5 YRS AGO NXT ON USA POST-SHOW: Lindberg & Stoup talk LA Knight, Carmelo Hayes, Cameron Grimes, Indi Hartwell, Ember Moon, Mandy Rose, more

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1:35 Now, PW Torch brings you the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Show.

1:44 On today's Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Show for Saturday, October 3rd, 2026, we jump back five years to the October 6th, 2021 episode, of PWT Talks NXT, Nate Lindberg and Tom Staub dove into the mailbag and took phone calls and discussed the entire episode of NXT from that night, which included Mandy Rose against Ember Moon. So here we go with this five years ago flashback.

2:15 And welcome to another episode of PWT Talks NXT. I am your host for the evening, Nate Lindbergh, because, hey, Kelly's not here again this week.

2:23 He should be back next week. A little bit of an unexpected emergency, but everything's cool. He should be back with us next week, and we'll talk with Kelly.

2:31 But I'm here right now, Nate Lindbergh.

2:33 You can follow me on Twitter, at Nate Lindbergh.

2:35 I write the NXT Hits and Misses, which I did not write tonight. I wrote the live report for Kelly. I hope to get back to the NXT Hits and Misses next week.

2:44 If I.

2:44 If I can find some time this week to write it, I will. But tonight we're not here to talk about me or Kelly or anything like that.

2:50 We're here to talk.

2:51 NXT 2.0 and our fatal four-way main event that we saw here tonight for the NXT tag team titles between MSK, Grizzle Young Vects, Brooks Jensen and Hayes and Williams here. So in order to do that, I should probably get somebody else on the line to talk with me.

3:12 And that person there would be Mr. Tom Stope. Hey, yes, at TomStop on Twitter.

3:17 Occasionally doing things for the torch, every once in a while. The most recent time I fired something up on the site, Wade noticed that I was writing a new article, and he was like, oh, hey, man, I actually have that covered already. Oh, okay, yeah, no problem. But, you know, it was a good episode of Raw anyway.

3:37 Actually, no, it wasn't.

3:40 I I've been doing that more and more lately. I'm like, okay, I see myself going down a rabbit hole. I better say something to just, you know, nip it in the bud so I can move on to the next thing. And then the thing I end up saying ends up being untrue. What does that say about me? Uh, yeah, it was not, not the best episode of raw ever, but, uh, anyway, uh, yeah, the, I also keep calling them Brooks and Jensen, those, those dams of B's and J's Briggs and Jensen. I even Briggs and I wrote it that way in notes too.

4:08 Yeah.

4:09 So did I, so did I Brooks, Brooks and Jensen is Briggs and Jensen in my notes. And maybe I, maybe I wrote that in the live report too.

4:15 I'll have to look.

4:17 But anyway, so this was, this was an interesting match. It was definitely, it definitely a hard match to cover for the, for the live report.

4:25 That's for sure.

4:26 A lot of moving parts here. But we did wind up seeing MSK retain.

4:31 I thought.

4:33 A pretty entertaining match. I'm not a.

4:35 Huge proponent, huge fan of multi-man tag matches. They usually lose me about halfway through because they're so chaotic and there's so many things going on that like, I'm just kind of like, eh, and I usually wait, especially in an elimination style type match like this. I usually really kind of wait until it's down to like two teams or just two guys. If it's, you know, a, a, a singles elimination, sounded just two competitors before I really kind of start paying attention.

5:02 However, I did enjoy this. I was a little upset. The grizzly young vets got kicked out so early.

5:07 Cause you know, I really want to see a grizzly young vets tag team title rain here, but it is what it is. I was also a little surprised that Carmelo Hayes and trick Williams got eliminated so early. Cause there has been a big focus put on them You recently, especially them being the new edition with the new NXT 2.0.

5:28 I didn't really expect them to win. Same thing with, with, with Briggs and Jensen. I didn't necessarily accept them to win. I figured it was going to either be MSK or grizzled young bets.

5:37 But I expected them to play a little bit more of a role in the match than they did. Um, but all said and done, you know, I guess I, I'm, I'm okay with it.

5:46 Um, I don't really see where MSK goes from here.

5:50 Uh, well, that's not true.

5:52 Imperium, because obviously Imperium beat them down at the end of the show, but Imperium versus.

5:56 MSK, I don't know.

5:59 Been there, done that doesn't really seem super appealing to me unless Imperium really uh, shows a, a, a much more of an edge to them than they did, uh, than they have in the past.

6:11 It kind of seemed like more of a jobber team than that.

6:14 Um, you know, in, um, that bad-ass, um, Imperium that we saw years ago, you know, with when, when they still had Alexander Wolf at Walter and they were just dominating both NXT and NXT UK, um, I guess Walter's still with them, but you know what I mean?

6:29 Um, Yeah, so I don't know.

6:32 I'm kind of lukewarm for that, but it is what it is. Tom, what did you think about the Fatal 4-Way main event and where they might be going from here?

6:41 I think I would have already forgotten that Imperium showed up at the end if you hadn't mentioned it. I can't say that them reinserting themselves fires me up all that much.

6:52 I kind of forgot myself until I was reading my notes. I was like, oh yeah, that happens.

6:56 The only significant thing about it for me, which now that I look at my notes, I did remind myself of it as well, is the Thank You Imperium chant, which is legitimately the first time that I have personally clocked the crowd being anti-MSK.

7:13 Everybody talks about it all the time.

7:15 How the crowd keeps gatekeeping MSK for some reason, and I just.

7:19 Haven't noticed it.

7:20 And yes, you know, it's especially noticeable at the Performance Center shows. But but, you know, WWE is overall sweetening their their audio more than ever now.

7:33 But, you know, so there's that. But I've just I've just never noticed it to an extent.

7:37 Where I actually was like, oh, wow, the crowd doesn't like these guys until tonight. And I agree with you on just... I think I agree across the board. The match seemed like it was probably fine. I blinked and Trick and Mello were out and.

7:54 I was not.

7:55 super pleased about that because i was uh they were the part of the match i was most looking forward to seeing um but the reason i blinked uh to to have missed them getting eliminated was because yes indeed not only are matches like this always just sort of like eye rolls until you get to the part that actually matters um but uh but this is that typical nxt main event and and Believe me, dear listener, I am as bored of me saying it as you are of hearing it.

8:22 But this is what NXT does.

8:24 They tell the main event story ahead of time, and then the match itself is just work rate, story light, maybe some post-match stuff. But it's just guys working, right? Um, it's not, it's not guys telling a story, which is what grabbed me. So, um, the best thing I can say about it is, uh, it was a nice.

8:42 Little spot for let's get this right.

8:44 Briggs.

8:45 Uh, yep.

8:46 There we go. And Jensen.

8:48 Um, I mean, yeah, everybody looked good, but I, you know, Briggs and Jensen losing in their first match didn't. you know, wave the flag that I needed to pay attention to them all that much.

8:58 But now here they are last team eliminated and doing a little belt handoff spot with MSK. So good for them. Yeah. And I don't know.

9:07 Do you feel like the two of them are miscast? Like I, I, I like the act, but for me, I don't know. I feel like they come across as heels, not necessarily in what they're doing. It's just like they're the, the act itself is, I don't know, in my head, I feel like they should be heels, and it's almost tough for me to think of them as babyfaces.

9:27 I don't know if that's just me or if you get the same thing.

9:32 Not to the extent that I would have mentioned it, although I'd be lying if I said it didn't ever occur to me.

9:38 I think mostly....

9:41 It just seems like they are playing roles. And I mean, you know, there's a lot of heavy gimmicking going on right now. But for the most part, I would argue, I think.

9:51 I would argue, yeah.

9:53 Yeah, I I would argue that, uh, the, the heavy gimmicking we're seeing on 2.0 is fit to, to the wrestler. There aren't too many mismatches, but it does seem like, uh, if, if any mismatches, I definitely have to think about that one, but, uh, it does seem like these guys are playing the part of the good old boy. Um, but I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking too much about, you know, what I've seen prior from, um, From the Evolve one.

10:20 The B and the J names, man. That's getting me. Yeah, really.

10:25 And then Ben Buchanan. I mean, that's total sight unseen. But, I mean, maybe that's just bad acting.

10:30 I don't know. Maybe this is who he is through and through. That could be. That could certainly be.

10:35 All right, so I guess with that, let's get over to the phone lines because we actually have quite a few of you guys who are looking to talk with us here tonight. So to kick things off, we're going to go to area code 410. 410, go ahead, state your name, and where are you calling from? 410, do we have you?

10:57 I don't think we do at the moment.

10:59 I'm going to mute you, and we'll come back up.

11:02 Hold on.

11:03 I heard you when I muted you. Hold on.

11:04 Here we go.

11:05 Are we there?

11:07 There we go.

11:08 How you doing?

11:08 It's Reverend Keith.

11:10 How you doing?

11:11 Not too bad, Keith. I thought it was you. How are we doing tonight, my friend?

11:15 Wonderful, wonderful. Thanks for taking my call. Listen, I'm going to be brief and to the point. And Tom, it's always good to hear your voice, man.

11:24 Likewise, Reverend Keith. Good old blog talk, eh? Yes, sir.

11:30 But I just wanted to say, I think that it's time for Frankie Monet to be called up to the main roster and be placed with her husband, John Morrison, because I think right now her character is really being defined down. She's being used as a gatekeeper slash jobber, and she's too experienced for that. You know, I mentioned this to Greg Parks a couple nights ago, and I saw this coming, and I was just surprised tonight that– you know, that Corey Jade got her first win over Frankie.

12:04 Cause I like Frankie.

12:05 Always did when she was an impact and over the rain is the rain is champion. So we'll see where that goes. And also, you know, this NXT 2.0 is interesting right now because, you know, they building up a lot of the younger stars, but at the same token, I think they need to take it a little bit slower and, Because Bron Breaker, he's been just transitioned to, like, champion within, like, weeks. And I think that they should, you know, just take their time, build to a great story arc, then deliver upon the storylines. So to say, to make a long story short, guys, I'm going to let you mull over this, and I'm going to go.

12:46 I think they've incorporated Joe Gacy into the storyline with Ciampa so that that'll give him an out. I think it'll eventually be a triple threat. at Halloween Havoc, and I could see Ciampa retaining and then Breaker getting the title down the road. So let me know your thoughts on that.

13:03 Thanks for taking my call.

13:05 Have a blessed night. Right.

13:07 Keith, always good to hear from you, man. Always good to hear from you. So we'll start with the, we're going to start with Frankie Monet and we'll get into the Joe Gacy stuff momentarily here. So we had Frankie Monet kind of interfering in a match kind of sort of originally the match was scheduled for Cora Jade versus Virginia Perry.

13:28 No, I'm not really sure who she is.

13:30 She was, I guess, just a job or going up against Cora Jade and Cora Jade's I guess, essentially a re-debut of Corey Jade. I think we've seen her on NXT before, but this is kind of her re-debut here tonight before during Corey J's entrance, Frankie Monet and Robert stone actually attacked Virginia Perry. And then just kind of Frankie Monet took her place in the match. They told the ring announcer as well as the referee, like, Hey, no, this is, this is core Jade's opponent now. And you know, that just happened because I guess if you just want to match, you can just go down to the ring, take out your opponent and you can put yourself in the match. Apparently that's cool down in NXT. William Regal's

14:10 totally fine with it. So that's what happened. And we got Frankie Monet versus Cora Jade, Cora Jade with an upset win here in a, let me pull up the top, pull up the time in a second here, but Cora Jade with, with an upset wind, a roll up two minutes and 10 seconds.

14:27 A roll-up on Frankie Monet.

14:29 And Frankie Monet was pretty much getting the upper hand throughout the entirety of the matchup.

14:36 Um, so it was a, it was kind of a, a shock win, I guess, for Cora Jade.

14:40 Um, I honestly, I hate to say I expected Cora Jade to win this, but I kind of did with all of the, the, um, kind of the focus that they've been putting on Cora Jade and her boyfriend, Trey Baxter.

14:53 Uh, in the past few weeks.

14:56 Um, and also too, that they were pushing this as Cora Jade's redebut. I was her debut on NXT 2.0 debut. Um, I, it's really not something that we see often to, to have somebody kind of lose in a debut match.

15:10 So I was.

15:10 Expecting the win, but I am completely on board with you, Keith, when it comes to Frankie Monet, I feel like she has really been, she's really been defined down from where I feel like she should be. You have, you've got a, She came into a lot of pomp and circumstance, and I mean, I know the three of us here on the show, we had her slotted in pretty high up on the card. If memory serves, I know at least I did, had her slotted up pretty high up on the card, and she's just kind of toiling around like Robert Stonebrand, Mandy Rose, and now doing this thing here with Cora Jade. I feel like there could be so much more that she could be doing. And if her going up to the main roster is, is what it takes,

15:56 then by all means, I'm down, I'm completely down with it. I'd really like to see, you know, her and John Morrison kind of get back, you know, get together and see what they could do. I think that would involve moving Morrison and Ms away from one another. I'm a S actually, I don't know where, I don't remember where either one of them landed in the draft.

