April 14, 2025 • 20 mins
Tony talks WrestleMania with Rick Ucchino on ESPN 1530!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back since he three to sixty thanks to Penn Station.
Move it along here our number three on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. The NFL Draft is next week.
There's a lot of build up to the NFL Draft.
The Reds are back to five hundred. We've discussed and
covered all of that today. We've talked about everything that's
happened over the course of the weekend. But for now,
(00:22):
it's also WrestleMania Week, and in the Pike household that
carries a little bit more. My son has decided to
throw his own WrestleMania party this week. We're up to
about twenty five to thirty action figures. They're all going
to be set up over the course of Saturday and
Sunday at the house. He is inviting, not me, He
is inviting friends and family over. He's coming up with
(00:42):
the menu. Were excited about WrestleMania Week, and I know
my guy, Rick Uccino is excited about WrestleMania Week. We
had to get him today because he's leaving to head
to Vegas.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
On a jet plane. Baby, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Rick. Before we even get started, what's the easiest way
for anyone to follow along? With all of your coverage
of wrestling WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, that would be on X That's the place where
I'm gonna be putting out most of the stuff, and
that's at Rick Uchino. So that's r I C K
U C C H I n O. All of my
written work can be found on the Takedown on s I.
So that's you can get there by the main Sports
Illustrated page and go into the wrestling section.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So it is I want to talk WrestleMania itself, but
it's not WrestleMania yet. There's a Monday Night Rawl, there's
a SmackDown still to take place. We'll talk about the
cart itself, but is there anything that still needs, in
your opinion, to get hashed out or that will come
about maybe tonight or even on SmackDown leading up to WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
They got to find an opponent for Randy Orton. Yeah,
that's that's the biggest question mark on my mind right now.
Is you know, he had one of the more marquee matches,
well built in storyline for months with himself and Kevin Owens,
and then unfortunately Kevin Owens announces that you know, he
needs neck surgery and doctors are not going to clear
him to compete against Randy Orton this weekend in Las Vegas.
(02:03):
So now it's like, Okay, you got your two weeks out,
two weeks out from your biggest show, one of your
longest running storylines, one of your more marquee non title matches,
and it's off the table now. So what do you
do in that situation? Do you go with? You know,
a guy like Nick Aldis who has been the SmackDown
general manager since he signed with a company, but is
a former nWay World champion, former TNA World champion. There
(02:27):
is at least a storyline built in because ever since
Randy Orton arrived on SmackDown, he's been given that guy rkos.
So maybe he can pull him out of retirement for
a match. Seems like they might be leaning towards solo socoa.
Not a lot of intrigue there for me, because I
feel like that's just gonna be Yeah, Randy wins going
over no problem like Nick Aldis is interesting to me
(02:48):
and the SmackDown crowd last Friday reacted when Randy made
mention and why don't we pull you out of retirement,
get the boots on and all of a sudden, you
got the crowd it was going, yeah, let's do that.
I was like, that got a really good reaction. But
you also have a lot of guys who, you know,
if you want to do a surprise Factor, right, you
got guys like Alister Black and Miro aka Russef who
(03:09):
are reportedly signed with the company but have not returned
on television yet. Maybe Nick All this, you know, pulls
a deal and finds something right, wrestle in his place,
something like that. It looks like they're leaning towards solo socoa.
I hope that's not the direction. I'd like to see
something a little bit more intriguing, but I expect that
to be wrapped up late late this week.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
What does the week look like? Because this is much
more now than just a Saturday and Sunday, Because as mentioned,
you're you're getting ready to head out to WrestleMania to
Las Vegas. It's not just the event Saturday, the event Sunday.
I know they're doing a kill Tony thing on Sunday
after WrestleMania. What does it look like leading up all week?
