Maddening Wrestling Takes

Pmike (00:00.93)
Hey, Mad House. Welcome back to Maddening Wrestling Takes. We wanted to first of all start by apologizing for missing last week's podcast. Some technical difficulties derailed us. We've already moved back to Monday. So by the time we couldn't get it on Monday, it seemed like we have a whole lot to try and go over. Had a lot going on Tuesday. Yeah, it gets a little busy for us trying to get around these schedules. We got everything back on track now and we would like to welcome you to the biggest podcast of the summer.

because paraphrasing is not copyright infringement. we're going to run with it. Last week, unfortunately, it was a harsh week to miss a wrestling podcast because, you know, as I'm sure everybody who listens to this is aware Hulk Hogan passed away last week. I've never in my life been a Hulk Hogan fan except for about, I don't know, maybe three, four months when the NWO first started.

Always been a Roddy Piper fan a macho man Randy Savage fan. I was never a Hulk Hogan fan I was never a Hulk Hogan fan because I'm not old so shut up. So I know there have been a lot of things said Negatively and positively about Hulk Hogan We're not gonna get into the man's personal politics. We're not gonna get into anything like that But we will get into what he said what he didn't say the fact that without Hulk Hogan Roddy Piper

the other guys who got into WrestleMania one got everything over for us. But quite definitely Hulk Hogan captured the world's attention in that time in the early 80s. And without Hulk Hogan, WWE wouldn't be where it is. AEW probably wouldn't exist. I'm about 99 % positive this podcast wouldn't exist and mainstream pro wrestling wouldn't be where it is. you can keep the opinions.

you have about Terry Balea. That's fine, but the character that is Hulk Hogan made this world that we all love, that we all share, and for that we're grateful and yeah, rest in peace, brother. It's the best I could do, I'm sorry. Had to get a little little Hogan in there, right? So we missed our first week of these of our tournament brackets. yeah. So sorry about that, folks. We do have results from our first four matches.

Pmike (02:27.438)
However, and we'll move on and we'll announce what our next four matches are for this coming week. So we'll jump right in with our, we're going to change up the format a little bit since we missed a week there. got a lot to cover with WWE and a two night summer slam this week. Uh, so we're going to hit you up with our brackets. We'll hit you up with an AEW recap and then jump into WWE. Not not in depth. Well, we will once we get to the PLA. Oh yeah. Yeah. We'll, we'll just hit a few couple, a few couple. You like that?

my new phrase now. We'll hit a new, we'll hit a few couple things from a few couple. That's why, that's why I said it three times. So you would pay attention. Over the last few weeks of WWE, maybe get a little more in depth in NXT because that has nothing to do with PLE, but we're going to our brackets right now in our 16 team, single elimination tournament for random tag teams. So in our first match, had trick and Josh Alexander versus Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fatu.

think we came to a pretty good agreement on this one. Yes. I think it should be painfully obvious to everybody that this is obviously tricking Josh Alexander's match to lose. Exactly. Yes, and they did. So we got Cody and Jacob fought to advancing into the first bracket. Next next match. got it. Yes. Okay. Ricochet and Kyle Fletcher versus Brian Danielson and Chris Bay.

Now we would like to point out that this is Chris Bay and Daniel Brianson in their prime in their prime not obviously Chris Bay now. I hope Chris gets gets going gets a little better. What's wrong with him? I think I'm not sure if it was career ending or potentially career ending like he's not even training I believe. It's been a while. It was a neck injury I believe. sorry. Those are always scary. So.

Ace and I disagreed on this one. We did. I took Ricochet and Fletcher. I took Danielson and Chris Bate. So we asked Mike's best friend. Chad GPT. And ultimately, as always, I was wrong. Not as always. We'll get to that later. I'll give props where props are due. I'll get to it later. But yes, we have Ricochet and Kyle Fletcher advancing in our second round. They will take on the winners of

Pmike (04:53.932)
Randy Orton and Lexus King versus Ilya Dragunov and Ace Austin. I think I can already tell you who's going to win that one. We'll see what happens. See what happens. Yeah, right. So our next, kind of like this one, our next matchup was Sammy Zane and Javon Evans versus Swerve Strickland and Joe Hendry. So out of these four, there are two that I know you could not care less about and two that won.

No, I don't mind Javon. No, I you hated it. I hate the theme song. Your boy is bouncy. I'm tired of Sammy Zane unless what I'm going to get into a little later in SummerSlam happens and then I'll be OK with Sammy. OK, yeah. right. Swerve and Hendry, we both agreed that they won. Right, right. They will be facing the winner of Will Osbram, Moose versus Chad Gable and Eddie Thorpe.

Again, some of these first round matches are fairly easy to predict. Oh, is it? I said some of them. Well, you say that about Osprey and Moose versus Gable and Thorpe. That's a toss up for me. Really? Because they both have Osprey and Gable both have tremendous weight weighing them down. Yeah, but I. Yeah, all right. Well, we'll talk about it.

We'll go over it. We'll see what kind of feedback we get from it. And worst case scenario, we'll let our our best AI buddy, your best friend, run over this for us. So in our last matchup, we had Hook and Aleister Black versus MJF and Speedball Mike Bailey. I chose MJF. Not kidding. We both chose Hook and Aleister Black to move on. Yeah, this one seemed like a no brainer to me. Really? I really hope the tournament finals come down to Ilya and Asa Austin versus Hook and Aleister Black.

Yeah, I don't see it happening, but uh... Is that so? Yeah. So MJF and Speedball is out.

Pmike (06:57.73)
Well, they will go on to face the winner of Brawnbreaker and Vikingo versus LA Knight and Nathan Frazier. It's going to be a good, interesting one. That would be honestly, I would love to see a tag team. That match, that tag match, sorry. are two of them. Although maybe not. I'm getting a little tired. He's just he's not progressing. He's he needs to he needs to turn heel. I think he'd be way more entertaining. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

was unintended. But it worked out for us. So, all right. Are we on to AW? Are we? That's a question. Sure. Yeah, we got through our bracket. wait, wait, wait, wait. yes. Yes. We have to announce next week's. Yeah, we did. Well, we kind of did as we went, except for the first one. But we'll go over it one more time just to be sure everybody understands what's happening here. for this week's matches up matches up matches up. Look at that. English escaping me once again.

We got Carmelo Hayes and Zach Sabre Jr. versus Gunter and Darby Allen. Yeah, Yeah, that's the only one we really missed and the winner of that match will take on Cody and Jacob Fatu. Yes. All right. So that covers our 16 bracket. Our 16 team bracket. Wow. Listen to me messing words up. See?

come home from work quick and jump on this thing and I can't talk anymore. I almost did that too. I ordered a six piece chicken McNugget on the app and it said one six piece. I thought they gave me a 16 piece. don't think they make those but we will update the bracket get it up on socials. Everybody jump on give us give us your opinion on who you think is going to these matches. We can get this tournament rolling. See who our ultimate random tag team turns out to be and now on to AEW. Yes. With Ace.

What'd you say it like that with ace? Sorry. God. Sorry. Let me again. on. Let me try one more time. And now on to AEW with your host, Ace Ma-

Pmike (09:15.522)
This straight face, we need a camera. So odd. I don't know. didn't watch this. The night may have kicked off because I know it wasn't the main event may have kicked off with the AEW World Championship between Hangman and Mocs. Yeah, OK. I know every week I keep saying I'm not going to criticize AEW. But they just make it hard. if they don't give me a reason to every time. So your biggest pay-per-view.

The biggest match on your biggest pay-per-view, a Texas death match between Hangman and Moxley, because, evidently, that's the best you can do. And it goes off, and you have everybody and their brother get involved, and people are bleeding, and you got bed of nails, and people driving heads into it, and all this nonsense. And it was so good for your pay-per-view that you decided to have the exact same match on your show.