16:15 They led it together or, um, separate.

16:18 I can't think of that off the top of my head, but regardless, um, I think it would, you know, obviously the two of them probably need to split up before, uh, Frankie Monet and John Morrison could really kind of flourish together as an act, I think. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I, I totally be all, all for that. Um, I, I want to see a lot more out of her. Um, and I, I feel like right now in this gatekeeper type role, they're kind of holding her back.

16:43 Did you know that you can enjoy commercial-free versions of all of your favorite Wade Keller podcasts and PWTorch daily casts on Spotify? Just go to patreon.com, search PWTorch, and subscribe to a VIP membership tier. You get a seven-day free trial, by the way, to kick the tires a bit and see if you like the service. And then sync it with Spotify, and you can listen to commercial-free versions of our free shows, like the Wade Keller post shows, the Wade Keller podcast flagship, our flashbacks, and also the PWTorch daily cast lineup. Again, all commercial-free, a nice streamlined listening experience. But with third-tier membership, you can also unlock all the VIP podcasts, including Everything with Rich and Wade,

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17:45 Tom, what do you think?

17:47 I think my internet browser is too slow to be able to tell me where John Morrison got drafted, but Miz is on Raw. And I think the phrase you were looking for is palm and circumstance, lest we forget. Boy, my internet browser is– I was going to read Michael McGivern's email on this subject, but my– wow. I swear this is a new computer.

18:14 Oh, there we go.

18:15 Gentlemen.

18:16 Is it really? Well, you'd have to ask Apple about that one. Rabbit hole.

18:25 Oh, can you tell I'm feeling hazy tonight? Kids go back to school and you just can't stay healthy.

18:30 That's– OK. Yeah.

18:34 God, I'm sure I'm running a fever or something. Anyway, good thing it's only audio and I don't actually have to say these things out loud. Muscling through Michael McGivern writes, gentlemen, I didn't care for Frankie Monet injecting her interjecting herself.

18:49 Into a match with Cora Jade.

18:51 NXT used to always have logical matches and angles, and this was the latest case of NXT becoming something it's not. I did like Jade with the upset, though. I'm starting to get strong Razor Ramon 1-2-3 kid vibes from this angle. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Thanks, Michael McGivern. So I think I did not like this either, that specific element of it. And I think all it needed was just a little moment. And you could see Cora Jade up there in the ring nodding like, OK, let's go.

19:25 But I think we needed more of a visible moment where Cora was asked, like, well, we had this time scheduled for you to have a match.

19:34 Do you want to have it against.

19:37 Frankie and have Cora go like, you know what?

19:40 Yeah, bring it on. And then it's like, all right, sure. Use this TV time for that.

19:44 That's fine.

19:44 And I think that's just a little straighten your time moment. Speaking of Virginia Ferry, is, of course, Ellie the Dream Girl making her second appearance under that name. So she. I mean, they're they're going back to her. So that's something I actually thought that this was maybe Frankie Monet's best match on NXT yet. Everything else has been like some scale of, OK, I know she's better than that. or, uh, like, okay, I know she's better to that up to a ceiling of like, all right, she's getting her WWE legs under her.

20:21 Um, that was good, but we know she's better.

20:23 And this, this is the first time I was like, all right, all right, there's the Taya we know. Um, you know, yeah, she, she lost, but, uh, but it doesn't make a difference. Um, so yeah, I agree.

20:34 I agree with all of that.

20:36 Um, uh, the, the, the complaints there, but, um, but Hey, we were all looking at this, uh, segment to be the, the debut of, uh, Trey Baxter's superhero gimmick. And, uh, thankfully that didn't happen.

20:50 He just, he wore an ugly polo shirt. Stand back. There's a boyfriend coming through.

20:56 Oh God.

20:57 I'm glad that didn't happen either. And we already have one superhero with Nikki Ash. We, we, We've had another superhero with the hurricane.

21:04 Do we need another? Do we need another? All right. And then what are the other thing?

21:10 Oh, my God.

21:11 Tom, help me. What else did Keith talk about?

21:14 So he was worried about fast-tracking Braun Breaker and possibly adding Joe Casey to the title match. Actually, I think I'm going to go ahead and read another email.

21:30 I didn't even ask permission to do that. I'm just doing it.

21:33 You know what, Tom? Kelly's not here. It's off the rails. Whatever we want to do tonight, man.

21:39 I guess.

21:40 I'm a total mess, as you can tell. I can't get my brain straight. As I said to you before the show, so am I. How do we still have listeners? JB from Detroit says, is it just me? Maybe JB, we'll see. Or does having Ciampa defend the title next week against Joe Gacy for seemingly no reason take a little bit of the luster off the matchup with Breaker in a few weeks at Halloween Havoc?

22:07 Very main roster-ish, in my opinion.

22:10 Also, are you as surprised as I am that under the new 2.0 banner, they are continuing on with Halloween Havoc for the second straight year?

22:21 Briefly on that, Yes, I am to an extent.

22:24 Halloween Havoc was silly enough that it seems like it'll totally blend right in with this. I've also been really wondering if takeovers are behind us. I mean, that's just pure speculation on my part, but I've been wondering that and if they– just do, uh, TV, like we're being reminded or, or being shown that the occasional TV special named TV special is still in the, uh, the NXT playbook. Um, you know, that could easily take the place of, of takeovers, even though it would be really easy to, you know, it's right there in the PC and the, the fans don't pay for it. They just got to book a bus to, to bus them over from full sale. And, um, cause they still, they still gather at full sale. Um, in case that sounded confusing to anyone. And they just

23:15 pop it up on Peacock. I don't Uh, don't see why not, uh, maybe under a different name, but still been wondering. Um, so that is where my mind is at with that. But yeah, um, regarding Keith and JB's possible concerns or, or, uh, ponderings here. First of all, I, I, my impression is that I believe what Champa said was, Hey, let's wrestle next week. And if you can beat me next week, then you can get added to the match at Havoc. Um, So I'm pretty sure that's what's happening with Gacy.

23:46 Yeah.

23:46 Seems to come out of the blue, but we will talk about Gacy being tied up with Parker, Parker Boudreau now. Um, so that is probably going to play in, in one way or another. I don't personally expect a Gacy to make it to the havoc match. Um, again, we'll get into, to exactly why, when we get to that, but, um, but I, I, you know, Keith is one of those, like, like Kelly is Keith is one of those who looks at the chess pieces, like 10 moves ahead. And I'm not, I don't excel at that as much. So I wasn't even thinking about moving the title or, or rather not.

24:25 I don't think Keith said moving the title. I think Keith said protecting breaker by not putting his shoulders to the mat. And that is, does actually sound compelling because then you continue the program. My thought on Breaker is that they've done a significant enough job of signaling, hey, he's the new guy. And he, for his part, has done a good enough job of living up to that signaling so far that I'm OK with strapping the rocket every once in a while. You can do that. You should do that. And I think that this one is working so far. Again, the terrible name that we're already used to saying, I think that in itself is evidence to how well Breaker is working in the in what he's been asked to do so far. Um, so I

25:12 feel like this is set up for, could they hotshot?

25:16 Sure.

25:17 But I think this is set up for Champa to like, make sure that do, do his absolute damnedest as Champa can to make sure that breaker has the early match of his life. and earns our respect that much more. So we are that much more on the breaker journey. So when he does eventually reach whatever echelon he reaches, we're that much more invested because 2.0, um, has torn down a lot to, um, They're starting back from zero in a lot of different ways. So they're having to win people back a lot with the acts that they are presenting. So I think that is Ciampa versus Breaker.

26:00 The way that I'm thinking of it is a potentially key building block in winning people over with this.

26:08 Yeah, I agree.

26:09 I mean, it's, it's kind of taking that old guard and, and blending it with the new guard, going back to, to what you said about, you know, well, obviously, you know, kind of Keith and Kelly, both being, you know, those, those chess masters kind of thinking 10 steps ahead. I got to admit that is, that is something that I, that crossed my mind with Joe Gacy kind of being a part of that match, simply just being there to take the pin, you know, from, from champ So, so breaker, isn't the one to.

26:36 Eat the pen.

26:37 And cause I, I can't see them putting the title on Ron breaker at the moment. I, part of me, part of me like would expect it because, you know, it's kind of shocking and he's, you know, the new guy that they're trying to strap the rock to him, like you said, but I also think he's still too new and too green to be that face of the company, be the face of the brand rather. And, you know, and hold that title. But I think he's certainly a great challenger right now for Champa. And this is certainly a good way to build him up, build Brown breaker up as a, a credible kind of a credible threat on the roster. So I do, I do like that.

27:18 Joe Gacy is, man, I got to admit, I think this gimmick is growing on me. I wasn't not sure what to make of this. Um, when he kind of first debuted, it was a little weird and a little eerie, spooky kind of, and just the fact that he's, his name is Gacy and he's kind of, you know, given a little bit of an homage to, uh, you know, a serial killer was a little F for me too.

27:46 but I don't know, man, like last week, you know, the promos he gave last week after coming back and, and, you know, say, Hey, look, I've not canceled.

27:54 Like everybody says I was.

27:56 And then just, you know, what he said here tonight and just his whole demeanor during the match that he had, you know, and I guess we'll, we'll talk about that.

28:04 I guess we can talk about that now really.

28:06 But in his match, you just, it kind of like, almost like he, he didn't want to fight, but then when he did fight, he was like, he was really, uh, he was energetic and he was, um, uh, throwing some power behind his moves and things like that. I really liked the way he wrestles and kind of that contrast between the, uh, Hey man, let's use our words and let's talk. And then just like, no, no, I'm not gonna, I'm done talking. And then, you know, just pummeling somebody. Um, and that was kind of the way I figured that the, the gimmick was going to go, but we started to see some shades of that tonight.

28:37 Um, I like it.

28:39 It's kind of growing on me and I wasn't expecting it to, I don't think he's going to necessarily reach like, you know, NXT champion level either, but I almost kind of see him all, you know, in a similar light as Cameron Grimes, kind of that same same level right now. At least that's kind of where I'm thinking that's where they're slotting him to is kind of a, you know, upper mid card, mid card, but could also dance with the, the upper, you know, the main event scene too. You know, when, when, when the time calls for it, I'm, I'm, I'm cool with it. Bron breaker. I, I still wish they'd changed the name. I hope they change the name someday. I think they're probably stuck. They probably stick into their guns

29:22 at this point, but, and I, I just want to see, Him with the better name because I can't see people like, I don't know, man, like wearing a Braun Breaker shirt as the face of the company that just doesn't, I don't know, it seems weird.

29:37 I don't know. I don't like it.

29:45 Longing for some nostalgia? Or maybe you want to learn some wrestling history? Don't miss the 90s Past Cast every Friday on the PWTorch Daily Cast feed. Alex and Patrick will transport you 30 years into the past by taking you through the Torch issue from that very week. Follow news from the WWF and WCW and all the happenings from across the wrestling industry in real time as The Torch reported it 30 years ago. That's the 90s past cast every Friday on the PW Torch daily cast feed.

30:25 Um, uh, I will go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, go, go ahead. I was going to just move us on.

30:32 Oh, uh, well, I'll touch on Jay, uh, Gacy versus Jiro since we're, since we're there. Um, although I will circle back real quick, cause I'm, I talked about all the Champa and breaker stuff without referencing back to my notes. I'll just pay lip service to the fact that, uh, I wrote my notes anticipating that this was going, this promo off was going to be, um, interrupted, uh, And I was like, oh, they're they're actually they're getting a decent amount of time to just talk mano a mano.

30:58 That's that's pretty good. You know, before Pete Dunne inevitably walks out or whatever. So and that didn't happen. So I'm glad that or at least if if my mushy brain remembers correctly, that didn't happen. So I'm glad that they managed to restrain themselves there and focus on on the two guys at the center of all of this.

31:15 And so.

31:16 The, the, the talk about I've got the biggest balls in the locker room. You know, we think about the attitude era as being so, uh, so letter pushing, is that pushing?

31:28 No envelope pushing. It's oh boy.

31:30 It's going to be, it's going to be that night. Um, envelope pushing. They were still saying fortitude instead of balls. They were still referring to their intestines instead of balls. Um, so I got, I don't know. I'm still, it's, it's just such a, uh, such a masculine thing. I'm like, can't we, I, I, I liked fortitude. I didn't mind that at all. Um, you know, and it applies to everybody, but, uh, but whatever, um, Gacy.

31:55 And Giro, I, I, I agree with you.

31:58 I am, um, I'm still interested in the Gacy character and, uh, I, um, there is probably a wavelength that he's, referencing or speaking to, uh, that I'm not exactly on. Um, like I, I totally, until, uh, until Dr. Katani brought it up last week, I didn't know anything about him getting canceled, uh, or him, him like, um, Yeah, that I didn't know about that whole thing. And I didn't know like his whole promo tonight was about social media platforms crashing. I would not have known that that was a thing that happened yesterday if Stephen Colbert didn't joke about it in his monologue.

