The Podcast After WrestleMania
Maddening Wrestling Takes (00:00.834)
Hey everybody, welcome back to Madden in Wrestling Takes. This is your host Mike and Ace and we're back with our first post-WrestleMania podcast ever and man what a WrestleMania to talk about. This whole week, wrestling has been great. One of my favorite weeks of the year. We start off strong on Raw, go all the way through there's wrestling constantly. Absolutely loved it. So obviously with
two nights of WrestleMania plus NXT, we have a lot to dive into. So let's go ahead and dive into it. I'm gonna let Ace start us off on our WWE fifth week. So first was Raw, opened basically by with the three women saying that they're gonna beat each other at Mania. Yeah, the disrespect for EO is played very heavily into this angle. And I love EO.
loved EO since the first time I've ever seen her wrestle. think all three ladies in this feud are top tier athletes, top tier talents, but I think EO is the best of the three of them total package wise. The only thing she can't do well is cut promos, but that's because English isn't her first language. Right. And I mean, that's okay. Right. I mean, I don't know any Japanese, so her knowing any English puts her over me instantly. Right.
next we had Mysterio versus Creed, Julius. Julius Creed. it was a good match. They made Julius look like a beast. Julius is a monster. he, he, caught Mysterio going for a suicide dive in a suplex position, walked up the stairs with him, got in the ring. No, because Mysterio countered. But he got on the apron with him. Right. It was, he was marching. stairs, hold.
And don't get me wrong, Ray's a small guy, but I don't care. Try holding up even a small guy like that. It's incredible. As much as I do enjoy American Maid, I think they're fun. I Gable's fun. This El Grande Americano stuff is fun, which you can tell me he's not. Chad Gable, all you want. His mask still says American Maid, so I'll lump him in. I can't wait till they let the Creed brothers be serious.
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like brutus is just a comic relief kind of right now but i mean then there the whole american-made things kind of a comedy thing but right which is the same because all four involved in american-made are phenomenal real-life athletes right it's penta versus baller that was a good match
I don't understand how you could possibly anybody would think it would be a bad match. Right. I mean, Penta and Finn Balor. mean, Penta has has been a whole new level of guy since he's been in WWE and not trying to talk anything down. Oh, I feel like I have to say this every week. Not trying to talk AEW down, but Penta refining his in-ring work to not be go, go, go, go, go. Right.
I mean, he's got to take it slow a little. Well, that all has a place. I mean, you can do that occasionally, but you need to let something sit with the audience. Let them digest it. Let them take in everything. You know, if you can't take a breath, okay, you know, eventually you're going to run out of air. So if you're going nonstop all the time, not letting anybody in the audience catch your breath from all the stuff they're doing, it just becomes dizzying and hard, hard to follow. Right.
Ended in a disqualification from interference, setting up the Fatal Four Way for Mania. Yeah, this is Fatal Four Way, man. I can't wait till we get into Mania. Me too, man. Then to end the show... sorry. I almost skipped over my favorite match. My notes are out of order. Cross vs. Styles. They are finally given a little push to Cross. Getting him some TV time, getting him some match time.
The thing I want to note about that match, the very end, Cross got what he wanted and sacrificed himself for AJ. They did not mention it on the commentary, which kind of threw me, because I noticed that too. AJ sets up for the phenomenal forearm and Cross stands there and puts his arms behind his back. Yeah. It wasn't like he was bracing for a fall or he was looking to take the bump. He almost, he didn't quite cross his arms, but that's the motion he was going in. Like, I'm just giving myself up, come hit me, you understand what I need. Yeah.
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it was a good mag. Great mag. Subtlety. And this is one of the things that, you know, we talked right before we came on the air that you're happy that I'm starting to get on the cross bandwagon. his psychology is what's, is what's pulling me in because he's actually starting now to utilize, he's always done this psychopath thing, but now he's doing more of a, a calculating psychopath thing. Right. So he's his.
psychology isn't just now limited to his promo work. Yeah. His in-ring. mean that subtle move, if they play off of it. And I think they will. Is gonna be huge in the development of his character. One other thing I do wanna know is he pretended to twist his ankle, then just absolutely gave AJ the meanest forearm I've ever seen. That was monstrous. Yeah, I really think...
If utilized correctly, a little while ago, actually it's probably been a year or two years now because Kevin Sullivan has been gone for a while. Cross did a video, I think it only ever got out on YouTube. Yeah. Where he was showing up and Kevin Sullivan, and if anybody doesn't know who Kevin Sullivan is, I'll forgive them. He didn't have a huge play and stuff, but, he, he did a lot of backstage stuff and he was in WCW.
great wrestling mind, psychology just through the roof and him and Kross did a great little video segment that if WWE would have taken that and ran with, they could have made Kross something special. A killer at that point in time. At that point in time, they could have made him something really special. If it's something you guys, if you guys enjoy the psychology behind wrestling and storytelling, do yourself a favor and look that video up. Yeah, it was a great video. Great.
Mac, then to end the show, we had, Rollins Punk and Roman under the same roof leading into that Mania main event, which I know you're not a big fan of. Yeah, I'm just not a big fan of the main event either. They, they just, both of them, both of the main events, they started the build at a time where it felt to me like it was dragged out a little bit. That's all. Because it was so early. Right. And by the time we get to
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this go home week on on ron and smacked out like my god we're so anticipating this match and what else can these guys say about or to each other at this point let's just move on let's get to the mat let's get to mania Rollins did end up turning the clock back and hit Roman in the back with the steel chair in the shield inspired vest I don't know if you caught that was it the shield inspired vest I'd assume or was it
There's another guy that always wears a vest with no shirt under it. If you smell what I'm cooking.
I see maybe maybe we'll get into that we'll get into that conspiracy theory a little later to Smackdown kicked off with Rollins. Anything big on NXT before we jump straight to Smackdown? you recall NXT? NXT it wasn't really anything big cuz it was the Hank and Take won the they had the gauntlet and then Ethan Page got the number one contender right and did Thea Hale come back?
Yeah, Thea Hale came back. You're right. right. So Thea Hale added into the ladder match. Beating Carmen Petrovic. Petrovic. Petrovic. I don't know if it's Petrovic or Petrovic to be honest with you. Anyway, she beat Carmen. All-Ego wins a Fatal Four-Way. Fatal Four-Way qualifier to face Ricky Saints. And Hank and Tank after being on a what?
seven match losing streak that they said. Six. Six match losing streak and getting advice from every tag team and their brother underneath the WWE roster. My favorite part is the last tag team they got advice from were the profits. The tag team champs. And then they run the gauntlet, take out all the other teams and they earn their spot to face Praxiom at standard deliver. Yeah. Sorry. I completely forgot about that. It's It's okay. my first time being in the lead. got you.
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SmackDown. SmackDown kicked off with Rollins cutting a promo saying that, basically saying that Roman is right. Him and Roman died a long time ago and he's going to win that main event. Yeah, it was a, again... was a decent promo. And again, we're at the point of what else can you say. Right. So, you know, especially for where we are, it was a really good promo. Yeah. then our first match was the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale.
100 % with everybody coming out and the hype that was coming had Phoenix winning this 100 % for me it was either cross or Phoenix and I'm not saying that because I'm a cross fan I genuinely thought because of that AJ Maxx right it looked like they were trying to start Something with cross. Yeah, and so yeah, I'm with you. I Figured it was it was Phoenix's to win because how hot he's been they didn't want him losing
Look weak and then you're right. They started something with cross so he would have made sense as well but I Think Carmelo I'm not saying is a 100 % the right choice, but definitely not a bad choice Right and I completely agree with that the way they had a Phoenix get eliminated kind of it actually Makes me wonder if Ray was supposed to get injured because because
It was El Grande Americano that cost him the Battle Royale, so Fennec steps in for Mysterio at Mania to get his revenge on Americano. Right, but I think it was just a fortunate thing for him. Yeah. think we're just furthering the Luchador thing, which we'll get into how that expanded exponentially here in a little bit, Yeah, my one note here says the crowd seems to boo when Cross got eliminated.
They were in Vegas. That's true. There was a hometown boy that got eliminated. But I do think you're right. think the people are starting to get behind Cross. Like I said, his character development, if you guys haven't picked up on this in these handful of episodes that we've already done so far, character development is huge for me. You can be a great in-ring worker. And if you can't, you don't need to cut a great promo. You don't need to be a rock. You don't need to be a Cena.
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Nothing like that, but if you can just show me that your character has some identity that makes them stand out makes me Interested or care about your your guy. That's that's what's gonna get me every time I mean you can be a decent in ring worker. You gotta have some skills I mean, I'm right I'm not gonna say if the giant Gonzalez came out here and put on a good personality I would have enjoyed any of his matches because that's not the case. You have to have something but Build that connection with the audience. I really think cross is starting to do that
100 % um Our next match was this might be out of order was the tag team championship match between Motor City machine guns and Profits right this is good match enter interference from DIY sets up a TLC match not at mania Man, I'm gonna jump jump just a little bit here. I know I said we were gonna go over our weekend reviews, but why in the hell would you have?
the tag team title match that they had on Mania and not have these three teams in a ladder match at WrestleMania. I understand that sometimes you wanna put a good flow to your show and maybe this might have done so, but man, you want the best match as possible. This is WrestleMania. Exactly. This isn't any other pay-per-view, any PLE, whatever you wanna say. This is the granddaddy of them all. This is the biggest stage there is.
put your talent on. Right, and my thing is that Raw Tag Team Championship match, it has happened on Raw. Right. Like, you don't need a media match for that. That's besides the point. Alright, we'll get to that. Zelina versus Kelsey, not for the title. No. It was, it wasn't anything spectacular. It was a match. Zelina beat Kelsey clean.