What's happening in Vegas around WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Oh my gosh, like where to start. I mean, first off,
you have WWE World that's going on at the I
believe Las Vegas Convention Center, whatever the name for their
convention center is. So that's like this massive WWE themed
you know, museum, and that's where their merchandise store is,
and they have a bunch of different events, like they're
going to be doing one Fanatics is going to be
(04:08):
doing one for Make a Wish, where you have these
kids are going to get to go out on Thursday
morning and do like a full on WWE entrance with
ww superstars who are are going to be there in
attendance to that part of it's a secret so but
I don't know if I was supposed to say that,
but you know when they invited a bunch of the
media out to check that out. But WWE World goes
(04:30):
on all week and long, and they're going to have
their biggest merchandise store that they have ever had that's
going to be there. So there's a lot of different
themed events and conventions. You got Walllemnia, which is going
to be taking place Thursday night, which I will be
at for the first time this year. I got the
invite to go down to that that's going to be
broadcast on Netflix Thursday night. You have the Hall of
Fame Induction on Friday after SmackDown. There are also after
(04:53):
parties Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at some of these casinos
that are gonna be on the strip, and I've been
invited to a couple of those. I'm gonna try to
hit a few of those as well. But SmackDown on Friday,
WrestleMania Allegiant Stadium, Saturday and Sunday, Raw back at t
(05:14):
Boble on Monday, and then you have NXT that's gonna
be in Vegas on Tuesday. It is an incredible wall
to wall like I'm literally I'm gonna have to get
like my schedule like tattooed on my arms so I
don't miss anything or forget anything and find time to
write in between. At the same time.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Saturday's card it looks like I believe the main event
is the seth rollins Roman Reigne, Cmpunk, Yes, Gunther and
Jay Usso, Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair, war Raiders in
the New Day, La Night and Jacob Fatu. You got
Ray Masterio and El Grande Americano definitely not Chad Gate,
definitely not Chad Gable. Jake Cargill versus Naomi Jake Cargo
(05:50):
A little tied to here, which is with Brandon Phillips yep,
the Triple Threat match. Without even going into predictions, How
do you feel like the build up has been for
this SETH Rollins Roman Reign Cmpunk.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, I do like this build There's there's obviously a
lot of history that they can play into this, and
it would have been, you know, fairly easy for them
to lean into all of the past Shield stuff, and
I think if Evince was still in charge, this would
have been hit over the head like, hey, by the way,
did you know like two of these guys were in
(06:24):
the Shield and cm punk was the one who brought
him in and all that kind of stuff. But there
was more to this history between these three guys that
they could really dive into, and a lot of that
does center around Paul Hayman. So typically I don't like
it when an outside entity becomes the story, but in
this case, it just made so much sense with Paul
Hayman literally being Cmpunk's best friend but also being the
(06:48):
advocate in tribal and wise man to Roman Reign to
Seth Rollins, and now they had to find a way
to pull him into the mix because until this past
Monday last week, I'm like, Seth kind of feels like
the third wheel here little bit. It's interesting now they've
pulled him into this too, so it's gonna all of
a sudden, Paul Hayman becomes you know, like, okay, where
where does his allegiances truly lie in this matchup? So
(07:11):
the matchup in and of itself, I think is going
to be spectacular. It's a it's a dream matchup. It's
the closest that we're gonna be able to get to
a a shield triple threat at WrestleMania, because I don't
think our John got our guy, John Moxley is going
to be coming back anytime soon. So he seems to
be an able d lifer, which good for him. He's
doing great there on his own. So the matching of
(07:31):
itself is going to be great. I think the build
has been pretty good as well.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Is it the right call for that to be the
main event over Gunther and jay Uso because that's obviously
the next matchup question, and it's been a bloodbath literally
lead up to this. Uh, it's not been that they've
They've played on the lack of confidence some men ring
fumbles that they highlighted for jay Uso. Yeah, should jay
Uso and Gunther there have been the main event? And
(07:54):
and same question, what did you feel the build up
of this?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So I don't it's so hard, right because I think
because I saw a lot of people complaining about this,
like neither jay Usso or Charlotte Flair being in the
main event after winning their respective Royal Rumbles, And I'm like, okay,
but have their matches or their builds or you know,
have they done enough to warrant you know, going over
(08:21):
Roman rains Seth Rollins and see I'm Punk in the
same match at the same time. And this is Punk's
first WrestleMania in twelve years, right, all right? This is
Roman Reigns, who has main invented ten WrestleManias. This is
Seth Rollins, who has been if it wasn't for Roman Reigns,
would be considered the top guy over the last decade
in WWE. This is a huge marquee matchup, one that
(08:44):
we never thought we would see. For Forget doesn't even
need a It's so big it doesn't need a title tone, right,
So has the bill between jay Usso and Gunther or
Tiffany and Charlotte, at least until last week, have those
warranted being put over that match? I don't think so.
I think people get bogged down and start complaining. Is
(09:05):
over the fact of the billing of the Royal Rumble. Yeah,
you don't have an issue with the fact that Jay
Yussu is into the main event. You have an issue
with the marketing of the Royal Rumble, which that I
agree they need to change. Stop saying you're going to
the main event of WrestleMania because it's not a guarantee.
