Arete AI Analysis Podcast: Wrestlemania 41 Predictions from Down The Middle

[00:00:00] This podcast is brought to you by The Final Frontier Podcast. Welcome back to the AI Analysis Podcast. It's Wrestlemania weekend, so we're taking a look at the Pro Wrestling Podcast down the middle. In their most recent episode, they make their predictions for what will happen at the Showcase of the Immortals. That's right, Episode 94. They went through the whole card both nights. It's going to be interesting to see how their takes line up with what actually happens. Definitely. Okay, so, Night 1.

[00:00:29] They started with what they figured might be the opener. Gunther vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight title. Uh-huh, and one of the hosts, he called himself a championship purist, you know? Right, felt it should main event. Exactly. But he got why Jey's entrance would be huge to kick things off. So, prediction-wise... They both landed on Jey Uso winning. Okay, why? Well, main things were, get the crowd hyped immediately, you know? Like, Triple H apparently wants no dead spots in the crowd. Makes sense, yeah.

[00:00:59] And merchandise. Jey Uso's stuff is probably selling well. Ah, the business side. But do they agree on why Jey should win, like, story-wise? That's where it got interesting. One host felt Jey deserved it, put the time in, the whole storyline. Okay. But the other guy leaned more towards Gunther, said, Gunther's improved so much as a singles guy, wrestler vs. wrestler, he kinda deserved it more, considering Jey's background is mostly tag teams. Hmm, that's a fair point. Wrestling skill vs. story reward.

[00:01:28] Yeah. And they mentioned the story inconsistencies, too. Like, Jimmy Uso's blood moment just led to talking. Right. Kinda fizzled. One idea floated was, maybe it's just time to give Gunther a break after that long reign. Could be. And putting it early helps the crowd flow for a long night. Exactly. Logical placement. Alright, next up. Tag titles. War Raiders vs. The New Day. And one host was really happy they're calling them War Raiders again.

[00:01:54] Oh, yeah. Back to the ROH roots kinda war machine. Right. Instead of Viking experience or just Raiders. Hmm. So who did they pick? They went with New Day winning. Reasoning. Seemed like WWE is trying to do something with this New Day version, so putting belts on them makes sense. A loss would just make them feel like, well, losers again. Yeah, that tracks. But they also talked about the tag division generally. Oh, yeah. They felt it was pretty weak overall right now. Even mentioned the Motor City machine guns just disappearing.

[00:02:24] Hmm. That led to a bit of a tangent, didn't it? It did. Briefly touched on Josh Alexander going to AEW and showing up on Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. Oh, right. That Canadian indie with the surprisingly good production. Free on YouTube. That's the one. AEW. TNA talent popping up there. Shows how connected the scene is, you know. Definitely. Okay, back to night one predictions. Rhea Mysterio vs. Chad Gable. Yeah, they were pretty skeptical about that one. Like, is it really Gable?

[00:02:52] The height difference? The boots? They questioned it. And basically asked why this is even a WrestleMania match. Called it more like cosplay. So, prediction. Did they think Rey wins and unmasks him? One initially thought that, yeah. But the other predicted Rey loses. Pointed out Rey's been taking some losses lately, so maybe it leads someone interesting. Or Rey loss would be... unexpected. For sure. Makes it more than just a gag match, potentially. Okay, then the grudge match. Jade Cargill vs. Naomi.

[00:03:22] Here, they were totally aligned. Both said Naomi has to win. Has to? Why? For the story to mean anything, really. And for Naomi to get another shot at a title down the line and actually look good doing it. They liked Naomi's recent heel work. Yeah, thought she showed a good edge. And mentioned Jade's getting better on the mic too, more comfortable. So if Naomi wins, where does she go? That was part of the discussion. Or, if Jade wins, Naomi just keeps chasing her. One host even threw out a potential future triple threat with Bianca Belair.

[00:03:51] Interesting. Though some fans probably wanted Bianca vs. Jade straight up. They acknowledged that too. But the prediction was, Naomi wins, probably by cheating somehow. So Jade saves face. Exactly. Protects Jade's aura. Classic booking. Makes sense. U.S. title match. LA Knight defending against Jacob Fatu. Uh huh. One host started out saying they didn't really care who won. Why not? Felt like whoever loses just gets kind of lost in the shuffle. And they mentioned LA Knight maybe wasn't quite as hot as he was a year or two back.

[00:04:21] Fair point. Did they talk about Owens being injured? Yeah. Wondered if this match got changed because of that. And maybe Randy Orton and the bloodline get involved somehow. And Fatu's character, heel but acts like a face. Right. That weird dynamic. So did the prediction change? Yeah. One host switched to LA Knight winning. Had this whole scenario worked out. Like, Solo interferes. Then Orton comes out, takes out Solo and Jacob. LA Knight steals the pin. And it drives a wedge between Solo and Jacob. Wow. That's specific.

