Clash in Paris Review Show & Sami Zayn wins a title!

The Golden Shovel crew is back with our full WWE Clash in Paris Review Show and what a night it was! From wild brawls to shocking finishes, Paris delivered an unforgettable event, capped off by a very controversial main event finish.

We break down every match on the card: from Sheamus vs Rusev in the Donnybrook, to Roman Reigns vs Bronson Reed, Cena vs Logan Paul, Becky Lynch vs Nikki Bella, and the stacked Fatal Four-Way for the World Heavyweight Title featuring Seth Rollins, CM Punk, Jey Uso, and LA Knight. Plus, we dive into the fallout, what this means for Raw and SmackDown, and where WWE goes next after a history-making night in France.

💬 Was Clash in Paris the best WWE international show yet? And how big is this Sami Zayn win for his legacy? We’ve got takes, laughs, and a shovel or two for the booking decisions we weren’t fans of.

🎙 Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe for more weekly WWE podcasts!

Let us know how you folks at home see it via our fan mail link, or tweet us or comment on Tiktok!

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Transcript

0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Golden Senna podcast where every week we sit down and discuss how much we John Senna, how we aren't ready for December and also apparently there was a PLE in Paris that weekend. Well, let's get in here. Hi, once again, as always joined by the rest of the team. First up, that is how we're in. a lot of help to be known as the rest of the team, but yeah, no I'm good, I am good. uh Nice to not be in a sleep deficit following three nights of WW action. and Roscoe yourself. You led from one phenomenal. That's how I feel. I know. Before we jump into the main topics, we will have to obviously address the fact that Paris once again, or France, sorry, France once again, showed out. France showed out, Paris took it to a whole other level on Sunday night and Monday night. We'll start, as always, with SmackDown. We'll get to the main PLE card number. And we'll rattle through SmackDown pretty quickly. There's only two things we want to cover. First up. is the women's tag title situation. So, a little bit interesting because Piper Niven was on NXT during the week. I'm gonna assume it was pre-taped um because they were over there in their UK tour. So she was on that. She was on the UK tour participating and at last minute she was being pulled from the match about an hour before the show for medical reasons. They then bumped Chelsea Green onto the card to- and then they've pivoted again and Chelsea versus Alexa. obviously the first thing is, as we come to you as our smackdown correspondent, the first thing is we hope that Piper's all right and there's nothing serious and there's no injury. Hopefully there's travel issues and it's something as simple as that. There was issues like that. But is it the possibility that Hunter listened to the podcast again last week and listened to the bit where he said, we think this match needs a longer build? Potentially, I think it was a wee bit telling, I actually think there might have a title change on the cards and that's why they pivoted out of Chelsea, but obviously when they were going to put Chelsea in the tag match, I think that's maybe why they pivoted away from that because then you could have went Nudie and you could just strap the title to all three essentially and just let them round robbing it, but yeah, first and foremost I was hoping Piper is okay, especially as a homer. it'd be nice to hear that she's not going about action for long, because it was nice to see her getting some consistent TV time, albeit not enough with the issues in Smackdown, but the tag division finds itself in a really weird place, especially with the most prevalent female tag team who seem to be chasing the gold art on a different show, so I'm not really sure how or when that will come to a head, but yeah. the more I think about it, the more I think maybe Secret Harris were going to sneak the titles away from Alexa and Charlotte and that would maybe be the beginning of their downfall, but if they still wanted to run that back a longer build is what it needed, although I now struggle to see which show or which card that now fits into, it will have to be on a go home Smackdown because Wrestlepalooza is looking stacked already with some of the matches we're getting. um and then obviously after that we're in Perth and then we've got Survivor Series and potentially a Halloween Havoc, the trademark was dropped for with no NXT branding. So yeah, I mean I'm intrigued to see where it goes, but it could be a long couple of weeks in the Smackdown Women's Tag Division if Piper isn't fit and they maybe need to try and, maybe it is perfect for some of Ross's NXT teams to come up and just shoot the shit. a couple of weeks until we were able to get back into the angle. There's... I'm 100 % with you. We were backing forward on this last week, weren't we? I think we all said pulling the trigger on the Secret of Heathness could do wonders for both sets of stories, but as long as it wasn't an immediate downfall of Charlotte and Alex, I think that's where we ended up, even if we picked different situations where we thought the outcome was. I'm with you. When I saw the change and I saw the change to a singles match, thought, my first thought was that was a title change and they had to pivot completely. My worry is that it's actually Charlotte that's injured and they've done the attack to maybe write her off and buy a few weeks because they deliberately targeted the knee that went nose surgically repaired. So I hope it's straightforward. Ross, my one concern with Friday night was we thought this match needed a longer build. We thought we needed another few weeks of the Secret Air was looking really, really strong. You put Chelsea, have or lose. That didn't feel quite right to me. yeah, it's a bit odd. It was a bit strange. You could tell that there had been some level of scramble when that was the end result. mean, because there's obviously that element of, you know, clearly fans really like her. So there is that element of, we'll just put her on the TV because they'll like that. And they've done some interesting things in this tour in France, as we'll get to with... the next match that we're going to speak about. So yeah, it's a weird one, like hard to tell if it was just a quick short term thing or if it's the sign of stranger things to come, especially when Chelsea Green keeps on popping in and out with NXT. That's continually happening. And that was the question I wondering, actually as a resident NXT expert, there's been a lot of calls and there seems to be lot of backstage rumors that the Ethan Page, Chelsea Green stable, the local away trying to that work in the main roster, has that success on the ways tonight perhaps just led to them holding fire to see how they make that transition to bring Ethan Page up? he's still the North American champion. You'd assume they need to do a change somewhere, but keep him strong. Mm. Maybe it's just one of the things we're actually, if it seems to be having success, there's... There was a wee bit of research earlier trying to find out if there was anything on paper and there really isn't. But there was a lot of pre- and I couldn't find anything out there. But there's a lot of praise for the work being done by Piper and Chelsea and Ethan Page. Funnily enough, I'll be fired not so much and I don't know why because she's a phenomenal wrestler but I think so. I think she's the third wheel. something might need to happen to clear a bit of space for the bathroom. It's possible. It would be. SmackDown Women's Division is too big for the time they've got at the moment. It's also my concern about Ethan Page coming up is, where does he fit in on the card? Adam had texted me during the weekend, suggested that it's him that might take the title off of Samuel Solo for those who haven't watched the product on Friday night, which we will spoil in about three minutes time, so that is your warning, but yeah, I don't really know where he fits in on the brand other than beside Chelsea Green, however. If going to strap a rocket to Chelsea Green, I think he's a brilliant addition. On Friday nights. He's good. He's good value. a very safe pair of hands, isn't He's a good talker, good worker. I don't think he's... I'm not gonna pigeonhole, I don't think, I don't look at him necessarily say that guy is a world champion. But what I see is like an elite professional type wrestler. mean, like, could... 100%, I think there's... I think it's always good for somebody like that because he came into NXT, he's had a hell of a year. And we did discuss, think, when we did bring NXT into this pod for a few weeks, and we did discuss where does somebody like that go? Because you reach top NXT so quickly, it's not where it used to be where it was a black and gold, and you could be in the top NXT for years and years and years, it's like you get to the top in the expedition as you move on at some point. To me, he's got a clearer path to the main roster than the likes of Oberpham, he's Tripp Williams. And these guys who we could touch on at some point, maybe touch on in the next few weeks as we head back to our world's collied, but these guys have almost capped Ethan Page's like, no, look, here's what else I can do. because there is a couple and there is, as you say, yeah, tricks in a similar spot, obviously, flirted up and down. Oba is absolutely there. He needs to move on at some point because he's too good not to. I think the issue we've got with Oba is that there's no way to push him, there is no where to put him right now and ultimately he's just left in NXT and he's probably going to be the one that suffers the most because you're right, he's on a time limit in NXT, as soon as he drops that title they need to have a space for him on the main roster because if they don't he will just get swallowed up and they will ultimately lose that talent. Yep, 100%. Guys, let us know in the comments, either on Buzzsprout or on the YouTube comments, if you want us to try and bring back in some NXT stuff or even just every few weeks just touch on it. Because from a time perspective, it's really difficult, but every so often it is worth revisiting it because we do like to talk about where these guys can go from a storytelling perspective. That's, our bag is the story more than anything, which does segue us right onto after your three minute warming. the main event on Friday night. Now, I can't remember how good this match was, I'll be honest, because I was starting to fall asleep. But because of the crowd, I was just invested in it. I was, like the crowd makes a good match. Now, you picked Sammy, despite