Yeah, in the ending that was supposed to happen the week before before Chelsea forgot how ten counts work. Right. Knight and Stroman versus Fatu and Solo. Yeah, that started out a little different. Yeah. you pointed out to me that it was LA Knight versus Solo first. Right. Jacob got involved. And then Stroman came to make the save and they got a tag match. Aldis said, man, you guys don't want to wait till tomorrow night to fight. You guys don't want to.
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do that everybody's dressed to fight let's just go ahead and do this let's get a tag match in right nothing crazy no night night and Stroman got the win right just yeah pushing just pushing that match for the next night that's now my only note for this match LWO versus American made is Ray gets injured Mysterio right big that cuz that's like the big thing I watched the highlights it was a good match yeah the looks of it right
But the main takeaway from that is that the Ray's out of the media match. Yeah, and it's Unless they sold it better than they normally do, I don't think this was a set. Ray getting injured because they had the camera on him... Or they had a camera off him while he's sitting on the stairs and a ring doctor was over there looking at him. Yeah. And the first time this came out, anything that was said about it was leaked footage from... The crowd. Yeah, from the crowd.
Ray hopping on one leg is two people are carrying him back and then he gets about halfway down They end up picking him up and carrying him the rest of way back. Yeah So thoughts and prayers? Yeah, I mean we all know Ray's got to be closing in on the end of his career He's already a Hall of Famer. I'm not quite sure. Hopefully it's I doubt it's anything super because he was walking around he wasn't in a walking boot or anything So he'll probably be back within the next couple of weeks. Right
But realistically Ray could just transition into a managerial role if he wants to the LWO could be completely stacked with the guys they're bringing in and the guys already have I mean you could add the Lucia brothers to the right with since it's after mania you have the draft coming up right so Then we close out the show with the Sina versus Cody promo
I only have two quotes. Go for them. reason there isn't a wrestling retirement is because every other wrestler is a scared insecure loser. Cena was cooking. Cena's just gonna put everybody down on his way out. 100%. I have love, joy, and worth in my life. I don't need a single dang one of you. Yeah, yeah. Cena basically, you know, Cody tried and...
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anybody can try to take the best shot at seeing on the mike he said your skin is paler than staying at something ninety seven so this was uh... this is the one where the crowd started booing cody started out completely against cody so to cody's credit he did some masterful mic work he 100 % he the around yeah i got the crowd right behind him and they went from booing him hardcore to cheering him by the end of his speech but honestly
I watched this segment, I recall this segment, but other than the stuff that Ace just quoted, I don't remember a damn thing Cody said except about seeing his necks being like a stack of pennies and him looking pale. Right. So I didn't think it was the greatest, but it worked. Got the crowd to turn and that's exactly what he needed. I think that does it here for... So yeah, we're trying, we're really going to try and fly through our weekend review because...
Let's be honest, everybody knows WrestleMania weekend is what this whole podcast is about today. I mean, we put it off an extra day so we could go over everything because God knows I wanted to go over no matter what the outcome was. I wanted to go over that Cody Cena match and I have to wait an additional week on that. So I don't know. For Cody Cena, I was too invested. I remember that we're good. So well, before we get to that, we'll
Get a quick rundown of our AEW shows this week. AEW, no offense to AEW, but WrestleMania week is WrestleMania week, WWE owns it. You put on a couple good matches, don't get me wrong. There was some good stuff on there to watch, but that's the stuff that I'll go back and watch now that WrestleMania is done. Cuz I was laughing earlier because-
conflict in my head that some people were watching Collision. No, Collision was on Thursday or Friday. There was a special night for Collision. So they made sure not to lose viewers. AEW, they can say what they want. They're not afraid of WWE. They're not gonna go head to head with WrestleMania. That would be stupid. Right. mean, I can make fun of Tony Khan for being a fanboy as much as I want because I'm not gonna take anything away from most of the wrestlers in AEW, but I do think Tony needs-
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to accept the fact that he needs a little help in direction. But even being a delusional fanboy, he's not dumb enough to think, oh, well, my product is so great. This is where the best wrestles, so nobody's going to watch WrestleMania. They're going to watch my free show. Come on. So anyway, so we'll start out on Dynamite. We had Mercedes Monet versus Athena. And of course, Monet, who we've been over, Monet owns her
character. Yeah, she creative control so she ain't losing if she doesn't want to lose she's not gonna lose to Athena which is a shame because I do not care what the wrestling community says I do not care what Tony Khan says I do not care what anybody says Athena is far and away the better these two wrestlers. 100 % She has been sent for WWE. I mean even you know I enjoyed Mercedes more when she was Sasha still didn't think she was great, but I enjoyed her more
and think that's because she was reigned in and she wasn't just allowed to do whatever she wanted because you you could be really good as a wrestler you can be really good as a character that doesn't mean that you come up with the best ideas you know that would be the same as saying that every actor in a movie would be a great writer or director that's not the case and it's obviously not the case with mercedes so
Here comes a problematic AEW thing for me. And I'm gonna be negative, right? I'm gonna say it. I usually tell everybody I wanna be positive, but I'm gonna be negative on this. Hangman Page wrestles against the Wild Card. We don't know who the Wild Card is. So this has been in the works for a while. This has been known that this guy's going to AEW for a while, but they saved it till WrestleMania week to try and get some kind of a pop. That's a good strategy. So...
The Living Weapon Josh Alexander debuts, hottest free agent that they've signed since Osprey. Easily. Easily, this guy could have went to WWE, he had his choice, AEW offered him more money. Good on you, Josh, get the money while you can. Always a chance of getting injured in this, I'll never hold that against anybody. But they had him lose. They have this huge acquisition, this name, and AEW prides themselves as being a place where it's an alternative.
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The guys, I mean, they expect their crowd to know who these new Japan guys are coming over. Who these luchadors are that are coming up. Everybody in their brother-sending out audience knows who the hell Josh Alexander is. They bring him in, it's this huge debut, this big name guy, and they lose. He loses his first match, I don't get it. He does end up siding with Don Callis, joining the Don Callis family, and Kyle Fletcher ends up beating Hangman Page up after the match is over.
But you got this guy that, mean, Josh Alexander can be a world champion in any organization, AEW, WWE, New Japan. I don't care where you go. Josh Alexander is that good in the ring. can be whatever he wants to be. And you have him lose his debut match. I think no matter who you're up against, every wrestler should win their debut match. That's just my philosophy. even if you're up against Cena,
Well, Cena's gonna put, that wasn't a good example, like Hogan. Right. If you were up against Prime Hogan debuting, Hogan is not gonna put you over, but you should make him, like, prove to him that he should put you over. You know what I'm saying? Well, it depends on the guys. See, it can be done where you still look strong in your debut, and that's great example, Hogan. Yeah. Because if you got a guy debuting who not a whole lot of people knows, but even if you as the promoter want to push him hard,
you did you did you did have against token is what they do with sienna they debuted against angle he lost to angle but it was a solid match and he almost beat angle multiple times the yeah so you expect this new guy to lose to a superstar like that but suppose but when you got a guy like josh alexander known name
And you just, he just comes in and loses to Hangman, which I understand that they're trying, they try and make him their, one of their big guys, but he's okay. I know Lo, I know he was doing the move set first, but you know, he's a less, he's a less athletic Logan Paul. Sorry. And that, and that porn stash he's got going on, you Magnum TA called from the eighties. He wants his look back. It's horrible.
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Alright, enough begging on AEW and their horrible decision making, Josh Alexander's debut. In case you guys can't tell, I'm a Josh Alexander fan. I really enjoy Josh Alexander and I'm super disappointed that they did him like this. So then we move on to the Hurt Syndicate versus the Gates of Agony. I'm looking at the AEW Tag Division and I'm looking real hard and I just don't see any...
that's gonna put on a believable match with the Hurts syndicate right now. I mean...
No, you're The Don Kalis family has a chance if they put together the right guys. I got like they still have Hobbs. They don't have Hobbs. No, they do not have. We'll get into that here in just a little bit. They could put like Josh Alexander and Kyle Fletcher. Well, Kyle Fletcher, they're pushing off solo. But if they put Takeshita and Josh Alexander together as a tag team. Yeah, that would be great. I mean, the Gates of Agony technically are.
Don Callis family so so we get back-to-back losses from the Don Callis family. Who's the first one? It's a great look Josh Alexander. Oh I thought you meant in tag in the tag. this. I see what you On the show so you know great great look for the Don Callis family. And they really built that up when they introduced it. He realistically I would have to think really hard then I know we give AEW a hard time but I don't think right now
I could come up with a faction in any pro wrestling that has the amount of talent that the Don Callis family has. And I completely agree with you, but you have to utilize that talent. Right, right, that's what I'm saying. They build it up so much, and they build it up. They had some guys come in, some guys come out, blah blah blah, but right now they have, god damn it, why do I always forget this guy's name? They have Ozzy open, they both of them, they have Kyle Fletcher and his partner.
