<v Speaker 1>The final SmackDown of the two hour era was tonight.

<v Speaker 1>Three Stages of Hell is coming, and no, I am

<v Speaker 1>not talking about Cody and Drew, although we did find

<v Speaker 1>out tonight when we are getting the rematch between Cody

<v Speaker 1>Roads and Drew McIntyre, it will not be on that

<v Speaker 1>first SmackDown of twenty twenty six that's in Buffalo next week. Instead,

<v Speaker 1>it will be the week after that, January ninth. WWE

<v Speaker 1>is going to be in Berlin, Germany, because Drew McIntyre said,

<v Speaker 1>I've already been screwed over enough times here in the States,

<v Speaker 1>and actually he's been screwed over in more than just

<v Speaker 1>the States. He was screwed over in Scotland that was

<v Speaker 1>by cm punk last year. But he is going to

<v Speaker 1>do this in Berlin, Germany. And the type of match

<v Speaker 1>that it is going to be is a match that

<v Speaker 1>we have not seen in WWE in more than five years.

<v Speaker 1>It is going to be a three Stages of Hell match. Now,

<v Speaker 1>this came across my timeline a little but earlier. Credit

<v Speaker 1>to whoever put this together. This right here, these are

<v Speaker 1>the only three Stages of Hell matches that we have

<v Speaker 1>ever had in WWE. First one, of course, is probably

<v Speaker 1>the most memorable one, and looking at this list, I

<v Speaker 1>would say it's my favorite one, that being Triple H

<v Speaker 1>and Stone called Steve Austin from two thousand and one

<v Speaker 1>No Way Out. That was right before WrestleMania X seven,

<v Speaker 1>and then we had Shawn Michaels and Triple H. At

<v Speaker 1>Armageddon in two thousand and two, we had Triple H

<v Speaker 1>and Randy Orton. I believe that was two thousand and nine.

<v Speaker 1>At the Bash they had us three Stages of Hell match,

<v Speaker 1>John Cena and Rye Back. I'd completely forgotten about that one.

<v Speaker 1>That would have had to what year would that have been?

<v Speaker 1>Twenty had to be twenty thirteen. And the last one

<v Speaker 1>that we saw was Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano. That

<v Speaker 1>was n XT Takeover Toronto in twenty nineteen. So it

<v Speaker 1>has been six years since we have gotten one of

<v Speaker 1>these matches. And as you can tell, it's just a

<v Speaker 1>match where you'll have a different stipulation for each fall.

<v Speaker 1>I don't remember if they get to choose what their

<v Speaker 1>stipulations will be in case it goes to a third fall,

<v Speaker 1>I don't remember. I don't know how this is going

<v Speaker 1>to work, but we're essentially going to get three matches

<v Speaker 1>in one and I like it because it's a stipulation

<v Speaker 1>that has not been abused. We haven't seen this match obviously,

<v Speaker 1>in a very long time, so it's not like we

<v Speaker 1>get it on a regular basis. It's something different that

<v Speaker 1>we don't get to see very often. But you know what,

<v Speaker 1>it almost doesn't even matter what kind of stipulation it is.

<v Speaker 1>It could be three Stages of Hell. It could be

<v Speaker 1>hell in a cell, it could be cage, it could

<v Speaker 1>it could be anything. The one thing I know is

<v Speaker 1>that this is a must win for Drew MacIntyre because

<v Speaker 1>Drew McIntyre, by his own admission, you know, in his

<v Speaker 1>mind anyway, he has been screwed over multiple times. He

<v Speaker 1>has had multiple opportunities at the WWE Championship, he has

<v Speaker 1>fallen in short each time. And now they're running this

<v Speaker 1>back again, and to me, if you're gonna run this

<v Speaker 1>back again, you really shouldn't have the same outcome you

<v Speaker 1>have the first two or three times. This feels like

<v Speaker 1>a must win. And I said this a few weeks

<v Speaker 1>ago that if we're gonna get a pair of World

<v Speaker 1>Championship matches at the beginning of the new year. We

<v Speaker 1>already know CM Punk and bron Breaker. They have their

<v Speaker 1>World Heavyweight Title match first. That match is coming up

<v Speaker 1>on RAW on January fifth, And while I would love

<v Speaker 1>to see bron Breaker win the championship, my thought process

<v Speaker 1>on that right now is that it just doesn't really

<v Speaker 1>feel like that title is gonna change hands. I just

<v Speaker 1>have a feeling they're gonna probably save bron Breaker for

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble. And that's okay because bron Breaker, depending

<v Speaker 1>on how they do it, losing that match is not

<v Speaker 1>a killer for bron Breaker. It all depends on how

<v Speaker 1>he loses, right, He shouldn't just go in there and

<v Speaker 1>lose clean to see. I'm punk, But Drew McIntyre, we've

<v Speaker 1>already seen him be a loser before more than once.

<v Speaker 1>And I know they did this already with Cody Roads

<v Speaker 1>and Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens ended up not winning the

<v Speaker 1>WWE Championship. He ran around for a month and a

<v Speaker 1>half pretending to be the champion. He ran around for

<v Speaker 1>a month and a half with the Winged Eagle replica

<v Speaker 1>off WWE shop and he never did win the belt.

<v Speaker 1>And they had that great ladder match to pay it

<v Speaker 1>all off of the Royal Rumble. But I just feel

<v Speaker 1>like story wise, Drew McIntyre should win this match, even

<v Speaker 1>if he doesn't hold the championship for very long, because

<v Speaker 1>that's the thing. Even if he wins the title, I

<v Speaker 1>don't see Drew McIntyre rolling into WrestleMania as the WWE champion.

<v Speaker 1>But I still feel like, man, you want to kickoff

<v Speaker 1>smack Down. I know it's not the first smack the

<v Speaker 1>end of the year, but you want to kick off

<v Speaker 1>this new year, this new era of SmackDown in a

<v Speaker 1>major way. You do a title change in Berlin, Germany,

<v Speaker 1>and you put that championship on Drew McIntyre, and you

<v Speaker 1>have Cody Rhodes lose his mind trying to get that

<v Speaker 1>belt back, and you know what, if there is a

<v Speaker 1>plan in place, possibly for a Cody Rhodes heel turn

<v Speaker 1>at some point in twenty twenty six, maybe around wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Mania time. Him losing the title to Drew and having

<v Speaker 1>to fight to quickly get it back would certainly play

<v Speaker 1>into that. I think as far as maybe driving him

<v Speaker 1>to a point that gets him there, you know, driving

<v Speaker 1>him to a point where maybe we can see him,

<v Speaker 1>you know, going heel in the next few months. But

<v Speaker 1>now we have a date and we have a stipulation,

<v Speaker 1>so we know when that championship match is going to

<v Speaker 1>be taking place. And I agree and Swank. You make

<v Speaker 1>another great point, which is that not every title run

<v Speaker 1>needs to be a long one. Cody won the belt

<v Speaker 1>back from John cenet SummerSlam. He's been champion ever since,

<v Speaker 1>and if he doesn't lose the title to Drew MacIntyre,

<v Speaker 1>he's very likely going to be the champion heading into WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>as he was this year. By the way, he was

<v Speaker 1>the champion for a year right going into WrestleMania. It's

<v Speaker 1>okay every now and then, it's okay to break up

<v Speaker 1>the monotony of a long title run, a six month

<v Speaker 1>twelve month title run, and do a title change, even

<v Speaker 1>if all you do is just put it right back

<v Speaker 1>on the guy who had it before. I will never

<v Speaker 1>advocate for a return to the Hot Potato era, the

<v Speaker 1>Crash TV Hot Potato era, where the championships would change

<v Speaker 1>hands so many times it was hard to keep track.

<v Speaker 1>Right When things like that happen, that's how you end

<v Speaker 1>up with seventeen time world champion John Cena. Okay, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not advocating for that. But for the love of God,

<v Speaker 1>it's okay. It will not be a killer. It will

<v Speaker 1>not fuck up your long term plans. If you switch

<v Speaker 1>the title here and there every now and then, put

<v Speaker 1>the title and drew. It's time. It's long since time

<v Speaker 1>put the title and drew. Now. The other thing that

<v Speaker 1>happened tonight, the biggest thing, the best thing that happened

<v Speaker 1>here on SmackDown tonight, speaking of new champions Actually this

<v Speaker 1>is a perfect segue into this. Ilia Dragonov came back

<v Speaker 1>a few months ago. He was gone for thirteen months,

<v Speaker 1>he tore his acl and he comes back. In his

<v Speaker 1>very first night in he beat Sammy's a he wins

<v Speaker 1>the United States Championship. Because Sammy, of course, is the

<v Speaker 1>one who revived the old John Cena US Title Open

<v Speaker 1>Challenge right and the spirit of John Cena in his

<v Speaker 1>final year, he wanted to bring back the Open Challenge,

<v Speaker 1>and that has been the best thing about SmackDown now

<v Speaker 1>since what September, I guess is when he started it

<v Speaker 1>right the fall into the winter, these last few months,

<v Speaker 1>where would SmackDown be on most weeks without those US

<v Speaker 1>Title Open challenges, without Sammy's aining defending the title without

<v Speaker 1>Eliya Dragonov defending the title. It's been great. One man

<v Speaker 1>who has not had a great year on SmackDown is

<v Speaker 1>Carmelo Hayes. And when he was drafted to this show,

<v Speaker 1>what was he drafted was last year? Right? Oh, the

<v Speaker 1>number one draft pick. Right. He has not lived up

<v Speaker 1>to the billing ever since then. And I'm not even

<v Speaker 1>putting the blame on him, right, it's just basically what

<v Speaker 1>they've had him doing last year into this year. Right,

<v Speaker 1>he doesn't look like the number one draft pick. He

<v Speaker 1>hasn't looked like the number one draft pick really since

<v Speaker 1>he left NXT. But we know he has immense talent.

<v Speaker 1>You saw him an NXT, former NXT champion. You know

<v Speaker 1>what he can do, and it was just a matter

<v Speaker 1>of are they going to give him the ball to

<v Speaker 1>run with? Is he gonna get the opportunity to show

<v Speaker 1>what he can truly do? Is he going to be

<v Speaker 1>able to connect with the audience in a way that

<v Speaker 1>I felt like he did in NXT because I knew

<v Speaker 1>he could do it. It's just you know, putting the

<v Speaker 1>pieces together and putting in with the right people. This

<v Speaker 1>thing with Miz, it dragged on for so long and

<v Speaker 1>then they just dropped it cold, and it's the best

<v Speaker 1>thing that could have happened, by the way. Kind of

<v Speaker 1>shitty because they built it up for so long and

<v Speaker 1>we never got a payoff to that, but they dropped it,

<v Speaker 1>and for good reason, because now Carmelo Hayes, going into

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six, is finally going to have the opportunity

<v Speaker 1>to prove that he is the number one draft pick.

<v Speaker 1>He is going into the new year as the new

<v Speaker 1>United States Champion because he took the title from Ilia.

<v Speaker 1>Drag it off tonight, not in an open challenge. This

<v Speaker 1>was cut and dry. Ilia went right up to him

<v Speaker 1>in the back and said, there ain't no open challenge tonight.

<v Speaker 1>I want you. You're my opponent tonight you get your shot.

<v Speaker 1>And he said, I won't miss. How many times do

<v Speaker 1>we heard Mello say, mellow, don't miss, I won't miss.

<v Speaker 1>I don't miss. And how many times has he missed?

<v Speaker 1>Many times? Tonight he did not miss. These two didn't miss.

<v Speaker 1>They went out there and they had a fantastic television match,

<v Speaker 1>a match that I will definitely be adding to my

<v Speaker 1>list of honorable mentions when I talk about my top

<v Speaker 1>fifteen matches of the entire year. The list is locked

<v Speaker 1>pending World's End this weekend, I'm leaving I'm leaving a

<v Speaker 1>little opening there in case something blows me away at

<v Speaker 1>World's end. I may have to reconfigure my list at

<v Speaker 1>the last minute. But the list is locked, and this

<v Speaker 1>will certainly make the honorable mentions for twenty twenty five

<v Speaker 1>an excellent match. The crowd was invested. The crowd was

<v Speaker 1>super happy when it was over, not only to see

<v Speaker 1>a new champion crown, because of course they're always going

<v Speaker 1>to pop for a new champion being crown, but it

<v Speaker 1>really feels like over the last several weeks we have

<v Speaker 1>seen this connection that the audience has with Melo since

<v Speaker 1>he's been turned babyface. Basically, they have gotten behind him,

<v Speaker 1>which is very encouraging. They have gotten behind him in

<v Speaker 1>a way that they don't always get behind people. Now

<v Speaker 1>he has been rewarded with the United States Championship, and

<v Speaker 1>that is how he is kicking off twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>A reason for optimism for him, a reason for optimism

<v Speaker 1>here on this show. I don't know what this means

<v Speaker 1>for the future. As far as these open challenges, I

<v Speaker 1>think that we need to put them to bed. Probably

<v Speaker 1>for the time being. I don't know what this means

<v Speaker 1>as far as the immediate future for Ilia Dragonov. I

<v Speaker 1>do wonder, you know, what's next for him. Obviously he's

<v Speaker 1>not just going to be vaulted into the WWE title picture.

<v Speaker 1>I hope they have something good for him. He's too

<v Speaker 1>good to just be, you know, meandering around with no

<v Speaker 1>place to go here on this show. But it's very

<v Speaker 1>interesting that Mellow wins the United States Championship at a

<v Speaker 1>time win for the first time tonight on smack Now

<v Speaker 1>we see Trick Williams, right, a former friend and foe

<v Speaker 1>of his, making an appearance on SmackDown. He's a free agent.

<v Speaker 1>He's fielding offers from Raw, he's fielding offers from SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>He was looking for some you know, insight from Nick

<v Speaker 1>Aldos tonight as far as whether or not he's going

<v Speaker 1>to make an offer. And now Mellow is a champion

<v Speaker 1>on this show and then there's a history there, so

<v Speaker 1>I thought that was very interesting. And speaking of new arrivals,

<v Speaker 1>we don't know where Trick Williams is going to land,

<v Speaker 1>but we know where Joe Henry is going to land.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't get the indication or the impression tonight that

<v Speaker 1>we're going to see him on raw and he's going

<v Speaker 1>to bounce back and forth. He seems to be a

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown guy. Now, good because we had heard that, you know,

<v Speaker 1>he was going to be an NXT for a while.

