<v Speaker 1>Tomorrow night, we have a ple called Backlash. And on

<v Speaker 1>the eve of Backlash, we had a funeral. Yes, we

<v Speaker 1>had a funeral here tonight on SmackDown. But you see

<v Speaker 1>the funeral that you think we had, You see, you

<v Speaker 1>would be wrong. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking

<v Speaker 1>that tonight we had a funeral for the gingerbread Man. No, No,

<v Speaker 1>that's not what tonight was. Tonight we had a funeral

<v Speaker 1>for SmackDown. That's what we had a funeral for. Because

<v Speaker 1>this show is dead. It's been dead for a while.

<v Speaker 1>You tune into the reviews every week, you know how

<v Speaker 1>the state of SmackDown has been really for most of

<v Speaker 1>the years so far. Somehow they continue to find ways

<v Speaker 1>to make the show worse, worse and worse, and I

<v Speaker 1>sit here waiting for things to improve. I keep naively

<v Speaker 1>believing that somehow they can crawl out of this hole

<v Speaker 1>that they have dug for themselves and somehow fight a

<v Speaker 1>way to make this show watchable from week to week.

<v Speaker 1>And yet I keep sitting here expecting different results and

<v Speaker 1>getting the same outcome each and every time. We had

<v Speaker 1>a show tonight that was built around the funeral of

<v Speaker 1>the gingerbread Man. Now there are aspects of this storyline

<v Speaker 1>that I have found semi humorous. I have a sense

<v Speaker 1>of humor just like anybody else does. I can enjoy

<v Speaker 1>fun I'm not a humorless schmuck. Nothing wrong with having

<v Speaker 1>a little sports entertainment mixed into my wrestling product. That's fine.

<v Speaker 1>But you see when I sit here and I watch

<v Speaker 1>a three hour television show that is built around this

<v Speaker 1>stupid storyline, When we have segments coming in and out

<v Speaker 1>of every commercial break with various AI images of the

<v Speaker 1>gingerbread Men interjected into various classic moments in WWE history.

<v Speaker 1>We have Stillo, we have still shots and videos of

<v Speaker 1>the gingerbread Men over the years, from conception to death,

<v Speaker 1>and the entire program is built around this as the

<v Speaker 1>key story. They closed the show tonight. They actually closed

<v Speaker 1>the show tonight, the final SmackDown before Backlash, with a

<v Speaker 1>funeral for the gingerbread Men. And I had a moment

<v Speaker 1>tonight that I have not had in a very long

<v Speaker 1>time watching a WWE show, sitting here watching this show,

<v Speaker 1>and I thought to myself, what have I done with

<v Speaker 1>my life? It was this weird, out of body experience

<v Speaker 1>that I had as I was sitting here watching this show,

<v Speaker 1>going what what have I done with my life that

<v Speaker 1>I have found myself here sitting on a Friday night

<v Speaker 1>watching This is my life? This is what I am doing,

<v Speaker 1>how I'm spending my Friday night. What am I watching?

<v Speaker 1>What have I done? Where did I go wrong? What

<v Speaker 1>did I do in a previous life that has led

<v Speaker 1>me to this spot? I don't know. I have no answers.

<v Speaker 1>I have no answers. I do know that at one

<v Speaker 1>point during the show tonight there was a dan Hausen

<v Speaker 1>segment where he was in the back with all of

<v Speaker 1>his I don't even know, vials of liquid substances, a

<v Speaker 1>little time machine. It looked like or a cloning machine.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what the fuck it was. It's dan Hausen,

<v Speaker 1>so of course it's gonna be looney to off the wall.

<v Speaker 1>And that's okay. I like dan Hausen. But then they

<v Speaker 1>went from dan Hausen to more of the gingerbread Man,

<v Speaker 1>and again I had this moment that this this flash

<v Speaker 1>where I said to myself, like, am I dreaming? Did

<v Speaker 1>I have a stroke? What am I watching? What? What

<v Speaker 1>what is going on here? I had no answers. I

<v Speaker 1>was mystified. I was mystified. They closed the show with this. Tonight,

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's Ain was shooting from the hip when he said

<v Speaker 1>in that closing segment, the main event of SmackDown used

<v Speaker 1>to mean something. It don't mean nothing no more. After

<v Speaker 1>how many solo SOCA MF teammate events, we should have

<v Speaker 1>already realized that. But when I saw a casket in

<v Speaker 1>the ring with the gingerbread man, that was what just

<v Speaker 1>really set it over the top for me. That is

<v Speaker 1>what tonight's show was built around. That is the bulk

<v Speaker 1>of what we are going to be discussing tonight. The

<v Speaker 1>gingerbread man who actually turned out to be alive all along.

<v Speaker 1>It was Lil Yati in the costume. You know what

<v Speaker 1>used to be the highlight of SmackDown every week? Talk

<v Speaker 1>about the US Title Open challenges. I know we talk

<v Speaker 1>a lot about open challenges, the Oba Femi Open Challenge,

<v Speaker 1>too many open challenges, but you know my thoughts on

<v Speaker 1>the United States Championship Open Challenge. It was the highlight

<v Speaker 1>of SmackDown on most weeks. I looked forward to seeing

<v Speaker 1>who Sammy Zain was going to defend the US title against.

<v Speaker 1>I look forward to seeing who Ilia Dragon of who

<v Speaker 1>who Who's that oh, I I don't blame you if

<v Speaker 1>you forgot who it was. But Ilia Dragonoff used to

<v Speaker 1>be on smack Down. He used to be the United

<v Speaker 1>States Champion and he was having killer matches every single week.

<v Speaker 1>And then it was Carmelo Hayes, and I said, man,

<v Speaker 1>I know this has to come to an end at

<v Speaker 1>some point, but really I hope they can keep this

<v Speaker 1>going for as long as possible, because if you ever

<v Speaker 1>take the US Title Open Challenge away from this show,

<v Speaker 1>what does SmackDown look like? I give you Exhibit A.

<v Speaker 1>We didn't know how good we had it. What happened

<v Speaker 1>by the way to Carmelo Hayes. What happened to Ilia Dragonoff?

<v Speaker 1>Remember that story they were telling where he was trying

<v Speaker 1>to find himself. Whatever happened to that? They've dropped off

<v Speaker 1>the face of the earth. No, Instead, what we have

<v Speaker 1>now are the MFTs in multiple segments on this show

<v Speaker 1>every single week, Solo Socoa, Tamatanga, Tala tanga, at least

<v Speaker 1>three or four segments on this show every single week.

<v Speaker 1>And when they don't get the main event, we get

<v Speaker 1>what we got tonight, Ladies and gentlemen, SmackDown is dead.

<v Speaker 1>They've added new faces to the show, which is something

<v Speaker 1>I'm glad to see. It's gonna take time. Rome wasn't

<v Speaker 1>built in a day, but boy, it's gonna suck trying

<v Speaker 1>to get there. Ricky Saints is coming out getting the

<v Speaker 1>same reactions that Julia gets every single week. But we've

<v Speaker 1>got Ricky Saints, We've got Fatal Influence, big fan of

<v Speaker 1>Fatal Influence, We've got Royce Keys, Blake Monroe is coming.

<v Speaker 1>There are reasons for hope. There's new blood on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>Yet the show feels as dead as it has ever felt.

<v Speaker 1>Why is that? Why is that Cody Rhoades and gun

<v Speaker 1>through a match I'm looking forward to. Not official yet,

<v Speaker 1>but it looks like we're going to be getting it

<v Speaker 1>in Italy at the end of the month. I'm trying

<v Speaker 1>to cling to some of the positives on this show.

<v Speaker 1>That's one of them. And I would also tell you

<v Speaker 1>what I told everybody on TNT on Tuesday Night, when

<v Speaker 1>I reminded everybody that if Gunther ends up on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>that would officially put him on the same brand with

<v Speaker 1>Ilja DRAGONEV. But at this rate, I'm not sure we're

<v Speaker 1>ever going to see him again on this television show,

<v Speaker 1>so maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up. I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I don't know what to say. This

<v Speaker 1>is your Friday Night SmackDown Review. It is Friday night,

<v Speaker 1>May eighth, twenty twenty six. Here lies a once exciting,

<v Speaker 1>interesting television program that I've held out hope would one

<v Speaker 1>one day find that spark that's been missing. And I

<v Speaker 1>feel like that spark has been extinguished. Perhaps I should

<v Speaker 1>stop hoping and just start accepting reality for what it is.

<v Speaker 1>But I'm a wrestling fan, so I'm too naive to

<v Speaker 1>do that. Thank you for joining me here on a

<v Speaker 1>Friday night. We shall we shall get through this funeral

<v Speaker 1>together tonight. Hit that subscribe button, hit that like button.

<v Speaker 1>Super chats are open. I'm sure some of you have

<v Speaker 1>some very interesting things to say about this SmackDown show

<v Speaker 1>here tonight, So get those messages on in. Be reading

<v Speaker 1>all of your messages as they come in. As we

<v Speaker 1>do every week here on this show. We are going

<v Speaker 1>to spin the wheel. Yeah, I should have added some

<v Speaker 1>new options to the wheel. Sola Monster takes takes a

<v Speaker 1>shot of this, takes a shot of that. I'm in

<v Speaker 1>a terrible mood. Here, because for a show like this,

<v Speaker 1>you would think I would need a stiff drink. I

<v Speaker 1>ain't got no drink. I got I got my h

<v Speaker 1>two oh here. I feel like that this show would

<v Speaker 1>be a little easier to get through actually if there

<v Speaker 1>was some some of that chemical assistance here, but unfortunately

<v Speaker 1>we don't have any of that tonight. Yeah, SmackDown is

<v Speaker 1>supposed to move back to two hours sometime within the

<v Speaker 1>next six weeks or so. Not sure it's going to

<v Speaker 1>get better as far as the creative but at least

<v Speaker 1>we'll have an hour less of this shit to sit

<v Speaker 1>through for the next six months. So that's some to

<v Speaker 1>look forward to. I'm looking forward to that. Spin the

<v Speaker 1>wheel here. See how many likes we need for be

<v Speaker 1>the booker tonight? Four fifty that is the goal. We're

<v Speaker 1>at three forty five already. I think that should be

<v Speaker 1>easily attainable. Let's get into this SmackDown garbage here. God,

<v Speaker 1>this show fucking sucks. How did this show get so bad?

<v Speaker 1>It's just it's unbelievable. With the talent they have, how

<v Speaker 1>how is that possible? We had an in memorium graphic

<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of the show. I was wondering if

<v Speaker 1>they were going to do this for Ted Turner, who

<v Speaker 1>passed away this week. I was pleasantly surprised to see

<v Speaker 1>them pay tribute in graphic form here, really pay tribute

<v Speaker 1>in any way, shape or form to Ted Turtle, because

<v Speaker 1>we know five years ago this is never what happened.

<v Speaker 1>So good on them for at least putting a graphic up.

<v Speaker 1>Unfortunately it came on a show where we had a

<v Speaker 1>mock funeral for the gingerbread Men, but hey, timing couldn't

<v Speaker 1>be helped. I mean, he died this week, so it

<v Speaker 1>is what it is. But anyway, good on them for

<v Speaker 1>putting that up. They showed a group of wrestlers. Now

<v Speaker 1>this is I said from the beginning of this show.

<v Speaker 1>It was all about the funeral. So we see a

<v Speaker 1>group of wrestlers and other people who I did. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if they were extras from the performance center.

<v Speaker 1>They may not even have been wrestlers. I didn't recognize

<v Speaker 1>most of them. They were all gathered in a room

<v Speaker 1>backstage along with Nick Aldus, in front of a casket

<v Speaker 1>getting ready for the funeral of the gingerbread Men. Wrestlers

<v Speaker 1>was Ray Phoenix, so we haven't seen Ray Phoenix on

<v Speaker 1>this television program in many months and his first appearance

<v Speaker 1>back on TV, and he is one of the mourners

<v Speaker 1>in the funeral of the gingerbread Man. Actually, technically this

<v Speaker 1>wasn't the funeral of the gingerbread Men. This was the viewing.

<v Speaker 1>It's first time we've seen him in months on this show.

<v Speaker 1>They may as well hold a funeral for his career tonight,

<v Speaker 1>because his career is basically over anyway. Jacob Fatu, though,

<v Speaker 1>was out to the ring twenty four hours away from

<v Speaker 1>his World Heavyweight Championship match, the biggest match of his

<v Speaker 1>career coming up at Backlash tomorrow night against Roman Reigns.

<v Speaker 1>Fatu said that tomorrow night he wasn't fighting Roman for

<v Speaker 1>the championship. He was taking the championship from him. Ever

<v Speaker 1>since he and Roman were young, all anybody has seen

<v Speaker 1>in Roman has been the future. Meanwhile, for him, nobody

<v Speaker 1>saw anything in Fatu. Fatu said people wanted him to

<v Speaker 1>fall back and fall in line, which he refused to do.

<v Speaker 1>He talked about how when Roman was born, he was

<v Speaker 1>born with opportunity and Jacob when he was born, he

<v Speaker 1>was born with doubt. So the usos were out to interrupt.

<v Speaker 1>Jimmy said that he and Jay were not out to

<v Speaker 1>change Fatu's mind, really, because that's all they've been trying

<v Speaker 1>to fucking do is change his mind. Part of him

<v Speaker 1>was rooting for Fatu, but the other part of him

<v Speaker 1>was looking out for him. And then Jay interrupted and

<v Speaker 1>he said that you know what was going to happen

<v Speaker 1>tomorrow was that the tribal chief was gonna beat Fatu's ass.

<v Speaker 1>He said he knew how it would go a backlash

<v Speaker 1>because he's lived it. Roman is going to break Fatu

<v Speaker 1>down emotionally and physically right in front of his family.

<v Speaker 1>Jimmy said that if Fatu loses, and Jay said when

<v Speaker 1>he loses, Fatu and his entire family will need to

<v Speaker 1>acknowledge roman reigns. Fatu said he ain't going to lose.

<v Speaker 1>He took issue with Jay talking about him losing to

<v Speaker 1>Roman and then pointed out that Jay never beat Roman.

<v Speaker 1>Fatu said, there's no losing or acknowledging to Fatu. This

<v Speaker 1>was more than just the main event. It was for

<v Speaker 1>his family and the only thing that Fatu's family would

<v Speaker 1>be seeing tomorrow was him becoming the new world heavyweight champion.

<v Speaker 1>And he said that he was ready to put it

<v Speaker 1>all on the line, but he wondered if Roman was

<v Speaker 1>ready to die for it, and he went to go leave,

<v Speaker 1>but he stopped it. He said he had one last

<v Speaker 1>thing to share with the USOS, said that if they

<v Speaker 1>even think of interfering in his match tomorrow night, he said,

<v Speaker 1>I swear to God, I will burn this whole goddamn

<v Speaker 1>family tree down. And they censored it, but that's what

<v Speaker 1>he said, and everybody popped for the closing line and

<v Speaker 1>off he went. So there was some good fire there

<v Speaker 1>from Fatu. He's a good promo, especially when he gets

<v Speaker 1>really serious and focused and isn't just like so many

<v Speaker 1>other people on the show just spitting out catchphrase after

<v Speaker 1>catchphrase after catch I mean, some people, that's all they

<v Speaker 1>are is just a catchphrase. But here, you know, it's

<v Speaker 1>about family. This is personal to him. He's doing this

<v Speaker 1>to try to put food on the table and put

<v Speaker 1>his kids in good schools and drive the nice cars

<v Speaker 1>and all of this stuff. I think his work has

<v Speaker 1>been very solid on the MIC, and they continue to

<v Speaker 1>tease some sort of involvement by the USOS in this match,

<v Speaker 1>even though Fatu shut it down there and said, look,

<v Speaker 1>you better not come out. I don't want to see

<v Speaker 1>you out there during my match, which is something that

<v Speaker 1>he would say to throw everybody off if he was

<v Speaker 1>in cahoots with the USOS. I'm just saying because again,

<v Speaker 1>there's been multiple segments, including tonight, by the way, where

<v Speaker 1>they have been in the same either the same building

<v Speaker 1>or the same ring, and they have not come to

<v Speaker 1>physicality of any kind. It's like three weeks in a

<v Speaker 1>row now they have not laid a finger on each other.

<v Speaker 1>Even when Roman was in peril on Raw, the USOS

<v Speaker 1>were nowhere to be found. But even still, I would

<v Speaker 1>be surprised if we don't see the USSOS involved here

<v Speaker 1>in some way tomorrow night. I do have to say

<v Speaker 1>all of this fall in line with the tribal chief shit.

