Here it is Wednesday and the same folks on social media that's starting hashtags and
maybe have not seen soap and water since Friday night are still going strong in these internet
social media streets talking about Cody or we riot or we want Cody and he got the Rewant
Rocky.
I just want entertaining wrestling.
Is that too much to ask for?
Can we start our new hashtag of like hashtag?
Let's just let it play out and enjoy what we have in front of us.
Is that too many characters?
Yeah, maybe.
I mean you get 250.
That may be too many, but we'll figure it out.
Before the end of the episode, we can figure out what our hashtag is going to be for normal
people that don't take things so serious and send death threats to folks and hope people
die and make the Rock's daughter get off social media because y'all blowing her inbox up with
ridiculousness.
Y'all gotta stop.
Y'all gotta relax.
This is a entertainment field.
This is a medium of entertainment that you're supposed to watch and enjoy.
And then we can have our back and forth and have a good time talking about it.
But all that extra nonsense.
Y'all gotta, y'all gotta relax.
Y'all gotta relax.
Tranquilo as Andrade would say.
Rordija is in the house.
Eshaan is in the house and you guys know me.
I am in the house.
Episode 107 of the TFW podcast.
That's freaking wrestling.
We're going to talk some freaking wrestling.
And I think the best way to start is probably watching Raw this past Monday in the opener.
Seth Rollins comes out and we got Cody and we got Drew McIntyre.
I just thought to myself, man, wrestling is the best when things don't go the way it's
planned to go.
It's the best.
We didn't think Rock was going to come do what he did or maybe so.
We'll talk about that too.
We got some conflicting people saying one thing.
One person says this is the plan from the jump and everything is going beautiful to
plan.
The other person says it wasn't a plan and this is what it is.
So we'll talk about that too.
But just watching Seth react to the crowd organically with the Rocky Sucks chants, seeing
Cody come out there, seeing Drew come out there.
I'm just spinning back and I'm like, this is the fun stuff.
This is what it's supposed to be like when things don't go the way they're supposed to.
Let me ask you guys, we've talked on this podcast for weeks and weeks and weeks and
weeks and weeks about Drew McIntyre and how he's doing some of the best work of his career.
We're hoping he is resigned because we're like, hey, he needs to be resigned.
He's like, hey, I would like him if there was a good creative team in AEW to go to AEW
just because we want him to maximize his potential and who he is.
Is there anybody right now clicking like Drew McIntyre in all of wrestling?
It'd be hard to find them.
I mean, you might have Swerve, maybe a couple people, NXT based off of NXT levels, but no,
Drew Drew's him.
Like if they got the whole we want Cody, I'm about to start we want Drew.
We're probably not starting there.
Probably somebody has already said that, but let's go with hashtag we want Drew.
Drew McIntyre is actually moving up my top 20 list.
I think he's he's up there.
I have to look at my list again to see who I'm bumping.
But he's up there, man.
After that, we're going to get into it because I want to I want to touch base with that baby
face promo that Drew McIntyre baby face promo that baby face promo that Drew McIntyre hit
on Raw because it was no caps to be had with that Drew McIntyre promo.
What a man.
What in particular did you guys enjoy the most?
I'll tell you what I enjoy the most about that.
Just the whole interaction right was they leaned into what's happening.
That was number one for me when Cole kept saying in the first opening segment like hey,
we'll talk through what happened throughout the show.
We'll tell you the stories around it.
And then you had Pat kind of saying like hey, Cody's been trending for three days straight.
It seems like anybody who has a Twitter is all they've been tweeting about is WWE.
I was like man, that's kind of cool.
All right, cool.
But then for them to use it like in the ring in front of the crowd where Drew says this
thing and Cody didn't say anything actually, which was I was okay.
I guess there must be holding off till Thursday because he didn't say anything really.
He hit his line about what do we want to talk about?
Cody, you know what the hell we want to talk about.
You know what we want to talk about.
And then that's when Drew came out.
But what in particular did you guys really enjoy about that opening segment that kind
of got that show off and running on the right path?
One of the commentators had said, I can't remember, but they said, oh, is this 1996?
And that was just, it popped me.
It popped me because again, they never thought that they'd be hearing Rocky's Suck Chance
again in WWE.
So that's probably the biggest thing that caught me.
I love that babyface promo.
Guys, let's go ahead and let me play this babyface promo that Drew cut and then we can
get into that opening segment a little further because I thought it was great television
and I really appreciate Drew McIntyre as the awesome human being that he is to be able
to speak some truth on that raw last night.
So let me go ahead and just play this little audio and we'll talk through it.
I think I speak on behalf of everybody when I say, what the hell?
I laid you both up perfectly for WrestleMania and you're potentially going to screw it all
up.
Seth, you're the only other person that hates punk as much as me.
You knew how bad he would be for this place and I took him out.
We were supposed to be in this ring, you and I tonight talking about our main event match
for the world title at WrestleMania.
Oh, you like that?
I even had the t-shirt commissioned for us.
Your extra smile's in the back.
Why did you have to get inside his head?
Why Cody?
Don't listen to him.
You've got to finish the story.
You've been talking about it for two years now.
Think about last year's WrestleMania.
Think about all the work you've done this year on TV, off TV, the media events.
You've earned this moment.
Don't let me down.
Don't let your family down.
Don't let all these people down and all the people across the world.
I don't want to go here because everybody else does.
I was close with the man.
I was his champion in Florida Championship Wrestling, but don't let your dad down.
Hey, Drew, look, you ain't got to be a prick, all right?
Look, what in the world?
There it is.
There it is, guys.
I said justice for daddies everywhere.
Actually, you made a nasty hashtag.
Justice for daddies everywhere.
That's horrible, man.
That is filthy.
He has to finish the story for his daddy, right?
Every son that wants to make their dads proud all over the country.
That's what is on Cody Rose back right now, guys.
Finishing the story and making that dad proud.
That's where we're at right now, guys.
Amazing promo.
Drew McIntyre, somebody's getting bumped.
I'll let the world know, Drew, I'll DM you.
You've seen enough, huh?
You've seen enough?
I'll let you know who's off the list.
Drew's the goat.
Drew's number two.
He's on the top ten.
Sean Michaels one.
Drew McIntyre two.
He's on top 20.
I love that Seth tried to get some get back with Roman.
Hey, that's a pretty good pop there when they sung his song and hit his line.
He said it twice.
He kind of, that second time was cringy.
He was like, come on.
I didn't think it was cringy at all.
I think he tried to get his get back.
It just didn't hit the same though.
It didn't hit the same.
Right, right, right.
If Roman said it.
All right, so let's try to summarize and kind of catch everybody up on.
Just where we are.
So as of right now, we say, I don't know shit.
Correct.
So as of right now, this is where we are.
We have Cody Rhodes still not knowing what he's doing at WrestleMania.
We don't know what Seth's doing.
And it's genius.
Drew McIntyre is feuding with everybody.
He comes out the end of Raw and hits Cody with a Claymore and looks at the WrestleMania
sign.
Okay, how could we even begin to get to that?
He makes a comment to Seth around like, Hey, you've lost to this guy like three times already.
Like it should be my championship match.
So I think that's genius.
That's what we're getting on television.
Now we go behind the curtain and backstage and things of that nature.
Cody Rhodes sends out a tweet last night.
I think it was doing raw.
Actually, he was doing raw at 930 PM.
Okay, so 930.
So we got an hour and a half left or wherever you are central time.
I'm not sure Eastern time.
He says, appreciate the passion.
God bless y'all dot dot dot.
But trust me, he's at y'all like why a LL?
Oh yeah.
Why?
Okay.
He's a brother.
Okay.
So he's a brother to your sister, right?
Yeah.
So I take that as they told him, look, if you don't get your fan base in order, they
don't screw everything up.
We're going to throw you in the main and you taking another pin you losing and you're going
to wait for another year.
That's what I took it as.
Okay.
Or he can be an adjunct over the top at a real match.
You go again on a pre show.
He goes from the main event to the pre show because he's dumb as hashtags that they got
going on.