<v Speaker 1>Why we've seen him in NXT for months. Right, He's

<v Speaker 1>a known commodity with Joe Hendry. You know, he's certainly

<v Speaker 1>been established on that brand, and you know what you're

<v Speaker 1>getting with him. Supposedly USA Network wants him on SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>They're high on him, so good for him. What a

<v Speaker 1>year it's been for Joe Hendry from where he started

<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of the year, when I believe he

<v Speaker 1>was the oh he won the title right a Genesis,

<v Speaker 1>but he was the TNA World Heavyweight Champions, Right, he

<v Speaker 1>won the Belt of Genesis in the Royal Rumble, you know,

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania against Randy Orton and finishing the year now as

<v Speaker 1>an official roster member in WWA. Right, this is where

<v Speaker 1>he always wanted to be and now he is, and

<v Speaker 1>he was on smack Then he made a SmackDown debut

<v Speaker 1>tonight and the fans were singing his song and they

<v Speaker 1>were swaying back and forth, and they were solidly behind him.

<v Speaker 1>And so as we close out this year and SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>has not been good for much of the year, right,

<v Speaker 1>it goes through these phases, but for a while now,

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown has not been a good show. It's not been

<v Speaker 1>a great show. And as we head into this new

<v Speaker 1>year here there's reason for optimism when you see new

<v Speaker 1>faces popping up, like Joe Hendry, like Trick Williams. We

<v Speaker 1>got a video package a teaser for Obafemi tonight, no

<v Speaker 1>indication that he's imminently being called up or he's gonna

<v Speaker 1>be on SmackDown, although SmackDown could certainly use him the

<v Speaker 1>most more than Raw can. And that doesn't even include

<v Speaker 1>maybe Soul Ruca, because it's funny like we're seeing Joe

<v Speaker 1>Hendry and Trick Williams and Obafemi maybe, And it's like

<v Speaker 1>the one area above all else that really needs help

<v Speaker 1>right now on Friday nights is the women's division. Right,

<v Speaker 1>Why are we going to see what women are being

<v Speaker 1>called up to smack Down? Where's Soul Ruca, Where's Jordan Grace,

<v Speaker 1>Where's Fatal Influence? Right, that's what we need to see

<v Speaker 1>going into this new year, going into this three Stages

<v Speaker 1>of Hell period, as I now call it, of SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>that's coming up. So I have cautious optimism that they recognize, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>this is something that we have to do. This is

<v Speaker 1>something they should have done a long time ago. But

<v Speaker 1>we need new faces on this show. Got to get

<v Speaker 1>new faces in the mid and I don't even want

<v Speaker 1>to say young faces, right, we definitely need that too.

<v Speaker 1>Joe Henry is not young. Joe Henry is thirty seven

<v Speaker 1>or thirty eight years old, but he is a new face,

<v Speaker 1>and you want to have a mix of both. There's

<v Speaker 1>a reason to be optimistic that they recognize, Okay, we

<v Speaker 1>have an extra hour to fill. We need new people.

<v Speaker 1>So I am curious to see what's smacked down a

<v Speaker 1>month from now, two months from now, you know, coming

<v Speaker 1>out of the Rumble is going to look like it's

<v Speaker 1>the only thing that I can really kind of hang

<v Speaker 1>my hat on here, because three hours is coming, whether

<v Speaker 1>we like it or not. If we're gonna get three

<v Speaker 1>hours of this every single week, I'd like to see

<v Speaker 1>what their plans are going to be for some of

<v Speaker 1>these new faces and how they incorporate them into the show,

<v Speaker 1>because it's just been the same old, same old now

<v Speaker 1>for so long you can add another sixty minute and

<v Speaker 1>I know it's not actually sixty you got commercials and everything,

<v Speaker 1>but you can add another sixty minutes to the show

<v Speaker 1>in its current state. You can't do it. It's just

<v Speaker 1>it's death. You can't do it. There's reason to be optimistic.

<v Speaker 1>As taped holiday shows go, this one was not bad.

<v Speaker 1>I've seen some bad tape holiday shows that were just

<v Speaker 1>in the can Let's just get through this and get

<v Speaker 1>past the holidays and get into the new year. So

<v Speaker 1>this was not a bad show. But I would probably

<v Speaker 1>have a very different opinion if that US title match

<v Speaker 1>was not on the car tonight. It was carried almost entirely.

<v Speaker 1>I say that almost entirely because of that US title

<v Speaker 1>match between Carmelo Hayes and Ilia Dragonov. Well, we'll talk

<v Speaker 1>about the entire thing here. This is your SmackDown review

<v Speaker 1>here on Friday Night, final two hour edition, final edition

<v Speaker 1>period of twenty twenty five. It is December twenty sixth.

<v Speaker 1>It is a day after Christmas. So I hope everybody

<v Speaker 1>had a very merry Christmas, everybody who was celebrating, Yes,

<v Speaker 1>thirty seven, he's just a baby hey look better late

<v Speaker 1>than ever. Right. Some people get their break early, some

<v Speaker 1>people get their break late. Fucking Dede he didn't even

<v Speaker 1>break into the business until he was thirty five. Fatista

<v Speaker 1>was almost forty. Look what he ended up doing right.

<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is sponsored by Factor Man. I eat like

<v Speaker 1>a pig this time of year, I really do. It

<v Speaker 1>starts with Thanksgiving. I had two Thanksgiving parties to go

<v Speaker 1>to and it just seems to continue on through Christmas cookies,

<v Speaker 1>especially holiday cookies. That's my vice. Eating well during the

<v Speaker 1>holidays is a steep climb for me, but it's not

<v Speaker 1>impossible because I use Factors chef prepped, Dietitian approved meals

<v Speaker 1>to help me stay on course this time of year

<v Speaker 1>and not go beyond the main course into anything and

<v Speaker 1>everything that gets put in front of my face. Unlike

<v Speaker 1>meal kits that require prep and cooking, Factor delivers fully prepared,

<v Speaker 1>ready to eat meals in just two minutes. You also

<v Speaker 1>get to choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options,

<v Speaker 1>including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no

<v Speaker 1>extra cost. Enjoy even more GLP one friendly meals and

<v Speaker 1>new Mediterranean options packed with protein fats, that are actually

<v Speaker 1>good for you, which is perfect this time of year

<v Speaker 1>with all the holiday temptations. For the first time, try

<v Speaker 1>Asian inspired meals with bold flavors influenced by China Thaie

<v Speaker 1>land More think Korean beef bowls or Thie style coconut curry,

<v Speaker 1>which is a nice break from the usual holiday options.

<v Speaker 1>Ninety seven percent of customers say Factor help them live

<v Speaker 1>a healthier life. Those are real people saying. There's real

<v Speaker 1>people with real results. Yeah. I've tried Factor a bunch

<v Speaker 1>of times by now I've yet to be let down

<v Speaker 1>by their offerings. The food tastes great, it's good for me,

<v Speaker 1>and it's the most convenient, healthy option for my money

<v Speaker 1>when I don't have a lot of time to be

<v Speaker 1>cooking for myself. Nor am I very good at it.

<v Speaker 1>Looking at their menu for Christmas week coming up, you've

<v Speaker 1>got lots of great choices, like the roasted garlic chicken

<v Speaker 1>or grilled pork chop and butternut mash if you're looking

<v Speaker 1>for calorie smart options, red wine mushroom and chicken fusili

<v Speaker 1>if you want something more carb conscious, or the sun

<v Speaker 1>dried tomato chicken if you're looking for something that's keto friendly.

<v Speaker 1>Let Factor do the cooking for you, you do the

<v Speaker 1>eating with this special holiday offer for solom Monster listeners.

<v Speaker 1>Eat smart at Factor Meals dot com. Slash Solo Monster

<v Speaker 1>fifty off and use code Solo Monster fifty off to

<v Speaker 1>get fifty percent off your first box plus free breakfast

<v Speaker 1>for one year. That's code solom Monster fifty off at

<v Speaker 1>Factor Meals dot Com for fifty percent off your first

<v Speaker 1>box plus free breakfast for one year. This exclusive holiday

<v Speaker 1>offer won't last, lock in your savings before the New

<v Speaker 1>year rush. Offer only valid for new Factor customers with

<v Speaker 1>code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. But yes, I

<v Speaker 1>hope everybody had a very merry Christmas Today always the

<v Speaker 1>day after Christmas. You know, today would have been my

<v Speaker 1>father's sixty eighth birthday, and it's hard to believe that

<v Speaker 1>he died. It was ten years ago. It's been a decade.

<v Speaker 1>It's hard to believe. But anyway, Happy birthday Dad. Like

<v Speaker 1>subscribe super chats are open. We do have a bonus

<v Speaker 1>in case we hit it. Could do a bonus round

<v Speaker 1>of be the booker here on the final SmackDown of

<v Speaker 1>the year. One little programming note, I did want to

<v Speaker 1>mention here. New Year's Eve is coming up, and this

<v Speaker 1>is going to be the sixth year in a row

<v Speaker 1>that we're doing this. Now, New Year's Eve this year

<v Speaker 1>falls on a Wednesday. It's not going to change anything

<v Speaker 1>because we are doing the annual make It Till Midnight

<v Speaker 1>stream countdown to twenty twenty six that is coming up

<v Speaker 1>next Wednesday, New Year's Eve. I will incorporate a Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>review into it, but it's not just going to be

<v Speaker 1>about Dynamite. It's going to be hanging out with you guys,

<v Speaker 1>taking your questions, having fun, maybe doing a little drinking

<v Speaker 1>here on the stream to ring in the new year.

<v Speaker 1>So get yourself ready. If you got no other plans,

<v Speaker 1>come hang out with me. Make it till midnight? Can

<v Speaker 1>we do it? Can we make it till midnight? We'll

<v Speaker 1>find out on Wednesday. So I just wanted to let

<v Speaker 1>everybody know because I know some people were wondering, Oh,

<v Speaker 1>it's a Wednesday, are you going to be doing it? Oh,

<v Speaker 1>we're doing it. Six years in a row. We're doing it.

<v Speaker 1>So let's go to the beginning of the show here.

<v Speaker 1>Let's start from the top. In the back, the WWE

<v Speaker 1>Champion Cody Rhodes. He ran into Nick Aldus, the general

<v Speaker 1>manager here of SmackDown, and asked him if Drew McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>was here yet. All this told him that he's not,

<v Speaker 1>but he's on the way. He's already signed the contract.

<v Speaker 1>So once he makes that public apology to referee Dan

<v Speaker 1>Engler for kicking him in the face, and once he

<v Speaker 1>pays his fine, that's it. All this said no physicality

<v Speaker 1>or else he will have to strip Cody of the

<v Speaker 1>WWE championship. And Cody just told all this, let me

<v Speaker 1>know when he gets here. So after Cody left, all

<v Speaker 1>this walked over and there was the Mis, and the

<v Speaker 1>Mis was not happy. When is the mis happy? The

<v Speaker 1>Miss is always angry about something. So he says that

<v Speaker 1>he wants to make sure that Joe Hendry's music is

<v Speaker 1>not played. He demands that Joe Hendry's music not be played,

<v Speaker 1>and all this of course ends up saying Joe Hendry's name,

<v Speaker 1>and as soon as he does, what happens, we hear

<v Speaker 1>Joe Hendry's music. Joe Henry was out there with a

<v Speaker 1>bunch of people that were dressed up as Santa. They

<v Speaker 1>were dressed up as Elves. Otis was Santa. I believe

<v Speaker 1>at Tozawa was one of the elves, and for some reason,

<v Speaker 1>the Easter Bunny was out there. Now, my favorite Easter

<v Speaker 1>Bunny cameo was many, many years ago. I think it

<v Speaker 1>was two thousand and three. Right, it was the APA Invitational.

<v Speaker 1>It's actually one of the stipulations and be the booker,

<v Speaker 1>but I know that the Easter Bunny was there. It

<v Speaker 1>was like a barroom brawl. They had a little bar

<v Speaker 1>set up in the back of the arena there and

<v Speaker 1>the fucking Easter Bunny. He got his ass kicked. He

<v Speaker 1>got his ass kicked in the APA Invitational. So anyway,

<v Speaker 1>he was here on the post Christmas show. Don't ask

<v Speaker 1>me why. Actually we would find out why here in

<v Speaker 1>a little bit, and then it would make sense. Hendry

<v Speaker 1>said that in the holiday spirit, he decided to give

<v Speaker 1>the gift of a holiday song. Now, if you've seen

<v Speaker 1>Joe Hendry and TNA, you've seen him have these concerts,

<v Speaker 1>right like the Rock has had the Rock concerts before.

<v Speaker 1>Joe Hendry has created many songs for his opponents, and

<v Speaker 1>he has had concerts on TNA Impact, but never here

<v Speaker 1>in WWE. And so we got our first Joe Hendry

<v Speaker 1>concert here on his first night on SmackDown, and it

<v Speaker 1>was his version of jingle Bells, and it was dedicated

<v Speaker 1>to the Miz. So what I would like to do

<v Speaker 1>here is I would like to go through some of

<v Speaker 1>these lyrics that I jotted down as he was singing

<v Speaker 1>his song. Now, I will do my best here. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not gonna really sing it, but I'll do my best.

<v Speaker 1>So this was Joe Hendry's song to the mis. Let

<v Speaker 1>me see if I get the rhythm of a jingle

<v Speaker 1>bell jingle bell j Okay. He talks about his balls

<v Speaker 1>every single day. I guess that's why he says that

<v Speaker 1>he came to play. I think he's better off throwing

<v Speaker 1>them away, cause the truth is he can't get a

<v Speaker 1>win without Carmelo. Hey, I fucked it up already. He

<v Speaker 1>can't get a win without Carmelo Hayes. That was the

<v Speaker 1>message that he was trying to convey here. Oh, jingle bells,

<v Speaker 1>jingle bells, mis has tiny balls. Every time he's in

<v Speaker 1>a team, he takes all the falls. Oh, jingle bells,

<v Speaker 1>jingle bells, mis has tiny balls. He'd rather be in Hollywood,

<v Speaker 1>but they won't return his calls. Not bad not bad.

