And welcome back everybody to our coverage to
Finishes and Factions does night one of WrestleMania
41. So far we've covered pretty much every match
but we decided that the last two matches there
was enough there for us to be able to sort of
split this one off and And yeah, give it its
own episode. So we crack straight in with match
six on the card of night one, which was the WWE
Women's Championship match, which sees Tiffany
Stratton as our current champion. That's about
as high pitched as he goes without a kick to
the nards. I mean, I could probably go a lot
higher, but I wasn't really attempting to. But
yeah, it's tippy time! Woohoo! I've been looking
forward to this match for a little while. Charlotte
Flair's getting her ass handed to her on a big
silver plate, like she deserves for being a Flair.
You have no issue with Rick Flair. You just have
an issue with Charlotte Flair. Mm -hmm. Yeah,
everyone loves red flag Except the women he leaves
behind. Well, yeah Yeah, everyone love Charlotte
apart from the men that she leaves behind There's
been a fair few of those I just meant that Charlotte
was one of the women that Rick Flair left behind.
Oh, oh, oh I like it. I like it Works on a couple
of different levels say Yes, as you've no doubt
guessed, we'll just go quickly through introductions
again. My name is Adam. The other voice on the
podcast you can hear is Rich. It certainly is.
We go into match six, which as with pretty much
every match on the card on both nights, has an
opening VT, which basically shows Tiffany's meteoric
rise to the top. the past achievements of the
nepo queen herself including her purchase of
the victory of the 2025 royal rumble which is
the reason she is in this match i'd say she purchased
it it pretty much felt like it she kind of decided
she was going shopping went oh i'm going to buy
another title opportunity yep i'll purchase that
one at the royal rumble thank you very much and
uh there we go But saying that, if you do look
down, as we're introduced to these superstars,
we are given a few statistics about them. The
first one with Charlotte as she came down, she
was the second one to the ring, which was unusual
considering she's the challenger. Normally the
challenger has been coming out first, and then
the champion has been coming out. But we are
introduced to... Well, I'll give you Charlotte's
details first. She is a six times women's champion,
seven time women's world champion, a two times
NXT champion, a one time women's tag champion.
And that was with Asuka. I can't remember the
year, but both. Charlotte Flair and Asuka held
those titles for 41 days before losing them at
the Royal Rumble to the team of Shayna Baszler
and Naya Jax. And she is a two -time Royal Rumble
winner. That would be 2020 and then 2025. So
she won the tag titles. You're right with Asuka
and it was at TLC in 2020. Oh, there we go. See,
I love the fact that we both look for different
information when we go to do our research. I
just wanted to know who. And ChatGBT was very
helpful with the extra little bit of information.
But you've seemed to have pulled off a completely
different section of information and brought
out a little bit more to the game. So, touche.
Two heads are better than one on that research.
definitely and yeah I mean it's it's actually
quite important to note as well the fact that
despite all this really rather impressive resume
of different titles that Charlotte has held it's
actually been two years since the last time she
hold held championship gold so it's it's been
a little while since Has it really been that
long since we've had to deal with the nepo queen
herself? We've had to deal with her before that
and she was only out of action for a year She
was with that knee injury, but yeah, she did
have a little while I think Charlotte Flair fell
off as Rhea was coming up through the ranks and
I think it was a perfect swap. I'm not sure Professional
wrestling needs Charlotte Flair as much as Charlotte
Flair needs professional wrestling Yeah, pretty
much. It's definitely a bit tip to the scale
there for it. I have seen some interesting memes
regarding her dad the last few days though, but
we're not going to go into that yet because they
are some spoiler memes. So we will leave those
where they need to be, which is pretty much where
these two women left it to be fair. Well, carry
on going over the entrances because we skirted
completely past Tiffy's entrance and and the
only other note that I made of Charlotte's entrance
was that she was Driven into the arena in a Rolls
-Royce Phantom now was It's I'm sorry the Rolls
-Royce Phantom. It's a prestige car for a reason
It is a beautiful piece of machinery It's just
a shame that it had a rather ugly piece of machinery
come out of it. Yes. Now, Tiffy's entrance, very,
very different. Now, as Rich mentioned, Tiffy
did come out first and we had the entire WrestleMania
41 stage turned into Barbie's dream house. We
did. I'm just going to throw out before we move
too much further. that the car that Charlotte
Flair arrived in starts at $357 ,000 and with
all its included optional extras finishes at
a grand total of $422 ,000 while the Spectra,
the top end Rolls Royce Phantom starts at $400
,000. US $23 ,000. So there was an awful lot
of money driving up onto that stage holding something
worth very little in the passenger seat. That's
not true. I mean her net worth is incredible,
but yes. The amount of plastic surgery alone
makes Charlotte Flair worth probably about as
much as the car. That was quite funny. That was
the one thing I found interesting about her entry
VT. when you look at the pictures of charlotte
flair when she was first winning titles compared
to the charlotte flair that goes into this match
there is a huge huge difference and i'm not talking
about 15 years either there's a massive difference
like a completely different person mate i thought
i thought fucking he -man was gonna come and
call on the power of fucking greyskull to beat
her Like yeah, no, I'm not blogging a dead horse,
but that horse is fucking dead Yeah, well Tiffy
Stratton did a good job of flogging it around
for a little while especially the You know with
the fact that she's been championed for a hundred
and six days a third and six days Title defense
is against the most decorated female superstar
in the history of this sport. As much as we don't
like her, that is pretty much what she is. One
of Tiffy's promos that she cut between when Charlotte
selected her as the champion she was going to
be going up against was pointed out really well
that if Tiffany loses to Charlotte at WrestleMania
Tiffany loses nothing she loses the title admittedly
but in terms of credibility loses nothing it's
Charlotte that has everything to lose with this
match yeah this is a highly decorated as she
is we've got to remember that Tiffany Stratton
is still greener than grass oh definitely she
is so so green She's not been in the industry
for very very long In fact, this was her first
WrestleMania first first wrestle so just as well
as Just as well as being a first match and WrestleMania
As well as the first match that she's actually
had against Charlotte Flair Yeah, so think about
that. That's that's so many unknowns Definitely,
but when you have us An opponent sorry like Charlotte
Flair you have 15 years worth of YouTube footage
to see what you were gonna get Plus you can watch
every episode and every match she's ever had
on Netflix So for whatever brand she's been representing
at the time, her matches are all on Netflix,
pay -per -view, NXT, standard weekly shows. You
can find everything you need to for Charlotte
Flair online. So she's gotta be probably one
of the easiest people to do research for a match
against because of how much footage there is
of her out there. But the other side of that
coin is that Charlotte Flair knows all of that
exists as well. It could very well be a case
that she is coming out with a completely different
game plan that she's never had before. It could
it could be and I think if we're lucky enough
to see that then you know as fans we are going
to really really get a decent match here. and
the start itself was just enough. You know, Charlotte
Flair drops Tiffy right at the start, at which
point you kind of think, here we go. This is
where amateur and professional get shown the
difference between the two. But actually, I think
Tiffy Stratton, going into this match, has Charlotte's
number, and I think at the start of this match,
it is very even. But, If he pretty much has it
I think I think as long if you look at an overall
Sort of census of this and if you look through
my notes a lot of them start with the letters
CF But there is also a lot of TS in there, too
So, you know, it was very even a very equal for
a lot of it So Charlotte Flair's biggest issue
was it was definitely her ego that was playing
more of a part in her decisions in the ring during
this match. Like she started off very composed
and it broke down in a hurry. I mean, she even.