So he sent that.
Okay.
He's got like six and a half or 7 million views just on that tweet alone craziness.
Dave notes or comes out and states, this is the plan all along.
They want to do a Daniel Bryan 2.0.
Yes.
Movement is working to perfection.
That's what he says.
Sean Ross says Cody was told you're working Roman at WrestleMania a week ago.
Well if he was told you're working Roman at mania, then this was not the plan.
I asked you guys, seeing how some of this stuff is being played out, seeing how really
we have no answers.
I'm guessing we're going to get the answers at Thursday's press conference, which is now
must watch TV, must watch television.
Is there a chance you guys think this was their plan all along?
No, I really think losing punk.
Let me take the back.
Was this a possibility?
Sure.
They're running a company that injuries happen, so they have to be able to say flexible.
Was this a possibility?
Sure.
But I think going into this WrestleMania, the last penciled in thing or even pinned
in thing is that it would be Cody and Roman.
Yeah.
I like things to make sense and none of it makes sense.
I'm at the point now with Uncle Dave that I only listen to half of what he says.
I think it's information.
I don't know if all the information he gets is accurate all of the time.
Because some stuff just doesn't make sense.
We need to just figure it out.
But if this was the plan all along, why did Cody win the Rumble and then immediately point
to Roman Reigns and say, I'm choosing you?
If the plan all along was for Rock to challenge me.
It just doesn't add up.
Also part of the plan is this thing.
The Rock at this point in his career, this might be his last match.
Maybe he has another match or two.
That looks damn good for his age.
I mean, he's one of the biggest dudes in the company already.
For The Rock, he's building a brand.
I can't believe he expected to be booed in buildings and have the most disliked video.
This couldn't have been part of the plan.
Like none of this stuff is happening the way they wanted it to.
So I don't think this was part of the plan, but if it is, make it make sense.
I was hoping, just to kind of go back on Raw, I was hoping that we would get some explanation
instead of actually getting Cody coming out there saying nothing and then having a bull
rope match at the end.
I need to know what's popping fam.
Like none of it makes sense to me.
I like that though.
I didn't have a problem with it just because it was enough on Raw.
I even tweeted out after Raw, mission accomplished for Raw.
Now all eyes on Thursday.
If you're going to do that press conference, yeah, like, okay, I'm cool.
I'm cool with you not giving us any answers.
You gave us just enough.
You gave us enough to let us know, hey, we hear you fan base.
Nothing has been announced yet because Cole was adamant on, hey, seemingly Rock and Roman
are on a collision course for WrestleMania, but we don't know anything yet.
Tune into the press conference.
I actually thought that was just once again, another smart piece of business for them.
So I was okay with that.
I definitely didn't care about this bull row match.
That's right.
They could have skipped that.
I don't care about that bull rope.
Like I want to know what's on this man's mind.
I want to know the story.
I want to know the promo.
I don't care about the match.
Yeah, that's it.
I do wonder.
I was watching Cody, right?
When he came out, he didn't say anything.
And then there was a clip they posted right after Raw where he gets on the mic and he
gets teary eyed, he basically talks about, they started the, we want Cody chant.
And he's like, you guys don't know how much that means to me because forever I've just
wanted you guys to want me.
And then I forgot what he says, like at the end of that.
And then I was thinking like, is that why the fan base has such a connection to Cody
like in this moment?
Like we know Cody's over.
We know Cody is going to be the face of WWE.
We know he's by far their number one face.
Take that out.
Take out him being Cody Rhodes and him being just the number one face.
If say LA Knight was the number one face or say Seth Rollins was the number one face or
say Jey Uso was the number one face.
I don't think we get this type of like support, this outcry of support for them.
And I think it's because of Cody's personality.
We know Cody is very emotional and I just wonder if the fan base feels like Cody can't
speak up for himself.
Like he's going to get walked over like backstage.
And if we don't do something, then this is what is going to happen.
Because he is so emotional.
Are some people interpreting as we need to defend him?
Weakness.
Yeah.
Yep.
Cause he can't defend himself.
And then I go back just to his tweet at the end of his tweet for him saying, trust me,
what he's saying guys is like, guys, relax.
This is going to work out perfectly.
Whatever they decide to do.
And I'm asking you guys this in a second on what do you absolutely do not want them to
do?
We, a lot of times we always talk about what, you know, what do you want to happen?
I want to ask you guys what, what is the thing you just do not want to come out of this press
conference on Thursday?
After all of this, after death threats, after all of this getting my blood pressure high
and I'm not even on the internet like that.
If they do an about face or a pivot and it is not rocking Roman at Mania in a solo match,
I'm going to be pissed.
So that's what we better not do.
So that is out of everything that can happen.
Out of everything that can happen.
That is what the most you do not want to see.
Okay.
Now take that back.
The most thing I would not want to see is a triple threat at WrestleMania with Roman
Rock and Cody.
That's probably the absolute worst waste of time, waste of star power, waste of all of
that.
Cool.
E what you say?
Let me go back to the Cody thing.
Cause as a Cody fan, I don't think it's about Cody being weak.
I think that's really missing the mark about his character and his story.
The reason why fans resonate with him is because he has a relatable story and character.
As I said, I mean, he's, he, yes, he, he, he was a rich kid growing up, but he also
was a guy that was pushed aside and given, given a gimmick.
He said that, Hey, you can't be who you want to be.
You got to be this guy.
I made, I made up in Stardust, right?
He took a chance, bet on himself, reinvented himself, came back.
It's the whole story.
So you look at the whole totality of who he was, what he's been through, all of that.
And not just in this moment, it's time to give him the title.
And it looks like maybe there's a roadblock now at Mania.
He's not going to get the title.
You're saying, no, it's because of who just Cody Rhodes is as a wrestler, as a character,
as a personality, everything we've known from him is why there's that connection.
Absolutely.
Cause on this show, we always say characters and stories matter.
Right.
And finally we have a character in the story that resonates.
This is a guy that's reinvented himself, kind of started from the bottom, worked his way
back up to where he is.
He's super humble with it.
Right.
And every day he's out there with the kids.
He's with the fans trying to rebuild his reputation.
And that speaks to fans.
We understand that.
Like, okay.
Yeah.
Cause we all want to make somebody proud.
Right.
If that's not your parents, that's your significant others, your kids, you just want to do the
best job and you want to be the best vision yourself.
It's an easy story for anybody to understand.
What's happening in this moment is that, you know, a year ago, right, you know, like Matt
and some other big wrestlers were said like, Hey, you know what?
Cody's loss was the best thing that ever can happen to him.
Don't worry about it.
They're going to take care of Cody next year.
Well guess what?
Next year is here.
And within a month before WrestleMania, you don't get that big moment.
You don't get that revenge spot.
Wait another year, wait another couple of months.
But nobody's here.
And so I, so it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter when it's, it's the time is now.
It's not next week.
It's not next month.
It's not four months.
According to the fans and the people that were booing at that arena last night, Matt.
That's the, that's according to it.
So let's stay on that.
What if, what if Cody was scheduled to lose again to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania at night
two?
We don't know it was a wonder 100% fact that he was going to beat Roman Reigns.
We would hope so, but I'm going to interrupt you.
You said we were good one more year.
So you're telling me on the second year, they still was going to not give us what we were
looking for.
Which is that's fine.
When I'm asking you, at the, at, so I will hope at some point a business knows how to
market to their fan base.
You, this is just like a relationship.
Like you can't continuously not give your spouse or your significant other what they
want.
You can't continuously make them wait until when they get dusty.
And it's happened to dusty though, numerous times and dusty was a top face.
He lost numerous times to Ric Flair.
He lost more to Ric Flair than he ever won against Ric Flair.
Also look up dusty Rose title history.
He's won it multiple times as well.
But I'm talking about when we, till we got to that point though, when, when it was time
for him to finally beat the big bag wolf, he failed or he lost again and again.
It wasn't, he didn't go two years in a row losing.
He didn't go three years in a row losing.
He won that championship at some point.
Now that's what was called the dusty finish.
