1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,000
Welcome to the ring, it's rich and atom.

2
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:20,000
Breaking down the fights with flair and passion.

3
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:26,000
Tag teams grapplin' belts are clashing.

4
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:34,000
Finishes and factions catching action.

5
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:40,000
Right, welcome everyone to this week's Raw edition of finishes and factions.

6
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000
We are live from Atlanta with Raw this week.

7
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:50,000
And Atlanta as it was mentioned is the home of wrestling in America by the looks of it.

8
00:00:50,000 --> 00:01:00,000
So yeah, we're out of the State Farm Arena and I mean Atlanta's been fabled for wrestling.

9
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:08,000
But if we just look at WWE, I mean there's been nine PLEs including a WrestleMania.

10
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:16,000
There's two WrestleMania's in Atlanta, it's 2002 and 2010.

11
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:24,000
No, sorry two real Royal Rumbles in Atlanta which was 2002, 2010 and had WrestleMania 32.

12
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:32,000
The interesting thing I found from this being 25 episodes of Monday Night Raw out of Atlanta.

13
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:37,000
Yeah, absolutely, it's an insane amount of publicity.

14
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:44,000
Theoretically a half year content just coming out of one city.

15
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000
True.

16
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000
True.

17
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:57,000
But yeah, we won't get too bogged down in Stats for Raw.

18
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,000
No, I've got one more stat for tonight though for you.

19
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:09,000
There was 12,432 members of the WWE Universe in attendance at the State Farm Arena.

20
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000
Wow.

21
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000
What an amount of people.

22
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,000
Especially for the last Raw before Royal Rumble.

23
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,000
That was incredible, incredible attendance.

24
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,000
Yeah, definitely.

25
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:28,000
And we started this Raw off with a recap of Saturday Night's main event from Saturday previous.

26
00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,000
So yeah, we've already...

27
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:37,000
We've covered that. The episode is up on the podcast ready and waiting for you to listen to.

28
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,000
I'm not going to lie, I had a moment there where I thought, did we do an episode on that?

29
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,000
I didn't really remember.

30
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:51,000
And then we moved on to an in-ring promo with Steph Breakin-Rollins.

31
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,000
Winner of the 2019 Royal Rumble.

32
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000
And the 2014 Money in the Bank winner as well.

33
00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,000
He was.

34
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000
If we're going to start listing off his championships, we're going to be here all day.

35
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000
That'll be short form content I think.

36
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:12,000
Yeah, 100%. Once we get there, we'll get there.

37
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,000
But the one thing that always...

38
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:22,000
I'm not going to say impresses me because I'm not in any way, shape or form impressed by it.

39
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000
But my fucking god, the wardrobe this man has.

40
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000
What the hell was this thing that he was wearing?

41
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,000
It looked like a curtain design. It genuinely did.

42
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:38,000
Seth Rollins looks like he's got an addiction to LSD because some of the outfits he wears,

43
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,000
you would need to be on acid to want to put them together.

44
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,000
Yeah, this is it. And it's something that you only really wear once and then probably burn afterwards.

45
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:55,000
That's a dodgy 80s birthday party outfit. He brings that back week in, week out.

46
00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:02,000
He brings a different one back week in, week out.

47
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,000
But yeah, I mean, it was nice to see Seth Rollins.

48
00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:12,000
We haven't seen him since his... well, since the roar after his...

49
00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,000
He's lost a CMP.

50
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,000
CMP. And it's nice to see that his eyes were covered.

51
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:24,000
It's not anywhere near as holy shit as it was when we first saw it.

52
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,000
Well, he did describe it as he had a bruise the size of Georgia underneath his eye.

53
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,000
And he was not wrong.

54
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,000
No, he was not. Not at all.

55
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,000
But...

56
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:40,000
He was basically on about his Royal Rumble, really, wasn't he?

57
00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:46,000
He kind of came in and said that he was going to win it, like everyone else has for the last week or so.

58
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:53,000
He was starting his road to redemption and the start of that was beating Drew McIntyre last week.

59
00:04:53,000 --> 00:05:01,000
And then it kind of moved on swiftly to where he was going after he's won the Royal Rumble.

60
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000
I loved the comedy factor in this.

61
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,000
So he'd finished talking about Cody Rhodes.

62
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:09,000
And as soon as he mentioned whether it was Gunther he was going after,

63
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:16,000
the impeccable timing of Gunther's music here was just perfect.

64
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:20,000
Well, Gunther seems a little bit desperate to be relevant at the moment.

65
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:28,000
It seems to be where he seems to be heading toward is that he obviously tried to...

66
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:38,000
It almost sounds bad when you have to say that a world heavyweight champion had to sort of piggyback of Jey Uso's hype

67
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,000
in the last couple of weeks.

68
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,000
And yeah, just...

69
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:50,000
I mean, speaking of Gunther and Jey Uso, I mean, he does...

70
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:56,000
Once Gunther makes it to the ring, he does what all WWE wrestlers do.

71
00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:02,000
And despite the fact that the match that they had...

72
00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,000
It was an incredible match.

73
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:11,000
...was an incredible match, he's still downplaying the fact that, oh yeah, I'll beat him with these.

74
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:16,000
When you watch the match or listen to the podcast from that episode, you know that wasn't the case.

75
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:21,000
Jey pretty much had him down and he was lucky to walk away with that title.

76
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,000
Yeah, and the look on Gunther's face at the end of that match says it all, realistically.

77
00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:33,000
Then when you're playing that heel section, you know, obviously in that feud between Gunther and Jey Uso,

78
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:38,000
with how over Jey is, you're not going to be able to get him to play heel field.

79
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,000
But Gunther's having to try and play that and it's probably not one of his stronger points,

80
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:50,000
which you really kind of sometimes come to doubt because a lot of his character and the way he builds his character is very heelish.

81
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:57,000
Can't imagine Gunther running around, yeeting and doing all the funny things that some of the faces do.

82
00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,000
No, I think he's...

83
00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:05,000
It's going to take a lot for people to see him as a face if he ever makes it that far.

84
00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:11,000
But yeah, Gunther comes out basically calling Rollins...

85
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:16,000
He calls Rollins out a lot in this initial exchange, just saying...

86
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,000
I got down here that he was...

87
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,000
He practically accused Rollins of being washed up.

88
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:30,000
Obviously calling Rollins out, I'm taking his eye off the ball as far as championships go, which, yeah,

89
00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,000
I mean I can't really argue against that second lot.

90
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:45,000
Or that second lot, it's a case that he is not really Chase Championship Gold for a couple of months, because he's been too...

91
00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:54,000
He's been distracted with the bloodline stuff. The bloodline stuff's taken over a lot of characters and a lot of the title runs.

92
00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:05,000
Yeah, it has. And we tend to see this with big factions as well, is that they do have a tendency to have a massive gravity pulling them,

93
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:11,000
pulling all of them, pulling a lot of wrestlers in to their storyline.

94
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:16,000
But it has done a lot of them quite well though, because some of these wrestlers that have been pulled in,

95
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,000
you wouldn't necessarily see in a storyline at that time.

96
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:27,000
So it has benefited quite a lot of the locker room having this incredible storyline with the bloodline.

97
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:35,000
And as much as a lot of us have got fed up with Roman, Roman, Roman, solo, Roman, it was an incredible storyline.

98
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:40,000
Oh yeah, 100% and they played it all off to an absolute tee.

99
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:48,000
I'm actually just going to find out what or if we see any more of solo Sakura after this.

100
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:57,000
Well, I saw something funny on Facebook after Monday Night Raw saying that apparently solo Sakura was signing with AEW,

101
00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,000
which I thought was brilliant. But it was just one of those lines.

102
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:12,000
There's been a lot flying around saying that solo has just... he's fucked off, he's just gone from the WWE, he's decided.

103
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:18,000
No, not doing it anymore, he has taken his toys and gone home.

104
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,000
Oh, are we going to hear about that in a CM Punk promo in five years time?

105
00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,000
Quite possibly.

106
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,000
The return of solo Sakura is the people's person.

107
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:40,000
Yeah, this exchange between Gunther and Rollins, we again were seeing Gunther begging for a challenge.

108
00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:50,000
It takes a lot of the wind out of the sales of a heavyweight champion to have to beg for challenges.

109
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:59,000
Yeah, you'd have thought if you were that good of a champion that everyone would want to face you, but it feels like no one really wants to.

110
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:09,000
There's no progression of his storyline apart from him trying to jump off other people's hype train and trying to get a fight that way.

111
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:19,000
Yeah, and this is how it's coming across at the moment, so I'm not sure if this is the storytelling or if it is the lighting or what's going on,

112
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:25,000
but I think they need to have a massive shake up with Gunther to try and get him something decent for WrestleMania,

113
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:29,000
because otherwise it's going to just be a throwaway match.

114
00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:43,000
Yeah, and talking about throwaways, one of WWE's worst possible acquisitions made his reappearance during this segment as well.

115
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:45,000
That much of a...

116
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,000
It was his return.

117
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:53,000
It was his debut on Raw on Netflix.

118
00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:01,000
Yeah, well Logan Paul decided he was going to come and join the conversation and on Facebook, again, just after I saw this episode air,

119
00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:09,000
there is a video clip of Seth Rollins saying to Gunther, like, who the fuck's music is that? Who's that?

120
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:25,000
Nobody knew who it was, and I mean, the minute he showed his smug, arrogant fucking face, the entire arena erupted with booze.

121
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:35,000
I'm not sure who's more hated at the moment, like Logan Paul, Kevin Owens or Hulk Hogan.

122
00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:41,000
They all seem to be receiving some incredibly large booze from the WWE Universe.

123
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:53,000
I mean, I can understand Hulk Hogan, don't get me wrong. I can understand Kevin Owens, and I can also understand Logan Paul.

124
00:11:53,000 --> 00:12:01,000
I mean, I mean, you have had conversations before we even started doing the podcast about Logan Paul and the way that he came into WWE is that...

125
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,000
He hasn't paid his dues.

126
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:11,000
Yeah, Logan Paul hasn't paid his dues, and he should not be on the flagship show.

127
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:18,000
He should be down earning the respect of the rest of the roster down in NXT and doing it properly like the other guys have that are currently on the main roster.

128
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,000
Seth Rollins being one of them.

129
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:33,000
I mean, credit given where credit is due, he has done phenomenally well for somebody that hasn't got a massive amount of in-ring wrestling experience.

130
00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:41,000
So if a someone who's basically paid for the experience, he's multi-millionaire, he's basically just set to Vince.

131
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,000
Look, there's a couple of million. Let me be a superstar for a little while.

132
00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:45,000
Vince has gone, yeah, sure.

133
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:52,000
No, Vince isn't there. They're still having to bail out a contract. It's already been signed.

134
00:12:52,000 --> 00:13:01,000
Well, no, because he's recently signed a new cut. He was on a part... He was almost on a like a part-time contract beforehand, whereas now he is very much...

135
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:07,000
And he is making it known that he is...

136
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,000
That he's going full-time.

137
00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:15,000
He is WWE wrestler through and through.

138
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:26,000
Do you know what? If he can pull it off and actually start earning some...

139
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,000
Brownie points with the locker room.

140
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:45,000
Then fair play. I will start shutting up about how much I hate the guy, but it's honestly... I will continue to say it for as long as I have to look at his smug arrogant face.

141
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:50,000
The guy just didn't... He hasn't done the work.

142
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,000
No, he hasn't.

143
00:13:52,000 --> 00:14:02,000
I mean, you look at any other... I mean, the other two guys in the ring with him, all... Both of them came up through NXT.

144
00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:16,000
Both of them were in the Indies beforehand and put years of their lives into that, into getting to where they've gotten to.

145
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:24,000
And I'm not even entirely sure if Logan Paul ever had any even dark matches.

146
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:25,000
I'm not sure.

147
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:32,000
Let alone the fact that he hasn't been through Indies, he hasn't been through NXT.

148
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:38,000
I mean, he hasn't even gone anywhere close to NXT. And I doubt that...

149
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:46,000
Unless he starts having a real downturn in any sort of reaction from the crowd. I don't think they'll ever put in there, to be honest.

150
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:52,000
No, but talking about guys that have been through NXT and paid their dues and done incredibly well to it.

151
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:58,000
I think that might be a great opportunity to move us on to our first match of the day.

152
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:06,000
Well, let's cover a few other bits because I did go on a bit of a Logan Paul hate rant.

153
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:10,000
Logan Paul has declared himself the Rumble.