being a solo guy, and Ross Knight picked solo, but we were all in agreement that it was too early for solos run to end. It was just, there was always a reason for the going this way. And in fairness, take to Adam, who did. to say same thing in one of their chats was having the US title and the Smackdown tag titles involved with their teams with a potential WarGames was too much. talk us through it from your perspective, Dads, because I don't disagree with the decision. Is this the start of the Sammys and Royal Rumble mania push? in short no and it's not because I don't think he's a top level talent, I really don't, I've been honest he is a top mid carder and that's where I see him and I do think that this title run probably is the experiment to say right, can we push him? They did it with Jay, they put the IC title on Jay for a couple of weeks and that's the this guy can actually do it. I don't think Sammy can and all of Sammy's title runs have been a joy to watch him win the belt, except this one, because I wasn't buying into Sammy's story and that's because he's a 44 year old underdog or whatever he is and we're getting to the stage now where every title run Sammy's had goes stale very quickly because he's not chasing somebody, he's now being chased and I just think he's going to be the eternal guy like early night, I just I feel like he's just going to eternally chase world titles rather than win them and similar to Daniel Bryan in a lot of ways, the only difference being, Bryan was a top class, and I mean top class, world class talent as a wrestler. Sammy's good, Daniel Bryan is a level above and that's the difference because on the other side of it, they're the exact same copy, are underdogs, scrappy, they will fight and fight and fight until they win. just don't think Sammy's good enough, unfortunately. I do think, aye, aye, of course, aye, aye. a point you made a second ago. You compared him to Daniel Bryan, I think it's not unfair, is what I would say. Right, I'm not saying it's a 100 % I would I would agree that it's not an unfair comparison. Daniel Bryan was the underdog but had elite talent beyond what almost anyone last 20 years has had in the ring. I think the comparison to Ellie Knight is also not unfair but actually slightly more unfair than the Daniel Bryan one to Ellie Knight because Ellie Knight is similar but I think his promos are a level above what Sammy does. I think as soon as Sammy's promo isn't I am the underdog and I'm chasing a title it's not that we get bored but we're not as invested whereas Ellie two together, you get a bonafide world champion. The two, make the perfect champion. when you watch the LA Nights backstage stuff in the last few weeks, like, because obviously they filmed a lot in Birmingham last week and you see him sitting with Jack O'Riordan. He's really good at burning the line between yes, he's the face, but he can say some heelish things and get away with it. And I see more of a vision with LA Nights as a champion than I do with Sami Zayn. Not because of the in-ring work, because think in-ring work they're both really good. I could see LA Nights being a champion and if he had to... Pivoti's character slightly. I can see him doing that, but we've seen it with Sammy where it's like... I just... I thought I had... soon to end Solo's run and give it to a one dimensional character, because ultimately that's what we've done. There is no more layers to Sammy, the closest we got to a second layer was the bloodline, because he wasn't the underdog anymore, he was part of the family and it was all about the build of him breaking that up, but they didn't pull the trigger, they've missed their chance. and I was, he's out, I was gonna... to see what happens from Friday onwards. Like, are we going to see a shift in any way? Because as you say, if this is this so-called trial run, it's never never, right? You gotta see the guy's best work. I'm really worried, I'm really worried how this is shaping up because I feel like this guy could be John Cena's last match and it will fucking infuriate me if that's the case, I will be absolutely furious. I wasn't going there. To be fair, it wouldn't bother me too much because John Cena's US Open Challenge was part of Sami's introduction to the main roster. I don't mind full circle moments. It would annoy me, not as much as it would annoy you. Yes, what I was gonna say was is that I just feel as though it's the worst time for a Sami's in experiment because right now he's technically the top champion on SmackDown. Right, because Cody's off for a period of time. Right, agreed. We've got CM Punk going to be there on Friday night in Chicago. So that's now top billing, right? We're all anticipating a potential return, which we'll get to for Monday night segments, Whether that happens or not is irrelevant. There's an anticipation there for that takes billing 1A. No matter what happens in Chicago, a Chicago wrestling crowd will pay respect to John Cena on Friday night. That's now billing 1C. Right, they're all top billing. Sami Zayn's still buried away in the fucking midcard. And then when m Cody comes back, he'll go back to Billingwood. We're always joking about the Selena Vega vortex, but we'll it the Sami Zayn vortex this week. He is elite at what he does, but it just never feels like it can be top billing on a show. this is why I don't think he'll win the Royal Rumble, because he will always be third on the list on Smackdown, as long as Cody is champ, in fact as long as Cody exists and as long as Cena is still on WWE TV, he'll always be third in line, so... you're saying that, as I'm calling it right now, see next week squash, it's not gonna be a head to head, it's gonna be the three of us discussing what we think is happening in Mania next year. And we're gonna start fancy-booking ahead. And the reason I'm saying that is because see, if Sammy wins the rumble, that almost guarantees that one of your main events is gonna be Roman versus Seth or Seth versus Punk for not a title, correct? And that match will automatically be bigger than anything Sammy Zane's doing for the Mania, even if it's a rumble title. And that's not gonna change. and that's why I don't think he'll win the Rumble because he's third in line behind the WWE Champion which is fair enough and the greatest of all time and that will be the case until January. The issue you've then got is that he will not be, he still will not be the second best thing on Smackdown even if he wins the Royal Rumble. He cannot chase Cody Rhodes because he, and you know I don't rate Cody but he is not a feasible person to take that title off Cody Rhodes. Uberface versus Uberface with two of them doesn't work. We've got a way about Lucina, but we won't get away with it anybody else. but Rollins won't be champ, Rollins will not be champ because if Rollins is champ we're getting episode 99 of Rollins vs CM Punk, that's what we're getting if Rollins has still got the belt and if Rollins doesn't have the belt, if Rollins doesn't have the belt it means he would have to go over CM Punk if he's going to win the World Title and they're not going to do CM Punk out of another main event at WrestleMania, he will win it this year at WrestleMania so... I don't think it is, I think the experiment would be let him win the Royal Rumble, let him build a feud all the way through to Mania for a World Title, have him lose the World Title match and see if he can recover, because if he can recover he can be a World Champion. It's probably, it's where I would go for you, is going to win the Rumble, but I digress from your original question, the tag team title picture, no, like, as the weeks go by I think I'm seeing more and more of what War Games is actually going to look like, I don't think it will be. Solo in the MFT vs White 6, it's leaning more towards um the Vision and multiple Usos, m many Usos, all of the Usos, eh you're not very Usy today Russ. m So yeah, I do think it was too early for Solo to drop the title, but as soon as he moved Sammy the right was on the wall, I said that last week as much as I think Solo deserved a longer rent. I'm really worried, not about Solo, because Solo will be so they'll be fine. I think the MFD might be in trouble. Hiccalio will be wrestling on AAA shortly, I mean almost, so he'll be fighting it out or something, I dunno. was going for a 6-1 in pro wrestling though, I I stepped back to Japan. because of the timings on the show, I don't hate it if they break them up, just leave them with the tongas, leave them with they too, because I JC Matteo is suffering for this stable, he doesn't look like he fits it first and foremost and he's got the crowd chanting you can't wrestle and he's arguably the best wrestler in the stable, yeah. has the best rest on the table, that's no doubt, but he's not been able to show it. Yeah, so he's got the crowd chanting you can't wrestle, he doesn't deserve it, he deserves better than that, but also thinking he needs a repackage, he looks like Rhino. gonna throw this one out there as an off the cuff comment, Ross can answer it in a second because I've got three questions to throw his way just now but JC Matteo, six months in NXT with his size and his build he's a viable Oba Femi challenger that would allow Oba Femi to move on to the main roster but the question I gonna ask you Ross, because we discussed this the other day at some point, I can't remember what day but three times this year we've expressed concern about Solosikoa getting lost right when we started the pod sometime in the summer and now we're expressing it again and every time he's bounced back. It feels as though once again last week he was allowed to show a little bit of his personality which is brilliant, he's funny as fuck, he's so good but if they just wasted that little bit mentally he building again for himself and also even though we've just started answering it, is the MFT just holding him back? So three questions there, Mateo to NXT, MFT is holding him back and so is personality. I mean, I could see the matches in my mind's eye between Mateo and Oba. As long as they don't mind Oba moving on, I think that could work. They both can physically go. And it's the one thing that Oba has a problem with is that there is no one in NXT who is on that level and a physical match. Because that's the caveat. There's a couple of big guys. They just aren't main event in NXT level yet. But they might be. His personality probably, when we come to the point about Solo's personality, is probably enough that yeah, you can therefore nook the MFTs to the third question, which are holding them back, absolutely. You can nook it and break it apart, and ultimately, probably doesn't suffer from it. Because they aren't doing anything. It's like one thing where you've got B &B security are actively doing stuff, and... that slowly growing arms and legs, they're being involved in matches, they're having moments. There was a couple of really, really good moments of clash involving the A2. I can see what's happening there, but that's a I just don't. And it's a shame because it like it could have walked to the start. yeah there's a clear difference, like B &B security, that's terrible, we're still calling him that in the back so I've got to stay with him now, but B &B security are wrestling within their storyline, whereas MFT aren't, MFT are wrestling outside of what Solo's doing and it just doesn't really add up. I think we've, and I hope this is the case, I hope I'm not just overlooking the fact that Solo might be Cody's next feud when he comes back. I would like that to be the case, but, because if if they've decided last time, they're taking your title off you, which by the way has been a decent title run, we're just going to throw it on this guy as an experiment to see if he can go on a world title in 9 months, you'd be like, oh, what the fuck. So, I hope it is a step up for him, I think he could shed the weight of the MFT, think he could, at least a couple, just get short of a couple of them, do know what mean? Whichever one of the Tongans is still injured when they come back shed a bit of the dead weight, have they too. But again you'll probably end up feeding with Jacob Vato again and they will be lost in the ether before you know it he'll be tagging with the WarRiders. I mean, think we've said enough on Friday night Smackdown. It was an okay show. The crowd gave it something, we're not slagging off Sami at all. It's questioning like, is it the right move? the answer is we don't think it is. Even if Sami ends up at WrestleMania as a world champion, I still don't think this was the right move. We could have got there without that. Which takes us nicely into Sunday night. Four letters, one word, aura. I am sorry because you've not seen it yet, Daz, but was sticking the thumbnail together for this pod before you come on. Ross has seen it and it's hilarious. Roman Reigns lying there in a stretcher with Big Brunson right at the top of him. But it was about to just Roman under the Eiffel Tower with that aura because that was phenomenal, that entrance. No, we'll get to the bit where he's been making off TV for another six weeks after the wrestling for the last three or four weeks, but I watched Vogue appearing. Appearing. I'll come to you first on this one, Ross, as a Raw match, because we've got plenty of SmackDown to come and Daz gets the good bit anyway. Again this week. But he's on Raw one week, he's on Raw one week and I'm clapping that week. something? Do know that I it is such a, such a shitty segment? I know. I'm watching Roman Reigns come out, I'm watching 30,000 people in France go absolutely fucking nuts for him and acknowledging him. Has he just surpassed everybody else in this company and everybody else apart from one man for the last 25 years? Because that's how I was left feeling halfway through that first match on Sunday night. vibes, as the youth would say, the vibes were immaculate. was very like... You saw, like, he does have that sort of gravitas when he's coming down the ramp, where he's, as you say, I think he's got himself to a point where is there even a point in putting a title on him? Like, he's probably, one of those people where... Yeah, like it just doesn't do anything, doesn't add anything. It was very, very good, obviously. I'm going to struggle to critique a lot of Clash in Paris because I've always said that previously the crowd can make things better and make things worse. They were so good. The crowd were so... weigh in heavily. The crowd in general though were so good that everything felt mega. Like for anyone who's watching or listening to this m over stateside, you guys wouldn't have saw some of the things that we were able to see due to the commercial breaks or lack thereof on our side. We will get to AJ Styles, that whole entrance, add me goosebumps, right? But you could tell from right from the beginning, from the first whistle they were on it, the presentation of this was great. really enjoyed it. And I kind of liked how he was laid out because it was just comical like that those moments are where wrestling shines for me because it was it was downright hilarious because he just kept on going back for more. Great. throw this straight over to Daz, wait till we follow up. One is, you definitely got your wish for the weekend from last week's squash, if you haven't watched it, Daz requested big stages, proper stages back in that. Now obviously it helps that L'Adéfense Arena is a three-sided rugby stadium so they can hold concerts. Cole kept saying that, but actually he's fucking wrong. It depends if it includes... There will be no Michael Cole slander in my presence, even if he is wrong, there will be no slander. aye, so it's three-sided, which meant you can have the whole thing and that Eiffel Tower, like I said, Roman walking through it was just perfect. You got what you wished there and the thing I was gonna ask you is Roman went over, Roman had to win that. We said that last week, he has to win if the end goes to South Rollins. But I thought Brunson Reed was presented. ridiculously strong in that spot where he just ate the spear and powerbombed him was like, that's what your £330 monster should do when somebody's running at you is just be like, I'm biggling you. Booked perfectly, I thought. Yeah and I called it last week that this had to open the show, made total sense, I mean I didn't expect the aftermath of the match, but he's still getting splashed off the top when he's strapped to a stretcher, but yeah, I thought the match was booked brilliantly, Brunson looked great, as we always say you don't need to win these matches to get over. I think it did a lot for, I actually think it would do more for Braun, well for Braun when it was Braun's turn. I thought Braun seemed to look really, really good um and he's grown on me week by week. I think I might actually prefer him to Braun right now, but I don't know if that's just presentation. um On Roman Reigns, he's now in my opinion comfortably the third biggest draw in wrestling behind Cena and Austin and I think he will now comfortably be third, he's above the rock in my opinion in terms of, see if the Rocks music had hit the other night, it would have been 80 % head loss, 20 % booze. I don't think Reigns will get booed anywhere, I do not see a crowd booing Reigns now for years to come, I really don't see it. The guy has, he's not wrestled on TV properly and got in a one on one and God knows how long, I don't even want to know. when his last singles match was, I'm probably going to get in a lim and say it was pre-WrestleMania, that's probably how long ago his last singles match was on TV, he's probably done a lot of tag works and so on, but for the guy to intermittently appear as he has and become as part time as he has to still be that over is insane. Considering 10 years ago we were saying this guy's now going to cut it, stop pushing him down our throats and look at him now, he's just the greatest. He is the greatest in modern terms, he just is. we are sitting here preparing ourselves for five years time. We have to defend John Cena to Roman Reigns stands. That's what's going to happen. And it deserved it. that this generation have their own John Cena, because see for a long time it was looking like we were going to have to share John Cena with this generation and even though they only seen like the last seven or eight years of his part time run into his retirement, we were going have to share a This generation now have a bona fide goat and they might have another if Seth Rollins career flourishes when it finishes. I mean, we will never forget that promo Monday night, when John Cena comes back and says to Roman Reigns, I'm only here because you can't do your job. And the crowd goes nuts because at the time it was true, he could not elevate himself, he just could not get himself. And that's where we'll get to Monday night. But that's where my issue is with the Paul Heyman situation there, just repeating the bloodline again. Don't ruin it, was fucking perfect. The last thing I'm gonna ask on this. is the aftermath situation. Just gonna slag off the Americans for a minute and say that obviously Adam Pearce just kicks about around and says if you come back in for the main event, you're done. So let's just spend it without pay, blah blah. Go and enjoy a night in gay Paris. And then you've got all of American wrestling Twitter going, did he just say gay Paris? What's gay about Paris? What's that? And then obviously you've got people trying to explain, yeah, it's the original meaning that's happy Paris, it's a thing. Can I say that? Fucking uncultured bastards, these are. A lot of them. Anyway, uncultured swines. Anyway, I mean, I'm with you. The brawnbreaker spear was like a class spot, but Bronson, we just looked. He looked a part of a future world champion for the first time since his return from injury, and that's good to see because he was on that path at the start of the year. means we're going to revisit this obviously as we go through the main event and we're going to win the Night Raw segment so notice the time we're going to try and wrap through the next two matches. Right before the PLE started obviously we didn't go live the weekend. The timing actually was the most difficult to go live because real life still happening at six and seven o'clock on a Sunday night for us even though it's better to watch it it's more difficult to manage in real life. You put something in chat or discord because we were trying to keep it top of. preparing for tonight that as you put something in the chat that said you were obviously concerned about how the crowd would react to Nikki Bella. That was match three. My major response to you was I'm actually more concerned about this tag match because it felt like it came out of nowhere. It was such a late edition. em It's a Smackdown match, I'll let you give us the background and the overall story of it. But I felt like it it peaked with the crowd singing shatter. And at that point I thought it went downhill pretty quick. Yeah, I think this match was shoehorned in for two reasons, one obviously were teasing the break up of Street Profits, right and I'm all for it, I think both would benefit from it. I think the other thing is purely financial, this was shoehorned on for the Borderlands promo and right after the match ended they ailed the actual promo for the game, they ailed the video package for the game. I think it's probably Money Talks, if there's space for a 6 match on this card it should have been Sammy and Solo or AJ and Dom, I get what, but there is no story for Julia and we'd be in the same spot, like we'd be talking about it right now, it's great to see Julia on a PLE, but also, what were we doing? spot? Just chuck them in and go, yeah, but at least they're on TV or something, I don't know. I don't know, who would you dress up as one of the Borderlands characters? I don't know, but either way, the actual story for this, the story for this is like, I'm captivated every time I see Howdy, I'm captivated. I was really, really intrigued by the presentation, it's the best I've looked since the return as having Bo backstage interacting with these people on his own.