You on your five star matches.
You on your 30 minute classics.
Big meaty man slapping me.
What is good ladies and gentlemen, this is the slapping me wrestling podcast.
I'm your host, Randall Beatley.
You can find me on TikTok as well as Twitter at We Too Deep 413.
Today's episode we're going to break down what looks to be the potential WrestleMania card.
My opinions on it, my opinions going into WrestleMania.
And then we're going to end the show.
I did everyone a favor and I went ahead and watched Revolution.
I was invited by a couple of my friends, my brother, my best friend, to watch Revolution with them.
I was hesitant because everything I've seen on TikTok, everything I've seen on Twitter has been a little bit down on AEW.
So I was like, eh, I already don't like it.
Why would I waste my time watching something that AEW fans don't seem to even like at the moment?
But I went ahead and just for the sake of hanging out with friends, I went in and watched.
And we're going to break down my reaction to what happened at Revolution.
And I think some of you may be surprised by some of it and others maybe not so much.
We'll see. But with that being said, I do want to do some some housekeeping a little bit.
Like I said, this will be a once a week show.
Now, I like this a little better when I was going, you know, four episodes a week.
I was just burnt out. It quickly burnt me out on the industry.
Right. Because I was I was forced to watch Raw.
And I'm sorry. That's what it was. It was like it was within.
It's not even good television. I'm just going to be completely honest with you.
Like it's three hours of torture at times.
And and so it just got tiring.
And then, you know, that ends at eleven and often I would go.
Raw would end. I would jump on the computer, record the episode, release it.
It's midnight, almost one o'clock at this point.
And I just it.
Then I had to do the same thing Tuesday where I'm watching NXT and I like NXT.
And again, NXT ends at 10.
So by the time that's posted, it's, you know, eleven thirty midnight.
And and so I'm just. You know, it was it was a lot of work.
And I'm not afraid of work. It was just a lot of grinding
that I don't think really needs to happen for the show to be good.
So what we're going to do with with the show is basically
it's going to be things that I enjoy in wrestling, different topics, different news things,
all within like a week thing.
Like I'll break down the shows, what I liked, what I dislike in wrestling over over a week.
Maybe we'll do like a breakdown of what I like in wrestling things.
You know, there's a lot of things that we could sit down.
I'm probably going to sit down at some point in the next couple of weeks
and write down things that I want to want to discuss on this episode
or on an episode on this podcast and break down and schedule it.
That way, I'm not coming up with ideas, you know, ahead of time,
like two hours before I record like I did for this this podcast.
Last thing in the housekeeping bit, I'm a part of a really awesome Discord server,
and I've gotten permission to to to promote this.
The casual wrestling community Discord server.
Well, it's it's the casual community.
So it started by someone that I've mentioned before on here, notorious nerdy D.
He runs the nerdy D show, which is more of a pop culture, you know,
show the him and his his wife does level up Lauren.
Big shout outs to both of them.
And then they do a wrestling show.
He does a wrestling show as well.
And so he put together a discord and it's in the starting phases.
There's not a lot of people in there,
but I've had a lot of fun and a lot of good discussion.
And so what I want to present to you guys is the opportunity to join the casual community
where we just come in, we have fun.
We there's there's a lot of trash talk and, you know, he offers.
So what he ends up doing is he's he he posts the new episode, the fish show.
It gives you guys something else to listen to as well.
And he has the same mindset that I have.
Let's make this a community thing.
Right. Who like I don't care if you listen or not.
Like if you join this and you find his podcast more appealing, go listen to it.
That's fine. Right.
I'm not in this for the viewership.
I'm not in this to make money.
I'm not in this to, you know, start a business.
I'm in this just to have fun.
This is fun to me to sit and talk about wrestling and share my opinions.
That's all I'm in this for is to have fun.
And Nerdy D has the same outlook on it.
He kind of actually has somewhat of the same like story, too, with his podcast.
He was doing this like four days a week.
And I mean, it's a lot of work to put in the type of production that he put in where I mean, it's researching and finding new stories.
If you've ever tried to find wrestling news stories, you'll understand it's difficult as hell.
Because when you go to these dirt sheets, like big news stories to them is like Vince McMahon backstage with a mustache.
Like who cares? Like I'm literally not even kidding.
That was a report that Vince McMahon was backstage and he had a mustache.
That's a big news report in the wrestling world. Right.
That's a whole other episode on why I think wrestling journalism can't even be called journalism because it's so bad at times.
It's a lot of research into doing these things, making sure you're telling accurate information.
Then for him, like he records and he he makes like shorts and tick tock length videos that I don't even do.
I can't even imagine the amount of time that Nerdy D put into to his podcast. Right.
So he sort of has the same sort of story as me.
He got burnt out with it. And so I think he actually releases on Wednesdays as well.
The more the merrier on Wednesday. That's wonderful.
It's wrestling Wednesday. Right.
I'm not the type of person that's like, oh, Wednesday's my day. Why are you infringing?
I want this to be fun for everyone involved.
Me and him have actually talked potentially trying to navigate a schedule to where we can do like a crossover show.