154
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:11,000
He has.

155
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:16,000
And Gunther...

156
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:21,000
Gunther wants Paul to win the Rumble.

157
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,000
So he wants Logan Paul to win the Rumble.

158
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:32,000
Only so, Logan Paul chooses to face Gunther at WrestleMania and Gunther gets to slap this living shit out of him.

159
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,000
Which, to be quite honest, I'm not against.

160
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,000
I'd watch that.

161
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:52,000
That storyline they build, happy days because I would pay, will pay money to watch that phenomenal German guy just lash the living shit out of him.

162
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:57,000
And we also found out Rollins wants to embarrass Gunther.

163
00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,000
So they all really just want to embarrass each other.

164
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,000
Which, you know what, I'm not against.

165
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,000
I'm not either.

166
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:18,000
We also went from there to a backstage promo with, or a backstage sort of interview promo with the second city CMPump.

167
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,000
Yes.

168
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,000
Before we move on to the first match, is this...

169
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,000
Oh, I don't know how many notes there's this conversation with CMPump.

170
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:28,000
In your note.

171
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:31,000
No, I'm literally just pulling yours up for a quick second.

172
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000
We're just querying up.

173
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:39,000
Say, because we've got another promo before this as well, that I made a note of.

174
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:52,000
So they start off at it's CM Punk being interviewed by Kathy Kelly, one of the backstage interviewers for Monday Night Raw.

175
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:53,000
Ah, yes.

176
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,000
And then just talking about how much of a stacked field for the Rumble it is.

177
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:57,000
Well, it is one of it.

178
00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,000
CM Punk, it's very stacked.

179
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Apology.

180
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:02,000
Oh, 100%.

181
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:18,000
I mean, some of the names that have been declared for the Rumble, I mean, we're looking at the likes of LA Night, John Cena, Jey Uso, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Ray Mysterio.

182
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,000
Sammy Zane, did you point out?

183
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:27,000
Sammy Zane's in there, Shinsuke Nakamura, Logan Paul, Chad Gable.

184
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:34,000
I mean, I'm not even going to mention Carmelo Hayes because he's not really a heavy hitter, but still.

185
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,000
Well, they call him the Marshmallow for a reason.

186
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,000
Mallow never misses.

187
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:46,000
Mallow is just soft and cuddly.

188
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:54,000
But CM Punk, unapologetically confident, which we've come to expect from him.

189
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,000
He's just cocky.

190
00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,000
CM Punk has been cocky since he started professional wrestling.

191
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:08,000
Whether that be down in the Indies, OVW or Raw, wherever he's been, he's just been a cocky son of a gun.

192
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:09,000
I love it.

193
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,000
Massive punk fanmeets.

194
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:29,000
We're also introduced to Sammy Zane on Monday Night here for it as well, who wanted to respond to Punk's comment from last week where he said that Sammy Zane just wasn't even on his level.

195
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:39,000
Yeah, and I think Punk was, it wasn't necessarily aimed, well, he did aim it directly at Sammy, but he was just saying in general, like he's head and shoulders above the rest of the locker room right now and no one else is going to touch him.

196
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,000
But Sammy Zane did point out something I quite enjoyed.

197
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,000
And now I've spotted your notes, it's kind of refreshed me.

198
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:53,000
It was the, you've just got to remember one thing, mate, I'm WrestleMania main eventer and you're not.

199
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:59,000
And Punk's face after the end of that was very much like, okay, someone's just pipe bombed me for once.

200
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,000
That's not normally how this goes.

201
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:12,000
Yeah, and he very much pipe bombs it because he does, he pretty much says that and walks away and walks away.

202
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:16,000
He just does one, doesn't he? But he bumps trying to carry him crossed, doesn't he?

203
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:24,000
He does. And this is an interesting, this is sort of interesting to find out what carrying crosses roles going to be now.

204
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:33,000
Because I think we've been given a little glimpse of it with with the second half of this promo just because obviously he did a lot of work with the Y6.

205
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:38,000
He was he was well and truly, he's head and they both been moved over.

206
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:39,000
Smackdown.

207
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,000
Smackdown now.

208
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:50,000
Yeah, so are we going to see carrying cross trying to help Sammy Zane over accomplish this fact he's not really had much of a singles run for a while.

209
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:56,000
Maybe someone's going to have Sammy's back instead of Sammy having everyone else's back.

210
00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:02,000
I think this is what it's going to turn into. But at the minute, Zane is playing very much hard to get.

211
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:09,000
He's the very cross in the attempt to in Cross's attempt to get in his head.

212
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:18,000
And yeah, I think we've got a I think we've got a Sammy Zane heel to them and accompanied by cross on the horizon, which I'd love to see that.

213
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,000
Very interesting.

214
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,000
Yeah, so we see a lot of Sammy Zane in a face role.

215
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:29,000
And generally, like with the way his character has been built over the last decade.

216
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:33,000
That was the way it's always been.

217
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:36,000
He has tried pulling up when he pulled off heel reasonably well with it.

218
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:47,000
But I think this time we could have quite serious, like quite dark Sammy Zane heel turn be interesting to see who he turns on to make that that push though.

219
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:50,000
I think it could be a member of someone of the bloodline.

220
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:55,000
I think it could be someone like Roman or someone like that sort of area.

221
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,000
There's loads of candidates for Sammy Zane to turn on.

222
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:15,000
I mean, one of them after after Cross talks about sort of urging Sammy Zane to take the opportunities that are at his feet and not to turn any of them down, then walks away.

223
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:43,000
We then have Cody Rhodes joining Sammy Zane in frame and they have probably one of the shortest exchanges I think I've ever seen on the back end of a promo and all you left with really is Sammy Zane walks away and Cody Rhodes just he looks genuinely scared for Sammy Zane there.

224
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,000
I mean, I think he's seen part of the exchange with Carrie and Cross.

225
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,000
We all know Carrie and Cross is up to no good.

226
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:55,000
I think there's some genuine concern.

227
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,000
Yep.

228
00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:10,000
And then we went from there into a ringside promo with a town down under introducing themselves to the raw crowd and just trying to throw some shade wherever they can to be fair.

229
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:21,000
Yeah, we had a lot of like Georgia seems to be very much a hotbed for rap artists and things like that.

230
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:28,000
I mean, I'm not generally very into rap music, so to be honest, I didn't really recognize any of them.

231
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:33,000
Recognize to change his name, but apart from that, that was about it.

232
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:36,000
Yeah, that was about the extent of mine as well.

233
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:47,000
The only thing that I saw in common with every single one of these artists that these rap artists that they introduced us to was

234
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,000
Please tell me it was the teeth group.

235
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,000
Well, yes, it was.

236
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,000
None of them had that none of them appeared to have their own.

237
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,000
They all look like George from James Bond.

238
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:05,000
Yeah, just a little bit more tanned.

239
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:13,000
Yeah, but yeah, it's a town down under doing you keep going out.

240
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:21,000
Which is which is being.

241
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,000
Yeah, which is just being themselves being an asshole pretty much.

242
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,000
Yeah.

243
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,000
Then we step into March one.

244
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,000
We do.

245
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,000
Which was the.

246
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:46,000
This was an interesting one because obviously we're recording this after Monday Night Raw is aired and due to my busy week this week.

247
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,000
I've actually seen a lot more on Facebook before recording of these.

248
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:58,000
This match, I was intrigued to watch purely for the fact that I wanted to see how a certain incident happened.

249
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,000
We'll talk about that later.

250
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:05,000
But this was War Raiders and Judgment Day for the Raw Tag Team Championship.

251
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:13,000
And it was the War Raiders first defense of the championship since they won it six weeks ago.

252
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:18,000
I was going to say they've had it a hell of a long time to have not defended it just yet.

253
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:26,000
But I think we had it alluded to us in the weeks gone by that they've been sort of fraught with injury and all the rest of it.

254
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:32,000
And I mean, well, throughout the match, they were busy talking about the injuries that Eric and I have had.

255
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,000
And I can't remember which one it is off the top of my head.

256
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:46,000
I think it was Ivar, but he is only one of two wrestlers to have had a certain type of neck surgery to still be able to wrestle since.

257
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:51,000
The other one of those being the rated our superstar Edge.

258
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:58,000
As he was formerly known, I think he's going into the name of the rated our cope at the moment in a w.

259
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,000
Yeah, something like that, possibly.

260
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:10,000
And but yeah, this I mean, on paper, it doesn't or you look at this on look at this as it is.

261
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:15,000
And this matches is looking more and more like a bit of a squash match.

262
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:23,000
I mean, we've got Judgement Day in JD McDonough and Dominic Mysterio versus the war Raiders, Eric and Ivar.

263
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:30,000
And I'm sorry, Eric and I mean, Ivar on his I'm pretty sure he could have flattened.

264
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:37,000
I mean, I'm pretty sure one of them on their own weighs more than Dom and JD put together anyway, even with JD's massive head,

265
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:42,000
which was referred to multiple times by the announce table.

266
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,000
Yeah, I mean, the correlation between ads.

267
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,000
They big boys.

268
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,000
They are big boys.

269
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,000
And you've got to think some of these guys go through a severe level of pain anyway.

270
00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:06,000
But one thing I do want to shout out and point out is that JD McDonough took quite a you got hurt quite badly in that match.

271
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000
You wouldn't know it considering he finished the match.

272
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:17,000
But at one point he hit a rather beautiful moonsault off the outside of the ring, missed his mark,

273
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:23,000
bless him and smashed his neck onto the announce table.

274
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:28,000
And I think if that had been anyone else, that would have been a broken neck moment right there.

275
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,000
The impact of that was made me wince.

276
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:33,000
I'm not going to lie.

277
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:34,000
I had to look away for a second.

278
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:35,000
I've seen it a few times.

279
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,000
It was horrible.

280
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,000
The fact that he finished that match was incredible.

281
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000
I'd had just laid on the floor like a bitch going, I ain't moving.

282
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:44,000
Fuck you.

283
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,000
XX get me out of here.

284
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:48,000
Yeah, 100%.

285
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,000
I mean, we'll give shit for JD.

286
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,000
JD McDonough until.

287
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:55,000
Yeah, he's a bit of a chicken shit.

288
00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:00,000
But in regard of this match, the fact that he.

289
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:06,000
And it came out the raw had finished airing in the days that follow that JD McDonough.

290
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:15,000
Despite the fact that he cracked the back of his head off the off a reinforced announce table as they like to keep mentioning.

291
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:20,000
The injuries he actually sustained were a couple of broken ribs and a punctured lung.

292
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:24,000
I mean, how that adds up doesn't get.

293
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:31,000
I can't think of at all because he went like, oh, make me feel rough just thinking about it.

294
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000
Yeah, he hit his head hard.

295
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:40,000
So the fact he's got no neck injury, no concussion, no whiplash, no nothing like that is very, very surprising.

296
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:47,000
Well, the war Raiders ragged him around like a rag doll from his head several different occasions during this match.

297
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,000
Well, there was a kick to the back of the head at one point as well.

298
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,000
Was it a knee to the back of the head?

299
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,000
It looked like a meant to be a backbreaker, but got it slightly.

300
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:59,000
I don't like using the word botch, but mismove.

301
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000
It didn't look like it hit the shoulders like he was supposed to have done.

302
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:07,000
And yet he hit JD right in the back of the noggin again.

303
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,000
So commentary said that this went right to the back of his neck.

304
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:19,000
I remember watching this and being really sort of meticulous does actually hit him square between the shoulder.

305
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:27,000
It's still going to hurt if you but not quite to the same extent as it do if it was just straight to the back of the neck.

306
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,000
Move your mic a bit closer.

307
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:37,000
Eric, I mean, Eric's Eric coming to, I mean, let's try that again.

308
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,000
Eric is not a not a light guy.

309
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,000
As we've already mentioned, I mean, Ivar is the bigger.

310
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:52,000
So Eric is Eric coming down on the back of your neck.

311
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:58,000
That is definitely resulted in a broken neck from regardless.

312
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,000
Yeah.

313
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:05,000
It wasn't a say it was a war Raiders.

314
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:11,000
Ragged them around, but I will give credit where credits do JD managed to get through that match.

315
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:18,000
I don't know how, but and don managed to do a very, very good job of keeping the front of it off JD.

316
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:25,000
Like Don took some impressive spots and some impressive bumps just to try and kind of help the poor guy.

317
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,000
But you can see every time JD took a move, he was going straight to his ribs and clutching at the end of it.

