Hello everyone and welcome to a new episode of
Finishes and Factions. This week, well it's Finishes
and Factions does Smackdown, sorry, and this
week we are on the first leg of the European
tour in Barcelona, Spain. So this week you've
got myself, Rich as normal, and again as normal
you have my co -host Adam. Adam, how you doing
buddy? I'm all good, mate. I'm all good. And
Friday Night Smackdown this week came to us from
the Olympic arena. Now, different points during
this, we're sort of told that it's been something
like six years since WWE has been, I think it
was supposed to be broadcast from Spain. I'm
pretty sure Spain is always a... Stop on the
European tour. They do sort of twice a year And
this is actually Smackdown's first time being
broadcast from Spain and so Yeah, so much to
go through Well, yeah exactly and we've got the
roster to look at as well Matches and stuff without
the Spanish people in the crowd going absolutely
crazy for all these superstars making their way
to the ring 100 % I mean the Spanish crowd in
general were absolutely phenomenal I can't on
I can't imagine anybody sat in the back thinking
do you know what this I think this show was actually
pretty shit Then I think they need a slap in
the face from mr. Socko Because quite frankly
anyone who sat there meant the crowd in this
arena or shit crazy or stupid 100 % 100 % with
this first match that we had The promos building
up to it. I mean what strong start to a normal
smackdown, but on a European tour Yeah, I mean
the first place that well speaking of yeah the
first person that we're Sort of introduced to
in his in -ring promo and we are treated to the
brand new United States champion Mr. L a night.
Yeah, I Knew one of us was gonna do it 100 %
Yeah, and LA Knight basically comes out to talk
to us all about how it's so much better now that
he is... Now he's the US champion, which honestly
I can't disagree with. I've been saying for a
good couple of weeks that the previous champion
Nakamura was... Nakadmora? We've been saying
that that championship needed to change hands.
Obviously with Shin to get his personal issues...
the fact that he's had that title for six months
and he's defended it twice. He defended it twice
and he lost it in the second defense. So, you
know, I'm sure if we'd have been doing episodes
of Finishers and Factions when Roman was holding
the main title with the bloodline and he was
appearing every sort of six weeks, we did have
these conversations, you know, between ourselves
about how annoying it was not having a champion
there. defending every so often, or even just
showing up, making an appearance. You know, Shinsuke
was a very poor champion and a lot of people
on social media have put it down as the second
worst United States run behind Dina Ambrose's.
So, yeah, there we go. It's a bit of an interesting
one on that one. Yeah, definitely. Definitely
have a better run with it though. LA Knight will
come out and he's already talking about wanting
to be that fighting champion essentially. The
first to answer the call is our good friend Big
Jim. Jimmy Uso comes out to challenge for the
title. There's a few words exchanged. Nothing
more than, yeah I'm free. fucking let's get into
it sort of thing. So I didn't get to see this
live because I was a little bit late onto the
show but is this I've seen a clip online is this
the bit where he refers to the United States
title as the tag title in the middle of the ring
before they unedited the they edited the show
and changed it. Yeah so Jimmy Uso goofed a little
bit and referred to referred to the US as the
US tag titles um and he's gone a little bit viral
for it and uh i'm still seeing i've seen clips
today to be fair yeah um and fair play to wwe
though the skills behind their editing department
because when you if you were to give me that
clip and tell me to try and edit it to the way
they've done it it would take me days and like
several different programs just to make sure
i've got it as best as I could get it and I don't
think I could have done as well as they did.
You would not even have known that Blunder was
there if you didn't watch it live and you watched
it recorded. It was so well done. No, this is
it. All right, that's my dirty bit out of the
way with their production. Well, after Jimmy
Uso's goof, we have also sort of... Solo Sokoa
come out with Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga in tow
and In fairness, even I thought Solo Sakoa was
coming out saying, yeah, I want a crack at US
title, but he's still trying to crawl so far
up the Samoan Werewolf's backside that it's difficult
to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Because he comes out and advocates for Jacob
Fatu having a crack at LA Night as well. I must
admit, I think we know where Solo Sakoa has been
learning how to do all this tongue punching of
the fartbogs. I think Solo and Mike Mizano have
been talking to each other backstage, you know.
I think him and The Miz have been getting to
know each other a little bit too well because
The Miz is a very well known, good quality ass
kisser. I mean, in some cases it's not a bad
quality to have. It's just not a quality we want
in any kind of champion, let alone the United
States champion. Yeah, well. yeah definitely
not but we definitely won't get any tongue punching
in the fart box from LA Knight no this is it
and yeah it's a case that Jimmy and LA Knight
are basically getting to a bit of a verbal sparring
match between them pair and I'd love to say all
three of these previous sort of bloodline 2 .0
members solo Fatou and Tonga But again, we're
not really seeing Tonga say an awful lot I mean
all you tend to get from Tama Tonga is yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah That
is pretty much what his ability is at the moment
when it comes to speaking with a microphone in
his hand I don't think it's a lack of ability
Just think no it may not be a lack of ability,
but that's all the ability that we've been shown
Probably if you went to YouTube and looked at
some of this stuff from outside of WWE you could
probably find some incredible promos that he's
got I just Haven't got the time to go and sit
and watch those videos myself No, this is it
I'm in very much the same boat myself, so we're
managed to occasionally find a couple of decent
promos on I'm scrolling through a tick tock or
Facebook reels that I always seem to end up seeing
wrestling stuff from 20 years ago. Which is yeah.
Yeah. But after some verbal sparring between
in a very much sort of a handicap three on two
situation, we have Braunstrom the biggest. The
Braun Strowman Express come charging down the
ramp trying to basically level the playing field
after Ponga, Fatu and Sokoa jumped the other
two and then Nick Aldous comes out and books
it as a six -man tag to begin right now and I've
accused Nick Aldous before of sort of coming
out in this way Booking this type of a match
is a very Teddy Long sort of thing to do and
We loved a tag match In these podcast episodes,
but both of us at the age we are He was a big
part of our wrestling Experience when we first
got into it And you knew as soon as you saw Teddy
Long come out player that you were either going
to see a tag match or someone was going one on
one with the dead man himself. And at what point
do you need anything better than a solos match
with The Undertaker or a half decent tag match?
So yeah, bring back Teddy Long. Yeah, this is
it. I mean, I think Teddy Long is still making
appearances in the In the 2k 25 video game as
it goes I'm pretty sure he is still a playable
manager In 2k 25 yeah But yeah, this is where
rich can chime in a little bit more because It
is a case that he did actually see the six -man
tag so yeah rich what was your impressions of
the six man tag match from what i saw of the
six man tag match so yeah i missed i missed the
start of it due to being late late to the tv
and i have not had the time over the weekend
to catch up due to work commitments um a lot
of my notes for this match were very sort of
i didn't get a lot of notes for this match but
what i did get was was reasonable i suppose um
so I've got my notes basically started at the
ending of this match but there was a lot of different
bits within the match that I enjoyed watching
and I couldn't necessarily tell you about any
of the spots that from the match as a con Can't
fully remember all of them but so me a majority
of the action from this was sort of afterwards
Yeah, so a vast majority of them meet to this
to this match what did happen sort of after after
it all went down, but We sort of join the match
in progress as we I think anybody anybody that's
watched WWE longer than a week Will know that
if a match is booked immediately by the time
we come back from any sort of advert break or
anything like that it is a case that we're joining
the match in progress sort of thing. And one
of the things that I noted down, not really a
spot as such, but just something that I wanted
to point out was that you could definitely tell
that They were billing Solo Sokoa, Jacob Fatu,
Tamatonga on one side as obviously the established
tag team. These three are used to working together
as a team whereas on the other side you've got
LA Knight, Jimmy Uso and Braun Strowman. Very
sort of rag tag group of heroes in the story.
