Welcome back everyone to a new episode of Finishes
and Factions The Smackdown. This week we are
live from the O2 Arena in London and as normal,
myself Rich and my co -host Adam. Adam, welcome
in buddy. Acknowledge me. Ah, it's the tribal
chief reference. Yeah! I'm gonna try and come
up with a new one every time, so. I mean, are
we going old school eventually as well or are
we just sticking with the current ones? I will
eventually run out of ideas and have to go old
school, yes. What? And I'm not talking about
tightrope walking and then dropping my full body
weight on somebody either. No, definitely not.
Didn't think about that one when I mentioned
it. But hey, that was definitely something I
should have seen coming, I'm not gonna lie. So
should millions millions and millions of the
Rocks fans and the 20 ,000 Canaanites and What
is it 50 ,000 Hulkamaniacs, I think so depending
on how far we're going back Anyway, yeah, the
the big red machine the rock and the Hulk Hogan
and not running wild on this one brother No,
no, they are not but smackdown most certainly
was running wild in London's o2 arena this week
And to be fair what? It's the second to last
show on the European tour with a Monday night
raw also coming from the o2 arena on Monday And
this definitely set the tone for for what raw
hasn't stage for us Even though like we said
a few times I think Smackdown at the moment has
been the better programming and it definitely
started off that way. Oh Definitely it's a case
that it's just provided this Raw seems to be
made up of a lot of filler at the moment, which
is a bit of a shame As it's always been the flagship
show and they still call it the flagship show.
I just don't think it's I think it's more a bit
in there are weeks where it's more shit show
rather than flagship show yeah that's normally
when we have an extensive use of the same superstar
it tends to go downhill quite a lot but uh i
mean we had a really good start to this week's
episode um with the uh with the champ himself
Cody Rhodes joining us in the ring to break uh
break things off uh for the week Cody Cody roads.
Yeah, that's been going through my head all day
as well along with Roman Roman reigns in a Slightly
alternate version that we got a little bit later
on in the show when we got the contract signing
Yeah, that's it. That's that's all you're getting
for now. Um Between the crowd singing Cody Rhodes
his name and let's go Cena Cena sucks I love
Cody Rhodes little thing at the moment where
he comes down to the ring and he says London
What do you want to talk about and everybody
knows what we want to talk about at the moment?
We'll talk about what he's got to say about John
Cena, you know Not really that interested in
what Cody Rhodes had for tea last night Not really
no one's gonna turn around and be like hey, how's
Brandi? Nope, we want to know what you've got
to say about John Cena your opponent at WrestleMania
the man who's on a mission to beat Ric Flair's
record and get that 17th world title. I mean,
I'd quite happily ask about Brandy, but that
would be with less than innocent intentions,
to be quite honest. Yeah, fair enough, mate.
Fair enough. You got me there. But we don't get
to hear... Like him or loathe him, his wife is
hot. He's definitely punching above his weight.
Definitely. He's not the only one in Smackdown
that's punching above his weight either. CM Punk
is definitely punching above his weight. 100%.
I know they call him Chick Magnet Punk for a
reason, but yeah, he definitely realized that
he had to wipe that one up and did it quickly
with AJ. Definitely. Anyway, this is more digression
than I think we've had in the first five minutes
of an episode, so. Hey, we've broken a record.
Back on track We well, I mean, yeah, it's only
one person that can get us back on track to be
fair after After Cody's very small little segment
at the beginning kind of saying You know what
he want kind of asking the question and in saying
what he's got to say because we we get Randy
Orton come out to the ring pretty quickly as
well and again the London crowd do not disappoint
us singing the voices back at him and Yeah, a
lot of the superstars in this opening segment
took the opportunity just to sit back well actually
throughout the course of the program just to
sit and kind of take in this this London crowd
and The the engagement they had with it because
even Randy Orton took his time coming to the
ring Just kind of soaking it in and kind of like
it's ain't gonna get old anytime soon Well, this
is the last smackdown of the European tour. Yeah
because later on in the program they mentioned
that next week they're there in Chicago which
means that they're back in obviously back in
the states which means we are going to have a
big CM Punk presence and a CM Punk match next
week because CM Punk is from Chicago Illinois
yeah of course um and uh to his favorite pizza
place too but um but Yes, we did. We had the
Apex Predator himself come out to the ring and
I actually made a note of one thing that has
absolutely nothing to do with wrestling other
than the fact that it appeared in a SmackDown
ring and it's one of those little details that
apparently my brain latched onto because I found
it eternally funny. There were two guys in the
front row during this segment. I didn't notice
them throughout the rest of the episode because
honestly I never thought about it afterwards.
both of them wearing football tops so well soccer
tops one of them was in a villa shirt one either
dirty bastard The other one was wearing a blue
nose shirt. So they were literally stood shoulder
to shoulder. Yeah Directly next to one another
you have one of them in a village strip the other
one in the Birmingham City Football Club strip
which for those in our American listeners and
Australia as well, they are massive rivals The
reason I don't like them is because the football
team I support is from the same city. I'm a West
Bromwich Albion fan and those two teams are our
biggest rivals and they themselves are also massive
rivals. So the fact they were stood side by side
is a quite an interesting one. It'd be like putting
a Chicago Bears fan next to a Green Bay Packers
fan. It does happen, but they are gonna bitch
about it. The rivalry for the rivalry in this
season has sort of died down a little bit with
Birmingham City having been relegated One and
Villa have somehow managed to stay in the frickin
Premier League I don't really understand how
Aston Villa are one of the only English teams
left in the Champions League Right that says
something with Villa are still in the Champions
League and like Liverpool and not in it Arsenal
have gone Man United aren't in Europe anymore
So for Villa to be left, that's a that makes
me sick to my stomach Do you know actually while
we're talking about football teams I saw I saw
a video the other day again We're digressing
so far off so far off topic, but because we bought
it up. I can't not think about it is that I saw
a video where Plymouth Argyle has two different
fan bases They have a fan base in the UK in Plymouth
itself where the team is based. They also have
a fan base in Plymouth in the States. They do.
Who are also huge Argyle fans. They're both pilgrims.
I've found that eternally funny. Anyway, back
to wrestling. We're not here to talk about football.
So Randy Orton comes out to basically give Cody
Rhodes a bit of a big up. Which wasn't quite
what I was expecting to be fair. He kind of comes
out and says look You got a look at who Cody
Rhodes is as a person and where he's come from
within this industry He said, you know, Cody
wasn't happy with the way he was being treated
at WWE He didn't like what was going on. He wasn't
getting anywhere. So what did he do? He left
he worked on himself He went to the, you know,
he set up another company, which is now their
competitor in all elite wrestling. He went to
the top and got himself so over at AEW and on
the indie circuits that when he came back to
WWE, it continued and he's just grown further
and further and further on. So the point where
it kind of, you know, Randy goes on to talk about
his adversity. He brings up that quality match
that we had a few years ago where some Cody Rhodes
faced Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell with his
pectoral muscle torn pretty much off his chest
by the time he finished that match. Like I've
had some injuries myself over the years and I
couldn't think of how painful that is and that
guy is still wrestling a match with a oh and
it looked disgusting too. This is it. It's it
looked gnarly as fuck. And yeah, this is just
it's a side of Randy Orton. We don't see very
regularly. It's the warm, fuzzy side of Randy
Orton, which we really, really don't see very
often. It's not something we're accustomed to.
No, definitely not. It's the legend killer, the
apex predator, the viper, the You know, he's
not the cuddly teddy bear. When you think of
Randy Orton, you don't think of, oh, gummy, gimme,
gimme, gimme, and grabbing his cheeks. You're
thinking of RKOs off the top of steel cages,
off backflips. I was going to say, if you're
going to try and do anything like that, then
yes, you probably are going to end up with an
RKO of some description. Yes. I mean, definitely.
But, yeah, it was kind of interesting to see
because obviously this is You know randy goes
on to say how kody's in charge of his own legacy
And that he uh, he loves and respects kody and
is really proud of what he's done But now it's
it's wrestlemania time and because it's wrestlemania
time This was the perfect opportunity for randy
orton to bring up his match at wrestlemania and
uh Basically saying he's got his match against
kevin owens and he cannot wait to kick Kevin
Owens head all over Las Vegas. While at the same
time, he thinks Cody Rhodes is gonna be whooping
John Cena all over the Vegas strip too. But.
