Down The Middle Episode 62: Never Say Never

[00:00:13] Well, come everybody to Down The Middle with a surprise episode because Survivor Series was not your run of the Mill premium live event. Wow, it's all I got to say. It was simultaneously, it was simultaneously exactly what we thought like what we expected and still a surprise.

[00:00:40] And all I got to say is AEW is screwed now, not that they're going to go out of business, but like they made the wrong choice. Clearly, like just like we said, you really jack Perry who I would like to remind everyone hasn't been on television.

[00:01:02] And you know what, who's probably more mad than AEW? Well, who? Right back. Oh, I saw something on Twitter where he said that if punk comes back to wrestling that he was going to retire.

[00:01:19] But then after punk came back, he said, I'm back to AEW so yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so anyway, we as you said, we don't have a lot of time. So we're going to breeze through this card real quick. We guess thankfully, this was a manageable paper view.

[00:01:39] It wasn't too long like everything flowed really well there wasn't a bad match on the card and my conspiracy theory is I think this was a giant middle finger to AEW because you'll notice every match literally every match on this card.

[00:01:55] How to story going into it, told a story for everyone in the ring and then continues the story afterward. And then with the return of our truth, it was just a giant middle finger too.

[00:02:14] It was like I just I can't believe how well he was and you're just in playing site.

[00:02:20] Well, okay, so here's the funny thing though because I saw and I to be fair. I think it was Dave Meltzer rolling back something he said, but basically on the wrestling of server.

[00:02:32] I believe it was somebody said something is like nobody knew that punk was there was like dude the audience new punk was there. They were seeing punk chance throughout the whole night. Come on, everybody knew and that business with Rollins being mad or whatever listen guys.

[00:02:53] WWE released that footage too. That's something I could look for now. Duh. Duh. Garanty you. Monday night raw, which is going to do a killer number. Why?

[00:03:15] The only they had punk come in at the tail end of that because they didn't have a story form going in, but they know. We're all going to do a crazy rating.

[00:03:26] It's it's going to be insane, but I guarantee you punk is going to start cutting a promo and he's going to be interrupted by set of Seth Rollins and holy smokes. We have something going into the next premium live event. It's almost like this has been done before.

[00:03:42] It's almost like. WWE knows what they're doing. It's like they know how to make story lines and make it make sense. Well, again, because let's be real. About two years ago we were having the opposite conversation. So to be fair. So anyway, the first match which.

[00:04:02] They just wasn't doing a very good job at it. Well, and then let's what I another thing I want to mention real quick before we get to the card. One thing that a lot of people I don't think or at least I haven't seen.

[00:04:13] People are considering is they're like, oh, I can't believe that, you know, WWE and C and punk Barry to hatch it. Remember, WWE is owned by Endeavor now and punk always had a really good relationship with Dana White and UFC despite his record.

[00:04:27] Because he made Dana White a lot of money. A lot of money for losing her. Hey, it's your paper view, guys. That's cool.

[00:04:40] Okay, so anyway, the first match which honestly was the perfect place for you'll notice too that this paper view starts with war games and ends with war games. So, and let's we this was only five matches. Was it very big? Was it very long?

[00:05:00] But I mean, every match was allowed to breathe as a. WWE would have had a 10 match card including the pre show. Which was three match. I see I don't even have the pre show for this one, but they don't.

[00:05:14] I don't think they're really doing any free shows anymore. I did, but you know, my brother, you don't have to convince somebody to buy the paper view for a WWE. Live on that, but anyway, I digress.

[00:05:23] So we had the women's war games match consisting of Bianca Bel Air, Charlotte Flair, Shotzi and Becky Lynch. Essentially, the A-Listers of the Women's division right now versus damage control, which now I guess includes Kyri Sane who saw that coming. And Oscar, yes, that was the other, yeah.

[00:05:42] Yeah. Honestly, there was, I'll bet you money. When Jim Cornett does his review, I'm not saying it was a bad spot, but I just couldn't help the imagery. The spot where Eosky puts the trash can over herself and then jumps up the top. Jim Cornett is going

[00:06:07] to say something to the effect of it's like something along the lines of his like, well, Eo, no, she was doing a garbage spot. So she just put the icing on the cake by

[00:06:19] putting yourself in a literal fucking trash can. Not I'm not hating on the spot because I actually thought it made sense for the moment, but I just, I just know the imagery

[00:06:31] is the image of his two funny to pass up. But yeah, I mean, everything about this match, nothing bad, nothing really phony or folky or nothing terrible. Like, it was, it was a straight up match. It just everything flowed everything made sense.

