1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,000
MUSIC

2
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,000
Welcome to the ring, it's Richard and Adam

3
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,000
Breaking down the fights with flair and passion

4
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:26,000
Tag teams grappling belts are clashing

5
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:34,000
MUSIC

6
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,000
Hey, welcome to the next SmackDown edition of

7
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000
Finishes and Factures with myself Rich and my co-host Adam

8
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000
Hi Adam, hi there, how you doing?

9
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000
Not bad, by yourself.

10
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000
I'm doing pretty good mate, doing pretty good.

11
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000
Right, this week we are in the Game Bridge Fieldhouse Arena

12
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000
which is the home of the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, Indiana

13
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:04,000
Yeah and not only that, it is a sold out

14
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:10,000
SmackDown before the Royal Rumble, this is the last televised

15
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:15,000
live event they have before 30 men, 30 women enter the ring

16
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,000
with one of each emerging victorious and on their way to wrestle Mania

17
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,000
and I am absolutely ecstatic to be able to crack into those

18
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,000
Royal Rumble matches and there's a few other matches on that card

19
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,000
that I'm looking forward to watching as well so we'll get to break those down

20
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,000
in the next couple of days as well.

21
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,000
Yeah, they've been built up something massive and having watched this week's

22
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:47,000
episode of SmackDown they don't skimp on being able to just get that

23
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:52,000
last little bit of shine in on that card kicking off tomorrow

24
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:57,000
but we start off this evening with a rare treat for Friday Night SmackDown

25
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:03,000
we are treated to a voice we don't hear very often anymore on Friday nights

26
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:09,000
we have Michael Cole and Pat McAfee on SmackDown this evening

27
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000
We do

28
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,000
Now Pat McAfee is something of a local hero

29
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000
my understanding is that he used to play for

30
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,000
Yeah, Pat McAfee played for the Indianapolis Colts

31
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:29,000
he was a punter, played from 2009 to 2017

32
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:34,000
and what a welcome that man got on his entrance

33
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:43,000
they welcomed he got and what an introduction he gave

34
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:50,000
but moving on because we hear quite a bit from Michael Cole and Pat McAfee

35
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,000
throughout the evening the first segment we went to was an in-ring interview

36
00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:01,000
between Joe Tessatori and Kevin Owens

37
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:07,000
This was a bit of a, a meant to be a come up and some last week, wasn't it?

38
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000
Kevin Owens last week felt he was disrespected by Joe Tessatori

39
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,000
giving Cody Rhodes the first option

40
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,000
and this was supposed to be Joe's way of apologizing by the looks of it

41
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:24,000
but it was interesting to see how he was going to go about doing it

42
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,000
I mean, let's face it, when doesn't Kevin Owens feel disrespected recently?

43
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:35,000
I'm pretty sure somebody could breathe in his direction incorrectly

44
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,000
and that man would feel disrespected in one way, shape or form

45
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:45,000
so he's, I don't think he's telling us anything new

46
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:50,000
but KO was really coming down that ramp meaning business after his introduction

47
00:03:50,000 --> 00:04:00,000
there was no even enjoying being in Indiana, Indianapolis on that evening

48
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,000
He's there for business at the moment

49
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,000
as far as he's concerned he is just there for one reason and one reason only

50
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,000
and that's why he's going to be in the last tomorrow night against Cody Rhodes

51
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:19,000
Yeah, this is it and I mean he, during this promo, I mean Tessatori starts out

52
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:25,000
trying to sort of address some of his recent actions, the recent attacks that he's got

53
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000
and sort of asks him like what's the disconnect here?

54
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:32,000
What has caused all of this sort of hostility

55
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:37,000
and what is already quite a hostile business as it is anyway

56
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:45,000
and sort of KO just sort of responds, almost outraged at the question

57
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,000
and again he just feels like he's being disrespected

58
00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,000
which is a bit of a common theme as we've already said

59
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:59,000
Everyone seems to disrespect him even when they're trying to help him

60
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:03,000
Show him respect, he doesn't quite necessarily see it that way

61
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:12,000
Yeah, and the one thing that he does before we move any further through this particular promo

62
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:20,000
is he makes a very big song and dance about removing the winged eagle title

63
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,000
that he has been parading around with over recent weeks

64
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:34,000
back off the belt suspension unit that was suspending them above the ring

65
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,000
he has taken that back, I'm surprised not more of a big deal was made about that

66
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:46,000
as that was one of the stipulations made in the Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes ladder match

67
00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000
for tomorrow night

68
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,000
Well I was expecting Cody to come out and take his back

69
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,000
I'm not going to lie, he might be one of those Kevin's got his and my mind

70
00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,000
Well I've Kevin made a signed contract, I'm not signing the contract

71
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,000
very much that's what I was expecting

72
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:05,000
I think that would be a reasonable thing to expect

73
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:11,000
but I also think that I'm not in 100% certain if Cody Rhodes was even at

74
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:18,000
he will have been in Indiana but just not necessarily at the Smackdown taping

75
00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,000
within being at the Royal Rumble the next night

76
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:28,000
maybe he was having a night off before a big show potentially

77
00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,000
Let's face it, we know he wasn't having a night off

78
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,000
he was probably doing a media appearance elsewhere

79
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,000
those guys don't get time off around one of the big four pay-per-views

80
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:41,000
but ask him for time off at Christmas and hospitality

81
00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,000
you're not going to get any time off

82
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000
No, this is it, but after taking the winged eagle title back

83
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,000
KO goes to storm out having taken his toys wanting to go home

84
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,000
to be interrupted by

85
00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,000
again somebody

86
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,000
not a normal thing to see on Friday night Smackdown is

87
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,000
All-Zion Punk coming out to

88
00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,000
Well, I mean coming out

89
00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:14,000
he was just chilling out backstage when he heard someone use his name

90
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,000
so he might have been raiding catering for the donors

91
00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,000
I mean we know somebody else's name that gets mentioned

92
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,000
and he appears as well

93
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000
Not on this promotion though and we haven't quite taken finishes and factions

94
00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,000
to a TNA episode just yet

95
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,000
I'm not sure how much more wrestling I can fit into my week

96
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,000
Not going to lie

97
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,000
There's a possibility there if you believe

98
00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,000
There is definitely a possibility that if you believe he may just

99
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,000
make it an appearance of some kind

100
00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:54,000
I already know you're having daggers stared into the back of your head there dude

101
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:57,000
No, she's

102
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:01,000
currently looking at a new neurodiversity app that she's found

103
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,000
so she's happy

104
00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,000
Thank you for trying to throw me under that proverbial bust though my friend

105
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,000
I do appreciate that

106
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,000
That's not a problem at all, that's what I'm here for

107
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,000
But yeah, I mean what a pop that Punk came out to

108
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000
I mean we used to punk getting a good pop

109
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,000
I'm going to not be able to say this very much if I have to keep going

110
00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:26,000
But yeah, I think the fact that nobody was expecting him there

111
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,000
at a Smackdown show was just intensified the

112
00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,000
shock and awe factor for the WWE Universe in attendance that evening

113
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,000
I think as we all know as wrestling fans as well

114
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,000
that when the Road to WrestleMania starts at the Royal Rumble

115
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,000
around that weekend, that last week before the Royal Rumble

116
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,000
all rules go out the window

117
00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,000
Like everyone is showing up everywhere

118
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,000
Trying to piss people off, poke fights

119
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,000
plant seeds about what's going to happen if they win the Rumble

120
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:06,000
I'm going to have to come over here and then I'm going to mess with them

121
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000
I'm going to mess with you and mess with that

122
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:11,000
It's just a head game in this last week

123
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:16,000
Let's face it, Punk has not been shy about his intentions

124
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:20,000
He's 100% got his eyes set on gold

125
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,000
Whether that's Gunther's gold or Cody Rhodes' gold

126
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,000
He's not really going to be too fussy

127
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,000
It feels like he's just going to flip a coin

128
00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:35,000
and whichever side of a coin that lands on

129
00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:40,000
one champion is going to get all of Punk all the way up to Mania

130
00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,000
And he told Cody last week that he was coming for him

131
00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,000
He wasn't going to stab him in the back and hide like everyone else

132
00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,000
He was going to stab him in the front and say

133
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:53,000
look, if you win this match against Kevin Owens

134
00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:55,000
I'm coming after your title

135
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000
So obviously because Punk is a nice respectable guy

136
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,000
and we all know that he has everyone's feelings at heart

137
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:07,000
He decided to show the same courtesy to Kevin Owens

138
00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:12,000
And the look on Kevin Owens' face was quite astounding

139
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,000
He did not know what to do with himself

140
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:19,000
Yeah, and this is when Kevin Owens sort of...

141
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,000
He toes a very...

142
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,000
He toes a line almost

143
00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,000
because he sort of feels disrespected

144
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:31,000
by anybody and everybody that happens to breathe in his direction

145
00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:35,000
and then he gives nothing out but disrespect

146
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,000
And this is what he seems to do with Punk at the moment

147
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:40,000
in just sort of...

148
00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:45,000
I think KO is intrigued by the option of Owens vs Punk

149
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:53,000
and that being Punk's very first WrestleMania main event

150
00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:00,000
which Kevin Owens takes great delight in pointing out

151
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,000
I mean not as much delight as CM Punk takes to point out

152
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,000
that he hasn't lost five title matches at WrestleMania

153
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:14,000
but someone else in the ring had also done that

154
00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:18,000
And he also doesn't take great pride in pointing out

155
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:24,000
that CM Punk has not also lost to Logan Paul

156
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:28,000
Which got a nice little reaction from the crowd as well

157
00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,000
because not only were they booing Kevin Owens

158
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,000
but they were laughing at him too because of that

159
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:40,000
And yeah, it'd be interesting to see

160
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,000
if at some point during the rumble there's a little bit of afters

161
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,000
between Kevin Owens and Logan Paul because of that

162
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:52,000
There's always going to be animosity between the two of them

163
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:54,000
It's whether the two of them are...

164
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,000
Something backstage as they kind of walk past each other

165
00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:59,000
obviously we know Kevin Owens isn't going to be in the rumble

166
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,000
because he's in the main event

167
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,000
but Logan Paul's going to be in the same building

168
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:09,000
Well, it's still up in the air

169
00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,000
I mean we've known wrestlers Paul Double Duty

170
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,000
and Royal Rumbles in the past

171
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:18,000
It's not outside the realms of possibility to do that

172
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,000
So let's not rule anything out just yet

173
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:27,000
But yeah, I mean Kevin Owens really trying to push Punk's buttons

174
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,000
Punk really knowing how to push Kevin Owens buttons

175
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:36,000
and yeah, it even brings up the fact that he's been manipulating

176
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:40,000
apparently one of... Kevin Owens has been manipulating

177
00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:43,000
one of his very best friends in the world

178
00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:46,000
who he stabs in the back at any given opportunity

179
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,000
Mr. Sami Zayn

180
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:54,000
Kevin Owens has been doing Sami Zayn dirty for 20 years

181
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,000
He ain't ever going to stop

182
00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:01,000
No, because Sami keeps letting him get away with it

183
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:06,000
And yeah, this is where I get frustrated with Sami Zayn

184
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:10,000
but we're not going to talk about Sami Zayn just at the moment

185
00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:14,000
because we're going to move on otherwise we're going to get really wrapped up

186
00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:18,000
in this first segment of SmackDown and never make it to the end

187
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:24,000
So we went from in-ring to backstage with

188
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,000
as you've seen in our podcast plenty of times in the past

189
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:34,000
you will know that the Miz is not one of our favourite superstars to talk about

190
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:39,000
Ah, well, I'm going to correct myself slightly there

191
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:43,000
The Miz is not one of my favourite superstars to talk about normally

192
00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:47,000
but this week the Miz did the one thing that I love seeing the Miz do

193
00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,000
and let's take that nice shiny shoe of his

194
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:55,000
turn it sideways and stick it straight in his mouth

195
00:13:55,000 --> 00:14:00,000
because while he's having this conversation with Nick Aldis

196
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,000
about the fact that he made friends with A-Town down under and then they got traded

197
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:10,000
and then he was trying to make friends with Andrade and say he could teach him so much

198
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:15,000
and Andrade just didn't realise the prowess that the Miz has

199
00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:20,000
and just walked away and thinks it's a really poor move on Andrade's behalf

200
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:24,000
and one thing I love is when the Miz starts getting a bit mouthy

201
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,000
he turns around and says, if he was here I'd punch him right in his mouth

202
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:31,000
just to see Nick Aldis' face light up like a light bulb

203
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:36,000
and in fairness, we've all been there where we said something about somebody

204
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,000
and that person has been stood behind us

205
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:44,000
Instant karma hits us and yeah, this

