Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey everybody. Jrockrude here. And once again, another reminder that if you want more Rocking Review content, you can follow us on both X and Instagram. That's right, X and Instagram at the Rocking Review that is R A W K I n G In a big announcement, we are officially on Apple Podcast. That's right. You can now view us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and our Castro's website at the-rocking-review.castro that c a s t o s castros.com and if you follow us on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can click that notification and follow us to get more content. And also be aware of every single time we drop a brand new new episode. So once again, you can catch us on X and Instagram at the Rocking Review as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and our Castro website at the-rocking-review.Castros.com thank you very much and always remember, it's about R A W K because we talk about the W's in pro wrestling. Now on with the show, the Rocking Review Podcast hosted by J Rock Rood.
[00:02:05] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting edition of the Rocking Review Podcast. I'm your host, J Rock Rude and today is episode 13 where we are in high gears to Wrestlemania but in very sorrowful hopes of aew. AEW Dynasty happened this past Sunday and boy, we was it. A pay per view full of hits and many, many, many misses. But we will go over all the matches that took place on the card, including the main event which saw the return of the Young Bucks. That's right, Nick and Matt Jackson back in AEW after their sabbatical and are now possibly here to align themselves with the Death Riders. We'll go over that, including the smackdown that happened in Chicago where we saw the debut of another escapee from aew, the brother of Penta Ray Phoenix. He debuted on the show. We will go over his match that he had as well as finally the reveal of the favor in which Paul Heyman owed CM Punk. It wasn't for a title match, it wasn't for any of that. It was easy for the man who used to be beside him and they were best friends. Punk wants his best friend in his corner and Roman now has no wise man. What does this mean for WrestleMania night? One main event. We will go over that as well as some more matches that were announced as well as some more news on Kevin Owens and his injuries. That is all coming up in this episode. But first, let's get into AEW Dynasty.
[00:04:32] So AEW Dynasty took place this past Sunday and a quick little sum up of my thoughts.
[00:04:44] AW dynasty was a 10 match card. AEW dynasty was a 10 match card preferably. I don't like my pay per views more or less than six matches tops.
[00:05:01] But the fact that Tony Khan put almost five of these matches together in the span of less than four days before the pay per view, all because he wanted to showcase some of the matches that were in the Owen Hart Tournament for the men and the women's.
[00:05:22] It just felt very cluttered. It felt very disorganized.
[00:05:28] Half of these matches, you'll hear me say, should have just taken place on a dynamite or a collision.
[00:05:34] But here they were on this massive pay per view which by the way lasted over five hours. Didn't get done until around like 12:00, almost 12:30, mid over midnight. I'll talk about the pre show a little bit. We got a high flying six man tag team match with AR Fox and Top Flight versus Nick Wayne, Leo Rush and Action Andretti. I mean it was okay, it popped the crowd.
[00:06:08] But they do way more multi man matches because I feel that they have no other option to.
[00:06:18] And they like to showcase as much as they can, especially with the high flying abilities of some of these guys and some of these wrestlers. But it's just too much for me. It's too much to keep up with. And the fact that all these wrestlers are either on contract with AEW or on contract with Ring of Honor. And Ring of Honor is barely showcased. It was showcased on on this main pay per view card. But the fact that they stuck a bunch of, you know, guys in a pre show match and gave them a quick 10 minutes was decent enough, but it popped the crowd very well. But then the other thing that happened that probably should have been taken more seriously was the Max Caster Open Challenge. Now this feels like a TNA gimmick. This feels straight out of Vince Russo booking of have a guy come out there with a fake diploma saying he's the best wrestler alive and then get absolutely squashed by everybody.
[00:07:24] So he came out here for an open challenge. I think many people thought that this was going to be the debut of a new superstar. Rumors are it's going to be Josh Alexander from tna, Former Impact World Champion.
[00:07:40] But they did something better.
[00:07:42] The Acclaimed at one point were the most talked about tag team not just in AEW but in the industry.
[00:07:51] Then they finally broke them up because Castor opened his mouth and said he did not want Shelton Benjamin there.
[00:08:00] And then Shelton Benjamin came and Then Bobby Lashley came and now the Hurt Syndicate are in place and they are the tag champions. Bowens and Billy Gunn separated themselves, the acclaim was broken up and we didn't see Bowens for months.
[00:08:21] Bowens return on this pre show and got a massive pop from the crowd in Philly.
[00:08:28] But why on earth would they take a tag team where yes, both guys can be very significant singles wrestlers, but why on earth would they have a squash match where Bowens pins caster in under 90 seconds?
[00:08:48] Like this is a tag team that you built as one of the star blueprints of the tag division in AEW and instead you give them on a random Pre show a 90 second squash match. Unbelievable. But as far as the main show goes, we kicked off with the first round of the Owen Hart Tournament. On the men's side, Will Ospreay vs. Kevin Knight Kevin Knight of course is a brand new signee to aew.
[00:09:22] Another new Japan star that Tony Khan picked up and now wants to make a Osprey out of giving these two a match on a pay per view. More importantly, an opening match on a pay per view. I just feel this is a little bit overdone. It should have been on Dynamite the week after, but instead they decided to put it here.
[00:09:48] Some quick moments during the match.
[00:09:53] There was a lot of technical exchanges throughout the match. I noticed at one point Knight showed off his explosiveness early, landing a bunch of big strikes and then hitting a standing frog splash for two. Ospreay countered with his Slumdog Millionaire, but Knight ended up kicking out. Knight then reversed a hidden blade attempt with a big boot and then hit a German which Ospreay landed on his feet from. They kept trading reversals until Ospreay nailed a Spanish fly off the ropes. The action spilled to the outside where Knight avoided disaster and launched himself over the ropes in the Osprey. Back in the ring, Osprey hit a rebound lariat and as night was on the apron, he went to hit a sunset powerbomb to the outside, but Knight slipped a little bit. So to cover this on the ramp, Ospreay dragged and picked Knight up and went to deliver a Styles clash on the ramp, but Knight reversed it and got himself up and delivered a ddt. Knight with another rolling ddt. He also hit a Hurricane Rana and then a top rope turning five star frog splash, but Ospreay kicked out of each of them. Osprey finally got him with the cutter and then got a power bomb and then hit him into a styles clash, but that still got the Kick out. Finally, Osprey delivers the Osprey cutter, loads him up and delivers the hidden blade and crushes Knight inside out to get the 1, 2, 3. So Ospreay moves on. He will be taking on either Brody King or Konosuke Takeshna later on in the semifinals and then they will have the final for double or nothing.
[00:11:58] So a decent first match. We then shifted to the 80W tag team title match between the Hurt Syndicate versus the Learning Tree of Big Bill and Brian Keith. The Learning Tree has had its ups and downs, of course. You got Brian Keith, which is a hard hitting fighter, and then Big Bill, who's then big Tall Strongman and they're taking on Lashley and Benjamin. And the Hurt Syndicate again are supposed to be the heels, but you can't help but cheer for them, especially when they're going against somebody like the Learning Tree.
[00:12:44] So the Hurt Syndicate got cheered a lot more, but every single show that they are on, the minute they come out and the crowd starts chanting we hurt people like they are behind them 100%.
[00:13:01] So we'll jump in mid match. Lashley was going for a dominator on Keith, but Keith countered into a roll up for a near fall. Lashley charged but Keith dodged, sending Lashley face first into the middle turnbuckle.
[00:13:14] Benjamin entered and missed on an insiguri, allowing Keith to tag in Big Bill who stormed in and delivered a house of fire, delivering corner splashes and then booting Lashley out of the ring. Benjamin then hit a German on Big Bill, but only got a two count. He kept trying to hit Big Bill as he was on one knee and then as Benjamin was running back from the ropes, Bill answered with a black hole slam followed by a choke slam attempt. But Benjamin reversed into a arm drag and then delivered two super kicks.
[00:13:55] But Big Bill only ate them and fired back up with another big boot. Big Bill then tagged back in Brian Keith. He hit one more corner splash before Lashley came back into the ring and wiped out Brian Keith and then landed a flatliner to Big Bill. Lashley set up a superplex onto Big Bill, but he reversed it into a snake eyes and a lariat that sent Lashley tumbling to the outside.