% I thought it added so much more value to this actual match because it was extremely rushed but I like see the weight behind the backstage segment with Tez and Doc, I thought it made the match more enjoyable. It was a decent match, I mean you're guaranteed a two and a half, three star match as soon as you put Street Profits in it, you're guaranteed a decent wrestling match, think Gacy and I always want to call him Hayden Rake but that's not his name, I don't know why I want to call him Hayden Rake, yeah. Text off. Lewis, I always want to call him Hayden Rake for some reason, they put on a decent show, I think they're getting better as the weeks go on. This is a story that we need a clear path for the White 6 and what they're doing as a stable. I think it's coming, the way that Bo interacted, we obviously had the tease last week with, my God, I've forgotten her name, she's a homer as well, I'm having a shocker. um we'll call her sister Abigail because I've forgotten her actual name. That is honestly what I have a total mind like. Nikki Cross, my lord, that's so bad, I apologise Nikki if you ever hear this. We had her in the background of the Julia segment a couple of weeks ago, so I think we're maybe just teetering towards something and I'm interested to see where that goes, but the sooner we break up Tez and Doc the better, it's one less tag team to try and fit into the huge card on SmackDown. Give me a heel montage, please. There's two things that I'm picking up from what you said there. One is that this is the first time I've felt that they've got the Wyatt Six pacing in terms of the story right. Because Gacy and Loomis aren't tag team specialists, but they're good wrestlers in their own right. And I feel as though they finally started to click and they've had enough reps under their belt. Because we did say that without the house shows happening every week in the US, they couldn't really do much. They've obviously had two weeks on tour, probably wrestled every night for two weeks and I think that was obvious come the weekend. So it's the best they've looked, which is good because as a stacked division and they were the weakest tag team that there was in personal opinion, because otherwise you'd get DIY and the guns and the profits. what's always confused me about it, see the tag team for Y86? Why do you not have the experienced tag team wrestler as part of your tag team? You've got Eric Rowan there and where I was going to go with the question is, is there a plan for Rowan? Is he just injured? Is he maybe just years of abuse and he's worried about what is the plan with Howdy? And now they're starting to tease it because previously, I you never had the six, but when you had the Wyatt family, you always had Bray Wyatt as a world champion. So there. Mm-hmm. Is that a path for Howdy or is it different? I think the story's now interesting. The question I'm gonna ask you Ross is, and you might not able to answer this because I think it's a really difficult question. Does Audit dare give us Hugh Montes Ford? I think sadly, if they split up Dawkins is he's got six months, he'll be future endeavoured. I don't think he's gonna hang about too long. But how do we make sure that Montes Ford doesn't end up in that bucket with Andrade? and Mello and Rusev and Aleister Black that are really good wrestlers aren't maybe quite world champions but for some reason don't get the US title. You know mean? You know the group of wrestlers I'm talking about that are just like they're brilliant but they're there. How do we make sure he doesn't just end up in that bucket with them? you have to probably add a third hour to SmackDown and actually start moving these talents around. don't know when that change happens. I know that the reason why I went from three to two is because I think it was USA is the one that hails SmackDown, is that right? They basically went, no, we're putting something on after you, so you just need to take an hour out. That's the thing that's holding a lot of these people back. It is literally as simple as there's not enough time. So you may get a match every two weeks or you may get two weeks in a row of matches and then you disappear for a week. It's really tough. I do like them though. You can kind of see it. My only concern is I don't think they'll actually do it because Daz's best mate, Mr. Melxhor, even alluded to this when did a random clip that appeared on my TikTok the other day. They teased this before and then just didn't do it a couple of years back. I enjoyed those injuries or something. was injuries, but also the division was weak, back then they were taking a big risk and taking out one of their top tag teams. I don't think there is an answer to your question Saunders, I don't think there is a way for us to prevent Tez, but even at that, the gap he needs to jump to get out of that pot is bigger than it's ever been and that's where these other guys suffer because see what it looks like the guys look white with OJ coming back. potentially, allegedly. They can a guy skip the queue, even though they're not good enough, let's be honest Jericho is not a world champion anymore, but he won't be a world champion, but he will jump straight into the, he'll be in a top feud and it'll be, he'll end up with an IC title or a US title or something, it just won't happen, but I think these guys are stuck in limbo. I've said that before, I said that a couple of weeks ago, we need a third show for the main roster, how that looks I don't know, because you don't want these guys to essentially be wrestling on heat or velocity as much as I liked having them back in day at the weekend, but if you can package together an actual show, even if it is pre-recorded matches, dark matches for actual live shows, so say you've got two in the SmackDown, two in the RAW, stick together a 90 minute episode that airs. on a Sunday morning or whatever and just give us those matches and yeah, I mean stick them on YouTube, I don't care if it's on TV or not, stick them on YouTube, just give these guys a chance to get in the ring and try and get over because there's too many suffering. it's such a tough one cuz right now and you've just said I'm gonna go. If you offered me a third SmackDown hour, I would be panicking about how bad it would be. However, up until the cut to two hours, SmackDown was brilliant and it destroying, it was destroying every week because we weren't getting the 20 minute opening segment in the same 20 minute tag match in the main event. We were getting variety, we were getting NXT talent appearing and we were getting a really strong women's division which has now went to shit completely. up and down that card has went to total shit since the cut. It does suffer from John Cena and Cody Rhodes a little bit because they have to get their time in their withdraws, but you've not got the time to give them a 20 minute promo, what you did three months ago. So I think ultimately that's usually an extra show up, an extra hour for Smackdown that's done properly back to where it was in the summer. Which just takes us nicely into match three and we're gonna try and keep this one short as a raw match, which might introduce. Last week of the week before I sat on this podcast and said that when was the last time Becky Lynch had a last match, a bad match, and I can now answer the question, it was Sunday. I really did not enjoy this match at all. And I felt like Becky was getting the face treatment for the crowd, rightly so. That's what happens when you take a popular wrestler to a country that get his one show a year. And Nikki Bella was quite rightfully getting buzzed at the building because just don't want to see her. This whole thing as well where you've got Eelsky saying oh thank you and you're a legend and that's fucking nonsense, Eelsky would wrestle rings with Nikki Bella. I'm not blaming Nikki Bella for the match being poor. Everybody's everybody's laughing, they're taking the piss out of the box when she comes off the top rope and Becky's not there. I I looked at it as Becky Lillish had got rocked by the shot before and was recovering. You don't just randomly jump off a top rope either. So Becky was out of position, but you don't jump if the person's not there. You can quickly check her. Referee should be saying stall or something. They communicate in the ring. The announced table spots. if you're going to... It's either bad camera work or it's just don't do it if it's going to look that bad. Like... or three hits would have been fine. It felt like it lasted a lifetime. And that was the issue. oh help. uh no, I don't, I don't even have anything else to say about this match, other than I like, I like, I like the finish. If we turn this into a move and all we'd bar us from going to the linchpin, which I like, I think it's like, uh a good pinning combination as a finisher isn't a bad thing. If it's like legitimately putting you down, you can't move. So I'm okay with that. However, you have to accept that we should then see some other people win by like a backslide, because ultimately it's the same. actual outcome. So you have to try and sell it elsewhere, sell it elsewhere in the roster. I just, I don't know. think, is it because we knew the outcome? I felt like... Every shit. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't enjoy it. I just didn't enjoy it. was like, I just didn't enjoy it. it either, right, and I did say this on the Twitter page, I seen somebody tweeting that, who came to Nikki Bella's defence, right, and said that she was great. Now I countered that with, she did well considering the gap in generation because back when she wrestled and allegedly put women's wrestling on the map or helped to, they did not wrestle. there was probably 2 or 3 technical wrestlers across both divisions in that 10, 15 year period, whatever it may have been before women's wrestling actually became a serious thing. So, I think given the gap in divisions she did really well, it's so much more athletic now than it used to be, so she did need gas, which was impressive, but you can see that she cannot hang with top talent, she's just not that level em and I think that's probably why the crowd began to burrow at the building. very quickly as everything just looked, she looked like she was a step behind Becky and everything that they did and this is where I'm going to criticise Becky in ring because I'm a big huge fan of Becky in ring, is Becky's responsibility, which sounds mad considering that Nikki Bella's the veteran out of the two, but is Becky's job in that match to make sure that she's in where she should be, if that means Becky needs to slow down, Becky needs to slow down and just too many spots just looked a bit iffy. It went, yes, yeah, it wasnae fluid, you can see them like, it looked, look I said that, I'm sure I that in the Discord, it looked like a Divas match for back in the day, where you can see them holding each other and talking to each other and talking about what's next. and just the cheap kicks, I didn't enjoy the match, it's the presentation of the match itself and it probably went three or four minutes too long, it didn't need to be that long. The question I'm going to throw at you Ross on this one is, we did discuss it at the time in Discord, Nikki Bella was made to look much stronger than Becky in that match, which I personally find confusing because that's your champ. Like thought Nikki was hitting finishers, Becky getting nowhere near hers. Did you feel disappointed after how strong the summer with the IC title was with Becky and Lyra and Bailey to then have this? m Yes. I don't really like unnecessarily like, shitting on them but like this was the only match on the card that I genuinely just was like, I zoned out a few minutes in because I could kind of see it immediately and go, ehh. And I think the reason why they went that route is because they needed something. It's almost like, I don't know who produced the match, I'm not going to pretend to know but it's almost like they went through some level of rehearsals, they got Nicky in the ring and they went we need to do something to level this playing field because it's just not gonna work. Because it's not the producer who's gonna decide, right? The producer's just gonna be called, you are producing this match. So Big Bruce is gonna be told, you know. he does a lot of the women's matches, him and, yeah Jason Jordan, yeah, that's the other one I was looking for. it might just be as simple as they need to tell everyone to play and feel and they basically just need to do that. it's like being used to working with Grade A talent and then you're giving Nicky Bella, which isn't a disrespect to Nicky Bella, but it's like you need to put on the level that, yeah, but see if you're looking at what the fans expect, you need to be able to try and deliver that with half of the ability to deliver that. and the problem with wrestling fans now is that they don't, the majority don't give that battle leeway to these types of matches because we want the top level that we expect and I don't blame them because they're paying £400, £500, £600 for Seats and the Gods. So, if you're paying top dollar to sit in the top row of a fucking arena to watch it on a glorified huge TV, then you should be getting the top level and throwing people like Nikki Bella at us for no reason is stupidity in my opinion. think the closing thoughts on this match is, it does feel harsh, if it was always shitting Sam, if it was always shitting these two, we're not. We're comparing them to what we've had this year what we've seen this year. I mean, you look at the list of names who weren't on the card, that's where disappointment comes in. Like we, last week, before, talked about the Natty Neidhart character potentially appearing. That's sitting at home. Never mind Bailey, whoever's coming for Bailey, and Lyra, and everyone else has been involved. given us a non-title champion versus champion, gave us Becky and Julia. That would have been great. I dunno. And I mean, aye, why not? just... Nikki's had her return. She's had her fun. Yeah she's coming back, I can nod at it too. mean, did you hear the booze for the fearless lock? Which was a bit... Aye. Aye. Shit. We'll try and be quick on the next match as well, because we know we've got the two main events to come and there's lots of talking. Aye, by the way, this was an absolute banger. This was exactly what we wanted at least, to just beat the shit out of each other for 20 minutes. And then, I still look at Seamus and go, man, he can still go. I know he's old and he's struggling and he's weak and still go, but it's the best route since they came back. It was a fight and fair play to the crowd because they did not drop the whole night. The last two matches didn't put them off. They elevated this match. m Ross, outcome, outcome. to do like a reset. The second the bell ended it was like they just knew right... Okay, next slate was interesting. he probably showed like a picture of AJ Styles off camera, like Tautney's Monday Night match or something like that to get a pop or something like that, yeah. I mean, it's simple as saying it was a fight, it was a banger. The both of them were clearly beaten up and the finish was fine and we're happy with it. was enjoyable as fuck. mean, the spots on the barrels and then the sort of white noise off the barrels as well was just... It wasn't quite what I'd call brutal, but it was near far away. It was a very good street fight, essentially. It was nice. It was a nice video, Mick. a violent, brutal finish. Across the jaw with Sheila, that was really nice high. m Nice to see some Shillily work, Fit Finley would have been proud. No, like, see when I seen these two on it, I knew what I was getting, I was getting big meaty men slapping each other, right? And ultimately that's ultimately what we wanted, do know what I mean? Like, and I probably expected just a bog standard two big slabs of meat going at it, but I actually told a good story throughout the match, I thought it was good, like, I thought the pacing was really, really good. I whoever produced this deserves massive plaudits because they got it bang on, because see when you look out at the ring as they come out and it's got Ireland flags and Bulgaria flags and there's fucking beer barrels in a bar. I was like, this looks like fucking Prime 2008 fucking like, what was that thing they used to do with the fucking NXT rookies and they had them running, fucking got to jump through tiles and all that. Yeah. just looked like a bit of a throwback, but they put on a great show, the two of them. So, no, I don't agree with Dave, short corner, but I'm the critical one, I don't think it was a five star match. I think that's... entertaining match. was somebody baiting with fake because these ratings don't come into our wings, do usually? normally don't commit to a Wednesday, so I wasn't sure if it was a leak or something like that, but a 4 star match in my opinion, was really, really good, really, really good considering it was a classic singles if you like, although the only thing you were really allowed to use was the Shalili to be honest. And I was the same as you, when they came out and they were showing the flags and showing the barrels and then he turned around and there was a Prime set up, I was like, what the fuck is that? I was was panicking at that point. was like, surely we're not gonna get a Prime spot with you shooting me some fucking myself. um to be fair? Right, it's time. Rio inside the costume. That would have been good. Get a little bit of because Barrett was at ringside, we did the Liga Nations back together. It's time. It's time. This match was 26 minutes and 20 seconds long. It was the longest match of the night. As I look at the calendar here, could have easily. The crowd were phenomenal from entrance to finish, start to finish, were just superb. There was fan service throughout with Cena paying homage to some previous rivals in such a fun way. I avoid to throw it to your dad to do your wee bit but you tweeted it out after I stuck it in Discord but look how much fun John Cena was having in that match. was just... For anybody who wants to shit on the fight moves I do, that is what the guy can do when he knows he's finished at end of the year. He is the greatest professional wrestler of all time and I'm not letting anybody else argue at any other point. I think what he's shown us is that the character of Super Sena prevented him from being able to actually put shows like this on. He's very similar to Triple H and there will be footage out there, there's footage of Russ, it's one of who might seen this, but Russ I don't know if you haven't recently got uploaded to YouTube's Vault, right? It is a match in a tour in Japan that they did way back when, think Triple H was World Champion at the time and the main event they gave Tijiri a World Championship match in Japan. My god the wrestling match that Triple H put on was fucking incredible. Technically the best I've ever seen him in the ring and it was a house show match. Incredible. I don't doubt there's footage of John doing that in his prime, but on TV he was 5 moves of doom, he was super strong, he was unpinable. Basically that's just the presentation. It's so refreshing to see the guy have fun. I've seen a lot of criticism for his counterpart in this match for some reason. after Sunday night because everybody's saying when he's not doing loads and loads of flips he looks terrible. I actually thought that's the best Logan Paul performance out of them all, I thought he was excellent and Sunday night I thought he was brilliant, it was nice to see him actually wrestling as opposed to just becoming a sport, you know what I mean, because that's ultimately what he had been for a long time. I thought this was excellent, it did both, it served the purpose for both people. I said it last week, if Logan Paul went over, it wouldn't have bothered me, it really wouldn't have because both guys would have benefited at either result. I hope that in hindsight when people look back and that Logan Paul gets a wee bit of his flowers for Sunday night because when you step in the ring with a guy like John Cena, it's the kind of thing that will make or break you. If you don't hang and you don't put on a performance then it could be in the- they call it John Buryan people, just shows, you can't hang with a top level talent, better mind this top level talent's 50 odd. yeah, I think that for John, he just looks better every time I walk, like, I'm just so happy to see the guy, like, I love him, I love him, I love him, I and see just watching him go hurrican round a code red and then just the styles class, the styles class is perfect. The end of the day was so funny, yeah, yeah, so, so funny. even the artist filming on his bar in Corbyn was on Twitter saying, is so cool. Do you know what I didn't piece together as