318
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:38,000
So say all respect for JD there and for Don for making sure his mate didn't take too much of a hard time.

319
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:39,000
Yeah.

320
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:44,000
Just a few spots. I want to call out on this match.

321
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:52,000
Ivar with a sensational handspring back elbow point during this match.

322
00:29:52,000 --> 00:30:00,000
I mean, being the biggest guy in the ring at that time, you do not expect a man of his to move in that way.

323
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,000
And it was absolutely beautiful.

324
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,000
It was fantastic.

325
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,000
We also had a Carlito interference.

326
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,000
Just runs in and spits the apple in his face.

327
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:20,000
Spits in the face of anybody who does not wish to be cool.

328
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:28,000
We had Don Mysterio hit, eventually hit a 619.

329
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:33,000
And yeah, ball raiders narrowly avoid a loss off the back of that 619.

330
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:39,000
I believe it was Carlito tries to get involved again gets absolutely hammered.

331
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:44,000
And the war raiders hit war machine to retain via pin.

332
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:59,000
But yeah, the big takeaway from this match was the absolutely phenomenal fortitude of JD McDonald to basically say, basically say, no, I know I'm a heart, but I am carrying on regardless.

333
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000
Fair play to him.

334
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:14,000
And from one miss stereo into a backstage segment with Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston was it.

335
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:20,000
So I've got a backstage promo with Pete Dunn and Ludwig Kaiser, which I think.

336
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,000
Yeah, they were hinting at a possible feud between the two of them.

337
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000
That would be something I could get down with.

338
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:41,000
Well, yeah, I mean, Pete Dunn had a he had an interesting role last week where he was under receiving end of a pantomime.

339
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:46,000
Well, he was complaining about being irrelevant and feeling ignored.

340
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:56,000
And during the middle of this promo actually got cut off by an ad break, which I'm not sure was I'm not entirely certain was intentional.

341
00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:07,000
But one of the highlights of my role last week was watching Pete Dunn get cut off halfway through being told telling us that he feels as though he's being ignored.

342
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:13,000
Yeah, I think that was very well worked into that specific storyline, but I don't think it was done on purpose.

343
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,000
Someone got in trouble for that.

344
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:19,000
I think they've made the best of a bad situation on that one, quite frankly.

345
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,000
Oh, yes.

346
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:30,000
But yeah, they Kaiser and Dunn are basically discussing that and Dunn's match last week.

347
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:39,000
They're interrupted by the new day who by the looks of it are just trying to sort of ingratiate themselves.

348
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,000
Yeah, Kaiser.

349
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:47,000
I think they're looking for some I genuinely think they're looking for some support from backstage at this point.

350
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:57,000
They're really getting much support from for the way they they ousted Big E. So they're not really going to have a huge positive effect there.

351
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:03,000
We've seen in previous weeks that, you know, Kofi Kingston's family have basically told him take a hike.

352
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000
You know, you did Big E dirty, so we're not going to allow you to do that.

353
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:19,000
And you know, Xavier Woods has got his match with Ray Mysterio later on in the evening and he's already talking about having his family front row and, you know, have the favourites son of it.

354
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,000
Everyone seems to be at London's favourite son this week.

355
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:33,000
Oh, definitely. I mean, the interviewer blesser manages to keep a straight face all the way through listing off the different.

356
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:45,000
I think she was sat there trying to see how many more she could think of before she eventually had to let Kofi kind of go.

357
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,000
No, it's my boy, Xavier Woods.

358
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:55,000
But it was the fact that Cody, Kofi refers to Cody as a paper champion.

359
00:33:55,000 --> 00:34:11,000
That was something I latched on to and I was actually, is this potentially going to be another hint at a singles, a singles championship for Kofi in the future, maybe, that he's getting quite antagonistic.

360
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:28,000
I don't know, but Xavier's got a spring in his step at the moment and slightly unrelated, but a former friend of his has recently become single as well. So we could get a part two to that favourite video for all of ours too.

361
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:33,000
I know what you're talking about.

362
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:49,000
Those of you who are into wrestling but not 100% sure of the joke, Paige, well, Soraya Knight more commonly referred to as Paige when she was a WWE superstar, had a rather interesting evening with Xavier Woods and Brad Maddox many years ago.

363
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:59,000
Her and Ronnie Radke have just split up and Xavier's got one hell of a spring in his step again. So yeah, like I said, we could get a part two to that rematch.

364
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:08,000
Yes, definitely. But I've got a feeling I've got some more notes around later on in the episode.

365
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:22,000
But for now, we're going to move on to match two, which was a men's singles match between Rey Mysterio and Xavier Woods, who was accompanied out to the ring by one Kofi Inkstone.

366
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:33,000
So their match fell directly after this promo was cut and it was a nice little segue into the match, I thought.

367
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:48,000
One of the big things that came out during this match, or they made it quite a big deal, which I was a little bit confused about why they made it such a big deal going into this match.

368
00:35:48,000 --> 00:36:03,000
But it was the fact that this was Zelina Vega's very last Raw. She's being moved, transferred over to SmackDown as of May 2nd.

369
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:10,000
So hopefully we'll be seeing something more of Zelina Vega.

370
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:23,000
Yeah, no, hopefully. That could be an interesting one. But it depends what they're going to do with her over on SmackDown to make sure that it's worth the move.

371
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:34,000
Yeah, definitely. They've got to work it in properly. But Mysterio was accompanied out to the ring by the LWO, including Zelina Vega.

372
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:43,000
And during Xavier Woods' entrance, he seemed to really take issue with people touching him.

373
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:57,000
Quite a few people have the last few days. Like the last few episodes of different promotional stuff, whether it be Raw, SmackDown or NXT, I've noticed a few people getting a little bit annoyed at the fans touching them on the way down the ramp.

374
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:09,000
I will say though, most of them seem to be having an issue with the NXT guys, and that's because their entrance ramp is so small and it's so close to the crowd.

375
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:24,000
Yeah, it's also come out again as Rick sort of alluded to earlier on. We are recording this Friday, bearing in mind that obviously Raw goes out on a Monday.

376
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:40,000
And it's come out over the last few days that even superstars like Asuka have been putting up social media posts, making it seem like she's been potentially stalked or something along those lines that she...

377
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:45,000
Um...

378
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:50,000
Is he there?

379
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,000
Hello?

380
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,000
Yeah, no, you completely disappeared on the standard.

381
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,000
Yeah, I don't know what's going on.

382
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:09,000
Yeah, I can see it in the Discord channel. My mic is not always picking everything up.

383
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:13,000
No, I have noticed that's why I did tell you to move across earlier.

384
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:18,000
Yeah, which I can honestly, apart from sticking it down my throat, I can't get it any closer to me.

385
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:33,000
We're back in the room. Okay, so we're going to jump back in with Rey Mysterio and Xavier Woods after we had a bit of a backstage promo involving New Day just beforehand.

386
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:47,000
So I haven't got a lot of notes for this specific match, but what I did make a note of was there was a lot of high-flying, fast-paced action pretty much from the get-go from both Rey and Xavier Woods.

387
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:55,000
I must admit, I do want to throw out there that I have really enjoyed seeing Rey Mysterio back on a regular viewing card.

388
00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:06,000
I know there's a Hall of Famer, he's done his time in the ring and whether it be for WWE or some of the AAA luchador at one point in Mexico.

389
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,000
So he's definitely worked his way in and put his time in.

390
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:17,000
But to see him back is a semi-active competitor doing what's his third week in a row now?

391
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,000
Second week in a row. It's been nice to see.

392
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:41,000
Even just when you get the occasional tease of a 619, but to be able to see the seated sentons, the Hurricane Ranas and all the fact that he's getting on a little bit and he's still managing to pull off moves that he was doing 15 years ago when he first bumped onto the scene, if not longer.

393
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:46,000
I'm pretty sure he's been in WWE longer than that.

394
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:54,000
Yeah, it would not surprise me. We're probably looking at 20 plus at the next turn.

395
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:57,000
Oh yeah, definitely.

396
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:14,000
But yeah, the Rey Mysterio vs Xavier Woods match, really high flying, really nice to see Rey actually quite enjoying seeing a little bit from Xavier Woods as well.

397
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:21,000
It's not somebody we see a massive amount of in-ring competition work for the last couple of years.

398
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:28,000
No, and even with the New Day, we know we're working as a free man under the freemen rule, or the free bird rule, sorry.

399
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:34,000
Very often you saw Kofi and Big E with Xavier sort of out the side as a hype man.

400
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:44,000
To see him in between the ropes of the squared circle competing in a solo singles match was actually quite nice to see.

401
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,000
And is it me or has he got a little bit more stacked in the last few years?

402
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:56,000
He's definitely been putting the work in and it's definitely showing.

403
00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:04,000
I got a few more notes probably than you did out of this match, mostly towards the worry of the match.

404
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:14,000
So one of the big bragging points during this match was that he had his blaze and had come out to...

405
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:18,000
Yeah, he was really excited about having his family there.

406
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:23,000
Has he was on about that in the promo at the start before he came out, wouldn't he?

407
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,000
Yeah, very much so.

408
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,000
I wasn't not expecting it to go the way it did, I will point that one out.

409
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:41,000
Well, I digress a little bit, we'll go into a little bit more detail in a little while I'm sure, but it was definitely an interesting matchup between the two.

410
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:46,000
But one, I wish I'd seen... I feel like I haven't seen a matchup like this in a while.

411
00:41:46,000 --> 00:42:00,000
So, and I couldn't find anything in the research I did about the last time Ray Mysterio and Xavier Woods went one-on-one, so I think this could have been a first for both of them.

412
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:09,000
Yeah, I don't believe I've seen the two of them face off against one another, certainly not against one another.

413
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:18,000
It's also possible that they've... or very possible that they've definitely not met before.

414
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:23,000
No, I've just had a quick Google. They have never met in a singles match.

415
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:34,000
But one thing I will say is that Ray seemed to really struggle to get going against Xavier Woods during this match.

416
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:42,000
So it was quite unusual to say, I mean, not necessarily unusual, but still not what we've come to expect.

417
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:54,000
We are used to Ray as he's got a little bit older, taking a little bit longer to work into some of these sort of high-flying moves than we were by shapes of 20 years ago.

418
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:59,000
I did just double check while we were talking about it. Ray Mysterio debuted in 2002.

419
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:05,000
He's been on the WWE for 23 years and he was in ECW beforehand.

420
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,000
So yeah, this guy's probably been competing as long as I've been breathing.

421
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:16,000
So for us to see him getting a little bit older and slowing down a little bit isn't necessarily a nice thing to see,

422
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:24,000
but you do know that once he's warmed up a little bit, when he does get going, you are going to get treated to classic Ray Mysterio.

423
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:32,000
I will say I hope Ray does the sensible thing in the future when he learns, you know, when he gets to hanging up his boots.

424
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:40,000
And he does it in a way where he's still got some good matches left if you wanted to, but he's not, you know, going week in, week out.

425
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:43,000
I'd hate to see Ray Mysterio end up in something like that.

426
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:48,000
Absolute shit show in Saudi Arabia between the brothers of destruction and Generation X.

427
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:57,000
Yeah, I'd hate for his career to end that specific way, but I know I think personally, I don't think it'd be too long before we see him hang up his boots on a permanent basis.

428
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:01,000
So I'm just going to enjoy watching him and watching what he's got while we can.

429
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:12,000
Yeah, and I think that's the way we've all got to sort of look at it at the minute is that we know he's not going to be, he's not got years and years and years left.

430
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:24,000
It is a case that he is very much against the clock is very much against him in this case, but we have just got to sort of enjoy him while we've got him.

431
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:32,000
One thing I was a little bit confused about and I will say this about this match is neither Ray Mysterio nor Xavier Woods need to push.

432
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:36,000
They are both well accomplished veterans of the squared circle.

433
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:47,000
So for me, it was interesting to kind of see where they're going to go with this is obviously Ray faced Kofi last week and beat him.

434
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:53,000
He's got Xavier this week, you know, and not sure where the outcomes going to be.

435
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:57,000
We're going to end up with a new day versus LWO sort of future ahead.

436
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:04,000
I possibly see that coming, but I'm not entirely sure how they're going to work it for now.

437
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:07,000
It certainly seems to be building that way.

438
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:17,000
I mean, I know the new day and new day and Ray Mysterio seem to have just sparked a battle nowhere.