I mean, I think we're all hoping for it realistically.
Oh, you know what? I mean, I'd love to see Randy
punt Kevin Owens head that hard. It literally
does pop off his shoulders. On the other hand.
I'm in John Cena's corner rooting for him to
win that title I just want to see someone I just
want to see someone wipe the smug fucking grin
off Ric Flair's face which therefore in turn
Wipes that smug fucking grin off Charlotte Flair's
face because her daddy isn't number one anymore
Juan Cena will be and if we can wipe Charlotte
Flair's smile off her face That means that Tiffy's
got more of an opportunity to retain that title
and I am rooting for Tiffy So I like how you
sort of connected all the dots there the only
thing that I'm gonna sort of rain on your parade
with is that I've seen an interview with Charlotte
Flair recently where they talked to her about
oh what happens if If Sina breaks daddy dearest
record sort of thing and she go and she basically
just turns around and says well then I'm breaking
his record so If because her idea her Charlotte
flair wants to wants to be the one to break her
father's record Yeah world titles held and Yeah,
I can sort of understand that But either way,
it sounds like we could end up with a flare on
top regardless Skeletor looking bitch. I mean,
yeah allegedly I'm gonna throw that out there
for legal reasons. Allegedly she looks like she's
a skeletal looking bitch But talking about bitches
Right after Randy Orton has finished telling
everyone about what he wants to do to Kevin Owens
We get WWE's biggest bitch come out and I'm not
talking about the Miz either I'm talking about
Drew McIntyre. He does come out later, but this
time we're talking about Drew McIntyre and how
he comes back out to the ring to do yet more
crying about how Randy hasn't done anything since
his big amazing return and that he's had more
people talking about his five -minute title reign
than they've ever spoken about Randy Orton's
whole career. Bullshit. I call bullshit. We've
spoken more about Randy Orton's career on this
podcast than we have Drew McIntyre's five -minute
title reign. So bullshit. So it's not Randy Orton's
career. It's more his comeback His comeback for
this time is it so Drew's is saying that We've
that people are talking more about his five -minute
title reign than Randy Orton's comeback since
since Elimination chamber Yes. Well, I'm going
to hold off the vulgar joke that I have sat on
the tip of my tongue just this once because we've
got a little bit more of this episode to go into
and we don't need my cheap jokes this far into
it. Well, Drew doesn't just sort of go after
Randy Orton's comeback. One of the things that,
again, my brain really latched onto because...
Yeah, I can't really sort of - Adam Risen with
the tism while watching SmackDown this week.
Well, it was just the fact that he managed to
call both Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, he called
them both nepo babies. Right. It just enriched
to me that the biggest crier in WWE is calling
somebody else a baby. Oh yeah. It is slightly
ironic but don't worry Drew will continuously
cry until Drew McIntyre gets what he thinks he's
earned but he's not on the indies anymore and
he's definitely not being given the push he was
back there I don't know he's to be fair he's
on a pretty solid push at the moment but it's
not really not really leading anywhere for him
there's no title shots no title opportunities
at the moment coming Drew McIntyre's way and
it has been a while I'd say it's been a while
since McIntyre had a title. About a year? He
was champion at WrestleMania last year, wasn't
he? As both him and Cody came out of WrestleMania
as champions. For five minutes, yeah. But until
he got cashed in on. So he didn't come out of
WrestleMania as a champion. He went in not being
a champion. He won the championship, lost it
again, and then came out without his championship
even so. Yeah, fantastic. I mean, almost as thrilling
as... We're sort of just proving his point at
this stage. Yeah, let's not do that too much.
He does mention at some point that, as normal,
it should be Drew McIntyre versus Cody Rhodes
for the title. As he is the UK's only ever champion
which again, I'm gonna dispute because Actually,
I don't think I can use that one Now I'm gonna
have to put that dispute down because I was gonna
call Seamus English and that's very offensive
because he's Irish I Mean he's any Scottish when
he's when he's winning his English when he's
losing but like Andy Murray's before Well, yeah,
this is it Except normally with Andy Murray.
It's the other way around when he was actually
competing. He's retired now I did find it quite
funny how the London crowd did pick on the Scottish
wrestlers a little bit I'll get into it a little
bit further on but they did have a few words
to say during pipe and Nevins match that the
Netflix and WWE had to edit out which made the
Commentary a little bit hard to follow I've got
to admit, I must have completely blanked on that
one. So I look forward to hearing about that.
But yeah, it doesn't take long for Drew to bring
everything round to his own problems that he's
been having with the Temu version of the Undertaker.
Was it guy liner wearing Temu version Undertaker?
Which I thought was fucking hilarious, to be
fair. Considering... You know that Damian Priest
himself was trained by Mark Calloway He's just
as good as he's definitely not a T -Moe version
No, I think that was more aimed at his look than
anything else if I'm completely honest But yeah,
it's a case that Drew just thought starts really
trying to prod at different areas to see where
he can get a reaction And he did get one to be
fair The person I expected No, so Drew poked
at Randy Orton a little bit saying and it won't
be him that takes the title off Cody Rhodes It'll
be Drew McIntyre Yeah, he explains the pathways
He makes a pass at the fact that it was He was
making a pass at it potentially being Is it could
be Randy Orton's last ever WrestleMania if his
back doesn't hold out basically Yeah, pretty
much. He says Randy Orton's only jacked on the
outside because the inside his back is shattered
The word I used in my notes is fucked, but that
is not the word that came out of Drew McIntyre's
mouth. Basically, Randy Orton's back is destroyed
and Drew McIntyre will break it if needed. At
which point he then turns his attention to Cody
Rhodes. I didn't make a note of what was said
to Cody. I did make a note of Cody Rhodes punching
Drew McIntyre square in the mouth. And I don't
think he ever actually got any words out to Cody
before basically he decided No, I've heard enough
Yeah, so Cody hits him in the mouth Randy Alton
goes for an RKO, but Drew McIntyre manages to
Wiggle his way out of it like the dirty little
rat bastard he is and makes his way up the entrance
ramp looking back at the guys in the ring with
utter disgust before we run into a WrestleMania
VT. Now I'm not 100 % sure what the contents
of the VT about WrestleMania were because I didn't
make a note of it. I was more into trying to
catch up on my notes from the end of the promo
when the VT was playing. So Adam, did you get
any notes on what this VT WrestleMania VT had
content wise? No, I did not because when I watched
it through it had no relevance to any storyline
Yeah, so that makes our life a bit easier there
was a WrestleMania BT I'm guessing it was probably
just giving you the dates and some of the announced
matches that we've already got Before it is announced
that tonight we are getting a match between Randy
Orton and Drew McIntyre before We get taken into
our first match of the evening. I'll wait for
Adam to say if I've missed something. Nope. Nope.
Yeah. So we get taken into the first match of
the evening, which is a tag team title match,
which is Street Profits who come in as the current
champions versus Pretty Deadly. And Pretty Deadly
are wrestling in their, not their hometown, so
to speak, but this is their home show for all
intensive purposes on this uh wrestlemania road
to wrestlemania european tour um which i've seen
a lot of people complaining about on social media
about why they've done a european tour in the
road to wrestlemania a lot of people are speculating
it's because cena was filming in hungary and
it was easier for him to be able to fly to Few
European dates cut a promo disappear back to
Hungary to carry on filming then it was for him
to fly to America for a week or so the last three
weeks were they two weeks will I've been on the
tour and then lose that filming time I think
a lot of the backlash from having for the fans
have had about Like the European tour is more
I'm going to be honest, it's more the Americans
who have had to... Basically their watch times
have been completely screwed because of the time.