<v Speaker 1>He wasn't done yet, says he was playing with his

<v Speaker 1>balls on John Cena's last show. Then he got beat

<v Speaker 1>up by Our Truth and Joe this song is getting weird,

<v Speaker 1>but now something is clear why he got out of

<v Speaker 1>the locker room for half of his career. They go

<v Speaker 1>see not bad, not bad, not bad. It is not

<v Speaker 1>a bad song. Joe's really good at this And honestly,

<v Speaker 1>this is the sort of thing. By the way, I'll

<v Speaker 1>be releasing that, so if anybody wants to pay for it,

<v Speaker 1>this thing is gonna go fucking gold, platinum maybe. But

<v Speaker 1>this is the sort of thing that Hendry does, and

<v Speaker 1>he's very good at it. And I always felt like

<v Speaker 1>this he would be the perfect fit for WWE, Like

<v Speaker 1>he fits into this brand of sports entertainment that they

<v Speaker 1>love to do. Like if Vince McMahon was still running

<v Speaker 1>this company, and I mean, fuck him, but let's just

<v Speaker 1>say he was, like he would love Joe Hendry because

<v Speaker 1>he's very entertaining. He's a creative guy, he's likable, and

<v Speaker 1>he's very entertaining. So I think that he's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>a good fit here for the main roster. I think

<v Speaker 1>to fit like a glove he already did on night one.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the one thing I will say is that

<v Speaker 1>they need to I think they need to have some

<v Speaker 1>sort of primmer. It could be a quick video package

<v Speaker 1>that they air on the show next week or on

<v Speaker 1>a week maybe where he's not on the show, just

<v Speaker 1>to bring people up to speed on who this guy

<v Speaker 1>really is. Like, he literally just showed up on SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>And if you don't follow TNA, if you don't watch NXT,

<v Speaker 1>if you just watch for on Smackdan and follow the

<v Speaker 1>main roster, you would probably have seen him in the rumble.

<v Speaker 1>You remember him from Mania, but you don't know too

<v Speaker 1>much about this guy. It's kind of like he came

<v Speaker 1>out of nowhere. So I would have some sort of

<v Speaker 1>primer just to let people know who he is. He's

<v Speaker 1>a former world champion, right, just to you know, give

<v Speaker 1>a little background on who he is. But I think

<v Speaker 1>on night one the crowd responded to him quite well.

<v Speaker 1>I would say they were pretty much with him and

<v Speaker 1>everything that he was doing. But just don't assume that

<v Speaker 1>everybody knows who this guy is. So the mis interrupted,

<v Speaker 1>this is not sing along with Joe, he said. Henry

<v Speaker 1>thought that now that Miz was here they should all

<v Speaker 1>sing together, and he started over again, which I am

<v Speaker 1>not going to do. Mis said that he was chasing

<v Speaker 1>a legacy while Henry was chasing choruses. And now with

<v Speaker 1>John Cena retired, Mis claimed that he earned the right

<v Speaker 1>to be the locker room leader to lead WWE into

<v Speaker 1>the future, because when I think about who can lead

<v Speaker 1>WWE into the future, you know, the first person I

<v Speaker 1>think of, the Miz. That's the first name that I

<v Speaker 1>think of. So Mis challenged Henry to a match. Nick

<v Speaker 1>All this walked out, and he said that the match

<v Speaker 1>would now be a miracle on thirty fourth Street Fight.

<v Speaker 1>They were supposed to have a match anyway, but now

<v Speaker 1>it was going to be their annual miracle on thirty

<v Speaker 1>fourth Street Fight. So you know what is usually, you

<v Speaker 1>know the case here with these matches, you get a

<v Speaker 1>bunch of we didn't have any candy canes, did we? Well,

<v Speaker 1>maybe we did, I don't remember. But Henry lifted Miz

<v Speaker 1>for a long stalling suplex at one point and that

<v Speaker 1>sent Miz rolling out to the floor. And as Henry

<v Speaker 1>headed outside, he opened up one of the gift boxes

<v Speaker 1>that was out there, and he pulled out a guitar.

<v Speaker 1>So then Miz on the opposite side, he pulled out

<v Speaker 1>a gift of his own, and it was a ukulele.

<v Speaker 1>It was like a mini guitar. And then he pulled

<v Speaker 1>out a pair of small ornaments. As I continue to

<v Speaker 1>die here, Ah man, it's been a rough week. It

<v Speaker 1>has been a rough week. Kind of glad it's over though,

<v Speaker 1>so that I can get my voice as prepped as

<v Speaker 1>I can possibly get it for the podcast on Sunday.

<v Speaker 1>But this has not been a very pleasant week, all

<v Speaker 1>the more reason why I appreciate you guys hanging out

<v Speaker 1>with me. But that's okay, we'll get through it. But

<v Speaker 1>Mis pulls out a ukulele, and then from another box

<v Speaker 1>he pulls out a small pair of ornaments Holiday balls,

<v Speaker 1>because he has tiny balls, you see, that's what we're told.

<v Speaker 1>Henry Hip toss Miz into a Christmas tree and then

<v Speaker 1>he pulled out a slim gym table from underneath the ring,

<v Speaker 1>which he set up inside. Miss knuck up on Henri.

<v Speaker 1>He tried for a roll up to no avail. Skull

<v Speaker 1>crushing finale was countered by Henri, who attempted his standing

<v Speaker 1>ovation finish, which is his choke slam. Mis managed to

<v Speaker 1>escape and Mis lost his shit. At this point, he

<v Speaker 1>just started going crazy. He's dropping elbows on a gift

<v Speaker 1>that was thrown into the ring by the easter Bunny.

<v Speaker 1>Sounds completely ridiculous. And then they took a break in

<v Speaker 1>the action. So later on, Joe wanted a tree. No,

<v Speaker 1>not that tree, having PTSGD just thinking about it. Not

<v Speaker 1>that tree, but otis and Tozawa they slipped the tree

<v Speaker 1>to the ring to him and he waxed Miz with

<v Speaker 1>it a few times, and then he hits a fallaway slam.

<v Speaker 1>Joe then throws the tree fall away slam style into

<v Speaker 1>the Miz Mis avoids another standing ovation attempt, but he

<v Speaker 1>gets sent out of the ring and Tozawa was offering

<v Speaker 1>him some Christmas cookies. He had Christmas cookies on a

<v Speaker 1>platter here. Miz did not want these cookies and he

<v Speaker 1>booted this man in the face and the cookies went flying,

<v Speaker 1>you know I mentioned on the Dynamite review. At the

<v Speaker 1>end of the show, Jack Perry was handing out chocolate

<v Speaker 1>chip cookies to fans in the front row that Lucasaurus

<v Speaker 1>had brought out, and the first person he went over

<v Speaker 1>to was a little girl in the crowd, and he said, here,

<v Speaker 1>have a cookie, and she was like now, and I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>how do you say no to a chocolate chip cookie? Like?

<v Speaker 1>Who does that? Kind of awful parenting is that? So

<v Speaker 1>she rejected the cookie and then here we have a

<v Speaker 1>platter of cookies and they they just go flying and

<v Speaker 1>they land on the floor. What a waste? What a

<v Speaker 1>waste of cookies? And now I'm all hungry because I

<v Speaker 1>haven't had any holiday cookies this year. So that that

<v Speaker 1>was the end of Tozawa in the cookies. Here the

<v Speaker 1>Easter bunny took a kendo stick shot. He took a

<v Speaker 1>kendos He makes it like he stole it. He took

<v Speaker 1>a kendo stick shot. Then Otis broke the kendo stick.

<v Speaker 1>Joe showed up for some kendo stick action. He starts

<v Speaker 1>hitting the miz. All four men end up getting into

<v Speaker 1>the ring. It's a street fight, right, so this is legal.

<v Speaker 1>So they all get into the ring and mis takes

<v Speaker 1>another fallaway slam from Joe and then he takes the

<v Speaker 1>caterpillar from Otis. Tozawa follows with the big sentan off

<v Speaker 1>the top rope. He got some height on that, and

<v Speaker 1>then the Easter Bunny revealed himself to be our truth,

<v Speaker 1>because of course it was. Who else would it be.

<v Speaker 1>He reveals himself, he wishes everybody a happy and then

<v Speaker 1>he does the John Cena you can see me and

<v Speaker 1>the five knuckle shuffle. Henry then shattered the guitar across

<v Speaker 1>Miss's arm, the guitar he pulled out earlier in the match.

<v Speaker 1>So yes, the guitar that he had pulled out from

<v Speaker 1>the gift box earlier in the match. He didn't hit

<v Speaker 1>him in the head with it because in WWE no headshots,

<v Speaker 1>so you can't do that. But he hit him in

<v Speaker 1>the arm with it, and then he delivered a standing

<v Speaker 1>ovation through the slim gym table that was set up

<v Speaker 1>in the ring, and he covered the Miz and he

<v Speaker 1>got the win, his first win here on smackdand he

<v Speaker 1>beat the Miz. What a hard fought battle this was.

<v Speaker 1>He did the one thing that everybody does. He beat

<v Speaker 1>the Miz. So what was this? This was? This was

<v Speaker 1>the annual holiday street fight. So if you've seen one

<v Speaker 1>of them, you've seen them all right. They all pretty

<v Speaker 1>much followed the same pattern. They used this one as

<v Speaker 1>a way to introduce Joe Hendry here to the main roster.

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was fine, but again, just take the

<v Speaker 1>time to just do a little bit better of a

<v Speaker 1>job of explaining who Joe Hendry is. Put together a

<v Speaker 1>fun video package, but just you know, show people like,

<v Speaker 1>oh okay, this guy's he's done some stuff in his career.

<v Speaker 1>Nice to have a fresh face here on this upcoming

<v Speaker 1>three hour show. So backstage, Carmelo Hayes, he was talking

<v Speaker 1>with Phraxium before Ilya Dragonov interrupted and he asked to

<v Speaker 1>speak with Hayes alone, and Dragonov said that he enjoyed

<v Speaker 1>teaming up with him against DIY last week, but it

<v Speaker 1>eats him alive. It eats him alive that his title

<v Speaker 1>match against Hayes went the way that it did a

<v Speaker 1>few weeks ago. So Dragonov said that the open challenge

<v Speaker 1>was hereby closed because tonight it's going to be him

<v Speaker 1>against Hayes for the United States Championship, and Hayes shook

<v Speaker 1>his hand and he said he won't miss elsewhere. Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre was shown arriving and immediately asked by Kathy Kelly

<v Speaker 1>about the stipulation. What's the stipulation going to be that

<v Speaker 1>you're going to pick for your match with Cody Rhoades.

<v Speaker 1>Do you know what it is? And he said he does,

<v Speaker 1>but he's tired from the flight in from Scotland. And

<v Speaker 1>he promised that tonight we would get all of our answers.

<v Speaker 1>But for now it's nap time. Always good to take

<v Speaker 1>a nap here when you can here and there an

<v Speaker 1>hour or two, wake up all refreshed. I need to

<v Speaker 1>do more of That's my resolution for twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>Take more naps, like I'm a child. That's what children do.

<v Speaker 1>They take naps. So Alistair Black and Zelena I guess

<v Speaker 1>she's just Zelena now, I mean, they don't really call

<v Speaker 1>her Zelena Vega anymore. We got a video promo. How

<v Speaker 1>many fucking video promos, by the way, have we gotten

<v Speaker 1>for Alistair Black and Zelena and for Damian Priest. I've

<v Speaker 1>lost count. Almost every week we get a new video promo.

<v Speaker 1>Zelena said they ripped Damian Priest down for six months

<v Speaker 1>and made him unpredictable and violent. Black said that priest

<v Speaker 1>answers to him and Zelena. Black said win or lose.

<v Speaker 1>He and Zelena have already changed Priest and he said

<v Speaker 1>it gets ended before standing up and walking away. So

<v Speaker 1>we come back live backstage to Byron Saxton, who talked

<v Speaker 1>about the fact that on the show next week we

<v Speaker 1>are going to get a match between Damian Priest and

<v Speaker 1>Alistair Black. We're getting another one, no stipulation, just one

<v Speaker 1>on one because remember we basically started with last man's standing,

<v Speaker 1>so we're sort of working our way backwards here, So

<v Speaker 1>we're going to get a straight one on one match

<v Speaker 1>between these two next week that I seriously doubt is

<v Speaker 1>going to end the feud between them. It will only

<v Speaker 1>prolong it that much longer. So after this, we had

<v Speaker 1>him introducing the WWE Women's Champion, Jade Cargill, who walked

<v Speaker 1>in and she talked about Michen being afraid running around

<v Speaker 1>with a Kendo stick, and Jade said that she doesn't

<v Speaker 1>need a weapon because she is the weapon. She told

<v Speaker 1>Michen to bring her kendo stick because she's gonna need it.

<v Speaker 1>So then we see bfab she was watching elsewhere. She

<v Speaker 1>was watching on a monitor. Michin showed up and says

<v Speaker 1>that we're not scared of Jade, says that they don't

<v Speaker 1>respect her. She needs to get humbled, and next week

<v Speaker 1>she's gonna be the one to humble Jade Cargill. You

<v Speaker 1>know what I think as I watch this, what are

<v Speaker 1>the chances I'll propose this to you, what are the

<v Speaker 1>chances that next week BFAB ends up turning on Michen

<v Speaker 1>and BFAB ends up becoming a lackey for Jade. Remember Jade,

<v Speaker 1>like in aw she had that crew the Baddies, right,

<v Speaker 1>I think Leyla Gray was a part of it, and

<v Speaker 1>trying to think was Red Velvet in there? I forgot

<v Speaker 1>who all the baddies were O Kiera Hogan Maybe I

<v Speaker 1>don't remember, but maybe we get a kind of a

<v Speaker 1>WWE version of the Baddies and BFAB links up with Jade.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not so sure that wouldn't be, honestly the best

<v Speaker 1>spot for BFAB to be in. Just the thought, because honestly,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know where else this whole b Fab and

<v Speaker 1>Mechin partnership goes. I mean, you know where do they

<v Speaker 1>go from here? You know they're just gonna be destroyed

<v Speaker 1>by Jade and then what nothing, absolutely nothing will come

<v Speaker 1>from this, not for them. We had Lash Legend against

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte Flair. Lash basically dominated the majority of this match,

<v Speaker 1>used her strength to overpower Charlotte. At one point, she

<v Speaker 1>was holding Charlotte in between the ropes, and she's done

<v Speaker 1>this in NXT before, basically just holding her in between

<v Speaker 1>the top rope and the middle rope and bouncing her

<v Speaker 1>up and down between the ropes. Lash got a cravat

<v Speaker 1>applied at one point, not a very good one. Charlotte

<v Speaker 1>fought free. She started throwing elbows. Lash ran into a boot.

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte went up top hit a crossbody. She was able

<v Speaker 1>to after this avoid a power bomb with the sunset

<v Speaker 1>flip for a two count. Lash tried for her Lash

<v Speaker 1>extension move. Charlotte, though countered with a DDT. Charlotte went

<v Speaker 1>up for a moon salt. She connected, only got two.

