Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: The rocking review podcast hosted by j. Rock rude.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Welcome everyone to this exciting edition of the Rocking Review podcast is episode 27 of the podcast and it's a special one, in fact, because I have a special guest here on the show. He is a returning guest. He was just on the show last May and he is back. Ladies and gentlemen, Hamza. CC Hamza. How you doing, bud?
[00:00:52] Speaker A: How you guys doing? We're here for a special episode. Let's get it.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah, man.
What an inside in insane pay per view.
It was yesterday, Royal Rumble from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Riyadh.
First time that the Royal Rumble outside of the greatest Royal rumble back in 2018, that the rumble has gone outside of the US soil.
And again, the same thing will happen next year for WrestleMania 42, 43. Excuse me.
And the fact that what we got yesterday, you know, it does boggle my mind whether or not was all that money that they got from the, you know, from the Saudi Arabia, you know, government, what have you, like, was it worth it to give them this, you know, big four show after yesterday? Because, man, we got some thoughts about it, man, and I know that we both have like different views. But I mean, I'll start with you. What, what was your initial thought about Royal Rumble 2026?
[00:02:03] Speaker A: I mean, so the show itself, I think was overall pretty lackluster.
Just starting off with the women's rumble, unfortunately, just not exactly a lot of surprises. Obviously, just going there, you kind of already have a base of like, oh, this is going to be hard to watch.
You got 30 women. The match is going to be over an hour long. You're going to have them all wrestle these giant iron man bodysu.
Nothing's going to be comfortable. The moves are going to be sloppy. A lot of them aren't going to get the chance to practice.
We knew that it was going to be a rough match and especially in ring, it definitely was that.
So before I know we're not talking about winners yet or anything like that. So just the match itself was a hard watch, unfortunately. So moving on from just that match, Drew and Sammy, another pretty lackluster match, didn't really get into second gear.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: The thing is, the thing is, and I'll talk about it right now and not to interrupt, but the thing is, is that when Randy lost that match in Montreal, I thought that he would have been a perfect opponent for Drew.
I thought that when Drew, if, if, when Drew became champion after three stages of hell in Berlin, I thought to myself, okay, if we are going to move on with Drew being the champion on smackdown and knowing that leading up to the Rumble, leading up to, you know, everything else, we knew that there were a lot of people that it would have made better sense for Cody to still be the champion. And then there being a match at Mania for one of those people.
But the fact that they put Sami when they could have had Sammy in the Rumble just kind of irritates me just a little.
So I feel like.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: So here's the thing, obviously with Sammy being Muslim, having him in a big time match, especially title match, just sounds good on paper. The crowd's gonna erupt. It's a good position to have him in and I absolutely understand that.
Because if you don't give him that match. Right.
It's just kind of the question of what does he really do. If you're just looking at the past, what he's done, the shows, right. He had a huge title match at one of those Saudi shows with, with KO against Roman and I forgot who else, maybe Jay and he actually.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: No, right. So it was, so it was, it was Solo and Roman and that was at Night of champions in 2024.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Okay. And they. Sammy actually won that match. So yeah, he's got a huge bull in Saudi Arabia. So, you know, just having him in the Rumble, they wanted to be a big.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Speak Arabic too. He can speak.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They a draw to the show to be like, oh, people are going to see Sammy hopefully win the title. So him just being in the Rumble wouldn't have been as big of an attraction. So I do think it was, it was a great decision to give him the title match instead of Randy here just because it's Saudi. So I think that absolutely made sense. It is just that the match never got into second gear and was kind of just overall a little bit disappointing, I think not only for us, but for the fans as well.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: I, I just think that, you know, there's a lot that they could have done better with the Sammy Drew match and we'll go over that in a little bit. But then of course, the, the, the other matches as well, which was a. A.J. and Gunther, you know, the fact that Gunther was on this tear, he's retired Goldberg, he's retired John Cena, and now he's retired aj.
You know, I don't exactly know what their position is going to be come Mania for Gunther. And we'll talk about that when we go over the match as well. But as far as AJ goes, you know, not his best match.
Personally, I think that if it was the same level of how their match, how AJ's match, which Shinsuke s Saturday night's main event was, I think that it would have gone over just a little bit better, but felt more of an active version of Cena's last match with Gunther because, you know, there's only so much that you can do. And we saw what happened when they had that first match on Raw a couple weeks ago, which led to this match. And immediately my thought was, well, AJ is going to want to put on the best last match while he. He's at WWE or something like that.
And he will. He'll want to do as much as he can before finally settling in and letting Gunther win.
But as far as, like, everything else in the match goes, you know, the, the, the rising Fire, you know, the, you know, comeback, it's all, you know, very much, you know, I want to say predictable because, I mean, you could see that a mile in a way, of every person that's faced Gunther, they'll try to make the fiery comeback and then, you know, nothing will end up really mattering in the meantime because, you know that Gunther is just gonna choke somebody out.
Oh, but, but, yeah, I mean, I mean, those were. Those are my thoughts about the AJ Gunther match. We'll go over it. But, but, but what about you?
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: I think a lot of it came down to the finish. I personally was someone who. I wasn't a fan of the finish of the Cena match.
Just, I still today kind of didn't like the idea of him, like, genuinely tapping out, even though I understood it and I understood why, story wise.
So here I think it was done a lot more like, brutally, right? Like, obviously, Aiden, didn't you have a chance to understand what was happening? And they really played it off well, kind of with the fact that, like, oh, at least, like, okay, Cena accepted that this was his last match and everything was supposed to end right there. And with AJ kind of the look after and the play with the ref of him not really understanding what happened, right, it's like, oh, it happened so quick. He didn't even understand, just like that his career was over. It was a lot more devastating because it's like with Cena, oh, we know he was ready to let go. He's been preparing to let go and retire, right? So that's the whole point of the tour with aj. He goes out the night before on smackdown, he cuts a whole promo about how after I beat Gunther, this is when the tour is going to start and I'm going to do Everything. And I'm going to kill everybody. Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: That promo did a really good.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Job of emotionally making sure that actually during the show when he lost that, it's like, oh, wow. Like, A.J.
kayfabe wasn't ready for this to be the end. And that made everything a lot more emotional. It was just a very good version of what Cena's ending should have been. The crowd wasn't like booing or anything like that. They were in shock as well. And they were just like, damn, that's it. You know, like, it was just done so well. It was done perfectly.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Best part of the show by far.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
I mean, let's go straight into it. And this is the one where we didn't talk about. And we'll start it off here. What started off the. The event was the Women's Royal Rumble match. I know we talked about how you probably felt like this Women's Royal Rumble went, but I'll just mention very early on, man, the crowd was barely here during the Women's Royal Rumble. I looked out. All I saw was like some flashing lights. And I was trying to, like, look, but, like everywhere I saw, I could see like, at least five seats next to people that were, you know, wearing their.
And again, there's. There's a certain term, but I'm not gonna butcher it, so I'll just won't even attempt at it. But whatever that they were wearing, you know, I could see somebody, you know, wearing that here. And then I see five, like rows of seats completely empty. And then there's like some little, like bits of light just shining.
I mean, I guess we'll talk about that as well, you know. What was your thought on the questionable attendance for. For the Royal Rumble? Because it definitely felt like it was a flashback to if you remember Money in the bank last year when Seth won it.
And yeah, so, yeah, the Inuit Dome. And it looked like nobody was even there for at least.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: So it was a couple of different things. Number one, the lighting was horrific. Like you. Several times just on X, people were posting different pictures of at the arena. People were actually there at certain points, but the lighting made it look like empty seats, which was just a huge fall in WWE's part. And the second kind of just coming. A lot of people came in after the Women's Rumble. Obviously, it's no secret there's a certain prejudice in Saudi and just that sort of culture about kind of women in general.
So it's not going to be any different about women's wrestling. There was A large portion of the audience that came in after the match.
So that's just. Was simply reality and. But obviously, yes, on tv it made things look not great.
So yeah, it's just. It is what it was. I'm sure they made their money. They'll get over it. WrestleMania is here next year.
I'm sure Triple H didn't even blink twice as I thought of the audience.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: And that's the other thing too. And we talked about that is what could this mean for, you know, WrestleMania coming into next year, we honestly just might get two women's championship matches and that's it. We won't see a singles match, we won't tag team match. I think it'll just be like that. But we started off.
Charlotte entered at number one.