[00:14:27] Big Bill went to go finish Lashley on the floor, but missed. And as Big Bill was against the barricade from behind it, MJF pops out and decks Big Bill with the dynamite diamond ring. Lashley fired up, goes back to Big Bill who is still standing and delivers a spear on the outside.
[00:14:55] Meanwhile, MJF is outside behind the Barricade with a big old smile on his face, getting the people to chant, we hurt people.
[00:15:05] Last couple of weeks he's been trying to win over the Hurt Syndicate because he's good friends with MVP and he has been trying to get into the Hurt Syndicate so that way he can get protection so he can get back to the Triple B, which is the AW World Champion.
[00:15:26] Finally back in the ring, Keith was all alone. Benjamin hit a German and then Lashley followed up with a spear. Benjamin made the COVID for the 1, 2, 3.
[00:15:37] I don't know where they go with the tag team champions again. They are a very destructive force.
[00:15:47] It's hard to look at a tag team right now that is deserving of a tag title run.
[00:15:56] Of course, the private party had their little short stint and like I mentioned before, the young bucks, they possibly could end up politicking their way into getting another championship title run.
[00:16:11] But all will be revealed later on as we are proceeding into all in at Texas.
[00:16:21] We went back to Owen Hart Cup Tournament.
[00:16:27] For the women's side, we got Mercedes Monet versus Julia Hart.
[00:16:35] And one of the biggest things, with a lot of these matches that happen on this pay per view that happened to be for the Owen Hart tournament. There were very many predictable matches.
[00:16:47] Mercedes versus Julia Hart is more predictable than a lot of people think it is.
[00:16:54] But the only upside is that, you know, Hart is a former TBS champion, so there is a chance that she has a chance of winning.
[00:17:05] But we all know that Mercedes is going to hold on to this undefeated streak as long as she can because she is the real Hogan of the women's division and of course women's wrestling.
[00:17:21] She's not racist, but she's not like a Tessa Blanchard.
[00:17:26] But she definitely has her creative control that she uses, quite frankly, a little bit too much, including with a lot of the endings, including this one. Midway through the match, Mercedes pulled Giulia off the apron and spewed her into the barricade. She then followed up with a Meteora to the outside and then another one back in the ring for a near fall. She tried to do the Three Amigos, but Julia reversed the third and hit a standing moonsault only for Mercedes to get the knees up.
[00:17:58] Julia then managed to make a impressive escape from the Tree of Woe and got Mercedes to the outside. She pulled herself up and delivered a cross body from the top rope followed by a tilt, a whirl DDT for two. She went for another, but Mercedes caught her and delivered this type of front knee buster, this face buster like Finish which I think was quite literally a decent finishing move and a lot better than the Monet maker. Julia Hart then locked in a tarantula lock in the corner and then locked in an octopus hold when she did another tilt a whirl and when she went around she caught Mercedes in an octopus submission hold. Mercedes batted out and then Julia when she went for her moonsault, Mercedes caught her midair with a kick to the face and hit back to back back breakers.
[00:19:04] Julia then responded with a nice looking crucifix bomb, but only got a 2. Mercedes then trapped Julia in a bank statement. Again I, I do not know what her submission equivalent to the bank statement is called in aew but Julia ended up escaping and locked in the rings of Saturn. Mercedes rolled on her back, almost got the win, she only got a 2. And immediately after Julia kicked out, she locked back in the bank statement.
[00:19:39] Julia kept crawling to the ropes. She finally tried to roll Mercedes up again, but then Mercedes answered back with a tight crucifix pin with her arms locked and got the 1, 2, 3 and she advances into the tournament where she will be facing the winner of Athena, the ROH Women's champion and Harley Cameron. So these Mercedes matches they're kind of predictable but half of the time she ends up winning off of a last minute roll up which is kind of weak for a women's champion, kind of weak for any champion really. And it does work in the sense of Mercedes being the cowardly heel and getting the last second roll ups to win. But again this was very predictable and Mercedes most likely will be in the final and maybe we do get a title for title with her and Toni Storm at all in. We then moved on to the AEW Trios match with rated FTR and the Death Riders Rated ftr.
[00:21:03] It was decent early on when Cope edge Adam Copeland, whenever you want to call him, when he first came into the AEW it looked like okay, that's a cool looking tag team.
[00:21:19] And at the time FTR was one of the top five tag teams really in the company and in the world. But now they're resorted themselves to being just the back burner guys. And then when Tony Khan needs somebody to amp up the tag division, he just sends Dax and Cash out there to to go and have a decent match that might get five stars. So we started midway through this match we had both Cash Wheeler and Wheeler Yuta. I'm sure that that got very confusing whether or not they were trying to say Wheeler Yuta or Cash Wheeler. But Yuta got Booed very heavily in this match and it's funny because his hometown is Philadelphia, but they were just chaining everything to Yuta and it was a mix of go away heat and natural heel heat, so I thought that was kind of cool. Cash broke out of a headlock and landed a power slam, but the momentum stalled when Pac yanked Dax off the apron just as Cash went for the tag. Dax recovered from the outside and tagged himself in. So Cash was going to tack it, was going to tag into Cope, but Dax jumped right back on the apron, stuck his hand out further and stole the tag from Cope. Dax then came in house of fire.
[00:22:50] He landed a bunch of corner punches and then delivered a second rope cross body. Then he tried to clothesline Claudio, but he still didn't budge. There was a couple of roll up attempts and Dax tried to get a sharpshooter on Claudio, but Wheeler quickly broke it up. It ended up being where all six men were in the ring.
[00:23:15] Cope then locked in the crossface on Yuta. Claudio put Cash Wheeler in the sharpshooter and Dax hardwood did the same to Pac.
[00:23:25] So Dax and Claudio are both in their sharpshooters and they're staring right at each other face to face as they're sitting in these submissions and then just start doing crappy slaps back and forth. You know, it kind of run of the mill, but it popped the crowd a bit for a short time.
[00:23:47] Claudio then crack Dax with an uppercut and Cope went to attack Claudio, but Claudio did the same to Cope. Claudio then delivered the giant swing to Dax while Yuta did a missile drop kick on the last rotation for a near fall. They then got Dax in the corner and did a carousel like triple team and and began just hitting him with forearms running hit splashes in the corner, then Pac delivered Tombstone. Claudio Utah and Pac all delivered splashes but Cash Wheeler came in to make the save.
[00:24:34] Dax then dodged Claudio and finally tagged in Cope who then had his own house of fire back body drop to Yuta, close line to pack flatliner and then hit the impaler. DDT got a close two count.
[00:24:50] He then followed up with another triple team move. He delivers a superplex to Pac. Cash then hits a frog splash off of one corner. Dax hits a diving headbutt from another, but Claudio makes the first save and just rams his head right in the middle of the COVID Dax then got the rebound. Powerbomb off the ropes to Yuta. Pac tried rolling him up for a near fall and then locked in the rings of Saturn. Claudio was holding Copeland back. Yuta was trying to apply a submission to Cash Wheeler, but Cash, of course, freed himself from the scrawny Yuta and just backed up into the pile, breaking the hold.
[00:25:43] FTR then hit the Shatter machine onto Yuta. Cope followed up with a spear, but once again, Claudio broke the pin. Finally, Cash Wheeler took Pac. He went to suplex him over the top rope, but they both ended up going over. Claudio and Cope were on the outside, and Cope speared Claudio. He then went back into the ring, and he looked like he was going to spear. Yuta leapfrogged over Cope, and Cope almost hit Dax in the corner, but Yuta, seeing this, rushes up to Cope, pushes him in. Dax, they knock heads, Cope goes to the outside, and Yuta winds up and delivers the psycho knee to Dax hardwood and delivers the 1, 2, 3. Now, this was the real talking point. After the match, Dax is sitting there, frustrated. Cash and Cope help Dax up.
[00:26:47] They all hug. They raise each other's hands, and just as they're about to leave, Cash is going towards the ropes. And just as Cope is about to follow him, Dax pulls him back and delivers a potential pile driver to Copeland. Frustrated, Dax goes to the outside near the timekeepers area, grabs two chairs. Looks like he's going to Concerto Cope. But then he hands the chair to Cash Wheeler.