32:39 So, you know, that's how old I am.

32:42 Yeah, I was getting help desk tickets yesterday. Facebook's down. And I'm like, well, why are you using Facebook at work? And B, what do you want me to do about it? It's a promotional tool.

32:53 No, but yeah, I am afraid that I'm going to continue to be in the dark on some of his referential nuance. But I will say that he added to his act this week where they added a peace sign behind him when he walks out. At least I didn't notice that before. I didn't notice his music before. And it's like psychedelic hippie music. So that might be new tonight or maybe I just didn't notice it.

33:16 And it's just like.

33:18 That's from 60 years ago. This is a bit of a hodgepodge. These aren't the same– the cancel culture and the hippies, it's not the same thing. People aren't doing the peace sign as far as I know, like not in that way. And then he– It clearly mandated mentions of participate participation trophies. Cause he mentions it in his promo.

33:42 And then Vic Joseph mentions it on commentary. That's like a 20 year old issue at this point. So I don't even know if like, Right wing people who like to thump on that one even still use the participation trophy line.

33:55 I haven't heard it in a while.

33:56 But anyway, this all leads up to, of course, Parker Boudreau showing up shaved head in the bleachers and menacingly glaring down at Gacy, who's smiling up at him.

34:08 And this could go two ways. This could go.

34:12 I mean, well, you know, maybe I'm not being thinking creatively enough, but I think that it could go a Wyatt family direction. And and Gacy will have the killer behind him while he's spouting stuff about safe spaces.

34:26 And that could be interesting. But I'm.

34:29 Wondering because we're still, uh, we're still thinking that this version of Gacy is the scab over the festering wound that is his dark past and the person that he, or if not his past, at least like the, the maniac that he really is. Um, so I'm suspecting that Boudreau is actually someone from his past who has shown up and, uh, and knows, uh, who Gacy really is.

34:54 And Gacy's just smiling up kind of like, okay, I've got to keep the smile on, but Oh crap. And, uh, so yeah, I think that we will learn much more about this relationship or at least get much more suggested about the direction of this relationship, uh, next week during Champa versus Gacy, where I suspect Boudreaux will, uh, Boudreaux doesn't need to cost Gacy per se because it's Ciampa.

35:23 He can beat Gacy and nobody's going to think that Gacy's being damaged or whatever. But I'm not, I don't know, I'm leaning more toward Boudreaux not being on Gacy's side here. You know, it's funny when he, uh, when Parker Boudreaux showed up, I had, I did not recognize him, um, with the, you know, the bald head, they obviously they shaved his head. Um, he had the neck tattoo thing going on, which I don't think is a real tattoo. Um, I, I legit did not recognize him. I actually did on Twitter. Somebody, uh, you know, it was a random like wrestling Twitter. They happened to mention that it was him. And I'm like, Oh my God. Um, I needed, I needed to, uh, Yeah, because of the shaved head, I needed to look up

36:10 the the recent class of signees. And I was like, is it is it Brady Booker?

36:15 No.

36:16 Why would they have shaved off that hair? It's gorgeous. Yeah.

36:20 Yeah. Yeah.

36:21 But but yeah, I'm curious to see where this goes to. I was kind of thinking similar way.

36:27 Bray or the Wyatt family ask kind of thing is what I was kind of thinking, you know, his followers or something was was kind of where I was landing there. But, yeah, I'd be OK with something like that, too, where it's man from his past and he's going to try and hide or, you know, he really knows who. um, you know, he, he really knows who he is or something like that.

36:46 I'd be, I'd be for someone for that, like that.

36:48 And I'll be, I'll be realistic that that is more likely when I say I'm leaning that way. I think that would be so much more interesting. And that's the impression that tonight's segment gave me. But what, what you're talking about with the Wyatt family situation is, is so much more likely, especially because Boudreau, uh, is very, very new to this. And unless he's, a savant without us having heard anything about it, uh, which I, I guess is possible, but highly unlikely. Uh, I think that getting him on TV is something they've been itching to do, but putting him behind Gacy where he's not going to be asked to do a lot, kind of like the, uh, the Braun Strowman.

37:27 Yeah, exactly.

37:29 Exactly.

37:29 And it still looked like he was going to break Roman's arm every time he did whatever that finisher was that he had at first. Um, yeah, I, Yeah, boy, yeah, blocked it out. I think that's more likely what we're looking at realistically. I just think the other way is so much more intriguing.

37:48 Yeah, no, I hear you.

37:49 I'm kind of a little more intrigued by that myself. So, all right, let's keep things rolling because, you know, I'd like to get to bed at some point tonight. Area code 615. Let's bring you on and let's talk some wrestling.

38:03 I think you're on. What's going on?

38:07 Yes, sir.

38:08 Nate and Tom, always good to talk to you. Sean, BFP from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Oh, man, it's always good to talk to you guys on NXT. And I will say that after this week and next week, I'll not be able to call into the show.

38:21 My schedule has changed now, and I won't be able to.

38:24 I'll be working late on Tuesdays, so that's kind of sad.

38:27 I'm actually really sad about that.

38:29 That's a bummer, man.

38:30 Yeah, I know.

38:32 I'm going to have to start making some sense tonight, then, to make it worth it.

38:38 No, Tommy, you guys are great, man. You never have to worry about anything. You just talk. Um, I would say first I wanted.

38:46 To say during the Braun breaker promo, it is hard to say that name because it is really bad, but it was, it was fine, but it is amazing. I didn't realize until I was listening to it.

38:57 Like, Holy crap. That is Rick Steiner son.

38:59 Holy. Oh yeah.

39:00 Like he sounded exactly.

39:02 Oh man.

39:02 It was like, wow, this is kind of cool. this is Rick Snyder back in the day. Oh wait, no, it's his son, Brom Bricker. Okay. Well anyway, but it was, it was good. Other than the balls, you know, same balls, like whatever, you know, it's, it is what it is.

39:15 I'm with you.

39:16 I was going to say, I don't, I don't think Gacy should beat Champa. I think Champa should just face breaker at Hollywood Havoc. I mean, even though I'm with you guys, it would make sense for Gacy to take the pin. Like I would totally understand that, but I just don't want Gacy to be Champa right now. I just don't see it. Even if somebody interfered to win or something, I just don't think that should happen because I don't really like.

39:39 Him to be in that spot quite yet. I mean, Breaker, I could see Gacy not quite yet.

39:43 There's a couple things I wanted to bring up. The first was with raquel's promo and well first i want to talk about mandy and ember because going back to that and leading into the promo like i don't know i just don't think mandy should basically be beating ember with a knee and really no other offense like i don't really get that i mean i know they're pushing mandy and i understand they're trying to get her in the title picture but i just it's so hard to believe mandy in that role i just i don't I'm trying to give her a chance, and I'm trying to see it through, but I'm just not sold on it.

40:21 And so for her to beat Ember just really quick like that with a.

40:25 Knee, it's just like, oh, man. So they lost me kind of there.

40:28 And then when they got to the promo, Tom, Raquel's promo was even more scripted tonight.

40:35 I didn't like it even more tonight.

40:37 I liked her fire and her emotion there.

40:41 But it just, like, she didn't resonate with me. I was like, I don't know.

40:44 And then Mandy and Toxic Attraction come out, and.

40:48 It's JC James, not Lacey Lane. See, it got that this time.

40:51 There we go.

40:55 I didn't really care for any of the promo stuff there. And like I said, I just don't, I'm not into Mandy right now. What do you guys think of the match with her and Ember and then the promo stuff with Raquel?

41:06 All right. So we had a Ember moon versus Mandy Rose that went, let me pull up my notes.

41:14 Where is it here? That went, Oh, I don't know. It went four minutes and 34 seconds. There we go. It was the first match of the night.

41:24 You know, I gotta admit, I am kind of right there with you in terms of the finish. I was really underwhelmed with the finish. I felt like, you know, Ember moon, she got a little bit more offense in the, the, the finishes kind of came out of nowhere. You know, Amber was, she got, she hit a couple of moves before she went for the eclipse. So you know, being her finisher, I was looking, I was kind of thinking like, you know, Mandy Rose was going to obviously probably going to reverse the eclipse, but then I expected a couple more offensive moves there just other than a need of the face, you know, to get the win. I, I expected Mandy to win, honestly, because of the, just because of the the push that they've been getting, giving not

42:09 just her, but toxic attraction as a whole. So her winning didn't necessarily didn't necessarily come out of nowhere for me. Not that I'm saying it did for you either, Sean, but didn't come out of nowhere for me. I thought that was kind of the way they were going to go. Ember she's, I hate to say it, but man, she's kind of just been toiling around, especially since shots.

42:28 He got moved up to the main roster. And it's kind of a, it's sad.

42:33 You know, she's, she's a former NXT women's champion. When she came back to NXT, we all had such high hopes for her.

42:40 Yeah.

42:41 I wanted to see, and I think Tom and Kelly, all of us wanted to see her as a two-time NXT women's champion. And now here she is, you know, kind of jobbing to Mandy Rose, not really jobbing, but losing to Mandy Rose. Mandy is a tough one to get behind in this role because she's been, that blonde bombshell for so long. And she's done so many different things on the main roster, even in NXT to a point, but, but even on the main roster, stuff with Otis and things are.

43:09 Just kind of silly.

43:10 It's hard to get behind that character now in a more serious role.

43:16 I have to admit, I think she's doing a better job than I would expect out of her.

43:22 That's not saying I'm 100% behind it or I like it, but considering that's what they're feeding us, I'm actually enjoying her more than I expected, and I think she's doing a better job than I expected. For instance, she tried to shut down the what chants tonight. The crowd started chanting what, and she immediately was like, hey, chant what again if you think I'm the sexiest woman alive or something like that. And the, what chance stopped for a minute and they kind of started back up, whatever, but it takes a pretty, it takes a, when you, when you go out there in front of a crowd and the crowd starts throwing you off, especially if you've got lines to, to mem, you know, lines memorized and lines

44:01 you're going to recite, it takes you out of that to then now have to like switch your focus to the crowd, try to shut the focus down and then go back to your promo. Uh, and I felt like she really did a good job at trying to shut the crowd down and then get ready, getting right back into the promo.

44:16 So I really get to give her credit for that.

44:18 Um, cause she's not somebody that I really consider to have strong promo skills. Um, But yeah, I, with how, how heavy we saw toxic attraction in the show tonight, it was a couple, couple few segments. We saw them in and past few weeks for that matter.

44:36 Yeah.

44:37 Obviously they're, they're really pushing them for this show. It Gigi Dolan and JC Jane, they're the ones that I really care about more. They're the ones that I want to see more character development out of. And right now we're getting that all out.

44:51 Of Mandy Rose.

44:51 Now, I'm hoping that we're seeing the character development out of Mandy Rose, so then it kind of trickles down and we start seeing some more character development out of Gigi Dolan and JC Jane as Mandy Rose's new character gets a little bit more established.

45:06 But I'm kind of thinking that this is really... I hate to say it's a vehicle for.

45:11 Mandy Rose, but I'm, I'm, I'm almost thinking it might be unless they're just trying to establish Mandy Rose as a bigger contender to, to then kind of shine up the new girls here as well. But overall, I, I, the promo, the promo that Mandy Rose gave, like I said, I think it was better than average for her. Gigi Dolan was meh. She's kind of come across as meh on the mic. I like her in the ring a heck of a lot better than I do on the mic.

45:37 JC Jane, I think once again, came out, uh, on top in terms of, uh, you know, the three of them who had the best Mike skills. Um, I was once again, pretty impressed with JC Jane, what she had to say, her delivery, um, her cadence, it didn't seem scripted. I mean, obviously it is scripted, but it didn't seem like it was, um, to, you know, a large extent anyway. Um, so yeah, I was, I was okay with that. Uh, the match itself, um, you know, was okay. Uh, I, I, I'd personally rather see Ember moon when I'd rather see her get pushed. But again, considering this is what they're feeding us, I was okay with it. And I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about kind of okay with toxic attraction. They're starting to win me over, but I, again, want to

46:27 see more out of more development out of Jane in Dolan rather than Rose.

46:33 Just a reminder, you can reach us at wadekellerpostshow at gmail.com if you're interested in contributing to the flagship, or wadekellerpostshow at gmail.com if you're interested in submitting a question or a topic or even a rant on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Shows.

46:49 Tom.

46:50 So this is the main thing that I was looking forward to talking about this week, even before we saw the show, because, I mean, we got... We got the signals last week, but that was also branded as a ladies' night kind of thing.

47:06 NXT is all about the ladies.

