Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] The rocking review podcast hosted by j. Rock rude.
[00:00:30] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting edition of the Rocking Review Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. This is episode number 30 of the podcast. You've gotten to the big three zero. I'm very very happy to be doing this podcast.
[00:00:52] Just let you guys know I'm doing this podcast at 10:40 on a Thursday night.
[00:00:59] That is how dedicated I am.
[00:01:01] Even with my rigged schedule.
[00:01:04] I believe that that is the thing Rigged schedule over complicated schedule to be able to have a another episode for the Rockin Review. We got a lot to go into in this episode. We had elimination chamber over the weekend that happened in Chicago. We'll talk about the results of that as well as the other things that are going on besides the point and the post match and whatnot. We also had some stuff happen on Monday Night Raw this past week in Indianapolis. We'll also go over the results of Dynamite and as well as some TV ratings, we'll also go into some wrestling news including which is what we're gonna kick off the show with some brand new news that came through this morning. It actually was. Well I was.
[00:02:05] I was at work but it was reported Thursday so this is of today's recording that Brian AKA the Road Dog Jesse James has departed and has quit wwe.
[00:02:30] It was reported that the former co lead writer of WWE Smackdown had been fired or quit.
[00:02:47] He presumably quit.
[00:02:50] According to PW Insider.
[00:02:54] He has had multiple backstage positions with the company all the way back from 2011. According to PW Insider, James informed WWE in person that he was resigning from the creative team, the outlet said. WWE sources indicated that James quote openly expressed his unhappiness.
[00:03:17] It is also noted that James remains under a WWE Legends contract.
[00:03:23] James began working with WWE in October 2011 and transitioned into the creative team role in 2014.
[00:03:31] He served as lead writer of SmackDown from late 2016 until stepping down after WrestleMania 35 in April of 2019. He then worked with NXT beginning in May of 2019 before being released in January 2022. James was brought back to the company by Paul Triple H Levesque that August. He later became the co lead writer of Smackdown in February 2025, a role he shared with with John Swatka or Swat I believe that's my apologies for butchering this name John Swicata.
[00:04:14] So again he openly expressed it said his unhappiness with the creative and mind you by by the way like Road Dog has said some insane stuff recently and most of this might have sparked from his recent things that he said on The Unreal Season 2.
[00:04:55] So there was a creative meeting when they were filming talking about the Women's United States Championship. Road Dog had suggested putting the title back on Chelsea Green after she had her loss against Alina Vega.
[00:05:12] When asked what came next and who she would defend against or how the story would go, Road Dog legitimately said nothing.
[00:05:22] He reportedly said that he did not know clips of this moment was shocked across X.
[00:05:33] One user wrote the silence in the room told the whole story. Nobody had a plan and the IWC is toxic and divided like 99% of time. But it's hilarious how everyone agrees Road Dog is God awful at his job.
[00:05:52] Like Road Dog has had some bad creative.
[00:05:57] He took over Smackdown when they went to three hours and again they have stated that that was because of Triple H.
[00:06:06] And I, I quite honestly believe that, you know, him getting fired in 2022, being brought back by his best buddy and then told hey I'm gonna make you the co lead writer of one of the major shows during the week probably did a lot for Brian James and quite honestly it did not end up well because Smackdown was quite honestly a very bad show.
[00:06:40] Especially when they at first, the first time they switched to three hours and then they switched it back to two and then at the beginning of the year they brought back the three hours and it's kind of had its ups and downs but not totally.
[00:06:59] But at the same time I understand his is upset reasons for wanting to leave the creative team. He probably doesn't feel like he's being listened to and probably there's a lot that's going over his head.
[00:07:18] So wherever the Road Dog the D O double G ends up going is the real question. The real question honestly is does this mean that Michael Hayes and Prichard are going to be next?
[00:07:35] Now of course people are not gonna say like oh he got fired or whatever, like he quit openly, it was in person, you know, whatever.
[00:07:45] But with Prichard and Hayes, Pritchard and Hayes have legit stayed in that role as creative booking for quite literally like what, two decades.
[00:07:55] Hayes has been there since quite literally the 90s and Pritchard has been there for well he got rehired back in like honestly back in like 2019.
[00:08:11] So.
[00:08:13] But that was the biggest news to come out of today.
[00:08:17] Now let's talk about the elimination chamber.
[00:08:21] It took place at the United Center.
[00:08:26] So typically they would go over to the All State arena and they would have their show there. But no, they decided to pull a really, really Decent House almost 19.
[00:08:50] Almost 19,000 people showed up.
[00:08:55] We started off with the women's elimination Shamer match.
[00:09:00] This would to be determining.
[00:09:04] Sorry. This would Determine the number one contender against Jade Cardgill at WrestleMania.
[00:09:14] The match featured Alexa Bliss, Oscar, Keanu James, Raquel Rodriguez, Tiffany Stratton and Rhea Ripley.