439
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:26,000
It seems to have been they have been or Ray has been the target of their frustration, I suppose is probably the best word to use.

440
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:35,000
I know I can appreciate that, but when you've got those two veterans trying to take it out on another veteran and someone who's so over his ray as well.

441
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:44,000
It's the ultimate heel turn to, you know, the more the heel action, so to speak, to take out or try and take out one of the best known faces in the business.

442
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:47,000
And so far it hasn't worked.

443
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:50,000
No, definitely not.

444
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:56,000
But if we delve into this match a little bit more, I mean, there were some fantastic spots with it.

445
00:45:56,000 --> 00:46:05,000
I mean, before the match, Kingston talking about really getting that cheap heat digging about the Atlanta Falcons.

446
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:10,000
I love it when they bring the references like that because the Atlanta Falcons, the season of sucked.

447
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:19,000
I mean, if you were to use a wrestling term to describe the Falcons, I'm pretty sure you could probably get away with using Book of Tea.

448
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:25,000
Can you dig it? Sucker? But they did just suck. The Falcons issue have been terrible.

449
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:33,000
And for them to use that is very much cheap heat, but it worked.

450
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,000
It definitely worked.

451
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:48,000
One of the other things that I quite enjoyed was thought it was very apt was that we've started referring to Ray Mysterio as the gloat.

452
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:52,000
So we all know goat means greatest of all time.

453
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:56,000
The greatest luchador of all time.

454
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:01,000
Which I mean, yeah, we're not going to find anybody that's going to fit better than that.

455
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:09,000
I think if you were to really deep delve into like luchador history, especially the triple A promotion,

456
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:14,000
I'm sure there's probably somebody who has been slightly more successful in that promotion.

457
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:21,000
But I think Ray's covered it in not only WWE, but ECW and the triple A as well.

458
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:32,000
Yeah, I think, apart from maybe Penta, who is not exactly a close second, he's very much the greatest luchador of all time.

459
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:41,000
Yeah, so Ray Mysterio bought lucha libre more to the mainstream in the professional wrestling world.

460
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:50,000
Before it was a very specialized pipe, it wasn't something like it in mainstream promotion.

461
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:58,000
No, which is it's been nice to see because you do get a lot of the Japanese pro wrestling has been very forthcoming in some areas of pro wrestling.

462
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:04,000
But to be able to see the luchador stuff push out from a totally different area just makes it is true.

463
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:06,000
It's a World Wrestling Federation.

464
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:14,000
It used to be World Wrestling Entertainment now, but you have worldwide wrestling entities being brought in.

465
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:19,000
It's not just a mat wrestling like you expect from the NCAA.

466
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:22,000
You have got different aspects which make it so much better.

467
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:31,000
So when you get guys like Shinsuke Nakamura come in and Io Sky and the luchadors, it just rounds everything off perfectly.

468
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:36,000
Yeah, and Ray Mysterio was 100% trailblazer for that.

469
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:47,000
He was able to have people like Io Sky and all of these fantastic Latin American Mexican wrestlers that have a bit of...

470
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:55,000
and really embracing that lucha libre style, which is actually really exciting to watch.

471
00:48:55,000 --> 00:49:00,000
Yeah, it gives us the viewer something really to get excited about.

472
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:08,000
If you're a wrestling fan and most of us that are listening to this will be, or at least know a little bit about it,

473
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:13,000
the fact that you can have a really boring undercard, right?

474
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:14,000
And it does not matter.

475
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:18,000
You can have some great, some phenomenal talents that just haven't really connected.

476
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:25,000
But as soon as you throw in a masked guy like Ray Mysterio, the entire crowd, they know what's coming.

477
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:30,000
It's just the tension and the atmosphere automatically pick up.

478
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:34,000
So it is always a bonus to see.

479
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:40,000
I for one would love to see how this continues and where it continues.

480
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:47,000
Definitely, but bringing it back to this match specifically, a lot of the storyline based off that I know downwards,

481
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:54,000
the beginning of this match we were told that basically Woods's family hadn't turned up,

482
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:59,000
they weren't in the building and then about halfway through the match,

483
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:03,000
which seems to act as a bit of a distraction for Woods.

484
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:08,000
He's quite understandably upset that he invited his family in.

485
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:11,000
They turned up late sort of thing.

486
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:13,000
Just turn up late.

487
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:21,000
They turned up late and slapped him in the face by showing up in New Day suck t-shirts, which I loved.

488
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:24,000
I absolutely loved it.

489
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:33,000
And this is where the commentary team were very much trying to push the storyline on us that now that Kofi Kingston's family have also kind of gone,

490
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,000
no, you did Biggie Dirty, we're out.

491
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:37,000
Xavier Woods family have very much done the same.

492
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:39,000
You've done Biggie Dirty.

493
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,000
Do you do one?

494
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,000
We're not interested.

495
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:50,000
And it's adding so many different aspects to this storyline that you would not necessarily think of adding in.

496
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:55,000
So the writers, I will have to say, have done a fantastic section with this.

497
00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:57,000
Much as I'm not...

498
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,000
Carry on.

499
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:08,000
I mean, even... I mean, this match ends with Ray Mysterio hitting the 6-1-9 and picking up Pymfore victory over Xavier Woods,

500
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:12,000
but to add even more insult to injury.

501
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:19,000
And this is just going to feed into a feud between the LWO and New Day moving forward.

502
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:32,000
But the Ray Mysterio and LWO at the end of the match with the Woods family and Xavier being very much sort of left on the outside of that.

503
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:42,000
So I think we're going to see a much darker heel side to the New Day coming forward just because they've now had both of their respective families turn on them.

504
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:44,000
It's bound to happen.

505
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:54,000
I mean, I know we've had in previous conversations how much the New Day... how long the New Day have been around and how much more they can bring to WWE.

506
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,000
And, in fact, credit to them.

507
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:00,000
They keep pulling things out the bag to make themselves semi-relevant.

508
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:11,000
They're not as big as they were when they were on the boxes of cereal and, you know, WrestleMania main events and Royal Rumble hosts.

509
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:14,000
And, you know, they've done an awful lot.

510
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:22,000
But are we starting to see like they've got rid of biggie obviously because of that neck injury.

511
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:24,000
He's no longer cleared to wrestle.

512
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:28,000
Could we see the breakup of New Day with the way this is going?

513
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:35,000
I know we hinted at... we said earlier we'd had a... there was a hint in there of impossible singles run for Kofi.

514
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:40,000
So it'd be interesting to see New Day have been around for a long time.

515
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,000
A long time.

516
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,000
Yeah, definitely.

517
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:58,000
And I think it will be... we've had glimpses of Kofi in the past and they were snuffed out pretty... pretty on dramatic... pretty on dramatically and unceremoniously.

518
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:00,000
I mean...

519
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:02,000
I think he deserved more...

520
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:03,000
...fair to him.

521
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:04,000
Yeah.

522
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:14,000
For a guy who's given so much of his career to WWE, for them to... given the title and then feed him to Brock Lesnar in a squash match was not fair.

523
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:16,000
He deserved more than that.

524
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:17,000
Yeah.

525
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:18,000
Definitely.

526
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:26,000
But yeah, I mean, moving on from that match as I'm probably going to talk about it to... probably talk it to death to a certain degree.

527
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:34,000
I've got down here that the next... next segment was a locker room promo between Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins.

528
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,000
You might be very well right.

529
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:39,000
You might be.

530
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:42,000
Is this...

531
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:53,000
So during this... during this section, it was Sami Zayn coming to basically apologize after making a Haloova mistake.

532
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:57,000
On... on... on last week's Raw.

533
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:02,000
He... he caught Seth with that nasty Haloova kick as well, didn't he?

534
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:04,000
Oh, 100%.

535
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:15,000
And Seth sort of explaining to Sami, look, I'm... I'm a bit salty about it, but it's a case that you're on your last chance.

536
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:26,000
You're proving yourself in the past to be semi unreliable, something and not really very trustworthy because of the affiliation he has with the bloodline.

537
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:34,000
And yeah, it's basically for me once, shame on me, twice and...

538
00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:36,000
You can get your head kicked.

539
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:38,000
Pretty much.

540
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:43,000
It's always a strange one because I like Sami Zayn.

541
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:48,000
I just think that what they've... they've built his character to a certain point.

542
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:52,000
He's at a crossroads now and where they take him is one of two things.

543
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:56,000
I think we could get a Haloova heel turn from him and that would really make it pop.

544
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:01,000
So we've got the stuff of carrying the cross as well, which is probably where that heel turn's going to come from.

545
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,000
But... yeah.

546
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:11,000
If he... he's stuck between a rock and a hard place, or between the bloodline and the rest of the roster, I suppose.

547
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:21,000
Yeah, and it's... I think they're in the process of testing the water as to what's going to be believable and they're just doing on-air screen tests, almost.

548
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:24,000
Well, there wasn't the first one they did this week.

549
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:40,000
I don't know if you picked up on it, but I believe it was during the Ival, the War Warriors match, where Michael Cole actually used the word bastard in his commentary.

550
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:48,000
So I've noticed that they've been setting up... they've been testing a lot more of what they can get away with in-ring and on the microphone as well.

551
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:56,000
And even the... as I thought I was hearing things, but I'm obviously getting old now and my eyesight's not as good as it used to be, so I have to put subtitles on for the wrestling,

552
00:55:56,000 --> 00:56:02,000
especially if Jacob Fatou is involved, and quite clearly said in the subtitles bastard too.

553
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:07,000
So yeah, no, they're definitely testing a few different bits out this week.

554
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:18,000
Yeah, definitely, and we knew this was going to happen. As they move more away from cable providers in the US, we'll start to see that vanity filter sort of slipping away a little bit.

555
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:29,000
It's not going to be F this and F that and all the rest of it. It's not going to go to the degree, but it will be... we'll start to see it filtering in a little bit more.

556
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:40,000
Yeah, we also, if the Turvan notes line up correctly, had a nice little backstage promo with Rhea Ripley at this point as well.

557
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:43,000
I missed a section.

558
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:54,000
So I'd be honest, the next thing that I've got was an in-ring promo for Jey Uso and a young gentleman, Quavo.

559
00:56:54,000 --> 00:57:03,000
Yeah, that's where our notes don't line up, because I was looking at two different things. Yeah, so we've got Jey Uso and Quavo come out with lots and lots of yeets.

560
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:16,000
Now, I had to try and do some research, because I know that according to the entry VT we were given that Quavo is a rapper,

561
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:27,000
but apart from that, I didn't know anything about him. So I had to do a bit of research. Apparently he's a Grammy-winning musician,

562
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:38,000
but apart from kind of all I could find is he'd done some work with Lana Del Rey, and that seemed to be sort of like the biggest thing musically he's done.

563
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:49,000
He has been in a fair few movies as well, the Fast and the Furious, he was in Water Boys, and he was in last year's John Travolta film, Cash Out as well.

564
00:57:49,000 --> 00:58:00,000
So he's done a fair few different things, but he's definitely getting out there for a gentleman who's actually only the same age as us.

565
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:04,000
Yeah, it's just the thing, another one with my full of mouth.

566
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:15,000
I don't personally understand this, I mean, nearly all my teeth are my own, but I don't know how comfortable it would be to have one of those grills put in with all the diamonds.

567
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:22,000
I mean, it's a lot of money, do you know what I mean? I suppose some of these guys are on a lot of money.

568
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:39,000
I can imagine it being something similar to licking a battery or something, and surely you've just got constant metallic taste in your mouth, like your mouth's constant bleeding, and it just can't, it can't be good for you.

569
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:48,000
I mean, don't know, I know it's not for anything like that, but it can't be good, it can't do you good in the long run.

570
00:58:48,000 --> 00:59:07,000
Well, a lot of these gentlemen unfortunately don't live huge lives, a lot of them end up losing their lives quite early to be fair due to gangland activities, because a lot of these, a lot of the rap guys, what they rap about is their real life, you know, they're doing some of these things.

571
00:59:07,000 --> 00:59:12,000
And it's quite a brutal lifestyle if you listen to some of it.

572
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:16,000
Oh yeah, definitely, but we're not here to talk about rap lives.

573
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:31,000
We are here to talk about Jey Uso announcing his entry into the Royal Rumble, he just happened to have Quavo out with him, which I think was a nice little hype thing, we've seen him come out with a few different musicians the last couple of weeks and it's definitely helping.

574
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:35,000
I mean, I don't know who's raising whose profile as it stands at the moment.