Alexa Bliss also entered at number two.
She playfully stalled down to the ring before they were very hesitant to put each other on the offense. Charlotte double legged her and mocked the jester.
They had some late offense and teased of a sister Abigail a figure eight.
But then of course, Kiana James entered at number three and attacked and got attacked by both women leading to soul food on Flair.
Taking a double DDT from Charlotte and Alexa.
Nia Jax the Internet number four and immediately dominated with headbutts and Samoan drops. While Ivy Nile entered at number five and tried for some power moves on Jack but got overpowered. Lola Vice then entered in. So that was the. That was the first surprise that ended up happening there.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So. So I have a friend who only watches the main roster and I always get a kick when he watches the rumble and people from NHD or like other companies come in. He just has absolutely no idea what's going on. Like, obviously we all know who Lola Vice is. For someone like him who like just watches only when something big is going down, she starts making her entrance. The first thing text me is like, who the F is this? And it's just the funniest stuff ever, right?
[00:13:51] Speaker B: And again, Lola Vice, I mean it's, you know, if we talk about NXT for a minute, it's between Jada Parker and Lola Vice have been like those rumored people of the women's division in nxt and those two in particular should be the ones that should be pushed right now.
More specifically on Jada Parker because she's got the look, she's great in the promos and she is a death. She's definitely a marketable superstar that I could definitely see going places. Lola Vice, however, I think that they tried and they realized that it wasn't gonna work out.
You know, this being. I believe her has to be your second because I believe she was in the Rumble last year, if I'm correct.
But she entered in number six, throwing her kicks and knees, but Jax then cut her off.
Lyra.
Not Lyra.
Candice Lerae. Sorry about that. She entered at number seven, Tornado ddt and then, uh, allied with, uh, Naya before, uh, trading hugs. Uh, and then Jordan Grace entered number eight, cleaned house. She eliminated Candice Lerae and Lila Vice, uh, and then eliminated Ivy Nile.
And then Grace then battled with Jax, Flair and Bliss until Charlotte accidentally sent both Alexa and Naya over the top rope.
So that was, that was pretty good as far as, you know, Charlotte, you know, sacrificing her best friend in need for the Rumble. Every person for themselves.
And then at number nine, we got the man. Becky Lynch. She came in immediately, had a brawl with Charlotte. Soul Ruka then entered in at number 10 and had her springboard attacks and high speed offense. Roxanne Perez then entered at number 11 and went straight after Becky and Kiana with some quick strikes. Maxine Dupree entered at number 12, big old suplexes and kicks, before Natty Neihardt entered in number 13. This is the other thing that got super hyped up leading up to this rumble. Natalia is no more. Natty is now here. Natty, after pretty much, I want to say, a year of doing this low key legend gimmick outside of wwe, finally was able to bring that to the main roster.
Hamza, how are you feeling about the Natty character finally living up to the hype here on the main stage?
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Yeah, so I actually thought it was cool. I like the look of it. I haven't liked the Natalia character in a really, really long time. So it's exciting for her to actually go ahead and do something new.
I'm not sure where the limit of it is. Like, I don't necessarily see Nadi being a world champion in any sense.
If she could get a cool IC or US title reign out of it, I think it'd be good for her at this stage. You know, I mean, she's in her 40s now.
She's been wrestling for how long? And it's been so long since the Titan has had any fire in her at all. I mean, probably not since I was in high school. So I'm willing to, you know, give it a chance to see where it goes. And it's been working on the Indies, so it's just about how much time they'll really allow her to get this through, like in, let's say in six months. Will we still be talking about Natty? I can't say. I'm sure either way. So that's why I feel good about it now. But for the future, still on the fence.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Yes. And again, Natty has not really had a, you know, a real championship reign since 2018, when she held the Smackdown World Women's Championship.
And again, you're definitely right. I could see her ending up being IC champion. I. I would imagine that they would at least give her something, you know, close to that. I think that that is probably the best case scenario for Natalia to get some gold before she retires or anything like that.
I mean, the fact is that she's been with WWE through and through, and then she finally was able to.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Essentially, the women's division. Essentially the women's division. Archer, for how long she's been there.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be. That would be pretty correct. But right after Natty came in, she quickly grappled with Maxine, and then Becky eliminated Maxine Dupree, and Natty also eliminated Becky as well, which was quite surprising.
I thought that, that, that was pretty good that Natalia eliminated Becky Lynch.
Now that can be like another story. And that's exactly what I was meaning by, like, the IC title, women's IC title, I think, after Mania, because they're definitely going to do plans for AJ versus Becky for the title at Mania.
I think after that, if there's any room, I think that Natty would be a perfect fit to go into that mid card, you know, division for. In the other women's IC title. I definitely think that a match between her and Lyra, it's probably already happened. And I. I think that that would be really, really good for the women's IC title division.
Right after that, Liv Morgan entered at number 14.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Honestly, though, I feel like Lyra is in a very stagnant place right now with everything going on with kind of this Bailey situation. And just in general, even though she'll always be decently over because of, you know, her entrance and the crowd likes to get into it, she sort of needs a repackaging, it seems.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I would not mind a repackaging of Lyra.
I. I think that would be a pretty good statement that could re.
Reintroduce her and kind of.
Kind of reinstate her force in that mid women's division that they have on the main roster.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tough to be in a place where people like your entrance, but as a baby face, you come out there and cut a promo and because of your accent, they'll start, what, chanting or. And that's just usually how it goes with every Lyra promo. So it just. I'm not sure if she'd be better off as a keel or what they should do with her, but there should be some sort of repackaging. She's in a strange, stagnant place.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Well, the thing, Hamza, is that if you saw, of course, we's critically acclaimed series Unreal, when they went over their feud with Lyra and Becky early last year, they did want to make Lyra look over as possible.
But the thing was, is that you can only do the same thing over and over. And like, this is the same thing that's gonna happen with like, Stephanie. And everybody can already somewhat see that right now. Stephanie was another talent that they brought up quickly from NXT and ba and the same thing with Julia. They brought them up from nxt.
They put her in this position where she ended up, you know, completely over producing them on tv. And now nobody really cares because they've already seen what they can do. So that's the real case in point.
You gotta always bring something fresh, bring something. Something new. Especially when you have this league of young talent in your women's division that you're trying to put over.
But yeah, so after that, Morgan came in, number 14 hit oblivion and three amigos last legend that entered in at number 15 and immediately went and eliminated Jordan Grace. Selena Vega entered at number 16 but was overwhelmed by lashes. Raquel Rodriguez then entered in number 17, overpowered multiple opponents, and then eliminated Keanu James.
Chelsea Green entered at number 18 and she kept on almost being eliminated. But then, of course, Alba Fire was there of the Hervis.
Still no word on whether or not Piper Niven is gonna be back on television.
I knew that she.
I think it was the summer of last year. She was taken off TV for some issues that she had, some injuries that she had.
Julia then entered in at number 19 along with EO sky at number 20, which landed a missile drop kick.
Sky got one of the many pops in the night Oscar. She entered in at number 21, standoff with IO and Julia definitely would love to see that match, by the way.
Rhea, she then got the biggest pop, entered in a number 22, eliminated Zelina Vega, Chelsea Green and Roxanne Perez. And then immediately was targeted by the other Judgment Day members of Live More Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. Bailey then entered at number 23, followed by JC Jane at number 24. The NXT Women's champion, which I totally forgot that she won back from, by the way. She. She beat Tatum Paxley, which I would love. I would have loved to see Tatum Paxley in this, by the way. And. And we'll talk about, you know, who. Who was in and who wasn't in once we get through all the entrances here.
Nikki Bella, she then entered in at number 25 and went after some multiple opponents.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Lyra, remember when Nikki Bella turned heel?
Random Raw, and tonight she was Baby Face?
[00:24:47] Speaker B: The thing is the inconsistencies. It's. It's not inconsistencies. It's the fact that the crowd just knows that she's over her. You know, you can't. You know, that's fine.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: But she completely. She. It's not even that, but she completely dropped the gimmick. You can be, oh, like, Liv Morgan is over. She still knows how to do her job and be a heel. Why is Nikki Bella suddenly acting as a face? It's. It is an inconsistency, and I'm not sure whether to blame it on every writing team or Nikki herself, but it's just like, what are we. What are we doing?
How does nothing matter?
[00:25:19] Speaker B: Well, right after Lyra came In at number 26, she eliminated Julia.