[00:09:25] They started off with Tiffany and Keanu.
[00:09:30] They started feeling out a little bit before Keanu gained an early advantage, driving shoulder thrust into the corner and landing a big boot. Stratton then fought back, but James sent her crashing hard into Raquel Rodriguez's podcast.
[00:09:44] Asuka then entered third and immediately turned the tide, smashing Kiana's head repeatedly into the pod before dishing out the similar punishment to Stratton. She dropped both of them with a lariat bulldog combo and grounded their faces into the steel.
[00:10:03] Alexa Bliss entered in fourth and went back and forth with Stratton, countering a moonsault and trapping her in a tree of woe.
[00:10:12] Rhea Ripley then entered in fifth in Clean House, headbutting Stratton and hitting a razor's edge that launched her onto Asuka. Bliss escaped a riptide attempt by clinging onto the cage and chaos broke out as all five competitors brawled around the structure. Bliss climbed to a pod and delivered a big twisted Bliss off the top. But back into the ring, Asuka sprayed mist into her face, allowing Keanu James to roll up Alexa and score the pin.
[00:10:45] Raquel then entered last and immediately asserted dominant, shrugging off a four on one attack and repeatedly slamming opponents onto the steel. She powerbombed Rhea Ripley into the chamber wall and then later drove Asuka into Qiana with a one arm power bomb, eliminating both Asuka and James. That was a very great spot.
[00:11:10] Raquel then continued overpowering until Ripley launched herself off the pod with a cannonball.
[00:11:17] Stratton then capitalized with a prettiest mood soul ever to eliminate Rodriguez. Now, before we get into the finish, I'll just say this.
[00:11:30] It sucks for me to say that Raquel Rodriguez has been legit with the company for well over six years and they have never once thought about giving her the world title.
[00:11:50] That, to me, just feels inexcusable.
[00:11:54] It feels inexcusable because I don't understand why they chose to not give Raquel a championship. Like Matt, like her against Jade only doesn't make sense because she's a heel right now with Judgment Day.
[00:12:21] But if only Jade could have stayed babyface, it would have worked.
[00:12:27] And I'll say before we get to the ending, Jade has been a horrible champion. One defense in the last a hundred days as champion.
[00:12:37] Absolutely nothing.
[00:12:40] They gave up on Tiffany Stratton after her subpar reign and now gave it to another subpar champion to what is already going to be another subpar WrestleMania match.
[00:13:00] Stratton and Ripley were the final two.
[00:13:03] They each traded near falls with Tiffany hanging, sorry, hitting a cartwheel, Alabama slam and a senton atomico, but could not put Ripley away. When Stratton went up top again. Ripley shoved her into a pod, grabbed the pump handle and delivered a riptide on top.
[00:13:26] Ripley then pinned Stratton to win the chamber match and become the new number one contender for the women's championship.
[00:13:35] I do stand, however, by my Raquel Rodriguez comment. I believe that she definitely should be getting a world title shot at some point.
[00:13:44] Next up, we had A.J. lee versus Becky lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Championship.
[00:13:54] I'll say this right now, this sucked.
[00:13:59] This sucked.
[00:14:01] I'm sorry, but like this.
[00:14:04] When I was watching this match, all I thought to myself is wow, AJ Lee probably should have waited or probably trained a little bit more in like or because to come back and have to do all this and like it was okay.
[00:14:24] I don't mind it.
[00:14:26] I don't think it was a bad decision.
[00:14:30] But to have AJ and Becky go 15 minutes and after the false finishes in this match, this was just, this was too much.
[00:14:48] So at the beginning of the match, AJ sat Becky to the floor.
[00:14:52] Once back inside, the champion grounded her with some punches and corner boots.
[00:14:57] Becky scored almost a near fall after a snap mare and continued to press the advantage.
[00:15:02] They traded strikes with Becky's elbows landing harder and harder, but AJ refused to back down.
[00:15:08] Lee then fired back up with staggering elbows and hit the ropes for a running bulldog.
[00:15:16] AJ then railed or rallied with a running with some running back elbows, blocked a kick and connected with a tornado DDT off the second rope, followed by a shining resin for a two count. Frustrated, lynch then ripped off the turnbuckle pad off one corner.
[00:15:32] Ayyjayy Then answered with a kick at a heel trip and went up top. But Becky cut her off with the superplex and then transformed to an R bar.
[00:15:42] For a minute I thought that that superplex, I thought AJ got knocked out because I wasn't sure if that's what lynch was waiting for, for her to grasp her hands together in the arm bar or whether or not AJ just forgot.
[00:15:58] But they got to the they got to the point of the match.
[00:16:03] Lee escape and blasted her with a big roundhouse, but she was slow to cover and lynch kicked Out.
