In 1985, Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr. conceptualized
a concept of the biggest wrestling show ever
seen before on the globe. And that was where
WrestleMania was born. 40 some odd years later,
we're still talking about WrestleMania and This
week, this is historic as this is the first WrestleMania
that Finishers and Factions has ever covered.
Welcome to our coverage of WrestleMania 41. My
name is Adam. I am one of our hosts. Our other
host is Rich. Rich, welcome to WrestleMania.
Oh, thank you very much, buddy. I'm excited already.
We've not even seen anything yet and I'm already
rebouncing for. for the entire I wish the weekends
could come back again just for the wrestling
not for the amount of notes I've written over
the last six days that that has been kind of
I'm pretty sure I've got some kind of permanent
writer's injury or something along those lines
because yeah it's my hand has not been the same
since yeah fucking comments I have written an
awful lot of notes citing the fact that we are
in the Allegiant Stadium home of the Las Vegas
Raiders for this year's WrestleMania. With an
attendance that we are informed is over 60 ,000
to start off with. We do get a more precise number
a little bit later on. But 60 ,000 to start off
with is pretty incredible. Oh, 100%. And as is
tradition now at WrestleMania, we have opening
remarks in ring um by Triple H fresh off his
hall of fame induction for his own personal contributions
um to the wrestling industry and ongoing contributions
might I add. Oh definitely we're not seeing Triple
H disappear anytime soon. No certainly not um
he welcomes the crowd to Las Vegas um and this
we're informed that this is the first WrestleMania
to be broadcast completely globally which is
a pretty cool concept considering for the last
few years we've you know we've had sort of 80
to 90 percent of the globe have been able to
enjoy wrestlemania with us and then now everyone
in the world can enjoy the thrill that is wrestlemania
yeah 100 and after The customary opening of,
are you ready? We have an appearance from some
guy called Salvatore Ganucchi, I think was how
I've written that down. Which I wrote down. It
was a Bosnian slash Swedish DJ. slash music producer
and is credited to a game called Fatal Fury City
of Wolves where I believe he is actually a playable
character which is due to release on the 24th
of April. Well that sounds all very nice for
Salvatore Genucci but he's not a wrestler so
at this point no fucks given. Let's get into
the meat and veg odds. I feel like there's a
Booker T quote in there somewhere from NXT. Can
you dig it, sucker? Well, that's all the Booker
T you're getting from me this weekend. Finisher's
and Faction's fans. There's going to be a weekend
of poor, poor impersonations. I can promise you
that, but that is the only Booker T on you again.
In which case we'll crack straight on. Match
one on the card this week. in this WrestleMania
night one was for the World Heavyweight Championship
and saw our Royal Rumble winner, Jey Uso, trying
to lift the title off of Gunther, our current
World Heavyweight Champion. This is an interesting
concept for the fact that Jey Uso has never beaten
Gunther in a title match. So with this one also
being a title match, this is going in where the
odds are very much stacked against Jay. There's
also two other people that I'd like to point
out whose odds are stacked against them. This
is two young gentlemen from the crowd that we've
spoken about on previous episodes. The young
lad with the villa shirt and the young lad with
the Birmingham City shirt at the front. can you
please stop going to wwe events you're making
us west bron fans incredibly jealous i mean i'm
not a west bron fan i couldn't give a toss but
no but i'd also like to be at wrestlemania with
a baggy shirt on just not near those two i'll
go and stand in the decent seats yeah i was gonna
say i'd go and stand in the better seats but
they have got premium seats right along the entry
sign. So, you know, right where Jeyuso jumps
over the barricades into the ring area after
his entrance through the crowd. The serious Jeyuso
is back, Adam. No yeets on his entrance. Well,
no yeets on him. There were 60 ,000 other people
yeeting in unison, including Michael Cole, who
looked like he was about to have a heart attack
at commentary. I mean, he's getting better. It's
obviously doing him some good, all of this yeeting.
He's definitely getting fitter. I think the only
other person in the arena that wasn't yeeting
was Mr. Wade Barrett, who made his WrestleMania
debut on commentary this year. I also believe
that at this point... Gunther, who is still backstage,
would not have been yeeting as well, because
we've never seen Gunther pop a yeet. I'd quite
like to see Gunther drop a yeet. Yeah, I don't
think that's going to happen somehow. I'm talking
of yeets. Oh, I was going to say, speaking of
yeets, Adam's video on the Finnishism factions
TikTok is the first video to hit a thousand views.
And that was Adam popping a very serious looking
yeet. Well done on that one, Ed. No worries at
all there, mate. No worries. Right, let's see.
Jump in with Gunther. Yeah, I mean Gunther, he's
coming into WrestleMania 41 in his sixth title
defense during a 259 -day reign as world heavyweight
champion. It's not the longest reign we've ever
seen, but still an impressive feat to hold on
to it. for that long yeah definitely and uh but
he's got a thing for holding on to titles for
quite a while as we are informed a little bit
later into the match just scrolling down through
my notes to see if i can find it but he does
hold he has held two other titles yeah here we
go so Gunther was the NXT UK champion for 870
days and he was the intercontinental champion
for 666 days. So, you know, he's definitely got
a way to go on those two title runs, but coming
up to a year almost, just under a hundred days
off a year as the world heavyweight champion.
It's gonna be an interesting one. You say that
because it starts off pretty much as I think
everybody expected it to because pretty much
early doors Gunther was dominating in this. Most
of my notes in the start of this match start
with a G. Actually the first six that I've written
down start with a G. This is it and it's because
Gunther just He literally settled in. He settled
in dead quick to the match. It's nothing that
he hasn't done before. It's another day at the
office for him. He's slapping about Jey Uso.
You know, it's all fun games for him. He's been
doing this for fun for the last couple of weeks,
just choking him out, slapping him out, and just
generally making Jey Uso feel like he's Gunther's
bitch. you know, he gets taken out at one point
with a step up. Well, Gunther does end up getting
dropped at several points in the sort of the
openings at five, 10 minutes. And one of those
is to a step up in Segiri. But Jay does seem
to hit some big shots in this, like the opening
sort of sections of this match. And with like
body slams, spears, you know, even in the start
of this. just the start he's still trying to
pull everything he can out for a probably a fast
finish you know if he can explode out the blocks
and surprise Gunther and get lucky then maybe
that's the best way to do it the longer you stay
in the ring with that guy the more fucks you're
gonna get yeah 100 % longevity in a match against
Gunther does not favor Gunther's opponent at
all so yeah it's always best to If you're going
to hit him, hit him hard, hit him fast. Don't
let him build ahead of steam, which unfortunately
Jusso did do at this stage. But despite that,
he did come back with some big moves. I mean,
he had a series of moves, including a Samoan
drop, a spear and a Nusso splash, which he was
pointing at at one stage. I must admit I made
a big note of that one as well. That was right
at the end of the match as well. um so for him
to still have gone at this point i think when
he hits this off it was for the first time it
was pretty much like maybe 10 10 to 15 minutes
into the match so they'd already had like a pretty
serious session going on before he manages to
pull that out of trinidad disaster and then goes
on to pull it out again a little bit later on
after he's had a few more bombs dropped on him.
One of those bombs was Gunther chopping at him
in the middle of the ring and Jey Uso just stood
there laughing at him like he finally lost the
plot. Yeah that was sort of the note that I made
as well because we've got to remember one of
the one of the all -time things that Gunther
is probably the most famous for is how One of
his chops would be enough to put down any normal
human being. I'm pretty sure if he chopped either
me or Rich we'd be on the floor gasping for air.