This was a good surprise. A couple of good surprises. Kehlani Jordan entered in at number 27.
I said that. One interesting thing is I thought that Kalani Jordan was holding a championship, but she wasn't.
She actually.
She lost the womensworthy America championship. I know that one. She had the knockouts championship, and she lost that to the former Xia Le.
I think it's Ling Yang. Ling Ling Lee, I believe is her name in NXT or tna.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Excuse me.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: But after that, K. Joiner ended at number 27. Kyrie Sane then entered in at number 28.
And during, uh, the Kabuki warriors miscommunication, Sane accidentally eliminated Oscar and then was immediately eliminated by EO Sky. And then for the biggest surprise, Brie Bella came back at number 29. I mean, Hamza, how are you thinking about Breed Mode coming back in the year 2026 along with her sister? You know what?
[00:26:33] Speaker A: It's great. I mean, the crowd. This is. Dude, I think I got the biggest pop of the entire night.
So, I mean, you know, how can I be negative? You gotta love it. Crowd was into it. They were doing the yes Chance. Michael Cole was avoiding saying Andrew Brian's name on air, which is hilarious.
But, yeah, biggest pop of the night. The yes Chance were going crazy.
Who Would have thought the Bells would be the most overthinking the women's division in 2026. Certainly not me. But if it works, it worked.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: I don't think that I and just see anybody who's, you know, wondering, wondering. I don't think Brie Bella comes back to the main roster and does something because like that was a rumor that that could have happened at SummerSlam with her and Nikki.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: I agree with you that before this I don't think it was a plan. But after this, I would not be surprised at all if they offer her even if it's a small contract since this is Nikki's final run, if they want to go and do a little something, have fun, maybe a tag run, potentially anything.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Well, they've never hold the tag. They've never held women's tag team championship gold because number one, like I think that they did have it in the past when they first introduced it in 19, but then since then, like Nikki went away and then Nikki finally ended up coming back last year.
So now it is a possibility. And if Breeze totally down for it. I mean, I would not, you know, be mad if that was a thing for.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Seems like a WrestleMania match to me.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: It definitely would. And especially if like, and again, like right now you have RIA and I.O. i mean, a great triple threat. If Raquel and Roxanne are going to stay in the tag division doing a triple threat. Nick, the Bella Twins, Judgment Day and then Rio.
And I think that that would be pretty good.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: But then of course, the Last entrant, number 30, was tiffy time. Tiffany Stratton returning after being gone for about, I think four months.
Now that all the entrants are out of the way, let's talk about the people that were not in the rumble. Let's talk about the first one, Bianca Belair. Alright, Bianca Belair has been out since the summer of 2025.
Her last match that she was a part of was the special guest referee spot for the match between Jade Cargill and Naomi.
And for some odd reason, I don't know why Bianca Belair is still not recovered. She has not wrestled a match since WrestleMania in the Triple threat that she had last year. So I'm wondering, I'm like, is there something that's wrong with Bianca that's making her incapable of wanting to like go and.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Yeah, so what this, what this means to me is that the hand injury that she suffered and she's been out for so long for.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: It was a fracture. It was a fracture in three places. That she suffered during the Mania match. And like, I get it, like it's your finger, but you know, how on earth do you not rem. Like how on earth you not able to recover?
You know, even you have a, you know, a broken finger.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Right? So that's what I'm saying. It must have been. It must be worse than any of us could understand.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: I think it would have something to do with her.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: I think it was because the obvious money match. The obvious money match would have been Bianca versus Jade Mania for the title, right? You run that, you don't even think twice about it. It boom.
So the injury must be like horrendous for her not to come back because it absolutely would have been the plan.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: I mean, let's also talk about another one who was not here that I would have loved because, you know, even she's probably. Even though she's probably gonna make the main roster come after WrestleMania. Blake Monroe, the former Mariah May.
I think that she would have been.
I think that she would have been incredible, great in this role.
I think that if she was able to be in the Rumble, it could give people a feel of some matches.
Because I already know that there's several things that they want to lined up because I, you know, as much as people think that NXT Creative or WWE Creative doesn't realize, I think that they know that Blake Monroe in her time that she's been in NXT right now, they definitely can be able to have some really great message with some of the top stars in the women's division right now on the main roster.
And I think that a lot of people are just waiting to see what will end up happening from that.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Late. Late in the match, Bella Twins eliminated Lyra and Bailey, but Lash Legend overpowered both of them and eliminated them both and then eliminated Charlotte Flair. Sol Ruka then eliminated JC Jane and Lash Legend eliminated EO sky during an apron struggles with a big kick. They're hanging.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Really big push for Lash, right? I mean, she got a lot of huge eliminations. The crowd was pissed, chatting, overrated at her, everything. It was a big moment during Rumble, actually. Definitely either one of the highlights or the lowlights, depending on how you get last Legend.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: The thing is, is that Lash Legend being brought up to the main roster, you know, early last year, you know that they want to give her the biggest position and she's only 28. Okay. She is a six foot female, which you don't really find them much in women's wrestling. All right. Anybody that's above 5 foot 8 and she's a freaking giant. And you know, she's been doing this stuff with Nia Jax to try to get her over and that's fine.
They did the same thing when she got into the War Games match. When she got into the War Games match, that was a really big push for her because, like, you saw what she was able to do and you know, so far in her tenure on the main roster, she was in the War Games match. She beat Alexa. She in a tag team, beat the Kabuki warriors, who were the tag team champions at the time.
And then they had a mat and then she had a match with Charlotte and then six women tag with Alexa Bliss Charlotte and actually, excuse me, an eight women tag. And then, you know, since then she's been fine.
I think that Last Legend definitely will be be doing a lot more, you know, in the future. I think that a lot of people have sights on her to be a really big force in the women's division.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But even if we're looking, even if we're looking at Nia Jax's career, even if you weren't a fan of her in ring or anything like that, you can still say she's had championship runs definitely for the Women hall of Fame career. So if Last Legend can do anything even close to that in the future, more power to her.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: 100%. 100%. 100%.
Raquel.
Then I was fighting with Lash and Rhea ended up eliminating Lash Legend. But then Raquel powerbombed Rhea out to eliminate her, which was crazy.
Liv then shocked everybody by eliminating Raquel. And then they were down to the final three. It was Morgan Stratton and Ruka. They battled across the ring and then they got to an apron spot.
Ruka went for a Soul Snatcher on the apron, but then Tiffany pulled her out from the turnbuckle onto the floor. And then in the midst of that, Liv then hit oblivion to Stratton and forced her off the apron to then win the Women's Royal Rumble. Again, I think this was a no brainer. I think that everybody knew that Liv was the only possible and plausible person to win the Women's Royal Rumble next to a returning Bianca, because every other woman in this match absolutely was not ready for it. And again, you know, you have some key people, like maybe a Roxanne Perez or even a person like Anaya Jax. I'm surprised how the Royal Rumble has started. Nia Jax has not won a single Royal Rumble, but yet she can win like everything else that they Give to her.
Like, it's insane, really, because like, even, like, the biggest people, like, in the men's side, like, freaking Yoko was able to win the Rumble, all right? And technically, Big show should have won the Rumble. And, like, a lot of bigger guys could be able to win the Rumble, but they, like, using that whole gimmick where it's, you know, the person who's the. The strongest force, the biggest person always ends up getting eliminated and never actually.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I believe in the evolution stage at this point in career. In her career, she's mostly there to elevate other talent. Like, I don't see her winning another world title necessarily. So I'm not sure I see her winning a Royal Rumble in the future.
But I think she does a good job, you know, in her. In her role now. She's elevating Lash.
This is what she should be doing right now. I don't think she should be doing anything else.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Right. And again, live winning was. Was. Was very, very, very good. Straight. Very good start for. For the Royal Rumble.
Some key people.
Charlotte, she eliminated two people.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: The.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: The tie for, for, or actually the person who had the most eliminations. And again, listen to this. And this is another, you know, reason to, like, look at how much they were pushing. Last Legend, Last Legend eliminated Jordan Gray's Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Charlotte Flair, and EO Sky.
So those are some really, really big names.
There were also three elimination from Jordan Grace, three eliminations from Morgan, three eliminations from Ripley.
The Iron Woman for the match was Charlotte Flair. She lasted almost an hour, 59 minutes, 49 seconds. The runner up was Sol Ruka. She lasted 54, or, sorry, 50 minutes, 47 seconds. And then the shortest time was kyrie sane at 1 minute, 36 seconds. So, I mean, that's another thing as well.