[00:16:10] And then the crucial part in this match. Referee Jessica Carr tried to reattach the turnbuckle but was shoved aside.
[00:16:20] Becky took advantage but still couldn't finish aj. Moments later, Carr accidentally took another kick and went down. So she went down twice.
[00:16:29] AJ locked in the Black Widow and Lynch started tapping, but there was no referee. The fight had spilled to the outside where Becky hurled AJ into the barricade many times and retrieved a steel chair from under the ring. Back inside, lynch countered a DDT and drove AJ down onto the chair and hit the man handle slam.
[00:16:50] And still AJ kicked out.
[00:16:54] I don't know how they were. They were fine with AJ getting a counter DDT on the steel chair, followed by the manhandle slam. And that couldn't have. That, that could have ended it and then you could have had the rematch at Mania. But she still kicked out for the big pop.
[00:17:16] Lynch attempted to send AJ into the exposed turnbuckle, but Carr intervened. AJ then capitalized with a schoolboy for two and then countered another manhandle slam and sent Becky into the corner.
[00:17:28] She immediately repelled with a black Widow. And this time the referee saw Becky lynch tap out and AJ Lee won.
[00:17:39] And she is the new WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship. In her first singles match in almost 10 years.
[00:17:51] AJ Lee is the Women's Intercontinental Championship.
[00:17:58] She's the Intercontinental Champion. Excuse me, I'll say this, man, you can go ahead and say what you want about, you know, The match and you can say what you want about A.J. lee coming back, but man, this match was sloppy.
[00:18:24] I, I tried to give it some time, I tried to give it some leeway. I tried to let it happen, but it's, it was so bad. It was really, really bad. I think AJ Lee tried a little bit too much.
[00:18:35] I wish that they had just tried less and it just left a sour taste.
[00:18:41] We then got to the semi main event. Of course, because it was only a four match show.
[00:18:47] We had CM Punk versus Finn Balor for the World Heavyweight Championship.
[00:18:53] After Balor made his entrance, the lights dimmed in the United Center. And then of course the 90s Chicago Bulls Cyrus theme hit and Mark Nash the ring announcer delivered a almost Jordan like introduction for the Second City Saint.
[00:19:21] And Punk came out thunderous crowd reaction.
[00:19:29] He, he loved giving himself the spotlight.
[00:19:32] He really did.
[00:19:36] Once the bell rang, they started with some light chain rustling. Punk secured a wrist lock, Balor reversed and the two traded some hammer locks and countered into a nice technical exchange. Punk then slipped to a victory roll for a near fall and followed with side headlock. So very technical wrestling for this match.
[00:19:53] He then grounded Balor with a headlock takeover keeping control shot off the ropes. Finn answered with a drop kick, but Punk regained momentum with a back breaker snap mare and some sharp strikes through the chest and back.
[00:20:06] Champion mixed in a knee drop and some submission attempts while Balor floated over a front chancery and began trading right hands. Mid ring, they extended some thunderous chops in the opposite corners before Balor mounted a comeback with some stomps to the ribs and some slingshot shots or strikes while trapping Punk in the ropes. There's that one point where.
[00:20:28] Where Balor legitimately slipped off the ropes and he accidentally kicked him in the face.
[00:20:37] So.
[00:20:38] So that was. That was very, very scary.
[00:20:45] As match continued, momentum shifted as Punk blocked a running bulldog, only for Balor to counter into a cobra twist.
[00:20:54] They broke free and collided with double Lariats, leaving both men down.
[00:20:58] Back on their feet, Punk strung together a rising knee and finally hit the running bulldog before sending Balor into the announce desk. Back inside, Punk landed a diving lariat for a near fall.
[00:21:11] Balor answered with some corner kicks and a knee strike.
[00:21:14] Punk attempted to go to sleep. A Finn countered into a small package for two. A swinging net breaker nearly secured the upset. They battled on the turnbuckles and Balor knocked Punk down. But the champion rolled away from the coup de grace attempt, bleeding from the mouth. Punk then climbed up and delivered a diving elbow drop. Didn't fully connect, but Balor countered into a crucifix pin.
[00:21:40] Punk then responded with Hilaria and locked in the anaconda vice. Finn escaped and planted him with the inverted 1916, followed by the coup de grace.
[00:21:48] Yet Punk still kicked out. A distracted glance towards the aisle for Judgment Day cost Balor some time as Punk countered with another face lock, hoisted him up, connected with the go to sleep, but Balor tumbled to the floor outside. Finn rallied with a sling blade and blasted Punk through the Timekeepers barricade with a shotgun drop kick, dragging the champion back inside. Balor hit another sling bait drop kick in a coup de grace, but Punk cleverly.
[00:22:18] When Balor went down for the coup de grace, he crossed the legs and rolled into a sharpshooter, which was an incredible counter.