To stand in the middle of a WWE ring at WrestleMania
and take several of those chops and start laughing
sort of suggests a detachment from reality, I'm
not gonna lie. I mean we wouldn't be surprised
if that was the way he was going off. We saw
Gunther beat the living shit out of his brother
a couple of weeks ago. So that's where the more
serious Jays come from and at this point he has
been as serious as serious can be. He's very
much jumped on with the opportunity and he's
at some points of this match, not all of it,
some points, he was on top. I mean yes, it was
a very 50 -50 match. I feel up until the last
two minutes, it was probably a very, very 50
-50 match. It was only the ending and the way
that went that kept it... It was a big surprise
and it was not what I thought was going to go
down. He was trying everything in his arsenal
to get it to... put Gunther away, which he's
done so many times before and come out unsuccessful.
I mean, even for Gunther to start throwing some
of his classic moves at him, like at one point
he puts Jay in a sleeper hold, which we've seen
weeks in, week in, week out. Will put Jay to
sleep very easily and will not take very long
to do so. No, and once he'd locked that in on
Jay, I think we pretty much all thought it was...
game over Gunther was retaining but the fact
that Jay managed to suplex and get a German suplex
to get you'll use a German suplex to get himself
out of this choke hold to then follow that up
with a power bomb on Gunther followed by a super
kick and a spear to then go for an Uso's flash
to to finish off the the selection of the second
time and then Don't think he hit just one. He
didn't there was two. Oh Actually, I'm wrong.
There was three I was gonna say I've noted down
that there was three. Yeah, there was three So
at this point, he's getting some pent -up aggression
from his system as well You know again with all
those beatings that he's taken what Jimmy took
a few weeks ago He's definitely got a lot of
aggression to get out and he does with these
splashes and then, yeah, decides that he's gonna
try and play Gunther at his own game and locks
in that same sleeper hold that Gunther likes
to use. Gunther tapped to it. Out of all the
ways to try and beat Gunther, a submission move
was not something I expected to see being used.
But - No, we've got to remember that Gunther's
hardly ever been pinned in WWE. Yeah, well Gunther's
been pinned twice in the WWE. And I can tell
you who he's been pinned, like how and where.
So he was pinned at Crown Jewel by Cody Rhodes
and pinned at WrestleMania 40 by Sami Zayn. And
he was submitted by Isla Dragunov, known as Walter
at the time, in August 2021 at NXT TakeOver 36
with a rear naked chokehold. That was the match
that ended his 870 day reign as the NXT UK champion.
Yeah, this it wasn't it I mean Gunther being
beat in general is not something that happens
very often So the fact the fact that he's only
ever been he's only ever tapped out once previously
in WWE He's only been beaten like three times
in singles matches in WWE I Think each time he's
been beaten. He's lost a title Yeah Most likely.
Yeah, no, it's pretty much that is the way it's
run. Each time he has been beaten, he has lost
his title. NXT UK title lost and then was the
first loss. Then yeah, the IC title was the second.
He's spent 80 % of his career in WWE as champion
in some way, shape or form. Yeah, done a very
good job with it as well. But yes, Jey Uso taps
out Gunther to become the new heavyweight world
champion. and we get to see him celebrating with
his brother Big Jim in the ring. You know, nice
little bit of sort of recognition from Big Jim
there for the work that Jay's put in and obviously
the help that Big Jim had to give Jay in different
ways to get him there. But yeah, first major
solo's title for Jay as well. Yeah, not his first
solos title major Yeah, I said first major I
like to get my facts in as well, you know But
yeah, no, it's a case that this was a huge emotional
victory for for Jay and for Jim to come out as
well big big props to both of the USOs because
Yeah, I don't think one could have done it without
the other sort of thing. It's Even if it took
Jim to get his ass Hospitalized to work to to
get him there sort of thing He did manage to
get in the slap that was heard around the world
So it was probably worth it in the long run May
maybe maybe but this is classic WWE storytelling
at the end of the day We've seen this type of
story so many so many times in the past and do
you know what we'll see it so many other times
afterwards because it is it's such a it's such
a powerful story to tell that underdog face character
taking on the seemingly completely dominant heeled
champion to then come out on top at the um at
the end of the series sort of thing it's it's
yeah we've seen it so many times before done
by so many other people in the past yes one of
the ones in the well that they can keep going
back to and they need to yeah pretty much um
but yeah i think we'll uh we'll leave big german
j to wander off and we'll uh crack on with the
next one yeah so as we pan round to our second
match of the card. We are introduced to a few
celebrities that are in attendance. One of them
is the San Francisco 49ers very own George Kettle
and we are informed that this is his eighth WrestleMania
making him a rather large wrestling fan and in
the process of him being on camera decides he's
going to do the typical frat boy thing and chug
that beer. Seems to struggle a little bit with
it but he does get it down. Which is a something
the 49ers struggle with at the moment getting
that ball down the field I'll have to take your
word for that as we've discussed on many different
occasions. I am not really an NFL fan I stay
up late enough late nights watching wrestling.
I don't need to stay up more late nights watching
Monday night football Yes, this is funny because
before we started this podcast I was looking
into maybe starting to get into the hockey season
and then I started this and there was no time
for hockey nothing I even thought about adding
an AEW or TNA episode. More AEW just so I had
an excuse to watch timeless Tony Storm a little
bit more than just what I do on TikTok and Facebook,
but no, there is not enough time for a Finishes
and Factions does AEW in a week either. No, we'd
need to expand our team to be able to do things
like that I think. Might be something to do to
further down the line, maybe. That's if AW manages
to stay in the business long enough for us to
produce finishes and factions, doesn't it, AW?
Either that, or we do finishes and factions,
does TNA. But anyway, enough about future talking.
We've got a couple of other celebs in attendance
in this particular segment that we're introduced
to. One is a gentleman that goes by the name
of Rick Rubin, a nine -time Grammy Award winner.
Despite being that successful, I still didn't
know who he was. But one man I do know who he
is, is a gentleman who goes by the name of Chris
Angel, host of a very successful magicians TV
show called Mind Freak, that is broadcast mostly
in the states. But yeah, I mean, Chris Angel,
he's one of the biggest names in close -up magic,
as it goes. Yeah, anybody who's a magic fan has
to be aware of Chris Angel. It's like not knowing
who Penn and Teller are. Oh, it's funny how you
say that considering I spoke about Penn and Teller
a little bit on finishes and factions that does
stand and deliver because they were playing some
little magical tricks with Alexis King and his
heritage trophy. which I believe he has not found
yet, which could cost him a pretty penny. Well,
I'm sure we'll find out when we come round to
do finishes and factions, does NXT, which will
be coming up soon. But we've got to finish this
episode. So let's crack on with match two of
the card, which was the World Tag Team Championship
match, which saw the new day. versus current
champions, the War Raiders. Yes, and as we are
told by commentary, WrestleMania is war. Well,
I think it takes, I think it may have taken Pat
McAfee two attempts to do that, as I think he
may have said to begin with, that Raw is war.
Yes, he did. Just out of sort of... Just out
of pure, what's the word I'm looking for? Habit,
that's the word. But yeah, we see, as is traditional
format for WrestleMania, we normally have a VT
which shows us what the, basically what happened
in the run up to. This match and this one shows
sort of I put this down as the It shows the defection
of the new day from the power of positivity which
we've had within the new day for the last ten
years or so and then They sadly had to say goodbye
to biggie which saw them sink ever deeper into
a pit of darkness and We have the new new day
coming up with that. And yeah, I mean, I'm used
to go on. I was gonna say I'm I'm getting to
a point with the with the new day now where I'm
a little bit like, come on, let's see what we
can do as a two man. Obviously we're getting
to see Xavier Woods have to pull his skinny little
weight. like around a bit more rather than just
outside the blowing his own trumpet while Big
E and Kofi got on with it. This is their first
sort of major run as a duo. Well, we both expected
Big E to be replaced at some point, but no, I'm
kind of intrigued. So to speak, I enjoy watching
the War Raiders, but kind of think I'm backing
the new day on this one. You don't get me wrong.