206
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:51,000
we end up being treated to the fact that Andrade says in front of Nick Aldis

207
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,000
well, if you think you're that hard, come and get it

208
00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:00,000
It's not me when I say that in front of my boss, I get my P45

209
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:04,000
but he manages to get a match out of it

210
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,000
Yes, but they're in the business of kicking asses

211
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,000
not in the business of people sending newspapers

212
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,000
No

213
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:17,000
So yeah, no, but Andrade challenges the Miz

214
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:23,000
the Miz quite reluctantly accepts not wanting to look like a bitch

215
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:32,000
and yeah, Nick Aldis stamps his seal of approval all over that match with amazing amount of glee

216
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,000
in that man's eyes

217
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,000
Which made me slightly happy knowing we've seen a lot from Andrade in the past

218
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,000
obviously he's been away wrestling and other promotions

219
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:47,000
and he's come back to smack down in the end

220
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:53,000
You know that we're going to get a decent quality match out of it from Andrade

221
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,000
all depends on how much sleep Miz has had

222
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:03,000
and if he's actually had Maurice traded with him so he's got a bit of back of them

223
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,000
Well, that seems to be the only path together with Derek

224
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,000
Yeah, but we've not seen her for a few weeks either since his move

225
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:18,000
So I'm not sure if she's officially under contract with WWE as it stands

226
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:24,000
I think she just makes one-off appearances and gets the additional payday for it

227
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:31,000
That wouldn't shock me because I don't think she's not definitely not active in ring as far as I'm aware

228
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:36,000
So she's not actively in the Indies or anything like that

229
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:41,000
I think she has pretty much full on retired from in ring competition

230
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,000
and just makes the odd appearance when and where is appropriate

231
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:53,000
But again, we don't like talking about the Miz so we're not going to talk about him anymore until a little bit later on in the card

232
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:59,000
Speaking of the card, we've met the very first match of the evening

233
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:06,000
The first match is a match between the fans' singles match with Jimmy Uso vs Carmelo

234
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,000
Mello never misses Hayes

235
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:14,000
I mean, Mello didn't miss it at the start of this match to be fair either

236
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:23,000
No, but if we roll this back just a little bit to anybody that's sort of new to smack down this week

237
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:29,000
We're off the back of a pre-match attack by Carmelo Hayes on Jimmy Uso last week

238
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:38,000
It is a case that Carmelo Hayes took some disrespect in Jimmy Uso, sort of brushing him aside last week

239
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,000
Attacked him on his way to the ring for his match last week

240
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,000
And yeah, Jimmy Uso ain't about to take that line down, is he?

241
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:55,000
No, he certainly don't, but he did try a sneak attack at the start of the match like Carmelo did to him

242
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,000
Like we said previously, and it did not work

243
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:08,000
He got caught out and kind of gave Carmelo a bit of an opportunity to kind of get a lead on him to be fair

244
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,000
He did

245
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:16,000
There's one detail that happened before even the first punch was thrown in this match though

246
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:22,000
And I'm not sure if anybody would have noticed it or possibly not many people will have noticed it

247
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,000
I missed it for sure, so crack on

248
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:31,000
So Jimmy Uso obviously on his way to the ring did a bit of a walkout promo hyping himself up

249
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,000
However, it wasn't Jimmy Uso that caught my eye

250
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:40,000
There was certain somebody else lurking around, really lurking in the background

251
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:44,000
And that was one Shinsuke Nakamura, I believe

252
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:52,000
Who I believe is currently a US, men's US champion?

253
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,000
I want to say

254
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,000
He took it off LA night

255
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,000
Yeah

256
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Yeah, and yeah, he was very much lurking around in the background feeling

257
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:12,000
It felt like he was very interested in what Jimmy Uso was doing, just not enough to get physically involved

258
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:21,000
So I'm wondering if that may, I could be reading too far into it, but post Royal Rumble we may well see

259
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:27,000
Jimmy Uso take his first swing at a title potentially

260
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,000
Often

261
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:36,000
It's a very loose thread, it's a very sort of loose thread to pull at, but we've seen Stranger Things in WWE

262
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,000
We will claim it if it comes true, you heard it here

263
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,000
100%

264
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,000
Mostly seen here

265
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:49,000
Back to the in-ring action, yeah no, sort of

266
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:58,000
We got Carmelo Hayes did try to take full advantage of Jimmy Uso on the way out to the, on the early part of this match

267
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:08,000
But yeah, that all came undone with just one headbutt that Carmelo Hayes really underestimated how hard Jimmy Uso's head is

268
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:17,000
That was funny, like I was expecting Uso to hit the floor, obviously with a headbutt to the back of the head I think I would

269
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:23,000
But no, just to see Carmelo Hayes walk off holding his forehead, like what the fuck, it was a

270
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:24,000
Yeah

271
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:32,000
One of those, his facial expression played that move so well, if he hadn't got the facial expression bang on like he did

272
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,000
It would not have worked as well as it did

273
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:41,000
Oh, no, definitely not, but if there's one thing that Carmelo can do, it is sell

274
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:46,000
So, yeah, he sold

275
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:53,000
Now, one of the other bits and pieces that we see quite often in this match particularly

276
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:59,000
It's not even, I'm not even entirely sure it's this match, but we see

277
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,000
I believe it is an NFL star, Halliburton

278
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:15,000
No, his name is Tyrese Halliburton, he's not an NFL star, he is an NBA star, actually he is a two-time All-Star NBA star

279
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:20,000
He is the point guard for the Indiana Pacers

280
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:26,000
Who play in the arena that SmackDown was being filmed in

281
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:38,000
So he seems to play quite an active role in the entire episode, but we see him seem to grab the attention of specifically Carmelo Hayes

282
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:49,000
Who did, on his way out to the ring, a little attempt at a promo where he sort of goads Halliburton on his way to the ring

283
00:21:49,000 --> 00:22:02,000
Yeah, so I think, and I believe the Indiana Pacers actually had the best January in the NBA this year

284
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:10,000
So, but obviously being point guard, Halliburton is one of the main point scorers

285
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:17,000
I think he missed a couple of easy ones over the previous weekend which was trying to lead to Carmelo against some cheap heat off him

286
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:24,000
Yeah, it always insults the local team for a bit of cheap local heat

287
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:33,000
But yeah, I mean Hayes is focused on Halliburton seems to allow Usu to gain some control in this match

288
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:41,000
And yeah, that really sort of, that started to spell the end for Carmelo Hayes really

289
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:49,000
I mean, it was a hard hitting match with some big swings, there was no little moves in this match

290
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,000
Every last motion they made was swinging for the fences

291
00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:01,000
There's a few notes that I picked up of a few spots where there was one where Jey Usu got caught mid suicide dive

292
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:12,000
You know, he was running the ropes on the return to dive over and so he's on the return for the dive

293
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:17,000
And all of a sudden, Carmelo Hayes was on the floor outside the ring five seconds beforehand

294
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:24,000
It's just hitting with what looked like a JBL style clothesline, just straight across

295
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:33,000
And they were impressed with his recoverability with that one and then there was a few other ones that were just really well timed reversals

296
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:41,000
I think there was a pop-up power bomb at one point that was reversed into a DDT by Carmelo Hayes

297
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:46,000
And a few other quite big spots to refer

298
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:58,000
Yeah, so I seem to remember that vicious clothesline and I don't think it's the last one we see during this episode of SmackDown either

299
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:03,000
So you don't think it's the last one we see just in this match on its own to be fair?

300
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:10,000
No, I took a few notes of a few spots, I caught a few of the same ones that you did

301
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:19,000
I also got Uso hitting with a massive super kick to Carmelo Hayes at one point just really turned the tide

302
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,000
The jawbreaker one?

303
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000
Oh, 100%

304
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:30,000
The other thing that I happen to note was a move that commentary called the first 48

305
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,000
The code breaker?

306
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,000
The code breaker area

307
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:41,000
I saw that, I quite like that, it's the first 48 is how they referred to it mid-air

308
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:46,000
But yeah, the fact that he managed to hit a move like that mid-air was quite nice

309
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,000
Just before he hit, Carmelo Hayes hit that

310
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:58,000
Yeah, Jey Uso hit what looked like a really interesting arm drag off the top rope into a diamond cutter

311
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:05,000
Well, I couldn't work out if it was a diamond cutter or a neck breaker style landing to it

312
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:11,000
But they're both using moves, we've seen these guys a lot in the last few weeks

313
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:18,000
They're both increasing their moveset quite a lot, we're not seeing the same sort of moves week in, week out

314
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,000
Which has been quite nice

315
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,000
Yeah, I mean definitely, I mean we've...

316
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:29,000
According to something that you've just said, we've seen both Uso brothers in this match

317
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:34,000
You've got to make sure you mention the right Uso, it's important

318
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,000
Yeah, no

319
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Jey Uso is yeet, Jimmy Uso is not yeet

320
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,000
Yeah, one yeet on the street

321
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,000
Fucks

322
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:48,000
You know what I meant

323
00:25:48,000 --> 00:26:02,000
But yeah, I mean to close this match out there was a brilliant closing sequence where Hayes hits with a huge diving cross body

324
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,000
Pre-celebrating during a cover

325
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:14,000
And yeah, Carmelo tries to get his own dirty pin in on Jimmy Uso

326
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,000
It fails and Jimmy Uso manages to get one of his own for the win

327
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:25,000
That seems to be the theme this week is the dirty pin

328
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:33,000
Yeah, and again, anybody that's not familiar with the term dirty pin, it may only be something that I sort of coined myself

329
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:43,000
But it's basically a pinfall that's used either extra leverage to be able to achieve the desired result

330
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:49,000
So this could either be feet on the rope to gain that bit of extra leverage against your opponent

331
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:56,000
Or even just grabbing a handful of tights to make it more difficult for the opponent to kick out

332
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:05,000
Doing anything you can to kind of underhand the win without the referee seeing

333
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:12,000
Yeah, pretty much, it's a classic heel move has been used for years and years and years

334
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,000
And will continue to be used for years and years and years to come

335
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,000
Now moving on from that match however

336
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:25,000
We had a little rumble VT that had a lot of statistics in it

337
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:32,000
I have made note of all of them word for word as they were mentioned on screen

338
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:39,000
But smack down your maths do not add up

339
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,000
Have you noticed some inconsistencies with their

340
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:52,000
I have, right, so the Royal Rumble as they stated is where 30 men and 30 women respectively jump into a ring in

341
00:27:52,000 --> 00:28:00,000
Not all in one go, they go in one at a time, two to start off with, one follows after a certain amount of time until you have the 30 people

342
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:09,000
Everyone's got to be thrown over the top row to be eliminated, last one standing wins, gets a championship opportunity at WrestleMania

343
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:23,000
So there have been 1370 superstars that have entered Royal Rumbles since the first one in 1988 I believe it was

344
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,000
It's a little bit further down that I made that note

345
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:36,000
So 1988 was the first Royal Rumble because the first Royal Rumble was won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan who came in at number 13

346
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:50,000
He did, right, so out of that we have had 36 winners according to SmackDown which gives a 2.6% win chance on the Royal Rumble

347
00:28:50,000 --> 00:29:02,000
But the next line says that they've had 35 winners, 22 of which have won a championship match at WrestleMania

348
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:15,000
Including, they specifically mentioned Bayley to start off with who entered at number 3 last year to win in a time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and a second

349
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:30,000
Another interesting statistic that I didn't know that Adam might have done was Bianca Belair is the only other woman to have entered the Rumble at number 3 and won

350
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:41,000
So she did that in 2021 I believe, she holds a Royal Rumble record herself as well

351
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:52,000
So interestingly in 2021 where Bianca Belair came in at number 3 to win, Edge was in at number 1 and won

352
00:29:52,000 --> 00:30:00,000
But Edge did not go on to win his challenge at that year's WrestleMania

353
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,000
Who did he face at that year's WrestleMania?

354
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,000
Oh now you're asking

355
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:19,000
If you know who it was, send us an email, finishes and factions at gmail.com and tell us and we will read out some of the answers next week and fact check them too

356
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,000
100%

357
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:48,000
But yeah, I mean we could go through and I could reel off some other interesting facts such as, did you know that Batista holds his own Royal Rumble record as being the only person to win from the same spot twice at entering at number 28?

358
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,000
No I didn't

359
00:30:50,000 --> 00:31:12,000
Which he did in 2014 entered at number 28 to win and in 2005 he entered at number 28 to win as well so yeah massive bits and pieces that went in from there

360
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:29,000
So from the Royal Rumble BT we went on to a Chelsea Green backstage promo about her doing the same as everyone else is going to do tomorrow night

361
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:47,000
She apparently is going to throw 29 other women over the top rope to win the Royal Rumble but I'm not entirely sure she's going to be the one to do it

362
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:59,000
No, realistically I don't see her being able to do it unless Piper Niven is going to be there to hold her hand throughout realistically it's just not going to happen is it?

