Hello everyone and welcome to another episode
of Finishers and Factions does Monday Night Raw.
With this week you have as always myself Rich
and my co -host Adam. Adam what have you got
for us? Goddamn. Yeah, this is it. I went a bit
old school this time round. But yes, we are Monday
Night Raw, and this is the last, very last leg
of this European tour, based in London, England,
the O2 Arena. With a crowd of, I believe, it
was somewhere in the region of 16 ,563... raving
lunatics in london that is true i did notice
though that wwe did not put that statistic in
their programming until the last five minutes
so uh they must have had a couple of the local
roadmen doing the headcount because it took them
a few opportunities to get that one done i think
it certainly did it certainly did um But yeah,
it's weird to think that this is like the first
Monday Night Raw that was broadcast from London
in six years It's even stranger that we've had
a European tour two weeks before WrestleMania
Like Obviously now with with this fantastic program
that we got to endure along with like you said
the 16 and a half thousand maniacs in the crowd
um what way to to finish a european leg on the
road to wrestlemania yeah this is it um so we
start our uh start our evening um actually with
the man that doesn't like being told we can't
see him Well, yeah, but I say for the last few
weeks we've all seen his antics and we've all
heard his words and If I remember correctly this
man is a 16 time world champion and a two -time
skin cancer survivor Which is on its own very
very impressive Yeah, that's nothing to do with
wrestling talent whatsoever. No always an honorable
mention Of course we are talking about John Cena
who basically comes out to the ring but for once
before he can even open his mouth. We get to
hear there is only one royal family in wrestling
and Cody Rhodes also decides he's gonna make
an appearance in front of this London crowd.
Mean we sort of knew that we had to know that
was coming realistically because yeah It's WrestleMania
season he's in the main event verse Versus John
Cena wherever one appears the other one will
surely get there as well. So I Do you find it
amusing and no one else may have noticed this
I know I did see it social media to start off
with But with the main events at WrestleMania
this year, neither of our Royal Rumble winners
are actually main eventing WrestleMania. So neither
Charlotte Flair nor Jey Uso are in the main event
slot at WrestleMania as they are being filled
by John Cena and Cody Rhodes on the Sunday evening
and the Saturday evening is CM Punk, Roman Reigns
and Seth Rollins as we found out on Smackdown
last Friday. Yeah, this is it so Yeah loads to
go like Really weird sensation to know that none
of those are going Going to be a thing realistically
But yeah, I mean did you notice as well that
once Cody had made his entrance Sina himself
looked visibly disgusted at the fact that they
were all sort of Scream, they were all essentially
karaoke -ing Yeah, karaoke -ing the Cody's entry
music Yeah, that's the one I was looking for
I was gonna get there in the end. I think it
just takes so long and I say this with with all
the respect in the world because Cody would kick
my ass but he does milk that entry a little bit
more than he possibly needs to sometimes and
well I'm going up against a man who just wants
to talk and talk business and all Cody wants
to do is is lavish in the crowd which I suppose
is a very facey thing to do but come on man stop
wasting my time punch me in the face or get punched
in the face like crack on with it Same with Jeyuso.
Again, I love it. It's a great entry track. It's
hype. It does exactly what you need it to do.
He does milk the absolute tits off it. Some days
you're just sat there like, come on man, hurry
up and speak or hurry up and fight. Yeah, fair
enough. I can certainly get behind that. It's
a case that there is such a thing as going too
long and... Yeah, both men you mentioned are
guilty of it. Yeah, it's definitely not something
I've ever had complaints for either, so yeah.
No, quite the opposite. Oh, what have you done
already? It's time to roll over and go to sleep
now, is it? Sorry darling, my bad. Anyway, we
digressed again. The first thing we actually
do get to hear is from Cody. He's the first person
that opens his mouth considering he was the second
person to the ring. He basically does it in a
way of saying, look, John, shut up. We've done
nothing but hear you talk for the last two weeks.
It's my turn now. You're going to fucking listen
to what I've got to say. And Cody had a fair...
A fair chunk of things to say. This segment had
some meat and veg to it, but it was very strung
out. I felt it was quite strung out anyway. Yeah,
I mean, he sort of, he starts by pretty much
roasting himself just so that Cena doesn't get
the opportunity. I mean, fair play. We've seen
many people do that in the past. Eminem did it
famously in that movie about himself You know
take all the insults about yourself off the board.
What else have they got to say? Yeah, I mean
the logic is sound you can't Certainly can't
escape that but yeah starts taking the piss out
of his own lisp. Yep That damn tattoo on the
side of his neck that belongs looks like an arm
tattoo, but isn't Yeah I thought that was quite
a good line, to be fair. Yeah, I mean, all of
the things he came out with were fucking solid
burns. And it makes me think that he's gone round
to the locker room beforehand and just said,
seriously, if you were going to roast me, give
me your best line. I just want to tee things
up and try and get as many of these out of the
way as I possibly can. I mean and you can't really
blame him for doing that and it's a smart intelligent
thing to do and by learning from your peers as
well it gives you more standing as that champion
in the locker room so it's not a bad move from
Cody to do that if that is what he's done. It's
certainly helped him in this situation of going
up against John Cena on the microphone and we've
seen Cena bury some massive guys when it comes
to his mic work so you definitely can't knock
that or take that from anyone to be fair. No,
definitely not but with They also eat roads always
basically Basically starts talking about like
the history between him and John Cena as well
So it's a case that him and John used to be riding
partners together. They they Work the roads together
was probably a better way of putting it to be
quite honest But if you ask John Cena about that
situation all Cody roads was to him was just
a glorified chauffeur that got lucky so It's
one of those situations Each side of the story
has a different perspective. We're definitely
seeing that perspective change within these promos
and Endless build up to WrestleMania Yeah, 100%.
One thing I did notice, and it kind of brought
out the little inner child in me a little bit.
Purely because as a child, I always wanted one.
As an adult, I now think of the things that went
on the background to get these things that I
don't want one. But Cody Rhodes is wearing a
blue Peter badge. Like I thought that was yeah,
I thought that was cool as fuck like there were
definitely like I remember watching blue Peter
as a kid I know that much I always wanted a blue
Peter budge was wanted one of the golden ones
was they look cool as balls Yeah, I was sat there
looking at his lapels go fuck is that badge and
then yeah, I spotted it It was like that's a
goddamn blue Peter budge. I Thought that was
absolutely amazing No, fair play. I remember
seeing that myself. I didn't really think much
of it at the time if I'm completely honest, but
yeah Like Yeah, I can't really say I can't really
say much fairer than that which I find that ironic
because a little bit later on We had a little
bit of a discussion about this promo before we
started this due to her Again, if you listen
to two people listen to the same thing they're
gonna find two different points of view behind
it. There is a line in this promo that Cody Rhodes
comes out with which was a really well written
line and it goes, it was something along the
lines of, you know, you're the guy that hangs
out with Zac Efron wishing he was 16 years old.
