January 15, 2025 • 38 mins
Join Jeff Dye and myself as we discuss the latest in WWE Monday Night Raw and AEW. Fresh off his Florida tour, Jeff shares stories while we send love to LA amidst the fires. We cover Penta's return to WWE, Triple H's storytelling, and the epic match between Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It feels like like the victory lap of Netflix.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So it's like you saw them down there.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's them being like we're king now, like we own everything. Look,
and we're all even enjoying the you know, look we're
dabbing up the rock.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're at the side.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It felt very much like we own the industry now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Now you're mad. Even introducing the hosts a wrestling win
far Ready, Jeff died and fready friends, Junior, what's up? Everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Wrestling with Friends.
Mister Jeff dies with us, recently back from a successful
trip in Florida. Congratulations on making people laugh all over
(00:50):
the country. It's now time to make you guys laugh.
It's time to make you mad. It's time to make
you agree, It's time to make you pissed off. It's
time to make you feel all the things that we
hopefully make you feel every single week. We're going to
start with Monday Night Raw. But first off, Jeff, how
are you tell the people what's going feeling good?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Sending all of our thoughts to the people in Los
Angeles with the fires, Freddy. Also, I know that you're
not in your home right now, but stressful, stressful few
weeks for the people of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So anyways, yeah, sending our left lots of love to
everybody out here. Hang as tough as you can, and
when it gets too tough, find a quiet corner and
shed a secret tear. We got love for you. I
know not everybody's feeling the love right now, but if
you're listening to this podcast, I don't know why you
would because you're probably taking care of your families. But
(01:42):
if you're listening to the podcast, we'll try to help
you have a distraction for a little while. And there
won't be a Thursday show this week. I just don't
have time to record both episodes. I appreciate everybody understanding,
or we're going to give you a nice long one
or as long as we can. SmackDown didn't give us
much but a recap of Monday Night Ross, so our
best to fill this time and make you guys feel good.
(02:03):
I'd also like to say this show is going to
be dedicated to Penta because Penta's coming back, Ladies and gentlemen,
He's gone from aew. They're already selling his merch Seattle
Metal Settle Miedo I said Seattle. That's not a word,
but yeah, he's making a comeback. And my favorite type
of wrestling istre, My favorite wrestlers are lucha ors. He's
(02:25):
one of the coolest breaking luchadores out there. And I
can't wait to hear a WWE crowd scream Settle in
the middle of his match, and I just think that's
just one of the coolest pops for me when that happens,
and the aw crowds were really good at it. Ww
crowd's gotta step your game up. You got to make
sure you're in sync. I know it's a little more,
(02:47):
it's a little different in WWE. That's a big part
of his game. And if y'all f it up, it's
not on him, it's on you.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I want to say that I have learned my lesson.
It's been forty one years of life and I've finally
learned my lesson and I'm going to learn my lesson
and practice it with Penta because here's the thing. My
entire life, I'm always trying to see people's faces. You know,
I was like what I was like, when am I
gonna see Ray Mysterio's face?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
When am I gonna see it? And then ray.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Masteria gets demasked and I was disappointed. I wish that
I had never seen his face.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Then Kane the mask comes off.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I said, Kine, I want to see Kin's face. When
am I going to see it? Then Kane has no mask,
and I was like, I liked Kane better with a mask.
I waited three Mortal Kombats to see what sub Zero
looked like without his mask on.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Then I finally got.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sub Zero, and I go I didn't want to see
sub Zero without his mask. So let me just officially
say I never want to see Penta's face. I should
have just been following the rules the whole time with
these masks, and I'm excited to watch Penta not only
come back to w B where he might be paid
better and appreciated better, I'm excited about him keeping his
(03:55):
mask on.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, man, Lucia, Doris, keep your masks. The son of
a bitch, try to take it off. Just call me.
I'll come down. I got your back. I'll run in
from the crowd. I can beat securities, ass, don't even
worry about that. Get in there. I got your back.
So ww Raw debuted on Netflix. I wasn't able to
go ww for whatever reason made it super difficult. But
I do want to say Netflix tried to step in
(04:18):
at the last minute, and they really tried to help
us out, and they offered us some tickets, but I
had a group of eight it was mainly kids, and
they just couldn't provide us enough seats together because it
was so last minute for and I couldn't split the
kids up because that would be dumb, and I couldn't
leave them unattended because they're very young. So we just
weren't able to go. But I did want to thank
Netflix for trying. Wwe Man, you guys were weird, and
(04:41):
I hope next time you guys aren't so weird. But
now Netflix runs stuff. I have friends over there, and
if you guys still want to be weird with me,
that's cool, and I'll just I'll just talk to Netflix.
The show started off with Roman reigns and Solo Sokoa
finally paying off this story line that really was just
(05:02):
a huge shot in the arm to the bloodline storyline.
You got to remember, this has been going back over
eight years, and to be able to keep a story
this compelling for people for this long is incredibly hard
to do. It's hard to do on network television, it's
hard to do on streaming services, and it's the hardest
to do in a professional wrestling format where storylines and
characters can literally just get erased, especially in WWE. It
(05:25):
doesn't happen so much in aw although they sometimes struggle
to have a storage period unless it's like they're top guys.
It's really hard to do this in WWE because if
you have like one bad week of television where they
don't feel the crowds behind it, they'll just remove your
character and change your name. They'll literally change your name
and make you be someone else, which is psychotic to me.
(05:46):
They did it while I work there, They've done it
since I've worked there. They did it before I work there.
For them to stay this consistent and stay this true
to that story and those characters is commendable. I don't
want this to be a compliment that sounds like an insult.
I want this to be a company. I'm very grateful
as a fan of wrestling. They've stayed, they've stayed the course,
(06:06):
and they always have someone sort of steering this ship
in positive directions. Did you think that's a thing? One
hundred percent one hundred percent. I saw Triple H fight
for stories in production meetings against Vince and Kevin Dunn
and Kevin Dunwood, because Kevin Dune would kill things all
the time, and it was shocking to me that he
(06:28):
had that much power over creative stuff when when he
wasn't necessarily like a story guy. He was he was
the director of the show for those that don't know,
but he would just be like, that guy's boring, and
all of a sudden, that guy's career was over done done,
And Triple H was one of the only wrestlers or
high level guys like the creative teams always fought PS
three Bird Hayes always fought Martin Anderson would always fight
(06:50):
for his guy like everybody will fight. But Hunter was
the one that would get listened to the most because
he's the son in law of the of the boss.
But a lot of times Vince would just shut him
down to and you would see careers just get smashed on.
So I think consistency is something that Triple H knows
is important, and that's why we've seen such an improvement
in the brand since Vince was gone. Not to say
(07:11):
Vince didn't do quality things too, because sometimes he did,
but very often these things would just die after two
three weeks instead of allowing a story to develop and
allowing a character develop organically. If it didn't work in
the first couple of weeks, that was gone and all
the work that everyone put in was just wasted. So yeah, man,
I think that's one hundred percent of Triple Age thing.
(07:32):
But this match was awesome. First of all. I think
I'm trying to think if there was a match that
wasn't awesome, even the finishes that I didn't like, the
matches were still great. This was fantastic. There were run
ins from other members of the New Evil bloodline, there
were members of the old Super Nice Cool blood line.
Kevin Owens came in there with an f you to
(07:53):
Roman Reigns because he hates Roman Reigns, and then he
took that story to SmackDown, where him and Cody Rhodes
continue to fight. We can get in to that if
we have time, but this match was super cool. Roman
Rains hit him with a couple of spears, put them
through a table one two three on the pin the
Rock who came out early and got a baby based reaction.
He leaned into it. He got a lot of love
(08:14):
in Los Angeles, and he came out and he took
the lafalla from Paul Hayman and he put it around
the neck of Roman Reigns, where it rightfully belongs. Jay.
It should either be on the neck of Jeff Die
or Roman Reigns. Those are the only two men worthy enough.
I like that. But yeah, man, this was a ton
of fun and it was a great sort of end
of a chapter in this book. It's like reading those
(08:36):
Harry Potter books, like the last two were so friggin
long and like you'd end a chapter and like the
chapter felt like you read a whole book. That's what
this kind of was. And I don't know why I'm
relating it to Harry Potter, but they're both for kids
and fantasy stuff and I like all that. But I
really like this match. I'm looking forward to seeing where
the story's going to go next, because they really haven't
let anyone down even once since the Bloodline Briggin started.