Cause so they found a way to kind of take the title away from them and kind of continue
that climb and that kind of thing.
But he didn't go two, three years not winning the prize.
That's too long to make anybody wait, especially the world that we live in today.
This ain't the eighties.
People don't have, we have something called instant gravitation.
Like if the full series ain't on Netflix, I don't want to watch it.
Okay.
Cause like that's where we are nowadays.
People ain't trying to wait two, three years to finish off on a story.
People kind of want it pretty quickly.
So the fact that they got into this point and they're patient enough, they needed to
deliver on the goods.
Okay.
But say it wasn't, I just want to, I just want to get to that part.
And this isn't a gotcha moment.
This is like legit asking both of you guys this question.
Say if the plan was not for Cody to beat Roman, say there was some BS in the game again, but
we're going to, I don't know, just hell say summer slam.
Say the MSG, whatever say it's now that we're involved in TKO, we're going to do a one off
biggest show in history with NBC.
We signed that deal and it's going to be on national TV, whatever.
Right.
But just say the deal was not for him to win night two at WrestleMania.
If the fan base knew that, do you think they would still act the same way with these?
We want Cody chance and this just take over that they have on social media.
They, they couldn't because you're just saying we want it Roman and Cody, but that's my guarantee
of who's winning.
So I mean, I am a Cody fan, not over a Roman fan.
I would be even more pissed.
I think if it is now Cody enrollment and Cody still loses, I would be more pissed in that
outcome.
And then to me, I think you are burying Cody at that point versus if Cody just never went
against Roman at all.
And it was Roman and rock.
Just to be like 2018 again, when you're turning off the fan base, that's, this is the reason
this is what helped birth AEW is because you had Vince McMahon thinking he knew more of
what the fans wanted than we knew.
Right.
And so eventually people get tired of that kind of stuff.
You can't keep playing with people's money.
That's what this is.
This is an emotion business.
You're getting, you're, you're trying to take people on an emotional roller coaster.
Right.
So eventually you want to get to a satisfying result.
If you don't satisfy your fan base, you're going to turn them off and droll.
So as hot as they've been, you can risk souring them.
You can risk a large portion of the fan base.
You think about just something as small as this.
Like, look, I'm okay with it.
A cancellation prize.
I mean, I don't prefer it.
I don't prefer it.
I would like to see Cody get his, his, his, his, his comeback victory against Roman, but
they can give me a win and he wins the other championship and they do something.
Okay.
I'll be okay with it.
But you see, there's a lot of people who aren't okay with that.
What knowing, but knowing he's going to get it soon from Roman, I guess that's the thing
too.
Like say if we do get Cody and Seth, I don't care what the finish is on that, whatever
we know we're still going to get to Cody and Roman and that's going to be the stamp of
it is now your company.
Here you go.
But here's the thing.
We don't know shit.
Cause we, we said a year ago that we would get a mania match and then we kind of between
rock and I mean rock.
Uh, yeah, I'm sorry.
Roman and Cody, they're, they almost, they're maybe considering taking that away from us.
So anything can happen.
Yeah.
But I'm only going off of what Cody said, right?
Cause one, he says, trust me, but then on that promo on Friday for him to say, I moved
my own goalpost.
It started with me taking the title from you.
Now I want to take everything from you.
I would think by him saying that he knows what the finish is supposed to be.
There's been nothing leading up to this year's WrestleMania where you feel like Cody has
told his fan base I'm winning at WrestleMania.
Well, I would say that something's changed because at Royal Rumble, he pointed to Roman
and said, I'm choosing you.
I want you.
And then the next week he changed the goalpost.
And here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
Like this is, I think something happened within that time period, right?
Cause there's reports that saying that when the match was being changed internally, Cody
had expressed to the office that he didn't think it would go over well.
I don't think this is going to work.
This may not go the way you guys think.
Right.
So Roni, we got this.
That promo, he's just being a company man and trying to say whatever needs to be said.
Okay.
If you're moving the goalpost and you're stepping to the side, when you have a golden opportunity
right now to finish your story, I need to know why.
Like, I mean, right.
You know, we don't know why on Friday.
We don't know why on Monday.
Right?
So here, like we need to know this is, but here's what we do know.
Right?
Here's what we do know or what we think we know is that Rock pulled some kind of power
play and decided that it was best for business for him to be in the main event with Roman
Reigns instead of Cody.
That's what we do know.
And so the fans, the fans know that that's a fact and, or, or I'm not saying we know
as a fact, but that's what we put out there.
Right.
Or, and, or we know Rock has told him something incredible for him to go to the side for this
WrestleMania.
We need to find out what has Rock promised him, what did Rock say to him?
Because he said, you know, whatever he said, take it under advisement or whatever.
I forgot whatever the word he said.
You would have to think then Rock had given him something to where he's like, you're right.
Let me do this, whatever that moment is going to be.
So before I, then I get to like what the easiest path of this is.
So Thursday's press conference, what is the number one thing you do not want to see that
if this is what they say, you're like, Oh, this is not, absolutely not.
Man, I'm just trying to keep my fandom going, man.
The nice trip out, man.
I don't know.
I don't know, man.
Like as long as Cody is represented properly, I'll be fine.
I don't want to think about the worst case scenario because the worst case scenario is
him wrestling night one or night two and not winning for whatever reason, because they
want to continue.
So this is the thing with Dusty, right?
Because I think that, I think Cody, if it came out and said that he was kind of in favor
of losing at last year's Mania because that's what Dusty did back in the day, right?
Dusty would lose, but then he'll scrap his way back up and you know, he'll kept clawing
and try to get to Ric Flair because the money was in the chase, not necessarily the capture
because that's what those guys were there at the heart of things.
Wrestling was carny back in the day, right?
So he was always trying to be in the pursuit mode.
I don't think that's going to work.
So like, I don't like, they're not going to come out and say, Hey, you know, um, whatever
match Cody is going to be, he's going to lose.
I don't think they're going to say that.
So I can't think of, I don't maybe want to think about a worst case scenario because
I'm okay with the Rock and Roman match.
If we got to get it, let's get it.
I don't think the universe wants it.
I hate to say that universe, right?
But I mean, they kind of do have their own little fan base.
I'm okay with the Cody and Seth, but man, that, that match just seems kind of underwhelming.
Well, and especially after Monday, they didn't do enough to put the logs on the fire for
you to say, ah, and that's why I wonder if we don't hear that match somehow some way
at Thursday's presser.
They got it.
They got to say what Cody's doing, but there wasn't enough at the end of raw where you're
like, I want to see Seth and Cody more because Drew kind of drew blew it up.
He said, hey, that up, he money that Cody beats you three times, which you want to get
beat for a fourth.
Like, what are we doing?
So like the intrigue on that match is almost like, all right, Cody has to win, but geez,
Louise.
Why he going to beat Seth four times in a row?
We know Cody can beat him, but Seth did say something.
He's like, but I need to know I can beat you.
I did like that.
Get back to 30 Thursday's presser, Rhodesia, me and you are right there together.
It was, it's like one a one B and one a is absolutely the triple threat mass.
The other thing I do not want to see that I'm seeing floated around here is, um, Cody
first Roman with rock as a special guest referee.
Absolutely not.
Nope.
No, thank you.
I think that is the triple threat match.
If they announce a triple threat match, I would be livid.
Of course I'll let it play out.
I would be livid though.
That does nothing for anybody.
And the reason why I say it does nothing for anybody.
Number one is okay.
Cody wins.
I say he wins, right?
I don't care if he pins Roman.
I don't care if he pins the rock.
You didn't do it on your own.
That's a fail for Cody.
This needs to be on his own in my opinion.
If you include Cody in the rock enrollment, head of the table, tribal chief, he doesn't
even belong in that story.
So now you take away from that story is that that is, they could not do that.
That can not happen.
Separate these things.
Um, I brought up what if Cody was supposed to lose again at mania, say if he was supposed
to win at mania against Roman.
The easiest thing to do is for them to announce in Vegas, the main event of WrestleMania 40
is going to be rock versus Roman.