Now Adam perceived it that Cody Rhodes had said,
you know, you like hanging out with this guy
and you wish you were 16 still. Where I blatantly
died. I don't know why I think it's just my darkness
inside But I thought Cody was calling John Cena
a pedophile and I was like that is a really sly
thing to do in the middle of a wrestling race
like a real cheap shot as well that was not a
Pleasant to drop in there. Yeah, I'm gonna lie
the more I thought about it the more I'm sat
there thinking Do you know what actually maybe
maybe Rich is right? I'm pretty sure Cody called
John Cena a paedophile in the middle of this
promo and no one else I've seen on social media
has picked up on the fact that I'm pretty sure
Cody called John a paedophile. Now I would love
to tweet Cody Rhodes and ask him if that's what
he meant but obviously he wouldn't tell us because
it would break the fourth wall so to speak but
I'm really like did you just call him a nonce
on TV that's fucking ruthless. 100 % I mean you
don't get much better. You don't honestly get
much better than that Yeah, when was the last
time we saw any anyone called Oh, I don't know
I did see an article on it was a clip on BBC
News a few years ago where the now King was in
Scotland and he'd landed his helicopter And this
Scottish guy was waiting on the side of the field
as the, I think he was still the Prince of Wales
at the time, gets off this helicopter and he
just shouts, your brother's a pedo! Yeah, I seem
to remember that myself, if I'm honest. I'm just
there like that. That is fucking brilliant. Slightly
dark, but yeah, no, that was funny. There was
a few different lines in this one. there was
a little point where over the last few weeks
Cody's referred to himself as the chosen one
a few times and John Cena he kind of he likes
to say that you know he's been chosen by the
crowd so he can go to the toy store like everyone
else and get their toy belts from Fanatic and
this that and the other and Cody comes out with
a line about well you know it was them that chose
me like the WW universe chose me it wasn't some
guy in an office that we don't talk about who
ain't here anymore. And I was just there like,
everyone is ripping on Vince at the moment. Oh,
100%. A few references to that specific man in
the last couple of weeks and it's like, oh, wait
a minute, like this is allowed? Yeah, I was sat
there like, sat there when I listened to it,
I was like, damn. Damn I remember messaging you
at one point it wasn't for that bit in particular
but it was like I was there like fucking hell
these guys are going for it. Yeah like Cody said
that his dad was a wrestler before him and that's
you know if anyone is a company creation it's
John Cena like you know what did you do before
pro wrestling? What did your dad do? Like you
weren't you're not a it's kind of like you're
not a generational wrestler. You know at the
start of a generation and you're not in a generation
is you were just a wrestler If you get me where
Cody Rhodes has got his brother and his dad are
all we're both in the same industry Wants it
that promotion that we can't talk about the one
with a really talented Australian female wrestler
No, I'm not talking about Rhea Ripley No, this
one is timeless Adam's getting fed up with the
timeless Tony Storm stuff because I tried sending
him a promo and my phone froze and he caught
it four times. Oh, it's no better than the one
that you tried. You tried sending me something
else and ended up sending me a message for fricking
money but you ended up sending me an advert for
Moneybox. Yeah, that was a liability. That was
a Tony Storm promo. It was all fingers and thumbs
mate, I couldn't help myself. Yeah. Um, one of
the, in fact, I know exactly which line it is
that basically got me like proper, like fucking
shit. That guy is going for it. Um, was Cody's
basically on a little bit of a rant saying everybody's
scared of seen her on the mic. And he tells him
that he's not scared of him. Uh, and it's the
fact that he's illustrated that by proving that
John Cena has got more. Dick in that promo then
he's got in his jorts. I thought that was fucking
hilarious I was all right with you've just called
the man out on the sides of his shlong and then
you insulted by calling him a pedophile because
that's where this line that was there to start
to this section about Zach Efron, which I am
yeah, I It was quite funny but then Cody does
just finish this one with a little line. He goes,
I'm just going to ask you one thing, John, and
I might punch a giant hole in your logic, but
which one of us sold out to The Rock? And like,
bear in mind, John Cena helped Cody win his title
when The Rock interfered last year's WrestleMania.
Rock and Cena have had several WrestleMania moments
and they really On screen don't like each other
too much. They've always been that sort of Polaroid
character between the two of them, but um Yeah,
I was not seen it. I thought was gonna sell out.
I'll tell you that much No, I mean after a Two
-year put a two -year program with the money
sold out to Like yeah, who's gonna see that come
in? and talking about things we didn't see coming.
This week on Raw, after we finished with the
John Cena Cody Rhodes episode which basically
ended up in Cena going to take a cheap shot at
Cody and Cody catching him well and truly in
a perfect opportunity for a crossroads and left
Mr. Cena on the floor with his eyes closed in
a star shape with his face pointing towards the
WrestleMania sign while Cody Rhodes was making
finger gun pistols at it. Yeah, finger guns at
it. No, that was a Bullet Club reference. Straight
up Bullet Club reference. It took me ages to
figure it out. Okay. Was Cody in the Bullet Club?
I'm not 100 % certain. I did mean to do the research
before but I've got too involved in what the
hand gesture meant. It was the hand gesture I
was more interested in. But yeah, it was a Bullet
Club hand reference. Yes, Cody Rhodes was a member
of the Bullet Club. He joined the Bullet Club
in 2016 when he was signed for Ring of Honor
and New Japan Pro Wrestling. Was not a leader,
but he was a key member of the Bullet Club So
that would have been shortly after he said he
departed from WWE before yeah, I'm guessing before
the the creation of all -elite wrestling Yeah,
pretty much. Yes, so we went from went from the
ring after the after the Bullet Club gesture
We left to a recap for our Like the recap of
the buildup for our main event this evening,
which was EO Sky and Rhea Ripley For the women's
title with Bianca Belair as a special guest referee
And that one is the last section of the podcast
this week. So we'll get to that in a little while
but like i said things we didn't necessarily
expect to happen on monday night raw in london
england we got a tag match as our first official
match of the evening and this was well this one
was an interesting one so we had New Day which
is obviously Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods but
we had the return of a old fan favorite especially
judging by the reaction of the crowd in London
It was going to be pretty big anyway for these
two considering they're both English superstars
but New Catch Republic came out to the ring for
their first match since July last year where
Tyler Bates picked up a rather nasty pectoral
injury So yeah, New Catch Republic's the team
of Tyler Bates and Pete Dunne Both of those lads
are from the Black Country Birmingham area England
so it was nice to see those guys get a match
in front of a decent crowd an opening match in
front of a decent crowd in London as well yeah
and in fairness I don't think they disappointed
I'm no I'm I'm always a bit up in the air about
Pete Dunne specifically I don't know what it
is about him but he's just I should like him
he's a local lad I was gonna say they're both
local lads for you aren't they Tyler Bates I've
got no problem with but there's something about
Pete Dunne. I just I don't know what it is It's
something about that bloke bugs the fuck out
of me. Did he bully you in high school? You just
you remembered him, but you couldn't remember
where from no different different area completely
different area But yeah as it goes for an opening
match really enjoyed this match as it goes I've
got So we see Adam Pierce come out to announce
new catch Republic so one hell of an intro already
and And yeah, this was new new catch Republic's
first match since July of 2024 Which is a hell
of a long time all because Tyler Bates has been
out with a With an injury now. I didn't make
note of what his injury was a pectoral injury
I didn't realise up until today's programming
so this shows you my knowledge really. Did you
know Tyler Bates was the inaugural NXT UK champion?
So I did know that but I believe that was because
they mentioned it during commentary. Yeah at
19 years of age and this guy was the NXT UK champion
which I think is Incredible Especially if you
yeah to get to WWE at 19 is no easy feat. He's
definitely got some We're gonna see more of Tyler
Bates in the in the forthcoming future. I think
because he's a man on a mission and Considering
how long he's been out as well. No ring rust
in this much at all Yeah, definitely no ring
rust whatsoever if anything I think Considering
how long he's been out. We've seen we have seen
Superstars who have been out for less time come
back and show more ring rust and then Tyler Bates
did and he It wasn't I mean at one point he blew
a kiss at Kofi Kingston while Pete Dunne took
him out and then Tyler Bates dropped Xavier Woods
on the outside which I thought was brilliant
nice little bit of say goodbye to the outside
boof off you go um we did end up with I don't
know why he always always seems to impress me
a little bit too much it's Kofi Kofi Kingston
always seems to do something that makes me kind
of go huh that was cool And this time it was
something as simple as a running senton on the
apron. That got me kind of like, huh, I like
that. It's really simple this week. This match
was one of those. It was not overly extravagant.
It wasn't one of those that in six months time
we're gonna be like, dude, do you remember when
New Catch Republic came back against New Day?