[00:27:18] Cash Wheeler being the good guy, he throws it down and he pushes Dax. He's like, what are you doing? This is our friend. So Cash pulls up Cope, and then it's all a swerve because Cash pulls him in. And they deliver Shatter Machine to Copeland, and then Dax goes up top and they hit a spike. Pile driver, assisted pile driver onto a chair. So Kopu's already had neck problems before. He gets a pile driver onto a chair, and then they load him up the Concerto and deliver it not once but twice.
[00:27:57] Twice.
[00:27:59] And then immediately the stretcher comes out. The medical professionals are out.
[00:28:04] Cash actually steals the neck brace meant for Cope, puts it on, lays on the stretcher. Dax pretends to do CPR on Cash, and then Cash just goes, he needs this more than I do. They walk out and to the back, and meanwhile, Cope is put on a stretcher and wheeled it out.
[00:28:29] The heel turn I loved very much. I like that we are getting this heel type of FTR after such a long time of being the, you know, southern baby faces who's always helping everybody. But now it's time for serious business.
[00:28:53] I would definitely love to see FTR versus the Hurt Syndicate at double or nothing in Arizona. I think that's one. A big money match two it's one of the first big tests for the Hurt Syndicate to prove that they are a dominant tag team as they already are right now.
[00:29:14] So I am definitely looking forward to what this heel turn could mean for FTR as far as Cope goes. Cope has been in so many storylines since he signed with AEW that I don't know what else to do with him. The only thing that comes to mind and what the rumor is is that we're going to see Christian an Edge Cage and Cope are going to tag together one more time and they will face FDR at all in in Texas. I'm not opposed to that idea. I am curious though how they're going to turn Christian Cage into a good guy after he is busy with the patriarchy. The only other way I see is that the patriarchy kicks him out. Nick Wayne ends up being the new leader and he has his sidekick Luchasaurus or Kill Switch, whatever he's going by right now. Sidekick by his side, Nick Wayne does whatever he needs to do. Probably like my guess is he ends up being like ROH TV champion or something.
[00:30:29] I believe that is what the prediction is right now is that we're getting FTR versus Christian Cage and Cope at all in we then went back to the women.
[00:30:45] We had the AEW Women's World title match between Toni Storm and Megan Bane.
[00:30:54] Megan Bane is another pickup signing from Tony Khan that is the brand new shiny toy and in all honesty, seeing how everybody else is in the Owen, this was the only other person that they knew that they didn't want to 1 put in the Owen but also 2 they needed a challenger for Toni Storm after her trilogy with Mariah May came to an end last month at Revolution.
[00:31:26] So we got this match between Toni Storm and Megan Bane. This went a little bit longer than the rest of the matches had been going that night, but Storm was tossed around by Bane. Bane delivers some risk, controlled lariats and landed three straight belly to belly suplexes but only got a two.
[00:31:48] Penelope Ford. She kept on choking Storm on the ropes while the ref was distracted. She did it twice but Luther, who was sitting there by the way. Toni Storm came out in memoriam for Philly. She had a very rocky, inspired entrance and Luther was the the Mickey of the story and Luther, who had gotten attacked early in the match, recovered and carried Penelope Ford to the back. Storm fought back with a corner splash and a tornado DDT and she hit this interesting looking variation of a STF and a bulldog choke. But Bane Powered out.
[00:32:33] Storm tried for a power bomb, but Bane reversed it and suplexed her from the apron back into the ring. Bane attempted for a high risk move off the top from the second rope, but Storm reversed it into a half and half suplex. Look gnarly. Bane then hit a release German suplex and hit a almost a steiner driver, a michinoku driver, some type of, you know, suplex into a front facing slam, but only got a two after countering Bane's finish which was face the sense. Storm hit a snap German and then she was in the corner. Bane was in the corner and Storm landed four hip attacks in the corner. The first one she landed Bane no sold, got right back up. Storm just simply headbutted her right in the chest and Bane went back down in the corner and Storm delivered three more hip attacks. She then went for Storm driver but only got a one count. Bane then fired back. She had a lariat and then she hit a half lifted power bomb and looked like kind of like a doctor bomb where like she didn't fully get Toni Storm up, but she just like dropped her. She then went for face to set again, but quickly Storm reversed it and got a small package to win the match and retain the title.
[00:34:10] This was a actual very good match. Bane shows a lot of promise. She's a big powerhouse star. She's gotten wins over Kris Statlander and she will squash any woman on that roster. But just having a powerhouse like that come out with support from like somebody like Penelope Ford, it just does too much because it's like always like going to be interference. Like we want to see big main event caliber stars like Bane win on their own, not some jerk dirty cheap finish, whatever with a bunch of interferences. After the AW women's title match, we went back to the men's side of the Owen Hart tournament and we got Kyle Fletcher versus Mark Briscoe. Now again, like I said, with Ospreay and Knight, this should have been easily a dynamite match. They actually fought three times before this, so this was the fourth interaction, but now this was on the pay per view.
[00:35:21] Briscoe turned up the heat and delivered some chops in the corner midway through, but Fletcher countered into an Irish whip and booted Briscoe off the apron. Fletcher then hit a bunch of apron power bombs and then he hit a power bomb onto the barricade to Briscoe. Fletcher then hit a running boot and look for the brain buster off the ropes. But Briscoe fought free and landed a top rope drop kick instead.
[00:35:56] The Two traded heavy chops and forearms which was it's classic AW style. If you ever see any highlights from like a Jim Cornette type match review, it's always the same. Crappy forearms, crappy chops, everything very new Japan style, which we know that Tony Khan is a very big mark of. They then ended up going off the ropes and hit each other with a double down. Briscoe then hit a spinning forearm, a lariat in a package superplex, but Fletcher countered with a half and half and a super kick. After a brief struggle, Fletcher then landed Briscoe head first into the second turnbuckle and followed up with a nasty delayed apron. Superplex got right on Briscoe's side. Fletcher tried to deliver a brain buster but only got two. He then set Briscoe up on top, but Briscoe countered and then hit a pretty cool looking crucifix bomb and then landed a sliding lariat and then delivered the froggy bow, the elbow drop, but that only got a 2. Briscoe then went for the J driller but Fletcher countered into a roll up. After some back and forth reversals, Briscoe finally nailed Fletcher with the burning hammer but couldn't capitalize. Fletcher then went to the outside and Briscoe then hit a standing froggy bow to a standing Fletcher on the outside.
[00:37:30] He then put Fletcher back into the ring, went for another froggy bow on the top, but Fletcher got his knees up and then in the corner hits one running boot, rolls backward, hits another running boot, loads Briscoe on the top rope, finally delivers the turnbuckle brain buster and Fletcher gets the 1, 2, 3 and he advances.
[00:37:54] Very good match.
[00:37:56] It was very hard hitting and I just am not fully behind Mark Briscoe anymore.
[00:38:05] But Kyle Fletcher is a star in the making and I think everybody else knows that already. But this match was very good and I am hoping that Fletcher goes all the way to the finals. And you know we did get Fletcher and Ospreay three. Maybe we just get it a fourth time at double or nothing.
[00:38:27] And currently Kyle Fletcher advances in a tournament and he will be facing actually the wild card entrant, which that I do believe is Josh Alexander. We then moved on from what was a pretty good match into what was a very bad match. We got Chris Jericho defending the Ring of Honor championship against Bandido in a mask versus title. I want to make something really clear. Jericho is a legend, mind you. Why on earth are they having the Ring of Honor World Championship defended on an AEW branded pay per view? More Importantly, they're doing it against two people. One a mid 50 year old man who's carrying around this title and has a bad gimmick, but is trying to get go away heat. And he knows that it's playing into the fans, but it's very cringeworthy. Meanwhile, I was facing Bandido, who, yes, is another MASH luchador. But this entire story is because a guy named Gravity lost his match in an impromptu pre show match with Chris Jericho back at Revolution. And now Bandido was defending his, quote, brother's honor. Now I think about it, at the end of this match, I don't know if it's hologram or gravity coming in. I didn't even pay attention. It looked like hologram. It's this constant obsession with luchadors and masks and just high flying people. For Tony Khan and for the fact that Bandido, on his return back at the last pay per view for Ring of Honor, concussed himself off of a springboard drop kick. So take that what you will, I, I didn't like this match very much. We'll go. Midway through the match, Jericho hit a back superplex on Bandido and started taunting him, showboating to the crowd. The two exchange a series of very bad slaps and forearms. Bedito came off the ropes only to eat a big boot from Jericho, but only got a two count. Bedido fired back with a tilt of world DDT and started to build momentum, hitting a spinning kick to the gut and followed it up with a spinning insigiri to the head. He bounced off the ropes again, but Jericho cut him off with a decent looking drop kick from the second rope. Jericho then began yelling over to Bandito's mother and sister who were sitting at ringside taunting them.