We've mentioned that idea. So that might be in the future.
I'm going to continue to follow up with him, see if we could plan something out.
But yeah, the opportunity to join his discord.
I'm going to leave the link in the bio of of this episode.
If you guys are like in the description for you to join for this episode, it's going to be in the description.
You can join the discord, the casual community, have a lot of a lot of the conversation threads are about stuff that's been talked about in his in his episodes.
And so you would write you can't just jump in and write.
But there is a lot of wrestling discussion involved in it.
So go check that out. I I first off he has if you have your own podcast, promote your show.
He wants us to be a community, just the same that I do.
Everyone have fun. Everyone promote their shit. Have some fun trash talk and go about it.
With that being said, it's a long introduction, a lot of housekeeping.
Let's get into today's show. Right.
And so I mentioned that had a time we're talking potential WrestleMania card and it's becoming less potential and more of what it's actually becoming and what it is.
We're less than 30 days away from WrestleMania.
Let's let's count the days down seven twenty twenty one two three four like twenty five days from night one of WrestleMania.
At the time I'm recording this, which is on a Tuesday.
What I do if you guys don't know, I record on Tuesday nights.
I set to to release Wednesday morning, so I am recording this on a Tuesday.
Right. So we're 20 something days from WrestleMania.
I'm be honest with you. I'm not excited for this.
When they announced WrestleMania Hollywood, there was big potential for the rock.
Then they were talking Sina. Then they were talking Austin.
Like there was a potential for the three of the three of my top five wrestlers being on this card.
Then you add in Roman Reigns. So that's four of my top five wrestlers of all time.
Right. The only one that missing is Hulk Hogan.
And please don't bring it. Please.
We don't need Hulk Hogan, but Austin Sina Rock Roman.
Then you add in guys like Seth Rollins, who are like top 10 all time for me.
Right. You had a potential for a star studded WrestleMania.
You had the potential. You know, this time last year.
Right. And when they were announcing, hey, this is going to L.A.
Right. Like last year at WrestleMania time, like there was a lot of potential for what this
WrestleMania could be. And now we're 30 less than 30 days away from it.
And it just doesn't feel like it's going to live up to much.
It just seems like another premiere live event card and not even a good one at that.
So we are going to go through the card. The first report that I want to talk about is that Triple H
is trying to make the card smaller, that he wants a smaller WrestleMania card, which I'm fine with.
And I actually promote. But with that being said.
If you're going to use a smaller card, please bring it back to one night.
We don't need two night WrestleMania's.
And you're going to have to trim some of the fat in your roster.
Right. You can't have 200 300 superstars in the company and only display, you know, eight matches.
Right. So if you're going to shrink the card and I think you should.
But I think there's also a lot of fat in the company that if you just cut the fat and release, you know,
go back to February 8th, I think it was when I did the roster revamp and I ended up cutting like 25,
30 percent of the roster. That's something that needs to be done.
And to to create, I think, better enticing program because when you have so many people at your dispensary
at your dispense, excuse me, I can't talk.
When you have so many people at your at your exposure, at your expense to put on the TV.
Right. A lot of times you just don't.
Especially if you're going to use the same 10, 15 people.
Right. So I think you got to cut some of the fat shrink the card.
I think eight matches is the most you should have on a WrestleMania.
Not everyone deserves to have a WrestleMania moment every year.
The best of the best deserve to have their WrestleMania moment.
With that being said, I am going to go through some of the matches that appear to be what's going on.
We'll break down the women's side of the card first.
We'll start with the match that got announced yesterday on Monday Night Raw.
Yesterday or Monday on Monday Night Raw.
Remember that I am recording on Tuesday. Sorry about that.
Becky Lynch versus Enlita and Trish Stratus versus Damage Control.
I don't hate this match.
However, I don't understand why you would give Lita and Becky the championship
and then not have that title defended at WrestleMania.
I just don't understand it.
I like this match better.
My problem is these women's tag team championships just are completely useless at this point.
I think I would rather get rid of them and put on a mid-card title for the women's division
that I think would be a lot more useful.
There's obviously no plan for these.
You would think that Ronda and Shayna would be the next competitors in line to fight for them.
I just don't know if I really want to see Lita and Trish Stratus in a WrestleMania caliber match.
I don't know what the benefit is for this or who really wants to see this.
I would love to see Ronda and Shayna win these tag titles at WrestleMania.
That would be my preferred match.
But this match is what we're getting.
I would assume this leads to Ronda and Shayna maybe at Backlash, maybe at Money in the Bank,
maybe a bigger event like Summerslam.
I just can't see Lita wrestling week to week.
And so you're telling me...
The only thing I could think of is potentially Ronda and Shayna winning it on the road to WrestleMania
maybe by a damage control distraction or something.
I just don't understand.
I don't see Lita wrestling week to week, showing up week to week to promote this,
but also to continue to carry the championship past WrestleMania.
What's going to happen past WrestleMania that benefits the championship here?
So we'll move forward with the women's division.
We got Bianca and Asuka, and we got Charlotte versus Rhea.
