Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode
of finishes and factions does a Monday night
raw and this week myself and my co -host Adam
We've got a banger to break down for you. We're
in the Madison Square Garden and We've seen some
previews of what's gonna happen tonight already
in different programming and already I'm excited
and we haven't even got to the entry yet. No,
definitely not. I mean, as Rich has already said,
we are in the absolute, well, it's the end goal
for any wrestler, any wrestler in the American
circuits to wrestle a night in the garden. And
all of these superstars have got some, some phenomenal
matches. So why not? dive in I mean with a match
itself as Raw did this week we opened with a
match although I will be honest while taking
notes for this one it took me about five minutes
of Jeyuso's entry to realise this wasn't another
promo yeah no and it was it was straight into
it as well so Jeyuso had a match against Austin,
no, Grayson Waller tonight, sorry, who was accompanied
to the ring by Austin Theory. So both members
of A -Town Down Under were there. Against Jay,
I didn't think much of this match. I'm not going
to lie to you. For a guy who's supposed to be
pushing for the main event of WrestleMania and
building that storyline up for his match against
Gunther, I don't know how he's going to take
on Gunther when he struggled getting one over
on Grace and Waller. Yeah, it was a lot more
competitive than I thought it was going to be
considering that the two the two guys in the
ring were supposed to be on two different levels.
Yeah, I'll see. We've got main event Jey Uso
who's meant to be main event level. Didn't look
it today. He looked incredibly tired. And then
you've got Grace and Waller who... Lucky if he
gets on a card most of the time if he does he's
normally sort of much one Open him some secondary
promo. He's never Never anywhere important. So
um Well, not on raw. Anyway, we have seen in
many event a few times down on NXT, but that's
a different story for a different episode Yeah,
very much. So I'm the episode after this. Yeah,
Danny Major spots I got from this apart from
a little bit of interference from Austin theory
behind the referees back was There was a few
half -decent super kicks between from Joe so
to Grayson Waller, but Grayson Waller either
no sold them all over sold them I thought and
then It finished with a series of super kicks
and Spears to both Waller and theory For for
Jade to pick up a three count But like I said,
I didn't get a huge amount from this match. I
didn't think much of it Baron in mind like I
said be a 40 weight 40 nights away from WrestleMania
in it Didn't really feel it not for an opening
match in the garden. Anyway, I expected a little
bit more from that much So the opening match
either it sets the tone it well one way or another
it sets the tone for the rest of the the rest
of the night you're either looking at the opening
match being the standard set and That is what
you've got a beat or You've got the opening match
and there's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to
go but up from there And yeah, I'm going to be
honest, I've sort of fell on the side of it being.
The fact that it was nowhere to go from up. I
got a few different bits and pieces is that.
Yeah, so we got some interference from theory
during and after the match. I'll remember there
was a few smooth a few really sort of well executed
moves at one point Juso drops Grace and Waller
in a absolutely beautiful Samoan drop at one
point and Waller I've seen Waller do this move
before not having an awful lot of chance to see
any of his back catalog of matches um where he
dives in through the ropes and just goes straight
into a flat liner but that during this match
was probably the smoothest i've ever seen him
do it so credit given where credit's due on that
one 100 100 managed to get that sort of managed
to get that down flat and um yeah i mean j so
Jay Uso does pop out of this with the win after
an absolutely thunderous spear, pretty much splitting
Grayson Waller in two. Not quite Bronwyn Brecher's
level of spear, but it was still a pretty good
spear. Oh, 100%. And then after the match, Theory
jumps in, basically trying to get some revenge
on... J you so but I don't think anybody's ever
told this couple of cross -eyed half wits that
they've Revenge is generally a dish best served
old rather than rather than just going straight
in for it because they both end up eating a couple
of spears and I believe Austin theory a frog
splash as well, which is never pleasant but As
always, where we see Jey Uso, we again got to
see the ring general himself, Gunther, as he
came in and snuck up behind Jey and locked in
a sleeper hold, which officials did manage to
break, but only after Jey had gone night nights.
Or as close to night nights as you could possibly
be in a WWE ring without actually being night
nights. And this was the second week in a row
that Gunther's managed to do exactly that is
put Jeyuso just solidly to sleep Yeah, and we
we don't have many nights or many weeks left
until mania So if they're gonna start giving
Jey a bit of a push where he needs to sort of
like start fighting back they need to start doing
that now or We're not gonna see a great match
from Jay at WrestleMania because I Think they
won't change their plans But I think we'll get
a poor match because the poor guy looks absolutely
fucked But it's the road to WrestleMania. You
should have booked holiday and stuff in time
to be able to do This knowing what the push was
gonna be Yeah, this is it this would have been
so We've heard in interviews with different storyline
writers for WWE over the years is that the rule
is, whatever point of the year that you're looking
at, you're always looking forward to WrestleMania.
How does this tie into WrestleMania? Cuz WrestleMania
is the end goal. It's like the season finale
essentially for - for WWE with the Raw after
Mania being the start of the new season. Which
is I think probably a good way of how we're gonna
work this podcast as well. So we're gonna finish
up to WrestleMania with this being season one.
And then the Raw after WrestleMania will jump
into season two up until the next WrestleMania.
Yeah, so WrestleMania night two will be. the
essentially the season for it'll be the season
finale for WWE and it'll be the season finale
for finishers and factions. But we're gonna have
to wait long for season two to come out because
we'll be reviewing the Monday night after Monday
night raw after WrestleMania. And I've got a
feeling I'm gonna that's already gonna be a two
three part. This is a there's going to be a lot
of stuff going on in that raw after WrestleMania
well most likely but we will be there to cover
all of it regardless yeah and i could say a lot
of stuff for that there's a lot of stuff coming
in this podcast episode as well so we're going
to jump through um the next section after the
first match we had a vt uh Style thing basically
bigging up the Seth Rollins CM Punk cage match
Which is the main event for this evening and
all I really got from it was it was a recap with
punk saying that Well, if Rollins if he had to
live in his shadow, he'd hate himself, too Which
obviously these guys have had massive war of
words and beatdowns and all sorts the last Picking
on each other since punk came back so this cage
match this evening is supposed to be the column
combination of that and This is turned into the
new elimination chamber clip during their VT's
this one was used an awful lot the Recap or the
build up to this cage match later on We then
got a 2k 25 little promo that launches on Friday
So that launches the same day that Smackdown
goes live, which is the 14th of March. If you've
pre -ordered it, you do end up with some early
access. So the game is available. If you were
to pre -order it now, for instance, you will
be able to play it now. But general release puts
it available, puts the official game release
on Friday. on Friday depending on the prices
of them but we digress from that into a... I
will tell you where we might be able to get it
a little bit cheaper because I've looked at it
and yeah those are a few places I can see but
regardless we then go from there into a backstage
promo for where... Do you know, honestly, I didn't
really see the point in this promo. I didn't
see the point in it, but for the last few weeks
when American Alpha have been having their matches
against Gunther, Jay's been going in to check
on them to make sure that they've been all right.