It's been putting them on at like three o 'clock
in the afternoon and one o 'clock in the afternoon
depending on which location in America you're
in. You can't sit down and do it either. It must
annoy them. But at the same time I had this exact
I had I remember very explicitly having an argument
with an online last year with a An American WWE
fan who really went to town on the fact that
how inconvenient it was for him at the fact that
it was like they were in the middle of a european
tour at the time all of america's watch times
were thrown out of whack and they were having
to like get up ridiculously early to try and
to try and watch the show basically i remember
saying yeah it's almost as if the european fans
don't we have to do that every week if i wanted
to sit and i will not lie to you I do not watch
these episodes live purely for the fact that
they're on at one o 'clock in the morning for
me and for Adam as well we both have jobs family
commitments I can't be sitting watching wrestling
from one o 'clock to four o 'clock in the morning
and then straight recording a podcast until six
o 'clock in the morning to then start doing school
running the rest of my day I never see my pillow
and me and my pillow have a half decent relationship
I don't want to know what you do with your pillow,
mate. I just like sleeping with my pillow, to
be fair, but I don't get enough time with it
as it is. No, this is it. But yeah, no, it's
so I think a lot of the backlash is from really
salty American fans that are having to wait and
die. I think I think I've seen that. I've seen
that it's been like nine o 'clock in the morning
in some cases When they've had to when they when
the show's been going out It just doesn't You've
no room to complain when Let's say 42 out of
the 52 weeks a year that WWE tours the states
repeatedly Right there for another for another
five or six weeks you have to Maybe miss watching
it live and watch it on catch -up instead Because
you guys have got families and jobs and school
runs and things like that to do. I mean Yeah,
no, I'm not gonna say what I was about to say
but yeah, it just I think it's a lot of very
salty American fans that have just that become
incredibly, I'm gonna use the word entitled to
the fact that WWE is an American corporation
that will ever so occasionally do European tours
and things like that. I mean, there's another
one planned for - August. For the summer, so.
But yeah, I mean, after this match, there was
a lot of salty English wrestling fans because,
well. as nice as it was to see Pretty Dadly in
the ring and they did put on a very solid performance
against a very strong Street Profits. They were
unlucky enough this time to not walk away with
the win but they, like I said, they put up a
hell of a fight and there were some brilliant
moves in there that I've picked up. I got at
one point that One of the members of pretty deadly
hit spear while the other guy hit a sling blade
and So someone referred to it on commentary as
a move called spilt milk on Yeah on Angela Hawke
on Angelo Hawkins Angela Hawkins. Yep Didn't
realize they were doing mixed tag matches Yeah,
no, and Montez Ford saved the count on that one
by throwing his body in the way to get the shoulders
off the mat for his teammate. And again, I seem
to remember Pretty Deadly doing something similar
with a move that the Street Profits were trying
to pull off where you had one of Pretty Deadly
push the other one out the way and literally
take the bullet for him. He did. I made a note
of that, actually. There is a section where Montez
Ford comes off the top rope to hit, I'm guessing
it was a, I think it was a splash or an elbow,
but Kit Wilson pushed his partner, rolled his
partner out of the way and took the shot. And
Elton Prince then got the roll up on Montez Ford
for a two count with that section of the match,
which to be fair was really nicely timed wrestling.
We go back to this quite often and say there
was there was a lot of really good technical
Wrestling in this but these guys for the the
high flying moves they were doing it was all
so well scripted and timed it was Yeah, it was
a lot of these moves pretty much hit to perfection
to be fair So again when we talk It was pretty
simple to see in my view at least that this that
while Yes, Pretty Deadly were on home turf for
all intent and purpose. They were never realistically
going to win this match. It didn't make sense
in the grander scheme of things for them to win
the title at this stage. I mean, me and you had
more of a chance to win the title this time round
because Street Profits have only had it for,
what, two weeks? They are not dropping that title
off that team. Two weeks before mania two three
weeks before mania if that title is not changing
hands again Because that is going to completely
discredit the team that go into WrestleMania
with it Because of how many times it would have
changed hands in the buildup to WrestleMania
So that that title those titles have to stay
with street profits until at least WrestleMania
and as far as I'm aware I could be wrong, but
I believe that hasn't actually had a match set
for those tag team titles yet at WrestleMania.
That could be wrong, but it's not one that I
remember going, oh, Street Profits are facing
DIY at WrestleMania. That's going to be such
and such. I just pulled that one out of my ass
as an example. But yeah, I don't think their
match has been announced yet, so they're definitely
not going to have those titles dropped when they're
still building a storyline for WrestleMania.
Yeah, no nothing has been announced just yet
pretty deadly had this match this week because
they were the number one contenders for it Yeah,
I'm not sure now that they have I've sort of
had their shot who would be sort of next in line
But the idea is is that pretty deadly now go
to the back of the queue. I think guessing it's
Los Garza Yeah, because I'm only going with Los
Garza purely for the fact that we saw a Backstage
promo. I believe it was last week could have
been the week before with DIY and So Johnny Gargano
and Tommaso Ciampa with motor city machine guns,
so Chris Saban and Alex Shelley basically Alex
the Motor City machine guns told them welcome
to the back of the queue for the titles So the
only other teams I could think of apart from
those two DIY and um pretty reckless uh pretty
deadly sorry and the the holder of street profits
is los gaza yeah i feel like there's another
one that we're forgetting but i want to say it's
like american alpha academy no they're on um
they're on raw yeah hunk and tank aren't broad
nxt yes yes they are um yeah no i can't think
of another one i'm sure it will become evident
as time goes on anyway yes so street profits
finished this one off with a double team it was
a doomsday blockbuster for a three count so they
retained their title that way and then adam what
happened next so we go from that match into a
into a backstage promo, which sees a couple of
people that we haven't seen a massive amount
of, especially in the time that we've been doing
this podcast, in a case that brought to the point
that I had to Google who the fuck they were.
Just because, again, we haven't seen a massive
amount of them. No, this is it and so that we
were referring to is Hayden Carter on a chance
We're talking with Zelina Vega backstage about
her match last week, which she had with Piper
Niven Basically discussing the the the ever -present
numbers game that goes with when you're in a
one -on -one competition whether it be with Chelsea
green herself or a member of the secret her this
Yeah, and We've seen a lot of Chelsea green the
secret her this the last few few weeks In different
places because they've been making appearances
everywhere They have been making the rounds in
all fairness. It's 100 % but yeah so they were
discussing discussing about this when they were
joined by well alba fire and piper niven to begin
with yeah they coming clear the room making it
safe uh chelsea green to enter stupid well um
but uh they basically come in make a couple of
short jokes at selena vega's expense and then
we have um Chelsea Green herself join join in
and Yeah, continue to make these fucking chokes
at Selena Vegas expense realistically I mean
I think despite Selena Vega having lost the match
last week I think she's still being viewed or
trying to be portrayed in contendership for For
the United States champion championship and I'll
be honest I would really like to see the belt
on her because yeah I'm sort of past the yeah
the gimmicks tired now it's that they've played
it to death for me and as much as I enjoy watching
Chelsea Green wrestle because I think she's she
is an incredibly talented individual Just not
a fan of the gimmick. I have seen on social media
that Chelsea Green's husband is Due to be making
an appearance on AEW soon for a match against
Adam Cope So we're gonna see Matt Cordana on
AEW again. I Think it's just a one. It's just
a one -off. I've seen that on social media today
That'd be an interesting much Might be one I'll
have to go to YouTube to have a little look out
afterwards. Um So the end of this promo basically
finishes with Caden Carter and Katana chance
Having setting up a match against the secret
her this later on today But so that's yeah can
be Caden Carter and Katana chance versus Piper
Nevin and Albert fire we then go into a BT This
I'll tell you what it is and then I'll get into
the reasons why I really dislike this WWE this
year for the first time are inducting matches
into the Hall of Fame And the first one that
they are going to be inducting into the Hall
of Fame was the Stone Cold Steve Austin Bret
Hart match from WrestleMania 13 If you haven't
seen it, it's on Netflix. You can go and find
it It's a hell of a match. Definitely, definitely
Hall of Fame worthy. But the reason I don't like
the fact that adding matches into the Hall of
Fame now is because I feel like they've run out
of wrestlers they want to put into a Hall of
Fame and they're just trying to find things to
fill the slots. I mean there is going to be an
element of that in it I think and yeah I think
we'd be silly to dismiss it in any way shape
or form just because yeah it's I do and I don't
like the fact that they've they're putting matches
into it because there are it gives them a whole
lot of scope for What for them to put so much
more into the Hall of Fame as it goes It's a
case It's a case that I'm sort of in the same
boat. I don't think matches are such I think
you're gonna end up because there are so many
matches I could think of that would be worthy
of Hall of Fame entry just off the top of my
head the first one that came to mind was Undertaker
and mankind in the Hell in a Cell match Yeah,
and we're then going to end up with we've got
a few Two -time Hall of Fame entrance for different
reasons and things like that Which isn't a bad
thing because it gives that it gives different
different superstar setups a recognition that
they do deserve. We've also got the celebrity
wing of the WWE Hall of Fame where they've inducted
different celebrities in such as I think Snoop
Dogg was inducted I think actually the current
US president has been inducted. I'm sure Donald
Trump's the celebrity Hall of Fame here. And
nothing against this Celebrity Hall of Fame at
all. I like the idea but this match idea we're
going to end up with like how many of let's for
instance let's take Ric Flair Undertaker Kane
just as three people that I can think of off
the top of my head they are all three are already
if not If they haven't been inducted already
they soon will be they are each gonna be two
time Hall of Fame entrance The first two I mentioned
definitely are Kane I'm a little bit unsure of
He's in with the Brothers of Destruction Same
with Undertaker Undertaker has been inducted
now I'm not sure if Kane has No, this is it and
this is where I'm unsure but let's take Rick
Flair and Undertaker both prolifically good superstars.