[00:22:29] Balor crawled away and reached the ropes. Punk stopped him down, lifted him onto his shoulders once more and connected the go to sleep and won.
[00:22:41] After the match, Balor stood face to face, nodded respectfully, offered a handshake.
[00:22:47] Punk then glanced at the Chicago crowd before accepting, and Balor exited the ring and then AJ came down and both her and Punk celebrated with each other's titles.
[00:23:03] I'll say this man, what a interesting match.
[00:23:09] Again, I knew that they probably weren't going to let Balor win the match, but unfortunately them, himself and Punk have really, really great matches. I really enjoyed it.
[00:23:26] I really think that if everything goes to plan, that Finn is gonna have a good babyface run coming up.
[00:23:35] Hopefully he'll cross some paths with some heel champions.
[00:23:40] But all due time, we then got to the main event.
[00:23:46] This to determine the undisputed WWE Championship.
[00:23:51] We had Cody Rhodes, Javon Evans, L.A. knight, Logan Paul Rainy or in and Trick Williams.
[00:24:00] Now I want to preface this real quick.
[00:24:03] The Monday night last week, Bronson Reed went out with an injury, tore his bicep.
[00:24:13] We then had later on Friday an angle where Jay USO got taken out.
[00:24:24] And subsequently it was basically rumored that it was going to be Austin Theory and Logan Paul against the Usos at WrestleMania.
[00:24:46] So they took out Jey Uso. So now there's an open spot in the match.
[00:24:51] So instead of surprising us the night of the elimination chamber, which speaking of surprise, let's talk about what happened before this.
[00:25:04] So they announced the attendance record, 19,400 something.
[00:25:10] And then we see the crate, the crate that has been on television for the last two weeks.
[00:25:19] We finally saw the crate.
[00:25:22] We have solved the mystery.
[00:25:25] Who was in the crate? And the person who was in the crate was none other than Danhausen.
[00:25:36] Now of course, Danhausen had been released from, from wwe or sorry, released from AEW basically about a few days before elimination chamber.
[00:25:57] Part of me did not want to believe that it could be, it could be Dan Housen.
[00:26:04] But Dan Housing started posting more the night of the elimination chamber.
[00:26:11] Dan Housing was posting cryptic things on his Instagram story, like talking about how he was free.
[00:26:19] And then also there was the, the notion about how pro wrestling tees had said that they were doing discounted Danhausen merch.
[00:26:32] So all things pointed towards Danhausen is going to be the one that they are going to choose to bring to wwe.
[00:26:44] So they bring him out, they have him in this coffin. He has a brand new theme, very cartoonish.
[00:26:51] And he has all of these women dressed almost like him with the capes, with, with everything else.
[00:27:01] And he, he's going out there, he gives Michael Cole and Wade Barrett the, the jar of teeth, which is of course his gimmick.
[00:27:12] And, and man, this flops so bad.
[00:27:17] This flops so bad. And when we get into Raw, it actually was kind of Funnier. But man, to have this packed crowd in Chicago and not a single one of them cheered for Danhausen shows you how poor the creative team is.
[00:27:38] How are you expecting to have a great reaction to a comedy wrestler in 2026 when you need it most after your last WrestleMania failed, your build to this WrestleMania is starting to fail.
[00:27:54] And you just want to talk about how you got some big money matches with CM Punk and Roman Reigns that that's why you're gonna sell you. You conned New Orleans to, you know, trick them into thinking they were gonna get WrestleMania this year. But then the bidding war open. Las Vegas got it again for the second year in a row. Now your ticket prices are declining. You're now going from almost 60,000, 50,000 to now a 40,000 WrestleMania.
[00:28:26] Just absolute garbage.
[00:28:31] But they had one silver lining and this was this match.
[00:28:36] We had Cody Rhodes and Javon Evans start the match.
[00:28:42] Rhodes controlled early with side headlock and delayed vertical gourdbuster for two. Evans answered with some big high flying moves and is insane. Followed by an Arabian press variation by for landing a busaku knee for a near fall.
[00:28:58] Cody regained control by sending the young OG into the steal and then stomping him down as the countdown began. Trick Willy Trick Williams. He entered third and immediately changed the pace, blasting Rhodes and going toe to toe with Evans. He blocked an OG cutter and hit the Cyclone. Click on the Cyclone. Kill on Cody.
[00:29:20] Trick nearly stole the match with a double bookend, but neither man stood down.
[00:29:26] And then here's where it came in. So going back to what I was talking about, Jey USO got taken out. There's an open spot. So instead of surprising people, they have a match with Jacob Fatu and Logan Paul where Drew McIntyre of course interferes with Blast Jacob Fatou behind the ref back Logan Paul wins. Logan takes up the last spot in the elimination chamber. Of course it works because Bronson Reed was supposed to be in there.
[00:29:58] Paul entered fourth and all three of them launched Paul into a pod.
