Down The Middle Episode 93: The Road to Wrestlemania 41

[00:00:14] Welcome everybody to Down The Middle, and there's the notification. I was gonna say you should be seeing and hearing us. I hope so. Yep. And I just want to let you guys... First of all, tonight's podcast is brought to you by Casa de la Zissa Musica Collegium, say that fast four times.

[00:00:37] And our sister show, well brother show, one of the other shows on the network, The Complete Guide to Happiness with Dr. Fantastic. We will talk about both of those later, but tonight, it's not a preview of Wrestlemania, because that's the next show. Yeah. But tonight, we're taking a look at what's gotten us here, so to speak. Yeah, pretty much. The storylines, the matches, that's pretty much going to be set up for Mania.

[00:01:10] I'm not sure they announced all the matches. I'm not too sure. And your audio is all good, so yes, we can talk to our heart's content. We can.

[00:01:27] Yeah, that's another reason why we're not doing our preview, per se, is because, you know, like I said, like Hakim said, they probably haven't announced all the matches, but we can at least take a look at what's gotten us here. Yeah, yeah. And at least I think the majority of them are listed. At least what, four or five, I think? The big ones, I would think, because... Yeah, yeah, uh-huh.

[00:01:58] Sorry, I'm pulling up the card so we don't miss anything. Yeah. But yeah, the sort of obvious ones have already been announced, and if anything, my only complaint is some of them haven't had enough time. Yeah. I think. And then the other thing is, I'm right smack dab. I don't know if you're familiar with him. He's another YouTuber.

[00:02:20] But his channel name is Super Eyepatch Wolf, and he makes these just killer long form... I don't really... they're not really documentaries, they're retrospectives. They, like, go through the long-term storytelling in wrestling. And I discovered him a couple years ago because he did a sort of retrospective on Kenny Omega. Okay. And...

[00:02:44] And he did... it was really good, and he really touches on, like, the more... like, the emotional pathos of the storylines. And he just uploaded one recently that's a revisit to... kind of a combination of his Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes video and just kind of videos and kind of bringing them up to date entitled Finish This Story. Bro. Like, WWE needs to hire this dude.

[00:03:11] I see one guy, I'm not sure it's the same guy, but he did one on, like, Finn Balor. Yes, he did. Like, he showed, like, all of his, like, matches in New Japan, because, like, and also, like, AJ, the Bullet Club, all that stuff. So I think... because there's another guy who does wrestling with Andrew, I think. He does, like, legit documentaries. Those are also really good, but that's more of a history lesson.

[00:03:40] Whereas this one is going through... it's... his videos are great if you're trying to explain pro wrestling to somebody, but you just can't seem to communicate why it's art and why it's good storytelling and why it's kick-ass TV. And it's because... this is like a two and a half hour video, but it spans... if you count the Dusty section beforehand, it probably spans about seven years worth of storylines. Oh, okay. Well...

[00:04:08] And when you... sorry, when you put it together in kind of, like, more of a narrative structure, and you don't go through the day-by-day, because sometimes, as a wrestling fan, it's easy to forget, because you're seeing the week-to-week. Sometimes it's easy to forget that these storylines are going on for sometimes years at a time.

[00:04:29] Yeah. Also, like, the history, I would say, of, like, some people. Like, sometimes you forget how many matches they had between them, like, beforehand, you know? Exactly. And then when you see it like this, you... Yeah. And, like, sometimes they'll be like, oh, yeah, that's true. He did do that. You know? I didn't even notice that at the time. Mm-hmm.

[00:04:54] But, yeah. So, that's really... like I said, it's very good so far, but it's... I'm kind of smack dab in the middle of it, so I've... they're really good to listen to while you drive. Don't watch them, but listen to them while you drive. Thank you. I do it a lot. Don't run off the road, yeah. And hopefully you listen to this podcast. But speaking of, come on, guys. If you're watching this and you haven't subscribed yet, we're at 429. Get us to 430. Come on. It's been at 429 for, like, a week. Come on. Just hit the subscribe button already.

[00:05:25] Just one more. I mean, still subscribe if it's at 430 and you're watching this, but you know what I mean? Just help a brother out. Help a brother out. I'm going to make another... I don't think this one's particularly bold prediction, but another potential hot take for somebody out there. I think this WrestleMania is going to be one of the best in recent history. Dare I...

[00:05:55] Well, no, I... Actually... Really? Yeah, yeah. I don't think it's going to be the worst one, but I think it's going to be, like, uh... Oh, there's too many triple threats that makes no sense for no reason. There's too many... Okay, that's valid. That's valid. You know. Okay, that's valid as a whole show, but I think... Yeah, it's... I don't know. Well, and part of the... I figured this out today, actually.

[00:06:22] One of the reasons I have hot takes in wrestling is because I tend to focus on the highlights. Uh-huh. So, for example... Well, the first double or nothing's a bad example. There are more than a few pay-per-views or even episodes of the weekly television show are probably a better example of this, where, like, one really good match, and I'm like, oh, that was a great episode. But then if you actually look at the card, it's kind of like... Yeah, I totally get what you mean.

[00:06:51] Yeah, it's not bad, but you remember... It can overshadow everything, because it can be... Okay, that's the only I focus on, that one good match. Right, exactly. The whole... Let's see, you know, the whole match is all in there. All of them. Exactly. And I have to apologize to the fans this week, because I'm a little... I'm not super behind, but I'm a little behind on the goings-on. But I know enough, basically, to know what's going on.

[00:07:18] But for the next show, I promise I'll be up to date and I'll be able to talk about everything. I haven't seen NXT yet, but I heard it was pretty good. I've seen highlights of it, but I haven't actually watched it myself. The last... Most of them are wrong. The last episode of NXT that I watched was actually surprisingly good. Mm-hmm. I was very impressed, because...

[00:07:41] Not that NXT has sucked, but it has the problem of if you haven't been watching, it's kind of hard to get into, because you don't know who these people are. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Like, even... I will say this. Even... I know, like, some of the people, but the matches and the chemistry between them were good, so I enjoy it still, no matter what. But sometimes it's not like that every week. You know, like, some weeks are more of a drag.

[00:08:08] Right, but I always showcase... Like, you only need a little bit to get in the door, because I always talk about how... Mm-hmm. Pretty much what got me back into watching WWE was NXT TakeOver Fatal 4-Way. Okay. Because I didn't know... The only person I knew was Tyson Kidd. And I was kind of... I wasn't, like, a huge fan. I am now, because I know more about him. But at the time, I was just kind of like... I'm here. I was like, oh, what's this mid-card guy doing here, you know?

[00:08:39] Completely, yeah, yeah. I got to... Like, saw him, like, later on. Honestly, like, the last year of his career, that's when I really liked him. That was cut short, unfortunately. I liked him in NXT, and then when he was tagging with Cesaro, I was like, oh, okay. I get it. That's where I liked it. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. I totally... I totally... I totally get what they're... Which I think... I think what sealed his fate was his name. Tyson Kidd. Yeah, yeah. That's...

[00:09:09] They should have changed that. It's not a... Yeah, yeah, I agree. It's not a good name. I think that sealed his fate, because he was great. Yeah, because... It makes you think it's only one more kid. Dynamite Kid. Which is probably... To be fair, that's probably why they did it. Yeah. But see, there's Dynamite Kid, and then there's one, two, three... Two different kids. Which is funny. I didn't even think about that until now. That's probably why it was Tyson Kidd was an homage to the...

[00:09:39] Which I don't think it was related to the Dynamite Kid, but I know that he... Yeah. Praying with the hearts, so it might have been a... Yeah. Homash. Homash thing. But anyway... Tyson Hart would have been better, but... That would have been really cool, but... Yeah, I get it. That would have been good. Which, technically, he was a knight heart, but... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heart... What's a heart between friends? Anyway. But yeah, so anyway... But I always talk about that because...

[00:10:07] The opening match, which I don't even remember what the match was now, but it was good enough to keep my attention. And every match on that show was honestly really good, and it was enough to invest me. And then I'm like, oh, I gotta watch this show. Because now... I started knowing one person and now being a fan of like six or seven people. So now I gotta keep watching this. And that's how they hook you in, right? Yeah, so... Pretty much. Now that makes me think.

[00:10:34] I'm trying to remember my first Lucha Underground that made me go, oh, wow. And I... See, the funny thing is, I don't think it was Penta. I think it was actually a match between... I want to say... No, Prince Puma. I can't remember. I think King Cuerno was involved. But it was... But again, it was a case of like, I don't know who any of these people are. Yeah. Like, the first match I saw was this giant guy. I still know who he was. Like, I think he was Mexican, but he was like, maybe six, seven.

[00:11:04] He was really big and tall. Lucha Underground. Yeah, like... And that was like the first match I saw. I was like, wow. I'll look it up. The only one I can think of would be Tejano. He's a pretty big dude. Maybe. He looked huge. Did he have a bull rope? Did he carry around a bull rope? No, no. He was like dressed in like...