Oh yeah, Kane was class of 2021. Oh was he? Okay,
fair enough. So all three prolifically good superstars,
hence the reason why they are two -time Hall
of Fame inductees. How many more rings can they
fit on their fucking fingers before it becomes
a problem? I don't know, but Ozzy Osbourne's
a WWE Hall of Famer as well. He's got some rings
on his fingers as it is, so I think he'd probably
need a few more fingers. And yep, Donald Trump
is definitely on that list as well. Kid Rock
is as well. Oh wow, okay. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
on the list, but he also used to be a wrestler,
so yeah. No, he was a bodybuilder. I'm pretty
sure he was active within the wrestling ring
for a little while with WWE though. I'm sure
he did something No, don't think he was Not to
the best of my memory anyway He might have done
some like some celebrity spots at some point,
but I don't think he was ever like I Don't think
we're ever gonna find Regular match card entries
for him or anything like that Not that I can
think of I could be wrong But yes, regardless
anyway, it's a case that where does it end? pretty
much so we're gonna end up with some superstars
that are 27 time inducted and it just it then
Loses what makes it special to begin with in
my view. Yes But yeah, I mean it's WWE's Hall
of Fame they do with it what the fuck they want
and at the end of the day it's But yes that takes
us into our That takes us into our second. Oh,
actually it doesn't we get a small backstage
clip of Paul Heyman getting out the back of a
black SUV joined by Roman Reigns at the front
before they wander off into the building and
then we go into our First match of the day. I'm
sorry second match of the day Which was Kayden
Carter and Katana chance versus the secret service
of Piper Nevin and Albert fire Accompanied to
the ring by Chelsea Green Yeah Now I'll be honest.
I'm not 100 % certain what how I felt about this
match to be quite honest It wasn't a bad match
but again, I have my own feelings about the secret
herviss and I know I think they've sort of they
may have overplayed their hand a little bit with
it, but having said that Very competitive match.
It was very nice. It was actually nice to see
Caden a chance to see Caden and Katana In the
ring sort of things it because again as we mentioned
earlier on the last time they were involved in
in ring competition It was back in December of
last December of last year. So it was the last
time we saw them in a match in match inside the
the squared circle other than that we have not
seen them at all which seems honestly a crying
shame for them because they certainly put on
a what I view to be a clinic in terms of in terms
of what it was that they've done in the ring
I mean let's see what have I got so Did you get
the Samoan drop that Carter popped on Piper Nevin?
I Didn't make a note of that. I do remember seeing
it, but I don't remember I didn't make a note
of it right without being Disrespectful Piper
Nevin is a big girl. We know this right? Yes,
but the fact that someone managed to pick her
up You know Caden Carter's not a big girl right?
She's not as built as Jade Cargill she you know,
she's your average sized wrestler average -sized
person and she just yeah the way she dropped
like Samoan drops Piper Nevin like she's just
a bag of sugar. Yeah, what I It was mental and
they yeah do a really cool double team move as
well. It's called the kickstand One of them they
basically end up like in a vertical base between
them, like they were going to do a suplex of
some kind, but they stop it at the top. And I
can't even describe where it goes from there.
But it was just, it was a really cool little
move that they pulled onto Piper Nevin for a
two count that Alba Fire had to break up with
a jumping onto the, onto the count, onto the
two wrestlers while they were being counted.
But I'm the things I noticed in this match. Do
you not so when it when it comes to this like
the secret service I Feel that pipe and even
sort of took a bit of a backseat with this one
out before I did a lot of the heavy lifting for
this in my in my view or No, you are correct,
I would I would agree with you you are correct
this week that our book our fire was doing a
lot of the legwork But in previous weeks, we've
seen Piper Nevin do more of the legwork than
Albifire. So I think between the two of them,
they're just trying to help each other out by
keeping each other fresh. You know, one person
takes more of the legwork this time, they're
going to be feeling a little bit rougher for
next week, but the other person's still going
to be pretty fresh. And then they just keep it
going. So they're rehab time. So you basically
you get two matches where you're like precious
a daisy every month. or every rotation so to
speak so yeah i mean it's sensible that's the
way i do it anyway but i mean albify did take
a beating and considering we haven't seen kaden
carter and katana chance on finishes and factions
yet their last match was actually in december
um they didn't really have much ring rust they'd
look pretty good didn't they Definitely. Really
enjoyed what I saw of them. I'm looking forward
to seeing more. Yeah, definitely. I'm hoping
this is something we see continuously. I know
the women's tag division is quite stacked, but
these guys look like they've got a decent chance
to push up the leaderboards a little bit and
maybe get a few matches for number one contendership.
They might not necessarily pull off, but definitely
get a couple of opportunities to go to B. Try
and become a number one contender for the women's
tag titles at some point Well, I certainly think
they'd be able to put on a decent match with
current champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
Yeah, so But yeah, it was a case that this match
itself the match wasn't particularly long, but
again, it's Comes down to what happens after
the match rather than anything else So There's
a we've seen a lot in terms of like the secret
service and Chelsea Green. There's a lot of miscommunication
normally between Between the service members
and we saw that again this week where so I wouldn't
this Is it a miscommunication? Because she was
on target until the target moved, basically.
But by the time the target had moved, she hadn't
got any way of being able to adjust it. And what
I'm talking about here is that Piper Niven delivers
a Swanton drop to end up actually delivering
it to Albert Fire. rather than I think it was
Katana Chance who was due to take that bump and
decided nope. That's not something I'd want to
take either to be fair. No I can't say I'd be
I'd be all up for taking that either to be quite
honest I feel like I'd probably have a well I'd
probably have the similar similar injuries to
JD McDonner at this point. A couple of broken
ribs and a punctured lung. I mean, yeah, we wouldn't
know how to take the move So we would get hurt
in the process of doing that where these guys
are trained professionals and do know how to
take these moves therefore Don't get hurt unless
you are JD McDonough and you decide to rag dolly
yourself in the midair then I'm off the announce
table the fact that I Got up and walked away
He finished the match like I thought Guide pretty
much near decapitated himself on the announce
table gets up and finishes the match, but absolutely
nuts But now this match finished by Chelsea Green
Distracting the referee while pipe and Nevin
hits the pipe bomb It's pipe bomb or piper bomb.