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte then went for the knee. You know why, she's

<v Speaker 1>softening the knee up for the figure eight. So she's

<v Speaker 1>going after Lash's knee. Naya Jacks's outside and she sees

<v Speaker 1>this and she's like, oh, I better leap into action here,

<v Speaker 1>So she jumps up on the apron to run distraction,

<v Speaker 1>the momentary distraction, and that allows Lash to kick Charlotte. Meanwhile,

<v Speaker 1>Alexa Bliss, who was outside in Charlotte's corner, she runs

<v Speaker 1>over and jumps on Nya's back outside in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte got a sunset flip out of the corner and

<v Speaker 1>she got the flash pin to hand Lash Legend her

<v Speaker 1>first defeat here on the main roster since she has

<v Speaker 1>been called up. This was not always the prettiest match,

<v Speaker 1>not a pretty match. Lash has some work to do

<v Speaker 1>before she gets to where she needs to be. It's look,

<v Speaker 1>she's gonna lose. It's not a bad first loss to take. Right,

<v Speaker 1>You're gonna lose to Charlotte Flair. It's not the end

<v Speaker 1>of the world. Of course. What would have been better

<v Speaker 1>is if she won, she beat Alexibliss, right, she could

<v Speaker 1>have beaten Charlotte as well, But I guess you can't

<v Speaker 1>do that because clearly, and there was a backstage segment

<v Speaker 1>that came after this that basically further you know, illustrated this,

<v Speaker 1>but it's very clear to me. Like we know on

<v Speaker 1>January fifth, the first raw of the new year, we

<v Speaker 1>know Rio Ripley and Eosky are challenging the Kabuki Warriors

<v Speaker 1>for the women's tag team titles. But we saw Lash

<v Speaker 1>Legend and Naya Jacks get a clean win over the

<v Speaker 1>Kabuki Warriors on this show a few weeks ago, non

<v Speaker 1>title right, they beat the champions clean, so they also

<v Speaker 1>want to have Charlotte and Alexis still in this mix,

<v Speaker 1>right for the women's tag team titles. This feels like

<v Speaker 1>it's headed towards a four way for the titles, Like

<v Speaker 1>that match on January fifth is going to have two

<v Speaker 1>teams added to it, right. It hasn't happened officially yet,

<v Speaker 1>but that's kind of what it felt like coming out

<v Speaker 1>of this. That's what it felt like to me. You

<v Speaker 1>got to give Charlotte a win, so everybody, everybody gets

<v Speaker 1>to claim a win here, and then eventually you build

<v Speaker 1>to you know, a four way with all of these teams.

<v Speaker 1>But there was a backstage segment that came after this

<v Speaker 1>where Ria and EO because again they taped Ron Smacked

<v Speaker 1>Down the same night, so everybody was there. So Ria

<v Speaker 1>and EA they walk up to Charlotte and Alexa in

<v Speaker 1>the back and they remind them that they have their

<v Speaker 1>tag team title match coming up in just a few weeks.

<v Speaker 1>They have next basically, right, So EO was saying that

<v Speaker 1>after we win, we would give you guys first crack.

<v Speaker 1>But then here comes Naya and Lash they walk in,

<v Speaker 1>Oscar and Kyrie they walk in everyone's yelling and screaming.

<v Speaker 1>Nick ald Has had to calm things down, and he

<v Speaker 1>made an eight women tag team match for SmackDown next

<v Speaker 1>week in Buffalo. In his words, ahead of your women's

<v Speaker 1>tag team title match, I mean he was talking like

<v Speaker 1>it's already a four way that's I mean, basically, that's

<v Speaker 1>basically what it sounded like here. He was inferring, is

<v Speaker 1>that okay, before all of you get your big tag

<v Speaker 1>team title match, I'm gonna put you all in an

<v Speaker 1>eight woman tag match next week here on the show.

<v Speaker 1>Just add the two other teams and make it official already.

<v Speaker 1>I think that's where this is headed regardless, is the

<v Speaker 1>four way route. But also, you know, next week with

<v Speaker 1>this eight women tag team match, it's basically war Games,

<v Speaker 1>but without aj Lee and Becky Lynch and with one

<v Speaker 1>ring instead of two. Otherwise it's everybody that was in

<v Speaker 1>the War Games match this year just stuffed into one

<v Speaker 1>match again. So in Nick Aldos's office he find Trick

<v Speaker 1>Williams is waiting for him, the former NXT champion, Trick Williams,

<v Speaker 1>and Trick was saying that he was expecting a huge

<v Speaker 1>offer from Raw to sign with them, so he wanted

<v Speaker 1>all this to hurry up on a deal of his own.

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhodes walks in and he had a brief stare

<v Speaker 1>down with Trick and Trick leaves and Cody asks, has

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre apologized yet to Dan Engler? Has he paid his

<v Speaker 1>fine yet? And all this said that Rhodes needed to

<v Speaker 1>control his emotions. So Trick Williams walks right back in.

<v Speaker 1>He's not done yet. He walks in and he runs

<v Speaker 1>down all of the championships that he's held, including the

<v Speaker 1>TNA World title, or as he calls it, the Trick

<v Speaker 1>and a title, a terrible name by the way, and

<v Speaker 1>he told Cody you better hold onto that WWE championship

<v Speaker 1>real tight, and Cody left. After this, we got another

<v Speaker 1>one of these video pretapes with Solo Socoa sitting at

<v Speaker 1>like the head of the table here with all of

<v Speaker 1>his MFTs around him, and he's addressing the Wyat six

<v Speaker 1>and he says that his group doesn't run from fear,

<v Speaker 1>they crave it. So CoA said that the fireflies were

<v Speaker 1>fading away, and he concluded by mockingly singing, He's got

<v Speaker 1>the whole world in his hands. Short inoffensive, much better

<v Speaker 1>than getting an in ring segment with them, I will

<v Speaker 1>not argue it. Then we got to the good stuff.

<v Speaker 1>Enough with the MFT stuff. Now we get to the

<v Speaker 1>good so we get to the meat and potatoes here

<v Speaker 1>of this show. We get to the United States Championship

<v Speaker 1>and Ilia Dragonov defending his title against Carmelo Hayes, and

<v Speaker 1>the match starts with very quickly both men they're nailing strikes.

<v Speaker 1>Draggonov through Hayes overhead with a modified back suplex and

<v Speaker 1>then hit him hard with a chop in the corner.

<v Speaker 1>A big boot from Dragonov sent Hayes crashing to the

<v Speaker 1>floor outside. Hayes was just trying to survive some of

<v Speaker 1>these strikes that were being thrown at him. He blocked

<v Speaker 1>a big boot from Dragonov and caught him with a

<v Speaker 1>hard slap right across the face. Hayes ducked a strike.

<v Speaker 1>He jumped from the second rope for a springboard clothesline.

<v Speaker 1>Dragonov blocked and attempted Hurricanana. He caught Hayes with a

<v Speaker 1>running knee of the face. Dragonov headed up top, but

<v Speaker 1>he missed with the diving sent on as Hayes dodged

<v Speaker 1>it at the very last second, so that allowed Carmelo

<v Speaker 1>to hit his own version of La Mistka for a earfall.

<v Speaker 1>Hayes attacked Dragonov's head repeatedly. He was kicking at it,

<v Speaker 1>then he chopped away at his chest. And I'll say

<v Speaker 1>this about Carmelo though, by the time this match was over,

<v Speaker 1>you could see he was wearing the welt of the

<v Speaker 1>chops from Dragonov. You could see it all over his chest.

<v Speaker 1>So Dragonov teed up Hayes for the h bomb, he

<v Speaker 1>got met by a kick instead. Hayes leapt again from

<v Speaker 1>the second rope and he hit the look from behind

<v Speaker 1>DDT that he does to stun the champion, only got

<v Speaker 1>a near fall out of it. So Hayes headed up

<v Speaker 1>top and it looked like he was going to go

<v Speaker 1>for nothing but net Dragonov caught him though the Constantine

<v Speaker 1>Special connects, as does the follow up sent on. Hayes

<v Speaker 1>though kicks out at too. So after this, Dragonov is

<v Speaker 1>setting up for a superplex and Hayes transitions. Coming out

<v Speaker 1>of this attempted superplex, he transitions into this incredible looking

<v Speaker 1>cutter on the way down. Got a good near fall

<v Speaker 1>out of it too. Both men ended up on the

<v Speaker 1>apron trading strikes. Dragonov hoisted up Hayes, he dumped him

<v Speaker 1>on the apron with a death valley driver. Hayes rolled inside.

<v Speaker 1>Dragonov went up top and he jumped, but he jumped

<v Speaker 1>right into a first forty eight, which is the codebreaker

<v Speaker 1>that Carmelo Hayes does. And Dragonov took this amazing bump

<v Speaker 1>for this move where he bounced like this incredible cell

<v Speaker 1>job here for the first forty eight. And then Hayes

<v Speaker 1>very quickly scampered out to the apron and the fans

<v Speaker 1>are up on their feet. Man, the fans are fucking

<v Speaker 1>into this now. And he quickly just hurries to the

<v Speaker 1>top rope and he dives off and he just hits

<v Speaker 1>nothing but net and he folds up Dragonov for the

<v Speaker 1>three count to win the title. After the match dragging off,

<v Speaker 1>he snatched the title away from the referee. He strapped

<v Speaker 1>it around Mellow's waist himself, raised Hayes's arm, he pointed

<v Speaker 1>at him, and he exited the ring. He put him

<v Speaker 1>over in defeat. You beat me, the better man won.

<v Speaker 1>Let me strap this championship around you. So then Hayes

<v Speaker 1>went to the ropes to celebrate and they shoot off

<v Speaker 1>Pyro and he made a whole big deal about it,

<v Speaker 1>and again the crowd reaction and the pot for the

<v Speaker 1>wind was huge and it was just this great moment.

<v Speaker 1>Now backstage after this, Kathy Kelly interviewed Hayes and congratulated

<v Speaker 1>the new champion, who said that he was delayed but

<v Speaker 1>not denied. He thanked Elia Dragonov for reminding him of

<v Speaker 1>who he is, and he didn't get to say much

<v Speaker 1>else before he was ambushed from behind by Johnny Gargano,

<v Speaker 1>left him laying. Candice Leray had to come over and

<v Speaker 1>pull her husband back, and he was yelling, you know,

<v Speaker 1>about taking everything away from Hayes. So we know who

<v Speaker 1>his first defense obviously, is going to be against. This

<v Speaker 1>was a fantastic match with a title change that has

<v Speaker 1>been a long time coming, and you had a crowd

<v Speaker 1>here that was fully invested. They were invested in both

<v Speaker 1>these men. They've been invested with Dragonov almost from the

<v Speaker 1>first night that he came back. You know, Mellow, it's

<v Speaker 1>been a journey. Like I was talking about earlier, this

<v Speaker 1>was not some sort of overnight excess here, but it's

<v Speaker 1>been nice to see the crowds really coming around to

<v Speaker 1>him as a babyface, as you would hope they would,

<v Speaker 1>and everything was just building to this moment here. Then again,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sad to see it end for dragon of It's

<v Speaker 1>kind of a bittersweet thing. In a way, it's mostly

<v Speaker 1>a happy thing, but it's a little bit bittersweet for

<v Speaker 1>me because I just thought, you know, Dragonov is so

<v Speaker 1>fucking good. He's one of the best in the world.

<v Speaker 1>And some people think he's a little too over the top,

<v Speaker 1>but just the way he sells everything, it just you know,

<v Speaker 1>he may be the only guy in wrestling right now

<v Speaker 1>that I could certainly in this company, who in a

<v Speaker 1>lot of ways is the closest thing to Brett Hart.

<v Speaker 1>Because when I think of Brett, I think of the

<v Speaker 1>way he used to sell, like he could take a

<v Speaker 1>beating in a match and you would really feel like, man,

<v Speaker 1>this guy's getting his ass kicked, you know, the way

<v Speaker 1>he would take a turn buckle on the way he

<v Speaker 1>would sell some of the back breakers and all kinds

<v Speaker 1>of stuff. He had a very distinct way of selling

<v Speaker 1>in his matches. Dragonov is the closest thing to that. He.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he he forget the fact that when the

<v Speaker 1>match is over, you know, you could see the welts

<v Speaker 1>and everything on his body, forget that, Like just the

<v Speaker 1>way he moans and the noises he makes, and the

<v Speaker 1>look on his face and the way he pulls himself

<v Speaker 1>back up to his feet, and it looks like he's

<v Speaker 1>in agony all the time. Very unique. You don't see

<v Speaker 1>anybody else on the roster, you know, doing that. He's

<v Speaker 1>very intense. So it's been great having him back, and

<v Speaker 1>I just hope they have something, you know, halfway decent

<v Speaker 1>for him if he's not going to be in the

<v Speaker 1>US title picture, because he ain't gonna be in the

<v Speaker 1>WWE title picture right now either. Although I'll tell you what.

<v Speaker 1>I'll tell you what if Drew McIntyre was to win

<v Speaker 1>the championship from Cody Rhodes and he had any defenses

<v Speaker 1>against anybody else before dropping the belt back to Cody,

<v Speaker 1>I would love to see a Drew MacIntyre TV defense

<v Speaker 1>against Ilia Dragonov at least give him like one before

<v Speaker 1>he drops the belt back to Cody. That would be

<v Speaker 1>something that would be something special, especially if they got time.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, on a three hour show, there's no reason

<v Speaker 1>you can't give them at least twenty minutes. So who knows,

<v Speaker 1>maybe we'll get something out of that. But you know,

<v Speaker 1>it's nice to see Mellow building real momentum here and

<v Speaker 1>now having a title, you know, going into the new year,

<v Speaker 1>because he just needed the creative to back him up.

<v Speaker 1>He's getting the reactions. The talent has always been there,

<v Speaker 1>he just needed the creative to back him up. And

<v Speaker 1>this is a good first step. Him winning the championship

<v Speaker 1>is not the only step. It's a good first step.

<v Speaker 1>But now, of course the hard part begins. Now you

<v Speaker 1>got the belt, so now you got to come up

<v Speaker 1>with people for him to work with, and you've got

<v Speaker 1>to keep that United States Championship, you know, rocking and rolling.

<v Speaker 1>As far as the US title scene itself, it's been

<v Speaker 1>the highlight of the show each week now for months,

<v Speaker 1>ever since Samy's A won that bell from Solo Socoa.