Charlotte Flair even went to the extent of imitating
our current NXT, our current. NXT Women's Champion
Stephanie Vakour at one stage. The only thing
that was missing was Booker T's cum spasm. Yeah,
you know what? If I had the money to write NXT
a big fat check to fire Booker T for that, I
would. There is nothing that ruins the Stephanie
Vakour match more. than Booker T dry humping
the microphone every time she does that move.
But do you know what? Watching it happen without
Booker T being there somehow feels wrong now.
It does. It does. It doesn't look right in any
way, shape or form. Yeah, that was that was an
interesting to see Charlotte Flair do something
like that. But again, this is what I was just
saying about Charlotte Flair is that she is veteran
enough now that she has a plethora of offense,
some of which we've never seen her do before.
Right. And she is experienced enough to know
what she can and can't do. So she uses that kiss
of death. She uses You know, we see her with
the Boston Crab, we see her use her standard
moonsaults, we get to set out power bombs, you
see natural selection eventually. Yeah, you see
an awful lot from Charlotte Flair and actually
you kind of get to realise, and I can't believe
this is going to come out of my mouth, but when
you see her in the ring, you actually get to
see the glimpses of how talented she used to
be and how progressive Charlotte Flair was when
she first burst onto the professional wrestling
scene. Some of what she was doing against Tiffy
Stratton was very young Charlotte -esque. Unfortunately,
it just wasn't as good as it used to be. But
this is a woman now who is sort of in her late
30s, early 40s where When we first saw Charlotte
Flair, she was late 20s, early 30s and a lot
can happen in that time and she's had a lot of
problems with those knees. You know, over the
years she's had quite a few knee issues that
she's had to go out and have surgery with and
maybe if you look at it, if you had Tiffy Stratton
in her prime versus Charlotte Flair's in hers,
I think this would have given us the match that
as fans we deserved. I don't think we got from
this match everything this match could have given
us. No, I can agree with that. It's. Yeah, it's.
You've got the face of the company. The face
of women's wrestling on SmackDown. Going up against
the most decorated female superstar in WWE history.
That in itself is supposed to be a five star
match surely There's got to be like a good sort
of like four and a half to five star match one
of the best matches of the weekend at WrestleMania
because of what it is This wasn't anywhere near
that at all. I Don't know about you, but I saw
several of several times where Charlotte flair
was gassed. Yes running on complete empty and
She's not really had a proper match in the build
-up to this like yeah, she she's had Matches,
but none of them have been longer than five minutes
and now she's gone into something that's meant
to be a 25 30 minute match and She hasn't got
the stamina Yeah, which is unusual considering.
She's Rick stairs, you know, Rick Flair's daughter
was apparently his stamina was half decent Yes,
but Rick Flair wasn't a pillow princess. And
that's pretty much how Tippi Stratton treated
Charlotte Flair towards the end of this match.
Like a bitch. Charlotte Flair quite honestly
was too gassed to carry on. She was. towards
the end of this match she was making she was
making tiny little mistakes but that natural
selection she went for where she got the two
count on it it was not smooth at all and it actually
looked like Tiffy landed in quite an awkward
position on her neck yeah I think if any match
was to demonstrate why Charlotte Flair should
ride off into the sunset on whatever new 20 -something
boy toy she wants to sort of muck in about with.
It was that match. For her in -ring career, yes.
One thing that I will say I think Charlotte would
be very good at would be a manager role. The
talent that she has within sort of the industry
and let's face it if she didn't have some sort
of talent she wouldn't be the most decorated
female superstar. And I mean, yes, some of that
flair comes from, some of that talent comes from
the name, I'm sure, but I'm pretty sure if you
gave her someone like, I don't know, one of the
evolve women or one of the new women coming into
NXT and gave her an opportunity to run management
for a little while, I think she'd do really,
really well with it, you know, and she'd probably
be able to help some younger superstars do incredibly
well. You know what I can sort of see what you're
going I can sort of see where you're going with
it and I can't disagree with you to a certain
extent because I don't feel that we've seen enough
of Charlotte Flair's nurturing side in recent
years to know if she's going to be a good manager
or not She's got all the potential for it. Tough
love sometimes works better than a nurture. Especially
if you get someone the right person. But a manager
to me has to be in some ways selfless in respect
of the team that they're managing. Yes. And Charlotte
Flair is probably the most selfish woman I think
we've ever met. That is very, very true. She
doesn't end up being selfish for too much within
this match because at the end of this, Tiffy
lays down a whooping on the Charlotte Flair on
the top turnbuckle. She does end up eating a
face buster, as I said, and a very poor natural
selection from Charlotte Flair for a two count.