[00:11:34] Like an Indian garment almost. Kind of. Like more native. Huh. For the Incas and stuff like that. Oh, I'm not sure. Yeah, I'd be interested. Look at that where. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I was just drawn into it. And Lucha Underground is incredible too because they were able to like just put so many people over with virtually no previous exposure.

[00:12:03] And solid, solid TV. But anyway, we're talking about WrestleMania, which I swear. WWE, complete 180. Back in 2019, I never thought I'd hear myself saying that like, wow, WWE is really kicking the crap out of AEW. Although, I saw something today on the internet. Unverified, of course. But apparently, and if this is correct, and it means I was right.

[00:12:30] Is apparently AEW is pulling in about half a million people on Macs. Your mic's cutting out, I think. Oh, it is? Really? Oh, just short bursts. Like, it just cut out there real quick. It was weird. So, but what that would mean is like, even with an average weekly TV for Dynamite, obviously, this is what we're talking about.

[00:12:52] Even if their weekly TV average is half a million, that means their overall viewership is over, is a million or plus. Which I kind of predicted would happen, because I think part of the problem AEW has always had is you can only watch it on TNT, TBS, depending on what year you were watching. And a lot of people just don't have cable. Now, there's no denying that their ratings went down, but it makes you wonder that if they had paired it with Macs from the start.

[00:13:21] Or at least a little bit more than it is now. Well, and it's also no secret that I think I'm going to make a wager that the average AEW viewer is younger than the average. Well, I need to word that properly. I think it's far more likely because, yeah, a lot of WWE viewers would be younger, but their parents would be older.

[00:13:45] So what I'm getting at is I think the average AEW viewer is more tech forward, meaning they're probably more likely to have cut their cable bill at some point in the probably before AEW was airing. I think there was probably a lot of people pirating it online just because they didn't have cable. Yeah, I kind of believe like I would say they would have less families almost in the crowds.

[00:14:12] It was more like people in their maybe mid-20s, late-30s, some-40s, but there was more like less family type. Yeah, people more likely to not have a cable or television package. Yeah, yeah, like people who just scream everything or just does YouTube, you know, watch everything. Yeah, exactly. So I kind of figured that when they finally migrated, I want to know whose decision that was because they should be fired, even if it was Tony Khan.

[00:14:42] Although I think Tony was probably fighting to get on Max from the beginning because... Yeah, I think so. Well, I mean, it only makes his company look better because now all of a sudden instead of 500 to 600,000, now they're pulling in a million and he can make the case. It's like it's probably always been like this just because of our target demographic being more internet savvy. But still, the average raw rating now is like 3 million viewers. So...

[00:15:10] Yeah, it did lose a few people. Which I don't... I find that really odd considering... I want to know what they're measuring because... I think it's still 3 million in the US because that's not too far off from what they were doing on TV. Yeah, I think it was 3 million globally, not just... See, I don't... That doesn't make sense to me because they were already at like 2.5 million when the TV wasn't as good. And that was just US.

[00:15:40] Like, I'm sorry, dude. Raws lately have just been like... You can't miss it just because somebody's going to talk. Which we might as well start there because that's what everybody wants to talk about is what they're doing with John Cena and Cody. And man... The... Oh yeah, I see. Yeah. It's like 30 minutes of just talking. But the thing... The last time I paid this kind of... Well, actually, that's not true. I paid it...

[00:16:09] I paid it a compliment once before. But the last time I paid an unexpected compliment was the CM Punk MJF promo on Thanksgiving a couple years ago in AEW where I was talking about how... Oh yeah, yeah. 30 minutes of television. Through commercial breaks. 30 minutes. And first of all, didn't feel like 30 minutes. Felt like five. And you couldn't look away. And that's what this last...

[00:16:36] Well, that's what the Cody and Cena promos have been. This last one in particular, which I saw some people dubbing it the 8 Mile promo because Cody was basically Eminem. But... Uh-huh. Yeah, I did like... Lenny's like, oh, what else? I've got an arm tattoo, but it's on my neck. Oh yeah, yeah, I did. No, yeah. Yeah, he was like... Some of you may not know, but I have a little bit of a list. And then how we... And then...

[00:17:05] But how we transition that into Stardust. And be like, and I think... And I think that's why you're so angry, Jon. Because your last WrestleMania is gonna be against Stardust. Stardust. That would be... Honestly, it would only make me a sigh if he came out as Stardust. That's it. I do... Oh God, I would hate that so much. But I do like how Cody will occasionally...

[00:17:33] I do like how Cody will occasionally bring out the taunt to just kind of rub their face in it. It's like, yeah, you're wrestling Stardust and losing, by the way. But man, these promos... The only complaint I have about this is... And I think they can still salvage this. But like, we haven't gotten enough of Heal Cena. And I'm hoping... That this is the first step of a longer story.

[00:18:02] But... Honestly, it's maybe a little too late. Like, they got about... What, one more show? Before Mania? That's what I'm saying. That's why I'm hoping... I'm hoping this is a stepping stone. So... Yeah, hopefully. Because if it just ends, that's gonna be so just... As Jim Cornette would say, it's gonna be such a popcorn fart. Because... What have we got in like three weeks? Of this? Yeah, pretty much. Like, I think it's been like three or four weeks.

[00:18:33] No, like almost like two weeks, isn't it? I think it's almost like two weeks. April. I think it's a... Yeah, yeah. Two to three weeks of Heal John Cena on television. And it's like, this isn't nearly enough. Yeah, honestly for me, he didn't do much. Just stand there. Like, it was okay. But it was just... I look forward more to the match than what's showing now. But hopefully it'll be better now. Or hopefully it'll last a little longer. Well, I think the match will be good. But I'm thinking...

[00:19:02] And I'm hoping... That Cena wins the title. With some interference from The Rock. So Cody can save some face. Although... Actually, yeah. Because that just feels so dusty in the best way. And... I want Cena to hold the title for at least a year. Like, I'm not joking. I don't know. Well, he could do that. He'd be like, I'm a real heel. I'm not going to retire. You know.

[00:19:30] He could do like the Mark Henry thing. You know. Well, it's not even... He does retire. You know. Well, and what they could do... And the thing is, they did something similar with Roman's whole story. So I know they can do it. Is Cena's going to win his 17th title reign, right? His 17th world champion. He beat Ric Flair's record. But he did it with help. From The Rock. Now, maybe Cena could have done it.

[00:19:59] But he doesn't know that. Per se. But instead of... Because babyface Cena would have just been like, you know what? No. That's not good enough for me. I need to face you again, Cody. At the pay-per-view in two and a half, three weeks. Right? Yeah. I need to know that I'm the better man. Heel Cena's going to take it. Because... And John is doing such a great job with his facials. He's conveying so much when he's not talking.

[00:20:30] Or at least what I'm picking up on is there's doubt there. He's legitimately mad. I get that. But there's this lingering thing that seems like maybe I don't still have it. That's what I'm picking up on. I like that he seemed like he was not necessarily proud of Cody. But Kyle was like, oh yeah, that's one. You know, like, you got me. Kind of. In certain... The promo he did last.

[00:21:01] Yeah. So... It might be a worthy adversary thing. But what I want them to do is that Cena spends a year just trying to prove that he's got it. And like, yeah, he'll win. He'll retain the title. But not against Cody. There's always going to be... Like, The Rock's going to keep him apart somehow. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then finally, I want this to come to a head where John not begs him, but John is basically like, Rock, I need...

[00:21:30] I need Cody. I need to have this match. And then when The Rock tries to interfere again at next year's WrestleMania, then Cena turns face again, lays him out. Cody wins, and Cena retires and rides into the sunset. Having lost, but... You know... I think you gotta do that. Like, for the story.

[00:21:55] Provided Cena can, which there doesn't seem to be any indication that there's any underlying in-career health problems, so... Mm-hmm. Yeah, honestly, I was shocked somewhat to say that he was going to retire. You know, like, I didn't think he was going to stay. I thought he was going to, like, be part-time every now and then. Right, and that's... Like, I'm... And I'm starting to think this was all just a giant setup in the best way possible. Because I want to be swerved.

[00:22:25] In a way, yes and no. I feel bad for people who are, like, buying tickets for this, like, go-away tour. And it's, like, just to sell tickets and t-shirts. That's what Cornette says. That's the real hill. Well, no, he said... He said, well, the only... Because they were talking about that, like, is this going to be a drawn-out story? And then he just goes, well... Like, yeah, except for... You know, the people in Dayton, Ohio, who bought the shirt that said, last time ever farewell tour.

[00:22:54] And then he comes around the next year. And he's like, but... Oh, my God. That's a good heel move. It's a good heel move. Yeah. Yeah. Solid heel move. But, I mean... Because, see, for me, pro wrestling, it's about the story. And I really want the story. Yeah, I get it. The story is, to me, always more important than wrestling.

