Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Rocking Review Podcast hosted by J. Rock Root welcome everyone to the second ever episode of the Rocking Review Podcast. I am your host J. Rock Rude and today it is a turn because it is our repackage of the Rock. That's right, this is a completely brand new show from the first episode, completely stripped down to the nitty gritty of professional wrestling. We'll talk a little bit about the Jake Paul Mike Tyson controversial fight that took place Friday night on Netflix @ @&t Stadium, and we'll talk a little bit about how all of that went down. We'll also talk a little bit the latest UFC 309 Stipe Miacic versus Jon Jones. I did not cover all of UFC 309 unfortunately. We'll also go over some AEW news, including finally a booking for the venue known as the Hammerstein Ballroom Manhattan center in New York City. We'll go over that and talk about the latest issues and the reason why AEW is now starting to run smaller buildings as they turn into the new 2025. We'll look over full gear and preview and predict some of the matches that will take place as that will go down this Saturday. Finally, we'll go over the Raw and Smackdown reviews and we'll go over some of the major storylines going into the go home week of Survivor Series and some new faces of the WWE ID happened this week and we'll cover that right here on the Rocking Review. So first up, I just want to talk about how I am again super grateful for the first episode of the podcast and how well that did. I was very unsure if it was going to be a decent enough podcast, but from strong reviews that I've gotten personally from friends and family members and other listeners of the show that I finally got to produce it. Now I'll talk a little bit about the repackage deal that I stated when I started the show. Basically I am strictly going to do pro wrestling now, the football stuff. I felt like it was not really gonna go where I wanted it to be. So I'm strictly gonna go for what I said in the first episode was my major passion and that was professional wrestling.
[00:03:11] So I'm really, really glad that a lot of people gave me some good reviews on how the first episode went and I thank you for listening to that. But now it is time to go into the pro wrestling news. But first it's time to take a look at some boxing.
[00:03:36] So I want to start the podcast by talking about the controversial fight that took place Friday night.
[00:03:51] And man oh man, I I'll be honest, I did not know what to expect. You know, all the press that came in for this fight, you know, it was definitely something different. The first thing I will say though, beyond the fight itself, strictly the main event was Netflix, as a lot of people know, had a lot of issues and it was wild because you, you saw it all over socials of people having buffering issues and but like, again, this was the biggest thing that Netflix had ever done, like, ever, like, and now they're shifting towards live sports and you know, you got the Netflix deal that happened with the NFL and a bunch of people are going to be tuning into that Christmas day where it will be the Chiefs and the Steelers and then the Texans and the Ravens. How this first ever live feed went for a major sporting event like it was, it did very poorly overall. Like over 65 million viewers were able to watch the fight and it was one of the most watched events of 2024. You know, it's just that part of hitting mainstream with a streaming app like Netflix. But then again, Netflix have never really had a thought about doing a live event because mostly it's gone to the cable networks and the pay per view distributors and having that on a different platform. So now to have that go mainstream onto a streaming service that millions and millions of people use worldwide in over 100 different countries, a lot of people are very concerned in how this is going to affect their sports watching. Come later as we enter 2025 and January 6th for 2025 is going to be a huge date for Netflix because that's when they're going to launch WB Monday Night Raw. Monday Night Raw will be the first ever weekly episodic television show that will be strictly streamed on Netflix. And it's going to be live because I don't know if they're going to like call it taped or that might be a move later on because maybe they can't handle the live part of it. And now you're shifting to this streaming service that you know, for its first time ever doing a Netflix Live event. They had a lot of difficulties, but overall Netflix definitely going to need to get some tweaks out. But that was really the only concern with the production of the entire event. I will say though, the real match of the night was of course the co main event of Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. And that match went all in. Those women put in everything they could. And at the end of the fight, the champion, Katie Taylor, ended up coming out via unanimous decision and the scores were 95 94, 95, 94, 95, 94. So of course this is not the first time that Serrano has been a part of the MVP productions, which is most valuable promotions, which we'll definitely get into later on as we're talking about this event. But you know, she put up a hell of a fight and I think a lot of people would agree that she, she should have definitely won that match because Taylor was fighting very dirty. I mean, an early headbutt in the first couple rounds, you know, it cut her open really bad above the eye. And a lot of people, they booed. They booed when she was like trying to do stuff. No disrespect to her. I mean, she is the undisputed super lightweight champion for the wba, the wbc, IBF and wbo. She's carried a lot of belts and you know, right now she's one of a, she's a big, big champion in the world of women's boxing. So the fact that they had her promoted on the event to go over to go against one of their top stars and then still she ended up losing. Now this is not the first time they've ever done this fight. They actually did this a previous fight beforehand, but overall it was a tremendous fight. Now the main event, first off, Jake Paul came out to in the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. If anybody remembers that hangover with Zach Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper, they know that Mike Tyson's in that movie talking about somebody stealing their tiger. And of course, anybody seen the movie, you know what happens. But when they first introduce him, he's got in the Air Tonight by Phil Collins on and the entire time during his entrance, veteran commentator and play by play, Mauro Ranallo, who by the way, did an amazing job. Mauro Ranallo, for wrestling fans who remember him back when he did smackdown and then he did NXT from I want to say 2016 to probably 2019, because I don't remember him doing stuff in 2020. But when he got to WWE, he brought an emphasis into everything that he called play by play for, whether it was calling for smackdown pay per views and then eventually towards the end of his run in WWE with NXT and the Black and Gold and the fact that Triple H brought him alongside another wrestling legend in Nigel McGinnis and then they also had Percy Williams in that three man lineup.
[00:10:50] But every single time that you were watching a NXT black and Gold pay per view, you loved the energy that all three gave in those pay per views. And just hearing him again and he even mentioned it, that the last time that he was in at and T stadium was WrestleMania 32, and that that was really, really cool. But the entire time that Jake is doing his entrance, he's describing everything from the gear that he's wearing, it cost almost a million dollars. And then he's got this like cut off crew cab, you know, spray painted from the Grease Monkeys organization and that group. And he's just coming out in the air, is playing. And you get this bold entrance from Jake Paul. And then you see Mike Tyson, Mike Tyson legit had just the plain black robe, plain black cut off robe.
[00:11:58] And you can instantly see as he's walking out, he stumbles and you can see he's walking out and there's something that's not clicking. And I don't know exactly what it was. I know everybody's gonna say that he was paid off.
[00:12:17] You know, the rumor number was he got paid off almost $20 million.
[00:12:23] But like, man, you could see in his eyes before the match even started, before the bell even rang, you could tell he did not want to be there. He was for real with the press saying, like he needed this to prove to his family of everything that you know beforehand.
[00:12:47] But like, man, like you didn't need to do this kind of stuff.
[00:12:53] And then he even got worse because as he's, you know, getting ready for his introductions, they pan down, he's wearing a knee brace, he's got a knee pad on and he's just fighting in like normal clothes. And meanwhile they're talking about Jake Paul just like having all this stuff. And they went an eight round unanimous decision.
[00:13:18] The good thing was, and everybody is continuing to say, is that they're glad Paul did not knock out Tyson because he surely and definitely could have knocked him out. And that would have been the complete end of this man's legacy that he left on the world of boxing. And they got in there, he threw a couple of punches.
[00:13:45] At the end of the rounds, Paul landed 78 total punches on Tyson while Tyson only landed 18 out of 97 punches. And again, he's 58. He was 58 years old.