47:08 But in the ads on SmackDown and Raw, the NXT ads continued to focus on sexuality, like Indi's Ursula Andress moment. got factored in and especially toxic attraction because that's the gimmick and you know i i say it in sort of a derisive manner um but it's also like well the standard is different now and they they're playing those characters but they're also backing it up with with good matches as well so it's not like they're just one thing so i'm not trying to harp on that um Like I like I was sort of joking about doing last week when I was noticing the I mean, a literal close up of boobs in the in the ad on SmackDown Extreme Rules and Raw, but they kept that rolling.

47:55 So that's not confined to just ladies night and especially. The main thing that I was looking forward to saying on tonight's show, yes, in part because I thought Kelly was going to be on and observing such a thing qualifies as harassing him, but Jaycee even said it for me in her promo, they are the new faces of NXT.

48:17 Not Ciampa, not Breaker, not Raquel.

48:20 Toxic Attraction, especially Mandy Rose, are the new faces of NXT. Mandy Rose is by far the most prominent person in the ads for NXT. And I fully expected Toxic Attraction to open the show in some form tonight. I don't think I would have expected it to just open with a match. Not arguing that, but I thought that maybe a follow-up promo after last week or something. But yeah, I'm not surprised at all when they opened the show.

48:54 I was like, yep, they are the brand right now. And that may be a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people, but... I think Mandy's backing it up. She's, she's not the best on promos. She was better this week. And I, I also liked the, uh, the shutting down of the what chance and, and how well she, uh, just quickly factored that in and didn't let it throw her off. That's always a great skill to have. But I thought that she backed it up in the ring as well. There was only like the the focus on her.

49:27 is to a point where it's really got me watching her closely to see how she lives up to the spot.

49:32 That they've given her or that they appear to have given her.

49:36 And, uh, I, I only noticed one, like if I, if I nitpicked, I only noticed one thing where I was like, Oh, that didn't go perfectly, but I thought she was really good in this match.

49:48 Yes.

49:48 She has a pretty, I wasn't like I totally get where you're coming from, Sean, with the Ember Moon thing. And and I totally get it. I'm just looking at where Ember Moon has been on the card for a little while now. And it's just like, yeah, this is this is what she's doing right now. And and they're focusing on Mandy. So I'm just I'm going to be all right with that because. Mandy, in my opinion, is living up to it. And I, I did, maybe this is just a subjectivity thing, but I, I really liked the high knee finish. Um, especially if that was a place where we're establishing it like, yeah, Mandy and, uh, Mandy and Ember opening a weekly NXT episode with a four minute special is not Cena versus Brian in the

50:36 main event of SummerSlam, but that's where Brian debuted his knee. And I distinctly remember being like, wait, that was it. Um, but the, I, I just, I do like those, those, um, impact finishes too broad of a term for it, but just that quick, like I mentioned it about Zion Quinn last week with just like a quick forearm, like flying forearm across the ring.

50:54 I like that kind of thing.

50:55 So, so maybe that's just me, but, uh, but with how strong toxic attraction is being positioned right now, I think JC and Gigi should be thrilled.

51:05 They are hitched to this ride. They probably are. Um, Gigi really does have to work.

51:09 On those promos and, uh, I want to say that she has to work on her facial expressions as well. But honestly, it's probably going to become maybe it's already become for some people just a fun thing to like while Mandy's talking to just look over at Gigi to see what sort of weird ways she's contorting her face in.

51:27 And JC has a little bit of that, too.

51:31 But yeah.

51:31 And then so even though the promos were.

51:34 Awkward-ish for the most part, especially Raquel's. And I can only imagine she was directed this way, but she was cutting the promo to the hard cam with the interviewer.

51:44 I think, yeah, there was an interviewer there, right?

51:47 And there was also the in-ring camera that they've used for Ciampa a lot and Adam Cole, you know, the in-ring camera. It's used for a lot of wrestlers. I associate it in the modern era with Ciampa and Cole most. But the camera in the ring is like, swooshing from side to side and she's just staring straight into the hard cam. So again, I imagine she was probably directed to do that.

52:08 Um, but the, but that was just, it was really awkward. Um, yeah, yeah.

52:14 But, but that, all that said, um, I mean, Barrett even name-dropped Nexus last week when they did this exact thing, but when Toxic Attraction swarmed the ring and stood on each side of the apron that a three-person faction can.

52:32 Encompass, it looks like Nexus.

52:35 It looks like The Shield, and this is stuff that people have fond memories of, and I felt like that was yet another signal that we should not be sleeping on how far WWE intends to go with this trio.

52:48 Yeah, I agree.

52:49 I think that they, uh, they have some, some high, uh, like a high ceiling for this trio, um, between the push, all of the ads, uh, you know, on, on main roster for NXT, you are heavily focused on manage, uh, on, uh, toxic attraction.

53:04 I do.

53:05 I think that they, uh, we're going to, we're going to be seeing a lot more of them. Um, and I'm, I'm okay with that at the moment. I'm certainly okay with that.

53:12 And I, I honestly did not think, uh, you know, three or four weeks ago, I would have been all right, Sean, back to you.

53:20 No, and I will say up front, I'm still going to give it time to breathe. I don't want to make it sound like I'm ready to judge and say I can't accept them ever.

53:31 Because that's not fair. I mean, I'm willing to give her.

53:34 I thought she was better than she has been.

53:36 I will say that.

53:38 And so.

53:39 With the three of them.

53:41 It helps her having the two of them with her. I think that helps her. If it was just her by herself, I wouldn't buy her at all. So I'm willing to buy her as a heel with two people with her that are young and growing and helping her along.

53:53 I think that's going to be good for her.

53:55 I like her, but she needs to get better right now.

54:02 She's the champion, so that worries me a little bit.

54:04 I'm just curious, did this main end up winning the title? because Raquel just seems kind of cold right now. Um, the next thing I was going to talk to you guys quick about was, uh, Pete Dunne and, you know, Grimes for, I mean.

54:21 The time they had, I thought they tried to fit too much into the show tonight.

54:25 I mean, they had a lot of wrestling, which was good, but it was like too much.

54:28 Like you guys have said before, I think it's just hard to keep up with everything.

54:31 Like there's just so much going on and it's like, wow, it's like you're throwing so much at me.

54:35 It was like, wow. But, Dunn and Grimes was good for what it was. I mean, it was a short match. I assume Dunn was going to win, but I'm glad.

54:45 There was some kind of... I'm kind of glad they had a little interference only because I didn't want Grimes to lose just completely clean, even though Dunn's great.

54:52 I love Pete Dunn. He's fantastic as a heel. He's a badass.

54:56 But where do you think they're going with Grimes?

54:59 And do you think. That he ever gets back up because I think he's such a good act.

55:05 And I think he needs, I want him to at least get a title, like at least the title match at some point. Do you think that's in his future or do you think.

55:13 He's going to have a little bit more time in NXT?

55:15 And do you think eventually Vince is going to be like, well, let me give him a chance up on the main roster and see what he does. Cause I mean, I think he'll like him with his, you know, his comedy stuff and all the other stuff he can do in the ring is really good anyway. So I think that'll help him. Um, and that's really the main question I had.

55:31 And guys, again, you guys are the greatest Reverend Keith.

55:34 Miss you as always.

55:35 May I love hearing you on your calls and, uh, next week will be my last week. So I will get on there and talk to you before it'll time to be no more for me.

55:45 So appreciate you guys on my call, man, as always.

55:48 All right, Sean, as always, appreciate it, and we'll look forward to talking with you again next week. As Adam Cole said, it's not goodbye, just goodbye for now or something like that.

56:00 Crap, I screwed it up. I forget what he said at the end of the Up, Up, Down, Down video. But all right.

56:08 So, yeah, with Cameron Grimes, I got to admit, I think– I'm okay. I'm honestly surprised that he didn't get called up in the draft. Now, granted, I guess he still could. So I think the draft is going to be continuing, but the it's actually continued on raw.

56:27 That's right.

56:27 Nevermind.

56:29 This has been, this has already been a whirlwind of a week for me guys. So I'm sorry.

56:34 No, I'm surprised he didn't actually get called up because When Vince gets wind of a comedy character, especially a comedy character that can also work, usually he latches onto them, R-Truth being one of them. I would love, love, love to see some R-Truth and Cameron Grimes interactions, like And I don't want to, I don't mean, I don't want to, I don't mean that to see like Cameron Grimes being relegated to 24 seven division because man, I would absolutely hate, hate, hate to see something like that happen.

57:05 To Cameron Grimes. But man, I just think Cameron Grimes and our truth could work some absolute magic together. Comedy wise. I don't want to see the 24 seven division, but I.

57:17 Would love to see the two of them work together. I, I, I, I don't know where he's going right now. And kind of, you know, what, what they're, what the plan long-term for him is. I'd love to see him with the title around his waist as well. But I also feel like he's one of those characters that doesn't necessarily need it.

57:35 At least where he is right now. Great. You know, he had the million dollar championship.

57:39 Well, it's not really a belt or whatever, but his character right now, everybody loves it. He's he's always got the crowd behind him. He's a solid worker. I, I really feel like he doesn't, it doesn't necessarily need a title to be an attraction. You know, you've got people like Roddy Piper, things like that, that, you know, they never want to belt, but they're, you still talk about them today. Like they were a champion, you know, and then they never, they never were WWE.

58:06 So, you know, yeah, I, I'm not sure.

58:09 Exactly where they're going to be going with him, you know, long-term in NXT. But I really feel like his act especially is really molded for the main roster. At least at this point, I'd like to see him go up sooner rather than later. Selfishly, I'd like to, you know, also like to keep them in NXT as long as possible.

58:29 But, but I do think there are some good things in the future for Cameron Grimes. Tom.

58:34 Yeah, man.

58:34 Speaking of the draft, uh, boy, I, well, well, Oh, real quick circling back.

58:39 Uh, John Morrison is on raw. So Ms. And Morrison are still on the same brand. I looked that up and I forgot to bring it up myself. And Ms.

58:47 Of course, you know, being on dancing on the stars right now, he was drafted after, um, After the show, after SmackDown, I believe.

58:53 Is how that went down.

58:55 But since I that website wouldn't load and then I just like ejected it from my mind.

59:00 I do agree with with it was.

59:05 Michael's email, I believe, on uh frankie going up or maybe maybe keith maybe keith brought that up um like i feel like nxt uh I thought that NXT was going to be a little bit more represented in the draft. I thought that they were going to want even more new blood than they got. And the people I was considering most to show up, there were no surprises as far as who got the call. But but the people that I was most expecting to go up did not.

59:41 And that includes EO and L.A.

59:43 Knight.

59:44 And I think because that is like such a stacked top of the list, I wasn't even thinking about Cameron Grimes.

59:51 But of course, he's on that list, too. We should be. But, yeah, I was thinking I was thinking Frankie Grimes.

59:57 Would probably be there after, um, after the Raquel match, we've said that over and over. Um, so it was weird that she wasn't drafted, but because they did it the way they did it, it does seem cause she could, she absolutely, of course, obviously could go up as her own thing. Um, But I think because they did it the way they did it, she could more likely just show up as as as who she.

1:00:24 Is, John Morrison's wife.

1:00:26 So whether that's doing her a service or not, we'll.

1:00:28 Have to see. But but that is that does that cover that?

1:00:34 Yeah.

1:00:34 Oh, you mentioned the 24-7 division.

1:00:36 And that just made me I breathed a sigh of relief when Ricochet, who has been appearing in the 24-7 division, got drafted to SmackDown where that division does not appear.

1:00:46 But then I thought, wait a second.

1:00:49 Is he just still going to be on the same low rung over there on SmackDown, even with the greater exposure on Fox? And I'll wish that he was in the 24 seven division because at least he was given something to do.

1:01:02 But but I don't know. We we we shall see. But, yeah, Grimes, it is.

1:01:08 I mean, I think I agree with everything that you and Sean said about him and this match. It was just sort of thrown out there. It was perfectly consummate. for what it was. It made me hope, or not, it didn't make me hope, but Ridge getting drafted made me hope that Dunn gets freshened up a little bit on, not like new gimmick or anything, but just feels a little bit fresher on NXT.

1:01:37 I sort of yawn when I see him now.

1:01:39 It's felt like the same old thing for quite a while, even if that same old thing is good.

1:01:44 It's just the same old thing. But yeah, I think... the main thing that I.

1:01:50 Noticed here was just that it's yet another, even, even with the million dollar storyline behind us, uh, it's yet another crossover segment for Grimes, even though he was losing, even though it was, it was kind of an unceremonious spot for him to be losing, especially after the popularity that he gained during the million dollar storyline.

1:02:11 Uh, It was still the crossover spot. That's still the grime spot. That's where they put him.

1:02:17 So even though I have no idea what they're going to do with him, they clearly have not forgotten him.

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1:03:33 All right, and next we're going to go back to the phones, and we're going to bring Darrell on. Darrell, what's going on tonight, man? What did you think of the show? Darrell, are you with us, man?

1:03:48 Are you with us?