I was still back in the war Raiders in this one
when it came when it came down to it But definitely
the new new day is is growing on me one of the
tradition that comes with WrestleMania is over
exaggerated entrances now The New Day didn't
have as much of an over -exaggerated entrance
as such, but their ring entrance gear was interesting.
Now I noted down that they had a patch on their
back that depicted a three -headed unicorn, but
one head was withered, dying or dead. It's difficult
to tell which one exactly it was, which obviously
was a subtle nod to... their fallen brother -in
-arms Big E Langston. Yes. Which is a nice little,
nice little treat. Because obviously, yes, they
had to toss him from their tag team, but they
really did not want to do it. But with the injuries
that he's had with his neck, he's not medically
cleared to be able to wrestle. I think he's currently
doing stuff with the production and writing at
the moment. He's doing some some bits on the
side. He's doing hosting of like pre -shows and
things like that. So whenever they caught him
out in a suit whenever it comes to doing pre
-shows where they get like Michael Cole book
a tea and Yeah, somebody else to come in and
talk about what's gonna happen in the the upcoming
show before the show actually starts yes yeah
i didn't watch any of the pre -shows there was
enough wrestling for me to watch this weekend
without needing to worry about the pre -shows
so i know i did miss some bits but i can't imagine
they were too important if they weren't featured
on the main cards of wrestlemania or at least
advertised for the raw after mania no this is
it it's a case that we yeah um There's normally
maybe a match in the pre -show, but it's more
rare now than it used to be. It always used to
be a case that there was always a match in the
pre -show. And it sometimes had relevance to
the main show, but not always sort of thing.
But we were safe from that on the WrestleMania
pre -show for it. Now, War Raiders definitely
had some interesting attire to come down to.
come down to the ring with because this match
we were told was sponsored by the mobile game
clash of clans which is currently having a WWE
event at crossover event there at the moment
and We're yeah, basically a sponsor of WrestleMania
in general and the war Raiders came direct addressed
as characters from the game of We Were Told.
Never really played it myself, I will be honest.
So I sort of took them at their word for that
one. Yeah, it's not something I think I've played
a huge amount of. Now, if it had been Raid Shadow
Legends, I could possibly have admitted to playing
a small amount of that multiple times a day for
multiple weeks. But we're not here to talk about
that. This, the Clash of Clans promo did kind
of piss me off after a little while. There just
seemed to be a lot of it and yeah, it was cool,
but I don't feel it was something we necessarily
needed rammed down our throat with every wrestler
that came out. It was every wrestler. It's like
a massive cosplay, like Clash of Clans cosplay
convention this weekend at WrestleMania. See
I picked it up on the war Raiders. I didn't pick
it up with anybody else's though I know there
were a number of different Like advertisements
throughout the show for it, but I didn't really
pick up on it anywhere else So over the course
of the two nights of WrestleMania we will get
into some of these other matches, but we do see
a few other Superstars appear with elements to
it on them One of them was Damian Priest. One
of them was Don Mysterio. Braun Strowman had
some aspects to his ring gear that were part
of it. Drew McIntyre did. Quite a few of them
had different elements to it. Oh, right, okay.
As I said, I never really picked up on that,
so no, fair play for that. Back to your superior
knowledge on that one More of an eye for detail
when it comes to clothing where you seem to be
able to pick out the fine details and the promos
For example, I did also notice and so did commentary
that Xavier Woods and the ring announcer Alicia
Taylor have the same hairstyle Like they've gone
for the the cocky peacock and it works very well.
It looks better on Alicia Taylor than it doesn't
Xavier Woods But, yeah, no. Commentary were quite
eager to pick that one up, but this one did not
start in the ring, to be fair. New Day could
not wait for the War Raiders to come into the
ring, so New Day went and met them on the outside.
And it basically ended up with Eric using Kofi
Kingston as a battering ram and slapping Xavier
Woods around with him, which... The irony of
it, I thought was quite good. I just wish one
of them had still been wearing their llama outfits
for when they were doing it. But enough of that
because I'm not entirely sure that's PG. I'm
not sure if that's PG. Tommaso Ciampa. He introduced
WrestleMania. He did. Amasa Ciampa introduced
WrestleMania for the R -Truth fans out there.
But yeah, it's a case that I enjoyed this match
because it's a War Raiders match and New Day
got their heads kicked in. So what's not to enjoy?
But I didn't get a tremendous amount of notes,
like sort of interspersed. I tried to pick up
on what I felt were the most important parts
of the match. right so that's what i try and
do and this match there was not a lot of oh my
god moments there was a few and normally i try
and keep my notes to a rough like you know such
and such is done such and such and then it's
like oh that was and it's normally combination
based so you know i've got here that eric picks
that ivar up throws them on uh over the top rope
to the outside landing on the new day taking
them both out then ivar run hits a running crossbody
against the both members of the new day who are
sat slumped up against the LCD screen on the
outside of the ring and I of ours not exactly
a small dude and When that small dude throws
himself at you when you are a small dude And
you are stuck between a ring that does not move
and a big dude that Just gonna yeah like that
video in the jackass where they get punched in
the face and slap with the flick with the fish
That is pretty much what is happening here WWE
style and it is not pleasant and the look on
that both Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston's face
afterwards said ow ow Fuck Why did we do that?
Yeah? Yeah, it's a case that they I challenge
anybody not to feel exactly the same way under
those circumstances, if we're completely honest.
It was one of those where if you could swap some
members of Jackass and the New Day out, it'd
be, hi, I'm Kofi Kingston. Why am I trying to
be Kofi? Like because, yeah, Kofi ate Eric. Well,
no, Ivar, sorry. And Ivar ate both of the members
of the New Day for breakfast in that specific
move. just completely brutal. That's War Raiders
3 though. It is. War Raiders are just that. They
are positively brutal. But then The New Day can
be just as brutal. There's a section a little
bit later on where Xavier Woods throws Eric into
the barricades and then back into the ring. Wazavian
Woods holds Eric on the ropes and Kofi does a
senton off the top turnbuckle onto the apron
for the two count, which was quite brutal. And
we've seen quite a lot of, I'm quite enjoying
watching Kofi going up top at the moment. You
don't know what you're going to get from him.
It used to be that it was very much the same
move over and over again. And then you'd finish
it off like a trouble in paradise. But now he
seems to be a lot more advanced and a lot more
high flying and I think a lot more entertaining.
I think if we'd have had this Kofi Kingston and
Kofi held the title, I'd have enjoyed it a lot
more. And he might have survived longer than
20 seconds with Brock Lesnar. Yeah, just going
through everything out. He was never realistically
going to last that long. No, he didn't have enough
in his arsenal, but that arsenal seems to have
improved during the last few years. I feel anyway.
Yeah, I mean, fair play. I'm not going to argue
the toss with it. But yeah, so. I'm just having
a look to see where I've gotten to. I know at
one point Woods did his tribute to Rick Flair.