There are Not used to working together and the
re I think the way they did that was sort of
regular tags between the Samoans very sort of
isolating off one person in the ring those classic
tag team tactics and but Yeah, that all that
all goes a bit to shit once LA Knight manages
to get a hot tag to Stroman, who then just proceeds
to mow down everybody a little bit like a German
rail gun at D -Day. Yeah, unfortunately... How
do I put this without being a dickhead about
it? We've seen a lot of Jacob Fatta and Braun
Stroman the last few weeks with different...
Between matches and beatdowns and stuff. I'm
getting a little bit fed up with this whole Sort
of storyline at the moment. I've enjoyed watching
Jimmy use so as a solo. I've enjoyed watching
any night on his solo runs Even enjoyed watching
Jacob in his solo Stuff, but this tag match didn't
really have it in for me. The actual match itself
was quite boring Didn't really think too much
of it Like I said, for me, this match started
as the bell rang and the afters were had and
that was where it started getting a lot more
intriguing. Yeah, so the match itself was won
by Strowman hitting a running power slam on Tamatonga.
Yeah, the literal cannon fodder of the other
team, basically. We then get Solo Sokoa sneak
attack. Yeah, so I wrote down that Braun Strowman
wins with the running slam on Tamatanga for the
three count. As he lifts his arms to celebrate,
Solo hits him with a Samoan spike. And then I've
got the LA Knight chases Solo Sokoa out of the
arena through the crowd. Fatou and Strohman decide
they're gonna have a little bit of a thing in
the ring and end up with having a sort of brawling
between them from where Fatou hits two moonsaults
in a row while Strohman's on the floor and as
he goes to pull a third one, Strohman got out
of the way of it. No, he pulled the third one,
sorry, after repositioning Stroman in the middle
of the ring. But Fatu's not quite finished here.
So you see Tamatonga and Fatu kind of going up
the ramp. They're kind of being pushed away.
Well, Tamatonga is basically telling Fatu, come
with me, come on. You've done what you've got
to do. It's time to go. Walks up the ramp. Fatu
kind of looks at him and kind of follows for
a few paces and then just decides. fuck it runs
back down to the ring runs around the outside
of the ring and cannonball i put it as a cannonball
basically it was like a he put brawn strayman
through timekeeping barrier and uh pretty much
left him lying there as he got up and disappeared
off the only issue i have with this scenario
is A lot of these guys took a reasonable beating
in the ring. Fatou gave Strowman more of a beating
on the outside but Fatou's no selling again is
really starting to piss me off. Like there are
some moves that I get they're trying to build
him as a powerhouse and he's meant to be one
of those wrestlers that for someone to take him
down it's got to be a hell of a match right and
you're gonna have to have a hell of an effort
doing so. but Generally, yeah fat who's something
like no selling some stuff that he really should
be selling and it's really not helping him or
the people he's wrestling against Yeah, you get
to a point with no selling where it starts damaging
the person you're working with Building Braun
Strowman is like the big bastard. He is you know,
this guy is a huge person and if Jacob Fatu's
just no -selling some of these moves. It really
doesn't make Braun look as big and powerful as
WWE are trying to make him. They're making hard
work for themselves. Work smarter, not harder.
And they're not doing that with Jacob Fatu spending
so much time in the ring with Strowman no -selling
him. And LA Knight as well. He's got a new title
around his waist and Fatu's not helping him.
because he's now selling things like the BFT
and stuff like that. You can't do that at this
level. No, it is a case that there are, I have
seen videos where Fatu is very much very good
at being able to take care of his opponents in
the ring. where he where obviously the moves
matter you've seen the same video i have that
it's the one of the of the moonsault and how
he lands it just so his knees are nowhere near
his opponent but he lands on his arms on them
so they don't take the brunt of the move he does
yeah yeah no that was so some of these videos
floating around on how these wrestlers do these
moves if you get an opportunity to watch them
do right purely for the fact like yes There's
another interview going around with JD Dunner
from Judgment Day with Chris Van Vliet talking
about the RKO who took off the cage from Randy
Orton last year. And they're saying about pulling
crash mats out and stuff. The back, you know,
behind the scenes of wrestling has been opened
up by, you know, so many other creators that
if you get an opportunity to watch how they do
things, do it. It's fantastically... entertaining
and so educational at the same time yeah it gives
you an eye it's it's that peek behind the curtain
isn't it it's that it's like um in the uk back
in the 90s there used to be a it's not wrestling
related there used to be a a program on channel
five that used to uh debunk different magic like
magic tricks and illusions and things like that
teller and fortune one So No, but similar So
Penn and Teller have always been really good
at just giving you enough To not ruin the trick
but to give you an idea as to how it's done Yeah,
this one was done by a completely masked magician
that used to pull the trick off You used to watch
it on screen and then they'd take you back and
Show you a different angle so that they could
so that you could see how it was done and things
like that I used to love watching this show and
some of the interviews as Richard said that you
see floating around on the internet do something
very similar is they give you a different angle
to be able to see how it is that they're doing
it like You know any of the interviews he does
with these superstars they are a hundred percent
legit There is no like there's no bullshit in
a Chris Van Vleet interview straight up They're
brilliant. They are the best there are for wrestling
interviews out there Yeah, very much so it's
it's certainly one of the ones that I personally
quite enjoy watching when it comes to Uh, when
it comes to sort of wrestling interview content
is that he does this, he does what he does very,
very well. So, um, yeah. So we go from that six
man tag into the hall of fame. So this one was
specifically for triple H. And obviously I've
seen, I imagine you've probably seen the same
sort of interview. I've seen an interview, I
can't remember who conducted the interview, but
it was an interview with Mark Calloway, otherwise
known as The Undertaker, about Triple H's induction.
And as much as he comes across as a bit of a
self -centred asshole on screen, he's not actually,
from what we're told, he's not actually anywhere
close to being that bad, is that... It was only
ever going to be somebody else that had to put
him in. He was never going to put himself in.
That's the interview that I've seen. I'm assuming
you may well have seen the same one. Possibly
seen it. I watch a lot of wrestling content.
More than likely. I think me and Adam send each
other maybe 20, 30 clips a day just of different
bits that we've seen from either the weekly programs
that we've watched or old school clips of and
so more radio big cast and all sorts of other
stuff so yeah a lot of wrestling has been viewed
i've probably seen it probably not one thing
i wish i hadn't seen is this next match i'm not
this for me was the worst match of the evening
purely for the fact that It's got Charlotte Flair
in it So We done so We done the VT's and everything
around around Bianca Belair and All of all of
the drama that goes with that because that's
what I've got next Yeah, no, there's some interesting
stuff going Bianca Belair to be fair Those VT's
opened up the door on a little bit more of the
Naomi Jade Cargill situation, which was always
nice. Yeah, so we had a VT promo recapping everything
that had happened. We then went to an empty...
I called it an empty arena promo, although a
lot of people have said that Jade Cargill's gone
back to AEW for a little bit of a jab at the
fact that they've had some quite empty shows
recently. Yeah, this was the interview kind of
finding out from Jade. what happened exactly
because we found out Naomi Giver an ass kick
in but we didn't know all we were shown was that
Jade Cargill was left lying on the hood of a
car with a smashed windscreen surrounding her
ass Yeah. And in this interview, she basically
says physically she's okay. She's, she's ready
to return back to in -ring action, which is always,
always a good thing. I remember seeing Jade Cargill
in the early days of AEW and very impressive
wrestler. I haven't seen her wrestle in WWE yet
that I can remember. Her injury was just before
we started finishes and functions. So we've definitely
not really covered much of Jade Cargill in -ring.