This time, American Alpha have come to check
in on Jay and basically just say, look, we've
got you. It's cool. It's all good. You'll be
okay. Alpha Academy. Alpha Academy, yeah. Yeah,
I don't know why I was gonna say you're confused
you're combining American made and an Alpha Academy
Yeah, it's Alpha Academy. That is the one that
is the team of Otis Akira Tassawa And the young
lady's name I can't quite remember Maxine Dupree
is the one so we then went from That little segment
which like we said both seemed kind of pointless
but and then into Well Probably one of the more
pointless promos this evening Logan Paul came
out into the ring with a microphone in his hand
Dressed up like a chav from the 1990s He had
that Stone Island tracksuit on and he was making
himself look like a bit of a dick. I Mean anything
any different? I mean Logan Paul this week reminded
me of MC Devo. Do you want to buy a Bosch trick
in there? But yeah, so he came out to the ring
and we were informed at the time of his entry
there is an attendance of a sold -out crowd of
20 ,142 people in Madison Square Gardens watching
this Monday Night Raw So From what I got from
this Logan Paul came out to basically beat AJ
Styles to the punch because AJ was said last
week That he was gonna call Logan Paul out this
week So Logan Paul came out and did it anyway
But then goes on to say that he doesn't associate
with guys like AJ Styles. He's a He's top of
his game Is exactly where he needs to be Yeah
He's nowhere near that level No, he's not and
he says he feels Cody was dumb not to accept
rocks offer because he'd have taken it instantaneously
even offers I was going to say I can't see Rock
paying a high price for that soul somehow. I'll
give you 20 quid for your YouTube channel Logan,
but apart from that, I don't want your soul.
I'm not even sure I'd take that in fairness.
I'd take the followers, I wouldn't take the content.
No. He does point out in this that it took Cena
20 years to realise that the nice guy's finished
last. That's why he's finally decided that he's
not... He's gonna be a nice guy. He's gonna be
a bad guy. The other thing it's worth mentioning
is that Logan Paul got booed harder than hard,
didn't this? I mean, Madison Square Garden were
going for some kind of record, I think, is that
they were, at least to begin with, they were
determined not to let him have. Any kind of word
in edgeways they were they were trying to beat
the record set at the Netflix debut when they
bought out the the winner of the pensioner rumble
Mr. Hulk Hogan himself to talk about his rather
shite beer Yeah, which I think is actually it
is actually still a sponsor for it is I did some
research to see if we could get it in the UK
and we can't But I was reading the reviews of
this specific beer on Amazon on the American
Amazon and Yeah, it don't have great reviews.
Let's put it that way Is it not a libation will
be partaking in them? No, a lot of people were
saying that bud light tastes better and that
is a big Yeah, obviously the American lager is
not More than a lot of Americans, but Bud Light
is absolute trash I've tried it in a few places
that serve it down it over over here and it's
like No, sorry. I'd rather drink. I'd rather
drink my old pit my own piss cold And yeah talking
about horrible to talk about things I'd rather
do than Deal with Logan Paul in the the American
beer sponsor is I'd rather watch Andrew Schultz
is new Netflix special Which is being advertised
by Logan Paul because Andrew Schultz is in the
in the arena and actually Logan goes to talk
to him gets him a microphone goes over to ask
him a couple of questions and Andrew Schultz
shits on him Basically, I don't think Logan Paul
got the responses he was expecting No, he goes
over to Andrew Schultz and goes on who you're
here to see he's like what I'm here to see Punk
and Rollins in the cage match and Paul's like
hey ever who did you really come here to see
and he's like look dude No one's here to see
you. We're not in Cleveland. This is a real city
and they want real wrestlers like AJ Styles I
was going to say didn't he come out with one
point that I'm here to see AJ Styles, bitch.
Yeah, I'm here to see a real wrestler like AJ
Styles. Logan Paul drags him over the barricade,
throws him into the ring and sets him up for
what looked like a pedigree style thing. But
he didn't get to use it because AJ Styles comes
running, soccer mum haircut, waving from side
to side like the trees in a storm. Yeah, it was
a it was quite funny to be fair. Oh I always
enjoy watching Logan Paul get his head kicked
in in fairness If only there was a 10 minute
YouTube video of that happening You know a WWE
edit of just Logan Paul getting absolutely dropped.
I would watch that repeatedly every morning for
motivation. I Mean, I'm sure it wouldn't take
long to put something like that together It would
have to replace my top 10 nutshots video though
Nothing makes you feel better about yourself
than watching 10 guys get absolutely destroyed
with nutshots Don't know what reading an Australian
brickies accident report is it isn't far off.
Yeah But yes, so AJ runs out to save Andrew Andrew
Schultz and ends up hitting a rather sweet Phenomenal
forearm onto AJ style on to Logan Paul Logan
really didn't know how to sell this he went down
holding his face and then came up holding his
jaw Like where did it hit you do you just pick
a struggle It just sort of demonstrated that
Logan Paul has not it does not have the experience
behind him to be at the level he's at No for
me, and then I mean one for one thing he walks
away Despite cutting a promo saying he never
backs down from an opportunity AJ gives him one
for a fight there and then a little chicken shit
runs faster than fucking a marathon I Mean that's
just classic chicken shit heel maneuvers. That
is that that was actually quite well done from
a sort of performance standpoint, but the thing
that I think is really I don't think When they
wrote this out and when Logan Paul agreed to
do this I don't think they've really considered
the fact that where he was When he did what he
did so he's walked out. He's walked away from
a fight in Madison Square Garden Right No wrestler
worth their soul at any stage in their career
Will ever have done that We've had people run
out but he walked quite leisurely Just looking
salty as fuck And I think that is gonna have
gone a long way to hurt any credibility that
he had actually managed to achieve at this stage
AJ helps that out as well by kind of pointing
out that he's not done with Logan He needs to
get his ass in the ring as Logan's busy walking
away with that smirk on his face. It's like AJ's
looking for something bro and you You could have
had a, like you said, no wrestler turns down
an opportunity to have a fight at the garden.
And to be fair, as much as we dislike Logan Paul,
him and AJ could have had a very, very good go
-to in the garden and it would have been spoken
about for a while. But it's not, they missed
an opportunity there. Especially when you have
So we go from from this little segment into a
recap of the Rhea Ripley EO Sky match from last
week's Monday Night Raw which shows Bianca getting
involved when Rhea gets in her face and pushes
her Bianca then ends up kind of helping EO out
by distracting Rhea for EO to counter the Riptide
off the top rope to win the women's title Which
I'm not going to lie. I was a little bit salty
about when it first happened, but Got to give
credit where credit's due Rears had a good rain
with that title it's nice to see Eos gonna take
it in a different direction and They're gonna
use that to help build Eos character as well
We'll get into that a little bit more a little
bit later on first things first We have a cluster
map what it's a cluster fuck match to talk about
when i say it's a clusterfuck match it was actually
a tornado tag match but for us to try and take
notes was an absolute clusterfuck um we've got
a few things to do before that however I think
there's a maybe a little bit of a hole in your
in your notes here my friend Because we've got
a couple of VT's that went that were Discussed
before this matter before the next match that
you're talking about So we had a VT promo which
shows that Dana White TKO or go getting into
boxing apparently Thought it might have been
quite interesting. I've never been much of a
boxing fan personally, but Yeah, it shows that
they're branching out into other combat sports,
I suppose Well, yeah, but I'm going more for
the beer than I am the beer and the socialization
than I am for the actual boxing these days, it
takes me too long to recover. Fair enough. I
never really got that tanked up to begin with.