[00:14:01] Now, mind you, four years ago he had an exhibition match with Roy Joe Jr. On Thriller, another streaming service that they produced a fight on. And they have produced a lot of fights, especially the ones that happened in 2020, like Jake Paul's debut with Nate Robinson and then also the match with Ben Askren. But like, this should have not happened. A 31 year age difference. And this is your first fight professionally sanctioned it over 20 years. There is a problem and that is a complete setup because they knew it withdrew numbers and that's exactly what they did. So the question is, who do you really blame?
[00:15:00] The man went in there, he bit his glove for half of the match.
[00:15:05] Every time he went in the corner you could see he was hurting even more. And they went all eight rounds, didn't back a single personnel and boom. Paul wins by unanimous decision.
[00:15:19] With the scores being 80 to 72, 79 to 73 and 79 to 73. They tried give it to him in the first but then as the rounds kept going like eight two minute rounds is so much for one man to do for 16 minutes to get into a quote unquote fighter. A boxer who is definitely more young, he's more able, he has more agility, he can move a little faster than you.
[00:15:54] And that was just a lot to put Mike through. But I don't really blame Paul for all this. I think it's just this is what Paul is going to do to try and get successful in this boxing community.
[00:16:11] Because a lot of people have still called him a joke.
[00:16:15] And even though time after time he will call out decent fighters like a Tommy Fury, like a Mike Perry, like an Anderson Silva, like a Tyrone Woodley. They should have known this was a bad idea to have a 58 year old man sanctioned for a fight. And the craziest thing I found out was over the weekend every other state other than Texas has a 10 year maximum on the year difference for a fight to be sanctioned. Texas does not have that limit because Texas apparently does not care.
[00:16:53] But the real person that I want to blame for how this entire night went and the rest of the fights, they weren't even good.
[00:17:04] Every fight ended in unanimous or split decision, there was no knockouts. People stayed up from 8pm to 2am in the morning to watch this event and there wasn't a single knockout blow. There was a couple of really, really good shots and hits and punches and the only and the best one coming from the co main event with Taylor and Serrano. But everything else like, you know, I don't know much of these people but their, you know, their message especially for most valuable promotions is trying to, you know, trying to connect young fighters to the world of boxing. And that's where I put this blame on. I put it on the man who is the co founder of mvp, who works with Jake Paul and that is Nakisa Bidarian. Bedarian legitimately is the cataclysm to this fight. And every Fight Jake Paul legitimately, every fight. Jake Paul and also Amanda Serrano, who's their, their women's equivalent and who's actually a boxer as we saw Friday night. And she has actual good record and she has had, she has held some championships. Badarian is really the person behind this. And this is from a article that CNN produced immediately after the fight. And it says Bedarian has worked for numerous enterprises as an investor advisor and financial consultant, including a period as the CFO for Ultimate Fighting Champion up to 2016.
[00:18:51] So this man legitimately was working alongside Dana White and has the knowledge that Dana gave him and he was in charge of the financial aspects of that. And when he first met Paul, as it continues, he met Paul through a Mutual Friend in October 2019 and would go to advance on the YouTuber's boxing career, which basically had just started, you know, later on early 2000 and 20s when he had that first fight against Nate Robinson knocked him out. But that was not going to like that was the still the Thriller thing. I executive produced Mike Tyson's exhibition fight against Roy Jones in 2020. Bidarian said I brought on Jake Paul as a co feature of that event and that's where Jake got his notoriety as a fairly nice young boxer. So basically he, he also worked with Mike Tyson, so that was his connection. But even then there was an exhibition fight that wasn't a sanctioned fight and still I think Roy Jones won that fight. But back then Tyson was still available to box. But he's been boxing for money probably. He goes on and continues and says it was really based off of three things. Badarian told cnn. And this was back in July. And this is behind the. The company's community, the company's creation of MVP most valuable promotions. One, the mindset of fighters first really making fighters feel like they're the focus and they get the lion's share of the revenue. So again, it's a, it's a money thing to him. Two was wanting to double down on women.
[00:20:39] And he goes on, he says that I had experience in MMA when Ronda Rousey roasts success and really trailblazed the sport. I believe the same thing can happen within boxing. And Amanda was that vehicle.
[00:20:53] Perfect athlete, perfect superstar in the making and then it receives and it goes into third. Was. Was giving young boxers a platform. So he's basically saying that he wanted boxers to actually see the money that they were promised because you hear about bonuses on knockouts in the UFC and you know, I, I just still don't understand it exactly. But he Wanted them to actually see like that there's actually making money. And then he also talked about putting women, you know, as a focal point in women's boxing. And, you know, women boxing. It hasn't really been the biggest of deals and the, the biggest, you know, boxing, you know, boxing legend in the career of women's boxing was really Christy Martin, which they're doing a biopic right now with Sydney Sweeney, and, you know, that's gonna be something good. And she also has her own mini docu series, episode off of the Netflix Untold, where she talks about her rise and then her eventual ex husband who then got convicted with assault against her. You know, that's, that's a really good episode and a really good docu series is the Netflix Untold series. But he then goes on to talk about that. Bidarian nevertheless believes that Serrano is left in a strong position despite the defeat. I feel blessed that she actually lost, he said. I hate the decision, but I love the outcome. There was a trilogy that was pre. Negotiated hadn't Katie Taylor won? There is no trilogy now in place. So he already predetermines that. Yo, if you win that title off of her, we're already getting a third fight. We just need to book it and that's it. So he's already planning this out and scripting it out like, you know, it's pro wrestling. This is towards the end of the article and this is where I'll stop here. Amanda Serrano is in the greatest position of her life. She is the face of women's boxing. I think the whole world thought she won, and now she's going to win in a way that no woman has ever done in sports before. And that's with her bank account because she deserves every bit of it. No, no, no, no, no. It's not the money that matters. It matters that you put an actual focus and you treat it like how it is. Because I don't know exactly how biased some of the judges were in some of the matches, but the bank account don't mean nothing. What matters is the reason why everybody was happy for her and still thought she should have won is because she beat Taylor every which way. And other than a couple of shots that went in Taylor's favor is why she lost. It's not her bank account that's going to make her successful. It's her tenacity and her strength in the ring, because that's what a boxer is. This is not a bottom money, at least not for me. So for Badarian, I I really feel like he's one of the main causes of this. I don't know entirely how I feel about the entire thing, but, man, it was such a hard fight to watch. And then, of course, we'll go ahead and we'll talk about it. The infamous butt shot that they got post interview, which, by the way, was Mike's own kid, his own son, interviewed him backstage, man, was a few words. He said he was gonna get a vicious win. He kisses his son, he says, I love you, and then he walks and the camera perfectly catches him. And he's just wearing this device and it shows his complete backside. And it's like, this is what we. This is what millions of people tuned in for. And I bet you 100% he probably negotiated that shot being included, because why else would he wear that in the middle of an interview? Overall, the thing sucked. You know, a lot of people hated it, and they're like, oh, well, it wasn't rigged. What about the summer training that we saw those training videos leading up to the original match that was gonna happen in July, okay, guess what? Can train. But when you're in the ring and it's go time, all that training could be right out the window. So it was what it was. I. I ended up watching the next night. It was Mij versus Jones. I loved that. I love that match. That knockout blow, that backward spinning kick to the. To the lower part of Stipe's abdomen, his chest area. That was. That was unbelievable. Jon Jones gets another knockout and he is completely dodging Tom Aspinall, who currently is the interim heavyweight champion because of the Jon Jones incident that happened because Jon Jones could not defend the belt and then they gave it Tom Aspinall. And he's continuing to say he does not want to fight Aspinall. He walked out on a. On an interview in which the person was definitely friends with Aspinall, and he walked out. He walked out because he thought that the interviewee was going to be biased. He thought that the interviewer was going to be biased off of him not wanting to face Aspinall. And the fact is he should he beat this match. He's the current heavyweight champion. So you want to be the undisputed heavyweight champion, then go ahead and do that. But instead he wants to fight Alex Pereira. And what he said was that he doesn't want to face dangerous up and comers anymore. He wants to fight dangerous established champions. I'm sorry, are the rookies not good for you, Mr. Jones? I would definitely, certainly say that they are after. One of them is currently holding a championship that you were gone for and you could not defend up until now, months later. So they had to find somebody and Tom Aspinall has done that successfully. So why wouldn't you face him? It is what it is. Part of me is just, you know, I'm just glad ufc, you know, comes around. The Chandler fight that also happened. The co main event with Charles I thought was amazing.