Well, one of the things she talks about in this
interview is a feeling towards Naomi and sort
of the betrayal because the impression that I've
got after interviews with both Bianca and now
Jade is that the three of them were friends.
Yes. Like they were really quite tight together.
And yeah apparently this resentment that Naomi's
bore towards Jade more so is something that's
come completely out of the blue to the other
two. Like neither of them seem to have seen it
coming. I don't think, I mean as a viewer we
didn't really see it coming. You called the fact
that Naomi had done it but we couldn't really
put a finger on why. And it was kind of nice
to find out a little bit more about why she decided
that she'd had enough of Jake Cargill. Which,
I mean, her reasons weren't the best reasons
in the world, I mean, but there's definitely
some valid points in there. I mean, the one thing
that I don't think anybody's really touched on
yet until this interview went out was more to
do with Obviously, once the footage, if you like,
came out of supposedly Raquel Rodriguez and Liv
Morgan hanging around where Jade had been assaulted
shortly afterwards, it was a case that they very
much got the blame. And in fairness, I would
be willing to say that it was probably Naomi
that was the anonymous source that that came
from to try and shift some blame. But they were
very much they were more so victims in this situation
to me than any but then Not as much as Jade Cargill
herself, but sort of victims by Association is
that they didn't do anything but very much got
the blame for it Yeah, no and for a long time
everyone's been picking on living Raquel for
it basically kind of treating them like outcasts
because they were accused of doing what was a
very brutal attack to Jade so now they've had
I mean they've had some serious matches with
Bianca and Naomi in the tag division and obviously
they took the titles off them as well it was
just a big shock that you know it came out to
be Naomi that did it when everyone was convinced
it was Liv and Raquel yeah this is it but Yeah,
during this interview we actually have Liv Morgan
and Raquel Rodriguez sort of walk into this empty
arena, seemingly just arriving at said arena,
sort of confront Cargill about them having a
lot of the blame. And it basically ends up in
a bit of a bitch match between Liv and Jade,
to which we've actually had a match booked for
next week. In Bologna, Italy is next week's Smackdown?
Yeah, so we've got Liv and Jade in a singles
match in Bologna next week. That's definitely
going to be a good match. That's going to be
an incredible match, to be fair. Because you
know Liv Morgan will not go down without a fight
in Jade Cargill's. She got some fight in her.
She's had four months on the sidelines. she's
looking at kick some ass and kick it good and
proper yeah this is when we now move on to the
b -fab charlotte flair stuff yeah yeah for some
reason normally i'm all over the vts this week
i seem to have screwed the pooch a little bit
but yeah so this In fairness, we did as close
to live watch -alongs of this episode as we could
possibly do. So it's fair to say that we were
trying to note -take at the same time as trying
to watch the episode, which is how we normally
note -take anyway, but because we do it off the
edit that comes out afterwards, it can sometimes
be a lot easier so that we don't end up falling
behind. End of the day, SmackDown is now a three
-hour show. It's the longest show out of the
three episodics of the week. Generally. Smackdown
feels the longest as well. I know it is the longest,
but there are some weeks with Smackdown. I get
to the end and I'm like, I can't do anymore.
It's completely killed me off. This B -Fab Charlotte
Flair match was enough to kill anyone off, I
think. There was a few half decent moves to start
off with But again with this one The match wasn't
the main talking point So I've got here at some
point that BFab managed to get a two count off
a massive kick onto Charlotte Flair And then
Charlotte Flair hits a super kick and a natural
selection into a figure eight lock But that was
That was more the end of the match There was
there wasn't a huge amount I found between the
start and the end of the match that was too enticing
Like I said, I'm not sure if it's because Charlotte
was in the match and I just switched off Which
is a shame because BFab put up a fairly good
opportunity for what was going on. Yeah. I mean,
in the interest of fairness, I'm not a huge Charlotte
Flyer fan either, but we can't really sort of
take away from what it is that she has sort of
accomplished, nepo baby or not. I mean, the woman's
held six WWE Women's Champions, seven World...
Seven Women's World Champions, two NXT Championships,
a Women's Tag Team Championship, and she's been
the winner of two different Women's Royal Rumble
matches as well. Her career has been full of
accolades. The issue I have with Charlotte Flair,
as we say every week, is the fact that she just
gets it given to her, where everyone else is
working that... Absolute socks off and their
goal is to main event WrestleMania You know and
everyone else in the women's division is doing
what they can and doing it the right way Charlotte
Flair comes in and goes yeah I'm not coming back
unless I get this this and this And it just gets
given to her which I think is piss poor considering
the women's division is probably stronger without
her in it Than it is with her in it I don't think
she brings anything to that. I think at one point
she very much brought something to the table
for it. Now, I really don't think she's not bringing
anything to the table now. She's spent so long
bringing it to the table now she's decided she's
going to start taking from it. Yeah, it just
doesn't... Yeah, we don't get anything from her
apart from a bunch of self -centered promos.
It's the same old heel Charlotte Flair that we've
been getting for the last 15 years. Yeah, although
something new that she did do during a match
is that she did sort of take a leaf out of Stephanie
Vacure's book. But ends up going a step further
and turning it into some kind of modified Three
Amigos. suplex chain which yeah it was it was
I remember sitting there like how the fuck am
I meant to write this up in notes for me to be
able to remember when we actually get around
to record this shit like yeah really really didn't
get it but no but it was it was a good move to
watch but yeah I couldn't name it modified hip
thrust style thing Yeah Yeah, we're not quite
we're not quite that we're not that far out the
loop just yet Yes, like I said this much finishes
with the select the combination from Charlotte
Flair of the super kick into natural selection
which I will say is actually quite a nice little
move anyway and the figure eight lock is always
something that she's used and this time though
she did lock it in and lock it in properly to
the fact that BFab taps out and Charlotte Flair
is not having any of it she's decided that even
with the bell ringing, I think it was three times
in total they rang that bell, that she was not
letting that hold off. And the only time she
did release that hold is when we got to see Charlotte
Flair's WrestleMania opponent come running down
to the ring. WrestleMania opponent and current
SmackDown Women's Champion, Tiffany Stratton.
And she came out. We got some tiffy time, but
this isn't the Tiffany. This isn't the tiffy.
We're used to seeing Bad bitch tiffy. She comes
yeah now like she wanted to name Charlotte Flair
and I mean, I think maim is pretty much what
they did what happens next Does not I? Don't
think we can put into words the rule that these
two women get into. Like, it was absolute mayhem.
Tiffy and Charlotte Flair decide they're going
to get into it. They're not waiting until WrestleMania.
They're having some and they're having some now.
And yeah, they're just beating each other left,
right and centre. One note I did make from this
beatdown. at one point at the bottom of the ramp
you have a selection of security trying to hold
Charlotte flare back and Tiffy moonsaults off
I think it was the turnbuckle rather than the
ropes and she takes out the entire group of security
with the moonsault does not hit Charlotte at
all but Charlotte just falls over like a pin
in the uh in a bowling alley she was just the
one on the corner the entire lot of them tumbled
but yeah she completely missed charlotte by a
mile but whipped out most of the security if
not all of the security i think tumbled with
that moon so it was uh it was quite funny to
watch actually oh 100 and um yeah this this brawl
is this absolute chaos Just ends up it becomes
a bit of a focal point really Yeah, because they
finally managed to separate these two women.