The. The building towards the separation of the Kabuki warriors, Oscar and Kyrie. That's pretty good.
But overall, it was a really, really good start for the Royal Rumble.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I can agree. I can agree with that.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: So then we moved on to the first of the two singles matches, this one being the biggest one to start off for ple. In 2026. AJ Styles versus Gunther.
This was a very big match because if Gunther beat aj, he would then make AJ retire. And again, AJ has clearly phrased that he wanted 2026 to be his last year of active competition and active wrestling. I'm being a performer and, you know, again, knowing what we know, the fact that AJ was able to have this match and he was able to do this sort of stuff and, you know, have this big impact. I just wish that it was somewhere other than the Royal Rumble in Saudi. And I wish that this was like a WrestleMania type moment, because in reality, AJ sent showing up in WWE has been one of the key pillars that WWE can always go to.
Even if it's a run of the mill, regular, you know, singles match that they need him for, he's always going to amplify, simplify that to 100 every single chance that he gets. And then you meet, you have somebody like Gunther, who they've been building ever since pretty much December, and, you know, trying to continue to build him up and keeping him strong without having him hold the title is very, very frustrating and challenging. I can definitely tell, because they want to make him look strong, but they can't get give him a title to really represent how strong he is. So all he's got to do is just beat up a bunch of legends and rehired them. There's a pretty good alternative.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. So I kind of feel like at least knowing that this is going to be AJ's last match. I do kind of wish that we had gotten sort of more of a special entrance or at least some sort of video package, obviously. See, they had at least a video package at the end there.
CM Punk got a video package in his WrestleMania main event.
Nothing really special for AJ, though, and I'm not sure why that is. So I think they could have made do with some sort of special entrance. Royal Rumble, it's a top four pay per view.
I'm just not sure why it wasn't at least considered.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. I mean, I can definitely tell that.
Honestly, I think that they'll put a lot more effort when it comes to Monday Night Raw, which will be when this episode ends up coming out the night of.
Basically, I. I think that they. They definitely wanted to do more for him. And again, maybe there's something more to this story that we don't know just yet. It's very hard to really grasp that they would just allow him to walk away and want him to just, you know, leave knowing that he's still got one more year left instead of just, like, trying to hold on to him as much as he can so he doesn't have to go to another place and work there.
AJ started out with the control early with side headlock and counter into a back suplex. Gunther regrouped in the ropes, forcing breaks whenever AJ then targeted the leg. Styles ducked a chop and fired off some Strikes in the corner, but Gunther answered back with a side headlock and a heavy control offense. Brutal shop. And a big boost at Ayyjayy to the floor with Gunther hit a back suplex into the announce desk and whipped him hard into the post and barricade back inside. Gunther punished him with some corner chops and stomps and a huge back body drop and then locked in the Boston Crab. Styles then fought out with up kicks, only to be dropped by a penalty kick from Gunther. Aj, bleeding from the elbow, rallied with some forearms and a paleo click and a sliding and corner lariat and Oogie Ushigaroshi for a two count. Styles recently targeted the leg and hunted submissions, going for the Calf Crusher or Calf Killer, craft Crusher, whatever he calls it, multiple times.
Gunther kept reaching the ropes, though. He then answered with some big chops and a lariat and then a power bomb for another near fall.
He then got reapplied back into the calf Killer in the center of the ring, but Gunther dragged away.
Gunther was then dragged away from the ropes. Excuse me, but he countered it into a sleeper. Ayyjayy then escaped through the ropes and landed a big elbow to the floor. Back inside, Stiles tried for a top rope attack, but got chopped down. And then later got his own power bomb, including a springboard 450 and a styles clash.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: But yeah, which looked great, by the way. Which looked phenomenal.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Yeah, anytime that you can be able to get a type of got, you know, big move on a guy like Gunther and his size, like, it's incredible of like how big that man is. And if you're able to get him in a move such as Styles Clash, you know, that is very, very hard to do. He then also grabbed in his own sleeper, did Styles, but Gunther broke free and he got right in the ref's face. Distracted, the ref hit a low blow with his leg and then hit another power bomb. But yet AJ kicked out again.
Gunther began repeatedly chopping Styles in the corner to the point where the referee kept warning him that it was going to be a disqualification. And he just kept chopping him. Lariats chopping him, Lariats. And I mean, very, very good, very good work on trying to make him look like an absolute monster.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: And.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: And you know, AJ trying to fight back up.
AJ then fired back with some big forearms and tried for a phenomenal forearm, but Gunther countered it into a fireman's carry and then quickly trapped him back to the sleeper with the body scissors. AJ Fought up throwing elbows, but Gunther kept on reapplying the hole, dragging him away from the ropes each time he got close enough. Styles then faded away as ref checked his arm and the match was stopped.
So Gunther wins with the sleeper.
After the match, AJ came to the realization over and over with referee Dan Engler. He started to remove his gloves and the crowd started a chanting no before he put them right back on. He did the phenomenal pose and then answered back with two sweet st. Two sweet signs.
And then he finally walked up the ramp, but then returned back to the ring to climb the turnbuckle and throw up the two sweets and finally went up the ramp to conclude what is supposedly his last WWE match.
Now, with that being said, Hamza, I really feel that if he really is to leave wwe, because I know that he's definitely not going to, quote unquote, Kayfabe be retired.
Does he go to TNA technically or does he sign with all the wrestling and he goes over and he finishes up his career in his year with some big money matches that I bet Tony K is, is salvaging and is salivating.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: So this is that this is kind of the question if he went to aew, right?
There is potential bad blood brewing there because Triple H has confirmed backstage and everything. I don't think this is the KFAB that AJ's done. He will not do any more in ring work. They had a discussion about a potential backstage role, anything like that. We know how Triple H feels about aw, right?
If AJ went there, he potentially is harboring his future WWE hall of Fame announcement ceremony. Everything like that would still happen, I'm 100% sure. But he is putting his relationship with Triple H in a potential jeopardy. We know how Triple H feels about aew. We know how Tony Khan feels about wwe. It is a big deal going there. And so I do think that AJ will genuinely consider that before he goes and he makes a decision as big as that. Now, TNA would be a lot different. Obviously no relationship would be harbored there because at least TNA and WWE have their partnership.
You know, AJ has already showed up there a few times, even recently.
So that to me would be more sizable, would make a lot more sense. And I see that happening more so than him going to aw.
Anything is possible. Anything could happen. But as a fan, it would be a lot more interesting if we went to aw, because I want to see some chaos.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: Yes, so so would I. And I think that if AJ was to go to aew, if he chose to have a match with let's say like Omega in a match with Moxley and everything else, like that would be, you know, really, really cool for him. But. But yeah, you're right, right. You know, it's the same thing. Edge, you know, probably was very hesitant with going over to aew, but it ultimately did it for the money and he was able to have more times with his kids and he was able to still wrestle like he wanted to. But moving on, we had Drew McIntyre versus Sami Zayn for the WB Undisputed Championship Match. Opened up with a collar elbow tie up that saw McIntyre over Zane and drive him into the corner.
Zane then answered with a chop and some quick strike before Drew grounded him with a side headlock and a shoulder block. Zane then countered with a big boot and a diving axe handle from the second rope, followed by a chop in the ropes in a whip sequence that ended up having a lariat that sent McIntyre to the floor. Fired up Sammy then hit the topic con Hilo to the outside, but Drew took control again, ramming him into the apron and bringing him back inside for a back breaker and a big corner whip and clubbing down on his lower back. Back tire then continued, but Sammy avoided an elbow and countered with a blue thunderbomb and then climbed the corner and hit a sunset flip power bomb for a near fall.
I Zayn followed up with another blue thunderbomb, but it still wasn't enough. They traded elbows in the middle of the ring. Drew set up for the claymore, but Sammy rolled out from under the ring and nearly stole it with a crucifix pin.
Sammy then went up top again. McIntyre then cut him off and Drew delivered an avalanche white noise followed by multiple future shocks in a row, but San still kicked out.
Drew then repeatedly got lariats and nearly ran into a haluva kick before he sidestep, ducked and connected with a claymore, but Zayn was able to get his foot up on the ropes and break the count.
Back tire then argue with the ref, which let Sammy charge for haluva kick with a close near fall.