1:03:51 Yes, I am.

1:03:52 There we go. No, not a problem, man.

1:03:55 Not a problem.

1:03:55 Good to hear you.

1:03:57 Doing well, man. Doing well.

1:03:58 All right, all right.

1:04:02 Tonight's show was pretty interesting. Going kind of how I expected and how I'm envisioning it. And Tom, I'm surprised you didn't ask where Dakota Kai, because she didn't get drafted and she's been moved up to the show. So before we see anybody else, they would have to find somewhere to put her first. And she went undrafted. They had drafted Aaliyah before they drafted her.

1:04:28 So, hey.

1:04:30 I thought you were going to say something about that.

1:04:33 No, when I saw Zaya's name, I was like, hey, I'm really happy for Zaya.

1:04:36 That's great for her, but where's Dakota? Yeah, it is a little strange. Dakota Kai is just kind of absent. Yeah, so you're right. I didn't say anything, but it definitely did not go unnoticed.

1:04:50 Got you, got you, got you.

1:04:52 Now, one of my first questions is going to be about um the outlook of um nxt now looking at the matches that we've seen today and some of the finishes and stuff and i'm gonna tie.

1:05:07 This into a conversation that y'all was having earlier um i'm thinking like i was stating last week that they're pushing through some of these new people that they're that they're pushing and and dropping where they're pushing them hard and fast And I think by Halloween, have it. We're going to see all of those people ran through and put back down and they're going to start back with probably building a rivalry. And you're going to see more of the older crew getting pushed back or just people names that they know, just like you've seen a few of them get wins tonight. Even going now with the title match, they're going to have a Halloween habit. And they did say if Joe Gracie wins, I don't think

1:05:54 he'd get put in the match. He'd take Ciampa's place. So I don't know how they're going to do that if he ain't going to win the title that night, but that's something else.

1:06:06 But.

1:06:08 Seeing that and having that match, I'm thinking that they're going to have that go through and where you start rivalries or stories where you can have Joe Gracie probably upset for losing the match against Ciampa and you get Parker Bardot or whatever the name they're going to call it. And that's who.

1:06:27 That's who Rex Steiner will probably feud with. And you're giving Joe Gracia a big heavy, somebody who Rex could maybe throw around and stuff like that. And then you start them to start building up story lines with more experienced people. What do you guys think about that idea?

1:06:45 Yeah.

1:06:48 So what have, having a Joe Gacy and, and, and Brian breaker would start.

1:06:52 Yeah.

1:06:53 I mean, I'd be, I'd be okay with something like that. I don't, um, are you talking if breaker wins the title or just after, after.

1:07:00 The, the Chava match?

1:07:03 No break it. Um, break is not going to win the title. Um, Joe Grayson probably, um, keeps him from winning the title. So you can save that and things like that. And that's where you, um, him off to, into the next few. So he don't look weak at all for losing the temple. Speaker 0 5.

1:07:25 All right.

1:07:25 Cool. Yeah.

1:07:26 That's, that's, that's kind of what I thought you meant, but I wasn't, I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

1:07:29 Yeah.

1:07:30 I'd be, I'd be totally fine with something like that. And it certainly makes sense. Yeah. I, Cause I, I, like I said, I certainly don't see Braun breaker winning, um, and, and capturing NXT, the NXT championship, um, at least this early on in his career. Um, you know, it's certainly down the road. I can see it, but, but not right now, not up, you know, three weeks from now, uh, Halloween.

1:07:54 Havoc, that's for sure.

1:07:56 Um, But yeah, I could certainly see Casey, you know, losing next week, not being put into the match at Halloween havoc and, and, you know, causing you're causing breaker to lose. And, and if they were to put Parker Bordereau with, with Casey, as we were kind of talking about earlier, you know.

1:08:11 You, you just brought up as well.

1:08:13 You know, I could, I could certainly see them, you know, working with, working a match or a feud with, with Braun breaker and kind of, or not, you Yeah, Parker Bourdreau and Joe Gacy work at a feud with Breaker to kind of give him a heavy to work with. Because, I mean, yeah, sure, he could– I don't think anybody would sneeze at Braun Breaker just decimating Joe Gacy.

1:08:41 I think people would expect that. Parker Bourdreau.

1:08:45 That's a completely different story. And he would certainly be a monster for Braun breaker to overcome, to get back at the NXT title, you know, title scene at some point too.

1:08:55 So I'd be cool with something like that. If they were to, they were to go down that road, Tom. Yeah, I agree with you. Gacy is one of those.

1:09:03 I mean, I think Gacy, I think where he's established right now, again, like I suggested earlier, if he lost to Ciampa in like 30 seconds, you know, he's not getting buried.

1:09:15 You know, it's TV time. It's character advancement for him.

1:09:18 He's the kind of person that no matter how many times he loses, he can cut that promo and get right back on. That's what this sort of character excels at, like by design, right? Um, you know, no matter what version of the character it is, you know, it just has to be delivered sufficiently, which this.

1:09:38 One so far is.

1:09:38 Um, so yeah, that, that, that then becomes the question of exactly how is Boudreaux, uh, positioned here. And, um, yeah, whether he's good at it or not, or whether he's aligned with Gacy or not, I definitely don't foresee him being someone who's going to get thrown around. So, um, or someone who they're going to want to be in that position.

1:10:00 Um, So, yeah, maybe.

1:10:05 Like maybe his ceiling ends up being Amos, you know, just standing there looking menacing for the most part and occasionally throwing a kick or something.

1:10:17 But but we'll see.

1:10:18 Yeah, I think I think that would be an agreeable circumstance for the near future.

1:10:25 Sure. Sure. All right. And anything else for us, Darrell? What do you get next?

1:10:32 Okay, now I want to go to, again, with my theory of they're going through all the younger talent right now who they were pushing earlier and going to eventually slow down and start pairing them off and tell more stories and get back to our usual NXT. Odyssey Jones and LA Knight. I was found the match interesting because I wanted to see, and that's something that they've been in.

1:10:59 They told in a few weeks ago, a story between these guys and they, and LA night was kept attacking Odyssey after he got in this way. And then they brought chase you out there to distract. Odyssey with that was a continuation of stories, even from the wind. And when he, hand him and pushed him down and all of that. So that's another way of saying that they're going to start focusing on those younger guys together and then find out who rise out of that crew. who they can start pushing as a mainstream way. But I'm seeing with L.A. Knight because, yeah, he did take that loss earlier to Bron Breaker, but they are continuing to keep him strong. And you would have thought he would have been somebody that they would have set up, but

1:11:48 they didn't. So I think he's somebody who could potentially— be a challenge for Ciampa after Halloween happened. What do you guys think, and how do you think about Odyssey Jones and Chase Yu being linked up? It could be potential of those young guys that they're going to see who they're going to push after however the rivalry goes.

1:12:10 Yeah. Who was it that you were saying you want to see against Ciampa? L.A.

1:12:17 Knight.

1:12:18 L.A.

1:12:18 Knight, okay. Yeah, so L.A.

1:12:20 Knight, I think, is.

1:12:22 I mean, absolutely main event material.

1:12:25 I think he probably should get an NXT title run, honestly, before he goes to main roster, if he's not, if he was not part of this draft, you know, which he clearly wasn't. I think he, he probably should have an NXT title run, at least a North American title run to kind of, you know, build him up a little bit more.

1:12:43 But I think, you know, he is.

1:12:44 He's that, that act, even, even when he debuted in NXT, I feel like he was main roster ready, hands down. Um, so yeah, I can certainly see him going up against Champa, something like that.

1:12:55 Um, maybe I don't.

1:12:56 Want to say it's, I could see him dethroning Champa, maybe kind of sort of CMD throwing Champa. I wouldn't, I guess it wouldn't shock me if he did, but, um, I think it would be a good opponent for Champa. Uh, I'm not sure who I really want to see Champa, uh, or who, or who champ is going to necessarily, you know, drop the title too.

1:13:14 But, uh, but yeah, I would certainly be down with, um, you know, with something like that.

1:13:19 Odyssey Jones, which you're kind of talking about partnering off some of the talent. I think that's probably kind of how we're going to see some things go on down the road. We're probably going to see some newer talent get paired off with some newer talent.

1:13:34 We're going to also see them get paired off with some older talent.

1:13:37 And that's kind of part of the developmental system really is– you know, when you get, when you get some of these newer guys, you pair them off with the, you know, more seasoned talent. You know, it's still a learning experience. They're learning from these guys. So, yeah, I mean, I could certainly see that, you.

1:13:53 Know, that happening.

1:13:54 And at that point, it probably will start feeling a little bit more like the NXT that we are used to because these, you these new faces are, you know, we're already starting to get used to them, you know, Braun breaker and, and Vaughn Wagner and things like that. They're, they're people that were kind of starting to get used to maybe Vaughn Wagner a little bit less so than, than, you know, breaker at least, but, um, or even Odyssey Jones for that matter, his van Wagner's only been around, you know, a couple, a couple of few segments, uh, Seems like even though he's put in a more prominent spot, we see like less of him than like Odyssey Jones.

1:14:27 But I don't know.

1:14:28 Could be I could be wrong. Could just be perception. But, yeah, I love Odyssey Jones, too. He's still green, obviously. He's still kind of got some work to do in the ring or, well, not work to do, learning to do, learning to do in the ring is a better way to put it.

1:14:44 But he's got charisma for days.

1:14:46 He's got a million dollar smile, you know, and just the strength and everything he's got. I mean, he's, he's got I think he's got star written all over him.

1:14:55 Yeah.

1:14:56 I keep thinking of him as a cross between Keith Lee and Mark Henry that I can see a lot of the agility and speed that you kind of see out of Keith Lee, but with the same type of power you get out of Mark Henry.

1:15:11 So that's, that's kind of like what I see out of him.

1:15:13 And I think that is a great, great mashup of characters, if you will. I think it's a great spot to be at. So I'm, I'm really high on Odyssey Jones myself.

1:15:23 Tom, on all of that stuff.

1:15:26 Yeah.

1:15:27 So like I said, L.A.

1:15:28 Knight was at the top of top of my list of people, my my list that doesn't actually.

1:15:33 Exist anywhere other than my mind.

1:15:35 But he was at the top of the list of people I thought were going to be drafted. So I was surprised that he was not.

1:15:44 But I especially mention it.

1:15:47 Uh, because for maybe it's a weird reason, but you know, it's, it's, it's a very wrestler thing to have, uh, take.

1:15:57 Over gear, you know, pay-per-view gear, mania gear.

1:16:00 Uh, and then maybe you'll wear it one more time, like at raw after mania or like Adam Cole would wear the green trunks and then he'd wear the green trunks one more time. Uh, you know, for the next, for the next taping or the next match he had, uh, Um, or maybe he'd introduce a new color at a takeover and then continue to wear it.

1:16:19 But that, that was where that happened.

1:16:22 And LA Knight did the Hogan gear, like the, uh, the, um, uh, the mega powers versus the mega bucks kind of gear, um, from, uh, he did that on takeover and then the gear went away. It was just takeover gear, but he wore it again tonight. So I was like, oh, this is his farewell. He didn't get drafted, but they're doing something. He, he, he wore the, uh, the mega powers gear for a reason.

1:16:49 Uh, and nope, he, he got a win.

1:16:52 Uh, you know, however, however tainted that win was, although I mean, Odyssey Jones was protected in at least three different ways. Uh, so, so that's all, that's all fine, but yeah, no LA night sticks around. Um, I think, uh, if LA Knight is to challenge for Champa's championship, um, it will have to involve Bron Breaker. It will have to involve, uh, who else would be LA Knight isn't really tied up with anybody else right now. Um, let's just say Bron Breaker. Um, it, it, Because everything right now, even.

1:17:32 If it is as.

1:17:35 Tertiary as Von Wagner helping Kyle O'Reilly in his Pete Dunn feud, everything has new blood in it. So you're not seeing– You know, like, yeah, we got Grimes versus Dunn tonight, but that's all mixed in with the Kyle stuff.

1:17:56 So that's that's why I say Von Wagner's kind of tertiary there. But for now.

1:18:01 But but yeah, I think that's the way they're looking at it. So so I think it would just have to. Yeah, I don't think we would get just Knight versus Ciampa with no one else involved.

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1:18:58 week every week.

1:19:02 All right gerald what else you got for us tonight Okay.

1:19:07 Now, seeing that they're going to set up Swerve and he'll finally do his first title defense on next week's show against Escobar, I'm thinking Escobar wins it. And then after. After Halloween Havoc, that's when we start seeing stuff calm down, and I think we probably will get a takeover soon, and they'll build up to a takeover after that, and we won't get these. We still probably get all these matches, but they'll be a little bit different, a couple of squashes here and there. training back but you start getting more storyline and start seeing the scene set people set in divisions people put in certain ways and things of the sort like that because i'm liking you can start to see the process of things starting to get built

1:19:57 they needed to wait to after the draft and certain stuff and introducing all these new people to set the lineup to however they want it now so they can start telling the stories that they want to tell Where do you guys see them taking that North American title after this once Square moves?