[00:27:22] They really showed up and you know, they went every single round and at the end of the day Chandler lost and he called out McGregor again, which we should be able to get that fight if McGregor is healthy. But only time would sell. Moving on to professional wrestling and we had some news finally announced. It was rumored for weeks that it was going to be released, but now it is confirmed that on December 20th, Ring of Honor Final Battle 2024 will be live from the iconic Hammerstein Ballroom, Manhattan center in New York City. This will mark the company's return to the venue for the first time since 2019. The Hammerstein itself has been host to many significant shows in Ring of Honor history, with Final Battle being hosted in the venues on seven different occasions between 2008 and 2018. The venue has famously played host to Paul Heyman's ECW and the venue recently was home to the world on gcw with Game Changer Wrestling being set to return to the venue in 2025. This is massive because not only are they going to run that venue for Ring of Honor, they're also going to run that venue for for AW Collision the night after and then a special taping of Dynamite on the 22nd and that's going to be aired out on Christmas Day, which does fall on a Wednesday. So the fact that they are being able to reserve this and they were able to book this venue because you know, at the end of the day, AEW is gonna produce amazing shows with amazing pro wrestlers. And the only problem is the storylines, the attendance, the viewership and the ratings. Because it does not take a rocket scientist to tell you that the ratings have been through a down world spiral along with their viewership. And along with their attendance, what years ago they were able to do on average were three times the size of what they have currently now. Like back then they would have had an arena for 8,000 people and now it's been like 2500 in like a decent sized 10k venue.
[00:30:03] Like there has been a significant problem with AEW and they've made slight changes and then they've made major setbacks and now, it was reported by Brian Alvarez off of the Wrestling observer that AEW are planning to hold future tapings of Dynamite and Collision at smaller venues.
[00:30:25] And he proceeded to say that.
[00:30:27] I'm going to be kind of vague, but it's happening. I've been told that there was a move to be made of running smaller buildings. Now you hear that and think, why does the move need to be made? Just book smaller buildings. Well, apparently there's actually was a logical reason on why they were running a lot of larger buildings. And it had to do with the set and in particular the lighting red.
[00:31:00] There was something that they had in their set that was basically too large and heavy to get into smaller buildings. So they have been working on retooling it so they can actually get their set into smaller buildings.
[00:31:22] So I think as the year 2025 kind of starts coming in, they've been talking about different ideas for production and everything like that. I think we're going to finally get the move. There are going to be smaller buildings. They're going to work on some production. Hopefully that will be positive in terms of how the show looks, sounds, etcetera on television and it will save them a lot of money.
[00:31:53] This has been something that everybody has been telling all Elite Wrestling for the last year or so because they know they are barely getting the amount of people that they did previously. And the fact that they are continuing to run bigger and bigger and bigger venues. Like they ran the Kia Forum for pay per view and that pay per view did about, yeah, I'd say about 11,000 people. They ran Dynamite in Collision the next couple of nights there at the same forum, less than about 2300 people. And you see it's all taped off on hard cam side when they're talking to the hard cam side and wrestlers are cutting promos and everybody makes fun of it. And hopefully with this move going into smaller buildings, this will be something good. Now mind you, they had a really cool setup back in August that they were using for the esports stadium in Arlington. It was just like, like all digital LEDs and it looked halfway decent. The difficulty of like running bigger venues is just the fact of you can hear that there's no energy if you run a smaller building. Like you take a look at TNA whose profits and attendance numbers have skyrocketed. And even though that they're small buildings, they're still selling out those buildings. And those buildings sound louder than they ever did beforehand when TNA was not doing so well and they were in their current, you know, Period of what AEW is doing. AEW is a professional show that is strictly a competitor towards the World Wrestling Entertainment.
[00:33:38] And they go week after week after week moving to different venues.
[00:33:43] Stuff like Impact, they'll do a couple of times at different venues, but back then it was always at the Impact Zone and they would record and tape and do episodes again and again and again week on, week out. And sometimes they were good, sometimes they were bad, and you know, that's what they did. But that venue was so much easier to control because it was a studio that TNA could use and they can work it into their favor. It sucks because this was not the AEW that we were promised. We were promised it was going to be a strong competitor and now they're going to be starting to run smaller venues and hopefully that saves them a lot because with the smaller venues then they can have a lot more noise in the building, they can have a lot more crowd control and you know, they can do so much. But you know, that's one of the biggest steps that they have been needing to take for years and years for, I don't want to say years, but at least that they've been wanting to have for like the last couple of months when business has definitely slowed down. So.
[00:34:57] So now we'll take a look at the final full gear preview. Now when I'm recording this, the Go Home show will currently be happening.
[00:35:09] So I will read off of the car that we have right now and basically go from there.
[00:35:17] So first up, in the pre show, the only pre announced pre show, I believe it was the first match that was announced for full gear in the pre show is Big Boom. AJ justice, along with his son Big justice versus QT Marshall and dear God, they have ran this Trend all throughout 2024 and this entire justice family, man, they have just consumed everybody's attention.
[00:35:59] And it's all for the most basic stuff and the most insane thing being that the dad is an actual pro wrestler. And you can see that most of this character that he builds along with his family is a Persona that he learned from pro wrestling. So the fact that now years later, and he's been coming back into wrestling since I think like about a year ago or so, and now he's finally gonna get a main show match in a very big arena, bigger than any of the independent promotions that he's been wrestling for for the last couple of months is gonna be huge for him and his family.
[00:36:45] But it's like this is what you're focused on. Your focus on a Content creator Triple H just announced that Travis Scott is going to exclusively be performing at the season debut on Netflix for Monday night Raw on January 6th. And you have the chocolate chip cookie guy from Costco Wrestling on your pre show. And you got more storytelling with that match than you probably have with the rest of the eight matches that you have announced for the actual main card of the pay per View in which that build includes a dis track from a wrestler slash trainer like. And it's super crazy because he hasn't even been on tv.
[00:37:37] When I'm recording this, AJ justice is going to have a promo live on television and that is the only on air segment that they will get TV time for to build this pre show match.
[00:37:56] And it's solely based off of Gen Z.
[00:38:00] Like, I don't know what's gonna happen. We all know AJ's gonna win.
[00:38:07] They're just gonna run a bunch of shenanigans.
[00:38:10] But yeah, it's just very disappointed that they have this as even a match, even if it's on the pre show. Next up we have MJF versus Roderick Strong. And I know that last week I didn't make the remark and I said, oh, they're just going to do a 211 handicap with Adam Cole and Roderick Strong against MJF. And that was not the case. Konosuke Takeshina did beat Adam Cole, so Adam Cole did not get the three wins. And now Roderick will face MJF in a storyline which I'm, I'm, I guess still works, but now you just flip the roles. And this entire MJF storyline has completely taken away all the aura and all the attention that MJF ever had beforehand.
[00:39:00] And this is all because of the Adam Cole situation. Because if Adam Cole does not interfere at Grand Slam two years ago against MJF and Samoa Joe and he does not break his foot, this would not happen.