[00:30:11] Once Paul recovered, he hit a bookshelf buckshot Larry on Cody.
[00:30:18] La Knight then entered fifth and went straight after Paul, smashing him into the chamber walls. The action spilled outside of the pods where Knight landed Logan with a BFT on top of the pod in a crazy moment or and then entered last scoop slam power slams, double hanging ddt.
[00:30:42] Evans then soared off the top of the pod with a huge frog splash onto Trick Williams. But Logan capitalized and got Javon Evans and hit him with the pulverizer and eliminated Javon Evans. So Javon Evans, goodbye. Hit Knight, then hit a BFT on Trick. But Williams rolled away and Logan struck with a low ball, a low blow, and stole the pin with a schoolboy and eliminated LA Knight.
[00:31:13] Paul then continued to pick apart the field.
[00:31:17] He countered the trick shot.
[00:31:20] After Cody dropped Williams with a crossroads, Logan opportunistically covered Trick. So Logan Paul legit eliminated three other people in this match and it was the two young guys and then the guy who they have continuously say that they will, you know, be pushing and pushing and pushing. At one spot.
[00:31:47] Knight went for the elbow.
[00:31:53] And what ended up happening was was that he kind of, of course botched himself on the top rope, which resulted in him stumbling. And he's had too many botches at this point, so he immediately probably got picked on backstage and a lot of other stuff. Again, he did the exact same thing back at the Money in the bank and we saw how that turned out for wwe. Unreal saw it backstage and Triple H just patronizing him and, and just yelling at night. And he's just sitting there taking it. Like when is enough enough for somebody like Ellie Knight?
[00:32:37] So not Trick. Williams basically had to be helped outside of the chamber. So the chamber door opened and a mask man attempted to storm the chamber and basically it took the mask off and it was another student. Now the night before during the Reed Paul match, and this is what people thought was originally gonna happen was that there was another masked man. That mask man actually got captured by Paul and Theory and the rest of the vision and they revealed it to be a random wrestler who happens to be a wrestler trained under Seth Rollins at his wrestling training camp.
[00:33:33] So they grab this security guy or the security, the security grab this one guy. And then all of a sudden another mass figure pulls up, super kicks Logan delivers the stomp.
[00:33:45] And then Seth Rollins is then revealed to be the mask man like we thought all along. And this is four months after a rotator cuff surgery.
[00:34:01] This guy is a beast.
[00:34:03] Comes back from leg injuries, looks awesome. Comes back from a rotator cuff, looks awesome. Legit tried to, and at least like wwe tried to finesse an entire injury angle for him to have a cash in at SummerSlam.
[00:34:19] Seth Rollins is always, always going to be on top.
[00:34:23] The distraction allowed Cody to capitalize. Cody eliminated Paul. So it came down to Orton and Rhodes, which is exactly what I predicted before anything could happen. As Rhodes got up, Drew McIntyre comes in and strikes Cody with a championship belt.
[00:34:46] And Drew starts beating up on Cody or and then comes over after Rhodes sidesteps a Claymore attempt and Orton hits an RKO on Drew. Cody then hits the crossroads and then immediately as Cody gets up from the crossroads to Drew Orton, Orton hits him with the RKO. 1, 2, 3. And Randy Orton will for the third time in his career, main event WrestleMania.
[00:35:20] The last time he Russ he was in the main event of WrestleMania was the triple Threat against Batista and Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 30 on Bourbon Street.
[00:35:31] Incredible.
[00:35:33] This was the spot to go.
[00:35:37] This was quite honestly the best that they were probably gonna have to do.
[00:35:47] And I really, really like that they went with Randy Orton instead of the obvious choice and the safe choice, which honestly would have been.
[00:36:02] Cody. But that didn't happen.
[00:36:08] So we got talk about the night after, which was Monday Night Raw happened in Indianapolis.
[00:36:24] So the show kicked off very chaotically.
[00:36:32] They came out and Heyman got on the mic and he talked about how the normal talent would introduce the show and how people were singing for Seth and everybody was doing Seth's song. He said that Seth stole credit for co founding the Vision.
[00:36:54] Credit he's not worthy of. And the same with the shield. But it's not his problem anymore. His problem is what Rollins stole Elimination Chamber, thus stole the main event away from Logan. Paul Heyman continues saying that Seth steals oxygen from every human being on the planet that's worthy of living.
[00:37:13] And of course Becky lynch is one of them and they're going to do something about it.
[00:37:19] They said at the next time Seth is in a WWE ring, they're gonna stomp his ass out.
[00:37:26] And then of course Pierce then comes in and they said that the Vision are upset. Who cares? And they believe that or Pierce believes that they're the ones who attacked J. Jay USO on Friday.
[00:37:47] Paul then says that they had nothing to do with Jay, but they'll plead guilty in advance for what they're going to do to Seth Rollins.