<v Speaker 1>And I would hate to think that now that the

<v Speaker 1>title is off of of DRAGONOV or they're not going

<v Speaker 1>to maybe do open challenges anymore, that it would be

<v Speaker 1>somehow diminished. Right, I'm not even saying it has to

<v Speaker 1>be defended on the show every week, but they have

<v Speaker 1>had a spotlight on this title in a way that

<v Speaker 1>there was no spotlight on that title for a very

<v Speaker 1>long time. I want that to continue. I don't think

<v Speaker 1>that the open Challenges are sustainable, and maybe they want

<v Speaker 1>to continue it, and then when a heel wins it,

<v Speaker 1>the heel is like, yeah, fuck this, I'm not doing

<v Speaker 1>Open Challenges. So it's possible they will continue the Open

<v Speaker 1>Challenges until Mellow drops the belt to Oh, I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>maybe someone like Trick right or whoever. It could be

<v Speaker 1>any heel really and then at that point it would

<v Speaker 1>make sense for the heel whoever it is, to be like, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>we're not doing Open Challenges anymore. Open season is over,

<v Speaker 1>so who knows, Maybe the Open Challenges will continue for

<v Speaker 1>a little while longer. But this was great. I thoroughly

<v Speaker 1>enjoyed this, and Trick Williams if he was to come

<v Speaker 1>to smack down on Fry, you've got a ready made

<v Speaker 1>feud at some point in the first half of the

<v Speaker 1>new year, ready to go right with him and Carmelo Hayes.

<v Speaker 1>He may well be the one to take that title

<v Speaker 1>away from Mellow and make Mellow chase to get it back.

<v Speaker 1>I think we're gonna be getting more from Mellow and Trick,

<v Speaker 1>is what I think. On Friday Nights Now, we had

<v Speaker 1>Chelsea Green talking about the opposite of good creative. We

<v Speaker 1>had Chelsea Green and Alba Fire taking on Julia and

<v Speaker 1>Keana James. All I'll say here is late in the match,

<v Speaker 1>Julia hit Chelsea with a missile drop kick and then

<v Speaker 1>cleared Alba from the ring, and then she put Chelsea

<v Speaker 1>down with her Northern Lights bomb. She was holding her up,

<v Speaker 1>she said, Ariba there g and she dropped her on

<v Speaker 1>the back of her neck and she pinned her clean.

<v Speaker 1>She pinned the United States champion clean here in this

<v Speaker 1>tag match, and nobody cared. Nobody gave a shit. This

<v Speaker 1>heel versus heel stuff. It doesn't work. It just this

<v Speaker 1>is not working. Okay, Now, the best thing I can

<v Speaker 1>say about this is at least Julia won. At least

<v Speaker 1>she got the win. She looked pissed off in this match,

<v Speaker 1>and they tried to get that over on commentary that

<v Speaker 1>she was angry about everything that's happened recently and she

<v Speaker 1>wants her belt back and this is the side of

<v Speaker 1>Julia that we haven't seen before and so and then

<v Speaker 1>she won the match, so that's good. But again, the

<v Speaker 1>fans are more invested in Chelsea the heel than they

<v Speaker 1>are in Julia who also, by the way, is a

<v Speaker 1>heel and it's not a babyface. But it's just it's

<v Speaker 1>so everything about this is just so it's so backwards

<v Speaker 1>and just so weird. Again, the crowd just simply didn't care.

<v Speaker 1>They don't care about anything that she does. And it

<v Speaker 1>pisses me off, and you know, it makes me sad

<v Speaker 1>for her, because it can't be a good feeling, you know,

<v Speaker 1>to be out there. You're hitting these moves and you're

<v Speaker 1>picking up the wind and it's crickets and nobody gives

<v Speaker 1>a shit. No one's reacting. They're reacting to everybody else

<v Speaker 1>on the show. They're reacting to Cody Rhoads and Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre and Carmelo Hayes and Ilia dragon Of and you

<v Speaker 1>know other people, Charlotte and Alexa and so on and

<v Speaker 1>so forth. But when she's out there, it's like there's

<v Speaker 1>nobody in the building and they've done real damage. They

<v Speaker 1>have done very real This is not the same woman

<v Speaker 1>that we saw in NXT earlier this year. This is

<v Speaker 1>not the same woman that we saw at the theater

<v Speaker 1>at Madison Square Garden Wrestling Stephanie Vaquierre. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>who this person is but she has to find herself,

<v Speaker 1>and I have said that a move to Raw I

<v Speaker 1>think is a necessary one. They could prove me wrong

<v Speaker 1>and find a way to rehab her here on this show,

<v Speaker 1>but I think a move to Raw for her would

<v Speaker 1>be best. I think that's the only way you're going

<v Speaker 1>to be able to reverse this. What's gonna get Julie

<v Speaker 1>over It's look, it's not a big secret, This is

<v Speaker 1>not that difficult. What's going to get Julia over is

<v Speaker 1>her wrestling. What's going to get her over or it's

<v Speaker 1>not gonna be her promos. What's gonna get her over

<v Speaker 1>is allowing Julia to go out there and be Julia.

<v Speaker 1>And even when she was the United States Champion, it's

<v Speaker 1>not like she was getting a lot of ring time.

<v Speaker 1>The one thing that they need to let her go

<v Speaker 1>out there and do they have not been allowing her

<v Speaker 1>to go out there and do. Let her go out

<v Speaker 1>there and wrestle the way that she does. And maybe

<v Speaker 1>she needs a new crop of opponents to work with

<v Speaker 1>because Chelsea Green and Alba Fire before it was Piper

<v Speaker 1>Nivin or Mechen or whoever the fuck they have her

<v Speaker 1>in the ring with week after week after week, that

<v Speaker 1>ain't gonna cut it. You have to get her in

<v Speaker 1>the ring with new people. You have to get her

<v Speaker 1>in there with people that are on her level. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>she needs to be working with people on raw like

<v Speaker 1>EO Sky and Osca and Kyrie Sane and Rhea Ripley

<v Speaker 1>and people like that. That's what I would like to

<v Speaker 1>see in the new year and end this pairing with

<v Speaker 1>Keana James, which has just been death for both of them.

<v Speaker 1>It's not working. It hasn't been working for a while.

<v Speaker 1>It's not going to work. So the quicker they end that,

<v Speaker 1>the better off they'll be, because then she's not attached

<v Speaker 1>to anybody and then you can take her and do

<v Speaker 1>with her whatever you want, put her wherever you feel

<v Speaker 1>she fits. But this pairing, this ain't it. Backstage, we

<v Speaker 1>had Kit Wilson. He was talking with Nick Alldi in

<v Speaker 1>his office while referee Dan Engler stood by, and Wilson

<v Speaker 1>spoke about getting rid of toxic masculinity on SmackDown. That's

<v Speaker 1>his new year's resolution whatever, and he has for an

<v Speaker 1>opportunity and all this said, you know what, Kip, there

<v Speaker 1>will be an opportunity for something new on next week's SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>And at that point Kit Wilson left the room. So

<v Speaker 1>that sounds very bad for Kit Wilson. So what do

<v Speaker 1>we suppose this is in reference to? Is it in

<v Speaker 1>reference to Trick Williams, Is he officially coming aboard next week?

<v Speaker 1>Or is it in reference to Oba Femi Because we

<v Speaker 1>did get a video package for Obafemi and there were

<v Speaker 1>no dates or logos attached to it or any indication

<v Speaker 1>that he's imminently being called up or on a particular brand.

<v Speaker 1>But clearly they're getting people ready for the idea that

<v Speaker 1>this man is going to be on his way up

<v Speaker 1>very soon as he should be, as he should be.

<v Speaker 1>I don't even think it has to be right away.

<v Speaker 1>I think you can wait and formally debut him in

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble, and then coming out of the Rumble

<v Speaker 1>heading into Mania season, you can assign him to, you know,

<v Speaker 1>whichever brand wants to recruit him be the hottest free

<v Speaker 1>agent you know, in all of wrestling. But you know,

<v Speaker 1>maybe it's Oba. I don't know. It sounds like Kit

<v Speaker 1>Wilson's getting squashed by somebody next week. The only question

<v Speaker 1>is who? And is it going to be another new

<v Speaker 1>call up from NXT unless there's somebody that's been out

<v Speaker 1>hurt on SmackDown that I'm not thinking of and not

<v Speaker 1>remembering who's on their way back. I don't know who

<v Speaker 1>that would be. I just assumed that this was sort

<v Speaker 1>of a tease for someone new that's going to be

<v Speaker 1>debuting next week. Cody Road showed up, though, and he

<v Speaker 1>asked Angler if Drew McIntyre had apologized to him, And

<v Speaker 1>then he asked all this if McIntyre had paid his

<v Speaker 1>fine yet, and they said no, and Cody bitched about

<v Speaker 1>what's taking so long? When all of a sudden, we

<v Speaker 1>hear McIntyre's music out in the arena and they could

<v Speaker 1>see on the television screen that he is making his

<v Speaker 1>entrance and he is on his way out to the ring.

<v Speaker 1>So all this told Cody keep your emotions in check,

<v Speaker 1>and said that he would handle this. And so all

<v Speaker 1>this and Angler they left, while Cody stayed back to

<v Speaker 1>watch the TV as Drew made his way to the ring. Ah, yes,

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton, very good. He's been gone for so long.

<v Speaker 1>I completely forgot about Randy Orton. Okay, well, that would

<v Speaker 1>be one way to reintroduce him first SmackDown of the

<v Speaker 1>new year. Randy Orton shows up squashes Kit Wilson. That's fine.

<v Speaker 1>I can dig that. I think you're onto something here.

<v Speaker 1>It's got to be either Randy Orton or somebody new.

<v Speaker 1>It can't be there's nobody else, either an NXT person

<v Speaker 1>or it's Randy Orton. Take your pick. I'm going Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton or Obafemi one or the other. I know Oba'

<v Speaker 1>is still the NXT champion, but you know what, in

<v Speaker 1>the past, that hasn't stopped them from debuting new people

<v Speaker 1>on the main roster. When Kevin Owen's debuted on the

<v Speaker 1>main roster in twenty fifteen, he was the NXT champion

<v Speaker 1>and he beat John Cena. So there is a precedent

<v Speaker 1>for this. Of course, you could always be on the

<v Speaker 1>flip side, the carrying cross, debuting on raw and losing

<v Speaker 1>as the NXT champion, losing in less than ninety seconds

<v Speaker 1>to Jeff Hardy. I tend to think that that will

<v Speaker 1>not be the fate that befalls Obafemi. I don't think

<v Speaker 1>that they're going to do that to Obafemi. So to

<v Speaker 1>close the show, they had Nick all This in the

<v Speaker 1>ring with Drew MacIntyre and referee Dan Engler. All This

<v Speaker 1>gave the flori to Drew, who offered a very half

<v Speaker 1>hearted apology to Engler for Claymore kicking him in the

<v Speaker 1>face a few weeks ago. Said, it's been keeping him

<v Speaker 1>up for weeks. Please accept my humblest apology. So that

<v Speaker 1>was nice, but then he wasn't done yet. Drew also

<v Speaker 1>apologized that it was obviously Dan's dream to be a wrestler,

<v Speaker 1>but he wasn't good enough, so he had to become

<v Speaker 1>a referee. He apologized that Dan's lovely wife Melissa had

<v Speaker 1>to watch him Claymore kick him in the face since

<v Speaker 1>she had to think to herself, I wish I had

<v Speaker 1>a husband like Drew that stood up for his convictions

<v Speaker 1>no matter the consequences. He gets why he did it.

<v Speaker 1>He had to screw Drew to protect Cody. But he

<v Speaker 1>apologizes for Dan's children that they have such a coward,

<v Speaker 1>corporate stewed for a father. You want to be a man,

<v Speaker 1>You want to hit me and get revenge on me,

<v Speaker 1>Now go ahead, Dan. He was taunting the referee to

<v Speaker 1>punch him, and before Dan could start throwing hands. You

<v Speaker 1>don't want to start throwing hands with Dan Engler. He's

<v Speaker 1>got a rat Okay, you don't want to fuck with

<v Speaker 1>this guy. His hands are lethal weapons. So before he

<v Speaker 1>could start throwing hands, Cody saved Drew's life. They hit

<v Speaker 1>his music and he interrupted. He came out to the ring.

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre dared Cody to hit him, said that he can

<v Speaker 1>see Cody wants to hit him so badly. These fans, right,

<v Speaker 1>they want to see some physicality. Cody took his jack off.

<v Speaker 1>Drew told him, do it, or maybe you want to cry.

<v Speaker 1>Shed those tears like a teenage girl trying to get

<v Speaker 1>daddy's credit card. Right. Cody wouldn't take the bait, so

<v Speaker 1>Drew said he knows why Cody is upset. It's because

<v Speaker 1>he attacked him on his tour bus where his family sleeps.

<v Speaker 1>They weren't there, but Drew wishes they were. He wishes

<v Speaker 1>Cody's children could see a real man put the boots

<v Speaker 1>to their dad. He wishes that his wife, Brandy could

<v Speaker 1>see what a real daddy looks like. Ooh. All just

<v Speaker 1>had to hold Cody back at this point, so McIntyre said,

<v Speaker 1>you want to know the stipulation for our match? He said,

<v Speaker 1>We're not doing our match in America. You've screwed me.

<v Speaker 1>Three times. Here we're taking this to Berlin, Germany, Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre Cody Rhodes WWE Championship, three Stages of Hell, and

<v Speaker 1>Cody immediately agreed. Three Stages of Hell, absolutely, he said.

<v Speaker 1>But there's one more thing, he told Cody. When I

<v Speaker 1>torture you in Berlin, when I send you straight to Hell,

<v Speaker 1>say hi to your dad for me. Oh boy. All

<v Speaker 1>this did not even have to wait for Cody to

<v Speaker 1>make a move. He knew right away and he immediately

<v Speaker 1>grabbed Cody to back him over into the corner. Cody

<v Speaker 1>elbowed him away, but when he turned back around, McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>blasted him in the face with a Claymore kick. I

<v Speaker 1>guess the physicality was only one way, and the show

<v Speaker 1>ended with McIntyre standing over Cody holding the WWE Championship

<v Speaker 1>high above his head as Michael Cole plugged the match

<v Speaker 1>for Berlin in two weeks. That is going to be

<v Speaker 1>the January ninth episode of SmackDown. Three Stages of Hell

<v Speaker 1>is what we are getting now again. As I showed

<v Speaker 1>you guys earlier, there have been five three Stages of

<v Speaker 1>Hell matches in the history of this company, including NXT

<v Speaker 1>right the last one was in NXT. It was six

<v Speaker 1>years ago Adam Cole and Johnny Gargana that was Takeover Toronto.