<v Speaker 1>This shit's wearing thin. I mean, it's been six years

<v Speaker 1>of this. It's been six years of this and we're

<v Speaker 1>still doing the thing where the ussols are falling in line,

<v Speaker 1>and it's like, you'll have to acknowledge the tribal like,

<v Speaker 1>how many fucking years of this shit are we going

<v Speaker 1>to sit through before we move on? We're really evolved

<v Speaker 1>into something different. I mean, even after five six years,

<v Speaker 1>whatever it was people got sick of Hogan from his peak,

<v Speaker 1>that peak run that he had. You know, shit gets

<v Speaker 1>old after a while. So after a recap of Gunther's

<v Speaker 1>attack on Cody Roads last week, Kelly interviewed Nick All.

<v Speaker 1>This All just pointed out that Gunther's actions last week

<v Speaker 1>were unacceptable and he would speak with him about it.

<v Speaker 1>He also confirmed that Gunther was part of the raw

<v Speaker 1>roster for now. We'll come back to that later. Ricky

<v Speaker 1>Saint's interrupted, and speaking of interruptions, Venom contents you thank

<v Speaker 1>you twenty five dollars bre Mode. You know, Briebella and

<v Speaker 1>Page were on the show tonight, and we'll get to

<v Speaker 1>their segment a little bit later on. But apparently Page

<v Speaker 1>got hurt, not injured, but she I think she got

<v Speaker 1>a wound on her head. Apparently needed stitches to close it.

<v Speaker 1>I mean they were in the ring with Naya Jacks

<v Speaker 1>and Lash Legends. So anyway, Ricky Saint shows up and

<v Speaker 1>he complained about the show. Now, he complained about being

<v Speaker 1>stuck fighting QB four after he fought QB one last week.

<v Speaker 1>He had that match with Cody Rhodes. So Matt Cardona

<v Speaker 1>walked in mister QB four himself, and he said that

<v Speaker 1>he was going to teach Rookie Saints. I'll just start

<v Speaker 1>calling him that he's going to teach Rookie Saints a

<v Speaker 1>lesson in respect. Later tonight, after a break in the back,

<v Speaker 1>Jacob fa Tu he was speaking with Nick all this

<v Speaker 1>they parted ways. As FA two is walking off second

<v Speaker 1>week in a row now, he bumped into Royce Keys

<v Speaker 1>because they go way back, they're good friends. So for

<v Speaker 1>the second time they bump into each other and Keys

<v Speaker 1>gives them a little pep talk about how you're gonna

<v Speaker 1>go out there and do the thing tomorrow night. You're

<v Speaker 1>gonna win that World Heavyweight championship. People like you and me,

<v Speaker 1>we take it. We take what we want. You got this.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Jelly Roll is not around anymore, so we

<v Speaker 1>need somebody else to give the motivational speeches on this show.

<v Speaker 1>Jelly Roll was very good at that, So that's what

<v Speaker 1>Royce Keys was doing here for Jacob Fatu. After FA

<v Speaker 1>two left, Keys was walking and again he ran into

<v Speaker 1>Solo's socoa and Key said that he should beat the

<v Speaker 1>brakes off his ass for what happened last week. Solo

<v Speaker 1>told him, hey, calm down, He reminded him that there's

<v Speaker 1>still room in his family, but he needed an answer,

<v Speaker 1>and he told him time was running out. Yeah, there's

<v Speaker 1>not much of a family left. You know, two of

<v Speaker 1>the members were fired. He's got forty percent less family now.

<v Speaker 1>Every single week he shows up here on TV. You know,

<v Speaker 1>it's subtle, but the feeling I came away with here

<v Speaker 1>watching this was I'm not saying this is gonna happen,

<v Speaker 1>but you know, we're all trying to figure out what

<v Speaker 1>this finish is going to be tomorrow night, because I

<v Speaker 1>don't see Roman Rains losing the World Have You championship.

<v Speaker 1>So are we really just gonna get a straight wrestling

<v Speaker 1>match where he hits him with like three spears and

<v Speaker 1>pins him. It took three spears to pin Jacob FA

<v Speaker 1>two and just clean as a whistle, just beats Jacob

<v Speaker 1>and that's it. Yeah, and then what job Jacob falls

<v Speaker 1>in the line he acknowledges him. Are we looking at

<v Speaker 1>that or are we looking at again? The USO's getting involved,

<v Speaker 1>someone getting involved. I'm just saying Royce Keys has been

<v Speaker 1>awfully chummy with Jacob Fatu. Now over the last couple

<v Speaker 1>of weeks, does he factor into this in some way

<v Speaker 1>because I'm just like an abused wrestling fan here. So

<v Speaker 1>when this segment was over, I was thinking, Oh, he's

<v Speaker 1>not gonna He's not gonna turn on Jacob. Is he is?

<v Speaker 1>He gonna cost Jacob the World Heavyweight Championship. I can't

<v Speaker 1>rule it out. I don't think it could be ruled

<v Speaker 1>out the way he was gassing fa Twu up Man

<v Speaker 1>really talking him up. You got this. People like you

<v Speaker 1>and me, we take what we want, wouldn't surprise me.

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany Stratton against Keana James for the Women's United States Championship.

<v Speaker 1>Kiana targeted Tiffany's leg for a good chunk of the

<v Speaker 1>match here, even got a single leg crab applied to

<v Speaker 1>one point. This did not stop Tiffany, however, immediately after

<v Speaker 1>this from hitting all of her signature moves like nothing

<v Speaker 1>had happened. It's like, okay, sure, I don't know what

<v Speaker 1>the point of working over the leg is if you're

<v Speaker 1>not going to sell the leg. But then again, this

<v Speaker 1>is this is kind of an epidemic problem in wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>This is not limited to just Tiffany Stratton here in

<v Speaker 1>this match, so there was a point where the referees

<v Speaker 1>back was turned. Julia, who was outside the ring in

<v Speaker 1>Keana's corner at one point, refused to attack Tiffany, even

<v Speaker 1>though the referee's attention was diverted and she could have

<v Speaker 1>gotten in a cheap shot. She didn't do it, and

<v Speaker 1>Kean and her they were talking, maybe arguing a little bit.

<v Speaker 1>There was a moment later on where Julia got up

<v Speaker 1>on the apron and it was at a moment I

<v Speaker 1>think where Tiffany was on offense. I think she was

<v Speaker 1>in control, but then the tide turned and Keana I think,

<v Speaker 1>got a roll up on her. But because Julia was

<v Speaker 1>on the apron distracting the referee, the referee wasn't there

<v Speaker 1>to count, so it actually worked against her, her friend,

<v Speaker 1>her business associate, whatever you want to call them. And

<v Speaker 1>in the end, Tiffany hit the rolling sent on she

<v Speaker 1>got the prettiest moon salt ever and she retained the championship.

<v Speaker 1>So they're continuing to build the split between Julia and Keana.

<v Speaker 1>This should have happened a long time ago. This pairing

<v Speaker 1>just doesn't work. It was pretty apparent after the first

<v Speaker 1>few months it was not working. I don't know why

<v Speaker 1>they've kept them together for this long. I really don't,

<v Speaker 1>but now they're really leaning heavily into an imminence split

<v Speaker 1>between them. I do still worry about Julia's future here

<v Speaker 1>on this show. It just feels like she doesn't have

<v Speaker 1>much of one. It feels to me like the real

<v Speaker 1>upside here is for Keana. I know Kean is also

<v Speaker 1>very friendly with Charlotte Flair. I can see that being

<v Speaker 1>a program a match one day. I think they're high

<v Speaker 1>on Keana. I don't think that they I don't want

<v Speaker 1>to say they've soured on her, but you just watch

<v Speaker 1>the shows week to week, and you could just tell,

<v Speaker 1>like they're not terribly excited about Julie. You could just

<v Speaker 1>tell just watch the television shows. You can watch the

<v Speaker 1>shows and know who they're excited over and who they're not,

<v Speaker 1>or who they tried with, and they feel like, well,

<v Speaker 1>this didn't work, so we got bored and now we

<v Speaker 1>moved on. And unfortunately, I hate to say if, but

<v Speaker 1>Julia falls into that category. Is she going to get

<v Speaker 1>another opportunity? Are they going to maybe move her to

<v Speaker 1>raw at some point, give her some fresh opponents to

<v Speaker 1>work with, and maybe pair her up with somebody else.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe maybe that would help. Because whatever they're doing with

<v Speaker 1>her right now on SmackDown, it ain't way. And it

<v Speaker 1>just feels to me like every week she becomes less

<v Speaker 1>and less and less valuable a commodity on this show,

<v Speaker 1>and at a time when people are being cut, that's

<v Speaker 1>not a good place to be. Backstage, at the viewing

<v Speaker 1>of The gingerbread Man, Sammy's aying he could not believe

<v Speaker 1>this clown show that he was seeing, and he also

<v Speaker 1>felt like this was a dig at him, and people

<v Speaker 1>are crying and getting all emotional, and so he starts

<v Speaker 1>venting to nick all this. Our truth sneaks up behind

<v Speaker 1>Sammy did some comedy told Sammy the gingerbread Man was

<v Speaker 1>very proud of him and used to talk about him

<v Speaker 1>all the time. Truth's tag team partner, his tag Team

<v Speaker 1>championship partner. Don't forget they're the tag team champions in

<v Speaker 1>a dead division. Damian Priest, one on one with tallat Priest,

<v Speaker 1>attacked him right away, right at the bell, sent him

<v Speaker 1>out to the floor. He tried some sort of leap

<v Speaker 1>from the apron and I don't know what the hell

<v Speaker 1>happened here. It looked like maybe Tallatonga blocked it or

<v Speaker 1>tried to block it, but maybe he didn't. I don't

<v Speaker 1>fucking know. It looked terrible. Whatever it was, Priest popped

<v Speaker 1>right back up. He got up in Solo Sikoe's face.

<v Speaker 1>Because Solo was on the outside. Priest tried to go

<v Speaker 1>for a spin kick. Talla, though, grabbed him midkick and

<v Speaker 1>threw him into the ring post and then picked him

<v Speaker 1>up slammed him on top of the announced desk, and

<v Speaker 1>that took us into a commercial break. And during the

<v Speaker 1>commercial break, I'm watching the action, and this crowd is

<v Speaker 1>library silent, like if somebody was to make a noise,

<v Speaker 1>some old lady in the crowd would stand up with

<v Speaker 1>her bifocals and gosh, remember the show Silent Library was

<v Speaker 1>that on MTV? That's what this was. So late in

<v Speaker 1>the match, Priest took the big guy down with the

<v Speaker 1>diving clothesline. Priest tried to, uh, there was something else

<v Speaker 1>that he tried in here, but he pulls down the straps.

<v Speaker 1>So he and Royce Keys, by the way, are doing

<v Speaker 1>the same gimmick now on the show where the straps

<v Speaker 1>come down. You know in WWE, for a period of

<v Speaker 1>time when Kurt Angle was doing it, that was Kurt

<v Speaker 1>Angle's thing. I don't think there was anybody else on

<v Speaker 1>the roster at that time who was pulling the straps down, right.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the straps coming down has been a thing

<v Speaker 1>in wrestling for decades, but usually it was like a

<v Speaker 1>lawler thing or you know, you usually don't have multiple

<v Speaker 1>people on the same show doing and now we have two.

<v Speaker 1>But he pulls the straps down, he's signaling for the

<v Speaker 1>South of Heaven chokeslam. Tomatonga hits ringside to cause the

<v Speaker 1>distraction when our Truths music hits shortly thereafter, and he

<v Speaker 1>comes out. He attacks Solo and Tomatonga soon though, he

<v Speaker 1>was overwhelmed until Priest came over to stop a Samoan

<v Speaker 1>spike atta empt. And then he shoves Solo into Tama.

<v Speaker 1>Now that's not gonna be good because there have been

<v Speaker 1>issues between Solo and Toma now that have been brewing

<v Speaker 1>for many weeks. Yeah, Silent Library, didn't they have a

<v Speaker 1>wrestling episode. I remember Ziggler being on there. I think

<v Speaker 1>they had one episode. They had a bunch of wrestlers

<v Speaker 1>on it, and I know for a fact, at least

<v Speaker 1>in the episode I'm thinking of that Zigler was on there.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, he shoves Solo into Tama Tala Toga then

<v Speaker 1>attacks Priest on the floor. They head into the ring

<v Speaker 1>and Tala hits a choke slam for the win. After

<v Speaker 1>the matches over, the MFTs, or what's left of the MFTs,

<v Speaker 1>surrounded Priest before Royce Keys ran out to make the save.

<v Speaker 1>MFTs backed off seemingly on the orders of Solo Sokoa,

<v Speaker 1>who of course is trying to recruit this man, so

<v Speaker 1>the last thing they want to do is attack him,

<v Speaker 1>so they away. This is an observation that I have

<v Speaker 1>made every week basically for a while now. I don't

<v Speaker 1>always vocalize it, but it really hit me tonight just

<v Speaker 1>watching this show. Damian Priest has never been less interesting

<v Speaker 1>to me than he is right now at this moment.

<v Speaker 1>Like to me, this is his low point in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>And this is a man who has won the World

<v Speaker 1>Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania Super Over at one point as

<v Speaker 1>part of the Judgment Day. Even at the moment he's

<v Speaker 1>one half of the Tag Team Champions, which means absolutely

<v Speaker 1>nothing of course, because they don't place a premium on

<v Speaker 1>tag team wrestling in this company anymore. He has never

<v Speaker 1>been less interesting than he is right now, and it's sad.

<v Speaker 1>It's sad to see the fall off there with him

<v Speaker 1>in terms of his importance to the show. But it's

<v Speaker 1>just clear as day when you watch these shows every

<v Speaker 1>single week, and I'm not sure. I'm not sure or

<v Speaker 1>what to do to remedy that. I don't know. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what the best course of action is. I

<v Speaker 1>just know that what they have him doing now, it

<v Speaker 1>is not going to do anything to change that. At backstage,

<v Speaker 1>dan Hausen was sitting there. He had an empty sign

<v Speaker 1>up sheet for anybody interested in being his tag team partner.

<v Speaker 1>At Backlash, Mizz and Kit Wilson showed up. Wilson said

<v Speaker 1>that dan Housen was too toxic to even have a partner.

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen said that he had friends. He mentioned Papa

<v Speaker 1>Shango and then I think he's I think he said

<v Speaker 1>Bob the catering guy. Did I hear him right? I believe.

<v Speaker 1>I believe he said Bob the catering guy got a

<v Speaker 1>lot of friends. So Wilson pointed a mirror in dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen's direction. Because he had a mirror with him, he

<v Speaker 1>was posing in it before looking at himself. So now

<v Speaker 1>he put the mirror in the direction of Dan Housen

<v Speaker 1>and said that this is the only person who would

<v Speaker 1>ever team up with you, being Dan Housen himself. So

<v Speaker 1>dan Housen, upon seeing his reflection in the mirror, it's

<v Speaker 1>like he has a Eureka moment where the light bulb

<v Speaker 1>goes off. He's got an idea, and he gets up

<v Speaker 1>all excited and he leaves. Now, if you did not

<v Speaker 1>see it today, there is a report going around, and

<v Speaker 1>I believe it is attributed. I believe to Brian Alvarez

<v Speaker 1>that the belief not that this is any sort of confirmation,

<v Speaker 1>but the belief is that Jelly Roll will likely be

<v Speaker 1>the tag team partner for Dan Hausen tomorrow night. I

<v Speaker 1>know there's a lot of people who mentioned Cmpunk. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know where they're getting this from other than the

<v Speaker 1>fact that we know the two of them are friends

<v Speaker 1>in real life. Punk is probably the one who went

<v Speaker 1>to bat for Dan Housen, helped get him into the

<v Speaker 1>company in the first place. But beyond that, I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what would make people think that this is the

<v Speaker 1>way they're going to bring back. Cmpunk is to be

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen's tag team partner, and I can't sit here

<v Speaker 1>and say one hundred percent for sure that it won't

<v Speaker 1>be cmpunk, but pretty sure it ain't gonna be cmpunk.

<v Speaker 1>And I said this the other night. If you want

<v Speaker 1>to look at it from the perspective of who can

<v Speaker 1>we use from SmackDown, who could potentially benefit from being

<v Speaker 1>in a pl match, there's only so many pl I

<v Speaker 1>can't even believe this is getting a pl E match

<v Speaker 1>to begin with, but it is over many other matches

<v Speaker 1>that they could be doing on this show, not a

<v Speaker 1>single Women's Championship match on the show, by the way,

<v Speaker 1>So who could benefit from being in a spot like this?

<v Speaker 1>And the name I came to is Royce Keys. Now,

<v Speaker 1>it's probably not going to be him because he's involved

<v Speaker 1>in some other stuff going on right now on the show.

<v Speaker 1>But my thought process on it was not that we're

<v Speaker 1>trying to do some sort of comedy duo here with

<v Speaker 1>Roy's Keys and Dan Housen. But he gets an ass

<v Speaker 1>kicker to come in there when Miz and Kit Wilson

<v Speaker 1>are figuring this guy ain't gonna be able to find anybody,

<v Speaker 1>and then Roy's Key shows up and he gets a

<v Speaker 1>match on the Backlash card. He gets to play Babyfaces

<v Speaker 1>Dans partner for one night and he gets to whoop

<v Speaker 1>some ass. Right, that's it. There you go. That's my

<v Speaker 1>thought process on it. But I did mention the other

<v Speaker 1>night on TNT I go, it will probably be jelly Roll.