It's not gonna be one of those matches. But it
was a really, really good entertaining match
to be fair with a lot of... have decent opportunities
for both teams yeah um i mean the the senton
you mentioned i think was that the one that he
pulled over pulled on done is done was basically
draped across the ropes i think so yes yeah so
100 just something dead simple that caused so
much damage um And yeah, I mean we even saw Kofi
hit a few of his old -time, like old -school
moves. He hit an SOS at one point, didn't he?
He did. And I genuinely didn't expect it. I'd
forgotten that that was one of his signature
moves at one point. I was waiting for a trouble
in paradise. I'm not going to lie, but... Yeah,
I can understand why. I mean, he pulled the SOS.
Why wouldn't he do the trouble in paradise as
well? Yeah, I just don't think he got an opportunity.
I don't think he got an opportunity that would
make sense in the narrative of the match, realistically.
But yeah, Kofi picks up the win of this match
after hitting what commentary referred to as
a daybreaker. Yeah, so I think that is the the
name of the New Day's double team move. It's
called the daybreaker. Yeah. so um that they
and fair play new day picked up the win but new
catch republic put on one hell of a show and
we're looking really strong throughout they were
and it wasn't the fact that tyler bates was being
carried by pete dunn either it was very even
between the two actually to be fair i'd say tyler
bates was carrying pete dunn but i say i like
watching pete dunn but i don't his character
development is very very poor There's not very
much to him. His promo abilities, from what I've
seen so far, aren't amazing. Where Tyler Bates
has got a little bit more oomph about him. And
when he comes out, it was kind of a pop for a
guy that's not really done a huge amount. He's
done more in a wrestling ring than I ever have.
But it's not like he was a 15 -time world champion
that was returning from injury. You know a five
-time that just resigned with the company from
after being elsewhere it Do you know what I'm
saying? Yeah, it was quite a big pop for a mid
carder so Yeah, no, I'm intrigued I'm not gonna
lie Yeah, this is it We go from there into a
VT recap of last week's raw where We saw the
Usos compete as a tag team. Or did you miss out,
motherfucker? You're right, I did. I missed out
on the interview, didn't I? You missed out on
a promo, too. Right, OK. Take it away. I think
my notes are incomplete. After the match between
New Day and You Catch Republic, we see New Day
walking up the ramp. where they Basically with
a microphone saying they were told that they
had to win this match to be able to get a title
opportunity against the war Raiders Where's their
type of their title opportunity and instead of
getting their opportunity? They just got the
war Raiders and so Eric and Ivar came out faced
off with new day on the ramp through basically
there was no no no brawling between the two It
was more Eric and Ivar just reminding them that
actually yeah, they're the champions and Rubbing
it in their face a little bit by lifting the
gold up in front of them and Uday kind of Wandering
off looking a little bit like well, well that's
kind of pissed on our fireworks a little bit
but and then we went to a backstage segment with
Big Jim and His brother Jay Coming into him to
have a little conversation about Big Jim's match
later on with the ring general Gunther Basically,
that is the aftermath of the slap that was heard
around the world when Jimmy Uso slapped Gunther
in the chops Wanna say it was last week, but
I've got a feeling it might have been the week
before No, you're right. It was last night down
last week. Yeah was it raw last week yeah that
was it was it mentioned raw last week um yeah
so um uh basically jay is trying to get jim to
allow him to support jimmy at reat at ringside
but jimmy is basically saying uh no going out
and doing this on my own to prove to you that
it can be done and it is literally just just
um just jimmy going out to try and give Jay,
a little bit of boost of confidence because he's
been so far in his own head over the last few
weeks that he doesn't know which way he's up
at this point. No, and getting himself beaten
down and choked out week in, week out by Gunther
has got to be taking its toll on him mentally
as well. Especially like Jay's never beaten Gunther
in a title match. I don't even think he's beaten
him full stop in a singles match. So they've
never and any matchup they've ever had Gunther
has come out on top as far as I'm aware Right.
So he's got that weighing on his head. He's got
the fact that he won the Royal Rumble Everyone's
kind of going. Yeah, you won the rumble big deal
you still don't have no balls and Yeah, I mean
to be fake and understand what he's getting into
his head. I personally think what they're gonna
do is they're gonna So they keep kicking him
down for the next fortnight and then they're
gonna have him go into WrestleMania as a severe
underdog Right because who doesn't like an underdog
way right when Gunther's been whooping his ass
for the last ten weeks On -site week in week
out ass -whooping right of course. He's gonna
win at WrestleMania They're just building it
to the greatest comeback story of all time where
It's it's that ultimate underdog story the person
the Individual that's it's David versus Goliath
at this point except. It's J vs. Gunther Pretty
much and we can like we're not stupid right the
WWE universe are not stupid We may make stupid
decisions and cheer for stupid people Those of
you who go to the shows and enjoy watching them
is that is a classic example of the stupid decisions
But yeah, we could see this one coming a mile
away. An absolute mile away. As soon as they
started building it down and when they brought
Jimmy in for the little bit of an hour, we can
do this, we can try and use his brother to try
and hype him up a little bit. And then obviously
we're gonna get this match in a little while
and yeah, it's gonna be an interesting one. Yeah,
this is it before we get there though, and we've
got Got some celebrities Yeah, we have it. Well,
I didn't even make a note of the celebrities
that were there. I did I know he was there looking
haunted I don't understand. It just adds more
fuel to the fire of what I said on the last episode
about things looking more Just more like UFC.
The musician Kate Nash was there. The UFC fighter
Michael Venom Page was there. The creator of
the Netflix series Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker
was there. And like Adam said, Lewis Capaldi,
the Grammy award winning artist. But we went
from those celebrity appearances to a VT promo.
Well, it said it was a Hall of Fame promo, but
I don't really understand what they were attempting
to do as it's been revealed in the last week
that individual matches from years gone by will
now be inducted into Hall of Fame and we discussed
this a little bit on where they are in the first
match to be inducted is Stone Cold and Brett
the Hitman Hart at WrestleMania 13. This match
was from January 2000 and it was Cactus Jack
versus Triple H in a street fight and All it
really seemed to be used for was to plug the
Hall of Fame ceremony. I don't understand why
they showed us that match. It didn't make any
sense. So I think if they started, they would
start doing things like this because they've
run out of people to induct, haven't they? Well,
you say they have, but there's still lots of
people that they could induct into the into the
Hall of Fame. I think they've just made it so
that they can Essentially string it out because
if they start inducting matches, it's not necessarily
that they've run out of It's not necessarily
that they've run out of People to induct it is
more a case that they have They're starting to
run maybe a little bit thin of people they can
induct and now they're looking to to try and
pad out the Hall of Fame ceremony to keep that,
to basically allow more people to get to the
point where they can be inducted into the Hall
of Fame? I mean, yeah, the Hall of Fame's a strange
one. I'm personally not a big fan of the Celebrity
Hall of Fame, but it's a different one. Yes,
it was from there into the next. Oh. We had a
little backstage segment and it was only about
30, 40, 45 seconds long. It wasn't particularly
long where we got to see Bianca Belair backstage
getting some instructions on how to basically
be a referee where she is going to be the special
guest referee in the match later on between Io
and Rhea for the women's title. So she was just
getting some last minute instructions and and
working out what to do from there. Then we went
into the second match of the evening. Yes? Second
match of the evening. The only thing I'll mention
about the clip of Bianca Belair getting further
instruction around being a ref is that it made
me laugh no end that I found today, before we
recorded, I found a clip of basically the camera
person that recorded parts of the match for the
main event of the evening. The one thing we never
see because the person in question stands literally
just out of mic shot giving on -site instruction
to Bianca Beller on how to be a ref is there
is a ref stood literally just out of camera shot
the entire time where Bianca can see him so that
he can instruct he can instruct her on how to
be a ref that is how new she is to this yeah
and that raises a bit of a question for me because
some of the old older wrestlers you tend to find
that they've been that they started out as refs
or they were referees at some point in another
promotion yeah they A lot of the old -style wrestlers
were... They used to work the ring crew. It's
a case that once they'd finished wrestling their
matches, it's a case that they wouldn't then
just fuck off and go out for a party and end
up in the next city. It's a case that they would
go out and go out to the ring, help take the
ring down, make sure everything was squared away
so that... It could go on to the next town. They
would then get themselves to the next town riding
the road carpooling with one another And put
it all back together again before going and getting
some rest and getting everything sorted and yeah,
it's It's mad to me that with that to a certain
degree. I think WWE has lost Some wrestlers that
do that and Bianca Belair unfortunately as talented
as she is I am not taking anything away from
her talent. It's it just seems that maybe she's
missed a few steps. I mean missed a few steps
that those that walked before her have taken
and probably thought nothing of. I mean then
gotta go in the other way. So there is a current
WWE referee. Her first name is Jessica. I can't
remember what her second name is. But she has
currently just gone into the Evolve program and
had some matches in there. So that definitely
seems to be an interesting one. At least that
we know when she gets up onto the roster, if
she does, that she'll have an idea of how to
be a special guest referee because she's already
been a referee. Yeah, this is it. And this is
how Like we see, if you watch as many clips about
wrestling as me and Rich do online, you will
eventually come across clips where big names
in wrestling today have been seen performing
other roles in much earlier in their career.
