers like, they engage more, they have more of a reaction to things. But I freaking love Renee. She's a good and I love that she did the ww Show with me, the Rival Show as a as a panelist and then left inside of the aw and they still had to air those episodes.
I think she's so good too, because guys like me are always going is this real? Was that real? Did this? Was that a work? Or is this real? Like I'm always wondering and hoping that things are real, even though most of them are, and Renee is really good at making me think things are real. I'm like, oh, look at her face, dude, She's so uncomfortable because this is real. It's like Renee cells like a mother.
Speaking of uncomfortable, they chose to air the cmpunk Oh yeah, and Jack Perry close caption footage.
Cringey as hell, so cringey.
Like Adam Copeland took care of it. He cut a promo the week before and said, look, man, wrestling's awesome. This is nonsense. People are shitting on people that don't need to be shipped on. We all have jobs be quiet, like just chill. And that was good. That's all we needed. It didn't need to go this far. And I I'll give him this, and I'm not even giving him this. They at least tried to wrap a story around it, but it didn't work. It didn't work at all, and
it came off so uncool, and I hate that. I hate that because I want I don't want any wrestling getting made fun of, and I don't want wrestling looking
looking bad. And that was like five minutes a time that someone else could have got over, Like you could have given someone a match, and in five minutes it's more of a squash, but you could have made somebody look great in that moment, you know what I mean, Like Wardlow could have gone out there and killed somebody, And so I just thought it was a wasted opportunity and a big swing and a miss. But they took a swing, you know what I mean.
I mean, if you want to capitalize on that backstage footage, well, because you know, like when a real little scrape happens like that backstage, which we saw like once we see in the footage, it doesn't look nearly as dramatic as what they show us every week as scripted backstage conflicts, So visually it's just not as stimulating because we're going, ah, that's it. It was nothing. It looked like absolutely nothing, and especially like nothing compared to what wrestling depicts every
single week. So it was cringey that they were like trying to, you know, make this this weird storyline. It was cringey that they even wanted to air it. If you want to capitalize on that kind of stuff, be like, look, real has entered the building of wrestling, then you got to do that the same way, same week. See them punk is there When we were all gossiping, like, let's see what happened back there, I heard that he really hit somebody, Like you've got to capitalize on it. Then if you're.
Yeah, it's here, you are crazy.
And it's like, seem must just be at home going what like why would they even do this? Like it just makes them look desperate.
You know who's sitting at home is Jack Perry because all his gears sold out. Yeah, I heard that he's sitting at home going, thank you very much. He's the one person who benefited from them.
Airing the footage, the way Jack Perry like put his hair to the side and like was speaking to see him punk like in the little footage made me go, I bet that's smart ass just said something right there that I would have punched him for too, Like the way he like looks at him like like kind of like I was like, I bet he just said a little thing right there whatever that like I'd like something.
I don't know, man, Brak, I just know that they both had enough with each other. And this is just going off what Sampunk said on Aarol Hajwani. It sounded like they both just had enough of the other's personality and the other style and philosophy on wrestling, And when you keep people like that together, it's just it's gonna
come to a head. Man. They're they're both artists, and they're both going to be hot headed and said in their ways because that's what got him to where they are, and they're not gonna If you're not willing to change and evolve, that kind of shit's gonna happen. Man. If there's not going to be an open mindedness on either side, that kind of shit's gonna happen. But I didn't think anybody got over with this. I didn't think the young bucks got over with them being attached to the story.
I didn't think the story they tried to attach to it got over. I didn't think, well, I was wrong. I didn't think Jack Perry would get over, but he got over like a mug sold out anything. I didn't think it made seampunk look good. I didn't think it makes anybody look good except Samoa Joe, who broke it up. He's the only guy that came out looking like a professional.
Oh yeah, the whole thing was pretty bad. The last time I checked, it had more dislikes on YouTube than likes.
I didn't even know they still did discy more people's Yeah, more people thumbs down.
To it than like to me.
Check. Well, I'm glad they still have the dislike thing and didn't get rid of that. I thought I've heard they were getting rid of that because it like hurt people's feelings, And I was like, oh my gosh, man, like, let people have their feelings hurt when they're young, working life out so when they're older they can deal with how rough life really is. It's so much harder than a like or a dislike the But yeah, man, at the end of the day, I really thought they shouldn't
have a veririted it. That was, like I said, it was five to seven minutes where you could have had a good match. I wonder if they regret what your company's all about.
I wonder if they regret putting it up.
I don't know, it's just one Does one person regret it? Does Tony con regredit because he's the one making these final decisions, He's the one running everything, or at least
that's how it's presented. So I just feel like I wish he had someone there that he respected, right he had he would have to respect them, who could check some of those decisions before their decisions and say, well, hold on, let's think about how this, how this looks outside of what we're going through right now, and if it doesn't benefit the business, maybe let's not do that. And then he could take a moment and be like, yeah,
I think you're right, let's let's not do that. But I don't know if that person is there to protect him he's got If he's literally doing everything, that's too much and he needs somebody there to help get his back on something, whether it's creative, whether it's social media, something he can't. He can't be the boss of everything. Man, it'll eventually cause you to suffer. We asked the audience each week to leave us reviews and we'll pick some of the best ones and we'll read them live on
the show. And we're keeping our promise. I have not read this. This is not rehearsed. So if it's a mean one, it's a mean one. Jeff, you just have to be ready, don't mind. All right, here we go. Well, no, look, I see it. It's already starting off good unless they're psyching me out. If they are, they got me.
It'll be a big swerve.
It says, good luck, Freddy. I wish you nothing but the best. You deserve it. Oh, this is a nice stead one. The way you and Jeff speak with so much passion for the business does not go unnoticed. I appreciate you very much, so does Jeff. All right to you, guys, listen, stay tuned for Unsanctioned Thursdays. That's tomorrow. We're gonna talk a little bit more about the journey for a lot
of bit actually about my journey selling the show. A lot of new things have happened, no changes, but good things have happened, and we'll get into it then on behalf of the great One. Jeff dies. Yes, I'm Freddie Prinz Junior. We'll see I'll let you guys tomorrow. This has been a production of Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.