Charlotte Flair then decides that the pin is
not the way forward. She is gonna make Tiffy
tap and goes for a figure four submission hold,
but Tiffy ends up rolling through and rolling
up Charlotte Flair, and then Charlotte Flair
rolls through a second time to get a two count
on Tiffy. Tiffy then pops an Alabama Slammer.
Charlotte Flair into the turnbuckle which basically
put Charlotte Flair on her ass which I'm not
gonna lie probably would to me as well if my
massive nose didn't take the impact for me. We
then see Tiffy hoist Charlotte up onto her shoulders
for a rolling senton and then goes climbing up
top for the prettiest moonsault which she hits
perfectly. uh for the one two three for tiffy
stratton to retain uh wwe women's title and i'm
not gonna lie i have not partied so much either
a wrestling event since jay uso beat gunther
at the start of the uh the start of the night
i was so ecstatic to see the look on charlotte's
face because it was just pure disappointment
like what I personally feel that by the look
on Charlotte's face I feel she was told she was
gonna win this match and they changed it at the
last minute when they realized that she didn't
have the crowd Tiffy did and by changing that
result Was gonna cause a lot more damage because
Tiffy was more over than they realized I think
Charlotte was promised that she was gonna get
that win and that title run and they swapped
it out on her I'm gonna be honest with you and
say that I don't think that's the case I think
Charlotte Flair knew she was going in there to
lose. Because with every great respect, she never
had the crowd. No, she didn't. She had a reasonably
big pop when she came out at the Royal Rumble.
After the Royal Rumble, every last crowd has
hated her. Yeah. They have food, they have taunted,
they have, yeah, it's been brutal to be Charlotte
Flair. in front of a WWE crowd at the moment.
I mean, I'm definitely glad that Tiffy retained
him. For Tiffy to get a name like Charlotte Flair
on her resume is a huge, huge thing for Tiffy
Stratton. So, yeah, well done Tiffy on that retention.
Yeah. And do you know what? I think Tiffy showed
the war wounds of this match. because i'm sure
she chipped a tooth in this match because when
she got out of the ring it looked like she chipped
a tooth i had to go back and i had to go back
a few like about 20 seconds, about two or three
times. But I literally noted down in my notes
here to say that she, that she fucking chipped
a tooth. I'm convinced she did. I'm convinced
it was one of her front teeth. It is. But when
you go back to see her in the interview later
on, there's like a, in the post show, they did
a whole set of press interviews and Tiffy's teeth.
were fine now whether she actually did break
one and she's got like a set of clippings so
she can then go right i need to go and see a
dentist and get the shit sorted cut my tooth
motherfucker but yeah um no i was positive she'd
done she'd done some damage in that match but
it turns out she hadn't right yeah i was i was
fully convinced that she'd chipped a tooth i'm
not gonna lie it certainly was right With that
one, we are gonna move on to our next segment.
So we will be with you in one second. Go. We
jump into our last segment before our main event
into a Hall of Fame recap. of which we see the
class of 2025 stand atop of the entrance ramp.
That being Stone Cold, Steve Austin and Bret
Hart for their match from WrestleMania 13. They
were inducted by CM Punk. The natural disasters,
which were earthquake and typhoon. Well, we only
saw Earthquake. Yeah, Typhoon unfortunately.
No, no, wrong way. We saw one of them because
one of them unfortunately passed away. We saw
Typhoon because Earthquake died June 7th of 2006.
He did. I don't know. I don't know who inducted
the natural disasters, unfortunately. Yeah, so
we did the Hall of Fame episode prior to the
Hall of Fame being done. purely for the fact
that we knew that this week was going to be a
very busy week for us and adding an extra episode
into it in the time period we had was just asking
a little bit too much for ourselves. So Adam
did a brilliant Hall of Fame episode on a pre
-release. If you haven't listened to that, it's
the finishes and factions does Hall of Fame class
of 2025. go and check that one out it was a great
episode i thoroughly enjoyed listening to it
listening to it you know what i enjoyed making
it it was it was a good it was a very different
challenge to doing one of these episodes which
yeah they were reviewing content that's already
been out this was something original that I could
really get my sort of teeth into but at this
point it was when I recorded it nobody knew we
had I had suspicions who would induct who I didn't
know CM Punk was going to be inducted in the
first match to be inducted into the Hall of Fame
that one I could never have called it but Yeah,
Michelle McCall was inducted by her husband,
Mr The Undertaker. Diamond Dallas Page, DDP,
inducted Lex Luger. I forgot about Lex Luger.
He's not in my notes. I was sat there going,
it looks a little bit light. Who have I forgotten?
Yes, Lex Luger. He stood up on stage as well,
didn't he? To receive his award. He did. he did
he came out in a wheelchair i will be honest
i genuinely thought i hoped that he would try
and do the entire thing walking but do you know
what he's he had a phenomenal career um he's
now suffering the he's now suffering the fruits
of that labor to a certain extent and isn't he
the man that body slammed um andre the giant
no He body slammed Yokozuna on the USS Defiant
as part of a challenge. I think it was a great
American bash. I remember distinctly mentioning
this in the special episode I did on the Hall
of Fame inductees and I mean the only other one
we haven't talked about was The man himself the
game the cerebral assassin was inducted by None
other than Shawn Michaels himself who from what
I understand I didn't watch I haven't still haven't
watched the Hall of Fame ceremony but from what
I understand Shawn Michaels entire introduction
of or trying entire induction speech was basically
ragging on Hunter for about 10 15 maybe 20 minutes
of which I've seen clips of it and He's like
he's one of the only guys that seems to that
no matter how many times I tell him Stop emailing
me at one in the morning. He continues to email
one in the morning I mean what I found funny
is Triple H is the guy that told Rick Flair that
he needed to wrap up his in Hall of Fame induction
speech And yet Triple H took an hour to induct
himself and everyone else into the Hall of Fame,
just on his own. Yeah, but there's only one person
that sits above fucking Triple H in WWE and that's
Nick Khan. Yeah, that is very true. That is very
true. We are then treated to a VT for our next
TLE after WrestleMania. We are of course talking
about backlash, yes. I'm looking forward to this
because you always get the this is basically
a pay -per -view of the rematch clauses from
WrestleMania normally Pardon me So backlash will
be taking place on the 10th of May so we don't
have a long time to wait for backlash to swing
its way around and it will take place from st
louis missouri i know which did you is the hometown
of uh of a certain superstar that we will be
seeing on night two of wrestlemania in his open
challenge match yes st louis missouri is the
hometown of the viper randy orton so It would
only be fitting that he has a match at Backlash,
but who is going to receive the three most dangerous
letters in sports entertainment at Backlash?