363
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,000
Which is what happens in the next match to be fair?

364
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:23,000
It is, the other thing that I noticed about Chelsea Green was she was sporting her own war wounds from a match last week which was the tag team match she was in where she partnered with Niven to face Meachin and BFAB

365
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:34,000
The next match doesn't look too dissimilar from that realistically we're looking at very much the same sort of match as they had at that point

366
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:59,000
Which was the women's US Championship match which came next on the card with Chelsea Green as the defending champion facing off against Meachin both accompanied to the ring by their respective counterparts from last week's tag team match

367
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:18,000
And that was Piper Niven for Chelsea Green and BFAB for Meachin so we said here that Chelsea Green was the current holder of the title I believe she's had that for about 47-48 days as of recording this episode

368
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:39,000
Yes so with that she's also the inaugural winner of the women's US Championship which I think sort of lends itself to her current gimmick being a very sort of presidential role or taking on a very presidential theme about it

369
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:49,000
Although I haven't heard her mention anything about building walls just yet but we may see that yet who knows

370
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:57,000
Yeah we might see that in the Royal Rumble tomorrow when she needs Piper Niven to help or use her as a wall to help us survive

371
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Yeah this is it. Now an important detail to mention because it does play into what happens in this match. Meachin doesn't just come to the ring with BFAB this evening she comes out with a kendo stick which is it's not a no DQ match

372
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:39,000
So if she were to use this it would end in a disqualification and as is the case when in a championship match in WWE champions have what's called the champions advantage which if they are, if a disqualification occurs they don't lose their title

373
00:34:39,000 --> 00:35:03,000
They can only lose their title by pinfall or submission, countouts and DQs do not count. So having said that I mean I think Meachin tries to assert some dominance pretty early on with a bunch of quick covers just sort of saying yeah no this lasts as long as I want it to last

374
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:22,000
Yeah she came in and used the kendo stick as a bit of a, it's a bit of a oh my god she's got a kendo stick, that's going to work and then like I said there's quick pins gave her a bit of a dominance factor and from then she just kind of able to sit back and just sort of cruise at a higher level

375
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:29,000
I think for a majority of this match Meachin is fully in control

376
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:39,000
Oh 100%, don't get me wrong Chelsea Green was far from, far from defenceless in this match but she used quite a lot

377
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:43,000
She did just roll over but she did gas herself out reasonably quickly

378
00:35:43,000 --> 00:36:09,000
Yeah very much so I mean she used a lot of what I've referred to in the past as chicken shit heel moves which is a lot of jumping out of the ring rather than facing the opponent I mean at one point during this match she's even running away from Meachin all over the arena to try and escape the beat and I think she knew was coming

379
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,000
She deserves it too

380
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,000
Oh 100%

381
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:26,000
Meachin pinned her clean a few times in different situations so she, as far as Chelsea Green's concerned her days are numbered and Meachin's wanting to stamp that ticket

382
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:48,000
Oh definitely and she comes close on a couple of occasions, it's interesting though that sort of Befarb especially doesn't really play much of a role in this match apart from being sort of moral support for Meachin although admittedly I don't think Meachin needed the moral support

383
00:36:48,000 --> 00:37:07,000
No but then we didn't really see much of Piper Nevin either until the sort of the ending of the match, she was there as like a physical presence but she wasn't really being that intimidating I mean to be fair when you dressed up in a wrestling ring like a glorified moal cop then Jesus Christ

384
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:22,000
Yeah this is it and you should point out it's a bedazzled moal cop that she dresses up as, it's a ridiculous take on the Presidential Secret Service uniform realistically but

385
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:34,000
It's fine to have the commentators asking a funny question and they said to her every time she taps the microphone in the rear who is she actually talking to? Is Chelsea Greenstone friend of her?

386
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:59,000
This is true, I mean it does beg the question I mean they did hint I think it was last week or the week before that they were going to have to add more to the security detail for Chelsea Green so it did allude to the fact that they were going to bring somebody else in on this gimmick so could it be that she's talking to whoever this mystery edition is?

387
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:22,000
I mean possibly. But yeah I mean we're not going to talk about this match too heavily because a lot of the spots that we got in here were we've sort of already discussed inadvertently but ultimately Chelsea Green retains the championship via disqualification

388
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:42,000
as she basically attacks Mishin with her own kendo stick after running over to timekeepers retrieving it and then just going to town but this does nothing but to this does nothing really but in sense Mishin that she's been robbed of yet another opportunity

389
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:53,000
I kind of felt like I got robbed of the 15 minutes this match took as well you know. It wasn't a terribly inspired match I will be honest.

390
00:38:53,000 --> 00:39:19,000
It was a great match but even with some of the bad matches you know you still walk away with a little bit of story right a little bit of something learned is a little bit of something gained but apart from kind of I've seen enough of Mishin versus Chelsea Green I kind of want to board a bit now.

391
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:38,000
It does seem to be getting quite. The way I look at this match and the way I look at the way the stories played out from years of experience watching WWE is they'll go down either the classic route where they'll say oh no Mishin's had her time now she has to start from the bottom

392
00:39:38,000 --> 00:40:01,000
we'll have a few weeks of Mishin having one off matches with other talent on the roster basically building herself back up into a number one contendership role where she will inevitably go on to face Chelsea Green again on the grandest stage of them all.

393
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:15,000
Are they going to block them? I said the grandest stage of them all not that yeah no we'll have to go there. You have to kind of fight them as well. Yeah that's probably true.

394
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:41,000
Anyway they'll either do that all because BFAB didn't really play much of a role I'm willing to bet that it could end up being that instead of we're seeing Mishin versus Chelsea Green we could end up seeing a feud developed between BFAB and Mishin only on the back of BFAB being the next one to gain an opportunity against Chelsea Green.

395
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:51,000
I don't think BFAB will lift the title from Chelsea Green but it will feed into a feud between her and Mishin potentially.

396
00:40:51,000 --> 00:41:13,000
Two ways of that. Yeah I mean that's a great way to run it to be fair and you can even bring in the fact that you know BFAB can turn around a bit like I had your back on all these matches I got my ass kicked on your behalf and what did you do? Nothing.

397
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:34,000
Yeah precisely it's just two ways that I see that the storyline playing out from here. You've got the classic route all we feed into a slightly different feud where it sort of winds its way back to being for the women's US title later on down the line a little bit.

398
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:39,000
But I think we'll have to wait and see how that one plays out.

399
00:41:39,000 --> 00:42:03,000
Yeah so after we had Mishin winning with her and getting her a little bit of payback with that Kendo stick we moved into a backstage segment with Byron Saxton with Naomi and Bianca Belair who we saw last night have a, not last night,

400
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:09,000
but night before sorry, have a tag team total match on NXT.

401
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:33,000
Yeah so they had a tag team title match on Tuesday night with Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend being the Meta Girls which we covered in our previous episode with it being a championship match on the main event of NXT and yeah go back and listen to that one if you're interested.

402
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:40,000
But we also had a match on Monday night Raw as well so these guys at this point are going to be getting pretty tired.

403
00:42:40,000 --> 00:43:06,000
Oh 100% and they've both still got an appearance in the women's rumble to make on Saturday night so this is going to be an interesting one for sure but yeah I mean it's basically a promo pointing out the fact that neither one of them are feeling not feeling confident going into

404
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:15,000
the Royal Rumble or go or into whomever it is that has the next shot at their championship straps.

405
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:36,000
So we've got an interesting theory about how Naomi Bianca Belair is going to play out because they're due for an implosion soon we thought we started to see some cracks forming a few weeks ago and it didn't really play out too much but there's been one name that the commentary team

406
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:54,000
is making a point of mentioning quite a lot over the last few weeks and that's it certainly is yeah and I've got a feeling I've seen some rumours that she's that she's potentially being cleared she's potentially been cleared for in ring

407
00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:15,000
competition I've got a feeling that one or both of Naomi and Bianca Belair are likely to be surprised by Jade Cargill coming back and then one or the other or both are going to be eliminated by Jade Cargill herself

408
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:33,000
and because it was originally it was Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair that won the tag straps but Jade Cargill ended up getting injured she was put on the bench for a number of months and Naomi sort of stepped into the spotlight taking Cargill's place

409
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:48,000
and don't get me wrong she's done a fantastic job of maintaining the championships within the team but I just don't think Jade Cargill is going to take too well to it she's been known to be quite volatile in the past so

410
00:44:48,000 --> 00:45:09,000
not going to see Jade Cargill joining that one in the free bird ruling any time soon. No I don't think that's going to be the way that goes somehow but yeah that's my theory on how their rumble is going to play out I've got a feeling that they're going to be entered into some kind of storyline that features Jade Cargill

411
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:25,000
I mean it could even be that Jade Cargill finds a mystery partner and ends up lifting the tag straps off of Naomi and Bianca Belair herself. So many ways that could play out

412
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:51,000
but I'm going to digress from that and mention something that's actually just a little bit funny a little bit and something that I quite like that WWE took the time to go out and do in Indiana Indianapolis in the front on the back of Royal Rumble being in that city on this over this weekend and that's they've gone about and changed a lot of the street signs.

413
00:45:51,000 --> 00:46:03,000
Yeah I saw this I thought it was cool as hell. Oh 100% you know for a fact if we lived in Indianapolis right now your boy would be stealing John Cena Street.

414
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:22,000
Oh I'd go around and just steal all the street signs mother they'd be all but Indiana PD had busting into my apartment with them all on my bedroom wall and be like yeah I fucking did it and I'd do it again. Ain't nobody else taking these away from me.

415
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:51,000
And yeah I thought that was a really novel idea that it's just so simple and could quite easily be overlooked and it just yeah just a wonderfully subtle little nod to what was going on in that city that weekend and yeah loved it.

416
00:46:51,000 --> 00:47:07,000
And we also then went to a VT teasing the return of Charlotte Flair and you'll excuse my lack of enthusiasm with this because.

417
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:23,000
The main of Rick's. She's making another return. I was gonna say I've just got no enthusiasm for Charlotte Flair in any way shape or form I just I'm not excited that she's coming back.

418
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:36,000
I think she should really avoid close up fucking camera angle at this rate because yeah it's if she's had work done I think she ought to get the builders back in and redo it.

419
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:40,000
Yeah I think her Madonna have gone to the same plastic surgeon.

420
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:49,000
I mean a dad Rick Flair is cracking on for what 85 90 years old somewhere around that region I would imagine.

421
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:56,000
He is looking lucky looking looks it and even he's prettier than she is so yeah.

422
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:07,000
Yeah about the Hall of Famer. As you mentioned him did you see that Rick Flair has his own energy drink out now.

423
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:10,000
It's called woo.

424
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:21,000
Of course it is. I have seen mentions in some wrestling publications online that Rick Flair seems to think he's got one more match left in him.

425
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:28,000
Personally I'm hoping it's a casket match because I think if he gets in the ring once more that's where he's ending up.

426
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:39,000
Well I think this is where punk he was referring to about the was it the old age raw rumble or something where you're going to get like Rick Flair and Hulk Hogan trying to toss each other out in their own in their own or something.

427
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,000
You know Jesus Christ.

428
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:53,000
I mean he's not wrong. I mean there's every possibility that the the universally booed Hulk Hogan ends up making an appearance in the men's rumble.

429
00:48:53,000 --> 00:49:11,000
I mean it's I've certainly seen some some bits and pieces online that seem to think that he will make an appearance at some point during that rumble match and I think the biggest cheer of the night if that happens is going to be when he gets his dusty ass thrown over the top rope.

430
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:20,000
I'd like to say that if Hulk Hogan makes an appearance at this year's Royal Rumble I would nail gun myself to my desk.

431
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:28,000
But I'm pretty sure the odds of Hulk Hogan showing up are pretty high so that's not coming out. We're not doing that.

432
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:37,000
I was going to say if you're going to make that sort of a claim I'd like to point out that we the first bit of short form content is going to be watching you do that.

433
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:43,000
That staple gun like going out to desk. Yeah, pretty much.

434
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:57,000
Yeah, so we went from a Charlotte Flair return VT into an in ring promo with Damien Priest.

435
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:05,000
Now I didn't realize this was a promo to start off with. I thought he was coming out for a fight and then he picked up the microphone.

436
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:17,000
Well, I suppose in essence when you think to what happened during this promo that I suppose he did come out for a fight.

437
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:21,000
He just wasn't aware that he was coming out for a fight to begin with.

438
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:22,000
Yes.