there's been people, know what fucking internet nerds are like, m someone is saying that John was foreshadowing the outcome of the main event plus what happened on Monday night, people are saying we're foreshadowing with the CM Punk promo in the ring with the end of days because we know who hit Becky Lynch with the end of days, don't we? I mean it's just internet nerds being internet nerds, but no, I'm delighted to see this is where John Cena's retirement tour is and say to be honest, I'm kinda glad they held it back from starting way back when because where they ran the arse at it and I didn't want him to be Super Cena in his final tour because it just wouldn't have felt right. We're getting to the point now where he deserves his last couple of months to be full of victories, that's what he deserves. The best comments I've seen on Twitter and the likes were people who understood the purpose of Super Senna. You used to get six or seven minutes to deliver a on Raw and Smackdown. Because bear in mind that Raw wasn't three hours for a lot of John Cena's career. was two or two hour shows a week. So you get seven minutes, you're the draw. You need to hit your finisher. You need to give the leg a couple minutes. Therefore, the best way to turn the tables is this. diving shoulder charge and then 5 of them and then an AE to finish. That's the time they used to have. But the other thing was, I don't know if you've seen the clip where John Cena gets asked by an interviewer, I'm having my first wrestling match next week, can you give me some advice? And John Cena says the goal is to do this 200 times a year for 20 years. That means you can't be taking risks and doing code red and styles clashes and hurricane runners every single night because you will never do it 200 times a year for 20 years. That's the purpose. He was. the face of the company for 20 years he had to protect himself. Ross, we said last week that Cena's run could go two ways. He literally loses every match or wins every match and he's back at the end. Give us your thoughts on the match on the weekend but also, I'm expecting Cena to win every match up until his last match, if not win every match. Okay, I'll go for the first part. Yeah, this was a joy. An absolute joy from start to finish. Credit to Logan Paul. We have been singing his praises for what he can do in the ring, but this was an evolution. I can see that, as Dad alluded to, that that match was a good vehicle for the whole idea of Cena pointing out to him, you can't hang, you're a part timer. Logan's now turned up. And he's proved it on one of the biggest stages against the biggest guy I can put on just as good a match as you. That is only going to benefit everyone in the long run. Crowd loved it. You could tell throughout they had no real idea what was going to happen, but they were just in the moment. And just being like the pair of them were just taking their hand and just taking them on a journey. And we all at home just got to watch it all and just love it. I'm going to assume. If Cino won that match on Sunday, that was probably the sort of tipping point to make me think, right, he's winning it to the end or just them all. You know, there's not a massive difference there really, we think of them in matches. I think if Logan had won that, I think he was probably going to go on a bit of a streak of losing and just kind of go out that way, which we're going to have to have an episode and talk about how on earth they're going to book that ending because It's now more important than ever I think if you've had that really big match you need to get it spot on and I don't know I've not been keeping up with the amount of dates because he stopped mentioning them. I don't know how many we have left. Not many. since his heel run ended. I've just got, like, I agree with Ross, I think that the outcome of the Logan Paul match was going to tell us a lot about his final running and how that was going to be booked. I think John wins every match bar two, which means he probably only wins two, depending on how many times he wrestles. He will not beat Brock, I just cannot see him getting over on Brock. uh it's just a little bit unbelievable at this stage of his career that he can topple Brock Lesnar, because Brock come back and he's fucking shredded. The guy's a joke. But again, I don't think it would disappoint fans if he didn't beat Brock, because it is Brock. There's certain people you could like, see if he lost to, see if he did wrestle Roman Reigns and Reigns pinned him. I don't think people would be upset by that because it is Roman Reigns. I do still think he'll go out on his back, I think he will put a talent over. My God if it's Sammy Zane I will be furious, but it should be Dom Mysterio, we said it last week, we spoke about this. m I don't mind him, one and everything, m up until, I mean if he did want to, I'd prefer him to beat Brock Lesnar, I just don't think it's very on brand. I think if you're going to take a massive punt a screwy finish. going to take a massive punt on bringing this guy back, I think we're probably going to put him over at his Brock, do know what mean? So yeah, I'm really interested to see what's next for John em because obviously we're in Chicago on Friday night which means Mr. Lesnar may or may not be present. So, that's the short term, the next two weeks are all tied up with him and Brock, then he's got like a month. between now and. m Australia, so I'm really intrigued, because he's been the poster boy for Australia since it got announced, so I'm really intrigued to see what they've got planned for him. It should be a throwback feud, it should be a big name, it should be an AJ Styles or run CM Punk again or fuck it, run with Andy Alton again, I don't care. eh that the Lesnar match should be Australia but I don't think it will be. I don't think they'll fly at me, don't think they're going to book him out for that, it's going to be Wrestle Ballooza unfortunately and it is quick, they basically created it to get, unless they push it to this Halloween havoc and they push it all the way to the end of October, if that is happening. hat, I don't know, I've, when you said that I was doing a bit of digging and I noticed that the No Mercy card doesn't have NXT brand on it either. The actual poster, but it is an NXT event. it might just be, uh you know what mate, could be a AAA fucking crossover thing as well, could be anything, it could be absolutely anything. um The arena holds like 5,000 seats, so it's not going to be a John Cena show if it's a 5,000 seat arena for Halloween that week. That would be cool. I thought it would be NXT to be fair, yeah, I'm intrigued by what's next for John beyond Brock at WrestlePolloser. I was left with two closing thoughts for this match. Three. I've already said the first one multiple times that I love John Cena and I'm not ready for December. The second point that I was left with was, I think I said to you guys at the time that, at one point Nicole just said to me, just go. But I didn't like her toe in the thorns of trap. But I should have went and then just went, the last thing you said was just go, so I fucking went. m Because even at lunchtime on Sunday I'm looking at my watch and going, the flight from Glasgow to Paris leaves at half two, if I go to the airport just now, just take a hand luggage, they can make it, I'll be in Paris for half five and I'll run a half day across the city, I'll be there for seven, show starts at eight, yeah, all good. m And then I looked at the flight home from Bovay because of the cheap Ibis up there, like, right, that's fair, can do that, but I should have went, I should have went, don't love that, but it is what it is. The other thing I'm left with is I think we need. full-time Logan Paul run for six, seven months because what that showed me on Sunday is that there's been some an evolution as you said and about progress in terms of the in-match storytelling but you know telling that story for 20 minutes whilst being in the ring, was it perfect? No. Was it better than he's ever shown? To me, yes. But I think it's now, can he do that every week for six months? That's what I want to see for Logan Paul. We know that can sell a feud for four weeks at a time. He's he's brilliant at that. And it's can he sell a feud for four weeks when he is sitting in middle of the card and it's not. Like, they can feud with John Cena until the bell rings. And Logan Paul showed that he can feud with John Cena until the bell rings and then feud with him for 26 minutes. But can he do it that way? Everybody else on a SmackDown card. That's what he now needs to show. Takes it into the main event. It's a raw match, I get it. We're sitting here now in five minutes. I still want to talk. I still want to talk about some stuff in Monday Night Raw as well. we'll accept that this main event will bleed into the segment on Monday night, so I'll mention them all here and we'll throw it to you guys as I fucking hated the end of this match. It ruined the, it almost ruined the card for me. And the reason. because we're not all agreed for once. This is really an interesting chap. but the, so, Becky being essentially the fourth man is fine. I think she showed up in the fourth man two months ago. But if they've delayed it to try and swear I was away from that, fine. The reason I hated it was not because of what happened, it's not because who was involved. The two reasons I hate it is one, this is just the bloodline all over again, and I. It's been done and done to perfection for five years or four years, don't do it again. The second and the big reason I hate it is, and I said this at the time of Discord and I should agree, there was no need for Jay and Eleanor to win this match. They used our last ever John Cena SEM Punk match to further Rawlins versus Punk's feud, and I'm getting fed up with Rawlins versus Punk. is now boring me. The idea of a mixed tag match bores me. It just... uh that interests me, but that's just an element of interest, that's not, I don't want to watch it. And the intrigue where that is, everything we've just said about Nikki Bella could apply in that scenario. It shouldn't, because... intrigue isn't for the man, it's the intrigue, I just want to hear the pop. That's all I really want, to be honest. Everything beyond the pop I really couldn't care about. summarize my thoughts, I'll throw it to you guys and then can bring it back at the end. I didn't, I didn't like the ending. I didn't like the ending because I just felt as though it's not fair to Jay and Ellie and there's no need for the guys to be involved. I thought the two of them were brilliant, man's look, Ellie and I looked phenomenal. I thought it was the best Ellie and I I've ever seen, I thought it looked amazing. I mean, I to him