The RKO? Yeah, well, we're going to have to wait
for the next episode to come out for that one
to go down. Instead, we will now turn our attention
to the main event of the evening. I'm so glad
your neighbours are used to you doing that, because
if I pulled that one out, my wife would have
just jumped out of her skitties and slapped me.
100%. If you don't jump scare my wife, right?
But this is the men's triple threat match and
I mean among other things it's been billed as
the winner of this basically defines the future
of the future of WWE Let's face it the winner
of this match gets Paul Heyman That is basically
you have been given the keys to the mansion when
you've got that guy sat in your back pocket You
look at what he has done with Roman Reigns over
with the bloodline and stuff like that the work
he did with Lesnar it wrote yet his client Barack
Lesnar and then of course the original Heyman
guy Mr. CM Punk himself Yeah, this is it and
well Brock Lesnar is not in this match, or even
in this company at this present moment in time.
According to him, he is currently retired. Yeah,
he said that before though, that's the thing.
Every wrestler needs a paycheck according to
John Cena. They do. It's as simple as that. Now,
Seth Rollins is the first entrant into this match,
first one to come out. Do you know what? His
entrance was probably the most interesting entrance
of all of them. In Night 1 at the very least.
Because he came out, what I can only describe
as an oversized black pillowcase. And he was
armed with a flamethrower. Right, out of all
the things that you could give Seth Rollins,
the actual tools to burn it down? were probably
not the best things to give this man, but Seth
Rollins got Well Let's give you some statistics
about Seth Rollins to start off with showing
so this is Seth Rollins 12th career WrestleMania
is seven and six at WrestleMania He competed
twice in WrestleMania twice So in 2015 and last
year in 2024 Seth Rollins had double duties.
He made his WrestleMania debut alongside Roman
Reigns who's also in this match in 2013 as a
member of The Shield. And this is his third WrestleMania
main event. Which for a guy who's been here 12
times to main event once every four That's not
bad going considering at no point has Seth Rollins
been The face that runs the place or the champ
that runs the camp, you know, he's he has had
titles Don't get me wrong. He held the Universal
title for a little while. He's also held the
world title for a little while but he's never
been the the massive superstar that actually
Seth Rollins probably should have been I mean
not the biggest Seth Rollins fan in the world
but I do feel that his career could have been
a lot bigger than what it was but he's already
had what I would call a Hall of Fame worthy career
Yeah, this is it. It's I mean all three men in
this ring all men all three men in this in this
match are headed on that Hall of Fame at some
point in the future, so Well, let's not take
anything away from any of them Well, let's put
it this way by the time these guys start getting
inducted into the Hall of Fame WWE would have
run out of matches to publish so they'll be publishing
they'll be inducting promos into the Hall of
Fame and what better promo to induct into the
Hall of Fame when they get to that point as the
first one being that inclusive 2013 pipe bomb
where CM Punk laid everything down to line and
was eventually cut off when he went to tell a
personal story about him and Vincent Kennedy
McMahon that Vince did not want being shared
with the world and it's funny how Vince has got
a lot of stories that he doesn't want being shared
with the world, innit? It is it is but who knows
they may even start inducting podcasters into
the Hall of Fame Yeah, we think Pat McAfee might
be the first ones to go in there, but finishes
and factions will not be far behind him We'd
like to think not know what kind of episode number
will be on at that point to be fair Well, I think
I worked this one out earlier this one will be
a season one episode 58 and then By the time
we've finished WrestleMania, night two will be
59 slash 60, which means our coverage of this
season of WrestleMania will have finished and
we will start season two, episode one with our
coverage of Raw after WrestleMania. So yeah,
we are making it into our second season, ladies
and gentlemen. or something that was only going
to last a few weeks before one of us went, dude,
I haven't got the time for this. We've laughed
in four months almost. Four full months. We've
been killing it. Don't get me wrong. We've gotten
close to saying, no, no, I can't do it anymore.
But we've not made it there just yet. I only
got close with NXT. But yeah, no, one thing we've
not got close to getting fed up of is this main
event because we have not even got there. Seth
Rollins. for the first time ever i believe in
a wrestlemania entrance got himself a second
entrance now so after he finished with his flamethrower
and all the lights went out i'm not gonna lie
i had a slight feeling we were gonna get uh an
appearance from a certain hall of famer who was
inducting their wife into the Hall of Fame last
night I thought for some reason Undertaker may
just make a WrestleMania appearance at that point
but no Seth Rollins removed the flamethrower
and the bin bag or the rather large black pillowcases
Adam liked to describe it and made a second entrance
as basically God with a all -white outfit on
or all -white suit to walk to the ring -in. Probably
the most normal thing we've seen Seth Rollins
wear in a while. Yeah, I mean it was a very angelic
look and sort of very on -brand for Seth Rollins
really. Now next we had the emergence of the
tribal chief as Las Vegas put their wands up
to the sky to acknowledge him and Do you know
what? In comparison to what Seth Rollins entrance
was, I found this to be like really simplistic
and despite the fact that this is like his 10th
appearance at WrestleMania with a record of nine
to three. It was his 10th time main eventing
at WrestleMania. He has a record of nine and
three. Did you know he also has the fifth most
wins at WrestleMania as well? There are only
four people above him in terms of wins at WrestleMania.
Would you like to know who they are, Adam? I
mean, by all means. I can see your notes, so
I already know who you're going to say. Right,
for those of us who can't see what I've got written.