We saw this in twenty eighteen. Neither Oscar or Shinskan
Knackamora a main event in WrestleMania in twenty eighteen after
winning the Royal Rumbles, So there's precedent for this. It
(09:25):
doesn't happen every year. But if you just say, hey,
earn a World Championship match at WrestleMania, I don't think
people will be complaining. I do think they have made
the right call. Although Charlotte and Tiffany has gotten very
spicy in the last time we.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Were watching last week, my wife and I and my
wife looks mean. She said that felt like it just
turned real, felt like that got personal the build up
between Charlotte and Tiffany Stratton. Does are there times where
it crosses a line? Or oh absolutely, you're just so
good at playing into it, because I felt an uncomfortable
level in the ring watching it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Shout out that that promo two weeks ago went way
off the rail, that was not scripted, that was not scripted,
that pretty much went off from jump. And one of
the things that I said on the podcast, we do
a Takedown discussion show on the Takedown on SI YouTube
channel every Friday, I made a pretty good analogy. I
thought that promo was basically Apollo thirteen and where it
(10:18):
was a successful failure. Yeah, right, Like it did not
go according to plan. But what did it do? It
got people talking about that feud, and it got people
interested in that matchup. And that was the promo exchange,
even though there were lines crossed on both sides. Okay,
and Charlotte kind of like almost testing Tiffany a little
(10:41):
bit and saying, all right, well, what are you gonna do?
You know you're twenty five, you're the Wwman's champion, but
I'm the queen. Are you gonna fight back? And then
Tiffany did, and then Tiffany went a little bit across
the line, and then Charlotte was like, oh, no, you didn't.
And you know, if you haven't seen it, by the way,
go look it up. It's insane. But yeah, So they
got people talking and they got people interested in it.
(11:02):
So while they did cross a line and maybe got
a little bit of backstage cheat about it, people are
more invested in that. So again, Apollo thirteen successful failure.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Those three are obviously the headliners. Quickly before we moved tonight,
two war Raiders in the New New Day. Yeah, the
la Night, Jacob thought, to any of the others, do
any of those have the potential to steal the show?
From a match standpoint? In your opinion?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh, from a match standpoint anytime? Jacob thought, two is
in the ring, it's going to be impressive. I don't
feel good for our guy, Laa.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Excuse me heading into that one. Don't feel good for him.
And I'll tell you what. The one that I'm really
really excited for is Jaed Cargill and Naomi. This is
the first non title singles women's match in WrestleMania in
eighteen years, and it's the first one without a very
tired stipulation, like I believe the last one was a
Playboy pillow fight, and the one before that was like
(11:53):
a mud wrestling match or something like that. Or no,
it was a cat fight, right, it was a cat fight.
It was It was back in the days where women
couldn't even punch each other. And so the fact that
we now have Naomi, who is a heel who for
the first time in her career and her career dates
over a decade, is actually getting a legitimate story to
like really sink her teeth into. And it's gotten to
the point where it's been so good that they put
(12:14):
this matchup on WrestleMania. Huge for the women's division, and
I'm looking forward to that one as well.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Night two WrestleMania. Before we get to the main event,
there's matches that haven't because you only have so much time,
so you don't get the huge build up to every match.
But yeah, you can feel an intensity between Damian Priest
and Drew McIntyre, the Fatal four way with bron Breaker
and Mysterio and Penton, Finnvalor Aj Styles and Logan Paul
I think has a underrated nature to it just because
(12:41):
of how talented both of those guys are. You get
the Women's Tag Team Championship match, you get a triple
threat match for the Women's World Championship outside of the
main event. What are you most looking forward to on
Night two?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
A Night two? Man? I hate to say it, but
like that Logan Paul aj Styles match is going to
be really really good. It's going to be very, very good.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
He delivers every time.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, I hate to give Logan Paul credit for anything,
but he is good. You know, the bill to that
match has been whatever. Logan Paul shows up every couple
of weeks, they cut a promo, they punch each other
like it's been very paint by numbers, But the match
itself is going to deliver. You cannot convince me that
anything that Drew McIntyre does right now is not just
(13:26):
absolute gold. The guy finds a way to make anything work.
And the fact that there has been like this year
long story that's been building between him and Damian Priest
that like nobody even realized until like they pointed it out,
like oh, damn yeah, you're right, like this this actually
does make sense because there were people who were looking
at it's like, why is Drew McIntyre fighting Damian Priest,
(13:47):
Like that's that's a downgrade for him, and I'm like, no,
there's actually if you think about it, there's actually a
story there. And that's that's part of the thing that
I wants they need to focus on because they have
tell I think they have sixteen championships they could defend
this for again, they're not all being defended. You know,
it would be it would just be so easy to
just be like, all right here, title match, title mass
title match, title match, No, give me some story, give
(14:07):
me something else that that you know has some meaning
to it besides the championships. And they're doing that with
Drew and Damien and I think that match is going
to deliver in a Sin City street fight.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Let me ask you, this the main event and we
could we could probably talk for another half hour about
all the matches, and my street profits aren't even on
the main on the on the cart wrestlemtch I got
a problem of that. But John Cena, Cody Rhodes, I
go back to the last time you and I spoke
going into the Royal Rumble, we thought it's it's Seena's time.