439
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:32,000
He came out full entrance, did his thing, I mean insane off the back of it.

440
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:43,000
But came down to the ring started talking about the fact that he confirmed he confirmed his rumble entry and talking about his history in WWE.

441
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:51,000
Well, basically just pointed out that he'd spent four years on Raw and he'd gone from nobody to the World Heavyweight Champion.

442
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:53,000
No, he's on SmackDown.

443
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:59,000
He's not really worried about making a name for himself or kind of having an impact.

444
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:05,000
He just wants championships and that starts tomorrow night in the rumble.

445
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:16,000
Yeah, I mean, we're better together championship than the grandest stage of the grandest stage of them all and he'd get his choice of which champion he wanted to go out and face.

446
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:26,000
And as much as Damien Priest versus Cody Rhodes is intriguing, if I had to pick an opponent if Damien Priest walks out of that match with his hand raised high,

447
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:32,000
I'll be honest, I'd be more likely to want to see him face Gunther.

448
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:38,000
I think Damien Priest versus Gunther would be a really interesting match.

449
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:42,000
They're both very stern professional wrestlers.

450
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:52,000
Like neither of them have got a clowny gimmick or they're not trying to make people laugh or sell merch or anything like that.

451
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:58,000
They're not going to wrestle, so for the two of them to go together would work quite well.

452
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:05,000
Yeah, it wouldn't make for like horrendously, like it wouldn't be made for a horrendously entertaining match.

453
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:16,000
It's not like if you had, for instance, Jey Uso versus LA Knight, that would be a very entertaining match to watch.

454
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:24,000
However, Damien Priest versus Gunther is going to be a brutal match to watch.

455
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:30,000
We already know how what Gunther is capable of with just a chop.

456
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:36,000
And we've seen what Damien Priest did to Fen Balor a few weeks ago on Raw.

457
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,000
He certainly did.

458
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:48,000
So after we've gone through and Damien Priest has got off his chest, what he needed to get off his chest,

459
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:54,000
we got to see what we're calling them.

460
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:56,000
Have we got like a nickname for these guys?

461
00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:03,000
Because I know LA Knight likes to refer to them as the two cross-eyed halfwits, but I don't really think we can get away with using that.

462
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:10,000
That's fine. I don't think they're going to appear behind us at any time soon, so I'll go with the cross-eyed halfwits. That's fine by me.

463
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:16,000
We get to see the cross-eyed halfwits Jacob Fatou and Tamatonga.

464
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:18,000
You better not shout behind me.

465
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,000
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

466
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:29,000
Yeah, I think you're going to hear Tamatonga before you see the fofio, so I think you're okay.

467
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:42,000
But oddly, the one thing that I took away from this entire promo segment was Jacob Fatou managed to cut a promo that was relatively understandable.

468
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:50,000
I think after that first time round when Solo went, fuck this, I'm going home. Right, I'm not doing this anymore.

469
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:58,000
And he had to try and fill that gap. I think someone's basically said to him, like, dude, the fuck was that?

470
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:04,000
Paul, you think right, you're asked. If you're going to work here, do it properly. If not, follow your brother on the door.

471
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:11,000
Yeah, this is it. I mean, if you're not going to cut a promo properly, we'll send you back to prison.

472
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:16,000
But he referenced himself in his promo.

473
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:26,000
He did, yeah. That was a very good point. It was a very difficult promo to understand, but it basically just came out with Jacob Fatou saying that.

474
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:30,000
He sees who Damien Priest is, he knows who Damien Priest is.

475
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:44,000
And the one line that he, I think he's tried stealing this from Bucketier at some point, he goes, but Jacob Fatou says that Damien Priest has done more than any of the other suckers in the locker room at the moment.

476
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:50,000
They both come from the streets, but the only difference was he was locked in a box.

477
00:54:50,000 --> 00:55:05,000
So there was a few other kind of, he gets a little bit too overly descriptive sometimes when he gets on it on it.

478
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:13,000
No, to the point where he came out with the Jacob Fatou's favorite one at the moment is that he's all gas and no brakes.

479
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:25,000
Damien Priest won't be coming to the blue brand to make a name for himself because there's any two things that are going to happen. You're either going to lay down or him and Tamaton were going to beat you down.

480
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:29,000
Which, I mean, he does exactly as he says on the tin because...

481
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:34,000
You saw what he did to Braun Strowman last week, like you can go back and check out our episode of it.

482
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:39,000
Like, oh, no one's heard from Braun Strowman since.

483
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:45,000
No, it's sort of a shame because Braun Strowman hadn't long come back from frigging injury.

484
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:48,000
So I do sort of feel sorry for him in that sense.

485
00:55:48,000 --> 00:56:01,000
But yeah, we're not going to rehash old bits. It's going to be a case that we'll carry on breaking down this face off between the Cross-eyed Halfwits and Damien Priest.

486
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:11,000
Damien Priest decides he's having a go, though, don't he? Basically, he taunts Jacob Fatou to the point where they both get...

487
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:18,000
They're both kind of circling. Priest takes his jacket off and they start.

488
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:27,000
We get a nice little bit of a brawl between the two before Tamatonge gets back up from a beautiful shot.

489
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:36,000
I was going to say, Tamatonge got sweet as a nut with a lovely kick from Damien Priest.

490
00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:43,000
But yeah, eventually they do what the Cross-eyed Halfwits have always done and they've played that.

491
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:53,000
They've played the numbers game and it needs somebody to come out and play a white knight.

492
00:56:53,000 --> 00:57:03,000
Who was going to be that guy that seems to be only one person who likes telling people they can't use their outdoor voices indoors?

493
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:06,000
Yeah.

494
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:09,000
The mega star, Mr LA Knight. Yeah.

495
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:14,000
Yeah, he comes running down the ring like a panzer tank.

496
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:29,000
And here in that music hit, when you... LA Knight has got one of those... He's not as over as the main man, Jey Uso is, but he's up there.

497
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:36,000
And if there was like a league of over, I reckon LA Knight would be top four.

498
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:39,000
Oh, most definitely.

499
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:47,000
That's been slightly disrespectful, but I wouldn't want to pin it. I think where you put those top four, in which order is down to personal preference.

500
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:51,000
But most of us will have the same top four.

501
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:53,000
Most likely, yes.

502
00:57:53,000 --> 00:58:03,000
But yeah, I mean, he comes down, basically bails Priest out and...

503
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:10,000
Yeah, it's... We end that promo with a match announced later in the night.

504
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:17,000
LA Knight and Danian Priest tag teaming versus Fatu and Tamatonga.

505
00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:20,000
He jumped the best spot of that promo.

506
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,000
Oh, did I?

507
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:36,000
So LA Knight comes running in. There is a point where one of the Samoan Scroats has picked up a steel chair from outside.

508
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:40,000
The announce table brought it into the ring.

509
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:54,000
LA Knight swings it and I'm pretty sure it's Jacob Fatu who just punches it, full swing, full power punch, and just... You just watch him just walk it off like nothing happened.

510
00:58:54,000 --> 00:59:07,000
Yeah, fair enough. I remember seeing it and I think the only reason I probably didn't make a note of it was more to do with the fact that I was starting to run out of room on the page that I was writing on.

511
00:59:07,000 --> 00:59:11,000
Please try not to start a new page until the next match.

512
00:59:11,000 --> 00:59:13,000
Yeah, pretty much.

513
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:17,000
That's why I make my notes on Discord, brother.

514
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:28,000
And that's fair enough. You can type that quickly. I can't. It'd take me six hours to watch a two hour episode of SmackDown if I had to put it in Discord.

515
00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:35,000
So yeah, no, we're sticking as we are until a better alternative comes along.

516
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:38,000
There you go.

517
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:58,000
But yeah, moving on from that match announcement, we went to a backstage promo where we saw Legardo Del Fantasma and the Motor City Machine Guns.

518
00:59:58,000 --> 01:00:14,000
It was well looking forward. So it was pre-amplitized earlier on in the card that there was an eight man tag match coming up and obviously it was obvious these two teams are in that eight man tag match.

519
01:00:14,000 --> 01:00:24,000
But when you get to see Motor City Machine Guns wrestle, it is phenomenal. I am become a big fan over the last month of these two guys.

520
01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:29,000
And it's easy to see why they are as well regarded within the wrestling community as they are.

521
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:39,000
But I've got to admit, I misjudged this match, not on how good it was going to be or anything like that. It was more the setup.

522
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:48,000
I assumed, admittedly, when they said about an eight man tag, I didn't realize they were going to be having two tag teams tagging together.

523
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:50,000
Yeah, I was a bit confused by that.

524
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:54,000
It was going to be like a four way tag match.

525
01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:56,000
Yeah, a four way tag team.

526
01:00:56,000 --> 01:01:00,000
Yeah, which they have done previously.

527
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:06,000
They have done things like this before and that's how I assumed that was going to play out.

528
01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:21,000
Although admittedly, it's not a disappointing result because it forced elements that were not realistically going to be going to be very good at working together.

529
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:30,000
I mean, mostly sort of Los Garza and the Motor City Machine Guns didn't really find any lasting synergy within their match, which was after this promo.

530
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:39,000
Where we saw pretty deadly team with DIY, the tag champs versus the Motor City Machine Guns teaming up with Los Garza.

531
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:57,000
And I mean, the promo beforehand was the Motor City Machine Guns basically saying, look, I think the best bet is to bury whatever hatchet we've got until the end of the match at which point normal service can resume because realistically we're going to need to work together.

532
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:15,000
And it's not a bad shout because we've seen over the last few weeks how DIY have really been calling the shots with pretty deadly, even though we've started to see some resentment boiling up with the pretty deadly lads moving forward with how they're being treated by DIY.

533
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:42,000
And yeah, I mean, who can blame them. But this match, this eight man tag match was sort of almost like a precursor to the tag team championship match to be held at Royal Rumble, which is a two out of three falls match with DIY the champs defending their championship against the Motor City Machine Guns,

534
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:57,000
which is one of the matches I'm actually really looking forward to on that card, just because, yeah, it's the Motor City Machine Guns. It's not it's a match type. We don't see an awful lot of in main roster competition.

535
01:02:57,000 --> 01:03:12,000
Why are actually a veteran tag team as well. We've seen them in multiple other places doing what they do best. And they're very, very good at how they do it.

536
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:27,000
Yeah, I mean, they're balanced very, very well. It's Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. I mean, Johnny Gargano is pretty, pretty light, pretty nimble, pretty even headed. Whereas you've got Tomasso Ciampa is very much the very much the opposite.

537
01:03:27,000 --> 01:03:42,000
He's a very stout guy, very well built, and he's got a he's got a temper like a like a bull with a thorn in its ass. Really, it's a case that he is. It doesn't take a lot to set him off.

538
01:03:42,000 --> 01:04:02,000
And yeah, I mean, you sort you see this sort of throughout this eight man tag match whenever champ is in the ring. He doesn't make considered calculated choices. It's all very sort of emotion driven, or at least that's the impression that I get from Tomasso Ciampa who

539
01:04:02,000 --> 01:04:13,000
ironically has been mistaken for triple H on several different

540
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:37,000
There was a there was something on Facebook I saw after I watched the episode of SmackDown, and it was a video of them introducing the introduction first member of this year and for the Hall of Fame.

541
01:04:37,000 --> 01:04:47,000
And as soon as I spotted that the first person I thought of was our truth, because of what he's turned that into. Absolutely hilarious.

542
01:04:47,000 --> 01:05:08,000
See, I've recently seen an interview with our truth where the interviewer and I would name him but I can't pronounce his name. I know his first names Chris it's his last name that I sat that I seem to struggle with, because no matter which way I pronounce it it doesn't sound right.

543
01:05:08,000 --> 01:05:18,000
But yeah, I've seen him do an interview where he's where Chris Van Vlee. Yeah, that's the one.

544
01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:29,000
I've seen an interview with him where Chris interviews our truth about how our truth gets different wrestlers to break character.

545
01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:39,000
And to listen to our truth talk about it, the guy puts no effort into it. It happens, regardless of the fact of whether he's trying to be serious or not.

546
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:51,000
So he's not putting any effort into breaking character, getting all the wrestlers to break character. He's doing it effortlessly and has been doing it effortlessly for years.

547
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:55,000
That's what he's ever got was Brock Lesnar.

548
01:05:55,000 --> 01:06:05,000
Yeah, the guys are genius realistically. Just so many times where he's managed to get different wrestlers to break character is unreal.

549
01:06:05,000 --> 01:06:13,000
My favourite time is when he was stood in the ring announcing what he was going to do at the Royal Rumble the one year.

550
01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:19,000
And he just turns around and goes, yeah, I'm going to throw such and such over the top room. I'm talking to you, Paul Heyman.