So, yeah. I've never really suffered with hangover.
So, fuck you. The other VT that we had was of
famous, so we've got, as promotional material
goes, this on this particular episode they used
a lot of famous cage matches from madison square
gardens yeah it was like a history of madison
square gardens in promo segments i really enjoyed
it to be fair it was something new they'd done
i kind of thought yeah i like that it was a slightly
different way to promote the main event rather
than just showing us endless vts of the dynamic
between seth rollins and punk and Showing us
a VT about how you win a cage match and and things
like that. It just yeah, it made more sense to
So yeah, it's a case that this on this particular
one they show clips from the cage match from
Madison Square Garden from 1975 which saw Bruno
San Martino defeat Ivan Koloff and Bruno San
Martino should ring bells for pretty much every
WWE fan, whether you're sort of casual, die -hard,
new, old, anybody, as Bruno San Martino is still
the current record holder for the longest title
reign, lasting 2 ,803 days. As he was WWF world
heavyweight champion at the time and that puts
him at over seven years consecutively with the
same friggin belt It was from the 17th of May
1963 to January 18th 1971 which I'm sorry, if
you tried to do that at some point today, you'd
be called unoriginal for having somebody hold
the title that long. I mean, look how pissed
off we got with Roman Reigns with how long he
fucking held it. I think it was he was definitely
defending it at least once a PLE but sort of
PLEs back in those days they were run very very
differently because this was back when we're
talking sort of early days of Vince McMahon being
in charge and then sort of the late days of his
dad being in charge so that's the sort of era
we're looking at this was an era before that
so if I'm right which I think I am. It was the
era before we saw stars like Hulk Hogan. Andre
the Giant. Bruno San Martino was coming to the
end of his career as they came in. So yeah, and
Bruno San Martino, I mean, I've happened to have
a look. The famous finishing move he was famous
for, bearing in mind... that a lot of modern
-day wrestlers have got quite flashy finishing
moves. His was a bear hug. Bruno San Martino
was a big guy. Oh yeah, no, this guy was a, well
yeah, for all intent and purpose, he was a bear.
He was an Italian -American bear. But yeah, the
only other thing... The only other thing that
we that we get treated to is we see that Ober
Femi from NXT is in attendance in the audience
as well It's I think it's actually just a slightly
different section of Madison Square Garden I
don't know how Madison Square Garden is laid
out, but I know that NXT is taking place at the
theatre in Madison Square Garden, so I'm assuming
that's like a smaller performance area possibly,
but yeah, I'm not 100 % certain. That is when
we go into the Clusterfuck match, which is...
They call it a tornado tag match. The reason
it's called that is because both competitors
from both teams are entered into the ring at
the same time. It's basically a two on two. For
all intent and purpose. Mysterio and Dragon Lee,
where New Day defeated the other two members
of NWO last week. Their names I can't remember
off the top of my head though. We did see a really
beautiful double Bulldog by LWO. No it's one
of those sort of forgotten about moves is that
we see we possibly see it but because it's not
it's something that's done as part of a sequence
we don't remember it we remember the sequence
just not necessarily the individual movements
and in fairness having your face driven down
into the mat with the full body weight of somebody
being that driving force it's gonna friggin hurt
Yeah. The only thing I will correct you on on
that one, just to make it that little bit more
impressive, is that it wasn't Dragon Lee that
pulled off this Hurricane Rana as he previously
had managed to pull off a double foot stomp on
Kofi Kingston in the corner. It was actually
Ray Mysterio who managed to jump over all three
ropes land in hurricanrana position on xavier
woods to then send him off the apron ricocheted
off a table into the barrier back into the table
again oh yeah 100 % he missed he sort of missed
his mark a little bit he didn't quite get it
and Ray manages to drop him for a two count.
I can't remember if it was a missile drop kick
to the chest or a toe drag, but he managed to
get him down onto the count for a two count.
Yeah, so I will be honest, as much as we were
told that sort of... LWO have never actually
managed to get a win over the New Day. I thought
today was actually going to break that record.
I thought LWO were finally going to win over
the New Day. So I was very much with Michael
Cole on this one. All of the evidence seems to
point... Yes. I went with it because of... I
went with it obviously because the luchador mask
that this unknown assailant was wearing had emblazoned
on it American made. That seemed pretty conclusive
proof that somebody who'd just been on a sabbatical
to learn the ways of lucha so that he was no
longer going to be... Yeah, it just everything
seemed to point to him and at this point in the
in the episode if you're anything like us You'll
be thinking exactly the same thing, but we will
actually end up coming back to that Later on
but this mask this mask luchador ends up handing
the new day a win over LWO In a match that LWO
really should have been winning And it generally
did feel that there was a win coming for LWO,
but not this week, not this time, unfortunately.
No, this is it. But we went from that match into
a VT recap of sort of Bronbreaker Finn Balor
promo from last week, where basically the Judgment
Day try and get one over on Bronbreaker and Bronbreaker
does what? Brom Breaker does best. And he basically
says, look, dude, I'm just here to be ragdoll
now. I can't do half of the stuff I used to be
able to do. I can just sell stuff really, really
well. Which is what we sort of come to expect
from a veteran, really. Yeah, like he said, I
like the fact that he's honest with the fact
that he goes, no, dude, I can't do it no more.
I am literally just here to sell stuff and be
comedy. It's the same way, at least with our
truth, we get comedy and he can still pull off
a reasonable match. I'm kind of glad Carlito
has gone, you know what, I'll do the spot, like
a spot occasionally, but I'm not doing a match.
Yeah, we're not going to see him step in the
squared circle for a match anytime. Well, ever
again, probably. You might see him with the odd
rumble appearance here and there, but are you
talking maybe five minutes at most? Because I
think he'd be gassed after it. And like you said,
most of the time we call, like I said, sorry.
most of the time they call you you just looking
to see who's going to spit the apple up yeah
that's it that is the most relevant point of
him at the moment is who you're going to spit
spit the apple up but that vt goes into a backstage
segment with judgment day talking well i said
judgment day it's it's finn bala talking to someone
off camera which we were then shown his dirty
dominic mysterio about uh how bron breakers Doctor
he was talking to Carlito He was talking to Carlito
in that so we start off I had them talking to
Dom because Carlito was there but he just didn't
seem to be too engrossed in what was going on.
He was more like Carlito was off with the fairies.
He was still trying to figure out that he was
still trying to wrap his head around the fact
that John Cena's turned heel which I don't know
if you were aware of but it was a very subtle
detail but John Cena's turned heel. Well, I'm
gonna have to go back and listen to previous
episodes to find out what happened there because
I don't want to digress too far from this promo.