[00:23:23] I mean, the wrestling helps. The wrestling is good, but... Yeah. The wrestling helps, which is so weird, because you watch Japanese wrestling, and the bulk of the story takes place in the ring. But it's a totally different style. And I get it. Yeah, yeah. Different style, different audience. No. Oh, like, in-ring promos in Japan would be, and are super rare. But, oh, that would be so weird if New Japan just started doing, like, the WWE style TV program. Yeah, oh, that would be so weird.

[00:23:53] It would kind of be cringy a little bit. Oh, it would be so cringy. Which, first of all, too, it's just because Japanese inflection is different, okay? So it would be cringy for unintentional reasons, but... Yeah. Which you can get away with when somebody's not holding a microphone, but when they're holding a microphone, that would just be... Oh, that would be so bad. It's kind of cringy when they make Shinsuke do it. Like... Yeah?

[00:24:22] Or even any of the Japanese wrestlers. Shinsuke, Asuka, someone. I was going to say Io. Io? So what? Io's not as bad, but yeah, yeah, there's just a... It's just a difference of inflection. It's not even a language thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's... There's just a different inflection that Japanese has. Mm-hmm. That just... It just doesn't translate the same way.

[00:24:51] You know, there's a reason, like, people make fun of, you know, anime dubs. Because of the inflection. And if you were to say the same thing, but... Say something the same way, but in English, it would sound absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is my cat looking at? It was staring very intently at something. Hang on. I have to know. Both.

[00:25:18] Oh, actually, I'll segue you guys into our first sponsorship part. This is some information on the musical nonprofit Casa de la Zissa. CDZ Collegium Musica is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

[00:25:39] It is a kind of school of music, a concert series, and an agency that promotes the musicians, dedicated artists, and educators who we feature as our performers. The goal of the Collegium is to bring community together through music performance. These performances vary in musical style, from classical to jazz.

[00:26:07] And music from different parts of the world. From India, to the Middle East. That'd be like Persia. And Japan. And China. The goal is to also educate us to how music functions, not so much as a musical universal language, because there are differences in the way that these languages of music are expressed.

[00:26:37] But to educate us, not only of the music, but the culture it represents. And by doing this, it brings community together.

[00:27:07] Drain it. Huh. Like a cheese claw. Huh. Interesting. For those of you just joining us back, Hakeem was just sharing the secret to making almond milk at home. Yeah. Which, I mean... So, hang on. Because I've never had almond milk, but does that actually taste like milk? No, it doesn't taste like milk at all.

[00:27:33] It tastes like creamy, nutty. I don't know. But it looks like milk. Like it's super white. It looks like milk. So, hang on. That's funny for so many reasons. Yeah, it sounds so rude. It's like they would sell Whole Foods and everything. No, I'm out.

[00:27:59] For those of you who didn't see, it came up because I'm drinking milk, which I'm now out of it. A little bit. But no, dude, I can't do nut milk. I only use it because of... I don't know. To me, I like it a little bit better. Hey! No hating on it. I just... I tried it. I'm just like... You know? Uh-huh. But if you're lactose intolerant, for example, you don't really have that much of a choice. But... Yeah.

[00:28:28] It's that and like soy. Yeah. It pretty much. Although... I mean, what's the... I tried lactate too, which is just milk with the lactose taken out. But then it's like, is it still milk or is it just white water? Yeah. Yeah. I never tried, but it doesn't look good. It's not as... To me, it's not as bad as like soy milk. But... But that always reminds me of the Louis Black joke. There's no such thing as soy milk because there's no soy tit, is there?

[00:29:00] No. But yeah, going back to our John Cena, Cody Rhodes, her fluffle. I didn't... It's like, I'm honestly hoping Cody loses. Not because I'm necessarily sick of him, but Cody... I was thinking about this today. I am. I'm not sick of him, but... I'm just... To me, he has to lose in order to grow. I'm kind of there too because Cody...

[00:29:26] And I don't mean this in a bad way, but Cody really reminds me of like the old school baby face. The kind of guy that they were parodying on Southpaw Regional Wrestling. That guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Except Cody can talk. That's the difference. He's just not like, no, join me. Watch it on Wednesday night. You know, he's not that guy, but... I'm with you. I think Cody has to lose it in order to grow. Yeah. And like... Okay.

[00:29:54] For me, he sure won like two years ago before the first time. I agree with you because after seeing what... Because I remember I was making the case at the time that Roman needs to retain. And he did. But I think for the wrong reasons. Because they didn't really do the thing that I was kind of thinking they were going to do. Yeah. Because I think he still fell short a little bit, didn't he? Yeah.

[00:30:24] For me, it was the chicken. When the chicken was thrown in the ring at the end. Yeah. So in hindsight... In hindsight, I agree with you. And for track to my original position, I think Cody should have won the year before he won. Yeah, yeah. I think there was more... Not to say Cody's unpopular, but I just think he was so white hot. Yeah. Exactly. It was at his peak.

[00:30:51] When he won the last time, it was like, okay, yeah, he's going to win. Like, we already knew he was going to win. The difference was if he'd won the year before, it would have been like, finally! Yeah, yeah. And when he won, when he did, everybody was just like, finally. Yeah, okay, yeah. It's like, honestly, the second time, I wish he lost. That would have been more of a surprise than... Yeah, I know, right? Well, because by the time it came around, I was like... I think I even said, it's like, Roman should win, but I think it's a foregone conclusion.

[00:31:20] Because Cody's obviously going to win. Yeah, yeah. And it kind of took a little bit away. I think, my honest opinion, I think that Triple H was pushing Cody to win at the time. And then I think The Rock came in and... Or wait, no, I'm sorry. I got the years mixed up. Yeah, that was the year after when The Rock came in. Yeah.

[00:31:49] As the CFO or whoever he is now. The final boy! Yeah, I think he is the CFO. Hey, the final boss gimmick is great. I honestly love it. I thought it was really good. It's good, but I know he's not going to be there, so it's like, what's the point? You know? Well, he pops in. He pops in every now and again. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Except... Except after the Travis Scott, her fluffle. Laying low.

[00:32:19] Yeah. Again, to keep quoting Jim Cornetti, he was like, he's like, well, if this had been in the territories, Cody would have gone back, he would have found Travis Scott, he would have goozled him and slapped the piss out of him. Yeah. He's like... Absolutely. Yeah, but nowadays you can't do that. You'll get sued. And Travis Scott has really good lawyers, I'd imagine. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Pretty sure.

[00:32:48] Cody would just be like, my hand slipped. Oh no, look out! Twice. Twice. Twice. Well, you see, my balance was thrown off because the guy ruptured my eardrum. I still understand what he was doing. Honestly, I want to know what happened because of it. Is it because...

[00:33:18] I don't think he was sober. I don't think he was sober. I'll be honest. I don't think he was sober. Obviously, he wasn't, but still. And yeah, I think Rock brought him out there. Well, yeah, I mean, it's pretty obvious he wasn't sober because he was out there. But see, either that or there was a miscue because at some point maybe Rock was like, hey, be out there, but don't... I think the plan was for him to help assault Cody, but... I think at one point it might have become clear that Travis Scott was not sober.

[00:33:46] And that at some point somebody might have been like, just go stand in the corner. But they all kind of let him do it. So, I don't know. That's the part I don't get. Like, Cena was there. Rock was there. Sure, they could not make it seem obvious, but they could push him out the way just a little bit and just took control. Yeah, I don't know. Or maybe he wasn't supposed to do anything and nobody knew what was going on and they were just like, oh, okay.

[00:34:11] You know, it's hard to stop somebody from doing something in a live segment because you don't want to... Exactly. You want to bring more eyes to it. Like I said, we shouldn't have been there or something's a mistake. That's just it. He shouldn't have been there in the first place. But they've honestly gotten so lucky with some of their other celebrities that they're probably just like, why not?

[00:34:40] Because I'll even include I Show Speed in that even though I didn't even know who the hell he was. But I've since learned. And he took a spear like a champ. Yeah. Yeah, he did. I still think it was a waste of a segment. I agree. But at least Braun Breaker got to hit somebody. That's true. I'm sure that was a moment where he was like... I liked it better when Rennie did.

[00:35:11] Like it was the year before. Rennie him. Oh, yeah. That was then. Because he was in the prime bottle, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. Yeah, that was fun. I'm always a fan of dudes in the prime costume getting assaulted. I'm a fan of this. So the other thing we got... Now, this one I'm a little out of the loop on. Because last time I checked, I thought Randy Orton and Kevin Owens were buddies.

[00:35:40] Oh, but Kevin turned Hill. Again. Sammy for the 100th time. That's the part I don't like. It's like, it's so boring and tired. I'm tired of seeing them against each other for the last 10 years or so. Well... Yeah, and the thing is, I was saying this kind of stuff at the time. This is going back a ways. I mean, this goes back to when Kevin Owens debuted in NXT.