In the main event of elimination chamber is going to be Cody Rose versus Roman Reigns.
We can still do that.
And I'm okay.
I'm okay with that.
And that is where Cody wins against Roman.
No it's not at mania, but he's still going to win in front of 45,000 people.
That's still going to be his moment.
And then he can take that belt into mania.
And if he wants to, you know, then we can play around with, okay, what does that look
like?
Is it Drew?
Is it Randy?
Then he can really have his moment and that can be the night one main event.
And then I think you really soften the blow for anybody who's upset about the whole Cody
thing and you can be able to get to rock and Roman with no issues for the most part.
There's still going to be some people who are upset because they're going to look at
it as this should have been Cody's WrestleMania moment.
But he's the champ going into mania and coming out of mania.
He's the champion.
That would be the easiest way to do it.
I don't think they're going to do that though, because I think just once again, with CSAO
man, yeah, I think with what Cody making that comment, I'm taking everything from you.
I think they have their eye on where they want to go now with that because I would think,
and yeah, I know there's a lot of talk about the, you know, the rock being selfish in this
moment and things of that nature.
It will be hard pressed for me to believe when the rock had a conversation with Triple
H in creative and he said, Hey, I'm going to take on Roman at WrestleMania.
I'll be hard pressed to believe that he knew Cody was supposed to win the title at WrestleMania
and he took that away.
My earring there keeps dropping and I'm actually plugged in.
I wasn't plugged in Sunday.
We didn't have any problems.
So maybe I need to stop plugging in.
You said, I forgot what you said, because I about to start talking about some capital
T R A S H. What you saying?
I forgot what you was about to say.
What did you say?
It was the last thing we heard you say.
What did I say?
And I had it in my head.
Take it.
What I can't believe is that I think there's something like that.
That was a cadence.
What you don't want to do is, or I can't believe it.
Oh no, no, I was saying what I, okay.
So I don't know where you want to pick this up for me.
What I was saying was I can't believe Rock would take that moment from Cody if he knew
Cody was supposed to win the title.
That then that doesn't make sense.
Hey, Rock is now the head of TKO, whatever.
And he asked Triple H, say, well, so what's the creative for a mania and say, we're finally
going to crown Cody.
It's finally his moment.
I'm just hard pressed that Roman, I mean that Dwayne is like, you know what?
I know he's, you know, this is a story I've been telling for two years, but I think it's
time for me to enroll him.
There was some scuttle booty around that.
Hold on a second.
I actually wrote it.
Yeah, that's hard for me to believe.
All right.
So here I'm going to read, let me read this off.
All right.
So the decision, this is per the W P WI insider decision to go with the rock versus Roman Reigns
at WrestleMania, which pushed by Dwayne Johnson himself back by TKO executive.
So this is the information is being floated out that fans are picking up on.
Originally the plan was for Cody versus Roman to main event, but Dwayne reportedly felt
the chance was necessary to save us many in light of losing CM Punk and Brock Lesnar.
As of now, the current plans are for Cody to face Seth Rollins and winners of both matches.
This isn't the right article.
There was another article, I think a follow up from PWI is that the plan is for Cody to
win the heavyweight championship.
And then at SummerSlam have a match with Roman in a unification match.
And then Cody will unify both championships.
I don't think that's taking everything from Roman.
And we got to figure out what he meant by that.
Yeah.
But that's not taking everything from Roman.
That's still doing the same thing.
Cause he said on Friday, I was, this started with trying to take that title.
Now I'm taking everything from you.
Well, if I mean, rock will have to win and then he'll have to be the head of the tape,
head of the table.
But you know, how could he win if he's not the champion?
Yeah.
So that's kind of just my thought about you wouldn't think the rock would change that.
But if we're talking about just strictly business, yes, there's gonna be way more eyeballs on
rock versus Roman than it is Cody versus Roman.
But that's not the story that the majority of the fan base I think wants to see.
Once again, Thursday, we'll see.
But I tell you what, they got to figure it out.
Cause there is a segment of the fan base that is like Rhodesian night that want to see rock
and Roman.
If you put that, that little carrot out there on Friday and then you pull that away, you're
not going to have a blowback.
Like we saw this past weekend with taking over Twitter, but you're going to have some
really upset people.
So I think that's, I think that would be the vocal minority guy.
Cause you think about it.
You think about, I have like rock being booed.
I think that rock wasn't even booed when he was going at it with John Cena.
I think John Cena wants the people over, but I can't remember the last time I remember
hearing a Rocky sucks.
No, I mean he was, right?
When he first came back from Hollywood.
And how long ago was that?
That was 20 years ago.
Yeah.
Like, right?
So you think about it, you know, I get that, you know, there's, there's a contingent that
wants to see that match.
I mean, I want to see it, see the match too.
And I think, I think most of the fan base does just not at this moment.
I just think you, things, things have changed.
Yeah.
You know, it's, it's Rockets 50 something years old.
You know, his last major movie was what?
Black Adam.
And that didn't do well enough to get a number, a second movie.
They actually fired him from the franchise.
Like, it's just, I just don't know if the star of the Rockets would, it was 10 years
ago.
And I don't know if it's as bright as it needs to be.
No, no, no.
There's the stardom of Black is even more.
If, if it was more, we wouldn't get this negative of a fan.
No, listen, this is what I was about to say.
Your people were saying is the vocal minority is for rock enrollment.
I actually think it's probably half and half.
I just think that the Cody fans, the fanatic of the fanatics are the ones that's making
and pushing this harder.
If I think you get a hundred people in a room who've been watching wrestling for 10 years,
you say, Hey, which one do you want to see more?
I guarantee you it's going to be a lot closer than what you think.
Because just from what I've seen, I've seen more, I'm okay with rock and Roman.
Yeah, that kind of sucks for Cody, but, but I want to see rock and Roman.
I don't know a lot of those, a lot of those fans are very casual fans who don't watch
wrestling as much as nearly as much as we do.
Or people probably have watched Cody.
Those those fans are the people who, yeah, they might tune in to see rock and Roman,
but then they won't tune in for another six months.
I know a guy that came in my store the other day, seeing punk fan.
I said, Hey man, you enjoying punk back?
Like, yeah.
You know, I drove actually go see him on his first day and then I haven't watched the show
since.
I mean, three hours is a long time to watch wrestling.
I'm just, who has time for that?
And this guy, you know, and this guy drove all the way to see the man, right.
And it says that he can't commit to watching a three hour raw.
Like it's just too much.
Those are very casual fans.
I'm not saying this casual fans.
I'm telling you, I'm saying if you get people who watch WWE television or programming every
week, maybe just raw, maybe just smack down, I'm telling you that it's going to be a lot
closer than what you think.
I just think these fanatics are just crazy and taking it to the whole next level.
And I agree with that.
Just now, you know, I always like to bring my facts to the table, right?
Stuff like that.
The video they put up on SmackDown, the actual full segment with all this happened, it was
up to, I forgot how many, 5 million, 5 and a half million views or something like that.
And somebody on Twitter had posted, because the whole big thing that people were going
with was most disliked video in the history of WWE.
And I think at one point they got to the most disliked video in the history of YouTube.
Shit.
Yeah.
And she said 12% of the people that view this video disliked it.
I think that puts it in perspective.
I don't think millions of people watch that video to dislike it.
And even if they did watch that video, just dislike it, only 12% of the people who watched
that video disliked it.
So to Rhodesia's point of, hey, the majority will be okay with it, with the eyeballs that
I'm going to assume people would watch because the rock is involved.
It's going to be on Peacock, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I would think that the majority that watch would be okay and more than fine with rock
enrollment.
But your everyday fans who watch WWE live, sleep, eat, breathe WWE, I think those are
the ones that would have an issue and you don't want to piss those off though, because
they're the ones that are with you every single day, every single week, every single month
watching the show, buying your merch, going to the pay per views, et cetera, et cetera.
So it is going to be fantastically interesting come Thursday.
That's all I got to say.
And I am-
I feel like we should do an emergency pod Thursday night.