Like a lot of the security guys that we see used
as security are not actual security guards but
more people from developmental which are used
as... they used as warm bodies essentially but
we've seen LA Knight who has posed as a security
guard CM Punk has posed as a security guard CM
Punk was one of John Cena's Mafia mob members
when he did that WrestleMania entry with the
cars and the yeah Bonnie and Clyde style entry
CM Punk you can see hanging off one of the vehicles
holding a Minigun Yeah, this is it it's a case
that Whenever you see a lot of people in one
area Chances are these are ex aspiring wrestlers
just get into just basically filling a space
And to be fair it gets them some You know you
as a security guard take a move off a big performer
Someone notices how well you take that move You
could get yourself a tryout at WWE, which benefits
everyone. Yeah, this is it. But yeah, we've digressed
a little bit on that one. We've got a... We have,
just a touch. We've got an absolute steaming
match to get into. Our match to the evening was
Big Jim and Gunther. Just before we get into
the actual match itself, there are a few things
I want to address At certain points of the crowd
there are certain points of this match you can
hear the crowd chanting some bits and pieces
Now I would just like to point out that at one
point the crowd are chanting wanker at Gunther
There is nothing more English but like then the
word like The way they use that word, right?
So he stood there with 16 ,000 people calling
him a wanker, which I think is fucking hilarious,
I'm not gonna lie. And there was another, later
on again they were back to calling him a wanker,
but this time they managed to tune it in with
a different song, which I thought was funny.
They were chanting, oh Gunther's a wanker. Yeah.
Oh Gunther's a wanker. Yep. which i thought was
fucking brilliant the uh the english wrestling
fans are definitely by far the most vocal wrestling
fans oh and they're some of the most unpredictable
you hear some of like the the legends talk about
coming to the uk and they they're not necessarily
calling the american fans predictable but because
the american fans get They get it all the time
so they get used to it but we only get it two,
three times a year so it's a fucking party when
it goes off. And that's part of the reason why
during this European tour when we've seen them
go to places like Brussels, Barcelona, Bologna,
those crowds have been absolutely insane because
in some cases it was the first time they'd ever
had a televised wwe event the one in brussels
was the first one in yeah was the first televised
wwe event there and you're thinking god damn
and they went off the fucking walls they were
probably one of the best ones so yeah no fair
play though it was definitely definitely had
some great interactions from the crowd again
we've we've had them for a while with different
promos They have a pop at Logan Paul a little
bit later on in the show They're chanting some
rather obscene stuff at him too, which I found
quite hilarious but To start this match off it
starts off with a little bit of a Well, it started
off with big Jim jumping straight in there Obviously
he's had enough of Gunther kicking his brother's
ass and he wants revenge and quite you know Quite
rightly so we'd all want the same sort of thing
but it basically just turns into a slap and chop
fest between Gunther and Big Jim and Gunther
eventually tosses Big Jim out the ring like he's
a ragdoll and then gets out himself and throws
him over the barricade into timekeeping and then
just basically kind of just chops him around
a little bit to send him to the other side of
the announce table. where he kind of just bounces
him off the barricade and off the ring and off
the barricade again and then back into the ring
yeah and uh while Big Jim put up a good fight
towards the beginning Gunther once Gunther had
got control it's a case that he just sort of
really picked him apart I mean there were occasions
where Gunther was going in for the three count
and would break his own he would break his own
count just so that he could keep punishing Jimmy
in the ring. I thought that was so obscure. Never
have I ever seen a wrestler break his own count
just to cause more damage. It just seemed so...
Yeah, it was different. I liked it. It's not
something we see very often. It has been done
in the past. Just not as... often as some other
bits that we see quite a lot, like getting beat
down after the bell or anything like that. Anything
like that we see week in, week out. But for a
wrestler to break their own three count, prolonging
the match, normally goes one of two ways. It
either goes to the extent that the person that's
breaking the match is just going to completely
dominate and decimate, or they're going to break
their own count and end up living to regret it
because they get their ass handed to them. Yeah,
yeah definitely. There's got to be a certain
level of skill and a certain level of cockiness
before you can start trying to play those sort
of games and thankfully this time Gunther fucked
around and didn't find out but one day if he
tries that with the wrong person he could fuck
around and find out a bit too hard and lose his
title. Yeah, and I Mean the match itself is Well,
I thought the match itself was relatively short
considering what it could have been. Yes But
Gunther essentially after everything said and
done ends up putting Jimmy to sleep Yeah But
I say with this one we had a bit of a it was
a bit of a strange setting So Jay came running
down to the ring to save his brother Then they
all sort of end up sort of it's basically a two
-on -one at this point until Gunther manages
to drop Jimmy and then handcuffs Jay to the rope
with fucking cable ties Yeah, so Some security
did come out and they were like cable tie handcuffs
essentially You've seen that it's something that
American mall cops tend to use quite a lot in
the place of actual metal cuffs because they
tend to use them more like a lot in riots and
stuff as a quick dispersal and you can just cut
them off when you need to rather than having
to mess around with keys and double locking padlocks
you just put your hands through pull them and
you can stick them in a van they're working smarter
not harder this time yeah this is it So Yeah,
I mean he's cable tie the gun that goes ahead
and cable ties J to the middle rope which essentially
immobilizes J He can only move along that rope
on the ring on the entrance ramp side of the
ring And you can get in and out of the ring,
but he's still sealed to that Yeah, this is it.
Which was used very much to Gunther's advantage
by everything that happened to Jimmy after this
point. There was a hell of an ass kicking that
was hard. It was done about a foot and a half
away from Jay. Yeah, I mean Jimmy was already
in a relatively bad way when he was coming out
of that match, but after that ass kicking he
took, I mean the guy was busted open after being
Banked off the bonds with a bell. Oh, he was
he was definitely bleeding Just a slight trickle
of claret all over his face A slight trickle.
That's a that's an understatement and a half,
but he was gosh. Yeah He was Not sure if he was
supposed to get cut open Is it or you wouldn't
blade yourself that deep? That's it's pretty
nuts. I think that might be an accidental wounding
actual blood. We don't see that much colour that
often anymore. It used to be quite common, but
now it's used just enough. It's used just enough.
Back in the action era, that stuff was used.
It was basically a warm -up. If you didn't have
Clara on you at the end of the day, you didn't
have a match. Yeah, essentially We have several
sleeper holds just an absolute Brutal beating.