He doesn't win the rumble, it's jay USO's time. You
go to the elimination chamber and everything that takes place,
(14:38):
and the Rock hands out his stipulation to Cody Rhods
and not only does he deny it, but it's John
Cena for the first time in his career turns into
a heel, and my goodness, I feel like he's delivered
every time he's taken a microphone. In my opinion, h
John Cena has been brilliant as a heel. I don't
know how the Rock storyline comes together yet at WrestleMania
(15:00):
with it, but from a in ring standpoint, there were
times when Cody and John last met that I'm like, oh,
this is getting testy as well, this is getting suit
as well. What do you feel about the main event
of Night two of WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So the bill to this matchup for me has kind
of been like I feel like I'm watching a Quentin
Tarantino movie because I feel like they gave me, like,
you know, the ending at the beginning, and you know
they it's like trying to fill in all the pieces
and you're trying to figure out the plot, storyline. It's like,
hopefully all of this comes together and it makes sense
(15:35):
at the end, right, Because that's the big thing. John
Cena turning heel selling his soul to the Rock like
there hasn't been that piece that has connected all of
that together. John coming out and saying, you know, for
twenty years, you know, I've been harboring these feelings against
the fans. Great, I understand that John Cena looking at
(15:56):
Cody Rhodes as the company chosen replacement for him and
him resenting that because he doesn't think Cody is good
enough to fill his boots. Great, I love that. Where
does the Rock come in? Because John Cena's whole thing
is I'm going to win the WWE Championship. I'm going
to retire with it, and hence i am going to
destroy this company by taking away your top prize. And
(16:19):
I'm sitting here and I'm going, Okay, I'm with you
up until this point. Right, The Rock is a TKO
board member. Why would he be on board with you
sabotaging his company. That's the there's the time missing link,
there's a missing piece to this. That said, that said,
I've enjoyed the hell out of this build. I think
(16:40):
John has been great, like even John going so far
as to be a heel to the point where we
don't get the cool new John Cena heel that we've
been asking for for twenty years. We don't get the
new theme. We don't get him wrestling in in tights
or a singlet or anything like that. It's just him
and it's just him coming out to his same music
with this like just stoic look on his face and
(17:04):
he's on a mission. And the question for me is
does John still have it in the ring to deliver
a great match, because it's been a while since we
have seen him have a great match. So I'm hoping
that this I'm hoping that he and Cody can find
a way to get him to that point because he
I mean, he had a very pedestrian match against Austin
(17:27):
Theory at WrestleMania. Was at last year out in La
So that was two years ago. Had a very pedestrian
match with Austin Theory. Two years ago, he had a
match with Solo Socoa where he got absolutely obliterated, like
he barely had any offense in there. It's been a
long time since we've had a good John Cena performance
in the ring, So that's what I'm curious to see.
How the I think John's winning, Yeah, because that's how
(17:49):
you elongate the storyline into the summer and from there, right,
and it's the whole tie end of the Punk of
Summer thing. Some are a punk thing where Punk stole
the WWE title from John Cena over ten years ago
and said he was stealing. There's so many great tie
ins and things you can do Sena and Randy Orton
in Saint Louis at WrestleMania Backlash. You can do Punk
and Sena again over the summer, building up to win.
(18:10):
Cody ultimately wins the title back from him. The story
rights itself. But can John perform in the ring? That's
my biggest question.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Lastly, WrestleMania is always known for some surprises. Yeah, with
the card and the build ups the way they are,
you kind of lose sight of could there be a
major return, Could there be a big surprise. Do you
have a prediction in that sense? U?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Man, it's so hard if if there was, if there
was an open challenge, obviously on the show, I would say, yeah,
hands down. I would love for there to be some
kind of a United States Open challenge with Chelsea Green.
The fact that we don't have either of the women's
mid card championships newly commissioned being defended on the show
kind of ticks me off. But there's only so much
(18:51):
room on the cards. I understand that My biggest thing
would be do they bring Becky back at WrestleMania. Been
waiting for her to come back since she reportedly signed
a new contract ahead of the January sixth premiere of
Raw on Netflix, And here we are is the wrestle
any a week and she's still not here. Does she
show up? I don't know. I think if there's going
(19:13):
to be a surprise for me, my money would be
on either Miro or Alistair Black returning to face Randy
Organ right here on Monday, April fourteenth, which, by the way,
happy birthday to my sister, you know, April fourteenth. That's
what I'm saying. That's my prediction right now. That would
be the most likely.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Rick. I appreciate you man on Jo It's a busy
week one more time because your coverage, You're gonna be
out there boots on the ground. Easiest way to follow
along with your coverage this week.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah on X at Rick Ucino, R I C K
U C C h I N all of our We
got a great team over at SI for the for
the wrestling website, it's the take Down on SI again.
You can get there from the SI main page. And yeah,
follow along whether I'm out at these events or out
on the golf course, so I'll let you know how
I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Enjoy it. That is rick Yucino a preview as we
start WrestleMania week since he three sixty. Moeger is next.