I tell you what, I thought about it.
I absolutely thought about it, but I'm like, we can wait till Sunday unless something massive
comes down the pipeline, we'll text each other like, all right, y'all, we got to hop on.
I'm probably more excited to see this press conference than I am Elimination Chamber right
now.
Speaking of Elimination Chamber, I'm just a little myself, to my own horn.
Rhea and Naya told you that was happening weeks and weeks ago.
Check out the TFW podcast, y'all, if y'all not listening, I drop gems, we drop gems on
here constantly.
So that's happening.
I dropped charcoal.
But under pressure, what does it turn into?
Diamonds.
Did y'all want to touch on Sami Zayn's promo?
I didn't get a chance to see it.
Go ahead and talk about it.
Actually, I don't remember anything standing out for him, to be honest with you.
I don't have much from the promo.
Outside of it was a great promo.
It was a sit down promo and he was in his serious bag where it's just like, hey, why
can I not- I should be looked at as a champion contender, champion, et cetera, et cetera.
I was watching Sami and I'm like, I don't know of anyone else in WWE at his level that
can be serious and it is 100% believable and you're behind him and he can be the prankster,
the joker and it is 100% believable.
And he steals the role and the scene and everything that he's in.
He's a special, special talent.
A lot of times you can only do one or there's one that you can do much better than the other
and him, it seems like whatever role you give him, he's going to be the best at it.
So I just wanted to give him his flowers on that because I thought it was tremendous.
No idea where they're going with it.
I don't even want to know where they're going with it.
It's one of those, I'm just like, I just want to wait and see.
So hopefully I don't get spoiled because I don't know where he fits in the WrestleMania
title picture.
And I want to just wait to see it play out.
I got that vibe from him a couple of years ago.
He did a sit down interview with Ari.
I forgot his name.
I'm thinking of Ari Emanuel, but you know what I'm talking about.
He covers MMA too.
And I just remember listening to him talk and I'm like, this guy has a bit of a genius
thing, because they're a little bit out there and but I felt that about Sammy a long time
ago and that's when it came out or when I found out that they were actually trying to
do some recording of some type of behind the scenes with him.
But then that fell through.
He did like a, what a year of recording, I think of backstage stuff.
They never saw the light of day, but just hearing him talk through that and then him
even addressing how at some point backstage with a higher upstate, he kind of has some
tension because of how, how passionate I just knew that we're passionate that he is.
With his character.
So I got that vibe from him a couple years ago.
Just real quick to touch on Jay.
Now coming out to Gunta.
I wouldn't have first happened.
I was like, yo, what's up with that?
And then you kind of was like, well, why not?
Why not Jay?
So I just didn't see that coming.
I mean, I guess now the next morning it makes sense because where else would you put Jay
because Jay has worked his ass off for so long.
He does deserve some type of spot somewhere.
And I could see that.
He said he wants an IC title reign.
He wants to win the IC belt more than he does the world championship.
He said that months ago.
Wow.
In an interview.
Wow.
Yeah.
Not saying he's going to get it.
I think if there's anybody to take it off of Gunther, why not?
Jay and like Jay, I said it last night watching it.
Like he is just so damn likable, man.
Like he is so real when you see him.
Like you know that's who Jay is.
I've been fortunate to meet him a few times and talk to him.
But what you see is what you get with Jay.
That is who Jay is.
It's just so cool to see him just continue to get so excited for somebody who's done
this for like 20 plus years and to still go out there and get that type of reaction and
give that energy back to the crowd is fantastic.
But Gunther is another one that he gets better and better every single time he touches that
microphone.
That line about you're going to wish you went back to when...
We couldn't recognize you two.
Yeah, you couldn't tell the difference between you and your brother, which is so funny because
back in the day we couldn't tell the difference between them.
They look nothing alike.
Now, you know exactly what Jimmy looks like.
You know exactly what Jay looks like.
But back in the day it was just like, oh, they're the Usos.
I don't know who they are.
They have face paint.
So you got to give them a little bit of a pass.
They have face paint.
And you know the funny thing is, for weeks I've been wanting to come on and say that
I think that Jay should be the person to dethrone Gunther.
But it was always late in the show and I was always running out of steam.
So I was like, well, I'll talk about it next week.
But I've actually been thinking about this since December.
I kept wanting to bring that up.
I'm like, you know what?
I know the talk was Jay versus Jimmy.
But I was like, man, I just kind of feel like they haven't done enough to give that a proper
build for Mania.
And I would love to see Jay and Gunther.
I didn't know where Gunther fit.
And I think it would be a great moment.
Because if anybody can dethrone Gunther, it can be like a Jay.
Jay would be perfect fit for that spot.
And then maybe down the line we can get a Jimmy versus Jay IC match.
That's kind of cool.
Well, I was going to say, so then because you got to do that, then elimination chamber.
Right.
Gunther in Jay.
I don't even know how you I don't even know at this point.
I don't even know how you get to Jimmy and Jay at Mania.
I don't think they're on different brands.
Yeah.
Like I don't know if that ship is sailed right now or if they're going to figure out some
way with the GMs to like, you know, make a swap or I don't know what.
And Jimmy ain't serious enough, man.
He's kind of like the jobber for the click.
But that's what I'm saying.
It would make more sense for Jay versus a solo.
They are on two totally different trajectories right now.
They are like they're just they're not even the same.
And then then you that's what I was talking about on the Royal Rumble whole show.
Then you have them wrestle and you know, fight in that match.
OK, well, that took a little steam out of if they do a mania thing.
This is funny because this whole bloodline thing and we knew it.
We came over here and talked about it in August after summer slam.
Like, oh, I don't know if it's jumped a shark or it just it ain't what it needs to be.
No, get the train back on the tracks.
But overall, you look at just where we are right now with the bloodline story and then
a rock coming in right now.
It does just seem to shovel because the why is the rock coming in right now with the bloodline?
Like he's not saving his family.
And that's what I thought it was going to be.
I thought like Rock is going to come back is like the saving grace for the Samoan family,
right?
Like Roman is completely crapped on his entire family.
He is beyond having the big head.
Nobody can talk to him.
And now we bring the rock in to bring him down and give him some humble pie.
And that's not even where we are right now.
So that bloodline story that that's that is sale.
I want to say is this.
You can fill it away.
You can you can wheel it back in.
But it's it's it's pretty out there right now.
It is.
Yeah.
I do want to talk about San and deliver, but I do have one more thing on Raw and it's the
Cree brothers.
And when you think about like somebody or somebody who needs to take advantage of an
opportunity they're given, the Cree brothers just impresses me every time.
Like I think about who they were in the ring with on Raw.
And they are there with some veterans and they're completely like showing an outstanding
performance.
I don't say good showing an outstanding showing against these other great tag teams.
I mean, it's like I'm just I'm really impressed.
And again, they're to me that definition of taking advantage of an opportunity that you're
given.
Yeah, I said that I feel like they got thrown in the deep end when they got caught up, really
didn't get caught up with fanfare.
It wasn't much to, you know, when they came on the main roster, when like they were brought
on with like a specific storyline in play or like, oh, man, they've been in the NSEA
so long.
It's time to give them their shot.
It was just like, all right, you think you guys are ready?
You guys may be not be all the way ready, but here you go.
We should throw you out there and make the most out of every opportunity.
As you say, every reason, every single time they go out there, you're just like, all right,
they got it.
And we know they have it, you know, but like every single week, no matter if it's a singles
tag match or is Marty man tag match.
They deliver.
I don't know about those guys, but they deliver those guys who have been killing NXT for quite
some time.
And this is really you think about the 2.0 guys, kids, they're all doing pretty well
for themselves.
Right.
You got the Kree brothers, you got Tiff, you got Nuff Mello, Braun.
That's what I mean.
It's just awesome to see.
I may have to walk back.
I might take a look at 2.0.
I ain't going to do it now.
I do have a question about that in a minute though.
I may have to walk back my 2.0, but 2.0 sucked, man.
The show wasn't good.
But if you look at like who was on 2.0 and where they are now.