The four people who have won more WrestleMania
matches than Roman Reigns are the Deadman, The
Undertaker, the man who made events tomorrow
night, John Cena, the Rated R Superstar Edge,
and the man who was the face of the class of
2025. Mr. Triple H himself, Paul Levesque. So
he's got, that's not a bad company. And to be
fair, when you think you're missing the likes
of Stone Cold and Kurt Angle and Bret Hart in
that list, that is a very prestigious club to
be in. So I would definitely swap himself out
for this one. The one thing with Roman's entry
that I would not change, What I would change,
sorry, is the fact that he didn't find someone
to hand the Ulla Fala off to when he got to the
ring. Obviously since the bloodline has collapsed,
it is no longer a relevant thing. There is, and
with Paul Heyman being in the corner of Hillbrooks
tonight, he had no one to hand it off to. No
Usos, no wise man. no honorary oofs to hand that
ulefala off to and he just placed it in his corner
of the ring very respectfully and went about
his business after giving Paul Heyman some dirty
eyes. Well Paul Heyman hadn't even made it into
the ring at this point because CM Punk is the
last person to come into the ring. The one thing
I will say before we get to CM Punk's entrance
and all of his statistics is that The The Screens
so they had like I refer to them as leaf screens
So they had like these stray screens above the
above the entrance ramp over the hanging down
with the for the majority of WrestleMania were
showing WrestleMania superstars the likes of
EO Sky Bianca Belair John Cena Cody Rhodes Roman
Reigns during Roman Reign's entrance, however,
all of those turned to, well, bloodline members.
They were Samoan dynasty members. People like
Rikishi, the wild Samoans. Umaga. Yeah, Umaga.
So many others that were included in on those
screens. I like the fact that they did that.
Again, they kept Roman Reigns' simplistic, it
didn't have to be overly elaborate for it to
be effective, essentially. No, it was probably
one of the better entrances of the night, to
be fair. I mean, I really enjoyed Roman's entrance.
I will say, I have seen a clip on social media
since, I don't know if you've seen it, of Jacob
Fatou playing the piano in a public place. I
don't know where it was. And he's playing Roman's
entry music on the piano. It's really, really
cool. If I find it on social media next, I'll
tag you in it. But yeah, it was a really cool
clip of Jacob Fatu playing Roman's entry music
on a piano, like a grand piano. Or even better,
if anybody listening to this finds it, especially
finds it on TikTok, send it to our TikTok handle.
Yeah, tag us in it. It is at FinnAndFanPod. We've
actually just today hit 50 followers on the TikTok
as well, so thank you all for that. 100%. Now,
coming back around to the last entrance. Now,
this was one of my favourite entrances just because
honestly, I enjoy the song no matter who it represents.
The song by Living Colour is immense. Now, CM
Punk's entrance, his very first entrance to a
WrestleMania main event, there's a brief VT before
he comes out, sort of the history of CM Punk
and... For the second time in WrestleMania history
CM Punk has Living Colour perform live to play
him out. It was quality, I loved it. I mean,
the last time we saw it was at WrestleMania 29
in 2013 when CM Punk came out to try to beat
the streak. That wasn't when he came out on the,
oh no. That was, ooh. That was a long time ago
now. I've forgotten Punk had had a... That was
the reason the shield were bought in, wasn't
it? To protect Punk from the Undertaker. Something
like that, because he'd gone about... Part of
the storyline for that match was that he had
stolen the urn. Yes. Undertaker's urn. That had...
Paul Bearer in it. Yep. Only CM Punk could run
off with something like that piss off the undertaker
and live to tell the tale Don't get me wrong
you got his ass kicked in the process, but he
did live Yeah, it's a case that So from here
it yeah, so we get as Rich has mentioned a couple
of times now it is a case that Paul Heyman is
coming down to the ring with CM Punk and Yeah,
I think I've got it written down here somewhere
that Paul Heyman is coming down to the ring staring
at CM Punk as Paul Heyman has a tendency to do
with what I can only describe as the look of
a proud parent. Yes. I mean, Paul Heyman prophesied
that CM Punk would one day be a WrestleMania
main eventer before CM Punk left WWE. So I mean
he can walk in here smuggled anything and go
you know what actually I told you this was gonna
happen and a happen it has so Fuck you, and that's
pretty much what he's doing to Roman with that
grin to be fair is a big massive fuck you but
Yeah, as rich alluded to earlier on there was
a significant moment as Roman Reigns removes
his olafala which would normally be would have
been handed off to the wise man himself. And
he made a very big show of making sure that Paul
Heyman saw that he wasn't handing the Ulefala
off to anybody or anything along those lines.
It was being slung in the corner along with before
the match bell rings for this match to begin
now. There was a small standoff to at the beginning
of the match and Again CM Punk we know he plays
mind games. He's played mind games since day
one This match was no different. It never was
going to be to be fair CM Punk ducks out of the
ring to basically go and make a very big show
of going to consult the wise man If I thought
that was brilliant he has to walk behind Roman
to do it and Roman is staring him out Like I'm
gonna fuck you up bitch. What do you think you're
doing? Yeah was playing games Yeah, 100 % Seth
then tries What I deemed as a last -ditch attempt
to get reigns on side, but Romans already said
he doesn't trust Seth and after what happened
with with the shield why would he trust him let's
face it um and roman's eating a steel chair from
seth a few too many times yeah um but roman is
the one to land the first punch on seth and yeah
it's uh it's evident to see there's so much personally
sure that was a punch or just an open palm slap
because it had a hell of a ring to it It's ringing
off Seth Rollins his face. I mean, I'm not sure
what you expected No, no, I did enjoy it, but
it was a hell of a noise. It came with it To
have been sat there, especially in the first
few rows to have heard that noise You'd get goosebumps
in an erection straight away wouldn't you? Hell
of a slap Think you're giving a little bit too
much about yourself You feel the WrestleMania
moment you can get away with that yeah I mean
this match doesn't get contained to the ring
and the outside of the ring it ends up spilling
out into the arena well CM Punk and Seth Rollins
end up spilling out into the wider arena yeah
they go for a nice little jolly around the VIP
section don't they just to give the the fans
a little bit extra of what they paid for Oh,
100%. We have chairs, trash cans being used to
cause as much physical pain as humanly possible.