Drew then rolled to the floor and Sammy followed, but his back gave out and McIntyre powerbombed him through the announce table, which was a which was a very, very good spot, might I add. And again officials checked on Zane before Drew threw him back to the ring, slapping him, telling him to stay down. Sammy then rallied back up, hit the corner exploder tried to build momentum, but then Drew immediately cut him off when he went to the other side for hela kick, got the claymore didn't cover him, waited until he got right back to his knees and charged and hit a second claim more for the win and retains the undisputed championship. Really, really good match.
I think that however, you know, with Zayn it permanently puts that on. Unless something ends up happening where Zayn can get another opportunity to face somebody at Mania for the World Championship. So, AKA if he was to win the chamber, I don't know whether or not Zayn was right for this and whether or not he should have gotten the title, the title opportunity, or he should have just been in the Rumble where that's where initially I had him winning the Rumble over Bron Breaker. But what do you think?
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
So it's interesting, I think kind of with Sammy overall, as we talked about the beginning, this match kind of never really kicked into full gear, which was very unfortunate.
And I think it's a sort of strange trend so far with this Drew reign.
The matches are just not really hitting like they're supposed to. Like obviously drew versus punk last in 2024 was easily his best match of all time and one of the greatest W matches of all time. So it seems like, I'm not sure what has happened, but it seems like Drew has sort of lost a step since then. The Cody vs Drew feud match wise wasn't very impressive. Their match at Wrestlepalooza ended up just being a very poor, decent, almost seemed like a smackdown regular match.
And Drew has had his match so far with Sammy, another just decent, 3 star decent everyday match that didn't really go anywhere, have any necessarily super memorable spots.
And I'm kind of just wondering what is going on right now. I'm not sure if he's working through an injury or what is happening, but it seems like Drew has sort of lost a step in ring. I don't know if you noticed this as well.
[00:52:49] Speaker B: I mean I think that Drew now finally getting the world title after six years of, you know, constantly, constantly being mocked and saying that he's never gonna get back to the world title picture, it's been really sucky for, you know, Drew. And then he finally gets this opportunity, he's got the championship and now he's going to walk in the Mania with it. I think that's going to do a lot for McIntyre. Now the true question is going back to Sammy. Do you think that because if he doesn't have a chance to win it at this year's Wrestlemania, does he win the title next year in Saudi Arabia? Which again like if he had won it Here in Saudi, it would have been like, okay, but then it would been like too. It would, it would have been bad for Drew and a lot of people would be like, complaining even worse that, like, why did Drew, you know, win the title just to lose it again to Sammy? Because they were in, you know, the country that, you know, he's very welcomed by.
But if, if he does win it next year in Saudi and they wait in entire another year to finally give it to him, I wouldn't see that. But, man, we've seen this song and dance too many times. I think that they to Sammy.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I, I, I don't think anybody expected Sammy to lose in this, manage in this, like, actual manner. It was nearly a squash match. I mean, he was destroyed, so it was questionable. I'm not really sure behind the decision why they felt that it should have gone this way. But either way, looking at the future, it sleeps at me in kind of a confusing place. Like, obviously, we don't know who the champion he's going to be facing will be next year or anything like that. Is it possible that he'll have a title match again?
I would say it's very likely.
If, if you'd win, couldn't tell you.
Obviously, if the champion is Drew, it's not looking great for sammy. Oh, and 12 now, they couldn't get a win even in his hometown.
So it kind of just puts him at a weird place. I think Enemy's at that age now where, you know, he's about to be 42 years old.
He's missed the trigger so many times. I really thought that maybe this could have been the one. I knew it was unlikely seeing that Drew just won the title.
So do I see Samuel winning next year? It depends on a couple things. Now, if Rock and Roman actually does happen, right. That means that Sammy's not going to main event one of the nights already.
So he'll only have one night to do it.
And you know, who wins the Rumble, there's a lot of questions to be asked. So right now it's, it's a bit of a gray area. It's hard to tell.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: Right, And I totally get that. But, but moving on, speaking of the Rumble. Rumble, we got the men's Royal Rumble. This main event, this clocked in at 58 minutes, 22nd. This has to be the shortest. This had to be the shortest Rumble match, right? This has to be like, yeah, definitely, this has to be the shortest Rumble match ever.
Because, like, I'm trying to think, like, you know, how long Each Royal Rumble match was because, again, for. For, like, retrospect, the first Royal rumble match was 33 minutes. And then like, if you look at last year's Rumble match, or yeah, la. If you look at, like, last year's Rumble match, last year's Rumble went an hour and 20 minutes.
So.
Very interesting.
I'm trying to, like, look to see, like, when was, like, the shortest one, because, like, there's no way that. That there was a Rumble that went under an hour, right?
[00:56:58] Speaker A: No way. No way.
[00:57:01] Speaker B: Very interesting. Oh, never mind, never mind. I just checked.
Rumble match that went under an hour last time, 2022, when Brock Lesnar won it. The rumble match went 51 minutes, 10 seconds. And again.
[00:57:21] Speaker A: But to be fair, that match or that pay per view had Roman and Seth, which was obviously a very. This was when Rowan was still in his very large storytelling tribal chief area.
So they had a lot more leeway, in my opinion, because Romans have needed a lot of time.
[00:57:39] Speaker B: I want to.
[00:57:40] Speaker A: I want to tell that story.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: I want to remind you that in 2022, I'm looking here, Brock Lesnar last was only in there for 2 minutes and 32 seconds. Had five eliminations and one at number 30.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a poor rumble. But I will just say, in terms of time for this pay per view, I think it's a. They had a lot more leeway just because Roman and Seth needed a lot more time than any other match on this show. So. So, yeah, Roman and Seth, I believe, happened in her. 22.
[00:58:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:58:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 22 rumble. Yeah, you're right. Okay. Yeah, you're good. Yeah, you're good. Yes.
And. And again, for retrospect, like, the women's rumble went 67 minutes flat, which was. Which was okay.
But getting into the men's Royal Rumble again, there was a production error that happened the Friday night before the Rumble that unfortunately showed that Braun Breaker was supposed to be number one, which I. I find very, very funny that the fact that they accidentally posted that, yeah, he was supposed to be number one in the Rumble. So who ended up being number one on the Rumble this time? Obafemi, the former NXT champion who vacated the title not too long ago and is basically main roster bound.
He made his big debut here at the Royal Rumble. He entered at number one, and then Bron Breaker entered at number two. But before Breaker could even get into the match, a hooded masked figure blindsided him and hit a super kick in a stomp and then threw him back to the ring. And as soon as the Bell rang and as soon as Breaker got up, Breaker got immediately eliminated by Obafemi and that was that for the, for Bron Breaker. And that upset me because I was so hoping that Breaker was just going to be at least later in the match and maybe it would have been more if he was like number, the number one and he lasted all the way because again he could have threw down with Obafemi and that he could have at least lasted like almost to like the final eight like that.
[01:00:02] Speaker A: Definitely a poor decision. I understand that it was done in order to protect Braun. Right. So, and further the story that they're telling, but I, I think it had the complete opposite effect on, on camera. It made Braun look weak.
I didn't, I wasn't a fan of this decision at all. He should have had a very strong performance. Even last year he had a gigantic like he had an insane performance in the Rumble. He should have had one this year and should have absolutely been in that final four. So I'm just not sure why they did this thing. Even if they had done this later into the match. The exact same story.
[01:00:35] Speaker B: Well, the whole thing. Well, the whole. Yes. And it definitely would have been fine because like later in the the match again this, this is going a little bit ahead. Cody got eliminated from McIntyre coming out and pulling him over the top, which we've seen multiple, multiple times in Rumble after rumble. But like you could have done that with this hooded figure, super kick stomp and then run away and that would have been fine. Now going back to this, this was kind of new because I don't know whether or not we saw a mouth or whether or not we saw like an actual, what looked like an actual face mask, you know, it didn't just have eye holes cut out from under it so you could just have to recognize people's eyes. But like looking at it and side by side, a lot of people are speculating who this is and the two top prospects are pretty much looking to be somebody potentially that could be Adam Pearce or Logan Paul. And again there was a side by side look at Logan Paul and the masked figure and everything looked like it lined up pretty well.
So that was quite interesting. I will be fully, I'll be fully honest.