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Yeah, I can't. I feel so bad because I really like the guy. I just can't remember his name to save my life. I'm gonna have to like actually write this down, put it on the computer so it's always there staring at me. But they have the two of them. They have Takeshita. Now they have Josh Alexander. Yeah. They have the murder hawk monster in the machine. mean, what are you doing to not push these guys? Screw the Death Riders, man. These guys should be running AEW. Yes. 100.
100 % I could not agree with that statement more. All right, so speak of Don Callis family. Now we have Will Ospreay versus Takeshita. That must have been an amazing match. My, my, my, my. This is one of them things I said AEW did their best to put on some good matches cuz do yourself a favor if you like, if you're a good wrestling fan. If you're not, WWE only or this only or that.
go watch this match some guys don't like the high-flying stuff Nolan was on last week telling me how he doesn't like all the flips and blah blah blah blah blah because it's it's I'm a little confused with that because he said it's like the modern wrestling he doesn't like because of all the flips but in Mexico and in Japan they've been doing this stuff since the 30s so he didn't know Nolan was last week's news right right but but anyway
this match was great it's going they're going to you throw these two guys in a ring and you're getting minimum of a four-star match I promise it's just gonna happen Osprey goes over which makes loss number three in a row on the same show for the Doc Callis family the most talented faction in pro wrestling right now granted it is Osprey they should have gone two and one I get it I get it and they're building Osprey up for a world title he'll probably be the one to beat mox and and hopefully in this match
Maybe that's that's kind of what I'm seeing happen. That's I hope at this point. That's what I see. I hope. All right. So our main event was the death riders versus the ops for the World Trios Championship. Now in an odd turn of events, each of these three man teams has an injured person hook. We discussed last time, possibly concussed in the match he had the week before thrown up in the middle of the ring. Horrible look for a W.
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and Pac got his ankle injured against Swerve. Oh. Right. So we have a replacement. Deathriders come out, of course, as the champions and they say, you know, we're to have to replace Pac. He's injured. So Mox is going to join. OK, we know this. Let's go. So out comes Shibata and Joe and the little hook's injured. What are we going to do? So out comes powerhouse Hobbs. That's a team. That's.
You know, that's great. Love to see them finally doing something lot. And I know in an earlier episode, I called him a team who Bobby Lashley.
Because he is. You did that, didn't Because he is. But I still want to see him utilize him. Right. So they go... Those three sound like they could win the TRIOS Tag Championships. How about that? So they go and have their match and the Ops win the TRIOS Tag Team Champions. What? They took the belts off the Death Riders. Not only did they take the belts off the Death Riders. Now here's another little bit of...
hey we're gonna try and do something special because it's WrestleMania week let's draw on some people Samoa Joe wins the match by choking out John Moxley that is an impressive feat that's crazy the faces all come down to the ring know Ospreay all these other guys are know cheering all happy and all this and that's how we go off on the show great end of the show surprised throw Hobbs in surprised that it changed and
It was finally something different in the Death Rider storyline. Right. Because it's always been the same thing. was kind of like the end of the bloodline run. Yeah, I didn't like that. When everything was running, everything was interference, everything was like, oh my god, just do something a little different. And they did, and they let mocks take the loss. That was the biggest takeaway from that to me. 100%. So.
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crazy move and we'll move on to collision which was pretty long from and I did not get to watch collision so we ran through and got we ran through and got some notes on collision but it sounds like it would be some of it was pretty good some of it just seemed long and pointless to be honest with you but that happens on every show right not every collision just every shot right so I get what you're saying. in time you get along and
Okay, so we start off on collision with the death riders come out just wrecking things, knocking cameras over, bitching, pissing, moaning. John Moxley says, you know, since day one when he got into this business, there's been one undisputed tough guy that nobody had wanted to mess with and blah, blah. And his name was Samoa Joe. So up until now, he's given Joe a wide berth. Joe could do his thing. We'll stay out of each other's way. But after Joe choked him out,
You can't let that happen anymore. can't give him a pass. He has to finish this. Isn't that kind of his fault for getting involved in the match? Like for replacing? Right, right. I let you go, Joe, but since you did your job and wrestled me when I was doing my job as a wrestler, I'm mad at you now. Some of that stuff has never made sense to me. That's not just an AW thing to do it in a lot of different promotions. Yeah. So then Moxley. Then Moxley comes in and
well he challenges joe which is weird because you don't normally get a champion doing the challenging except that one time when broman challenged tez right like i said it's not completely unheard of but it's just weird yeah he talked he was you know he's gonna finish this if it's the death of him he'll do whatever he has to do and yeah i'm just not 100 % sure they're not gonna let joe win the world title
you don't think right now they're building their bill norsburg have osprey and jill like for the the for the for the giggles man no it's completely possible but it's the same thing i said about roman when you have this dominating run and it's not been a long run for mox but it's been dominant because of how he's gone about it
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with the guys and all this stuff and no matter what it's beat down horrible we have a dominate when you use it to slingshot the next i suppose you slingshot osprey into his first a w world title you don't slingshot joe into second okay doesn't make sense to me mostly also in this promo says that after everything happened with everybody coming out here and whatever he's
angry at everybody they're gonna come take out everybody and he's he doesn't like the young bucks young bucks you just stay in your lane we'll stay in ours i don't want anything to do with you guys okay so which then goes back to the whole young bucks returning and ruining what could have been a great match for swerve right has no real point to their return i don't maybe they'll build on it a little bit more but if they just blow it off because mox doesn't want anything to do with them then
what the hell was the point of them coming back and ruining that match. Right. Not the best story, storytelling. after that we have Lance Archer versus Kevin Knight. Probably a great match. Kevin Knight gets a win and the tough losses for the Don Callis family just keep on rolling. That's four. Right. Four and one in like the span of two days. So after this, as we just talked about a potential tag team to take on
hurt syndicate to Kesha Josh Alexander mm-hmm tag up against Ishii and Rocky Romero it was probably a great match thank God Tony Khan has a little bit of sense elaborate the Don Callis family picks up their first yeah there's there is nothing else wait let's get let's get back to the Don Callis family picks up their first win of the week
Yeah.
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because if he had these two lose, get me wrong, Rocky Romano and Ishii, both very good wrestlers, huge over in Japan, they just haven't made the name for themselves here that they have in Japan. But you can't let, first of all, can't let Josh Alexander lose twice in a row after he debuts. You can't do it. Shouldn't have done the first one, can't do the second one. After this, a guy in a black hoodie jumps in and it's shown to be Trump-Retta.
or just Trent as I like to call him. And Rocky Romero turns heel and joins back with Trent as they attack Ishii. So I'm not sure if that's a New Japan setup, if there's something they're gonna work out there. I don't know. We'll have to see. Megan Bain comes out two on one match. Just put Megan Bain over as a beast, that's all. mean, it wasn't against anybody really worth.
mentioning she's just she's a big girl she's a strong girl two-on-one let's make her a monster move on with our story yeah Adam Cole comes out Adam Cole your new TNT champion they gotta name those belts something different I've gotten and nothing against AEW nothing against her belts I've gotten those two channels mixed up since they've existed so this I'm never going to get this straight in my head
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So he issues an open challenge and Claudio accepts. Claudio? Yeah. Like Castagnoli? Yeah. That sounds like it would be a great match. It's solid. Again, these are two guys. You put them in the ring. It's going to be a minimum of like three and a half. It's going to be a good match. mean, even if they're both having an off day, it's going to be a good match. Right. That's just how talented both of them Right.
They're both guys that, especially, I feel Adam Cole's lost a step. He's had a few injuries, so nothing against Adam and he's still good. He's just not at the level he was six years ago. Claudio, probably the same level he was 10 years ago. I this guy doesn't look like he's getting older and doesn't look like he's slowing down a bit. Two guys that I can't think off the top of my head of bad matches that they've had.
I'm sure they've had some but... Alright, so... Let's see. We have a big bill and a bad apple, T's a split. Kevin Knight backstage almost gets into a ricochet. Mike Bailey splits him up, speedball. I'm assuming we'll have that match in week or two. That'll be a good match. It'll be a good match. It'll be a fun Between all three of them? No, probably just a ricochet and Knight.
also you can actually also be good will be a crazy three thousand near falls and twenty seven flip matches which have their place the entertainment and i do kind of enjoy watching them every once in while also definitely next week we're going to speak of a flipping multi near fall matches weekend very top flight person the crew yeah the martins versus action dreadi leo rush yeah i'll be a
of the match will be a fast-paced match for sure don't want to brush over this one because it's it's uh... noteworthy nick wane gets his first uh... singles title in a major promotion he'd be commander to become the r o h t v champion and uh... i i have i'm gonna throw this out there i i have like nick wane since he's arrived uh... when he first showed up he was
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When him and Darby were friends, was like, whatever, it's a cute little thing they're doing, but he's developed. He's going pretty well. Again, character development. It's more than just this young kid showing up who's known Darby for a while. Yeah, I think he had, don't get me wrong, he has expanded as an Ingram competitor exponentially. yeah. But I still liked him from the beginning, you know? with Dominic. I'm happy with the development.
same you've liked them since the beginning not same development right well both well i know i think dom's leaps and bounds ahead of nick wendt but they have developed exponentially right that's what i'm trying to get at yeah i'm just saying like on level wise no dom's on all gold and other but that that's besides the point like not even the same ballpark they're not playing in the same league or the same city right yeah that's crazy and then just a little mercedes monet harley cameron versus datlander and hart
Stetlander gets the win, further interfered with Hader, which is crazy because they just further interfered with Hader in a match that Hader's not in. Whatever, that's fine. now it's time. That's our AEW recap. And I realize we kind of rushed through, didn't talk in depth about a whole lot of stuff, but there's a reason for that. We have three major PLEs to get through. I forgot about NXT. Right, one PLE is usually gives us enough to talk about, but we got three of them to get through.