[00:36:09] He instantly turned heel when Sammy won the title. Yeah. And so that... And WWE's kind of spoiled it for everybody because it was a victim of... They were both victims of being too good at what they do. Because whenever WWE needed to drum up interest, they knew they could put Kevin and Sammy in a program together and they'd get really, really good matches.

[00:36:36] The problem is, they've done it like six times. And I don't think that's an exaggeration. It's more than six times. Yeah. I think it's more than six times. Oh, they certainly had more than six matches. I mean, but the whole like... Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I think they've gone through six or seven programs. Heel and Babyface. Like, the turning. And that's the thing. It's like, one segment is like, Sammy's the heel and Kevin is not. Then Kevin is.

[00:37:05] Then they're both heels. And I don't know who's the babyface. I don't get it. And the thing of it is, it's like so unbelievable when one of them turns heel against the other. Because now everybody knows the history. And they know that they've been best friends for 20 plus years. Yeah, yeah. It's like, nobody's buying it anymore. So, that's why I liked it when Sammy was with the bloodline.

[00:37:31] Because at least, when Sammy turned on Kevin then, there was at least like pain. Yeah, exactly. He was torn between two sets of friends. The bloodline and his old best friend. And then when Sammy turned back and hit Roman with the chair, which that was still so good. Because I honestly didn't know what he was going to do. And that's why it was such good storytelling. Because normally, in wrestling, it's kind of obvious.

[00:37:57] But like, until he turned, he didn't turn quite enough to hit Kevin. I was like, oh, he's going to hit Roman. Didn't necessarily see that coming. So, I thought that was tremendous. But yeah, for the most part, Sammy and Kevin against each other is just, eh. It's just stale. And honestly, to me, it's not worth being on WrestleMania for. Like, not again.

[00:38:24] Like, they didn't have much time to build up to, like, have a match with Roman. I think the only way, until they let this rest for a while. It's not to say it could never be good again. But I think the only way they could make that interesting as of right now. Like, if they were like, we're dead set on having Sammy and Kevin main event of pay-per-view against each other. The only way you can do that and make it interesting is a title unification situation. Yeah. Where it's title versus title.

[00:38:54] And then that gives them a reason to fight other than, we're just mad at each other again. Yeah, or you didn't help me cheat. You know, like. I don't know why, but Butters hopped into my head. It was like, well, you didn't help me cheat, so I'm mad at you. That's how it goes, to be honest. That's, yeah. It's kind of, yeah. Well, I thought we were friends, but not now.

[00:39:22] I'm going to go hang out with Roman Reigns. Butters is my favorite character, and I will apologize to no one for it. Mine's too, yeah. I like Butters. Butters is the best. It's the voice, dude. It's totally the voice. I just love it so much. Comedy gold. Yeah, honestly, he is my favorite. Especially the anime one. They did the anime episode.

[00:39:52] That was so great. Oh, it was so funny. Okay. Nerd aside, but for those of you who don't know, because my favorite episode, don't get me wrong, I forget what the fun with weapons, I think that's the name of the episode. Yes, yes. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Yeah. Poor Butters. That was a phenomenal episode. Poor Butters. And Cartman. Cartman keeps giving himself more powers. Yeah, yeah. But my favorite episode is Make Love, Not Warcraft.

[00:40:24] When they're playing World of Warcraft, and they actually get animation from the game for... Okay, I like both of them. Honestly, I choose them together. I like both episodes so much. So good. The gag in that is Butters does play World of Warcraft. He plays Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When that episode came out, that game did not exist. That game now exists.

[00:40:54] Oh, really? Yeah. It's a real thing, but it wasn't real at the time. That's so cool. Yeah. So, like, I just assumed it was a real game. And no, turns out they just made it up, and now it's a thing that you can actually play. I thought it was, like, a real game, too. Yeah. It was a Barbie game or something. At the time, it was not, but it is now. Back to wrestling. Oh, they did a pro wrestling episode of South Park, too.

[00:41:25] That's a good one. That's a really good one. It's very funny. Well, I think that kid... He's like, that kid slept with that kid's girlfriend. Kick his ass. That episode and the one where they gave me show, like, nut cancer or something, or ball cancer. It was, like, bouncing.

[00:41:51] Oh, and then, of course, there's the one where Randy keeps picking fights at the baseball games that the kids don't want to play. Oh, yeah. This is so good episode. I'm going for the state championship. The gluten-free episode. Oh, God. Oh, God. I'm in the middle of a rewatch. And which one did I just watch? I just watched...

[00:42:23] It's... I can't remember now, but it's... I didn't just finish the Coon and Friends arc, but a few episodes ago is when that... I think I'm in season 15. But... Oh, okay. So funny. So funny. But you know what else is funny? The fact that Charlotte Flair... Oh, no, wait. We knew about this already, and I'm actually okay with this. That's not funny. I actually like Charlotte Flair versus Tiffany Stratton.

[00:42:54] Well, yeah. Yeah, it would have to happen. I was about to say something real... I was about to say something real dumb. It's like, no, wait a minute. I like this. I like this a lot. Yeah. And it's funny. This one kind of sort of came out of nowhere, but not in a bad way. That's true. Because... It came out of nowhere, because there was no set up to it. You knew it was going to happen, but I don't know. A little rush. Where it was like, ugh.

[00:43:22] Well, but the weird thing is, is it made sense, because Charlotte Flair came back and won the World Rumble. And it's like, naturally, these two would have a... Because they're so similar, they would rub each other the wrong way. But they're both also very competitive, so it's like, oh, no. I'm definitely going to beat you and prove that I'm better than you, for sure. So... It makes sense. Like, it feels like something that actually happens in athletics, you know what I mean?

[00:43:50] It's kind of like how... Well, since March Madness was just around, you know... It would be like two rival teams making it to the, you know, to the Final Four. Uh-huh. And making it to the championship, where, you know, it makes sense. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does. It does. Plus, it's also like the new kid versus the veteran, almost. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so...

[00:44:20] Tiffany's like a new Charlotte. Basically, and that's why it works for me. And I think it'll be a fantastic match. I do think Charlotte, like, maybe left a few steps, but... Yeah, she's been away for a minute. Yeah. And I think she's gone through a lot of stuff, too. Well, yeah, that goes well, because I know... Not to dig it up, but I know she went through a divorce, did she not?

[00:44:46] Yeah, I'm pretty sure she has divorced now, against Andrei. Yes, that's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's got to be awkward now. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Man, that's got to be... Because, yeah, he came back. That's got to be awkward. That's why he's probably losing. Shouldn't have punched Sammy Guevara in the face. Yes, you should have. Oh, God.

[00:45:15] I feel bad for Sammy. Sammy looks fine. Well, and to be fair, like, I'm seeing a lot... Because I follow him and Ty on social media, and they're doing a bunch of, like, couple things. So I'm wondering if... Which, if they did, I'm not going to tell him how to live his life. But I feel like if you're intentionally stepping out of the spotlight so that you can be... Like, I get it. You want to be with your new baby and all that. Like, it's... Yeah, yeah.

[00:45:44] It's not my place to tell you what to do, but that's going to have some long-term effects on your career. I got a thing, and... He's doing really good in ROH. Yeah, but it's ROH. Yeah, I know, I know. I totally get it. It's like a demotion. But it feels like he's still being punished. Well, it'd be different if it were on TV. But it's not on TV. Yeah. If it were on TV, even if it was a demotion, he could still... I mean, he could turn it into a middle finger and be like,

[00:46:13] Oh, okay, you're going to send me down to the B leagues? All right, I'm going to show up your world champion. Yeah. It feels like it started with a demotion, but honestly, it feels like he enjoys it a little bit. Maybe he gets more time. Maybe, yeah. And that's the thing. I'd love to watch Ring of Honor because I'd be willing to guess that it might be a better television product. I just don't know. Yeah. How are you watching it? YouTube?

[00:46:42] Sometimes people stream it on YouTube. Huh, okay. I was going to say, I've never... But yeah, it might very well be a better television product. I just don't know because I can't watch it. That's the hard part. It's really good. It reminds me of old school or going black NXT. It reminds me of that so much. Okay. Storylines, everything. It's that good.

[00:47:10] Wait, Ring of Honor has storylines? They do. Because AEW doesn't. Not good ones anyway. They have some. Like, here and there. Like, the last Dynamite was pretty good. It made me care about Mox a little bit. Isn't that the one where he DDT'd Willow? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Okay, I must be missing some context here because I... Well, no, because here's the thing. Okay.

[00:47:39] Here's my whole thing. I only saw the clip. And the number of people that are, like, commenting that this is awesome, I'm like... It was after the match. I understand that, but it's like, am I missing something here? Because the last time I checked, beating women was not cool. But I know that in, like, certain circles... It's okay now. They've gone. They've gone.