(09:00):
They haven't. I don't think they've made a misstep. Jet
I can't think of a story part of the story
where I was like ef or men or oh that
sucked I've always just great. That's dope. Yeah, it's always
been great.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I was a little hopeful that maybe you we would
get some sort of rock Roman Reigns beef, you know,
like kind of something that would suggest that that's down
the line, and we did get that on Monday. But
it doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. It's just like
I kind of thought that, Oh Netflix, Monday night, I thought.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But it was still really awesome and really good.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I love that it felt like you got like a
little glimpse into each chapter of the stories that they've
already told, where you had Sammy's Ain come out, you
had you had each kind of part of it, which
I which I really liked, and so really really really
masterfully done.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I loved it. I do want to shout out one
person that was in the crowd because he got the
biggest pop of the night, and that's my friend Macaulay
Culkin admitted to the show, and the crowd was so
high for him and the way he kind of presented
himself with so much cooler that. I love Seth too,
But Matt got the biggest pop of the night. It
was it was so he got a bigger pop than Hogan. Well,
I guess they hated Hogan, but they loved Matt so
(10:13):
balanced now, but he got the biggest pop of the night.
That made me laugh a lot. I really wish I
could have been there. It would have been fun, but
it didn't work out anyway. Triple Edge came out and
talked they thank their new Netflix executives, which was a
little weird to me. That breaking. I don't know if
it was weird to anyone else, but I kind of
don't want to know about the people behind the scenes.
(10:34):
I don't want to know about the executives behind the scenes.
There was a time when executives didn't do interviews, you
know what I mean, where agents and managers didn't do interviews.
That stopped in the early two thousands when they kind
of wanted to get famous too, so they started doing interviews.
I remember reading one where his agent was taking credit
for this other actors basically entire career. And I was
(10:55):
friends with the actor. I'm like, yo, did you read this?
He goes, yeah, that's that guy's not my agent anymore.
I inspired him. I was just he leit. He was like, well,
maybe you know now that we represent and we can
take him to the next level. I'm like, you don't
do that. He's famous. All you do is say yes
or no. The scripts that come in, Like it's one
thing if you're building an actor up from the ground up.
(11:16):
But this dude was a stab or it was a woman. Actually,
this woman was established and they had kind of made
her bones in the business already, like you know, she's
the top shell b actor. It's like, what are we
talking about here. So that's always a little weird to
me when when they put the spotlight on on the people,
you know, behind the scenes. But the crowd didn't seem
to hate it. They didn't boo any of the executives.
(11:36):
If I really thought they were gonna but they but
they didn't. So that was good. So it was all
love and it felt good. But we'll get into some
more rest.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
It feels like like the victory lap of Netflix. So
it's like you saw them down there. It's them being
like we're king now, like we own everything. Look and
we're all even enjoying the you know, look, we're dabbing
up the rock.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We're at a side.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It felt very much like we own the industry now.
That is what it felt like, to me, like a
big party, like it's opening night and we're gonna sit
in the front.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
And it did feel like a party. And you know,
the the wrestling fan in me, who's very cynical, goes, man,
this is probably the first wrestling show they ever saw.
And then the optimist in me goes, hey, man, this
is probably the first wrestling show they ever saw. And
I'm a little like split and torn on, you know
(12:28):
what I mean. In one way, it's good because we're
introducing new people to wrestling, and hopefully they connected to
one of these characters and they like it and they
want to bring their kids to a show, or maybe
they even't want to watch once in a while. But
then the cynic in me is like, man, they're just
here for the for the pot. So I don't know
which one is right. I definitely had both feelings at the.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Same I thought they were the mean street posse down there,
you know, That's what it looked like.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Were these guys that when Shane McMahon just pops his
head in hell, yeah, you go, what is it? All right?
Let's talk some wrestling. Well, let's talk about one of
our favorites, real Rickley and Morgan battled for the women's championship. Finally,
both women are healthy, no injuries, thank god. Storyline has
(13:14):
been good. It's had ups and downs because of injuries,
though not by any fault of the creative team or
any fault of the talent, simply injuries that slowed things down.
Dominic's awesome. I know he's a heel, but he's my
favorite babyface in professional wrestling because that to me, he's
the victim in this and he's torn between two women
that are both manipulative. It's just one is manipulative for
(13:36):
herself and the other's manipulative for herself. But Dominic is
a victim in this. Just remember that. Show some sympathy
for him. His mustache is glorious, His mullet's glorious. Man
loves chicken Tenders, And I don't care what you people say.
You know you love chicken tenders too, so don't even
act like you don't, Jeff, you like chicken tenders, right,
everybody likes chicken tenders. So they had a match. They wrestle,
(14:00):
and finally the belt is back around the waste of
the most excellent, biggest, baddest, meanest looking woman. She looks
like she could beat up the whole roster. Rear Ripley.
I just got back from Australia. She's Australian. I got
(14:21):
a lot of love for the people down there. Let
me tell you something. Everyone in Australia looks like her.
All the women are smoking hot, they're all in great shape.
All the dudes are in great shape. They're all good looking.
I asked a buddy who I made friends with when
I was down there. I was like, how come everybody
in such great freaking shape in Australia. He goes, first
of all, we're not. He's like, our older people are.
(14:43):
He goes, but we have sports once a week. We
have pe every day, but we have one day a
week where it's all sports. We don't do any academics.
It's just a sports day. I was like, Oh, that's
why you guys rock at the Summer Olympics. That's what
you got. Yeah, so they really focus on their physical
fitness there. Real Ripley is super fit. I think she
(15:05):
was a volleyball player before she was a professional wrestler.
But she's awesome, man, She's the champ. They're gonna have
Monday Night Row Tonight we record these on Mondays, so
I'm really looking forward to her promo. I'm looking forward
to seeing what's next for her. But I think it
could still be live because Becky's not back yet, so
I don't know who would fill that spot. Did you
(15:25):
have any ideas as to what's next or were you
just kind of living in the moment and enjoying it? Oh?
I was loving it.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I love Ria Ripley. I have so many thoughts on
this match. But I thought that Becky was gonna come back.
That's what I guessed, or I assumed, was like, Oh,
this is Monday night, Rob, we got Netflix, We'll see
Becky come back in here and you know, stand off
or maybe stand up at the top of the ramp
and look at Rio Ripley. You know now that she
has the belt around her waist, But we didn't get that,
(15:53):
so I was very confused.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Did you hear that maybe that was supposed to happen
and then they switched it last minute for the undertaker spot.
Did you hear that? Because I kind of saw a
little bit of that online.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
No, I didn't hear that. I just assumed there'd be
some chick. I assumed Becky, but like I thought. I
thought there'd be some woman, you know, Jade Cargill, somebody
would come down and do like a spot. I thought
the underthink Undertaker thing was insane to me. Why what,
what the hell does they came out of nowhere?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If I know what they were trying to do, Like
they're saying, like he's the legend, He's going to give
her the rub, but I didn't think she needed the rub,
and also rather Becky come out. Yeah, it was a
little off off putting because I was kind of like,
well was he do? He just did a hot lap
and then yeah, I said, way to go, Really your badass?
Like I already think we as badass. I didn't think
needed an extra rub.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I went, I love the Undertaker and I love the
American badass? How does that coincide with each other? I
like all the parties involved, but I'm going, what is happening?
But I just expected a woman.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I thought.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I hoped for Becky to come out and kind of
kind of give us a peak of what's next now
that Ria's champ. So yeah, I was confused by that.
But I will say that real Ripley Live Morgan match
was awesome. I really enjoyed it, which I'm pretty critical
of female wrestling, and I really enjoyed the entire match.
I also love that Ria hit her with her finishing
move so many times. It felt it felt like, you know,
(17:16):
I'm always I'm always trying to get back to the
circus days of wrestling, like I want like a feet
of strength, and it looked like Ria was like getting
fatigued giving her her finishing move every single time.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It was so good. Yeah, the mat was a great
story man. Yeah, And I don't think that was her
genuinely fatigued at all. I really think that was a
conscious choice by her showing it's getting harder and harder
as the matches goes longer and longer. That I've seen
them do that even when I work there, like the
agents that for those who don't know the term agent.
Most of you guys are are hardcore fans, so you don't,
(17:49):
but bear with me. For the ones who don't, they're
like the fight choreographer, and they're usually old school wrestlers.
Usually they're always old school wrestlers, and that's something that
they would I saw like guys like Orna Anderson and
Dean Malenko talk about with the younger wrestlers when I
was there, and I would watch them kind of coach
these these these young wrestlers through those types of of
(18:10):
conscious choices, like make yourself look tired because they do
wrestl so they can rest up, you know what I mean.
So there was no there was no. I don't think
there was genuine fatigue there. I just think Ria is
that good and makes us be Yeah. Man, she's a stud.