[00:04:50] What did the other hosts say? Still stuck with Jacob Fatu winning. Shows how complex predicting this stuff can be. Totally. Okay. WWE Women's Championship. Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair. Hmm. This one had some opinions. Oh yeah. They brought up Charlotte's divorce, her appearance. One host was kind of questioning if she was mentally okay to be wrestling. Hmm. That's getting personal. What about the match itself? Split again. One thought it was designed to elevate Tiffany.

[00:05:18] The other figured it was all about getting Charlotte that 16th title win. You know, breaking her dad's record. And record chase. They mentioned the social media stuff. With Kaiser. Yeah. Called it cringe. And then they wondered if maybe Tiffany and Charlotte actually don't like each other in real life. Similar personalities. Competitive. Athletic. That meta stuff. Interesting. But one host was pretty firm. Felt Charlotte shouldn't be wrestling right now. So the final prediction. One hoped Tiffany would win but predicted Charlotte. Charlotte. Thinking maybe she was promised something for coming back.

[00:05:48] The other lean Tiffany. Thinking Charlotte might actually need more time off. So kind of split based on Charlotte's situation. Gotcha. Alright. The big one for night one. Roman Reigns. CM Punk. Seth Rollins. Big triple threat. One host felt it really should have just been Roman versus punk with Seth kind of there. But the theory started flying right? Oh yeah. One idea. Seth's pulling some architect crap trying to win over Paul Heyman. Alright. Then a wilder one.

[00:06:16] Heyman turns on both Roman and punk and aligns with a returning Brock Lesnar. Woah. Brock. Yeah. Another theory. Paul and Seth team up. Paul double crosses Roman and punk to help Seth win. Ditching the whole clown Lady Gaga cosplay look and going back to being the architect. Revitalizing Seth. That's a thought. They talked about how Roman doesn't really need Paul anymore. Punk doesn't either. And Seth's just in this weird limbo state. Did they touch on Brock's actual status? Briefly. Said he's not technically persona non grata.

[00:06:46] Led to a joke about Pat McAfee yelling, oh shit, if Brock's music hit. Huh. Any other wild predictions? Just a quick one about Vince McMahon showing up as the real final boss. You know, just throwing stuff out there. Right. So bottom line, who wins? One predicted Seth Rollins. The other picked CM Punk. Why punk? Basically felt the whole match exists just to give Punk his WrestleMania main event moment, even if it should have been a singles match for the title. But the Seth double cross could make it better, add some layers.

[00:07:16] Hmm. Lots of possibilities there. Wrestling booking is fun, isn't it? Definitely keeps you guessing. Okay. That wraps up there, night one thoughts. Quite a ride. Yeah. It gives you a lot to chew on before the show. Absolutely. We need to cover night two as well, but let's take a quick break. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor. The final frontier podcast. These are the voyages of Jake Boger and Justin spur our weekly mission to explore memories

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[00:08:42] And we're back. Let's dive straight into the night two predictions from the down the middle podcast. They talked about Damien Priest versus Drew McIntyre in the Sin City street fight a bit later, but let's get to it now. Yeah, they weren't exactly thrilled about this one. One host basically called it a two man stadium stampede match and a bathroom break. Ouch. Pretty much. Neither really cared who won. One kind of wanted Drew, the other figure Damien. They joked about them having a weird bromance or Drew giving him a wedgie. Classy.

[00:09:12] Do they have any actual ideas for them? One interesting pitch was maybe they become a tag team afterwards like top heels to go against New Day. Huh. That's actually not terrible. Turns a potential dud into something maybe. Okay. What do they have as the night two opener? The WWE Women's World Championship. IYO SKY defending against Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. And the prediction. One host was pretty sure Bianca takes it. Even asked like why else did she win the elimination chamber?

[00:09:41] Good question. They recapped how this match came about. Yeah. Rhea looking back at Bianca getting distracted. IYO pinning her. The theory is Bianca wins here. Then Rhea feuds with her saying Bianca cost you the title. It was a fluke, etc. Does Rhea need that feud? One host actually felt Rhea's momentum had cooled off a bit. Hoped a Bianca feud could heat her back up. And looking even further ahead. Yeah. Maybe Jade and Naomi get involved eventually leading to Jade beating Bianca for the title and facing Rhea down the line. A whole road map.

[00:10:10] But for this match, what about IYO? Both hosts basically agreed she's getting overlooked and will probably lose. One said they'd be shocked if she retained cleanly. So the consensus pick is? Bianca Belair. Alright. Women's tag titles next. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs Bayley and Lyra Valkyria. Yeah, that team up surprised them too. Especially since Lyra is also the IC champ. So what's the angle? Theory is it's building to Bayley vs Lyra for the IC title.

[00:10:38] Compared it to Cena and Michaels winning tag belts before their Mania match. Okay, so do Bayley and Lyra win the tag titles first? One host thinks yes. Win the belts, defend a few times. Then Bayley turns on Lyra, sets up SummerSlam for the IC title. And the other host. Thought Liv and Raquel retain and Bayley vs Lyra just becomes its own feud separately. But still, some optimism for the Bayley-Lyra pairing. Lots of moving parts there. Next, AJ Styles vs Logan Paul. One host really wants Logan Paul to take a clean loss.