He did yes and both Eric and Xavier Woods stand
there trading slaps and there seemed to be an
attempt at a Hardy Boys sort of tip of the cap
as well, but it didn't quite get there. I think
I believe it was broken up by war raiders, more
specifically Ivar. I mean, that does sound roughly
about right. I mean, yeah. Again, it wasn't like
a tremendously Oh my god he went through the
table sort of a match it was I mean there was
a little bit of cheating going on for example
Kofi Kingston saved Xavier Woods from a double
team and when War Raiders went for War Machine
Kofi Kingston interfered and caused Ivar to drop
out and then Kofi dragged Ivar away whilst Eric
was being pinned to make sure that they couldn't
get them off. So without the ref paying too much
attention as to what was going on. So yeah, basically
just dragged his opponent like drag. Yes, Eric
was being pinned. You've got Xavier Woods on
top and Kofi drags Eric's legs and pulls him
and Kofi Kingston away from or drags Ivar sorry
away from Eric so Eric can't get to him in time
to break the count where they get the three count
and they basically ran out of the ring grabbed
the title and did bond like they were quoted
by commentaries running like they had stolen
something because that's pretty much what they
did with this match they snuck in at the end
and they stole a victory and quite frankly I
loved it yeah it wasn't It wasn't a cheap win
it was that there was there was a real match
leading up to that point Yes, all Raiders did
not get shit on in this opportunity. They didn't
get squashed. They didn't get You know, they
were given fair time good matching, you know,
and they were allowed to have some good spots
and um, yeah the ending was I actually think
the ending suited it that little stolen. We don't
see stolen title victories very often so I think
it was quite cool. And it's a classic heel maneuver.
Yes. So it's something we've seen hundreds of
times before. We've seen it more recently. I
think the Judgment Day have done it on several
occasions where they have almost stolen titles
away or stolen retentions and things like that.
It's insane. Yeah, but no. It's a very compelling
story. it does and this one was an incredible
story and i actually really like i said i really
enjoyed watching this much there was a lot to
it that it may not have had the massive spots
that you'd expect but it was it was great and
um yeah new day of the new world tag team champions
which is a pretty pretty nuts i think we i worked
out they had been They are 13 time tag champions
now. I've got it written down somewhere. I think
including this one is 13. So that is pretty incredible.
But as with the rest of this, we have so much
more to cover. So we are now going to jump off
into the build up for the next match, which was
Naomi and Jade Cargill. Yeah, let's switch gears.
But before we switch gears completely we've got
a few more celebrities to talk about before we
go before we go into that Jade Naomi match First
one that we are shown is a an actor by the name
of O'Shea Jackson jr We are told he's an actor
and a musician. Although again, I don't really
know who who Who he is. We also see Michael Shea
Shea Michael Shea. Yeah Michael Che is one of
the hosts to Saturday Night Live. He is hilarious.
Him and his co -host Colin, I can't remember
Colin's surname, but yeah, they are highly hilarious.
If you haven't seen Saturday Night Live and you
have a interesting sense of humor, then go and
check it out. It's brilliant. And of course,
the other celebrity we are introduced to is no
stranger to a WWE event. In fact, I believe,
if I remember correctly, he may have actually
had a small spot in, I wanna say, the last year
or the year before's WrestleMania. We have Jelly
Roll, the Grammy Award winning rapper, singer,
and songwriter. Yeah, and the 200 pound lighter
rapper, singer. and songwriter. As we are informed
that old jelly roll has been laying off the jelly
rolls and is doing very well with it. I believe
a little bit of fourth wall stuff here. I remember
seeing an episode of the Two Bears One Cave podcast
which is Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura. They
are doing a I want to say it's a 10k with Joe
Rogan and Jenny Roll. So that could be where
a lot of that weight is going in, because I've
noticed that Tom Segura has lost an awful lot
too. Not sure how old the video was, but yeah,
there was definitely some fun stuff going on
there, I believe. What way of a podcast to make
money for charity. is to go into a 5K, but getting
two hilarious comedians, a guy who smokes a lot
of weed and Joe Rogan. I made a claim a moment
ago that Jelly Rolls had a match at WrestleMania.
It wasn't at WrestleMania. It was at SummerSlam
last year. He teamed with The Miz and R -Truth
against Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. a town
down under yeah that's the one before we silly
our tongues with that name again we'll move on
now match three was of course the women's singles
match which saw Jade Cargill versus Naomi now
as the VT recapping this shows and as we've talked
about a lot on the podcast November Jade Cargill
was subject to a horrific attack out of nowhere
and it was a mystery for months who had attacked
Jade Cargill and left a beaten broken on the
hood of a car out in the car park at a WWE event.
Well a few people were accused of doing it. The
people accused of doing it are current women's
tag team champions, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.
Yeah, who were due for a match on night two,
I believe. I believe so. But we do find out it
was not them because it was... At Elimination
Chamber, we found out because Jade Cargill made
her... Return. ...vicious return. It was in the
women's elimination chamber match itself where
we had Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, Bianca Beller,
Naomi and I want to say Rhea Ripley as well.
No, it wasn't Rhea because she was the holder.
I think it was Roxane Perez. Yes, it might have
been actually. No, yes, no it was, that was a
good show. And because we'd spent weeks and weeks
thinking that it was Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez,
Liv was in that ring looking mighty sheepish
until Naomi was the one that was dragged, beaten.
bruised and even had her neck slammed in the
elimination chamber main chamber door. She was
brutalised by Jade Cargill. I'd like to point
out that Finishes and Factions, courtesy of yours
truly, did actually call that before that happened,
but we're not going to harp on at it. All right,
Miss. I beat John Cena at WrestleMania once.
I did. Did nobody see that? We didn't see John
Cena. I mean, admittedly, afterwards I woke up.
So, yeah. But then my game saved. And I lost
the save data. Damn it. But yeah, and that documented
all of the, well, I'd say craziness that's happened
up to that point, because we've had Naomi take
a heel turn for it. We found out Naomi had done
all of this because she was basically jealous
of how close Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair would
be coming. I felt like she was third wheeling
almost. Coming out of that VT, we saw Naomi debuting
her brand new entrance, which I've been waiting
for. I've been waiting for her to update her
entrance music. It was. I like the approach with
caution aspect that they're going with with her.
a far cry away from feeling the glow. So 100
% on board with Naomi's repackage there. And
Jade Cargill in her entrance almost had a bit
of an X -Men feel for it as she's being referred
to as the oncoming storm. She also reminded me
of when Halle Berry was in that James Bond movie.
In what way? Just the there's one point where
they're both I'm Sort of honey berries in a bikini
in the movie I think and Jade Cargill was obviously
in a wrestling gear, but they just look very
similar. Oh Right, okay I'll have to take your
word on that. I didn't make that compare. I didn't
draw that comparison Yeah, so Naomi debuting
new entrants Jade Cargill this was actually Jade's
first WrestleMania singles match. I think she
may have had a WrestleMania match previously,
but I don't think it was a one on one. And yeah,
I mean, again, this one didn't go any way that
I didn't expect it to. Jade is a powerful force.
in the ring, she was powerful a force in AEW
when she was there and has continued to do so
when she is here in WWE. But it's a case that
Jade took almost immediate control of the match
from that point on. She wasn't there to fuck
around. She was there to, what was it CM Punk
said? To bubble gum and sign contracts? he was
all out of bubble gum, she was just there to
get this match over and done with. Oh 100 % she
wants, I think at this point she wants to put
Naomi in her rear view mirror and sort of move
on with her career a little bit. The way she
started this match it looked like she was trying
to put Naomi in the same place as the Pope in
a coffin. Like she was trying to, well I mean
she was all over her, like absolutely all over
her to start off with. even when she slams her
from the top turnbuckle, you know, and then when
she rolls out of the ring for a bit of safety
and gets tossed into the barricade, there was
nowhere to hide in this match for Naomi. No,
and despite this approach with caution, repackage
that she's had, I don't feel that Naomi's moveset
was quite there to match. the sheer power and
ferocity of her. Then she did get some half decent
moves in. So she gets a hanging DDT off the,
which we normally see being done by the apex
predator, Randy Orton. She popped that off the
apron onto the outside. They referred to it as
an X factor, but we'll go with hanging DDT. It's
slightly better. She also hit Jade Cargill with
a... I'm sure I've got her in down here. She
hits her with a spine buster at some point. Oh,
she hits a block buster on the outside as well.