575
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:39,000
I think Jey Uso is raising Quavo's profile, I'm not going to lie.

576
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:59,000
Yeah, I mean, it definitely is with me and you, I've never heard of Quavo before this point, I don't think, and probably won't think of him again after, but in that moment his profile's definitely been raised to the point that we are aware he exists sort of thing.

577
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:00,000
Yeah.

578
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:28,000
And after we had quite a furious, so yeah, Jey Uso wasn't very polite in the way he announced his entry to the Royal Rumble, he was quite, quite mad about it and very, he seemed pissed, like, and I'm not sure if it's because Gunther's still disrespecting him after that hell of a match, but it's not an event event, but yeah, he really did not seem happy about something today when he came out.

579
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:52,000
Well, he's not had a fantastic, despite the fact that he is one of, if not the most over superstar in WWE's rosters at the moment, he's not had a fantastic track record recently, he's lost more than he's won, and he's not really done very well when it comes to, like, vital opportunities either.

580
01:00:52,000 --> 01:01:02,000
I mean, he had that one, let's say it's like the Nightmare Event against Gunther and he gave him a hell of a match and you can find some more details about that in our podcast episode.

581
01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:18,000
But coming into this, for someone who's so over, you'd expect him to have had that push to go with it, and yes, he's had a couple of title opportunities, but he's not, you'd have thought for what he is, they'd give it to him.

582
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:28,000
Now, I said this last week, and to say it again, I think they'll give it to him on the grandest stage of them all. I think if he's going to win a title this year, I think it'll be at WrestleMania.

583
01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:40,000
Do I think Jey Uso is going to win the Royal Rumble? I'm going to put my six punts in here and I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. I think Jey Uso is winning the Royal Rumble this year.

584
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:49,000
I was going to say, Jey Uso is my favourite to win the Men's Rumble this year, just because that seems to be the most logical way that they will.

585
01:01:49,000 --> 01:02:02,000
They can keep that Gunther storyline open, and he doesn't have to, as I don't see Jey going for Cody, I think they're going to set Cody and CM Punk up together, which will be an interesting one later on in the line.

586
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:15,000
But no, I think they're going to let Jey win the Royal Rumble so he'll choose Gunther, and that will keep that storyline going for the next 90-ish days, I think it's about 85 by the end of the year by the time the Royal Rumble comes.

587
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:29,000
Yeah, this is it. If they're going to put a heavyweight championship on Jey Uso, they will do it where they've got the most amount of eyes on.

588
01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:36,000
And it will be a case that the easiest way to do that is WrestleMania.

589
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:47,000
And if you think about it as well, if you give Jey Uso that title at WrestleMania, and you give him a heads up that he's getting that title at WrestleMania, so you can get a new merch line out as well.

590
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:58,000
And they put that on at WrestleMania. So if they have him win the first night, the second night at WrestleMania, that merch store is going to get absolutely pounded for Jey Uso merch.

591
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:06,000
Everyone on that Monday night, Raw after Mania will be running round in Jey Uso merch, myself included. I'm probably going to head up order on a 7 in the next week or so.

592
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:19,000
Fair enough. Fair enough. But yeah, that's how I see that playing out. We haven't got that long left to wait until we find out.

593
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:24,000
No, we haven't. We have not. We've not got long left to wait at all.

594
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:35,000
From here, we had that sort of little segment out in the ring with Quavo. Well, I say out in the ring, it was more on top of the announce table.

595
01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:47,000
Where did you end up going from here? Because I've noticed again that my notes and your notes don't mix up. I've got Bianca Bella and Naomi vs Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.

596
01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:50,000
You've got a backstage promo with Rhea Ripley.

597
01:03:50,000 --> 01:04:16,000
So that match is coming up. But we went from that in-ring promo to a, it was like a Pat McAfee little interview promo with Xavier Woods family, just really driving that point home about the fact that the family have turned on Woods.

598
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:33,000
Yes, unfortunately, this week where I've run out of time, all I've done is I've watched all the matches and I've skipped through. So I've missed a lot of the fillers for Monday Night Raw because I was so delayed this week due to having quite a busy week with work and picking up a new car.

599
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:45,000
So my notes this week are diabolical. I've literally just watched the matches to say I've seen the matches to be able to chip in on those. But the promos and stuff, I've not really seen a lot of.

600
01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:57,000
This is where it's good to have my notes as well. So the next promo we had after that Pat McAfee interview promo, which was really just to sort of drive the point home.

601
01:04:57,000 --> 01:05:19,000
We had a backstage promo with Lyra Valkyria in being interviewed by Jackie Redmond, who and Lyra Valkyria has herself in for the.

602
01:05:19,000 --> 01:05:33,000
Women's Rumble is starting to look as stacked as the men's. There is some interesting names going into this female rumble. And obviously there's a few that haven't been mentioned that we are probably guessing are going to show up.

603
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:36,000
We spoken about this.

604
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:54,000
Right. So we have when Seth Rollins entered at the start of the episode, there was a sign on the right hand side on the entry ramp saying, where's the man? Seth Rollins shrugged his shoulders and tapped his wrist like a watch.

605
01:05:54,000 --> 01:06:02,000
So to me, that was very much like you'll just have to wait and see which I think could be a massive hint that we're going to see.

606
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:17,000
Becky Lynch on Saturday. Yeah, I mean, that seems like a bit of a given. Not going to lie. We already know that we've got the likes of Nia Jax, Bailey, Charlotte Flair, Young Cabella, Ria.

607
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:21,000
No, Ria is not in there. No, Ria is a champion.

608
01:06:21,000 --> 01:06:33,000
Yeah, she is.

609
01:06:33,000 --> 01:07:00,000
She also puts herself in for the rumble during this little promo segment. And yeah, it's this sort of Lyra Valkyria is interrupted by American Maid who basically says, oh, yeah, Ivy's going to be challenging for Lyra's championship.

610
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:08,000
And they have a bit of an odd exchange where apparently Ivy's going to be winning it for Chad Gable.

611
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:17,000
Yeah, no, I saw that was a little bit like Chad Gable looks like the sort of person who'd look good with a women's championship around his waist because he does nothing but bitch and moan.

612
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:31,000
Yeah, pretty much. And we're still yet to find out who who was on that piece of paper that the Dominic Mysterio had passed to Chad Gable to try and get over his inability to beat a luchador.

613
01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:51,000
We've speculated about this from the last previous episodes and it has now been confirmed outside of an episode that Alistair Black is re-signing with the WWE. And as we know, Alistair Black has a history with luchador wrestling.

614
01:07:51,000 --> 01:08:01,000
For a guy his size to be able to do it is interesting. Some fantastic videos on YouTube of Alistair Black doing some luchador style stuff.

615
01:08:01,000 --> 01:08:11,000
So it is increasing the rumor flow that Alistair Black could end up teaching.

616
01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:24,000
Chad Gable was some luchador. Yeah, or how to deal with luchadors. For some reason, Dom Mysterio was coming into my head, but that was Dom gave Chad the name, didn't he? So that's where it was coming from.

617
01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:42,000
Yeah, and then to sort of round this round this out, American made way and walk straight into the Alpha Babes, which were formerly the Alpha Academy being the only one I could ever name is Oatid.

618
01:08:42,000 --> 01:08:55,000
I know the other guy was the guy that used to chase our truth around when he was carrying around the 24-7 championship with a couple of ninja in tow.

619
01:08:55,000 --> 01:09:14,000
It basically turns into a bit of a shout in match between Alpha Babes and American made where Chad Gable taught Zotis about the ankle, famously injured during their split and basically calling them failure.

620
01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:20,000
While they're stood in the middle of a corridor in a TikTok video.

621
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:32,000
I mean, you know, there are better places to make TikTok videos, but if you're a backstage wrestler, or if you're a wrestler backstage, sorry, I'm pretty sure that exclusive content is going to go down pretty well.

622
01:09:32,000 --> 01:10:01,000
Yeah, I mean, I saw the TikTok video before I saw the episode, actually. Yeah, it's a bit of an odd one. Don't get me wrong, but Oatid's can move. So, and this is where our notes will start to line up a little bit more, because this is where we go into three, the women's tag team match with Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan of the judgment day versus Naomi.

623
01:10:01,000 --> 01:10:07,000
Naomi and Bianca the current women's tag team champions.

624
01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:14,000
Now, this wasn't a title match. This was just a tag match, which is.

625
01:10:14,000 --> 01:10:27,000
We were told on several occasions that this could if Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez win with a victory, this could very well mean a tag team push.

626
01:10:27,000 --> 01:10:40,000
It did. Yeah. And so obviously this is the second match of the episode that judgment day featuring in a tag match. We already saw JD and Dom in their match earlier on in the episode.

627
01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:45,000
So this one kind of finishes off that one. I haven't got a lot of notes for this one.

628
01:10:45,000 --> 01:11:00,000
I did point out and did make a note of that both teams going into this were very high energy. There was a lot of flair and there was some really interesting spots.

629
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:12,000
There was a I know Liv Morgan does the move quite a lot. It's one of her favorite ones, but there was a I like to call it a slight homage to Y2J there because she hit a beautiful code breaker at one point on Bianca Bella.

630
01:11:12,000 --> 01:11:19,000
There was a couple of double cross bodies as well by the tag champs over onto to the judgment day.

631
01:11:19,000 --> 01:11:30,000
Yeah, I was really into this one. I'm not sure if it's just because Liv Morgan was in the ring or if it was the fact that I've connected with this storyline quite well.

632
01:11:30,000 --> 01:11:35,000
Could be both reasons to be fair, but no, it's definitely a great match for me.

633
01:11:35,000 --> 01:11:45,000
Yeah, so this match came about after Liv Morgan stole a pinfall against I believe it was against Bianca Bellaire on Friday night smack.

634
01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:46,000
It was yes.

635
01:11:46,000 --> 01:12:11,000
It was a relatively unremarkable match. I don't get me wrong, I do the code breaker from Liv Morgan and everything along those lines, but all in all it was a relatively evenly matched matchup and it was a solid match.

636
01:12:11,000 --> 01:12:19,000
There was nothing wrong with the actual wrestling match. It just was. There wasn't a lot of storytelling.

637
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:28,000
I mean, one of the set apart from the fact that we live more than hit that beautiful code breaker, which Bianca Bellaire used to hit any ST off.

638
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:34,000
I've got a few bits in a dirty Dom obviously makes a distraction at one point.

639
01:12:34,000 --> 01:12:53,000
Obviously, like the commentary teammate and note is saying he's still in Liv Morgan's bad books. So he's pretty much doing whatever he can to tongue punch that far box and get himself back into live Morgan's good books and possibly back into a more permanent slot in New Day.

640
01:12:53,000 --> 01:13:02,000
Bear in mind we haven't seen Finn Balor for quite a while since his street fight with Drew McIntyre was the last time we saw Finn Balor.

641
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:09,000
So his street fight wasn't with Drew McIntyre, it was with Damian Priest.

642
01:13:09,000 --> 01:13:10,000
That's the one.

643
01:13:10,000 --> 01:13:22,000
And he should be looking for a more permanent picture in the judgement, not the New Day. So, yeah, that's my tiredness. That's my bad.

644
01:13:22,000 --> 01:13:24,000
Yeah, no, that's cool.

645
01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:28,000
I mean, I've had about two hours sleep in two days.

646
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:33,000
We're both running on one cylinder.

647
01:13:33,000 --> 01:13:43,000
Yeah, it's been quite a busy week for professional wrestling this week with obviously not just our normal three shows for raw SmackDown and NXT.

648
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:48,000
You had Saturday Night Main Event in there. We've got a Raw Rumble this weekend as well.

649
01:13:48,000 --> 01:14:01,000
So yeah, it's definitely we're in the middle of what is quite a busy week for pro wrestling as it is. And then it wasn't a great time for us to have weird work schedules and other bits and pieces go off.

650
01:14:01,000 --> 01:14:04,000
It's been quite an interesting week.

651
01:14:04,000 --> 01:14:09,000
It's been quite disjointed this week, but we'll push through.

652
01:14:09,000 --> 01:14:17,000
Yeah, as you said, Dirty Dom into Fear in. I've got a note here that says Naomi ended up taking Dom out of play.

653
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:33,000
I've got that one as well. I've then got that she hits a split leg moonsault and Raquel Rodriguez drags her off the pin for that one.

654
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:37,000
Yeah, I mean, ultimately this one.

655
01:14:37,000 --> 01:14:42,000
We're going to get it gaining a pin for victory over Naomi this time.