She's a total stud. All right, enough with the ladies. Ladies,
you got some time. But now it's time to talk
about some dudes. Two dudes that are pretty great on
(18:33):
the microphone. Two dudes that hate each other. No they do,
but they made us think that they do. And that's
seth Rollins and see him punk. I was wrong on this,
but I want to talk about why I was wrong,
And I don't quite know. This is going to sort
of be free for him, and I'm just kind of
throwing this off there. When I worked there, there was
(18:54):
a philosophy that the older dudes all kind of agreed with,
which is that now it's time to put the younger
guys over. Now it's time to I've had my time,
Now it's your time. I'm gonna give you a great match,
and I'm gonna put you over. And that still seems
to exist in W W E and AE W a lot,
(19:17):
except with Cmpunk. And I'm I'm telling everyone this right now,
I'm never betting against Cmpunk again, whether I think he
should lose or not, because he's never gonna lose the war.
He might use a battle, but he's never gonna lose
a war. And I guess he's gonna be Champ again,
which is weird to me because he's an older dude,
and just that that old school philosophy of like the
(19:41):
guys like Arn Anderson, Dean Maliko and all those guys
that when I when I worked there, Fit Finley, all
these guys, you know, they were there in the later
part of their career to make sure to either put
over the new guy or to help solidify the established
dudes as as the man now. And I guess Sampunk's
wants to still be the man, and it wants to
(20:03):
be the lead of the movie, so to speak, and
he's going to be. That just has to be something
that they worked out before he signed. Because it happened
with Dream, It's gonna happen with Seth. It's gonna happen
with whoever's next for him, and I guess he's gonna
be Champ, which is cool for Sampunk fans. It's just
weird to me because it seems to break this rule
or this understanding that the older generation had when I
(20:26):
worked there. But things evolve and change, and maybe I'm
just outdated and don't know, but I know this. I'm
not betting against him again, even if I think he should.
I thought he should have lost that match. I thought
it should have been Seth rawlins. I could already see
that the promo that Seth was gonna cut on Monday,
Son of a bitch. I did what I said I
was going to do. And now, like all the promises
that Seth made it, his promos are breaken promises and
(20:48):
a baby face can't have that, at least that's how
I was taught. So I guess maybe they're gonna turn
him heal because the healed promises can get broken all
the time, or maybe they're not and he's just gonna
be the badass guy. But it was weird to see
set lose for me. I know most people were excited
because everybody loves see him Punk, but I really thought
Seth should have won that match. What did you think?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I agree with what you're saying, But I also I
don't think that CM punk sees himself as the old guy.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I really don't.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I don't think that CM punk has ever followed any
sort of quote unquote wrestling.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Rules about that. That's kind yeah, yeah, beats to his
own drum.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
He is the Punk of wrestling, and so I think
for him, it's like maybe in ten years we'll see
him put someone over, or he's.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Still wrestling in ten years, and that would be insane
to me. I just that's crazy. You're probably prappy.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
He will, He'll come out even if he's not doing
a match every single week, he'll still be in wrestling.
You know, we still see Rick Flair and Hulk Cogan
and all these guys. So you know, even even see
him Punk, I'm not falling for this or not see
him by John Cena, even the John Sam, I'm not
falling for this. Like it's my final tour. It isn't.
You're gonna be around, You're gonna come back every three weeks.
(22:10):
It's like they never go anywhere.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I say it, Yeah, you're right, you talk me off
the Brian Danielson ledge with this when I was like, no,
he's gone, and you're like, dude, he's not gone.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
If they die, we get to mourn them. Other than that,
that's it. So I don't know. I think it'll be interesting.
I think this CEM Punk still has a lot of
stuff he wants to do and doesn't really see him
in the chapter of putting wrestlers over. And also I
don't even know who he'd be, like a good sport
enough to put over. If we sat down and had
(22:43):
cigars with see him Punk, he'd be like I hate
so and so, and I hate so and so, and
I feel like he'd be one of these guys.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
What do you mean you guys smoke. I don't smoke.
I'm straight edge. I was shocked the seth lost just
like you. Yeah, it was, it was it was Look,
it was an awesome match, Like it was one of
the best matches I've seen this year. This year's been short,
but in the last years because they're both awesome in
(23:11):
the ring, they both sell like nobody's business. They both
can make your punches look like you got hit by
Mike Tyson in his prime. Not Mike Tyson against Jake Paul.
That's not that was but like the real Mike Tyson
fights like they both they both sell like mugs right,
like they do miss quality selling the guys that can
(23:32):
put anyone over, and they were putting each other over
the whole match. I just thought the finish was strange.
But again, I was taught by the old school guys,
and so that's why my brain is kind of wired
the way their brains were wired. Because I didn't know
shit about the wrestling business outside of the fact that
I liked it. When I got to WWE, and I
relied on a lot of those agents and the Arn't
(23:54):
Anderson's of the world and the Michael P. S Hayes's
of the world, and all all those guys. They were
all really good to me. I know I'm forgetting some
of them, but it's just because I didn't know we
were even going to be talking about this. Again, this
is all kind of off my head. Been a little
distracted this week. But yeah, it was a great match.
I just I wanted a different finish. But that's you know,
(24:15):
that's what keeps you watching. You want to see what
you want to get, what you want out of it,
and you hope you're gonna get it every week, and
most of the time we do. I would like to
see I say this a lot, man, I'm not trying
to beat a dead horse, but I would like to
see more stories and to have I want Powerhouse Hobbs
(24:40):
to get the push, but I wouldn't call what's happening
with Powerhouse Hobbs to push. He's just next in line
for Mosley, and there's not enough of a story here
to make me believe Hobbs can win that match. There's
not enough of a reason for them to fight outside
of they were in another not a tournament, but a
(25:02):
casino match, whatever it was, to be the next number
one contender, I would I really like the stories, and
they have people that tell great ones, so I know
they can do it, but there's no story here, so
I don't believe Powerhouse Hobbs can win either. To me,
the story would have been how do we be MVP?
And it would be how do I get Powerhouse Hobbs
(25:24):
into the Hurt Syndicate and that would be a cool story.
How do I convince this dude to join? How do
I convince this dude to be a part of what
we're trying to put together. I could get behind that
and I could believe in that dude, and that, to me,
would be more of an entry point to get him
towards a championship where you see MVP starting to hustle
for his guys and say no, no, no, no, my guy's decks,
(25:47):
my guy's decks. Now, maybe they don't want to do
that because they have Bobby and he's going to be
the one eventually to charge for the titles. But yeah, man,
it's it's tough when they just kind of say, and
next week it's a championship match and it's a game,
it's you, and it's almost like they're playing Duck Dug goose,
you know what I mean. And I would much rather
see just an entry point for these It doesn't have
(26:09):
to be a six week story from the championship. It
could be a two week story that totally works. A
two week story's fine. So short stories work. They get
turned into movies all the time. So I would have
liked to see that. And I know I say this
a lot, and maybe it's just not a w's thing.
Maybe I just need to accept that they're more about
the match and less about the story. The only argument
(26:31):
to that would be, well, look at the great storytellers.
They still tell stories on ad W and the Cmpunk
Max Friedman storyline is still my favorite storyline in the
last ten fifteen years. I liked it more than the
bloodline story. That whole bit when he talked when he
came out and he talked about like the football team, saying,
pick up those quarters, jew boy, pick them up like
(26:52):
and then to flip it and kick see them Punk
in the falls at the end of that story, Like,
I was just completely taken by that, and he tricked me.
F you for tricking me, by the way, Max, But
that was great, Like, it was really good storytelling, and
I just would love to see more of that. That said,
Max isn't another story, and it looks like it's gonna
(27:13):
be the end of Jeff Jarrett, which will be kind
of cool. It's something it look gets hard because the
older guys can't work the way that the younger guys
can work. But Max is such a good storyteller that
I don't underestimate what he's capable of pulling off. I
just don't and I genuinely think he can pull this
off and give us a solid match with Jared and
(27:34):
give us a great reason why it may not be
the best match, but the reason why they're fighting. I
think everyone will care about and I think he'll get
some people to pull for Jeff, Jared and Hope and believe.
I think he'll be able to pull that off. If
anyone can do it. It's not going to be easy,
but if anyone can do it, it will be MJF
and I like watching everything. He's at home. I know
(27:55):
I kind of talked about eight different things here, Jeff,
So whatever you want to throw in.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Well, I was just gonna say it could be because
they WB put so much effort into making sure that
the Monday Night Raw was great because of Netflix that
it really made AW seem underwhelming. So I'm aware of that,
But man, AW has been tough to watch for me
this week. I'm hoping that it's because I came off
(28:20):
of this huge Netflix spectacle where they brought out every star.