Wednesday. So, we have a rematch with the Texas Deathmatch. Okay. There's. There's stupid move number one for me. Stupid move number two is. Wait, would you let me talk? No. I'm not there yet. Stupid move number two was them saying, we're going to have a Texas death match. Anything goes. We're gonna try and take each other down. No rules. Well, hang on a second. Everybody's barred from ringside so we have some rules in this Texas death match. This one was

Yes, yes, yes, that was the rule. Everybody was barred from ringside. No, no, Just because they showed up. This, wait, the one all in or the one? No, the one on. Dynamite? Yes. This was a Texas death mag? Yes. What? Yes. And the rules were.

See, I almost let it slide because I didn't think it was a Texas death match. It was a complete rematch with no outside interference, which of course it was outside interference because there's no goddamn disqualification. What are you going to do except let him interfere? Right. And then so stupid move number three on this match was the one that you mentioned.

Pmike (11:28.824)
This wasn't even the main event of your Wednesday night show. just. It was Midgard. was Midgard. It was. So, okay, the rule in wrestling when you're going on a show is if you're not last, you want to be first. If you can't main event, you want to set the pace. You want to go out, show everybody what you got. Set the pace for the whole show and they take this rematch. They take this rematch and put it in the middle of their show.

Yeah. So they just hyped this thing up as the biggest match they could possibly have at their biggest pay per view. Yeah. And then they run it back the exact same way. But this match is so big, this rematch is so big that they put Ricochet on in the main event spot with no title or no title implications on the line. God damn it. Yes. God damn it, Tony Khan. I am trying.

not to talk bad about you constantly. am trying, but you make it so damn difficult! God, he's trying, Tony. He's trying. This doesn't say anything about Ricochet. Uh-huh. That's kind of my point. Oh, I see the issue. Yeah, Moxley retained. Nope, Hangman retained. Moxley lost because he doesn't have the title. ROH Women's World Champion Athena teamed with

A partner, that's what it says, to defeat Timeless Tony Storm with Alex Windsor. Yeah, was Billy Starks. She pinned Tony. Yeah, she's running with Billy Starks right now. AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminators, the Young Bucks advanced in the tournament by sneaking past the outrunners. Whoa, who'd, or as they like to call them, talent name, beat the outrunners. Great, great stuff. That's their I am enjoying the...

The whole we're going to strip your EVP and basically everything else from you. That's kind of funny to me. AEW posted on their Twitter. Once again, shout out to Talent Name for beating the outrunners. Christian Cage made a surprise return to AEW for the first time since All in Texas. Which was like two weeks ago. Addressing Egg, Cope, Adam Copeland, whatever he wants to go by. Then gets concerted.

Pmike (13:57.096)
did he get the concerto? Yeah. Well, it was supposed to. It was very blatantly over his head because it wasn't a normal concerto where he's laying down. He was sitting down and they both smacked a chair against one side of his head. OK, but it was like two feet above his head. Hey, you know what? I'm not going to get I'm not going to talk bad about botches right now. We'll talk bad about botches in an obvious bad spots when we get to SummerSlam.

Gotcha, gotcha. the main event delivered... Okay, that was not the main event, so this is already lying to me. yeah, that was Dynamite. No... no tell of ricochet. That's hilarious. July 31st, AUW collision. Shane Taylor. I don't know who that is. From Shane Taylor Productions. Promotions. Promotions, dammit. Shane Taylor Promotions versus... versus, Sky Flight.

in a trios match. What the hell is sky flight? Scorpio sky, Darius and Dante Martin. Jesus Christ, top flight in Scorpio sky. Okay, I get it because we can't come up with tag names anymore. We'll just throw two names together. Love it. Well, WWE did it with Fraxiom and they're like, yeah, good night. Actually, they didn't do it with They didn't. the fans. Not us personally, but. It was also they we did the same thing with Zaruka. They have a shirt saying Zaruka now. I'm just saying they're listening.

Sky, Scorpio Skywin, won, their team won. TNT Championship, following Dustin Rhodes's recent defense.

Dustin Rhodes lost the title to Kyle Fletcher in a, well, this doesn't say that. This actually says Dustin Rhodes retained over Lee Moriarty in an emotional defense. That was a week before.

Pmike (15:54.158)
You did defend against Moriarty once. well, this. because, that says that says back. This is looking back, doesn't it? Maybe if I would read, Kyle Fleck here beat Dustin Rhodes and I'm pretty sure his second title defense by jabbing a screwdriver into his knee. So that's AW World Tag Team Championships, the bang, bang gang advanced in the title. they beat Big Bill and Brian Keith. He has one and I don't feel about that. Well, well.

It was Euse Robinson and Austin Gunn.

of the bang bang game yeah well is billy billy gun no who's the other one colton colton is he out he's probably injured if they're not tagging is j out still i thought j came back right he might he might be out again who knows you know by the way he wrestles it would not surprise me athena versus tony storm tensions they had a very heated talk and that was collision

Pmike (17:01.432)
That was it? Yeah. Wow, that was quick. That was very quick. This might be our shortest episode ever. I didn't think it was going to go quite that quick. I did forget one thing I wanted to mention that I know happened on AEW. MJF pretty much already got kicked out of the Hertz Syndicate. he really? Yeah. How? What'd do? The Hertz Syndicate came out and...

Hang on a second. They Stokely. Yes. So it starts with Cope coming out and Stokely saying that you can't touch them and can't touch FTR. Right. Blah, blah. And Cope says, OK, that's fine. You're right. I can't touch FTR. You made that very clear. But I made a visit to some people backstage and I paid some guys who like to hurt people. So Shelton and Bobby came out and started whipping the shit out of people.

And MJF evidently was upset that they would do that and they would help cope and blah, blah. So P and Lashley weren't there last week. They had a segment with Shelton and MJF and Shelton basically said, yeah, you know what? We talked about it. We don't need you second guessing everything we're going to do. As far as we're concerned, you're out, you know, we can't trust you. And I should have known that as soon as I had my Rolex looked at and found out it was a T-Moon knockoff.

So the short and failed experiment of MJF in the Hurt Syndicate is over. Thank God. short national nightmare is over. Gosh dang it. WWE recap. Like very, very non in depth. I think we're going over two things that both happened on SmackDown. Okay. Whoa. What the hell just happened in there? All right. Sorry. We got a little feedback going on in our mics here.

I don't know if you guys can hear that. I don't think you can. So we sound schizophrenic. Who was that? Because I know it was super annoying to me.

Pmike (19:08.45)
Talking to me. Okay, good. Go ahead. What? We're going to WWE, right? Yeah. So we're covering like the last two weeks of WWE. I'm gonna be honest with you guys. Nothing. I'm a big WWE fan, as you can probably tell by listening to this. I enjoy their product usually more than anybody else's socks and nothing really happened in the last two weeks in raw. Gunter and Punk back and forth. that is not true. That's not true. There was one really cool thing that happened on Raw involving your boy.

I have lots of Right? And his shoes. yeah, Bronson Reed is a part of the hood. He's the tribal thief wearing the shoe Lafala around his neck because he stole Roman shoes and tied them together, tied the laces together. So he wore them around his neck and he calls that the shoe Lafala. Okay, now have seen some people online telling me how the uncultured

people don't understand what taking a man's shoes mean. I'm not from the hood. Now here's the here's the thing. This is this is a very street thing to do. So I'm not sure if the word cultured is correct. It's not like I don't know who Vivaldi is. It's like I don't know what happens when gang members steal your shoes. Sorry, my bad. That's on me. Yeah, that's on me for growing up in small town Ohio. My bad. Silly me.

But evidently it's a huge issue and Bronson is playing it off great. And I kind of, you kind of knew it was a big issue because the crowd was kind of going nuts with it. Right. And I'm like, dude, he stole a dude's shoes. It's funny as hell, but I don't understand why the crowds reacting like that. Right. And then here come to find out, oh, it's cause that's a really big deal. nothing about. Sorry. So I think really that's probably the biggest thing that happened on raw over the last two weeks. Isn't it? Lyra nearly.

Pmike (21:11.002)
I think it pretty much is it. A lot of talk about CM Punk and Gunter back and forth.