<v Speaker 1>And if you think about it, before WrestleMania, before he

<v Speaker 1>got involved with the Pat McAfee stuff, jelly Roll wrestled

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown, he had a match with Kit Wilson. He

<v Speaker 1>was involved in this until he wasn't. Then they had

<v Speaker 1>him involved in something much bigger. Add to that the

<v Speaker 1>fact that originally they were going to do a tag

<v Speaker 1>team match on this show where it was going to

<v Speaker 1>be Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll against Randy Orton and

<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee, until Pat McAfee spared us all and said,

<v Speaker 1>I don't want to have anything to do with this anymore, goodbye,

<v Speaker 1>my job here is done. My planet needs me, and

<v Speaker 1>he beamed himself away, So he was probably going to

<v Speaker 1>be on this show anyway. Of course, of course it

<v Speaker 1>would be jelly Roll. I'll be very surprised if it

<v Speaker 1>turned out to be anybody other than Jelly Roll in

<v Speaker 1>that spot. But that's the update on his tag team

<v Speaker 1>partner for Tomorrow Night Now. They showed still shots as

<v Speaker 1>well as some video of the gingerbread Man, and they

<v Speaker 1>did this throughout the night in attendance at various classic

<v Speaker 1>WWE events over the years, including the moment of Hulk

<v Speaker 1>Hogan slamming Andre the Giants at WrestleMania three. And they

<v Speaker 1>cut to the crowd and there's the AI generated gingerbread

<v Speaker 1>men his Hogan gears celebrating the body slam. Then they

<v Speaker 1>showed him in the crowd the night on Raw that

<v Speaker 1>Stone Cold got arrested after driving the Zamboni down to

<v Speaker 1>the ring. There he was in the aisle in the

<v Speaker 1>front row is the gingerbread Man. And then John Cena

<v Speaker 1>when he did the crowd dive at WrestleMania twenty one

<v Speaker 1>after he won his first WWE championship and the crowd

<v Speaker 1>caught him, and there's the gingerbread Man in his chain

<v Speaker 1>Gang jersey standing next to John Cena. I'm watching this

<v Speaker 1>and I'm just thinking this is mildly amusing, Okay, right,

<v Speaker 1>that was my first thought when I saw some of

<v Speaker 1>these images. Until we got more and more and more

<v Speaker 1>and more and more and more throughout the entire night,

<v Speaker 1>and then I just came to the conclusion that this

<v Speaker 1>is this is some of the dumbest shit that I've

<v Speaker 1>seen all year, absolutely dumbest shit that I've seen all year.

<v Speaker 1>So after this, they cut to Nick all this meeting

<v Speaker 1>with Paul Hayman backstage, and Gunther also showed up, and

<v Speaker 1>Nick Aldis had a contract binder. Hayman wanted to make

<v Speaker 1>sure everything was in working order and all this was like,

<v Speaker 1>it's all here, and so he has the contract binder

<v Speaker 1>and he presents it to Gunther and he welcomes him

<v Speaker 1>to SmackDown. So it sounds like Gunther is now officially

<v Speaker 1>on the Blue brand. And at that moment we hear

<v Speaker 1>boom the beginning of Cody's music. Cody Rhodes out in

<v Speaker 1>the arena is making his way out to the ring

<v Speaker 1>and Gunther does not like this, and he says, what

<v Speaker 1>is this. This is eating into my time. This is

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be my time, and he said, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>going to do business like this, and he hands the

<v Speaker 1>contract binder back and he walks out, So I guess

<v Speaker 1>the deal is off then, so much for him coming

<v Speaker 1>to smack that, I guess the deal is off. At

<v Speaker 1>that moment, we're supposed to. I guess take this as

<v Speaker 1>perhaps the deal has fallen apart. Paul Hayman takes the

<v Speaker 1>contract and he says, I'll handle this, and off he goes.

<v Speaker 1>But as I mentioned, Cody was on his way to

<v Speaker 1>the ring, and now he's in the ring and in

<v Speaker 1>a familiar place because tonight they were in Jacksonville. I

<v Speaker 1>think Cody's got a little bit of history there in Jacksonville, Florida. So, Jacksonville,

<v Speaker 1>what do you want to talk about? He starts off

<v Speaker 1>talking about how Guntherer put him to sleep last week,

<v Speaker 1>as SmackDown does to me every single week. Last week,

<v Speaker 1>though it was Gunther putting Cody to sleep, and he

<v Speaker 1>says that was a sign. He took that as a

<v Speaker 1>sign that he must want a shot at the WWE Championship.

<v Speaker 1>And with that in mind, Cody called him out. He

<v Speaker 1>didn't get gun through though, he got Paul Hamon. Hayman

<v Speaker 1>came out, contract in hand and he said this is

<v Speaker 1>a contract for a WWE Championship match. And Cody wanted

<v Speaker 1>to know, so, are you the advocate now for guntherro?

<v Speaker 1>Are you his new advocate? And he goes, no, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not his advocate, but I owed him a favor, and

<v Speaker 1>so basically this is him cashing in on that favor.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm just thinking to myself, like, what a waste

<v Speaker 1>of a favor, Because even Cody here was like, hey,

<v Speaker 1>let's get him out here and we'll have a little

<v Speaker 1>rubble here in Jacksonville. He was ready to throw it

<v Speaker 1>down and do the match tonight. This is Cody's whole

<v Speaker 1>stick since he won at Wrestlemanian held on to the championship,

<v Speaker 1>which is I'm not hard to find, but I'm hard

<v Speaker 1>to be. He said it like three times tonight. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not hard to find, but I'm hard to beat. So

<v Speaker 1>what did he need to use Hayman for to get

<v Speaker 1>a title shot against Cody? Right? The only way it

<v Speaker 1>makes sense is if the actual favor it wasn't the

<v Speaker 1>title match, it was Hayman getting him on SmackDown. That's

<v Speaker 1>why I said that last week. If the favor itself

<v Speaker 1>is getting him a championship match, it makes no sense.

<v Speaker 1>It's a waste. You didn't have to go to Paul Haman.

<v Speaker 1>You just show up on SmackDown like every other fucking

<v Speaker 1>person from Monday Night Raw who doesn't need a permission

<v Speaker 1>slip to show up on this show. Just show up

<v Speaker 1>and say, hey, Cody, you're a bitch. I want to

<v Speaker 1>shot at your belt. What do you think Cody's gonna do?

<v Speaker 1>You pull his punk card? You think he's gonna say no?

<v Speaker 1>He didn't need Paul Hayman for that. What a waste

<v Speaker 1>of a favor. But Hayman said, I'm not Gunther's advocate.

<v Speaker 1>He said that I'm also though, a huge fan of yours,

<v Speaker 1>and he asked for Cody's permission to get into the ring.

<v Speaker 1>He goes, this contract is for a title match, but

<v Speaker 1>this contract is not for Jacksonville, and the crow booed

<v Speaker 1>that they didn't like that. He goes it wasn't even

<v Speaker 1>for the United States, which drew loud USA chance. Now,

<v Speaker 1>should Cody accept the challenge, this battle will take place

<v Speaker 1>in Turin at Clash in Italy. Hayman handed Cody the

<v Speaker 1>contract folder said that if you want Gunther's name on it,

<v Speaker 1>you're gonna have to get it yourself. My job here

<v Speaker 1>is done, and he went to go leave, and Cody said,

<v Speaker 1>you know, brock Lesner retired on you. Roman Reigns wants

<v Speaker 1>nothing to do with Ucmpunk just kind of discarded. You

<v Speaker 1>question whether Hayman was all out of options, and Hayman said,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not the one running out of options. Sooner or later,

<v Speaker 1>they all need the wise man. And he exited the ring.

<v Speaker 1>He made his way probably halfway down the aisle before Gunther,

<v Speaker 1>as last week, once again snuck in through the crowd,

<v Speaker 1>but this time Cody was expecting him, so as soon

<v Speaker 1>as he slid into the ring, Cody went to work

<v Speaker 1>on him, but he got Cody in the sleeper. But

<v Speaker 1>Cody was able to get out of the predicament, ended

<v Speaker 1>up knocking Gunther out of the ring. And he is

<v Speaker 1>on the mic and he is shouting at Gunther, I

<v Speaker 1>don't sweat you. I don't sweat you. Said, it doesn't

<v Speaker 1>matter if you beat Goldberg and aj Styles and the

<v Speaker 1>greatest of all time says, I'm easy to find, hard

<v Speaker 1>to beat. Got to get that new catchphrase over so again.

<v Speaker 1>Like I said, the favor it pretty much went the

<v Speaker 1>way I expected it to go. I like to think

<v Speaker 1>of it more as Okay, my favorite to you was

<v Speaker 1>putting in a good word with Nick Aldis and getting

<v Speaker 1>you transferred over from one brand to the other. The

<v Speaker 1>whole thing is silly though. The whole thing is very

<v Speaker 1>dumb because they have not, and this is what happens

<v Speaker 1>right when you think of it creatively, if they were

<v Speaker 1>in if we were in an environment right now where

<v Speaker 1>these things were more well taken care of when it

<v Speaker 1>comes to letting people bounce back and forth between brands,

<v Speaker 1>or allowing Cody to just go out there and say, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>if you want a title shot, come find me. I'll

<v Speaker 1>give you a title shot. Hey, the candy man over

<v Speaker 1>there in the fucking you know crowd or the popcorn vendor,

<v Speaker 1>you want a title match. Hey, I'm easy to find,

<v Speaker 1>hard to beat. Hey, guy in the bathroom, Yeah, mister janitor,

<v Speaker 1>I'm easy to find, hard to be like. Okay, But

<v Speaker 1>if they took greater care of their creative then something

<v Speaker 1>like this could work where Paul Hammon would have to

<v Speaker 1>pull some strings. You know, I know a few people

<v Speaker 1>and I'm gonna get you a title match, or I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna get you moved over from one brand to the other.

<v Speaker 1>But because they don't give a shit, they don't take

<v Speaker 1>it seriously because in their mind doesn't matter. It's just wrestling, right.

<v Speaker 1>Only the nerds and the dweebs and the IWC, only

<v Speaker 1>they give a shit about rules and that kind of

<v Speaker 1>nerd shit. The average fan, they don't care, so we

<v Speaker 1>don't care. That's their attitude about everything. And so because

<v Speaker 1>of that, it's like this favor is fucking stupid. It's

<v Speaker 1>fucking dumb. I like the idea though, of Gunther being

<v Speaker 1>moved to SmackDown, because what was left for him to

<v Speaker 1>do on RAW if he's not going after Roman reigns.

<v Speaker 1>You want to be honest, you want some real talk here,

<v Speaker 1>Let's let's let's do some real talk. We have the

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi Open Challenge, right, which is actively going on now

<v Speaker 1>on Monday nights. I came out last week and I said,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, I don't hate this idea. It's not

<v Speaker 1>a terrible idea. What's terrible is the overabundance of open

<v Speaker 1>challenges that we have in wrestling and in WWA. But

<v Speaker 1>the idea of him doing an open challenge and you know,

<v Speaker 1>getting maybe a few fun matches on TV. He had

<v Speaker 1>a fun match with Otis Sun Monday, right, But you

<v Speaker 1>can we can't have him going out there wrestling Otis

<v Speaker 1>every single week because Otis is not someone who is

<v Speaker 1>focused on Otis Is not someone that the fans are

<v Speaker 1>expecting you to go in there and lose to. So

<v Speaker 1>how many weeks are they going to drag the Open

<v Speaker 1>Challenge out for? It's gonna get old. They might be

<v Speaker 1>able to get to the end of next month, and

<v Speaker 1>if they do, King of the Ring, Opa Femi should

<v Speaker 1>win King of the Ring. Right. I've said this multiple

<v Speaker 1>times now, but in a perfect world, if you're not

<v Speaker 1>going to immediately put the World Heavyweight Championship on this guy, right,

<v Speaker 1>what is the endgame of the Open Challenges? There's only

<v Speaker 1>one name that really makes sense if you're not going

<v Speaker 1>with Oba and Roman yet, the only name that makes

<v Speaker 1>sense at the end of all of this is Gunther

<v Speaker 1>because Gunther is the final boss, right, As as was

<v Speaker 1>pointed out tonight Goldberg sena Aj, this guy is unstoppable.

<v Speaker 1>He's the career killer. Right. So now Obafemi, the hot

<v Speaker 1>new thing, the next big thing, runs into a brick

<v Speaker 1>wall in gun Th and you do Oba and Gunther

<v Speaker 1>and you have Oba beat Gunther because from the beginning

<v Speaker 1>of all of this career shit, if you are going

<v Speaker 1>to protect Gunther and keep him unbeaten throughout this entire

<v Speaker 1>period and make him dominant right then in the end,

<v Speaker 1>whatever that may be, a year from now, whenever you

<v Speaker 1>ideally would have someone new on the ascent, whether it

<v Speaker 1>was an Obafemi or a bron Breaker or whoever, be

<v Speaker 1>the person to ultimately beat Gunhther and hand him that

<v Speaker 1>first loss. Oba's the perfect person for that spot. That's

<v Speaker 1>the kind of person that should be beating Gunther at

<v Speaker 1>the end of all this. And I have grown to

<v Speaker 1>hate this career killer shit because you can only go

<v Speaker 1>so far with it. So honestly, the only reason to

<v Speaker 1>keep gunh on RAW would be to eventually have him

<v Speaker 1>lose to Oba Femi. And I wouldn't hold off on

<v Speaker 1>that for six months or a year. That's something than

<v Speaker 1>I would be doing in the next few months. Then

<v Speaker 1>he can move on to the World Heavyweight Championship. Now

<v Speaker 1>he's beaten Brock, he's beaten Gunther, There's only one mountain

<v Speaker 1>left to climb in that's Roman Reigns. So in a

<v Speaker 1>perfect world, that's how I would be using Obafemi. But

<v Speaker 1>outside of that, what else is there for Gunther to

<v Speaker 1>do on Raw? Realistically, they don't want to do him

<v Speaker 1>in Roman clearly, so move him over to SmackDown you

<v Speaker 1>put him in there with Cody. And also I love

<v Speaker 1>the fact that he's on a brand with Ilya Dragonov.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, person I pointed that out the other night.

<v Speaker 1>That's one of the other cool things about him being

<v Speaker 1>unsmacked Down is that he and Dragonov now share the

<v Speaker 1>same brand. So are they actually going to do that match?

<v Speaker 1>I don't know the guy's missing, he's mia. We haven't

<v Speaker 1>seen Dragonov in months, I guess, outside of him being

<v Speaker 1>in the Andre Battle Royal before that, it's been many,

<v Speaker 1>many weeks since we've seen him here on this television show.

<v Speaker 1>But they are now going to be on the same brand,

<v Speaker 1>assuming Gunther is in fact officially on SmackDown. As far

<v Speaker 1>as Clash in Italy, I like the match. I think

<v Speaker 1>if you do that match, I think he changed the

<v Speaker 1>title on that show. I'm not really sure why you

<v Speaker 1>would do that match and not change the title. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not sure why you would move Gunther to SmackDown to

<v Speaker 1>have him wrestle Cody to lose to Cody for a

<v Speaker 1>second time. Cody's already got to win over Gunther two

<v Speaker 1>years ago. I mean, what's really accomplished by the only

<v Speaker 1>thing I could think of is Randy Orton really is hurting.

<v Speaker 1>If Randy Orton needed a few extra weeks off, and

<v Speaker 1>the idea is to bring Randy Orton back and pick

<v Speaker 1>up where you left off a WrestleMania, because boy was

<v Speaker 1>that weird having him punt kick Cody in the head

<v Speaker 1>not following up on it. The only thing I can

<v Speaker 1>deduce from that is that Randy Orton needed some time off.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they have him work with Gunther for a little

<v Speaker 1>bit to kill time until Randy Orton comes back. But

<v Speaker 1>Guntherer is not the time killer, he's the career killer.

<v Speaker 1>That's not exactly the way I would be using Gunther.

<v Speaker 1>You're going to do that match, I think Guntherer should win. Personally,

<v Speaker 1>I think Guntherer should win, But I am looking forward

<v Speaker 1>to the match though. Yeah. The thing about Dragonow that

<v Speaker 1>really kind of burns my ass. And it's the same

<v Speaker 1>thing with Carmelo Hayes. You take the time to try

<v Speaker 1>to build these guys up. They did a good job

<v Speaker 1>with Carmelo Hayes. It took a while. It didn't happen

<v Speaker 1>right away. It took a while for them to get there,

<v Speaker 1>but he started to really get over with the audience

<v Speaker 1>and the reason he was getting over. It wasn't because

<v Speaker 1>of anything really outside of the really fun matches that

<v Speaker 1>he was having on TV. That's really what got him over.