It felt like I was playing with my wrestling toys again,
like it was only the biggest stars wrestling each other.
So maybe it felt like that, but it's They're gonna
have to figure out something over there. At AEW because
it feels like currently, at least in the last few
(28:42):
weeks or months, that WWE is beaten. That ass is
what it feels like to me. I don't, I can't
really you know me do. I always try to be
mister positivity on this and I try to be as
as kindly critical as possible, But I can really poke
any holes and what you said there, I'm trying to.
(29:04):
I got my needle out trying to poke. Yeah, looks good.
The competition brings out the best in both, so I
hope that they answer back.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Will Osprey is still the man. Will Osprey can still
talk on the mic with Malachi Black looking like he's
about to leave AEW, his contracts almost stuff. We might
get a push. I hope they push it nice and
slow and they don't force them right into a championship
match right away. But it looks like we're going to
get a push out of Buddy Matthews, Ria Ripley's husband
(29:33):
or boyfriend fiance. I don't know they love each other.
I know they love each other. I just don't know
their status. That was Alexa Blisses X too. Oh, I
didn't know that. Nice Well, we know his type. He
likes wrestlers like romans. His body is one of the
best in the business. He looks so awesome. I wish
I looked like him. If I looked like Buddy Matthews
(29:55):
back in the day, I'm too old now, but back
in the day, you know, your boy would have been Batman, right,
you know your boy, it would have been bad one.
My boy could already be Batman. You're the fucking best almost.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And the second of all, you're like double the height
of Buddy Matthews.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, and he's doubled the wind.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I know. Hey, we all got our gifts. We all
play with the gifts God gave us, you know, but
you get height. He's sim He's somewhere listening and going, Man,
I wish I was six four and we're over here going.
We're all tall, six four guys going. I wish we
were strong and ripped like Buddy.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
It's all. It doesn't matter, bro, my man is six
four wide. I'm like three feet wide. But I would
like to see. I really like Buddy Matthews for a
long time. We don't talk about him a lot, but
he seems like he's got everything. I don't know too
much about his mic work, I have to like go
back and watch watch them promos. But as far as
(30:48):
his work in the ring, top shelf, body, top shelf,
his look is super super cool and he's he's experimented
with different looks, like he was not a House of
Black type vibe when he first was in WW. He
was basically the opposite of that, and he looked great
doing that too, So I'd like to see that. It'd
(31:09):
be good to get some new blood pumping in there
and give some new bushes to guys like Powerhouse Hops,
who I think deserves a real push, not just a
sacrificial land push. To give Buddy Matthews a nice slow
you know, maybe he goes after the inter Intercontinental where
they call it the international title. So many freaking titles
you're going after a title. I'd like to see him
(31:29):
go after a mid card title first, and hopefully they
don't put him into the main events stuff right away.
But yeah, I like Buddy Matthews a lot, and I
hope for good things. I'm not going to get too
much into the rest of AEW because it just didn't
grab It just didn't grab me, and it might be
because I've been stressed out. It might be because of the
Netflix thing. It might be their fault. I don't know
whose fault it is, but yeah, SmackDown was what it was.
(31:53):
It was three hours. It felt like a highlight show
for the Monday night Raw. At the end of the day,
the Cody Ruins Kevin own stuff was really really cool.
I friggin love Kevin Owens. Dude, like he can be
in any kind of match and he's gonna make you
give a shit just because his promos are so good
and he gives you And here's les's unique about Kevin.
He gives you his point of view every time he speaks.
(32:17):
So in this instance with Cody Rhodes, he's in the wrong,
but according to him, and you can even see it
on his T shirts, it says Kevin was right and
then he tells you why every single time, and you
remember and it makes you go, oh, I don't agree
with this dude, but I see where he's coming from,
which I'm very prone to do just in my life
in real life, Like I may not agree with something
(32:38):
someone says, but I'll try to find out where they're
coming from, or I can understand where they're coming from
and go, yeah, we just agree to disagree. I know
we're not allowed to do that anymore because of social
media and you have to either like something or not
like it. But I don't give a shit. So I'm
old and I don't care about that stuff. So I
loved his promo on the stairs as he was coming
down through the crowd and mean, like, how could you
(33:00):
still stick up for the son of a bitch Roman
Reigns after everything he did, And you just see Cody
stewing and stewing in truth. He's stewing in truth because
the truth fucking hurts, doesn't it. Cody groes, how he
gonna help somebody that ft you over like that? Oh
you're gonna forgive and forget? Screw that. We hold on
to grudges for life in the wrestling business, and Kevin
(33:21):
Owens is no exception. Kevin Owens still has the greatest
moment of the year when he rolled up the window
on Michael Cole and Michael Cole was trying to interview him.
That's still the greatest moment of the year. That made
me laugh so much. But this was awesome. Cody just
said screw it. They went full w CW style. He
ran out of the ring. They fought in the crowd.
It was awesome. I love when it gets out of
the ring and spills into the fans. I think that's
(33:43):
the coolest shit. Every show I've been to, I've wanted
one of those fights to spell out to where I
am so that I could be on camera going yeah,
kick is that as kind of It's never happened once.
They've never even gotten close to me. It's it's I
want that to happen more than I want to catch
a foul ball at a baseball game. Really, and I'd
probably want the foul ball or the home run.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I've caught a foul ball. I checked it off the list.
I swear to god, you really have. Yeah, it was
the best moment of Unicorn. That's like I know that
people want be like, where are you tripping out so hard?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Pretty? You don't understand that's like finding a unicorn. There's
fifty thousand people in the stands and you were the
one that caught the ball.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, they made a documentary about these like old men
who there like lifelong goal is just to catch a.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Foul ball at a baseball game.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
They've spent their whole lives because The rule is it
can't bounce, it can't.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Hit off something. It can't I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
It's not like, oh, the ball landed and then you
ran over and grabbed it from under the seat.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That doesn't count. Count.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
You have to catch a foul ball. And it came
right to where I was sitting. I just went, I
put my hand up and just caught it. It was
like a remind it make an assumption here, But I
know I'm right. The question would be don't answer. It
would be glove or no glove.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
But I already know the answer because you're a man's man,
and I know you went no glove, and I know
you got it bare handed, because that's the true way
to get a foul ball. When I see grown ups
bringing gloves to a game and they don't have the
guts to take the pain. You got to take the
pain of the foul ball. I respect that so much.
The bare handed catch is the most respected fan move
(35:22):
in sports outside of professional wrestling, which a fight would
be cool, especially if you but you caught it bare handed. Yes,
bare hand, yep, right, it just caught it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Also, the adrenaline of the moment made it not hurt
at all.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I didn't even feel anything, like I have your manliness,
bro well, just.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Going like I was so excited and like I couldn't
believe it happened that.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I was like, I don't, I don't feel anything. So
the only thing superior to that would have been if
you had a beer. In the other hand, I.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Know you ever seen a guy Yeah, I saw that
on It's Amazing, Yeah, and then they chugged the beer.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I was like, that guy rose. Yeah, those guys are
the top shelf. Those are Andre the giants.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
He's gonna die of some chemical that was rubbed on
the ball, you know, because he drank all the barrier.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
The picture was greasing it up to get a couple
extra inches on their break. All right, you guys, I
hope you enjoyed this week's episode. I tried to go
along for you guys, because we're not giving you a
Thursday episode. We will be back next week. Jeff, are
you are you going to be anywhere this weekend? Can
the people come see you someplace? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:21):
I am going to be in Sacramento. I'm playing Rancho
Murrietta on on Saturday and then Sacramento Punchline.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
We added the show because we sold it out. So
hell y Sunday Sacramento punchline. All right, you guys, if
you're up in norcl that counts as Norcle Sacramento. Yeah,
oh yeah. If you're up in Norcau go check out
my boy. If you're in SOCU, stay safe. If you're
anywhere else in the country. Sending you guys, love, Sending
you guys hopefully good wrestling that you like. I hope
(36:50):
all the people you're rooting for win. I hope all
the people you hate looms and yeah go Raiders. What sorry,
I'm a Raiders fan. I just said throw that in there.
Paying six fucking coaches that the team anymore because we're
so well, that's my depressing moment of the day. That's
what we should do. We should do a depressing segment
of the week, and we're gonna start that start from
(37:11):
now on. And my depressing moment of the week isn't
the danger that everyone is in. It's my favorite football
team sucks ass. And as for a lot of time,
I'm sure you guys are all rooting for the good teams.
So anyway, enjoy on. Behalf of Jeff Die. I'm back
of our awesome producer Alex, a big wrestling fan also
former marine because he's a stud. We all thank you
guys for listening every week, and yeah, we love you guys.