Now the reason I'm going to talk about these the same is three of the four competitors I'm fine with.
I would have preferred Bianca versus Rhea, and I would have preferred Charlotte versus Raquel Rodriguez.
I think those would have been the better matches that promoted younger and better stars.
Raquel should be booked a hell of a lot better,
and Rhea I think would have made a better opponent against Bianca.
That's just my opinion.
I think those would have been the better matches.
Nothing against Asuka. I think she's a fine wrestler.
I just don't think that the modern channel flippers, the casual fans,
this gimmick, which is her indie gimmick basically,
I don't think a lot of people care about it, just to be completely honest.
And so I would have rather seen Rhea face Bianca and then Raquel face Charlotte with two new champions.
I think Raquel is a star in the making if booked correctly,
and Rhea is the best thing in the industry of all companies.
I think Rhea is the best thing in the women's division today.
But yeah, it looks like we're going to get Bianca versus Asuka, Charlotte versus Rhea.
They're not going to be bad matches.
Rhea and Charlotte will probably main event night one,
and more than likely I'm seeing Rhea winning that match.
I think then we'll get the Andre of the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
It's rumored to not happen, but I think it will happen.
And I think that could potentially be a spot where you maybe put over someone like Montez Ford, LA Knight.
I'm trying to think of someone else on the main roster that deserves a good push,
but winning this doesn't really do much for your career.
I'm going to be completely honest with you.
So I want to see it, but at the same time I really don't want to see it.
It's just a projection.
I think we're probably going to get a match like that.
I think Cena versus Theory was confirmed as happening last night on Monday Night Raw.
I kind of figured this was going to be the match.
I'm not upset with it.
It's predictable that Theory is going to win,
but I think it's going to be a little put, the Cena sort of, the Cena rub where Cena's going to pass the torch over to him.
And it should be a fun match.
It's going to be a really, and it probably, it won't be like super, super high-pitched,
but I think it's going to be a good match.
I really do. I really do.
Cena doesn't ever disappoint.
Theory doesn't ever disappoint.
I just don't necessarily know if I really care about this match.
This is one of those, this is going to be a B-match on a B-card.
Let's just be completely honest.
We got Logan Paul versus Seth Rollins, which looks like it's going to happen.
Again, this is probably going to be a match of the night.
But it's also one that I'm like, do I really want to see this?
Seth Rollins, probably the best overall superstar in the, like if we're talking about athleticism,
character, ring ability, work rate, right?
Roman Reigns is great.
Like he's the best in the business to me in terms of storytelling and everything.
But Rollins is so good with so little being done for him.
Right? Rollins is great.
Probably right under Roman to me.
And then you're going to put in someone like Logan Paul who was built for this business.
I'm not going to be the guy that goes, Logan Paul's a disgrace to the business.
Why do they keep using?
No, he's not a disgrace.
In fact, I would actually say that he was born for this company and born for this business.
And anyone that can promote this and build something that is good and entertaining,
I want him at WrestleMania.
Logan Paul at WrestleMania just makes sense.
And him against Seth Rollins, I think it's an intriguing match.
And it would not surprise me at all if Logan Paul won this match.
For the story that we can tell.
Now let me tell you what that story is.
Night one, Seth Rollins versus Logan Paul.
Logan Paul wins.
Seth Rollins loses.
Which irritates Seth Rollins.
Irritates him to the point that night two, he attacks Cody Rhodes.
In the middle of his match, gets him DQ'd.
And sets up not only a Rollins versus Cody feud, which I think is where we're headed.
But a match at backlash between Roman, Seth, and Cody for the Undisputed Championship.
Now why do I think this is going to happen?
Well, you go back to Royal Rumble, Cody enters the ring.
First person he sort of introduced to is Seth Rollins.
And what did Seth say?
He's like, you're not taking my moment this time.
Insinuating, hey man you're doing this again, right?
Like in my own words, Seth Rollins said to Cody,
why every time I get so close to the championship, you stand in my way, right?
I get so close, I'm trying to prove myself, trying to get that big win.
So that I can get a title match.
And you stand in my way, right?
You come in and interrupt my momentum, right?
Because you could argue that if Cody Rhodes wasn't back at Royal Rumble,
Seth Rollins would have been an easy pick to win that match, right?
And Cody coming back is taking that moment from Seth.
And Seth just lost not only his moment in the main event against Roman because of Cody,
but because he didn't win Rumble, now he had to face Logan Paul, right?
And Seth wouldn't have had to be in that elimination chamber where he got attacked by Logan Paul.
If it wasn't for Cody, right?
He could shift all the blame for all of his problems on Cody,
which makes him instantly a heel, makes Cody a baby face, right?
In the feud, I think it becomes a good feud.
And it also puts Seth back in the title picture, right?
You have Seth and Cody sort of fight it out for, you know, a few months.
Or this sets up an opportunity where both of them defeat Roman.
In some way, shape, or form, and split the belt at backlash.
Now, I don't know if I personally like that.
The rumor that I'm really hoping happens is Roman keeps it till SummerSlam,
and Gunther beats him at SummerSlam.