<v Speaker 1>Same thing with Dragonoff. You know, Dragonov's a different kind

<v Speaker 1>of cat. Yeah, he's very intense. You know what to

<v Speaker 1>expect when he's in there wrestling, You're going to get

<v Speaker 1>a battle. And the fans were into it. So they

<v Speaker 1>were getting television time and it was like, Okay, this

<v Speaker 1>is working, this is good. They're establishing these guys in

<v Speaker 1>the card on the shows every Friday, and then they

<v Speaker 1>just vanish. No injuries that were aware of, nothing like that.

<v Speaker 1>I know Mello is getting married. That's a little bit

<v Speaker 1>later on. We're not there yet. I can't I can't

<v Speaker 1>remember if it's June or October. I want to say October.

<v Speaker 1>It could be June though, but we're not there yet

<v Speaker 1>because I'm trying to rack my brain, like why would

<v Speaker 1>these guys have just fallen off the face of the earth,

<v Speaker 1>both of them. At the same time, they were even

<v Speaker 1>telling a story with Dragonov where he was trying to

<v Speaker 1>get back his confidence and he got beat by Mello

<v Speaker 1>and that was it. Like they didn't continue or follow

<v Speaker 1>up on the story or anything like that. You work

<v Speaker 1>so hard to try to establish these guys on the

<v Speaker 1>show and they start to get over or show signs

<v Speaker 1>of it, and then you just pull them off the show,

<v Speaker 1>and I just I don't understand that. It doesn't make

<v Speaker 1>any sense to me. So now when they reappear, it's

<v Speaker 1>almost like you're starting from scratch again. That's why consistency

<v Speaker 1>on television is so important. They don't have to be

<v Speaker 1>there every week, but at least every other week they

<v Speaker 1>have to show their face. They have to be doing

<v Speaker 1>something meaningful on these shows, and for them to just

<v Speaker 1>kind of drop off the face of the earth like

<v Speaker 1>that just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense

<v Speaker 1>to me. Backstage, Toma Tonga told Solo Socoa that Royce

<v Speaker 1>Keys was a problem that needed to be dealt with.

<v Speaker 1>Solo said he sees Keys as more of a solution.

<v Speaker 1>Keys would be the perfect addition to their family, and

<v Speaker 1>Thomas said that Keys embarrassed him in front of everybody,

<v Speaker 1>and it doesn't sit right with him. So he said

<v Speaker 1>that he was going to go handle business and he

<v Speaker 1>left and Talatanga tried to follow, and Solo held him

<v Speaker 1>back and said if Tama wants to go out there alone.

<v Speaker 1>Let him find out on his own. We'll come back

<v Speaker 1>to this in a little bit. We had rookie Saints

<v Speaker 1>against QB four Matt Cardona. Not a great response. Last week.

<v Speaker 1>Ricky made his debut in Tulsa and a lot of

<v Speaker 1>people just didn't seem to know who he was because

<v Speaker 1>he went out there, and also he got one hype

<v Speaker 1>package on TV the week before he debuted and that

<v Speaker 1>was it. So he went out there last week and

<v Speaker 1>the reaction was just very lukewarm. This week in Jacksonville,

<v Speaker 1>which is a place where the people there should know

<v Speaker 1>who he is, and I would say the response really

<v Speaker 1>wasn't much better than it was last week. It's just

<v Speaker 1>it's gonna take time. But then again, I was saying

<v Speaker 1>that about Julia and here we are now, how many

<v Speaker 1>months later, and nothing has changed. So they fought into

<v Speaker 1>a break. Coming out of the commercial break, Cardona was

<v Speaker 1>starting to build some momentum the Brosky boot connects. The

<v Speaker 1>fans were so invested in this match though, that they

<v Speaker 1>started to chant hey, hey, hey, goodbye to someone in

<v Speaker 1>the crowd. Obviously somebody got ejected. It was a fight.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know something was going on in the crowd

<v Speaker 1>that was more interesting than this match. Saints rolled out

<v Speaker 1>of the ring to avoid a rough rider, but as

<v Speaker 1>he got back inside he got dropped with one. Anyway,

<v Speaker 1>not enough though to get card Dona. The dub Saints

<v Speaker 1>hit his Revolution DDT and then finished Cardona off with

<v Speaker 1>the Roe Shambeau. I thought that this was a decent

<v Speaker 1>piece of business here. They got a pretty decent amount

<v Speaker 1>of time. I think it was about eight minutes, eight

<v Speaker 1>and a half minutes, but it was one of those

<v Speaker 1>matches that felt probably four or five minutes longer than

<v Speaker 1>it really was. You know, a couple things on this.

<v Speaker 1>First of all, these are the types of matches they

<v Speaker 1>brought Cardona back for. I know some people are going

<v Speaker 1>to look at this and go, man, I can't believe

<v Speaker 1>you know that they should be doing. I had this discussion,

<v Speaker 1>I think with JD a few months ago on TNT,

<v Speaker 1>and I said, like, he's exactly where you would expect

<v Speaker 1>him to be. I don't know why some people thought

<v Speaker 1>that it would be anything other than what it is.

<v Speaker 1>Like if you saw Cardona when he was out of

<v Speaker 1>WWI and he was doing his thing on the independen scene.

<v Speaker 1>Nobody worked harder than that guy, And I still don't

<v Speaker 1>think he gets as much credit as he deserves for

<v Speaker 1>not only what he did to just sort of reinvent

<v Speaker 1>himself as an attraction and finding the success that he

<v Speaker 1>did is the indie god and the hardcore legend and

<v Speaker 1>all that stuff, but really what he did for the

<v Speaker 1>indies in general and like the different people he worked with,

<v Speaker 1>and he deserves a lot of credit for that. He

<v Speaker 1>found a lot of success, made a very good living

<v Speaker 1>for himself. Do I wish that he was in a

<v Speaker 1>little bit of a better position than what he's in now.

<v Speaker 1>I do, But then if you would have asked me, well,

<v Speaker 1>then what would you have him doing? What championship would

<v Speaker 1>you have him fighting for at the moment, None of them.

<v Speaker 1>He's pretty much in the spot that you would expect

<v Speaker 1>him to be in. He was never being brought back

<v Speaker 1>to be any sort of priority. He was never being

<v Speaker 1>brought back to be a world championship contender or anything

<v Speaker 1>like that. It was never going to happen. This is

<v Speaker 1>this right here is why they brought him back, so

<v Speaker 1>that he could go in there and he can help

<v Speaker 1>put other people over new guys over. He could put

<v Speaker 1>other people over who they intend to push at a

<v Speaker 1>level higher than him. So matches like this are what

<v Speaker 1>I expect him to be used for when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to his appearances here on these shows. But I look

<v Speaker 1>at Ricky Saints, who I'm a fan of. Yeah, I

<v Speaker 1>like Ricky, and I think it's great that he's on

<v Speaker 1>the main roster now and he's charismatic guy. I think

<v Speaker 1>he's a good promo and we'll see, we'll see what

<v Speaker 1>his ceiling is, We'll see how far he can go.

<v Speaker 1>But I look at him, especially after the reaction he's

<v Speaker 1>gotten over the last couple of weeks, and I'm like, man,

<v Speaker 1>this is a guy who I think would really benefit

<v Speaker 1>from the old I call it old school. It's not

<v Speaker 1>old school. I mean, this is one of those things

<v Speaker 1>that works today. But like the old school style of

<v Speaker 1>vignettes that build somebody up over a period of weeks

<v Speaker 1>before they actually make it appearance on the show. Think

<v Speaker 1>back you want to go really old school, Think back

<v Speaker 1>to the vignettes for mister Perfect playing all the games

<v Speaker 1>right and hitting the hole in wand and fucking horseshoes

<v Speaker 1>and everything else building up to his debut Razor Ramon,

<v Speaker 1>all the vignettes of him driving through the streets of Miami,

<v Speaker 1>He's sitting at the restaurant, ripping the tablecloth off right,

<v Speaker 1>riding down the street in his car, all that stuff

<v Speaker 1>that you'd how many weeks those vignettes ran for before

<v Speaker 1>he finally debuted on the show, And by the time

<v Speaker 1>they debuted on the show, you knew who they were.

<v Speaker 1>You knew enough about them to know whether you should

<v Speaker 1>boo them or cheer them, whether you should like them

<v Speaker 1>or hate them. You had built up their character. It's

<v Speaker 1>about character building. They're doing it to some degree now

<v Speaker 1>with Blake Monroe, but those vignettes are very basic and

<v Speaker 1>vanilla and boring. But that is the sort of thing

<v Speaker 1>I'm talking about here. Ricky Saints would have benefited from that.

<v Speaker 1>Imagine if they had six weeks worth of vignettes, like

<v Speaker 1>creative vignettes of Ricky Saint's doing something that you would

<v Speaker 1>expect Ricky Saints to be doing before he ever set

<v Speaker 1>foot in a ring. On SmackDown, they called so many

<v Speaker 1>people up recently, and a lot of them were called

<v Speaker 1>up the exact same way. Think about this, right, Think

<v Speaker 1>about this. Obafemi is kind of a special case because

<v Speaker 1>I think Obafemi everybody knows Obafemi. I mean, the sky's

<v Speaker 1>a limit for him. He's going to be the guy

<v Speaker 1>or one of the guys for them. He debuted in

<v Speaker 1>a big spot, right. He came out and accepted brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner's open challenge to a WrestleMania match and then went

<v Speaker 1>in there and beat him. Right, He's not like most

<v Speaker 1>other people that get called up. But then you have

<v Speaker 1>like Soul Ruka her first night in shows up and

<v Speaker 1>confronts the Women's World Champion. Just shows up. Ricky Saints

<v Speaker 1>last week shows up, interrupts the WWE champion. Fatal influence. Right.

<v Speaker 1>Think of all the people recently that have been called up,

<v Speaker 1>and many of them debut the same way. This is

<v Speaker 1>where I think some variety would really help some people

<v Speaker 1>you want to save as a surprise. Some people are

<v Speaker 1>like an Oba Femi and they're gonna call out the

<v Speaker 1>biggest dog in the yard. And then you have other

<v Speaker 1>people who need that sort of vignette treatment where you

<v Speaker 1>want to create an excitement and an interest around their

<v Speaker 1>debut before it actually happens. They're not doing enough of that.

<v Speaker 1>Ricky would have benefited from that it's about building characters.

<v Speaker 1>We don't have enough of this on the show. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not talking about characters like Dan Hausen. I just mean

<v Speaker 1>like it's character building. It's not enough sometimes to just

<v Speaker 1>throw somebody out there cold. I mean, this is why

<v Speaker 1>people bitch so much about when people show up in

<v Speaker 1>aw Oh, I don't know who this person is. Howk

<v Speaker 1>about didn't get a video package? Yeah, well, you know what,

<v Speaker 1>with a guy like this, it would have helped, I think,

<v Speaker 1>to have four to six weeks of videos. But hopefully

<v Speaker 1>over time now he'll start to build, you know, a

<v Speaker 1>rapport with the fan, and the fans will become more

<v Speaker 1>familiar with him and the reactions will grow. That's the hope,

<v Speaker 1>because right now they're not really there. I think they

<v Speaker 1>will be, but right now they're not there. So we

<v Speaker 1>got confirmation at this point in the show that Royce

<v Speaker 1>Keys against Tomatonga has been made official for later tonight. Meanwhile,

<v Speaker 1>in the back, we're at the viewing yet again for

<v Speaker 1>the Gingerbread Corpse, where Sammy Zane was complaining to somebody

<v Speaker 1>off camera who we couldn't see. I thought it was

<v Speaker 1>going to be like a janitor or something. It ended

<v Speaker 1>up bringing depressed Johnny Gargano, who is laying comatos. I

<v Speaker 1>think we're all depressed in comatos watching SmackDown, so we

<v Speaker 1>are all Johnny Gargano. Sammy asked if Johnny Wrestling is

<v Speaker 1>in there? You in there somewhere, and all of a sudden,

<v Speaker 1>Johnny kind of peers up at him and he's staring

<v Speaker 1>at him, and Sammy gets all excited. Oh he moved, Candace.

<v Speaker 1>He's calling for Candace Lray and Candace comes over and

<v Speaker 1>he's like, he moved, he moved, And of course now

<v Speaker 1>he's just there again. If she doesn't, it's like the

<v Speaker 1>fucking Michigan Ja Frog, Like I swear he was doing

<v Speaker 1>a dance with a little hat on his head and everything.

<v Speaker 1>You come over and look and there he is. You're

<v Speaker 1>just sitting in the box, like, what are you talking about? Dude?

<v Speaker 1>He hasn't moved, so she doesn't believe him. So Sammy

<v Speaker 1>walks over to Ray Phoenix, and he's very upset that

<v Speaker 1>Phoenix would show up for this farce because again he

<v Speaker 1>sees this entire thing as a personal shot at him.

<v Speaker 1>So Phoenix tells Sammy calm down, this isn't the place.

<v Speaker 1>Sammy says, you know what, you're right and he heads out.

<v Speaker 1>So then after this, the Women's Tag Team Champions, Bribella

<v Speaker 1>and Page are shown walking in the back when a

<v Speaker 1>ladder suddenly falls behind them, and then as they turn

<v Speaker 1>around to look at it, we see Dan Housen kind

<v Speaker 1>of zip across the screen he sprints by. But yes,

<v Speaker 1>a ladder narrowly missed Page and Bribella in the back.

<v Speaker 1>Were there any Alberto del dipshit sightings in Jacksonville tonight?

<v Speaker 1>Can he account for his whereabouts? But we have the

<v Speaker 1>Women's Tag Team Champions on their way down to the

<v Speaker 1>ring after a break for a promo, So yes, we

<v Speaker 1>heard bre Mode. Thankfully they didn't fuck up the music

<v Speaker 1>and play it twice like they did last week. So

<v Speaker 1>Brice said, there are lots of teams that want to

<v Speaker 1>prove themselves, prove that they can beat them, But is

<v Speaker 1>naya jackson Lash legend found out last week? No one's

<v Speaker 1>been able to do it. Page addressed the judgment Day's

<v Speaker 1>remarks from Monday that she and Brie were an nostalgia tour,

<v Speaker 1>stating that she and Bri are the best they've ever been.

<v Speaker 1>This is the best we've ever looked and this is

<v Speaker 1>the best that we've ever been. So they were ready

<v Speaker 1>to show Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez anytime, any place.

<v Speaker 1>Fatal Influence showed up as j C. Jane declared that

<v Speaker 1>the judgment day should not the ones that Page and

<v Speaker 1>Brie should worry about. She bragged about how they took

<v Speaker 1>out the two of them a couple of weeks ago.

<v Speaker 1>So after they were done spouting off, the Irresistible Forces

<v Speaker 1>showed up Naya Jackson, Lash Legend and Lash got whooped

<v Speaker 1>that trick chance as she got into the ring, which

<v Speaker 1>was kind of funny. They ended up laying out Page

<v Speaker 1>and Brie, and as I said, somewhere in this, Page

<v Speaker 1>got hurt. Apparently she suffered some sort of bloody wound.

<v Speaker 1>So then Fatal Influence. They're just standing in the ring

<v Speaker 1>watching this. They wanted no part of it. They saw

<v Speaker 1>the champs get beat down, They're like, hey, we're good,

<v Speaker 1>We're good. So Riha Ripley made her way down for

<v Speaker 1>the upcoming six woman tag team match and had a

<v Speaker 1>stare down with Lash and a stare down with Naya

<v Speaker 1>in the aisle, you know, for all to talk about how, oh,

<v Speaker 1>there's so many teams I want to prove themselves against us.

<v Speaker 1>We're right back to the fucking irresistible forces here, like,

<v Speaker 1>can we not do this again? Can we not go

<v Speaker 1>back to this? We got more AI generated shots inserting

<v Speaker 1>the gingerbread Men into classic WWE events, including the Macho

<v Speaker 1>Men and Elizabeth wedding reception. See I know everything there

<v Speaker 1>is to know about that. I don't remember Old ging

<v Speaker 1>being there, but there he was. He was sitting there

<v Speaker 1>watching them eat cake. They showed Gingy in the street

<v Speaker 1>doing a crotch shop next to the DX jeep, not

<v Speaker 1>a tank. I think some people have convinced themselves because

<v Speaker 1>they put the thing on the front that it was

<v Speaker 1>an actual tank that they were It's a fucking jeep

<v Speaker 1>that they were riding around, and there's the gingerbread Men

<v Speaker 1>in the street kind of in the background doing a

<v Speaker 1>crotch job as they were trying to invade WCW Monday Nitro.

<v Speaker 1>And then they showed the gingerbread Men in the crowd

<v Speaker 1>looking shocked after brock Lesner ended the Undertaker's undefeated streak.