[00:48:10] Listen, it's all egalitarian wrestling now. Full equality. They may be doing it because the new 2K25 WWE game, you can, like, punch girls now. So, like, it's more inter-ginger matches now. So, they may be doing it because of that. I don't know. I'm just... I saw that.

[00:48:37] I don't understand what Mox is doing, but... It was a little awkward because it cut from there and cut to his wife. That people know that's his wife. So, like... I'm not saying nothing happens, but I'm just saying... It's kind of like, whoa. I don't like what you're implying here, cameraman. Because I'm just going to say, Moxley DDT'd that woman awful fast.

[00:49:06] As though he's done something like this before. I am making no actual... I am not making any actual implications. It's just a joke, YouTube. I'm sure Moxley is a... I'm sure in his real life, he is a wonderful, loving husband. And I'm not saying that sarcastically because as far as I can tell... As far as I can tell, they're extremely happy together. Oh, and they have a baby. Yeah, it is. Indian Bollock 2, maybe now?

[00:49:36] Yeah, yeah. They've had the... I still want to read his book, actually. Because it seems like a really good read. Mox, the biography. But... So, yeah. And then we also have... We have Gunther and Jey Uso. Which is funny. Because I was actually thinking about this today, too. I like the storyline. I actually like the storyline a lot. I just don't...

[00:50:04] I'm still iffy about Jey Uso as a singles world heavyweight champion. For me, the Sterlings is meh. And Jey's just not main event. Even though he says it, but he's not. It's in his name, but... He's not. And I like the fan. Because I was going to say, I like Jey Uso. And in a vacuum, like... Yeah, I'd love him to be world champion. I just don't buy it yet.

[00:50:34] Not against Gunther. That... I think that's the... Yeah. Not against Gunther. Like, against... Yeah. Chad Gable. But even that is kind of iffy. But too many are on the same level somewhat. I can see, okay, maybe he'll beat Chad. But not against Gunther. Gunther was too good. Yeah. Well, they've taken Gunther down a notch. But he's still like... Yeah. He's been there for my whole lot.

[00:51:02] I still maintain... It was funny because I was going to upload this clip that I still had in the drive, but I didn't because it was old. I still maintain I would have liked Gunther instead of losing his Intercontinental title. I would have liked him to relinquish it and say... Honestly. Yeah. They should do that more often for people who excel the way Gunther did. Asuka did. You know. They sure... Well, they did it for Asuka. But they just didn't do it for Gunther. And it was awesome. It was.

[00:51:30] Asuka never lost the NXT women's title. Ever. Never lost it. You gave your away. Yeah. I would really have preferred Gunther to walk up to Triple H or... I forget who was in charge at the time. I think it was Triple H. Yeah. Because that's been... What? Two years ago? Yeah. Yeah. I would have much preferred him to walk up to Triple H, hand him the belt and be like, you no longer have anybody that can challenge me for this, so I'm going to do you a favor and give it back. But...

[00:52:00] I want the world champion. Yeah. He could have did like, I'm going to cash this in for an opportunity. I'm... I don't... What was it in TNA? It was option C, I think, where you could create in the X Division title for a shot at the world title. Oh, okay. I didn't like that as a practice because... No, not... No, yeah. I understand.

[00:52:24] Not doing that often, like every single time, but like for special individuals that excel. You know, like, sure. Like... Like an unwritten... Like an unwritten understanding that when a mid-card title holder is basically unstoppable, that, you know, they can go to the boss and say, hey, look, like, you know I want the

[00:52:51] world title and you know nobody's going to beat me for this, so why don't I do you a favor and you do me a favor? You know, kind of a closed door meeting sort of thing. And then... I was thinking about Braun Breaker, where he lost against Sammy. I'm like, this doesn't make sense. He's too good to lose that way, where he gotta be dumbed down in order to lose. Yeah, because it doesn't... It's... He got nerfed.

[00:53:21] It just doesn't... It doesn't make sense because it's not believable. Now, I will say, the match where it was Sammy Zane that beat Gunther, now I remember. I'll be honest, I liked that match and that finish a lot more than I thought I would, but it still felt like Gunther was nerfed a bit. Oh, he was. It was like... It was the best they could have done, but it shouldn't have even been taking place. I also don't know that...

[00:53:50] I don't know that at the time, I don't know that anybody other than Sammy Zane could have pulled that off. Just the sheer force of will to finish that match. Maybe Cody. Cody. Oh, yeah. That's Cody's thing for... Yeah, that is Cody's thing. And I love it. I'm crying. Sometimes a man just feels, alright? Yeah. But yeah.

[00:54:19] No, I like the fact that Gunther keeps telling Jay he's not good enough. Yeah. I like that aspect of it. But again... And I don't... I hate saying this because I really like Jey Uso. I'm just... I don't lie that he can beat Gunther. And the thing... We've seen this before. He said the same thing to, like, Damian Priest. He was the other trash. So it was like, they recycle him. Like... Well, yeah.

[00:54:48] Eventually, Gunther can't say that to anybody other than the mirror if he loses. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's just like, Gunther, buddy. You've lost a few... Too many times to be talking this way. You know? I said, Gunther, don't get me wrong. Love your work. Love what you're doing. Don't chop me. Please.

[00:55:16] And the angle they did on Raw with Jimmy. It was okay, but... It didn't need the blood. Like, it made no sense. Like, it was the same issue I have with Tony Storm. Tony Storm. Yeah, where she gently gets knocked into stairs and then bleeds. Like, Jimmy was pushed down to the floor and then came up bloody. It made no sense.

[00:55:45] I'm really glad you brought up Tony Storm because I have a... I have a... I have a legit... Like, I have a... A burr in my ass about something that they did. But then I also need a memory refresher because I seem to remember a long time ago. Like, I think back when Tony Storm came to AEW. I think I remember at one point saying something effective. She needs to do a tag team with Thunder Rosa and they can be called Thunderstorm.

[00:56:15] Am I... Am I misremembering? That did happen. No, that did happen. Right, but I... Did we say it on this show is what I'm getting at? Because I know it happened, but... Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure we did, yeah. Uh-huh. And then... That was their tag team name. For one week. Yeah. Thunderstorm. Yeah, you know.

[00:56:43] Now it's Thundertits. Oh, yeah, yeah. I did hear that. Yeah, yeah. Huh? It fits. I mean, it does fit the character, but it's very annoying. I don't know. This is why I don't care for the Tony Storm character, because to me, it's so obviously just trying to make the audience laugh.

[00:57:13] It is. It is. It's, I don't know, it's like a weird kind of like comedy where it's making... It's serious, but it's also like not serious. It feels like she's in her own bubble. It feels like she's making fun of the wrestling business, is what it feels like. Well, I don't feel too much that way. Well, I can see why you say that. Yeah.

[00:57:40] Well, because at every turn she's saying, I'm the world champion, but you are not to take me seriously. Yeah, I get that. I get that. But it feels like she's more, I don't know, delusional where she's this person. And that's the only thing that's saving the whole entire angle. And I will give credit where credit's due. The audience clearly likes it.

[00:58:05] It's like she believes what she is, even though everybody else around her can see that she's not that person. But here, okay, here's the problem with it, though, because she is that person because she's the world champion. Yeah. So it's kind of like Trump in a way. It's like everybody who says he's delusional is like, yeah, but he's also, as he would say,

[00:58:34] like, yes, but I'm also president. You know, it's kind of there's actually now that I think about it, there's kind of some weird Trumpy vibes. But anyway, we're talking about wrestling. I'm a little out of the loop with EO Sky and Bianca. It's going to be a good match, but I have no idea where they're going with this. So I'm just along for the ride on this one. I honestly dislike so much.

[00:59:00] It's like it may Rhea look really stupid. Well, to be fair, nobody in this. Nobody in this situation looks particularly good. No, no of them. It's just like the way she like got mad or something at Bianca and then Bianca gets mad. EO, for what reason? Like, there's not much. Because it's because because it's in the script, Hakeem.

[00:59:34] But yeah. And like, OK, so the bit that kind of solidified that encompasses this whole situation to me is when Bianca and Rhea, neither of whom is the champion, are arguing with each other. And then EO comes in and she gets facepalmed. Yeah, yeah. That is your world champion. I mean, I'm sorry, but that seems more like an AEW move at this point.

[01:00:03] It's weird. It's like, honestly, this sure had been Bianca and Jade, which it's not. It makes no sense. Like, no, instead it's Jade and Naomi. Like, which, I mean, don't get me wrong. It's it's a thing. Honestly, I think it's because Jade, she's still not as good as she looks. She looks amazing.

[01:00:31] But in the ring, she still needs a little work. When she's with Bianca, Bianca has to slow down a little bit. This is true. When they do tag teams, like she has to slow down for her. So that may be why they say, okay, give her to Naomi, which is great, too. She's amazing. But maybe she could work with her a little bit more. I was going to say, Naomi's probably a really good person to have her with because Naomi kind of gets passed over.