Pmike (21:30.84)
But Tony's sitting at the diner, right? He turns around. There's this giant shadow casting over him. The screen turns to black. Really? Was it Omas? You are just dying for Omas to return. Dude, need Omas. need, need whatever his real name is, Omas. Because that guy, I've seen interviews with him. Yeah. If they let him talk, he will be.

the most lovable baby face ever. Yeah, he's a good dude. I've seen some stuff with him too, but he, don't know how he fits in the Tony D storyline. I mean either, but he just, I'm pretty sure someone just said, Tony, you got a visitor. He turned around and there was a shadow that like covered his entire body and went over him. That could just be the lighting aspect. Right. I don't know. see how that plays out. Cause WWE posted it. go,

What did Tony see? OK, well, I'm hoping he's seeing the call up to the main roster because it's time for him to move on from NXT. I know. I mean, they call that a hot take, a maddening take, whatever you want. This dude's ready. He's been there since 2022, believe. Pretty much everybody else that started the... So pretty much everybody else that broke out or... 2.0. Yeah, the 2.0 stuff, they've all been called up or released. Right.

So, you know, let's pull the trigger on Tony. Let's do something. I like Tony. I think he's a good character, kind of a character, kind of a throwback to the old literal characters of wrestling. But I think he could do something on the main roster. I think he's a solid mid Carter. Yeah. I don't know that I see him ever as a raw champion or a SmackDown champion. I see and I see I see championship and.

US maybe some tag gold if we bring somebody up or an us championship and I see your nuts whatever I think it'll be good. I'd to see Tony move on and speaking of factions, Tavian Heights beat Charlie Dempsey so he's no longer part of the no quarter catch trail. do have a new TNA number one contender. Do we? Oh we do. We do. I'm not too excited about this.

Pmike (23:53.454)
We talked earlier about the dogs are barking or should I say the mooses are moose noising. Yes, that was something to sound like. Meese. There we go. I that picked it up. Moose versus trick Williams for the world. Oh, that does kind of fade out when we're away from the mics a little bit, doesn't it? Ah, you got not picked up.

no idea what Sound of Moose makes. I'll see if I can find a Moose sound clip and throw it in there. No, don't look it up right now. Okay. I've text notifications. Believe it or not, people want to talk to me. I don't believe it. I think it's a lie. I you got some chat bots on there. You'd be surprised. All right. Who's challenging Oba? What are we stepping up? Is Javan going back? Javan's going back for Oba. Tag titles. What do we got looking at in NXT? it is KCU because they went to attack...

Hank and Tank with chairs. my God. And then and and then Hank and Tank were like, dude, just ask. That was honestly was such an entertaining segment. André Chase goes, I didn't tell you to attack him with chairs. They come into the locker room with chairs. So Hank and Tank like, what are you doing? We're going to hit you with chairs. Why are you going to hit us with chairs so we can get a title match? Just ask us. André Chase walks in. Mr. Chase, Mr. Chase.

Why are you holding chairs? Well, Mr. Case, you told us to make a move for the tag titles. I didn't tell you to hit him with chairs. Turns the Hank and Tank guys. I'm so sorry about this. So sorry. Thoroughly entertaining. was not Hank and Tank fan to begin with, but they're they're kind of growing on me. That little segment was great. I don't know if I want to attribute that all to them or. Everyone involved. Yeah, they pulled it off beautifully. So we got those. got women's. yeah, we got the double. We got the champ champ.

What happened was, Jada Parker beat the one girl and then last legend lost via interference by Nia Jax. that's right. I went to bed on that one. You went to bed as it happened. Yeah. I go, Nia Jax, I heard you.

Pmike (26:16.782)
Sorry, I don't want to sound sexist and it has nothing to do with being sexist because a couple of the best matches of SummerSlam were women's matches. It was just Nia Jax. Right. As dull as hell. Yeah. I don't like Nia. Sorry. Okay, on to SmackDown. Okay, on to SmackDown again. Not a whole lot going on in SmackDown outside the tag division. Yeah, I was just about to say there was a tag title match between the Wyatt's and Rey Fenix and Andrade where...

I don't remember what happened. It ended in a no contest because the entire tag division came out and got interfered. So Nick, all this was like, listen, I'm tired of it. Stop brawling. I'm going to put the six of you on SummerSlam in a TLC match and we'll see who comes out on top. Now, while I enjoy the shit out of the match and we'll talk about it when we get into SummerSlam because that was a night two match. question and my problem here is it is

these six teams. That's the entire SmackDown roster as far as tag teams go. So who challenges the Wyatt's now? Right. I was just thinking that. What? Yeah. Where do you go from here? And it's been the same guys. and yeah, everybody's and it's been the same rotation. Oh, who are they going to face? DIY? Seen it. Who they going to face? Machine guns? Seen it. Prophets? Seen it. Right. Andrade and Rey are the only ones that we've seen but not seen multiple times or variations of. So.

I don't know, maybe they'll pull somebody up or bring debut tag team or switch somebody over.

Deadly I see the vision pretty deadly. We'll get to that a little later, too Pretty deadly hasn't been around for a little while. So maybe that would be something interesting a town. No, maybe a town down under quietly broke up Yeah, Austin theory said no Grayson Waller said yeah, he got himself injured eight and down under is officially done now He's rolling with the new day by him. I mean Grayson Waller Maybe the new day takes a switch over to smackdown, but then who would we have for the brawl attack?

Pmike (28:22.574)
don't know, we can figure something out. got... See, we need tag teams. That's what we need. We do. that's where Tony... See, if they hadn't broke up the family, could call up Tony and Luca or Tony and Stacks and it would be... All three of them. Right. So... And... yeah, we did miss that one other little thing that happened on SmackDown, right? I mean, not me here. Yeah, so John Cena comes out in typical Cena fashion. And before he can say anything, Cody comes out... Wrestling.

than one royal family. And pretty much before Cody can say anything, John Cena says, you you did this and you jumped me and you forced my hand. was I told you I was tired and you jumped me and you made me sign this street fight and all I can say to you, Cody, thank you. What? You made me realize who I need to be. All the people that were going to stand by me when I did this have left me.

And now I'm just here pretending to be something I'm not. So Sina just walks out at the opening of SmackDown and is like, hey, you know what? Screw this heel stuff. I'm a babyface. Yeah, he basically said, didn't get the reaction I wanted. I'm a face now. He's like, this ain't going over like we thought. Let's switch this shit up. Little J. Uso rolling the fingers. Let's run it back again. Again. Let's do it one more time. Except he wasn't eaten. He was super. He was super seen.

because he's super scene kinda again. Okay, Summer Slam. Calm down, Sunshine. Right, we are on the Summer Slam. Yeah, but you're like rushing everything. Calm down. Okay, I forget which mag kicked off. I remember. All right, so we're on the night one of Summer Slam. We do have, we're go a little more in depth, probably match by match on these so we can. I think I can go in order. Give some opinions. You have a card, I hope you can go in order.

Well, no, I have the matches. I don't have the card. Yeah, bear with me here. So the night kicked off with the bronze versus the bloodline. The OG bloodline. No, they're just the bloodline now because they're called the MFTs. That's right, MFTs, my bad. God, is... I will never get over the fact how dumb of a name that is. That was a great match. Just a good half hour. I did. I enjoyed it. It was good.

Pmike (30:49.674)
solid match from everybody. Four stars. Robyn showing four and a half. I don't know if I go four and a half. I'm not Meltzer. I'm not making up imaginary stars to go above five. So don't know if I'd go four and a half. Four. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say four. So I like what they did here. They're they're little storytelling showing that Roman is willing to sacrifice himself for Jay. Yes, because he took a spear. Did he not? There were two times he sacrificed. I can't remember what the other one was outside the ring. Yeah.

And then he took the spear at the end where he pushed Jay out and ate the spear and then Jay ended up in the USO splash. And in this match, Roman did a somersault plancha and Bronson Reed did a suicide dive. Both of which almost ended very badly. Yes, Roman completely jumped over Bronson and Braun. As Bronson and Braun are on the outside of the ring.