551
01:06:19,000 --> 01:06:27,000
He just saw Brock Lesnar's face and he's like, you fucking idiot. Yeah, just wasn't expecting it whatsoever.

552
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:34,000
And during that little promo, Paul Heyman's like, yeah, no, I'm not in the Royal Rumble.

553
01:06:34,000 --> 01:06:41,000
But Brock Lesnar is. And he's like, oh, my bad. I'm sorry.

554
01:06:41,000 --> 01:06:53,000
Our truth is one of the funniest. Like, I know he's he's used as a comedy factor now and not really much of an M ring usage.

555
01:06:53,000 --> 01:07:01,000
But he's still great, like a great quality when it comes to material for things like that. He's hilarious.

556
01:07:01,000 --> 01:07:13,000
Oh, yeah, 100%. But let's not get too caught up in talking about our truth is I think we get an opportunity later on to talk a little bit more about him.

557
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:26,000
So, yeah, the one thing about this match in particular that really bothered me and it massively bothered me,

558
01:07:26,000 --> 01:07:37,000
especially off the back of what I said in our last episode about NXT, because NXT did a mini promo during the main event match.

559
01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:47,000
And during that episode, I said that it was a case that they they could do it with an undercard match and it wouldn't be so much of a big deal.

560
01:07:47,000 --> 01:08:00,000
And I stand by what I said, but SmackDown seemed to take it one step further where they put a full fucking movie trailer in the middle of this frigging match.

561
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:12,000
And honestly, I can't think what they were thinking when that when that happened. What the hell midway through a match and they put a frigging movie trailer in it.

562
01:08:12,000 --> 01:08:18,000
Originally, they were just gonna like I was watching it and they forgot to mute.

563
01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:27,000
They forgot to edit that bit out with sometimes a lot of episodes because I don't watch them live because I have family commitments and work commitments.

564
01:08:27,000 --> 01:08:34,000
I just thought that's where we've had a lot of episodes where you've had like no sound at all. So it's like, I've had that.

565
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:38,000
But they forgot to edit this one out.

566
01:08:38,000 --> 01:08:46,000
Oh, no, this was something that was introduced by the commentary team. Joe Tessatori told us the name of the movie.

567
01:08:46,000 --> 01:08:53,000
And I purposely didn't make a note of it because it honestly bothered me so much.

568
01:08:53,000 --> 01:09:01,000
And we said during the NXT episode that it just feels disrespectful to do things like that in the middle of a match.

569
01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:09,000
I mean, in the middle of a main event is a definite no, no. But when you've got eight guys out in the ring,

570
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:18,000
killing themselves trying to get trying to get a decent matching and you're putting a movie trailer in the middle of their match, it's just,

571
01:09:18,000 --> 01:09:24,000
if that were me and I'd found out that had happened during one of during a match that I was featured in.

572
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:29,000
I did the fucking roof.

573
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:37,000
I've been I've been pulled the best office so fast is fucking bearded spin.

574
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:51,000
But yeah, no, that's my rant over about the that fucking match or that fucking movie trailer because yeah, no, it really bothered me.

575
01:09:51,000 --> 01:10:02,000
And this much bothered me entirely because I don't really think it was I think they could have tried to do what they did in a better way.

576
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:05,000
So it was it was really chaotic.

577
01:10:05,000 --> 01:10:18,000
It was very chaotic and what made it even worse afterwards was when Los Garza basically 10 minutes old motorist that machine guns fuck themselves after they stopped agreeing on tags.

578
01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:25,000
They were basically just it was in fighting between them on who was taking who why each person is being tagged.

579
01:10:25,000 --> 01:10:32,000
The Los Garza wanted the wind for themselves rather than say machine gun getting any credit for it.

580
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:39,000
Instead, they kind of cut their nose off despite their face and left themselves dry.

581
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:51,000
But the turnaround point for that for that point was for me because I know, yeah, I mean, you couldn't not notice Los Garza taking their toys and fucking off home basically.

582
01:10:51,000 --> 01:11:06,000
But the one thing that got me about that was was the fact that motor city machine guns, despite being half a team down, so we're in a for all intent and purpose.

583
01:11:06,000 --> 01:11:15,000
They were in a two on one handicap match and they still came out of it with a W.

584
01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:20,000
Yeah, they had a fantastic off like M to this match.

585
01:11:20,000 --> 01:11:27,000
And one thing I did notice here that Chris Saban is incredible.

586
01:11:27,000 --> 01:11:32,000
He did a few spinning DDTs that I was quite impressed with.

587
01:11:32,000 --> 01:11:40,000
I mean, I can't remember the guy's first name.

588
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:53,000
So the one thing you'll come to learn about motor city machine guns and it's it's not really talked about an awful lot is that Chris Saban is the absolute workhorse of the duo.

589
01:11:53,000 --> 01:12:07,000
And this is no disrespect to Alex Shelley because he works really hard, but Chris Saban goes out and gets his ass kicked week in week out night in night out match after match.

590
01:12:07,000 --> 01:12:10,000
He is the punching bag of the duo.

591
01:12:10,000 --> 01:12:17,000
Then Alex Shelley comes in with a hot tag gets motor city machine guns back in the match.

592
01:12:17,000 --> 01:12:24,000
And then it's it's anybody's guess as to who ends up getting the W for them.

593
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:35,000
But it's a case that yeah, Chris Saban takes an absolute beating week in week out and it is it's almost it almost feels unfair.

594
01:12:35,000 --> 01:12:38,000
I am got a clue why it always works out that way.

595
01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:42,000
But every motor city machine guns match I've ever seen.

596
01:12:42,000 --> 01:12:49,000
And that's not just the ones that they've done in WWE. It's the ones before that I watched them when they were in TNA.

597
01:12:49,000 --> 01:12:52,000
I watched a few of their matches. I think they've been in AEW.

598
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:55,000
I think I'm sure I've seen them over there.

599
01:12:55,000 --> 01:13:00,000
I've seen a few of their indie matches over the years and it's a case that it's always the same.

600
01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:05,000
Chris Saban gets his ass kicked for 10, 20 minutes.

601
01:13:05,000 --> 01:13:11,000
Alex Shelley comes in in the last five to six minutes, turns the match around and they walk out with a win.

602
01:13:11,000 --> 01:13:17,000
And I just end up feeling so sorry for Chris Saban who must go home feeling sore as fuck.

603
01:13:22,000 --> 01:13:38,000
But yeah, so I mean, what cost what got motor city machine guns the match more than anything else was a was.

604
01:13:38,000 --> 01:13:51,000
Tomasso Ciampa's frustrations boiling over and sort of getting the better of him as he lands a massive kick on one of the members are pretty deadly and their team fall apart at the seams.

605
01:13:51,000 --> 01:14:03,000
I mean, I must admit I enjoyed watching Tomasso Ciampa kick that guy in the face, but it's not the first time we've seen someone the last few weeks miss that style kick and hit the wrong person.

606
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:07,000
Sami Zayn sent it twice in two weeks himself.

607
01:14:07,000 --> 01:14:19,000
Yeah, very true. It's not necessarily a high risk move, but if you're charging in full steam ahead with no control, you're not always going to hit your target.

608
01:14:19,000 --> 01:14:31,000
And yeah, unfortunately, Ciampa missed his mark and just didn't seem very apologetic about the fact that he's just knocked out somebody that was supposed to be on his team.

609
01:14:31,000 --> 01:14:40,000
But this sort of wraps up this sort of encapsulates the dynamic between DIY and pretty deadly.

610
01:14:40,000 --> 01:14:49,000
Almost in that one kick is the DIY are on top and they'll use pretty deadly any way they can to work to maintain that lead.

611
01:14:49,000 --> 01:15:06,000
Oh, yeah, exactly. And with that big boot from Tomasso Ciampa, it meant that Chris Saban could roll him up for the for the win on that one to get a nice little one over on the current tag champions.

612
01:15:06,000 --> 01:15:23,000
I'll be interested after Royal Rumble to find out how the dynamic between Los Garza and Motor City machine guns alters off the back of obviously Los Garza just fucking off in the middle of a match and deciding they didn't want to play no more.

613
01:15:23,000 --> 01:15:30,000
But that's something I think we may see on next week's SmackDown. We might see the fall out of that.

614
01:15:30,000 --> 01:15:37,000
I'm hoping that will involve a match where they end up going against each other.

615
01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:51,000
I mean, most likely, but we'll take a small break in between pro in between sort of promos here to to reel off a few more statistics, I think, because I know you will have honed in on these.

616
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:54,000
So I'm going to get in before you get a chance.

617
01:15:54,000 --> 01:16:05,000
I've got a bit nervous that one of the cross one of the cross out half which might have been behind me then I'm not going to lie.

618
01:16:05,000 --> 01:16:13,000
But if I got to my so champ, if I got Tamatongo, it means you got Jacob Fatou and I think you'd be more trouble than me.

619
01:16:13,000 --> 01:16:17,000
So big, big cuddly teddy bear.

620
01:16:17,000 --> 01:16:20,000
Yeah, I can hear your knees knocking from him.

621
01:16:20,000 --> 01:16:26,000
That's my ass all falling out.

622
01:16:26,000 --> 01:16:39,000
But yes, so this broadcast of SmackDown marked the 100th WWE broadcast from Indianapolis, which is a huge number of broadcasts, but that's not just SmackDowns.

623
01:16:39,000 --> 01:16:45,000
That's Raw's, that's PLE's, that's everything that came out of Indianapolis.

624
01:16:45,000 --> 01:17:00,000
This was the 100th time WWE have broadcast from that from that city and 20 of those have been episodes of SmackDown, the first one being in 2022.

625
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:04,000
Oh no, the last one being in 2022. Sorry.

626
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:07,000
Remember, I made a mistake in my note.

627
01:17:07,000 --> 01:17:13,000
You said it was the 100th episode of WWE to come out of Indianapolis.

628
01:17:13,000 --> 01:17:16,000
Can you tell me the first one?

629
01:17:16,000 --> 01:17:20,000
Oh, I've got this right.

630
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:30,000
So the first episode was an episode of WWE Superstars from June 1987.

631
01:17:30,000 --> 01:17:40,000
Wow, superstars used to be on used to be on Saturdays, I believe this was back in the day when PLE's used to take part place on a Sunday night.

632
01:17:40,000 --> 01:17:44,000
I mean, don't be wrong, I'm glad they made the move to Saturday.

633
01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:59,000
It makes it so much easier than having to get up and do things like school runs and go to work and Monday mornings feeling half dead out your ass because you've stayed up until five, six o'clock in the morning watching wrestling.

634
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:03,000
We've done it enough time, so that's the stupid point.

635
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:24,000
Oh, 100%. And we do it again in a heartbeat and that's what makes making this podcast so much fun is that we've been wrestling fans for the longest time and just being able to get to talk the amount of shit that we talk to one another to an audience is great stuff.

636
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:32,000
But one last statistic I've got and I'm surprised you didn't jump over this one is that

637
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:38,000
The Shield debuted at a Survivor Series in 2012 in Indianapolis as well.

638
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:52,000
So this was the very first time we saw The Shield being Dean Ambrose, Seth Freakin Rollins and the now tribal chief Roman Reigns.

639
01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:58,000
I'm just going to throw that out there. You can fuck off that was 13 years ago. I feel old as hell now.

640
01:18:58,000 --> 01:19:05,000
I mean, I feel old as hell every time I have to get out of bed. But yeah, no, that statistic makes me feel old as well.

641
01:19:05,000 --> 01:19:10,000
So yeah, we're going to walk away from that statistic as quickly as we possibly can.

642
01:19:10,000 --> 01:19:15,000
I'm going to borrow Hope Hogan's Zimaphraim to try and scoot off down the hallway.

643
01:19:15,000 --> 01:19:31,000
But we went from those stats being given out by the commentary team to a backstage promo where we saw Jacob Fatou and Tamatonga walking through backstage.

644
01:19:31,000 --> 01:19:37,000
Fatou seemed laser focused but Tamatonga got distracted.

645
01:19:37,000 --> 01:19:40,000
Oh, but he got distracted by some gold.

646
01:19:40,000 --> 01:19:42,000
He certainly did.

647
01:19:42,000 --> 01:19:49,000
It wasn't just any gold. It was tag team gold.

648
01:19:49,000 --> 01:19:55,000
It was DIY's tag team gold too.

649
01:19:55,000 --> 01:20:01,000
That could be an interesting and interesting matchup.

650
01:20:01,000 --> 01:20:09,000
I'm not going to lie to you watching Johnny Gargano and Tamasa Champer go against Jacob Fatou and Tamatonga for those tag titles.