[01:01:01] But she's very good. I knew she was good when she did the Funk of Dacos. Like, she was that good even back then. I was like, why is she in this stupid tag team? That was a dark time. That was a dark time. The Total Divas era. That was a dark time for women's wrestling. Which I will still maintain. Initially, I can see why you might have hated on the Bella Twins.

[01:01:30] But by the time the Total Divas era came around, they were good. Stop saying Nikki Bella and Brie Bella couldn't wrestle. That's just not true. Brie did knock someone out. Liv, she gave her a concussion. She kept kicking her in the head. Liv shouldn't have been standing there. It's not ballet, pal. I forgot about that. Yeah. She kept kicking and kicking and kicking and then dragged her to the corner.

[01:01:57] In the words of Happy Gilmore, she shouldn't have been standing there. Which, oh my gosh, I saw the trailer for Happy Gilmore 2. Why? Oh, it's a 2? Yeah. It's coming. Why? That is sad. They're digging up everything. They are digging up everything. Actually, this seems unrelated, but it actually ties back into wrestling. So I was watching... The first time I was watching Deadpool and Wolverine. Loved it, by the way. But have you seen it? I did.

[01:02:27] Okay, I'm just making sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess. I'm sorry. I can assume most people have, but when I don't ask, I'm going to be telling you to be like, I didn't see it. Sponsored by Costco, so I said, fuck that movie. But no, the line where he's like, they're going to make him do this until he's 90, and I just went like The Undertaker. That is so true. I actually kind of said it aloud in the theater, and I heard one guy in the corner start laughing a little bit.

[01:03:00] It's like, yeah, because they just drag him up and gleefully, mind you, but... He got Bad Bunny in it, so that's sad. And Happy Gilmore. Bad Bunny. What? Bad Bunny's going to be in Happy Gilmore 2? Yeah. Also MJF. Oh, I did read about MJF. MJF might actually be quite funny. Yeah.

[01:03:27] Oh God, is MJF going to be the new guy that yells at him to psych his game out? The guy who was like, yeah, jackass. Honestly, that's the only reason I probably will watch this show. I mean, this movie. It'll be for just to see his role. Just to see MJF and watch it be like a really good guy. And it's like, you can do it, Happy. I believe in you, you jackass.

[01:03:55] So yeah, we're not giving match predictions. That's going to come next week because I need more storytelling. We also don't know... The only night we know of is Randy Orton and Kevin Owens are night one. And Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth are night one. And then Cody and Cena close out night two. Those are the only ones that are definitely scheduled. Mm-hmm. But like I said, I think this WrestleMania is going to be fantastic. And speaking of fantastic, another podcast on our network,

[01:04:25] The Complete Guide to Happiness with Dr. Fantastic, where you too can learn the secrets of happiness and kindness. Here's a quick look at that. Come with me to discover the transformative power of kindness and the joy it brings. Join me as we explore every Monday morning simple yet profound ways to elevate your happiness one gesture at a time. Oh! Wow! Thank you.

[01:05:03] So yes, you can watch... No. So you can watch The Complete... Oh, I think your mic's still muted in my bed. So you can watch The Complete Guide to Happiness with Dr. Fantastic every Monday at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Or you can watch the episodes whenever you want because that's the magic of YouTube. Once it premieres, it's there forever. Until he's 90. Which he's an older gentleman, so it's not as long for him.

[01:05:32] But still very spry young, man. He's very happy because he knows the secrets. I've seen the first podcast you guys did. I liked that. Ah, yeah. So what do we got next? We got a match that I'm actually looking forward to. I'm a fan of both of them for very different reasons. But AJ Styles and Logan Paul?

[01:06:01] Oh, that's my bathroom break. Honestly. What? Seriously? Absolutely. I couldn't care less. Are you just not an AJ Styles fan? Oh, I love AJ Styles. It's just his opponent. It's such a bathroom break. I think they need to send... This would never happen.

[01:06:31] Logan Paul would find it beneath him. It's like, they should send Logan Paul down and he wins the TNA title. That would make it interesting. I was going to say, that would be the AJ Styles-Logan Paul match I'd want to see. Is Logan Paul wins the TNA title and AJ Styles comes to restore honor to TNA? Yeah. Yeah. He said he did want to go back for one more match or so. I'm here for it, dude. I think that would be so awesome because I love it when...

[01:07:01] Ironically, I love it when the story's finished and it kind of feels like AJ Styles has unfinished business. And it feels so long ago because it was. It's been so long ago. But you guys, for those of you who don't know, you have to understand AJ Styles was TNA for a very long time. 11 years. Over a decade. I mean, he was the face. I don't know when you see clips of it. And the clips I've seen made me want to go back and watch certain matches. I hate that. I didn't even watch back then. I do too.

[01:07:31] Because I saw TNA here and there. And fortunately for me at the time, which if you're watching the episodes of Weekly Wrestling Wrap-Up back in 2007, my roommate at the time, Joey, this was back when they would release pay-per-views on DVD like the month after they aired. Okay. Yeah. So he would buy those and I'd be able to watch TNA. I really missed that. I didn't really miss that, dude. I still have some. I have a few. Yeah, same here.

[01:08:00] I kind of want to pick up. I should start looking out for those when I'm at used DVD places. Yeah, absolutely. Targets and stuff. I thought it was really funny. My nephew visited me a couple years ago and he just randomly picked up Survivor Series 2006. And I'm like, that's a really good pay-per-view. I have WrestleMania 25 on DVD. I have WrestleMania 23. WrestleMania 23 was the first WrestleMania that I watched.

[01:08:28] So it's nostalgic for me. Um, incidentally, that's, that's the WrestleMania where Donald Trump was. Oh, was it? Oh, okay. Yeah, I liked that one. That was good. Shaved Vince McMahon's head. Yeah. You know what's funny? It was a good show, but it really felt kind of lackluster for a WrestleMania. I'm not going to lie. It was. Absolutely. It wasn't as, but like back then, like WrestleMania was like this big event, spectacular type of event.

[01:08:55] And it kind of seemed like it was lost in the shuffle. It feels, yeah, it feels like a pay-per-view, but it feels more like a, uh, I'm trying to think of it feels if or not even, it feels more like, like an Armageddon for those who remember back in the day. You know, like it's a paper backlash. Yeah. It's a pay-per-view, but it's not, it's certainly not WrestleMania.

[01:09:16] It's not even one of the big four, but, but I got to watch my ECW originals finally, you know, stick it to the new breed. And then the next week on ECW, they had the same match and got the crap kicked out of them. So that was a thing that happened that I couldn't explain as a fan, but, but yeah, God, I hope AJ Styles beats Logan Paul. Yeah.

[01:09:47] Well, he should. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. He should. He should, but honestly, I don't think he will. I mean, he's going to lose so far. I'll see next week. I mean, probably be. And, and I find this sort of understand the logic because Logan Paul is a bigger name. Unfortunately, there, there are people who will watch this WrestleMania for Logan Paul.

[01:10:17] I don't understand these people and don't get me wrong. Logan Paul surprised the hell out of me as a wrestler. Uh-huh. I mean, he really shocked me. He's very good. And boy, Taylor made heel. Well, he's a heel in real life. I was going to say he, but he was, he was a heel before WWE, right? He knows how to, and Jake too. Jake Paul's a heel just in boxing.

[01:10:46] Like he, he knows what he's doing. He'd be some very old guy. He's, he's the legend killer. He's a legend killer in real life. Yeah. Yeah. No, God, that Tyson fight, that Tyson fight was hard to watch. Yeah. That was, you could tell like, if you're going to cheat, do it good. Don't just, that was just so stupid. You know what though? I'm the, the only reason I think it may have been legit. Cause I know Mike Tyson got, I forget what he got. He got sick, right? Was it divert?

[01:11:16] No, I can't remember what. You got sick. But the thing is like, you could tell he was holding back. He was by his glove and doing everything, but hitting the person in front of him. It made no sense. He was doing everything except boxing. Exactly. He was buying, rolling and doing movement, but instead of just hitting the guy, it made no sense. Like you could. No, it made perfect sense. Tyson needs money.

[01:11:49] It's like, no, wait, I just, I just have to not knock the guy out and I get $50 million. Sure. I will be the, I will be the best loser you ever have. Absolutely. Yeah. Ironically though. Did you watch, did you watch the whole event or just that fight? Oh, I did. I, I can't remember the other matches, but I did see the, that girl's fight, dude. Oh, that's the one. Oh my God. That, that saved the event.

[01:12:17] And I'm not the only one who thinks that is like watch, I watched for Paul and Tyson, but I stayed for that. And I wish I could remember their names. I just, I didn't know who they were prior, but holy crap. Wasn't that one with the Irish girl kept like headbutting the other girl? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hate that. I liked the match. The match was great. It's like, I couldn't stand. She kept headbutting her over and over and over again. Um, but I liked the match. That was, but you know, you know what though?