<v Speaker 1>This is not a stipulation that they have abused. It's

<v Speaker 1>been a very long time since we've had one of these.

<v Speaker 1>There have been some good ones, there have been some

<v Speaker 1>not so good ones. It's not my favorite stipulation, but

<v Speaker 1>I like the fact that they went with something that

<v Speaker 1>hasn't been overdone. And regardless of the stipulation, McIntyre needs

<v Speaker 1>to win. I believe he needs to win. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>saying he will win. I know better at this point

<v Speaker 1>because I thought he was gonna win previously and he didn't.

<v Speaker 1>But I do feel that he needs to win this

<v Speaker 1>match just to make things interesting, you know what I mean. Like,

<v Speaker 1>if they're gonna drag this out even longer, they're gonna

<v Speaker 1>drag this out to the Royal Rumble, You've just you've

<v Speaker 1>got to shake things up a little bit. And I

<v Speaker 1>just don't see how you do that by just having

<v Speaker 1>co What do you retain unless somebody gets involved here,

<v Speaker 1>And who the hell would get involved in this match?

<v Speaker 1>Is Randy Orton going to get involved? If Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>is back on the show next week and he kills

<v Speaker 1>Kit Wilson, then we know Orton is back. Then sure,

<v Speaker 1>there's a possibility that Randy gets involved, because Randy has

<v Speaker 1>had issues before with Drew McIntyre. But for him to

<v Speaker 1>just show up now and get involved, it would almost

<v Speaker 1>feel forced, like there has to be something that would

<v Speaker 1>happen on the show next week, or some comment maybe

<v Speaker 1>that Drew would make towards Randy if let's say he

<v Speaker 1>was back, that would instigate him. What was that thing

<v Speaker 1>that Orton They said on the show many years ago

<v Speaker 1>that Orton had the condition that he had ied, like

<v Speaker 1>impulsive explosive syndrome or some I forgot what it was called.

<v Speaker 1>You know, it doesn't take a lot to set this

<v Speaker 1>guy off, So I suppose that's possible. But for the

<v Speaker 1>love of God, like make things interesting. It's okay if

<v Speaker 1>you do a title change. What a way to shake up,

<v Speaker 1>by the way that the SmackDown in twenty twenty six, right,

<v Speaker 1>this new three hour era of the show, and you

<v Speaker 1>do a big title change in Berlin, Germany, And now

<v Speaker 1>you got Drew with a big grin on his face.

<v Speaker 1>He finally did it. He's got the championship, he's been

<v Speaker 1>chasing now for all these years, and Cody has to

<v Speaker 1>get it back, and maybe then you kind of weave,

<v Speaker 1>you know, Randy into all this and we can possibly

<v Speaker 1>finally end up getting Cody and Randy, maybe a WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but that's my hope. It's not just

<v Speaker 1>a match Cody wins and we move on, because that's

<v Speaker 1>fucking boring. It's lazy, it's safe, and it's boring, and

<v Speaker 1>that's not what this show needs. This show does not

<v Speaker 1>need lazy, This show does not need safe, and this

<v Speaker 1>show does not need boring. It needs the exact opposite

<v Speaker 1>of all three of those things. So should be a

<v Speaker 1>good match. These two don't usually have a bad match.

<v Speaker 1>We'll see what the stipulations are that they pick. Is

<v Speaker 1>it going to be a cage? Is one going to

<v Speaker 1>be a ladder? Is one going to be false count? Anywhere?

<v Speaker 1>Is it gonna be I quit, like, we don't know,

<v Speaker 1>it could be anything, but I think McIntyre must win.

<v Speaker 1>That's what I think. What did you think of the

<v Speaker 1>final SmackDown? Here of twenty twenty five, sixty six percent

<v Speaker 1>thumbs up thirty four percent thumbs down for tonight's show

<v Speaker 1>Love's Katz says, I would like Drew to stop whining. Well,

<v Speaker 1>if you want him to stop whining, then you should

<v Speaker 1>be in favor of him winning, because as long as

<v Speaker 1>he doesn't win that championship, that's all he's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>doing is whining. He'll talk about how he was screwed.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe the comparison I made before is wrong when I

<v Speaker 1>compared Ilia dragon Enough to Brett Hart. Maybe the better

<v Speaker 1>comparison is MacIntyre to Brett Hart. For all the times

<v Speaker 1>he comes out on television talks about how many times

<v Speaker 1>he's been screwed, I haven't seen anything like it since Brett.

<v Speaker 1>Can we stop screwing Drew McIntyre? Please? Can we? Can

<v Speaker 1>we give him this one win? Cody ain't losing two

<v Speaker 1>out of three? Well, I mean, look three three stages

<v Speaker 1>of hell, right, Cody wins one, Drew wins the other,

<v Speaker 1>and then Drew wins the deciding fall. To do it clean, though,

<v Speaker 1>I will admit feels very unlikely, it would have to

<v Speaker 1>be some kind of chicanery involved. We'll see again. That's

<v Speaker 1>in two weeks, not next week. It'll be the week

<v Speaker 1>after that. Brett had more championships than Drew that's true.

<v Speaker 1>More world championships. I don't know how many intercontinental titles

<v Speaker 1>Drew had. I know he had at least one. I

<v Speaker 1>think he's had us as well, right, I don't know

<v Speaker 1>how many mid card reigns he's had, maybe more than Brett,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but Brett has him beat on the

<v Speaker 1>world titles for sure. Jacob Faughtu gonna call. Oh there's

<v Speaker 1>another one. We were talking before, but who could show

<v Speaker 1>up to kill Kit Wilson? Nobody mentioned Jacob. Jacob should

<v Speaker 1>be back any day. Now, there you go. Jacob Fatu

<v Speaker 1>returns next week and he kills Kit Wilson. That works also,

<v Speaker 1>that'll be good. It'll be good to get Jacob back too.

<v Speaker 1>I would love a show where we have you know,

<v Speaker 1>Oba Femi and you know, got Carmelo Hayes is the

<v Speaker 1>United States champion. We get Jacob Fatu back, and we

<v Speaker 1>get Randy Orton in that mix with Cody where Cody

<v Speaker 1>and Drew and you know, really and again Julia, just

<v Speaker 1>get her off the show altogether and call a couple

<v Speaker 1>of other women up. And you know, when we look

<v Speaker 1>at SmackDown two or three months from now, four months

<v Speaker 1>from now, I want to be able to look at

<v Speaker 1>this show and feel like, Okay, this show actually feels

<v Speaker 1>like a different show. This does not feel like the

<v Speaker 1>same show that I was watching at the end of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five. That's what I want, That's what I

<v Speaker 1>want out of the show. You know, Jacob was attacked

<v Speaker 1>by somebody. I was just kind of teasing when I

<v Speaker 1>said that maybe maybe Cody is the one who was

<v Speaker 1>behind the Jacob attack. Wouldn't that be some kind of reveal?

<v Speaker 1>Holiday one ninety seven a solo. Thankfully, tonight's show is

<v Speaker 1>pre taped, so I could fast forward through the stuff

<v Speaker 1>I could care less to see. Only the incoming three

<v Speaker 1>hour SmackDown was pre taped. You know. I did notice

<v Speaker 1>that because I was watching SmackDown with my VPN and

<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh, it's like raw Monday, where the

<v Speaker 1>whole show is already up. So I was like, uh,

<v Speaker 1>should I go live earlier? I said, now, we'll keep

<v Speaker 1>our usual time, although I did go live probably about

<v Speaker 1>ten minutes earlier than usual. And he said, if Drew

<v Speaker 1>doesn't win the title, I would like to see Drew

<v Speaker 1>feud with Joe Hendry until WrestleMania. The mic work between

<v Speaker 1>the two will be great, and it will give Joe

<v Speaker 1>the rub that he needs. Man to go from wrestling

<v Speaker 1>for the WWE Championship to wrestling Joe Hendry, who just debuted,

<v Speaker 1>would be kind of a steep drop off for Drew.

<v Speaker 1>No offense to Joe, be great for Joe Hendry. Though

<v Speaker 1>we got GMB's with US four ninety nine. Triple H

<v Speaker 1>refuses to let Priest lose a feud. It's crazy. His

<v Speaker 1>stock is ice cold. If Priest was in catering for

<v Speaker 1>three months, would you really notice? No, No, I would not.

<v Speaker 1>Italian Stallion Salabanster. You legend in your opinion, which match

<v Speaker 1>is better Edge against Foley WrestleMania or Orton against Foley

<v Speaker 1>a Backlash in four? Both incredible matches of the two,

<v Speaker 1>I mean the one that I like would be my

<v Speaker 1>favorite of the two would be the Backlash match, So

<v Speaker 1>my vote would go to Orton and Folly. And it

<v Speaker 1>was also a match that really it really didn't make

<v Speaker 1>Orton him anyways. It elevated him in a way that

<v Speaker 1>you know, Edge and Foley, I mean, Edge kind of

<v Speaker 1>was already there in a way that Orton wasn't No.

<v Speaker 1>Four So it was it was a great match, but

<v Speaker 1>It also was a key match I think in the

<v Speaker 1>evolution I mean, no pun intended the evolution of Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>the sheltered Kid Yo solo. I've been trying to remind you,

<v Speaker 1>before you became a podcaster, my dad, Dominic, bought you

<v Speaker 1>a Nintendo ring any bells. I can't say that. It

<v Speaker 1>does been a very long time since I played Nintendo.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't even have an N sixty four had a Nintendo.

<v Speaker 1>I had a Super Nintendo. That's where my Nintendo days ended.

<v Speaker 1>Pretty much gold Standard Sports Illustrated marked out on aw

<v Speaker 1>good right fully, so a lot of great matches this year.

<v Speaker 1>I know you like New Japan, but regular fans not

<v Speaker 1>regular fans. How do you define regular fans? What does

<v Speaker 1>that mean? I don't know what that means. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>sure the point that you're trying to make. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of fans that don't know about it.

<v Speaker 1>If they're casual wrestling fans. I mean, I don't really

<v Speaker 1>give a shit about casual wrestling fans and what they like.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's their business. What do I give a shit?

<v Speaker 1>New Japan was mostly cold this year, but they still

<v Speaker 1>had some kick ass matches. Dried ribs and Chickens says well,

<v Speaker 1>Triple h is slowly tasting Seawn Michael's cooking. Pushing Carmelo

<v Speaker 1>Hayes is the right call for twenty twenty six. WWE

<v Speaker 1>needs to go back to the basics of how to

<v Speaker 1>build moments. Forcing a moment in WWE is like trying

<v Speaker 1>to pass gas. They're all about moments, dude. You could

<v Speaker 1>tell great stories and the moments will come naturally. And

<v Speaker 1>then sometimes, like the scene of heel Term by their

<v Speaker 1>own admission, we got to create a moment. There's no

<v Speaker 1>story here. We need that moment and you see where

<v Speaker 1>the end result of that moment is. Well, now, with

<v Speaker 1>a forty dollars drop, I already read your super chat.

<v Speaker 1>It was so good I wouldn't wait, so I already

<v Speaker 1>read it earlier. But well, now I appreciate that forty

<v Speaker 1>dollars little mini bomb there. Really thank you, brother Eric Kamenna.

<v Speaker 1>Is I solo a longtime? Watch your first time chatter?

<v Speaker 1>Why is it that whenever people theorize WCW against WWF,

<v Speaker 1>they always want stone Cold against Goldberg. Wouldn't Austin against

<v Speaker 1>Hogan or Sting make more sense? Well, a lot of them. Also,

<v Speaker 1>I think they just draw the similarities between them. They're

<v Speaker 1>both bald with goates, black boots and black trunks, and

<v Speaker 1>Goldberg at his peak he was white hot in the

<v Speaker 1>way that Austin was white hot for WWF, So I

<v Speaker 1>get it. I actually think because of that there's too

<v Speaker 1>many similarities between them, that Austin and Hogan would be

<v Speaker 1>more attractive because they are two different personalities, and because

<v Speaker 1>one was the face of one era of that company

<v Speaker 1>and then Austin was the current face at that time

<v Speaker 1>of the company, and Hogan was just this hated you know,

<v Speaker 1>heel is Hollywood Hogan. It would have been a huge

<v Speaker 1>match to do. But yeah, I mean, Goldberg at his

<v Speaker 1>peak was as white hot as anybody who has ever

<v Speaker 1>been in the history of WCW. That's why I think

<v Speaker 1>Goldberg even threw out a challenge to Austin on the

<v Speaker 1>Tonight show at Jay Leno, And of course, what was

<v Speaker 1>ww going to do? What was Austin gonna do? Right?

<v Speaker 1>It was never gonna happen. It was a stupid thing

<v Speaker 1>to do. Retro Mintman twenty dollars drop. Very sad that

<v Speaker 1>Ilia Dragonov lost Tonight, as I am a massive fan

<v Speaker 1>of his. But at the same time, it's been so

<v Speaker 1>long since I could turn my brain off and have

<v Speaker 1>wrestling make me feel something. Hope, it's nothing but up

<v Speaker 1>for Carmelo and Ilia, I agree. I second that they

<v Speaker 1>should both become staples of this SmackDown brand. Ilia can

<v Speaker 1>work anybody, anybody and elevate them to the best match

<v Speaker 1>of their career. That's the kind of performer that he is.

<v Speaker 1>That's how special he is. He has a credibility in

<v Speaker 1>that ring. He has an authenticity that not a lot

<v Speaker 1>of other people have dev to dust. Remember when New

<v Speaker 1>Yorkers used to sound like Harvey Kaitel and fran Dresher

<v Speaker 1>good times. Well, thankfully this New Yorker does not. We

<v Speaker 1>can all be thankful for that. Toya ain't nice as

<v Speaker 1>mellow is champion, Yay yay. Indeed, Boris with the twenty bucks,

<v Speaker 1>Happy New Year, best wishes for twenty twenty six. Here's

<v Speaker 1>hoping for you reaching new heights in milestones in the

<v Speaker 1>year ahead and beyond. Well, Boris, that's very kind of you.

<v Speaker 1>I wish you all the best in the new year

<v Speaker 1>as well. We are, by the way, less than three

<v Speaker 1>hundred subscribers away from ninety thousand, So I don't know

<v Speaker 1>when in January it's going to happen, but I'm pretty

<v Speaker 1>sure in the next few weeks we will hit ninety k.

<v Speaker 1>So we'll have to do a little dance celebrate when

<v Speaker 1>we do. That's a big one. That's that one's been

<v Speaker 1>a long time coming, and we know what comes after ninety.