I mean Gunther by the end of it is Coated in
Jimmy's blood. Oh, yeah, it's like he's done
some sort of ritual with it Yeah, and you you
sort of have to feel sorry for Jey Uso at this
point because I mean it's tough enough watching
it when you're not related to the person that's
having his arse kicked but Jay is literally stood
right there. He is within a hair's breadth of
being able to reach his brother Jimmy at any
given point and can do absolutely nothing. Now
this guy was suffering a crisis of confidence
beforehand. He is now, I mean by the end of it,
he looks completely broken. That was a broken
man. Can you really blame him then? Oh definitely
not. I mean Gunther's just running off being
all happy and merry. He's just beaten up the
other half of the tag team clown division and
that's how he views Jimmy is it? massive views
jay sorry is a massive clown so he's obviously
just going to tar both of them with the same
brush because that's what everyone else is doing
and uh yeah and if he's getting bored of beating
up jay he's might as well make a start on jimmy
and don't you did yeah this is it um and yeah
i mean Jimmy is eventually sort of taken off
to the back for some medical attention. We are
told later on in the episode that he's receiving
medical attention, but the status of him was
unknown even after the show had... had finished
airing. There are rumours according to social
media that he's been written off WWE TV for a
little while to go and have some surgery done
but I'm not sure how true it is. Apparently he
sustained an injury in that match. Sustained
an injury? That's like being on Australian bricklayer
and saying that you sustained an injury. For
those of you who don't know that reference, go
to YouTube, type in Australian bricklayers accident
report form, go and find some dry underwear for
later, which we're about to laugh so hard you
pee. It's fucking ruthlessly funny, ruthlessly
funny. Oh, 100%. It's my happy place. It really
is. If I'm ever in a bad mood, I'll sit and watch
that and it's instant recovery. Yes, anyway,
we go from there into a quick VT recap of the
contract signing promo from Smackdown, which
basically recaps everything that happened there.
We're not going to go into that unless Rich has
got any new information for us because we've
already covered it. Not the contract signing
from Smackdown. Yeah, that's the one. No, nothing
new for me, boss. Cool. So, yeah, if you want
to hear about what we've said about that already.
Go back to the last episode of Finishes and Factions
to Smackdown. You'll hear all about it. The next
recap I got was of the Penta -Bron Breaker match
from last week when Judgment Day got involved
and Penta decided that he did not want to join
Judgment Day. If you want to listen to any more
on that one, remember it's on last week's episode.
You can head back and re -listen to that one
or just check it out for the first time. You
can find that one and all other podcasting services.
Yeah, most definitely. But that VT recap leads
into a backstage promo for the Judgment Day who
are, I mean, they're basically having a, it looks
almost like a bit of a frigging party to be quite
honest. They all look pretty fucking happy to
be fair. Yeah, I mean, even like Finn Balor and
Dom Mysterio, they've been not necessarily at
loggerheads, but they've certainly not been agreeing
with one another recently. Yeah, but it's mainly
over Dom wanting to bring an extra member into
the Judgement Day. Finn Balor not thinking they
need it. Dom then approached Panter and now,
I mean, Finn Balor was brazen enough to open
it up and basically just went... You know what,
now all that's finished with looking at Dom quite
like, no more people Dom, we're done. Like we
can now sort of crack on and get ready for the
gold that we all deserve. Obviously Liv and Raquel
currently hold the women's titles but Raquel's
been going after the women's intercontinental
title. while Finn Balor has been going after
the men's Intercontinental title. But Judgement
Day have got no title matches this week as instead
Finn and Dom are due to take on Brom Breaker
and Penta in a standard tag match. They are,
which if I remember correctly is our next match.
But we do have a little bit more to this one
because we actually had an apology from Finn
Bala to Raquel Rodriguez for the uh he said he
was sorry about the fact she lost her match last
week to Lyra Valkyria but this week it won't
be it'll be okay because he's gonna go and win
the IC title but he doesn't actually end up with
a match for that one He ends up, like we said,
going into a tag match with Penta and Brom Breaker.
Which I actually didn't get that many notes for
to be fair, because the wrestling fan of me took
over. I mean, I probably got a little bit more
than you, but not by much. So yeah, the only
thing that we do get after Finn and Dom and accompanied
by Carlito leave to go and get ready for their
match. We see that Liv and Raquel start seemingly
making plans to do with Bailey and Lyra Valkyria
off the back of the IC title match that Raquel
had last week. That elaborates a little bit more
a little bit later on. Matt so we go into the
men's tag team match that we've just mentioned
Penta and Bron Breaker versus Don Mysterio and
Finn Balor who are accompanied by Carlito I mean
Carlito spends a lot of time at ringside but
he doesn't actually do very much as he's just
an expensive bump taker at this point Even the
jobbers are being, he's even jobbing for the
jobbers. That's how little Carlito is being used
right now Well Carlito has said in interviews
before that he's not really prepared, he's not
got it in him to wrestle anymore but he's happy
to take bumps and put other people over. Which
is easy enough I suppose. Yeah this is it. Well
some of the notes that I've got, I say not many
of them are particularly good. I did get that
Brawlbreaker reversed a double team at one point
and managed to pick up both members of Judgement
Day, with that being Dirty Dom and Finn Balor
who were trying to double -team a brawl breaker,
while he single -handedly double -bellied to
back and suplexed them. They didn't know what
hit them by the time this match had finished.
I'll tell you it was quite a good little match
to be fair. There wasn't a lot of massive spots
like, oh my God, the listeners are going to want
to hear about that. It was all very simple, standard,
basic, good quality wrestling. You say you do
the basics well, the good stuff comes harder,
it comes more naturally. And these guys stuck
at basics and it worked to a point. Yeah, this
is it. I mean we know that Dom and Finn are going
to be able to work together. They've been in
a faction for God knows how long but it was actually
quite interesting to watch the dynamic between
Penta and Bronbreaker as Penta is also going
after Bron's icy title and still sort of actively
pursuing that as it goes. I think it was only
because Penta saved Bronbreaker last week from
the beat down from Judgement Day. Yeah, no, you're
right. But yeah, it is a case that... I mean,
this was only Brom Breakers' second tag team
match on the main roster. He was a former NXT
tag champion when he was in NXT, but as far as
Raw and SmackDown go, this is only his second
ever tag team match. I mean, that's impressive
considering how long he's been in the company.
Yeah, this is it. It's just so it shows how they've
used him and most of it has been in has been
in singles competition apparently so But yeah,
I didn't get a huge amount more than what you've
already mentioned Towards the end really so judgment
day run interference Basically Carlito gets involved
to distract the ref. We got Penta who goes for
a Mexican destroyer to Finn But Dom sort of catches
his leg to prevent the move from completing And
then Dom sort of ends up holding Penta hostage
almost. Kind of pinning him against the ropes
holding onto the money Yeah, very much so and
it's uh I don't like giving credit to Dom when
I need to, but I will when I have to. Because
the next bit was really impressive. So we saw
from our angle that Brom was in the corner preparing
to deliver a spear. Dom also spots this, which
Finn does not, as he was preparing to deliver
a beating to Penta. And Finn actually ends up...
catapult in penta into fin knocking fin out of
the way and penta got all of a bronbreaker spear
i mean dom didn't want to take another one of
those because he took one a few weeks ago and
we know he thought that hurt and that spear to
penta was pretty much the start of the downfall
for these two oh 100 percent because after that
had happened we see dom come in and basically
take Bronbreaker out of the ring as Finn just
goes to work on Penta and basically gets him
into position for the coup de grace that ends
up picking up the win for Finn Balor and Don
Mysterio. Yeah and another one for the new day,
for the judgment day. New Day was the first match,
we're on the third match now. Yep, it's just
too many days. We have to make a judgement about
the New Day soon. Wow. Oh, that was good. Right,
it wouldn't be an episode of Monday Night Raw,
I suppose. We didn't talk about one individual
particularly. We go from that match into a backstage
promo where we see Chad Gable basically bigging
up El Grande Americano. Yeah, the Big White Coffee
had a great match last week and we find out now
that he's having another match next week in Minnesota.