Which is fair enough because I wouldn't want
to do that either but I thought it was a useful
detail to drop in there. We see Finn Balor basically
ranting about last week to Carlito who basically
wasn't even listening and that's when Dom, Liv
and Raquel enter scene sort of thing and they
seem pretty pleased with themselves, not going
to lie. I mean to be fair Liv and Raquel have
got a pretty good reason to be pleased with themselves.
They've both got gold around their waist being
the women's raw tag champs. You know Dom's involved
with Liv Morgan and that's going to be enough
to put anyone's smile on anyone's face and we
basically find out from Liv Morgan that Bailey
is facing Raquel tonight and if Raquel wins she
goes on to face Lyra Valkyria for the women's
Intercontinental title Yeah, so it's a number
one contenders match. It is a number one contenders
match. We get into that a little bit later was
we then find out that Dom Liv and Raquel have
been to see Adam Pearce Dom mentions that he's
been to see Adam Pierce to set up a match with
Bron break over at which Finn kind of goes For
yourself and he goes actually no. No, I set up
a match for you my good sir next week in Brussels
Belgium All you've got to do is go and talk to
Adam Pierce and say I'm down to sell records
and that match is Good to go go. So Finn with
a A massive smile on his face after hugging Dom
Mysterio, which for the last few weeks we've
seen quite a bit of a sort of, like there's been
an atmosphere between the two of them. So he
gives Dom a hug and then he runs off to find
Adam Pearce to finalize this match, which leads
us into a VT about the new WWE programming evolve.
Which is basically I Don't know Adam. How would
you describe evolve? So evolve is what NXT used
to be it's their developmental now it's it's
a chance for early superstars to get the a Chance
on a TV show and this is a proper WWE TV show
it just doesn't involve any of the stars from
NXT, Raw or SmackDown. But one thing I do want
to touch on in that last Judgment Day promo.
Did you not very much distinctly get the impression
that Dom's up to something? I very much feel
like Dom has set Finn up. Well, this is my point.
I think it is. Well, there's a rumour that I've
heard. Obviously Dom's been pushing for the last
few weeks about getting a new member in the Judgement
Day. Finn Balor has very much been against this.
A lot of people are saying or I've heard rumours
that a lot of people are theorising that the
new member they could end up bringing into Judgement
Day that ultimately pushes Finn Balor out is
going to be none other than Alistair Black. potential
but I can't remember who it was off the top of
my head. Well I'm sure it will come back to you.
It probably will. I have seen today though on
social media that Miro and CJ have decided to
renew their wedding vows and take themselves
back together. So it's been a very happy Rusev
day today. It's been a very long time since you've
been known under that name. Oh yeah, I know,
but I had to throw that one in there. Especially
as we all know what he's doing right now. It's
his wedding bow renewal night. Yeah, he's probably
been called a dickhead, to be honest. Probably
clapping some cheeks. Or that. Who knows? We
then went into a, from the Evolve VT, into like
a who's who of... the crowd. There was a lot
more than this, they mentioned, but I got three.
I got a guy called Peter Rosenberg, who I believe
was an actor. No, Peter Rosenberg, sorry, is
the commentator from Evolve. Then there was a
guy, there was a Grammy -winning rap artist called
Fabulous. something along those lines. Now neither
me or Adam listen to rap and I have no idea what
the Grammys are apart from if they've won awards
there they must be kind of like the Brits and
stuff like that. But I've never heard of this
guy so I can't tell you if his music's any good
or not but I'm not gonna lie to you if he's a
rapper it's probably not something I'm gonna
check out. No, which would be nominated for the
Grammys twice. We've got to think that he's in
certain circles. He is very much And of course
with us being in New York the link to one of
the greatest sets of Christmas films ever made
We have Macaulay Culkin in the arena for from
the Home Alone films and many many many other
different films and tv series um he's always
going to be known as kevin mccallister but it's
not just him who's there it's a case that we
also have his his brothers there with him looking
like dude i just really didn't want to be on
camera because it's it's his brother rory mcculkin
oh okay and what does what's rory known for or
not known for So he's an actor as well. He's
been I've seen I can't think of anything I've
seen him in but I have seen his sort of IMDB
and he's been in a fair amount It's just spooky
how much he looks like Macaulay yeah, I mean
they are siblings so it's gonna be Reasonable
Yeah, this is it Now I'm not sure What you have
from here I've got the Cody Rhodes comes out
to the ring and Right. I've got the Cody Rhodes
segment as well. I've got Cody Rhodes comes down
to the ring and then WWE does what WWE does best
and it decided to throw some statistics at us
now You'll have to bear with me a minute. I did
some research this week myself rather than waiting
for Adam to do it so Got to admit. I think I
must have I must have passed out. I do not remember
Seeing anything like this like this segment when
I watched it It was a tiny tiny little box that
came up on the screen Well, it's just after Cody
made his entrance. I had to pause it. It was
there for about 15 seconds right, so we we had
Cody come into the ring we then had a programming
VT for the programs around WrestleMania so the
Smackdown the NXT and the Monday Night Raw think
it's the NXT the Smackdown and then the Monday
Night Raw like around WrestleMania they've they
were saying they're all in I believe all in Tampa
Bay This was all in May, wasn't it? It's all
sort of within one weekend in May. Yeah, so then
it went into, like I said, it flashed up a little
box on the side of the screen about the history
of wrestling in Madison Square Gardens. So we're
going to take a little trip down wrestling's
memory lane here and have a little conversation.
Madison Square Gardens has had three WrestleMania's.
three Summer Slams, three Survivor Series, and
two Royal Rumbles. Now, the three WrestleMania's
were number one, which was main evented by Hulk
Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Paul Orndoff. WrestleMania
10's main event was Bret Hart beating Yoko Zuna
for the WWF World Championship. And WrestleMania
20 had Triple H. Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels.
This one was won by Chris Benoit and it was the
first time that a submission move had won a match
at WrestleMania. But Rich, we don't hear a name
like Chris Benoit on WWE TV. We don't. That's
why it wasn't advertised which ones they were.
So we had to go and do our own research. Like
I said, it's also hosted three Summer Slams.
That was Summer Slam 1988, which was main evented
by the Ultimate Warrior versus the Honky Tonk
Man. SummerSlam 1991 where Hulk Hogan and the
Ultimate Warrior beat the Triangle of Terror.
For those of you who don't remember who the Triangle
of Terror were, it was Sergeant Slaughter, General
Adnan and Colonel Mustafa. And then SummerSlam
1998 was main evented by Stone Cold Steve Austin
and the Deadman himself. where Stone Cold beat
Undertaker to take the WWF Championship off him.
Like I said, we also had three Survivor Series.
We had Survivor Series 96, where Shawn Michaels
lost the WWF Championship to Psycho Sid in the
main event. We see Shawn Michaels six years later
at Survivor Series as well. in Survivor Series
2002, where Shawn Michaels won the World Heavyweight
Championship in the Elimination Chamber. Now
this was the first time the World Heavyweight
Championship had been defended in the Elimination
Chamber and HBK walked out of that one. And then
Survivor Series 2011 was the final one, where
this was Not a hundred percent sure on this.