So anywho, I don't know exactly if this ended up happening. I don't know what the story is going to be. A lot of people are saying, oh it's Seth Rollins and Seth Rollins finessed it. I don't think that Seth Rollins is coming back this early, especially when the Injury was just in September. Uh, based off of everything that we know is. It is way, way, way more complicated. Especially with how it was two years ago when he had the same type of knee problems, the same type of, you know, shoulder issues and everything else like that. Like we saw how his conditions were at WrestleMania 40 and I don't think a lot of people would want the same thing to happen to Seth again, especially when he got. He's got plenty of more years to continue to do stuff. Stuff.
[01:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with that.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: So right after Breaker got eliminated from Oba, Solo SOA entered at number three, then Rey at number four, and then Rusev at number five.
But as soon as Rusev got in, Femi just started, you know, taking liberties and eliminated Rusev over the top. Then hit Solo with an Irish curse and a lariat over the top. And then Ray tried to get him with some repeated six one nines, but then Femi grabbed him by throat and threw him out and then knocked him off a springboard.
Cardona ended up being at number six, which is pretty cool.
He got some offense before getting a missile drop skip, missile drop kick in a broski boot attempt before Femi countered with a fall from grace and then tossed him out. Damian Priest then entered at number seven and that let the field widen a little bit. Uh, two big, uh, two big people, uh, you know, doing some stuff, uh.
[01:04:03] Speaker A: Which was, uh, Cordona got, got eliminated fairly quickly obviously, which is a little disappointing, but understandable.
Everything like that.
Yeah, the first like 10 entrance, I don't think anything necessarily gigantic happened yet.
Just Oberfemy asserting his dominance, which is pretty great to see. Like, obviously is a very, very, very bright future on the main roster and it was looking great.
[01:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I really, really like that. And Obafemi having the start here was, was, was definitely needed. So, so I did like that a lot.
We then got, uh, after Damien Priest, we got Javon Evans. He made his debut, uh, which was pretty good.
So I am, uh, definitely, definitely looking forward to how Javon Evans ends up going in this direction in 2026. Kind of gonna be very, very similar to the hype that Penta got last year when he entered the main roster.
He got some big springboard attacks, encounters on both Priest and Femi. And then at number nine we got Mr. Iguana, some interesting offense, tornado, DDT. But then priest chokes slam. Both Mr. Iguana and his prop Laesca with some double south of heavens trick. Then entered in at number 10 and immediately eliminated Mr. Iguana. Cody Rhodes at number 11 to a bigger reaction, hitting some power slams and a Cody Cutter, and then squared off with Obafemi. And then El Grande American entered in at number 12 and had his hidden metal plate under his mask. But then out of nowhere, at number at number 13 was the original El Grande Americano. And he looks like he's been growing some hair and some beard since his long awaited break.
I definitely don't think I was expecting this. I was not expecting the spot. I thought this bot was very smart and I liked how they executed it. And now there is going to be a lot of questions leading up to Raw.
And also, what does this mean for aaa?
What does this mean for the fake El Grande Americano and his stardom in aaa? Is it now to just transfer over to the original one that they have right now or. Or what? I. I really couldn't tell you.
So that'll be interesting to see.
And then after.
What's up?
[01:06:55] Speaker A: That's absolutely the question. It was a great spot. I'd love the spot. I think Chad Gables on Grande is going to be right back on Raw and they'll probably be able to turn this into a little funny storyline.
Yeah, done really well there. So I had a friend who predicted that this is, that it was going to happen right before it happened. So I think some people knew.
[01:07:16] Speaker B: Totally. Right. And I totally agree with you with that. So after that, the original Crown Americano attacked, uh, the taller El Grande, uh, and basically, uh, drove him outside, eliminated him. And then Trick William eliminated the og and then right after that, Cody eliminated Trick Williams.
Very stagnant start for Trick. I mean, he was just in that main event. For Saturday night's main event, he's over and he immediately gets eliminated. Not even halfway through the Rumble. That, that kind of disappointed me. But.
But no worries because at number 14, we finally got him.
The formerly known as powerhouse Will Hobbs, now introduced as Royce Keys. He came in at number 14.
Now there was more insight on why he changed his name. It wasn't a, you know, company thing.
Royce is the name of his son and Keys is the maiden name of his late mother, which is. Which is really, really thoughtful. And again, Royce Keys still sounds like a badass name. So I really, really like that as well. What was your thoughts on Will Hobbs being debuted in this Rumble?
[01:08:38] Speaker A: I thought he did a great job, pretty, you know, monumental. But it was a good little call back to him and Cody, obviously, for both there, both being in aw, which I really liked. I think he did a great job Here he looks good. He could have been easily a nice little mid card spot on either Raw Smackdown for the foreseeable future. I think he fits right in.
[01:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's the other thing too, is wondering whether or not he's gonna go on Raw or smackdown. My money says Raw because there's a lot of good matches I would want him to have on Raw other than.
[01:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah, and obviously, you know, he takes the spot of a very clearly missing Biggie. Right. So obviously they both have a very similar build. You see, they both have kind of the same exact outfit with the straps and everything in the overalls. So he's kind of taking his spot in a sense there. And they're. They wrestle both similarly. I think it could work out really well.
Even if they wanted to play on that, maybe if they wanted to turn him heel, have him do something with the new day. There's a ton of open opportunities here, 100 there.
[01:09:46] Speaker B: He immediately came in pre steamrolled Priest with a big power slam and eliminate him. Actually pretty good.
[01:09:54] Speaker A: Just wanted to add one thing with that. Since the Odyssey Jones thing actually failed, if they. Whatever they had written for that, if they kind of wrote Hobbs and as a stand in, it's not a bad idea and it might be something that they genuinely try, that would be a pretty good idea.
[01:10:10] Speaker B: I remember that they had Odyssey Jones pretty big before they quickly had you get rid of them. So I definitely see that. And it would be more of a singles instead of a tag team run, which would be. Which would be pretty good.
Right after this. Austin Theory came in at number 15, targeted Evans and Cody Bronson. Reed then came in at number 16 and crushed Evans with a big tsunami. Well, Theory and Reed worked as a unit. Ilia Dragunov, the Mad Dragon entered in at number 17, hitting some big chops and kicks. And then we had our second big surprise, or say, I should say our third. La Parka. He entered in at number 18, spinning power slam, and followed by Dragon lee at number 19 with some double stomps and some knees.
Logan Paul then entered in at number 20.
And now we have three of the vision. The other three people in the Vision that originally were going to try to set up Brawn to try to win that match in the Royal Rumble, which is pretty cool.
Then there was a big confrontations with Keys, Reed, Bronson. Reed ended up eliminating Keys along with Theory, which is pretty good. Uh, they then teamed up to eliminate La Parka and Dragon Lee back to back. So basically the. The three of them and then of course. Right on cue at number 21.
Yeah.
LA KNIGHT came back and he cleaned house on the Vision, eliminating Austin Theory. And then Bronson Reed after Big bm bft.
Then, yeah, somebody.
[01:11:51] Speaker A: Somebody else who.
Who definitely, I believe, should have been in the top four.
I'm shocked fact that he was eliminated as early as he was, especially for being taken out so brutally on that Raw episode the other month. And not seeing him since then, I thought he would have had a more prominent role in the Rumble, maybe even potentially a winner. So it was very disappointing, actually, to see him go out the way he did.
[01:12:19] Speaker B: I believe that, you know, they could have done a lot more with what they did with.
With La Knight. I. I think that if they truly wanted La Knight to feel as if he is still a big star. And again, going back to wwe, unreal. When they went back to the spot that happened at the Money in the bank where it was them and Seth and, you know, Triple H completely throwing Knight under the bus. And you see Knight's face and you see how much, you know, he just wants to try and he wants to, you know, believe in himself and for everybody else to believe in him as well.
But, you know, he's only got. He's so.
He is very, very close to basically just, I would imagine, like, they let him go. I think they've given him so many chances and that if they're not willing to pull the trigger right now, that he should just be used somewhere else. Because it is sad. Several times him getting used and nothing ending up happening.
But.
But at number 22, this was the fourth unofficial member of the division. Brock Lesnar, coming back after the success at War Games, immediately wrecked everyone. Some big German suplex F5s. There was a spot which I talked about with you that was crazy, where Ilia Dragunov is. Got Brock in the corner and Dragunov is chopping him. He is chopping him. And then Brock just like screams. Screams at his face, crazy style. And he immediately sends him over the top rope. I thought that was insane.