So if you recall my hot take from last week was that the best wrestling to happen on Saturday was gonna happen in the early afternoon and I stand by that. You were right. Night one of WrestleMania was much better than I expected it to be in a lot of instances. But NXT, man, they always show up. always show up. They always deliver. Stand and deliver is always so hard. I would feel bad.
for being on that first night of WrestleMania. Yeah, I mean- If I'm gonna be on WrestleMania, I wanna be on night two, cuz I don't want anybody coming off of watching NXT and then having to watch this. And I mean, night two is just always better. I mean, these past couple of years has been. But let's get to that NXT. What's our first match? Well, first couple matches on this one, I didn't even know about until we got just before it started. So we had a pre-show, we had a qualifying-
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match for the women's tag team championships. Metaphor, Tatum Paxley and JG Dolan, Roxanne and Cora and then Fatal Influence. Right. Yeah, this was one I just know I found out about right before Like it was on the countdown show wasn't it? Well, I'd even seen it online. I hadn't seen it online until I looked up the card to see what all was going on and make sure and they had that listed. was like, oh crap didn't see that.
As we talked last week, I'm a big fan of the Meta Girls as a tag team. I think they missed an opportunity here. Yeah. Because the Meta Girls did not win. Ace called this one right. Ace, I'm going to typically bow to Ace on NXT just because I don't get to watch as much of it as he does. We had Tatum Paxley and Gigi Dolan go over in this.
sure did which will bring up an interesting dynamic when actually has to go against lyra we get mania night too yeah talk about that but early thought the meta girls should have gone over in this cord jade and roxanne had no business even being in this because split up again right roxanne wanted you know she found a partner because she didn't have a partner it wasn't fair she finds one and she just walks out on her
I get that Roxanne is gonna be a singles competitor and she's probably gonna go up to the main roster before long. But why even bother putting them in, just make it a triple threat match. I don't get it. But not putting the Meta Girls over, I'm a little disappointed because I think they are going to get a call up. And I'm gonna be realistic, I don't see WWE putting the belts on Paxley and Dolan.
I don't... if they'd have put them on the Meta Girls, they'd actually anybody else in that match, they're the lowest in my mind, least likely to win. I don't see WWE putting the women's titles on an NXT team to begin with. No. So... maybe that's why they won? Because nobody expects them to put them on an NXT team, so it's okay? Well, I mean... But if the Meta Girls would have won, they could have won them and gone to the main roster. Right.
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I think Fatal Influence could have done that as well. I do think they're trying to push Tatum Paxley because Last Tuesday, she had a qualifying match for the women's North American ladder match. It was a good match. I mean she inevitably lost to Lola Vice But it was still a good match So they Yeah, I'm not sure that they're tag team finisher too. Dolan. Yeah I don't like that.
fact, I'm not a fan, it's too long of an awkward of a setup for me.
mean, it has potential.
people outside. It has potential as it could possibly be something that looks like a very awkward setup. Match two of the day is match two and just technically start off the pay-per-view. Yeah. Was Ricky Saints and all you That was a good match. Now I'm gonna have to go back because
i can't say a hundred percent that i ever saw these two i'm not sure if they i don't know that they've ever faced each other in a w i'd like to go back and see if they have just to see how different the matches these people
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I'd like to see the difference in the wrestling styles. We've talked before about how AEW and WWE have different styles in their matches and I'd like to see what they look like in AEW versus what they look like in WWE. Right, right. I think it would probably have been a good match even in AEW. Yeah, I mean these are two great competitors, great athletes. Very strong match, very strong opener. Loved it. Same as Retains because you can't have your-
Mid-Card Championship Hot Potato in consecutive weeks. Right. I'm assuming.
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Then we go from...
match with Saints and Page, Saints retaining to the tag titles Hank and Tank against Fraxiom. I have made it known on this podcast I'm not a big Fraxiom fan. I don't like the fact that you just take two random guys put them in a tag team and make them the most dominant tag champs you've had in a while.
like no that's not i get the most not being the most dominant tag champs but you realize the Hank and Tank were just two random guys they put together in a tag team
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Alright and that silence means we'll just go ahead and move on because Ace has dumbfounded now. Great match. my gosh. Hank died. my gosh. The stuff these guys sold, the stuff they did. Hank going for the suicide dive. He is fast. He hit a suicide dive.
the announce table. reaching the announce table and hitting his opponent. So he landed on the announce table. Yeah, nobody else was there. He did a suicide dive to the announce table. It was crazy. mean, Nathan Frazier even sold it with a look of shock. mean, Tank shouting from the apron. goes, Hank! Hank, get up! It was great. It was such a fun match.
much more tag team unity and cohesion out of Hank and Tank on this than we've seen previously. Well because they had a six match losing streak. Right. And they learned little bits and pieces from all these tag teams. Put it together. And they put it all together to run the gauntlet on Tuesday. baby. And then hit this, their Hong Kong special and it's just such a good match. I've not...
I've Hank and Tank are fun to watch. They're an entertaining guys to listen to. Yeah. They're good on-screen characters. Their in-ring work to me and maybe it I'm going to guess it's been by design at this point because what they did in the ring this Saturday was great. Yeah. I've not been impressed with them in the ring up until now. They were just like, they were my epitome of we just threw two guys together because we needed another tag team in the division. But
hats off to and Tank, hands off, pants off? No, we're gonna edit that, look for this speech and edit it. Hats off to Hank and Tank because man, they changed my mind in one match on the capability of what they have and how entertaining they can be. Yeah, they were, it was just been all in all fun.
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entertaining back and I will give credit where credit is due ace has been talking up Hank and tank for Pretty much as long as they've been together So I've loved them. They're just a goofy tag team and then now they're getting like a I'm a fan of the big goofy like tag teams You know like the fun like Alpha Academy just Otis and Tazawa. I love them right you're you're a big bill fan
But yeah, way to go Hank and Tank, way to go Ace for seeing Hank and Tank coming from a mile away. we say new Tag Champs? yeah, and at the end of that great outstanding match are your winners and new Tag Team Champions, Hank and Tank. Then we go into what is always the highlight of Stand and Deliver. The ladder match? They always have a ladder match. They sure do. my.
I there were a couple spots that were a little questionable about like that ladder and on the ladder and the ropes the bridge yeah and then where it didn't look quite as mean as it could have it didn't right but we said last week that if soul ruca hit that soul snatcher off the
ladder we're gonna be super impressed she did and she didn't hit it on to somebody that was on another ladder which is was gonna be my like high point right if it happened but she hit a soul snatcher off the ladder and the killer part of that is she hit the soul snatcher off the ladder people no no it was only on one person no she hit the ladder off the ladder on one person immediately got up ran to the corner and hit another one on two people okay okay okay so within like you know 12 seconds she hit three soul snatchers it was crazy
Technically to know you can't hit two people with one move. Yes, you can she ain't Kevin Owen shame punching two people people It's a great reference So but and then inevitably, you know Zarya saves soul a couple times in the match soul saves aria and eventually, you know as predictable right as predictable as wrestling is they they come to meet each other and
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Zaria did try to stop her though. her. I think it wasn't so much to stop her. I it was more of a... We can work this out. No, I don't think so. I think it was, I love you. I think it was a, all right, we have to do this, let's do it. That's the way I took it. She reached out and touched her head and to me it was a, our job is to get this. And it's just the two of us, we have to do it. Right. Which was great.
And the finish to that match saw once again the outrageous athleticism of Sol Rukka. And I will give you credit when credit is due. You saw her from the beginning, from the get go, from her in the breakout tournament. Yeah, she is absolutely amazing. So Sol wins the North American Championship. Very well deserving. I can't wait to see where Sol goes with this. I don't know how long you're going to keep Sol on the...
NXT roster right especially you know if you're have some new people coming in soon you got the evolved guys girls that are working their way to come up and you know this this turnover is gonna get a little quicker now yeah with the addition of evolved you got evolved you've got I love you that's it I was gonna say what's the show the building a wrestler basically show yeah
So they go from LFG to evolve to NXT. Maybe. Or maybe they go straight to NXT. right. Depends on their talent level. My favorite, I know this was earlier, but it just reminded me, because I'm pretty sure Booker's a coach in LFG. My favorite commentary of that afternoon, not the weekend, the afternoon was Corey Graves, One Rock Sand walked out on Korra. Corey Graves said, is this?
Are you teaching people to do this in your school book? What are you teaching those kids? Yeah. Loved it. It was great. Loved it. And oh yeah, somebody gave me a hard time on Twitter because I wanted Booker T to shut up because oh my god, I can't stand him as an announcer. Yeah. Somebody was not happy with my take on that. Sorry buddy. Get over it. Right. After that, the family versus Dark State. Oh yeah. The DeAngelo family. Oh my god, Dark State just continues to impress. I realize it's only been two matches.
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It took amazing matches. yeah, I'm thoroughly enjoying the work they're putting in. You had, Sorry, were you done with Dark State? very good. You had Stax hinting the turn from the even entrance. Yeah, tension's been there for weeks now. Yeah. And during the entrance, you got that tron of just Tony D. Stax was looking back at it and making like a disgusted kind of face. Right. And then he's like...