[00:41:07] Bandido fired up, ran up the apron, climbed the top rope and delivered a sunset flip power bomb, but only got a two count. Jericho regained control and climbed up to hit his 10 punches on the turnbuckle.
[00:41:22] He went to hit a Hurricane Rana, but Benito caught him and he looked for a power bomb, but Jericho still countered into the Hurricane Rana. He then charged out of the corner only for Bandido to catch him in a fireman's carrying. Then he went up to deliver the frog splash and it looked okay, but it wasn't too much.
[00:41:44] Bandido then kept the pressure on and tried a corkscrew crossbody in the corner. But Jericho, he tried land this code breaker. I think he was trying to make the full rotation. It just looked like he did a normal back breaker to Bandito. It only Got a two count. They both stood up in the middle of the ring, and this is the western gimmick off a Bandido. But they do a. They do a shootout where they do the standoff and they go like the five paces back and then they run at each other. They did this with. They did the spot with Brian Keith I know about.
[00:42:22] So they're both back to back. Jericho starts to walk to his corner, be Dido's walking to his corner. Jericho tricks Bandido. He turns around early, gloms Bandido into the corner, and then tried to roll him up and tried to get the win with the feet on the ropes, but Benito still kicked out. Bandido then tried to go for the 21 plex, but he. He definitely botched it. I don't know what happened. I don't know if he lost grip, but Jericho tried to capitalize this and roll him up, but it was still two count. Jericho then locked in the walls of Jericho and Bandido crawled for the bottom rope.
[00:43:07] He ended up making it, and Jericho and Bryce Remberg started to argue, but Bandido took advantage of this and landed a super kick.
[00:43:18] Then out of nowhere, Brian Keith runs down to the ring to try to distract the ref.
[00:43:26] Meanwhile, a masked figure ran down the ramp again. I don't know if it was hologram or gravity, but they started to attack Keith on the outside.
[00:43:39] While the referee's attention was diverted, Jericho retrieved a hidden baseball bat that was under the steel steps in the corner and cracked Bandido in the head. He then took his time, shoved the bat back underneath the stairs and slowly went for the COVID And 1, 2, 3, and Bandido loses and is apparently supposed to remove his mask. But all of a sudden, Bandido's mom and his sister are freaking yelling in, like, Spanish. And of course, Aubrey Edwards, who somehow there goes to them, and they start pointing at the stairs. So Aubrey takes them out. They go to the stairs. Aubrey moves the stairs, trying to sell this like an actress, and then retrieves the bat. Shows Bryce Remsburg in the ring, and Jericho, meanwhile, he's like, holding his title. He's like, no, no, no, no. You know, this can't happen. This can't happen. Bryce Remsburg goes over to Justin Roberts, and Justin Roberts announced that due to the stipulation, due to the tomfoolery, the match will be restarted. Jericho panicked as Bandido's sister and mother were celebrating jumping up and down. He grabs Bandido sister by the hair. Bandido sister then slaps Jericho.
[00:45:13] Bandido hits a big boot onto Jericho followed by the Ex knee and then finally delivers the 21 plex. And 1, 2, 3. Bandido wins the Ring of Honor World Championship for a second time in his career and he keeps his mask. So now that that's settled, where does Jericho go? Now? I will spoil it a little bit.
[00:45:41] Jericho on what was as of this recording, last night's Dynamite. He went on last night's Dynamite, did TV time with the Lording Tree, and Big Bill and Brian Keith were out there. They thought that they were going to be punished and ridiculed for losing their match against the Hurt Syndicate. But instead Jericho was like, your losses are my losses. Your failures are my failures.
[00:46:08] And he's not upset, he's disappointed. And as he said this, he got angry and anger. He hit the baseball bat against the TV and smashed up the tv. And he said, the only way you guys are going to learn is if I leave.
[00:46:23] And then he walked out and people started chanting, na na na na na na na na. Hey, hey, hey, goodbye.
[00:46:37] And they run him out of the arena.
[00:46:42] So is Jericho leaving aew?
[00:46:46] Because there was now recently a report that Jericho would be more than willing to align some things with WWE and come back. He is certainly a Hall of Famer, so it's best to do that early on than to wait and end up not being in the hall of Fame. Then we got to what was of course no surprise, the co main event. The match of the night. Kenny Omega versus Speedball. Mike Bailey versus Ricochet for the AEW International Championship.
[00:47:25] I'll say this the same thing with what I said in the pre show with the flippy six man tag. When you have these high flyers who constantly almost do the same five moves to each other that look so vicious, so crazy that you don't even think that you can achieve them and even counter them or do them, it just shows you that kind of your talent is very recycled. But we'll pick up towards the end of this match, Omega and Bayley found themselves battling on the top rope. Bayley attempted for a hurricane Rana, but Omega countered with a half and half superplex. Omega just kept on hitting half and half suplexes. He, he always does this. He went for a third on Bailey, but Bailey held on to Ricochet, leading to an insane spot where Omega actually delivered a double half and half suplex to both Ricochet and Mike Bailey. Omega then signal for the V trigger first hitting Ricochet and then hit a V trigger to Bayley which sent Bailey out the ring. Omega looked to finish the match up with A one winged Angel. But Ricochet countered and fought back.
[00:48:46] Then climbed to the second rope, but Omega caught him and attempted a one winged angel again. But instead of delivering the one win Angel, Omega actually transitioned and got a almost wheelbarrow German which only resulted in a two count. Omega then tried to set up Bailey for the one winged Angel. Bailey escape and ran Omega into Ricochet and then delivered a back kick to Omega's neck. Bailey and Ricochet was trying to set up a double pin on Omega. So Bailey tried to crucifix pin Omega and Ricochet was trying to be on top of Omega. Kind of similar to how they both won that fatal four way match that qualified them to face Omega. But Omega kicked out at two back and forth between Bayley and Ricochet. Ricochet ended up hitting a leg whip to Bayley.
[00:49:46] He attempted a powerbomb, but Omega countered and sent Ricochet crashing to the ringside area. Bailey was selling a lot of his knee and his leg, so you know, that was kind of good selling from him. But they tried to attack it a lot in this match. Bayley then connected with a big super kick to Omega, followed by a spinning kick into the corner. He tried for Ultima Weapon, but Omega dodged it. Omega went for another half and half suplex, but Bayley slipped out. But Omega caught a calf crusher as Bayley was trying to escape.
[00:50:28] Ricochet climbed back up on the apron and delivered a springboard 450 onto Omega, but only got a two count. Bailey then tried to roll up Ricochet, but Ricochet kicked his leg out from under him and then set up for the spirit gun. But Omega pulled Ricochet out of the ring and went for the V trigger on Bailey, but Bailey dodged it and tried to roll up Mega Omega, but it only got a two count. Bailey then landed a roundhouse kick to Omega's head before setting up Ultima Weapon again, but Ricochet pushed him off. Ricochet then climbed up on the top rope and delivered the shooting star to Omega and then delivered or tried to deliver the shooting star to Bailey, but Bailey got his knees up, but Ricochet still kicked out at 2. Bailey then hit a series of strikes and kicks to Ricochet, but then he caught one and began to work on Bailey's injured knee. Bailey then set up for a crane kick a la Karate Kid, and Ricochet was laughing it off, but as soon as he went back, Bailey just booted him with his other foot. Bailey then went to the second rope and hit Ultima Weapon, but just as he got into the COVID Just as he was going to get the 1, 2, 3. Omega runs over sprints and delivers a V trigger to Mike Bailey. Omega once again sets up for the one winged Angel. But Ricochet pushed Omega and delivers a poison rana. Bailey then found himself perched on the top rope backwards and Ricochet was on the second rope. He was probably going to give her some type of back suplex off the top. But then Omega rushed up and with Bailey perched on the top rope facing back first from Ricochet and Omega. Ricochet is put on Omega shoulders and Omega from the second rope delivers an avalanche. One winged angel. Bailey was trapped in the tree of woe, so his feet were stuck so he couldn't break up the pin. So that led to Omega covering ricochet, getting the 1, 2, 3, and successfully retaining the AEW International Championship. And then just as Omega was trying to catch his breath, out comes Kazuska Okada. And Okada poses with the Continental Championship and walks out. So all roads point that we are definitely going to get the unification or the title for title match between Okada and Omega probably at all in for the continental title and the international title.