1:20:19 All right.

1:20:20 So we did get a, uh, we got swerve and hit row, um, showing up in a vignette. Um, it was actually kind of the counter vignette earlier in the night where Legado Del Fantasma showed up and kind of did some, uh, essentially talked about how, um, hit row was, was running away at a SmackDown, um, to get away from Legado Del Fantasma where they, uh, you know, hit row obviously just got drafted. Um, you know, hit row kind of responded to that, uh, that, um, responded to that and Legado during the, sorry, I'm getting all, both of these segments confused here during the Legado Del Fantasma segment, Santa's Escobar challenge for the North American title swerve responded to that. And we're going to probably, we're going to

1:21:04 see that match happen at some point sooner rather than later.

1:21:07 I'm sure.

1:21:10 I don't really know a hundred percent where they're going to go with the NXT North American title.

1:21:14 And I think that's going to, or at.

1:21:17 Least after this, I think obviously Escobar is going to win it, you know, hit row.

1:21:21 They're now on SmackDown. So.

1:21:23 Swerve being the NXT North American champion. Well, I mean, where I guess, I guess they could still do it. If Swerve wanted to do double duty, I am just kind of assuming that the title is going to be moving on here to, uh, uh, Santos Escobar, um, which I'm completely on board for, uh, Legado del Fantasma. They haven't quite seemed as, uh, as important as they did when Escobar was the cruiserweight champion. Um, And they made the cruiserweight title really feel important, really feel special swerve, man.

1:21:55 He's been the champion now for what? 90. I want to say it's 98 days.

1:22:00 I think it was 91 days last week, 98 days. Now without a defense, he hasn't had a title defense.

1:22:05 He's won the belt and he hasn't had a title defense.

1:22:08 Yet, which is absolutely to me that, that, yeah, we have straight Shane Strickland here in NXT as our North American champion.

1:22:19 And he is not defending this title.

1:22:23 Great for the heel character. Cause they're even acknowledging it. They acknowledge it on TV last week that he still hasn't defended it. You know, hit row did in, in a promo, but you know, Man, I, I, I, I'd like to see somebody try to challenge him for that.

1:22:38 Yeah.

1:22:38 I'd like to tell you, it'll kind of get back into circulation.

1:22:41 Let's put it that way.

1:22:43 With, but yeah, with all the new blood and everything, you know, kind of coming up here, I'm not really like, I haven't really thought that far ahead. It was Tom kind of said earlier in the night, he's not super great.

1:22:53 At looking like 10 moves ahead either. Neither am I. So I haven't really put a whole lot of thought into what would be happening with the North American title afterwards.

1:23:02 But, but in terms of like right now, I certainly see look out at elephant Escobar, you know, holding that title.

1:23:10 And I, I'm.

1:23:11 Kind of hoping to see him with a relatively lengthy reign with that belt, kind of do something like he did with the cruiserweight title, elevate it up a little bit because I feel like the North American title right now is really. It's not anything important in NXT. I mean, it's, it's a nice, it's a nice heat magnet for swerve right now, but I kind of feel like that should be almost like that workhorse title, the intercontinental, the U S title.

1:23:38 It should be kind of that workhorse title in the, in NXT. And it's not, uh, right now, which I think is kind of by design, at least for, for the heat on swerve anyway. Um, if not by design, maybe just happy accident, but, uh, but yeah, in terms of where it goes afterwards, I'm not sure, Tom, do you have any thoughts on that?

1:23:57 Absolutely agreed regarding what Escobar could do for the North American title. The only thing against that is that I feel like, well, I mean, he would have a bunch of new challengers, but I just worry that it would feel like been there, done that, that I don't know, maybe again, maybe it's just not creative thinking on my part because I envision it being like so often I think like, no, he's not, even though it seems preordained and it has seemed preordained for a while that he is going to be the next holder.

1:24:27 Of that title.

1:24:28 Uh, I keep on in my mind thinking like, no, they're not going to put it back on him. And then I have to remind myself, he hasn't held it. That was the cruiserweight championship, but he made it feel that important. Uh, that was one of the better cruiserweight championship, uh, runs in, in, in the existence of a very unimportant belt. Uh, he made it seem important. So, um, with Swerve for a lot of it. So, you know, there's a lot of redundancy here. So because it feels so preordained and has for a while, I feel like I might enjoy some kind of surprise, like somehow Zion Quinn gets it instead, or somehow Odyssey Jones gets it instead, or maybe even something wacky like Swerve retains and just does double duty

1:25:14 for a while. Like Swerve retains the belt because that's what no one was expecting. And that's the only reason why it happens, just because it was Swerve with a swerve, maybe?

1:25:24 There you go.

1:25:25 And swerve culture is not a reason to do anything. It's not a good reason to do anything. So even though I'm saying that I might enjoy that in the moment, it probably isn't the best idea for the long term. So yeah, Santos should probably just... Take the belt. That would be just swell. It would make all the sense in the world. Um, and just as for the, uh, hit row video specifically, this is the most, I believe an act has acknowledged their call up in a long time.

1:25:55 Like we got Oscar's farewell.

1:25:58 We got, um, I don't know, like it got mentioned for a while at the beginning of Full Sail NXT, like, hey, of course, you know, of course, Sami Zayn wants to wrestle Bo Dallas for the NXT championship because he's seen people like Seth Rollins and Big E go up to the main roster and and they would acknowledge that more.

1:26:18 And it's not like it never gets mentioned anymore, but they were really.

1:26:23 I mean, they they showed it on the.

1:26:25 Screen and, you know, I liked I like that acknowledgement of just being real. It is the success when somebody moves on from it and gets promoted. And furthermore, I love, and it, it doesn't happen nearly a much, nearly enough when, when we're talking, wrestlers are talking about wins and losses go into the pay window, why they want to be champion money being an element of that. And I'm not just talking about happy Corbin or anything, but just the, the common, the, the common acknowledgement that that is a driving factor in a lot of this and i loved that hit row in in their way was just like yeah you say that we're running away but we're going after the bigger money money money money money and i

1:27:19 want to say that's the first time in nxt history that a call-up has acknowledged that i mean unless there's something i don't know maybe like Bobby Roode was so focused on using his character's money to change NXT's image to be more like the main roster, even though he never said it that way. But it was a good gimmick because that's what it was. He wanted to take our NXT and make it more main roster-y. But I think this is the first time in NXT history that a call-up has openly acknowledged, like, yeah, now we're going to make more money because.

1:27:54 We got the call-up. So I appreciate that.

1:27:57 Yeah. I, uh, I kind of liked that whole video tonight because, because of the, the acknowledgement for the call-ups, the money thing that was actually like, I, I, I probably wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't, but that was something that, that really stood out for me in a cup for a couple of different reasons. A, because I thought it was just a great line, great way for, you know, top dollar and hit road to kind of get a little more heat and kind of get a little, get a little under the skin of the end, like DNXT fans, if you will. Um, but at the same time, I guess kind of looking at it from the other perspective, it also makes NXT feel a lot lesser again. And again, I know I have to start looking at and analyzing NXT as a lesser

1:28:40 third brand, once again, not as equal as they wanted it to be for, for a while. But it's, it just kind of like, it was a little odd, not odd, but it was striking to me that, you know, they're like, yeah, now we're going to be making more money. And it just kind of, you know, a little bit poo pooing on NXT and making it look a little bit lesser. Um, but again, probably by design. And I think it was great.

1:29:04 That was a great line from, uh, from top dollar. Um, and I'm, I'm, I'm really looking forward to see what they can do on the main roster. I'm actually going to probably tune in specifically for hit row. Um, and I'm, I'm not just saying that either, uh, hit rows. One of the things I look forward to on NXT on a weekly basis, I'm really sad to see them go, but at the same time, Um, with the exception of B fab, I think the rest of the act is completely main roster ready. B fab is main roster ready in terms of her promo skills, Mike work and.

1:29:34 All that her in ring work.

1:29:38 God, I hope she's not going to be doing much in ring stuff on Sriracha on SmackDown. Um, unless there's a lot of work that gets done there. Uh, cause I think if she does and, and the wrong people see it, could be a, could be bad news for BFAB, you know, but is what it is there. But overall, I'm, I'm really looking forward to see what hit road does, does on SmackDown. And I'm hoping that they just don't get lost in the mid card. I hope that they're actually a, a decent, like threatening stable on the main roster drill to get a go one more thing for us or, or shall we move on?

1:30:21 Last thing, and, yeah, I hope so, there's something on the main roster as well, and left alone and not giving other people words on what they think people like that will say either. So that's the biggest thing, so hopefully. But my last thing would be I asked for this, and they finally did it. We was able to get a promo. And that Diamond Mine was able to be told who they are by Malcolm Vivis. And I liked it.

1:30:55 And I feel like this is the beginning of where they're starting to slow things down and tell stories. I like how they let him break everything down. This is why we don't see a definite tag team division because you got a tag team in the Creed Brothers and Escobar group. that tag teams that haven't got back in the tag team division and stuff like that. So this is what I'm feeling like. After they go through all these new faces, you're going to start seeing some of these people start breaking off and getting into stuff in the story. And this was the perfect way to start it, by letting Malcolm Vivins cut a promo and tell you who everybody is, what their focus, what their drive is, and even give accolades to Hatchiman. the coach and stuff

1:31:41 like that and just telling everything about that and his favorites, the Creed brothers and stuff like that. So I enjoyed that promo. And again, I feel like NXT 2.0 will be the real 2.0 after Halloween. Have it. Once we get past these new faces who they probably had to push these first few weeks. And now it's, The draft is over with. Now you know who you have and who you don't have, and you can continue to go down the road and be how you want to be.

1:32:11 What do you guys like about that promo? And that's it for me.

1:32:15 All right, Tom, let me I'll throw over to you for that promo because Corbin seems to be making a lot of noise.

1:32:22 Well, I'll talk slow then. Well, I won't really, because that would be awful.

1:32:26 But I don't have much here other than just to just say I agree. This sort of thing belongs on the show. And, you know, yeah, so it was good. I agree with everything Darrell said. And I'll just add that, I mean, it's still so far so good with the new version of the Diamond Mine. Out of the gate, every single week, it was just sort of like, laughing at them before we recorded and then trying to stifle that.

1:32:55 So I could say, well, in the longterm, I'm optimistic for Tyler rust on the podcast. And now it's like, no, I'm looking forward to seeing what.

1:33:03 Ivy Nile does.

1:33:04 I'm very eager for the next time the Creed brothers smash someone. And then, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll watch a Roddy match every now and again. It's a, it's, it's a Roddy match. A month keeps the doctor away.

1:33:19 Uh, Roddy match a month keeps the doctor away. Okay. I like, I'll, I'll, I'll go with that.

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1:34:41 No, I was waiting for this type of a thing for Diamond Mine. Malcolm Bivens is a fantastic mouthpiece, as we know. This, I think, is exactly what Diamond Mine needed. It reminded us of who everybody is, who's in the faction. It get like, um, I forget actually, if it was you that pointed out, it was Darrell that pointed out, but they, they shown a light on Hachiman, um, which they really haven't done yet. I mean, even I think last week or the week before I called him the other guy because I literally could not think of his name. Um, so, um, you know, I'm glad they showed a light on him and kind of, you know, give that coach role. Cause I, I don't think we're going to see him in the ring.

1:35:23 I mean, maybe, but we haven't yet. We haven't seen any sort of physicality or anything out of him.

1:35:28 I don't know.

1:35:29 I don't know anything about the guy other than he's in diamond mine and he's the coach. Um, So, you know, if he's cleared, he can wrestle or whatever, but, but I, you know, I.

1:35:38 Think this is exactly what they needed.

1:35:40 It, it, it gave everybody a reminder of what, who everybody is. We, we didn't really learn anything new about any of the members of diamond mind here in this promo either, but it was just a quick reminder of who everybody was.

1:35:52 And it was done in a very done in such a way that I think was effective.

1:35:57 And it left just a good taste to everybody's mouth for diamond line. You know, it doesn't make it like, I keep looking at diamond mine almost like undisputed era light. Um, and I think that's just simply because Roddy's in it. It is completely different, completely different beast than undisputed era, but that's kind of funny.

1:36:16 It's funny.

1:36:17 You say that just because that exact phrase ran through my mind regarding toxic attraction tonight.

1:36:22 Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, and I can, I can see that too. You know, absolutely.

1:36:26 He's either going to, uh, he's either going to patronize me, uh, with, with what you said, or he's going to try to kill me.

1:36:32 Yeah, no, no, and I can see that on Disputed Arrow Light with just kind of the antics of Toxic Attraction and the way that they're acting and stuff. Yeah, I can certainly see– I can certainly draw the comparisons there too.

1:36:47 But in my head, I kind of see them as– see Diamond Mind anyway as– as.