651
01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:16,000
I don't think they could be anywhere near as worried as they probably should be going into that match realistically.

652
01:20:16,000 --> 01:20:21,000
I think from a fans perspective, I think that's the answer.

653
01:20:21,000 --> 01:20:29,000
Both Johnny Gargano and Tamasa Champer can take damage and consistently take a high amount of abuse.

654
01:20:29,000 --> 01:20:38,000
And that's exactly what they're going to get from the cross-eyed half-wits.

655
01:20:38,000 --> 01:20:42,000
If that tag name takes, I swear to God.

656
01:20:42,000 --> 01:20:46,000
One for the cock-eyed half.

657
01:20:46,000 --> 01:20:54,000
But yeah, the camera stays with DIY as they confront pretty...

658
01:20:54,000 --> 01:21:03,000
Well, they seem to get really annoyed pretty deadly for the DIY, the ones that lost the match.

659
01:21:03,000 --> 01:21:11,000
Yeah, pretty much. They got a little bit tasty with the fact that Tamasa Champer kicked them in the face.

660
01:21:11,000 --> 01:21:18,000
And then had the balls to go and be like, what should you do that for?

661
01:21:18,000 --> 01:21:27,000
Yeah, I mean, it's the case that he also, pretty deadly at this point, I think, frustrations boil over.

662
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:30,000
Which has been a long time coming, if we're completely honest.

663
01:21:30,000 --> 01:21:37,000
And say, yeah, no, any agreement we have to help you out in your match in Royal Rumble is out the fucking window, lads.

664
01:21:37,000 --> 01:21:39,000
You are on your own.

665
01:21:39,000 --> 01:21:41,000
Well deserved.

666
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:43,000
100%.

667
01:21:43,000 --> 01:21:56,000
And yeah, we go from there to Arena Side, where Pat McAfee and Michael Cole are interviewing Tyrese Halliburton.

668
01:21:56,000 --> 01:22:10,000
Talking about the Pacers game, talking about Cole and Cody Rhodes crowd surfing on the SmackDown pre-show.

669
01:22:10,000 --> 01:22:14,000
That looked kind of fun to be fair. Someone was copping a fear of Michael Cole there.

670
01:22:14,000 --> 01:22:19,000
Yeah, I mean, that of the two. Surely you'd go for Cody Rhodes over Michael Cole.

671
01:22:19,000 --> 01:22:25,000
I'd soon have been in Donkey Punch, Michael Cole, quite frankly.

672
01:22:25,000 --> 01:22:27,000
I'd rather be hoarding a beer.

673
01:22:27,000 --> 01:22:29,000
And I don't drink him.

674
01:22:29,000 --> 01:22:34,000
Yeah, fair enough. I can appreciate that.

675
01:22:34,000 --> 01:22:41,000
Yeah, this went on a bit of a long run of different promos and VTs.

676
01:22:41,000 --> 01:22:53,000
Because the next thing we get is a VT recap of everything that Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens have put each other through over the last few months in the build-up to

677
01:22:53,000 --> 01:22:58,000
the ladder match at Royal Rumble.

678
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:05,000
If this feud does not win any slimy awards, I will be massively pissed.

679
01:23:05,000 --> 01:23:16,000
This Kevin Owens, Cody Rhodes feud story-wise, in the way it's been executed, has been probably one of the best storylines for me.

680
01:23:16,000 --> 01:23:22,000
And that's sort of 5, 10 years. It's been incredibly well done.

681
01:23:22,000 --> 01:23:34,000
Oh, yeah, definitely. It's something that... Don't get me wrong, there's been moments of potential over exposure to a degree.

682
01:23:34,000 --> 01:23:43,000
But yeah, it has been a fantastically played out little storyline that they've done for them.

683
01:23:43,000 --> 01:23:50,000
And both Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes have played their parts to an absolute tee.

684
01:23:50,000 --> 01:23:59,000
So no matter the result of the match for Royal Rumble, I think we've been treated to a phenomenal storyline that...

685
01:23:59,000 --> 01:24:09,000
I mean, it's only really, to me, going to play out one way. I don't see Kevin Owens walking out of there with a legitimate championship, to be quite honest.

686
01:24:09,000 --> 01:24:15,000
I don't think it will be the end of the story to be honest again.

687
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:25,000
I don't think it will be a surprise either of them walking out of there. One of them when I was a title, but I don't think either of them are going to walk out of the arena.

688
01:24:25,000 --> 01:24:37,000
No, most likely not. Most likely not. So yeah, moving on. Where did we go from there?

689
01:24:37,000 --> 01:24:47,000
Morgan against Naomi with Raquel Rodriguez accompanying her and EST accompanying Naomi?

690
01:24:47,000 --> 01:24:59,000
Yes. So this was a women's singles match. And the third match on the bounce this week for the Tag Team Champions.

691
01:24:59,000 --> 01:25:15,000
Lord knows how they're going to fare in tomorrow's Royal Rumble off the back of competing three nights out of six.

692
01:25:15,000 --> 01:25:19,000
And they will be pooling matches up to now as well.

693
01:25:19,000 --> 01:25:29,000
Oh, 100%. They have not been little throwaway matches. They have been some absolute wars.

694
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:39,000
But do you know what? Fair play to them both because Naomi gets off to a really strong start in this match.

695
01:25:39,000 --> 01:25:53,000
And I actually struggled taking notes for this match and not because it was a bad match, but I mean, I'm always constantly distracted by Liv Morgan.

696
01:25:53,000 --> 01:26:02,000
The woman's batshit crazy. I'm convinced that's part of the attraction, if I'm honest. But yeah, probably the less said about that the better.

697
01:26:02,000 --> 01:26:12,000
We all know no attention for crazy. So some of the notes I got off this one, one of them was a comedy segment they had.

698
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:22,000
Naomi did a move on Liv Morgan in the corner, which basically just kind of did like a, what Rey Mysterio used to do,

699
01:26:22,000 --> 01:26:26,000
where she jumps on and jump onto them in the corner and jumps up and down off the road.

700
01:26:26,000 --> 01:26:36,000
And she basically bumps the bum off her face and Liv Morgan run off using the ref's t-shirt to rub her face clean, which I thought was highly hilarious.

701
01:26:36,000 --> 01:26:48,000
Yeah, love that. I mean, it's something that it's one of Naomi's staple moves. I've seen her do it on a number of occasions and I mean, yeah.

702
01:26:48,000 --> 01:27:02,000
One of the spots that I quite enjoyed actually came from Liv Morgan. It was like a top rope code breaker she hit from the, she hit to Naomi at one point during the match.

703
01:27:02,000 --> 01:27:06,000
I thought that was absolutely exquisite, to be honest.

704
01:27:06,000 --> 01:27:14,000
Yeah, I also made a note about very, very impressed by it.

705
01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:30,000
But yeah, I got, as I say, one of the other notes I got was Naomi going for a split leg moonsault, but we got Raquel Rodriguez on the outside getting involved to,

706
01:27:30,000 --> 01:27:39,000
getting involved to try and play the distraction, who's then put down by Bianca Ballet, but the moonsault ultimately misses.

707
01:27:39,000 --> 01:27:57,000
Yeah, Liv Morgan moved out of the way in time for this one. There was a little bit of pushing and shoving in between that and the end of the match already, which just involved in Naomi countering another roll-up attempt with a roll-up attempt for the three-cam.

708
01:27:57,000 --> 01:28:03,000
Yeah, and then after the match, I mean, it's what Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez do best.

709
01:28:03,000 --> 01:28:05,000
Afters.

710
01:28:05,000 --> 01:28:19,000
Yeah, they absolutely laid into the tag team champs and it ended with Rodriguez power-bombing Morgan onto a stacked-up tag team champions.

711
01:28:19,000 --> 01:28:28,000
And yeah, I mean, that can't be comfortable for Liv Morgan, but it's sure as hell is not comfortable for whoever's on the bottom of that pile on.

712
01:28:28,000 --> 01:28:34,000
I can believe that was Bianca Ballet at the bottom of that one as well.

713
01:28:34,000 --> 01:28:40,000
Yeah, no, we'll wait for comment as to how comfortable that move is to take.

714
01:28:40,000 --> 01:29:03,000
But yeah, we've referenced this next VT quite a few times during tonight's match. It was a VT recap of Saturday night's main event in San Antonio, Texas, where the match was Jacob Fattu versus a fresh from injury Braun Strowman.

715
01:29:03,000 --> 01:29:05,000
And yeah, it just sort of...

716
01:29:05,000 --> 01:29:07,000
It was 24 hours after the IR.

717
01:29:07,000 --> 01:29:19,000
It just goes to absolutely highlight the amount of damage that Jacob Fattu did to an already injured Braun Strowman, realistically.

718
01:29:19,000 --> 01:29:34,000
Yeah, and Braun Strowman is not really something you expect. When you look at Braun Strowman and Jacob Fattu and then you look at paper, like Fattu really shouldn't have been able to do what he did to the biggest SOV.

719
01:29:34,000 --> 01:29:45,000
So it's very much intriguing to see how they pushed that from last week on to the next time we see the two of them.

720
01:29:45,000 --> 01:30:02,000
Yeah, definitely. But going from that VT, we went into match five, a men's singles match, which featured Andrade versus the Miz.

721
01:30:02,000 --> 01:30:06,000
Yeah, Mike at the miserable Mizanon.

722
01:30:06,000 --> 01:30:19,000
And you know what, as much as we give the Miz shit on the podcast and everything else, it's a case that the Miz came out and did something that the Miz doesn't do very often.

723
01:30:19,000 --> 01:30:25,000
He grew some balls and he came out and put on a pretty decent effort on his own.

724
01:30:25,000 --> 01:30:41,000
He came out, put on a pretty decent match, fighting out of his element and he basically tried to fight a Lucha Libre match against Andrade, which is a brave choice to say the least.

725
01:30:41,000 --> 01:30:48,000
But Miz kind of held his own for it, which surprised me a little bit. I'm not going to lie.

726
01:30:48,000 --> 01:30:55,000
I thought Miz was on a one way road, he was spanking here and he definitely showed me out this week.

727
01:30:55,000 --> 01:31:08,000
Most definitely. But I feel the ending to this match sort of let down the amount of good work that the Miz did because the match ends with Andrade hitting a discus back elbow.

728
01:31:08,000 --> 01:31:23,000
We're not talking a finisher, this was just a straight move. I mean even the commentary team commented on the fact that Miz may be missing one or two teeth after this discus back elbow.

729
01:31:23,000 --> 01:31:48,000
But Andrade picks up the win over the Miz via pinfall and maybe Indianapolis may be in need of some emergency dentists on hand for the Miz to get his jaw put right after Andrade finished him off.

730
01:31:48,000 --> 01:32:02,000
But I didn't get an awful lot of notes from this match other than the victory and giving him the Miz props, which made me feel a little bit ill. I'm not going to lie.

731
01:32:02,000 --> 01:32:18,000
It's not very often we'd like to give the Miz too much credit on this podcast. But credit where credit's due this week. He had a fairly decent match against Andrade. It was his first match on SmackDown in quite a while actually.

732
01:32:18,000 --> 01:32:26,000
Yeah, it was. And honestly, just to make myself feel a little bit better, the Miz is a dick.

733
01:32:26,000 --> 01:32:27,000
Yeah.

734
01:32:27,000 --> 01:32:34,000
Yeah, I feel better for that now. Right, we'll move on from the Miz. Sorry.

735
01:32:34,000 --> 01:32:37,000
Miz is a spineless dick.

736
01:32:37,000 --> 01:32:42,000
Yes, that definitely makes me feel better hearing that. We're going to move on from the Miz anyway.

737
01:32:42,000 --> 01:32:47,000
Yeah, it's tiffy. Oh no, it's not quite.

738
01:32:47,000 --> 01:32:52,000
No, you're jumping to tiffy time. It's not quite tiffy time just yet.

739
01:32:52,000 --> 01:33:02,000
Yeah, we get to see a little backstage action with a little conversation between Damian Priest and Santos Escobar.

740
01:33:02,000 --> 01:33:15,000
So Santos Escobar isn't something isn't somebody we see on his own very often anymore as he's normally wrapped up with the other members of Legardo del Fantasma.

741
01:33:15,000 --> 01:33:24,000
But yeah, I think Santos was basically trying to lean into the fact that they both have a very similar cultural heritage, let's say.

742
01:33:24,000 --> 01:33:41,000
I think maybe Escobar was trying to recruit Damian Priest into del fantasma, but Damian Priest pretty much let him know how that was going to go and it wasn't a positive way.

743
01:33:41,000 --> 01:34:01,000
No, definitely not. And something else that Santos said that seems a bit of a throwaway comment, but I latched onto quite a lot is that Santos makes a comment that Dom had said how egotistical Damian Priest was.