Do I believe at one point that CM Punk suplexed
Seth Rollins onto a trash can under the concrete
as well? Yeah, he suplexed Seth Rollins onto
a Don Mysterio. You mean he did it onto Logan
Paul But yeah, it's a case that I Mean Roman
Reigns does eventually get back into this and
sort of brings the fight back to ringside The
guy launches himself over the barricade and takes
out both Seth Rollins and CM Punk with one move
and then comes back and clears the Spanish announce
desk the 57 inch vertical leap that guy has apparently
and he completely just made that barrier look
like he was stepping over a box of matches it
was a hell of a leap it was and I don't know
really if we would come to expect anything any
different of Roman Reigns for that because we've
seen that man produce some absolutely inexplicable
feats in the past. Oh of course. And yeah during
this match I could go through Because with the
amount of notes I've got here, I've got what
should be more or less a blow by blow of everything
that happened. I'm pretty sure I could supply
WWE with a document that would basically, they
could give to another set of wrestlers and they
could reenact the entire WrestleMania weekend.
Exactly. Yeah. I think between my notes and your
notes, we probably could supply them with a but
a pretty much a transcript of at least this match
um yeah it's uh i mean they each get their opportunity
to get their shit in uh which we wouldn't expect
anything any less of three veterans in the industry
like these three um it is a case that uh everybody
has to get their shit in. There is one point
though where you saw that there was just little
bits that you wouldn't normally expect. So the
beginning of this match, I say the beginning,
sorry. My notes are that long, I thought it was
the beginning. About midway through this match,
there is a bit where Punk Slams Roman Reigns
goes up top. Seth Rollins jumps up after him
And so does Roman and it looks like they're gonna
do like a double suplex so both of them suplex
punk off the ropes and then it comes to a point
where it ends up with punk hitting a double doomsday
device and Then Roman hitting punk with a Superman
punch like the level of movement, ability, the
move set that was being brought into it and the
combinations that were adding into it, you can
understand why these three guys are the best
there is at the moment. Like Seth Rollins claims
to be a visionary and a revolutionary, those
claims are very much sanctified by what he has
done and the things he continues to do in the
squared circle. Yeah, and again, that's not taking
anything away from CM Punk or Roman Reigns either
I mean, I'm not a huge Roman Reigns fan as it
goes. I just yeah I find Roman very samey samey
It's also the lots of Superman punches big spear
few more Superman punches even biggest spear
one two three Romans retained. I Mean, that's
not how it went this time because he doesn't
hold a title But nine times out of ten, Roman's
matches are all very, very similar and they're
all very short too. Yeah, he's spent a lot of
the last few years having matches that are very
sort of one sided. Yes. A few matches which I
feel sort of pushed him to a limit of some kind.
But he's also had protection as well. Yeah. He's
always had someone else there. This is Roman's
first match in a long time where he has been
just Roman. There has been no wise man, no usos,
no solo, no Fatou, no one. Yeah, it is a case
that he is completely without any form of help,
realistically. Yeah, I mean... I don't think
the help would have helped too much in this situation
because, well, I mean, everyone gets their moves
in. You see at one point, Punk Locks and Anaconda
vice in on Roman Reigns. You know, you see him
hit a rock bottom on Roman Reigns at one point.
Seth Rollins gets double buckle bombs in. Punk
bounced off that buckle bomb like a little bit
harder than he should have done Maybe he looked
like that really did generally kind of go. Okay,
maybe I do need to just stay down for a little
bit But then shortly afterwards he manages to
reverse a pedigree attempt Roman spears him and
And then Seth reverses the spit. This was probably
one of the moves of the night reversing a full
spear into a pedigree and then pulling off a
stomp on top. And then not even covering Roman
going for the two count on punk. Oh no, he rolls
punk out so we can get the two count on Roman,
sorry, but yeah. My fucking notes are difficult
to read the second time around. But yeah, such
a combination of moves there. You would not have
seen when Roman launched into that sphere that
Seth was going to ride him like a surfboard and
then turn it into a pedigree. Absolutely phenomenal.
That's what I'm saying. When was the last time
we saw something as good as that? That was a
WrestleMania move that was saved for a WrestleMania
main event and it made the difference. Oh, 100%.
One other thing that we don't really see Roman
Reigns specifically do we said a said a few moments
ago that a lot of his matches for the last few
years have been a lot of big hits a lot of Spears
Superman punches just really really fucking laying
the big muscly Samoan guy schtick in to get that
gutted to put that across and We saw Roman using
submission moves At one point you did lock He
well at several points he locked standing guillotines
in on punk punk especially I think punk really
got Fucking strung out on this match. I'm gonna
be honest because I feel like he took more punishment
than the other two did He did to a point especially
towards the end of the match and after the end
of the match without giving too much away. Yeah.
Punk definitely absorbs a lot of punishment.
It really does and yeah like at one point Reigns
is locking in this standing guillotine on Punk.
maintaining eye contact with Paul Heyman on the
outside. And, bless it, Paul Heyman looks to
be having some kind of existential crisis on
the outside of the ring. He does not look to
be having a good time at all. He's in between
a rock and a hard place, to be fair, as Paul
Heyman, because he's kind of been sucker -punched
into owing everyone favors and then having to
deliver on them and then... Yeah, I wouldn't
want to be in Paul Heyman's situation right now.
I'll put it that way. Yeah, it's... Well, don't
want to be in Paul Heyman's situation just now.