I'm not 100 % sure. I think pipe bomb sounds
a little bit better for a three count I think
commentary described it as a Niven driver Then
I completely ruin that one. Okay Yes, so that
brings the three count and then after the three
count the two members of the secret her this
and our current women's United States champion
Decide to give Kayden Carter and Katana chance
a little bit of a beat down afterwards Up until
we get an interference, well it's not an interference
or such, it was more of a rescue from Adam's
favourite SmackDown superstar at the moment,
Zelina Vega. I wouldn't necessarily call her
a favourite, I'm a big advocate for her in the
sense that I just don't think she's been booked
very well up to this point. I think she's got
loads more to give. Yeah, it's nice to see her
getting a push at long last, a push on her own,
rather than a push with a faction of some kind,
which is what Rawl were doing with her up to
the transfer window. But yeah, Zelina Vega seems
to clean house with the Hervis, and then she
gets the hands of the champion herself, as Chelsea
green basically. It's actually nice to see Chelsea
Green getting her hands dirty for once and not
just relying on the hervist to sort of take care
of everything for her. Kind of had to to be fair
because Selena Vega had already dispatched the
hervist and it was literally just her and Chelsea
Green left. Yeah unfortunately Chelsea Green
managed to keep hope alive until Niven and Alba
Fire had managed to Recover enough to come and
help her but and Zelina Vega is left once again
laid out in the middle of the ring Alba fire
hits a super kick on Selena Vega and then Piper
Nevin hits a well, I've got it down as a running
power bomb but it was more of a she Cannonball
kind of run out her and then just sent on Running
sent on is that what you'd agree with? Yeah,
I think so. Yeah, there we go trying to get that
one right so we go from that one into a little
backstage Tiny little thing where we watch LA
night walk towards gorilla With his United States
title hanging over his shoulder Over shoulder
around his waist. He's got his title with him
as he walks out to his for his match to defend
the United States title against the biggest SOB
in the WWE, Mr. Braun Strowman. Yeah, and this
matchup is actually really looking forward to.
Again, big fan of the megastar. Mike works fantastic.
Big fan of Braun Strowman as well, to be fair.
Yeah. I'm I was about to say exactly the same
thing. It's not taking anything away from the
fact that Braun Strowman is I mean He is for
all intent and purpose he's an attraction wrestler
the guy looks as though he's about as big as
a telegraph pole. Yeah and Yeah, I mean he has
had some absolutely phenomenal matches, but he
is not like traditional Attraction wrestlers.
So when we'd look at attraction wrestlers, we're
talking like one of the most famous attraction
wrestlers was Andre the giant the big show These
guys didn't have rate calling matches Yeah, they
didn't have long extended matches. It was a case
that they came out demolished and Left. Yeah,
it wasn't they didn't have the build for prolonged
match types. Now, Andre the Giant definitely
fits that bill. Great Carly definitely fits that
bill. But Big Show, little bit different. And
again, Braun Strowman, we've seen clips of him
throwing announce chairs directly, like directly
at Roman Reigns at one point. And we've seen
in ragdoll superstars like Brock Lesnar. Are
we also forgetting that we have seen this motherfucker
flip an ambulance with Roman Reigns in it? Is
it Roman Reigns or John Cena? We've also seen
him pull apart part of the ring, like the entrance
set. he's pulled down a full like full scaffolding
on top of I forget who he was wrestling but I
remember watching him take a rope that had been
tied to this like 16 foot tall lot of I can only
describe it a scaffolding and he literally pulled
the damn thing over. Also pretty sure we've seen
him bend cars like break car doors off for fun
as well yeah i mean the guy is to say he's built
like a brick shithouse is pretty much insulting
like shithouses at this point this guy is huge
before we get too much into this match there's
a couple of vts that we uh adam probably didn't
make too many notes on because they weren't too
relevant to anything inside the ring um We had
a quick little VT about Stephanie McMahon's new
programming, Stephanie's Place. They've got 10
episodes of that WWE original on ESPN+. The first
one I believe was with CM Punk. They also showed
us a couple of people that were in the crowd.
Lewis Capaldi was in the crowd. Unfortunately,
he is a massive Drew McIntyre fan. Well, they
are both Scottish so it was kind of obvious that's
where that was going And then they showed us
a gentleman by the name of Oban Elliott who is
the UFC welterweight prospect from Wales currently
on an eight win streak in the UFC and One thing
I have just remembered from the previous match
that I forgot to add in at one point during the
match if you watch the edited version the London
crowd were chanting If you hate Scotland, stand
up and fuck off Scotland. Because Piper Nevin
is Scottish and the crowd in London were ruthless
bastards. But yeah, because of the editing and
the loudness of the crowd, the commentary kept
cutting out during that match at one point for
the fuck off Scotland chant. because Netflix
don't allow the word fuck on some of their programming
unless they put it up to a certain age rating.
And that is not what WWE's contract is. It's
a PG rating. Yeah, this is it. But yeah, we we
went into this match for the United States title
between LA Knight and Braun Strowman after those
series of events. And Adam's going to Let us
know a little bit about that much to start off
with I mean I didn't get a huge amount of notes
of like There wasn't a huge amount of spots in
this match the only one that I really sort of
made note of was the fact that We see sort of
in quite typical Braun Strowman fashion He very
much sort of overpowered LA night. LA night was
trying to fight Braun Strowman on an equal footing
when I was very much the underdog in terms of
strength at least It would take three LA nights
to build one Braun Strowman. Yeah But having
said that LA night the crazy fucker still managed
to deliver a backdrop to Strowman got him off
the floor after a couple of attempts and It was
more of an angle slam to be fair, but yeah, even
still he got him up and he dropped him like a
deuce You know, um, I got a couple of different
ones here. I've uh I got the fact that um brawn
stroman went to run at la night at one point
and la night grabbed the top rope and dropped
himself down and sent brawn stroman To the outside
and then kicked him in the face for doing so
Oh fair enough, okay I also got that LA Knight
hit a bulldog from the second rope to finally
drop the monk's man on his knees. Sorry, I just
sneezed and it's aggravating my nose. There was
quite a nice little elbow drop at one point from
LA Knight onto Braun Strowman for a two count.
And again at one point Braun Strowman reversed
and attempted BFT And LA Knight pretty much just
got tossed out of the ring at this point onto
the outside of the of the arena There was an
attempt for the Strowman Express now I will say
an attempt LA Knight was on the outside Braun
Strowman was a running the train was gathering
speed but as he rounded that last corner before
LA night he bumped into a flying Jacob Fatu who
appeared it from out of the crowd and in very
much a you know an out of nowhere um sort of
lineup but yeah he basically flying elbowed Braun
Strowman and then uh give him a bit of a whoop
down To then finish it off with well finish this
specific section of the work that whooping Off
with a some moment. He's some moment dropped
Braun Strowman onto the announce table like Basically
just picked up a car and dropped it backwards
Yeah, so we've been We've been down on Jacob
Fatu for a little while because of the no selling.
And don't get me wrong, the no selling still
bothers me now. I don't like the fact that they've
given him the ability to do that and they've
given him the license to do that. Just like to
put out there that I have not gone down on Jacob
Fatu. What Adam has done in his own time is up
to him. Childish fuck. Yeah Yeah, we we've seen
a lot of these two going off against each other
but for this The fact that Braun Strowman is
again twice the size of Jacob Fatu For the fact
that Fatu just kind of picks him up and drops
it and then kind of walks it off is a little
bit like, yeah Like the no selling for Fatu I
think is just part of him now. We're not he's
not gonna change that He's been doing it for
too long. He even did it before he came to WWE.
So it's not something he's learned to do at WWE
No, and that's only from I don't agree with it
at all do not agree with it at all But I only
know about his previous stuff because I've watched
a few matches on YouTube Where I've seen like
things suggested and just kind of got But We
we see I'm getting fed up with watching Jake
and Fatou and Braun Strowman just go at it. I
really am Finish it already It's It doesn't seem
like it's a program they're quite finished with
yet and we'll get to that in a moment because
they're That basically the the men's United States
Championship match was ended in a no contest.
Yeah which is a little bit odd because I know
it's down to referees discretion as to how they
end it but because Jacob Fatu the first person
he attacked was Braun Strowman it could have
been a DQ it could have technically been a DQ
win for Braun Strowman on that effect it wouldn't
have won him the title but they could have done
it that way instead but I'm guessing there's
a reason behind why they've just written it off
as a no contest and maybe Braun Strowman will
get another shot at LA Nights somewhere down
the line. Who knows? We might see that in Chicago.
We might not. Potentially. I doubt it, but potentially.