[00:53:12] So finally we got to this main event. I, I don't know what to say about, about this main event other than they had everything pulling for them in the right moment to achieve what they wanted to do and that was to put the title on Swerve. This was the time to do it because then you have Swerve going in for the second time at all in with the AEW World Championship around his waist and he did not want to end up the same way he did the year before with Bryan Danielson. Boy, did they not go that route. And what was even worse was that when you had a match like Omega, Bailey and Ricochet end with a bunch of hot starts and back and forth and you start this match with a simple collar and elbow headlock.
[00:54:14] It's not the momentum shift that they needed for this main event. They, they needed to come out swinging again. So we'll pick up towards the end of the match because, because the amount of stuff that was in here, it's in every Jon Moxley match.
[00:54:31] Swerve began picking up steam. He landed two house calls to Moxley, but Moxley charged as Swerve was coming out the corner, delivered an inside out Lariat Swerve immediately bounced up, no, sold it. And automatically hit a third house call on the Moxley.
[00:54:54] While the men were down, Marina Shafir comes out dragging the taped up briefcase that supposedly has the AEW championship in it. She shoves the referee. Looks like she's gonna hit Swerve with the briefcase. Nana comes in, does his little comedy bit, and Marina Shafir nails Nana in the back with the briefcase. Moxley and Swerve are starting to get up, and Shafir just looking over at Nana.
[00:55:24] Horrible acting. Moxley is looking to deliver another cutter to Swerve. Swerve pulls Marina Shafir in, and instead Moxley cutters Shafir. Because of this, Swerve then took advantage and delivers the old school. The dirty deeds or the paradigm shift on the Moxley. But Moxley still kicked out at 2.
[00:55:45] Swerve then slowly climbed up to the top rope, but Moxley recovered and shoved Swerve off the top.
[00:55:54] This is where it made no sense right here. Moxley then goes outside and grabs a ladder. I'm like, why are you grabbing a ladder? Is it no dq? He grabs the ladder. He sets it up close to the Spanish announce table.
[00:56:09] He then drags Swerve up on one side. Then he starts climbing up the other side. He looks like he's gonna deliver a superplex off the ladder. Swerve fights back, gets some hits in the gut, and then rakes the back of Moxley and then bites him on his head.
[00:56:32] Swerve then climbs over to the side that Moxley's climbing on and then delivers the Swerve stomp through the Spanish announce table.
[00:56:42] Moxley went down, and Swerve. Looked like he possibly injured his leg. Definitely. There's probably some limping that was involved after this, which made the, you know, the selling even better.
[00:56:57] But then they both got in the ring and they started delivering the crappy forearms from kneeling to standing back up. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, why are we resetting again? They get back to their feet.
[00:57:11] Moxley kicks Swerve's leg underneath him.
[00:57:16] At that point, Marina Shafir regains herself, puts a chair into the ring. Moxley grabs the chair.
[00:57:26] Looks like he's going to throw the chair at Swerve's head. Swerve dodges, and the chair hits the ref. So another ref bump. Oh, my gosh.
[00:57:36] During this, Swerve then nails a vertebreaker on Moxley.
[00:57:44] Both men are down, and all of a sudden, down the ramp comes Hangman Adam Page.
[00:57:51] Now, one of the key things before this pay per view was that Hangman and Swerve saw each other. And Hangman's like, I swear, if you screw me in the Owen, I'm gonna. Nah, da, da. Da Da and Swerve and them were arguing back and forth. They brought back up the house and the burning of the house.
[00:58:12] And Swerve told that to Hangman. And Hangman says, I know, meaning that Swerve didn't deserve it.
[00:58:25] So this toxic type relationship stuff between Hangman, Adam Page and Swerve is now supposedly going to lead to maybe them tagging together. I don't know.
[00:58:40] But Swerve was on the apron and he couldn't decide who he was going to give the buckshot lariat to.
[00:58:47] Was it going to be Swerve or Moxley? And before he can make the decision, the Death Rider show up. Oh my goodness. Claudio, Yuta and Pac come through and they storm the ring. They beat down Hangman.
[00:59:00] They hold Hangman back. Yuta looks like he's gonna set up the psycho knee. Hangman pulls Claudio into the line of fire. Pedro and clothesline Yuta and threw Pac out of the ring.
[00:59:13] Hangman still in the ring. Moxley tried to pile drive him, but Hangman picked him up, held on to him and delivered the deadeye.
[00:59:23] More brawling occurred on the outside. The numbers game got to Hangman, but all of a sudden, in comes the Ops.
[00:59:30] The new trio's team of Hook, Samoa Joe and Kachiori Shibata.
[00:59:38] They fight the Death Riders to the back.
[00:59:41] Back in the ring, still no ref. Swerve throws the chair at Moxley's head, drags Moxley to the corner, limps back up to the top rope and takes his sweet time.
[00:59:57] And Swerve finally delivers the Swerve stomp. But his injured leg is giving. Ah, my leg.
[01:00:04] So he starts to drag himself to Moxley, who's down. And then all of a sudden the lights go out. And when they came back on, I couldn't believe my eyes.
[01:00:17] I thought it was like, oh my gosh, new signing.
[01:00:20] We're getting a new signing. No.
[01:00:25] Oh, God.
[01:00:27] Matt and Nicholas Jackson. The young Bucks have returned from their sabbatical that they didn't need because they won, were injured, and to the last time that they were in aew, they were running away from the Death Riders. They even went as far as to go to wrestle Dynasty in Japan in a triple threat match and win the New Japan tag titles. Each of them held Swerve's arms and delivered the EVP knee lift, the EVP trigger to Swerve and walked out through the crowd. Multiple boos and Moxley drags himself across the ring and covers Swerve. The ref finally comes back in and makes the slow three count. And once again, Moxley escapes with the win by the skin of his teeth.
[01:01:25] Oh, my goodness.
[01:01:28] This main event enraged me so much that I was so sick and tired. I was like, this is a joke. This is a joke.
[01:01:39] Jon Moxley and the Deathriders have done nothing, and I mean nothing, to AEW success. The only thing they have done nothing is bring them down even worse because none of the storylines make sense, none of the incidents that are going on make sense.
[01:02:02] And more importantly, they do not need the title on Jon Moxley.
[01:02:07] He was good early on, but then you tried to turn him into this NWO like character. And that is what has been perceived, is that they are trying to recreate the NWO storyline where a AEW homegrown talent is going to finally beat Jon Moxley and be the savior of the masses for aew. And they're gonna have all the AEW originals and all the people against the Death Riders come out and hoist them up on their shoulders and da, da, da, da. And it's like, no, you don't need to do that. You could have had that done last month and have Christian Cage win the title and screw cope and then that launches into Culp winning the championship. But instead you let Christian Cade, who held on to a briefcase equivalent to the money in the bank and the number one guy that you have building up. And meanwhile, Cage carried this contract, hinted that he was gonna use it, didn't end up using it. Wasn't on TV for a long time, finally came back a revolution. Looked like he was gonna screw his old best friend over just to get choked out. The man who cashed in got choked out and lost his opportunity and now is going to tag with that very same old friend at all in to take on ftr, who's not even top five right now in the industry. And then even more so you had a chance to put the title on Swerve. Oh, but it doesn't just stop there. Swerve also caught Ls too. You know, after the match, after the cameras went off the air, Swerve cut this promo.
[01:04:02] I couldn't believe he cut this promo. He says, when I talk, this is quote, when I talk about representation. I mean, every single time I speak on it, this kid right here that you supported for the last 12, 13 years and one year headlined five main event pay per views. I don't just speak about representation. I go out and I prove it.