My research was a little bit iffy on this one,
but I believe this was where The Rock and John
Cena, who was his WrestleMania opponent, teamed
up to face The Miz and R -Truth for a victory.
I also mentioned there's two Royal Rumbles in
there. There was Royal Rumble year 2000 and Royal
Rumble 2008. The 2000 Royal Rumble was run...
won sorry by Dwayne the Rock Johnson and the
Royal Rumble 2008 was won by the man who cannot
be seen who likes to have a slight heel turn
occasionally Mr John Cena. So this was the one
that they like to proact to us every now when
Royal Rumble season comes up is that it was a
very short ramp John Cena came out at number
30 as a complete surprise entrant as he was torn
his pectoral muscle was ripped clean off the
bone apparently he was meant to have been out
for about 12 months and he rehabbed it to come
back in nine to make it back for the Royal Rumble
and there's always that iconic look of Triple
H turning around going what the Yeah, pretty
much Yeah, so as I said I didn't see this segment
at all so I did zero research in regards of it
I have no notes around it and But that is a good
thing because my next section of notes is not
as thick It's your next section of notes will
probably be so Adam What was Cody in the ring
to talk about? so after Cody Rhodes is insane
pop and the fact that I've actually seen a little
bit of social media backlash since this episode
went out is that Cody Rhodes is the heavyweight
championship for SmackDown. What the fuck is
he doing on Raw? And the honest answer is is
that as long as he's not on Raw consistently,
it's a nice treat to have a champion from another
promotion, but Cody Rhodes is out there talking
about one thing and one thing only That's the
man we can't see the man on a farewell tour that
isn't actually on the freaking tour Well because
again for the for now So this is the second Monday
night, so two weeks Since we saw him elimination
chamber take his turn to the dark side. We are
told a little bit in the promo that next week
when Monday Night Raw is in Brussels, Belgium
that both Cody Rhodes and John Cena will be there
so next week we could have a fight on our hands
between Cody and Cena. It won't be an in -ring
thing. Next week we're more likely to find out
the like the reasons behind why He decided to
sell his soul to the rock that to rock the Dwayne
Johnson Yeah, pretty much but yeah, I mean this
entire promo was basically around the fact that
Sena wasn't there, apparently it was quite an
easy decision for him to make to not be there.
So Sena is still deepening his, he's managing
to effortlessly deepen his heel turn without
even having to be there, say anything or do anything
because everybody else is doing the work for
him. Yeah, pretty much and Yeah, I mean He throws
a few insults seen as way calls him a well I've
put down here that he called him a conceited
moron He might have just called him a moron.
It conceited might be my viewpoint on it potentially
And he calls Cena's ambition of 17 world championships
a delusion and yet again look straight down the
barrel of that camera at the end of this promo
to basically tell Sina you ain't nothing special
anymore I'm the captain now sit down shut up
and get in line yeah I mean Sina did what he
went out there to do realistically is that he
he punched his ticket to his last ever mania
and it's actually quite exciting to know that
next week we'll actually be able to see him and
hear him and i will actually be very interested
to find out what it is that he has to say around
it He always said, and when they teased that
heel turn on us 12 years ago, you know, like
he had this entire thing set up from then, it's
just been sat in storage. Yeah, he had his new.
Has he been digging all that out and making it
all get it all extended so it fits? It's them
jeans that are going to fit the same way as they
used to. And if he comes back out in those horrible
shorts. No, I completely agree Oh Right, okay
Yeah, so right yeah um so we went from there
into another famous into another vt for a famous
cage match at the garden um this one came to
us from 1983 saw the magnificent morocco versus
jimmy superfly snooker um i didn't really have
any research to do with that one nothing really
inspired me to go out and research it so uh yeah
No, that was the guy we mentioned earlier on.
No, no, I'm pretty sure Jimmy got in trouble
for something. Well, I know Jimmy's daughter
was Tamina snooker who used to be a WWE superstar.
I mean, I don't really remember what happened
to her. I'm assuming she got caught at some point,
but I don't really remember when. Not that it's
important but yeah, um, oh he was involved in
the death of another person He'd had a match
against Jose Estrada television taping And then
there'd been an injury to his girlfriend Which
Ended up with her dying due to undetermined cranial
cerebral injuries Basically a traumatic brain
injury consistent with a moving head striking
a stationary object So yeah, he was a he was
a Gotten arrested and charged with third -degree
murder and involuntary manslaughter in 2015 died
in the August of 2015 as well from stomach cancer
so yeah Jim the snooper fly was not as yeah not
as well behaved as we thought he was no but the
same could be said for a lot of to be fair it
doesn't matter if you're a professional wrestler
if you're an American football player if you're
a UFC fighter there are so many of them that
are currently incarcerated for doing stupid shit
Yeah, there is a UFC fighter currently in prison
because he shot someone who met well Someone
molested his child. He chased after the guy and
shot the wrong person in the car He shot the
driver which hadn't got out the car But if you'd
have shot the other guy they would have let him
walk back to his house and get away with it But
now he's currently chained up waiting for a murder
attempted murder charge to go through a court
system I actually believe it might have been
the one that was on WWE TV at one point. I mean
this is perfectly possible. Cain Velasquez. I'm
sure Cain Velasquez was in WWE at one point.
It does ring a bell but I forget where from.
Anyway, we digress. Because the next time the
next thing that we are commenting on from here
Is Match three on the card, which was a women's
singles match. It's the number one contenders
match Yeah, this was the Bailey versus Raquel
Rodriguez much Which Wasn't either here nor there
for me to be fair Yeah, go to admit it's it wasn't
the strongest match I feel it could have been.
I literally have put in here that Raquel dominated
Bailey pretty much the entire match, to the point
where Bailey wasn't really allowed to get any
momentum, any rhythm. It wasn't a very long match.
It was actually... It felt like it was long.
It felt like it was long, but it wasn't actually
that long. Apart from the obvious... Was it obvious?
Was Dom at ringside? I think he was wasn't he?
Dom was at ringside although He's there in person
although for the rest of the time during this
episode that they reference back to this that
they reference back to this They don't mention
Dom at all No, they don't he was there as a he
was at ringside, but he didn't really pay any
part in this match at all I've put down here
that It was a very boring match. There wasn't
really much back and forth between the two sides.
Theoretically, that's what it felt like. Yeah,
fair enough. Do you know what? It's weird to
see Bailey on them. wrong side of a squash match
as well. I'm not quite sure if they're trying
to improve Raquel Rodriguez's standing by giving
her some big wins and a bit of confidence or...
I don't know. Bailey's a really weird choice.
When I looked at it on paper I thought Bailey
was crapping all over Raquel and going off to
face Lyra. It's been a while since Bailey's held
gold so I thought that was the plan. was to stick
a belt around at least. Yeah that would have
probably made more sense if I'm honest. I mean
fair play Raquel Rodriguez won this match earning
herself the number one contender slot for Lyra
Valkyrie's Intercontinental Championship. Based
on this match alone Lyra's gonna shit over her.
Yeah, that should be how it works, but they have
been hinting I find Raquel Rodriguez really boring.