We go from that match into a VT recap of one
of my favorite moments yeah this is the uh the
clip that went viral from uh chimmy uso where
to quote the the uso's cousin he slapped the
lips off a gunther and i mean adam sent me some
tiktoks throughout the week since Monday Night
Raw, including this slap and the Bruno Mars one
was fucking hilarious. There have been some absolutely
phenomenal ones. I mean, it was described during
the during what happens next by Jackie Redmond
as the slap heard around the world and I'm sorry,
I completely freaking agree. I do. That thing
was a thing of beauty. That was the nicest fake
open hand slap I have ever seen in my life. especially
considering how smooth it was i'd argue whether
it was actually fake or not i was just about
to say that because with the sound and the look
on gunther's face afterwards was it fake did
he that man serve him a check and is he due a
receipt because I mean we've seen receipts get
given in matches before there was a match actually
referring back where Braun Strowman tagged Brock
Lesnar with a rather mean knee to the jaw and
Brock Lesnar got up and went full UFC on him
and dropped him down to a knee in the ring actually
I think Braun Strowman was quoted afterwards
by saying yeah the dude actually fucking hit
me in as many words. And he saw some slight stars
because Brock Lesnar did land one on his chin
in that combination of punches thrown. That were
definitely not fake. Yeah, so in the business
you can write that off as a receipt. There's
a certain level of... There's still a certain
level of... respect and safeguarding that goes
into giving receipts. One of the examples I always
use is Stone Cold Steve Austin tells a story
about a receipt that he had to deliver the once.
I forget who it was. I've got a feeling that
he says it's Big Boss Man. Which, if you remember
the Attitude era, I feel everybody should remember
Big Boss Man, as he was a former prison guard,
whose gimmick was a prison guard. Very inventive
by Big Boss Man, though. I mean it had nothing
to do with Big Boss Man, let's face it. It was
Old Man McMahon who put that one in place, I'm
afraid. And yeah, he had a tendency to get a
bit overexcited in his matches and work a little
bit stiff. And basically, if anybody's ever described
as working a bit stiff, it's never normally a
work. They're genuinely hitting people. And yeah,
basically Don Cold Steve Austin tells a story
about how he's working with Big Boss Man. He's
working a bit stiff and basically runs him against
the ropes for him to do a clothesline where instead
of holding his arm at chest level to knock his
center of balance, help him take the bump. and
holding his arm more or less straight. He holds
his arm at a complete right angle, which means
that he's still knocking him off balance, knocking
his centre of gravity, but he's also punching
him in the nose at the same time. Now obviously
that story sounds a hell of a lot better coming
out of Steve Austin's mouth than it does mine,
but you get the general idea. Yeah, it's a case
that as I've mentioned Jackie Redmond grabs Jimmy
Uso for an interview and basically Jimmy Uso
goes on a little bit of a rant about how he says
that he's gonna beat Gunther next week in a match
and then Jay's gonna go on to beat him in a match
at WrestleMania and everything the world will
be right again basically um and then he he he
does the uh four letters one word adam uh -huh
what is it yeet that's the one he's borrowed
his brother's catchphrase for a little night
as he wanders off though he bumps into two rather
smug looking bitches by the name of uh The Miz
and Carmelo Hayes. Or as they're collectively
known, Mellow Don't Miz. Only the Miz could come
up with something that stupid that actually seems
as though it's going to work. I mean, yeah. And
yeah, basically they've overheard the, I would
say they. Carmelo Hayes says scarily little in
this promo realistically. The Miz has overheard
him and is mocking Jimmy Uso to Carmelo as Jimmy
rounds the corner and basically catches him in
the act. And then the Miz of all people goes
on a bit of a tirade where he's telling him that
Jimmy is always going to be known as the other
Uso and Both Uso's are basically career sidekicks
Which is pretty rough by coming from the Miz
of all people who Coming from the guy who got
out wrestled by his sidekick Which one that's
the question Alex Riley Alex Reilly, Damian Sandow,
R -Truth. Every time he has had a sidekick, he
gets out -wrestled by them completely. And it
is absolutely hilarious. Yeah, having said that
though, scarily few of those sidekicks ever actually
end up having a decent run in the WWE. Aside
from R -Truth and... When he used John Morrison
as well just because he did have a decent run
And then he left and then he came back tried
to have another decent run and just couldn't
Couldn't get the couldn't get traction but Yeah,
and then basically me as says about Talks it
he tries talking a big game and says if Jimmy
ever slapped him like Jimmy had slapped Gunther
that he'd still be on the floor that jimmy had
still be on the floor until jimmy raised his
hand and the miss cowered like a bitch oh 100
% to say that he flinched was probably a bit
of an understatement pretty sure he pooped i'm
pretty sure he may have left a little a little
mark now we are also treated to the fact that
Jimmy Uso and the Miz are going to be facing
off in a match later on in the night Jimmy walks
off saying he's going to go and talk to Nick
Aldis because he he gonna show the Miz the right
way to be dealt with by the Uso Yeah, pretty
much and now We go from there to get another
area of backstage Not quite. We have a short
VT about an event that is happening during WrestleMania
week. So every so often when WWE do their tours
and big events and stuff like this they put on
a big package deal and there's lots of other
bits going on at the same sort of time. This
year around WrestleMania they have an event going
on called the One Dead Man Show which is basically
an evening with The Undertaker in a Q &A style
thing, get to hear stories, life from Mark Halloway,
behind the ropes, so it's like style conversations,
you get to ask him questions and general like
small sort of things. So we had a little VT for
that before we went backstage to find some people
having a conversation. Adam, who was the? Was
having that conversation? Well, it was we were
initially treated to the fact that Jacob far
too moving through backstage after Well, I imagine
he was feeling pretty bloody pleased with himself
to be quite honest. I had a little work to young
and it was then sort of confronted by both solo
Sokoa and tamatanga now I found this More interesting
than I probably should have done in the sense
that when Solo Sokoa first returned after his
little after his little bitch fit after losing
tribal combat He was being very apologetic very
sort of up the ass of Jacob Fatu This was the
first time in my view that we saw that saw that
mask sort of slip I noticed this as well actually
to be fair, but it was because I saw a lot of
Tribal Chief Solo Sokoa come through in the it
come through in what he goes to Fatou and says
and basically tries to rip Fatou a new one for
almost going rogue and In a passively aggressive
way Oh, no, I felt I didn't feel like there was
any passive aggressiveness in this at all um
and actually i saw i don't know again if it was
intentional i feel like it might have been but
at one point you see jacob fatu talking and his
hands go into the prayer position in very much
the same way that he used to during bloodline
2 .0 sort of thing because it was very i love
you so low with His hands in the prayer position
sort of thing and and his hands started going
that way during this conversation with With solo
Sokoa here where basically he said well, why
didn't you tell us what you were gonna do? We
could have come and helped you and and Jacob
Fatu slapped straight back and said did you check
in with me before you interfered and cost me
the match last week? That's a fair point It is
a fair point. I couldn't argue that much. I couldn't
have argued my way out of that one myself and
And after some back -and -forth it basically
ends with Jacob Fatu saying look You're either
in this with me or you get the fuck out of my
way So I've got it written down that he will
be he quotes. He'll be the last man standing
with Braun Strowman, so Get in where you fit
in he's going for the US title and they'll do
it with them or without them. You know what I
mean? Yeah. We didn't get a far two though as
he walked away. Normally we get him doing a fat
at the end of it. We didn't get that this week.
Jacob, I'm disappointed my bro. I gotta keep
things fresh, I suppose. Definitely. Talking
about fresh, that lines up very nextly. very
nicely, sorry, for our next VT. We got something
a little bit different from Naomi this week in
VT form discussing how she basically feels that
she did the right thing. She's always been known
to be a woman who does the right thing and you
know she's out there kind of she's she's kind
of saying you know Bianca why do you think that
this attack on Jade was any different you know
after everything that Naomi feels she sacrificed
and and given up for Bianca and it just kind
of breaks her heart how she's been made out to
be the bad one in this situation and how Jade
comes out of nowhere and takes Naomi's place
within that friendship Feeling very replaced
by Jade with Bianca at this point Although I
would make an argument for how you can be the
good guy when you hit somebody with a car I mean
With an unprovoked attack as well. It's not as
though Jade card girl had given Naomi a beat
down in Naomi I thought fuck you you hit me with
a steel chair. I hit you with an SUV Yeah, this
is it there was no sort of escalation normally
leads you to go into prison yeah this is it and
um we're just definitely seeing a much darker
side of naomi which they're not gonna lie i'm
not i'm not against i definitely was not feeling
the glow it's nice to see that the this different
direction of um of character development for
Naomi and I think very much the theme of this
new side of Naomi that we're going to be seeing
is Proceed with caution She's not fucking about
anymore. She she feels that she's gone too soft
for too long and Yeah, not gonna stand for any
of it we then cut from that VT to a Somewhere
backstage where Jade Cargill is having a conversation
with Nick Aldous about, surprise surprise, Naomi.