Bearing in mind like these two women are going
absolutely nuts they finally managed to separate
them and they take it takes us into a Drew Mackin
crier promo About This is basically just Drew
crying about Damian Priest and then we get a
recap of the last half months and what these
two have done to each other to get up to this
point that we have where Damian Priest and Drew
McIntyre look like they're going to end up with
a match on the grandest stage of them all. It's
basically just saying that how every time Drew
gets somewhere Starts getting in front of himself
He gets screwed and there's only one person that
benefits from him from him getting screwed every
time and it's Damian Priest Obviously Drew won
the title Damian cashed in his money in the bank
to then beat Drew to take said title Money money
in the bank there was a that issue Priest eliminated
Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble and then eliminated
him again from the elimination chamber, cutting
off his last opportunity to get to the main event
of WrestleMania that way. Yeah, Damian Priest
has pretty much been doing what he can to fuck
with Drew as much as he can recently, well, over
the last 12 months. And Drew basically says that
he's gonna give Priest that much of an ass -kicking
that he won't be able to take anything from him
ever again. Yeah, it's It's a cup. It's a couple
of minutes of crying from Drew basically pretty
much With a few little clips of things that the
visual of what he's talking about within him
crying Yeah Yeah, and this then goes into An
in -ring promo, which is an episode of Miz TV.
Now this is the first episode of Miz TV that
we have featured here on Finishers of the Factions.
And to be fair, as much as I dislike The Miz,
this was probably one of the best episodes of
Miz TV. The smug little bastard walks himself
down to the ring with his microphone. And then
Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton come bursting
back out into the arena, beating the living crap
out of each other still. So, yeah, they basically
sodded MizTV off. The cameras all went back to
see Charlotte Flair and Tiffy going absolutely
nuts at the back of the arena. Yeah. Yeah, I
very much got the impression that this wasn't
planned. It wasn't something that they'd I don't
certainly don't think they told Miz about this
interruption to his segment Because I very much
got the impression that that wasn't what he was
wasn't what he was expecting Yeah, I personally
feel that those two may have some real -life
heat And they were just using that to build a
little bit more into this WrestleMania match.
Don't get me wrong. It worked I'm a lot more
invested in this match after watching this segment
than I was anyway. Normally, I must admit when
it comes to WrestleMania and Charlotte, I use
her matches as an opportunity to go and make
some food and get a drink and bathroom break
and stuff like that. But now I'm slightly more
intrigued by the fact that I want to watch Tiffy
beat Charlotte and retain that championship just
because Charlotte doesn't need another Raccolade.
Tiffy could do with the the scalp definite future
Hall of Famer from the women's division Yeah,
very much so very much so but yeah once Tiffany
and Charlotte are ushered back out in ushered
back into the back as such it is a case that
Yeah, we get to proceed with Miz TV, which isn't
a particularly long segment Miz is there basically
to interview Cody Rhodes and I think Cody Rhodes's
Intro was probably longer than the Miz TV segment
in total Yeah, well Miz basically started picking
on Cody didn't he said that Cody last week got
beat oh elimination chamber got beaten up by
two great rappers and he is a man who will be
facing you know Cody got beaten up by two great
rappers one of them being Travis Scott the other
one being John Cena who is Cody's WrestleMania
opponent but unlike them is Cody won't be beating
Cena at WrestleMania because obviously We can't
have a conversation about John Cena in WrestleMania
without the Miz having to inform us yet again
That he was the one to beat John Cena at WrestleMania
for a title That's probably the you know, one
of the only things he's done at WrestleMania
So he does get to keep harping on about that
one and has done so again this week Yeah, when
Cody Rhodes comes down to the ring he He's trying
to do his normal intro and Miz being the annoying
little asshole that we know he is and we love
him so dearly for, not. Tells the production
team to cut Cody's music. He says we don't have
time for a sing -along with Cody Rhodes. Cody
kicks him in the gut and sets him up for a crossroads
on that one because Cody had had enough of Miz
already and the fact that Cody then goes on to
inform us that He doesn't actually want to talk
to the Miz at all The only person he wants to
talk to is his WrestleMania opponent the man
that no one can see Mr. John Cena and basically
just says look on Monday I'm gonna be on Monday
Night Raw You gonna be there because we need
to have a conversation Yeah, well we already
know that John Cena is gonna be on raw on Monday
It was announced on Monday just gone. He's basically
Cody's basically saying yeah, I'm gonna be I'm
gonna be on raw on Monday just to come face to
face with this with Mr. Hussle loyalty respect
not And we'll see what he's got to say for himself
so something to look forward to for Monday Not
the final boss we get no nobody said the rock
is gonna be in attendance on Monday heard in
theory possibly possibly see rocky boy as well
but i say that's a theory um we went from this
little segment into a backstage segment with
nick aldis this guy's been busy already and this
is only one match so far two matches two matches
in a fight well one match in a fight let's put
it that way We've seen it twice already and he's
basically telling off Shinsuke Nakamura for misting
the wrath and Shinsuke's like, I don't really
care about that. I just want my rematch. Where's
my rematch? That's when we find Damien Priest
come in looking for Drew and he's told that Drew's
gone. And we're left with Priest saying that
he wants to fight and Nakamura wants his rematch.
So Nick Aldis sets up a match between Damian
Priest and Shinsuke Nakamura for a little bit
later on. Which we then find out as we scroll
through is our next match. we go into this men's
singles match that was set up just a few moments
ago between Shinsuke Nakamura and Damian Priest
and uh this just sort of adds this match just
sort of illustrated to me why I knew I was right
about Shinsuke Nakamura yeah his time in the
WWE is done yeah he doesn't really look like
he wants to be there the matches they're putting
him in I just feel like Nakamura is not putting
the effort in anymore. feel like when he first
debuted back in 2017 I believe yeah when he first
debuted he came in with an awful lot of energy
and some poor promo skills and then he's leaving
with no energy and even worse promo skills yeah
there's just there's there's just no there's
yeah there's just there's nothing there there's
no substance he's a warm body at this point and
even during this match like Damian Priest takes
early control it is a case that Damian Priest
pretty much has full control up until the midway
point of this match if not a little bit later
in to be fair My notes for this aren't huge No
mine aren't either. In fact one of the notes
I put down One of the notes I put down for this
match is I felt that even the even sort of commentary
on smackdown were struggling with trying to sort
of hype this match up because Yeah, you just
I've just very much got the Got the impression
that he just wasn't he weren't in this He weren't
he's hot right Damien Priest was doing his best,
but there's only so much you can do in a one
-man in a sort of a one -man 95 percent of it.
I know Damian Sandow probably would have given
it a good go and probably put on a better match
than what Shinsuke Nakamura could these days
against himself but it was yeah it was it was
poor um what I've got notes wise here was Damian
Priest managed to hit a rather nice south of
heaven but we all know Damian Priest can hit
that move well um and I also got that he counted
a Kinshasa at one point and we had some interference
from Mr. Mackencryer. Yeah, so Mackencryer sort
of just, he may, he just made a random appearance
at the announce desk part way through the match
and it just sort of, it took, I think it took
everybody off their game because he did just
seem to appear out of nowhere. And this wasn't
Randy Orton we're talking about, this is Drew
McIntyre. Yeah. and the distraction sort of started
to give Shinsuke a little bit of hope in the
match from what I watched but it still ended
up being moved to being called as a no contest
after Drew just couldn't keep his hands to himself
basically Damien Priest's eye sockets pretty
much and while Damien Priest was reading from
that Shinsuke Nakamura hit him with a kinshasa
to the back of the head and then we saw sort
of like him staring Drew McIntyre out before
he basically goes I know what's coming I'm getting
the fuck out of here on leaves before Drew starts
beating Damien Priest down and yeah he throws
him out the ring throws him into the barricades
throws him into the steel steps like priest is
pretty much done at this point and then uh that's
pretty much mcintyre has just had his fun really
i think this is definitely built into we're going
to get a priest versus mcintyre match at mania
whether they decide to throw an extra person
in there or make it a triple threat between them
it'd be an interesting one but i think it's more
than likely going to be priest versus mcintyre
at mania I was gonna say, I don't see Nakamura
getting another WrestleMania moment at this stage.