(37:34):
Take it easy out. This has been a production of
Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
It feels like like the victory lap of Netflix.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So it's like you saw them down there.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's them being like we're king now, like we own everything. Look,
and we're all even enjoying the you know, look we're
dabbing up the rock.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're at the side.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It felt very much like we own the industry now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Now you're mad. Even introducing the hosts a wrestling win
far Ready, Jeff died and fready friends, Junior, what's up? Everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Wrestling with Friends.
Mister Jeff dies with us, recently back from a successful
trip in Florida. Congratulations on making people laugh all over
(00:50):
the country. It's now time to make you guys laugh.
It's time to make you mad. It's time to make
you agree, It's time to make you pissed off. It's
time to make you feel all the things that we
hopefully make you feel every single week. We're going to
start with Monday Night Raw. But first off, Jeff, how
are you tell the people what's going feeling good?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Sending all of our thoughts to the people in Los
Angeles with the fires, Freddy. Also, I know that you're
not in your home right now, but stressful, stressful few
weeks for the people of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So anyways, yeah, sending our left lots of love to
everybody out here. Hang as tough as you can, and
when it gets too tough, find a quiet corner and
shed a secret tear. We got love for you. I
know not everybody's feeling the love right now, but if
you're listening to this podcast, I don't know why you
would because you're probably taking care of your families. But
(01:42):
if you're listening to the podcast, we'll try to help
you have a distraction for a little while. And there
won't be a Thursday show this week. I just don't
have time to record both episodes. I appreciate everybody understanding,
or we're going to give you a nice long one
or as long as we can. SmackDown didn't give us
much but a recap of Monday Night Ross, so our
best to fill this time and make you guys feel good.
(02:03):
I'd also like to say this show is going to
be dedicated to Penta because Penta's coming back, Ladies and gentlemen,
He's gone from aew. They're already selling his merch Seattle
Metal Settle Miedo I said Seattle. That's not a word,
but yeah, he's making a comeback. And my favorite type
of wrestling istre, My favorite wrestlers are lucha ors. He's
(02:25):
one of the coolest breaking luchadores out there. And I
can't wait to hear a WWE crowd scream Settle in
the middle of his match, and I just think that's
just one of the coolest pops for me when that happens,
and the aw crowds were really good at it. Ww
crowd's gotta step your game up. You got to make
sure you're in sync. I know it's a little more,
(02:47):
it's a little different in WWE. That's a big part
of his game. And if y'all f it up, it's
not on him, it's on you.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I want to say that I have learned my lesson.
It's been forty one years of life and I've finally
learned my lesson and I'm going to learn my lesson
and practice it with Penta because here's the thing. My
entire life, I'm always trying to see people's faces. You know,
I was like what I was like, when am I
gonna see Ray Mysterio's face?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
When am I gonna see it? And then ray.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Masteria gets demasked and I was disappointed. I wish that
I had never seen his face.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Then Kane the mask comes off.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I said, Kine, I want to see Kin's face. When
am I going to see it? Then Kane has no mask,
and I was like, I liked Kane better with a mask.
I waited three Mortal Kombats to see what sub Zero
looked like without his mask on.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Then I finally got.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sub Zero, and I go I didn't want to see
sub Zero without his mask. So let me just officially
say I never want to see Penta's face. I should
have just been following the rules the whole time with
these masks, and I'm excited to watch Penta not only
come back to w B where he might be paid
better and appreciated better, I'm excited about him keeping his
(03:55):
mask on.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, man, Lucia, Doris, keep your masks. The son of
a bitch, try to take it off. Just call me.
I'll come down. I got your back. I'll run in
from the crowd. I can beat securities, ass, don't even
worry about that. Get in there. I got your back.
So ww Raw debuted on Netflix. I wasn't able to
go ww for whatever reason made it super difficult. But
I do want to say Netflix tried to step in
(04:18):
at the last minute, and they really tried to help
us out, and they offered us some tickets, but I
had a group of eight it was mainly kids, and
they just couldn't provide us enough seats together because it
was so last minute for and I couldn't split the
kids up because that would be dumb, and I couldn't
leave them unattended because they're very young. So we just
weren't able to go. But I did want to thank
Netflix for trying. Wwe Man, you guys were weird, and
(04:41):
I hope next time you guys aren't so weird. But
now Netflix runs stuff. I have friends over there, and
if you guys still want to be weird with me,
that's cool, and I'll just I'll just talk to Netflix.
The show started off with Roman reigns and Solo Sokoa
finally paying off this story line that really was just
(05:02):
a huge shot in the arm to the bloodline storyline.
You got to remember, this has been going back over
eight years, and to be able to keep a story
this compelling for people for this long is incredibly hard
to do. It's hard to do on network television, it's
hard to do on streaming services, and it's the hardest
to do in a professional wrestling format where storylines and
characters can literally just get erased, especially in WWE. It
(05:25):
doesn't happen so much in aw although they sometimes struggle
to have a storage period unless it's like they're top guys.
It's really hard to do this in WWE because if
you have like one bad week of television where they
don't feel the crowds behind it, they'll just remove your
character and change your name. They'll literally change your name
and make you be someone else, which is psychotic to me.
(05:46):
They did it while I work there, They've done it
since I've worked there. They did it before I work there.
For them to stay this consistent and stay this true
to that story and those characters is commendable. I don't
want this to be a compliment that sounds like an insult.
I want this to be a company. I'm very grateful
as a fan of wrestling. They've stayed, they've stayed the course,
(06:06):
and they always have someone sort of steering this ship
in positive directions. Did you think that's a thing? One
hundred percent one hundred percent. I saw Triple H fight
for stories in production meetings against Vince and Kevin Dunn
and Kevin Dunwood, because Kevin Dune would kill things all
the time, and it was shocking to me that he
(06:28):
had that much power over creative stuff when when he
wasn't necessarily like a story guy. He was he was
the director of the show for those that don't know,
but he would just be like, that guy's boring, and
all of a sudden, that guy's career was over done done,
And Triple H was one of the only wrestlers or
high level guys like the creative teams always fought PS
three Bird Hayes always fought Martin Anderson would always fight
(06:50):
for his guy like everybody will fight. But Hunter was
the one that would get listened to the most because
he's the son in law of the of the boss.
But a lot of times Vince would just shut him
down to and you would see careers just get smashed on.
So I think consistency is something that Triple H knows
is important, and that's why we've seen such an improvement
in the brand since Vince was gone. Not to say
(07:11):
Vince didn't do quality things too, because sometimes he did,
but very often these things would just die after two
three weeks instead of allowing a story to develop and
allowing a character develop organically. If it didn't work in
the first couple of weeks, that was gone and all
the work that everyone put in was just wasted. So yeah, man,
I think that's one hundred percent of Triple Age thing.
(07:32):
But this match was awesome. First of all. I think
I'm trying to think if there was a match that
wasn't awesome, even the finishes that I didn't like, the
matches were still great. This was fantastic. There were run
ins from other members of the New Evil bloodline, there
were members of the old Super Nice Cool blood line.
Kevin Owens came in there with an f you to
(07:53):
Roman Reigns because he hates Roman Reigns, and then he
took that story to SmackDown, where him and Cody Rhodes
continue to fight. We can get in to that if
we have time, but this match was super cool. Roman
Rains hit him with a couple of spears, put them
through a table one two three on the pin the
Rock who came out early and got a baby based reaction.
He leaned into it. He got a lot of love
(08:14):
in Los Angeles, and he came out and he took
the lafalla from Paul Hayman and he put it around
the neck of Roman Reigns, where it rightfully belongs. Jay.
It should either be on the neck of Jeff Die
or Roman Reigns. Those are the only two men worthy enough.
I like that. But yeah, man, this was a ton
of fun and it was a great sort of end
of a chapter in this book. It's like reading those
(08:36):
Harry Potter books, like the last two were so friggin
long and like you'd end a chapter and like the
chapter felt like you read a whole book. That's what
this kind of was. And I don't know why I'm
relating it to Harry Potter, but they're both for kids
and fantasy stuff and I like all that. But I
really like this match. I'm looking forward to seeing where
the story's going to go next, because they really haven't
let anyone down even once since the Bloodline Briggin started.