Yep. Basically Jade is fucked off that she still
hasn't managed to get hands on Naomi properly
since Elimination Chamber. Yeah, but you know
there's been plenty of opportunities for her,
she just hasn't taken them. I'm sure the two
of them have been at the same building at the
same time somewhere. If they're both in London,
they were probably both in previous locations.
Well, this is what Jade is trying to ascertain
from Nick Aldis during this promo is she wants
to know where Naomi is. And Nick, I think, has
been hiding. He's either tried to play it diplomatically
and lied to Jade, or he's been very honest and
said, look, as far as I'm aware, nobody's seen
her. And yeah, there's not really an awful lot
I can do if she's not here And Jade basically
leaves Nick older saying look If I see her it's
on site She is going down Yeah, so as she walks
away from Nick oldest she bumps into mission
and beef up Let's say that they they're gonna
go and take care of business and they know that
Jade is gonna do the same as well with Naomi
and Mishin's taking her business tonight is Charlotte
Flair. At which point they both wish each other
good luck and we bump off into an Evolve VT.
I haven't been watching Evolve so I'm not gonna
be able to fill you in too much on that myself.
But it's not something you've been watched watching
either is it No, so I've watched a little bit
of LFG. Yes. No evolve. Yeah, that's fair enough
I've not watched evolve yet either if you've
watched LFT or Evolve and you want to let us
know what you think of it so far you can do so
with our email, it's finishes and factions at
gmail .com. And you can get hold of us on X as
well, so that's Finn and Fan Pod on Twitter.
Finn and Fan Pod. So we go from the Evolve VT
into an Alistair Black vignette. suspected Alistair
Black vignette. Yeah, it's not, but this is probably
the worst kept secret in professional wrestling.
Other than the fact that professional wrestling
is choreographed. You know, everyone knows what's
happening. And then from that vignette that takes
us into our next match, which was Mishin versus
Charlotte Flair. Mishin was accompanied to the
ring by BFab. And as the two of them are in the
middle of the ring waiting for Charlotte's music
to hit, we got a surprise. Adam, did this surprise
you? Do you know what? It surprised me to begin
with because I didn't expect what happened to
happen. But what happened made sense once it
had happened, if that makes any sense at all.
So basically, we'll fill the blanks in. So Naomi
comes out of the crowd, sneaks up behind both
Mishun and B -Fab and basically goes after, well,
she goes after B -Fab more than Mishun. I think
Mishun was more collateral damage than anything
else. a lot of the offense from Naomi was focused
on B -Fab and this was all born out of the conversation
from between Mishin, B -Fab and Jade Cargill
backstage before the Alistair Black vignette.
I feel Naomi went after B -Fab slightly more
than Mishin purely for the reason that Charlotte
Flair was coming out anyway to deliver a substantial
kick into Mishin anyway. That's obviously what
we're going to presume at this point. It's Charlotte
Flair and Mishin, you know, in the road to WrestleMania
with the fact there's only three weeks left,
they're not going to give Charlotte Flair a loss.
So you knew that she was going to come out and
have a strong performance against Mishin. So
why does Naomi need to waste her energy on Mishin
and someone else is going to do it for her? No,
this is it. Work smarter, not harder. Naomi did
enough to Mishin to stop her from being, to stop
her from interfering with basically putting the
beat down on B -Fab. Yes. And I mean, Naomi does
a hell of a job of taking B -Fab out of the equation
as by the end of the beat down, we have Jade
Cargill come in to see off Naomi. Naomi runs
like a little bitch too. she does I mean this
is part of her heel turn this is now going to
be expected and yeah it's a case that as BFab
is left in a pretty bad way to the point that
she has to be helped out of the ring she has
to be helped out of ringside into the back by
an official as well as Jade Carter herself ordinarily
if something like this happens they we have known
them before to call the match off now because
it's Charlotte Flair I feel this is the reason
why this match wasn't actually called off because
Charlotte Flair came out while they were helping
BFAB to the back and we did have a small moment
where we saw sort of Jade Cargill and Charlotte
Flair sort of Oying each other up. Oh, I think
each of the world there was some pure filthy
side I coming from Jade Cargill to Charlotte
Flair just looking at I like Fucked you think
you are you ain't nothing sweetheart. I will
fuck you up Well, maybe we get to see this sort
of after WrestleMania is maybe a program with
Charlotte Flair and and Jade Cargill was I'd
love to see that. I'm not gonna lie. I was about
to say I'd pay to see that but I do pay for my
Netflix subscription. So I do pay to see it.
Pay to see everything. Do it all legally here.
Yeah, this is it. And yeah, so Charlotte Flair
basically makes her way down to the ring to start
her match, a scheduled match with Mishin who's
now sort of operating at half capacity. Yeah,
she's at least she's been she's are fucked up.
She's not feeling good And then she's got to
try and take on a very fresh Charlotte flair
and To be fair. I'm gonna give it to her. She
does manage to get in some pretty sweet offensive
moves and She got dropped by a kick at one point
that Charlotte flair tried to pin her for she
got one count, but This was Charlotte Flair trying
to assert some dominance that she's the queen
and she'll do what she wants. Mi Shin managed
to hit back a little while later with a, I've
got it down as a tornado DDT, but I don't think
that's the right phrasing. Either way, it was
a DDT and she got a two count off it. Charlotte
flair with a belly to back suplex which was a
quite the quite nicely done At one point she
does try and embarrass mission a little bit She
just steps on her like she's a little bit of
nothing and she's walking to the turnbuckle to
jump up for her attempted moonsault of which
mission managed to reverse get Charlotte flair
on her shoulders and drop her with a sit down
powerbomb for a two count. We are reminded by
the commentary team that this is Mishin's first
match outside of Chelsea Green and the Secret
Hervis members for quite a while. Mishin's programming
recently has been all sort of Chelsea Green and
Albert Fire and Piper Nevin. So it's nice to
see her facing someone that's not one of those
three and the fact that she is facing the most
decorated female superstar is There's a good
Test of character for a good judge of ability
and she put on a set great match against Charlotte
flair. I feel anyway wasn't necessarily Match
of the night, but it was still a great match
one thing. I did enjoy I'm gonna throw out there
at one point the crowds chanting fuck you Charlotte
and Charlotte flair just flips the crowd off
and It was quite funny to be fair She was definitely
playing that heel roll well in the crowd definitely
rate like played into the fact that she was a
heel by chanting that at her Giving her the opportunity
to give him the old the old birdie light Definitely
it gave her that little bit of extra heat within
the the O2 arena Yeah, and this match basically
ends it ends as we sort of anybody could have
predicted it was going to end Is that Flair does
end up winning this as she locks in the figure
eight? Which is a figure four with a bridge extension.
So just branking up that extra pressure for it,
which we know that Charlotte Flair used on BFab,
I think it was last week or the week before.
I think so, even this week, Meeshan Tapp virtually
instantly, she was not going to let Charlotte
Flair hold that in for too much longer. And we
have known recently that Charlotte Flair has
not always been the fastest at breaking that
hold after the bell has rung. No, but again,
this is part of her so Part of who she is So
after this match we go straight into a backstage
promo where Jackie Redmond is interviewing our
current Smackdown Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton
And yeah, basically I think I thought this was
actually They could have done this at any other
point during the during the night, but it had
the most effect exactly where it was directly
after Charlotte's match. And yeah, this basically
gave considering Charlotte Flair in their side
by side video interview, I think it was last
week. It wasn't she fucking shit all over Tiffy
gave her no time to talk and just basically bullied
her out of her own promotional interview for
her WrestleMania. match yeah and this gave tiffany
a chance to basically sort of retort to that
and uh she made a couple of really nice points
i mean one is that obviously charlotte is incredibly
insecure the fact that she had she felt she had
to bury tiffany on that promo is yeah just fuel
to the fire at this point One point that she
does make that I can't really dispute is that
Tiffany hasn't got anywhere near as much to lose
by losing the match at WrestleMania She loses
till Tiffy mentioned it and We'll break it down
for you. So Tiffy Stratton Pacey says if she
loses at WrestleMania she's lost to the the woman
with the most ever women's titles in WWE. No
one has done what she has done title wise in
the WWE. One of the most decorated female superstars.