Well, all because Chad Gable has yet again come
up with a doctor's note to stop him from competing
on this week's Raw, only to find out that that
note will also excuse him from next week's Raw,
which just so happens to be in Chad Gable's home
city. Well, it says to me we're going to see
some fun in Minnesota on next Monday night. Now,
this next bit that happens intrigued me a little
bit because I've been picking up on this over
the last couple of weeks and I have mentioned
it here and there. Because as Chad Gable is leaving,
Alpha Academy come in. Now, the two do have,
I'm going to say a little bit of an exchange.
Otis just stands there looking menacing as Chad
Gable calls him an idiot and a clown and then
fucks off. I mean, he's not wrong. No, he's not
and it's a shame because Otis could be an absolute
wrecking ball of a superstar and is an absolute
wrecking ball of a superstar But we see Alpha
Academy come in and it's actually Maxine Dupree
who decides that she's gonna be Speaking on their
behalf on this particular occasion as they've
come to talk about the tag team division in Monday
Night Raw and Adam Pearce automatically assumes
that he's referring to Otis and Tozawa when Maxine
actually has a few ideas that she's been cooking
up with Natalia recently. And that's the one
that I've noticed more than anything else is
that we've seen in some of Alpha Academy's promos
of late is that Natalia has been present and
it has been unexplained as to why she is there
but now we're getting a bit more of an idea that
is Natalia joining Alpha Academy maybe is that
where we're going with this or is she just going
to be tag -teaming with Maxine Dupree and this
is where this is where we've sort of got to think
about where this where this goes but I'm sure
we'll find out more on next week's Raw. Now,
if I'm not very much mistaken, we go from there
into a backstage promo where basically Cathy
Kelly, bless her heart, tries her very best to
interview Bron Breaker. But before the interview
can even be introduced, we have an incensed penta.
And he's basically he seems to be laying all
of the blame for that last loss at Brom Breaker's
door And he is there giving it beans and Yeah,
I mean he comes out of he comes out hot after
he feels the Brom Breaker abandoned abandoned
printer to To get it to get his ass handed to
him ends up calling Bronbreaker stupid Which
I mean, he's never really said anything overly
intelligent. So we could be stupid. We don't
know From there into an in -ring promo with AJ
Styles AJ Styles is coming out because basically
he was called out by Logan Paul last week And
yeah, apart from a little walking about with
his crew, like, I'm not even going to call it
a promo or a vignette, it was a little clip we
saw earlier on. Well, that is because Logan Paul
only likes to get mouthy when there's people
around to watch. And, you know, so where AJ kind
of says, look, I've been waiting. You haven't
done it. So why don't you come out here and unless
you know, I'll do it instead to which we do get
the mavericks entrance music and the appearance
of Of Logan Paul Yeah, much to the London crowds
dismay as once he'd made his entrance in true
Logan Paul fashion they tried to drown him out
and In fairness, I think he's sort of got wise
to this by now just because happens every time
he makes an appearance East well, he stopped
trying to It's the word he stopped trying to
Sort of wait for them to stop booing and now
he's just cracking on with the promo instead.
It's just a case of Yeah, no, I'm not gonna fuck
about doing this. It's gonna be a case of I'm
gonna get this done. I'm gonna get my shit in
and I'll just fucking go. Yeah, I got told off
last time. I'm just doing what I gotta do. Yeah,
pretty much. He can afford the fine if he goes
over, but yeah. He's basically saying that he
hears the crowd booing. No one in the crowd not
even AJ Styles himself has the same level of
fame he does and He's a global phenomenal a phenomenon
loved by everyone, but he is keeping it humble
He's also good -looking and we're brought here
on Logan Paul's time And if he wants to make
us wait to tell us what he's got to tell us we're
gonna wait cuz we're sheep that was Logan Paul's
opening statement and Yeah, the crowd didn't
really take that too well and Well, I'm not sheep
you bastard. I'm an asshole. There's a difference
Well, I'm sure I saw I don't remember it explicitly
But I'm sure I saw a clip of that exact same
of that exact same segment where the crowd are
basically chanting prime is shit Yeah, that would
not surprise me. There was a few different Few
different crowd chants that were rather interesting
for Logan Paul this week One of them at one point
they were chanting who are you he seems to think
everyone knows who he is and he's the Best thing
since sliced bread or Logan Paul. I'll tell you
something the best thing since sliced bread is
sliced cheese not Logan Paul Me I was half expecting
you to say hot cross buns I haven't had any of
those today. Why, the shops run out? Pretty much.
Yeah, probably. But, yeah, I mean AJ is the one
to point out to Logan that fans don't really
care about his fame or his money, but the only
thing they really care about is what he's going
to end up doing with all this talent, because...
Love him or hate him unfortunately the man is
talented in the ring and and Yeah, it just makes
me want that just makes me hate the fucking come
more if I'm honest I'm not gonna lie she was
telling us got so much experience cutting promos
and videos and stuff He can't really cut promo
that well. It's like he loses his asshole halfway
through it I know there's a big difference between
doing it in a room with three or four PCs and
a couple of editors then there is in front of
like sixteen thousand five hundred people but
it's um it's pretty much the same sort of similar
process you should be able to to do it slightly
better yeah as you said there's a a huge difference
to doing it live than doing it when you've got
the opportunity to chop and change and edit the
fuck out of it. And yeah. This is possibly where
he's got a lot of in -ring talent, but his ability
to cut promos is something that needs to be developed.
But this is, and we've said this before on the
podcast, this is what he would have, this is
what he would have sort of. What's the word he
would have got this all out of his system Well,
how do you come up through the indies and paid
his dues he would have learned what cutting a
promo meant Not necessarily every wrestler needs
to come up through the indies. Yes, they do help
They do give them a lot of experience, but there
have been some people A certain gentleman who
is appearing at WrestleMania with one of them.
He was kind of hand picked for pro wrestling.
Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong. I just think
you can tell. You can tell the wrestlers that
spent time in the Indies. I mean, majority of
the guys that come up through the Performance
Center have spent at least some time in the Indies.
Oh yeah, of course. and any time in the end is
no his money with Vince McMahon bought him a
nice fat get out of jail free card yeah he came
in right at the top it wasn't a case that he
started at the bottom and worked his way up he's
starting at the top and working his way down
yeah i mean he's kind of sticking around mid
card at this point he's doing all right he's
not near the handle there One thing we did did
get from from Logan Paul, which is not something
we're gonna see a lot of Was an apology to AJ
Styles And his His actions at Madison Square
Gardens, but That's only because he's a dad daughter
now. He's a daughter dad now. Sorry girl dad
and now he's trying to show his daughter the
act of forgiveness and He's basically saying
no forgive me for what happened try and pull
that shit again so I ain't forgetting about it
yeah AJ points out the fact that he's also a
girl dad and basically Logan's mouth writing
checks that his ass can't cash I thought that
was a beautiful line I've used it myself not
in that sort of same situation but uh normally
after about four or five points and someone's
kind of getting on my nerves a little bit but
um It is definitely a very good line to use.
Not the first time he's used it either. He's
used it a few times over the years as far as
I've stole it from. Yeah, and Logan Paul seems
to need to ask if he's being threatened at this
point. At which point AJ points out that they
are in the WWE on Monday Night Raw in London,
England. It's more like we got time to do this.
Let's go. But Logan Paul doesn't fight for free
apparently. And everyone in London is too poor.