He also eliminated Ray Phoenix. After Ray Phoenix came out at number four. 24.
The Miz then came in also at number 23, bill to the outside.
I then everybody pretty much ganged up on Lesnar.
Lesnar then eventually eliminated Obafemi as well, which was nuts as well. I can't believe that they did not even have Oba.
I was talking about how it's crazy that Oba got eliminated by Brock and not the other way around for some reason.
Yeah, I can hear You?
[01:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So we were talking kind of about the Brock situation.
Yeah. So I did mixed on the spot. So there's been a lot of discourse. I don't know if you've seen actually about. About this spot. People are like, oh, why? You know, in a real fight, Brock would destroy him.
Why would people feel this way? Blah, blah, blah, blah. There's a lot of discourse right now about this spot, and I'm sort of in the middle on it because, of course, you know, this is what Brock does for most people.
I cannot tell you that. I'm sure Brock knows who, you know, Ilya is.
And, you know, we know that Brock has a thing where he actually does love to sell for smaller guys. We've seen it with Finn Balor. We've seen it with Daniel Bryan. Even his match with Punk, Brock does love to go over the limit and sell for guys who are smaller than him.
So that's just something he likes to do.
So it was questionable here if he just didn't really know who Ilya was and what he was supposed to do, or if he was just supposed to throw him out quickly and not really sell for him or kind of what was what was supposed to happen here.
Obviously, it didn't make Ilya look great, but, you know, it is Brock Lesnar. He's gonna recover and be fine. Right?
So I think the spot in general, it was memorable because of that little scream Rock did. I thought that made it a great spot, to be honest. Promised.
[01:16:22] Speaker B: Right immediately after.
[01:16:26] Speaker A: People said he was like a pterodactyl. It was hilarious.
[01:16:29] Speaker B: Oh, God, it was nuts. Like, if. If I was Ilia, and I was looking at that, and he's like, completely. No selling a chop, and he just screams and then just like, tosses me over the top rope. That's absolutely nuts. But.
But after that, Lesnar eliminated over Jay, then entered in at number 25, and instead of coming through the entrance ramp, went through the crowd again. And during that time, Cody Rhodes at La Knight work together. And, well, Jay USO was talking about, it's just me ooze.
They eliminate Brock Lesnar.
That is ridiculous. I don't know how you can look at yourself and be like, let's go ahead. And while his entrance is going on, everybody is going to be looking into the crowd. And meanwhile, we're going to eliminate the second biggest star in this match and eliminate Brock out of nowhere, and nobody's going to care about it.
Nuts.
But pretty much by the time that USO got to the ring, it was Already time for number one, number 26. And the ones are out back. Yes.
[01:17:48] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[01:17:49] Speaker B: And he immediately squared up for J. They dropped multiple opponents with Superman punches.
[01:17:54] Speaker A: So before. Before we go into everything Roman did, we have to talk about the biggest controversy of this whole match, which is Obviously Roman's Pat McAfee appearance the other day.
[01:18:04] Speaker B: Yes, that's right.
[01:18:06] Speaker A: He took some shots and actually Nick Khan and just the WWE creative in general. And he said things have been stagnant, obviously, that, you know, WrestleMania 40 for him actually being kind of. And this was something that he really said for the first time, was him obviously not retiring, but him giving them the opportunity to see, what can you guys do without me? I'm gonna. I'm not gonna be here as often because I'm not as champion. Let me give you guys a couple of years to build some new stars, and we'll see where we're at. He also stated that he's come back now, obviously, and it seems that the company has not built a lot of new stars and just hasn't moved on. So it's time to give him the ball back, essentially. So he says that comes out the next day, and he wins the Rumble. Right. And we see Triple H taking a picture with Liv Morgan, not taking a picture with Roman. So it has to make you wonder if there's any sort of bad blood there or exactly what is going on backstage.
[01:19:03] Speaker B: So speaking on that, let's go straight to the source. This was on the Pat McAfee show on January 30, the day before the Rumble. This is Roman Reigns comments that he made, quote, there is a mindset that WWE always being his show, but to be completely honest and transparent here, two years ago, it all changed around.
And what I've been able to do out there hasn't exactly been the same of what I've done before. The way I look at it is I am a generous tribal chief. I give the people plenty of time. These young talent, they say we hog all the TV time. They complain about one thing, and then I leave an opening. I give them plenty of space to create whatever time, type of stardom that they want. Get over, kids. Get over. You know what I mean? And we're two years here now, and we haven't advanced, we haven't involved. We have a great leadership in Nick Khan, God bless him. What a businessman. He's a genius. But we have to be able to keep up with that creatively.
And that's why people like me, people who are striving to Be the very best, the greatest, the goats, the MJ's. I can't sit around and see mediocrity. Mediocrity. Not when I set it up for everybody just to slam at home. I mean, we're on Netflix, for crying out loud. You gotta capitalize. We have people playing around and trying to figure it out. And I got the formula, I know how to cook it up. So it's been a couple of years for me. But at the same time, when you come off such hell of a run, you've got to kind of just pump the brakes for a second. You know, I've got five kids at home. We all wear those two important hats being a husband and a father. And I've been on the road for a long time, so I needed to be able to pull back a little. But I'm fully capable. I'm only 40 years old. With all the tech and all the information we have now, I feel like I'm 25, so I'm good to go. So one quick thing I want to highlight on over that real quickly is when he says, I give the people plenty of time. And these young talents, they say we hog TV all the time. I'm guessing that's in reference to them saying that he basically was like talking about his little stints and where like he'll be gone for a couple of months.
That was be nuts. And I totally understand, like why he feels that way. He's like, well, I let them get over. But the fact is, is that like, it's not that Roman being away is getting them over. Like, Roman's not where the buck stops. It's firmly on Roman knowing that he can't wrestle a full time schedule because of his issues that he's had and the stuff that he had to stop in 2019. He got back into remission and then, you know, then he got.
[01:22:09] Speaker A: But even with that being true, what's he saying here is I'm going to do the part time schedule thing.
You guys are going to be okay with it because I've given you time to build new stars. You haven't done it. So at this point it's almost like, you know, it's more than him just like being like, oh, sorry guys, I give you a chance. Like he is blaming them in a sense, in a. Like he is taking a stand, putting his foot down, being like, hey, I don't like, you know, you guys have booked me how you wanted the last two years and you haven't brought in money, you haven't advanced. So it's time to to with me who has a proven track record of helping you guys advance me doing this again.
So it's Roman putting his foot down and understanding that even on a part time schedule, hey, I can do things for you guys that you guys have not done the last two years. Give me the ball back. And with him coming back and winning the Rumble, it really seems like he has a strong sort of power backstage that we didn't know of. Some sort of higher power, right?
[01:23:04] Speaker B: That's, that's absolutely right. And I totally get that.
Meanwhile, when Roman got in the ring, they eliminate he eliminated the Miz. Jacob Fatu then entered in at number 27 and immediately Brian Knight. Penta came in at number 28 with some big high flying offense.
Randy Orton then came in at number 29 and delivered multiple DDTS and RKO to Logan, Paul and Penta.
Gunther then entered in at number 30. He was still limping from the match, but he kept on hitting Germans and Shops. And then Orton countered OG Cutter and eliminated Javon Evans. And then Gunther eliminated Penta.
Then in the final stages of the match, Cody and Orton teased a little bit and Cody accidentally hit Orton with Cody Cutter. Jacob Fatu nearly eliminated Cody who skinned the cat to survive, only for Drew McIntyre to appear out of nowhere and Claymore Cody off the apron to eliminate him. So that was a pretty cool spot. I really liked how they, how they did that. I like that, you know, the idea of, you know, Drew McIntyre pulling out all the stops so that way Cody can't be able to get his rematch. I thought that was pretty good.
But yeah, overall like that, that was a pretty good illumination from the outside.
Reigns then eliminated Fatu, followed by eliminating USO after a splash. So then the final four ended up being Logan Paul, Randy Orton, Gunther and Roman Reigns. For the second year in a row, Logan Paul ended up in the final four. I don't know how he did it.
Reigns eliminated Paul after a failed buckshot attempt where Paul's leg gave out or in, then hit an RKO on Reigns before Gunther rushed in and dumped Orton to eliminate him. The final two were Reigns and Gunther, who repeatedly applied the sleeper. Reigns kept fighting out, broke feet and hit a spear and then threw Gunther over the top rope to win the Royal Rumble.