<v Speaker 1>It may be a while, but ninety is gonna be

<v Speaker 1>a big milestone and we're going to hit that very soon,

<v Speaker 1>So that is very cool. Abystle Zones buy or sell

<v Speaker 1>on which of WWE's former world champions was the better

<v Speaker 1>in ring worker, the Great Collie or Vince McMahon. Oh Man,

<v Speaker 1>the Great Collie. Collie at least he knew how to

<v Speaker 1>do stuff as a big man, as like a monster.

<v Speaker 1>Vince didn't know what the fuck he was doing. I

<v Speaker 1>mean you could tell just by looking at the way

<v Speaker 1>he would sell or take a stunner. He had two

<v Speaker 1>left feet, like he didn't know what he was doing.

<v Speaker 1>I don't mean in terms of like facial expressions and stuff.

<v Speaker 1>He was very expressive, but in terms of like actual

<v Speaker 1>in ring stuff, he was fucking awful. He really was terrible.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he would actually end up with a pretty

<v Speaker 1>decent match every now and then, like him and Hogan.

<v Speaker 1>The mash they had at Mania in nineteen had no

<v Speaker 1>right being as good as it was. Him and punk

<v Speaker 1>On Raw many years ago, hitting each other with kendo

<v Speaker 1>sticks like the camera was shaking, the building was shaking,

<v Speaker 1>like there were moments like that. Vince, though in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>had no idea what he was doing. We got Viny Boiler.

<v Speaker 1>When Ray's time comes, how about we have Gunther injured

<v Speaker 1>Dominic and steals the chance to put the deadbeat dad

<v Speaker 1>out to pasture. When Dominic returns, Gunther simply tells him,

<v Speaker 1>you're welcome. No, I don't. I don't want to see

<v Speaker 1>Gunther just retire everybody. I think that's boring. I think

<v Speaker 1>if if it ends up that way with AJ styles,

<v Speaker 1>that's fine, I think because I want to see that match,

<v Speaker 1>and they've already started teasing it, so we're gonna get it.

<v Speaker 1>Whether it's AJ's last match, maybe it won't be, but

<v Speaker 1>if it is, I don't want them to announce in advance,

<v Speaker 1>like we knew Seena his last match was going to

<v Speaker 1>be December thirteenth, right. I don't want to see them

<v Speaker 1>do the same thing with AJ Styles. What they should

<v Speaker 1>do is if Gunther is going to be his final opponent,

<v Speaker 1>don't say anything about this being AJ's last match, but

<v Speaker 1>have aj axcept whether he comes up with the idea

<v Speaker 1>himself or Gunther asks him to put his career on

<v Speaker 1>the line. In storyline, he puts his career on the line,

<v Speaker 1>and I think at that point people would kind of know.

<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it shouldn't be one of these things where

<v Speaker 1>it's like, Okay, we have a set date and we

<v Speaker 1>know when AJ Like that's we did that with Scena.

<v Speaker 1>We don't need to do that again with AJ. Just

<v Speaker 1>have him put his career on the line. It's so

<v Speaker 1>confident that I could beat you. If I can't beat you,

<v Speaker 1>I shouldn't be doing this anymore. If I can't be

<v Speaker 1>the real AJ Styles, then I'm going to walk away

<v Speaker 1>and I'm willing to put my career on the line. Right.

<v Speaker 1>There'll be so much more drama in it if they

<v Speaker 1>do it that way. But yeah, Gunther retiring Ray, I

<v Speaker 1>don't want to see that. I would I would rather

<v Speaker 1>have Ray and Dom when the time comes in, like

<v Speaker 1>a mask match or you know, mask versus hair or so,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know to me, that would be more appropriate. Brolly.

<v Speaker 1>I know she came back from a big injury, and man,

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte doesn't bring anything good out of anyone anymore. Most

<v Speaker 1>of her matches are sloppy. Yeah, like the one tonight

<v Speaker 1>was not great, but a lot of that was also

<v Speaker 1>lash But you're right. I mean some people have the

<v Speaker 1>ability to you know, carry or elevate the person they're

<v Speaker 1>in the ring with to a better match than they

<v Speaker 1>would have with anybody else, And I mean Charlotte doesn't

<v Speaker 1>really have that. She can go in there with the

<v Speaker 1>right people and have a great match, but if she's

<v Speaker 1>in there with somebody who doesn't have the experience level

<v Speaker 1>is still very green. Like, she is not the one

<v Speaker 1>that I would have I would want to have in

<v Speaker 1>the ring with that person to guarantee that they're gonna

<v Speaker 1>help kind of raise their game. The ufman says, to

<v Speaker 1>borrow an aw line, congratulations, who hasn't beaten the Miz

<v Speaker 1>Daniel Garcia hasn't beaten the Miz Leopoldo. In his own

<v Speaker 1>little rendition of jingle bills, here solo laid a tune.

<v Speaker 1>It may have been a solo tone, but that's better

<v Speaker 1>than nothing. Then the joker got away and Joseph Stu

<v Speaker 1>was sad. Yeah, that song is gonna flop. Leopoldo, that

<v Speaker 1>song is not gonna sell any records. I'm sorry. My

<v Speaker 1>rendition earlier will sell more than yours. Mine will. Like

<v Speaker 1>if we have a top one hundred chart, like you

<v Speaker 1>won't even be in the top one hundred. I will

<v Speaker 1>at least be like number ninety seven. Maybe. Toya says,

<v Speaker 1>a pissed off Cody is the best Cody, but he

<v Speaker 1>should lose to Drew in two weeks. Also, can't wait

<v Speaker 1>for Bianca to return. I've been waiting for Bianca to

<v Speaker 1>return for months. I'm hoping to rumble Leopoldo, Homer Simpson

<v Speaker 1>or Peter Griffin. Peter Griffin, Paul Carpenter walking four miles

<v Speaker 1>from work, thanks keeping me busy. You should try five

<v Speaker 1>thousand miles like the Proclaimers. But I would walk five oh,

<v Speaker 1>five hundred miles, five hundred miles in a would walk

<v Speaker 1>five hundred and more just to be the man who

<v Speaker 1>walked five thousand. I was right, and it was five

<v Speaker 1>thousand miles. Uh. Leopoldo says, dude, Oba against fa tu,

<v Speaker 1>Now that's a badass match. Yeah, that's also a match

<v Speaker 1>you don't do right out of the gate. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I hope you're not suggesting that that should be their

<v Speaker 1>first program when Oba gets called up, because that would

<v Speaker 1>be very dumb. But yes, at some point Oba in

<v Speaker 1>Fa tu Oba and Breaker. Sure, Super Pony Drew ain't winning.

<v Speaker 1>He's in the Kevin Owen spot. He's just a guy

<v Speaker 1>to keep Cody busy until Manius season could be could be.

<v Speaker 1>But I think that would be very dumb. Dev to

<v Speaker 1>dust favorite Billy Joel song We Didn't Start the Fire.

<v Speaker 1>I could do that song and you could ask people.

<v Speaker 1>I've done it to karaoke before. I could do it

<v Speaker 1>without even looking at the lyrics. It's my go to song.

<v Speaker 1>Leopoldo says, three Stages of Hell will just be three

<v Speaker 1>hours of SmackDown. Now you're stealing my jokes here from

<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the stream. You get to come up

<v Speaker 1>with some original material, my friend, come on, super Pony.

<v Speaker 1>Why did they turn Kurt Angle back heel in two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and one. I just watched the Summer Slam match

<v Speaker 1>against Austin where he kicked out of four stunners. He

<v Speaker 1>was red hot and then he won the title the

<v Speaker 1>month after. Kurt was one of those guys where where

<v Speaker 1>you know, where they had a need. Let's say, for okay,

<v Speaker 1>we need babyfaces or we need heels. They could they

<v Speaker 1>could turn him and make him whatever they want him

<v Speaker 1>to be. So maybe they just felt like they needed

<v Speaker 1>a heel. I don't know, but he did win the

<v Speaker 1>title the next month, got that big babyface celebration in Pittsburgh.

<v Speaker 1>It's a few weeks after nine to eleven. Uh we

<v Speaker 1>got Marshall fell asleep watching SmackDown. What did I miss?

<v Speaker 1>Happy Holiday? Solo? Monster? Oh man, you missed boy? If

<v Speaker 1>I tell you what you missed, man, holy crap, You'll

<v Speaker 1>never believe him. Man. They got the open challenge for

<v Speaker 1>the United States Championship, and as Carmelo Hayes was coming

<v Speaker 1>out to accept the open challenge, he was attacked from

<v Speaker 1>behind by Trick Williams, who made his debut on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>took the match and won the title. So now Mellow

<v Speaker 1>is gonna have to chase Trick to win the US title.

<v Speaker 1>And Drew McIntyre won the WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes.

<v Speaker 1>Cody was a dumb babyface and he agreed to put

<v Speaker 1>his belt on the line on the spot, and now

<v Speaker 1>Drew is the champion. You missed a lot, brother, you

<v Speaker 1>missed a lot, Cameron Spencer. Sanity is the goat group

<v Speaker 1>of NXT, and I wish they were still here today.

<v Speaker 1>Eric Young could be a world Eric Young could be

<v Speaker 1>a world champion. Nicky is there and Sanity would dominate. Cameron, I, uh, hey,

<v Speaker 1>I appreciate your enthusiasm for Sanity. I thought Sanity was

<v Speaker 1>not my cup of tea. I was very clear as

<v Speaker 1>I used to review NXT. I really wasn't a big

<v Speaker 1>fan of theirs in NXT. I was not a fan

<v Speaker 1>of theirs when they got called up to the main roster,

<v Speaker 1>although they at least deserved a chance, and they weren't

<v Speaker 1>even given a chance. And no, Eric Young would not

<v Speaker 1>be a world champion in WWA. That would not happen.

<v Speaker 1>Nikki Cross, though, I don't understand why they don't let

<v Speaker 1>her work. I just when was the last time she

<v Speaker 1>had an actual wrestling match. I couldn't even tell you.

<v Speaker 1>Marshall says, are you an eggnog kind of person? No,

<v Speaker 1>I've never been. I've never even had it. It just

<v Speaker 1>that never really, I don't even think I can have

<v Speaker 1>it now. But that just never really appealed to me.

<v Speaker 1>There he is super scian, Sina. Look at that ten

<v Speaker 1>dollars super chat, and we just the goal, by the way,

<v Speaker 1>or be the booker six out of ten, So we're

<v Speaker 1>not going to get the bonus round that looks like,

<v Speaker 1>but we are going to do be the booker here

<v Speaker 1>in a second. Hey, justin g thank you for the

<v Speaker 1>two bucks dev to Dust celebrating forty five months of membership.

<v Speaker 1>Forty five months. Oh my god, it's m Mills. M

<v Speaker 1>Mills is coming in with the hot tag. Oh my god,

<v Speaker 1>m Mills just got us ten out of ten on

<v Speaker 1>the bonus goal. She's like, no bonus, be the booker

<v Speaker 1>challenge accepted, coming in the clutch. I love it as

<v Speaker 1>only she can. Wow, all right, we got a couple

<v Speaker 1>of rounds and be the booker coming up here. Let

<v Speaker 1>me get these member chats out of the way, though,

<v Speaker 1>he says, rank these Madison Square Garden pay per Views,

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania ten, Survivor Series ninety six, Summer Slam ninety eight,

<v Speaker 1>Rumble two thousand, Survivor SERIESZ two, WrestleMania twenty em Hey,

<v Speaker 1>retro mint Man, thank you for being a sound off

<v Speaker 1>superstar Superstar love it. I don't know. I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>hate doing these on the spot rankings with like fucking

<v Speaker 1>ten of them here. This is ridiculous. But you know,

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania ten is obviously very high up there because of

<v Speaker 1>those two matches, right, I mean two legendary matches on

<v Speaker 1>the same night that that's rare, Like, how do you

<v Speaker 1>not have that at number one? Summer Slam ninety eight, God,

<v Speaker 1>I remember that Highway to help promote Ocean. Man, what

<v Speaker 1>a hot period that was heading into that summer slim

<v Speaker 1>In and you got the fucking uh Highway to Hell

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble two thousand had a great championship match with

<v Speaker 1>Triple H and Cactus Jack, and it had the table match,

<v Speaker 1>first ever table match, Hardy's and Dudley's. It had Taz's debut. Man,

<v Speaker 1>you know what I think I'm putting Rumble two thousand first,

<v Speaker 1>I really do. I might go Rumble two thousand first,

<v Speaker 1>and then wrestle Mania ten, and then go uh Survivor

<v Speaker 1>Series two, then maybe ninety six, WrestleMania twenty. I might

<v Speaker 1>have on the bottom. I wasn't a huge fan of that. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>maybe something like that, but I think at the top

<v Speaker 1>I probably would go Rumble two thousand and then WrestleMania ten.

<v Speaker 1>Those are the only ones that matter one and two, right,

<v Speaker 1>those are the ones that matter the most. Uh. We

<v Speaker 1>have got a member chat from Bobby means twenty two

<v Speaker 1>months of membership. I think we get Carmelo Hayes and

<v Speaker 1>Johnny wrestling at WrestleMania for the US title. That's not

<v Speaker 1>a WrestleMania match. Dude, that's not a WrestleMania match. I'm sorry.

<v Speaker 1>If we get a US title match at WrestleMania, I

<v Speaker 1>could see it being a multiman match, maybe even a

<v Speaker 1>multi man ladder match. I could see that, But no,

<v Speaker 1>Johnny Gargano and Carmelo Hayes is a SmackDown television match

<v Speaker 1>probably in a week or two. That's not a WrestleMania match.

<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, it's Javili is here. I didn't even

<v Speaker 1>realize Haavili was back. Thirty months of membership. We haven't

<v Speaker 1>heard from Haavili in forever. Besides Okada, who is Tanahashi's

<v Speaker 1>greatest rival? Did New Japan make the right choice to

<v Speaker 1>make Tanahash's final match main event instead of title for title. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>the only the only match that could main event that

<v Speaker 1>show is Tanahashi's last match. It would be like WWE

<v Speaker 1>having John Cena and Gunther opened the show. It's Saturday

<v Speaker 1>Night's main event. That would have been extraordinarily dumb. So

<v Speaker 1>that that's that's an easy question to answer. And if

<v Speaker 1>not Okada, I mean Okada is Tanahashi's greatest rival, And

<v Speaker 1>if it's not him, I don't know, that might be

<v Speaker 1>like a distant number two. I don't think anybody even

<v Speaker 1>comes close. Honestly, I doesn't say, maybe Kenny Omega, but

<v Speaker 1>nobody else really stands out to me the way Okatta does.