Yeah, I mean, he's not doing it for free. He's
getting paid. Just not what he thinks he should
be. Yeah, but he also... basically states that
London can't afford him and Spends a good couple
of minutes walking around the ring pointing at
different members of the WWE Universe to say
You're poor and you're poor and so are you and
yeah He's he's working Yes, and I've got to a
point where I can't dislike him any more than
I can I already do but I can start to like him
eventually and he does play a heel role reasonably
well but uh yeah I don't want to say he's one
of my favorites but he's starting to the way
he is working it is starting to sort of turn
my my favorite a little bit more with him I just
need him to work on that whiny bitch voice he's
got but do what Brock Lesnar does But a whole
different accent for when you're working Yeah,
this is it and I mean Paul even Logan Paul even
manages to make the suggestion that if they are
gonna fight They take it to WrestleMania to fight
would definitely be an interesting place for
the showdown because let's face it as much as
we don't want to necessarily throw it out there
this is kind of one of those like dream matches
have both got similar wrestling styles they're
both reasonably good in the ring where AJ maybe
not as quite as good as he was when he was at
TNA when he was younger but that's he's got age
on his side to kind of fall back on Logan Paul
kind of he can't I don't think he'll improve
too much, but he'll study out where he is But
um, yes, it could be quite an interesting match
for for a Saturday's like Second third matching
for a WrestleMania card. I take that I Mean I
take that over a Charlotte Flair match any day
of the week I'll take it however, the only thing
I would I would have liked was Little bit more
build -up. I Mean we still have next week We're
less than three weeks away. Yeah, we've got a
couple of weeks. We could get something interesting.
I Mean, let's face it there is you know, obviously
WrestleMania weekend There is a lot going on
but there's gonna be a lot going on with the
build -up to it But some of the matches are already
set in stone. We're not gonna see any more from
punk Rollins and Reigns and stuff like that we're
all pretty much a lot some stories are done so
there'll be more space to fill with the other
stories so we might get a bit extra time with
that next week yeah maybe but i don't know i'd
have just It feels like they've skipped a good
couple of steps here. That's all I'm saying.
It just feels I mean, it wouldn't be WrestleMania
week without someone fucking something up, right?
It just feels a bit rushed Sometimes we got that
but at the end of the day, it's it's the quality
of the match at WrestleMania that they're trying
to do and they're at the moment they're trying
to put on the best, you know show they can for
the for the weekend and they've got a fair few
match spots to fill and They're gonna be kind
of pushing and seeing what people can do and
what the crowd are taking before they go, right
We're having these matches. We'll try and build
something up when we can but I know we're running
out of time, but we'll do it as a Grudge match
or something. He said she said bullshit So they
just get to fight it out yeah maybe but Logan
Paul not to be outdone does try and take a cheap
shot at AJ Styles but yeah AJ's too experienced
for that shit yeah AJ knows a cheap shot coming
when he sees one and those two pretty much end
up having a little bit of a back -and -forth
which ends with AJ attempting a styles clash
on Logan Paul, but Logan manages to get out of
the the hold and disappear outside of the ring
AJ chases after him and sort of bashes him off
the announce table for a little bit throwing
him back towards the ring Where he he hangs AJ
on the ropes gets his balls caught on that middle
rope and uh we get to see logan paul hit that
pulverizer again or pulverizer sorry with the
crowd chanting youtube wanker which was my favorite
logan paul chant of the night from the crowd
um and then we jumped off from there into a little
backstage thing with jackie redmond talking to
lyra valkyria This yeah current women's IC title
holder Yeah, that's it. And yeah, we were talking
they were talking about Laura's first title defense
Last week against Raquel Rodriguez and Yeah,
she's she was reasonably happy with how it went
I mean she still walked out of it all with the
title which Considering the size difference in
those two women as well like Raquel Rodriguez
is a considerable amount taller and wider than
Lyra Valkyria. So that would have been a mega
match to watch. But for Lyra to come out of that
with that title still meant that she was doing
something right and that she's keeping her bosses
happy. That runs keeping going. Lyra Valkyrie
has been getting quite a bit of help from from
Bailey actually the role model and We find out
Lyra is actually gonna be Sort of repaying the
favor in a way and giving Bailey an opportunity
at the the women's IC title which I believe is
taking place next week. That is that will be
in Minneapolis Minnesota For the yeah for the
women's IC title between Lyra and Bailey's that
be a decent match to be fair. They've had a They've
had a few matches where they've been on sort
of opposing sides and tag matches and Non title
matches, but yeah, no, I'm looking forward to
that one. It'd be a really good match to be fair
Yeah, that's it. It promises to be a really entertaining
match. So I'm just hoping they get the minutes
for it so they can put some legs to it. But we
go from there into a little VT recap of Gunther
brutalizing Jimmy Uso and basically it all builds
up to us just finding out that Jimmy's receiving
treatment and we don't know anything else after
that. Jimmy left part of his brains on Gunther's
World Heavyweight Championship belt when Gunther
hit him in the head with it and it was a hell
of a plum shot. Oh 100 % but we've been over
enough of Gunther and Jimmy and Jay we're gonna
move on swiftly from that one into a backstage
promo which sees Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
congratulating Dom and Finn on their win earlier
on. Yeah, I'm sorry. Dom and Finn had an interesting
win earlier on in the evening and you know at
this point we see sort of Finn's making himself
up quite big in this one. It was his win more
than him and dom's win the way he's kind of doing
it The way he's talking about it kind of makes
it kind of it's it's all about him and how he
feels how good he is um, and as it's wrestlemania
season, he's going to go and talk to uh Adam
pierce about a title match at wrestlemania and
it wanders off So we're having a teaser there
of fen bala bron breaker for the title for the
Intercontinental title at Mania. Again, Brawnbreaker
hasn't had a match set in Bookjet. So while Finn
Balor's wandering off to find Adam Pearce, Liv
Morgan says to Dom really that, come on dude,
Finn Balor's piggybacking off Ewan. You know
all the hard work you've been putting in for
the judgment day recently and she says she's
gonna go and talk to Adam Pierce to get Dom a
title match to thank him. So we could then also
end up with Dom versus Bronbreaker or the possibility
of the triple threat of Dom versus Finn Balor
versus Bronbreaker. So I think I already know
how this is gonna play out and I don't think
it's going to actually have anything to do with
Brombreaker. I actually think that the WrestleMania
match will be almost like a control of the judgment
day match between Dom and Finn. Right. There
has been a lot of animosity building up between
the two of them. We've got to go out somewhere.
Oh, I thought they were just going to use Liv
Morgan the same way that Xavier Woods and Brad
Maddox did to relieve stress with Paige. Yeah,
no, I don't think that's happening somehow. No,
definitely not. Yeah. We move on from there to
our main event match of the evening. What a way
to finish this show. Not only do we have a women's
championship match, but we get a special guest
referee which is the one person that both of
these women are trying to fight at WrestleMania.
The challenge the challenger of the winner of
this match is the special guest referee, which
is always a nice little twist really Bianca's
never Bianca Belair has never been a special
guest referee before So we get to see Kind of
well, I must make going into this. I was hoping
she made a few a few big boobies and It didn't
quite go the way she wanted it to June's uh someone
else having to sort of take over you know what
i don't i think she did there were boo -boos
left in there that were weren't supposed to be
there yeah no there was um i just you know when
you you kind of with the special guest referee
i was kind of thinking she'd be that poor at
it that they'd send another referee down to basically
be like disappear You fucked it go Then for them
to to start having a pop at each other in the
middle of the ring. I Mentioned this earlier
in that earlier in the episode that One thing
that we don't see in the regular broadcast was
that the entire time this match was going on
There was a referee at ringside, but he was just
at a camera shot Helping essentially babysitting
Bianca Ballet the entire way through that match
helpful Hmm so that was very helpful It was for
Bianca Ballet It may not have been for everyone
else who was trying to I Can imagine watching
that live would be a bit weird because you've
got one ref in the ring and one ref running around
the outside shouting A lot of people within the
industry have done some form of refereeing so
the fact that she's got as far as she's got and
not had to do any is a bit weird Yeah, so Yeah,
it's a bit. It's a bit of an odd one. I will
be honest I mean you'd think she'd pick up a
little bit of it up by transference at least
having had so many matches of course But then
again, I suppose in that sort of environment.