at one point, I think he could walk out with this title and I think a minute later he'd get put through the table and I was like, that might be enough. But at the time, he looks the best in this match. The outcome was never in doubt. I know Daz you picked Gio, so last week, and to be fair, up until Roman got the shit kicked at him, I was starting to think to myself, there's a path for this. But we all said realistically, it's probably going to be Rollins because the story's there. I'm now at the stage where I'm fed up with Rollins and Punk. I just want to see them in a hell of a cell or in three stages of hell end this feud and move on because they cannot drag this out till Maynia. That is honestly a panic for me as a wrestling fan. Then it leads into... I don't know. I don't know. And then we lead into what happened on Monday night. And I'm going to say this, and this is going to be a controversial statement, but I said it to you guys in Discord. And I'm going to say it again and I'm going to stand by what I say here. That is the best promo that Becky Lynch has ever delivered. Ever. That was not screeching, not panicking. She came out to Rollins Music, trolled the crowd, went toe to toe with one of the best mic workers of all time. did a really good job of like, putting Becky over whilst also saying, I'm gonna fight, essentially. I'm gonna kick the shit out your husband. That was the perfect. Monday night, setting up a story promo there's ever been until Becky starts slapping the shit out him and saying what you gonna do, you can't touch me. At that point I felt as though it went too far. One hit, meh, two hits, okay, see after that you're like, we all know the WWE's policy, that's why in intergender matches you tag out when the other person tags in, there is no crossover of genders They're not gonna have a man hit a woman on television, and I'm not saying they should, but I just think at that point it's like that's such a It's like a rage bait type situation. I just think they should have stopped before it got to that. I don't think that's him. only purpose for it being there is to feed the AJ Lee stuff, which is why I think that it's a massive own goal for them if they don't now bring her back because that segment then makes no sense if they then run with, look, because I've got this fucking horrible feeling that it's going to be re-arribbly, yeah, it just seems too quick for it to be AJ, but then again, WrestlePull is just two weeks away so it needs to be quick. I'll be honest right, you stole my thunder a wee bit because I've been very critical of Becky Lynch's in-ring promo work. I was astounded by how good her promo was last night, I was honestly, when Rowland's music hit I thought that's a bit quick and then she came out and she memed, it was great, that was really good. I think it's the best she's been presented, her overall look, the way she sounded, it was a really, really good package presentation and I'm like you Saunders, I'd I'm not disappointed that Becky Lynch is the fourth man in this table because a, it makes sense and b, why we waited until now to run this. m The reason I was disappointed by it, we shared a similar view and that there was no need for Ellie Knight and GSO to be in this match, this would have sold a lot better at the end had it been 1 on 1, Rollins versus Punk. had to run a one on one and Becky cost him the title, but the thing that disappointed me the most was and it's the kind of thing that we all talked about in the squash last week is the element of surprise and don't do it again, do not do it again, element of surprise. The WWE leaked this shit in advance, we're planning something big. Because their stuff doesn't get fucking made up, it's leaked by somebody intentionally out to the big news outlets to draw people in to watch it, obviously we're starting on ESPN soon. And they were building up this big surprise, that's not a surprise. See you were telling me there was a fourth man, Becky Lynch was one of the three suspects, probably the most likely, but there would have been two. would have been two that I would have probably fantasy booked but Becky would have been in the three regardless. So, it's not a surprise, we all knew there was going to be an interference, especially the way match one ended, they two get kicked out and you're just like, I'm already two steps ahead. Everything points to a fourth man, Becky wasn't a surprise. I'm just disappointed that that's how they ended the card, that it just didn't make sense at that moment in time to bring Becky into the fold. and I feel like they've only brought her in so that they can sell tickets in Chicago, not that they would have struggled to bring A.G. Lee back, flaunt her out for a mixed tag team match and for a naughty wrestler again. It's just, oh, I'm with you, I hate this Rollins Punk Vortex, it sucks, especially when you've got Ellie Knight, J.O. So, Gunther who's obviously injured right now and there's just so much talent on that show, stop pigeonholing your champion. into this never ending feud with a 52 year old guy or whatever it is. Yeah, I'm ready for that to move on. To be honest, run it without the title, they could have dropped the title on Sunday and still run that angle, you know what mean? They could still run this angle and have this feud between these two forever if that's what they want. See, M-Punk said something utterly horrifying in The Ring on Monday night, this will never be over and I almost let out a wee- I'm beginning to believe it. shame because they're two of the best, but it feels as though it's just holding, not holding raw back, but it's like, it's just so dominant on a Monday night because it's the 20 minute opening segment, there's usually a bit in the middle, there's backstage segments and there's whatever happens in the main event and it's just like the same every week. This is... something new last night with that promo before the main event, I hope that's a trial for something new to give us more wrestling earlier in the show. This is what you said last week about surprise and just more variety in match types. This is a match that needs like a hell on a sail or a three stages of hell just to finish the few that move on because they don't need the title. And I said the same thing that when we start to look at it to all the rest of the media, which we will do next week on Squash, if it's Roman Rollins, they don't need the title either. But it is time now to go to Ross and say you disagreed. And I'm interested to hear your point, because I think the difference is that you're... I'm going to say that, I think, because we've said it's not that we didn't like elements of it. I think you probably feel more strongly about the elements rather than saying we didn't like them. You're like, no, I love that. Whereas you're willing to maybe ignore the stuff that's fucked us off, to an extent. the extent potentially. So I don't think she's the fourth man at all. Now, I actually don't know if she even is a fourth man, but I don't think that was a fourth man giveaway. It's purely a vehicle for the mixed tag thing because on Smackdown on Friday night, they are going up against... Is it the Chiefs game? Is it on at the same time? So WWE know they're going to get absolutely wrecked in the reigns. Yes, NFL is back. They're going up against it. So that's kind of why. is officially listed as part of the vision. She's officially listed as part of vision. But then she can be officially listed for a week, let's be honest. You can do whatever you want. For me, this was a bit of kayfabe bleeding into just real life. So picture the scenario. You have a problem in your workplace and you go to your partner and go, Mr. or Mrs. Partner, I have this issue. And most of the time they are like, well, not often do you work with your partner. your partner in this situation goes, I have a plan. It just kind of made sense. they literally, she's just. Nice. I think there's some credit to be given. No, I didn't mind any of it. I thought it was like when I'd saw the low blow, I didn't immediately go, that was Becky. I mean, it was like, oh, that's kind of, that's funny. And she takes it off, I was like. Straight out of it, that's all I mean. I was baking. And I was like, do you know what? I think that's quite sensible. see if it had been Roxy, I thought that would have been really cool. Okay, so obviously that's his daughter, you know what mean, that would have been really really cool. You know what's really interesting about what you said Ross? When you said there about, it's a little bit of KFA bleeding into real life. I think that's one of the elements I actually don't like. And the reason I don't like it is, like, at some point, they'll, they did this before when they had the feud with Baron Corbant and Lacey Evans. Eventually they have to stop working together. directly on the show, but everybody knows they're still, you know what mean? They still know they're married and they still talk about each other. That's the bit that, no, I don't like it. It's like, well, if you start doing this together, how do you split up on TV without splitting up? part because I think they themselves said it the last time they did do this. They didn't actually like the way it went, so they've always been hesitant to go back and do it. Now, year then, your next train of thought is, okay, they're doing it. So pair of them must think, okay, this is quite a good idea. I think this is going to lead into, as we've actually said without saying our name, actually, I don't think we actually specifically, did you specifically say... I gave him that because I still was thunder on the Becky Lynch promo, but... I think that mix tag will be interesting. I think all the concerns of AJ Lee are... Well, the valid... just close this segment off because we're going to have a lot of time to discuss next week on this because we're going to discuss whatever happens on Friday night. We're going be disappointed. We're going to love it. But I'll just ask one last question and it's a yes or no to both of you guys. I've already asked it. I'll ask it again. Is there a risk that you get a Nikki Bella situation with H.E. Lee? She's been out there for so long. She wrestled in a different era. was a handfuls above anybody else in that era until... probably Paige debuted and eventually the horse woman appeared. Is there any risk that we're so nostalgic we don't, even if she does wrestle we're happy until the bell rings. That thing we always say, this is brown until the bell rings and then we're let disappointed. Is there? 