I would think about Roman's thighs hit their shoulders. Oh, yeah. It wasn't quite as bad as the Undertaker. And the cameraman. Dive where the cameraman didn't move over in time to catch him. Thank you, Deuce. No, no, no. That's what was supposed to happen. Oh, really? The cameraman was supposed to get caught by that. That was a former wrestler where they used to be Deuce and Domino. It was Deuce. Sean pulled him in the way. Yeah. And he take his head, just hit the camera. Then he fell on the floor head first.

I really thought Tigger was going to die that night. It's not possible. Well, he didn't die. So it's funny. Possibility of a legit who the hell knows anymore. Right. Injury on Brian Breaker. He went to do his signature clothesline over the announce table and caught his caught his knee. That's where Roman moved, right? Yeah. Yeah. Because I was in the middle of saying no one moves during these. I because I said you'd think.

You'd counter at one point in time the Roman walks out of the way You see you think when you're laying against a table and this giant monster standing in front of you on the apron and haunting you mind you and he's done this 27 times before you'd be like Maybe this isn't where I want to hang out So Roman did just that and moved So Bron was seen being helped backstage But then he did have when he walked out later, he had his leg taped up

Pmike (33:15.038)
But he limping. walking on his own. So, I mean, it could just be, you know, if you've ever hit your it's right. Or if you've ever hit your knee on something, it hurts for a little while afterwards. So and all that adrenaline cools down from his match, he's going to be feeling a little more. So we'll see what happens. The women's tag team championship between the judgment day and the we're not friends team. Hang on, hang on. Let's step back to that last match for one second. Did the right people go over?

No. You think the bronze should have won? Yeah. I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing Bronson Reed get pinned. I'm dead serious. I don't believe he's won a match since he's returned. I have to agree. I think they should have put the new guys over, but with Roman coming back, it seemed inevitable that he was going to win. this point, everyone in this match besides Ye, I didn't want them to lose.

didn't want them to get pinned. Jay was the only one I was willing to sacrifice to get pinned and he didn't. Matter of fact he got pinned. Right. So no my answer is no. Okay all right I'm okay because I knew what was gonna happen I prefer the bronze I'd like to see them get a little heavier push maybe we'll see them in a tag title picture. Hopefully. But like I said with Roman coming back I 100 % expected this. Now we'll go on to Okay thank you.

The judgment day versus we're not friends team The allies of convenience is that what they call themselves? or I don't know if that's what they call themselves, but that's what they call each other It was a decent match. It was a pretty good match three stars. I don't think there was any any bad spots anything right was sloppy or Alexa hit Charlotte and Like in them this was

nearing the end of the match then Lexi goes for the twisted bliss you can see Charlotte right behind her staring her dead in the eye. Oh the sister Abigail. Yeah that's what I meant that's what I um staring her dead in the eyes with that like evil look on her face she starts running big boots Raquel Lexi hits the sister Abigail on Roxy. Was another good uh and uh they win the titles. Was another good camera angle because the way they had the camera angle looked like Charlotte was running toward Lexi.

Pmike (35:39.374)
I think they do that on purpose. Right. know, but they did the one where it was Bron and Seth. Yeah, when that first happened, that was that was the best camera angle I've ever seen because they had it lined up where it looked like he was running straight at Seth. that was good. You think the right people went over in this one? No, because both of these women have won Ben Tag Team Champions to our multiple time world champions and three

are veterans in the company. Right. I 100 % think Judgment Day should have kept the gold so they can say. Sorry about that. So they can still say that they have all the gold on draw. Okay. Besides that's a world title. Now here's the thing though. me. For me if.

Liv is close to being ready to come back than the Judgment Day needed to lose. So she could have more reason to not like Raquel or to not like Roxy. Yep. Right. I know we're going to say everybody but the one I mean. Say every woman ever in Judgment Day. That builds up the tension then that she's I didn't lose my titles. You came in here to do this. You're moving in on my man and you lose my titles. What the hell's going on? Roxy versus Liv custody of Dominic Max. Book it Hunter.

It should have waited and made that the Eddie Guerrero tribute match. Yeah. That should have been the 20 year anniversary match. So I will say that. hanging above the rain, shark cage. I will say that. They've already done that. I will say again, if Liv's coming back or close to coming back, this makes sense to me, but it also goes to show and after the show, Hunter even said this, that you go back a month ago.

Charlotte Flair was one of the most hated people in WWE. They wanted to get her over as a baby face. And he did. Right. I mean, it went for it wasn't even a build. It was just a say we're going to put this together. Watch what happens. Boom. Everybody's cheering for him. So, you know, Hunter proving for better for worse, whatever anybody says about Hunter, he can manipulate the crowd. Yeah. What would you rate that match? I have the ratings. I this by about three to a half, maybe. Yeah.

Pmike (38:02.83)
Average so I'm two and a half three stars Sammy Zane versus Karrion Kross And the mic Okay, Sammy ends up winning there's a little tease Scarlet through the lead pipe in for Sammy to try and use Sammy holds it for a good five minutes, right? then I turned to him I go this isn't me then he throws the lead pipe away, right? Sammy wins without having to cheat

Carrying cross, you know grabs his hand and just kind of looks up at him after the pin This is in this is where I'm gonna go with this. I think he says thank you If he does and that just like drives home what I think is happening or it drives home the fact he's getting released He's not getting released. They just spent a shitload of time over this past weekend at summer slam promoting his book He's not getting released So what what I see happening here when

Sammy wins, Cross reaches up, grabs his hand and has like almost a disbelief look on his face. And if Ace is correct, I have to go back and watch it. It says, thank you. Cross in this feud has referenced, don't you realize everybody I've come in contact with, I've changed. He couldn't change Sammy. He's all he saw from his time on the main roster.

was the corruption he could cause because that corruption is always there. Everybody can be corrupted. Everybody's corruptible. Everybody's bad. And then he runs into a guy who's not even though Sammy was a heel not that long ago. we're not to say we're not three years. We're not. We're not going to talk about that. But so right now, Sammy is uncorruptible. And I think that Cross sees this and for lack of a better term, sees hope in mankind.

I think this is the beginning of the carrying cross face run. I don't want it to happen. I think that's what's going to happen. I think he's going to get a push. think he's going to get a decent push because think about it this way. Who do they got that's a good mid card face right now?

Pmike (40:21.038)
AJ.

Pmike (40:31.054)
So now here's the thing I'm almost positive Sammy Zane is going to go up to world title level. He's gonna win the Riyadh Rumble. Okay and so we'll circle back in a minute as to why carrying is important in this. I do want to touch something after this too. Okay go ahead you can touch. okay after this okay complete it's completely unrelated. All right so that's those are my thoughts if that plays out that way then yes Sammy going over was the right call.

If it doesn't play out that way, absolutely the wrong call. Karrion Kross says the fans behind him. We've seen how organic pushes have actually been accepted under Hunter. Yeah. So I have a hard time believing that the chance and the Internet stuff that we're seeing for Kross is getting ignored. After after night two, the crowd at the. Easy. I know the crowd at the.

Press conference was chanting a we want cross and Hunter must stick it for something else. Yeah. supposedly I was going to write. was going to say, I read somewhere that a WWE is looking to make all of the big four two nights. It's not a series rumble. I'm really upset that the rumble is two nights and everyone I've seen is saying that that's the only one they're except they're okay with. Right.

I don't like it and I don't know why I don't like it. It makes complete sense why you would make that one two nights. I don't know why. If they continue with war games at Survivor Series, that one makes sense too because that's a very long match. And you would have two one per night. Yep. have one per night and then you can actually add a couple of extra matches. Yeah, they said the 2026 Survivor Series and the 2027 Rumble. Yeah, they already have the Rumble set for next year. Those two make complete sense to me. So make the big four.

actually big. Yeah. Next up on our night one card is Tiffany Stratton versus Jade Cargill for the Smackdown Women's Championship. I don't know what it's called. For WWE Women's Championship. Yes, because Women's World Championship is the only one. Gotcha. Gotcha. This was a decent match. Did we rate the other one? Did we rate cross half a star? Half a star. Come on.