I would love that.
I would eat that up all day. All day.
I would eat that up.
But I just, I think Seth is losing this match, I'm being completely honest with you.
And when we get to the week of WrestleMania and I do my predictions,
we'll get more into that.
Let's continue.
Speaking of Gunther, I think he will defend his championship,
his Intercontinental Championship.
There's a fatal five-way on Friday night to determine who he faces,
Sheamus, Drew, LA Knight, Kofi, and I forgot the fifth guy.
But Kofi's injured now, so either Kofi's gonna have to be replaced,
or maybe they just make it a fatal four-way.
Either way, I think that's gonna end in some sort of tie,
where it ends up being Sheamus and McIntyre in that match.
WWE does this thing where, like, matches like this,
they like to put in a triple threat situation.
I think Gunther loses that WrestleMania match,
and that's when he gets the big push to SummerSlam,
where he beats Roman Reigns.
I think that would make the most perfect sense.
I really want Sheamus to win it so that he can become the Grand Slams Champion.
You could have Sheamus Penn-McIntyre to win the title,
which sets up a feud between Sheamus and Drew for that championship for a few months
while you're building other stars.
I think that's the best way to do it, to be honest with you.
I think it's gonna be a triple threat, Gunther versus Drew McIntyre versus Sheamus.
We then have...
I'll talk about that in a minute.
Dominik versus Rey Mysterio.
I think it's been confirmed, but that's definitely where they're headed.
And this is gonna be an interesting match, I'm being honest with you.
I think it's gonna be very interesting.
And I forgot to mention this guy when I talked about Andre the Giant.
Damien Priest probably is gonna win the Andre the Giant Memorial.
Think about the momentum that Judgment Day is going to get potentially off of this card.
Rio winning the Women's Champion, Damien Priest potentially winning his match
with maybe like Andre the Giant.
If they do it, another match that I want to talk about is Edge versus Finn Balor.
I think it's gonna happen.
Finn Balor's probably gonna win that match, and I hope that ends the feud.
But think like Dominik winning, Finn winning, Rio winning, Judgment Day,
it's gonna be Damien Priest winning the Andre the Giant.
Think about all of that momentum.
You could then, as the bloodline's going down, you need another faction to take over.
Factions just tell the best stories, because there's so many different pieces that you could put in.
And so you can have Judgment Day come in with all those momentum after Mania to be that next faction.
There's also the potential of a Hurt Business coming back, a new Hurt Business.
We'll talk about that one in a minute.
But Dominik versus Ray, it's gonna be that emotional hitter.
Edge versus Finn, don't really necessarily care about.
Let's talk Brock Lesnar versus Omos, again, don't care about this one.
It's not like I'm gonna hate on it, but it's like a B-minus match at best.
The best way for them to do this is just have Brock F5 and suplex him a thousand times.
Or build up Omos to where he's squashing all these people, and he beats Brock in like two minutes.
That would be hilarious and funny, but also would build Omos up with a little bit of credibility.
But I just don't think the fans are behind Omos, so I don't think it's something that we should really care about.
Especially if this is Brock Lesnar's last match, as it is being rumored that he's gonna say his goodbyes after WrestleMania.
Having it against Omos is kind of weird.
But it's also a way, this also seems like a torch passing moment that Vince McMahon created.
Like, hey, we gotta pass the torch to the big giant from Nigeria, let's have him beat Brock.
The last match, well there's three more matches we haven't talked about.
The last one that I haven't mentioned that I really just don't have a care in the world about is Bobby Lashley versus Bray Wyatt.
I don't care about it, I don't care about Bray Wyatt, I just don't.
When he was released as The Fiend, I thought it was good for business.
Because he just didn't make, like, The Fiend was ruined when it lost to Goldberg.
And there was no saving in that character.
And then so when he got released, I was like, okay, that's good, he can disappear, they can bring him back in a couple months, year, whatever.
And that's exactly what they did.
And so when he came back, like the intrigue of the new character was just so good.
That was all behind it.
But we're November, December, January, February, March, we're five, almost six months into this new gimmick.
And I don't know what's going on.
No one knows what's going on.
And I'm being told I have to wait.
I'm sorry, who waits five months for anything?
Right?
Especially for a story.
Like if I was to write you a story and it was 500 pages long and you got 400 pages into it and nothing happened up to that point to expand the story, you would be like, well, what the hell is going on?
Right?
That's a lot of time wasted and nothing happened.
Right?
So or if I were to write you a movie, if you were to go to a movie that was four hours long and three hours into the movie, nothing of the plot got explained.
Just a bunch of randomness being put together.
You would be like, what the hell is going on?
Right.
And then you would have to say the person beside you said, no, man, you just got to wait it out.
But how long do you wait before you say, man, this movie sucks?
Right.
And then for Bray Wyatt, you even say one thing bad about Bray Wyatt and the damn cult of of wrestling fans on the Internet attack you.
I'm not interested at all in anything Bray Wyatt has done.
Bray Wyatt did not carry that last feud.
L.A. Knight did.