1:36:51 The replacement for undisputed era, you know, at least on the male, the, the, the, the male roster. And I think it's simply because, you know, one faction left, another faction came in and they both have Roderick strong, but to get kind of out of that.

1:37:08 And I think some other, because.

1:37:09 I've also seen other people, you know, online on Reddit, I, I spend a lot more time on Reddit on squared circle than I care to admit. Um, like I've seen a lot of people, you know, make that comparison too. And, uh, I think they needed something like this to kind of separate themselves and kind of, um, stand out a bit more, just stand out and kind of separate from, uh, you know, those undisputed era vibes, things like that. Um, but I loved, loved, loved this, this video package here with, uh, Malcolm Bivens, diamond mine. Um, I, I want to hear Malcolm Bivens just go like, I, I, I almost, I would love for them to give him a live mic and just like, just like, there's a, there's a story like Paul Hammond tells,

1:37:58 but we know he w he was going out to cut a shoot pro on Vince McMahon.

1:38:02 And he's like, Vince, you want me to tell you, you know, what I'm actually going to say out there.

1:38:05 And Vince is like, no, just go out and draw me money. And man, I would love to see them just hand Malcolm Bivens.

1:38:12 And Mike and be like, go out there and draw me money kid. because I think he could kill it. Absolutely kill it.

1:38:18 They definitely let him do that at some house shows that I was not at. So the only time I've seen him do that is uh, at instead of, or maybe it was in addition to, but, uh, it was definitely before a taping. So I want to say instead of a dark match, they had Malcolm Bivens come out and cut a promo about Bivens enterprises. And, uh, when, when that was, when that was what it was. Um, and I don't even remember, uh, I don't even remember what he said or if he was doing his usual, like the Bivens that we know on social media. But yeah, you're absolutely right. The other thing that, you know, maybe this is just... my daughter, but I think I even mentioned it on the podcast that one time my daughter

1:38:59 was watching a, uh, an undisputed, well, there I go.

1:39:02 Undisputed era.

1:39:03 Um, the diamond mine, uh, backstage bit where they were like working out and Bivens was saying something about something. And she goes, so is diamond mine where people train to get good enough to be on NXT. And I, uh, Yeah. And I yeah, I definitely laughed at it. But I was also even thinking like even before they before we knew what it was, I was wondering, are we underestimating by thinking that this is going to be a faction?

1:39:31 And this is actually going to be a whole new show that is the you know, now what NXT 2.0 is. But I was wondering if like. is this NXT evolve? And they're finally going to show it to us under this new name. Uh, so yeah, I absolutely see where she got that impression. And so something like tonight's video, uh, helps make that distinction as well.

1:39:52 A hundred percent, a hundred percent. No.

1:39:54 And, uh, yeah, I remember you actually talking about, um, seeing Bivens talking about Bivens enterprises, like, uh, during that, that live show, I remember you bringing that up.

1:40:04 Um, All right.

1:40:06 So moving on, we get a couple other things that we haven't talked about. We did talk about Ember Moon and Mandy Rose. I can cross that off my list. We did talk about we we talked about L.A.

1:40:17 Night and Odyssey Jones. I don't have anything else to add to that. Do you? No, Andre Chase was there. I'm glad that's continuing. Cool. Yeah, me too. We already, yeah, we did talk about that. All right. We, so we got some, we got a couple of things. We have the in-ring debut of Tony D'Angelo. It is Tony. It's not, it's not Tommy, right? Tony D'Angelo. Tommy Dan.

1:40:39 Yeah.

1:40:39 Tommy D'Angelo is the main character in the video game mafia.

1:40:42 I keep getting that confused and I'm probably going to keep getting that confused.

1:40:46 It's one of my favorite video games.

1:40:48 Um, I, uh, he, uh, he debuted against the gentleman by the name of Malik blade, who I believe it was also his first match on NXT. I do not remember seeing this gentleman before on NXT, at least under the name Malik blade. Um, I had man, I don't know what they're doing lately with some of these names, but Malik blade, you've got Darth Malik from, uh, what was it?

1:41:13 Star, Star Trek or star Wars. Um, rather, uh, uh, well, nice. Isn't that Knights of the old Republic? Yeah. Old Republic. Yeah. Darth Malik.

1:41:21 That's the, that's, That's where, that's where I know the name Malik from.

1:41:25 He must be a Knights of the old Republic guy too. If he's using that.

1:41:28 As a name, but man, Malik blade, come on.

1:41:31 If that, if I have never heard a create a character wrestler name before my life, that is it.

1:41:38 Don't like the name, but whatever match wasn't for him. It was for Tony D'Angelo. I, I actually liked this match more than I thought I would.

1:41:47 Yeah.

1:41:49 And I'm kind of surprised at that because there was, it was a lot of just rest holds.

1:41:52 And things like that.

1:41:53 I'd say probably a quarter of the match was like rest holds, but that reside, the crowd was really into it. The crowd is really behind Tony D'Angelo. And I, I thought he had some great charisma. He had some great in ring work.

1:42:08 As well, like kind of begging off almost doing like.

1:42:10 A Ric flair thing where he's kind of you know, on his knees in the corner, like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, don't, don't attack, you know, don't hit me. And then clearly gets right back up and, and, you know, kind of does a little bit of a heel move. The thing is, is Tony D'Angelo comes off as a heel character. He plays a heel in the ring, but man, the crowd got right behind him.

1:42:33 It's like, I feel like they're positioning them as a face.

1:42:36 Um, and I feel, you know, even with his, his, his vignettes and everything, I still feel like they're positioning it as a face and just his mannerisms. And obviously he's trying to hype the crowd up, things like that.

1:42:47 But, he comes in, but the character itself, he's a mobster, right? Like it's, it's a heel gimmick. Um, yeah, I feel like there's probably going to be a turn somewhere down the line for this character.

1:42:58 There has to be with this gimmick, but.

1:43:01 Uh, I, I get to admit, I like it.

1:43:03 Um, you know, like I said last week, you know, even with the last name Lindbergh, I'm mostly Italian. Um, and so I kind of do latch onto that Italian mobster type character. It's just, it's something I like somebody enjoy.

1:43:16 It's fun.

1:43:17 Um, but yeah, I don't know where the ceiling is for him.

1:43:21 I said North American title last week, this week after seeing him, I think maybe not.

1:43:28 Yeah.

1:43:29 I met maybe, maybe challenge for it, but not win it type of deal, but that's even a little far fetched for me, but I can certainly see him as somebody that the fans latch onto almost kind of like Cameron Grimes before Cameron Grimes you started doing the million dollar stuff. You know, people, people wanted to see him every week.

1:43:46 He was entertaining.

1:43:48 And that's kind of at least what I see right now, at least for this first, you know, in ring debut in front of a live crowd type of a deal. I want to see a little bit more before I, you know, kind of, I guess say definitively where I see him slot in on the card, but that's what I see right now. But yeah, with what did you, what'd you think of this match against Malik blade?

1:44:12 Yeah, Malik Blade, Joshua somebody or other. I forget.

1:44:16 I didn't write it down from from Devon's school right here in Orlando.

1:44:22 Oh, nice. Sawyer Sawyer Rec also trains there, as do a lot of other people.

1:44:25 But I just really like Sawyer Rec. And she should totally I've been saying this for a while. She should totally win the Mayhem on Mills championship from Troy.

1:44:33 Hollywood at their next event. Halloween. What do they call it? Oh, man. Botched the plug.

1:44:41 I forget what it's called, but their Halloween event is coming up soon. Triple threat with Sawyer, Rick, uh, Troy Hollywood and Snoop strikes.

1:44:49 Um, yeah, I liked this too, quite a bit.

1:44:52 Uh, I mean, Mandy and Ember is not going to get beat for my match of the night, but, uh, I think this went very well for Tony and especially in regard to crowd acceptance, because this crowd has just been awesome.

1:45:06 It's especially awful.

1:45:07 It's so easy to beat up the full sale crowd and they are still the full sale crowd.

1:45:11 It's all still the same people.

1:45:14 But like these people, if you're a if you're VIP and you're listening to NXT eight years back, you're hearing.

1:45:20 Us talk about how quickly.

1:45:22 They accept new acts like it's actually hard for Adrian, Adrian, Shaw's husband. I always I always do this. I forget his name. And then I say Aiden, Aiden English. It's very difficult for him to keep his heat with this new heel character that he's debuted eight years ago because the crowd just instantly loves him. And they're instantly like, yeah, you found your thing.

1:45:48 This is great. We like you because it's cool to do that.

1:45:51 Same thing with Tyler Breeze. And Tyler Breeze is a bit more adept at working that. But at least at that point in their careers. But this crowd now has been rejecting everything, and a lot of the same people are still there. I say a lot. A decent handful of the same people are still there. These are the same people that loved Aiden English the second time that he came out singing to them. And now Tony D'Angelo comes out there, and they love him right away. I think a lot of it is because the character is so– And he's leaning into it so much and the company is leaning into it so much. Like, yeah, what you think of when you think of a Chicago gangster, that's everything this guy is. We're going to make sure

1:46:32 that he seems like he's a young member of the family. So he probably hasn't killed anybody. But but, you know, at least not yet.

1:46:41 Yeah.

1:46:42 So, um, but yeah, I think that's why, you know, people are doing the, the cliche hand gesture. And, and I think that's why people are getting into it because it is a little ridiculous and it's fun. Um, So, uh, I, I think that, yeah, this just reminded me of, uh, of what we talk about on eight years back in a very positive way in that regard. And I feel like it's not just the flag on his shoulder, but you know, he reminded me a bit of Rusev in the sense that he's probably playing too hard into this, uh, the, the gimmick based on nationality. Um, even though I was just saying that, The gimmick based on nationality is part of the reason why the crowd probably got into him as much as they did.

1:47:24 But Rusev leaned into that so much.

1:47:26 And of course, as a character, he was written to just be like, yes, they called him the Bulgarian brute.

1:47:30 But he really was brutish as a character.

1:47:33 And like people talk to him like he like he's an animal and like he doesn't know how to use language to speak. Um, he's, he's that kind of character in the early days. So I feel like, um, D'Angelo will probably, well, I don't, I don't know if this will happen, but I feel like ideally he will gradually downplay stuff like that until he levels off at a point where he's still recognizably himself and everything that we liked about him. Um, but you know, not, not as a cartoonish. Um, also I, I wrote down really nice finisher.

1:48:07 I feel like I should know like what sort of like the fisherman twist buster or whatever you want.

1:48:13 I was going to call it a fisherman buster myself.

1:48:16 Okay.

1:48:16 Yeah.

1:48:19 Um, so yeah, what, that was looked real nice. He got into it smoothly and, and hit it real smoothly. Um, and, uh, I just, the one thing I worry about is that I'm setting myself up for disappointment because he, he showed here as we expected based on his background that he would do well in the ring.

1:48:38 But what I.

1:48:38 Really want this to be is that Yes, he is a baby face and we like him and we especially like him when he does so well in the ring and he works, he gradually works his way up the ladder to get a really big match. But then, you know, his cousin, handsome Charlie, comes in and says, hey, this is the family says you got to take the fall.

1:48:57 We're betting on the other guy. And, you know, the numbers are right.

1:49:01 It's it's time, Tony. And and Tony's got to take the fall. But he doesn't want to. You know, he could have been a contender like that. That's that's what I want. And I'm not going to get it. So I'm going to be disappointed. But yeah, excellent, excellent debut for Tony D'Angelo tonight.

1:49:17 Yeah, and going back to the finisher, one thing that I meant to bring up, and I forgot, was I like the fact that they kind of stuck with the whole thing. Because his family, down to the docks, you know?

1:49:27 Oh, yeah. Fishing down to the docks, fisherman suplex.

1:49:31 So I like that continuity with the character, fisherman suplex into the fisherman buster, I guess you would call it.

1:49:38 That's at least what I was going to call it, was a fisherman buster. So I like that continuity. Yeah.

1:49:44 It's not often that I pick up on little, little, little details like that. And I was like, Oh, fisherman suplex docs.

1:49:50 All right, cool. That's great. Um, so I was proud of myself. I was proud of myself.

1:49:55 Um, and then he showed up in, uh, he showed up in the last segment segment. And she said, Oh, I liked him in that new Sopranos movie.

1:50:03 Yeah.

1:50:03 Right.

1:50:04 Terrible, terrible. Um, and just because I.

1:50:07 Have nothing else to say about that one, I will, I will mention that this is the point where Brady Booker actually showed up.

1:50:12 Yes.

1:50:13 Still with his beautiful hair. And it's, it's not really that great as you do, you know, nice head of hair though. Uh, shouldn't, should not shave it off like Parker Boudreau did his, uh, but also, uh, Dimitri Jackson. uh, Rhea Ripley's boyfriend, uh, action Jackson. I, uh, he, he is a wrestler locally and, and, uh, seeing him sitting there, I was like, huh, is this, yeah, I don't know.