1000 % I can only say yes because I can't say no for definite. There is always a chance that that could happen and it would be a damn shame. that's the reason I don't think it's going to harm. That's simple as that. depends how long they've had this angle in mind. Has she been training for months or has she been training for a couple of weeks because this has all been thrown together? She did train for, was it Heels she was in? The TV show, she did a lot of work last year, so in theory. of that, that's like me saying, that's like a professional football saying I've been playing with the 21's, it's like, I don't know, but this is a Champions League match, so you're like, actually I'm a match fit, do know what I mean? It's weird. agree with you, 100 % agree with you. And then realistically, you... It's the exact same as she would discuss with Gacy and Lemus. It's like if you drop her into a PLE, you'll get a couple of minutes at a time. Spotfest, won't be her wrestling. can put on a dark match because it'll fucking break the internet, do know what mean? Yeah. gonna just, we've hit nearly a 120. And this is also happening to the PLA, so we're gonna try go for five minutes, that's the time. We're gonna push the EO and Steph discussion to next week because it's gonna, it actually is gonna help, it's gonna help the conversation, because the question I wanted to discuss was is how do they build a match between two non-English, native English speakers? So we'll get to that next week, but Dom versus AJ, now. Firstly, firstly I'll just say I sat and watched that full thing for, because not only did they get the full, the full entrance, they then get a minute, then they get the three minute ad break, then they get two minutes of backstage stuff, and then they go to again these introductions and it was phenomenal, funnily enough. It was unbelievable. They may have adopted AJ Styles, I loved every minute of it, but they said this pre-pod, coming to you, Daz, when I was going to start with, as soon as it became a, Obviously this wasn't the main event on Monday night. The outcome was sealed, wasn't it? yeah, I'm going to be really honest, right? I can not, I'm going to stop predicting how we book anybody in the Judgement Day because it fucking doesn't make sense to me, right? I think the big bald dick's listening to this and fucking just fucking about with my predictions, right? Because everything points to this is the perfect time for Dom to drop the title, that's the first time he's not been over with the crowd was last night and that's not a surprise because the fucking- AJ is a dold in France, right? So, it's the perfect time for him to drop it, doesn't he hurt him? He's obviously getting mega campy on work coming up, in the very near future. Run the double belts, I don't mind it, he has a work course, he's been praised for that in the past, m by talent, and has come up towards this title and that he's wrestled. I've still got four shows that week, two on TV, two off TV, Dom wrestles in all four, every single week, so if he wants to run AAA... and appear weekly on Raw then fuck it man I'm on, I'm down for it. em Everything about the match was great, I thought it was really well booked. The only criticism I have of the match is that Dom didn't need the interference, because I feel like we're holding something back on Dom here that he can't win clean. It was the perfect opportunity for Dom to go and win clean on his own and a one on one against a huge name and then I ran away and he's the bad guy. then troll the fans for a couple of minutes. Bye.% right. I don't get this angle well, Grande Americano, I don't know if the angle is that he eventually, they're going to feud on AAA or something, like I don't really know what the angle is right now with this. I felt like that ending soured what was a brilliant match and a brilliant moment for both, because they gave AJ's flowers and then Dom got to go over Ultima which is perfect for both people, but Yeah, I didn't like the ending, but as soon as I seen they'd slapped it in middle of the card, was never, ever going to, the title wasn't going to change hands. The... The company to wrap this up Obviously we've been singing nearly every month and a day between us m na na na na as I'm saying it is, because obviously whenever I ask a question it sounds loaded, it usually is loaded, but is it... is the fact that once Dawn starts running clean, you have to probably put the world tight on him... is it as simple as that? Or you need to turn them face. Like, I doesn't actually turn them face. I don't... Yeah, I'd say so. Still. genuinely believe he's a heel? Because I don't think he can be a heel and get cheered in every building you go to, apart from last night obviously. maybe the truest tweener then because he's probably quite faced in the backstage segments or not as face affiliated, but definitely in ringy as I would say, which is great because you just get to get the best of both worlds. like he's still a heel in the way that he acts in the ring, he's still like a hundred percent, but then he just wrestles like Eddie, so Eddie wasn't really a heel, like Eddie was a good bad guy, do know what mean? answers the question, did you hear the boos when it attacked AJ during the entrance? Like that's, that was perfect, that was perfect. I was like, how are they gonna turn this crowd into a Smackstar team? was like, fucking genius. And do know that way where it was done so well that like, I could not tell you if that was the plan or not. But if he's just thought. It's like typical throwback to the times where you like Eddie and stuff, that was perfect. what was really interesting when Dom was coming out the ref did have a conversation with AJ and I thought the same thing as you I thought did they call an audible? Because they knew that we're never gonna get that much underway, that we're gonna lose about seven or eight minutes last night just listening to... It's, I just, I mean, I would love to have a conversation with AJ Styles, genuinely, and sounds obvious, and ask him, what do you want from your last year? Because part of me thinks, as a true professional wrestler, he's happy to do this type of thing in his last year. Have good matches with good crowds, have fun, put over Dawn, put over people. But part of me also thinks. give him something to work with. So I've been interested to know his point of view because I don't disagree with the book and like I'm totally with you. I just think a clean finish would have been better for everybody. I feel as though I did sewer. When I saw Grande Americano I did sewer and obviously we've seen the conversations that whether it's true or not but I think it is because I've loved Kaiser's work under the mask and I think he's portraying it better than Gable did and I'm interested to see how they manage that moving forward. What you... This liquid case isn't El Grande Americano, what are you talking about? Nonsense. They have no idea I'm in this slander. I'm so bad with the whole fucking thing to be honest, I'm sick of it, it's redundant. gimmick they've got, my opinion. there's the thing, I was right, it became a proper gimmick. When he came out in Mexico singing in Spanish, I was like, that's the gimmick, that's better. up until, you've had to say them. That's the say them. do a long-term build when in two years' time we have some sort of fatal four-way with four El Grande Americanos. That is the fantasy book in my head. think you'll fucking need to wait about six weeks for that. There's already three of them, so... Just need Gable to be fit again and there'll be four of them. I mean, that was arguably the best episode of Raw for a while from my perspective, but I think it was saved by the three things, the crowd, the Dom Meejie match, and then that promo, because ultimately we still have the same starting finish that we have every fucking week. But, well, that was interesting. So, we're getting there, so let's back there. to the tag division. Well think that is where he belongs but the company do know that they've got a world champion if they need one. That's the good thing about it is the guy could break out and just win the world title. on. I think the other thing is what I say is that I love the crowd giving it tight to the new day in Gresham Wala. That was the highlight for me. Get them off my TV! I said it like, just get them to fuck, I hate it. So the last thing we need to do is, because we seem to forget, well we do usually chuck it in halfway through, so most weeks is actually definitely going go in trouble. I'm going to ask for you guys, but I don't want it to go to Julia's situation anymore because I'm fed up talking about it. it's Mr. I tag teamed with the WarRiders this weekend, it's fucking Penna again. He's gonna win it, he's gonna win it, he's gonna win the ultimate Golden Youngway Post-Immortal. It's ultimately gonna be him because week on week he's fucking booking gets worse and worse and I'm getting to the point where I'm beginning to think it might be disciplinary. I'm beginning to think he must have earned this, genuinely, honestly. know the worst thing about last night was the camera panning down to him for Sarah Maddow was late and missed it. I was fucking raging. you know my thoughts on camera work. Yeah, I'm beginning to think this guy's getting punished for something that's happened, whether it be backstage politics, something outside of wrestling, I don't know, but fuck me, he went from on top of the world to below Ivor, which is fucking crazy. I love the chant from the Ole Ole Ole Zero medal, was just... Chef's kiss. got them fucking six man tagging with the WarRiders. I nearly didn't watch it at all when I saw that I said it to the desk, was like, what the fuck is going on here? Don't get me wrong, I know you need to shoehorn people into a shoe, like I know that, we could have shoehorned them into something better than that. Aye, but you look at that six man tag match and I can't believe I finished and talked about the fucking World Riders. you look, normally when you get a match like that it's like there's two tag teams, one on each side and then there's two elevated superstars and Peyton is one, you're like, it's not Grayson Ball, it? What the fuck is, what are we even doing here? To borrow one for Roscoe. um Ross is frantically clicking away, which means I'm guessing he's his research for the squash we're about to record. um say what you Kaju. that being said, we're gonna wrap up there. We've run on for the hour and a half, but that was a phenomenal weekend of wrestling and major props to, major, major props to the crowd in Paris because you took what on paper looked like a relatively average show and turned it into something ridiculous and we've nowhere in the final. We're in the end game now, now it to the go. I'm not ready for that to say that. So, ending it there. Take it easy guys. We'll see you in Saturday for this Quotient back here next week for the usual weekly podcast.