No. It takes paycheck. Oh, 100%. But yeah, it
is a case that... Oh, where did I get to? Standing
guillotine. We were just getting to the point
where... Punk slips the hold into a pin for a
two count. Punk maintains the pressure with another
anacond device. I mean, while he's got his own
submission maneuver, Punk is not normally one
to go for submission moves. He's another one
that is... more of a striker than a technical
superstar. But yeah he does have that MMA background
so he can go technical if he needs to. One thing
I've made a note of here which I thought was
brilliant is when Roman and Seth tricked us into
thinking that maybe for one last time we were
going to see that shield like power bomb -esque
with both Rollins and Reigns teaming up to put
Punk through the announce table and then the
absolute noise of the slap as Roman slapped Rollins
in the face and then decided that actually Punk
was going through the announce table instead
and then Reigns went through the other one. So
both announce tables got absolutely obliterated
in this main event to a rather unfortunate level
because no matter how reinforced they are, and
we are told an awful lot, they are newly reinforced.
When the OTC decides that you're going through
it, guess what's happening? You're going through
it. Yeah, this is it. I mean anything that the
OTC decides you're gonna be up you're gonna be
doing you're going to be doing whether you want
to or not Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted to have
gone through that table, but Roman Rollins and
punk definitely didn't want to be going through
it and they did Yeah, now this is sort of we're
starting to start to get towards the end wine
we're starting to wind the match down a little
bit now as it goes because Yeah, we've got so
the anaconda vice I mentioned that punk locked
in earlier on on Roman Reigns Seth Rollins breaks
the vice by locking in a sharpshooter on punk
Reigns then Breaks the sharpshooter by locking
in a guillotine on Rollins. There is just a huge
exchange of submission maneuvers and Yeah, it's
Yeah, that's just so I mean Roland shows an incredible
strength of trying to lift that of lifting Roman
Reigns by finding that vertical bass again and
with a sort of What can only be described as
an absolutely astounding like suspension suplex
pin for a two count but Roman continues to have
that that hold locked in the entire time He doesn't
let that go and and it's only broken by punk
coming in and curb stomping. Oh Yeah, there's
just so much that happens There is always so
much that happens in these main events though
But I say that triangle guillotine and Raymond
locked in is absolutely horrific And at one point
Seth Rollins actually has to suplex himself out
of it. But yeah, he still doesn't release that
grip How can you have a grip locked in that badly
that you can't even you don't even let go after
your opponent is basically suplex themselves
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense does it it doesn't
I mean obviously that's the whole process the
three amigos pretty much But yeah, even then
that still doesn't make sense how you can pull
off that move and not let go I Suppose that's
why they're professionals and we don't try this
at home That and to prevent trips to A &E Yeah
But yeah, it's a case that these punk rains and
Rollins throw Everything they've got at each
other including the kitchen sink I'm pretty sure
they threw more than the kitchen sink It's yeah
anything that they could possibly think to throw
at one another they threw at each other and they
were Making rods for their own back because as
soon as one of them got a pinfall It was a case
that they'd come in and break the pinfall or
break the submission. I mean at one stage I'm
pretty sure it was punk who had two different
submission holds being locked in on him at once
Yes during this match Yeah, like we said punk
has definitely been feeling most of the abuse
in this match, and I don't understand why He's
one of my favorite superstars. I don't think
he should be getting abused quite this badly.
Obviously Seth Rollins doesn't like him quite
as much as I do, but that's Seth's problem, not
mine. Now coming to the end of this match as
it goes, I mean, still so many notes that I'm
sort of reading through and I'm envisioning it
all in my head. It's weird. But yeah, it is a
case that I've got a note here that says, uh,
punk tries to hit a go to sleep on Reigns as
Rollin interferes. Seth is put to sleep as punk
is speared by Reigns and Seth hits the stomp
to Rome, uh, hits a curb stomp to Roman Reigns
directly afterwards. He does. It's at this point
that we have Paul Heyman on the outside who walks
from CM Punk's corner over to timekeeping and
grabs a steel chair and walks back towards the
ring. Now at this point in the ring, closest
to Heyman, you've got Punk on the left hand side,
Reigns on the right hand side, and then Rollins
is in the far corner behind Reigns. Rollins hasn't
moved. No, Rollins has not moved. He is pretty
much down, out and dead. Punk and Reigns are
trying to persuade Heyman that they are the person
that needs to have the steel chair and with that
steel chair they can obviously go on and win
the match. After a little bit of toing and throwing
Paul Heyman decides that it's going in the direction
of CM Punk So he throws it to Punk Punk picks
it up and Heyman climbs in the ring as Punk then
goes to smash Roman Reigns in the in the back
with it Paul Heyman low blows in CM Punk takes
one to the second city scrotum and We end up
with him dropping the chair Roman looking rather
shocked rather pleased and We believe that the
heist of the century 2 .0 could be on the way
as As Roman picks up the steel chair now Adams
Roman is handed the chair at this point Well,
he is presented it like something off a platter
like my tribal chief. I acknowledge you Here
is a nice shiny steel chair for your advantage.
Well before Hayman even gives the Chairs of Roman
Reigns we have Hayman with chair in hand, screaming
with tears in his eyes about the fact that he
made him choose between his friend and his tribal
chief and at this point it is very much looking
like the tribal chief aspect has won. Heyman
presents the same chair to Roman Reigns as he
basically begs for forgiveness as Roman Reigns'
reigning chair shots on Punk himself. Is this
the point where we see that Seth has managed
to drag himself up to the second rope and Roman
is chair in hand? Under different circumstances.
Seth would be in a perfect position for a 619.
I was just thinking that myself, to be fair,
if Ray Wisterio was in the ring rather than the
Roman Reigns, we would be seeing a 619 being
hit. Maybe not at the moment, Ray's injured,
but Dom, Dom would have taken the opportunity.
I'm pretty sure Zelina Vega would have taken
that opportunity as well, to be quite honest.
Stephanie Vecchio, somebody else that uses the
619. Anyway, Yeah, so Heyman is the first to
notice Seth getting to his feet hanging onto
the ropes and presents this opportunity to Roman
sort of saying look, this is the perfect opportunity
the shield the shield the shield the obviously
the night of the complete the shield blowing
up in the ring was Seth Rollins coming up behind
Roman Reigns and landing one hell of a chair
shot to the back of a much younger, much smaller
Roman Reigns. And this basically is giving Roman
a chance at vengeance for this shot. Now, Roman
is more or less bringing that chair up to take
that swing when low and Behold, Paul Heyman does
it again. This time he low blows his tribal chief.