656
01:14:42,000 --> 01:14:44,000
Yeah.

657
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:47,000
And that's where my notes run out for that one.

658
01:14:47,000 --> 01:15:01,000
Yeah, so I've got Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez win. There wasn't really much. There's no afters after that one. It kind of went from the end of that ring into a backstage promo with Rhea Ripley.

659
01:15:01,000 --> 01:15:16,000
She basically just tipped her hat to Jay, so basically said, you know, wasn't worried too much about what was coming up. She was just kind of enjoying the ride and what's coming her way.

660
01:15:16,000 --> 01:15:31,000
Yeah, I mean, she's there's not many like there's not many superstars she worries about and we'd work. They were she was being interviewed about who she wants to win the Royal Rumble and she gave a typical champ.

661
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:35,000
Yeah, pretty much who wins the Rumble.

662
01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:48,000
But we had one of probably one of the most hard one of the hardest working female WWE superstars on the roster today.

663
01:15:48,000 --> 01:15:58,000
Bailey jumped in on this one to basically say I've won and I'll win it again. And hasn't she?

664
01:15:58,000 --> 01:16:04,000
Yeah, I'll be facing you in WrestleMania.

665
01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:15,000
Bailey's been everywhere. We've seen her on every show for the last two weeks. So she's done two Rawls, two Smackdowns, two NXT's and a PLE in the process.

666
01:16:15,000 --> 01:16:25,000
The word work, workhorse doesn't even fit with that one to be fair. Like her air miles, she's going to be making some.

667
01:16:25,000 --> 01:16:38,000
Yeah, definitely. It's but with this promo, it's we saw a brief confrontation between Bailey and EO Sky.

668
01:16:38,000 --> 01:16:44,000
Basically just said she'll see her at the Royal Rumble. There's a little bit of bad blood between those two. They used to be friends and now they're not.

669
01:16:44,000 --> 01:16:51,000
So that could be an interesting if those two meet in the ring at the Rumble that could be some fireworks going off there.

670
01:16:51,000 --> 01:17:04,000
Well, they were both part of the damage control at one point and Bailey is the leader got ousted by the rest of the team and damage control continued on without her.

671
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:20,000
Now, the next bit got a bit of a bee under my bonnet. I'm not going to lie. So if you've heard some of the previous episodes, you'll have heard me rich talking about the fact that I show speed and being invited personally by

672
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:29,000
Triple H to the Royal Rumble. Mr. Paul Levec has been making video calls to I should be to invite invite him to the Royal Rumble.

673
01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:33,000
And we've been.

674
01:17:33,000 --> 01:17:50,000
Well, he seriously saying that our phones haven't run that we haven't had anything come through just yet and Kai Kenneth has or Kai Senate. Sorry, he he was there at Monday Night Raw and he's also been invited to the Royal Rumble.

675
01:17:50,000 --> 01:18:04,000
He has got invited by Pat McAfee of all people. I mean, who have twitches biggest stars are going to be at the Royal Rumble? That is, I mean, these guys are fighting against each other at the top of twitch at the moment for the most subscribers on the platform.

676
01:18:04,000 --> 01:18:08,000
So they are very, very popular men.

677
01:18:08,000 --> 01:18:26,000
Yeah, this is it. And yeah, I mean, Pat McAfee's invited Kai Senate to the to the Royal Rumble. I think we're potentially starting to tease a because every year celebrity match, we have a bit we have a bit of a novelty match.

678
01:18:26,000 --> 01:18:28,000
It's never a serious match of kind.

679
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:34,000
Normally, when we've normally the one that's got the miz in it.

680
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:51,000
Yeah, well, you can call any of his matches serious. But yeah, we're it's a potential match gimmick with I show speed versus I Senate, possibly on night two of mania. That's normally how it ends.

681
01:18:51,000 --> 01:18:52,000
It's normally been a cop.

682
01:18:52,000 --> 01:19:06,000
It's up the breaks up the night a little bit. But we'll see how that one goes. The next part of my notes has absolutely fuck all to do with the show, but more to do with the stats to do with Georgia, which I know we

683
01:19:06,000 --> 01:19:09,000
Yeah, we went into a little bit earlier.

684
01:19:09,000 --> 01:19:26,000
So, Atlanta is the home to Georgia championship wrestling, which is this was a wrestling promotion from back in the territory days. Now this is a sort of way back when big go back in history or professional wrestling.

685
01:19:26,000 --> 01:19:33,000
100%. Not only that, but Atlanta was also WCW wrestling.

686
01:19:33,000 --> 01:19:38,000
That one doesn't go back quite as far, but still.

687
01:19:38,000 --> 01:19:47,000
We said earlier it's had 25 Monday night Raw's in Atlanta. There have been two Royal Rumbles 2010 and 2002.

688
01:19:47,000 --> 01:20:02,000
I know winners of both of those rumbles now triple H himself on in Atlanta in 2002 and the room in a for 2010.

689
01:20:02,000 --> 01:20:14,000
Superstar Edge. Yeah, definitely. We've got a slight difference in our notes here because you probably Google it and I was trying to be clever. I've got down that WrestleMania 32 was held in Atlanta.

690
01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:22,000
You've got down WrestleMania 27. So I'm going to go with yours because I know you've hit Google.

691
01:20:22,000 --> 01:20:37,000
In fairness, it bugs the life out of me that they do it all in Roman because I don't know about any. I weren't taught Roman numerals in school and I've never really bothered to learn them.

692
01:20:37,000 --> 01:20:39,000
You see them.

693
01:20:39,000 --> 01:21:08,000
But yeah, they put it up in Roman numerals. I had to try and figure out what those Roman numerals were and a Google search did indeed tell me that that was WrestleMania 27, which the main event for that WrestleMania was the Miz WWE champion won John Cena with an assist from Dwayne The Rock Johnson setting up the rock versus Cena at the following years.

694
01:21:08,000 --> 01:21:14,000
WrestleMania was that the team I bring it via satellite year.

695
01:21:14,000 --> 01:21:15,000
Yeah.

696
01:21:15,000 --> 01:21:26,000
Yeah, long, year long worth of promos that we had for one of the worst WrestleMania matches in history.

697
01:21:26,000 --> 01:21:40,000
It was the first time the Rock had competed in years and yeah, it just didn't. They over hyped it and then did the same thing again. It just yeah, it was the beginning of the end really.

698
01:21:40,000 --> 01:21:55,000
The other thing we saw at WrestleMania 27 was the infamous feud between Michael Cole and Jerry the King Lawler.

699
01:21:55,000 --> 01:21:58,000
They did a little VT about that.

700
01:21:58,000 --> 01:22:13,000
They did. They did like a sports illustrator's breakdown of basically just how pathetic Michael Cole looked in this segment.

701
01:22:13,000 --> 01:22:15,000
I mean, don't get me wrong.

702
01:22:15,000 --> 01:22:21,000
It was very gimmick match that we talked about earlier on. It was comic relief. It was nothing more than that.

703
01:22:21,000 --> 01:22:39,000
And it was a way to get Jerry the King Lawler a WrestleMania because I mean, the guy's got the guy while he still wrestles or was still wrestling at the time was in no fit shape to take on anybody in the back in back in those days.

704
01:22:39,000 --> 01:22:42,000
So yeah, no, definitely not.

705
01:22:42,000 --> 01:22:51,000
So we went from there. We had a little VT promo for Penta declaring himself with the Royal Rumble.

706
01:22:51,000 --> 01:23:03,000
Looking forward to I say this. This rumbles getting more and more stacked every time you see someone else come out and announce themselves for it and really looking forward to Saturday to be fair.

707
01:23:03,000 --> 01:23:12,000
I mean, the Royal Rumble is one of my personal favorite PLE's of the calendar. And it's because it's so unique.

708
01:23:12,000 --> 01:23:21,000
I mean, you have we now have two Rumble matches in the same in the same PLE and that's one for one for the men.

709
01:23:21,000 --> 01:23:24,000
Women.

710
01:23:24,000 --> 01:23:28,000
And one leaves with a guaranteed spot.

711
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:31,000
You don't get that in any other.

712
01:23:31,000 --> 01:23:40,000
And then we went from Penta's announcement into the Royal Rumble into a Paul Heyman promo in rain.

713
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:46,000
So we haven't seen a lot of Paul Heyman over the last few weeks.

714
01:23:46,000 --> 01:24:10,000
Since really the tribal combat on night on the first night of Rawrx and he is obviously still completely elated by the fact that by the result of the tribal combat match and to put a bigger smile on his face as well.

715
01:24:10,000 --> 01:24:21,000
Not much puts a smile on Paul Heyman's face apart from when he's got something to rub in someone else's face.

716
01:24:21,000 --> 01:24:34,000
A lot of his promo for this one was that he is the one behind the one and very much sort of hyping Roman Reigns as he is very doing.

717
01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:42,000
But what surprised me more than anything else was pop that Heyman got coming out in Georgia.

718
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:45,000
That surprised me quite a lot.

719
01:24:45,000 --> 01:24:48,000
Yeah, but then Heyman's got one of those.

720
01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:53,000
If you look at Paul Heyman's interview series, was it inside the ropes that you did?

721
01:24:53,000 --> 01:25:00,000
I think that helped a lot getting Paul Heyman across with the crowd because where he gives away so much.

722
01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:11,000
It really helps the casual wrestling fan kind of jump in and understand what's going on and he's a central mouthpiece and professional wrestling has been for 30 odd years.

723
01:25:11,000 --> 01:25:22,000
So it's definitely it's nice to have him there and the fact that we don't see him every week at the moment like you did when he was with Roman Reigns for a while or Brock Lesnar.

724
01:25:22,000 --> 01:25:30,000
It's you get a treat with Paul Heyman. It's not being pushed on your throat. It's the treat that we want him to be and he's there.

725
01:25:30,000 --> 01:25:41,000
Oh, in fairness, if I'm going in for a run on the WW choice of who manages me, I'm a Heyman guy too.

726
01:25:41,000 --> 01:26:01,000
I mean, one of the big advantages to being a Heyman guy in this era is that you end up on the cover art WWE 2K25 as tribal chief is announced as the cover art for this year's entry from WWE.

727
01:26:01,000 --> 01:26:05,000
And do you know what, they're actually hybrid game quite a lot.

728
01:26:05,000 --> 01:26:07,000
I'm going to pick this one up.

729
01:26:07,000 --> 01:26:12,000
Yeah, I'm going to pick this one up and have a little look at it. So there are two versions of the 2K25 cover.

730
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:24,000
You've got the standard version, which has got Roman Reigns on the front and a small little cameo in the corner from Paul Heyman, which was pointed out by Drew McIntyre when he came out.

731
01:26:24,000 --> 01:26:35,000
And then the like the ultimate addition, so to speak, the money grabber has got the the phenon, the undertaker on the front of it.

732
01:26:35,000 --> 01:26:38,000
Yeah, I have seen this around and about.

733
01:26:38,000 --> 01:26:41,000
And I mean, it's smart.

734
01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:52,000
It does. And it just looks it looks smart. It's been well done. The work on it's been really well sort of designed and it's made the cover really pop.

735
01:26:52,000 --> 01:27:01,000
So I'm not sure which one I'm going to get, whether I want to go for the Roman Reigns or the undertaker, but I will be getting a copy of 2K25, even if it means I get to plump on you online.

736
01:27:01,000 --> 01:27:09,000
I mean, yeah, I mean, I generally tend to stay away from the online games.

737
01:27:09,000 --> 01:27:16,000
Only because it has a tendency to go. You get it gets really sweaty.

738
01:27:16,000 --> 01:27:19,000
Oh, they do.

739
01:27:19,000 --> 01:27:22,000
Bit like Rikishi in the cafeteria.

740
01:27:22,000 --> 01:27:24,000
Yeah, pretty much.

741
01:27:24,000 --> 01:27:31,000
But yes, you alluded to it. Drew McIntyre comes out.

742
01:27:31,000 --> 01:27:38,000
He's actually quite almost sickly sense sickly sincere.

743
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:40,000
Yeah.

744
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:59,000
He comes out saying that poor Heyman looks nervous and he just needs to relax the person that should be nervous is really Sami Zayn. But it's quite funny because you then also comes up he turns around and says, you know, don't really get to talk very much, you know, like,

745
01:27:59,000 --> 01:28:12,000
we've both been around for quite a while, but we've neither of us have really had a conversation to the time to have a conversation and the entire time that Drew is talking, the crowd is just chanting they want Roman.