[00:39:21] And it would have had a bigger payoff and then they would have been able to continue that. But they had to wait months and months and months. And then they also had to wait on MJF because MJF ended up getting injured through all of this.
[00:39:37] So I have a feeling MJF is still going to win because mjf, they got to still promote them as their top guy, but it's clearly been taken over by this man, and that is Will Ospreay. And Ospreay is facing Kyle Fletcher. That is the one storyline that, as confusing as it is, has the most story built around it.
[00:40:02] And it is solely because Kyle Fletcher does not want to be in Will Ospreay shadow anymore. So he shaved his head like his boss Don Calis, and now is going to try to end the legacy of Will Ospreay. But then again, as cool as this match is going to be, and this is going to be a six star classic, according to Dave Meltzer, Ospreay needs to get back into the swing of things because, yes, he lost it. He lost the International Championship in a triple threat with Ricochet and Takeshna at Wrestle Dream. And that is good. And they're about to start the Continental Classic, which I definitely believe Ospreay should be in.
[00:40:49] But now it's either the question of after this win that Ospreay is clearly going to have.
[00:40:55] Does all spray now go towards facing Jon Moxley at Winter is Coming in December, or are they going to make that as the main event of AW Revolution, which was announced today will take place at Crypto arena, which that is a very big stretch. Especially after I just talked about them running smaller buildings and they're going to run in the home of the Lakers.
[00:41:28] That's huge.
[00:41:30] And I really hope that they end up doing a good house for that event. Especially if the selling point is Moxley vs. Ospreay in which Ospreay should definitely be winning the World Heavyweight Championship. But you know, only time will tell with that. Next up we have Jay White versus Hangman Adam Page. This is a pretty meh match other than Hangman being a crazed lunatic. And I really don't know what's his, you know, his goal after this match. But you know, I'm easily just going to say that because Jay White got the win at Wrestle Dream, now Page is going to get that off of some hijinks somehow, some way. Next up, we have a four way tag match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships with Private Party defending the championships against the outrunners of Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd versus the Kings of the Black Throne, which is Malachi Black and Brody King. The House of Black is if it involved Buddy Matthews versus the acclaimed of Anthony Bowens and Max Caster.
[00:42:49] Again, another meh match because this is a tradition that they have I guess started at full gear where they just put a bunch of tag teams in and just throw them into one ring and they say, okay, hit us with a really good match and definitely the Kings of the Black Throne, they could definitely work something out. And they are, they are one of my favorites going into this. But you know, people have the meme runners, the outrunners, where it's this old 90s throwback tag team that everybody's been pushing for and it's not going to go anywhere, sorry to tell you. It's just a funny little tag team that's gaining steam off the Internet. And I'm hoping that Tony Khan is not actually serious about these two.
[00:43:43] These two buffoon grown men just cosplaying as old 80s and 90s wrestlers and try to make them the champions. I mean, private party, they're good, but it was just too late to put the tag team titles on them. I much rather would see the tag titles on the Kings of the Black Throne. So I'm gonna go ahead and make that as my pick is Kings of the Black Throne. Malachi Black and Brody King will win the tag titles. Next up, the only women's match so far announced for the full gear final card is Mercedes Monet with Camille versus Chris Statlander. This has had ups and downs, but it is really the only two important women on that roster. Everybody else on that roster is a joke. Even the World Heavyweight Champion, who I believe will be facing Mina and I cannot pronounce her last name, so don't expect me to. But even Mariah May is like not even a decent world champion for the women's division. The most decent women's champion that they have is an ex WWE wrestler who has still not lost a match since she signed back in February and was basically just handed the belt in her very first match because they thought that that was going to be a ratings drive and it wasn't because they realized that Mercedes is only for the actual monetary unless she actually has good creative like Back in Black and Gold and when Triple H probably would have booked her if she had stayed longer.
[00:45:35] But then again, Kristen is an amazing woman's wrestler.
[00:45:43] We saw her work in that match against Willow back at all out, which I thought was fantastic.
[00:45:54] And now Chris is gonna have a really good match, but we know that Mercedes is gonna win. So moving on, we have Jack Perry versus Daniel Garcia for the AEW TNT title. Another men match and people are, you know, they're hoping and praying for Danny Garcia to finally win his first championship. Ain't gonna happen.
[00:46:17] They are just going to continue with this Jack Perry storyline and I, I really don't know who they end up having him lose the title to just because this entire storyline with the Elite is gonna suck. And now that the fact that the young bucks are out of the picture and they're trying to put them as faces coming back and saving the company from Jon Moxley's Death Rider group. It's something to think about, but overall, I think Jack Perry's just gonna once again scape out of this match. And then as what I believe is your combing event of the night is Swerve Strickland versus Bobby Lashley.
[00:47:02] This is going to be an absolute fire matchup because it's the first time scores ever face Bobby Lashley. It's the first time Lashley's ever faced against Swerve. And this is also going to be Lashley's first big match in AEW after he's been with WWE for the last six years.
[00:47:24] And you would have thought that they would have strapped the rocket to him and they did, and they had the Hurt business, but then they went and disbanded that. And you know, along with that, Bobby did get a world title run and then he lost it to Biggie and then he pinned Brock Lesnar, but then he ended up losing it again the month after.
[00:47:50] This will be a absolute barn burner and Lashley is going to win.
[00:47:58] And maybe we get a fourth member in the Hurt Syndicate with MVP Shelton, Benjamin and Lashley. They had the match with Leo Rush, so Leo could try to come in and be the Cedric Alexander of the group, I guess. But overall, I think it's going to be an amazing match and I got Lashley winning that. And then we ended off with the flavorless, most predictable matchup on this card other than Big Boom AJ beating the crap out of QT Marshall in the pre show. And that is John Moxley versus Orange Cassidy for the AEW World Championship. I think this is just. I'm. I'm hoping at the end of all this, this ends up being the debut of Shane McMahon.
[00:48:56] There has been talks of even Mustafa Ali being featured with this Death Riders group and him and Yuta can go on and, and be a tag team together. And you know, you got Pac and you had Claudio Castagnoli.
[00:49:13] This entire Rough Riders, the Death Riders group, this entire Death Riders group storyline has been, in my mind, it's. It's Tony Khan's second version of what the Undisputed Kingdom was supposed to be. But it did not turn into that way because Wardlow has not been featured because he's been injured and Adam Cole got injured, so he couldn't do much. So all that left them is with Matt Taven and Mike Bennett, which did nothing.
[00:49:55] So you couldn't really do much. And now they're going to try to do this again with this group. And I'm hoping That at the end of all this, it's revealed that Shane McMahon has been the one holding hostage AEW. And then Revolution will be where Team AEW wins. And that's what I would, I would assume storyline wise in which is the direction that they should go. But like I said, I think Moxley is going to clearly win this match.
[00:50:26] And after this going into winter is coming and Revolution is where they're going to have to make a big difference in showing us that this Jon Moxley group is one of the baddest groups in all of professional wrestling.
[00:50:48] Moving on, we are now going to shift into WWE and we're gonna talk about the latest episodes of SmackDown and Raw. Now, Raw was taped last week, like I mentioned on the podcast. So we start smackdown off with Cody Rhodes coming out and wanting to get revenge on Kevin Owens.