<v Speaker 1>Very good, I said at the beginning, like the first

<v Speaker 1>time they were doing this, I was amused when you

<v Speaker 1>do it over and over and over again throughout the

<v Speaker 1>entire show. It gets fucking old Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair

<v Speaker 1>and Alexa Bliss against fatal influence, Ja c Jane Fallon Henley,

<v Speaker 1>and Laney Reid the weeks of Bruce Richard. All I'll

<v Speaker 1>say is, remember what Ronda Rousey said, as long as

<v Speaker 1>Bruce is there, he is an avatar for Vince McMahon.

<v Speaker 1>It would not at all surprise me. After a break,

<v Speaker 1>Laney Reid was working over Rhea. Ripley fought out, She

<v Speaker 1>made the tag to Charlotte and she was lighting up

<v Speaker 1>red and JC with chops came off the top rope

<v Speaker 1>with a double cross body to Laney and Jane, double

<v Speaker 1>natural celect to both women. Alexa Bliss tagged in Jac's

<v Speaker 1>rolling on Core, got countered into a Sister Abigail attempt

<v Speaker 1>by Bliss. No dice though, and with Ripley on the apron,

<v Speaker 1>Jade Cargill shows up, Whereas I have to say it

<v Speaker 1>the way Joe Test does. Jade Cargile showed up and

<v Speaker 1>she yanked Rhea off the apron. She fell down face

<v Speaker 1>first onto the steel steps and that allowed the rolling

<v Speaker 1>on Core from JC Jane to connect in the ring

<v Speaker 1>for the pin on Alexa Bliss to give the wind

<v Speaker 1>to fatal influence. That is back to back pinfall wins

<v Speaker 1>now for JC Jane over Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss,

<v Speaker 1>two former women's World champions. She's doing pretty well for

<v Speaker 1>herself so far, I would say, outside of Oba Femi,

<v Speaker 1>and he was called up a little bit earlier, but

<v Speaker 1>outside of Oba, she's probably doing better than anybody. So

<v Speaker 1>after the match, Jade got into the ring and Alex

<v Speaker 1>is on the mat in the corner, like laying not

<v Speaker 1>like sitting there, laying on the mat, and I'm like

<v Speaker 1>looking and I'm typing up some notes here and nothing's happening.

<v Speaker 1>Jade's just standing there and the camera's very tight on

<v Speaker 1>her and she's talking shit to Alexa. I'm like, what

<v Speaker 1>the hell? Like someone coming out? Like what are we

<v Speaker 1>waiting for here? And the referee said something to Jade,

<v Speaker 1>communicated something to her. I don't know what she said,

<v Speaker 1>but it felt like they were stalling for something and

<v Speaker 1>waiting on someone to come out. And then finally we

<v Speaker 1>see Meechen and befab as. Charlotte Flair is about to

<v Speaker 1>slide into the ring, Meechin and Befab hit the scene

<v Speaker 1>to stop her from doing so, and so I guess

<v Speaker 1>they got held up where they missed their que or

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what happened, but it looked like they

<v Speaker 1>were laid on the call there. So they went after

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte and she took care of the batties, but she

<v Speaker 1>ended up eating a pump kick from Jade. So, as

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned, jac getting the way good sign for JC.

<v Speaker 1>I like the fact that Fatal Influence is finally up

<v Speaker 1>on the main roster, and I think it gives that

<v Speaker 1>women's division a good shot in the arm. So thumbs up, right,

<v Speaker 1>That's one of the few positive things I can say

<v Speaker 1>about this show tonight. But unfortunately her win was sort

<v Speaker 1>of overshadowed by the stuff with Jade and the bad

<v Speaker 1>ease when the match was over. So, yeah, she won,

<v Speaker 1>but it was kind of an afterthought as far as

<v Speaker 1>them running back Rhea and Jade. I mean, look, this

<v Speaker 1>is what I expected. The only thing is I would

<v Speaker 1>have expected the match to be a backlash and they

<v Speaker 1>could still add I guess it's over. It's too late now,

<v Speaker 1>but they could have added it tonight if they wanted to.

<v Speaker 1>It could have added it to the backlash card to

<v Speaker 1>give us six matches. God forbid, we should get six

<v Speaker 1>matches on this pl So I guess we'll get it

<v Speaker 1>in Italy. I guess at the end of the month.

<v Speaker 1>But nobody should be surprised by this. Jade was always

<v Speaker 1>going to get her rematch. If it wasn't going to

<v Speaker 1>be a backlash, it was going to be some other time.

<v Speaker 1>So before Ria can move on to whoever that next

<v Speaker 1>challenger is going to be, they're going to get at

<v Speaker 1>least one more match, maybe more than one, but they're

<v Speaker 1>gonna get at least one more match out of him,

<v Speaker 1>maybe with a stipulation. Doesn't move me, not really, but

<v Speaker 1>look the match they had at WrestleMania. It was better

<v Speaker 1>than I expected it to be. It's not like they

<v Speaker 1>went out there at WRESTLEMANI and had a terrible match,

<v Speaker 1>said they'll run it back one more time, reel beat

<v Speaker 1>her again and then we'll move on from this. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know where Jade goes from here, but real will

<v Speaker 1>move on to somebody else, maybe Keanu. We had Royce

<v Speaker 1>Keys against Tomatanga, despite Solo Sukoa telling Talatanga in the

<v Speaker 1>back earlier in the night that they were going to

<v Speaker 1>let Toma go out there on his own. They came

<v Speaker 1>to the ring with him anyway, So okay. After a

<v Speaker 1>break in the action, Keys was making to come back.

<v Speaker 1>Hit a running pounce, so the straps come down. The

<v Speaker 1>old Damien priest down, come the straps. So he's feeling it.

<v Speaker 1>Power slam gets a two count. He picks up Tama,

<v Speaker 1>but it got reversed into an inverted DDT for a

<v Speaker 1>near fall. So he sent Tama out over the top

<v Speaker 1>rope with a clothesline, and he was getting ready to

<v Speaker 1>go after Solo Socoa and Talla Tonga outside on the floor,

<v Speaker 1>but the MFTs backed away. They were like them, he

<v Speaker 1>wants to do it on his own. He wants to

<v Speaker 1>fight his own battles. He's going to do it himself.

<v Speaker 1>They weren't lifting a finger to help Tomatanga here. So

<v Speaker 1>Tama attempted to die from the top rope and he

<v Speaker 1>got caught by Keys into a spinebuster and Keys picked

<v Speaker 1>up the wind. Look, it's not a match that I

<v Speaker 1>would sit here and tell you. You have to go

<v Speaker 1>out of your way to see it was fine. It

<v Speaker 1>was a perfectly solid match. It's just the sort of

<v Speaker 1>thing that they need to be doing with Royce Keys,

<v Speaker 1>you know. I mean they need to be feeding him

<v Speaker 1>wins on this show, to make him look as dominant

<v Speaker 1>as possible, to make him look like a killer when

<v Speaker 1>he's out there. He hits that spinebuster. It's a great

<v Speaker 1>looking spinebuster, very arn Anderson esque. And so you have

<v Speaker 1>him going out there power slamming and spinebustering people every

<v Speaker 1>single week and pulling the straps down and he's dapping

<v Speaker 1>it up with Jacob Fatu right rubbing elbows, one of

<v Speaker 1>the bigger names on the show. They're doing what they

<v Speaker 1>need to be doing right now at Royce Keys. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I still feel like he's going to be better off

<v Speaker 1>as a heel. I think as a heel is where

<v Speaker 1>he will have an opportunity to really shine on this show.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't feel like it's something they are going to

<v Speaker 1>be leaning into anytime, unless I'm right about the whole

<v Speaker 1>vibe I was getting off the Jacob Fatu stuff. But

<v Speaker 1>they've really built him up like he's from this rough upbringing.

<v Speaker 1>And they showed the podcast clips of him with Stephanie

<v Speaker 1>McMahon where he's talking about his brother who got killed

<v Speaker 1>and tears streaming down his face. It would be kind

<v Speaker 1>of odd if they just suddenly turned him heel all

<v Speaker 1>of a sudden, But I still feel like at some point,

<v Speaker 1>turning him heel and then letting him, you know, work

<v Speaker 1>with some of the baby faces on the show, is

<v Speaker 1>going to be the way to go with him. So

<v Speaker 1>in the back we are with Dan Housen. I remember

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned earlier that he had this Eureka moment when

<v Speaker 1>he saw his reflection in the mirror and he realized,

<v Speaker 1>I found my tag team partner. I'm going to team

<v Speaker 1>with myself. So he's in the back by himself. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know where the fuck he is, some darkened corner somewhere,

<v Speaker 1>and he has all of this like science equipment, in

<v Speaker 1>these vials of various liquids. He has one of those balls,

<v Speaker 1>the laser balls. That's so weird that he had that too,

<v Speaker 1>because I literally on Tuesday, I think it was Tuesday,

<v Speaker 1>on Tuesday Night Titans. I don't remember what we were

<v Speaker 1>talking about, but we were having discuss about something and

<v Speaker 1>I brought up Spencer Gifts and I brought those I

<v Speaker 1>brought those laser balls up. I have one of those.

<v Speaker 1>I had. It's in a closet somewhere, but I actually

<v Speaker 1>have one of those. They're kind of cool because you

<v Speaker 1>put your hand on it and the you know, the

<v Speaker 1>laser follows your hand around. It was like one hundred bucks.

<v Speaker 1>So he's got one of those on display. It's like

<v Speaker 1>he's in a science lab, right, and then next to

<v Speaker 1>him is I don't even know how to discs some

<v Speaker 1>sort of chamber that he's created, and we see lights

<v Speaker 1>flickering on the inside of it, and it says like

<v Speaker 1>clone or clone machine whatever it was, trying to clone himself.

<v Speaker 1>Remember on Family Matters back in the day when Rkele

<v Speaker 1>had he had like a similar type of contraption, and

<v Speaker 1>then Stefan remember Stefan or cal his his cool, his

<v Speaker 1>cool clone would emerge from it. That's basically what this

<v Speaker 1>thing looked like. He's got a computer, he's typing shit

<v Speaker 1>into the computer, Sparks start flying, everything, shit goes haywire.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't work, It just doesn't work out. But he

<v Speaker 1>says in twenty four hours he'll have his partner for backlash.

<v Speaker 1>And then from this we go into the gingerbread stuff later.

<v Speaker 1>It's like I feel like, I don't feel like I'm

<v Speaker 1>watching a wrestling show. I feel like sometimes I'm watching

<v Speaker 1>a parody of a wrestling show. That's what SmackDown feels like.

<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it feels like a parody of a wrestling show.

<v Speaker 1>After the break, Toma Tonga's in the back, very dejected

<v Speaker 1>after his loss. Shinsky Nakamura shows up. This guy just

<v Speaker 1>will he will not let shit lay, He will not

<v Speaker 1>leave this man alone. And Nakamura is very disappointed in Tama.

<v Speaker 1>Even Toma's own brother won't help him. So Talatonga shows up,

<v Speaker 1>tells Knakamura back off, and Nakamura said something in Japanese

<v Speaker 1>and I guess we'll see if we get a match

<v Speaker 1>between Nakamora and Taalatanga next week. At that point, Joe

<v Speaker 1>Tessitur and Wade Barrett, they ran down the minuscule card

<v Speaker 1>that we have tomorrow for Backlash. As I will do

<v Speaker 1>here in a little bit, we'll go through the matches.

<v Speaker 1>Trick Williams is in the back and he bumps into

<v Speaker 1>Nick all this, and all this says that all the

<v Speaker 1>arrangements are in place for the gingerbread Man funeral. And

<v Speaker 1>you've got the last fifteen minutes all to yourself. They're

<v Speaker 1>dedicating the final fifteen minutes of this show to the

<v Speaker 1>gingerbread Men. And then they cut to the arena. We

<v Speaker 1>see the casket is in the ring and the flower

<v Speaker 1>arrangements are being set up because after this commercial break,

<v Speaker 1>we're gonna have ourselves a funeral. Because nothing says stay

<v Speaker 1>tuned for the excite, the exciting conclusion of SmackDown as

<v Speaker 1>we bring a funeral to you, oh boy. And indeed

<v Speaker 1>they close the show with the gingerbread Men. They gave

<v Speaker 1>him an open casket. By the way, Trick Williams got

<v Speaker 1>a full entrance, and it was mostly his normal entrance.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he wasn't maybe being as boisterous, but it

<v Speaker 1>wasn't like he was. He didn't look terribly sad. He

<v Speaker 1>had some sort of cup or goblet, I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what it was. Fucking gangrel out there. He had some

<v Speaker 1>sort of goblet looking thing in his hand and he

<v Speaker 1>poured one out for the gingerbread Men. And it's instead

<v Speaker 1>of you know, liquor, it was milk at least I

<v Speaker 1>hope that's what it was. So there was a choir

<v Speaker 1>in the ring. Trick got a mic and he asked

<v Speaker 1>all of us to bear with him, and they played

<v Speaker 1>some sad music and he delivered a song I guess

<v Speaker 1>what you would call a song style, not strong style,

<v Speaker 1>a song style eulogy. Basically, the gist of it is

<v Speaker 1>he wants to know why the gingerbread had to die.

<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty sure it has to do with mental illness

<v Speaker 1>running rampant on the creative team. But that's not the

<v Speaker 1>sort of thing that they could really fit into those

<v Speaker 1>rap style lyrics. I think that's what we're dealing with here.

<v Speaker 1>Though this week's episode is sponsored by Wicks. I know

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<v Speaker 1>at wix dot com slash Harmony. That's wix dot com

<v Speaker 1>slash harmony. So then they just went all out again

<v Speaker 1>with the AI shit. But like in like video or

<v Speaker 1>slideshow form where we see a whole montage a tribute

<v Speaker 1>to the gingerbread Man, showing images of him from birth

<v Speaker 1>all the way through the college years and his sports years.

<v Speaker 1>I think they showed him as an astronaut and one

<v Speaker 1>of them are on the fucking moon or something. All

<v Speaker 1>these like the highlights of his life. So there's a

<v Speaker 1>light gingerbread chant at the end of all this. Trick

<v Speaker 1>then calls for a moment of silence, so of course

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's ain't comes out. He has heard enough, he has

<v Speaker 1>seen enough of this, so out he comes. He's sick

<v Speaker 1>and tired of people putting up with this nonsense. He

<v Speaker 1>thinks he's losing his mind because this is gone all night. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>you're not the only one who feels that way. With

<v Speaker 1>the fans booed him when he came out. He was

<v Speaker 1>just incredulous. He couldn't believe you're booing me. You're watching

<v Speaker 1>all of this shit and you boo me coming out

<v Speaker 1>to interrupt this, says he thinks he's losing his mind

<v Speaker 1>that this has gone on all night. He says, TV

<v Speaker 1>time on SmackDown used to mean something, Yeah, tell me

<v Speaker 1>about it. Closing an episode meant something, The US Championship

<v Speaker 1>meant something. Now it's all just a joke. A couple

<v Speaker 1>of weeks ago, Trick said that nobody messes with his money,

<v Speaker 1>and Sammy asked him, how much money did you spend

<v Speaker 1>on this stupid shit between all the roses and the casket.

<v Speaker 1>He saw the casket earlier. It's solid oak, he said,

<v Speaker 1>solid oak, like the aw announced desk. Sammy would never

<v Speaker 1>do this because he respects himself, he respects this show,

<v Speaker 1>and he respects the fans who paid their hard earned

<v Speaker 1>money to sit through this crap. You know what my

<v Speaker 1>attitude is this at this point, if if you're paying

<v Speaker 1>to these TKO prices to go see this shit, then

<v Speaker 1>you get exactly what you deserve. You can't you can

<v Speaker 1>no longer pay for a ticket to a WWE event,

<v Speaker 1>however much money it may be, and then complain when

<v Speaker 1>you get your usual WWE slash tkoslop that they give

<v Speaker 1>you on these shows. Like at this point, there's just

<v Speaker 1>no there's no excuse, Like that's on you, that's not

<v Speaker 1>on anybody else. That's on you. And if you like it, great,

<v Speaker 1>but if you don't like it, that's on you. So

<v Speaker 1>Zaan called himself a working class hero who represented his

<v Speaker 1>rider die fans until the very end. So he got

<v Speaker 1>into the ring and he says he's done everything in

<v Speaker 1>this industry. Guys better than Trick for two decades have tried,

<v Speaker 1>but they couldn't do it. But that being said, Sammy

<v Speaker 1>admits that trick he got in his head. He got

<v Speaker 1>in his head a little bit with this stuff. But

<v Speaker 1>he goes, Trick played himself. And now this is personal

<v Speaker 1>for Sammy at Backlash, it's not just about the United

<v Speaker 1>States Championship again, it's person but he will take the

<v Speaker 1>US title and then he'll make Trick an even bigger joke.