But see, when they did with 2.0, those guys wouldn't have been on TV for at least another
four months before they were on TV.
They just threw them out there when they was green as hell.
That's true too.
Green as hell, they just put them out there.
But we watched them get better and better every day and every week, which is no fun
for us as fans.
We got to see them mature and right in front of our eyes.
I do want to ask about fan deliver, but you two just hitting it on the head on the question
I have for you about NXT.
So you're going to have something good on stand to live.
You brought it up twice now.
Yeah, I got some on stand to live.
But I got some on stand to live.
But it better be part of the show.
So see, you're trying to give me a little bit of extra responsibility and I'm trying
to do it and you trying to bury me.
What was not going to happen is you're not going to bury me because I know my shit right
now.
Okay.
All right.
Anyways, I'm not talking about standing to live right now.
I'm talking about my question.
NXT is clicking on all cylinders.
We know that.
And kind of the demise of the black and gold was that all the, you finally was behind all
this talent, call them up to the main card.
And now you left everybody there that was green, the birth of the 2.0.
Of course there was other factors on 2.0, but you got 2.0.
How or what does Sean and his team need to do to ensure we don't get another NXT 3.0
and it's another year, year and a half of just green going nowhere talent on TV?
Or do you think we passed this?
They passed it.
I think if you watch, really watch the shows, I mean, you guys watch shows, but you look
at it, they do a good job of like the breakout talent.
They slowly integrate them with the more seasoned NXT guys.
So you got the metaphor, right?
You got Lash and I forget homegirls name.
She's a way on injury right now, but she's getting better.
You look at Lola Vice, she's next up.
You got Laura.
She cashed in a loss.
Yep.
Cashed in a loss.
You got the women's champion was a biker, bikery by Laura.
Lyra.
Yep.
So they do a really great job of integrating like their newer talents into the show.
And you start seeing like Kalani probably get a bigger role on the show as well.
You still got Roxy.
You never know when she's going to be pulled up there, but I feel like you do a really
good job of just integrating the newer talent into the existing ones.
And then you don't have to worry about the Vince factor.
So remember the Vince of it all was when NXT lost to AEWs when they blew up NXT black
and gold and they made it 2.0.
So that was the big factor of that.
The other factor too is they're set up better.
What I mean by that is the left hand song to the right hand.
So we don't see any more of this.
Oh, that person looks good.
That's a shiny new toy.
Let's bring them up to the main roster, but then let's completely overhaul them and change
everything about them.
They got them over and now it didn't work.
And I got to continue to poach talent from NXT because the people I'm bringing up isn't
really connecting on the main roster because I'm changing everything about them that connected
them to the audience down in NXT.
And then the other part of it too is they have a show called NXT level up where like
the next people up are getting time in front of the camera in front of a live audience
to get better.
Yeah.
So they have things.
Was that, was that no way like a real no way?
Yeah, I was actually about to start searching on Safari right now.
NXT level up.
Yeah.
Level up is, is actually what dark should have been.
Correct.
Because they actually have matches like right.
Cause I'm dark, you know, it, you know, for instance, Anna J will have like a two minute
squash match for somebody.
Like she ain't going to learn enough and get better in a two minute squash match.
She gets like some local talent, you know, level up, you know, you'll see the two actually
go through a whole match.
I might not be good, but they go through a whole match.
And I mean, you know, it's not too bad.
And there's also stories behind it too.
Like, like it's a few sometimes.
So to ease point, you're not going out there just working on your like hot tag sequence
and we getting in, getting out and your interest takes longer than the actual match it is.
You're actually working during that time period.
So I think they have a lot of things now in place that we should not ever see.
You have to see a complete reset button on NXT.
Well, good.
And I just pulled it up and it shows like they upload their episodes on Peacock on Fridays
at 10 PM Eastern.
Right after Smackdown.
Nice.
That's cool.
Well, then now we're talking about saying delivery.
What about, what about saying deliver?
Thank you.
And I can segue on my own.
Okay.
My bad.
Sorry.
Dusty road, classic champions.
We got Brian and Corbin.
How much longer you think we're going to see this, I guess, team before they implode?
Because it kind of seemed like they kind of like each other right now.
Man, let Sean tell it.
He ain't letting Brian go anytime soon, even though Brian is on Raw and Smackdown.
He legit said like, well, I'm not letting him go.
If he wants to do double duty, great.
But like Triple H is going to have to like pry him away from me.
I was like, damn, I wish I bet Triple H would she get told that to Vince years ago when
it came to him poaching talent.
But yeah, I mean, that's, I think I've said it before, Brian is ready and now he's even
more ready because he just checked off being able to pull off a comedy gimmick.
What else is it for him to do in NXT?
And I guess you got to have a spot for him on the main roster, right?
Like maybe if they want to just give him that Brock Lesnar spot, I don't think Brock was
going to be Gunther at Mania.
I still want Chad Gable to get his lick back against Gunther, but you talk about an incredible
start.
If Brian comes in and challenges Gunther at Mania and beats Gunther, I mean, at that point
he's made and now it's, you know, all bets are off, but I mean, he's ready at any time.
So I don't know how long.
I guess it doesn't matter either that they're in a feud because we saw with Tiffany Stratton,
she was in a feud.
They just did a full three weeks build to her and about to start showing these farm
vignettes and all that kind of stuff.
And then they just dropped that and brought it up to the main roster.
So I guess that doesn't matter anymore.
I kind of feel like that was filler though.
And it was designed to kind of be dropped because like they have been feuding for some
time lead up until that because Fallon had, I think had beat her twice, I believe.
I think I remember seeing one time.
But I knew she beat her.
Well they taped the vignettes for it and they didn't use them because they dropped it.
Yeah.
Yep.
Well, then I guess then the last thing about Sending and Delivery is the ending, the beginning,
the end, the beginning and the end.
And Carmelo finally turning officially on his best friend, on his brother, Trick.
It's time.
So before y'all started telling me y'all feelings and thoughts on it, I just wanted to get this
out.
I thought Carmelo was coming up and I thought meaning to the main roster and I thought he
was leaving NXT behind.
And you still do that even though their relationship just had a turn in it.
Like to me, when I saw that, I'm happy because I do think that Carmelo is going to be a really
good heel, but I thought he was already done with NXT.
So I kind of felt like, like dang.
This is the story and this should be the main event.
I know they like to, of course, finish with the title, but this needs to be the main event
of what is their WrestleMania show called?
I keep trying to call it Sending and Delivery, but it's not called that, but I'll find out.
No, it is Sending and Delivery.
Vengeance Day was just this past Sunday.
I know people listening.
What are y'all talking about?
So that's good.
I'll be on top.
You had one job, Rhodesia, and you got me out here talking at Sending and Delivery.
You had one job.
Guess what?
I get to talk about Sending and Delivery even more.
I got like another six, seven weeks to talk about Sending and Delivery.
I know people are talking about like, what are these guys talking about?
Sending and Delivery?
Sorry, y'all.
But you ain't stop us either.
You know what's Vengeance Day.
Damn it to hell.
Hey, you know what happens when we get towards the end of these pods, man?
We didn't do nothing sexual.
We ain't say none, sex, or.
Anyway, that's nuts.
But you know, I think, I mean, this is the story, right?
This is the story that they've been building up to.
We talked about it on our, I think our last pod of last year, just kind of about trick
and mellow and where I thought mellow was.
You guys agreed.
I was able to see the first 25 minutes, 30 minutes of NXT so far.
And he comes out, he's like, he's about to cut the promo, he's getting great hill heat.
And he's like, not yet.
He just walks back out.
He's comfortable being a hill.
Like he's, that is where he's him, is in that mode of the braggadocious cocky heel.
So I'm excited for to see him now in that role, but that's also going to translate when
he does go to the main roster.
I don't think he's going to flip back to be in the face whenever he does go to Raw or
SmackDown.
I think he's a hill.
And I think that's where he probably should be.
Yeah.
I thought it was a great segment.
Man, like trick is over, right?
Over like Rover.
And we knew it was.