[00:51:18] He just piledrived Randy Orton, who now will be taken off of tv. Instead of Owens coming out, General manager of smackdown, Nick Aldis, he comes in and tries to calm down Cody. And all this is telling Cody all about the illegal pile driver that basically has been banned from wwe. Yet everybody else in developmental and any of the other Superstars, like a Rey Mysterio, like a Dragon Lee, like anybody of the cruiserweights, they're meanwhile doing sunset flip pile drivers. The Panama Sunrise as I mostly know it for from Adam Cole, but they're doing move like that, flipping into a pile driver constantly, every time. But that's different from an actual pile driver. And of course they're making the pile driver seem much more severe than like something like AEW because like somebody could get hit with a pile driver. How many pile drivers the last year in AEW have we seen where somebody will get a pile driver and they'll have it on anything, A table, some still chairs, some still steps, and then they immediately get back up and they do about 10 more minutes of spots. Like it's crazy, but they are really toning down and they are really making this, you know, you know, there's a reason many people, you know, haven't used the pile driver a lot. So, you know, this is a really cool moment of using that importance of the pile driver. And basically all this tells Cody that Owens has been banned from the building and he's just trying to keep the roster in line to make sure that there's no trouble. But Cody is he, he's really defiant and he, this is what Cody's character has really been, is trying to, when push comes to shove, be the dominant champion that everybody wants him to Be he basically says that all this is making Owens into a martyr and like trying to suggest that, always stopping him and banning him and all this other stuff. And a new thing apparently is Owens now has a Lamborghini. I, I seriously don't have any clue how on earth like a guy like that who for years and years and years has been one of like the cutthroat guys that started off in the Indies back in the early 2000s of Ring of Honor and then like finally went up to wwe and now all of a sudden he's like driving a Lamborghini, which means he's getting paid very well. And he basically labeled Owens as self righteous and an asshole. But all this has tried to make his general manager character very thoroughly. He is a person that is not afraid to take matters into his own hands. And you know, he's a very serious person. Well, meanwhile, Adam Pearce, like, there's times when like, he'll be like, oh, I'll let anybody do and you know, whatever they want. But then he's got like little mini backstage promos and spots with, you know, a Chelsea Green or you know, some random thing he told about Randy Orton's mentorship and telling him, imagine being the one to call his wife and say that I don't know if his neck is broken. And then questions Aldous decisions of if I can't handle my business in the ring, I'll just buy a ticket, go to his house, knock on his door and kick his ass. And he tells Aldous that this is on his shoulders now and that he will not be waiting very long to deal with the actions of Kevin Owens.
[00:55:11] This is a decent storyline. And the rumor that this is not going to take place at Survivor Series in Vancouver, this is actually going to take place in the debut of Saturday night's main event in December. I think that's a really, really good, strong main event to start off what, you know, you're trying to make as a really special broadcast for NB after the deal that they cut shortly after we heard about the Netflix deal and everything else like that. You know, really good start to the show. And meanwhile, backstage, Jimmy is discussing Survivor Series strategy with Jey and Sami Zayn and trying to tease the reveal of their fifth member for War Games. And Sammy is confident and he declares he has somebody in mind and he sets off to find him. From there, we end up getting into the first round matchup for the Women's United States Championship tournament.
[00:56:16] This championship is going to be something monumental for the women's division. For years and years and years, the WWE has never provided a mid car championship for its women's. It's always been the World Heavyweight Championship for the women's. And you know, for years and years and years, that was just bounced around from diva to diva. And then the women's revolution came in and then you've seen stars like Becky lynch and Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair and Liv Morgan and Alexa Bliss and they've all been able to hold that championship high. And now you're finally going to give those people who feel like they have to chase for the world title now a chance to fight for something that is the first of its kind ever in WWE in the modern era. So in a triple threat match in the first round we had Bayley, Candice lerae and bfab. The match started with Candice lerae targeting Bailey's knee and delivering a series of strikes to both opponents, but BFAB took back control, landing a powerful delayed body slam and a sliding lariat on Larray. The action spilled across the ring with BFAB landing a double clothesline and a hook kick before Bailey countered with shoulder tackles and back elbows, briefly gaining momentum. Lara fought back with precision, delivering a rolling neck snap and running drop kick, while Bailey showcased her resilience with a middle rope stunner and a flying elbow drop for a near fall.
[00:57:56] The chaos peak with a triple clothesline, leaving all three competitors sprawled in the ring.
[00:58:05] Laray upped the ante with a back centaun code breaker combo and attempted a high risk crossbody. But bfab countered with a fallaway slam and she nearly sealed the match with an inverted neck breaker in a modified urinary slam. But Bailey's veteran instincts kicked in and then towards the end of the match, she was able to land Bailey's belly on B Fab, but then got tossed out of the ring by Candice Lerae, who tried to make the opportunity last, but a springboard moonsault, she misses. And B Fab was trying to get the up on Larray, but then Bailey comes right back in, rolls up after she escaped a roundhouse kick, and she wins and moves on to the next round. Very good stuff. You know, Bailey is definitely a good favorite to maybe do this, but I have a feeling they'll go for somebody a little bit lower than Bailey.
[00:59:12] And I believe that this championship, unless I have missed anything, will be defended on both Raw and smackdown. Right after the match, we got a US Championship open challenge by La Knight. Yeah.
[00:59:33] And Lingado del Fantasma came out and Santos Escobar came out and tried to challenge La Knight, but La Knight stated that he had a chance, but he decided to give Humberto Carlijo, who is now just going by Berto, as far as I know. And La Knight had a little bit of a joke of calling, I believe it was Elektra Lopez calling La Knight daddy while Berto is going to be screaming uncle. So that was a fun little tidbit. Before the bell rang, Berto sees the upper hand ambushing Knight and stomping him to the mat. During the commercial break, Berto dominated, maintaining control with a combination of chops and an apron in Sagiri in a missile dropkick that nearly got him the nearfall. Berto transitioned to an abdominal stretch, but of course Knight powered out. Knight then began to rally back, launching Birdo over the top rope and slamming his head onto the announce table before a picture perfect DDT for a near fall. Birdo tried to fight back with a springboard in Sagiri and set up for a big moonsault, but of course he countered by getting his foot up. Knight then delivered some of his power moves with a power slam. And then Birdo tried to come back with some knife edge chops and a suplex, but Knight fought back and gave, you know, the big elbow drop from the top. And then finally, La Knight, he had his BFT 1, 2, 3, easy victory. A nice little open challenge, but it was short lived because then out of nowhere, Shinsuke Nakamura attacked Night with a huge kick. And now that is gonna start a feud between them. It's always good to see Nakamura come back into the fold. I know that he is going back to pro wrestling Noah in Japan in January to fight a certain person, which I believe this is his second time doing it because I believe they sent him over to Noah last year and I believe he fought Muda, the great Muda in like one of his last matches because I think Sting also was a part of that, that tour as well. For Mood's farewell, we come back from break and the tensions with the bloodline is escalating as Jey tells Jimmy that they need to get their act together before facing the 2.0 bloodline as they are still short for the War Games match. Sammy started updating Roman, saying that he really didn't have any luck in finding a fifth partner. And Jay pressed Roman to step in and make the necessary call. Now that was the biggest storyline going through the bloodline of who is Jey telling Roman the call? After that match, it was Sammy who went up to La Knight and asked, hey, you want to be part of the war games? And of course he said no. We then go to the ring where now bloodline 2.0 comes out and it's Solo.
[01:02:58] Tom, Tonga, Tongaloa and Jacob. Fatu try to get Milwaukee to acknowledge him, but immediately before anything could happen, the OTC and the rest of the OG bloodline comes in and starts attacking the bloodline 2.0. Jacob came in, he landed two super kicks on Roman. Solo set up Sami Zayn in the ring for a Samoan spike, but Roman cut him off with a huge spear. Sami came in with a high flying summerslar plancha clearing everybody out and it left Roman versus Fatu and that is a match that most likely will be reserved for a bigger pay per view. I'm not sure if they're going to just continue to play along and not give the Rock and Roman a spot. On one of the nights of the main event in Las Vegas in April for Wrestlemania, Fatu and Reigns are standing in the ring. They're both staring at each other and from behind Bronson Reed comes in and he blindsides Roman.