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station
Welcome back since he three to sixty thanks to Penn Station.
Move it along here our number three on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. The NFL Draft is next week.
There's a lot of build up to the NFL Draft.
The Reds are back to five hundred. We've discussed and
covered all of that today. We've talked about everything that's
happened over the course of the weekend. But for now,
(00:22):
it's also WrestleMania Week, and in the Pike household that
carries a little bit more. My son has decided to
throw his own WrestleMania party this week. We're up to
about twenty five to thirty action figures. They're all going
to be set up over the course of Saturday and
Sunday at the house. He is inviting, not me, He
is inviting friends and family over. He's coming up with
(00:42):
the menu. Were excited about WrestleMania Week, and I know
my guy, Rick Uccino is excited about WrestleMania Week. We
had to get him today because he's leaving to head
to Vegas.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
On a jet plane. Baby, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Rick. Before we even get started, what's the easiest way
for anyone to follow along? With all of your coverage
of wrestling WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, that would be on X That's the place where
I'm gonna be putting out most of the stuff, and
that's at Rick Uchino. So that's r I C K
U C C H I n O. All of my
written work can be found on the Takedown on s I.
So that's you can get there by the main Sports
Illustrated page and go into the wrestling section.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So it is I want to talk WrestleMania itself, but
it's not WrestleMania yet. There's a Monday Night Rawl, there's
a SmackDown still to take place. We'll talk about the
cart itself, but is there anything that still needs, in
your opinion, to get hashed out or that will come
about maybe tonight or even on SmackDown leading up to WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
They got to find an opponent for Randy Orton. Yeah,
that's that's the biggest question mark on my mind right now.
Is you know, he had one of the more marquee matches,
well built in storyline for months with himself and Kevin Owens,
and then unfortunately Kevin Owens announces that you know, he
needs neck surgery and doctors are not going to clear
him to compete against Randy Orton this weekend in Las Vegas.
(02:03):
So now it's like, Okay, you got your two weeks out,
two weeks out from your biggest show, one of your
longest running storylines, one of your more marquee non title matches,
and it's off the table now. So what do you
do in that situation? Do you go with? You know,
a guy like Nick Aldis who has been the SmackDown
general manager since he signed with a company, but is
a former nWay World champion, former TNA World champion. There
(02:27):
is at least a storyline built in because ever since
Randy Orton arrived on SmackDown, he's been given that guy rkos.
So maybe he can pull him out of retirement for
a match. Seems like they might be leaning towards solo socoa.
Not a lot of intrigue there for me, because I
feel like that's just gonna be Yeah, Randy wins going
over no problem like Nick Aldis is interesting to me
(02:48):
and the SmackDown crowd last Friday reacted when Randy made
mention and why don't we pull you out of retirement,
get the boots on and all of a sudden, you
got the crowd it was going, yeah, let's do that.
I was like, that got a really good reaction. But
you also have a lot of guys who, you know,
if you want to do a surprise Factor, right, you
got guys like Alister Black and Miro aka Russef who
(03:09):
are reportedly signed with the company but have not returned
on television yet. Maybe Nick All this, you know, pulls
a deal and finds something right, wrestle in his place,
something like that. It looks like they're leaning towards solo socoa.
I hope that's not the direction. I'd like to see
something a little bit more intriguing, but I expect that
to be wrapped up late late this week.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
What does the week look like? Because this is much
more now than just a Saturday and Sunday, Because as mentioned,
you're you're getting ready to head out to WrestleMania to
Las Vegas. It's not just the event Saturday, the event Sunday.
I know they're doing a kill Tony thing on Sunday
after WrestleMania. What does it look like leading up all week?