I mean, the man has a lot of charisma.
He's getting better.
Man, he's so much better in the ring now than he was, shoot, even two months ago.
Man, kudos to that man.
As far as mellow, I think definitely he's a better heel.
I think he kind of was unofficially on the SmackDown roster.
Right?
He had been featured quite a few times.
And as a baby too.
However, leading to Mania, I'm sure that's the nice thing about with Shawn and Trick
Ways and their work relationship.
He's like, hey, look, we've been building towards this thing for a while now.
We're going to finish this up.
Like, right?
This was what we had in play.
Now, I love to see Mello transition to the main roster once he loses a trick.
I guess what's going to happen once he loses a trick.
I still kind of think he needs a couple bells and whistles.
I still don't think that Carmelo, even as a heel.
Even as a heel, huh?
Yeah, I think he needs a cup, you know, like a heavy, right?
I don't think he necessarily needs a mouthpiece, but I think he's best when he can bounce off
someone else.
Even like his arrogant charisma, I think is better when he can play off somebody else.
And I don't know if it's like, I don't want to say it should be like a group, but he should,
because Bobby is a face right now, I guess.
But what if MVP, who I think is being underutilized, not being on TV, because he's a great talker,
right?
Almost.
I don't think he's a guy, I don't know, trying to use him as a special attraction, but I
don't think he's that special.
I hate to say that.
You know, he pops up and he loses somebody.
He'd be an awesome bodyguard.
What if MVP-
Well, he needs his diesel, right?
He needs Shawn Michaels, how Shawn Michaels had diesel, he needs his diesel.
And I think Shawn knows that too, probably.
What if almost was that diesel, MVP was that mouthpiece, but he doesn't need a mouthpiece,
it's kind of like how Heyman does, right?
Kind of introduces him and kind of sets him up and then, you know, Mello knocks him out.
I'm not mad at it at all.
I'll be there for that.
Because I still think, I mean, of course, I agree that he was missing something as a
face.
So, I'm all for if you give him-
Maybe not almost though, because I feel like almost would make Mello look too small, right?
Because like-
Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's not the tallest, but he needs a heavy.
I mean, he would be good if he had a heavy.
I agree with that for sure.
It's funny too, when I was watching that main event, like Trick, you know, just overall,
Avengers Day was a really, really good show.
I had said like, you can just tell a lot of those spots, they're just sitting around a
PC in the ring.
And they're just like, man, what can we do?
That's like crazy as hell.
And they're just working on it.
And then they bring it to life, which is fun to watch.
But it was a couple of sloppy spots during the pay-per-view.
But when I was watching the main event, and Illya is somebody that before he goes in the
ring, I'm like, I can take him or leave him.
But when he, when the bell starts, I was like, no, this guy is, yeah, he's something special.
I don't think there is no world, and yeah, it's only February, it could be February,
you know, whatever.
It shouldn't be any world that Trick Williams is arguably in the match of the year so far.
I don't care if it was January 3rd, right?
Like Trick is too early in the game to say like, hey, so far you were in the match of
a year candidate.
And that's what that match was.
That's what that match was.
So kudos to Illya.
Tip my hat if I had a hat on you, sir.
He's missing something.
A couple of things.
Not in the ring, but the presentation beforehand.
Yeah, man.
Yeah, well, I'm like, this is y'all champion.
And then five seconds later, I'm like, this is our champion.
This is our champion.
This is our champion right here.
This is y'all champion for staying delivered.
He turned, like you know how Beyonce said that she's like this super shy passive, I don't
know passive, but super shy lady.
But the moment she turns into Sasha Fierce, that's how Illya is.
Like my fandom for him, I can leave him all day.
He's just like, ugh.
And the moment that bell rings, I'm like, dang, I see why.
You can't always be in the ring though.
That's true.
But right now my feelings on it, man, when that bell rings, I'm like, dang, this boy
good.
This boy good.
He killed it.
So there was nothing else on NXT Vengeance Day, Rhodesia.
No, but we can get ready to start talking about fan and deliver later.
I got one thing that we didn't talk about on Sunday that I wanted to bring up.
It's about Mick Foley.
Mick Foley, I had an interview and he said that for his 60th birthday, he wanted to do
like one final death match.
He said in order to get to the shape that he wanted to get into, he would need to lose
a hundred pounds.
And he feels like the goal of him being able to wrestle on his 60th birthday would get
him to losing a hundred pounds, which anything that can give somebody motivated to lose weight
and get healthier, I am all for.
I think this is a no brainer for him to do it.
And I think the no brainer is for him to do it in AEW because of course WWE would not
allow what kind of death match he would want.
And I think it is a no brainer for it to be against Moxley.
Like they already have a built in story because they were supposed to feud in WWE.
It got pushed to the side when Moxley was down to FCW and NXT.
I think this is perfect.
But there was a lot of people online that was just like, no, we don't want to see Mick
Foley in a death match.
He shouldn't be in another death match.
And my just thought is that man has killed himself for our entertainment.
How can I tell him not to do one more match that he wants to do?
I don't care what kind of match it is, but what's your guys thoughts about Mick Foley
coming back at the age of 60 to do one more death match?
It's the sound that makes me kind of remember how I felt when Hangman drank Swerve's blood.
Or was it the other way around?
Hangman drank Swerve's blood.
And I was like, oh my God.
I kind of feel that way thinking about Foley doing that because I already know nothing's
going to practically be off limits to him.
Especially if he drops all this weight and he gets into the shape that he wants to get
into.
Like you said, it would only be fitting that it's with Moxley.
And then Moxley is not going to hold back.
He loves death matches too.
I just don't think as somebody that cares about other human beings life that I can promote
and condone that match.
But if it happens, I'm going to watch it.
Because like you said, he given his life.
Man, I remember watching a video on him.
He did a documentary on himself.
It took him like an hour to get out of the bed in the morning.
So you telling me that he's put his body through that?
He absolutely deserved the right to have any match he wants to have.
But again, to be fair, to see a 60 year old man hurting himself, I'm not condoning it,
but I'll watch it.
I will pass on seeing 60 year old men bleeding on TV.
Hard pass.
Maybe on PLE.
Hard pass indeed.
Hard car, man.
What about pay-per-view?
Pay-per-view?
I don't know.
I'm certain they can pay me and I will watch.
Oh, God.
AEW, if you want to invest in Big Daddy's funds, I would take $100 to watch that.
Man, we went a good month without you saying that name on the pod.
And the pod has been fantastic.
Hitting the best streak we've ever had on the podcast.
We about to go back down to Shitter now because you want to decide to bring that name.
They know me.
Man, that is cold world.
They know me.
That's what they call me.
But you know what though?
That's interesting.
Both of you guys were kind of like you passed on.
I wonder if you guys would change your mind once you hear a couple of promos from them.
And if you'd be like, you know what?
I was kind of cool on it at first, but I want to watch it now.
I just wonder.
Just a good faith I can't watch somebody hurt themselves, especially at that age.
Hell, we're celebrating Sting, which Sting is what, 64, right?
Yeah.
And yeah, he hasn't done a death match, but the majority of his matches are no DQ hardcore
matches.
He's jumping off of the highest thing he can find in these arenas.
Let's not act like he's wrestling.
But the muscle memory of the calluses there right now on Sting.
If Sting was gone for how long Mick Foley been gone for 10 years and he comes back,
I probably would feel a different kind of way.
Don't add me about this Mick Foley thing.
I'm sorry.
Hey, we can revisit our childhoods on another day after WrestleMania, but let's celebrate
a great game coming out March 5th.
Rhodesia, you might have to make sure of it.
I have no idea when this game comes out.
I think it's March 5th.
He just threw out a date.
He loved it.
I love it.
He just threw a date out.
He was confident about it too.
He was so confident.
It comes out the same day as vengeance day, y'all.
I refuse to double check.
We got WWE 2K24 coming out and it looks like it's going to be a doozy.
It's funny, Rhodesia.
You might have saw it.
Matt has sent out a tweet and he asked if AEW fight forever.
I think it was on sale.
Was it worth purchasing?