It just doesn't seem to make sense to do anything
like that for him. Especially when he's not really
giving the effort that would warrant that. segment
where we have a backstage interview with Cathy
Kelly talking to the BITWTT, whatever they call
themselves. Basically, he's talking to DIY who
like to refer to themselves as the best tag team
in the world or something like that. world which
is a bit of a stretch when we get to see the
best tag team ever on NXT last week yeah well
it's just a case now that again I'm not really
feeling the love for DIY anymore at the moment
I think that they've overplayed their hand a
little bit Yeah, they're running towards the
end of their story. Now they've done the dirty
deed with pretty deadly and they've used pretty
deadly as much as they can. Everyone's kind of
seen what they're capable of when it comes to
the manipulation of the head games. They've also
seen what DIY can do. They're very good tag champions,
very good tag team, but they are limited in their
moveset and it's... They've been champions for
that long. They've faced every other team in
the division multiple times. Everyone's kind
of got their number marked now. This backstage
interview is building up to their match with
Street Profits. Tomasa Ciampa asks why Smackdown
is the greatest tag team division and they basically
say it's because DIY are there and they're at
the top and everyone's trying to reach their
level. When they are very politely interrupted
by what is becoming my favorite tag team in the
division the Motor City machine guns No, it's
definitely one of Adam's favorite Oh MCM G's
gotta gotta love a bit of Alex Shelley Definitely
not. I might have temporarily forgotten his name,
but yeah. It's alright. I had to get you to remind
me about Alex Shelley for me to be able to remember
Chris Saban at the time. So they basically came
in talking about the cheap shots that DIY gave
to them to win the titles and how they have unfinished
business with DIY after DIY have their match
today with... re -profits for the tag titles
and I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of hoping
that they do manage to give DIY the old slip
and have a run with the titles because they were
supposed to have a title match before they got
injured, weren't they? Yeah, very much so. So
it's a case that I think if DIY were to walk
out of the main event on this card with the tag
titles, it would be a case that we'll see them
versus Motor City Machine Guns again. If they
don't and they're stripped to the titles that
are at the end of the card, it's a case that
we'll probably end up seeing. which was really
hard to make notes on was only two people allowed
in the ring at the same time between Motor City
Machine Guns pretty deadly and lost Garza and
pretty deadly managed to get a cheeky roll -up
to win that for the to become the number one
contenders for the tag team championship after
this match in the main event later so It's either
going to be that DIY and Motor City Machine Guns
end up having a title match or a grudge match.
It's one of the two. And then if Street Profits
walk out at the end, they will be facing pretty
deadly in their first title defense. Now, during
this match or during this program where we watched
it live, there was quite a few sections where
they had like adverts and stuff that Netflix
couldn't. Show so they put in like a little VT
of who's who in wrestling And on the current
roster now there was one little bit where they
had four people in a group One of them was so
less of color one of them was Tawa Tonga one
of them was Jacob Fatu There was a fourth guy
in one of the pitches. Do you know who that was?
Yes Who was it? Tonga Loa Right, okay Because
I remember you asking me at the time when we
were watching it and I think I actually told
you at the time when we were watching it. Possibly,
but I didn't make notes of it at the time. No,
I didn't, but the minute you started asking the
question I knew the answer. Because I remember
having to go and research who the hell it was
because I spotted the same thing as you and was
like, yeah, I'm not entirely sure who that is
either. Yeah, so he is a member of the bloodline.
Currently out with a torn bicep which he suffered
a survivor series and is requiring surgery So
he's currently out indefinitely So yeah, he's
made He's made in ring appearances within the
group But he he got injured when CM Punk came
with a toolbox and it popped his bicep Which
is a little bit unfortunate, but all the same,
we will probably see him back in in -ring action
soon once he's had his surgery and healed properly
from it. But he is also Tamatanga's adopted brother.
All right, okay. He's going into that much detail
in the research of him. That was literally just
me scrolling through Wikipedia on my phone quickly
while we were going. Fair enough. That's where
a majority of our research comes from, let's
face it. We then had a little section about who's
who in the crowd with some of the celebrities
that were in attendance. The one they focused
on most that I remember was Lameen Yamal who
is a football player for FC Barcelona. For those
of you who are England fans. That is the guy
that absolutely destroyed us in the last international
tournament when he was 16. So yeah, poor guy
is a very talented individual and he is a massive
WWE fan. So it was nice to have Yamin Lamal in
attendance. Well, they had a few others from
FC Barcelona as well in there. Yamin Lamal was
the only name I remembered and the only one I
recognised. I'm not a huge English football fan.
No, I'm not. I'm more of a lover of playing soccer
than actually watching it. I'll watch the international
tournaments and things like that and I'll take
an interest. But in terms of club level, no interest.
So yeah, but the next the bit that we went to
after that I believe Was all to do with a back
another backstage promo with another interview
with Kathy Kelly But this time she's interviewing
Chelsea Green and her secret her this Yes, that
is Well up until last week was just Piper Nevin
now She has a new member of her secret service
in Alba fire as well Yeah, now I had trouble
placing Alba fire. I definitely remember hearing
the name. I've got a feeling we've seen her in
NXT I Was hoping you might have known but it's
not the end of the world but yeah, I mean basically
Green's now saying that her secret hervice is
at full force now with Albert Fire being involved.
We then get a visit from somebody who I'm very
much a fan of just because I'm very much an advocate
for. I won't say a fan of because I just don't
think we've seen enough from her in a in any
sort of a big way. Alba Fye was in the inaugural
Mae Young Classic in 2017. She signed for WWE
in 2019 onto the NXT brand. She is a one -time
NXT UK women's champion holding the record for
the longest WWE women's reign at 649 days. Wow
moved to NXT and changed her name to Alba fire
and she became a one -time NXT Women's Tag Team
Championship alongside Isla Dawn With her team
being the final holder of the championship before
it was unified with the WWE Women's Tag Team
Championship and moved up to the main roster
in April last year where she won the Women's
tag team championship becoming the second female
tag team to have won both the WWE and the NXT
tag team with again Isla Dawn Now she is a member
of the secret service with Piper Nevin for Chelsea
Green So to be fair she has been within the business
for a long time and started off on the indie
circuit as well actually with ICW wrestling A
lot of them seem to, because she's a British
wrestler as well. I say British, she's from Scotland.
So we won't piss her off too much. No, let's
not. Yeah, definitely a good one there. Yeah,
so we are... Selena Vega come in basically to
remind Chelsea Green that she's already stated
her intentions to go after the Women's United
States Championship. Selena Vega, we haven't
seen a lot of her. She does pop up occasionally
in the odd backstage segment, but we haven't
seen her in the ring for a little while. I'm
kind of looking forward to it, to when we get
the opportunity and at the end of this segment
we find out we're not going to have to wait too
much longer because next week... we have a match
between Zelina Vega and Poipen Nevin. Well, Zelina
Vega made her way to Smackdown after being transferred
during the transfer window earlier in the year
from Raw, where she was a member of LWO. over
to Smackdown where she was separated from all
of that it was a very emotional farewell they
had their last match together on Raw and then
she came over to Smackdown and she's sort of
she's just been floating in and out basically
trying to get the lay of the land by the looks
of it and sort of set her in set her eyes solely
on Chelsea Green and Chelsea Green's championship.