What's happening in Vegas around WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Oh my gosh, like where to start. I mean, first off,
you have WWE World that's going on at the I
believe Las Vegas Convention Center, whatever the name for their
convention center is. So that's like this massive WWE themed
you know, museum, and that's where their merchandise store is,
and they have a bunch of different events, like they're
going to be doing one Fanatics is going to be
(04:08):
doing one for Make a Wish, where you have these
kids are going to get to go out on Thursday
morning and do like a full on WWE entrance with
ww superstars who are are going to be there in
attendance to that part of it's a secret so but
I don't know if I was supposed to say that,
but you know when they invited a bunch of the
media out to check that out. But WWE World goes
(04:30):
on all week and long, and they're going to have
their biggest merchandise store that they have ever had that's
going to be there. So there's a lot of different
themed events and conventions. You got Walllemnia, which is going
to be taking place Thursday night, which I will be
at for the first time this year. I got the
invite to go down to that that's going to be
broadcast on Netflix Thursday night. You have the Hall of
Fame Induction on Friday after SmackDown. There are also after
(04:53):
parties Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at some of these casinos
that are gonna be on the strip, and I've been
invited to a couple of those. I'm gonna try to
hit a few of those as well. But SmackDown on Friday,
WrestleMania Allegiant Stadium, Saturday and Sunday, Raw back at t
(05:14):
Boble on Monday, and then you have NXT that's gonna
be in Vegas on Tuesday. It is an incredible wall
to wall like I'm literally I'm gonna have to get
like my schedule like tattooed on my arms so I
don't miss anything or forget anything and find time to
write in between. At the same time.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Saturday's card it looks like I believe the main event
is the seth rollins Roman Reigne, Cmpunk, Yes, Gunther and
Jay Usso, Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair, war Raiders in
the New Day, La Night and Jacob Fatu. You got
Ray Masterio and El Grande Americano definitely not Chad Gate,
definitely not Chad Gable. Jake Cargill versus Naomi Jake Cargo
(05:50):
A little tied to here, which is with Brandon Phillips yep,
the Triple Threat match. Without even going into predictions, How
do you feel like the build up has been for
this SETH Rollins Roman Reign Cmpunk.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, I do like this build There's there's obviously a
lot of history that they can play into this, and
it would have been, you know, fairly easy for them
to lean into all of the past Shield stuff, and
I think if Evince was still in charge, this would
have been hit over the head like, hey, by the way,
did you know like two of these guys were in
(06:24):
the Shield and cm punk was the one who brought
him in and all that kind of stuff. But there
was more to this history between these three guys that
they could really dive into, and a lot of that
does center around Paul Hayman. So typically I don't like
it when an outside entity becomes the story, but in
this case, it just made so much sense with Paul
Hayman literally being Cmpunk's best friend but also being the
(06:48):
advocate in tribal and wise man to Roman Reign to
Seth Rollins, and now they had to find a way
to pull him into the mix because until this past
Monday last week, I'm like, Seth kind of feels like
the third wheel here little bit. It's interesting now they've
pulled him into this too, so it's gonna all of
a sudden, Paul Hayman becomes you know, like, okay, where
where does his allegiances truly lie in this matchup? So
(07:11):
the matchup in and of itself, I think is going
to be spectacular. It's a it's a dream matchup. It's
the closest that we're gonna be able to get to
a a shield triple threat at WrestleMania, because I don't
think our John got our guy, John Moxley is going
to be coming back anytime soon. So he seems to
be an able d lifer, which good for him. He's
doing great there on his own. So the matching of
(07:31):
itself is going to be great. I think the build
has been pretty good as well.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Is it the right call for that to be the
main event over Gunther and jay Uso because that's obviously
the next matchup question, and it's been a bloodbath literally
lead up to this. Uh, it's not been that they've
They've played on the lack of confidence some men ring
fumbles that they highlighted for jay Uso. Yeah, should jay
Uso and Gunther there have been the main event? And
(07:54):
and same question, what did you feel the build up
of this?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So I don't it's so hard, right because I think
because I saw a lot of people complaining about this,
like neither jay Usso or Charlotte Flair being in the
main event after winning their respective Royal Rumbles, And I'm like, okay,
but have their matches or their builds or you know,
have they done enough to warrant you know, going over
(08:21):
Roman rains Seth Rollins and see I'm Punk in the
same match at the same time. And this is Punk's
first WrestleMania in twelve years, right, all right? This is
Roman Reigns, who has main invented ten WrestleManias. This is
Seth Rollins, who has been if it wasn't for Roman Reigns,
would be considered the top guy over the last decade
in WWE. This is a huge marquee matchup, one that
(08:44):
we never thought we would see. For Forget doesn't even
need a It's so big it doesn't need a title tone, right,
So has the bill between jay Usso and Gunther or
Tiffany and Charlotte, at least until last week, have those
warranted being put over that match? I don't think so.
I think people get bogged down and start complaining. Is
(09:05):
over the fact of the billing of the Royal Rumble. Yeah,
you don't have an issue with the fact that Jay
Yussu is into the main event. You have an issue
with the marketing of the Royal Rumble, which that I
agree they need to change. Stop saying you're going to
the main event of WrestleMania because it's not a guarantee.