[00:06:51] The whole storyline progress between all of them. I still think in the long run, I think Bailey's going to be the odd ball out. Bailey's always been the odd ball of the group. I think Bailey's going to be the one that's good. Leave damage control more than likely

[00:07:06] you have that if she's going to betray Eo sky. I think it depends on how the cards fall, but yeah, I agree with that sentiment. And then you're going to have Eo, Asuka and Kyrie form a very racist stable. But we'll see. Do what?

[00:07:22] Protokaiser or two. She's going to get, and they're not saying she should be thrown to the side, but she'll probably get like, well, I don't know. You know, they're all good. So yeah, I just by the way, the A listers won. So that was Bianca Charlotte,

[00:07:42] shots in Becky. But again, going with the theme of the night, so they acknowledged the animosity between Becky and Charlotte. And they sort of buried the hatchet at least for that match. They had a moment for that. They acknowledged Kyrie saying not being 100% in sync with Bailey,

[00:08:02] but again, they were for the match. The game says an interesting concept because matches like these alliances are necessary. So it's good that they address it, because in some survivors series of years past, sometimes they acknowledge it. Sometimes they kind of play nice for the night,

[00:08:19] but they don't really incorporated into the story. So it was nice to see that here. And then the next match, I only would have changed one thing and it wasn't during the match. He was after. This, it was Gunther defending the IC title against the Miz.

[00:08:37] This match was purely to make them as look good and it succeeded. And holy, I couldn't believe it. Miz worked a body part for the entire match. That he did. Oh my god, he worked the knee, the entire match,

[00:08:58] and gone through so many times. He didn't have to. It's almost like these guys were actually in a fight. My brain was melting. My brain's still trying to upper-hand it. Oh, my god. He was, and with the Miz hidden, is look like it actually hurt and vice versa.

[00:09:23] Oh, just, and nobody did a flip. And the place was cheering. Like this was meant to be, like it was supposed to be. This all does like it was supposed to be a fight. Oh my god. Gunther. I thought, I was watching soap opera.

[00:09:44] I mean, the only thing I would have changed because Gunther started because it was obvious to me. This matches to put Miz over without losing the IC title, which, oh my god, everybody came out of that match and winner. Gunther still has the IC title.

[00:10:00] It looks like a legitimate wrestler, which it's a shame that he has to go through these kinds of things to remind people how good he is. But the only thing I would have liked is for Gunther to have

[00:10:12] because Miz was selling it. Miz was selling that he, you know, he tapped and I love how he was holding it together and then Gunther put his knee into the small of his back. And then that's, it was instant. Like, I loved that spot. It was so good.

[00:10:27] Miz is selling it like he's actually hurt. I would have just liked for Gunther to have given him a little handshake there. Like, not necessarily reference, but like respect, kind of like Jeff Hardy in the Undertaker, sort of the aftermath of that match.

[00:10:43] Less of a good job, young buck and more like a hey man. You, because I thought they were going there because the commentators kept saying, Gunther is not expecting this. Yeah. So maybe they'll do something on Monday, but I think it just,

[00:10:56] that would have been the only thing I would have changed. I would have just given him that little moment to be like, you know, what Miz, you, you got it. You know, going back and thinking about it, you know, I actually agree with you.

[00:11:12] Because I don't know what they're going to do with Miz, but they're going to do something because they've been, they've kind of been reminding you about him and the other thing too. Guess who's going to start watching WWE television more often? Not just for punk.

[00:11:29] Because I'm now engaged. Everybody who was on that paper view card, I am now engaged in their stories again. And I'm like, okay, I need to, I need to get back on this. By the way, I'll deal with the sponsor at the end,

[00:11:40] but this podcast is brought to you by the part of your Broadway world podcast. I'll touch on them at the end because then you'll probably have to go. But the next match, another match I didn't think I was going to love Love Santos Escobar versus Dragon Lee.

[00:11:54] Is it? I like the Escobar is wrestling like a luchilebrey heel. He's not doing a ton of luchimoves and Dragon Lee is. And that is, that is luchilebrey psychology, at least in the United States. From what I've seen of luchilebrey from Mexico or even in luchia underground.

[00:12:18] It's a little different, but as far as luchilebrey here, in WWE, that's how you wrestle as a heel if you're a luchinore. You don't do luchimoves. Exactly. I virtually was supposed to be a Carlyde, and then obviously they did the whole story with the Carlyde

[00:12:37] and they don't get in hurt, so Dragon Lee took the spot. And you know, it worked perfect for Dragon Lee because if you go to bring in somebody new to the Manoroster and he's good enough, tango, why not just throw him in with the other crowd

[00:12:56] and see how good he does in front of a thousand people instead of 2000, 2000 people. Well, people in XT. Well, Dragon Lee is no stranger to big crowds. He did several wrestle kingdoms and I don't know off top of my head, but I know that he's done.