Yeah, let's get into the match. They get a crowbar out. Stax gets two crowbars out. Gives one to Tony, he says, no, I'm not doing this. I'm doing this my way. Stax does the right thing, hands the crowbar over to the ref, then low blows Tony. Well, he saves Tony first with the crowbar. You're right. You're right. One of the Dark State guys had Tony and the ref was distracted. Stax had him with the crowbar. Yeah. And then.
low blows Tony he's bailing out afterwards he runs out to the car and Luca Crucifino Luca Crucifino runs after him and says Stacks Stacks we're supposed to be family what are you doing and Stacks says I'll explain it all on Tuesday just keep the phone on you so I'm not really sure where they're going I'm interested in this I think I think Tony's getting a call up yeah I think Tony is too
They've got me interested. I didn't think the family breaking apart would really get me that interested, but they can't believe I'm this interested in a wrestling mob family. Right. I did see something on Twitter today that Stacks tweeted out, just like you always taught me, Tony, don't trust anyone. And Tony, Tony was one who retweeted it. but Tony's answer was I never taught you to be a bitch. I love Tony. I love and I like the fact that the wrestlers.
keep the storyline going right online that's women's championship is our next match yeah I'm gonna say this right now and I might get some hate for this and this might even be a hot take but I'm not gonna use this my hot take this week miss Parker Jada Parker has a very bright wrestling future 100 she was out of her element in this match yeah she is not on the level of these three other women yet
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i think she get that he said that one of the world to but it was very obvious where the walls of the match were and where the difficulties of that war she's she's the newest of the for women were in there so again nothing away from jay jay is going to be a great wrestlers she's going to be a champion someday put her in with three women of this caliber can help elevate
but in this case at least to me watching it she stood out as not on the level of the other two. And I'm gonna be honest there was a point in that match where I thought holy crap Jada's gonna win. That would have been hugely disappointed that would have been a big let down any of the other three winning would have been okay going into the match I might have been okay with anybody winning watching the match I'd have been very disappointed if Jada won. And I get that.
coming out of this you know I've been telling you for weeks that Julia I think is the best female wrestler there is right now I don't think there's anybody better but let me tell you week by week Stephanie Valcour is gaining right out there with her I mean she's she's almost in my eyes almost level yeah I mean and I the first time I ever saw Stephanie was actually at AEW she wrestled Mercedes yeah you had mentioned that should have won that match she out wrestled Mercedes far and away
She's a wrestler. I I always chuckle. I see people like, Mercedes makes her looks like look like a million bucks. Then she signs with WWE. I'm like, she is a million bucks. That's not what happened. She looked that good because she is that good, folks. so is Julia. And so is Jordan Grace, for that matter. mean, these are arguably three of if not the three best women's wrestler, which is hilarious to me that.
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Which is hilarious to me that we had two women championship matches at WrestleMania and a women's tag team championship match at WrestleMania. And your developmental territory has three women who I believe are better in ring than this another could be a hot take. Not one I'm gonna use. Better than any of the competitors.
I'm talking Rhea, I'm talking EO, I'm talking Bianca. I think Julia, Stephanie, and Jordan are at the very least on par with every one of those women if not better. I'll agree they're on par. I will. But better?
I can see some of them. get it. It's a... Vakar and Julia. I think they're better than Io. Jordan Grace? I- She's on par with Belair and Rhea. I think Io was the best out of those three. Bianca and Rhea. And herself. Um, so I'm not gonna put her up there with Io just yet, but I she's on par with Belair and Ripley.
So our last match of the night for last match of the afternoon actually was the Triple Threat Championship match, Obafemi, Bouncy Boy and Trick. Javon Evans, that's his name, All I hear is, boy is bouncy. Yeah, it's a dump, I hate that travel. One of the worst entrance themes in wrestling period.
I'll give credit where credit to do on this one too. Javon Evans. Showed up and showed out. He did. I mean, he hung with them completely. I didn't think he was ready for it. He's super new, pretty green. I didn't think he was ready to be in ring with Oba, especially. I thought trick style lends itself a little better to Javon's style. Right. So I thought maybe it would come across looking good.
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and I'm still gonna stand by the fact that what I said, Saturday when it was going on, I still don't think he should have been in the Championship match, but I'm okay with it that he was because he didn't end up winning. And he didn't take anything away from it. Right. Well, and it furthered the storyline between him and because he took the fall. Right, but my problem with that is I think we might see Trick tonight on Raw. Do you?
think he's a very strong possibility for the call-ups. I don't know. He's been going after Oba how many times now he couldn't get it done. what else do you do? Bring him up. I suppose. mean. Yeah, that's either tonight or Friday night. I get 100 % C-Trick being there. Well, we're already getting someone on Friday. Right. Definitely.
Yeah, that was something we didn't mention. The Alistair Black vignette saying he'll be there on the 25th. Yeah. Are we on to the grandest stage of them all? We are on to WrestleMania night one. I'm going to take it away. all right. Let's see you got. We kicked off the show with Triple H coming out saying, this is WrestleMania. Our first match at WrestleMania.
was Jeyuso vs Gunther. Lots of people on the internet. Lots of people online. Don't like Jeyuso because he has 5 or so moves. I can understand that. I can, but again I'm going to harken back to the fact that Stone Cold Steve Austin only had 4 and he's one most popular wrestlers ever. That's true. Speak, we'll get to him later. yeah. I think that match was...
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much better than I thought it was like much better than I thought it was gonna be way better I've told several people night one in general was way better and this is part of the reason yeah after last year's debacle with Jay right it was I was not expecting this match I mean we got the outcome I think everybody expected Jay J Uso is your new champion yep but yeah much more solid match a lot of
lot of crap online about this match and I didn't think it was that bad. Because I saw some people saying that Jay proved the haters right. He only did five or so- no he didn't. He pulled out a powerbomb, he pulled out a rear naked choke, granted it was from Gunther's repertoire, but he only did-
two or three super kicks throughout that entire match. Right, yeah. I thought it was a good match. I did. He hit the splashes, Ace and I both agree that he should have hit that fourth splash from the fourth corner, you know, make the whole trip around. Yeah, I think that was little yeah, a much better match than I was expecting. And I think sometimes, especially internet wrestling fans are just too quick to critique everything. Right, like...
Yeah, they don't give it a proper chance. Right. Second match of the night, War Raiders versus the New Day. We talked about this earlier. I have no idea why this was on WrestleMania. It was a was a raw match at best. 100 % a raw match. Take this off. the TLC tag. Put the TLC match on. Because the matches that was in between were two decent matches. But I think you could have. I'm not even going say two decent matches. It was one decent match and a banger.
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What? The match that it was between. huh. You think Jay vs. Gunther was a banger? No. Okay, then one of us has it out of order. What was the match that it was in between? Fought 2 and LA Knight. It was in between Jay to Naomi.
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I'm nearly positive. Yeah, I'll go back and double check. I don't think so. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, the war raiders lose the championships to the now 13 time new new day. Right. And, know, whatever. I like the new new day. I like where they're going. They're trying to solidify them as he'll. OK, do it on the raw after WrestleMania. You won a big shock on that. Do a title change.
Yeah. Give me that TLC match because again, put your best talent and your best showcase at the biggest showcase. Right. We're going to go with my order now? Okay, yeah. Our third match of the night, supposedly, is Jacob Fatu versus LA Knight. I thought it was a great match. This might be a hot take here. I think the BFT from the moonsault, that was the spot of the night.
or was it was this night definitely you think yeah think so don't think there's uh... main events i mean i had a lot of now not a spot i count that as a spot you got those but that's what you're counting and no this is the second best but of course and jacob jacob fatu man we've been doing nothing but singing this guy's praises because there's nothing else to do
right i mean you can't talk bad about him you might not like little shaky thing he does but whatever it's part of the unit is what it is right right now the werewolf mask man came out in the werewolf mask solo hype in a month
and you know solo just you know dapping him up yeah and stuff and going to the back it was designed by the same guy who designed the fiend fiend's mask and i believe he also does slipknot's mask yeah so we got a little got a good yeah we got a guy who's well known for doing his stuff love it a little bit nothing really over the top for him but just enough something we forgot to mention on the countdown show to brusselmania
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WWE's biggest announcement in years they have purchased Mexican AAA wrestling. I didn't forget to mention that. Oh you didn't? No. Okay, my bad. That's all right, I was gonna bring that up in a couple matches. I see. Okay. That's right. So after the Jacob hits the double moonsault, he hits the springboard moonsault twice. Yeah.
He goes for it three times. know, BFT from the... was incredible. That was great timing on both of their parts. Right. But, you Jacob hits it to finish the match, hits it twice. And then we get a Haku sighting. Yeah. Haku reportedly jumped the barricade to run up to the ring to congratulate Jacob. I mean, who's going to stop the Here's the thing. If somebody wondered if one of the security guards was dumb enough to jump up and try and stop Haku...
coming from this way, they had Jacob coming from that way. Right. It's like not a good sign for anybody there. That is not a sandwich you need to be in the middle of ever. That is nothing but death waiting for you. Or at the very least a missing note is if you guys all know the Haku stories. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was a great match. Great match. Up until this point, the match of the night. Yeah. Great. And overall.
probably second-best match of the night and probably top three of the weekend. I mean of mania. Of mania. Take it away for this next match.