(09:00):
They haven't. I don't think they've made a misstep. Jet
I can't think of a story part of the story
where I was like ef or men or oh that
sucked I've always just great. That's dope. Yeah, it's always
been great.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I was a little hopeful that maybe you we would
get some sort of rock Roman Reigns beef, you know,
like kind of something that would suggest that that's down
the line, and we did get that on Monday. But
it doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. It's just like
I kind of thought that, Oh Netflix, Monday night, I thought.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But it was still really awesome and really good.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I love that it felt like you got like a
little glimpse into each chapter of the stories that they've
already told, where you had Sammy's Ain come out, you
had you had each kind of part of it, which
I which I really liked, and so really really really
masterfully done.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I loved it. I do want to shout out one
person that was in the crowd because he got the
biggest pop of the night, and that's my friend Macaulay
Culkin admitted to the show, and the crowd was so
high for him and the way he kind of presented
himself with so much cooler that. I love Seth too,
But Matt got the biggest pop of the night. It
was it was so he got a bigger pop than Hogan. Well,
I guess they hated Hogan, but they loved Matt so
(10:13):
balanced now, but he got the biggest pop of the night.
That made me laugh a lot. I really wish I
could have been there. It would have been fun, but
it didn't work out anyway. Triple Edge came out and
talked they thank their new Netflix executives, which was a
little weird to me. That breaking. I don't know if
it was weird to anyone else, but I kind of
don't want to know about the people behind the scenes.
(10:34):
I don't want to know about the executives behind the scenes.
There was a time when executives didn't do interviews, you
know what I mean, where agents and managers didn't do interviews.
That stopped in the early two thousands when they kind
of wanted to get famous too, so they started doing interviews.
I remember reading one where his agent was taking credit
for this other actors basically entire career. And I was
(10:55):
friends with the actor. I'm like, yo, did you read this?
He goes, yeah, that's that guy's not my agent anymore.
I inspired him. I was just he leit. He was like, well,
maybe you know now that we represent and we can
take him to the next level. I'm like, you don't
do that. He's famous. All you do is say yes
or no. The scripts that come in, Like it's one
thing if you're building an actor up from the ground up.
(11:16):
But this dude was a stab or it was a woman. Actually,
this woman was established and they had kind of made
her bones in the business already, like you know, she's
the top shell b actor. It's like, what are we
talking about here. So that's always a little weird to
me when when they put the spotlight on on the people,
you know, behind the scenes. But the crowd didn't seem
to hate it. They didn't boo any of the executives.
(11:36):
If I really thought they were gonna but they but
they didn't. So that was good. So it was all
love and it felt good. But we'll get into some
more rest.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
It feels like like the victory lap of Netflix. So
it's like you saw them down there. It's them being
like we're king now, like we own everything. Look and
we're all even enjoying the you know, look, we're dabbing
up the rock.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We're at a side.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It felt very much like we own the industry now.
That is what it felt like, to me, like a
big party, like it's opening night and we're gonna sit
in the front.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
And it did feel like a party. And you know,
the the wrestling fan in me, who's very cynical, goes, man,
this is probably the first wrestling show they ever saw.
And then the optimist in me goes, hey, man, this
is probably the first wrestling show they ever saw. And
I'm a little like split and torn on, you know
(12:28):
what I mean. In one way, it's good because we're
introducing new people to wrestling, and hopefully they connected to
one of these characters and they like it and they
want to bring their kids to a show, or maybe
they even't want to watch once in a while. But
then the cynic in me is like, man, they're just
here for the for the pot. So I don't know
which one is right. I definitely had both feelings at the.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Same I thought they were the mean street posse down there,
you know, That's what it looked like.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Were these guys that when Shane McMahon just pops his
head in hell, yeah, you go, what is it? All right?
Let's talk some wrestling. Well, let's talk about one of
our favorites, real Rickley and Morgan battled for the women's championship. Finally,
both women are healthy, no injuries, thank god. Storyline has
(13:14):
been good. It's had ups and downs because of injuries,
though not by any fault of the creative team or
any fault of the talent, simply injuries that slowed things down.
Dominic's awesome. I know he's a heel, but he's my
favorite babyface in professional wrestling because that to me, he's
the victim in this and he's torn between two women
that are both manipulative. It's just one is manipulative for
(13:36):
herself and the other's manipulative for herself. But Dominic is
a victim in this. Just remember that. Show some sympathy
for him. His mustache is glorious, His mullet's glorious. Man
loves chicken Tenders, And I don't care what you people say.
You know you love chicken tenders too, so don't even
act like you don't, Jeff, you like chicken tenders, right,
everybody likes chicken tenders. So they had a match. They wrestle,
(14:00):
and finally the belt is back around the waste of
the most excellent, biggest, baddest, meanest looking woman. She looks
like she could beat up the whole roster. Rear Ripley.
I just got back from Australia. She's Australian. I got
(14:21):
a lot of love for the people down there. Let
me tell you something. Everyone in Australia looks like her.
All the women are smoking hot, they're all in great shape.
All the dudes are in great shape. They're all good looking.
I asked a buddy who I made friends with when
I was down there. I was like, how come everybody
in such great freaking shape in Australia. He goes, first
of all, we're not. He's like, our older people are.
(14:43):
He goes, but we have sports once a week. We
have pe every day, but we have one day a
week where it's all sports. We don't do any academics.
It's just a sports day. I was like, Oh, that's
why you guys rock at the Summer Olympics. That's what
you got. Yeah, so they really focus on their physical
fitness there. Real Ripley is super fit. I think she
(15:05):
was a volleyball player before she was a professional wrestler.
But she's awesome, man, She's the champ. They're gonna have
Monday Night Row Tonight we record these on Mondays, so
I'm really looking forward to her promo. I'm looking forward
to seeing what's next for her. But I think it
could still be live because Becky's not back yet, so
I don't know who would fill that spot. Did you
(15:25):
have any ideas as to what's next or were you
just kind of living in the moment and enjoying it? Oh?
I was loving it.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I love Ria Ripley. I have so many thoughts on
this match. But I thought that Becky was gonna come back.
That's what I guessed, or I assumed, was like, Oh,
this is Monday night, Rob, we got Netflix, We'll see
Becky come back in here and you know, stand off
or maybe stand up at the top of the ramp
and look at Rio Ripley. You know now that she
has the belt around her waist, But we didn't get that,
(15:53):
so I was very confused.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Did you hear that maybe that was supposed to happen
and then they switched it last minute for the undertaker spot.
Did you hear that? Because I kind of saw a
little bit of that online.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
No, I didn't hear that. I just assumed there'd be
some chick. I assumed Becky, but like I thought. I
thought there'd be some woman, you know, Jade Cargill, somebody
would come down and do like a spot. I thought
the underthink Undertaker thing was insane to me. Why what,
what the hell does they came out of nowhere?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If I know what they were trying to do, Like
they're saying, like he's the legend, He's going to give
her the rub, but I didn't think she needed the rub,
and also rather Becky come out. Yeah, it was a
little off off putting because I was kind of like,
well was he do? He just did a hot lap
and then yeah, I said, way to go, Really your badass?
Like I already think we as badass. I didn't think
needed an extra rub.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I went, I love the Undertaker and I love the
American badass? How does that coincide with each other? I
like all the parties involved, but I'm going, what is happening?
But I just expected a woman.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I thought.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I hoped for Becky to come out and kind of
kind of give us a peak of what's next now
that Ria's champ. So yeah, I was confused by that.
But I will say that real Ripley Live Morgan match
was awesome. I really enjoyed it, which I'm pretty critical
of female wrestling, and I really enjoyed the entire match.
I also love that Ria hit her with her finishing
move so many times. It felt it felt like, you know,
(17:16):
I'm always I'm always trying to get back to the
circus days of wrestling, like I want like a feet
of strength, and it looked like Ria was like getting
fatigued giving her her finishing move every single time.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It was so good. Yeah, the mat was a great
story man. Yeah, And I don't think that was her
genuinely fatigued at all. I really think that was a
conscious choice by her showing it's getting harder and harder
as the matches goes longer and longer. That I've seen
them do that even when I work there, like the
agents that for those who don't know the term agent.
Most of you guys are are hardcore fans, so you don't,
(17:49):
but bear with me. For the ones who don't, they're
like the fight choreographer, and they're usually old school wrestlers.
Usually they're always old school wrestlers, and that's something that
they would I saw like guys like Orna Anderson and
Dean Malenko talk about with the younger wrestlers when I
was there, and I would watch them kind of coach
these these these young wrestlers through those types of of
(18:10):
conscious choices, like make yourself look tired because they do
wrestl so they can rest up, you know what I mean.
So there was no there was no. I don't think
there was genuine fatigue there. I just think Ria is
that good and makes us be Yeah. Man, she's a stud.