Right.
So I just I don't understand why people continue to to to treat Bray like he's untouchable and he can't be critiqued.
Right.
So then we have the Usos.
What are we doing with the Usos?
To me, the best match you could have done would have been.
Jay versus Sammy and what what happened on Monday Night Raw on the 6th of March this past Monday, right, where Jay came back and turned on Sammy.
I believe that should have happened at Elimination Chamber and what costed Sammy the match.
And then they should have began a feud between Sammy and Jay.
I felt that that was the bigger story.
If you look at Sammy Zane's story and involvement in the bloodline, he was more involved with the Usos than he ever was involved with Roman Reigns.
And so the Usos and Sammy are the bigger story.
And I felt him and Jay, Sammy and Jay were the biggest of the stories that you could fulfill here.
But this also could lead to the Sammy Zane redemption story.
Right.
Where Sammy Zane gets betrayed by all his friends, they beat him down, beat him down.
He loses to Jay.
He loses to Jimmy.
He loses to Solo.
He wins money in the bank.
The cash in on Roman where he put where he wins money in the bank.
Right.
I think that's a beautiful story.
I do.
And I think that's how this story has to end.
As much as I'd love to see Gunther beat Roman, I think Sammy has to at this point be the guy to do it in a David and Goliath type of way.
Where Sammy comes out and Sammy does the uber babyface cash in or he wins it at money in the bank.
He grabs a mic.
He cuts a really short promo that says Roman, I'm cashing in in Detroit at SummerSlam.
I'll see your bitch ass there.
Something like that.
And then he leaves the ring.
We don't see Sammy Zane till SummerSlam.
We don't see Roman Reigns and Sammy interact until SummerSlam.
But Roman knows and he has that he's on notice.
Right.
I'm wrestling at SummerSlam against Sammy Zane.
He's cashing in and Sammy beats him.
And then that's I mean Sammy could just be a transitional champion for a month and have Gunther come in and beat the shit out of him.
That would be great.
Right.
That would be great.
Sammy has to be the guy that beats this though.
He has to.
And what I think they're going to do with the story that they're telling is it's going to be Sammy and Kevin versus the Usos at WrestleMania for the tag team champions.
I think the Usos lose or I was of the opinion that the Usos were going to lose.
But now after last night, I don't know.
I really don't know.
But I do think we get Kevin and Sammy versus the Usos for the tag team championship.
And then of course, the last match is Roman Reigns versus Cody for the Undisputed Championship.
Everyone has their opinion.
I'm not going to predict the match now.
We'll wait till you know, two, three weeks from now, four weeks from now when we're doing the prediction show.
And yeah, and we'll see what happens with it.
I just overall this card is just B plus at best.
Like it's not a WrestleMania card.
This is something you give me at like SummerSlam or Survivor Series.
It doesn't have Hollywood big big fight feel.
I think Rollins and Logan Paul are going to be the best match of the night.
Right. Like you had you fail.
And I think it's just because like the idea that we could have the Rock and we could have Austin and we could have seen in a match all at the same time on the same card just really rose the bar of what this could be.
And then to see what we're actually probably going to get.
It's a little disappointing.
But with that, we're done discussing WrestleMania for now.
Let's talk about what happened on Sunday at a revolution.
I'm going to pull up the card real quick because I don't remember everything.
So I'll be honest. I watched with my friends.
I got there late. I missed the first match with which which was Jericho versus Starks.
And I missed that match. Ricky Starks won, which was predictable.
Right. You looked at the card. You could figure that out.
I entered the match right towards the end of Jungle Boy versus Christian Cage, which was the second match.
So I missed basically about two matches by the time I got to to to my friend's house to watch.
And they were the two matches I really don't care about. So I'm not I'm not going to talk about them because I didn't watch them.
But from what I heard, they were pretty decent matches.
So then we talk about the first full match that I was there to watch the six man tag team match for the A.W.
Trios championships between the elite Kenny Omega, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson and the House of Black Malachi Black Brody King, Buddy Matthews,
where the House of Black ended up winning.
I liked this match. It wasn't it wasn't like an A plus.
But this was a very decent match with a very, very good decision booking wise to have the House of Black win.
Like I said, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
Was your there was a couple of spots in there where it became a spot fest.
Your typical elite match.
I'll say this, though, with this being really the only like this was like the only match where I felt like, oh, this could probably be like a spot fest.
I'll save it for my overall results, but I thoroughly enjoyed that this was like the only match that that that gave that feeling of of spot fest.
So the next match after that was Jamie Hader, Sharia and Ruby Soho for the Women's World Championship in which Jamie Hader retained the championship.
This was a solid match, right?
Very good. Better than I expected.
Again, best decision was made to keep Jamie Hader as champion.
At the end of the match, Ruby Soho joined Paige, not Paige, Sharia, sorry, joined Sharia and Tony Storm,
which leads to us to believe that there's going to be you know, they do like that blood and guts match
around this time, so that's probably going to be the elimination style match that they do.
Sharia, Tony Storm, Ruby Soho.
They typically have four per team, but then you have on the other side, Brit and Sharia.