[01:04:11] Fatu followed up with a running hip attack in the corner. The OG Bloodline try to come back in. They try to help out Roman, but then the dominance from Fatu and Reed. Two massive individuals dominate all these men could not get the job done for Jey, Jimmy and Sammy. Fatu stunned the crowd with a breathtaking double jump moonsault, which I still can't believe that Jacob fought to can be able to get up that height, deliver it perfectly no matter where it is. And then Reed finally delivered a tsunami and Roman tried to fight back, sending Tangaloa into the steel ring post and landing a couple superman punches. But then Solo caught him with another Samoan spike just like he did at Crown Jewel. Fatu hit another moonsault on Roman before Bronson finally delivered the final statement with a tsunami from the corner. They walked out, they lifted the ones including Bronson. Reed acknowledging that Solo is the real travel chief.
[01:05:20] Well, Jay and Roman are in the ring aching from the pain and Jay tells Roman, you gotta make the call. At first people did not understand it just based off of the pre tape, but seeing how they did it from the smackdown which was live from Milwaukee, I really see that there's a big connection from this and a lot of people, you know, they sometimes won't understand it and this is where they thought like Seth is going to come in, but I don't believe that it will be Seth who is the fifth person. And it works in terms of just who is the bloodline 2.0 hiring. They're hiring the dangerous people, they're hiring the sadistic people, the people that won't show no mercy, you know, and they'll play around. But moving on, we got another championship match, and this is a tag team championship match between the Motor City Machine guns and the street profits. Chris Saban and Montez Ford opened up the match with a little bit of a technical exchange and some roll ups. Saban earned early control with arm drags and he tagged out to Alex Shelley for a double Irish rip, followed by an inverted atomic drop and a basement drop kick slash moodle combo. That is a top top combo right there. They get the basement drop kick, they, you know, fold over. They get the big old moodle. Lock the headlock on there. It's a really, really decent move. Despite the guns offense, Ford rallied with a running Larry and tagged out to the powerhouse Angelo Dawkins, who delivered a explosive pounce on Shelly over the ring. It completely set him. And anytime any, any wrestler does that pounce where they just shoot that opponent up over the announce table, it's just ridiculous. They could end up hitting one of the commentators. They don't care. The profits dominated during the commercial break, isolating Shelley coming back. Shelley avoided Dawkins in the corner, attacked back out to Saban, who fired up with a flying hurricanrana and a cannonball senton to the outside.
[01:07:38] Shelley reentered back to the match for a missile dropkick flatliner combo and nearly securing the win. Shelly went to re enter in for a missile drop click flatliner combo, but he nearly secured a near fall. And Saban attempted for the cradle shock on Ford, but Angelo Dawkins came back in, intervened by a pounce and a belly to back suplex combo that they've been using, where they pounced him right into Montez Ford's arms and basically he just like delivers that suplex. But then out of nowhere, as Ford's on the top rope about to hit from the heavens, Tommaso Champa of DIY comes off and he shoves Ford off the top and that caused a disqualification and Ciampa just began attacking on the street profits. And then Gargano tries to come out, tries to calm him down, you know, say like, you know, this is not necessary. And after a little bit of some thinking, Ciampa just shoves Gorgeno back to the floor and he walks off up the ramp. Shelly and Saban trying to apologize for the disqualification, but Then Dawkins just lands a straight right hand on Shelly and leaves. A lot of new storylines coming in from this and most likely we're gonna get another triple threat match and we're gonna get Motor City versus diy and then at that point DIY will implode and then we could finally get, for the first time, surprisingly, we could finally get Tommaso Ciampa versus Johnny Gargano in a one on one feud on the main roster. And you know anybody that watched Old School nxt, Black and Gold know how much of the bangers that they put on, whether you're looking at New Orleans in the non sanctioned or you're looking at the street fight and Chicago, they put on classic after classic after classic. That should be pretty interesting. Street profits, turning up heel, that's also another good option as well. After the match, we had a backstage segment with Bianca Belair trying to tell Naomi that she can never trust Bailey. So Bianca's still very salty on Bailey and I thought that Bianca was gonna be heel long, long time ago and I don't know what happened, but they have shied away from that up until this point. And next week Naomi is going to be facing Blair Davenport and Chelsea Green. So that should be an interesting match. I think that Naomi is actually still going to win that match and they're gonna have another match with, I believe, Bailey and Naomi, along with Naomi being a part of the War Games match at Survivor Series along with Jade, Bianca and Iyo. Then in the main event, Nia, Jax took on Naomi for the Women's championship.
[01:10:47] Naomi came out swinging drop, kicking Jax at the bell and unleashing a flurry of strikes. Jax quickly asserted her power, driving Naomi into the turnbuckles with shoulder blocks and levering her with a body avalanche. Naomi used her agility to avoid Jax's running leg dropped, encountered with a roundhouse kick and a splitting leg drop for a near fall. Jax dominated through sheer strength, ragdolling Naomi and delivering a pop up headbutt. Naomi tried to fight back with resilience, landing a heat seeker in a stunning suicide dive to the outside. Jack size advantage came into play after she planted Naomi with a counter vertical suplex and a leaping body block. Naomi countered Jack's brute's force with different counters, including a sunset flip and a springboard in Sagiri. And then after that, Naomi came back in. She hit the rear view for a two count. But then Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez comes in and they start attacking Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill backstage. And while that's going on and Naomi gets distracted. Tiffany Stratton sneaks into the ring. She attacks Naomi behind the referee's back. Jax capitalized with a running leg drop and went to the turnbuckle for a huge avalanche body slam. But all of a sudden, in a great counter, Naomi came in with a head scissors takeover legit from the top rope. Naomi tried to get back up and capitalize. As that's happening, Bailey comes in and at ringside she beats up Tiffany Stratton, getting her into the barricade. And just before Naomi drove Jax shoulder first into the steel ring post and she landed another split legged moonsault. And then all of a sudden, Candice Lerae blindsided Bayley, distracting Naomi just enough for Jax to take over with a Samoan drop. And then finally with the annihilator for the 1, 2, 3. Very decent match. Nothing out of the ordinary, but that was not the end of the show because we see Roman back and he's breathing heavy and he looks exhausted. He finally picks up his phone and he says call the wise man. And the cell phone starts ringing, ringing and then it finally says that that phone is out of service.
[01:13:17] So the three main speculations and I'll go through which is most likely and which is not the most likely.
[01:13:28] The most likely thing is because Rock is not going to have the wise man Paul Heyman show up until at Survivor Series because there is multiple rumors that the fifth member of Team Roman at WarGames will be a returning CM Punk. And I'm gonna talk about that more as we go into the main event of Monday Night Raw. So that's a speculation. Number two is that maybe Paul Heyman had his phone destroyed. Because if you remember, as Solo was starting to take over as the Tribal chief, he smashed the phone that Paul Heyman usually would have used to call Roman Reigns. We've seen it in the past, the meme of him holding up the phone and say, call Roman Reigns. And he smashed that. So who knows. And then there was another one which somebody caught, which I did not realize. And that would. It would be ridic. It would be insane if it was true. But somehow Sami Zayn, as they saw that solo and bloodline 2.0 were coming out out of his pocket. People notice he tossed a phone onto the same couch that Roman would later sit to try to make the call.