Very, very good finish. I think that the second half of the Rumble was, was more entertaining than the first.
It was more of the safe option.
Again, some key players in this match.
Olafemi five eliminations. He tied with Roman Femi, eliminated Breaker Rusev Solo, Rey Mysterio and Matt Cardona. Reigns eliminated the Miz Fatu, USO Pole and Gunther Author.
Next to that was Cody and La Knight.
And the most eliminations are was both Femi and Roman. Like I said, longest time, the Iron man, Javon Evans, 40 minutes, 58 seconds.
Shortest time, bron breaker, 10 seconds. Uh, the fact that, you know, they chose Roman as a safe option, but they also chose Roman because he was a person who won. They could always go to despite their problems with him. And also they could be able to just, you know, let Roman go out, do his thing. And now we have Roman going on to the main event of WrestleMania for his 11th time. He's racked up 41 total eliminations.
And basically he ended up, you know, being second all time in eliminations, which is really, really cool.
I mean, I'll tell you personally what I think about this Roman thing. I hate the fact that they chose Roman because everybody's going to cheer Roman, but like, why on earth are you gonna now give him CM Punk when he's not gonna show up to really promote it? I was joking with my friends, I said, I have an over under eight appearances in the next two months. And my friend said, I think the under is enticing, which means that he's not gonna really, like show up. And like, the one thing I would love is, is if he has a match with Breaker, because I think that's the one thing that everybody's waiting on is Roman versus Braun.
I would love to see that match because then they could finish up with Finn Balor and then for, you know, Elimination Chamber, they just, you know, have that match be like the main event. And then Roman comes out and challenges Punk for Mania. And then that leaves of who's going to face Drew at Mania. But. But overall, I mean, what was your thoughts that Roman got the win?
[01:28:15] Speaker A: So there's kind of some inconsistencies. Like for WrestleMania 40, it was a huge part of Roman's character gimmick that he undermined Seth for the title that he had, saying that, oh, it was a secondary title or this and that. And then he comes out of Raw a year later and he.
And both Cody and Punk goes, oh, both of those titles look good.
So that was already an inconsistency. Now he's winning and he's taking his Royal Rumble chance and he could go for either title. And he's choosing to go after the quote unquote, secondary title words from the travel chief himself. Right. So it's a little bit of an inconsistency on their part. Another one. And so that's why I feel like the feud itself, Roman Punk is definitely an a tier for feud. Something that we've kind of already seen like going on and being into that here and there. And I'm okay with the match happening and with Roman winning, the build is going to be a little bit rough to get through. But let's be honest, on the night of we will all be there to see that match, right? That is a must see match and we all understand that. So I understand why Roman 1. With this interview that came out the day before the rumble, I knew Roman was going to win. It was never a question in my life mind.
So I just think it came down to who else was gonna win. Like realistically the other winner was going to be Bron Breaker. That was the only other person that could have won this rumble. It was never going to be La Knight. Right. Seth Rollins is not ready. So the only options were Roman or Bron Breaker. And with Braun being taken out so quickly and everything, we knew immediately who was going to win. So I think Roman was kind of the only choice.
So giving him the win there, it just, it wasn't as shocking to me as it seemed to be for some people because everyone's running the kind of, just from what I'm seeing on social media circulation, oh, this was predictable. Blah, blah, blah, him again, this is. And I think that's all understandable but like guys, you know, I think everybody's in a place where, you know, like, like Roman said himself, things are stagnant right now. It's time to make some big money again, do some big money matches. Roman Reigns needs to be doing important things.
At SummerSlam, he wasn't doing anything important. He was an opening tag match with Jay Roman is the last star you have. You lost John Cena, you've now lost AJ Styles. Right? And like Roman said, there's not a lot of stars being built up right now, which is unfortunate. You know, Javon Evans, people like that, they're great upstarts. But we don't have stars, we're losing stars.
So we need to be getting people like Roman who obviously it is sort of on his way out. You know, in 10 years Roman won't be wrestling anymore. We need to like, while we have him right now in his prime, he needs to be doing important things. He can't be on the sideline losing the Bronson Reed. Just for Bronson Reed to, you know, months later, absolutely have nothing come out of that except a nickname. Right. So Roman needs to again be in his title picture like he was saying, and do big things. So I think that was the only option. Roman Rooney was the only option. I understand people are upset, but the live crowd and the merch and everything like that, nothing is going to change for Roman. So there. It's gonna be a bit of online outrage. And that's understandable. The big money match at WrestleMania is Roman and CM Punk. We have to accept that as fans.
[01:31:23] Speaker B: Right. And personally, I certainly would rather have Punk versus Cody. But if the whole goal is going to be you're going to have Punk, Punk versus Roman at Mania, I mean, I don't know what you would want to have for Drew if Roman somehow took like put Drew and Drew was able to lose or Drew was able to win and Roman loses. And you know, he gets this, you know, feeling of I probably can't do it anymore. Like that's how you push them. Like he makes all these appearances, but like what young talent has he pushed? If he wanted to, he could push Bron Breaker. That's the whole reason why I say I would want to see a match between Breaker and Roman at the elimination Chamber in Chicago is because if he. His message of him coming back is I want to push the younger talent again like how I did. Because. Because honestly, when you look back at them, he was pushing guys like Cesaro, he was pushing guys like La Knight, he was pushing guys even as bad as they were, like Matt Riddle. And you know, he was trying his best. He pushed Jey uso, he pushed his own family to become this main event star after he, he was reformed to being a tag team guy. So, you know, I get where he's coming from. From. I just personally would have rather seen Sammy win the Rumble challenge Drew and then them figure out what they were going to do with Punk because then that adds intrigue for CM Punk and who he's going to face at WrestleMania. But I mean, I would have, you know, out of 10, where would you rate this year's WrestleMania?
[01:33:15] Speaker A: So that's a good question.
So just Mania right now or the Rumble you meant?
[01:33:22] Speaker B: I.
Let's go with, with how this Rumble was and we don't have to talk about all time rumbles, but just I want to get your, your, your feedback on like how you think of how, how was this Rumble?
[01:33:35] Speaker A: Yeah, so it was a decent Rumble. It wasn't the worst rumble of all time, but definitely kind of one of the poorest ones in recent memory, especially compared to Last year we had such an amazing rumble. Besides the winner have, you know, star studded field with obviously with having Cena and Seth there and everything like that, having Punk actually in the match. So it was much more star studded rumble. It was produced much more well, spots were given time to breathe and it was just a much better rumble overall. So even just comparing it just to last year, not in the all time rumbles, it was clearly a lot of the core of the match itself.
The event was decent.
There were issues obviously with the crowd, with the lighting.
The women's rumble was okay. Drew Semi was okay. AJ versus Gunther was phenomenal, an excellent match. And the men's rumble was. Was a little poor. So overall the event does have to unfortunately for me, be around pay per view wise. Like a four or five probably out of ten wasn't the best show would have for top four. We have to hold our expectations a little bit higher than just any random, you know, show or pay per view. So with those standards being held for me it is a little bit on the lower side. I do wish it was a better show. So WrestleMania I think really has to deliver.
So that's overall kind of how I felt about the show.
[01:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally agree. Do I think that if they're wanting to have something big happen with WrestleMania and this going off without a hitch for both Roman and Liv, I mean Liv is probably the easiest to manage. I'll be fully honest with you.
I just wish that as far as the men's goes that they were able to just make some more, more surprises. And again that was another thing that we didn't really talk about was you know, when it comes to like no Jericho and you know, where has he been at this time? But, but you know that could be saved up for, for another episode. But, but overall I want to thank you Hamza for coming on to the podcast. Uh, it's always yeah, it's you right back onto the podcast talking about pro wrestling and us dissecting it.
And for those who'd like to know more about the podcast and where you can find it, it is on the rocking review on both Spotify and Apple podcast and we are also on Instagram and X at the Rockin review that's R A W K I N G review where we will post series of content when the next episodes will be what they will be about and basically like little teasers leading up to the next episode. But Hamza, it's been real man. I'm glad that you came on the show and I'm glad we could talk about what is the beginning of the road to WrestleMania.
[01:36:37] Speaker A: Hell, yeah, man. Until next time, thank you.
[01:36:39] Speaker B: That is all we have for today's episode. I want to thank you guys for listening. And as always, it's spelled R A W, K because we talk about the W's in pro wrestling.