If I was a bigger AEW fan, I'd be like, hmm, let's figure out who the other people in this match could be.
I don't I don't know a lot about AEW at the moment in their women's division.
Some people are probably a lot of people are saying potentially Statlander could come back, maybe Thunder Rosa, things like that.
We'll see that in the future.
But again, I thought this was a very, very good match.
The next match was Hangman Paige and John Moxley in a Texas death match.
I think the rules were you could only win by submission or knockout, something like that.
I think if I if I understood the rules right, there were no pins pinfalls.
This match was exactly what you thought it was going to be Moxley bled a lot.
Hangman bled a lot.
But it wasn't bad.
A lot of times my critique of John Moxley matches is the blood hurts the match.
And overall, I would still say with John Moxley, him bleeding every single time he gets in the ring loses the credibility of the blood.
Right. If he bled once a year or twice a year in matches that had that big match feel where the blood added to their match like this match needed the blood to sell the story.
It wasn't like a bad thing.
I think the only spot I didn't necessarily like were he literally was like poking his his his brains out.
And I wasn't a big fan of that spot.
Everybody else was. I just wasn't a big fan of that spot.
I don't think that would what is needed to get over the idea that, you know, you're you're being bloody and gory.
I think that that spot is needed in professional wrestling.
Again, I wouldn't say this is a match of the year, but it was it was better than I had expected it to be.
We then get Samoa Joe and Wardlow Wardlow wins becomes TNT champion.
From what I can tell from Tick Tock and everyone TNT championship picture is like a fucking mess of ring around the rosy hot potato.
Who gets it this week?
Then we have the Tag Team Championship four way tag team match for the Tag Team Championship between the guns, the acclaimed Jay Lathol and Jeff Jarrett and Orange Cassidy and Dan Howson.
Again, I think the best decision was made and had the guns retain.
But I want to go back real quick. I forgot to mention this.
Wardlow now has to fight on Wednesday on Dynamite has to fight powerhouse Hobbs, which more than likely Hobbs is going to win that match.
My question with this is, is why would you not just make this a triple threat and put Hobbs as the champion or make Hobbs the champion at the pay
review where it means a little bit more?
That's that's just it's that's sort of the questionable.
That's probably the most questionable booking decision made it this entire night of why does not put Hobbs in this match?
So the guns, though, do retain.
I'll tell you something.
The guns got a new fan out of me.
And as someone who doesn't didn't really know much about, you know, the tag team division in AW, they don't really pay attention to AW.
I like the guns.
I do. I like their aesthetic.
They they have that they have a good look to them.
We'll talk about that as a review of some of the people that you know that I enjoyed out of the show.
Like if I was a new viewer who I would be cheering for.
I mean, the Iron Man, 60 Man Iron Man match for the World Championship.
MJF won four to three over Bryan Danielson and an overtime sudden death.
This story was the story of this match was fantastic.
I was on the edge of my seat the entire time in this match.
It was a solid match and dare I say probably the best match of the year so far.
It's hard to that's hard to say because Roman versus Sammy was pretty damn good.
I don't know how long it stays as top of my match of the year candidates.
But.
Especially with WrestleMania having Logan Paul and Seth Rollins on it, which I think is going to be instantly a very good match.
I think Roman versus Cody has the potential to be a very good match.
If we ever get Roman and Sammy again, that's potentially going to be a match of the year match.
I think we had a lot of match of the year candidates so far.
But I think we got to put MJF and Bryan Danielson on that list.
One of the best matches I've seen in a long time from AEW.
And.
A lot of it had to do with the pacing.
A lot of times when you get these timed 60 minute Iron Man style matches like this, everyone goes out and it's a spot fest for 60 minutes.
And that wears out an audience super quick.
They did a very good job.
Now, there's a story breaking out of this match where MJF was in the crowd.
They were in the crowd and MJF took a drink, whether it was water or tequila.
I don't really think it matters for what I'm about to say.
And he took it from a woman and he threw it on that woman's son.
Here's my thing.
A lot of people are saying, oh, this makes MJF.
This is why he's the best he'll ever know.
I have the complete opposite reaction to that that move.
I think that was disrespectful.
I think it technically is classified as assault.
And I don't think it's needed in wrestling.
I'm all for a good heel character.
But if your best ability as a heel, if the thing you do best is piss people off or get the cheap heat, you're not a good heel.
Anyone can get cheap heat.
Anyone can walk into a city and call it a trash hole.
Anyone can can can do meet and greets and insult people.
Anyone can take a drink and throw it on it on a child.
That's not that's not good heel work.
That doesn't make you a good heel.
What makes you a good heel is storyline.
Right. Roman Reigns is a better heel than MJF because.
Roman Reigns storyline is so fucking good.
And I'm not saying this story wasn't good, but Roman doesn't have to do the cheap heat tactics.
He doesn't have to insult you.
He doesn't have to pour water and popcorn on you.
You know what Roman has to do?
Roman's music just has to play and he gets booed.
Why?
Because of the story that is being told.