1:50:34 Like I don't know.

1:50:36 I guess there's so much that I don't understand about, you know, people that are adjacent to the performance center and getting these little, little bitty spots on, on TV, like Jason Cade constantly showing up as an NXT security guard.

1:50:51 And I'm like, why don't they sign Jason Cade? He's freaking awesome. But you know, I don't know.

1:50:56 Yeah.

1:50:57 And I hear you.

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1:51:52 All right.

1:51:53 Let's see what else we got tonight. So we, uh, we also had, uh, Indy Loomis, Indy Hart. They're still calling her.

1:52:00 Indy Hartwell, but I mean, I figured they, they might actually change the last name, but no Indy Hartwell versus May Ying, uh, Indy Hartwell had a Persia.

1:52:10 Uh, Oh God, I don't remember her last name. Persia.

1:52:12 I just wrote down Persia, her best friend, Persia in her corner. Uh, and May Ying had Boa in hers. Um, uh, this match you went, I think it was about four minutes or so. I could pull up the time here momentarily. It went out, sorry, two minutes and 53 seconds.

1:52:31 And we did see any Hartwell go over, which was a little shocking to me, to be completely honest with you.

1:52:39 This was a, this is the first time we saw me in the ring.

1:52:43 We didn't.

1:52:44 And I figured they probably would have made a bigger deal about it. And they, they didn't. So I, I, I like, I'm right. This is the first time we've seen her wrestle. Right. I'm not just forgetting something. Uh, you are forgetting one other match she had.

1:52:58 Yeah. Okay.

1:52:59 So I guess I am forgetting something. Uh, Oh yeah.

1:53:02 Yeah.

1:53:02 I mean, right.

1:53:03 It was a few weeks ago. It was forgettable.

1:53:05 Yep.

1:53:05 That's right.

1:53:06 But you know what I, what I don't understand here with, with, you know, obviously, you know, Xia.

1:53:11 Li gets called up. So that kind of takes a little bit of, of the shine out.

1:53:15 Of the tension stable anyway, because, you know, you get one of your really, I feel like the whole stable was revolving around her and now she's gone. So you get a little bit of China, you're taking away there, but, but you get me in losing tonight.

1:53:30 You had Bo losing you the last week or the week before.

1:53:32 And I.

1:53:35 I just don't know what they're going to do with this. They spent all this time building up the stable building, Um, and just kind of lately now they've, they've just been losing and, and I don't feel like they were really on a winning streak either. So unless this, this loss kind of leads into, uh, you know, uh, Tian Sha, you know, Mei Ying and Boa, I guess the two remaining members of Tian Sha, um, kind of leads into them, but like, I guess kicking it into next gear and, and really kind of showing some sort of next level of TN Shah or whatever. I, I, I don't know.

1:54:16 Like I'm, I'm confused by this, this booking here. It, I felt like Mei Ying was going to be like this unstoppable force. Nobody's going to beat her. You know, maybe she even gets up. I hate to see NXT champions. I hate to see like, an Alexa bliss type character as a champion. Um, but, uh, you know, that's kind of how I thought they might book this, at least as an unstoppable force, you know, maybe get the title, maybe not. Um, But now here she is losing right off the bat. It just seems weird to me. I thought they would protect this faction a little bit more given all of the time and the production that they put into some of those vignettes, whether it was them just kind of training or also some of the cartoon

1:55:04 stuff that they did. It was just they put a lot into it, and now I don't feel like they're getting anything out of this stable.

1:55:11 Tom?

1:55:12 Yeah, it does honestly make me wonder. I mean, we we've said before, like, oh, does this loss mean that Chen Xia is going to come back stronger?

1:55:22 But they've been losing a lot. And I say they that's been. Oh, I feel like a broken record. Yeah. But then then you get the Mei Ying loss tonight and it's just. Why?

1:55:33 I don't I don't know why, because Indy Hartwell's got other stuff going on. Like when I was thinking of people who could alternately win the North American championship, Dexter Loomis came to mind.

1:55:44 And then I thought, you know what?

1:55:45 He's it's already enough with with what's going on with Indy that hasn't run its course yet to the point where they need to do something else with it. So I feel like Indy's like not that I don't want to see her in the ring and not that I don't want to see her winning. But you put her up against Mei Ying, and she's not going to lose much by losing to Mei Ying. Everybody who's lost to Chan Sha recently has been protected because the steam was used in the finish. So that's what I expected to happen here. But then you get Persia Parada– I, I, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly. Um, but yeah, that sounds right.

1:56:24 That sounds right.

1:56:25 Yeah.

1:56:26 I didn't jump in because I wasn't certain of it, but here I go in Parada. Um, it's, it just sounds like too basic of a pronunciation, but I look at the way it's spelled and I'm like, well, did, okay.

1:56:37 Um, like, is it worth having Persia? I don't know. Is it worth having making lose?

1:56:44 It's not, it's not because this was, this was the other, uh, sloppy thing on the show. The, the, the one sloppy thing was, uh, Robert, uh, Robert Evans, whatever the heck his name is, Robert Stone, uh, being able to just rebook a match, uh, on, on the fly. Um, and, and this was very sloppy because Persia shoved Indy in full view of referee Aja Smith.

1:57:09 And, uh, it's just, it's already weird to me when there's.

1:57:16 Between somebody who's at ringside and the wrestler that they are aligned with because the alignment is not written as part of the rules. If the referee's like, oh, well, that person's an enemy of the person that they touched, so that's a disqualification, then why isn't it a disqualification if there's contact between somebody that they are aligned with?

1:57:44 which also it's like, if I want to go further down that rabbit hole, which maybe I shouldn't, it's like, are the referees psychic? And they know that the people at ringside aren't going to turn on the people because the alignment is not set in stone unless they aren't supposed to know that because they're supposed to get involved, you know, on, on the outside and the referee isn't supposed to know about it. So this is just sloppy for so many, you know, no matter which way I look at it, it's so sloppy that Persia is just allowed to shove Indy out of the way. And that's fine because she's friends with Indy and Aja Smith knows that.

1:58:18 So it wasn't interference. It's not a disqualification. So that's just, yeah, this was very ill-conceived.

1:58:28 Yeah, no, I, I, I hear you.

1:58:30 It was between that and then the book rebooking of the Frankie Monet match, you know, certainly, certainly a couple of sloppy things there tonight, but, but I, I, you.

1:58:42 Know, largely, largely I was okay with it with, I don't know.

1:58:47 I like, I would kind of like to see Indy stand on her own and well, or at least I guess on her own with her husband, Dexter Loomis, it kind of seems weird that they're bringing in, you know, her best friend here, Persia. Cause all of a sudden the way is now no kind of gone.

1:59:04 You got Austin theory up on the main roster.

1:59:07 You got Johnny Gargano seemingly kind of maybe taken a little bit of time. off to hang out with his wife. You can't just raise and be off TV. Obviously I've due to pregnancy. So, I don't know if like, they just think she can't hang on her own and they need to put her with somebody or, or what.

1:59:25 Um, but it was, it was kind of, uh, it was.

1:59:28 Interesting to me that like, there was just like no mention of the way tonight. There was no followup of, you know, uh, Gargano and Loray kind of following the, um, you know, the honeymoon or anything like that, other than just a brief conversation between Persia and, uh, um, and Indy.

1:59:44 But, um, but yeah, yeah.

1:59:46 Yeah.

1:59:48 Yeah.

1:59:49 Persia is probably the one who's being put with someone rather than Indy being put with someone. But I see where you're coming from with it, and I do agree with you in essence. And I want to hear what you're about to say that I cut you off before you got to say it, but I will also ask– Uh, do you think just because it's in the back of my mind, do you think that Chan Shah is in the minds of the people, um, writing NXT right now?

2:00:17 Something where they're like, um, yeah, we tried it for a while.

2:00:20 And this is 2.0. Now it's, it's going to go by the wayside.

2:00:24 So first, all I was just going to say was otherwise, I was okay with the segment. That was literally all I was going to say. It was worth the wait.

2:00:33 Yes.

2:00:35 But, you know, that certainly could be with Tansha, where this is NXT 2.0. They're going in a completely different direction now.

2:00:42 Yeah, maybe. And, you know, Tian Sha just kind of goes by the wayside.

2:00:46 Maybe we just see, we see Mei Ying, that character go away altogether. We see Boa do something else completely. And, you know, Mei Ying re-debuts as Karen Q or, you know, Karen R because they need to change everything.

2:01:02 I don't know why R, Karen X, Karen S, T, I don't know, pick a letter. But, you know, we see something like that.

2:01:10 I could certainly see something like that happening because it's like, for NXT they're getting away from a lot of that kind of more cinematic stuff and I think a lot of the cinematic stuff too was was simply because there was no crowd and they were just trying different things but now that there is a crowd you know maybe the crowd and granted I'm not really paying attention to crowd responses as I used to because I get I think because of the COVID era I got so so ingrained in my head that all of the crowd responses I'm hearing are fake. So it's like, I think I kind of trained myself to not pay as close attention to crowd responses while I'm watching the show and writing my, well, at least the live report anyway tonight, as I would

2:01:52 if I was just watching the show. But maybe they're not getting the same response or the response they thought they were going to get. But I do think that in this new NXT.

2:02:01 2.0 environment, Tien Sha does feel like they're a little... they just don't belong. They don't fit.

2:02:09 So it does kind of seem like a bit of an outcast. I could see them kind of, kind of separating them a little bit down the line. Cause you know, you know, like you said, we, we always say every time somebody in 10 shot.

2:02:20 Gets a, it gets a loss. Well, maybe they'll come back stronger and they never do. I've said that. I want to say, I've said that at least five or six times, both Xia Li.

2:02:28 I know, I know I said that about Bo when he lost, I said it again tonight.

2:02:33 So, you know, I, I don't know. I don't know. It'll be, it'll be interesting to see where this goes. It goes for sure. Um, All right. So that does it for matches.

2:02:44 We touched on lash legend, kind of, sorta a little bit there really that that's about it. We had a couple other backstage segments that went on kind of, but we already touched on the matches and the people involved. So I think with that, I'm going to make the executive decision to wrap things up here tonight and say, Hey, That was our show guys.

2:03:05 Thanks for listening. I'm Nate Lindberg. You can follow me on Twitter at Nate Lindberg.

2:03:10 I do the NXT hits and misses tonight. I wrote the live report for Kelly and that's up on PW torch.com for you guys to check out.

2:03:17 If you'd like to do so, Tom, who are you?

2:03:20 I just I so disrespect disrespectful that you skipped.

2:03:24 Over Von Wagner speaking. I mean, he worked so hard.

2:03:28 Yeah, he spent weeks reading Paradise Lost to learn how to speak.

2:03:32 And he finally opened his mouth on tonight's show. And you just skipped right over it, Nate. No, I did. I did. I forget whether he spoke in the little in the like CrossFit. I don't think I think tonight was the first time he spoke.

2:03:49 Yeah, it wasn't people like, oh, man, I think he did a better Frankenstein's monster performance than Robert De Niro. No, people were people seemed to weird it out that he was. It's using a sledgehammer on a giant tire. And I'm like, have you seen anybody work out over the past 15 years?

2:04:13 Like, this is what people do now.

2:04:16 And Wade even mentioned that it's it's a reference to his his father since he's a he's a second generation.

2:04:23 Wayne Bloom, I think, is his father's name.

2:04:26 And because he's from the part of the country that he's from, I keep on thinking that and maybe you know what? There are so many wrestlers from that part of the country that I shouldn't say I shouldn't phrase it that way. It's probably the first name Wayne. That I think like, oh, he must have been a hockey player.

2:04:40 And I just, you know, it's just I wasn't from there. But I think Wade mentioned on a hotline that the sledgehammer thing is a reference to his dad. But anyway, let's wait until until Frankenstein's monster actually has a match before we speak. that many more words about him at one time. Um, I am at, yeah, I am at Tom Stout on Twitter and, um, I'll probably be embarrassed when I listened back to this show, when it gets, gets posted.

2:05:10 I knew I was feeling.

2:05:11 Under the weather, but I did not realize I had that much brain haze going on. So hopefully it was coherent to at least a passable extent. If you've, uh, if you're listening to my excuses now, then, then I'll, I'll then maybe it was, uh, Um, but, uh, but yeah, go VIP to listen to NXT eight years back, uh, where, where Bo Dallas was the champion, Sammy Zane was challenging him.

2:05:35 And, uh, there were, there were a lot.

2:05:37 Of fun things going on and, and some really maddening things that, uh, that drive us crazy. Like, uh, oh boy, I just remembered that this, this next episode coming up is Mojo Rawley's in ring debut, uh, Please help us.

2:05:54 Oh, please help us. Please help them, guys. Please help them.

2:05:58 All right.

2:05:59 And hopefully Kelly will be back next week to join us.

2:06:03 All you've got to do is believe. This is the cat.

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