If not the most decorated female superstar in
WWE today. So for Tiffy, that's just I lost to
the greatest female WWE performer in history
at WrestleMania. That still doesn't hurt. her
character at all if charlotte loses to tiffy
her character is basically destroyed yeah because
if charlotte flair loses to tiffany bearing in
mind tiffany hasn't been in smackdown for a year
yet she's she and yes like titles come and titles
go tiffany has loads of time to win back a title
belt at a later date if she does lose. Charlotte
Flair has not got enough time to rebuild her
reputation if she ends up losing at WrestleMania.
So I actually think - Nobody, so to speak. Some
people would see - This mindset by Tiffany Stratton
is quite a negative, quite a defeatist attitude.
But actually I think this is going to be something
that frees Tiffany from the pressure that that
WrestleMania match holds. It's going to take
all the stress off her shoulders and she can
just go out there and be as natural as she needs
to be. This is a woman who's been to the Olympics,
so stress is not going to be an issue for her.
She'll be a little bit nervous, don't get me
wrong. If she wasn't, I'd be scared. But once
she gets out there, she'll be fine because that
Olympic mode will kick in. Gymnast mode will
kick in and she'll zone into what she's got to
do and that'll be it. She'll do it. She'll do
it very well, I think. Oh, yeah. I personally,
as much as I don't want this to happen because
I'm a rather large fan of Tiffy Shratten, I think
Charlotte's going to win at WrestleMania. Yeah,
I think she is as well. They're gonna save her
character because like you said don't think she's
got Do I reckon she's got more than this rest
I think she'll probably do this WrestleMania
and next WrestleMania if she loses the next one
she'll retire then No, she's a father's daughter.
She'll be going until she's on a Zimmer frame
mate. No, you're not fucking wrong to be fair
100 % Charlotte Flair 105 time women's WWE champion
Rick Flair has said on has gone on record already
and said that he's actually feels he's got one
more match left in him. Oh, no, I think he's
like guy has one more match. It's gonna be a
casket match. Yeah, and he's gonna finish it
going into a casket So, yeah, it's it's not gonna
I don't There is going to come a point where
Charlotte Flair should retire. She won't. But
she won't. And every match we get from her will
basically just be the same quality as that tag
match in Saudi Arabia between the Brothers of
Destruction and DX. Yeah. I mean that's pretty
much what we get from her now but yeah. I'm going
to use the DX reference here as a segue into
our next little VT because we get a VT for Triple
H's, it was a VT for the Hall of Fame. One of
this year's inductees, one of the very first
announced inductees is Chief Content Creation
Officer Triple H, Paul Levesque. and it was all
based around just his entrances. I mean, he's
had some iconic ones over the years and this
VT basically gives them to you. It shows them,
you know, it even has a little breakdown from
Steffi on some of them. It was actually quite
informative. I quite enjoyed this little VT.
I actually wish it had been a little bit longer,
I'm not going to lie. I enjoyed the fact that
it gave you an insight into how his entrances
are created in that Triple H was always really
personally involved Yeah, I'd like to see what
they did with that. It's like a if they did like
an hour -long episode of with Hunter between
Like talking about his entrances and stuff like
that. I'd watch it Oh yeah, 100%. Even if it
was just like a WWE original one -off series
of just veterans in the industry talking about
how they did and how they set up their major
entrances for pay -per -views and things and
all the good ones they've done. Like this one,
some of the Undertaker ones would have been pretty
cool. So yeah, Triple H has always had a bit
of a knack for creating entrances because Triple
H was very hands -on with creating Penta's entrance
and I can imagine he's gonna be quite hands -on
with When when we see Rey Fenix enter WWE which
is next week Yes, there is a little bit later
on in the programming that Rey Fenix will be
debuting on Smackdown cargo Illinois next week.
Yes. Now we move into a semi -familiar segment
here where WWE recant us on some of the statistics
from the city in which the program takes place.
So WWE in London. Now this episode of SmackDown
happens to be the 16th episode of SmackDown broadcast
from London itself. and the 36th TV broadcast
ever. And the last. But it is the first Smackdown
since 2023. Yes. Not 100 % sure which month.
You've probably got that written down. No, I
haven't. I was meant to go and research it and
just haven't had time in the day to do it. Yeah,
it's a day for both of us, to be fair. Yes, it
most certainly has. That sort of very short segment
there takes us into match five on the card, unless
I've missed something. I know this brings us
into Randy Orton vs Drew McIntyre. This is the
ninth time the two of them have gone one on one
in WWE. Drew McIntyre is 3 and 0 in London. He
has not lost a WWE show in London. And going
into this one, it's got a bit of a WrestleMania.
It was quoted by commentary as having a WrestleMania
or a PLE style main event match just thrown into
a normal television episode. And to be fair,
I kind of agree with that. These are two massive
superstars. They did say on Drew's entrance that
combined in the ring, they had 17 world titles.
What I'd like to point out is that Randy Orton
has 14 of them himself. It wasn't quite as impressive
of a statistic as they were trying to make it
out to be. but yeah so between them they have
17 world titles but randy orton has 14 of those
yeah and the shortest of those title reigns was
about five and a half minutes um but that wasn't
randy orton's uh but we're not supposed to focus
on that um but you know what randy orton do you
know what because it's a randy orton match it's
it instantly became a favorite of mine i mean
of I've always been a fan of Randy Orton, the
presentation he puts forward, the professionalism
behind his matches. I just like his entrance
music. That too. I've treated to it twice in
one night, which is always a bonus because he
was talking to Cody Rhodes at the start of the
evening and now he's having a match midway through
it. Yeah, this is it. It's just like Randy Orton
in general and again I rag on Drew Mackencryer
quite a lot and I'm not letting the name go.
That's going to be something that sticks with
me for a very long time. Big fan of Drew, in
fairness. I like the presentation that Drew puts
forward. So I am very sort of behind this match.
Don't get me wrong, his current persona being
a whiny bitch, I just don't get behind at all.
But yeah, it is a case that, it is a case that
this match was just phenomenal. I mean, realistically.
Any particular spots in this bridge that you
want to sort of bring up or I mean I've got here
that Randy Orton hit a rather sweet snap slam
on on the Scottish crybaby He used the second
rope to deliver his normal DDT But I do know
it's very cool Do it and he does do it pretty
much every time he hits the ring match We at
some point end up with Kevin Owens watching from
the ramp and Kevin Owens being there takes Randy
Orton's concentration away from the Scottish
crybaby and with that Drew McIntyre hits a rather
sweet claymore for the for the three or for the
one two three And that gives McIntyre his fourth
win in London, which means he's still unbeaten
in London with WWE shows. And well, after Randy
Orton's got his ass up from being smashed by
that Claymore, him and Kevin Owens end up getting
into it to the point where Kevin goes to slam
him onto the announce desk. and Randy manages
to bang him off it, bouncing Kevin Owens off
the announce table and then at one point Kevin
Owens has got Randy in position for a package
pile driver attempt on the announce desk. But
Randy manages to get himself out of that one,
the Viper slithers himself out of that because
that was what put him out injured for so long.
as he lines up. Kevin Owens finds himself in
a dangerous position for a punt kick. Ah yes
but again like Naomi the dirty little rat went
running out through the crowd as officials and
security stopped Randy Orton from punting Kevin
Owens head off his shoulders. I am virtually
now guaranteeing I feel that we are going to
see that punt kick at WrestleMania. I do not
think we'll see it beforehand. They're going
to use that to get people to watch it because
they're going to be like, is Randy Orton going
to kick his head off his shoulders? Fucking right,
Randy Orton's going to kick his head off his
shoulders. Oh, 100 % he is. I can't believe it.
Heaven Owens is going to be on the receiving
end of an ass kicking from hell in two consecutive
pay -per -views. Yeah, this is it, but... Moving
on from that match, it is a case that we then
get the Rey Fenix vignette that we mentioned
a few moments ago, where he's debuting next Friday.
We then go into the very last match.