Pmike (42:54.574)
Don't you care? give it. OK, it's like you can't rate it on. I'll give it to you. You can't read it on how you feel about the outcome. You have to rate it on performance. I'll give it to maybe two and a half as opposed to the other one was two and a half, maybe three. Right. So it was a little lower than the women's tech match. Tiffany Stratton kicked out of a jaded. She.

Jade, I will give Jade props. We usually hate on Jade because she can't wrestle and whatnot. Granted, this wasn't a wrestling spot, but she hit the jaded, put Tiffy's foot on the ropes. It slipped off. Jade felt that and she put it back on the ropes. Right. And never looked over. Right. This was a complete feel, which typically you see more in veteran wrestlers and as a lot of people have talked about Jade's not a veteran wrestler. still, but I will give Jade, I'll give credit where credit's due.

Jade has come a long way since she first debuted in WWE and even longer ways since she first debuted in AEW. mean, those were rough. That was just, we got this big strong girl. We're just gonna let her beat people up. She doesn't have to have any skills. Tiffy ended up winning this. Because. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why she just hit the he hit he she hit one PME.

I believe. in reality, she ended up winning this because I WWE is realizing that Jade is not ready for a singles title. Right. She's ready for a good run. I thought it was a good match. I'd say three and a half. I would say three. I'll give it. I'll give it a three. Say three and a half. I don't want to be too crazy with it. I'll it a three. Yes, correct outcome for this match. Oh yeah. 100%. Like I said, I agree with WWE. I don't think Jade's ready for a singles title. Cool down match for the night one.

The tag match between Randy Orton and Jelly Roll versus Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre. This was a four, maybe four and a half star match. This was great. I'm going to go about three and a half on this, honestly. I'll even go as far to say this was match of the night. No, no. That opener was a match of the night for me. Oh, so you don't think main event was? No, good God.

Pmike (45:16.684)
Okay, gotcha. Yeah, think that was. Jelly Roll did what people thought he would do besides the silly idiots on the IWC thinking he's doing shooting star presses. Right. He did, he wrestled, he took bumps. No, the only problem I had and the reason I- He did a total of like five moves. I don't care about that. biggest stars do that. That's not my thing. Say you so.

Jelly's new to this kudos to jelly roll first and foremost. Can we call him by his real name? That's his first and foremost kudos to jelly roll a dropping the amount of weight he's dropped to get in shape to be in the ring. That is why he dropped that weight by the way. And the next thing I want to give credit to in the amount of time that he had to actually train and learn this to go in the ring and hang with Randy Orton one of the greatest of all time.

Drew McIntyre who's one of the best we got going today and as much as I hate to say it Logan Paul who quite honestly is one of the best in ring guys we have on wrestling right now. He's a jackass and I hate to give him credit. Wow. Yeah. I would say he's probably one of the best in ring guys. I think his promo work still needs a lot but you put a lot. Yeah. You put him in the ring and I don't know if there's anybody he can't hang with. I'll give you that. And it's crazy. I'll give you that. Absolutely crazy. My problem with jellies

performance. Yeah, I'm gonna keep saying jelly because that's what they call it. know it's just really funny to me. Was you could see when he's gonna take a move, he's crossing his arms and looking up. First of all, kudos. Oh yeah. For that table spot. to both of them. What happened was McIntyre hit, I believe it Claymore on Jelly Roll, then put him up on the table. Jelly Roll's feet.

or like his butt is on the edge of the table. hanging off the front of the table. His legs are hanging off the table. And you can see him cross his arms, put his hands over his crotch, brace for impact and pick his head up and look. Logan Paul is on the top rope. Frog splashes to the outside, jelly roll through the table. After a double cheers, stone cold cheers with the primes. I'm telling you, it looked beautiful. It was great.

Pmike (47:34.024)
absolutely beautiful and this is what I'm talking about. I genuinely think if Logan Paul wasn't a absolute douche if he wasn't a youtuber before he would be one of my favorite wrestlers. If this dude just came in and nobody knew who he was and showed up and wrestled like this yeah he would be a top guy no question. no questions at all. It's his personality that's outside the

knowing who he was before is what's holding him back. His celebrity is what's holding him back.

Pmike (48:13.848)
Jelly Roll and Randy ended up losing this. Wood did not expect that a bit. You throw in a celebrity, you almost always expect that celebrity to go over. But Jelly Roll is such a fan that I just I don't think he cared. No, He took the pin. Hunter said the first thing Jelly did when he came back, he got through that curtain and he's like, can I do this again? When can I come back? don't know. Hunter said, we'll look into it. We'll see.

What we can do. We'll look down the road. But I'm telling you, man, he was great. I thought he did for a guy who trained for a handful of months to get in there and hang with those three. And obviously more training than Travis Scott. I saw somebody online bitching because it looked so fake when he was doing it. Of course, it looked because he's not a professional. He's training for six months max on this. And the one guy was like.

You could see him move over to get in position. can everyone. You can see Seth Rollins. You can see Randy Orton do that. I don't want to hear shit about that. I was going to say Cena, but he's very infamous for saying big boot like a very blatant call out. Well, and let's be honest, you can't see Cena. That's a point. There you go. Look at that. All clever. All right. So the main event, it's time. Gunter versus CM Punk.

for the World Heavyweight Championship and for a good 20 minutes of this match, Gunter dominated. Just smacked the shit out of Punk. Not an exaggeration. Fully enjoyed just watching him just chop the shit out of CM Punk for 20 minutes. Punk gets some life back, know, knees him, does the bulldog, knees him in the corner, does the bulldog, going for that GTS Gunter

counters hits by the way good to hit three power bombs in this match punk kicked out of all of them yeah punk hit two gts's good there couldn't kick out well but this was after he broke his nose the second yeah because after he his nose and got bloody he went to the outside punk dropped him on the announce tape right well and the rumor was he already had a nose issue he was gonna have surgery for yeah so that was just so the blood spot was completely planned yeah but gunter

Pmike (50:37.772)
They sold it like he saw blood on his face and he was freaking out. He's covering his nose like, no, no, don't do this. Don't do this. Punk wins. mean, is completely believable. It is a guy like Gunter. When's the last time you've seen him bleed? It's true. You know, like he hasn't. Right. And he bleeds. He's like, whoa, whoa.

And typically in all reality, when you see yourself bleeding, you have one of two reactions. You freak the hell out or you start fighting. Right. So it was was a coin toss as to what you're going to do. When celebrates with the kids. he's he's on his knees crying, holding it. Calls the personalities playing and he's got the. And the old saggy bag under the eyes, CM Punk looks up and sees the visionary.

He's on crutches in the knee brace. says, I still you. I'm still looking at you. just coming out to say, I still have this and I can cash in whenever I want. Turns around, drops the crutches, takes the brace off, runs down to the ring. Almost pulls Jessica Carr off her feet. Nearly.

gives punk a concussion with how hard he's hitting him with that briefcase. He hates punk. Okay, here's the thing guys. I called it. Yes. So this is this is my credit work credit to do thing. Where I'm not always wrong. Right. Or they said he's always wrong. And no, he's not. Because when Seth Rollins went on the Rich Eisen show and said, No, we're going to see doctor, the doctor and you know, they're doing MRI and blah, blah.

when CBS is reporting it, when USA Today is reporting it, when all these people reporting it. Seth is posting videos of walking his daughter to the park on crutches. Rosenberg is saying Peter. Yeah, Peter Rosenberg is saying, dude, I just saw Seth at the diner the night before SummerSlam and he was struggling to get in and out of the booth because he had his leg in a brace. They sold the shit out of this. They were

Pmike (52:57.492)
everybody including people that work with them. Right and I saw someone say that like it's risky to work people that you're like to not tell people you're working with you know and my personal opinion if I was let's say because Seth even worked some of his students like Nathan Frazier. If I was Nathan you know getting trained by Seth whatnot while he's in a brace

And he walks down and cashes in. And I realized I get played. That's how you know it was amazing. Right. I wouldn't be like, Hunter, why are you doing this to me? I work for you. You should tell me everything. I'd be giving him a standing ovation. Because the one thing that Hunter said afterwards. And no, I'm This wasn't on this was Rosenberg talking to Jelly Roll afterwards. He said, Jelly, how cool was it for you? He said, did you get to see this first of all? Jelly says, yeah.