[01:04:27] I only made it as far as I have because of you people right here chanting, whose house.
[01:04:34] Every single city, every single arena, every stadium, whether it's in the United States or it's in London, in front of 50k, 80k. I don't care if it's 200. I always want to hear y'all chant. Whose house?
[01:04:48] Thank you for being here. Thank you for the merchandise. Get home safely. And one last thing, just for my own amusement. F Booker T. For those who do not know, in the iwc, Swerve Strickland went out and talked about how representation in the black community has not been very positive for one WWE and to aew.
[01:05:18] So he goes out and he starts some beef with Booker T.
[01:05:24] Booker T, you know, he gave some jabs to Swerve because he was on a talk show that he had no idea named Vlad tv, where Vlad TV apparently questioned Swerve about the representation of the black community in wrestling. And meanwhile Swerve and Booker T went on this back and forth Twitter beef about, you know, what's real representation. I'll tell you this much, there are more representation in WWE than Swerve thinks. Meanwhile, Swerve talks about main eventing 5 pay per views. He's the only black person to main event a pay per view in an entire company.
[01:06:07] Do you know how many times people, even in the developmental in which AEW was poised to take over at one point their next pay per view show that they're having on the biggest weekend of wrestling history at Stand Deliver, Obafemi, Javon Evans and Trick Williams, three black men are going to be in the main event of a major pay per view on a developmental system. And meanwhile Swerve is over in AEW talking about how he's the real representation.
[01:06:45] Okay, great.
[01:06:47] But also the problem I have with is not because of Swerve's comments, it's the fact of that's what you want to say after you just got screwed over in a world championship match where you could have been the world champion heading into all in for a second year in a row. So you want to come back at Booker T's comments. And Booker T, meanwhile, is showing you exactly why he's recognized, exactly why he's a Hall of Famer and exactly why Swerve needs to just keep his mouth shut.
[01:07:19] Swerve is a great professional wrestler, but he does not need to be speaking out this much on representation when it is very clear and prevalent. The only disagreement is people being why aren't they in the main event, why aren't they in a pay per view main event?
[01:07:36] They need to be big Draws.
[01:07:40] There are no big draws in aew, but Swerve is definitely a big draw. Omega is a big draw.
[01:07:49] The same way in wwe, Cody is a big draw, Roman's a big draw. Punk is a big draw. Cena's a big draw.
[01:07:58] Whatever draws the most with the fans will get a main event. I am just telling you that is the realness of it.
[01:08:09] Not trying to be biased, not trying to be anything. The problem I have is that this was not a correct way of doing something on a post pay per view event. Just because you have some Internet beef with another black superstar who's a Hall of Famer and who did a lot more in the same amount of time that you have been a wrestler and he didn't have to go work on the Indies and and he's been a world champion almost everywhere. So take that what you will. Moving on after that rant smackdown smackdown took place in Chicago, Illinois at the All State arena. And of course we kicked off with none other than the Second City Saint himself, CM Punk. He opened up, he mentioned that they have the best TV crowds overseas, but they're in Chicago. And then he basically grabbed the camera from the cameraman and he showed all the sides were packed. So little bit of a jab at aew. Meaning you know there's fans on the hard camp side there, buddy. He got personal saying that he wasn't supposed to be here. He was born with a cord around his neck. He turned blue and he said is that his goal was to make a few fans every time he shows up. But tonight he wanted to thank the 16,000 plus fans in the arena, calling them his friends and family.
[01:09:48] Quote, I don't know if you've heard this but I am in the main event of WrestleMania. The crowd then chanted, you deserve it. And he responded with the people told me for years I wasn't supposed to be be here but I earned it. That's why hard work pays off. And that's when the hard work began.
[01:10:06] Punk then thanked his wife. AJ Lee said there was so many people to thank who helped him to get where he is today and I wouldn't be who I am without the city. And then he said he was going to whip Seth Rollins ass and put a beating on Roman reigns at WrestleMania and out comes Paul Heyman. Of course the arena chanted loud for ecw. He told Punk that he just arrived from Chicago and apologized for being late and saying that it was no disrespect to his best friend in the world. The Second City Saint the best in the world, CM Punk. Heyman asked to come into the ring. He did and they both laughed with the ECW chants and Punk even said, I can't escape it. Every time I step in this wing, it's always ECW you. Haman looked at the crowd and said, ask not what Chicago can do for your wise man, ask what your wise man can do for you.
[01:11:10] He looked at Punk and said, damn it, you belong here. He recalled the last time they stood in the ring in Chicago when the bloodline was breathing down his neck and he told Punk, please take me with you.
[01:11:25] Then the next week they put him through a table at Madison Square Garden. Heyman talked about how Punk endured hell in a Cell with with Drew McIntyre and how that beating had Punk questioning if he would come back. Heyman said he begged him after War Games, after Hell in a Cell, do it for the bloodline, do it for Roman. You saved the family, you saved the match, you saved the bloodline. He told Punk, quote, you deserve all the credit in the world and for that I thank you. And then Haman said that he had one more favor to ask and Punk smirked and he said, man, you're really stockpiling favors here. Punk asked him what the favor was. Haman said that Roman Reigns was arriving soon and he was angry. And then he asked, you know what happens when Samoans are angry, don't you?
[01:12:19] Haman said that Roman wasn't here yet, but that he would be.
[01:12:24] Punk then said, this favor between me and you has nothing to do with Roman, but I think I should say it to your face and to his, so I'll tell you later in the ring tonight when Roman gets here and we can do this all together.
[01:12:40] So he was not going to reveal what the favor was until Roman got to the building. We then shifted into the opening match, which was Nathan Frazier, one half of the NXT Tag Team Champions. A couple weeks ago in Barcelona during the international tour, Axiom actually came over to smackdown and had a one on one non title match with Gunther.
[01:13:10] So now Frazier came here in Chicago on smackdown and he was facing the debut of Ray Phoenix.
[01:13:23] Man, the hype for Ray Phoenix was all over the room.
[01:13:27] Phoenix had merch, Phoenix had mask replicas. He had all of that on the shop a day before he debuted.
[01:13:36] Promoted like a proper superstar, just like Penta said. We'll get straight into it after the commercial. The two battled on the top rope. Frazier hit a springboard superplex into a net breaker for a near fall. He went for a Phoenix splash but missed and rolled through. Phoenix came back strong, walking the top rope to land a leaping kick and then hitting a Fire driver which only got a two count. I don't know how the fire driver is a finisher. Fazer fired back with Insigiri, but Phoenix nailed him with a super kick and then hit the Goodbye Amigo kick. He then hoisted Frazier up and finished the match with a Mexican muscle buster for the 1, 2, 3 after the match, Byron Saxton came in and interviewed Ray Phoenix who got very emotional, reflected on his history with Chicago. Of course he couldn't talk about all out and his amazing steel cage match with the Bucks and his brother. He mentioned that this is the night of the rebirth of Rey Fenix and then he was reborn with rage and amino, which is spirit and passion. He finally shouted I have one thing to say. I am wwe. The stake in the heart for Tony Khan after hearing one of his star luchadors that he had a chance with shout I am wwe.
[01:15:01] Very bright things for Ray Phoenix. I think more into the summer we definitely will get the cross paths between Penta and Rey Fenix. They were mentioned together with Penta wrestling on Raw this past week, so I feel like later in the summer we could get tag team match with the Lucha Brothers against whoever is the tag champions at the time.
[01:15:29] I won't go over this match, but it was LA Knight versus Tama Tonga, Louisiana Knight currently feuding with the Bloodline and of course that would result in what would come later in the night, which was the Last Man Standing match between Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman.
[01:15:47] But after that match we got oh boy.
[01:15:54] I said what I said about the main event of AEW Dynasty. This was quite literally the exact same feeling.
[01:16:04] Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair. They were face to face in the ring and it was a interview segment moderated by Wade Barrett.
[01:16:15] They were firmly behind Tiffany and they chanted Tiffy Time, booing Charlotte so loud she could barely get the lines out. I'm telling you, she got so flustered in this promo that Charlotte did not know how to work herself back up.