744
01:34:01,000 --> 01:34:13,000
Again, it seemed like it was a throwaway comment, but there was a definite dig to try and get under Priest's skin mentioning Dominic Mysterio, who's obviously been in Santos's ear at some point.

745
01:34:13,000 --> 01:34:24,000
Well, it's either that or obviously Dom Mysterio gave Chad Gable a name. We've always speculated it was Alistair Black.

746
01:34:24,000 --> 01:34:37,000
What I have seen on social media today that Alistair Black was actually a house show for another promotion yesterday when he was something there.

747
01:34:37,000 --> 01:34:55,000
So it could be a fact that maybe one of the members of del fantasma is going to be used in that storyline instead and it's a way to bring one of them up further into the action on a single was run rather than maybe a tag team.

748
01:34:55,000 --> 01:35:11,000
Eventually we can't rule anything out as I say the world of WWE is unpredictable at best. So yeah, we can't put anything past anybody at this stage.

749
01:35:11,000 --> 01:35:33,000
Moving on from that bit is we see a reunion as such as Damian Priest comes across a beloved character of WWE. We've mentioned him earlier on in the podcast. It's our truth.

750
01:35:33,000 --> 01:35:44,000
And Damian Priest, I'm not sure if he seemed happy to see truth, but he definitely gave us a lot of.

751
01:35:44,000 --> 01:36:03,000
So our truth and Damian Priest have got a bit of a history together where our truth was basically trying to make himself part of the judgment day when Damian Priest was one of the main guys within the judgment day on Monday Night Raw.

752
01:36:03,000 --> 01:36:15,000
It seems like a very long time since the two of them were in the same place at the same time and I think Damian Priest has been thankful for that. Our truth I think has missed winding Damian Priest up to be quite honest.

753
01:36:15,000 --> 01:36:33,000
The way this finished I thought was hilarious where you've got truth stood there with his arm around Damian Priest and obviously a little bit after we see our truth we get to see LA Night as well.

754
01:36:33,000 --> 01:36:42,000
He's got his arm around both of them. It's like, hey, we should form a team. I'm like, I'm not quite sure I could deal with that level of comic factor.

755
01:36:42,000 --> 01:36:50,000
Do you know I wouldn't be mad if they teamed up together? I actually think it worked really well.

756
01:36:50,000 --> 01:36:58,000
Our truth would just be too much for me to comprehend. I'd be laughing too often.

757
01:36:58,000 --> 01:37:10,000
Well, this is it. You've got Damian Priest who's all business all the time. Nobody's going to mess with the team with Damian Priest as essentially the muscle.

758
01:37:10,000 --> 01:37:16,000
For LA Night who is the mouthpiece, that guy can cut a promo for days.

759
01:37:16,000 --> 01:37:22,000
And then you've got our truth. Our truth is going to be the...

760
01:37:22,000 --> 01:37:37,000
If you were to put... So comparing this figurative team of LA Night, Damian Priest and our truth to compare it to another team that we've seen in WWE recently.

761
01:37:37,000 --> 01:37:46,000
I'd probably put them more in the same category as a more serious version of the new day when the new day had Big E.

762
01:37:46,000 --> 01:37:49,000
And they didn't suck.

763
01:37:49,000 --> 01:37:57,000
Yeah, basically when they didn't suck. And the reason I say that is because our truth is going to end...

764
01:37:57,000 --> 01:38:05,000
So if we're honest, LA Night and Damian Priest would be the ones going out and having matches.

765
01:38:05,000 --> 01:38:11,000
Our truth would end up being a much funnier, much more likeable version of Xavier Woods.

766
01:38:11,000 --> 01:38:15,000
I mean, H.E.C.

767
01:38:15,000 --> 01:38:21,000
He'd be the third guy and just, yeah, it would just...

768
01:38:21,000 --> 01:38:28,000
I agree. The comic factor in it would just be so... Yeah.

769
01:38:28,000 --> 01:38:34,000
More than anybody would care to... More than anybody would be able to handle possibly.

770
01:38:34,000 --> 01:38:42,000
Yeah, I think you wouldn't see many of their matches because you'd be trying to go to the bathroom to pee. You should be laughing too hard.

771
01:38:42,000 --> 01:38:48,000
That's if you even made it that far. But yeah, you mentioned her just a few moments ago.

772
01:38:48,000 --> 01:38:54,000
And yeah, we have a small backstage promo where it's... It's Diffie Time.

773
01:38:54,000 --> 01:39:00,000
And Selena Vega as well, who's recently moved over from Monday Night Raw.

774
01:39:00,000 --> 01:39:05,000
Yeah, so when she made her last appearance on this week's Monday Night Raw,

775
01:39:05,000 --> 01:39:12,000
made her first appearance on Friday Night SmackDown and made one hell of an entrance.

776
01:39:12,000 --> 01:39:15,000
I mean, I don't think it was going to be any secret.

777
01:39:15,000 --> 01:39:20,000
Selena Vega has made quite a few appearances in Rumble matches beforehand,

778
01:39:20,000 --> 01:39:24,000
but she has declared herself for this year's Rumble as well.

779
01:39:24,000 --> 01:39:32,000
And basically said, yeah, Stratton, if I come out of this with my hand raised, I'm coming at you, bitch.

780
01:39:32,000 --> 01:39:35,000
Pretty much, which was nice to see.

781
01:39:35,000 --> 01:39:42,000
We've only seen Diffie defend that title once, if I remember correctly, and that was against Bayley?

782
01:39:42,000 --> 01:39:51,000
Yes, spot on. She did her first title defence against Bayley, came out of it in a very convincing win over Bayley, actually.

783
01:39:51,000 --> 01:39:55,000
And we haven't seen her defend it against Sintz.

784
01:39:55,000 --> 01:40:02,000
So it's got to be getting close to a defence time. I think maybe we'll see it soon.

785
01:40:02,000 --> 01:40:07,000
Yeah, so the possibility is that we'll see...

786
01:40:07,000 --> 01:40:14,000
If we don't see her defend the title again soon on a weekly television episode,

787
01:40:14,000 --> 01:40:21,000
we may well see her defend it at Elimination Chamber.

788
01:40:21,000 --> 01:40:34,000
Now, as we mentioned, Elimination Chamber, it may well be a rather odd way of segueing into the next VT,

789
01:40:34,000 --> 01:40:40,000
as the next VT was a recap of John Cena's farewell tour,

790
01:40:40,000 --> 01:40:48,000
which I think this VT actually was longer than the appearances that John Cena has made in his farewell tour so far.

791
01:40:48,000 --> 01:40:58,000
It would not surprise me. He might as well do what The Rock did at this point and just do the farewell tour via satellite.

792
01:40:58,000 --> 01:41:09,000
Yeah, I will be honest. They're honestly in absolutely no danger of having John Cena be overexposed on his farewell tour,

793
01:41:09,000 --> 01:41:14,000
so far since it all started.

794
01:41:14,000 --> 01:41:22,000
Back at the debut of Raw on Netflix, he has made precisely one appearance,

795
01:41:22,000 --> 01:41:31,000
and that was on that Raw where he declared himself for the Royal Rumble, and ain't nobody seen anything from him since.

796
01:41:31,000 --> 01:41:39,000
Well, I find it really annoying as he came back on the first episode on Netflix and was like, you know,

797
01:41:39,000 --> 01:41:47,000
I'm going to do this reunion tour, I'm going to be doing everything I can, I'm doing one last full year,

798
01:41:47,000 --> 01:41:57,000
and then it disappeared. It's only actually doing 38 weeks because he's currently filming a movie in Hungary.

799
01:41:57,000 --> 01:42:07,000
Which is fair enough, but as you say, he could at least make, we could have at least seen maybe a few more VT performances from him

800
01:42:07,000 --> 01:42:15,000
or something like pre-recorded content, at least get his face on the television show, on the TV shows.

801
01:42:15,000 --> 01:42:22,000
It's just, it feels like he's farewell tours a bit of a dud at the moment,

802
01:42:22,000 --> 01:42:31,000
and I'm sort of hoping that once we've got Royal Rumble out the way that we'll start seeing him potentially a little bit more regularly after that,

803
01:42:31,000 --> 01:42:40,000
especially on the run-up to WrestleMania, it's otherwise it's just going to be way too frustrating

804
01:42:40,000 --> 01:42:51,000
for him to have had anything close to a farewell tour that John Cena should have had.

805
01:42:51,000 --> 01:42:58,000
I think with Cena's farewell tour, I think it's very much like everyone is going to have a different opinion of what he should have,

806
01:42:58,000 --> 01:43:04,000
what he shouldn't. I think all we'll know at the end of it is no matter what happens on this tour,

807
01:43:04,000 --> 01:43:09,000
there are going to be more superstars that benefit at the just John Cena.

808
01:43:09,000 --> 01:43:16,000
Yeah, definitely. I mean, he's a big name in the industry, he will always be a big name in the industry.

809
01:43:16,000 --> 01:43:25,000
I know that he's pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Hall of Fame at some time soon after his retirement.

810
01:43:25,000 --> 01:43:35,000
So it definitely won't be the last we ever see of him on a WWE screen when this farewell tour has ended.

811
01:43:35,000 --> 01:43:43,000
I don't think he'll, I don't see him being inducted into the Hall of Fame on his farewell tour,

812
01:43:43,000 --> 01:43:49,000
that would be very different to how WWE have done it in the past.

813
01:43:49,000 --> 01:43:55,000
He's likely to be inducted possibly the year after or maybe even the year after that.

814
01:43:55,000 --> 01:44:07,000
So we know he's ending up in that direction, it's just not entirely clear as to when that's going to happen just yet.

815
01:44:07,000 --> 01:44:16,000
But enough of the farewell tour and the doom and gloom, we'll move swiftly on because we're getting towards the end of this card now.

816
01:44:16,000 --> 01:44:22,000
We've got one more promo to talk about which is another segment with Pat McAfee and Michael Cole,

817
01:44:22,000 --> 01:44:28,000
who make a brief mention of the Cena farewell tour we've just been talking about,

818
01:44:28,000 --> 01:44:34,000
and then do an in-ring interview with Tiffany Stratton.

819
01:44:34,000 --> 01:44:41,000
Yeah, she basically just comes out and says that, well Michael Cole basically says to her,

820
01:44:41,000 --> 01:44:48,000
what's the big difference now with you in the last year, with how far you've come from being,

821
01:44:48,000 --> 01:44:53,000
and no one to being the title holder for the women here.

822
01:44:53,000 --> 01:45:00,000
She's basically just got the only difference between Tiffy then and Tiffy now is that everyone in the locker room knows that she's championship material,

823
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:04,000
where they didn't beforehand, but now she's shown them she is.

824
01:45:04,000 --> 01:45:09,000
They better start taking note of it and giving her the respect she deserves as champion.

825
01:45:09,000 --> 01:45:17,000
And I mean, I can't disagree with her. She has admittedly, as we've said, she's only had one title defence so far,

826
01:45:17,000 --> 01:45:24,000
but it was a title defence against an absolute titan of a female superstar in Bayley,

827
01:45:24,000 --> 01:45:32,000
who has had an absolute storied tenure within WWE and is a workhorse herself.

828
01:45:32,000 --> 01:45:40,000
To have defended in such a convincing fashion against Bayley, it's no mean feat.

829
01:45:40,000 --> 01:45:45,000
But I think everybody's interested now to find out who her next title defence is likely to be against,

830
01:45:45,000 --> 01:45:50,000
because I think there's a lot of speculation for potentially Nia Jax,

831
01:45:50,000 --> 01:45:58,000
who hasn't yet had a title rematch that she would be entitled to under WWE contract rule.

832
01:45:58,000 --> 01:46:03,000
And somebody else who I think we may see a defend against actually comes out during this interview,

833
01:46:03,000 --> 01:46:16,000
which is Candice LeRae. Nia Jax is growth basically that seems to appear every time Nia Jax comes about.

834
01:46:16,000 --> 01:46:19,000
It's nice to see her out in the ring on her own.

835
01:46:19,000 --> 01:46:24,000
Candice LeRae is pretty much like a war to Nia Jax at the moment.

836
01:46:24,000 --> 01:46:30,000
But this war came out on her own on this week's SmackDown, which I mean, props to her.

837
01:46:30,000 --> 01:46:34,000
She's not a very big woman at all. She's actually very slight.

838
01:46:34,000 --> 01:46:39,000
I mean, I always thought it was just because she was stood next to Nia Jax that she looks small,

839
01:46:39,000 --> 01:46:41,000
but no, she's small.