<v Speaker 1>And he goes, sorry for your loss, I'll see you

<v Speaker 1>with Backlash, And he made like he was going to

<v Speaker 1>go leave, but he took a cheap shot, a trick.

<v Speaker 1>He got him down in the corner. He was raining

<v Speaker 1>blows down upon him. He was shoving the US title

<v Speaker 1>in his face. And then Sammy is posing with the title.

<v Speaker 1>But they framed this shot in such a way where

<v Speaker 1>the open casket with the gingerbread Man was right behind him.

<v Speaker 1>And so you knew that someone was in the costume.

<v Speaker 1>Last week it was a mannequin. It was very clear

<v Speaker 1>there was nobody in the costume. This time though, it

<v Speaker 1>was very clear that somebody was gonna sit up, and

<v Speaker 1>sure enough, the gingerbread Man does the Undertaker zombie sit

<v Speaker 1>up in the casket and pulls the head off and

<v Speaker 1>it's Lil YACHTI. He was laying in there the entire time.

<v Speaker 1>So he gets out of the casket and he blasts

<v Speaker 1>Sammy from behind with the the cane, the candy cane,

<v Speaker 1>and Trick gets some position for a trick shot, knee

<v Speaker 1>puts down Sammy with the knee strike, and the closing

<v Speaker 1>parting shot of SmackDown has the United States Champion Trick

<v Speaker 1>Williams standing tall with Liliyati over Sammy's Ain, which only

<v Speaker 1>makes my prediction that much in my opinion, that much

<v Speaker 1>more likely that Sammy's Ain wins the US title back

<v Speaker 1>tomorrow night. If it's me, I'm putting that bell back

<v Speaker 1>on Sammy's Ain tomorrow. I think that. I think you

<v Speaker 1>have to if you want to keep this story going.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it works. I mean, if they want

<v Speaker 1>to blow it off tomorrow, then that's the end of it.

<v Speaker 1>But you want to keep this going, you gotta put

<v Speaker 1>the bell back on Sammy. You'll put more heat on

<v Speaker 1>him that way, and it gives Trick a reason to

<v Speaker 1>continue to chase this guy for at least one more match. Well,

<v Speaker 1>I'm picking Sammy to win the US title back tomorrow night.

<v Speaker 1>But that was the end of this show. Was I

<v Speaker 1>was just I was done with this show. I was

<v Speaker 1>done with this show. You know, there's always room for dumb,

<v Speaker 1>silly humor, but on a show where you had Dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen and his cloning machine, we did not need all

<v Speaker 1>of the gingerbread stuff for three hours, Like I'm sorry,

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, multiple times, I'm watching this show, Like what

<v Speaker 1>the fuck am I watching here? There's a Backlash show tomorrow.

<v Speaker 1>At least Trick and Sammy actually have a match on

<v Speaker 1>that show. Imagine how much worse it would have been

<v Speaker 1>if they weren't even wrestling on Backlash and the entire

<v Speaker 1>show was built around this nonsense. It was bad enough

<v Speaker 1>as it is, this show somehow gets worse and worse

<v Speaker 1>and worse to sit through every single week. It's painful

<v Speaker 1>sometimes to sit through these shows and just this feeling

<v Speaker 1>of nothing, just nothing. I watched some of these shows

<v Speaker 1>on Friday. I feel nothing. In some cases for people

<v Speaker 1>who at one point as focal points on the show,

<v Speaker 1>I felt something for I wanted to see them, or

<v Speaker 1>I wanted to see them against this per or there

<v Speaker 1>was something about it that I wanted to see. Where

<v Speaker 1>have we gone? With SmackDown. How did the show? How

<v Speaker 1>did we go from where the show was at one

<v Speaker 1>time in the last couple of years to where this

<v Speaker 1>show is now? How is it that I'll watch RAW

<v Speaker 1>on most weeks and not that Raw is great every

<v Speaker 1>single week, but generally speaking, I would say Rah's a

<v Speaker 1>pretty good show on the whole most weeks. And how

<v Speaker 1>is it that we have a creative team putting together

<v Speaker 1>these shows where we have the show we get on

<v Speaker 1>netfl Flick some Mondays and then we turn around a

<v Speaker 1>few days later and get this show on Fridays. How

<v Speaker 1>is there so much of a discrepancy between the two

<v Speaker 1>I don't understand it, But we hit the goal ten

<v Speaker 1>out of ten. That's good. Backlash five matches tomorrow, two

<v Speaker 1>matches on the ESPN two first hour, and those matches

<v Speaker 1>are going to be bron Breaker against Seth Rollins, which

<v Speaker 1>I believe is going to be won by bron Breaker.

<v Speaker 1>I believe the trick Williams Samy's a US title matches.

<v Speaker 1>The other match on Hour one again my prediction, Sammy's

<v Speaker 1>Ain wins back the United States Championship, which I think

<v Speaker 1>is a must if you want to keep this going

<v Speaker 1>for a little while longer Samy's got to win the

<v Speaker 1>belt back trick loses nothing from losing the belt Sammy

<v Speaker 1>provided Sammy wins the belt by nefarious means. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>advocating Sammy's aming to go in there and just beat

<v Speaker 1>him clean with a halluva kick, But I'm gonna say

<v Speaker 1>we have a new US champion. EO Sky is gonna go,

<v Speaker 1>is gonna go one on one with that woman talk

<v Speaker 1>about timing Osca. When was the last time? Somebody will

<v Speaker 1>look this up for me, because I don't know the answer.

<v Speaker 1>When was the last time that Osca had and I'm

<v Speaker 1>not counting the Women's Royal rumbel? When was the last

<v Speaker 1>time that Oscar had a match on a ple e?

<v Speaker 1>And when was the last time Oscar had a singles

<v Speaker 1>match on a ple See, Let's see who can find

<v Speaker 1>the answer, because I don't. I don't even know. It's

<v Speaker 1>been a while and this should have been on the

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania car. We're getting it now. Unfortunately, Kyrie Saying is

<v Speaker 1>not here to pay the story off in the way

<v Speaker 1>that I think many of us were kind of hoping.

<v Speaker 1>I think they're still an outside shot they could work

<v Speaker 1>out some sort of deal to get her in as

<v Speaker 1>a one off to at least finish the story. I'm

<v Speaker 1>hoping that she does make an appearance tomorrow, but whether

<v Speaker 1>she does or she doesn't, it doesn't to me anyway

<v Speaker 1>change the outcome. I think Eo Sky needs to win this.

<v Speaker 1>EO has really been marginalized over the last few months.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Ria Ripley went and won the Women's championship

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown. She's doing her thing. EO's been doing a

<v Speaker 1>whole lot on nothing. She needs this win, and I

<v Speaker 1>think she gets it. Dan Housen and a mystery partner

<v Speaker 1>take on the Miz and Kit Wilson. I think the

<v Speaker 1>mystery partner is going to be Jelly Roll because that's

<v Speaker 1>the one that honestly would make the most sense. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not saying it's something I want to see. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think this fucking match needs to be on this show,

<v Speaker 1>but it is. I think jelly Roll is going to

<v Speaker 1>be the partner, and I think Dan and Jelly role winning.

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen and anybody, it doesn't matter who's in that spot.

<v Speaker 1>I could be in that spot. It doesn't matter is Louis.

<v Speaker 1>I think Luis is with us. Then Night Luis, you

<v Speaker 1>could be in that spot and Dan Housen's team will

<v Speaker 1>still win tomorrow night. And then we also have Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns and Jacob Fatu for the World heavyweight Championship. I

<v Speaker 1>can't see Roman dropping the belt. It would be a

<v Speaker 1>nice little shocker if he did. I would love to

<v Speaker 1>see Jacob fa Tou beat Roman Rains and get a run.

<v Speaker 1>Is the world heavyweight champion. You get no argument out

<v Speaker 1>of me. Realistically, I can't sit here and tell you

<v Speaker 1>I think it's gonna happen. Roman's gonna win. But I

<v Speaker 1>feel like something something has to happen here, whether it

<v Speaker 1>is Royce Keys screwing over Jacob fa too. He's been

<v Speaker 1>very disingenuous with him, let's say the last few weeks

<v Speaker 1>or and But the thing with Keys also is Solo

<v Speaker 1>Socoa is tied into this, right He's the one who's

<v Speaker 1>trying to recruit Royce Keys, And it doesn't feel like

<v Speaker 1>Roy's Keys is interested. But what if he is? Right?

<v Speaker 1>So it could it could play into this in some way.

<v Speaker 1>I think the Ussel's almost not that they have to,

<v Speaker 1>but I feel like the Ussels are going to be

<v Speaker 1>involved in this in some way. They're gonna show their face.

<v Speaker 1>They're gonna have some sort of involvement. Maybe it's postmatch,

<v Speaker 1>maybe it's not even during the match itself, but they

<v Speaker 1>have to shoot some sort of angle, I would think.

<v Speaker 1>But Roman, I think, is going to retain, and then

<v Speaker 1>we have John Cena, a big body bear, says Oscar's

<v Speaker 1>last pl E singles match was when she dropped the

<v Speaker 1>Raw Women's title to Bianca Belair at WrestleMania thirty nine. Wow,

<v Speaker 1>three years ago. That sounds about right. I knew it.

<v Speaker 1>It had been a while since she had a singles match,

<v Speaker 1>but I didn't. I couldn't remember what the match was.

<v Speaker 1>John Cena is going to be at Backlash. Apparently he

<v Speaker 1>lives in Tampa or near nearby, so for him, he'll

<v Speaker 1>probably be able to sleep in his own bed tomorrow night.

<v Speaker 1>So for him, it's an easy trip. And he retired,

<v Speaker 1>of course, back in December, they brought him back to

<v Speaker 1>host WrestleMania, and what two weeks later, now two and

<v Speaker 1>a half weeks later, it's like, hey, John, we want

<v Speaker 1>you back again. So he's going to be on the show,

<v Speaker 1>and he keeps building this announcement up epic historic. It's

<v Speaker 1>going to be a history making announcement that affects everybody,

<v Speaker 1>from the talent to the legends to the fans. It's

<v Speaker 1>gonna shake the very foundation of WWE. And I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>that it is in some way tied into this club

<v Speaker 1>WWE membership sir that they're about to roll out. They

<v Speaker 1>haven't announced what the annual membership fee is going to.

<v Speaker 1>I can only imagine what it's going to be. And

<v Speaker 1>I guess he's going to be the face of it.

<v Speaker 1>They're going to use him to help promote it. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure it's tied into that in some way. I can't

<v Speaker 1>even venture a guess as to what this is. I would,

<v Speaker 1>as somebody who has watched enough WWE. They love throwing

<v Speaker 1>around these superlatives, right, these big words epic and game

<v Speaker 1>changing and all this stuff, and more often than not

<v Speaker 1>it lands with a thud. It does not live up

<v Speaker 1>to expectations, because again, you start using words like that

<v Speaker 1>and people let their imaginations run wild. But they're doing

<v Speaker 1>it so much and so blatantly this week that I

<v Speaker 1>almost feel like they must have something that they feel

<v Speaker 1>is a really big deal. Fuck if I know what

<v Speaker 1>it is, But you would think they keep throwing these

<v Speaker 1>words out there. All you're doing is shooting yourself in

<v Speaker 1>the foot unless you've got something really big. So we'll

<v Speaker 1>find out together what it's going to be tomorrow night.

<v Speaker 1>But every time he does one of these promos or

<v Speaker 1>he puts a video up on social media and he's like, oh,

<v Speaker 1>this is you know, this is gonna be epic, This

<v Speaker 1>is gonna be game changing, this is gonna be change

<v Speaker 1>the landscape. I'm sure Triple H will be sure to

<v Speaker 1>tell us that we're in a new era tomorrow night,

<v Speaker 1>the era of Club WWE. What kind of perk could

<v Speaker 1>they offer for CLUBWWE that you would consider it to

<v Speaker 1>be epic? Like clubw It can't just be Club WWE itself, right,

<v Speaker 1>they've already announced it, we already know it exists. It

<v Speaker 1>has to be something about it, like what could they

<v Speaker 1>possibly offer that you feel would live up to the

<v Speaker 1>hype that is surrounding this announcement? And maybe on the

<v Speaker 1>flip side of that, what would you like to see

<v Speaker 1>that might be the better question. Let's see what you

<v Speaker 1>guys come up with, and I'm going to launch on

<v Speaker 1>over into the super chats here find out what you

<v Speaker 1>guys thought of this show tonight. One dollars. Somebody said

<v Speaker 1>the archives. So what does that mean? You Like, as

<v Speaker 1>a Club WWI member, you get some sort of special

<v Speaker 1>password restricted access to the full WWE vault. I'll tell

<v Speaker 1>you what I would sign up for Club WWA, you

<v Speaker 1>get me to sign up. I don't see how that's

<v Speaker 1>necessarily going to be some epic game changing thing, though

<v Speaker 1>for everybody else, I think I don't think most people

<v Speaker 1>would give a shit about that. The only the nerds

<v Speaker 1>and the geeks like you and me, the sheltered kid

<v Speaker 1>kicking us off here solo. I need your honest opinion.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think I should give up on WWE? I

<v Speaker 1>know that if you didn't have a podcast, you wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>watch either. What should I do? I wouldn't watch this

<v Speaker 1>show and say I wouldn't watch any of it what

<v Speaker 1>I watched SmackDown, absolutely not. Look, I can't tell you

<v Speaker 1>what to do. I can't tell you what to do.

<v Speaker 1>That's entirely up to you. Brother. If you feel like

<v Speaker 1>you know you are having trouble sitting through the shows,

<v Speaker 1>and the TV shows are just so awful, you're not

<v Speaker 1>deriving any sort of pleasure whatsoever out of them, not

<v Speaker 1>even a little bit then I would say, don't bother watching,

<v Speaker 1>and if you want to keep up with what's going on,

<v Speaker 1>that's why I'm here, you know, That's why a lot

<v Speaker 1>of podcasts are here keep you up to dan on

<v Speaker 1>what's going on. They watch so you don't have to.

<v Speaker 1>It's hard for some people. They just they fall out

<v Speaker 1>of it, or the product is just so bad and

<v Speaker 1>boring that they can't stand watching it. But they want

<v Speaker 1>to keep up with what's going on, and so you

<v Speaker 1>could check out YouTube clips and stuff. But yeah, that's

<v Speaker 1>that's where podcasts become very helpful. Only you can answer

<v Speaker 1>that question, Olivia, give us Ko versus Punk, No celebrities,

<v Speaker 1>just killer promos. Well, Ko has to come back first.

<v Speaker 1>We're all waiting for him to come back. Dry Chicken says,

<v Speaker 1>I'm setting the bar real load tonight. I'm watching Mortal

<v Speaker 1>Kombat Annihilation over SmackDown tonight. Well, you made the right choice,

<v Speaker 1>Bossmo Jackson. Wwe should fire John g to put him out, Oh,

<v Speaker 1>Johnny Gargana to put him out of his misery. I'm

<v Speaker 1>shocked he's still there. I gotta be honest with you.

<v Speaker 1>I am I'm I'm shocked. I mean, good for him,

<v Speaker 1>but I'm shocked he's still there. Let Kyrie saying go

<v Speaker 1>and kept Johnny Gargano. That's incredible to me when Kyrie

<v Speaker 1>was in the middle of an actual storyline and Johnny's

<v Speaker 1>been laying around comatos on top of equipment crates. I

<v Speaker 1>have no good answer for you. Also, he says, both

<v Speaker 1>a E W and WWE suck on these thumbs down

<v Speaker 1>on these shows. Thank you, Bossmo Jackson. Leo says, I

<v Speaker 1>wish WWE would start booking Keana better. I really hope

<v Speaker 1>they see her as a future world champion and they

<v Speaker 1>don't waste her potential. I feel like they see a

<v Speaker 1>big upside in her, so I think she's gonna be okay.

<v Speaker 1>Shop Dwell, do you still think Sammy wins the US

<v Speaker 1>title on Saturday? Yes? I do. I'm sticking to that,

<v Speaker 1>justin with a nine to ninety nine, Hey, solo. Has

<v Speaker 1>any superstar that has had a solo cover of a

<v Speaker 1>pay per view ever lost their pay per view match? Yes?

<v Speaker 1>I vividly remember there being a Royal Rumble poster many

<v Speaker 1>years ago that had Santino Morella on there with like

<v Speaker 1>a not a magic eight ball, but some sort of

<v Speaker 1>crystal ball, like he was a fortune teller. I don't

<v Speaker 1>remember what rumble it was, but I could tell you

<v Speaker 1>he didn't win. And then there was another pay per

<v Speaker 1>view I know where Our Truth had a pay per

<v Speaker 1>view poster that he was on solo, and I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>he didn't win that either, So yeah, I'm sure there's

<v Speaker 1>been a lot of them. Temjiin Zephyr his solo. I

<v Speaker 1>just got back from theaters watching Mortal Kombat too, and

<v Speaker 1>it was fucking awesome. Love to hear your thoughts on it. Also,

<v Speaker 1>while you see Obsession, heard great things that you know.