We saw this in twenty eighteen. Neither Oscar or Shinskan
Knackamora a main event in WrestleMania in twenty eighteen after
winning the Royal Rumbles, So there's precedent for this. It
(09:25):
doesn't happen every year. But if you just say, hey,
earn a World Championship match at WrestleMania, I don't think
people will be complaining. I do think they have made
the right call. Although Charlotte and Tiffany has gotten very
spicy in the last time we.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Were watching last week, my wife and I and my
wife looks mean. She said that felt like it just
turned real, felt like that got personal the build up
between Charlotte and Tiffany Stratton. Does are there times where
it crosses a line? Or oh absolutely, you're just so
good at playing into it, because I felt an uncomfortable
level in the ring watching it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Shout out that that promo two weeks ago went way
off the rail, that was not scripted, that was not scripted,
that pretty much went off from jump. And one of
the things that I said on the podcast, we do
a Takedown discussion show on the Takedown on SI YouTube
channel every Friday, I made a pretty good analogy. I
thought that promo was basically Apollo thirteen and where it
(10:18):
was a successful failure. Yeah, right, Like it did not
go according to plan. But what did it do? It
got people talking about that feud, and it got people
interested in that matchup. And that was the promo exchange,
even though there were lines crossed on both sides. Okay,
and Charlotte kind of like almost testing Tiffany a little
(10:41):
bit and saying, all right, well, what are you gonna do?
You know you're twenty five, you're the Wwman's champion, but
I'm the queen. Are you gonna fight back? And then
Tiffany did, and then Tiffany went a little bit across
the line, and then Charlotte was like, oh, no, you didn't.
And you know, if you haven't seen it, by the way,
go look it up. It's insane. But yeah, So they
got people talking and they got people interested in it.
(11:02):
So while they did cross a line and maybe got
a little bit of backstage cheat about it, people are
more invested in that. So again, Apollo thirteen successful failure.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Those three are obviously the headliners. Quickly before we moved tonight,
two war Raiders in the New New Day. Yeah, the
la Night, Jacob thought, to any of the others, do
any of those have the potential to steal the show?
From a match standpoint? In your opinion?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh, from a match standpoint anytime? Jacob thought, two is
in the ring, it's going to be impressive. I don't
feel good for our guy, Laa.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Excuse me heading into that one. Don't feel good for him.
And I'll tell you what. The one that I'm really
really excited for is Jaed Cargill and Naomi. This is
the first non title singles women's match in WrestleMania in
eighteen years, and it's the first one without a very
tired stipulation, like I believe the last one was a
Playboy pillow fight, and the one before that was like
(11:53):
a mud wrestling match or something like that. Or no,
it was a cat fight, right, it was a cat fight.
It was It was back in the days where women
couldn't even punch each other. And so the fact that
we now have Naomi, who is a heel who for
the first time in her career and her career dates
over a decade, is actually getting a legitimate story to
like really sink her teeth into. And it's gotten to
the point where it's been so good that they put
(12:14):
this matchup on WrestleMania. Huge for the women's division, and
I'm looking forward to that one as well.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Night two WrestleMania. Before we get to the main event,
there's matches that haven't because you only have so much time,
so you don't get the huge build up to every match.
But yeah, you can feel an intensity between Damian Priest
and Drew McIntyre, the Fatal four way with bron Breaker
and Mysterio and Penton, Finnvalor Aj Styles and Logan Paul
I think has a underrated nature to it just because
(12:41):
of how talented both of those guys are. You get
the Women's Tag Team Championship match, you get a triple
threat match for the Women's World Championship outside of the
main event. What are you most looking forward to on
Night two?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
A Night two? Man? I hate to say it, but
like that Logan Paul aj Styles match is going to
be really really good. It's going to be very, very good.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
He delivers every time.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, I hate to give Logan Paul credit for anything,
but he is good. You know, the bill to that
match has been whatever. Logan Paul shows up every couple
of weeks, they cut a promo, they punch each other
like it's been very paint by numbers, But the match
itself is going to deliver. You cannot convince me that
anything that Drew McIntyre does right now is not just
(13:26):
absolute gold. The guy finds a way to make anything work.
And the fact that there has been like this year
long story that's been building between him and Damian Priest
that like nobody even realized until like they pointed it out,
like oh, damn yeah, you're right, like this this actually
does make sense because there were people who were looking
at it's like, why is Drew McIntyre fighting Damian Priest,
(13:47):
Like that's that's a downgrade for him, and I'm like, no,
there's actually if you think about it, there's actually a
story there. And that's that's part of the thing that
I wants they need to focus on because they have
tell I think they have sixteen championships they could defend
this for again, they're not all being defended. You know,
it would be it would just be so easy to
just be like, all right here, title match, title mass
title match, title match, No, give me some story, give
(14:07):
me something else that that you know has some meaning
to it besides the championships. And they're doing that with
Drew and Damien and I think that match is going
to deliver in a Sin City street fight.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Let me ask you, this the main event and we
could we could probably talk for another half hour about
all the matches, and my street profits aren't even on
the main on the on the cart wrestlemtch I got
a problem of that. But John Cena, Cody Rhodes, I
go back to the last time you and I spoke
going into the Royal Rumble, we thought it's it's Seena's time.