[00:11:08] Likes him as a wrestler, dislikes the persona. Things he's due? Yeah. One host joked if AJ loses, maybe he joins the Ministry of Darkness. Ah, nice callback. Any other AJ talk? Mentioned an old Samoa Joe story about AJ laughing at him early on. Said people should check out their old TNA matches. Good call. So, AJ or Logan? One felt AJ has to win. The other worried this AJ might be winding down his career, but hoped a win could change that perception. They talked about AJ's booking.

[00:11:36] Yeah, how WWE uses him inconsistently. Pointed to the long feud with Makamura that kinda went nowhere. True. Final prediction. AJ Styles wins. Unless Logan cheats. So, hedging a bit. Okay. Intercontinental Championship. Braun Breaker defending against Penta. Finn Balor and Dominic Mysterio in a fatal four-way. Ooh, this one got a strong reaction. One host hated the lineup. Why? Felt the challengers just didn't belong there. Finn Balor! Where the hell has he been?

[00:12:04] Finn, just a Judgment Day jobber lately. And Dominic. Why the hell is he here? Same thing, jobber for Judgment Day. But corrected to Dom, still questioning why he or Penta would be in it, given Penta's short time there and recent loss to Kaiser, made no sense to them. So, Braun retains. That host felt he should. But if someone else wins, they thought maybe Dominic should win by screwing Finn over, leading to Dom leaving Judgment Day. What was the final prediction then? Split again. One picked Finn Balor for some reason maybe to split Judgment Day,

[00:12:34] the other thought Dominic wins. Just kind of messy. Seems like it. Okay, the main event of night two, according to them. Cody Rhodes versus John Cena for the Undisputed title. And right away one host noted Cena hasn't been on Raw or SmackDown lately. Leading to? A prediction of a big Cena return at Mania. New look, new entrance, signals he's sticking around, and wins the title. Becomes John Cena, Undisputed champ. Wins the title. How?

[00:13:00] Theory involved the Rock interfering to help Cena win and break the record. Rock helped Cena beat Cody. Wow. Yeah, then they mapped out this whole thing where Cena holds the belt, wants Cody, Rock keeps them apart, Cody earns another shot, Cena tells Rock I want to beat him, leading to a Rock Hogan style moment. That's elaborate. Yeah. Was the other host buying it? Sounded a bit skeptical of all the details. Any other evidence for Cena winning? Pointed out, Kurti wasn't advertised for the Raw after Mania. Suggests he might not be champ. So, both predicts Cena wins.

[00:13:29] Yep, both landed on John Cena winning, possibly with the Rock showing up. Then they briefly went off topic about Triple H and his movie, The Chaperone, random. Okay, well that covers their WrestleMania predictions. Some pretty bold calls in there. Definitely. A lot of swerves predicted, some controversial outcomes. It really shows how wide open things feel, or at least how they perceive them. So, for everyone listening, thinking about these down the middle predictions, which one are you most curious about?

[00:13:58] Which one do you really hope happens, or really hope doesn't happen? Yeah, and maybe think about why. What is your gut feeling about, say, the main events, or the women's title matches, tell you about how you see wrestling storytelling working right now? It's a good way to frame your own viewing experience this weekend. Maybe do your own analysis, check out down the middle, or even that Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling they mentioned for different flavors of wrestling talk. Absolutely. Because prediction is one thing, reality is another.

[00:14:28] And, you know, we'll be back soon to talk about what actually went down at WrestleMania. See how these forecasts held up. How's it going everybody? It's Jake from the Down the Middle Podcast, and I'm going to take a quick moment to invite you to check out our show, which airs every other Thursday at 8.30pm on YouTube. If you love pro wrestling, you're definitely going to want to check this out. We talk about the latest in pro wrestling. AEW's pay-per-views are rough, man. And it's obvious, like, Tony Khan is booking for Tony Khan,

[00:14:56] and it's obvious because Tony Khan has clinical, freaking ADHD. But the kind where, like, you can hyper-focus on the thing you love, and he's like, I legitimately want to watch wrestling for seven hours. It's like Tony. Not everybody else does. Hardly anybody else does. We talk about some of our favorite things in pro wrestling. One of the best promos ever. Like, can we just say, like, I had f***ing goosebumps. And here's the thing.

[00:15:23] I know f***s a work, but I'm watching that and I'm like, I think MJF might have duped somebody. And we have a hot take here and there too. Nothing against Riho. It's just like, do you think the audience is f***ing stupid? Riho weighs 98 pounds. The vast majority of great moments in professional wrestling have nothing to do with the move. Don't get me wrong. The moves are part of it. Cena's like, I don't even remember how I want. Everybody remembers this.

[00:15:54] But the best part about our show is that you are part of the conversation. So check out the show and join in the fun. The channel is 120. We've got the good news. I love you too. To be the one on the öğreties.