She has no solid storyline. I mean, it's a solid
-ish. She's not a main character even in her
own story. She's been outshone by Liv Morgan
in pretty much every tag match. She's getting
a weird singles push that I really don't feel
she deserves because she looks awkward and clumsy.
Yeah, there's just she's all power and there's
nothing else to her Yeah, pretty much Yeah, just
not very inspiring I mean Raquel walks out of
this with the win and after a Tahana bomb and
The only reason I can see I mean Can't even say
the only reason she won is due to the interference
from Dom and Dom and Liv because The way they
booked the match Dom and Liv didn't really need
to do anything for her to win it Yeah, this this
felt like it felt like a bit of a cop -out for
Bailey I'm not gonna lie a five -star match but
yeah I will tell you the best thing for me about
this match was the VT that followed it where
Cathy Kelly and her two personalities got made
to look like a right twat by Chad Gable which
I thought was quite funny well me and Rich were
watching this probably Well, I think I was about
maybe an hour behind rich in watching this realistically
and Yeah, I remember messaging rich at one point
watching this and saying the Chad Gable interview
I didn't get a damn thing for it. I was way too
distracted I mean, they were right there. There's
only so much I can do. But yes, anyway, I did
eventually manage to get a few notes as to what
this was all about. This is basically Cathy Kelly.
This was less of an interview. It was more like
a police interview than anything else, because
Cathy Kelly, like the rest of us, was pretty
sure. I mean, I've seen police. I've seen enough
police like. police drama shows to know what
an interview should look like. I know you've
got more first -hand experience but I mean that's
that's generally what I do. Yeah, I saw it. Yeah,
and while we're sort of having this conversation
we see in the background of this where this promo
is taking place We see the same New York security
apparently escorting somebody dressed exactly
like Chad Gable built in a very similar fashion
in the luchador mask being escorted out of the
arena I Know you have a theory and I know you've
been looking forward to sharing this theory after
seeing this. mean it's not a bad it's not certainly
not a bad show I mean we've got to wait and see
how it plays out I suppose I mean, if you're
there for WrestleMania, you've probably already
spent money that you don't have. You've probably
sold organs, your ass, and children to be able
to get there, so. Yeah, and the proceeds of Madeleine
McCann's fund as well. Well. But yeah, I mean...
I've got down here as well that they did a small
promo for having the rock as a playable character
in 2K25. They gave away the... Did you check
out what the bonus code was for it? I did. It's
Elite Rock. Yeah, but we went from there into
another Madison Square Garden famous cage match,
where this one was from 1988. And this one was
Randy Savage versus Ted DiBiase Sr. This is the,
I'm sure he was known as the Million Dollar Man.
Probably a majority of it and that's why he had
to be helped to the ring. He had to be helped
to the ring and from the ring by Miss Elizabeth.
She wasn't an escort to escort him to and from
the ring. She was more like a carer at this point.
All of the famous cage matches that they've come
up with so far were before both your and my time,
mate. So we wouldn't have seen any of it unless
we'd been back and watched it. Now, some of it
I was aware of through other podcasts that I
listened to, such as one of my favorites, Grilling
JR. He goes back and reviews a lot of old episodes
of Raw, SmackDown. even goes back into the territory
days because that's as far back as JR's career
goes. So yeah, I'm aware of some of these matches
and I've heard them broken down on other podcasts
and things like that. So yeah, it's a bit of
an odd one really, but yeah, I've enjoyed the
fact that they've used this as a way to promote
the cage match that comes later on because yeah.
It's different. I don't remember them using historic
footage in quite this way before. completely
different. It's like a PLE without it being a
PLE, I suppose. Yeah, this is it. It's always
a good one. This next little segment was probably
one of my favourite non -match segments of the
night. I don't even know why. Well, I kind of
do. I know why. Why? So we'll get into it and
I'm pretty sure you may well find that you You
may well find that you figure it out as we go
So, yeah This match is a or this it's not even
a match it's a Yes, it is. And it's all about
EO Sky having won the Women's World Championship
last week from Rhea Ripley, which, yeah, I can't
even say it was not a clean win, because it 100
% was. It just, yeah, it wasn't how we would
have expected Rhea to... lose the title so to
speak maybe but yeah we covered all that last
week no and getting her out to do a promo in
I've said this before I appreciate obviously
the superstars come from all over the world and
obviously not all over the not everybody all
over the world speaks fluent English which is
fine however if you're going to come onto a show
that is performed in English I would prefer it
personally if you had a basic command of the
language which isn't always the case when it
comes to certain performers Eoskai is not one
of these performers she does generally have a
pretty good command of the English language but
There are times where it is a little bit ropey
and I think it holds her back a little bit in
the American in the Western market Having said
that One week into a reign as women's champion
on to face Bianca Belair at WrestleMania in What
is looking to be have a first title defense of
this reign? which I think we've got to admit
it's quite a big title defense to have as your
first title defense as a new champion. But hey,
yeah, I mean, she says that it was a dream of
hers to be at the Garden as a champion to go
to WrestleMania as the champion. So she's she's
ticked quite a few things off her life's bingo
card with with just one win. It was a bit of
a trophy win, but it was a win all the same.
Yeah, a win's a win. Of course, the first title
defence being at WrestleMania, that's a big thing.
That could be where they try and write the title
offer if they need to. Yeah, which I'm sort of
hoping they don't. Not for any other reason other
than... What I've said in the last few weeks
is that regular title changes have a tendency
to devalue the title itself and it's the last
thing you want to do when you're talking about
the big belt. Do it with the little belt and
you can recover from that. But if you're doing
title changes in short spaces of time with the
big belt, it's not going to go down the way you
think it will. Yeah. But Cole doesn't stop there.
Because he also brings Bianca Belair out. And
in fairness, the exchange between Bianca and
Eoskai is very friendly. Right. It should be.
Yeah. I mean, it's very friendly. It's very respectful.
And Bianca says how happy she is for both herself
and Io, that they both go to, they get to go
to WrestleMania to face one another for the title.
And as she addresses obviously being at ringside
last week, we have another set of music. hit
and this is where we see yeah this is it now
we said at the end of Raw last week that both
I think I said that both me and Rich had seen
a post -Raw interview with Rhea where she was
obviously very upset that she lost her title
but didn't blame Bianca didn't blame Io blamed
herself Now this isn't the first time that we've
seen Ria do something like this in the past,
but she She came out with a completely different
frame of mind she's no longer blaming herself
Before this happened oh 100 % Before this sort
of Cole questioned Bianca Belair about if she
wasn't out at ringside last week, do you think
you might have been facing Rhea Ripley instead?