<v Speaker 1>But hey, have Ali, don't be a stranger sheriff of

<v Speaker 1>Patty's with thirty months of membership? Do you think Orton

<v Speaker 1>gets any hooplah for his retirement even if it's not

<v Speaker 1>like sen Is, Does he get the nice heroes farewell

<v Speaker 1>as an Orton fan? I hope? So yeah, he'll get that.

<v Speaker 1>He's been there like Sino over twenty years. Dude, He's

<v Speaker 1>like an institution in that company, So yeah, of course

<v Speaker 1>he will. Justin g how do we get that? No

<v Speaker 1>good Bill Goldberg involved in the Drew and Cody match.

<v Speaker 1>You know, justin there are times where I will get

<v Speaker 1>a message from someone and I will think to myself,

<v Speaker 1>I am grateful for the fact that this person is

<v Speaker 1>not on the WWE creative team to give them ideas

<v Speaker 1>like this. Leave Bill Goldberg in his garage with his cars,

<v Speaker 1>all right, So with the member chats out of the way,

<v Speaker 1>we have Leopoldo. Drew's like Gunther, he never needs help

<v Speaker 1>to lame. M Mills came in, came in hot with

<v Speaker 1>three straight ten dollars super chats. It's no message, just

<v Speaker 1>to get us to the goal. And then we have

<v Speaker 1>Jeremy Rose. Since Drew keeps thinking he is getting screwed,

<v Speaker 1>he has to have a plan to ensure he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>get screwed again. Right, You would think that that likely

<v Speaker 1>would be some type of plan to screw Cody and

<v Speaker 1>get him the belt, or you know, again, it may

<v Speaker 1>have to do with a specific stipulation in mind. For

<v Speaker 1>one of the falls. It may be the fact that

<v Speaker 1>you know, we're not having the match in the US.

<v Speaker 1>He said, I've been screwed over here too many times.

<v Speaker 1>We're going to do it in Berlin. So just the

<v Speaker 1>fact that it's overseas. Right, that works in his favor.

<v Speaker 1>But yes, you would think that he would have some

<v Speaker 1>kind of plan in mind. I think might be just

<v Speaker 1>tied into whatever that last stipulation is gonna be. And Marshall,

<v Speaker 1>have you ever seen grandma got ran over by a reindeer?

<v Speaker 1>Have I seen it? I've heard it, I've heard the song.

<v Speaker 1>Is it like a movie? I haven't seen it, But

<v Speaker 1>I never saw my grandmother get run over by a reindeer.

<v Speaker 1>It's a good thing too, because I probably would have laughed.

<v Speaker 1>Sorry Grandma. All right, we got two rounds unlocked. It

<v Speaker 1>is time, ladies and gentlemen, here for the final time,

<v Speaker 1>here on a SmackDown stream in twenty twenty five, it

<v Speaker 1>is time to be the booker. Ladies and gentlemen, It

<v Speaker 1>is now time to be the booker. Wasn't Drew screwed

<v Speaker 1>over twice before clashing the castle? Yes, he was screwed

<v Speaker 1>overseas as well. He was screwed in Uh well, let's see.

<v Speaker 1>He was screwed in was it Cardiff? Was that show

<v Speaker 1>in Cardiff? And then he was screwed in Scotland as well.

<v Speaker 1>He got screwed over against Roman reigns when solos CoA

<v Speaker 1>debut on the main roster, and he got screwed over

<v Speaker 1>against Damian Priest when Cmpunk put a referee shirt on

<v Speaker 1>and got involved in his match. So he doesn't exactly

<v Speaker 1>have a great record overseas as well. It's a good point.

<v Speaker 1>What's going on, Oscar? I spent my Christmas sick. I

<v Speaker 1>hope your Christmas was better than mine. I hope you're

<v Speaker 1>doing well. All right, we go tag team, be the Booker.

<v Speaker 1>We are going to begin with the Heart Foundation, Brett

<v Speaker 1>the Hitman Heart and Jim the Anvil Nightheart. There is

<v Speaker 1>no better way. There is no better way to start

<v Speaker 1>out a be the book around with the Pink and

<v Speaker 1>Black Attack, and it will be the Heart Foundation against

<v Speaker 1>the Midnight Express managed by one Jim Cornett, Bobby Eaton

<v Speaker 1>and Dennis Condrey. This is old school wrestling right here,

<v Speaker 1>the Heart Foundation in the Midnights. There's a match. I

<v Speaker 1>wish we could have seen. Marshall says, where did twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty five go? I'm ready for it to be over.

<v Speaker 1>Bring on twenty twenty six. All right, we begin here

<v Speaker 1>with the Boss. Look at this is Boss time, It

<v Speaker 1>says it in her tron. Sasha Banks, Mercedes herself all

<v Speaker 1>of her belts. Sha Banks is gonna go one on

<v Speaker 1>one with Tiffany Stratton. What the hell ever happened to

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany Stratton? Boy, does she drop off the face of

<v Speaker 1>the earth, lost her championship and lost her smile apparently.

<v Speaker 1>And our main event, our Night one main event because

<v Speaker 1>you guys made it pop. You guys expanded the show

<v Speaker 1>to two nights, so this is our Night one main event.

<v Speaker 1>Then we can compare the main events and see which

<v Speaker 1>one is better. We're off to a good start here

<v Speaker 1>because we have the ring general, the former world heavyweight champion, Gunther,

<v Speaker 1>the man who made John Seen a tap like a

<v Speaker 1>bitch his words, is in the main event where he belongs.

<v Speaker 1>Gunther against Kevin Owens. That is your Night one main event,

<v Speaker 1>and I'll take it. That could be a Night one

<v Speaker 1>main event on my show. Hell yeah, now, you guys,

<v Speaker 1>Michelle and Mills, Mary, Michelle, Marlene, We'll let everybody wonder,

<v Speaker 1>But yes, we have our bonus round here with stipulations Maxine, Maude, Muriel,

<v Speaker 1>Miriam Maya Ah, okay, stipulation. Anarchy in the arena, Oh

<v Speaker 1>my god, oh boy, Anarchy in the arena we're gonna

<v Speaker 1>book up. We're gonna open We're gonna open this with

<v Speaker 1>a five on five anarchy in the arena match. Are

<v Speaker 1>we really doing this? Are we really doing this? We're

<v Speaker 1>gonna do anarchy in the arena with the women. How

<v Speaker 1>about that? That's what we're gonna do first ever, be

<v Speaker 1>the Booker anarchy in the arena women's match five on five.

<v Speaker 1>Keep track of this in case I forget Bailey. This

<v Speaker 1>is team number one. By the way, okay, this this

<v Speaker 1>is Team Bailey. First person automatically becomes a team captain.

<v Speaker 1>So we have Bailey, we have Stephanie McMahon Helmsley, we

<v Speaker 1>have Timeless Tony Storm, we have Alexa Bliss, and then

<v Speaker 1>rounding out Team Bailey, we have Tiffany Stratton. She's back.

<v Speaker 1>So we have Bailey, we have Alexa Bliss, we have

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany Stratton, we have Stephanie McMahon, and we have Timeless

<v Speaker 1>Tony Storm. That's a hard team to beat. That is

<v Speaker 1>a hard team to beat. Let's see who they're facing.

<v Speaker 1>Who's the team captain? Who's on Team Bailey. Indie Heartwell

<v Speaker 1>will be leading the other team into combat here, So

<v Speaker 1>we have Indie Heartwell, the former NXT and h O

<v Speaker 1>G Women's Champion. Her partner will be the Genius of

<v Speaker 1>the Sky, one of the best in the world. EO Sky, Stephanie,

<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, Stephanie Mcmahonhelmsley again, of all the people

<v Speaker 1>that we could have landed on twice, it had to

<v Speaker 1>be Stephanie. How the hell did that happen? Indie Heartwell,

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie McMahon, and Eosky Boy. EO is gonna be doing

<v Speaker 1>some heavy lifting in this mine. Jazz Oh Boy, she

<v Speaker 1>double turned and Michelle McCool I'm going with Team Bailey,

<v Speaker 1>Team Bailey. This is this is not even going to

<v Speaker 1>be close. Team Bailey gets the win and anarchy in

<v Speaker 1>the arena. Our next match will be a Texas death Match.

<v Speaker 1>It's gonna get bloody, it's gonna get violent. There's gonna

<v Speaker 1>be staples, there's gonna be possibly hypodermic needles, There's going

<v Speaker 1>to be lots and lots of blood and barbed wire.

<v Speaker 1>Put the women in children to bed. It's Texas death

<v Speaker 1>Match time here. But it's going to be a Texas

<v Speaker 1>death Match tag team match. I don't know that there's

<v Speaker 1>ever been a Texas Death Match tag team match here

<v Speaker 1>and be the booker. But there's about to be Oh

<v Speaker 1>my god, a Texas death match with Mikey, Nicky, Johnny

<v Speaker 1>Kenny and Mick I think right? Is that is that

<v Speaker 1>the other guy? The Spirit Squad? Someone's gonna die in

<v Speaker 1>this match? The Spirit Squad really in a Texas Death Match?

<v Speaker 1>They're all dead? I guess the Young Bucks. Oh my god,

<v Speaker 1>this this round is wow. This round is not going well.

<v Speaker 1>The Young Bucks and the Spirit Squad in a Texas

<v Speaker 1>Death Match. I don't know what's going on in this round.

<v Speaker 1>We have to redeem ourselves. We have a Night one

<v Speaker 1>made event of Gunther and Kevin Owens that we have

<v Speaker 1>to try to top. Oh man, Oh my goodness, a

<v Speaker 1>Kennel from Hell main event here for Night too. Kennel

<v Speaker 1>from Hell? Oh man, can we just throwing? Can we

<v Speaker 1>just like wave the white flag here and just throw

<v Speaker 1>in the towel? We have moose. Moose is gonna be

<v Speaker 1>in a We're gonna put a moose in Kennel from Hell.

<v Speaker 1>It's interesting you asked for this. This is all your fault.

<v Speaker 1>Doesn't remember that moose? Oh man? Ricky Banderiz is here

<v Speaker 1>with us. El Missius, you know, Luke Chonder. Every time

<v Speaker 1>I see this image here of Milmore tastes it breaks

<v Speaker 1>my heart a little bit that we never had a

<v Speaker 1>proper ending to Luca Underground. But we are gonna get

<v Speaker 1>mill Mouertes against Moose Kennel from Hell. And you know what,

<v Speaker 1>actually gonna give this the bell because first of all,

<v Speaker 1>you talk about a hoss fight, you talk at the

<v Speaker 1>end of the day. Really what you're doing is you're

<v Speaker 1>taking these two men, You're putting them in a cage.

<v Speaker 1>And let's say you got those rabid dogs outside in

<v Speaker 1>between the blue cage and the hell in a cell, right,

<v Speaker 1>and if the dogs are actually doing what they're supposed

<v Speaker 1>to be doing and not peeing themselves in the corner,

<v Speaker 1>that's a pretty badass match. I'm not gonna lie this

<v Speaker 1>is this likely would end up being very bloody and

<v Speaker 1>very violent. But I'm still taking Kevin Owens against Gunther

<v Speaker 1>as the better of the two main events, like I

<v Speaker 1>can't and good conscience vote against the other match. Marshall says,

<v Speaker 1>you landed on the Heartfelt Foundation on Monday. Good. I

<v Speaker 1>wish I could land on the heart Foundation every night.

<v Speaker 1>We'd come up with a whole bunch of really cool

<v Speaker 1>matches that we could do, and God help us all

<v Speaker 1>with SmackDown going to three hours. Well, I'll be here

<v Speaker 1>to kind of hold your hand and guide you along

<v Speaker 1>as we begin the three hour era anew next week.

<v Speaker 1>We did it at the beginning of the year. We

<v Speaker 1>got through it, and we'll find a way to get

<v Speaker 1>through it again. Here and Darius, thank you for being

<v Speaker 1>a Channel member. May's fifty three months of Channel membership.

<v Speaker 1>Fun fact from ninety nine to one, the Icy title

<v Speaker 1>changed hands thirty four times between twenty two wrestlers. Just

<v Speaker 1>shows you how frequent title changes were in the Attitude era. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>that was the Rousseau way of doing things. There's a

<v Speaker 1>happy medium where we don't need every title reign to

<v Speaker 1>be three hundred days, but also not have the Intercontinental

<v Speaker 1>title change hands thirty four times between twenty two wrestlers.

<v Speaker 1>It's got to be a happy medium there. Well, if

<v Speaker 1>you're a drinker, get those stiff drinks ready for three

<v Speaker 1>hours of SmackDown starting next week. I'll be here, but

<v Speaker 1>I'll also be here with you for the Raw post

<v Speaker 1>show live here on the Channel on Monday night. And

<v Speaker 1>then don't forget give you another reminder here because we

<v Speaker 1>have the Make It Till Midnight count Down to twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty six coming up on Wednesday. We'll incorporate the Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>review in there, but it ain't just going to be

<v Speaker 1>about AW Dynamite. We hang out on New Year's Eve

<v Speaker 1>every year and it actually ends up being one of

<v Speaker 1>the biggest streams all year that I do, so that's

<v Speaker 1>always cool. So come hang out. We'll have some fun.

<v Speaker 1>That'll be on Wednesday night, and of course before then

<v Speaker 1>we have smacked that then, but we have the SoundOff

<v Speaker 1>episode nine dropping on Sunday, and it will include my

<v Speaker 1>AW World's End review, and it will also include my

<v Speaker 1>list of the top fifteen matches ranked in wrestling, my

<v Speaker 1>favorite matches for twenty twenty five. So it's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>a big show, A big show. I'm not talking about

<v Speaker 1>like the big show. I'm gonna talk about the big show.

<v Speaker 1>I'm talking about a big show coming up on Sunday.

<v Speaker 1>Navy says Omas should call his finisher second to last ride,

<v Speaker 1>should just call it finish her Death. Did you see

<v Speaker 1>that last ride power bomb that he gave to God

<v Speaker 1>who was a dragonly at the Triple A Show. Holy shit,

<v Speaker 1>it puts the undertakers to shame. Sprat didn't get a

<v Speaker 1>nosebleed coming down from that high. Be well, stay safe,

<v Speaker 1>have yourselves a great rest of your weekend, and I

<v Speaker 1>will see you for episode nine forty four sometime in

<v Speaker 1>the afternoon. It'll be dropping on Sunday on all the

<v Speaker 1>usual podcast platforms, So until then, take care, guys. Thanks

<v Speaker 1>for the love.