He's like, man, he drive, he went out there and I thought he was just saying, Hey, I got a year to cash in whatever, but he dropped those crutches and I had literal goosebumps. And Rosenberg says, now, how cool is this for you to live your dream and have a WWE match and in the same night be reminded how much you love this industry and how great it is to be a fan. that's what they did. They, they pulled the wool over almost everybody's eyes. Ace did not. I've heard a lot of people online today. I called it.

I called it. I called it on our podcast. No one else has proof on our podcast. The same way when I told everybody that Paul Heyman was going with Seth Rollins and that triple threat, we call the shit on this podcast before it happens. So when we say, told you so we have proof. can go back and listen to it. It's not after the fact. did see people saying like three days before summer slam, Seth's cash in is a worker. Seth's injuries at work. They at the night after the Monday.

after it happened ace called might have been the sunday might have been were we still recording sundays yeah ace called it after when it happened and and props to ace because he saw that love it we got the proof our guys called it two for two for the swerve of the century and the ruse and the ruse of the century we forgot to mention seth won the title seth beat punk yes you're new champion seth freaking ralph which seth lied

Pmike (55:23.278)
Whatever as long as there is breath in my lungs CM Punk will not be a champion, but But he was for about five minutes and ten seconds Yeah so but to me that made it a little better because he's like here you go and we got to see punk so emotional and crying because he had a he finally accomplished success like okay now Right now not gonna happen. All right, let's move along to night two because we some stuff We asked to get to sure do night two started off with the women's

Triple threat championship match between Naomi Rhea Ripley and EO Sky. It was a by the way punk president third four stars I get that forced Jesus Christ now I give it three stars to cash in I give five I was gonna say that Seth Rollins and CM Punk match however that was five stars the entire cash in the whole theatrics of it I give it five Yeah, Rhea Ripley Naomi EO Sky

Played out about how you would how you'd expect they're both teaming on Naomi for the majority of the match. we forgot one part of that last one of the main event last night. Did the right guy go over? No, in the long run he did. He sure as shit did and we're going to throw one more thing out while we're still talking about Seth Freakin Rollins and his his crew. yes, WWE. We said yes, I you said I did not. I said I said I think a great name would be a good idea.

would be the vision of the visionary. This is back when Brandon was on with us. Yes. Brandon said, I kind of like it, but it seems long. What if we just cut it down to the vision? Yes. Guess what WWE has filed a trademark for the vision. So if that ends up being Seth Rollins is new group. Thank you for listening WWE. Thank you for Brandon. Thank you to Brandon for helping us fine tune that one. But you heard the vision first on Madden in wrestling.

Pmike (57:16.302)
Now back to the women's match. Sorry about that. just remembered all that. Right. It played about played played out about how you would expect Ria, EO teaming on Naomi for most of the match. There's a part where Ria and EO are one on one. Ria hits a riptide. Naomi scoops Ria up to pin her for the three count and holds the tights. And this is one of my favorite parts. I know you're a Ria fan, but I also know you're getting a little tired of Ria. Yeah. When Ria's like she was pulling my tights as a trip threat, Ria. There's no DQ.

Doesn't matter. know the biggest Rhea Ripley fan. She's getting tired of Rhea. Well, and she's one of those things. doesn't need the title. She's like Randy Orton now. She has been in, and this is not a false statement. She has been in every televised women's world championship match this year. Every single one Rhea Ripley was involved in. Yeah. She's at the point now where she doesn't need that title to have a meaningful storyline. Right.

The next match. Oh, you didn't rate it and you didn't tell me if right person went over. Oh, yeah, right person went over. I rated three and a half. That was good. I'll go three and a half, maybe even four. Next match. The next match. The next person. Six pack. TLC match. TLC match. With the Hardys and the Dudleys sitting ringside. Because we couldn't get Edge and Christian because they're both in AEW.

these six tag teams looked at the innovators, the originators of the TLC match and said, really? That's the best you can do? Hold my beer. Watch this. Right. And they proceeded to show them what a TLC match should look like. I'm not Meltzer. This was six stars. I do not go above five stars because I think it's ridiculous. There's a reason for setting a limit.

And let me tell you, as far as TLC matches go, five star. This is the best TLC match I've ever seen. Is that so? Yes. That's not even a maddening take. That's a fact. Wow. I ain't saying that's a maddening take because no one should be pissed off about this. That is a fact. That better win match of the year. Because we had 12 people involved in this match. We had 17 people. I was going to say.

Pmike (59:26.798)
12 people in this match. had 17 people involved. had 17 people taking bumps and one of those people not in the match took the biggest, scariest, craziest bump of this crazy ass match. But if you look back at her stuff, not in WWE, it's not shocking. I was gonna say that's normal. Candice LeRae. I saw someone say that's it. Taken off the ladder to the outside through the ladder bridge to the floor.

But by her husband, mind you, he accidentally pushed into it. Fell into Gargano, Gargano who pushed the ladder. Right. And if you can go back and see the moment that it happens, Montez Ford's face, it says it all. Montez was all of us in that moment. I have the picture. Yeah, it's beautiful. I'll try and put this picture up on our socials. Right. That's it right there. We'll try and put it up on our socials because Tez was all of us at this point. Yep. But my God.

The spots that happened on Drate and Ray Fenix almost won this match very early on by getting by getting by getting by getting rid of the ladder and Ray runs up and jumps onto andrade's shoulder and is touching the belts when he falls backwards. Somebody needs to win a ladder match like this. So, can't the you rate this five stars? Five stars. Five stars. Yes.

But was on the ladder holding the titles, right? I think it's the machine guns, pull the ladder from beneath camera. Right. Fraser gets on that ladder, starts kicking Gargano, going for a spear. He misses because Tampa pulled himself up to where his legs were above his hands and the titles. They were on the pole and.

You know, I really thought sample was gonna fall and break his head. Frasier goes for a super kick or nope Frasier goes for a moon salt off the ropes Gargano hits him with an Adam Cole. It's the super kick while he's in the middle of the moon salt All I can say about this match quite honestly, I don't have enough time on this podcast to go over all the ridiculously good spots in this match Yeah, go back and watch it if you didn't see it go back and watch on peacock and you know what if you saw it?

Pmike (01:01:54.37)
Go back and watch it. Because this match was absolutely amazing. Yes. Did the right person go over? People? I don't think so. I wanted to see Andrade and Ray. I think they did. I get it. They just got the belts and you're going to keep pushing them. But again, it would be it would make the most sense on how they would lose. They don't have to get pinned. They don't even have to be involved. They don't have to lose any speed at all. Right. But anybody could have won over in this match and it would have made sense to me. Yeah. So I'm not upset with it.

But it's just not who I wanted. Right. Next, we are... I forgot the order. I know what the cooldown is. Right. Next, believe... Yes. Next is Lyra, Valkyria versus Becky Lynch in a no countouts, no disqualification match. That is what they built it as. Yes. No countouts, no disqualification. So just a street fight. Right. It's just a... Or an Extreme Rules or whatever monocry you want to put with it.

OK, earlier of destruction match earlier, we talked about I wasn't going to make fun of a W for that for blown spots, right? So Becky at one point zip ties Liver's hands together and then Lira starts doing some pretty innovative stuff with her hands up. She basically puts Becky in a hug and starts headbutt nurse. She can't do anything. It was great, but it goes off the top. I think that's what it that's what did it. It was some kind of a slam. It might have been.