Right. At the end of the day, if you have to result to cheap heat, it's because your story that is the story that you're telling is not good.
And there really is no story with MJF.
There's been no character development.
He's bland, one dimensional, and his his stick is his run out of time.
Everyone's used to it now.
He does the same thing with every feud that he's in.
And it's bland.
It's one dimensional.
And at this point, I just I think MJF is like he's probably in the top five active heels right now.
But I can name at least two that I like better than I like Roman better.
And personally, I think Grayson Waller is better.
Grayson Waller is so much better than MJF, in my opinion.
That's just that's just how I how I see it.
I think I think Grayson Waller is more entertaining.
I think he has, I believe, better promos.
And I think he's better in the in the ring.
Grayson Waller does some shit where like I'm like, why did why would you do that?
Like Grayson Waller to me is is better than it is just overall better.
And that's my opinion.
You don't have to agree with me.
But Grayson Waller to me is better than MJF.
I don't think there's any debating that.
Like I said, this was matchup.
This is a potential match of the year candidate.
It's just some of those tactics don't have to be done to be a good heel.
And I even as a heel, I would live by at least one rule as a wrestler.
Don't assault the fan.
Don't assault.
You can insult I.N.S. U.L.T.
You can insult the fans that that's good fan engagement is right.
Insulting the fans.
But when you assault a s s a u l t, when you assault the fans, when you basically commit a crime, like if like if I was just a random passerby or a fan who took that that drink out of the woman's hand and threw it on her son, she could legally press charges on me.
For assaulting her child.
That is the definition of assault.
Right. And so as a wrestling promoter, I would never promote illegal activity that wasn't within the bounds of the story.
First off, it added nothing to the match.
So he just got heat for the sake of getting heat and it added nothing to the match.
Right.
The best tea does heat that adds something to the match and add something to the story.
And this did nothing for the story.
Right.
I guess that the match itself was great.
I just don't as this is the area where like like if I'm Tony Khan.
And I'm backstage at the press conference like Tony Khan just sitting here letting MJF get away with assault and you have the count like he basically had to give away free stuff to this kid, which is fine.
But that's damage control because one of your employees did stupid shit.
This shouldn't happen.
Right. You shouldn't allow assault to happen.
At one of your shows.
Right. In the same method as like I would if if if I was a promoter and one of my employees, if one of my wrestlers that I have signed to work for me for even if it was just a night were to hit.
On purpose, a fan like sometimes like you'll fly over the barricade and like land on a person or or something get thrown over the barricade and land on a that that happened.
Right. If you sit front row at an indie show or even at WWE and expect sweat blood whatever to get on you.
You should expect that.
But if you're like four rows deep and you're working the crowd you're in the crowd you're maybe it's like a no DQ match and you're in the crowd and you're and a fan says something to you like I've seen it before and like old school tapes or like wrestlers would like punch fans or whatever.
Right. Like like if you do something like that you're no longer working for me and you're not getting paid for that show.
Right. You're getting and or like even in like Tony Khan's case like if I'm Tony Khan and MJF does this at the press conference I'm finding him I'm announcing a legitimate fine not a storyline fine a legitimate fine and he's been suspended.
That that's that's what happens.
And I make that public at the at the press conference.
Because you don't do things like that. You just don't do things like that. Right. Right.
MJF shows up at the press conference before he even starts talking buddy. You could you could do what you want. I can let you do what you want to do but I got to announce this first.
You you threw a drink on a child with that being said you will be fined one hundred grand and or you know you'll be fined your pay per view check.
You'll get paid your normal salary but your pay per view check.
I'm assuming that's how Tony Khan pays on because I think they're listed as employees of and of if I understand it correctly they're listed as employees of a W.
So I think he pays them like a salary and then he pays them like their pay per view bonus.
And so I would be at least that's the way that I would set it up. And so I would be like you know you're you get you'll get your salary but your your pay per view bonus has been fine.
You're not going to get that and you're going to be suspended for two weeks. Right.
And then leave it at that. Right. That that would be what I would. That's how I would handle that.
That would nip that in the butt right away. Right.
I just I just don't think it's acceptable for anyone. I don't care who you are in the wrestling industry.
If Roman Reigns took a went into the crowd and assaulted a fan same thing should happen to him.
He should be fined. He should be penalized. He should be suspended. Right.
I just don't think it's proper business ethics to be OK with a fan being assaulted on live TV.
I just don't think that's fine. I don't think that's fine in any business. Right.
Because at the end of the day they're there to watch you not be not have a drink spilled on especially if it was alcoholic.
Right. Overall though with this show I will say this if I was a new fan who had no idea who what A.W. was and this was the first show I was introduced to.
And I really haven't watched A.W. since Forbidden Door last year.
I'm be completely honest they actually kept up with it and watched the segments and the matches.
They made some fans out of me now or I watch for full gear.
I don't actually remember.
It's been a while since I remember keeping up with it.
They run four pay-per-views a year and I don't even remember like when they run them.
Did I watch all out. I think I think I did watch all out.
I don't know. I don't remember to be honest.
I don't keep up with A.W. That's the point.