[00:37:57] And then Adam explains that Seth isn't there because he isn't clear to compete, when all of a sudden another masked man jumps the rails and security chases him out into the crowd.
[00:38:11] Then another masked man shows up and Paul goes around and the third one happens to show up and Austin theory. And then all of a sudden Paul Heyman is all alone inside the ring and there's another masked man and Seth Rollins comes out and Seth Rollins hits him with a chair. He hits Heyman with a chair.
[00:38:32] He goes in the corner and he goes and he hits a crazy curb stomp on Heyman and Seth goes into the crowd. He walks off and EMTs are rushing to the ring. Paul Heyman is bleeding profusely from his mouth.
[00:38:56] And they load him up into an ambulance. Ambulance. And Theory and Paul are there. They're yelling at the EMTs.
[00:39:05] Then a car pulls around.
[00:39:07] Theory goes in and it's Jimmy uso.
[00:39:11] USO comes in, he lays out Austin Theory, and then of course, he walks over to the driver's seat of the ambulance. And all of a sudden, La Knight is driving the car.
[00:39:24] So L.A. knight, legit dro, drives the ambulance with Paul Heyman in the back, wherever he went.
[00:39:31] That was La Knight's appearance for the night. Bye bye.
[00:39:35] Another thing that ended up happening, Dragon Lee versus Gunther. I won't go over the whole thing.
[00:39:42] I'll just say Gunther won by taking the mask off of Dragon Lee. And Dragon Lee instantly tapped out to the sleeper.
[00:39:52] Now, with this in mind, I had talked about how I was waiting to see what was gonna happen with Gunther and whether or not Gunther was going to end up having a WrestleMania match. And now the circulation because of the Dragon Lee stuff is that in fact Gunther will be in a match at WrestleMania with the next legend, and that being Rey Mysterio.
[00:40:28] Personally, I don't think that him going against Rey Mysterio is the best option right now.
[00:40:39] But again, we'll have to wait for some more story to go with it.
[00:40:49] We also got news earlier that day that Demolition, Demolition, Axe and Smash will be the newest members in the hall of Fame.
[00:40:59] So we got Stephanie McMahon, AJ Styles and Demolition.
[00:41:04] We also had El Grande Americano original against Reijo Americano. Again, easy win.
[00:41:14] We then also had a Obafemi Rusev confrontation. So that'll be the first rivalry, it looks like the actual rivalry for Obafemi.
[00:41:32] And we also had a filler match with Austin Theory and Big Jim.
[00:41:38] And of course.
[00:41:44] Jay was there to make the save, was there to get the the DQ win.
[00:41:56] Now here's the the crucial part of the entire night.
[00:42:01] Backstage, Adam Pierce was talking to somebody and Danhausen showed up and he said that he had some demands housing for Adam Pearce. He said he wants a blimp pointy photo with Triple H and his face on all the trunks.
[00:42:19] And of course the list is wet because it fell in the toilet.
[00:42:23] So then of course Pierce looks and he sees Desmond Day walking by and Dana, how's it, introduced himself and he said he wants to hold one of Dom's titles. Dom tells him to beat it and stay out of their way or bad things will happen.
[00:42:41] Danhausen immediately questions bad things and he says, you are cursed. And Then he curses Dom.
[00:42:49] Which of course later in the night he had a match with Penta for the IC title.
[00:42:57] So during the end of that match, Penta got a near fall and got a kick at a corner.
[00:43:05] He reversed a whip up and over. He connected with the lung blower.
[00:43:09] Dom then catch him with a Michinoku driver and then hit a frog splash which got countered into a pump handle and a Penta driver.
[00:43:18] But Mysterio is able to kick out stomping Dom's face over and over and over again. Eddie Arango kept warning him off.
[00:43:30] And a whip across and a close shoulder block and a drop toehold puts Penta shoulders hard into the post.
[00:43:36] Rolling around, Penta got got clubbing. He began clutching his shoulder because of the injury that he had suffered.
[00:43:45] Not too while back.
[00:43:47] Mysterio then goes over and he tells JD McDonough to go and get him the Timekeepers hammer. And just as McDonough is about to go give it to Dominic, Balor immediately grabs it and tells him that he has to do it by himself. That's what Dominic said he wanted to do.
[00:44:06] And during the distraction, Penta takes them out with a Topecon hero. And then back inside.
[00:44:14] Another drop toehold to Penta. Penta ducks the 619 goes right into a Canadian Destroyer, Mexican Destroyer.
[00:44:24] And Penta wins the intercontinental championship again.
[00:44:32] I was wondering.
[00:44:40] Whether or not Penta was really going to do it was pet. Were they really going to have Penta win the IC title?
[00:44:56] I mean, I didn't mind. It was fine with it.