Naomi does. And she hits... She hits several
sort of near falls in the start. And there's
sort of like... If we split the match into like
beginning, middle and end. The end of the beginning
middle of the middle like the start of the middle
section. She was Naomi was all over Jade Cargill
for quite a while Yeah, it's a case that I know
that at one point towards the end of the match
Naomi ends up hitting like a I put it down as
a super bulldog because it was a bulldog maneuver
off the top rope. It was followed swiftly by
a split -leg moonsault. I did get that one down.
Yeah, that was very near the end. You know, at
one point just before that, Jade Cargill caught
Naomi off the ropes a second time and we had
a fall away slam and Jade Cargill just kips up.
bows to the crowd and then carries on kicking
the crap out of Naomi. Yeah, this was pure dominance
show by, by Jade Cargill. And I mean, as you
said, Naomi got some good moves in as well. One
of my favourite ones was actually towards the,
well, right at the very end is that Naomi managed
to put in place a variation of the submission
manoeuvre called the Rings of Saturn. which was
made famous by Perry Satin of the Attitude era,
if I remember correctly. Not a terribly successful
superstar, but he was a formidable presence in
the ring from what I can recall. But Jade herself
powers out of this and sort of turns it into
a powerbomb. then hits her finishing maneuver
called jaded which is beautiful yeah which was
I mean all in all this was a good finish to the
story and Jade we all could see was gonna be
allowed to get revenge on the grandest stage
of them all I feel personally this match and
I'm not saying it was a bad match I'm just saying
for the revenge style match it was supposed to
be. I'd like to have seen it being maybe no DQ
or a little bit more brutal, so to speak. No,
I understand not all matches can be brutal. I
do realize that we're not going to get blood
in every match. We're not going to get, you know,
like tables, ladders, chairs, people being hit
with belts, you know, you name it, right? I understand
we're not going to get that all the time. This
was... Naomi attacked Jade Cargill and left her
out for months, right? In the worst, the beat
down at Elimination Chamber was more brutal than
this match. I feel this match could have been
a little bit more out there, a little bit more,
not John Moxley, but a little bit more, do you
know what I mean? A little bit more that way.
Yes. i do get what you mean yeah it's maybe a
bit of something like that because we do get
to see some of these items introduced over different
matches over the course of the weekend but you
know watching Jade Cargill smash Naomi in the
head with a trash can would have been really
effective to that storyline it makes me kind
of think that this storyline is not really finished
because the beat down wasn't that bad if you
get me i think I've got a feeling that the storyline
between Jade and Naomi is more or less finished.
You think there's going to be one between Naomi
and Bianca now, don't you? Yeah, pretty much.
Before the best friends are going to go one on
one and that could be a backlash, possibly, if
that is the way that is going to go. I just find
it really odd that considering Bianca was at
the centre of it, She was then transplanted out
of that storyline to then be put in the Women's
World Championship match with Rhea Ripley and
EO Sky and left completely out of this rivalry,
which she was at the centre of. I mean, they
haven't pulled her out completely because on
Smackdown... we did see there was Io, Rhea and
Bianca in the ring and Naomi came out to talk
to Bianca in the ring basically saying look you're
on smackdown but you haven't come to talk to
me like what's this about we're gonna do that
you know and if you wouldn't come and find me
in private you know like I was trying to do we're
gonna do this in public and she tries to do it
in the ring and Bianca basically kind of shuts
her down well they end up having a massive scrap
to be fair that's what shuts it all down but
they have kind of held that position with that
story. They've kind of pulled her out a little
bit and they can kind of throw her back in there
because they've kept kind of dragging it sort
of back and forth with what's going on. I see
this going one of three ways. The next stage
for this is either going to be that this storyline
ends, they draw a line under it and work in something
new. in the next week following WrestleMania.
That's option one. Option two is that Naomi then
turns her attention to Bianca Belair. They start
a one -on -one rivalry. Or we set up, from SmackDown,
we set up a triple threat match for Backlash,
which will see Jade versus Naomi versus Bianca
Belair. because there is beef on all sides of
that the only person that doesn't have beef with
the other is Bianca doesn't really have any beef
with Jade but yeah doesn't like the fact that
Bianca then replaced seemingly almost immediately
replaced her with Naomi the person who attacked
her yeah and got a feeling that that that could
make for an interesting potentially interesting
storyline for it it could be it could be but
we are going to turn our eyes away from Naomi
Jade Cargill for this year's WrestleMania because
as we said Jade Cargill hits the three count
to get that victory over Naomi. We are going
to move our coverage over onto the United States
Championship match. So our next match on the
card is a United States Championship match between
the Samoan werewolf Jacob Fatu and the champion
LA Knight. Obviously this one's got quite a long
winding storyline behind it to be fair. All starting
off long before LA Knight had his hands on the
United States Championship. I mean I think this
pretty much, this feud pretty much started when
Jacob Fatu didn't want to use his inside voice,
so LA Knight threw his ass outside before he
went into a United States match with Shinsuke
Nakamura. They've been having beef well before
now as it goes. It's a case that this isn't something
that's unusual or anything along those lines.
This is something been in the works, as you said,
for a very, very long time. Yeah, it makes no
sense whatsoever to sort of go back through everything
that's happened because quite frankly, we've
already covered everything that happened. We've
happened up to now. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that
we've been doing Finishes and Factions the same
amount of time these two have been trying to
kick each other's front teeth in. Yeah, over
50 episodes. But yeah, it's a case that the opening
VT shows LA Knight's rise to champion and then
sort of demonstrates this ultimate test in front
of him, which is which is that of Jacob Fatu,
the the man that's it or the Samoan werewolf
that seems to have got WWE by the balls, basically.
And I quite enjoy it well. Jacob Fatu's entrance
felt a little bit flat. How do I put this? It
felt a bit Vince McMahon -ish. They called him
the Samoan Werewolf, so the logical thing in
Vince McMahon's mind would be to have him dress
up as a wolf. So they put him in a wolf mask
to come out. Which, don't get me wrong, I love
the wolf mask. I thought it was a great touch.
It just felt a bit on the nose. I can get behind
that, but this a little bit of useless information
I found out. The gentleman who created the Samoan
Werewolf's mask for WrestleMania, it's the same
person who designed and made the face mask for
The Fiend. So yeah, another little tribute to
Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania with With the mask
maker of his going on to make Jacob Fatu's mask
as well So I thought that was kind of cool Not
as cool as the fact that LA Knight arrived in
a Maserati That guy went in style Uh -huh, it
was nice it was smooth I just wish they'd driven
them to the ring, innit? Yeah, as wide as that
ramp was, I wouldn't have trusted them to have
got it back out again afterwards. No. Which I
think was probably the reason it didn't go there.
Well, Stone Cold Steve Austin struggled getting
the ATV back out on night two, so yeah, that
Maserati won't go around. Yeah, this is a...