<v Speaker 1>It's funny. I only heard about Obsession today. They had

<v Speaker 1>a trailer for it that actually aired before the movie

<v Speaker 1>and it looked interesting. I don't know, it kind of

<v Speaker 1>slipped under the radar for me. I hadn't heard about

<v Speaker 1>it until today. Yeah. I saw the movie earlier and

<v Speaker 1>tweeted about it that I enjoyed it. I had fun

<v Speaker 1>with it. I had fun with it. I don't want

<v Speaker 1>to give away any spoilers or anything, but if anybody

<v Speaker 1>is on the fence about seeing the new Mortal Kombat movie,

<v Speaker 1>because I had a rush to see the first one

<v Speaker 1>from five years ago, and I saw that on the

<v Speaker 1>plane ride into LA for the House of Glory show.

<v Speaker 1>I mean it was this one was definitely better than

<v Speaker 1>the first one. But even the first one, I thought

<v Speaker 1>it was you know, it wasn't like great, but I

<v Speaker 1>thought it was fine, and I thought this one was better.

<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed it, and I'm glad they had the music

<v Speaker 1>in there at the very end. That was nice to hear.

<v Speaker 1>Dry Chicken says Triple H is going to be cooking

<v Speaker 1>like Chef Gordon Ramsey tomorrow night booking backlash. It's going

<v Speaker 1>to be putting a lot. Yeah, right, it is Lloyd

<v Speaker 1>Christmas from Dumb and Dumber from one to one million.

<v Speaker 1>What are the chances of TKO lowering ticket prices? They

<v Speaker 1>already are lowering ticket prices a little bit for some

<v Speaker 1>of the shows, but you know, it's still a lot.

<v Speaker 1>It's still a lot. And now, of course these aren't showing.

<v Speaker 1>Come on, refresh. YouTube is glitching out on me? Typical

<v Speaker 1>typical YouTube. We got it now, we got it back,

<v Speaker 1>fucking YouTube? Ah, where were we? Uh? Tension? Will you

<v Speaker 1>go see Resident Evil later this year? Yes, I will.

<v Speaker 1>I saw the trailer for it a couple of weeks ago,

<v Speaker 1>and as soon as I did I put it on

<v Speaker 1>my watch list. I see a lot of people bitching

<v Speaker 1>about it because, oh, it's not It's not the real

<v Speaker 1>Resident Evil. Where's Leon, Where's Claire. It's not supposed to

<v Speaker 1>be the original Resident Evil. It's supposed to be completely

<v Speaker 1>different stories set in that world. I like the vibe

<v Speaker 1>will be seated. Prince Begeta says, when what Paul actually

<v Speaker 1>meant to say was, yeah, Brock didn't want a job

<v Speaker 1>to gun through in Minneapolis, So this is the option.

<v Speaker 1>B stop the career killer gimmick. It sucks. It does suck.

<v Speaker 1>It does suck. It's very limiting, too groovy. Goose, what

<v Speaker 1>the Zapruter film to SmackDown's Downfall? Are you asking me?

<v Speaker 1>What is the Zapruter film to SmackDown's Downfall? You could

<v Speaker 1>wind back that Pat McAfee footage from heading into WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>show that in slow back into the left, Back into

<v Speaker 1>the Left, The working Man says, I would rather watch

<v Speaker 1>nWo two thousand WCW with Hall, Nash, Jarrett and a

<v Speaker 1>concussed Brett Hart as champion again over this shit. Derenzo,

<v Speaker 1>How does this smack them rank in comparison to the

<v Speaker 1>worst Raw episode. There's no ranking needed here. We don't

<v Speaker 1>have to rank them. We could just judge them on

<v Speaker 1>how fucking awful they are or how great they are.

<v Speaker 1>It's an awful television show, and it is not worse

<v Speaker 1>than the worst Raw episode. I know, the one you're

<v Speaker 1>thinking of. I did a whole emergency fucking podcast about it.

<v Speaker 1>I still think that was worse the goth after tonight.

<v Speaker 1>I need to apologize to road Dog Johnny Burnie. The

<v Speaker 1>funeral was for the Sixths tonight. Congrats Nicks. Yeah, the

<v Speaker 1>next basically put the Sixers in the dirt tonight, Bye

<v Speaker 1>bye Philadelphia. Well now with a forty dollars drop, WWE

<v Speaker 1>is in a race to the bottom against itself and

<v Speaker 1>will continue to be rewarded for it. Absolutely insane company.

<v Speaker 1>I'll pour one out for all of you when I

<v Speaker 1>watch the next stardom show. I wouldn't be shocked if

<v Speaker 1>Kyrie when she's free, ends up popping up on one

<v Speaker 1>of those stardom shows. The working Man, I wonder what

<v Speaker 1>scene his announcement is tomorrow. Well, we just talked about that.

<v Speaker 1>Whatever it is, it better live up to expectations, and

<v Speaker 1>it probably won't. But they're really building it up, So

<v Speaker 1>they better have something real good planned. It's gonna make

<v Speaker 1>Scena look bad if it's something lame. Justin with a

<v Speaker 1>nine to ninety nine. So we all know that there's

<v Speaker 1>all always someone underneath the ring during matches. Do you

<v Speaker 1>think someone was underneath the ring during Brock and Romans

<v Speaker 1>match at SummerSlam? Well, I would hope not, or else

<v Speaker 1>you know, I don't know. They may still be there.

<v Speaker 1>Do you imagine the person who would have to lay

<v Speaker 1>under the ring during all that watching the ring propped

<v Speaker 1>up into the air like that the heart attack? I

<v Speaker 1>would have my god Paul Hamilton again with the one

<v Speaker 1>one hundred dollars bomb. Yes, not the effect that I was

<v Speaker 1>going for, but we'll take it on. Behalf of all

<v Speaker 1>your supporters for all your pain and suffering, sir Portland

<v Speaker 1>pop star. Yes, Paul is the man. Paul. I hope

<v Speaker 1>you're doing well. Thank you, brother. I appreciate the shout

<v Speaker 1>looking out, always looking out for me. He's always worried

<v Speaker 1>about me. Venom Caitetsu with a twenty five dollars pre mode.

<v Speaker 1>Is it unreasonable to worry that we could be seeing

<v Speaker 1>a slow burn towards TKO pushing wrestlers out and bringing

<v Speaker 1>in celebrities and influencers is their primary competitors going forward.

<v Speaker 1>Feels like they would rather have that to replace them. No,

<v Speaker 1>but I don't get the sense that they plan on

<v Speaker 1>stopping that anytime soon. I think they love it. I

<v Speaker 1>think we're going to continue to get more of it,

<v Speaker 1>whether it's WrestleMania season or not. Man, I don't see

<v Speaker 1>them turning away from it because they love all the

<v Speaker 1>extra eyeballs that they feel like those people bring, because

<v Speaker 1>they have these huge social followings. Like I Show Speed

<v Speaker 1>was completely inoffensive. I didn't mind him being involved, but

<v Speaker 1>I Show Speed has like tens and tens and tens

<v Speaker 1>of millions of subscribers, you know, between his various social

<v Speaker 1>media platforms. So like when he did his dive at WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure that the impressions and the views that it

<v Speaker 1>got was in the hundreds of millions. They eat that

<v Speaker 1>shit up. I love that they're not gonna stop that,

<v Speaker 1>even if it has a negative impact on the creative right,

<v Speaker 1>which that really didn't like the McAfee stuff. They don't

<v Speaker 1>give a shit. They don't care if it gets engagement.

<v Speaker 1>That's all they care about. Derek J. Speaks after seven

<v Speaker 1>years working a job I grew to hate. Today was

<v Speaker 1>my last day. I started a new job at a

<v Speaker 1>university on Monday. Just wanted to thank you solo for

<v Speaker 1>your shows getting me through it all. Well, congrat it's Derek.

<v Speaker 1>That's very cool. Best of luck in the new job.

<v Speaker 1>I may be looking for a new job if these

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown shows don't improve soon. Anybody want to hire me?

<v Speaker 1>Alexander says. Champa was let go in January. Gargano has

<v Speaker 1>been laying on that fucking crate for four months. Easy money,

<v Speaker 1>easy money. Just collect that paycheck until the end, because

<v Speaker 1>he's on the fast track to nowhere. Retro koh. Someone

<v Speaker 1>asked Hayman what inning of the Bloodline story we're in.

<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna guess we're probably in between the fifth and sixth,

<v Speaker 1>probably somewhere in there. Dan Richards, I had an app

<v Speaker 1>dec to me on Wednesday, and it was less painful

<v Speaker 1>than watching this show. I think the new intern mince

<v Speaker 1>Vic Mahn is writing the show. Ah, that guy Mint

<v Speaker 1>he was a little weird that one. I was something

<v Speaker 1>off about that guy I heard about that mince guy

<v Speaker 1>always putting in his ideas I hear Mince doesn't like

<v Speaker 1>it when people sneeze around him too. It's a little

<v Speaker 1>suspect this guy, you know the I think the appendectomy,

<v Speaker 1>you could have that done laparoscopically, right, so there shouldn't

<v Speaker 1>be any pain. I haven't had an appendectomy, so I'm

<v Speaker 1>not one hundred percent sure about that. But Prince Vegeta says,

<v Speaker 1>I watched Backlash seven the other day, and I really

<v Speaker 1>liked the Batista Undertaker feud that happened that year, just

<v Speaker 1>two badasses battling for dominance. Their WrestleMania match is a classic.

<v Speaker 1>Thoughts on the feud. I like the WrestleMania match. I

<v Speaker 1>don't remember too much else other than they had that

<v Speaker 1>cage match on SmackDown. But yeah, I mean I remember

<v Speaker 1>the Mania match and some of the build up to it.

<v Speaker 1>Beyond that, though I don't remember them. I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>remember too much else about what they did. Alex with

<v Speaker 1>the five? Why the fuck are the miz Kit, Wilson

<v Speaker 1>and Dan Housen on the Backlash card? What did they

<v Speaker 1>do at WrestleMania? It literally voids the whole Backlash gimmick. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I don't have a good answer. For you.

<v Speaker 1>I wish I had a better answer for you. I

<v Speaker 1>really don't. They like Dan Hausen. They really like Dan Housen.

<v Speaker 1>They just wanted they want to get him on the show,

<v Speaker 1>bred Hart, It's sad seeing WW now. It's like watching

<v Speaker 1>an old friend being skinned in front of you, by

<v Speaker 1>my god, by a serial killer, and then the killer

<v Speaker 1>puts the skin on. Well, I wasn't prepared for this,

<v Speaker 1>super chat. Let me start over again here. Holy shit,

<v Speaker 1>this went to a very dark place. It's sad seeing

<v Speaker 1>WWE now. It's like watching an old friend being skinned

<v Speaker 1>in front of you by a serial killer, and then

<v Speaker 1>the killer puts the skin on alongside a bunch of

<v Speaker 1>corporate logos and asks you for money. Jesus, thank god.

<v Speaker 1>This is some leather face type shit. I'm just gonna

<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna let that one kind of breathe for

<v Speaker 1>a little bit, and I'm just gonna I'm just gonna

<v Speaker 1>move on. Arabian Night. Yeah, someone check on. I'm gonna

<v Speaker 1>check on, Brett Hart. There, the Arabian Night says. Listen

<v Speaker 1>to Killer Cross's interview on Devon's podcast talking about creative

<v Speaker 1>process TKO when it comes to pay structure and finance

<v Speaker 1>is very insightful. I may have to check that out.

<v Speaker 1>Lost dill me. Joe Hendry is Dan Housen's partner at Backlash. No, No,

<v Speaker 1>that would be awful. That would be a terrible reveal.

<v Speaker 1>Alex says just three years ago, Priest had one of

<v Speaker 1>the best matches of twenty twenty three with Bad Bunny.

<v Speaker 1>Just pathetic booking from WWE. Yeah, I mean the falloff

<v Speaker 1>is just unbelievable from where he had been to where

<v Speaker 1>he is now. It's sad. Z Ray says, I'm just

<v Speaker 1>surprised they actually let Tala Tonga speak for once. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>he actually spoke some words tonight. It was very brief

<v Speaker 1>in that backstage segment with Nakamora, but he did speak.

<v Speaker 1>We have Henry elf f. I'm sorry, Henry F jeez,

<v Speaker 1>I thought this, said Elf. Yes, so I think it's

<v Speaker 1>time I go back to watching. Just start him. We'll

<v Speaker 1>stick around for your shows though, Love from Long Island. Well,

<v Speaker 1>thank you, Henry, Sorry I called you an elf. Devon

<v Speaker 1>from NJ two thousand, Buy or Sell, Oh, Zra forgot Zerra.

<v Speaker 1>I'll get to Zerra in a second. Buy or Sell

<v Speaker 1>from Devon says Wrestling weddings or funerals. M I am

<v Speaker 1>quite partial to the Big Show and the boss Men.

<v Speaker 1>When they were having the funeral for Big Show's father,

<v Speaker 1>and Boss Man drove in in the old Blues Brother's

<v Speaker 1>car with the big megaphone and interrupted the proceedings, attached

<v Speaker 1>a chain to the casket and dragged it away. I

<v Speaker 1>think for that alone, I may have to go with funerals,

<v Speaker 1>but not include the gingerbread Man funeral. And z Ray says, honestly,

<v Speaker 1>I just wanted to hear a Kyrie in case Kyrie

<v Speaker 1>doesn't show up tomorrow. Well, you heard two of them

<v Speaker 1>so far tonight, So there you go. It's the only

<v Speaker 1>place you're gonna hear him from now on is on

<v Speaker 1>these streams. Death Sithe. I have a song recommendation that's

<v Speaker 1>on YouTube. Hopefully it makes everyone feel better. World His

<v Speaker 1>World from Sonic six Synthwave covered by Severed Soul. Interesting.

<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna cut and paste that. Keep that over here.

<v Speaker 1>I will check that out after. I love me some synthwaves,

<v Speaker 1>So let's refresh the list here. I knew that was

<v Speaker 1>gonna happen. I don't know what it's doing that all right?

<v Speaker 1>Here we go. We have Tongaloa super fan is with us.

<v Speaker 1>I know Toangaloa is still in mourning or Togoloa super

<v Speaker 1>Fan says, this is the first SmackDown in the post

<v Speaker 1>Toangaloa era. It just isn't the same without Tongaloa. Tangaloa

<v Speaker 1>was the beating heart of the show. And now what

<v Speaker 1>are we left with? What are we left with? We're

<v Speaker 1>left with ai gingerbread men, That's what we're left with.

<v Speaker 1>I miss Tangaloa too, Bobby means, I think Blake Monroe

<v Speaker 1>against Rhea Ripley could be a possible Summer Slam match.

<v Speaker 1>Do you see it that way? Plus, I think the

<v Speaker 1>announcement is Mania forty four is going to the UK.

<v Speaker 1>You know what though, No, it can't be the way

<v Speaker 1>they're building it up. They're talking about this like it's

<v Speaker 1>this epic game changing thing. Announcing the WrestleMania location doesn't

<v Speaker 1>really fit. So I don't see that being the announcement tomorrow.

<v Speaker 1>I think that would be I mean, the UK fans

<v Speaker 1>would love it, but in terms of what they're promoting

<v Speaker 1>and how they're promoting it, I think that'd be a letdown.