[00:45:01] And you know, if I'm. If I'm quite honest, I was a bit surprised.
[00:45:08] I was kind of thinking whether or not that we were gonna get Finn versus.
[00:45:21] Dom for the IC title.
[00:45:26] And I was just kind of waiting, waiting on what would end up happening almost.
[00:45:36] So we then shifted into the main event segment.
[00:45:47] And basically we got Roman Reigns and we got CM Punk.
[00:45:56] Now for this segment, I'm gonna kindly do the PG13 version.
[00:46:03] So reigns came out. He said, acknowledge me.
[00:46:08] Before Reigns could get a word out, Punk came.
[00:46:12] He said, why are you so angry, Roman? He basically was feeding his ego and he was acknowledging Roman.
[00:46:21] And he said, I honestly hope that you did more than just say your shtick because we paid a lot of money for your your dates here. And that could have just been a tweet because of course over the weekend Roman Reigns had done a tweet during the end of Lumination Chamber when he had stated, not sure who looked more tired, the crowd or the champion Enjoying this final month of relevancy.
[00:46:54] That was Rain's tweet after elimination shaver because a lot of people were picking on the crowd. They were saying the crowd was super, super quiet because they did not like the Danhausen segment. They didn't like the probably didn't like the. The Punk match. Maybe they didn't like the AJ Lee match.
[00:47:13] Reigns then also asked Phil, he didn't call him Punk, he called him Phil. He said, did my tweet on Saturday offend you because we're a champion? That seems like you have pretty thin skin.
[00:47:27] And he said, your tweet didn't hurt my feelings and I honestly don't care what people tweet. I also don't care what people talk about me on podcasts and I don't hold grudges. But you're right though, I. I am tired and it's good thing I got bags under my eyes because I've got to carry your ass all the way to WrestleMania, basically.
[00:47:51] He said that also on the post show was that he was gonna be calling him Rusty Reigns, which I thought was very, very clever.
[00:48:03] He also continued by saying that they had history in Indianapolis because that is where the Shield debuted. It's where he brought Roman and the rest to the dance. And of course Roman corrected him and said, correction, you didn't bring me, you brought the other two.
[00:48:20] And of course that is in reference because originally if those who do not know CM Punk did not want Roman Reigns. He wanted Chris Hero, he wanted Cashy Sono, who was a standout on the Internet wrestling community at that point, doing stuff for pwg, for LA and stuff like that. And he had connections back from the Ring of Honor days with Punk.
[00:48:43] Punk then continued and said, you definitely certainly picked me for the main event of WrestleMania and if you asked these fans, they would have told you I've already won. Because the last time you were face to face, you told me that you hated me and I got you right where I want you. I made you this emotional lay. I'm in your head as empty as it is.
[00:49:03] And then Roman responded and he said, that's right, I hate you, Phil, but if you didn't have that title, you wouldn't even be on my radar because quite honestly. And then he opened up this can of worms, he said, we didn't bring you back here to be champion. We brought you to entertain some of the 30 to 40 year old virgins living out of their mother's basement.
[00:49:22] They brought him back to sell a few T shirts, maybe Sell out a building in Chicago, but never to be champion, because that's too much power for you. That's too much responsibility. That's above your pay grade. And he's like, we can't trust you because you are a liar. And he said, you've lied to these people. You've got them believing that you're having a good time, that you're a leader, that you're smiling and hanging out with my cousins. But we know the truth. Because when you start your whining and complaining and you're bitching and moaning, you're not CM Punk. You're just a punk ass is what he says.
[00:49:56] He says, At WrestleMania, I'm gonna end your backup plan, your second chance with wwe. And after I take that title, I'm gonna put you on the John Cena retirement tour.
[00:50:07] And we'll make as much money off of you as we can. And then we'll send you down to NXT where you could teach the next generation.
[00:50:14] And then they can come up to the main roster, and the tribal chief will go through and smash every one of them.
[00:50:22] And he walks off. He drops the mic. He thinks that it's done. And Punk pulls him back in. He pulls him back in and he says, I don't think we're done.
[00:50:32] And he said, we got a lot of stuff to go over.
[00:50:37] He said, who's we? And he looked around and he says, you got some tribal key. You got some tribal chief goblins in your pockets. You're all alone. You're alone in your bus. You're alone in your hotel room. Your cousins aren't here. They're the Shield. Can't help you. And your wise man is gone because I took him from you. He says, you're the one that's chasing me. I'm the champion. You're in the main event because I'm the main event. And it's my show. And you're in my locker room, and I am hanging out with your cousins because you're all alone. And you can hate me all you want, and you can hate me or love me, but you will not disrespect me. And then he goes in and he says, you're talking about retiring me.
[00:51:18] He's like, let's make one thing clear at WrestleMania. I'm not just going to beat you. I'm going to bury you.
[00:51:26] And then he ended this statement.