[01:16:34] She tried to play it cool and said sarcastically, now that's power. With the crowd booing. But Tiffany didn't flinch. She shot back and said that's so cute and asked the crowd what time it is and all of them shouted it's Tiffy time. Charlotte then explained that she picked Tiffany for WrestleMania because she needed a moment and Flair hadn't done any charity work in a while.
[01:17:03] So Tiffany clapped back by saying that Charlotte acts like nothing gets to her, but the truth is, you're always trying to prove yourself. No matter how many titles you win, you'll always be second to your daddy.
[01:17:17] Charlotte tried to come back from this, but the crowd was so explosive that at one point Charlotte just basically said, what do you want me to say? Tells Tiffany to just wrap up the segment. Tiffany responds, and she says, you think you're above me? What were you doing at 25?
[01:17:44] Playing volleyball in daddy's basement, getting drunk?
[01:17:50] I'm 25 and I'm walking in to WrestleMania as champion and the future of WWE.
[01:17:59] She added, Outside of this ring, you're not Queen of Shit. You're just a Nepo baby. And of course, Charlotte claps back and she goes, it's Nepo Queen to you.
[01:18:15] She also made fun of the squeakiness of Tiffany's voice. That was just completely off script.
[01:18:23] Charlotte, she was so flustered, she did not know what to do. So she just picked a random moment. And then this was. This was the final bits of the segment where Tiffany says, After WrestleMania, when I'm done with you, you'll be just like you are outside of this ring, alone. What's Your record again? 0 and 3.
[01:18:50] She then wooed, quickly rolled out, and Charlotte picked up the mic as Wade Barrett was trying to control the situation. And on mike, Charlotte says, tiffany, is that why Kaiser's in my DMs?
[01:19:09] And then immediately Tiffany's music started playing and they quickly shifted away.
[01:19:16] There were multiple reports on what was scripted and what was not scripted. The Nepo baby line, not scripted.
[01:19:30] Apparently to some reports, the reference of the 0 and 3, for those who do not know this, was the official report from Brian Alvarez on the Wrestling observer newsletter.
[01:19:50] Tiffany started to doing her lines. She mentioned that Charlotte is a Nepo baby, which was a scripted line.
[01:19:58] But then Charlotte jumped in with Nepo Queen. That's number one. Nepo baby. That was not in the script. She then started making fun of Tiffany's voice, which was not in the script.
[01:20:11] She ridiculed her by doing the high pitch voice thing.
[01:20:17] Then Tiffany, because she wasn't over yet, she mentioned the Owen 3, the discussion about the divorces and everything.
[01:20:28] That was all in the script. But the line about 03, which was a reference to how many times she had been divorced, was definitely not in the script. Tiffany ended up throwing down her mic and rolling out of the ring, which is a heel move and she's supposed to be a babyface, which was also not in the script.
[01:20:48] And if you watch it she throws down the mic and she starts to roll out the ring and Charlotte walking towards her and Wade Barrett, he is going to get in between these two because he can see that this thing has gone totally off the rails.
[01:21:05] They go to the back and the fact is there was heat on both of them. There was more heat on Charlotte because she went off script more and she's the veteran, she's the one that's supposed to be keeping this stuff together.
[01:21:25] I do not know why this feud is going on so badly because I've talked about it in the past. This should be a great feud. This should be past meets future.
[01:21:40] Charlotte is the multi time women's champion and meanwhile Tiffany is this random gymnast that came in and now is the world champion and is walking into WrestleMania defending her title against the Royal Rumble winner. I don't know why this got ugly, but every single time they're doing these segments with Tiffany and Charlotte, it goes off the rails. It doesn't produce anything and it's very mid.
[01:22:10] So I'm hoping that this does not ruin the match or the buildup to the match and I'm hoping the match still does great because I still like both wrestlers. I like Tiffany and I love Charlotte. Charlotte is a great in ring performer, everybody knows that. But since coming back, she's absolutely sucked. She's become the new Brock Lesnar with less allegations of course.
[01:22:30] We then ended up getting a match with Naomi vs B Fab. But before Naomi could get into the ring, she still is using her glow theme.
[01:22:43] Jade Cargill jumped her from behind and beat her down before security broke it up.
[01:22:51] Naomi, shaken but still determined, stumbled to the ring and the match began.
[01:22:57] B Fab took advantage of the pre match assault including a slam and went for quick cover. But Naomi immediately kicked out. She rattled back, hung B Fab in a tree of woe and hit a modified lung blower for the 1, 2, 3 to get the win in quick fashion. After the match, Naomi called Jade out again, but Jade blindsided her for a second time. This time Jade tried to hit Jaded on Naomi, but security separated them before she could. That's where at the top of the ramp. Nick, all this came out and made it official. It will be Naomi versus Jade Cargo at WrestleMania Swerve. I don't know if you're listening, but this was a few days before that main event.
[01:23:48] And yeah, two black women are going to be in a regular non stipulation, regular wrestling match at WrestleMania where I 100% guarantee you that match will slap. Very glad that this program, this feud, has gone the way that it has and Jade Cargill is making herself a star and Naomi is pursuing into this heel run and it is going tremendously for both of these women and I am so looking forward to this match.
[01:24:24] We then got to a bit of the savvy part of the night on smackdown.
[01:24:29] Before the camera started rolling Friday, there was dirt sheet reports that reportedly said that Kevin Owens was dealing with an injury that quite literally could take him out of WrestleMania. I don't know if a lot of people bought this. I don't know if a lot of people thought, oh, yes, this is true.
[01:24:56] But immediately we heard that there was going to be a Kevin Owens segment and I could feel an uneasy feeling. And I was like, please don't tell me we're going to get Owens out of Mania. They worked so hard for this feud. We're so looking forward to Orton and Owens.
[01:25:16] But Nick Aldis was in the ring. He admitted that this wasn't the fun part of the job, and he referenced the don't try this at home moniker before he introduced Kevin Owens.
[01:25:26] Owens came out, he was wearing a pink Bret Hart jacket, and he walked to the ring in a very mixed reaction.
[01:25:35] Owens, visibly emotional, said he's been wrestling for 25 years, pouring everything into the business he loves. He reflected on the privilege of living out his dreams and supporting his family in ways he never imagined. But there's a toll, and in recent months, that toll has come due. For the past four months, he said he had been working through a string of neck issues. After test this week, he revealed that he's been diagnosed with a serious neck injury, serious enough that will require surgery and that means he'll miss WrestleMania. But worse, he admitted that he does not know if he will wrestle again.
[01:26:21] He thanked WWE for letting him speak directly to the fans and said, thank you, I'm sorry. And he gave a hug to Aldis. And as he left the ring, Orton's music played.
[01:26:33] Orton slowly rocked down to the ring. They met each other on the apron.
[01:26:39] Owens looked at Orton, Orton looked at Owens, and Orton just says, get your stuff fixed and come back.
[01:26:49] Owens walked out. There's actually a scuffle that ended up happening where a fan was saying some smack to Kevin Owens, and Owens immediately came back and put the fan in his place.
[01:27:04] Aldis was still in the ring with Orton and he said with regret that it looks like Randy no longer has a match at WrestleMania. But before he could finish, Orton snapped and just hit a single RKO on Nick Aldis and that was it.
[01:27:26] So one, I feel very bad for Kevin Owens. I actually looked back at some film and there was a specific match that people pointed back at in January with Rey Mysterio and Kevin Owens, where Kevin Owens took, I think two sunset flip power bombs in a row. And I'm guessing that messed his neck up bad. Which now also confirms and makes you question like how bad was the injury when he did the ladder spot at the Royal Rumble? So I mean, I don't know exactly what it would be, but I'm hoping that it's not Owens. This is his last time we see him in the ring.
[01:28:26] He shared that a regular match in January is what did it for him to go get neck surgery. He said that your spine and everything looks good for what you've been doing, you're fine. WWE doctors to Owens after he got an MRI in December last year. So I was like, great. I felt great. But then in January had a match and in the match two things happened that really jarred my neck and that's when the issue started. So I knew that there was something wrong. And we ended up doing an MRI this week and found out that yeah, it's serious. So apparently they ended up having an MRI back in December. They said, okay, no, you're fine. And then they ended up having a match in January and Owens next got messed up and now he's out. But as far as Randy Orton and we'll talk a little bit more on predictions next week with Lucas and Mike, my perspective is that there is one wrestler who looks like he is signed back with the company and that is Rusev. I do not mind seeing a surprise return from Rusev. And we get Rusev versus or in and Rusev goes over because Rusev has to go over. It cannot be or in beating Rusev again. But as far as right now, we still do not know who will be taking on Randy Orton at WrestleMania. We then had the Last Man Standing match between Jacob Fatu and Braun strowman went for 15 minutes.