[00:13:16] He's done several big New Japan events including wrestle kingdom. And then I also know he's probably done some arena Mexico shows when he was wrestling in Mexico. But yeah, to get him on a WWE paper view, I mean Dragon Lee's good.

[00:13:30] Minus that one time he almost killed Takashi. I don't remember that, but okay. That was that I'll never forget that spot. I talked about it when Benji was still doing the show. I mentioned that spot because I saw it happen and I was like, oh,

[00:13:48] he's there's no way he's not hurt and sure enough. It was a miracle he was still alive, but it's also a miracle that he's still walking because the way he landed it all that. You can go find the video on the channel.

[00:14:00] You can search under Dragon Lee, you'll find it. But yeah, it was a great match and San Tos Eskabar Juan, which needed to happen, but Dragon Lee had a great showing. No complaints.

[00:14:12] I just it was good. I like I mean this is an example of you saw this coming a mile away with Eskabar double crossing Rey Mysterio. And yet it's still working because it's almost like the story lines make sense. See what's and next we had

[00:14:40] re-eriply defending her title against Zoe Stark, which I don't mean this disparagingly, but this was a placeholder match. They needed re-eriply to wrestle someone. Not taking any way from Zoe because I've been very impressed with her, but there was no way

[00:14:54] that re-eriply was losing to Zoe Stark. Although it was a well crafted match and Zoe took it to her. So I don't have I mean I've gotten up the bad to say about it.

[00:15:08] I'm going to be honest, I was busy at the time of this match so I didn't see any of this match. I can literally write that in like as soon as the men started. So I don't know anything about this match.

[00:15:18] I mean it was good. It was it was this sounds worse than I mean it was fine. Like there was nothing I'm not talking about in-ring but I like as far as the story they were telling

[00:15:31] it was clean cut concise. It was the equivalent of a filler episode but a good one, you know one that was fun. Because re-eripy retained and then that leads us into the main event which was the men's

[00:15:46] work games match where we had 30 roads Seth Franklin Rollins, J. Uso, Sami Zain, and Randy Orton. Now I don't know how I felt about the whole like will he be here sort of thing?

[00:15:58] Yeah. I didn't hate it but I didn't. You know, I don't know they seem to look like he was going to be their guaranteed and then the day other like, well I don't know if he's going to be

[00:16:11] the only thing I can think of is maybe they were trying because WWE has become very good at this. Everybody will not everybody knew but a lot of people thought CM Punk was going to be there so

[00:16:21] maybe they were trying to make people think that it would be punk instead of Randy just to play with people a bit. I don't know and then when Randy showed them it would have been like oh maybe punk

[00:16:29] is not going to be here and then they got the final surprise. That's the only thing I can come up with other than the fact that Randy Orton is back and it's a big deal which by the way no homo but Randy Orton was

[00:16:39] jacked. Oh my god. I mean the other guys are watching it. We stood the same thing. We see that we're like Jesus Christ. Like damn Randy like don't get me wrong. Randy's always been,

[00:16:53] you know Randy's always been pretty chiseled but I was like he had some, was it like he was bigger right? That wasn't just in my head. No he's bigger. Yeah. To be honest, CM Punk looked a little

[00:17:08] healthier too coming out. A little bit. I don't know what they're giving him at that PC but I got it and then I loved how Jade Cargo posted a picture of her and punk talking

[00:17:26] shortly after he was revealed on the paper view. I thought that was funny but as far as I'll go ahead one last thing for me before I got ahead out. After at the post conference after the show

[00:17:47] somebody brought up an ass about Jade Cargo and why we've only seen her on TV like once or twice. And in short term of what he said, he basically said that she's still green

[00:18:02] that they didn't train her the way she should have been trained and that she's not ready for TV yet. They he does not want to send her into this style of wrestling, not being prepared for how they

[00:18:20] do it. Exactly. He doesn't want to set her up to fail. What should have? Exactly what we've been saying. I mean it wasn't a surprise. We have eyes but yeah, I know you got a role but

[00:18:34] any thoughts on that match other than the fact that it was pretty damn good. I mean it was everything was supposed to be. That's yeah and that sounds like a bad thing but

[00:18:43] it wasn't because I and I liked the thread they had. I loved the moment where Randy looked like he was going to RKOJ and then he just did this but then J saved him from getting

[00:18:55] tackled. That it was so good because that acknowledges yeah and Jade's doing this whole redemption arc which is awesome because everybody is like, hey I remember what you did to me. Yeah, you know and it's it's setting it up man. So I think I'm right in my prediction.

[00:19:12] I think JU so is going to be instrumental in coding winning that belt. I think so too. And I'm totally okay with it. I really think so and I'm not JD getting thrown off the top of the cage.