Well, let's face it this way, Zelina Vega's been
looking for some low hanging fruit and she's
found it in Chelsea Green. Yeah, fair enough.
But yeah, I'm the same as you. I'm looking forward
to for Vega to show us next week why it is that
she gets The WWE money essentially because we
haven't seen a massive amount of massive amount
of her to be able to say oh, yeah, no, this is
We're definitely seeing that WWE are getting
their money's worth sort of thing at the minute.
We've sort of had very much the opposite Which
is not something we can say Guessing as normal
we've got another BT that I've forgotten to write
No, your your spot on track so far Money the
two guys in this match both at different ends
of the scale when Randy Orton is fit He's probably
making a fair chunk of change doing what he does
and does very well Where recently you've seen
an awful lot of Carmelo Hayes, so his paycheck's
been going up with his appearance money Yeah,
very much so No, he's definitely been getting
his appearances in and not being poor quality
appearances either like he's not being Jobbed
out like we're used to him being a majority of
the time He's actually being allowed to have
some fun and get on and do some stuff Yeah, this
is it and Do you know what I actually really
enjoyed this match in general this match was
that was One of my more favorite matches of this
card was Randy Orton versus Carmelo Hayes as
I'm always a fan of seeing the Viper go. Anyway,
it's it's one of those Whether he's been playing
a heel roll or a face roll, he still brings the
pain and he brings his best every time. And his
best is always pretty much phenomenal and smart.
I don't think I can say in recent times that
I've watched a Randy Orton match and gone, that
was a really bad match. Yeah, I think I'm in
the same boat as you to be honest. Recalling
any match in Any sort of memory of mine that
I remember seeing Randy Orton in and it being
I'm coming out of that match thinking do you
know what actually that was pretty shit So yeah
No, it definitely did not and I've been a little
bit upset if it had to be honest but yeah I mean
it's a case that Hayes was completely outclassed
in this match basically he didn't really sort
of stand much of a chance in my view and considering
this is Randy Orton's first match since October
last year he he looked pretty Fucking good. There
was no ring rust there at all really to be fair
We did see a few little opportunities He did
get a very nice toe drop toe hold On Randy knocking
the absolute air out of him before he tried to
lock in a submission move With Randy actually
struggling to break out, but he does manage to
get out of it eventually as always randy takes
himself to his happy place after a very nice
slap slam like the way he just grabs people at
a mid -air just tosses them over is incredible
his speed and his agility even with the injuries
he's had and even with the age he's at you know
randy orton's in his early 40s here he's taken
a lot of bumps over the years and he's given
out a lot of bumps and Jesus Randy Orton Randy
Orton's older than that. He's in his edge. He's
Pretty sure he's crossed the threshold into his
50s But yeah, I wouldn't want to be doing what
he's doing I'll tell a lie and just I've literally
just looked it up. He's 44. Yeah Even though
he looks better at 44 than I do it at 34, so
I'm not gonna complain too much Sorry guys my
bad, my bad. Not even sure that's PG But yeah,
this match was a way of basically letting Randy
warm himself up and we got to see a lot of Randy
Orton signature stuff. We got the DDT off the
second rope, snap slam To be fair, he called
Carmelo Hayes in midair at one point. Yeah, I
used that snap slam for a two count Yeah, but
then Carmelo Hayes got in some nice moves as
well. He hit diamond cutter off the second rope
for a two count I mean he hit a first 48 at one
point What I did like was the fact he hit the
first 48 and I'll get Randy Orton's like Slightly
oversold it to a point and just as Carmelo Hayes
turned around Randy hit him with a real archer
Which you'd seen that like it was being teased.
He does his normal. I'm gonna get you And Carmelo
Hayes just kept dodging the hell out of it and
in fairness the one thing that I did put down
about this match is that sort of Hayes does his
best to put up a fight but sort of never really
poses a legitimate threat. No. And we've seen
that with Carmelo Hayes the last few weeks. He's
not a bad wrestler. He's not a bad character.
He's just a very talented in -ring superstar.
He's just not at the same level as somebody like
Randy Orton. And that's purely for the fact that
he just does not have the time in the ring that
Randy Orton has at the level that Randy Orton
had it. I mean this guy's 14 time world champion
or something like that? Something along those
lines. This guy has spent a lot of time with
gold around his waist. So he's going to have
a lot more experience than Carmelo Hayes. Not
knocking what Carmelo Hayes has done, he's held
a few titles himself. Not big titles, but he's
had some titles. Yeah, very much so. You asked
what he had at one point? I'm not 100 % sure
on that one, I will be honest. He's a former
one -time NXT champion. And he's a two -time
and longest combined reigning NXT North American
champion. And he had the final NXT Cruiserweight
reign as well. So he's had some gold. He may
not have had big gold, but he's held gold. I
suppose he's had the NXT championship. He's had
big gold too. Has he had the NXT championship?
According to Wikipedia, he is a former one -time
NXT champion. All right, okay. Not sure how much
I believe that, if I'm honest. Wikipedia is one
of those things that can be altered, sort of
thing. I'm literally going through Couple of
different sources I've got now. I've got here
trying to see if I can sort of See that somewhere
but Yeah, it's first title reign according to
what I can see here It's defeated Bronbreaker
in the main event of NXT stand and deliver 2023
All right April 1st 2023 Hayes defeated Breaker
in the main event of NXT standard deliver to
win the NXT championship Three months later on
NXT Hayes turned face after Breaker Enraged over
having lost the title Turned heel by faking a
share of respect and attacking Hayes. Yeah, so
basically he beat Breaker and Breaker turned
on him to to start that one. And then at NXT
Battleground, Hayes defended the title against
Breaker and then lost it. Retained against Corbin
at American Bash. Defended against Ila Dragnovic
at NXT. See, I misunderstood completely. I thought
we were talking about Randy Orton. I will be
honest. No, no. Carmelo Hayes has had the yeah,
and he lost it to Dragunov in a rematch later
on in the year So no mercy that was the one and
losing it NXT no mercy in 2023. So yeah, I Don't
know Randy Orton was main roster before NXT was
even swimming around in Vince's mind Yeah, maybe
W and Randy Orton was there well In OVW, Randy
Orton did have a few title runs, but nothing
of significance. The first title run he had on
main roster was as an Intercontinental title
holder, which he held for a total of 210 days
back end of 2003 to mid 2004. One of his shortest
reigns was less than a day, which has happened
to him twice. Once in 2007 where he won the WWE
heavyweight championship and lost it on the same
night Although according to what I'm reading
here in front of me. He may have won it back
again on the same night Because his second reign
is exactly the same date and lasted for two hundred
and three days after that he then also had a
world heavy Yeah, well, his fourth World Heavyweight
Championship reign lasted less than a day as
well. I'm surprised he didn't hold the 24 -7
title for less than an hour at some point. No,
so no 24 -7, although he's at least twice tag
team champ, no, three times tag team champions.
Four times tag team champions apologies Yeah,
that was his first tag team championship He was
then a smackdown tag team champion with Bray
Wyatt and Luke Harper as the Wyatt family Randy
Orton was yeah, he was draft. He was sort of
seconded into there at one point And then he's
had two runs with the Raw Tag Team Champions
with Matt Riddle as RK Bro. And actually one
of those WWE Tag Team Championships may have
actually been one of his last championship reigns
that he's had up to now. Yeah, so he's had a
fairly prominent career throughout the time.