Because when she was going off top, she had to make sure she was still holding on. her hand completely comes out. The zip ties loosened. Her hand comes out. was so obvious to the point Michael Cole and Wade Barrett said, and Lyra gets free. Lyra gets free from the zip ties. wait. No, she doesn't. wait. Because she put her hand back in. She put her hand back in. And I'm not going to. I'm not going to.

this credit Lyra for this because what do you do in that situation and like realistically and obviously they had a good portion of the match scripted out where she was zip tied because they went on for a while with it. So I kind of get it. But there are sometimes you just got to add that night and I fully get that most of the fans and attendance didn't see it. Right. Unless you're watching like jumbo. Right. But the millions at home. Right. So that was kind of goofy. Becky Lynch was going to

Pmike (01:04:10.062)
crowbar Lyra while her head was in the chair she was gonna crowbar the chair this is after Lyra swung the crowbar at Becky at the beginning of the match and hit the steps not not with the end not with the not jaded part if she would have connected you would have had to pluck Becky off of the crowbar yeah

Yeah, she's going for the crowbar but then Becky holds it up in the air for a good three seconds before Bailey realizes that's her cue and then rips the crowbar out of Becky's hand. Bailey not in place at all for this one. Right, Becky says, it, you hit her, you know what she did to you and Bailey once again like Sammy goes, this isn't me and starts attacking Becky. Well, no, she turned around. Becky put a chain around her hand.

When Bailey turned back toward her, Becky went to punch her, Bailey blocked it, and then she started whipping her ass. Like I was going let this shit go, but you just tried to sucker punch me with a chain. Right. Then we're getting to the end of match. Something's happening. there's a spot where Becky like drove. Lyra had Becky in like a German suplex position. Becky's running towards the ropes, hugging him like one does. Then Bailey comes up, chain wrapped in her fist.

goes for the punch, Becky ducks, she hits Lyra, one, two, and instead of Bailey going to be like, oh, I made the mistake, I should probably break this up, she goes to try and break up the pin at two and a half. So Becky ends up retaining the title. Right. Did the right person go over? No. What star? Five out of, no, out of five. Two and a half. Three, I give it three.

Now here's one of the reasons, the whole hand slipping out thing kind of took a little bit away from me. My other reason is nothing against Lyra. Lyra was really good in this match except that. Every time Becky gets hit with a Kendo stick, it happened before, she throws her hands right before she gets hit, she throws her hands up in the air. If you're trying to protect yourself, why do you expose your body? I was going say, Becky, make it look realistic, take an arm shot. Absolutely stupid. Jacob versus Solo in a steel cage. Played about, played out.

Pmike (01:06:20.206)
how you would expect it with Jacob dominating for most of the match. Then the MFT comes out, interferes, and then solo wins. Big Jim tries to make the save, but there's too many MFTs. There's too many MFTs. God, that's such a dumb name. Not if you say it the way I think it in my head. Like what? The mother tongue. Tongans. Well, right. they state. I get it. I get what they say it is. But when I say there's too many MFTs, it plays in my head completely different. makes sense. Right. If they would have named it that.

They can't name it that it's a family mother freaking Tongans anyway I was not happy with this match. I thought it was no I thought it was an average match at best Might only be a two-star match. Yeah. right person win. No No Once you get into the cage the only way here's another stipulation. There's the other reason the only way this is the right win right winner is of zillow to debuts on

Smackdown. Right, because you had all of the MFTs. We don't have enough numbers on our side. We need somebody else. Right, I have a feeling this is going to be the bloodline in Civil War games too. Right, so. With different bloodlines. Right, so if Zilla. Same bloodline, different bloodlines. If Zilla comes in to try and even the sides, then yes, makes complete sense for Solo to win this. If not, and it's Roman and Jay. Even that would be okay. I wouldn't be thrilled, but it would be okay.

But the reason for a steel cage match is to cut off the outside interference. Right. So if you throw that out the door, what the hell is the point of the steel cage match unless you're bringing somebody else into eventually even the sides. Right. For our cooldown match, we have the best Mysterio versus AJ Styles. I'll let you take this. We have the Eddie Guerrero tribute match. AJ comes out. Eddie Guerrero tribute match.

Meaning it's the 20 year anniversary from the custody of Dominic match. Right. So AJ comes out in the low rider, hits the switches. It's it's it's bouncing. It's doing all this cool stuff. He's wearing a shirt that says styles heat. It is the Latino heat shirt. Except it says styles instead of Latino. He's wearing pants. He's wearing the pants. His tights were designed like Eddie's were in that match. It was just.

Pmike (01:08:40.628)
Absolutely outstanding. The match saw a spot where Dom gets a chair while the refs turned around, smacks the chair on the ground and throws it to AJ and lays down just like Eddie. And then AJ, just like Eddie, when somebody tried to turn it around on him, puts the chair around his head and lays down. He starts tweaking his leg. yeah, he was selling the shit out of it like he got laid out. It was great. But a little. so Dom, Dom pulls another Eddie. Dom unzips his boot because.

I, you know, he knows what the script is. No, I'm kidding. He knows AJ, he knows he's going to go for that calf crusher again. So he does. And, you know, because for whatever reason, AJ is pulling Dom's foot in the calf crusher. yeah, you do. That's where you get the most leverage. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, you're right. But I'm thinking about like he's having both hands on the foot. He didn't. So he's yanking on the foot, the boot comes off. And, you know, AJ at this moment was thinking,

God, I just pulled his foot off. Now he's like, what the hell just happened? And when the boot comes off, Dom's foot's free. So his leg snaps back. So he's not in the calf crusher anymore. Right. He gets out, grabs I don't remember how he gets the boot because AJ has it in his hand. Right. AJ threw it down. did he? Yeah.

So Dom gets the boot while the refs turn around, he smacks AJ in the face with the boot and Ace says... I said, what's the difference between that and a big boot? Then they showed the replay. Right. And you're swinging it like a sack full of nickels. It has a much bigger swing on that. You could genuinely, in the post show, you could see the boot mark on AJ's face. And then Dom with the Frog Splash, one more tribute to Eddie. Yeah. And we call it a night. AJ is the loser on this one.

and which means we had no championships with hands. Every single match in night two was a championship match. And up until this point, which is the cool down match before the main event, nobody's lost their title. Boys and girls in wrestling school, boys and girls learning about professional wrestling by listening to our podcast. What does that tell us? There's going to be a title switch in the main event. We're going to have a title change now. it was before the Dominate Game Act happened. I told you, I said,

Pmike (01:10:56.046)
Well, surely AJ wins, right? Because has to be a title change. Cena's not losing. He says this before the match and forgets about it because as soon as Dom wins, you know, he's happy because he's a Dom I enjoy Dom. Dom's great. Then you say, then I was like, just means. I was like, you know that means and he's just like, So on to our main event if we haven't spoiled it for you yet. Right. Cody Rhodes versus John Cena.

Cody Rhodes comes out, know, his entrances tribute to Dusty whatnot. John Cena comes out. actually loved that entrance. Did you? Because it was a little more than just his normal wrestling has more quotes from Dusty and coming. Yeah. Coming across as he's, as they're having these quotes from Dusty. That was great. No, I'll save that for an extra little take. Cena comes out, you know, the black Tron. Then as soon as the beat drops.

It's all the colors. he's is back. He runs to the side. He runs to the other side, shows the flag and he says, he says, you got more running you Stu. Then let's run. It's beautiful. And Stu couldn't keep up. couldn't keep up. used to be able to keep up. either Stu's getting old, which, you know, he's been doing this. has been doing this scene for a while. Or Stu is one of the only people in the world who was like, God damn, I enjoyed that. He'll run.

I didn't have to run down this ramp every night. Sorry, Stu. It's almost done. 14 more dates, right? 14? 14 more dates. Four more PLEs. I see this career. Four. That's No. Yep. No. That's it. Stop. Stop. So this this match, I'm going to tell you right now. Four. Four. Four and a half. I'm not going to go five. Oh, well, because of the ending. No, because not just because of the end. Well, kind of just because of the ending. Because the ending didn't.