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So then we're gonna go on to Jade and Naomi. it was a much again much better match than I anticipated so between the opening match with Jane and Gunther and Jade Naomi I really thought this was gonna be a super down night and the war Raiders in the new day that one lived up to the disappointment I was expecting Jade Naomi
actually pretty good. Solid Naomi is carrying this feud. I saw Naomi did have to help Jade a little bit throughout the match. Jade's still green. Even with the extra training she got, I still think she's a little green. And Naomi has been carrying this personality wise, promo wise, and obviously wrestling wise. But Jade, look, this is probably the best match I've seen Jade in in the WWE. Yeah. So hats off to Naomi for carrying.
through a match like that hats off to jade for working hard enough to get into a match like that i enjoyed the match i was not expecting to i didn't i didn't think it was anything crazy i don't have much no no nothing great nothing over the top i was expecting a horrible match i told you last week i thought this was going to be a great build to a horrible match yeah it was a great build to a decent match yeah so
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Here we got El Grande Americano vs Ray Fenix. Okay, and the biggest thing I want to take away from this is this is by far the most entertaining commentary of the entire weekend. One hundred percent. my god, these guys going off about whether or not El Grande Americano is actually Chad Gable.
when they talk about taking the mask off and Michael Cole says it's because he's not actually an it a luchadoria idiot it's Chad Gable. Yeah it's great.
He was he was talking about like the back tat that was right? This is physical evidence about the tattoos this that is actually one of my notes the single it was up higher to cover the back tat But yeah, I thought it was a great match in a way to put this on new up-and-coming talent over in El Grande Americana. Oh my god Look dude kayfabe died in 88. All right, little sad Chad Gable didn't get a WrestleMania Mac
Well, you could have stepped up and faced Randy Orton.
We'll get to who did that later. But as is alluded to earlier, the biggest announcement of the WrestleMania weekend outside of the scheduled matches. That's being reported and this is a very important distinction to me. But it's being reported that WWE has acquired AAA, which is one of the top two Mexican promotions. But the-
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The distinction I want to point out here after a conversation I had at work today, TKO acquired AAA. What's the difference? The difference is that if WWE, when it was still, when Vince owned it, let's say, okay, if they acquired a new company, a new promotion, they gutted it from all its people who were in charge. They just took it over. They absorbed it. I see. Okay.
when tk o you know dana white still runs ufc completely independent of what wwe does triple h and nick kahn still run wwe completely independent of what ufc does so there's still the outside chance that the people who are running triple a will continue to run triple a which while yes it still leads to the beginning of a monopoly it doesn't mean that wwe's vision is taking over the way
especially lucha libre is very different than w w e product yet one so for w w e to go and just take over and start doing everything their way i feel very disrespectful to lucha libre yet so if they can keep some of the people who are writing controlling and and booking promoting for triple a on board with the quick t k o acquisition that's a very important distinction right this will further
the Grande Americano storyline. I think because now you have like 112 luchadores. Exactly. Speaking of Vikingo Vikingo showing up at WrestleMania and getting involved in the match before it even started. Yeah. Yeah. That was a that was a good spot. Yeah. Loving Vikingo always enjoyed everything I saw with Vikingo. He wrestled Kenny Omega outstanding match crazy spots had a very very good
enjoyable time watching him. Um, yeah, mean, Vikingo's great. Um, the next? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't go to the next yet. No? No, because we did not discuss... Well, I know it's Chad Gable. I don't care what you say, everybody and their brother, and you, know it's Chad Gable. However, him adapting his style to do stuff that actual luchadors do is very impressive. Oh my god! I know what you're talking about. The, the, the, the... 450 moon salt. That...
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was absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely crazy. Hats off to you, El Grande, El Chato, whoever you want to be. Hats off to you. That move was outstanding. And that might be the C. You know, we're talking about the BFT. That might be spot on. That might be the spot tonight. We got about that. We're before we move on, I think my favorite commentary moment of the night, Gable or Americana, because then
not the same person, puts the metal plate in his, like the metal oval thing in his mask. Ray Phoenix goes to do that running kick and he connects, but he hits the metal part and Michael Cole said that he must have landed wrong on his foot. But Pat McAfee points out that he probably kicked the metal thing and it shattered like his toes or something. Michael Cole was just pressed about that for the rest of the night.
It was hilarious because Wade Barrett brings it up after the match ends and he goes, yeah, probably, probably, Yeah, it was was it was entertaining. Cole lost himself a little bit in it, but it happens. So we'll move on after that one to Tiffy Charlotte. Rough, rough notes here, match of the weekend. Easily, easily rough match. Obviously, these two ladies do not like each other. It's obvious neither one wanted to be a complete professional in this. Right.
I mean down to their outfits both being pink Usually you stand out from your opponent. It looks to me like neither one of them wanted to back down They don't like each other. So they're not going to the pace was bad pace was bad Everything looks sloppy. No every because they weren't working together, right? You got to work in unison as a pro wrestler You have to protect your opponent. You have to flow with it and they just they don't like each other They both wanted to get in their stuff It was rough. It was a rough match
Ric Flair, know, God bless him, he's the dad and he's trying to talk about it was the match of the night. It was the match of the night. It was the worst match of the night. It was definitely a match of the night. Right. So we are on to our main event of night one of night one. Triple threat between Roman Reigns, CM Punk and Seth Rollins. And Seth Rollins and the architect of this match.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:15:56.334)
You know, I've been repeatedly saying it should not be the main event and I stand by it because World Championship to me should always be a main event. Always. Especially when you book it, it as a main event two programs ago. This match delivered on a level it needed to and maybe even a little higher. Yeah, it was a great match. Great match. Instant Classic. It's something that's going to be talked about. Ring work.
in-ring psychology, storytelling, every aspect of this match was on point. Shout out to Living Color. Yeah. Playing live, first time I've seen him. Vernon Reed, highly underrated guitarist. Check out some of Vernon's and Living Color's work. I love their stuff other than just cult of personality. Go check some of that out. I mean, was a good match. We got a spear into a pedigree spot, which is one of my favorite spear counters because the timing is great. And then...
Then we get to Paul. Well, then we get to exactly what I told you was going to happen. Both you and Nolan told me that it was crazy. It wasn't going to happen. Your words were, it's too predictable. And I told you, everybody's telling you that it's predictable. But when it happens, you're going to sit there with your jaw dropped in shock that it happened. And quite literally, that is exactly what you did for approximately two minutes.
because he betrayed my tribal chief. When Paul Heyman turned on both CM Punk and Roman Reigns and walked out with your winner, Seth Rollins. Because it's the only thing that made sense in multiple ways. Like I said last week, it's gonna elevate Seth. I didn't know where else you would take Seth if this didn't happen. I suppose. The other two I can write stories for pretty easily because now they're on a revenge thing.
eventually have to team up to go against this and that that kind of writes itself with the haven aspect of it but the other aspect of it and the thing that I'm gonna stand by this and I know you you're gonna disagree with this and I've thrown out probably two or three hot takes already and this might even be a hotter take than the hot take I use later but Paul Heyman is not the bad guy in this yes he is no kind of my travel chief no
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:18:21.582)
Your tribal chief was a dick CM Punk was a dick These guys are supposed to be the closest people in the world to Paul Heyman and they acted like two junior high school girls talking fighting over the cutest boy in school You have to pick between him and me you have to pick between him and me. Who do you like better him or me? They put him they put this guy who's supposed to be one of their best friends
in a position that he could not win and so he takes the only option available to not have to choose which person is more important to him and somehow he's the bad guy now no no hundred percent behind Paul on this one that's great 100 % let's move on tonight you can cry about it all you want I will your tribal chief can cry about it and he will see him punctuals little asking why
whine and cry about it. don't care if he does. point is, Paul made the only decision he could to not have to say he cared about one more than the other. I suppose.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:19:37.326)
Um, yeah, night two. Kicked off with the women's triple threat for the championship. Fantastic match. Absolutely. Probably we're going to kick off night two with the match of the night. Yeah. It was it was an amazing match. All three women showed their highest potential. Was a little surprised that Bianca was getting booed out of the building. I've been saying this like for a while. We have been saying this. We need a heel turn. I want to see. I want to see it 100 percent.
Don't think Bianca she I don't know what you do with Bianca besides put her in the title picture But I don't think she should be in the title picture, right exactly. That's that becomes problematic When you build someone up who's at that level, right? Which is you know, we're the main event from night two all three of those guys are there night one night one I'm sorry. Yeah, all three of those guys are there is where do you put them? That's not in the title picture exactly. So
and I know you don't want to keep talking about it but the ending to that match at night one lets stories progress without having to put them in the title picture. do think I saw clips on Twitter it's like what Seth is gonna do to Jay after he turned heel and it was just that clip of John Cena meeting Rey Mysterio backstage and then he just destroys him in like a five minute match. we'll see what happens we'll see where it goes but
We did both get this one correct. Yeah, EO retains. EO retains as it should have been and man did that crowd go wild for EO. Yeah, they loved her. mean, Rio was over the most without question. right. But I mean, huge pop for EO's entrance, huge pop for EO's win. And again, Bianca getting boot out of the building and them not pulling the trigger on the heel turn, I think was a giant missed opportunity. I completely agree. One of my notes says...