But one man that we did not expect to see in
this match. We had a visit from Kevin Owens who
saved Carmelo Hayes from getting punk kicked
out of the arena and he throws Randy into a steel
post and then pisses off through the crowd To
finish that one off at the end. We then cut from
there into a Jacob Fatu I'm not I want to call
it a promo. It's not it. It's just Fatu being
Fatu basically calling out Braun Strowman and
saying that next week we're going to get another
match between Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman.
It's another one of these really ropey promos
he has a tendency to do that don't always make
a tremendous amount of sense. Yeah, I'm still
very much on the fence. very much on the fence
as to what it is that he is physically capable
of doing when it comes to cutting promos because
i don't believe that he's as capable as a lot
of people seem to think he is i feel there's
a lot more improvement needed there before he's
going to be sort of competent on the mic i think
a lot of it is more his anxiety to be fair um
i don't think he's as comfortable liking his
hand as he possibly could be. He's definitely
very comfortable in the ring. Someone else that
is also very comfortable in the ring is the man
that has held the World Heavyweight Championship
for the last 223 days with five defences of that
title in that time. We get the ring, general.
So just before this happened the tiniest of tiny
little things we did actually have the smallest
VT ever which just it was it was basically a
graphic we had a VT with some smoke and the number
four We know that these little vignettes are
normally a precursor to somebody appearing Yeah,
and the four with the smoke is normally a sign
that we're gonna see our group of masked amigos
Not necessarily because that's an NXT thing that's
not something we'd normally see on That's...
It can be. It's possibly an Aleister Black reference.
He's just left AEW and there are some rumours
floating around that he's going to make an appearance
back in WWE, but I don't think anything has been
confirmed yet. No, not yet. But yes, quite right.
After that happens, we do have a rare in -ring
promo for Friday Night Smackdown of... Gunther
coming out as he is Monday Night Raw's resident
heavyweight champion. He is. I think it was Gunther
that made a sly dig at the fact that it would
have been better if they were in Madrid. Yes.
Obviously Madrid and Barcelona have a lot of
rivalry with the fact that Real and Barcelona
are two of the biggest teams in Spanish football
at the moment. Yeah, pretty much. Gunther basically
comes out, runs down Barcelona, runs down his
WrestleMania opponent of Jey Uso. Yeet. And then,
in an odd move, hypes up a... I honestly didn't
realise that this guy was actually Spanish. I
didn't either. I'm not going to lie to you. I
didn't think he was Mexican, as a lot of people
would assume, but I always assumed he was American.
I will be honest. But yeah, I mean... So we've
seen recently Gunther since J1 the Royal Rumble
has been having some really obscure matches.
We've seen him have matches with Akira Tozawa
and Otis from Alpha Academy. Yep. Yep. I got
it right for once. And then, yeah, which I'm
not entirely sure. Those were more of the fact
that Gunther doesn't like clowns and people clowning
around because we saw those two plus Maxine Dupree
a few weeks ago making a TikTok video backstage
and that pissed Gunther off. That's why he had
the match with Akira Tozawa. And then this week
he calls out Axiom for a match from NXT. Yeah,
so Axiom is a one half of the NXT tag team. title
for Axiom with Nathan Fraser and yeah he uh before
he was a professional wrestler did you know that
Axiom played for Real Madrid? I didn't know that
actually but again as I said I didn't even realise
he was Spanish until he came out here yeah so
Axiom played for Real when he was younger I don't
actually know I can't tell you too much about
his football career because I don't know who
Axiom is to be able to go and do too much research
and I don't really want to ruin the luchador
thing by going off and telling you who he is
and what he did but I don't believe he was the
first team for Real. This one was actually like
I went into this match when they first brought
it out going great Gunther's gonna slap Axiom
around for about five minutes and then You know,
he'll throw him out and that would be the end
of that That was not the way this match went
down Axiom came in and put up a hell of a match
And to be fair like I remember saying this as
we were watching it Gunther wasn't gonna lose
this match and he doesn't but Axiom Gave enough
that he made his character stronger by taking
the loss then he did by letting them squash him
because Actually, he went and had a damn good
match against a singles champion in the next
division above I suppose And he still managed
to put on a hell of a show and do really really
well I mean The way to compare this I mean the
way that squash matches used to be and I'm gonna
Sort of use the divider of back in the Vince
McMahon era Squash matches used to use local
talent Nobody had ever heard of them probably
one of their first ever top televised matches
in front of a crowd that size Used to have the
guy come out. It was literally a couple of the
they used to get hit once Then probably have
a finishing move done on them. The match was
over in less than two minutes. And it was a really
good way of building up the WWE talent they were
trying to build up. And they didn't really lose
anything because the local talent they were using
were not WWE signed. They were sort of subcontracted
in. It didn't affect their character build in
their promotions, and they still got exposure.
There's nothing anybody's gonna know from a promoter's
point of view from that kind of a match We've
then got The squash matches that we that the
squash matches towards the end of the Vince McMahon
era when he was using in -house talent to bolster
other People and these were some big names that
used to get used for these squash matches. I
mean Dolph Ziggler was a famous one for having
squash matches against other WWE talent. And
it just used to completely destroy Dolph Ziggler's
credibility. Which is why he's now gone over
to, I want to say TNA. He's currently, I believe
he was the TNA main title holder, but he lost
his title to Joe Hendry. Well, he's currently
wrestling with his brother so he's wrestling
under the name of Nick Nemeth and with his brother
Ryan Nemeth and Yeah, I mean doing really well
over there Because he's been repackaged. He's
not this Dolph Ziggler this complete pushover
of a superstar anymore. It's It's a case that
this is how it's done, whereas now that we're
in the Paul Levesque Triple H era of his leadership
and how he's producing the content, it is a case
that even the squash matches are not as squashy
as they used to be. It's a case now that the
talent is protected by having a decent match
instead of just wham bam thank you ma 'am nice
easy payday sort of thing well yeah and um it
was nice to have actually it was definitely this
match was definitely a really really good quality
match as well which is like you said not something
you get from squash matches and this definitely
was not something we We could class that as because
Axiom was amazing. Missile drop kicks, he kicked
out power bombs. He hit Hurricane Rana off the
top rope and then a super kick for a two count.
Gunther was not going to let him win, but Gunther
took some damage, which is not something we're
used to seeing Gunther take. He did take some
against Otis, which really caught him off guard.