Let's face it we are recording this a little
bit later than we probably should have done so
everyone's seen the viral clip Everybody's seen
it Yes, they're talking about the megastar that
is stone cold Steve Austin Yeah, that's We'll
say we'll save those conversations for night
two at least I think Until then What's my place
in my notes here what's going on So we're informed
that la night competed twice the night before
and smackdown Yeah, and as far as la night tenure
goes it's it's the fact that he is a Two -time,
two -time United States champion and is currently
on a 43 -day reign with this only being his second
defence in that time. Yeah, after he won the
title back from the part -timer Shinsuke Nakamura.
Well, believe it or not, 43 days ago. Yeah. And
this one started off pretty strong to be fair
with LA Knight going for an instant BFT but didn't
quite get it and they ended up with a strong
neck breaker instead and the second BFT got countered
into which we get Jacob Fatu hitting one of,
I love it when he drops this move, it's the pop
-up Samoan drop and you know it just hurts but
then when he finishes that off with a swinging
neck breaker you know you're fucked at that point
i'd be lying on the floor going please just pin
me i'm done like just take it you can have the
title i don't care just let me live yeah it's
not it doesn't look in any way shape or form
like a pleasant move to take at all does it no
and then when la night goes for that sunset flip
that he can't get fatu down And as Fatu decides,
you know what, just gonna rikishi myself and
just dump all my weight onto his chest, Ele Knight
moves and ends up eating a sit down slam from
Fatu and then Fatu hits him again with a cross
body lateral press for the 1 -2. There was so
many 1 -2 in this match. Got I should have put
a counter on the screen So every time I saw it
the number like I could have made a note of it
made the counter go up Like how many times you
get one two? In this match because there was
a lot of them Yeah, they they weren't shy using
a near fall in this match by any means necessary
it's a case that We saw a hell of a lot in there
for this one to go through. We do, including
things like attempted moonsaults, you know, LA
Knight suplexes, Jacob Fatu off the top ropes.
Fatu recovers from a BFT and hits a running hip
attack three times and then pulls off a rather
beautiful Swanton for a two count. Before we
are then very rudely reminded that this is actually
Jacob Fatu's first ever title match in WWE. Believe
it or not, if you were just coming into this
WrestleMania and did not know who he was, you
would probably not believe that statement, but
it is true. This is the first title match he's
had and he looked like a veteran that had been
doing this for the last 30 years going in and
out of WrestleMania. The pressure just did not
seem to be there at all for him. It's just another
day at the office. Do you know what I mean? Might
as well have just been in the performance center
lifting some weights for all he seemed to care.
Well, this isn't an unusual thing for us to see
out of Jacob Fatu as it goes, because yeah, the
guy seems pretty unshook by anything. He does.
I mean, this is the same guy that if memory serves
won a won a last man standing match against the
person that doesn't lose at last man standing
match the one big sob Braun Strowman he is the
only person to beat Braun Strowman in a last
man standing match you are correct yes yeah so
that in itself is no no no small feet no Braun
Strowman does not have small feet they are rather
large to hold such a huge frame yeah which is
quite common in tall people realistically um
yeah i love trying to figure out a character
despite la night um despite la night delivering
all the offense um In the in the opening stages
of this match. Yeah, it just didn't seem to we
see a lot more of this This skill I suppose that
Jacob Fatu seems to have picked up in that he
no sells everything It's just a case that he
may as well have been he may as well have been
trying to beat the man down with a feather duster
I think he'd have probably done more damage.
Yeah, he did an awful lot of damage to to Illinois's
character in this match by no selling everything
that was meant to be a big move. I hate it. That's
why no. We've said this before on podcast on
many different occasions. It's a case that Jacob
Fatu would be a phenomenal asset, but he doesn't
have to no sell everything. Yes. For him to for
him to be a formidable character. There are plenty
of scary ass people in the wwe past present and
future that will still sell different moves they
don't have to no sell every move for them to
be like oh shit this guy means business like
yeah look at the moves that brock lesnar ate
over the years still a big powerful motherfucker
that held an awful lot of gold but had a weak
point. I didn't see it very often, but it could
be used. And he'd, yeah, he'd sell things reasonably
well for the right move, but there's certain
things that you're not gonna be able to clothesline
Brock Lesnar if you are, you know, like fucking
Hindley or what's the name of the midget that
used to run around dressed as an Irish person?
That's the one. Yeah, Hornswoggle's not taking
Brock Lesnar off his feet with a clothesline.
You know, you've got to make it believable. And
I think some of these bigger guys not selling
stuff does make it a little bit more believable,
but if you over -no -sell, then when you start
reacting to being flicked in the chin and stuff
like that, it's a big like, nah, come on, mate.
What are you doing? You lose your character build.
It doesn't look very believable and it hurts
you in a long -term way. Yeah, and I think that's
realistically what they did with with LA Knight
in this match as you said before it's a case
that this match did more to harm LA Knight's
character which regrettably they've done to this
individual before because this isn't the first
time that this isn't the first incarnation of
LA Knight that we've seen in WWE in the in the
past few years. I mean LA Knight has gone under
a couple of different names i believe he went
under i want to say alias drake at one point
that was tier name wasn't it no i think it uh
it might have been but he has been in wwe under
a different name i feel like he played somebody's
brother at some point but i can't quite remember
I've seen different bits and pieces and yeah
they they either give him a shit gimmick or they
give him a good gimmick which he's able to get
which he's able to pull through like LA Knight
I mean me and Rich big fans of LA Knight we love
watching the guy we think he's fucking hilarious
yeah so he was Eli Drake when he signed with
TNA in 2015 didn't he play Elias? Elias' brother
No, no that was actually Elias's brother. Oh
was it? Yeah He was Max Dupree for a little while
Yes, that was another name It was a terrible
character to play but LA Knight did his best
with it But his current iteration, LA Knight,
if they're planning on repackaging him, I don't
know why Because he's over over Yeah, why would
you repackage something that's working and I
can't see them having a reasonable idea for him
to have a heel turn Makes sense So everybody
saying That would be fucking brilliant Just flop
his catchphrase around a little bit. So it just
ends up being with everybody saying you are shite
But yeah this match ends I mean, yeah, the no
selling and everything sort of gives away where
this match is going because after a few moves
From Fatu which includes two springboard moonsaults
Jacob Fatu claims his very first singles title
as a member of his family. I believe it was Haku
came out to... Haku was at ringside, which was
kind of cool. Yeah, I love that. I didn't I didn't
love with this much when I'm not gonna lie. Yes,
we're gonna get to see Jacob Fatu with the US
title for a little bit. Honestly, I hope they
don't take it off him for six to nine months.
Purely for the fact that this title has been
passed around more than Bonnie Blue recently.
It needs to stay somewhere and have some legitimacy
built within it and have some strength put to
it. I think Samoan Werewolf is the person to
do that. I just wanted it to be LA Knight. I
like watching LA Knight, but I think I like watching
Jacob Fatu too, but You know what you're getting
from a Fatih match and it's not skilled wrestling
and it's not comedy He's very much a beat down
So like like he says you either get down or he's
gonna beat you down But yeah, I'm getting a little
bit bored of the enforcer style Jacob Fatih,
I think Well, I think I might know who Jacob
Fatu's first defense might be against after I've
got a feeling with with all the the animosity
building backstage between him and Solo Sokoa
I've got a feeling that Solo Sokoa is going to
try double crossing Fatu and trying to lift that
title off him. That could be a summer slam moment.