[00:51:28] He ended this statement, which I wasn't expecting.
[00:51:34] And I wasn't thinking, like, he would go this far, especially when he's still A baby face.
[00:51:41] But he then said, after I bury you, you won't be alone anymore because when I bury you, I'm gonna bury you next to your father.
[00:51:54] Now, I couldn't believe that he was talking in a way where he was gonna reference the dead father of Roman Reigns, which if you don't know who Roman Reigns, his father is, he is of course is the legendary Sick Sika, who of course was the tag partner with AFA of the Wild Samoans.
[00:52:26] Right.
[00:52:28] And the fact that how recently he died? He died last year at the age of 79 of a heart attack.
[00:52:39] Or not last year, sorry, 20, 24, two years ago.
[00:52:43] And the fact that he, he passed away and the fact that they immediately went into this, not only was it a little bit sad, but it's the fact of now we're taking this to a personal level of wanting to shoot, wanting to, to make a big deal out of everything.
[00:53:05] And quite personally, like, I don't care for that. I'd rather you do a standard type of match build and all the other stuff.
[00:53:18] And it sucks.
[00:53:22] But in retrospect, they're working with each other. They're making it mean more than it is.
[00:53:31] They're wanting, they're wanting to do something that ends up getting them getting on some more heat.
[00:53:42] So that was raw and the ending to that was, was pretty, pretty crazy.
[00:53:51] Now of course there is the results in which we're building up towards AEW revolution.
[00:54:04] So we'll go ahead and we'll talk about that.
[00:54:07] On Dynamite, we saw a title change and we had the opening matchup. We had MJF defeating Kevin Knight.
[00:54:18] We had Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy beat Connors and Gabe Kidd before a surprising David Finley showed up.
[00:54:32] So David Finley, who of course we were referencing before that he was a free agent. We didn't know where he was going and in fact he ended up beating up the baby faces.
[00:54:48] So David Finley, Clark Connors and Gabe Kidd are officially known as the Dogs and they have officially made themselves all elite.
[00:54:58] And then this is another sad moment here.
[00:55:02] But the brawling birds of Alex Windsor and Jamie Hayter beat the inspiration, the former iconics of Cassie lee and Jesse McKay.
[00:55:14] One minute 39 seconds. That sucked.
[00:55:18] Hangman had a warm up match, Moxley beat Hiches.
[00:55:30] And then of course the one time when she comes around Thunder Rosa was unsuccessful against thecla or Tekla and Tekla defended her championship. And then in the main event, you saw title chains of Jet Set Rodeo.
[00:55:49] So both Adam Page and Kevin Knight had wrestled in the night and MJF costs the trio's titles, which goes on the waste of Kazuchiko Okada, Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher. So you got Okada who is I believe still continental champion.
[00:56:15] You have.
[00:56:17] All right. No, no, he's not the continental champion.
[00:56:20] He is actually. I need to check does he still have a belt?
[00:56:24] I honestly have forgotten how many belts. He's still the international champion. That's right.
[00:56:29] And also Kyle Fletcher is the TNT champion.
[00:56:34] Mark Davis has finally won his first champion. So the Aussie Open gets some success and they are the new trios champion alongside Kazuchika Okada.
[00:56:47] So real quickly we'll go over the TV ratings.
[00:56:54] As of this week, I've not seen anything come out for last night's Dynamite, which is what I just referenced there.
[00:57:07] So as far as all the rest of the ratings go, nxt, which ended with a very horrible segment with Miles Bourne and Joe Hendry and Ricky Saints.
[00:57:24] So that got a point zero nine with little bit up actually from last week.
[00:57:34] 604,000 collision went down to a point zero six.
[00:57:42] Smackdown had a zero point three four.
[00:57:46] That's got to be it's, it's highest in a long, long time.
[00:57:51] Especially because it was back on USA they did 1.38 mil and then Impact, which is already happening today, did a.03 and a 233, 233,000 for its viewers. So remained in that audience right there.
[00:58:18] And then as far as Dynamite last week which took place Denver, Colorado, it did a point one.
[00:58:29] A point one. That's it with 633,000.
[00:58:38] So it did a lot better than NXT did.
[00:58:45] I don't know how close it will be for this week because NXT got a point zero nine from their point zero eight from last week but those are the ratings for wrestling and that is it for today's episode of the Rockin Review podcast. I am super tired.
[00:59:08] It is now 11:52 and I am so glad that we have reached to 30 episodes. Want to thank everybody for listening again. If you haven't already, please follow the Instagram and X page at the rocking Review where we will be posting updates we post when episodes come out and of course the direct link to our Castro so that way you guys can listen to it. If you guys do not have Apple podcasts or Spotify.
[00:59:38] Thank you very much and as always it's spelled R A W K because we talk about the W's in pro wrestling.
[00:59:47] Thank you everybody.