But I think, you know, with Axiom being a tag
champion, or a tag team title holder, sorry,
he was going to get a bit more of a match. Well,
I pointed out to you when we originally watched
this back, when we were originally watching this
live, that each week Gunther is having more and
more issue with the opponents he's facing. Which
we're led to believe that he's hand -selecting
himself, so... he knows what he's getting himself
in for but he's still continuing to have more
and more issue as weeks go on now we're still
a few weeks away from Wrestlemania we've still
got a little bit away to go and before he faces
Jey Uso on the grandest stage of them all are
we gonna see a point where he doesn't necessarily
have to lose but is he gonna come in one of these
little exhibition matches that he seems to be
putting on, are we going to see him come dangerously
close? I mean that's definitely a very strong
possibility. I think it's more than a strong
possibility personally. I think we are definitely
more likely to see that happen to him just because
it's It seems to be the trend and I don't know
if it's unintentional or what's going on but
Yeah, I'm seeing Seeing some definitely seeing
some cracks. I mean we've said from the get -go
the minute that Jey Uso won at Royal Rumble Jey
Uso is going on to win the title at WrestleMania
hands down definitely happening yeah and I think
what we're gonna do here is they're gonna put
Gunther in some slightly longer matches make
us see where his weak points are make him see
where we struggle or have him lose possibly a
week or two before WrestleMania in a squash match
they'll have someone go in and roll him I don't
know who it will be but I reckon I'll have a
non -title match someone will roll him and it
will knock his confidence and that will be what
it will need for Jay to then to win especially
if the person that knocks his confidence makes
an appearance at WrestleMania while Jay and Gunther
are having their match. Doesn't necessarily have
to interfere but just enough for them to clock
eyes and be like he kicked my ass. Shit. Long
enough for Jay to whack a couple of super kicks
and a spear in for the three count. Yeah, very
much so. Gunther won this one locked in a sleeper
hold on Axiom, but there was nobody there to
sort of come and save Axiom this week. I was
expecting Nathan Fraser to take a run out and
give his teammate a hand, but no, he was not
in the building. I see, I was expecting Jay Youssef
to come. Yeah, no. One thing I was not expecting
was an in -ring promo from Paul Heyman. So yeah,
this was this followed a VT recap in raw from
the steel cage match last week where gave Seth
Rollins a bit of a hiding and then went and said
hello to his friend CM Punk in the ring Yeah,
I don't think anyone was expecting expecting
that but again it is a case that we've got to
remember that CM Punk was a Paul Heyman guy before
a lot of other people were Paul Heyman guys sort
of thing it's pretty much yeah but Paul's not
here to talk about any of that He has declared
this night Roman Reigns Day. Do we know why he's
declared this specific day is Roman Reigns Day,
Adam? Well, Roman Reigns is the cover of 2K25
and this just happened when this goes out, when
this episode aired, it just so happened to be
the the official release day of 2k 25 so I mean
a number of people myself included have had access
to the game for a little bit well a little bit
longer than others mostly because they well no
it was anybody that pre -ordered I believe So
as long as you've got your pre -order in you
got up to seven days of early access But there
were some bits that were still roped off and
so this release date released access to things
like the island and And other such other such
bits of content like that. I believe Not 100
% certain on that, but yes Rains day and it is
not and ever and will never be Seth Rollins day
And he goes on to say how much he hates that
Seth Rollins intro entry song as the crowd starts
singing it If anyone has a problem, they can
take it up with Raymond Rains in Bologna Italy
next week And we get a little little conversation
from Wade Barrett. He's just throwing out there
Heyman does still owe CM Punk a favor and then
you know he goes on to say that in Bologna Italy
we've got a few other matches that have already
been lined up so we've got the Jade Cargill Liv
Morgan match that we've spoken about earlier
we have the Zalina Vega Piper Neven match which
we've mentioned and of course we have our Braun
Strowman versus Jacob Fatou match that we've
already mentioned and we have our, we have DIY
versus, no it's not DIY. Street Profits. No,
DIY versus Street Profits is next. There was
a combination of what happens with this match,
foretells, what goes on with the Number one contendership
and what goes on between DIY and Motor City machine
guns So like I said our last match and the main
event of this week's smackdown is Street Profits
versus DIY for the tag team titles And before
we get into the match we once again have a selection
of interviews and VTs. The first one we have
is a little backstage promo where Street Profits
bump into Legado Del Fantasma. Yeah, on their
way out to the ring who basically just wish them
luck because they would prefer to take the tag
team titles off Street Profits rather than DIY.
Which I mean I'm not 100 % sure on that logic
myself I'd probably rather face DIY because we
know a little bit more about them than Street
Profits who we've not seen for a little while
and we then see a big our big man Ginny Uso sat
backstage just sort of relaxing and Gunther comes
and sits down next to him and says that they
have some things in common asked if he watched
his match and uh he added a few cheap shots in
there about jay and how he choked him out like
a wet paper towel last week and uh he says basically
comes along to try and get jimmy to turn on jay
out of the match yeah pretty much like don't
let him don't let him do it he's gonna get absolutely
beaten and broken and no one wants to see that
happen and Big Jim pops off a little yeet and
Gunther said he was sorry he was mistaken for
what he said to Jimmy about Jay thinking that
Jimmy might actually want to help his brother
instead of watching him get destroyed anyway
and then we jump back into our main event of
the evening which is about to start and it's
started by Angelo Hawkins and Tommaso Ciampa.
Yeah and do you know I didn't get a fantastic
amount of notes for this match. I got a few but
I didn't get a huge amount purely for the fact
that A the fan and me took over and decided yeah
we'd come back and watch it a later date and
time is not allowed me to have that second watch
through. I did make note of a few different spots.
There was an assisted moonsault by the Street
Profits and Tomasa Ciampa kicked out as Dawkins
hits Gargano on the outside at the same time.
Tomasa Ciampa hits a rather nice running knee
on Montez Ford to throw him out of the ring at
one point. There was a 450 frog attempt for a
two count after it was reversed but again like
a lot of my notes are a little bit a little bit
iffy on this one. Got a little bit of trivia
for you Adam. Do you know who the first person
to attempt a 450 frog splash was? yes and the
reason I know this is because both a both me
and you have seen the same video and B I was
the one that told you probably so the answer
to your question is Scott Steiner it's not something
you expect to see from a guy that well built
but yeah no so back in the 70s or 80s I believe
you said it was he actually did a He did a 450
splash off the top rope the only difference is
is that he lands on his feet before hitting his
opponent and it was his way of basically protecting
his opponent as we've said on the podcast before
an Incredibly important skill for a professional
wrestler. It isn't just about kicking their ass
side points from this match that I think deserves
a mention is a At some point towards the end
of the match We see a pretty big fuck -up from
Johnny Gargano and he ends up super kicking Tommaso
Ciampa, which is his teammate right in the chops
Yes, and this isn't the first time we've seen
this happen either. No, it's not No, it's not.
I've seen a fair few faulty super kicks between
the two of them over the last couple of months.
Yeah, very much so. And this is where we've seen
sort of the cracks start to appear as we have
a tendency to see happen. And we've mentioned
that we've seen these cracks happening recently
as well, so we definitely know kind of... How
where this is going? Yeah, this is going to split
up DIY and it's going to send Johnny Gargano
and Tommaso Ciampa onto singles runs again. Possibly
against one another, I would imagine, but to
start that process off, they would first need
to drop those. Heskey tag titles, which unfortunately
for DIY happens. on this very evening as Street
Profits take the victory and become new Smackdown
tag team champions. Yep, they certainly do. It
means that the first step in the downfall of
DIY is done and we get a new tag run with Street
Profits which I hope are going to end up giving
us some... incredible incredible matches With
those titles around their shoulders Well feasibly
their first opponents are going to be the current
number one contenders pretty deadly and who knows
when we might see that that could be a Smackdown
before WrestleMania job, who knows? I mean it
definitely could be it could definitely be a
smackdown after WrestleMania job, too so Yeah,
that's going to be interesting to see what's
kind of going off with this one. Yeah, very much
so. But that takes me to the end of my notes
for this this week's Smackdown. Mine are pretty
much done as well. I will not lie to you. So
I think at this stage, it's important that we
obviously thank everybody for listening and make
sure you recommend as well. please get hold of
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you next time on Finishes and Factions does Monday
Night Raw from Brussels, Belgium. Yes, 100 %
where we will see the man who can't be seen.
Until then, let's not see you either. So we'll
speak to you all again soon. Thank you so much
for listening. Peace out. Enjoy. Bye.