Wade pronounced Bianca's name correctly. He went from Bianca to Bianca or Bianca. So it makes me think if he's doing it on purpose or if he's hanging like you said, hanging out with the Americans too much. think he just heard himself anglicize it really quick. was like, no, no, no, no, no. Right. Great match. Like I said, probably a match of night two. Honestly, for me,
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:22:03.168)
It was up there with that main event from night one. match of the weekend. Yeah. And I'm gonna go the second match. I think was night of the... er... match of the night. Right, I know you do, but before we get into the second match, I would like to just say a little Kerry King sighting, a little Slayer League guitarist showing up shredding for... Yeah, yeah.
Priest. Shredden for Priest and Priest just like standing beside him and just looking at him like, my God, this is scary King playing guitar for me as I'm coming. CM Punk had fun when Living Color was playing. He went and he, you know, got in with each of them. got a picture. The lead singer of Living Color. Yeah, we didn't hit that lead singer of Living Color pulling his phone out to take a selfie with CM Punk as he's singing Cult of Personality.
for his entrance, that's a classic moment. Posted that one on Twitter. Absolutely loved it. But Priest looking at Kerry King and just realizing, my God, I have a legend of metal music standing here playing my stuff.
and yeah it was great and it was a surprise i knew living color was going to be there right i'm pretty sure everyone did yeah i'm pretty sure that was released and that was out there there were rumors that slayer might be there but there was never anything confirmed i personally didn't even know until recently like within the last week that for priest music carrie does the guitar so the guitar work on it carrie king has a solo band out now he's just touring as carrie king so he has another band with him
that plays and I believe they did Priest Music. Yeah. outstanding. Love it when we get real artists that the wrestlers are fans of that are also big enough fans of wrestling to do the music for them. Right. Absolutely love that music wrestling connection. Going all the way back to Cyndi Lauper, Hulk Hogan days in the 80s that made wrestling what it is. Just building on it is so cool to me. I think that match was matched of the
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Night, the street fight, Sin City street fight between McIntyre and Priest. I loved, It was just, it was fantastic. It was just two guys beating the living crap out of each It was everything it needed to be. Right. And I think that finish was the spot of the night. See, now, the biggest problem I have, I already told you I think that the women's circle threat match might have been night of, or match of the weekend. Right. Let alone night two. But, to me, the street fight was sandwiched in between...
number one and number two match of the night and I was watching recaps you know on right YouTube and stuff some guy said it's a always a difficult spot to be second on the card right and they did a fantastic job they did you always want to open hot you always want to end hot exactly and usually you you and I have talked about what they call cool down matches yeah
same thing i was talking about the pacing in a w where you can't just go not stop not stop not stop you gotta let people get a breath yeah so usually after super hot match they they have a cool down match if it's possible on the card and that would usually be the spot after that women's match you would think a cool down match but no priest and back entire torn apart they i love that's a great street fight but i can't put it up
with the women's triple threat and I can't put it past the IC fatal four way. Which is what we're going to next. IC fatal four way, man. It was a good match. Man, Bron, Bron Breaker. Super spear. He's going, and Pat McAfee, I know you don't listen to this podcast, but I will tag you on Twitter later that it's not 15 feet. Your wife has been exaggerating measurements too much, pal. That's all I'm saying.
It was about six feet. I'll give them that. yeah, you need a little bit more realistic numbers. But it was a great spear from announce table to announce table. Through the announce table. Yeah. The takeaway from that match wasn't the winner. No. Wasn't the ending. Wasn't the action that was spectacular throughout the entire match. It was that the crowd cheered for Dirty Dom. They got their little chant Dirty Dom.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:26:30.382)
When the first time that happened, Ace looked at me and he said, I'm pretty sure they're saying Dirty Dirty Dom. I was like, nah, nah, nah. And then they did it again and we're both like, oh my god. He did it. They are. And when he won, the pop was so crazy. The pop was so big that after Dom did his poses and walked up the ramp, he got three quarters of the way up the ramp, stopped, turned around,
Ran back into the ring and pose this guy who three weeks ago was one of the biggest heels anywhere on the planet. I mean before Cena turned he was easily the biggest heel in WWE. Right. The most hated guy in WWE. And now this crowd just loved him. him. It's great. and I have been telling, have been singing Dirty Dom's praises and going into this match. you guys know I called
Dom is the IC champ before this match was announced. Ace has been a Dom fan for much longer than I have even. I'm gonna be completely honest, I didn't think this was his time, but he proved me wrong and the crowd also seemed to think that this was his time, was now. It was so perfect. Exactly. worked out great. We loved it. I'm very anxious to see where the judgment day goes tonight. Me too. Me too. That'll be one of the fun things to happen on the...
Try it again. That'll be one of the fun things to happen on the Raw after WrestleMania. next we have Randy's open challenge and remind me again who it was. Well, if you say his name. Joe freaking Hendry. I believe in Joe Hendry. But unfortunately, the only big problem I had here is that the WWE didn't seem to believe in Joe Hendry.
And that's okay. It wasn't supposed to be that was his mania moment was just walking out there. get it. I get it. But you're in this partnership with a different company and you bring in their world champion and he gets what two offensive moves? But that's not what it's supposed to be. It was supposed to be a Randy wins in a quick type of fashion, no matter who it was. Okay. Now here's. You could have brought.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:28:49.228)
brought out rusev and it still would have been a randy wins in a quick type of fashion because your mania moment is them coming out here's my next problem with this okay so i have the problem that you're working with the company and you basically squash their world champion okay okay done not a good look we all know everybody who pays any attention to professional wrestling knows that the second joe hendry's tna contract expires he's going to be in wwe yeah so you made him look
you know you're bringing him in and you made him look weak I don't have a problem with I'm not saying he should have won I'm just saying it should have been a little bit even if he'd have had a small sequence where he went on the offensive where he got three or four moves he did no no he got a body slam he got one hit he no it needed to be something where he looked like he was in control of the match for even if it was a short period of time he needed to control that match a little bit for me
for that to have a payoff. in my hot take, we'll get to why I still don't think that was the best thing that they could have done in that spot anyway. They could have had Henry beat him. They could have had Jesus show up, and I don't think it would have been the best thing that happened, but that'll be my hot take later. Man, Jesus showing up on Easter Sunday. All right, that might have been a little bit better than my hot take, but whatever. We got AJ versus Logan Paul. In my opinion.
much more disappointing than I thought it was going to be. This ended up being what I said there was two possibilities in this match. This was either going to be the show stealer or it was going to be the Shinsuke versus AJ from... It was Shinsuke versus AJ. It was Shin versus AJ, 100%. The one highlight I have from that match is Logan Paul did a springboard moonsault across the ring. Like, I'm not even exaggerating, Pat McVie. AJ's laying on the left side of the ring.
Logan Paul goes to the right side of the ring. I'm like, there's no way he's going to make this and he freaking does. It was, it was incredible. You, you may hate the guy as a person. You can't deny his skills. The man is incredibly gifted athletically. yeah. A lion salt from that distance is crazy. believe WWV uses 20 foot rings. don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure the rings are 20 foot on each side. And this dude just covered a good 15.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:31:17.464)
Probably 15, 16 feet off a springboard, middle rope, springboard, and it's all crazy, crazy. I didn't think that was what we were going say was your one highlight from it. What was my one highlight? yes, the one highlight. The reason so Logan Paul wins this match and the one reason that I'm OK with that is because somebody else today has really been trying to push on me and push on me and push on me and I'm starting to enjoy.
is carrying cross. And he came out to help AJ and then ask AJ to do some dirty tricks. He he said, I quote, Alan use the knuckles, not just for me, but for everybody. He keeps calling him Alan, which is just a little bit of psychology, a little bit of character development that, you know, there might be some people who don't understand. Maybe everybody doesn't know that AJ's real name is Alan. I don't know. Yeah, but
It was very entertaining to me knowing that it's Alan, that he calls him that. I thought it was great. And it ends up AJ throws the brass knuckles and then he ends up getting caught and he ends up losing because of it. But I really feel that this might further the carry and cross character development, the character storyline. if AJ, at this point in his career, AJ win, lose, AJ could lose every match for the rest of his career and he's a Hall of Famer.
It doesn't matter. AJ doesn't need to win. AJ doesn't need a style. AJ is AJ. AJ doesn't need a title. AJ is AJ and he's one of the best wrestlers in the world still at his age. He can be used to put people over. He can be used to advance people that are going to be there longer, like hopefully he's going to do with cross. Right. So, you know, he didn't need this win.
for a legacy aspect, didn't need this win to further his career, but he can build somebody else's. And I think since we're talking about Cross, first off, I think this is the time to plug the X. We have a X account. We do. It is maddening underscore takes. Feel free to join. Join us on X. And if you go to our reposted or retreated, whatever you want to call it, there is a clip.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:33:51.69)
So, above this video clip, it says, how do you compare a pipe bomb to a nuke? So they're talking that this is far and above CM Punk's pipe bomb. But again, would like to point out WWE logo is there, they did release it, so I have to think...
this was okayed by WWE to be released. And he called himself Killer Cross. He did. He said there's gonna be a Killer Cross or that's from Killer Cross. But after you showed me that I was on X and Scarlett tweeted out whatever happens next for us. It's great to have a man who'll stand for what he believes in. So you get fired? Don't know. Don't know if that's part of the storyline because again, I hope they use X.