The other way that I see this going is they've
taken the title off LA Knight prematurely in
my opinion. I think they should have left it
on him for a bit longer or put it on him sooner.
Why they had him lose it to Shinsuke Nakamura
I have no idea because Nakamura did fucking nothing
with it. No, this is it is that it was either
Nakamura doing nothing with it or WWE doing nothing
with Nakamura either way It made no sense to
have the US title on him because he didn't appear
for so many weeks Like I realize after he was
I think it was after he lost the title or just
before he lost the title he obviously lost his
brother which Terribly sad and I'm not gonna
say anything out anything against Nakamura for
that because you lose a family member you go
to be with your family that's just how it goes
but I just don't understand the lack of usage
behind Nakamura as US champion he hung he hung
around in the background of promos and all the
rest it just it made no sense whatsoever but
I've got a feeling that LA Knight may start going
for a bigger title. Could we see LA Knight possibly
go up against the Yeet on the street? That's
my thought. I'm genuinely thinking that they've
lifted that title off him for him to go and have
a series with Jey Uso. The Yeet from the street.
That could be an interesting one. Yeah. The Yeet
versus the Yeet. that could be good i like that
but yeah that's that's where i see that going
potentially it might take a it might take a month
or two to get there but that's genuinely where
i see that that's the only way that in the last
two minutes where i've been sat here thinking
about it that i can see la night turning heel
to go after the to go out after the world heavyweight
championship because There is no reason to trigger
a Jeyuso heel turn and reasonably having two
baby faces facing off against one another traditionally
hasn't worked, even if they're as over as Jeyuso
and LA Knight are. But that's, yeah, that's where
I sort of see that one going. Well, that's Adam's
predictions, finishes and factions found. So
we'll have to see if that one sneaks its way
back into the equation later on. Yeah, so before
we move on to the next matches, we've still got
a lot to go through. We had a few more celebs
in attendance here. We had somebody called Lily
Singh, a TV host, comedian and author. I believe
she's one of the judges on Canada's Got Talent.
That's a oxymoron if you've ever heard one. Well,
yeah, you said it, not me. And if we get cancelled,
I'm coming for you. And we also had multi -platinum
rapper and singer Lil Yachty. Lil what, sorry?
Yeah, no, you're not getting me to say it again.
Okay. Lil Yachty. Shout out to that gentleman
there who I noticed this whenever you watch American
TV and they go ask such and such so many times
Grammy award -winning and I'm like who? I've
never heard of half of these people. It's either
they don't run in the same musical circles as
we do or it's a case that they are an act that
only really exists in the US. So wins all of
the US awards. Not an international award winner.
So instead, we've got a match that's a little
bit different than advertised, which is match
five on the card. But yeah, I don't think there's
anything left to go through for the Fatu match.
I don't think there is at all. We'll jump into
the next one. Catch you there. So as we said,
match five was a men's singles match and it was
a little bit different than advertised as Friday
night Smackdown during a match, during a six
man tag match. Yeah, obviously this match was
supposed to be El Grande Americano versus Rey
Mysterio. in a men's singles match, but unfortunately,
Rey got injured during the six -man tag match
on SmackDown. So instead, Rey Fenix has decided
to sub in for him tonight. Both men making their
WrestleMania debuts, I believe. Yeah, so basically
it is Rey Fenix is taking on the opponent that
his brother first debuted against, Chad Gable.
So previously on previous episodes of the podcast
here rich you've gone on record saying oh well
No, this is this can't be this can't be yeah.
No, I've looked a little bit more Through this
there is on Smackdown there is an incident and
Chad Gable ends up with a very distinctive mark
on his chin And then a little while later when
El Grande Americano screws Rey Fenix in the Andre
the Giant Battle Royale, El Grande Americano
has same distinctive mark on his chin. So my
opinion on this has changed very quickly. I think
El Grande Americano is Chad Gable. I'm with you.
I'm with the people. I'm glad to see you're finally...
Finally catching up now. The opening VT for this
basically was all centered around El Grande Americano.
It was in that typical sort of sepia tone, old
timey video. It was cool where basically he was
the best luchador in Mexico that nobody's ever
heard of until he... Made his debut in WWE and
honestly El Grande's entrance. I was a little
bit disappointed in The I'd like to have seen
some of those like a mariachi band or something
just Because it's a comedy gimmick right the
guys name translating into black large black
coffee you know a mariachi band would have just
topped it all off well there was a mariachi band
there because they played him out okay i missed
that bit did you fall asleep during the the match
entrance for that one possibly it was late at
night or was it early in the morning when i watched
this one Work definitely got in the way over
the course of this weekend and I was watching
bits sat in car and lunch breaks I was watching
it sat in this shop and it was quiet Yeah, I
watched a lot of different bits of WrestleMania
in a lot of different places Yeah, so he had
Masked mariachi band play him play him out. He
was adorned in a cape the reason that I'm disappointed
in this matchup, in this... this WrestleMania
entrance is I genuinely wanted him to come out
dressed in a giant Starbucks cup. And I'm honestly
really disappointed that he didn't. El Grande
Americano, you disappoint us with your lack of
large Starbucks cups. It could have been... that
look we could have gone that one step further
that added detail of having chads gable's name
written on the side of the cup like he just ordered
it that to me would have finished that off for
me i wouldn't have been able to take the match
seriously or anything like that not that i took
the match seriously but in in terms of el grande
americano anyway but it was it's yeah That would
have been the icing on the cake for me. I'd have
been pissing myself laughing throughout the entire
match and I'd have missed it all. But yeah, either
way, I'm incredibly disappointed that that didn't
happen. But who knows? I mean, if that was the
case, we would not have seen a Grande Americano
walking around the outside of the ring and going
up and basically starting an argument with Vikingo,
who is Known in the triple a promotion Is quite
a big heavy -hitting luchador in yeah in triple
a Yeah, so we have a we have a more of an announcement
about this further on through the further on
through this card, but The reason vikingo is
featured so heavily at this point is because
AAA being a former rival wrestling promotion
has recently been acquired by the WWE as apparently
it was announced on the pre -show and then they
do another more official announcement later on
in the card as well so more action coming to
WWE in form of lucha libre. While they're also
featuring people that aren't currently involved
in the match, they do also note that Dana White,
the UFC CEO, is also in attendance. And I think
this is actually the first of two appearances
he makes on night one of WrestleMania as it goes.
But yeah, El Grande just seems to go up and get
in for Kingo's face, which I suppose sort of
almost legitimizes El Grande Americano to a certain
degree. Well, at least tries to. Yeah, it's a
bit odd. I will be honest. I wasn't too convinced
by it myself, to be fair. He gives Vakingo a
bit of a push. Vakingo hits back by basically
kicking El Grande in the side of the head. Yeah,
it's a case that Yeah, the match starts as El
Grande retreats from Vikingo into the ring somehow,
I think forgetting the fact that he's actually
doing a match with with Ray Phoenix at the moment
and Yeah, it's a case that we knew because it's
a Lucha Libre style match. It's gonna be fast.
It's gonna be high flying and we're gonna struggle
to keep up to a certain degree. Now I didn't
do too badly with notes for this one, but admittedly
I think it may have taken me a lot longer to
watch night one than it did night two. That might
have also been because night two was an hour
shorter than night one. was it actually? yeah
so when i got around to watching uh the rest
of night two night two is only three hours long
where night four was four hours uh night one
was four hours long night four fucking hell i
don't think i could deal with a four night weekend
in wrestlemania i'd be dead we'll get there in
the end the the rate that it's going i mean summer
slam this year is due to be a two uh two -day
event. We're informed about that during this
as well or during the weekend because is it Cardi
B that's going to be the host of SummerSlam?