Yep, he hits Roman Reigns in his tribal testiculus.
And Seth Rollins cannot believe his eyes. Seth
Rollins is the ultimate possum isn't he? He plays
possum better than anyone in this industry. Well,
Seth Rollins wasn't surprised at all. He is the
architect. Well, yeah, but the look he put on
his face is just one of those. Yes, he knew it
was coming, but still managed to play it like,
oh, oh, it really happened. Not, oh dear, am
I about to eat that chair shot? It's Heyman's
face that I focused on more than anything else.
When he low -blowed Roman Reigns, there wasn't
an ounce of remorse in his face. If anything,
I think he might have enjoyed it just a little
bit, especially as he had to go and sit down
in the corner of the ring afterwards to sort
of admire his good work. Are we admiring his
good work or are we thinking, holy crap, this
adrenaline might actually have a heart attack
in the ring? Or he might have had the biggest
erection of his of his late life Yeah, what a
way to if you're having erectile dysfunction
issues guys the best way to deal with it is a
low blow Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania
You can buy that on prescription services. I
Mean WWE World had had a stand where you could
chair shot a dummy of Logan Paul. Why wouldn't
they have? An opportunity to low blow Roman Reigns
in the plums. That is brilliant. I mean, WWE
have done bigger things to be pettier. Well,
yes. Yes. Look, it is a case that before Heyman
goes and sits in the corner, he grabs that same
chair. and hands it to Seth Rollins who takes
it like handing off of a ceremonial torch to
the next torch bearer and Seth measures Roman
chair in hand shades of the past as Roman returns
to his feet and Seth lays him out with a chair
shot and pins Roman reigns for the one two three
Winning the main event of WrestleMania Saturday.
And winning the wise man into his corner. I mean,
I love this match. I thought this match was incredible.
It had everything it needed. It wasn't too over
the top. Yeah, it was everything I wanted it
to be. Minus a table somewhere. Well, we had
to announce tables, I suppose. So tables was
ticked off. Shots were definitely bought in.
We had no need for a ladder. But yeah, yeah,
we got everything we needed. I think it had it
didn't. If they tried to add too much more into
this, I think it would have spoiled it. Oh, 100
percent. Definitely love the. double betrayal
by Paul Heyman oh and it was i expected no i
didn't even expect one betrayal i will be honest
i wasn't sure where this match was going to go
i thought i was going to win i had a feeling
that for some strange reason i had a feeling
that it was going to end up being Paul Heyman
was going to end up siding with Seth Rollins
in one way or another, but I just assumed that
I didn't expect him to low blow both of the other
competitors in this match. If you look at it,
neither Roman or Punk had too much to pull from
this. Punk got what he wanted, which was the
main event of WrestleMania. You know, he's been
after that since forever. And then Roman had
already stated that he was retiring the OTC gimmick
at WrestleMania. So you're not gonna, he wasn't
gonna keep Paul Heyman with a gimmick that he
was finishing off that day. Like there is no
more OTC apparently. I'm not 100 % sure how true
that's gonna be. We'll have to wait until Monday
night Raw after Mania to see what happens. or
if there is an appearance made this week from
Roman at any point. But yeah, so that's from
what I've read. But the only person that really
looked to benefit from this with Paul Heyman
was Seth Rollins, and that's what we were given.
Yeah, very much so. But yeah, that sort of brings
my notes to an end for night one, I will be honest.
Yeah, mine are done too. So I suppose the only
other thing to ask at this stage is Rich, do
you have a highlight from night one? I think
for me so far The best match would possibly have
been You know, I think I think for me the best
match was LA Knight and Jacob Fatu for the United
States Championship. Okay. That was not what
I was expecting you to come out with at all.
No. I thought you were going to be torn between
Jey Uso versus Gunther and the men's triple threat.
I thought the opener and the closer were going
to be the ones that you were... No. I really,
really wanted Jey to win. That happened. I got
what I wanted. It was a great opening start to
WrestleMania day one for me. I think for me,
I've been so lined up with this L .A. Knight
Jacob Fatu storyline. I mean, even just the two
of us just sending each other stupid voice notes
with sort of like different wrestling quotes
and stuff in it. It's the L .A. Knight ones that
I have the most fun with. He's probably one of
the more entertaining guys on the roster at the
moment. He's so, so over. I wanted to see him
retain. That didn't happen this time round, but
we do know some point in the future, we are probably
going to see LA Knight as a three times United
States champion. Or possibly, you never even
know a world champion. But yeah, I think for
me it was LA Knight and Jacob Fatu. And I think
my highlight of that match would probably be,
I don't know to be fair. I think for me, I think
it was seeing sort of like Fatou's face and the
fact that he had Haku at ringside for him. It's
just nice to see a lot of this family stuff done
at WrestleMania. So. get to see so many of these
guys celebrate with their family and especially
with some of these families being generational
wrestlers as well. It's pretty cool. You always
get to see a little bit of history at WrestleMania.
Yeah, fair enough. And what about for night two?
Is there anything for night two that you're particularly
looking forward to? So night two for me, I think
it is going to be. I'm intrigued by the the women's
triple threat match I'm looking forward to the
Sin City Street fight That fatal four -way for
the intercontinental looks like it could be interesting
day two I feel is definitely the better day to
watch The only thing I'm probably not gonna worry
too much about is the the Logan Paul match But
apart from that, the rest of day two looks pretty
solid. And then of course, we are gonna be finishing
that one off seeing if John Cena can win that
record 17th world championship or if Cody Rhodes
is gonna slap him down to earth and keep that
title within the WWE Universe. Yeah, this is
it. It's it's do or die for the WWE Championship
and Yeah, I suppose you'll have to see you'll
have to come back to hear all of our analysis
and our opinions on that sort of on Everything
about to do with night two, but for now night
one is done. Thank you so much for listening
I've been Adam and of course rich has been a
dick, but yes other than that And we'll see you
all for night two. You certainly shall and we
will keep it timeless