No, because the ending didn't tell the story the way I thought the story should progress. Right. It wasn't just my personal feelings. It's just I don't think it told the right story. Right. So what happened was, I mean, it was a street fight. They did street fight things. Which was the thing, which is why it should have ended the other way. Right. Because you could have been a heel. Either one of them could have turned heel without anybody without anybody realizing they were turning heel because they're just in a street fight.

Pmike (01:13:19.18)
Right until the end and then they could have jumped him and made him a heel. So we did not get Homelander Cody, which is I wanted to see out of this. Cody takes off the bottom turnbuckle. He doesn't take off the turnbuckle pad. He doesn't take off the pad that connects the turnbuckle to the post. He takes off the turnbuckle and hits Zeno with it. Completely loosens the rope, pulls it off the pole. The bottom rope is loose. And takes the actual buckles. don't know that people really understand this when we say the turnbuckle.

know what the turnbuckle is. It's not just the corner. It's just not that pad. That's a that is a cover. The turnbuckle is actually the metal piece underneath when you hook it to the it's hooked to the rope. Yep. Then you hook it to the post, you put a wrench in there and you spin it, you turn it and that's what pulls the rope back taunt. It's a turnbuckle. Yes. It turn buckle. Yes. So that metal piece is actually the turnbuckle and that's what he hits Sina with. Yeah. About four times. Three.

It was three. was two. He went for the third one and seen him drop them into the STFU, which they called the STFU, which was outstanding. Absolutely loved the call back on that. I'm not even kidding. I'm pretty sure Cody kicked out of six AAs, not including the Avalanche AA, which he also kicked out of and Sina couldn't even kick out of five crossroads. And one of the AAs where he literally threw him down the ramp. I forgot about those ones. He

Okay, so he probably kicked out of like eight AAs, not including the Avalanche AA. He AA'd Well, he took, he didn't kick out of eight of them. He took eight of them and kicked out of like four five. He, he, what happened was, Cena was on the one announce table, right? Cody, Cody in his, his shoulders, AAs him through the other announce table, right? Then they're fighting backstage and they come up through Cody's pedestal.

Cody on Sina's shoulders. He throws him down the ramp. Cody kicks out of that. Cody hits the crossroads Trinity, the three crossroads where he doesn't let go. Sina kicks out of that. Cody does one final salute. Crossroads Sina. That's the match. That's it. Cody's camp. Yeah. And then they hug and Sina hands him the belt. hug. Cody's crying because that's what Cody does. Right.

Pmike (01:15:40.174)
I'm not against showing your emotions, but again, I was really, really hoping for I know it's every time Cody cries as easily as Moxley bleeds. Right. That's our comparison. We get blood every week in AEW. We get tears every week in WWE. I mean, it is what it is. As much as I like Cody, it's every time. It's like Cody, did you see that video of the puppy? I I just wanted to say.

Farrow can't be on the road with me anymore. You know, reminds me of Dusty. They only had to play toilet paper, not three in the hotel. It's anything, man. Cody, come on. I'm all for showing your emotions, but butch it up a little bit for me. OK, you're world champ. See that does the kisses his two fingers. Does the peace sign walks out in the music? Cody, Cody, let him in the. Oh, yeah, yeah, Cody Cody left.

Let him in the ring so he could have his farewell moment last summer slam then the music hits and the beast incarnate he He was on and I'm gonna quote Michael Cole here cuz he he doesn't say this this Holy shit He doesn't normally say it no, so Brock comes back does a slow walk looks at Sina It's good five minutes, right takes off his hat takes off his jacket and f5 sena

jumps into the ring and F5 Cena because Cena is watching him the whole time and he had no idea when he started running the ring that he might attack him. Well, Brock is actually freakishly fast. So I think even if Cena ran out the way the ramp went, don't know. Cena is pretty fast too for nearing 50 year old young. Right. so Brock's in a race? Brock or Cena? Rumor is that Hunter went to Cena and said, who do you want to work with on this final run?

Sina said Brock was one of my biggest opponents. I'd really like to work Brock again. And that's why Brock's here. This was not 100 % a TKO WWE decision. This was this was mostly Sina. Um, on to yeah, that was SummerSlam. Out of five. SummerSlam? four. I said four point five. said four. Four. I'll say four. You said four point five. The Brock Lesnar thing really disappointed me. Yeah. Did the right guy go over? No. No, not at all. It made no sense for me.

Pmike (01:18:06.542)
Right guy would have gone over if Cody turned heel right again. This is a situation one makes no sense Situational it makes no sense to me to have a face Cody. No be the face Sina. Nope. Um That was summer slime. What is your maddening take eight slow down just a little bit I places to be I understand but we still got to deliver evenly All right. So you want me to start with my name takes? Okay, so my maddening take is a few shows back

I said how I don't believe that the World Championship is on equal par with the WWE Championship. How it was viewed as a mid-card title. I'm gonna go a step further with this maddening take. I think that the Intercontinental title is a more prestigious title right now than the World Championship.

Pmike (01:19:03.85)
The past two months, the world championship, I'll even go back to WrestleMania so it makes my point better. Past three months, world championship has changed once, twice.

thrice four times. Okay, so here's what I'm going to say. And the ironic part of this is... Remember when Gunther was hard to beat? The same man, the man you just mentioned, is responsible, is partially at least responsible for both of my views on this. Gunther holding the Intercontinental title for 666 days. The curse number. Gave prestige to that title. yeah, longest reigning best.

I'll even go as far to say his best. Sammy beats him 119 days. You did your research. Mm-hmm. Bron wins only 51. Because then Jay beats him. Jay wins 28 days. Bron gets it back for another 181. Yeah. Believable. All believable solid champs except Jay. And now Dom's hold it held it for over 100. And Dom is holding it as a great heel champion.

And that's since April of 2022. Okay, that's one, two, three, four, five, six champions since April of 2022. Since May of 2023, we've had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight world champions. Yeah. Okay. And in that we had Seth, the initial champion, holding it for 316 days, almost a full year. And that gave it prestige. I told you once before that I think one of the only people that could bring it back to a prestigious level is Rob.

So we'll see where this goes. Rollins, Drew gets it for under five minutes off of Rollins. Priest in a very non-memorable run and I love Damian Priest. Very unmemorable run. 118 days. Gunther in what was probably one of the most boring lengthy runs in championship history. Right. At 258 days. That seems crazy to me. 258 days on that run. It was boring as shit. Jay beats him for 51.

Pmike (01:21:14.424)
I don't know why I have both of Jay's title reigns memorized. Gunther gets it back for 53. That was it? 53. Punk gets it for less than five. Five minutes and ten seconds. And now we're back to Seth. Yeah. So right now, there's, other than when Rollins held it, there's nothing in this world title run that makes me think that championship's worth a damn. That's a good point. My maddening take is I don't think Brock should have returned.

And again, I don't know that that's a maddening take. OK, I don't think Sina should have turned heel. I don't think Sina should have lost. think Cody should have turned heel. I liked the SummerSlam stage. That's my maddening take. Everyone's complaining about it. I thought it was pretty cool. I enjoyed the SummerSlam stage. I thought it was pretty cool. So you just like throwing out maddening takes on me at this point. was the main event. The main event is my maddening take. The main event was the match itself was a really, really good match. The ending and the build.

Everything else about the build was decent until right up until hey, I'm just gonna be a face now, right? The weirdest face turn in history. So that's what we got. I think that covers us. Sorry we missed you guys last week. We promise you we will talk to you guys next week. Hopefully within the next two weeks or so, Ace and I will get this little studio area we got cleaned up and get some video for you guys because that'll be kind of something fun. That's been Maddening Takes. I've been Mike.

He's been ace. No, I've been ace. I was gonna say, no, I've been Mike. just went over that. I've been Mike. He's been ace. We'll talk to you guys next week.

Maybe? Alright, bye.