[01:14:59] So something happened with that and now it's like Sammy might be the culprit. So now there's like moles throughout that entire team. Moving on, we have the Raw preview. We had the lwo of Rey Mysterio and Selena Vega take on American Made of Chad Gable and Ivy Nile. We had Bron Baker versus Sheamus, Rural Raiders versus Carlito and Dominick. And then the main event was Bronson Reed versus Seth Rollins. And we began the show, which was pre taped, as I mentioned. And Morgan came in and welcomed everybody to Monday night. Morgan, this is a constant trope that a lot of wrestlers like to use. Rollins does it and several other people have done it before.
[01:15:49] She came in and she basically said that Jade and Bianca do not want to pick a fight with the greatest women's world champion of all time, which is her. And then immediately Nia Jax, she came in, she's like, I don't really like you, I don't dislike you, and I really don't think of you at all. But Jade, Bianca and Naomi, I can't stop thinking about you. Because Nya sees them as a threat to a championship. And really that is correct because those are the only three women that I see really doing anything with a championship and taking it off of Naya. And a lot of people are suspecting that that's what they're gonna do with Jade once they drop these tag titles with Bianca. I still think that that Bianca Jade match will happen at the Mania. So Bianca Belair, Jade, Iyo and Naomi all came to the ring and they tried to fight with the group, but then of course, Liv mocked them and said, oh, you know, the math isn't mathing here. We have five people, you have four. Who's your fifth? And all of a sudden, this is my brutality starts playing and the whole crowd erupts. And out comes Rhea Ripley after she was told that she was going to be out for months because she had a broken orbital bone, which she definitely still has. And she comes out and of course, like all people who suffer a nose, eye, or any injury like that, she's wearing the undashing Cody Rhodes mask, a little plastic mask. And she comes out and then she just shouts war games. And Ripley headbutts Liv and everybody starts fighting. Liv and the rest of her team, they flee the ring and Iyo hits a moonsault to the outside. And now team Rhea stands tall. I'm not sure how I feel about Rhea coming back so soon. I like it when wrestlers can be able to actually stay for a couple of months and they have a chance to actually heal from their wounds. But really it's the only thing that makes sense because who else on that women's roster do they have that would want to be a part of that match.
[01:18:09] Decent start to the show. We then moved on to Ivy Nile and Chad Gable versus Selena Vega and Rey Mysterio.
[01:18:19] The action started right before the battle with Niall slapping Selena Vega, prompting her to tackle Niall with a double leg takedown. A fierce ground and pound exchange. Gable blindsides Mysterio on the outside with some haymakers and Mysterio comes in with a running hurricane Rana and a flurry of kicks. Nile distracts Mysterio, giving Gable the opening to slam him into the turnbuckle and take control. American Made then dominates with as well as the Creed brothers, isolating Mysterio with some strikes and slams on the outside. Veigor comes back with some energy landing, diving clotheslines and insecurity and a Meteora. But then Nile just delivers a powerful clothesline to stop it during the break. American Made is more in control here with Nia hitting a gut wrench suplex and locking in submissions on Vega. Vega fights back up and delivers the Saito suplex and a spinning ddt hitting Mysterio for the hot tag.
[01:19:22] Mysterio lights up Gable with tilt whirl head scissors and an apron in security and then hits the west coast pop. And then finally after a Frankensteiner and the moonsault, he finally hits 6, 1, 9, delivers a splash and 1, 2, 3 and American made loses.
[01:19:43] After the match, Gable started slapping around Julius Creed and then the Creed brothers started to hype up and talk, talking to each other and basically said, I will not be around failures. A lot of the same stuff that he put on the Alpha Academy, which somehow is still happening. I don't know how it's still happening with no Chad Gable and all you have is big Man Otis, Maxine Dupree and Arena Akira Tozawa. That's it. Who next week are facing the New Day and probably what will be their last ever match. Because I'm guessing that that Raw or either the Raw after Survivor Series or the next week will be the dedication episode of the New Day. And Biggie is going to be there and you know he's probably going to take a couple shots because either woods or Kingston, I still don't know who exactly is going to turn on who, but New Day is finally gonna break up and I'm super excited for that. Meanwhile, we hit backstage and Gunter shows up and he's talking to Ludwig Kaiser, who's been a very off and on character, having his little rivalries in and out with Bron Breaker and Seamus. Mostly he demands that Ludwig stop speaking for Gunter. And instead Gunter tells Kaiser to start his own path. And he asked him, do you still see the Ring General? So further pursuing his doubt phase that Damien Priest has been talking about, and speaking of Damian Priest, he finds Damian signing some autographs in the back and tries to ambush him, blindside him. He tries going for a pipe and attacking Priest, but then Priest hits him with a low blow.
[01:21:36] Then Priest just takes a chair, sits in the chair and he looks down at Gunther, writhing in pain. And he says, you might call yourself the Ring General, but in the streets, I'm the King. Pearce comes in and he tells Priest what happened. And Priest responds with Gunter, meinie teme. This was really, really good.
[01:22:01] And it's further showing that this is going to be a much stronger match because now there is no interference from Balor. They already set that tone. They finished that up. And now it's going to be a very clean match between Gunther and Priest. And I'm very much looking forward to it. And of course, Gunther is going to hold on to that championship a lot longer and probably up until WrestleMania. We got a Miz and Karrion Kross segment backstage.
[01:22:32] Ms. Says, it's been an emotional couple weeks and now looking back, he can honestly say that he hopes the Academy saw the performance that he had last week, because it was the performance of a lifetime. He says, did Timothee Chalamet ever bleed for his art?
[01:22:49] That was a masterclass of acting, convincing those freaks that they can change me. And Cross responds with, I do what I've always done. I show the world the truth. And the truth is that the Wyatts are a bunch of wounded people using others to just make themselves feel better. The Wyatts are indeed not invincible.
[01:23:14] And Karrion comes back after Miz makes a joke about the Marine 7. You know, it is what it is. It's the miss. Karrion ends the segment with an eye for an eye.
[01:23:28] I'm not afraid of you.
[01:23:30] And you will continue to play the game that I control. Tick tock. There was a lot of people said there should actually be a traditional Survivor Series match like in the olden days with the Final Testament and the Wyatt Six, which I actually don't mind because then that sets up 4 on 4. You have ankim and Rezar and the Miz and Karrion Kross against Joe Gacy, Eric Rowan, Dexter Loomis and Bo Dallas, AKA Uncle Howdy. And then you end up getting a little bit of a, you know, tussle with Scarlet and Nikki Cross.
[01:24:17] Halfway decent segment and you know, still, the Wyatt's are a pretty good thing going into Survivor Series, even though they've been sponsored on zero pay per views. We then went to Seamus vs Braun breaker. Like I talked about last week, this is a rivalry that stemmed from a speed match on X. So still Seamus and Braun, two massive beefcakes. And you know, a lot of people want this match to happen, including the third man who we'll talk about at the end of this match. Started up with Colin elbow tie up and then Seamus dragged Braun out of the ring and slammed his head onto the announce table. The two traded strikes with Sheamus getting an early advantage and hitting Breaker with uppercuts and an Irish curse Brack. Baker Brawn quickly rebound, dodging his clotheslines and landing a running lariat and clubbing shoulder blocks. The two continued to exchange heavy blows with Sheamus hitting a tilt, a whirl power slam and a couple of haymakers. Breaker answered with a jumping knee strike and a cannonball sent on to the outside before delivering his signature flying lariat over the announce table. One of these days I feel like he's going to do the freaking Scott Steiner and he's going to slip off the ring and hurt his damn leg coming back from commercial. Breaker toyed with Sheamus, taunting him and the two in exchange. Another brutal chops exchange. Sheamus rallied with corner clothesline and a running knee strike.