Or was it Megan Thee Stallion? It was one of
the two. Is that who that was? I genuinely didn't
recognise who it was. I think it was either Cardi
B or Megan Thee Stallion. So let's just hope
that M &M doesn't take a shot out of feet because
yes. We don't be needing no more issues Yeah,
no, that's that's summer slam and that was announced
that's gonna be in the MetLife Stadium in New
Jersey, New York so yeah It's definitely gonna
be one of those two women. I believe Yeah, this
is it Now the match itself as I said yeah it
was definitely not what i was expecting i thought
we were going to get blown off by a five minute
squash match and this was just going to be one
of those where el grande americano gets unmasked
and that's the end of that we never hear any
more of the story but that is not the way it
went and it was actually yeah a pretty respectful
match for for what it was um but you know i sort
of expected it to be um Bit of a squash match
it was gonna be and I expected El Grande to be
unmasked at the end of it I thought that was
the end game and honestly, I think that's how
it would have gone if Rey Mysterio would been
able to compete in the match Yeah, I think it's
been carried on I think it's been carried on
So Rey can do it possibly at backlash or SummerSlam
yeah I think it will happen at backlash if it
happens at any point because they haven't got,
I don't think they're going to have enough material
to see this through to SummerSlam. No. But yeah,
I mean the match itself, content wise, fantastic.
I mean Ray hit a black fire driver at one stage
of the match. That was the one I was just looking
at to be fair. The 450 back splash from El Grande
Americano was nice as well. Yeah I mean somebody
did somebody was potentially going to be unmasked
during this match because I've got noted down
that El Grande tried to remove Rey's mask which
I think even commentary pointed out that as a
luchador himself trying to unmask another luchador
is almost as shameful as being unmasked yeah
so it sort of points more toward the fact that
he's Is El Grande an actual luchador or just
Chad Gable in a cosplay at this point? Now it
is a case that during this match we see El Grande
go back to his normal ways here where he ends
up loading his face mask yet again with that
metal plate which I mean, it doesn't go quite
the way I think El Grande wants it to go because
he goes to drop the nut on Rey Fenix and I believe
Rey Fenix dodges him or he misses or something
along those lines and only really comes to Ray
Phoenix isn't aware that the mask is loaded,
but he becomes very aware of it after a goodbye
amigo kick. Oh yeah, he kicks it and he feels
that, doesn't he? Oh, 100%. Has anybody that's
ever kicked anything that's like metal or thick
wood or anything like that? I mean, I've nearly
broken toes doing it. It's untruly painful. That's
not nice. And yeah, that sort of spells Ray Phoenix's
downfall with this one, I will be honest. As
El Grande locks in an ankle lock. Curiously,
he locks the ankle lock in on the other ankle.
It's not the one Chad Gable uses then, though.
No, it was more of a case that Ray Phoenix hits
the goodbye amigo kick. that then does damage
to that foot oh right yeah oh yeah El Grande
locks in a ankle lock but locks it in on the
other ankle yeah not the one that got hurt i
get you surely that would have made more sense
i feel like that would have been the ankle to
go for go for the ankle that's already injured
unless he was trying to take out Ray Phoenix's
come entire vertical base sort of thing. That
was the only other read the only other reasoning
that I could think of It's definitely a strong
show But yeah locks in the ankle lock Phoenix
tries to mentor an offense after rolling through
but our granday lands the headbutt and That's
pretty much game over to be fair in it He just
adds insult to injury almost by going up to the
top rope and landing a flying headbutt. Yeah,
that definitely wasn't needed. The only other
thing that I question about any of this is that
you're putting a metal plate in your face mask
and then headbutting people. They're not hurting
them too. I was going to say, surely that's going
to be causing as much damage to yourself. How
is Enoch seeing stars at this point? But yeah,
this basically, after the flying headbutt, goes
for a pin and secures the win over Rey Fenix.
Now, with how they have built Rey Fenix up in
the last few weeks, it's a protected finish.
because El Grande cheated, he got the loaded
mask. So his character is protected in that way.
I would have preferred to see Rey Fenix on his
- WrestleMania. To have won his match and keep
his winning streak going. Even though it's a
protected setup and it doesn't do much damage,
I think still the little damage that it has done
to Rey Fenix's character is so early on is a
bit shit really I mean it's not even a nice like
loss it's not like a lost Rey Mysterio or a lost
her a lost her piss tape that's that's embarrassing
man they've done that guy at WrestleMania in
front of over 60 ,000 people and to be precise
To be precise, because just after this match
finishes, we do get to see the Heartbreak Kid
himself, Mr. Shawn Michaels come out and tell
us the exact attendance for this at night one
of WrestleMania 41. And that is there is 61 ,467
people in attendance at this year's WrestleMania
night one, which is incredible. Apparently that
is a sold out arena as well, Adam, which I'm
glad you've mentioned that because I want listeners
to remember that we've said that when we come
to do night two, which will be the next episode
to come out. It's funny you say that because
I have something I wanted to say about that on
night two too. I imagine you want to say exactly
the same thing as me. Yes I do and I think someone
somewhere might be a lying bastard but I'm not
making any accusations at this moment. I will
give you more evidence on WrestleMania night
2. But for now we're gonna skip talking about
WrestleMania night 2 because we're not there
yet and we're gonna jump into our next match.
Which is the women's title match between Tiffany
Stratton and Charlotte Flair Yes Little bit more
information around the triple -a acquisition
acquisition. Oh, yes in the in the crowd on night
one of WrestleMania we have the Triple -a president
which is my Marisela Pena, Dorian Pena, the CEO
and general manager of AAA, and Alberto Paz -Japoen,
which is apparently co -founder of Philippe,
I don't know who that is or don't know what that
is, are in attendance. But we are told that AAA
content will be debuting for WWE fans on June
7th at the Kia Forum in LA at Worlds Collide.
So I think that they're going to set triple A
up as either an extra episode and inter company.
So it's, I've seen something since that says
that it's going to be on Tuesday night. I don't
know how that works with NXT, whether they're
going to shift NXT to a different night. Which
honestly, I wouldn't be against. No, I wouldn't.
I don't want an extra night's rest. It's a triple
A. I don't feel is going to be something that
we do much, if any coverage of. I'm sort of hoping
that it just becomes an extra faucet to, uh,
smacked down. Yeah. I feel like it's gonna cause
worlds collide is an NXT PLA. So it's gonna be
it's gonna be more directly involved with NXT,
but I'm just yeah, it's I don't think Triple
A is gonna be something that finishes and factions
does an awful lot of coverage on only because
especially on weekends like this where We've
got a solid five days worth of wrestling in a
row to try and watch note take record Render
and publish in somewhat of timely manner when
we've got both got other commitments as well
is It's challenging enough during a normal week.
We'd probably be able to just get away with it
But I'm not saying that we be able to get away
with it at all anyway Yes, so we went from there
into mr. WrestleMania HBK Shawn Michaels, we
also got a few other A few other celebs in attendance,
one of which being Stephen Amell, who we are
told is an actor and a 2015 Slammy Award winner
for Celebrity Moment of the Year for his match
at SummerSlam against Stardust. Stephen Amell,
probably most commonly known for playing Arrow
in the DC Universe TV series, Arrow. And we also
have Israel Adesanya. The UXC fighter, yes. But
other than that, we can then go straight into
the WWE Women's Championship match, which sees
Tiffany Stratton. defending her title against
Charlotte Flair. I think we should do that then.
Right, let's crack on.