She's a total stud. All right, enough with the ladies. Ladies,
you got some time. But now it's time to talk
about some dudes. Two dudes that are pretty great on
(18:33):
the microphone. Two dudes that hate each other. No they do,
but they made us think that they do. And that's
seth Rollins and see him punk. I was wrong on this,
but I want to talk about why I was wrong,
And I don't quite know. This is going to sort
of be free for him, and I'm just kind of
throwing this off there. When I worked there, there was
(18:54):
a philosophy that the older dudes all kind of agreed with,
which is that now it's time to put the younger
guys over. Now it's time to I've had my time,
Now it's your time. I'm gonna give you a great match,
and I'm gonna put you over. And that still seems
to exist in W W E and AE W a lot,
(19:17):
except with Cmpunk. And I'm I'm telling everyone this right now,
I'm never betting against Cmpunk again, whether I think he
should lose or not, because he's never gonna lose the war.
He might use a battle, but he's never gonna lose
a war. And I guess he's gonna be Champ again,
which is weird to me because he's an older dude,
and just that that old school philosophy of like the
(19:41):
guys like Arn Anderson, Dean Maliko and all those guys
that when I when I worked there, Fit Finley, all
these guys, you know, they were there in the later
part of their career to make sure to either put
over the new guy or to help solidify the established
dudes as as the man now. And I guess Sampunk's
wants to still be the man, and it wants to
(20:03):
be the lead of the movie, so to speak, and
he's going to be. That just has to be something
that they worked out before he signed. Because it happened
with Dream, It's gonna happen with Seth. It's gonna happen
with whoever's next for him, and I guess he's gonna
be Champ, which is cool for Sampunk fans. It's just
weird to me because it seems to break this rule
or this understanding that the older generation had when I
(20:26):
worked there. But things evolve and change, and maybe I'm
just outdated and don't know, but I know this. I'm
not betting against him again, even if I think he should.
I thought he should have lost that match. I thought
it should have been Seth rawlins. I could already see
that the promo that Seth was gonna cut on Monday,
Son of a bitch. I did what I said I
was going to do. And now, like all the promises
that Seth made it, his promos are breaken promises and
(20:48):
a baby face can't have that, at least that's how
I was taught. So I guess maybe they're gonna turn
him heal because the healed promises can get broken all
the time, or maybe they're not and he's just gonna
be the badass guy. But it was weird to see
set lose for me. I know most people were excited
because everybody loves see him Punk, but I really thought
Seth should have won that match. What did you think?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I agree with what you're saying, But I also I
don't think that CM punk sees himself as the old guy.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I really don't.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I don't think that CM punk has ever followed any
sort of quote unquote wrestling.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Rules about that. That's kind yeah, yeah, beats to his
own drum.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
He is the Punk of wrestling, and so I think
for him, it's like maybe in ten years we'll see
him put someone over, or he's.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Still wrestling in ten years, and that would be insane
to me. I just that's crazy. You're probably prappy.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
He will, He'll come out even if he's not doing
a match every single week, he'll still be in wrestling.
You know, we still see Rick Flair and Hulk Cogan
and all these guys. So you know, even even see
him Punk, I'm not falling for this or not see
him by John Cena, even the John Sam, I'm not
falling for this. Like it's my final tour. It isn't.
You're gonna be around, You're gonna come back every three weeks.
(22:10):
It's like they never go anywhere.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I say it, Yeah, you're right, you talk me off
the Brian Danielson ledge with this when I was like, no,
he's gone, and you're like, dude, he's not gone.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
If they die, we get to mourn them. Other than that,
that's it. So I don't know. I think it'll be interesting.
I think this CEM Punk still has a lot of
stuff he wants to do and doesn't really see him
in the chapter of putting wrestlers over. And also I
don't even know who he'd be, like a good sport
enough to put over. If we sat down and had
(22:43):
cigars with see him Punk, he'd be like I hate
so and so, and I hate so and so, and
I feel like he'd be one of these guys.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
What do you mean you guys smoke. I don't smoke.
I'm straight edge. I was shocked the seth lost just
like you. Yeah, it was, it was it was Look,
it was an awesome match, Like it was one of
the best matches I've seen this year. This year's been short,
but in the last years because they're both awesome in
(23:11):
the ring, they both sell like nobody's business. They both
can make your punches look like you got hit by
Mike Tyson in his prime. Not Mike Tyson against Jake Paul.
That's not that was but like the real Mike Tyson
fights like they both they both sell like mugs right,
like they do miss quality selling the guys that can
(23:32):
put anyone over, and they were putting each other over
the whole match. I just thought the finish was strange.
But again, I was taught by the old school guys,
and so that's why my brain is kind of wired
the way their brains were wired. Because I didn't know
shit about the wrestling business outside of the fact that
I liked it. When I got to WWE, and I
relied on a lot of those agents and the Arn't
(23:54):
Anderson's of the world and the Michael P. S Hayes's
of the world, and all all those guys. They were
all really good to me. I know I'm forgetting some
of them, but it's just because I didn't know we
were even going to be talking about this. Again, this
is all kind of off my head. Been a little
distracted this week. But yeah, it was a great match.
I just I wanted a different finish. But that's you know,
(24:15):
that's what keeps you watching. You want to see what
you want to get, what you want out of it,
and you hope you're gonna get it every week, and
most of the time we do. I would like to
see I say this a lot, man, I'm not trying
to beat a dead horse, but I would like to
see more stories and to have I want Powerhouse Hobbs
(24:40):
to get the push, but I wouldn't call what's happening
with Powerhouse Hobbs to push. He's just next in line
for Mosley, and there's not enough of a story here
to make me believe Hobbs can win that match. There's
not enough of a reason for them to fight outside
of they were in another not a tournament, but a
(25:02):
casino match, whatever it was, to be the next number
one contender, I would I really like the stories, and
they have people that tell great ones, so I know
they can do it, but there's no story here, so
I don't believe Powerhouse Hobbs can win either. To me,
the story would have been how do we be MVP?
And it would be how do I get Powerhouse Hobbs
(25:24):
into the Hurt Syndicate and that would be a cool story.
How do I convince this dude to join? How do
I convince this dude to be a part of what
we're trying to put together. I could get behind that
and I could believe in that dude, and that, to me,
would be more of an entry point to get him
towards a championship where you see MVP starting to hustle
for his guys and say no, no, no, no, my guy's decks,
(25:47):
my guy's decks. Now, maybe they don't want to do
that because they have Bobby and he's going to be
the one eventually to charge for the titles. But yeah, man,
it's it's tough when they just kind of say, and
next week it's a championship match and it's a game,
it's you, and it's almost like they're playing Duck Dug goose,
you know what I mean. And I would much rather
see just an entry point for these It doesn't have
(26:09):
to be a six week story from the championship. It
could be a two week story that totally works. A
two week story's fine. So short stories work. They get
turned into movies all the time. So I would have
liked to see that. And I know I say this
a lot, and maybe it's just not a w's thing.
Maybe I just need to accept that they're more about
the match and less about the story. The only argument
(26:31):
to that would be, well, look at the great storytellers.
They still tell stories on ad W and the Cmpunk
Max Friedman storyline is still my favorite storyline in the
last ten fifteen years. I liked it more than the
bloodline story. That whole bit when he talked when he
came out and he talked about like the football team, saying,
pick up those quarters, jew boy, pick them up like
(26:52):
and then to flip it and kick see them Punk
in the falls at the end of that story, Like,
I was just completely taken by that, and he tricked me.
F you for tricking me, by the way, Max, But
that was great, Like, it was really good storytelling, and
I just would love to see more of that. That said,
Max isn't another story, and it looks like it's gonna
(27:13):
be the end of Jeff Jarrett, which will be kind
of cool. It's something it look gets hard because the
older guys can't work the way that the younger guys
can work. But Max is such a good storyteller that
I don't underestimate what he's capable of pulling off. I
just don't and I genuinely think he can pull this
off and give us a solid match with Jared and
(27:34):
give us a great reason why it may not be
the best match, but the reason why they're fighting. I
think everyone will care about and I think he'll get
some people to pull for Jeff, Jared and Hope and believe.
I think he'll be able to pull that off. If
anyone can do it. It's not going to be easy,
but if anyone can do it, it will be MJF
and I like watching everything. He's at home. I know
(27:55):
I kind of talked about eight different things here, Jeff,
So whatever you want to throw in.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Well, I was just gonna say it could be because
they WB put so much effort into making sure that
the Monday Night Raw was great because of Netflix that
it really made AW seem underwhelming. So I'm aware of that,
But man, AW has been tough to watch for me
this week. I'm hoping that it's because I came off
(28:20):
of this huge Netflix spectacle where they brought out every star.
It felt like I was playing with my wrestling toys again,
like it was only the biggest stars wrestling each other.