[00:19:28] Loved it. Since who I'm ready to do that RKO? And then they did they teased they teased Damian priest caching in again and Randy foiled it. Well and they had that narrative thread woven into because

[00:19:49] what was it Damian said something in fact it was like just remember the plan, the real plan, blah, blah, blah, blah. So he was planning to caching you know so they didn't leave any loose ends. They didn't leave anything unexplained or hanging out there and everybody looked good.

[00:20:10] Everybody got their moment, you know, Kodi got to do the homage to his dad because dusty created wargames and he had the whole belt and then he and set that moment where it's like

[00:20:20] the you know the one night thing which I think I said this already but all the people that are saying that Seth Rollins was actually mad that punk is back. It's like come on.

[00:20:31] I did say that at the beginning. I'm not seeing his mad. I'm not seeing there's not a little bit of a sour taste but at the end of the day it's always best for business. Well you know it can take

[00:20:44] care of a sour taste real quick. An extra zero on the left side of that decimal point in your paycheck. I would love it. Yeah so I've I work with Sam I will if you pay me now if I will let

[00:20:57] Sam punk punch me in the face every single day. In the face I'd oh I'd tell. If there's enough zeros but eventually he's gonna get tired just be like do you really want this? I'm like no actually

[00:21:12] I'd really like to you know not do this but if we could just get paid to hang out that being significantly better you know but that's still drink oh no water water bro water.

[00:21:29] Oh did you Matt Riddle put on Twitter something about punk coming back in a bunch of people were coming on him it's like at least he's at least he can stay so. Oh that's so screwed.

[00:21:40] Twitter's a terrible place. I still maintain Twitter is awful. Twitter is the dumpster of the human race and I I just don't like it well buddy we will wrap it up because I know you only have like two

[00:21:51] minutes but and he final thoughts on that and then as you leave I'll tell people about the sponsor and then we'll get out of here. I know I had no final thoughts like it was an out of tin.

[00:22:05] I would I had to give it a solid I'd give it a solid seven. Oh really I was gonna say like 8 or 8.5 and only because like the elders why you say that is because like the matches was like oh wow yeah that's that's just

[00:22:27] it. But the only wow to see in punk like we knew Randy was what be there. Yeah and art truth as much as we like to kid. I mean it's not I like art truth being on the TV but it's not a it's not a

[00:22:45] channel turner I guess but I'd say that's why it may be maybe yeah I was gonna say 8.8 and a half just because it's just like you said it was technically there was nothing wrong with it but

[00:22:58] there was no like it wasn't rock versus hogan it wasn't rock versus Austin it wasn't punk versus seen at money the bank there was no moment that was like oh my god except punk coming

[00:23:10] back which everybody kind of half expected but yeah so that was that was survivor series war games war games all right buddy take it easy I will tell everybody about the sponsor and then we will get on out of

[00:23:26] there. Yeah yeah all right everybody now that we're alone I didn't need time during this podcast did your girlfriend wife significant other try to stop you from enjoying the awesomeness that is

[00:23:43] down the middle well I've got a solution for you tell them about the part of your Broadway world podcast and then they can watch your your girlfriend or wife can watch that while you watch down the

[00:23:56] middle or your wrestling and I mean it it's Disney and Broadway so I guess it would technically work for boyfriends too depending upon your sexual persuasion no judgment here hey what you do you

[00:24:08] but part of your Broadway world podcast part of the RTA podcast network and we are pleased to welcome a little announcement we are pleased to welcome the goose bumps crew to the RTA podcast

[00:24:20] network they just joined up they did their first episode on YouTube last week and it will be up on the website shortly as well as other exciting podcasts that are coming your way soon and for all

[00:24:31] you excuse me for all you table top gamers out there we are looking for dungeons and dragons players to take part in our live dungeons and dragons podcast where we are essentially going to show a campaign

[00:24:51] play out but not just the normal way you think we are going to have actors for NPCs full make up and everything the dungeon master is a professional actor and the winner the winner as I should

[00:25:05] say those that survived the campaign split the grand prize of $5,000 if all of you survive you split it which amongst yourselves if there's only one survivor you get all $5,000 so be wary of back

[00:25:22] stepping but we need people who can commit to playing dungeons and dragons for the chance to win $5,000 so if you do reach out to me Jake at rtmedia.org that's jakie at a r ethe media dot org let me know

[00:25:41] and I will send your details to virus box the gentleman who is orchestrating the game hopefully we will see you there this has been down the little hope you guys had fun i know this

[00:25:51] was a little short one but we couldn't not talk about survivor series so hope you enjoyed that too and you will see us not this coming Sunday but the next Sunday back to our regular schedule

[00:26:05] was some more wrestling i don't know why I did the albore and the thing that was weird now it's even weird because i'm talking about it there's no way out of it is there that was a mistake