You're not really concentrating on what the guy
in the striped pajamas is doing. You're more
focused on what you and your opponent are doing.
Yeah, and trying not to make sure that you A,
don't injure your opponent or yourself, but B,
don't do anything too outlandish. Unless, of
course, outlandish is what you've... got in mind
for the match here in store and to be fair this
match had some outlandish parts to it as well
to be fair um i'm a little bit a little bit unsure
what to make in this there are some decent spots
um i had the um io hit a missile drop kick on
ria and then uses the um there was like a suicide
dive into a cross body onto the outside. And
then she breaks the count by rolling in and out
of the ring and then kind of carries on just
dismantling Rhea to be fair. One thing that really
bugged me with this match was the fact that every
time there was a rope hold or something along
those lines, Bianca would physically get involved
and pull apart. Rather than the rest of the referees
when they're doing it. Well, they'll put a hand
on the shoulder, but they don't physically get
too involved It was more like a UFC referee at
this point where they will drag off the fighter
and knock them down themselves But it played
the part of being able to speak to her inexperience
as a referee. Yes So it aided the story of the
match realistically Oh, it did. It's just annoying.
Just let them go at it. Let them fight. Yeah,
this is it. But there were some brutal spots
in this match as well. I mean, Rhea Ripley ends
up bouncing Skye face first off the apron. And
Skye ends up, EO ends up retaliating with a poison
Rana. I'd never come across the term poison runner
before before this match. So that was a new term
on me It's just a hurricane runner, but with
a slight twist on it Well, yeah, it's a backwards
hurricane runner essentially Rather than pulling
your opponent forwards, you're pulling them backwards.
Yeah Something I'd ever seen before But then
you get that from some of these Japanese superstars.
They do pull out some really nice little moves
The Japanese style of wrestling so different
So so different Yeah, and it's one of the reasons
like that like superstars like Shinsuke Nakamura
is not doing very well in WWE realistically because
his style doesn't suit the promotion That and
I saw a clip the other day he's not changed anything
in his gimmick up until this ha I'm a Japanese
fucking warrior with a mask It's the same entry
music the same entrance everything. It's all
the same since when he debuted in 2016 oh Yeah,
no these nine years he's been in the company
He's using the same entry stuff, the same ring
gear, pretty much. Everything is the same. But
then again, the same thing could be said for
superstars like The Miz. The Miz is gimmick and
The Miz, he hasn't been repackaged in a little
while. He can communicate in his native language,
like in the native language of the country where
they're programming. Like the only time Miz is
out of his depth probably talking to anyone is
when they go to jubai You know like Shinsuke
Nakamura is out of his depth speaking anywhere
outside of Japan Unless he's talking to EOS guy.
Oh, yeah Or any of the other sort of Asian wrestlers
on the roster Yeah, that too But again Some absolutely
brutal spots in this match one of which was Rear
Ripley counter a crossbody with a headbutt. That
was pretty savage. That was um Quite a gnarly
headbutt. Got a random fact for you though Adam
Did you know that this week's episode of Monday
Night Raw was a debut in its own right? How do
you mean? Well, WWE this week debuted on Indian
Netflix with this episode. So. Oh, yes, I do
remember them mentioning it actually. Now we
have the WWE Universe from India joining us on
the Netflix journey as well. So they're not missing
out on what has been some incredibly amazing.
wrestling content over the last four months now.
WWE was originally was before it came to Netflix
in India was being broadcast on the Sony Sports
Network in India so they've not missed out essentially
it's just in a different format I think. Yeah
I mean Netflix I think is better than your standard
satellite TV. I mean, look how much easier it's
made this podcast. I can go back in and find
last week, this episode and find anything I need
to within five minutes. You try going onto a
cable TV show website and using the iPlayer feature
to try and find it. It's a real pain in the backside
sometimes. Yeah, fair enough. But we won't focus
too much on Indian Netflix as I don't think we've
had any listeners from there just yet. I mean,
if I'm wrong, by all means, let us know. But
as it goes, we then start getting towards the
end of the match where it all starts coming undone
a little bit. Coming undone is, yeah, I think.
I think that's a bit of an understatement. I
think this match it basically came undone as
soon as all three superstars were in the ring.
The fact that we've got to the end of the match
and Bianca has managed to piss off not only Rhea
by getting her too handsy where they were on
on brakes but Io as well and they've both got
you know they've both had sort of uh enough of
it you can see it's winding them both up and
uh we end up getting into what I think was the
best part of the match, to be fair. After Bianca
heavy -handedly broke up the count that Rhea
had going on Io, Rhea actually hits Bianca in
the face. Then as Bianca steps back, reeling
from that slap, Io Sky hits her with a missile
dropkick and sends her flying out of the ring.
And then we then get Rhea attacking Io, and there's
a point where I think it was classed as a 20
count, but Rhea had got Io pinned for that long,
the crowd chanted to 20, and Bianca was still
nursing her jaw on the outside. Well, yeah, but
that was thought of Rhea's fault to begin with,
as it was. Well, it was. Kind of six of one half
a dozen of the other but it was a hell of a boot
to Bianca anyway. Oh 100 % but the the hits to
Bianca didn't stop there realistically but we
got sort of real signs of Rhea Ripley's frustrations
boiling over As the as the match progressed and
Yeah, she even goes after Bianca at one point
to To vent some of this frustration that Arguably,
she probably should have been venting it on on
EO sky realistically. Well, yeah, but they both
Well, all three of them have got a hatred for
each other at the moment so at any point within
the next few weeks because now we've We find
out at the end of this much the winner of this
faces Bianca at WrestleMania for the title After
Adam Pierce refused to make it a triple threat
and reassigned the contract as well last week
before last Yeah, which probably would have saved
an awful lot of an awful lot of headaches on
there on his part realistically Yes, no wonder
the man is bold. He does not make things easy
for himself But yeah the match sort of comes
to a rather Dramatic end when Eoskai aims a Missile
dropkick at Ripley but ends up hitting Bianca
with it and that was sort of the straw that broke
the camel's back realistically Bianca had enough
of those shots Yeah, pretty much as she ends
up pulling the match in a double DQ And Yeah,
this just seems to push at Rhea Ripley especially
over the edge even further as It means that EO
Sky retains a championship the match at WrestleMania
as far as we are aware at the moment is still
a one -on -one which will see Bianca Belair try
and take the title off EO Sky and Yeah, I mean
Rhea Ripley has been just left out in the cold
Don't think she'll get left out of the cold.
She will make an appearance at WrestleMania of
some kind But I can't tell you exactly what it
is Should either interfere in this match or we'll
see her with It'd be funny if we saw her help
out there Damian Priest in his march just come
down and run in like distraction so to speak
Yeah, I suppose I mean this the episode ends
with just Riptide after riptide after super riptide
about riptide off the second rope is I love it.
Yeah And yeah, the last images we see is The
bodies of the champion and the challenger laid
out in the ring is Rhea Ripley's left standing
over the broken beaten bodies Yeah, I mean what
a way of pissing your enemies off hey, I've just
come in here I've kicked your arse and I've got
your title Yeah You know what if only there was
a women's 24 -7 That would have been perfect.
I've come in, I've kicked your ass, I've nicked
your title. Let's go. Well the 24 -7 title by
definition was unisex anyway. Right, yeah, but
it would just be interesting with just an extra
belt floating around the women's division to
help out. I don't think the women's division
needs any more belts. they've got just as many
as the men though exactly they don't need no
more no you're not talking about no more that
describes the end of my notes yeah i'm pretty
sure that describes the end of mine as well uh
just about to say to you that i'm uh i'm officially
out right so that leaves us with the end of this
episode it means we will be back And the next
one, which is it finishes and factions does an
XT. This one is live from the performance center
and is our April Fools episode. So it's very
much a thank you for listening from me and the
same from him too. Yeah, exactly the same from
me. So Yeah, come back soon and we will we will
have for you finishers and factions does NXT
Peace