So maybe it felt like that, but it's They're gonna
have to figure out something over there. At AEW because
it feels like currently, at least in the last few
(28:42):
weeks or months, that WWE is beaten. That ass is
what it feels like to me. I don't, I can't
really you know me do. I always try to be
mister positivity on this and I try to be as
as kindly critical as possible, But I can really poke
any holes and what you said there, I'm trying to.
(29:04):
I got my needle out trying to poke. Yeah, looks good.
The competition brings out the best in both, so I
hope that they answer back.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Will Osprey is still the man. Will Osprey can still
talk on the mic with Malachi Black looking like he's
about to leave AEW, his contracts almost stuff. We might
get a push. I hope they push it nice and
slow and they don't force them right into a championship
match right away. But it looks like we're going to
get a push out of Buddy Matthews, Ria Ripley's husband
(29:33):
or boyfriend fiance. I don't know they love each other.
I know they love each other. I just don't know
their status. That was Alexa Blisses X too. Oh, I
didn't know that. Nice Well, we know his type. He
likes wrestlers like romans. His body is one of the
best in the business. He looks so awesome. I wish
I looked like him. If I looked like Buddy Matthews
(29:55):
back in the day, I'm too old now, but back
in the day, you know, your boy would have been Batman, right,
you know your boy, it would have been bad one.
My boy could already be Batman. You're the fucking best almost.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And the second of all, you're like double the height
of Buddy Matthews.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, and he's doubled the wind.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I know. Hey, we all got our gifts. We all
play with the gifts God gave us, you know, but
you get height. He's sim He's somewhere listening and going, Man,
I wish I was six four and we're over here going.
We're all tall, six four guys going. I wish we
were strong and ripped like Buddy.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
It's all. It doesn't matter, bro, my man is six
four wide. I'm like three feet wide. But I would
like to see. I really like Buddy Matthews for a
long time. We don't talk about him a lot, but
he seems like he's got everything. I don't know too
much about his mic work, I have to like go
back and watch watch them promos. But as far as
(30:48):
his work in the ring, top shelf, body, top shelf,
his look is super super cool and he's he's experimented
with different looks, like he was not a House of
Black type vibe when he first was in WW. He
was basically the opposite of that, and he looked great
doing that too, So I'd like to see that. It'd
(31:09):
be good to get some new blood pumping in there
and give some new bushes to guys like Powerhouse Hops,
who I think deserves a real push, not just a
sacrificial land push. To give Buddy Matthews a nice slow
you know, maybe he goes after the inter Intercontinental where
they call it the international title. So many freaking titles
you're going after a title. I'd like to see him
(31:29):
go after a mid card title first, and hopefully they
don't put him into the main events stuff right away.
But yeah, I like Buddy Matthews a lot, and I
hope for good things. I'm not going to get too
much into the rest of AEW because it just didn't
grab It just didn't grab me, and it might be
because I've been stressed out. It might be because of the
Netflix thing. It might be their fault. I don't know
whose fault it is, but yeah, SmackDown was what it was.
(31:53):
It was three hours. It felt like a highlight show
for the Monday night Raw. At the end of the day,
the Cody Ruins Kevin own stuff was really really cool.
I friggin love Kevin Owens. Dude, like he can be
in any kind of match and he's gonna make you
give a shit just because his promos are so good
and he gives you And here's les's unique about Kevin.
He gives you his point of view every time he speaks.
(32:17):
So in this instance with Cody Rhodes, he's in the wrong,
but according to him, and you can even see it
on his T shirts, it says Kevin was right and
then he tells you why every single time, and you
remember and it makes you go, oh, I don't agree
with this dude, but I see where he's coming from,
which I'm very prone to do just in my life
in real life, Like I may not agree with something
(32:38):
someone says, but I'll try to find out where they're
coming from, or I can understand where they're coming from
and go, yeah, we just agree to disagree. I know
we're not allowed to do that anymore because of social
media and you have to either like something or not
like it. But I don't give a shit. So I'm
old and I don't care about that stuff. So I
loved his promo on the stairs as he was coming
down through the crowd and mean, like, how could you
(33:00):
still stick up for the son of a bitch Roman
Reigns after everything he did, And you just see Cody
stewing and stewing in truth. He's stewing in truth because
the truth fucking hurts, doesn't it. Cody groes, how he
gonna help somebody that ft you over like that? Oh
you're gonna forgive and forget? Screw that. We hold on
to grudges for life in the wrestling business, and Kevin
(33:21):
Owens is no exception. Kevin Owens still has the greatest
moment of the year when he rolled up the window
on Michael Cole and Michael Cole was trying to interview him.
That's still the greatest moment of the year. That made
me laugh so much. But this was awesome. Cody just
said screw it. They went full w CW style. He
ran out of the ring. They fought in the crowd.
It was awesome. I love when it gets out of
the ring and spills into the fans. I think that's
(33:43):
the coolest shit. Every show I've been to, I've wanted
one of those fights to spell out to where I
am so that I could be on camera going yeah,
kick is that as kind of It's never happened once.
They've never even gotten close to me. It's it's I
want that to happen more than I want to catch
a foul ball at a baseball game. Really, and I'd
probably want the foul ball or the home run.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I've caught a foul ball. I checked it off the list.
I swear to god, you really have. Yeah, it was
the best moment of Unicorn. That's like I know that
people want be like, where are you tripping out so hard?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Pretty? You don't understand that's like finding a unicorn. There's
fifty thousand people in the stands and you were the
one that caught the ball.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, they made a documentary about these like old men
who there like lifelong goal is just to catch a.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Foul ball at a baseball game.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
They've spent their whole lives because The rule is it
can't bounce, it can't.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Hit off something. It can't I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
It's not like, oh, the ball landed and then you
ran over and grabbed it from under the seat.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That doesn't count. Count.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
You have to catch a foul ball. And it came
right to where I was sitting. I just went, I
put my hand up and just caught it. It was
like a remind it make an assumption here, But I
know I'm right. The question would be don't answer. It
would be glove or no glove.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
But I already know the answer because you're a man's man,
and I know you went no glove, and I know
you got it bare handed, because that's the true way
to get a foul ball. When I see grown ups
bringing gloves to a game and they don't have the
guts to take the pain. You got to take the
pain of the foul ball. I respect that so much.
The bare handed catch is the most respected fan move
(35:22):
in sports outside of professional wrestling, which a fight would
be cool, especially if you but you caught it bare handed. Yes,
bare hand, yep, right, it just caught it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Also, the adrenaline of the moment made it not hurt
at all.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I didn't even feel anything, like I have your manliness,
bro well, just.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Going like I was so excited and like I couldn't
believe it happened that.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I was like, I don't, I don't feel anything. So
the only thing superior to that would have been if
you had a beer. In the other hand, I.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Know you ever seen a guy Yeah, I saw that
on It's Amazing, Yeah, and then they chugged the beer.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I was like, that guy rose. Yeah, those guys are
the top shelf. Those are Andre the giants.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
He's gonna die of some chemical that was rubbed on
the ball, you know, because he drank all the barrier.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
The picture was greasing it up to get a couple
extra inches on their break. All right, you guys, I
hope you enjoyed this week's episode. I tried to go
along for you guys, because we're not giving you a
Thursday episode. We will be back next week. Jeff, are
you are you going to be anywhere this weekend? Can
the people come see you someplace? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:21):
I am going to be in Sacramento. I'm playing Rancho
Murrietta on on Saturday and then Sacramento Punchline.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
We added the show because we sold it out. So
hell y Sunday Sacramento punchline. All right, you guys, if
you're up in norcl that counts as Norcle Sacramento. Yeah,
oh yeah. If you're up in Norcau go check out
my boy. If you're in SOCU, stay safe. If you're
anywhere else in the country. Sending you guys, love, Sending
you guys hopefully good wrestling that you like. I hope
(36:50):
all the people you're rooting for win. I hope all
the people you hate looms and yeah go Raiders. What sorry,
I'm a Raiders fan. I just said throw that in there.
Paying six fucking coaches that the team anymore because we're
so well, that's my depressing moment of the day. That's
what we should do. We should do a depressing segment
of the week, and we're gonna start that start from
(37:11):
now on. And my depressing moment of the week isn't
the danger that everyone is in. It's my favorite football
team sucks ass. And as for a lot of time,
I'm sure you guys are all rooting for the good teams.
So anyway, enjoy on. Behalf of Jeff Die. I'm back
of our awesome producer Alex, a big wrestling fan also
former marine because he's a stud. We all thank you
guys for listening every week, and yeah, we love you guys.
(37:34):
Take it easy out. This has been a production of
Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
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