840
01:46:41,000 --> 01:46:50,000
Yeah, no, not particularly massive from Candice LeRae,

841
01:46:50,000 --> 01:46:54,000
but I think they say good things come in small packages.

842
01:46:54,000 --> 01:46:57,000
It's just a shame that her promo was no good.

843
01:46:57,000 --> 01:47:06,000
Yeah, I think the idea of having her partnered with Nia Jax at the minute is to try and help pull her,

844
01:47:06,000 --> 01:47:17,000
fill in the gaps in where she falls short because I think Candice LeRae spent some time in NXT.

845
01:47:17,000 --> 01:47:24,000
I'm not terribly familiar with her as a wrestler or a career,

846
01:47:24,000 --> 01:47:28,000
but I'm almost positive she would have spent some time in NXT.

847
01:47:28,000 --> 01:47:34,000
She would have had to have made quite an impression to have made it up into the main roster,

848
01:47:34,000 --> 01:47:43,000
but has sort of got lost in the fray until she was partnered with Nia Jax to try and help pull her profile up a little bit.

849
01:47:43,000 --> 01:47:51,000
Yeah, and I think that's pretty much what Nia's been doing with it, but it's not...

850
01:47:51,000 --> 01:47:54,000
Yeah, I'm not really feeling Candice LeRae.

851
01:47:54,000 --> 01:47:56,000
I'm struggling with her character profile.

852
01:47:56,000 --> 01:48:05,000
I'm struggling with the way they've kind of been using her as a third wheel just to try and make everything feel like a space filler.

853
01:48:05,000 --> 01:48:17,000
Well, speaking of space filler, she ended up declaring herself as taking up a space in the Royal Rumble tomorrow night as she declared herself for the Rumble.

854
01:48:17,000 --> 01:48:20,000
That's not where I thought you were going.

855
01:48:20,000 --> 01:48:30,000
Well, where I think you thought I was going is where I'm going next, because as Tiffany basically tries to intimidate LeRae,

856
01:48:30,000 --> 01:48:36,000
we find out that all Candice LeRae really was was a bit of a Trojan horse,

857
01:48:36,000 --> 01:48:52,000
as Nia Jax comes basically out of nowhere and gets absolutely steamrolled by Nia Jax, the irresistible force as she's known.

858
01:48:52,000 --> 01:49:02,000
Yeah, well, she came flying in and hit poor Candice LeRae like she was the immovable object.

859
01:49:02,000 --> 01:49:10,000
It was incredibly well timed, something I did not see coming.

860
01:49:10,000 --> 01:49:18,000
And, yeah, Tiffany only just escaped.

861
01:49:18,000 --> 01:49:30,000
Yeah, I mean, and she didn't escape for long as that segment sort of closes out having Nia Jax do the Nia later to strutten off the middle rope.

862
01:49:30,000 --> 01:49:42,000
And, yeah, that can't be a pleasant move to take just because of the sheer mass of human being you're having dropped on your chest.

863
01:49:42,000 --> 01:49:50,000
Yeah, no, that's it's pretty. I mean, I wouldn't want to take that sort of move. I'm not going to lie to you.

864
01:49:50,000 --> 01:49:57,000
It would be fair. You definitely feel a little bit winded if you fucked that one up.

865
01:49:57,000 --> 01:50:10,000
Yeah, most definitely. I'm going to keep moving us along just so that we can try and get this done without losing too much of the audience towards this at this end of this episode.

866
01:50:10,000 --> 01:50:18,000
As we move on to the main event of the evening, the men's tag team match announced earlier in the night.

867
01:50:18,000 --> 01:50:29,000
This was Jacob Fatou and Tamatonga versus Damien Priest and L. A. Knight. Yeah.

868
01:50:29,000 --> 01:50:38,000
And I was looking forward to this one purely for the fact that L. A. Knight was in it and he's been getting into some serious fun with Fatou and Tonga.

869
01:50:38,000 --> 01:50:47,000
So you knew it was going to go and be a decent match and well, we didn't have to wait long for it to kick off.

870
01:50:47,000 --> 01:50:56,000
Yeah, I mean chaos erupted from pretty much the offset. And do you know what? On paper, looking at this match, I would be really interested in it.

871
01:50:56,000 --> 01:51:04,000
I'd be really excited for it as well. The issue is that when I came to watch this match, I was doing so in between doing other things.

872
01:51:04,000 --> 01:51:13,000
So it was very stop-start. I never really got to sit down and properly get into the match before as I made it through.

873
01:51:13,000 --> 01:51:34,000
I did read some notes going through, but it's, yeah, I didn't really get an opportunity to really sort of immerse myself in this match, which is a bit of a shame because all the notes that I've got are telling me that this was a fantastic battle between the four gentlemen.

874
01:51:34,000 --> 01:51:47,000
You see, I had the complete opposite effect. I got that sucked into this match that I did not make very many notes at all. And I really felt the full effect of this one.

875
01:51:47,000 --> 01:51:57,000
I'm, like I said, I've been loving the L. A. Knight with the cock-eyed half-wits. The whole storyline there has been brilliant.

876
01:51:57,000 --> 01:52:08,000
Damian Priest just adds in that extra little bit of something special, especially when it comes to, like, Jacob Fatty.

877
01:52:08,000 --> 01:52:20,000
And what Damian Priest can bring in as well into a match definitely is something that SmackDown needed a little bit more of.

878
01:52:20,000 --> 01:52:35,000
I haven't made a huge amount of notes and I haven't really noted too many big spots, because it was all very even. Even the commentary team said throughout it that we weren't going to get a lot of high-risk or too much purely for whoever was in that.

879
01:52:35,000 --> 01:52:42,000
We did see Damian Priest at one point pay homage to the Undertaker with an old school.

880
01:52:42,000 --> 01:52:45,000
But it was a variation on the old school as well.

881
01:52:45,000 --> 01:52:49,000
The old school ends with a crossbody.

882
01:52:49,000 --> 01:53:08,000
Yeah, so Undertaker's old school used to see him tightrope across the ropes and it was very much sort of an arm slam from the heavens which used to have Undertaker landing on his feet and his opponent landing on his back.

883
01:53:08,000 --> 01:53:15,000
Which Damian Priest took a little bit further this time with, as you say, turning it into a bit of a crossbody.

884
01:53:15,000 --> 01:53:20,000
I picked out a few other spots that I quite enjoyed.

885
01:53:20,000 --> 01:53:44,000
There was an absolutely massive leaping elbow from LA Knight at one point during the match which, yeah, I mean he practically made it from one side of the mat to the other from the top turnbuckle which was a phenomenal athleticism from such a big guy to make it such a...

886
01:53:44,000 --> 01:53:51,000
a long distance without a freaking jetpack on, quite frankly.

887
01:53:51,000 --> 01:54:06,000
Fatou missed a Samoan Hippotak which you don't see very often, especially considering that same Hippotak was how he did so much damage to Braun Strowman in San Antonio.

888
01:54:06,000 --> 01:54:19,000
And yeah, I think towards the latter part of this match Priest was absolutely dominating both Tonga and Fatou which you don't see very often.

889
01:54:19,000 --> 01:54:31,000
You normally get the better of one and it's normally Tonga but Fatou as well, he managed to get the drop on him for a fair amount of this match.

890
01:54:31,000 --> 01:54:41,000
I mean at one point, one of the big points of this match was Priest sort of lobbing Tonga over the announce desk.

891
01:54:41,000 --> 01:55:02,000
Lance a super kick on Fatou who completely no sells the move and ends up being made to eat a face full of the announce desk and then the ring post to have him basically out cold.

892
01:55:02,000 --> 01:55:09,000
Yeah, he was basically didn't sell the super kick but you're going to sell this and this and this one.

893
01:55:09,000 --> 01:55:17,000
Now, I've been quite down on Tamatonga during this match because he's probably the smallest guy in there.

894
01:55:17,000 --> 01:55:36,000
And by necessity will likely have the least impact but one bit that he had he was being lifted for a razor's edge by Damian Priest and ended up managing to turn that quite smoothly into a sort of sleeper hold.

895
01:55:36,000 --> 01:55:44,000
It was an absolutely beautiful transition and credit to Tonga for that.

896
01:55:44,000 --> 01:55:52,000
Yeah, no, it was definitely a reason they've worked out how to set that up perfectly.

897
01:55:52,000 --> 01:55:59,000
I think it wasn't over the top but it gave us just enough of what we needed to progress with that storyline.

898
01:55:59,000 --> 01:56:11,000
I think we're going to see more from LA Knight and the Cock-eyed Halfwits but I'm not sure if we'll see more from Damian Priest with them at the moment.

899
01:56:11,000 --> 01:56:19,000
They may end up coming back to Priest versus Fatou after the end of night and whatever they've got going on.

900
01:56:19,000 --> 01:56:26,000
Yeah, I think we'll see that as well but it'll be interesting to see how that one plays out moving forward.

901
01:56:26,000 --> 01:56:49,000
So wrapping this match up we saw a couple of big clotheslines, one from LA Knight taking Fatou into Timekeepers and then Priest hitting an app, a John Bradshaw Leifield-esque clothesline from Hell in the middle of the ring.

902
01:56:49,000 --> 01:57:04,000
I believe it was Tamer Tonga towards the end of that match with Priest hitting a south of heaven for a pinfall victory to win this match out.

903
01:57:04,000 --> 01:57:14,000
And yeah, Priest coming into SmackDown in an absolutely huge way for this match.

904
01:57:14,000 --> 01:57:24,000
Priest going to SmackDown was a huge signing for SmackDown and that opening match for Priest on SmackDown just shows his intentions.

905
01:57:24,000 --> 01:57:31,000
Yeah, definitely. He's not there to make friends, he is there to kick ass and take names.

906
01:57:31,000 --> 01:57:51,000
But this doesn't stop Jacob Fatou having a go at the end after he loses the match. I can't even call Jacob Fatou a sore loser at this point because it doesn't matter whether he wins or loses, he's going to try and do as much damage after the match as he did during the match.

907
01:57:51,000 --> 01:58:01,000
The one thing I'm getting a little bit frustrated with with some of the bloodline members is that at the moment they all seem to be shouting their name a lot more.

908
01:58:01,000 --> 01:58:10,000
Like, Jacob Fatou is suddenly at the end of every promo now just going Fatou! Yeah, I know who you are.

909
01:58:10,000 --> 01:58:21,000
Well, it's better than what it used to do, which was Pray to Solo Sikoa, which was a bit of an odd move from him.

910
01:58:21,000 --> 01:58:29,000
But yeah, I mean, I think I know the answer to this question from you, Rich, but do you have a match of the night?

911
01:58:29,000 --> 01:58:44,000
Yeah, it's the LA night match, mate. Yeah, that's sort of where I thought you were going to go with that one. I'm not going to lie, I've been surprised if you'd come back to me with anything else.

912
01:58:44,000 --> 01:58:56,000
We all know one match I wasn't going to come back to you with, and that was going to... we weren't going to say the Mrs match was match of the night. It was alright, but it's not match of the night.

913
01:58:56,000 --> 01:59:02,000
No, definitely not. It's the first Miss match in a while that wasn't shite.

914
01:59:02,000 --> 01:59:12,000
Yeah, it's the first Miss match that wasn't a Miss match. Yeah, I struggled to pick a match of the night for this one.

915
01:59:12,000 --> 01:59:23,000
I'm looking back over my notes, looking back over the card that was played, and again, I think I'd be agreeing with you if I'd been able to sort of immerse myself in that match the way that I would have wanted to.

916
01:59:23,000 --> 01:59:34,000
Yeah. And it's just that with the way that I watched it, I struggled to pick out an absolute favourite, if I'm honest.

917
01:59:34,000 --> 01:59:46,000
So yeah, I'm going to leave that one undecided, but as always, to those listening, let us know what you thought the match of the night for that card was.

918
01:59:46,000 --> 02:00:00,000
I'd love to hear your rumble predictions as well. If you've got any rumble predictions that we haven't mentioned over the course of the run up to the Royal Rumble, love to hear that too.

919
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:05,000
Yeah, no. You can email us at finishesandfactionsatgmail.com.

920
02:00:05,000 --> 02:00:17,000
And I will be sorting out some of the other social media links in the next couple of days just to double check everything is working properly with those before I advertise them for you.

921
02:00:17,000 --> 02:00:22,000
Right. Yes. I think that is all from me. Is that all from you?

922
02:00:22,000 --> 02:00:31,000
I think the next time you will hear from us, we will be living it up, reviewing Royal Rumble.

923
02:00:31,000 --> 02:00:38,000
From Indianapolis this weekend. So I will see you for the Royal Rumble. Thank you very much, Adam. See you soon.

924
02:00:38,000 --> 02:01:02,000
See you soon, buddy.