<v Speaker 1>Clay v. Man O seven my Dog wanted me to

<v Speaker 1>hold him like a baby, and he's watching me intently

<v Speaker 1>on the big screen TV. Then fell asleep. I am

<v Speaker 1>now trapped. Send food. Maybe I'll send you some gingerbread

<v Speaker 1>men EJ. Slimp. If someone went nine to oh in

<v Speaker 1>the G one and won the final for a perfect

<v Speaker 1>ten and oh, would that be New Japan's version of

<v Speaker 1>undertakers wrestle Mania streak? Will it ever happen? I mean, so, wait,

<v Speaker 1>are you talking about someone nine to zer in the

<v Speaker 1>G one and won the final? So you're talking in

<v Speaker 1>one particular G one tournament Like no, Undertaker's streak was

<v Speaker 1>over the course of ten years. If you're talking about

<v Speaker 1>his first ten wins. If you're talking about the entire

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania streak, you're talking twenty years. Two things are not

<v Speaker 1>even remotely similar. And will it ever happen? No, I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to say no. Cameo Johnson with a nineteen ninety

<v Speaker 1>nine thank you, cameo making a cameo here tonight. Keep

<v Speaker 1>your head up so though the strength to keep watching

<v Speaker 1>these shows, you fight the battles that we can't. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what keeps you going with WWE, but you

<v Speaker 1>were a deeply appreciated salute from Chicago. PS. Mortal Kombat

<v Speaker 1>too was fire. Yeah, I love the uh. I love

<v Speaker 1>the choice of Carl Urban as Johnny Cage. I know

<v Speaker 1>some people panned it. They thought he was too old,

<v Speaker 1>or they didn't like that he was the aging Hollywood star,

<v Speaker 1>which is basically what he portrays in the movie. And

<v Speaker 1>I've heard miss in multiple interviews like venting about not

<v Speaker 1>being picked to be Johnny Cage, like he's some great

<v Speaker 1>like master thespian, Like no, dude, there's a reason why

<v Speaker 1>he you know, you didn't get the role. But the stuff,

<v Speaker 1>there's some funny scenes with him and Kano in the

<v Speaker 1>movie that I think people will enjoy. And Alex says,

<v Speaker 1>I know you have mentioned that it was Hogan that

<v Speaker 1>made you become a wrestling fan. How much of an

<v Speaker 1>impact did Vince he for your love of wrestling did

<v Speaker 1>Vince have? Well, Hogan was a character on his show,

<v Speaker 1>so it was his product. So I mean it goes

<v Speaker 1>without saying, but he's not the one I saw on

<v Speaker 1>television outside of holding a mic in his hand. You

<v Speaker 1>know I got in terms of what kept me watching

<v Speaker 1>the television show, it was Hogan. It was the red

<v Speaker 1>and yellow. It was the macho man. But yes, of

<v Speaker 1>course it was his product on camera though he was

<v Speaker 1>just the announced guy. Funny enough, though, I always like

<v Speaker 1>envision myself being Vince. I had Vince's I think I

<v Speaker 1>still have it his LJN. I made sure I got Vince,

<v Speaker 1>I got mean gene Oakerland. I was always going to

<v Speaker 1>be the announcer guy back when you were actually allowed

<v Speaker 1>to be an announcer back then. Yeah, instead of just

<v Speaker 1>being like, am my guests at this time and now

<v Speaker 1>my guest at this time. Oh we got a few

<v Speaker 1>more here. Oh we had a whole bunch more. I

<v Speaker 1>switched away too fast. We'll go through these, and then

<v Speaker 1>we got two rounds of be the booker coming up. Hey, Carlos,

<v Speaker 1>congrats on fifty three months. Look at you, Look at you,

<v Speaker 1>fifty three months of channel membership, EJ says. Rewatch Teddy

<v Speaker 1>Long's two thousand and seven wedding segment today. One of

<v Speaker 1>the first episodes I ever saw no business being that

<v Speaker 1>entertaining better than this bullshit was that the one where

<v Speaker 1>Vince was Vince and Coach I think were sitting among

<v Speaker 1>the attendees and horn Swoggle was there and Hornswoggle kept

<v Speaker 1>fucking around with Coach, and Vince just kind of looked

<v Speaker 1>over like stop it. And because that was actually kind

<v Speaker 1>of funny, I think that might have been the Teddy

<v Speaker 1>Long wedding. Don Stony cheers, my friend. Thank you for

<v Speaker 1>the five. I appreciate that. Alex says, you think it's

<v Speaker 1>time for the Big Show to go to the Hall

<v Speaker 1>of Fame. No, because he's under contract to AAW. Why

<v Speaker 1>would WWE put him in the Hall of Fame. Big

<v Speaker 1>Show and Jericho and people like that are not going

<v Speaker 1>into the Hall of Fame until they're out of AW.

<v Speaker 1>It's just that simple. EJ says. I read Harley Race

<v Speaker 1>Today slammed on twice in nineteen seventy eight and seventy nine,

<v Speaker 1>nearly a decade before Hogan. Is that true. If so,

<v Speaker 1>Harley was even more badass. Well, I'm gonna blow your

<v Speaker 1>mind now by telling you that the narrative that Hogan

<v Speaker 1>was the first person to body slam Andre is bullshit.

<v Speaker 1>It's total horseshit, as was the story of Andrea being

<v Speaker 1>undefeated for fifteen years heading into WrestleMania three. Total bullshit.

<v Speaker 1>It was all just in service of hyping the match,

<v Speaker 1>which was fine. Yeah, as the promoter, you have creative

<v Speaker 1>license to do that. You couldn't get away with that

<v Speaker 1>shit today because it's just so easily verifiable. Harley was

<v Speaker 1>not the only one to body slam Andre, though multiple

<v Speaker 1>people body slammed Andre the Giant, including Kamala. I think

<v Speaker 1>to this day, the person who impressed me the most

<v Speaker 1>with their body slam of Andrea was Kamala because he

<v Speaker 1>like he got him up. It's like he got him

<v Speaker 1>up and held him there and then slammed him. I

<v Speaker 1>didn't see all the Harley slams, but the Kamala one

<v Speaker 1>that I saw, to me was the most impressive. Tonga

<v Speaker 1>loa super fan with a ten spot, says, thinking back,

<v Speaker 1>we only got a small glimpse of what Toangaloa could

<v Speaker 1>do in WWA. Now that he's free, we can finally

<v Speaker 1>get the full Tangaloa experience. Don't you want to see

<v Speaker 1>him go full Toangaloa. Well, I mean, if he's going

<v Speaker 1>to go full Tangaloa, there's only one place for him

<v Speaker 1>to do that. That would be hog So. But then

<v Speaker 1>you have to promise to come out to the show.

<v Speaker 1>If we have him in House of Glory, then we

<v Speaker 1>have to have you out to the show. You have

<v Speaker 1>to buy a ticket and come to the show. We

<v Speaker 1>have again tangaloa super fan. Look at this guy, twenty

<v Speaker 1>dollars superhaw. We have things in wrestling named after wrestlers

<v Speaker 1>like gorilla position, gorilla position, or dusty finish. I think

<v Speaker 1>toangaloa deserves the same. Maybe when a wrestler does something unscripted,

<v Speaker 1>we can refer to that as he just pulled a togaloa. Well,

<v Speaker 1>I'll tell you what, in tribute to the last appearance

<v Speaker 1>that he made on Smackdow where he fell off the

<v Speaker 1>announced desk. Maybe the next time someone like whenever someone

<v Speaker 1>falls off the announced desk, we can say, oh, he

<v Speaker 1>pulled a togaloa. How about that? And that could be

<v Speaker 1>kind of his thing. I agree, I think that'd be

<v Speaker 1>a great idea. So the Like's goal tonight, I believe,

<v Speaker 1>was four fifty and we are bordering on seven hundred.

<v Speaker 1>We're getting close. So we destroyed that goal and then

<v Speaker 1>hit the bonus goal. So we got two rounds coming

<v Speaker 1>our way. Let's do it, ladies or gentlemen. It is

<v Speaker 1>now time. You know I'm gonna have to add this

<v Speaker 1>gingerbread man to be the booker. Now he's now officially

<v Speaker 1>part of SmackDown lore. They have to throw him in here.

<v Speaker 1>That's right, he got lowered. He got lowered. Tonga load

<v Speaker 1>right here we go. What a visual this is. This

<v Speaker 1>is a cursed image. Not only Brett Hart and Bill

<v Speaker 1>Goldberg as tag team champions, but a smiling Brett Hart

<v Speaker 1>and Bill Goldberg. What would their tag team name be?

<v Speaker 1>Brett Hart and Bill Goldberg against the American Wolves Eddie

<v Speaker 1>Edwards and Davy Richards. Can't wait until Goldberg goes for

<v Speaker 1>the tag and then Brett just drops off the apron,

<v Speaker 1>says fuck Bill Goldberg and walks to the back. And

<v Speaker 1>then Goldberg just fucking destroys these two all by himself

<v Speaker 1>and wins the match. Anyway, our women's be the booker,

<v Speaker 1>the sharpshooters. Nah, that's we could do better than that.

<v Speaker 1>Uh it's page Well technically Soraya in this image, but

<v Speaker 1>it's page. Now that she's back in WWE, we can

<v Speaker 1>get her a singles match here page against Hey, look,

<v Speaker 1>this could be a SmackDown match. This is a match

<v Speaker 1>that could actually be booked. Paige and Julia, look at

<v Speaker 1>this woman. You need to tell me you can't find

<v Speaker 1>a fucking thing for her to do. Ridiculous. In the

<v Speaker 1>main event, main event number one, we have Claudio casting Noley,

<v Speaker 1>former Ring of Honor World Champion, former CMLL champion, Claudio

<v Speaker 1>casting Noli in our main event against Jacob Fatu. He's

<v Speaker 1>in the main event of Backlash tomorrow night. He is

<v Speaker 1>in the main event to be the booker tonight, Claudio

<v Speaker 1>and Jacob Fatu. See that right there. We just booked

<v Speaker 1>ourselves a solid ass card. Steve Austin has some solid

<v Speaker 1>ass cats. We just booked a solid ass card. That's

<v Speaker 1>a bang. That's a banger, all right, You're damn right

<v Speaker 1>it is. That was a good show right there. Let's

<v Speaker 1>not make any mistakes now. We don't want to fuck

<v Speaker 1>it up because we got one round left to go.

<v Speaker 1>We have stipulations to choose. No eye for an eye,

<v Speaker 1>can't do a tag match, so we have to do

<v Speaker 1>either the women or the men. I'd rather do the women.

<v Speaker 1>What do you think we should do? Yeah, we'll do

<v Speaker 1>the men. Eye for an eye. Didn't we just pick

<v Speaker 1>eye for an eye? We had eye for an eye

<v Speaker 1>like last week. I don't know what. Why is it

<v Speaker 1>always the eyes. I don't know carrying Cross. If somebody

<v Speaker 1>just mentioned him before in the super check Carrying Cross,

<v Speaker 1>Carrying Cross may lose an eye here. Oh for fox sakes, well,

<v Speaker 1>I mean unfortunately unfortunately for poor carrying Cross. Why is

<v Speaker 1>he in two main events in the span of a week.

<v Speaker 1>This is the second time we've landed on the giant Gonzales.

<v Speaker 1>He wrestled John Cena. Now he wrestles Carrying Cross. Carrying

<v Speaker 1>Cross cannot reach up high enough to gouge the eyes

<v Speaker 1>out of this man's head. So Carrying Cross is going

<v Speaker 1>to lose an eye. Let's do something a little bit

<v Speaker 1>different here. I actually have to add this as a step.

<v Speaker 1>I still haven't added it yet, but okay, so we

<v Speaker 1>have a a brawl for all match. What I was

<v Speaker 1>gonna say is I was gonna make it in some

<v Speaker 1>of them mentioned intergender. We could do an intergender match.

<v Speaker 1>We're gonna do an intergender brawl for all match. This

<v Speaker 1>is this just has a disaster written all over it here.

<v Speaker 1>But we're gonna We're gonna do something a little bit

<v Speaker 1>different here first ever here and be the booker intergender

<v Speaker 1>brawl for all. Ria Ripley actually considering some of the

<v Speaker 1>women that are in be the booker. I think she

<v Speaker 1>might actually fare better than most in a brawl for

<v Speaker 1>all match. But now we have to figure out who

<v Speaker 1>the opponent is going to be. Ria Ripley in a

<v Speaker 1>brawl for all match against Caine, Rhea, Ripley and Kane

<v Speaker 1>in a brawl for all match. I don't know, man,

<v Speaker 1>if I mean, we're talking about this guy right here?

<v Speaker 1>This this o G Kane. Rea, don't stand the chance.

<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, Ria is fucked, Riha is fucked. And we're

<v Speaker 1>gonna end with a Yappa pie strap match. Oh boy,

<v Speaker 1>oh your dot me? You got me in the Yappa

<v Speaker 1>pie strap match. If you want to know what the

<v Speaker 1>hell is a yap pie, It's actually yaba pie, but

<v Speaker 1>everyone calls a Yappa pie, so it just sounds funnier

<v Speaker 1>that way. But I think it's yava pie with a V.

<v Speaker 1>If you want to know what it is, it was

<v Speaker 1>a match with Hull Cogan and Rick Flair in the

<v Speaker 1>Dying Days of WCW sometime in two thousand. I don't

<v Speaker 1>remember what pay per view it was. Yeah, you know what,

<v Speaker 1>this is actually a rather appropriate stipulation to land on tonight.

<v Speaker 1>All I know is that Hogan and his promos was

<v Speaker 1>going on and on about the strapation, and that's where

<v Speaker 1>I tuned out. I don't need to be hearing about

<v Speaker 1>Hull Cogan, then strapation. Someone is getting some strapation though

<v Speaker 1>from Hull Cogan. In this Yappa Pie strap match, We're

<v Speaker 1>we're not even doing a tag match. We're just going

<v Speaker 1>to go right to the main event here. Darby Allen, well,

<v Speaker 1>this sounds right up his alley, right. You get some

<v Speaker 1>weapons involved, uncensored two thousand strap of maniacs. Royce Keys

<v Speaker 1>and Darby Allen in a Yappa Pie strap match. Poor Darby.

<v Speaker 1>It sounds like a bad night of the office for

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen. Ches for the AW title. Everyone's getting the

<v Speaker 1>title shots, so Royce Keys will get another one. Now

<v Speaker 1>he's gonna get an AW championship match with Darby Allen

<v Speaker 1>Yappa Pie strap style. There you go, basically basically an

<v Speaker 1>AW main event. But hey, we almost had another clean

<v Speaker 1>sweep were it not for the giant Gonzales screwing it

<v Speaker 1>all up. I know or he was a nice guy,

<v Speaker 1>but I'm sorry. You can't expect me to give that

<v Speaker 1>the bell. That's not how this works. New AEW World Champion,

<v Speaker 1>Powerhouse hobbs Uh with Sina and Gonzales Monday or Wednesday.

<v Speaker 1>That's cute that you think we did be the booker

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday. That's adorable, z Ray. The real question is

<v Speaker 1>when is the New Day going to show up in

<v Speaker 1>h og Oh. I think that would be a great day.

<v Speaker 1>That would be a great day. Well, first of all,

<v Speaker 1>they're not available until the summer, so let's see what happens.

<v Speaker 1>Would be very interesting though, wouldn't it e J slimp,

<v Speaker 1>CM Punk in a suit, Jeff Hardy dancing, Jagged Edge

<v Speaker 1>performing Godfather's showing up, Tory as a bridesmaid, That Teddy

<v Speaker 1>Long wedding was amazing, and power spying game solo. You

<v Speaker 1>did give Gonzales versus Hollywood Rock a bell? Yeah, because

<v Speaker 1>it's Hollywood Rock, dude, Like Hollywood Rock would find a

<v Speaker 1>way to make that entertaining. I I can't bet against

<v Speaker 1>anything Hollywood Rock would do. Like Hollywood Rock was peak.

<v Speaker 1>We didn't get enough of it, oh man, amazing. Well,

<v Speaker 1>as I was watching SmackDown tonight, I realized that we

<v Speaker 1>were going to end up having a lot more fun

<v Speaker 1>here on the stream than we were going to have

<v Speaker 1>watching Smackdowns, So for most of us anyway, I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>there's going to be some people who love SmackDown tonight,

<v Speaker 1>but for the rest of us, hopefully you guys had

<v Speaker 1>a good time. We got through it. Shows over a

<v Speaker 1>new smack Down next week, no more gingerbread Man. We

<v Speaker 1>got Backlash Tomorrow night. Tomorrow Backlash is a six pm

<v Speaker 1>Eastern start. My guess would be I'll be live probably

<v Speaker 1>no later than ten thirty, at ten ten thirty, somewhere

<v Speaker 1>in that range. I will be live right back here

<v Speaker 1>on YouTube for this thing right here. This is the

<v Speaker 1>Backlash review. We're gonna get John Cena's epic announcement. Look

<v Speaker 1>at him, he looks like a car salesman in this image.

<v Speaker 1>This is Corporate Sina. He's like he's like the new

<v Speaker 1>Tony Khan. He's got a major announcement to make. He's

<v Speaker 1>stolen Tony Kahn's gimmick. Anyway, that's tomorrow night, back here

<v Speaker 1>live on YouTube. And then of course Sunday will be

<v Speaker 1>episode nine to sixty two of the Solemn Monster Sounds

<v Speaker 1>off all the Backlash fallout or talk Ted Turner, We'll

<v Speaker 1>talk Dark Side of the Ring coming back. We got

<v Speaker 1>some legal stories to talk about, Rajah Jackson, Alberto Dell, dipshit.

<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be a good time on Sunday. Hopefully you

<v Speaker 1>guys will join for the podcast. Until then, be well,

<v Speaker 1>stay safe. Yeah see, he looks like he's gonna he's

<v Speaker 1>gonna sell seven Toyotas. Every time a Toyota commercial is

<v Speaker 1>a not Toyota, it's a Honda. Every time a Honda

<v Speaker 1>commercial comes on. I hear the voice in the background.

<v Speaker 1>I go I know that voice. I hear that voice

<v Speaker 1>in my head. Be well, stay safe. I'll see you

<v Speaker 1>back here in less than twenty four hours for the

<v Speaker 1>Backlash review. Let's hope we get a better night than

<v Speaker 1>the one we had tonight. Until then, take care, guys,