746
01:28:12,000 --> 01:28:28,000
Yeah, the crowd are really vocal this little segment, which is it's always nice to hear. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, McIntyre goes from there to pointing out that may actually be the catalyst for the bloodline and everything along those lines.

747
01:28:28,000 --> 01:28:44,000
The spark that lit the fire that is the sort of the bloodline storyline and I can't deny his logic. I'll be honest. He makes a very long.

748
01:28:44,000 --> 01:28:59,000
But this this promo basically ask ends with McIntyre asking Heyman to pass a message to his boy about how at Royal Rumble he is coming to win.

749
01:28:59,000 --> 01:29:28,000
But it's not the tribal chief he is talking to, but rather see punk. And we've been hearing a lot recently. Yeah, they've started talking a little bit more about the fact that Heyman owes punk favor after punk went to went to bat for the bloodline at

750
01:29:28,000 --> 01:29:43,000
War Games more recently. And we're starting to possibly get an idea that this may be something going on from their end.

751
01:29:43,000 --> 01:30:02,000
So yeah, we're starting to get the idea that we may actually find out what that what that favor may actually be. And I for one I'm here for it. And we'll find out we'll find out when they are ready to tell us what that means.

752
01:30:02,000 --> 01:30:16,000
Moving on, we go to a backstage promo with Ron Breaker, who is also declaring himself for the Rumble this year.

753
01:30:16,000 --> 01:30:39,000
It's nice to see that the Rumbles kind of picking up some interest and having some of these smaller champions step in as well. And obviously, you know that Bron Breaker is not going to win it because he's holding that title. But it'll be nice to see what he can do to affect the rest of the Rumble when it comes out and whether there's going to be any people that he's going to look to target specifically.

754
01:30:39,000 --> 01:30:47,000
I mean, we could well see that I don't think he's storyline with Seamus is quite.

755
01:30:47,000 --> 01:30:55,000
I think there's I think that there's going to be more that feeds into that so I am what I'm going to call it here.

756
01:30:55,000 --> 01:31:11,000
I'm going to say that Seamus tosses Bron Breaker over the top rope to eliminate him, which will continue this feud with Bron Breaker because you know he's the champion and you know Seamus should have had more respect than to toss him over the top rope.

757
01:31:11,000 --> 01:31:26,000
That is how it's going to ultimately play out. But yeah, Seamus so far has not declared himself for the Rumble. So he is going to be an unknown element. We don't know.

758
01:31:26,000 --> 01:31:41,000
I can't imagine they'd leave him out of the Rumble. I mean, I'm pretty sure unless he's been injured, he's been in nearly every Rumble that's gone on since he's been part of WWE, including winning one of them.

759
01:31:41,000 --> 01:31:57,000
There's one that sort of switching gears a little bit while you mentioned while you mentioned superstars that have been in every Rumble every Rumble. If we look at the women.

760
01:31:57,000 --> 01:32:15,000
There's two superstars that have been in each and every one. I believe one of them is Bayley. The other one. Oh wait, no, it's not Bayley. Bayley has not been in every single Rumble match. Charlotte Fleur.

761
01:32:15,000 --> 01:32:16,000
Charlotte Fleur.

762
01:32:16,000 --> 01:32:30,000
Charlotte Fleur has not been champion at one. So the two that have been in every Royal Rumble match since the women have had their own Royal Rumble match. One of them is Liv Morgan.

763
01:32:30,000 --> 01:32:45,000
So Liv Morgan has served in every single Rumble. Is Natalya. Natalya has been in each and every Rumble match since the women's Rumble was introduced.

764
01:32:45,000 --> 01:32:47,000
And is Natalya under contract at the moment?

765
01:32:47,000 --> 01:33:03,000
She is. I think she's under some permanent blood patch or something like that. She is one of the more under a female superstars on WWE.

766
01:33:03,000 --> 01:33:16,000
I just don't think she ever quite got what she wants she needed. No. And I've said this again, said this for years. But she's not currently declared herself.

767
01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:30,000
Yeah, it should be one of those that comes in as a surprise entrant if she does make a move. I'm not sure if you are still experiencing this technical issues with your microphone, but we are getting a little bit of break up occasionally.

768
01:33:30,000 --> 01:33:43,000
Yeah, I'm seeing it as well. It's why I keep trying to get louder to see that I'm hitting his gate. I'm starting to look a little bit like a...

769
01:33:43,000 --> 01:33:51,000
I am. Or how much I am close to this freaking mic.

770
01:33:51,000 --> 01:34:12,000
Yeah, that's not an issue. So we went from Drew McIntyre coming out and having his little bit about Sunday's Best to Paul Heyman's Boy talking about punk, not talking about Roman Reigns.

771
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:30,000
I have seen a few things online which kind of interest me a little bit. There is talk of there being a faction of Heyman men, so to speak, where there a case of we see Roman, punk and Brock team up at some point.

772
01:34:30,000 --> 01:34:45,000
I'm not sure if that will happen, but there's been some rumblings online. I did read something on that online. I think it's pure fan speculation at the moment.

773
01:34:45,000 --> 01:34:54,000
I mean, it would be cool to see, but that would definitely be a hell of a tag team, so to speak, if that was to come through.

774
01:34:54,000 --> 01:35:04,000
It's unknown at the moment as to whether Brock Lesnar will actually ever make a return at this stage because he's still very deeply embroiled in all of the...

775
01:35:04,000 --> 01:35:06,000
Vince McMahon.

776
01:35:06,000 --> 01:35:21,000
But if we come back to that backstage promo with Bron Breaker, the ending of that promo sees actually Penta come and confront Bron, which gives me reason to believe that may actually...

777
01:35:21,000 --> 01:35:29,000
Well, Penta had a nice big look at that IC title, didn't he? He had a nice look at that.

778
01:35:29,000 --> 01:35:43,000
Oh, definitely. And I think it's safe to assume that we may well have an IC title in Penta's very near future.

779
01:35:43,000 --> 01:35:55,000
But closing out Raw this week was a main event for a men's singles match, including Drew McIntyre versus Sami Zayn.

780
01:35:55,000 --> 01:36:01,000
Right. Well, before we get in there, I've got a statistic for you. I have... Well, actually, I've got two.

781
01:36:01,000 --> 01:36:09,000
So this year will be Sami Zayn's seventh Royal Rumble when he enters the Royal Rumble on Saturday.

782
01:36:09,000 --> 01:36:18,000
But did you know that Sami Zayn has never beaten Drew McIntyre in singles competition? He is 0 and 10 against the Scottish Warrior.

783
01:36:18,000 --> 01:36:20,000
Oh, wow. Okay.

784
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:31,000
So that was a few interesting bits to pick up on there. One last thing I'm going to pick up on. I don't know if you did, but this match got bloody.

785
01:36:31,000 --> 01:36:38,000
Oh, I don't think there was any missing this match got bloody.

786
01:36:38,000 --> 01:36:42,000
Sami Zayn was leaking.

787
01:36:42,000 --> 01:36:47,000
Zayn's nose popped like a water balloon.

788
01:36:47,000 --> 01:36:50,000
Oh, like mate, it went everywhere.

789
01:36:50,000 --> 01:36:57,000
But I couldn't work out how he did it. I watched this specific move a few times.

790
01:36:57,000 --> 01:37:07,000
He hit Hurricanrana into a DDT, but somewhere he managed to plunk himself up, not Drew McIntyre.

791
01:37:07,000 --> 01:37:16,000
Yeah, I don't think there's a part of me that doesn't think the colour was intentional. At one stage it looked like it was coming out of it.

792
01:37:16,000 --> 01:37:22,000
The end of his nose, where it seems to be where the cut was.

793
01:37:22,000 --> 01:37:26,000
Yeah, maybe.

794
01:37:26,000 --> 01:37:36,000
But yeah, we saw actually quite an aggressive side to Sami Zayn within this match, to be quite honest.

795
01:37:36,000 --> 01:37:42,000
The amount of people he's had in his ear that I asked for you weeks telling him he needs to stop thinking about everyone else, he needs to start thinking about himself.

796
01:37:42,000 --> 01:37:47,000
It was nice to see him kind of take everyone's advice on and go, fuck it, this is mine.

797
01:37:47,000 --> 01:37:57,000
Oh, yeah, 100%. And for a good majority of this, Sami Zayn actually appeared to be in quite a large amount of trouble.

798
01:37:57,000 --> 01:38:05,000
He was, and which is unusual considering when you look at the guys that Drew McIntyre has been facing recently.

799
01:38:05,000 --> 01:38:13,000
He's been having some big matches and to see someone like Sami Zayn go in there and give him something, I don't really think Drew was expecting that to come that way.

800
01:38:13,000 --> 01:38:19,000
Especially like I said, but the fact that Sami Zayn's never beaten Drew McIntyre, I generally just thought Drew thought this would be a squash match.

801
01:38:19,000 --> 01:38:29,000
He'd roll him up and count him off pretty quickly, maybe a couple of claymores, but yeah, definitely was not seeing the match going to open up the way it did.

802
01:38:29,000 --> 01:38:32,000
No, definitely not.

803
01:38:32,000 --> 01:38:37,000
And yeah, I mean, I've got a couple of spots here.

804
01:38:37,000 --> 01:38:40,000
So many notes this match.

805
01:38:40,000 --> 01:38:45,000
Yeah, I see the couple of spots I got. I got Sami Zayn got his nose broken during a hurrican run into a DDT.

806
01:38:45,000 --> 01:38:49,000
I generally think that was a possible broken nose rather than just a pop nose.

807
01:38:49,000 --> 01:38:56,000
I did get the Drew McIntyre at one point used the ropes to get Sami Zayn off the top turnbuckle.

808
01:38:56,000 --> 01:39:04,000
And in the process, Sami ended up catching his royal family on the top rope and it looked a little bit uncomfortable for him.

809
01:39:04,000 --> 01:39:12,000
I sent him to the outside of the ring where Drew attempted to hit him with what looked like quite a nasty claymore shot,

810
01:39:12,000 --> 01:39:17,000
which ended up with Drew bouncing off the announce table rather than Sami.

811
01:39:17,000 --> 01:39:30,000
Yeah, as well as that, we saw McIntyre end up throwing Zayn into timekeepers as well and almost forces a count out victory.

812
01:39:30,000 --> 01:39:33,000
That was by the skin of his teeth.

813
01:39:33,000 --> 01:39:37,000
Well, I got it down 9 3 quarters.

814
01:39:37,000 --> 01:39:42,000
But yeah, as soon as he got back in the ring, that's when Drew started just tearing off on him really.

815
01:39:42,000 --> 01:39:52,000
Yeah, this is it. But given where credit's due, I mean, I've always called Sami Zayn the ultimate underdog.

816
01:39:52,000 --> 01:39:54,000
There was no quit in that dog.

817
01:39:54,000 --> 01:39:55,000
No.

818
01:39:55,000 --> 01:40:01,000
He was not willing to go down without a damn good fight and he put up a phenomenal fight.

819
01:40:01,000 --> 01:40:04,000
Yeah, it's one thing you'll never take the dog out of Sami.

820
01:40:04,000 --> 01:40:07,000
You can try and take him out of the dog, but you'll never take the dog out of him.

821
01:40:07,000 --> 01:40:11,000
He's always going to come back looking for more.

822
01:40:11,000 --> 01:40:16,000
We can definitely tell that you're tired, mate, because I think the same goes.

823
01:40:16,000 --> 01:40:21,000
You can take the dog out of the fight, but not the fight out of the dog.

824
01:40:21,000 --> 01:40:24,000
I mean, yeah.

825
01:40:24,000 --> 01:40:37,000
But yeah, it's a really brutal match, which we normally come to expect from Drew McIntyre anyway.

826
01:40:37,000 --> 01:40:47,000
But yeah, it's a case that Zayn ends up reversing an attempt at white noise from Drew McIntyre,

827
01:40:47,000 --> 01:40:59,000
which was a little hat tip to the Celtic warrior, Seamus, as that was one of his signature maneuvers.

828
01:40:59,000 --> 01:41:06,000
Zayn got a couple of near falls, one after a blue Thunderbomb, which he pulled off really well as well.

829
01:41:06,000 --> 01:41:19,000
I was going to say, it's impressive for somebody of the size of Sami Zayn to be able to pull off a blue Thunderbomb on somebody the size of Drew.