He doesn't win the rumble, it's jay USO's time. You
go to the elimination chamber and everything that takes place,
(14:38):
and the Rock hands out his stipulation to Cody Rhods
and not only does he deny it, but it's John
Cena for the first time in his career turns into
a heel, and my goodness, I feel like he's delivered
every time he's taken a microphone. In my opinion, h
John Cena has been brilliant as a heel. I don't
know how the Rock storyline comes together yet at WrestleMania
(15:00):
with it, but from a in ring standpoint, there were
times when Cody and John last met that I'm like, oh,
this is getting testy as well, this is getting suit
as well. What do you feel about the main event
of Night two of WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So the bill to this matchup for me has kind
of been like I feel like I'm watching a Quentin
Tarantino movie because I feel like they gave me, like,
you know, the ending at the beginning, and you know
they it's like trying to fill in all the pieces
and you're trying to figure out the plot, storyline. It's like,
hopefully all of this comes together and it makes sense
(15:35):
at the end, right, Because that's the big thing. John
Cena turning heel selling his soul to the Rock like
there hasn't been that piece that has connected all of
that together. John coming out and saying, you know, for
twenty years, you know, I've been harboring these feelings against
the fans. Great, I understand that John Cena looking at
(15:56):
Cody Rhodes as the company chosen replacement for him and
him resenting that because he doesn't think Cody is good
enough to fill his boots. Great, I love that. Where
does the Rock come in? Because John Cena's whole thing
is I'm going to win the WWE Championship. I'm going
to retire with it, and hence i am going to
destroy this company by taking away your top prize. And
(16:19):
I'm sitting here and I'm going, Okay, I'm with you
up until this point. Right, The Rock is a TKO
board member. Why would he be on board with you
sabotaging his company. That's the there's the time missing link,
there's a missing piece to this. That said, that said,
I've enjoyed the hell out of this build. I think
(16:40):
John has been great, like even John going so far
as to be a heel to the point where we
don't get the cool new John Cena heel that we've
been asking for for twenty years. We don't get the
new theme. We don't get him wrestling in in tights
or a singlet or anything like that. It's just him
and it's just him coming out to his same music
with this like just stoic look on his face and
(17:04):
he's on a mission. And the question for me is
does John still have it in the ring to deliver
a great match, because it's been a while since we
have seen him have a great match. So I'm hoping
that this I'm hoping that he and Cody can find
a way to get him to that point because he
I mean, he had a very pedestrian match against Austin
(17:27):
Theory at WrestleMania. Was at last year out in La
So that was two years ago. Had a very pedestrian
match with Austin Theory. Two years ago, he had a
match with Solo Socoa where he got absolutely obliterated, like
he barely had any offense in there. It's been a
long time since we've had a good John Cena performance
in the ring, So that's what I'm curious to see.
How the I think John's winning, Yeah, because that's how
(17:49):
you elongate the storyline into the summer and from there, right,
and it's the whole tie end of the Punk of
Summer thing. Some are a punk thing where Punk stole
the WWE title from John Cena over ten years ago
and said he was stealing. There's so many great tie
ins and things you can do Sena and Randy Orton
in Saint Louis at WrestleMania Backlash. You can do Punk
and Sena again over the summer, building up to win.
(18:10):
Cody ultimately wins the title back from him. The story
rights itself. But can John perform in the ring? That's
my biggest question.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Lastly, WrestleMania is always known for some surprises. Yeah, with
the card and the build ups the way they are,
you kind of lose sight of could there be a
major return, Could there be a big surprise. Do you
have a prediction in that sense? U?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Man, it's so hard if if there was, if there
was an open challenge, obviously on the show, I would say, yeah,
hands down. I would love for there to be some
kind of a United States Open challenge with Chelsea Green.
The fact that we don't have either of the women's
mid card championships newly commissioned being defended on the show
kind of ticks me off. But there's only so much
(18:51):
room on the cards. I understand that My biggest thing
would be do they bring Becky back at WrestleMania. Been
waiting for her to come back since she reportedly signed
a new contract ahead of the January sixth premiere of
Raw on Netflix, And here we are is the wrestle
any a week and she's still not here. Does she
show up? I don't know. I think if there's going
(19:13):
to be a surprise for me, my money would be
on either Miro or Alistair Black returning to face Randy
Organ right here on Monday, April fourteenth, which, by the way,
happy birthday to my sister, you know, April fourteenth. That's
what I'm saying. That's my prediction right now. That would
be the most likely.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Rick. I appreciate you man on Jo It's a busy
week one more time because your coverage, You're gonna be
out there boots on the ground. Easiest way to follow
along with your coverage this week.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah on X at Rick Ucino, R I C K
U C C h I N all of our We
got a great team over at SI for the for
the wrestling website, it's the take Down on SI again.
You can get there from the SI main page. And yeah,
follow along whether I'm out at these events or out
on the golf course, so I'll let you know how
I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Enjoy it. That is rick Yucino a preview as we
start WrestleMania week since he three sixty. Moeger is next.
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station
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