And that was sort of the trigger point for it
as Bianca Belair was like, don't really think
my presence outside in the ring had any influence
on anything realistically. But yeah, Mammy took
issue with that. and actually comes out to tell
no this is it and she sort of comes out to basically
tell Bianca pretty sure you probably should have
been sorting your own shit before getting involved
in mine obviously referring to the Naomi Jade
Cargill debark sort of issue that's been circling
around recently Yeah, I did it for Bianca Doesn't
quite have the same ring Yeah, so we went from
there to We went from there and to Bianca Both
Bianca and Rhea started getting kind of getting
into it and getting quite verbal towards each
other. Io was trying to get a word in and Ria
stuck her hand square in her face and pushed
her away. And then when Io comes back and tries
to get another word in edge where Bianca does
it to her, I mean she was pissed when she got
back up. She started screaming a lot of things
in Japanese. I think anybody would be. It's a
case that you're gonna be pissed off. I mean
being left out of any situation Is bad enough,
but when you're for want of a better way of putting
it the most important person in the room And
you're being ignored that's never really gonna
go down very well And yeah, essentially well
Bianca is in Ria's face about saying that I think
Ria's misdirecting or anger that it's probably
more to do with the fact that Ria can't get the
job done against Io and Ria implies that all
Bianca does is hide behind people which Do you
know, I couldn't disagree with her on that. It's
a case that I could very much see what she was
getting at with that one. But yeah, eventually
EO gets, EO manages to get her word in edge ways
and manages to land quite impressive slaps on
both Ria and Bianca that send them both flying.
So for such a - She ran off on a hissy fit and
ran off. What is it with people leaving? The
ring and Madison Square Garden is like a bitch
these days. I mean, I can perfectly understand
not wanting to be around either of them when
they've just straight up, it's not even that
they've ignored you. They've 100 % just disrespected
you. Yeah, but one slap was not enough to warrant,
there could have been an ass kicking going on
there. Oh, and I completely agree with that.
But at the same time, you've got to understand,
both of the women in the ring were former world
champions. One of them was a world champion up
until a week ago. If you're then going to stay
in the ring for a fight between the two of them,
you're in a two -on -one situation that you're
not going to win. So I think in this case, EO
made the smart choice and removed herself from
the situation. Yeah, this difference between
her and Logan Paul Logan Paul walked away from
a one -on -one fight, which he at least had some
potential chance of winning but No, it's not
a huge chance, but yeah EOS guy had Relatively
no chance of winning that two -on -one bout if
she was gonna turn that into a fight and Honestly,
I don't think she was there for a fight. She
was there to try and Celebrate her win. She was
there to have a moment in the Sun and It just
didn't go the way she wanted it to Basically
And that sort of ended that we then went to the
main event of the evening now We had a BT about
the stuff that we were gonna see when we go to
Brussels next week for Monday Night Raw in Belgium.
So there is a couple of matches already on the
card for, there's four matches on that card that
have been announced so far. One of them is a
no holes barred match between Penta and Ludwig
Kaiser. We see Jey Uso take on Austin Theory.
Actually, while we mention Ludwig Kaiser, during
one of the promos earlier in the night, he's
seen talking to Dom Mysterio. I don't know if
it's a detail that I've just picked up on that
they just picked two random superstars to stand
in a hallway having a conversation. They might
have just been having a normal conversation anyway.
Might just be completely irrelevant. It could
have been, but... It's it's worth making a mention
of it is anyway, so yeah, we've got Penta and
Ludwig Kaiser have got a match Jay Uso is against
Austin Theory We see Dakota Kai take on Ivy Nile
After Ivy Niles been sticking her nose up in
Dakota Kai's business recently then We have the
intercontinental title on the rock on the line
Because it is confirmed that Bron Breaker will
be facing Finn Balor in Belgium for that title.
And then we go into Seth Rollins making his entry
into the steel cage for our main event of the
evening. Yeah, so I'm actually lying, I was...
I wasn't quite sure what to make of this match.
There were some aspects to it I enjoyed watching.
There were some aspects to it I didn't enjoy.
There were some aspects to it that were like
really why did you put that bit in there? So
we very much had both superstars in the ring.
Once both superstars were in the ring and this
was a proper cage match. This is not a cage that
they had to throw together during the during
the during an ad break or something along anything
along those lines Bring a new superstar out with
a microphone for five minutes to give them some
extra time to finish building Yeah, I sort of
understand why NXT had to do that now all night
that cage has been suspended above the ring on
raw When they're performing in the performance
center, they don't have the height on the performance
arena to be able to suspend the cage up the way
they did, which is why they had to build it.
And this one on Raw was a proper cage match with
a proper cage. So it was escape the cage, pin
fall or submission. That's the way to win. Yes,
not that either of these pair were either ever
interested in winning And that was pretty much
let known from the start these two did not necessarily
see this as a match To these two this was an
opportunity that no one could get to them and
they could be absolute living fuck out of each
other And do whatever they wanted to each other
because obviously with it being a steel cage
match It's no DQ. Yeah anything goes inside that
steel cage anything is you can't get underneath
to the side of the ring to be able to get any
weapons out to use within that steel cage but
you do have a steel cage which itself is a weapon
yeah of course it is so that's the main difference
between a steel cage and a hell in a cell match
hell in a cell the cell is put is put down around
the ring area whereas the cage encompasses the
ring itself. It keeps all of the action in ring.
And Michael Cole actually came up with an interesting
statistic during this, which he said the last
televised cage match was in 2015. and Seth Rollins
was involved. Now I did some further research
and found out that this was actually an Extreme
Rules pay -per -view back in 2015 where Seth
Rollins was the current heavyweight champion
at the time defending his title against Randy
Orton which he managed to do successfully. Is
that one with the Curb Stomp RKO or was that
WrestleMania? That was a WrestleMania. I also
did some further research because apparently
the cage match idea really sort of geeked me
out a little bit. So yeah pretty much. So CM
Punk has had, not including this one, three televised
WWE steel cage matches and has only lost one.
so that was back in 2008 to Chris Jericho and
Punk has never actually had a steel cage match
on pay -per -view for WWE either so these are
it's a pretty rare match type for something that's
quite a simple concept really and I even went
as far so this gives based on his win rate It
gives CM Punk a 66 .666 recurring percent win
rate in steel cage matches in his WWE career.
Seth Rollins on the other hand has had seven
WWE career televised cage matches and has won
five of them. Now he's had two at pay per view.
Only won one at pay -per -view and won five on
regular televised TV shows Yeah, so he's I mean
this isn't even a pay -per -view we've got to
remember this is an episode of Monday Night Raw
It's a case that So sort of the we're looking
at a non title televised steel cage match, which
by that metric, Rollins is undefeated. He's never
been defeated in a televised non -title cage
match. Ah, but there is another statistic that
the commentary team threw at us. CM Punk is undefeated
in Madison Square Gardens. He is 4 -0 in MSG.
So, you've got two different streaks there that
one of them is ending at the end of this match
yeah but not necessarily ending the way you think
it will no but before we get to the ending i've
got some i've got some hot spots got some little
bits that i uh i picked out that i thought were
quite big moments apart from the multiple amount
of go to sleeps that Seth Rollins ate over the
course of this this match he ate four gtss over
the course of this match which is absolutely
insane because i think i'd eat the first one
and i'd be asleep for a month but he ate four
of these um so they ran off into the start of
this match pretty fucking hard and and the reason
is they've got so much hatred between the two
of them but Punk has had the upper hand. He won
in their match on the debut of Netflix. He eliminated
Seth Rollins from the Royal Rumble and from the
elimination chamber. So far CM Punk has had Seth
Rollins number. And we used to have absolute
slugfest to start off with. They just trading
absolute bombs in the middle of the ring. To
the point where even commentary would be like,
well maybe Dana White might want to use some
of these guys for the TKO's new boxing program.