[01:30:02] They said earlier on in the night that the last main standing match was now going to be a number one contenders match for the United States Championship and the winner would face La Knight at WrestleMania.
[01:30:17] So at least they were setting up La Knight to have his first title defense at WrestleMania.
[01:30:23] The match kicked off outside the ring. Fat Two delivered a running net breaker and followed up with some big moonsaults on Stroman.
[01:30:37] Stroman survived and ended up hitting a spine buster. He ended up taking the fight outside and set up a table in the corner and attempted for a slam to Fatu. Fatu countered and sent Roman into the barricade, but Stroman responded with a big chair shot to the face and then did the Strowman Express, running Fatu straight through the barricade.
[01:31:04] After a commercial break, this action spilled to the production area on a big crate. Stroman lifted Fatu and hit a massive superplex onto a pile of tables, but both men were still able to answer the count. Stroman, still reeling, found himself in the perfect position for Fatu to deliver the running hip attack, and they crashed through a corner that was set up and Strowman could not recover in time for the 10 count and Fatu was declared the winner. So officially at WrestleMania, it will be Jacob Fatu versus LA Knight for the United States Championship, which if you're a person under the rock, then you would know that Jacob Fatu is winning that gold.
[01:31:53] Jacob Fatu, United States Champion definitely sounds good. The only way that he doesn't end up winning is if solo cost him the title, in which Fatu will retaliate and the bloodline will be ruined. And I think that that's when everybody goes their separate way. There's no bloodline. There's no Gorillas of Destiny in the bloodline. They just have each of them go on their own path and see you later.
[01:32:21] We finally got to the main event segment.
[01:32:29] Roman Reigns, he finally shows up in the suv.
[01:32:34] He teased that he was there, but it ended up being Seth Rollins who showed up first.
[01:32:41] Reigns was the last to show up.
[01:32:44] Paul Heyman was already there praying and revering him, and Reigns then walked past Heyman and he asked, is he here?
[01:32:54] And he went straight to the ring.
[01:32:58] Big old power walk, no grand entrance. He ran straight for the ring and he asked, wise man, is CM Punk here tonight?
[01:33:08] H says, yes, my tribal chief. Rain said, is Punk still asking for that favor? Heyman confirmed again, yes, my tribal chief.
[01:33:19] Reigns then grinned and he said, let's share a secret with Chicago.
[01:33:24] He says, Punk wouldn't be back in WWE if it weren't for me.
[01:33:31] I'm the real needle mover here.
[01:33:34] He took a shot for Punk's claim at being the true draw. He then said, you're good people, but you're not very smart. Punk wouldn't be in the main event of WrestleMania if it wasn't for me.
[01:33:48] And then he said that he did not want to waste time and he told Punk to come on out and to hear what this favor was. But instead, CM Punk Interrupted.
[01:34:02] He walked down, the crowd started singing. He says, I wasn't gonna miss this.
[01:34:08] And he laughed. And he said, I don't know what the favor is, but I know it's going to knock Roman Reigns socks off.
[01:34:16] And he says that reality has a way of biting you in the ass. Roman, you remember WrestleMania 31 and the Heist of the century? Or how Cody Rhodes beat you last year? Punk is in the main event of WrestleMania because of reality, but it is not an accident. Reigns shot back and said, seth, you're untrustworthy. I made a promise to Punk. I'm a man of my word. You should learn loyalty.
[01:34:46] And then finally smirking back and forth, they said that the only thing missing is CM Punk himself.
[01:34:53] Finally, CM Punk came out second. Big pop for the night for Punk. He says, this is more than just wrestling. It's about friendship, legacy promises kept in loyalty. Paul Heyman took a chance on me when no one else would. I'm here to return the favor. He turned Heyman and he said, you remember when you left the company, you made it all about yourself. But I never held that against you. I came back for one reason.
[01:35:26] To make Roman Reigns step out of his comfort zone. Punk then revealed the favor and said that back then, Heyman said that when they take over, when Heyman would be by Punk's side, Heyman would be right beside him in the main event of WrestleMania.
[01:35:54] That was a real promo that they had back then. And that was revealed as the favor. He said that WrestleMania in my corner, my best friend Paul Heyman, he said that it's time to break up your little empire. You're too comfortable, too smug. And at WrestleMania, it's gonna be you and me and I'll have the man who's always had my back.
[01:36:18] Reigns laughed, confused and angry. He said, this is a joke. Paul would never turn on me.
[01:36:25] He said to Heyman, tell him no. Let this fool down easy. And meanwhile, Heyman is not responding. He's getting emotional, teary eyed. And he looks at Reigns and Reigns is furious. He's like, tell him no.
[01:36:44] He's like, I brought you here. I brought you out of obscurity.
[01:36:49] Finally says, tell him no. And after a long pause, Haman looks at him and says, no, my tribal chief. I can't do that.
[01:36:58] Reigns was seething. He corners Haman almost.
[01:37:03] And Punk attacks him from behind and delivers the go to sleep to Roman Reigns.
[01:37:09] And the crowd erupted as Reigns collapsed to the mat. He sold this perfectly.
[01:37:17] Meanwhile, Seth is cackling and Paul Heyman selling On the apron, just crying, saying no. And finally it's revealed that Paul Heyman will be in the corner of CM Punk in the night one main event of WrestleMania. I mean, I had a feeling that that's what it was going to be. I didn't think that they were going to reveal that before WrestleMania, but they decided to reveal it now. And it's actually good because what ended up happening on Raw a couple nights later was CM Punk was out. He went to Heyman and said that Reigns and Punk don't really like you. They don't support you. They don't care about you. So let me just take this weight off your shoulders, Paul. And he threatened to Curb stomp Paul Heyman. But before he could do that, CM Punk came out, started attacking Rollins. Rollins then got back into the ring. As Punk was going into the ring. Rollins hit Punk with a curb stomp.
[01:38:34] Heyman was bent over trying to wake Punk up and comfort Punk as he just got hit with the curb stomp. So Seth backs up into the corner, acts like he's going to deliver the Curb Stomp to Heyman, but Heyman turns. Rollins misses. And then Rollins picks up the mic and says, now you owe me a favor. And that more or less completely confirms my prediction that at WrestleMania, Paul Heyman is going to turn on both Roman Reigns and CM Punk. And you know what? I am all for it. I don't know exactly what is going to happen when it comes to it, but I know it's going to be a massive swerve and I am so excited and I can't wait to see it. So the other matches that were made official was on raw we had Iyo sky vs Bianca Belair vs Rhea Ripley. This will happen on night two of WrestleMania. So on the 20th we also had official of Bron Breakker vs Penta vs Finn Balor vs Dominik Mysterio. So a fatal four way for the Intercontinental Championship.
[01:39:57] We also got Rey Mysterio against Al Grande Americano, who of course we know is Chad Gable. So Chad Gable's gonna get a massive singles match at WrestleMania and then just made official today, Damian Priest versus Drew McIntyre. And currently the only matches that have been made official for The Nights Night 1, Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women's Championship, Gunther vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship. And then the main event will be Roman Reigns, CM Punk and Seth Rollins. Night two is the triple threat for the Women's World Championship with Sky, Belair and Ripley. And then of course, Night two main event will be Cody Rhodes and John Cena. So those are the official matches so far announced for WrestleMania. And that is it for today's episode of the Rocking Review podcast. I want to thank you for listening. A reminder that next week, Thursday, 48 hours before night one of WrestleMania, we will drop the Rocking Review predictions episode with my special guests, Lucas McGarry and Mike Neckers. It is going to be a fun episode. We're gonna go in with our deepest thoughts and we will talk about who will walk out of the grandest stage in them all victorious. Thank you for listening. And as always, it's spelled R A W K because we talk about the W's in pro wrestling. Thank you everybody.