But I may have to start keeping up with it if Tony Khan is going to continue to book the way he did.
Like I said the booking decisions were great.
I don't have a lot to complain about in the booking department.
The women's division from what I saw is getting a little better.
Now I've seen some parts of like like I'm not watching Rampage.
I'm not watching Dark. I watch Dynamite and I watched pay-per-views.
I I enjoyed I honestly I honestly enjoyed Revolution.
I did.
So the guys that I really enjoy the most the Gun Club.
Probably my new favorite tag team there.
They're probably going to be in a few with FTR which is going to be a freaking great food even though FTR is probably going to win the titles back from them.
Jamie Hader and Britt Baker.
I I've loved them forever.
When I say forever I mean since they really you know became a thing.
Britt Baker is the best woman on the on that roster.
And Jamie Hader is a close second.
And I think both of them are top 10 women in the industry if not top five.
I think in the industry active for twenty twenty three.
I think right now Rhea Ripley is the best followed by Bianca.
I think Britt and Jamie are three and four and five.
I really don't care about.
I'm beyond would you I think I think those are the top four and I think I think Jamie and Britt are up there.
I think I think Jade is top 10 right.
Like I'm not I'm not going to be but I think Jamie Hader is probably the best thing for a W right now.
Brits had a lot of runs here of late in the company and so I think her being sort of like a manager.
One I think it works better for her scheduling wise because she is a literal dentist.
But I also think like Jamie Hader I think is is more over than Britt at the moment.
And I just don't see Jamie losing the belt at this point.
Will be interesting to see where that leads though.
See who else I like Hobbs I've always liked Hobbs.
I've thought Hobbs should have been pushed a hell of a lot earlier.
I like Ricky Starks.
I think he's the future of the brand from the show.
That's about it.
But but but that's a foundation.
Like if I were to come into AEW right now right and I might even consider doing what like a roster revamp like I did for WWE for AEW because I think there's a lot of people I would just completely get rid of in AEW.
But if I were to come into AEW now like I would push the women's division through Jade and Jamie Hader and Britt Baker.
Those would be the top three women.
I probably would actually have that be the first big feud that I would have.
And I would have Jade cash in her TBS championship for the for a straight front of the line championship match against Jamie Hader.
And I'd probably would have Jade win that.
I don't have Jade lose a belt to not get one in return.
But I think I would make that be the feud for the first three or four months where Jade cashes in.
So I would have them feud and then Jade cashes in.
But the the cash in policy is next pay per view right would be my policy where you cash in at the next pay per view not whenever you want you cash in at the next pay per view would be my policy.
And so I would have Jade cash in that title against Jamie Hader.
I would probably have it be done at all out.
I think that's like their WrestleMania right.
So that would be something that I would do.
I would build around FTR and the Gun Club and the acclaimed as much as I don't like them are very good tag team.
They're over.
There's a lot of other things that I've watched on like Rampage.
I'm not a big fan of on the tag team division but definitely the Gun Club.
I would build behind.
I think they're very good tag team the acclaimed FTR I think is one of the best in the world.
I think other people I would build the company behind.
I don't really know. I would have to look through the roster.
I'm sure they got a lot.
Ricky Starks is one of them.
Yeah.
I just one final word that I'll say is it's sad that the All-Atlantic Championship like you built this new championship.
It's on the card but it's not being defended.
In fact the champion is in a tag team match that just tells you that this title means nothing.
Right.
Also I would build behind powerhouse Hobbs.
He would be my big star.
Right. I think Starks and Hobbs could run the the the single scene build behind the Gun Club and FTR and build behind Jade and Jamie Hader in the women's division.
And I think you got a pretty decent car watching this showed me a W's got some potential if Tony could just stop the stupid shit from happening.
And what it also showed me was this isn't as bad as I thought it was.
And it isn't as bad as the the the WWE only fans have convinced me that it was.
If you booked the way you booked revolution continuously where it wasn't it where it isn't match with a shit ton of spots and match with a shit ton of spots.
But what I also think is our eight starting has helped like with it now being on what honor club with our weight actually being a brand and you get guys like Eddie Kingston and Joe is finally going to go away from a W and Claudio's gone and stuff like that.
I think it's going to benefit a W dynamite as a show because you don't have the R.O.H. influence right on the show like leading up to I think the last show that I last pay per view there was a lot of R.O.H. influence because Tony was trying to build our weight.
I get that.
But it took away from a W.
Right. So I don't think a W is all that in the trash.
I don't like I really enjoyed this pay per view.
It's like a B plus for me.
And I think we could potentially get a match of the year candidate out of it with Brian Danielson and MJF.
So overall good experience.
I may have to tune in Wednesday to watch dynamite and we'll see what happens.
But until next time this has been the slap of me wrestling podcast.
My name is rental Beatley again.
You can find me on tick tock and Twitter at we too deep for one three.
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Please join ahead.
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That way we can talk wrestling.
We talk mostly WWE but I'm sure we could get some AEW discussion going on.
But with that said I'll see you all on the next episode.
Thank you all for listening.