Yeah, it's... This is why I don't think I enjoyed
this match as much as I thought I was going to.
It wasn't... It weren't a match as such. It was
very much a fight between the two of them. You
have a match, there's rules of engagement. They
basically just went there's a cage right you're
locked in you can't hurt anyone else go at it
do what you gotta do don't worry about escaping
or running out the door or pinning or submitting
just go in there and beat the fuck out of each
other get this off your chest deal with it yeah
very much so and they went out of their way to
try and do pretty much as much damage as they
could possibly do I mean Seth Rollins at one
point superplexes, well right so at one point
Seth Rollins and CM Punk are on top of the steel
cage and they're trading bombs up there to the
point where Punk hits Rollins and Rollins falls
into the ring but catches onto the top of the
cage as he falls so he's just hanging and then
he manages to get himself onto the corner turnbuckle
to be able to superplex CM Punk off the top of
the cage on to them once that superplex hit you
knew punk was fucked like he was just lying there
holding his back it's just kind of like i was
like you've got to think that that is a that
was 30 feet that he fell from on that superplex
onto what is theoretically a bit two by four
that you've probably found in a park and kicked
and it's kind of broken in half Yeah, this is
my point is that it's It's a very long way to
fall You're not gonna I wouldn't jump down face
first, let alone doing it backwards Onto my back
not my feet. Yeah These guys got some balls Oh
100 % talking about balls To get into a ring
and use your opponent's finisher on them is a
big sign of disrespect Right and all we saw for
a lot towards the end of this match was Punk
and Rollins trading curb stomps and GTSs and
Rollins even hit a super stomp at one point from
the second rope. I don't know Punk must know
how to how to recover from these stumps better
than anything else because he ate loads of them
and he just kept going and going. Not as much
as nobody would have done 10 years ago but he
still went. Oh 100 % and went really rather well
in fact. He's definitely done some work on his
cardio because he lasted longer than most matches
that punks in. He lasted longer than that. Yeah,
very, very much so. It was the ending to this
match that I really sort of didn't see coming.
So up to this point, both superstars have hit
sort of... They've taken as much as they've given
out. They are very evenly contested between the
two of them. Yeah, it's a case that we They were
both of them were pretty much gassed at this
point Seth Rollins had already taken three maybe
four GTS's I counted three. I'm not sure if I'm
right Basically, they'd both taken a lot of punishment
at this point. They were completely gassed. Neither
of them had really got anything left in the tank.
I don't think I would at this point, to be fair.
No, definitely not. I think Rollins was trying
to set up for another stomp, trying to see if
he could finish off see if we could finish off
CM Punk that way if I remember correctly he's
over by the cage door in the corner waiting for
CM Punk to sort of get into position basically
and then we notice a volume change in the amount
of crowd noise oh they popped 100 % now I wasn't
entirely on I wasn't entirely unsurprised by
what happened next as We basically see Seth Rollins
is pretty much snatched out of the ring which
Basically hands him a win So for all technicalities
did he no he didn't he wanted to completely decimate
CM Punk and yeah so like Seth Rollins was snatched
from the ring delivered a victory but then had
to hit he had to eat both a superman punch and
a spear delivered by the one true tribal chief
Roman Reigns and uh yeah Roman Reigns was, it's
fair to say, he was probably pretty angry. He
was pretty pissed obviously. Rollins hit him
with that double stomp at Royal Rumble and then
we didn't see Reigns at elimination chamber.
But again, we saw him tonight. He's still not
happy about what Rollins did to him at Royal
Rumble and he's looking for revenge I think.
But yeah one bit that happened at the end which
This bit was the bit that got me. I don't understand
I Do and I don't write so CM Punk has not left
the ring at this point He's still kind of trying
to work out what's going on gather himself Well
Romans busy throwing Seth around outside and
giving him a good sort of ass kick in Well at
this point we've got sort of Zagreb security.
We'll say Roman Reigns has set Seth Rollins up
on the steel steps basically looking to do exactly
what Seth Rollins had done to Roman Reigns back
to him at Royal Rumble which was basically stomp
his face into the into the ring steps and it's
only because Adam Pearce came out with a handful
of uh full of basically execs and referees To
basically save Seth Rollins from having to eat
all of his meals through a straw And it's only
at that point that sort of the camera pans round
at this at this stage so that we can see CM Punk
Being almost nursed in the ring By the wise man
And this pisses Roman off something chronic.
Roman looked like he was in the process of leaving
up until he saw this. This sent the tribal chief
a little bit crazy. Yeah, Roman Reigns showed
a very sort of jealous side to him. He did. So
Roman pushed Adam Pearson's security to the left
of the ring. the right into the into the ring
through the steel cage grabbed punk and threw
him into one side of the ring into the one side
of the cage grabbed him again and launched him
into the opposite side and then his punk was
reading from that he got drilled by a meaty sphere
and uh yeah punk didn't move after that and not
long after that the episode faded No, this is
it and it's yeah, I mean that sort of very much
takes us to The end of the end of Monday Night
Raw for this week. It's taken me to the end of
my notes I am gonna say that I think out of all
the bits and pieces tonight that we've had the
best match for me Was probably It's probably
the Ornado tag no the The tornado tag was too
much for clusterfuck to make notes on but it
was a damn good match But I think in general
as much as I said other I did not say this earlier
off podcast But I think rereading through the
notes and going back through it. I think that
the better match It's probably just been the
J so much which was probably not the greatest
of matches anyway So I would agree. I would 100
% go with the tornado tag I agree with you on
the sense that from a podcasters perspective
when you're trying to make notes on it Complete
clusterfuck. You're looking at it as a fan just
watching Very enjoyable match to watch. Oh, yeah
Yeah, no, I could probably agree with you there
and Yeah, I mean Like we had the Raquel Rodriguez
Bailey match which we agreed was sort of a squash
match even if it wasn't And not even a squash
match the way we would have expected it to be
Bailey got squashed Yeah, we and like Yeah, pretty
much only had like four five matches in this
entire card One of them was obviously the j -uso
match at the beginning which For me just felt
a bit lackluster. We had We had the main event
which again I just feel like I don't think it
was a bad match. I just don't think they should
have hyped it as much as they did Not for the
product that they put out. I'm not saying in
any way shape or form that this was like Seth
Rollins and CM Punk's worst worst night of work
because it certainly wasn't They put on a really
good match. Just think that it was overbuilt
They built it up too much and the match just
the match didn't have the legs to live up to
the hype And neither punk nor Rollins were as
young as they used to be the match that we thought
we were getting Yeah, this is it Well, I think
that is all for me mate little for you yeah pretty
much What I've got to add to the end of that
is we'll see you next time for Finishes and Factions
Does NXT. Yeah. Well, this will be Finishes and
Factions Does Roadblock. That's what we've got
to look forward to. That is very true. So yeah,
NXT Roadblock this week. We will get round to
that and get it up to you ASAP. But for now...
Yeah, pretty much. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Peace out.