[01:12:46] I, I, I kind of get it because on the one hand it's like, yes, you could, but as, as we know, and this is, this is what AEW tries to do and fails to do it because they never take themselves seriously. But like, that's an, that's a great example of referee discretion in a real match because it's like, it's a championship fight. Nobody wants her to win by like the qualification, you know?

[01:13:14] So like, yeah, there's a little bit of leeway and because there's a little bit of leeway, they look the other way when you do certain things to, to a point. It's like, yeah, the, the Irish girl wasn't going to be able to take out a knife or anything, but like, you know, a head, but here and there, you know, it's like, I get it. I still think, cause I think she retained, didn't she? Oh, she did. She did. Yeah. And I think that's crap. Yeah.

[01:13:43] The, the, the other girl. Ashby firms, two guys, they were really good. It was two guys and started, they were really good. That they were really, they were really good boxers, but I can see why some people. MMA is kind of the same way where sometimes if you don't understand what you're watching, it can seem boring. Uh-huh. It was a great fight, but it wasn't like the girls fight. Like that was, that was, that was a fight. The one before it was a boxing match.

[01:14:13] The girls fight was a fight. Yeah, it was like, uh, as JR would call it. It was a slobber knocker. Yeah, I totally agree. Literally. Like, oh, but yeah, it was, uh, it made me really hate influencer boxing. Cause the first match was kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah. To me, like distract from like the actual boxing.

[01:14:42] Well, see, I, I think if you're going to have famous people fight each other, it should be MMA because then it's like, you're not limited to just your hands. Like you can kick a dude, you can take them to the ground. You can just choke them out round and pound. Yeah. It gives you more options. Honestly, that's the only way I would do it. It's the only way you can do it. I still like my idea. I still like my idea of politician MMA. It's my plan to pay off the national debt. No. Hear me out.

[01:15:13] Hear me out. Hear me out. All right. A hundred bucks a pay-per-view, but the main event of the first pay-per-view is Margaret Taylor green versus AOC. Or it was so out. We'll have that thing paid off in a couple years, man.

[01:15:36] Just keep politician pay-per-view from let's call me. Me and Dana White will figure this out. It was like a clay animation show. Celebrity death match. Yeah. That was really good. The Seinfeld episode. No, but I'm saying I want, I want this real because all these, all these people like they talk all this, like we're going to fight. I'm like, okay, put the gloves on.

[01:16:08] You will, you willing to fight, fight. Let's see it. Let's, let's go. It might happen in a few more years. All I'm saying is if nothing else, it'll make a lot of money. It would. And it might get some people to shut up because when they go back in session and somebody's got a black eye, you're like, yeah, I did that.

[01:16:39] And then finally, the only other match that we know of, I already mentioned it. Yeah. Is we got the triple threat between Roman Reigns, CM Punk and Seth Rollins. Now here's my question. Oh no, wait, nevermind answer my own question because the world, the, no, no, no titles in the line. It's just them fighting. Oh, so they were sliding the world heavyweight title again. Yeah.

[01:17:07] It makes, I'm kind of tired of it. Like it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I can see, um, Steph and Punk finally getting a match together. I hate that. They always got a third person before last year. They added in drew. And now this year, they added in Roman. Like, can they get the canvas fight together? One-on-one? Like why it always has to be like a triple threat? That's the part I just hate. Well, it's pretty clear.

[01:17:36] They, they, they want to give Roman something to do. So I kind of get it, but to me, honestly, the kind of random element feels like Seth in this case. Honestly, no, because like he still haven't had to match one-on-one against Punk. It always was in the fear of someone else. Like, and so naturally, so naturally now they're interfering with someone else. Yeah.

[01:18:12] So, so naturally they're going to interfere with someone else. Yeah. I don't know. It's like so many. I mean, triple threats can be good, but it's, I'll be honest. It's been a while since I've seen a good triple threat. Yeah. Cause like three people has to like equally hate each other, you know? Yeah. Otherwise like that. The problem that you usually have a triple threats is like, you don't really understand.

[01:18:41] This is why I like three-way dances elimination matches. Yeah. I like triple elimination matches. Oh yeah, absolutely. I like them the best or the most because it gives you that element of who's going to team against who for like one time, you know, and to take on the other guy. I guess the good thing a triple threat has is it's not like, because in an elimination match, if somebody's going for a cover, you just let them do it.

[01:19:11] As long as it's not you, obviously, but like if homeboy's covering the other guy, you just let them do it. Cause okay. Now it's one-on-one, but at least in a triple threat, you're at triple threat. You're incentivized to break up a pinfall so it can make the match last longer theoretically, but yeah, there's good ways to do both.

[01:19:35] I still, I still cite the, um, now I don't remember who it was. I know it was when Taz lost the ECW belt and Tommy dream. So it was Taz, Tommy dreamer and Sandman, I think in Indianapolis and Taz got eliminated first. So, okay. Okay. I know it was Taz dreamer and somebody else. I can't remember. Maybe it was Rhino.

[01:20:02] It might've been Rhino, but, um, probably was during that time. Yeah. I think it, yeah, I think it would have been Rhino, but regardless good match, but that was a good match because it was a three-way dance elimination. The last time I liked that three-way match was when Steph cash in on Roman, um, Brock was it? Yeah. Was it Roman Brock? Yeah, it was. Yeah. But was that during the match or was that after?

[01:20:33] That was during a match. Like Brock was being Roman and then Steph came down. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's really sad. I was like, yeah, it's really sad because they just went over that match on the retrospective. Not that I'm watching. Not too long ago. So, but yeah, uh, last time I was like, Oh, this is good.

[01:20:55] I did really enjoy that segment with, uh, Roman punk and Seth for the contract signing. Yeah. Yeah. It felt like punk didn't, I don't know. It was like, didn't say as much as he could have maybe. Well, there was a, in the back. I think there was a segment the week before where punk said a lot more. And I think it was something effective like, Oh yeah.

[01:21:24] And you two have never beaten me, which is true. Okay. Mm-hmm. Cause even back in the shield days that match it, uh, not elimination chamber, uh, extreme rules where punk talks about in that infamous interview he did with Colt Cabana after he got fired. He talks about how he talks about how they came to him, you know, like on the day of the show is like, well, you're going over. And he was like, yeah, it's three on one and I'm beating them.

[01:21:54] Just make Berman look strong. Yeah, exactly. He's like, but you gotta make Berman look. He's like, yeah, you're going to be three guys who have incidentally been beating the crap out of everyone. Ryback, Braun Strowman included in that. But yeah, you're going to, you're going to be three guys. This was a dark time in WWE guys. It was a very dark time.

[01:22:24] Where basically if it seemed too stupid to happen, that's exactly what was going to happen. I wasn't even watching my shirt back in the show days. I wasn't either. I only know. I only know about that match. Yeah. I only know about that match because punk talked about it. I'm like, wait, really? That's same here. He did what? Yeah. It was like, what brought me back was like Total Divas season two. I mean, it kind of did.

[01:22:53] Like there was a period where I went through and watched because I wasn't watching Total Divas when it was on, at least not, not regularly. I think I'd seen it here and there, but I love the behind the scenes stuff. That's what got me. Cause like, for me, it was like getting to see the wrestlers as themselves almost. Yeah. I knew Rusev now. I knew, but I got to see, uh, it was Nadi and Summer Rae. Yeah. Well, speaking of, speaking of Rusev, he's coming back. He was spotted.

[01:23:22] I'd read he was spotted at WWE headquarters. Yeah. So I don't know if he's going to be Rusev or Mero. Mero. I would imagine Rusev, but I mean, I'm pretty sure it really doesn't matter. And Lana's back too. Oh, dear Lord. Well, that was the best part of them, to be honest.

[01:23:44] I mean, yeah, but I, their, their deal later on, their deal confuses me because they were married and then they got divorced, but they were insistent on working together. Yeah. What I read was like, they, or he stopped the divorce. It wasn't like fully through or something. And now they're working together and they're going to get remarried or something like that. I don't know.

[01:24:14] Hmm. I didn't, I didn't know about that, but maybe, I mean, that would make this all make a little bit more sense. And Rusev doesn't have to worry about Bobby because he's in AEW. That part. Oh, that was, that was icky. It wasn't icky. It was just weird. Yeah. It was especially like on like a social media where you could hear Bobby, no, Rusev in the background, like he's cooking or something.

[01:24:44] Yeah. Wow. Bobby's in his house with his wife. I'm like, oh man. It is so cringe. It really made no sense because Bobby was part of the pride. That was after. I know. Well, it's not like he, it's not like he changed overnight. Hakeem. That's who he is. Well, I'm listen. I like Bobby Lashley.