830
01:41:19,000 --> 01:41:29,000
I mean, that's insane, but ultimately, all of this comes to none as Drew picks up a pinfall victory with...

831
01:41:29,000 --> 01:41:32,000
Well, I always refer to these as dirty pins.

832
01:41:32,000 --> 01:41:39,000
Yeah, you rolled him up and used the ropes to support, really, which the ref didn't see until afterwards.

833
01:41:39,000 --> 01:41:42,000
And by this point, we'd already had the three count.

834
01:41:42,000 --> 01:41:47,000
Yeah, I mean, if the ref doesn't see it, it doesn't get...

835
01:41:47,000 --> 01:41:51,000
Yeah, we had an issue last week with the same thing, didn't we?

836
01:41:51,000 --> 01:41:57,000
Someone used the ropes to aid in a pin and ref saw it after he called the count.

837
01:41:57,000 --> 01:42:04,000
Well, we tend to see a lot of the same things in WWE week in, week out.

838
01:42:04,000 --> 01:42:17,000
And this week is no different as after the match ends, Drew just goes to absolute town on Sami Zayn.

839
01:42:17,000 --> 01:42:25,000
Cody Rhodes comes out to try to save what's left of Sami Zayn.

840
01:42:25,000 --> 01:42:33,000
And then Kevin Owens comes out to attack Rhodes and all of a sudden it's back to...

841
01:42:33,000 --> 01:42:35,000
It's been the same as it's...

842
01:42:35,000 --> 01:42:39,000
Yeah, the same as it's been for the last couple of weeks, just every opportunity.

843
01:42:39,000 --> 01:42:41,000
Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens firing.

844
01:42:41,000 --> 01:42:47,000
I mean, I can't wait for the Royal Rumble just to let them get it over and out of the system to be fair.

845
01:42:47,000 --> 01:42:52,000
I don't think it'll be the end of it, but I think it will take a huge chunk out of the system.

846
01:42:52,000 --> 01:43:02,000
Oh, 100%. But yeah, this Kevin Owens attack Rhodes, Mackintyre joins in.

847
01:43:02,000 --> 01:43:10,000
Sami Zayn lines up a Haloova kick but ends up with yet another Haloova mistake.

848
01:43:10,000 --> 01:43:13,000
Yeah, it's Cody Rhodes in the face this time.

849
01:43:13,000 --> 01:43:18,000
Oh, 100% and Cody took all of it.

850
01:43:18,000 --> 01:43:23,000
Oh, he did and he was still feeling that in the promo after the match as well.

851
01:43:23,000 --> 01:43:32,000
Like, once all the hustle and bustle had kind of quietened down, you see him sat and doing an in-ring promo,

852
01:43:32,000 --> 01:43:35,000
looking up at those championships and he's still holding his jaw.

853
01:43:35,000 --> 01:43:39,000
Like, he ate all of it and more.

854
01:43:39,000 --> 01:43:46,000
Oh, 100%. But just at the end of that match, we have the last thing we see,

855
01:43:46,000 --> 01:43:49,000
Sami Zayn looking completely distraught.

856
01:43:49,000 --> 01:43:56,000
But I think the one thing that isn't going to help Sami's case, because if we think back to the promo we had with Seth Rollins earlier on,

857
01:43:56,000 --> 01:44:00,000
is that if you do it once, we can count it as a mistake and move on.

858
01:44:00,000 --> 01:44:10,000
But this is now the second time in the second consecutive week that Sami Zayn has been sort of suckered in the same, in exactly the same way.

859
01:44:10,000 --> 01:44:15,000
Yeah, Drew Mackintyre knows how to play that and play him for that fiddled, and he tunes up the band.

860
01:44:15,000 --> 01:44:18,000
And that's him play himself.

861
01:44:18,000 --> 01:44:23,000
Oh, 100%. But I don't think Sami helped his case at all by leaving the ring.

862
01:44:23,000 --> 01:44:24,000
No.

863
01:44:24,000 --> 01:44:30,000
I think if he'd stayed in the ring and sort of made sure Cody was okay,

864
01:44:30,000 --> 01:44:36,000
because as we've said, Cody at all 150% of that halloula kick.

865
01:44:36,000 --> 01:44:43,000
And yeah, I just don't think it's going to play out very well when it comes to the rumble,

866
01:44:43,000 --> 01:44:50,000
because that's when the spark's going to hit the tinder, so to speak.

867
01:44:50,000 --> 01:44:54,000
It's going to be when they find themselves in the ring together at the rumble.

868
01:44:54,000 --> 01:45:01,000
Yeah, and so we alluded to Cody sitting in the ring afterwards, feeling his face kind of,

869
01:45:01,000 --> 01:45:04,000
feeling a little bit sorry for himself and probably a little bit pissed off to be fair.

870
01:45:04,000 --> 01:45:06,000
I know I would be.

871
01:45:06,000 --> 01:45:11,000
I don't know about you, but he seemed very sort of space-kaky at the same time.

872
01:45:11,000 --> 01:45:17,000
I think that halloula kick was hit a lot harder than he had anticipated.

873
01:45:17,000 --> 01:45:24,000
Either that or he had a libation on the bus with Jade before he went into his second.

874
01:45:24,000 --> 01:45:33,000
Yeah, he did look a little bit out of it, which is what I think CM Punk came out to ask him if he was okay.

875
01:45:33,000 --> 01:45:37,000
Which was a weird thing to see from Punk, because you see him earlier on in the episode,

876
01:45:37,000 --> 01:45:40,000
and he's just been that cocky arrogant asshole that we all know and love.

877
01:45:40,000 --> 01:45:48,000
Now he's kind of come out trying to use a phrase that he uses at the end.

878
01:45:48,000 --> 01:45:55,000
He's basically just come out to say, look, I know we're friends, but this is what I'm doing.

879
01:45:55,000 --> 01:46:00,000
Yeah, and after explaining to him about, you know, we got some statistics here that, you know,

880
01:46:00,000 --> 01:46:07,000
Punk says he knows what it feels like being a champion, you know, champion for over 400 days when he was in his first spell,

881
01:46:07,000 --> 01:46:12,000
but after sort of 300 days for him, he hit sort of like burnout,

882
01:46:12,000 --> 01:46:15,000
which is roughly where the point that Cody's got to be at.

883
01:46:15,000 --> 01:46:17,000
He's got to be hitting that 300 days.

884
01:46:17,000 --> 01:46:21,000
Obviously he won the title off Roman Reigns at WrestleMania last year,

885
01:46:21,000 --> 01:46:25,000
and WrestleMania, I think we said was about 85 days away from Royal Rumble.

886
01:46:25,000 --> 01:46:34,000
So he's pretty much getting into that sort of area now where he's, and he's been everywhere and you see him a lot.

887
01:46:34,000 --> 01:46:43,000
So, yeah, we see if Cody starts getting burnt out and see where he goes from there.

888
01:46:43,000 --> 01:46:52,000
Yeah, and sort of Punk being very sort of upfront and being like friends or stab you in the back.

889
01:46:52,000 --> 01:47:00,000
I'm going to be a real friend and stab you in the front instead, sort of declares himself and says, look, when I win the Rumble,

890
01:47:00,000 --> 01:47:01,000
I'm coming for you.

891
01:47:01,000 --> 01:47:03,000
I'm coming at your title.

892
01:47:03,000 --> 01:47:07,000
And there was a little bit of back and to and fro between the two of them,

893
01:47:07,000 --> 01:47:14,000
but I will say the one thing that I picked up out of this little bit was Cody Rhodes mentioned that when they were at OVW,

894
01:47:14,000 --> 01:47:16,000
everyone was chasing CM Punk.

895
01:47:16,000 --> 01:47:22,000
He was like the trendsetter, the guy that was, well, he claimed that the CM stood for Chick Magnet.

896
01:47:22,000 --> 01:47:29,000
You know, and then now 10 years later, no one's chasing CM Punk.

897
01:47:29,000 --> 01:47:31,000
CM Punk's chasing Cody Rhodes.

898
01:47:31,000 --> 01:47:36,000
And it's one of those like I've flipped the table and if you want this big gold sat on my shoulder,

899
01:47:36,000 --> 01:47:39,000
then you're going to have to work for it.

900
01:47:39,000 --> 01:47:41,000
Oh, don't get me wrong.

901
01:47:41,000 --> 01:47:45,000
The Chick Magnet stuff is well documented.

902
01:47:45,000 --> 01:47:51,000
If you look in the right places and speak to the right people or listen to the right people speak,

903
01:47:51,000 --> 01:48:03,000
you will know from his first day to his last day, Bill Brooks is 100% a ladies man.

904
01:48:03,000 --> 01:48:10,000
He knows how to charm them and he's not afraid to do it either.

905
01:48:10,000 --> 01:48:16,000
And yeah, it's all going to come to a head, realistic.

906
01:48:16,000 --> 01:48:20,000
I think we are looking at one of our WrestleMania main events.

907
01:48:20,000 --> 01:48:22,000
I'm hoping so.

908
01:48:22,000 --> 01:48:25,000
CM Punk and Cody Rhodes.

909
01:48:25,000 --> 01:48:35,000
I think we may even find possibly John Cena thrown in there as well just for a real throwback.

910
01:48:35,000 --> 01:48:41,000
We haven't seen anything as Cena at the moment and there was obviously when he showed up at the Netflix debut,

911
01:48:41,000 --> 01:48:45,000
he was very much like, you know, I'm going to be a full time superstar this year.

912
01:48:45,000 --> 01:48:47,000
He's actually been off filming a TV show.

913
01:48:47,000 --> 01:48:49,000
So come on and lie to it.

914
01:48:49,000 --> 01:48:58,000
He has, according to his contract, guaranteed WWE this year 38 weeks worth of content.

915
01:48:58,000 --> 01:49:00,000
So that should kick in soon.

916
01:49:00,000 --> 01:49:03,000
I think we'll see Cena at the Rumble.

917
01:49:03,000 --> 01:49:12,000
I know we're definitely going to see Cena at the Elimination Chamber in Toronto in a little, a couple of weeks away in it, but two, three weeks away.

918
01:49:12,000 --> 01:49:20,000
Cena is declared for the Royal Rumble match, so he has said that he's going to be there in the Netflix on Saturday.

919
01:49:20,000 --> 01:49:27,000
And it wouldn't shock me if we see possibly John Cena turn up on Friday Night SmackDown.

920
01:49:27,000 --> 01:49:38,000
Possibly have a match to try and shake off some ring rust, because if he's going into that World War II cold, there's going to be so many reasons why he doesn't win it.

921
01:49:38,000 --> 01:49:44,000
There is a rumour as well, there is a rumour as well that he's going in at number three.

922
01:49:48,000 --> 01:49:56,000
Yeah, it's, there's a lot of people that I've spoken to who are saying, oh yeah, it's Cena.

923
01:49:56,000 --> 01:49:58,000
He's obviously going to win it.

924
01:49:58,000 --> 01:50:00,000
And it's just not the case.

925
01:50:00,000 --> 01:50:01,000
He's not going to win it.

926
01:50:01,000 --> 01:50:10,000
He's already been, he's already been billed to perform in one way, shape or form at Elimination Chamber.

927
01:50:10,000 --> 01:50:14,000
That is the match he's going to win to get to Mania.

928
01:50:14,000 --> 01:50:19,000
Right, well, I think that's most of my notes for Monday Night Raw done.

929
01:50:19,000 --> 01:50:23,000
Yeah, that's all of my notes for Monday Night Raw done.

930
01:50:23,000 --> 01:50:29,000
So, yeah, we've, we've, there's been a lot we've unpacked in this week's episode.

931
01:50:29,000 --> 01:50:40,000
And as always, we are now, as we record this, only 24 hours removed from, from Royal Rumble occurring.

932
01:50:40,000 --> 01:50:44,000
So, that episode should be live on Sunday as well.

933
01:50:44,000 --> 01:50:53,000
So, we will, we'll be breaking that down in a slightly different way, slightly different way this time.

934
01:50:53,000 --> 01:51:02,000
We're still testing waters for how things work with this podcast, so we're going to try and you set up Royal Rumble and see how that works.

935
01:51:02,000 --> 01:51:06,000
But no, thank you very much, Adam, for joining me on this episode.

936
01:51:06,000 --> 01:51:10,000
I will see you for an XT.

937
01:51:10,000 --> 01:51:12,000
Yeah, see you for an XT.

938
01:51:12,000 --> 01:51:24,000
Enjoy. Bye.