Again, I don't think WWE would have released it with their logo in the corner if it wasn't a further of the storyline Yeah, no big spoilers other than the man just goes off on the wrestling industry and I Loved to see this side of him. Yeah Go check it out. Look it up on our ex account. Look it up online maddening underscore takes Yeah, and I think I think it's time
I it's time. What's the time for? The time is now. Just get to it, Okay, John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Undisputed Championship. In what I think this could be a hot take, but I'm not gonna use it.
And what I think was the best entrance of the night. Oh, John Cena walks out just all black in white letters says John Cena. No flashy colors, no nothing. He's just John Cena. was before Sunday started, they said, who has the best entrance? Who do you think is going to come out with the best entrance? And I said, John Cena. And I stand by it. The absurdity of
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:35:56.768)
Somebody who is has this big of a presence this big of a persona this this just big of a personality Coming out with no fanfare No flash black screen with white letters just says his name What would have? Been the cherry on top if he pulled a champa and just didn't come out to me. No music just walked out Yeah, they announced him as John Cena. He's that would have been class
Don't get me wrong it fit the storyline it fit the character and was super cool, it's his last WrestleMania It I would have also been okay with something way over the top of the entrance. Me too, but I think that worked just fine. I Thought it was very good. I've seen a lot of people complaining about the pacing of this match I liked it. I thought it was good. I thought Cena it went with the storyline, right? Yeah, that's what they're going for Cena just basically said I don't have to wrestle
People are complaining about the Rock not being there. He didn't have to. I don't know. This was Cena's time. This was Cena's story. And a personal note from me. And this is to anybody out there that's listening. Anybody on the internet who wants to whine and complain and bitch about outcomes of matches. And how cheap it is and how horrible it is that Cena broke this long standing Ric Flair record by cheating to win his 17th title.
Boys and girls, if you ain't been around long enough to actually see Ric Flair wrestle and to see Ric Flair win those 16 championships, if we took away all the championships that Ric Flair won by cheating, John Cena would have passed him a long damn time ago. Cena cheats to win one and everybody's gonna bitch about it? Shut up, man. Flair won at least half of his championships by cheating. He had three other guys at the bare minimum running with him who helped him win the majority of his matches.
They didn't call him the dirtiest player in the game because he didn't bathe. They called him the dirtiest player in the game because he cheated. know, him and Jesse Ventura, probably two of the biggest cheaters in the world, Jesse always said if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying and it's not cheating if you don't get caught. Jesse Ventura over Eddie Guerrero. Eddie Guerrero was was a gimmick thing for a little bit when they did it. And that was his lice-eat-chee-o whatever. But
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:38:19.982)
Jesse his entire thing and Rick as that dirtiest player in the game. He do whatever. Yeah, I thought it was a this We're going to her dirty since you already pointed it out. This is my hot take. Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, it's fine I thought it was a good match. I did Internets over here whining complaining that it Wasn't anything spectacular and you're the same guy saying that Cena can't put on a match and then complaining when he does exactly what
You say he does and not wrestle. Right. And I don't understand wrestling fans. Another big bitch I saw about WrestleMania. was too predictable. Well, yeah. Let me me educate people. wait, wait. Ace just threw his finger up till he's got something. Sorry. It was too predictable. We both called Cena winning and raised our arms in surprise when he hit that three count. yeah. Absolutely. It was predictable, but not expected.
If that makes sense. Right. Like the Paul Heyman turn. Predictable, not expected. Right. I also saw a lot of people saying, I called the Paul Heyman turn. So did I. So did you. That's pretty easy to say after it happens. Go back and check out last week's podcast. I know for a fact I called it before it happened. You called it long before. And I also would like to say, since you're talking about us throwing our arms up with Sina One.
Man, I popped like a little seven year old kid when Joe Henry's music hit. Yeah. I mean, I'm not again. I don't think he was the best option, but I was so excited to see another company's champion coming out and on WrestleMania. Right. I popped like a little kid. I popped harder and I probably popped at wrestling for a long time. So, so yeah, I agree with these. think that the match was a good match.
Travis Scott probably wasn't necessary. It wasn't necessary, but it but you had to have an interference. But it tied in, It tied in. That was fine. I mean they could have done it with a rough bump. They could have done the same stuff. Right. But and that's that's fine. Sina had to keep in some way. And that's fine for me. It has the one little thing, whatever. The rock didn't need to be there because Travis Scott interfering doesn't take the spotlight off Sina. Right. The rock showing up.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:40:44.206)
takes the spotlight off Cena. Exactly. And it was Cena's moment. So since we're shooting at Hot Takes, I'm going to shoot at mine and let everybody know that, hang on, I got another finger away from me. Before you do that, what would you rate WrestleMania out of 10? As a whole? As a whole. As a whole, I'm going to put it about an 8.5. I loved it. I thought it was great. There were a couple of things. The Charlotte Tiffy match.
tore it down a little bit, the Viking Raider match. I'm sorry, War Raiders. I can't keep track of them. That match tore it down a little bit. And so I'll go into my hot take where Joe Hendry was a great guy to show up. But I'm not sure how deep of wrestling knowledge and how deep of wrestling following everybody has out there. But there's a man that wrestled for New Japan. He's been in AEW a couple of times by the name of Jeff Cobb.
Jeff Cobb is a very athletic, very powerful man. And he's coming to that WWE. Is that the guy you told me Bronson Reed wrestled? No, Bronson Reed wrestled, I think it was Okada was the big one. But he's a very comparable man to Bronson Reed. Okay. Okay. And Cobb has a huge following in Japan.
which is the next market ww is going to look to buy into by the way you think the rock was wearing a new japan shirt this weekend was he yeah but anyway jeff cobb has been trying to get out of his contract with new japan it's coming up he's just trying to get out of it before it's up so new japan agreed to release him early and said your last match will be on the 19th which was two days ago now japan is hours ahead of us
So he finished his matchup early in the day for us on the 19th and could have been there on the 20th. Now, do yourself a favor, go watch Jeff Cobb. Jeff Cobb is a monster. He's super strong, super athletic. He's just a really great big man. They could have had him come in and tear Randy Orton apart and had their next Brock Lesnar. When you're looking at a talent that can be
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:43:04.96)
at that level I think it's a huge missed opportunity. Hendry was a great fun pop and I know they wanted Orton to win but personally I think they missed a huge opportunity to buy not. know Orton and Cena were both at their 20th WrestleMania. Yeah. We know Cena is done at end of this year. Orton's one neck injury away from being done. Right. You had an opportunity to bring in a guy and build a guy and just skyrocket him up to being a monster and a beast.
and he could have been for years to come after work gets her after scene is gone you know we're at that point now where we need to start looking at building the next generation too and I think they had a really good chance here with Jeff Cobb and they passed it won't be shocked to see Cobb show up tonight that's what I was gonna say be shocked to see him show up on Friday one of the two knowing when his contract got up knowing that he's gonna be there hopefully future really bright things for Jeff Cobb one more thing before we go okay
I have a challenge for you. And me. We can put on a little competition. Okay. Alright, what you got? I wanna see... And this will be proven victor- Like, the winner will be proven victorious in one year from now. Okay. Who can make the most accurate WrestleMania card for next year?
WrestleMania 42 WrestleMania 42 you want me to predict WrestleMania 42 card? Yes both nights No, we can just have like eight matches. Okay eight matches All right, so we want this by next show next show. Okay. Well to anybody else listening out there Join us on this. All right. We as they point out earlier Ron X now maddening underscore takes
Feel free to join us there. are on Facebook now, MaddeningTakes. MaddeningTakes.gmail.com. You can reach out to us that way. And share the podcast, you You got some friends that like wrestling, you got some friends that might like wrestling, tell them to check us out. Pass us around a little bit. We're hopefully adding a couple new things to the show here shortly. Obviously you guys know I'm involved with Velocity One Pro Wrestling. I'd like to start an indie segment.
Maddening Wrestling Takes (01:45:25.794)
Get some insight into local matches and around our area. Highlight some of the independent wrestlers that you might go see, you might enjoy. All these guys that you're watching on WWE, AEW, they all started, well, most of them, started in the Indies. Johnny Gargano wrestled in Fremont, Ohio multiple, multiple times. AJ Styles has wrestled in Fremont, Ohio. I met Kurt Angle in Bowling Green. Yeah, Angle, right?
So, Or was that not Bowling Green? that might have been Bowling Green with Joe when I met Joe and AJ. Yeah. it either Bowling Green or Toledo. met Jeff Hardy in Columbus. Met, Big Poppa Pump and Ric Flair in Columbus. But yeah, these guys have been everywhere. right, and these guys that are hitting the indie scene right now could be the guys that in five years...
are at Stand and Deliver. They could be the guys who are at WrestleMania. Get out and support these guys, see these guys and I'd like to highlight them. I'd like to do a little indie segment. Like I said, talking about shows coming up, highlight wrestlers that you should go see. So I hope everybody enjoyed our takes. Please feel free, like I said, a friend, check us out. Hit us up on one of our.
social medias we are now available on pretty much every podcast platform you can think of so hopefully we'll get a few more listeners get a little more following get a few more guys in studio matter of fact i think next week we might have a special guest not in studio we might actually have a special guest joining us online from austin texas you can go ahead and get a little jump start on him if you want to go over and look up comic book brando
on X. an entertaining follow for sure. Brandon Zern, good friend of mine for many many years. Big time pro wrestling fan and we'll get a little insight from Brandon next week too. So thanks for listening and we'll see you guys next week.