[01:25:13] It's all in good fun. Yeah. Plus he would, he'd beat the shit out of me, but he's doing really good. He wears some nice jackets. He does wear, dude. The last one was like a raincoat. Like I gotta get that one. Well, joke's on you. Cause I hear they sell them at Costco. Ah, damn it. Only reason I would go back. Yeah. To quote Ron Simmons.

[01:25:48] I missed that, man. I actually have, I have the, uh, I think it was in 2006 when they re it was DX, but it was just triple H and Shawn Michaels. Okay. They released that big DX box set that has like the documentary and all the segments and stuff. Yeah. Oh man. That was good times. You tune in, you tune in every week just to see what DX was going to do.

[01:26:13] But that's true because like, I wasn't, I never liked the triple H to be honest. Never liked him, but I liked his, I don't know, character in a way. It still made me watch. Like I was still interested in the matter what he did, even though I liked the person. I was like, ah, still gotta watch. I don't know. I don't know. I always had this, like, I never, I was never like a hardcore triple H fan, but it's

[01:26:41] not like I was always entertained when he was doing something. I guess that's the best way to. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Him and Shawn are like the team that was one of the best tech teams ever. Ooh, I love Mr. Fuji. Yeah. It was so much fun. And I, one of my favorite, ironically, this has nothing, well, it doesn't have nothing to do with triple H, but triple H didn't do anything. One of my favorite triple H moments was a CM Punk promo where Punk does an impression of triple H. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[01:27:11] And it sounds just like him. Yeah. Well, you know, I just don't think he has what it takes. Yeah. And you hit some of his tie. Oh man. You guys like that WWE. We Summer Punk. Yeah. That was really good. Like, don't get me wrong.

[01:27:34] I, Punk's still good now, but he was, he was better when like, well, I'll say like, okay. He was better when the company actually hated him. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Not now where they're like, yeah, you can go out there and say whatever you want because when you say whatever you want, people buy your merch. We sell the crap out of it. That's true.

[01:28:04] I mean, it makes sense. He's, he's, he's older. He's wiser. He's relaxed. Yeah. And I never like say he was like the best wrestler, but to me, he was a little bit more physical back in the day. And now it's kind of like, I just hope he doesn't break nothing. Like every time I see his neck is like, uh, hope he doesn't injure something. The leg or ankle.

[01:28:35] Tailbone. Yeah. That happened to him once. Right. I'm thinking about that. Right. He did fractures tailbone at one point. Or was that somebody else? Oh, that was Jericho. That's right. It was Jericho. He was like, what are you going to do? Put a cast on it. That was his doctor's. He's got to let it go. I still made it. Jericho is still hilarious. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I read his first book.

[01:29:05] Um, Alliance tail. Okay. So funny. That book is hilarious. I got to catch up on my wrestling reading. So much like read a wrestling book. I will though. I remember my, my roommate Joey at the time, he really recommended Mick Foley's book. And I remember not say that. Yeah. I heard it was really good. I see. I heard that too. I didn't care for it.

[01:29:34] Oh, really? Oh, I mean like I, and it's weird. Cause I really like Mick Foley. I don't know. There was just something about it. I just, it didn't resonate with me for some reason. And I can't really explain why, but. Yeah. To me, his was like the first like wrestling book that made it like mainstream. Like people was talking on TV and news and stuff like that. I was like, wow. Well, I mean, it paved the way realistically because that was the first wrestling book that would like, not like legitimately famous.

[01:30:03] And yeah, that's true. And at least he wrote it. So, well, I take that back. Like I think Dusty Rhodes book was, but I mean, it was, it was big. It was big outside of wrestling. See, that's what I mean. Like even people like in the news and had nothing to do with wrestling was talking about it. It was a good read. Yep. That makes sense. Yeah. Well, that is up for WrestleMania. And unless you want to talk about anything else, I think we've stolen these four people's time sufficient for one week.

[01:30:33] Yeah, it was good. I still look forward to the next week. See what happens. To see what happens. I do. Actually, this, this is Joey Holmes fault because when he, I was watching the episode and I'm like, wait a minute. No, there's another episode before the pay-per-view. But he says next week. And I'm like, no, it's not. It is absolutely not next week. I do.

[01:31:00] I do think it's at least one more episode, but so teaser for those of you that are watching weekly wrestling wrap up. If you like the training montage at the end of last week's episode, buckle up because the next episode opens with Joey Holmes training regimen and you're not going to want to miss that. I feel so bad because God, I used to be, I used to be a lot funnier. It was still good, man.

[01:31:29] It was just the times. Like it. It was man. Comedy. Like how it was back then. It was so good. Comedy was different. It had a much more random element to it. And I like, don't get me wrong. I still laughed. I still laughed. But it felt new. Like everything felt newer in a way, you know, like it's. I'm still impressed that we managed to create that weekly. I am too. Like it was really good. I know. It makes me. Back then.

[01:32:01] Yeah. It makes me feel really proud of it actually, because in like a lot of those bits we come up with on the fly. Like there's, it was never scripted. Even the interview things, like the spoof interviews, that's all. Yeah. And it was my idea to have Edge's ringtone be the Alter Bridge song. Yeah. And that, obviously that joke's a Family Guy reference to, do you want me to pick you up? Do you want me to pick you up? At that time, it was a newer Family Guy reference. Yeah.

[01:32:33] But yeah. It was still good. Because like back then, I remember watching wrestling more than I did now, but I wouldn't think to like have a podcast or show to talk about it. My friends or anything like that. I literally don't even remember. I don't even remember how it started. Like I, well, go back and watch the first episode.

[01:32:58] So we realized very quickly that it was just so boring to just talk about wrestling. Uh-huh. And so. It was just lacking the comedy and the fun bits. But the, the, the first episode is a little bit funnier than I remember it being. I remember it being like so dull, but we still kind of hope fun here and there. But. Yeah. You start seeing elements of comedy in episode two. And by episode three, we had just decided like, yeah, this is going to be a comedy thing. Like, yeah.

[01:33:28] But what I was proud of is how we made our own storylines within the show. Cause. Yeah. Like I said, back then, like most of my friends didn't even watch wrestling. Like they may have seen things, but they weren't into it as much as I was. Yeah. And case in point back then, like, don't get me wrong. YouTube was around, but we, that show was never on YouTube. It was on stage six and Google videos.

[01:33:57] That was before Google bought YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I was just proud because we had actual fans that tuned in weekly and that was not a ton, but I mean, we, it's not like we had no audience. So it was very fun to entertain them and give them something to look forward to. So that was fun. It's very fun. Yeah. I'm having a blast rewatching all these whole episodes. Which, holy crap.

[01:34:27] Remember the past. Like, I know, right. But, oh man. Just, just, just wait till season two, man. Oh. As funny as season one is, like season two, we just, season two is a whole new level of, because in season two, the show gets purchased. Oh, really? Yeah. So we're, we're owned, we're owned by a, uh, uh, how should we say a very specific type of drug company?

[01:34:58] Pfizer. Not quite. Everything. Um, we, we, the, the show gets bought by the parent company, Penal and Various Goods. With our. Imagine the sponsors. Flaccid Be Gone. Yeah. That's legitimately, the sponsor is Flaccid Be Gone. Oh, really?

[01:35:28] Yep. So season two, our, our sponsor is, uh, Flaccid Be Gone. So. It doesn't just. Help with that. It helps with the wide range of other things, too. And if you were around in 2007, there's a lot of internet culture that the kids today won't get because they weren't around to see it. But there's a lot of, like, uh. Well, like, I don't know. Do you remember Power Thirst?

[01:35:58] I think so. Okay. Yeah. We, we make fun of, uh. Well, we don't make fun of it. We spoof Power Thirst. First. We. Because in season two, we start doing sponsorship commercials. Uh-huh. Oh, God. It's, uh. Yeah. We have fun with it. But anyway. We've taken up enough of your time. Make sure to tune in next week. Check out our sponsors. Uh. Watch the Complete Guide to Happiness this Monday. And, uh.

[01:36:27] Maybe you won't be so cranky. You miserable prick. But anyway. Oh, we're going. Not you. Them. I'm talking to them. Although maybe he can help you with your Costco thing. I don't know. Uh. Tune in next week for another episode of Weekly Wrestling Wrap Up. I can't say it's new. But it's kind of new. It's new for you. It's like buying a used car. It's new to you. Oh, no. Vintage. Oh, it's vintage. There you go. It's remastered. It's not remastered.

[01:36:56] But it is in 16 by 9 now. So. That helps. Tune in next week for that. And then in two weeks. We're going to go over our. Wrestlemania preview. Where you will find out. Our predictions. For what we think is going to happen. And as always. Like, share, subscribe, comment. Let us know in the comments. What you think about the build up to Wrestlemania. And next week. What your prediction. Well, screw it. You can go ahead and put your predictions in here. Let's make it fun. And we can address them. The following week.

[01:37:26] Or two weeks. But until then. Yep. But until then. Watch wrestling. Watch down the middle. And we'll see you guys in two weeks.