[01:25:56] Breaker countered, launching Sheamus over the top rope and then Sheamus connected with the 10 beats at the bowdren. Sheamus attempted to hit white noise, but Breaker blocked it and came in with a modified backstabber.
[01:26:12] Sheamus caught Breaker with an avalanche white noise, but he powered through hitting a super Frankensteiner with some near falls. Sheamus hit a pump knee strike. He hit the knee strike out of a spear attempt, but then Braun came in and finally hit Seamus with the spear as it looked like the match would end. Ludwig Kaiser comes in clotheslines Breaker and it's another disqualification.
[01:26:43] Kaiser delivered a brutal assault, slamming Breaker face first into the ring steps and then hitting a twirling DDT on the floor. Kaiser ended up hitting Seamus with the wrap around drop kick against the steel steps and Kaiser walked away victorious.
[01:27:05] This would be really, really cool. Again, I don't really think that they'll put this on the card. This will most likely be something that we'll get in a few weeks. But you know, Kaiser I've thought about for a couple weeks. He's really taking his own and even his promos backstage, whether it's, you know, the post show or it's in the middle of the ring. Like he does a lot better doing promos on the post show because he can just freely do whatever he wants. But in the ring he, you know, he has to be the, you know, the international gentleman. And there was an amazing promo that Bron Breakker cut right before this match happened and he talked about Ludwig Kaiser and he. He gave a great Kaiser impression and he just was like, I'm Ludwig Kaiser and I absolutely suck. Backstage, the OG bloodline again approached Seth with Jay acknowledging that they have had past differences with Roman.
[01:28:12] Samuel Ryan Seth of the unity that they showed last year at War Games that he put his differences aside with Cody Rhodes. He urges Seth to do the same thing this year and team them with Roman. Seth, he expresses his reluctance, saying that he would gladly love to stand side by side with the Usos and Sami, but he would never do the same with Roman Reigns.
[01:28:38] He admits that it hurts and he'd love nothing more than to get in the cage and destroy Bronson Reed. But aligning with Roman is not worth it.
[01:28:48] Seth understands of where the new OG bloodline is coming from, but he still refuses to tolerate Romans tyrannical control. He declares that he's going to take out Bronson Reed before War Games.
[01:29:03] Whatever happens between the bloodline and bloodline 2.0 is not his problem, but it's theirs. He walks away firmly stating that he's out.
[01:29:17] And this is mostly the reason why a lot of people are still believing that CM Punk is going to end up being the fifth man. Because now, the second year in a row, Seth Rollins's glory is going to be taken away from CM Punk. Because that's exactly what happened last year. Cody, Seth, Sammy Jay and Randy Orton, they were able to defeat the Judgment Day. And just when they thought that it was completely done, then CM Punk came out and he stole the thunder. And then they had that segment and at that time, Seth was still the champion. And you know, Seth is basically saying, like, I just want to get rid of you and one day we're gonna have that fight. And that was supposed to happen at Mania 40 and that did not happen due to the injury that Punk sustained at the hands of Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble.
[01:30:22] Punk is going to have a best friend in his corner because Paul Heyman is not going to be the wise man. He is going to be the friend of the voice of the voiceless CM Punk. CM Punk is going to come out and he's going to do the job that you know Seth Rollins, quote unquote did not have the balls to do and that's put his differences aside with Roman. After that we got the rematch from Crown Jewel with Bronson Reed versus Seth Rollins and before the bell rang, the OG bloodline stormed ringside and took out bloodline 2.0. Amid all the pandemonium, Rollins and Reed managed to keep the focus. Then they started their battle. Rollins started off strong with his knife edge chops including a suicide dive off to onto the floor. Reid quickly turned the tide with his raw power, flattening Rollins with a leaping body block and launching him into the timekeeper's area. Reid dominated during the commercial break, but Rollins resilience shined through. A burst of offense from Rollins including a springboard knee strike and a Swanton bomb electrified the audience. Reed was nearly unstoppable, countering with a set out powerbomb and a huge brain buster. The climax of the match though came with Rollins gaining the upper hand after a pedigree and a curb stomp and as he went for a huge curb stomp solo, Sikoa emerged onto the announce table distracting him. Reed capitalized hits, Death Valley driver hit some splashes and then finally a tsunami for the width. This is basically another setup and either next week they finally say that hey, Seth is going to be the fifth man and I guess that that's going to happen or Seth is going to just reluctantly once again say I'm out of the War Games and then we're going to get a little bit of a hint that CM Punk is going to be showing up in Vancouver. But overall very decent show and hopefully this Friday we get a little bit more updates going in as we have one week till Survivor Series happens and it will be actually an early start time by the way. 6pm finally we're gonna go over some of the new WWE IDs that recently were announced over the weekend and will just basically go off of them starting from November 11th. First up is Ice Williams. Ice Williams fought in several independent promotions ahead of getting his WB ID recognition, most notably for future Stars of Wrestling and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. With just 60 plus bouts to his name, upon inking the deal he's most likely still going to be instructed to get reps, but four years of matches, including a February 2023 AEW dark elevation loss to the Firm who remembers that group, have highlighted his versatility. He so far displayed speed and power and keen sense of ring awareness that should continue to prove foundational.
[01:33:58] Then we move on to Aaron Rourke was called an amateur and kayfabe by Brian Danielson when he teamed up with Alvin Alvarez and Brother Greatness to get brutalized by the Blackpool Combat club in a 2023 edition of Dynamite. But the American Dragon was, strictly speaking in character. The trio took another loss to the Dark Order on Dark Elevation at the time and Rourke has been a prominent figure across the northeast indie scene either side of brief exposure and his nickname is the Evil Gay.
[01:34:37] That is correct November 14th Ricky Smokes joined his tag team partner Brad Baylor in the system when he was given his contract during an appearance for his home promotion Chaotic Wrestling. Baylor joined the Smoke show on stage, which is Ricky Smokes nickname on the Indies. With his own contract. His commentary talked up the possibility of them entering the program as a team. It will serve both well to have the option. Smokes works just as many singles matches and multi man matches as he does tag teams and then more on Brad Baylor Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes are the team of Swipe Right, which has been dominant for beyond wrestling since late 2023 to simply watch Baylor's matches and promos to see how he got the deal. He is a immediate charismatic man who cuts through as both a heel and most likely eventually babyface within the WWE machine. And at just 20 years old he's got ample time to even get better. A lot of young men and women coming into this developmental program that are going to succeed off of all this.
[01:36:03] And then finally the first Canadian talent to receive a WWE ID contract is Zoe Seeger or Zoe Seager was revealed to be on the books at North Crown Wrestling on the same night that former TNA champion Josh Alexander dominated headlines for announcing that he was no longer taking indie dates.
[01:36:33] Not so for Seager. Upon taking this next step, the Lance Storm Train Intangible will still be at it, adding a healthy CV she built mostly north of the border since debuting in 2018, including a 2023 AEW dark loss to Emmy Sakura. So with these new developmental people coming in to the fold I am expecting a lot and you know you see a lot of extra people being used on NXT every single week and I think a lot of people are going to be really interested in how well a lot of these young men and women end up doing for the promotion. So I am really looking forward to that. But that is all for today's podcast. I want to thank you for listening and a reminder that we do have Insta and Twitter. We have Twitter at the Rock Sports Pod on X and we have on Instagram the rocking review and thank you all for listening. And of course, it's spelled R A W K because we talk about the W's in wrestling. Thank you, everybody.
[01:37:59] Sa.