So this week, it was like finally, is it, if you've been waiting, it's the time to get
it.
Was it 1999 or is it 2019?
1999.
Oh dang.
Okay.
Just 1999.
Yeah, it's 1999.
It says if you've been holding out, the time to pick up your copy of AEW fight forever
is now starting today.
AEW fight forever is available at participating retailers, blah, blah, blah, at just $29.99.
I said, hey, serious question, y'all.
Is this worth it?
I didn't get one yes.
E chimed in.
It was a few people.
I was like, Ooh, okay.
I got a few.
Like I bought this game on launch day.
That's the last time I played this game.
Two different people said that to me and I was like, yo, that's horrible.
Yep.
And you know, Matt thought I was being too hard on the game when I reviewed it that he
made me revisit my review the next week.
Like you ain't played the game enough, man.
I need you to actually play the game and you're going to review again.
All you do is create a character.
Yeah, that's why I was like, no, you haven't talked about the game.
You just said like, that was all the game.
That was it.
He was like, that was all to it.
Actually, I take that back.
You were right.
You did give a great review.
Exactly.
And this is the thing.
So see, I was trying to be nice about the game and I was hoping they would fix some
things.
But what I should have said is that it's a fun but bare bones as game and ain't shit
to do.
But the gameplay ain't good enough to support it.
Like, period.
It's like, the game is bare bones.
That game came out in 2003.
It had been a great game.
But that's 20 years ago.
March 5th.
March 5th is the release.
We got a great game.
Cody, my main man's on the cover on the standard edition.
And then we got Bianca and Rhea on the Lux, which is awesome in itself.
Great updates to this game.
Matt, they got a casket match for you.
Bernice, they got an ambulance match for you.
I did see that.
Yeah.
Special guest referee match is back.
And they have a host of quality of life upgrades to the game, which are thinking to me phenomenal.
They added a back and forth strike mini game.
So in matches we see the boo yay dynamic when people are punching back and forth.
We have those mini games.
It's going to be a really, really good game, guys.
They add a lot of things.
Now one big thing that they showed today is that there is something called a 40 years
of WrestleMania edition, which is their big tier version coming out.
Originally Brock Lesnar was on this cover along with a host of other legends current
and past.
Today's trailer, Brock was removed off that cover, which I don't know if it surprised
me, but I raised the eyebrow and I'm like, damn, Brock is going down just as hard as
Vince with all of this, right?
And he hasn't even been proved.
He said Brock, Rhodesia, not Rock.
Brock, Brock Lesnar.
I'm over here minding my business listening to him.
No, you're over here giving people's eyebrows on camera.
Brock has never done that.
I said I raised the eyebrow, right?
So that's what, so she's raised an eyebrow too, right?
I'm with you, see?
I got you, Rhodesia.
Thank you.
But I'm like, damn, Brock is getting-
It's over, man.
... taken out of the history just like Vince.
And here's the thing, we don't know exactly what his role is.
I don't know if there's any kind of contracts or anything about what he agreed to or didn't
agree to or whatever the case may be, but it seems like the court of public opinion
is so strong that 2K was like, yo, we gotta get this man off this cover.
Like, y'all surprised by this?
I'm not at all.
I'm not at all, man.
I'm not surprised it took this long for them to show a new cover without him.
It's over for him.
With him being the only person in that suit that matches Brock Lesnar, I think she said
a world famous UFC champion who was under contract negotiators at the time, that was
it.
He's the only person.
So for him being as quiet as he was, and we know, for me, when I first saw that, I was
like, he's done for.
We're not gonna see him again in WWE anytime soon.
I don't think we'll see him ever again.
So of course we know they removed him from the Rumble.
They took him out of all the creative plans they had up until Mania.
It's over.
It's done.
Is he still on the website?
As it should be.
If he did anything to that woman, right?
I don't care if it was given to him on a silver platter and said, hey, she's fine with it.
No.
If you were named in that and you had anything to do with it, no, you gotta go.
Out of there.
Yep.
Hey, right before we sign off, who do you think was gonna be Brock's match at Mania?
You think it's gonna be Gunther?
Gunther?
Probably.
That's what I was thinking.
Yeah.
Which we had talked about that.
I said that a couple months ago, but yeah, it was confirmed.
He was supposed to work Dom and Elimination Chamber because Dom was gonna eliminate him
in the Rumble, which would have been hilarious.
And you can just imagine the shit talk that Dom would have had leading up to that, that
he eliminated Brock Lesnar from the Royal Rumble.
That's like a career milestone that we didn't get because of that.
And then they were gonna pivot to Gunther and Brock at Mania.
And see, and all that rock was like, look, we lost Brock, we lost punk.
Let's get the Brahma Bull back.
And then I think what happened was Cody did say like, hey guys, I think this isn't gonna
really work.
And then to what E you just said, Brock was like, dude, you can finish your story March
5th in that video game.
This is real life here.
You know what I'm saying?
That was what the Brahma Bull said.
That may have been made up.
I'm not sure, but I think that's also what was important.
He's turning heel every day.
Oh, Matter of the Rock.
We're both.
Both.
B-O-F-F.
What else y'all got?
Y'all got anything else before we get out of here?
This cover of the 40 years of WrestleMania, that's a reason why I was doing the people's
eyebrow was because it's on the cover.
And so I didn't even realize I was doing it until you called me out on it.
So this cover is actually pretty sweet.
Big time, but he's hitting hard on this cover.
Last thing on the final guess, Mercedes, Mercedes watch 2024.
He tweeted out on Tuesday, some to the effect of it's great when a plan is executed or execution
happens or something like that.
So today, of course, is Wednesday.
You guys are hearing it.
I still think that Tony Khan's announcement is something surrounding Mercedes and that
show being in Boston, but I'm excited.
I know he's not hype on her going to AEW, but she is needed.
I feel like back on American wrestling television and I think she's going to be tremendous for
AEW's women division.
If Tony Khan allows her to be tremendous for that division.
I can't wait to listen to another month now, Matt asking us, so is Mercedes a heel or is
she a face?
I think it may be projected on that.
If we got to ask that.
Come on, man.
That's not going to be like that.
It's not going to end it like this.
It's going to be wonderful when she comes number 30 at or next year.
Okay, that's enough.
All right.
And on that note, we are here like that's see or she be a standard deliver that's the
past Sunday according to you.
All right, y'all, we out of here.
That's all right, man.
We on the social.
Y'all know where to find this on Twitter.
That's FNW on YouTube.
That's freaking wrestling as I asked you guys on Sunday.
So continue to put the word out.
We appreciate you guys for everything that you guys have done for us.
We could continue to try to give that positive energy.
And also to it was funny because on our 100th episode, either was little matter was one
of the two talked about, you know, we were giving our thank yous and talking about, hey,
we thank everybody who's been supporting been with us.
And they won.
If you just got down with us, we love you the same.
One of you guys were like, and we even think the haters too.
And I made a comment saying we ain't got no haters, man.
The haters have popped up like weeds.
Because we can talk about Cody.
That's why, you know, oh, nevermind.
I want to go there.
I'm going to end this happy.
It's all good.
But once again, they say you ain't popping unless you got some haters.
Right.
That means you're growing.
And actually, we are absolutely growing.
If we just look at our numbers kind of across the board.
So we thank you guys for that.
But yeah, the haters are starting to pop up.
So I think even the haters, even the haters, you guys are helping us grow and giving us
content.
This does nothing but fuel me.
And I laugh and I keep it moving.
So I appreciate you guys there too.
But we will be back on Sunday.
I'm going to assume we are going to have a ton of answers on Thursday's presser.
And I think Cody is also scheduled to be on Smackdown on Friday, if I'm not mistaken.
I think it's great.
I don't think I don't think Roman or The Rock is scheduled to be on Smackdown.
Ain't nothing new for that.
The workhorse, Cody.
Working, working where he needs to work.
So we appreciate you.
Boom, boom.
So we will talk about that and we are out of here.
See you guys then.
Peace.
Director says cut.
We're still here.
They're still going.