5 YRS AGO NXT ON USA POST-SHOW: Wells, Stoup, and Lindberg cover Carmelo Hayes cashing in title shot, Halloween Havoc taking shape, more

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Now, PWTorch brings you the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Show.

On today's Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Show, we jump back five years to PWT Talks NXT. Kelly Wells, Tom Stelp, and Nate Lindberg, two of the three who hosted... the wrestling night in America after Money in the Bank this weekend. We're together to talk about that night's episode. Carmelo Hayes cashed in a title shot. The Halloween Havoc card started to take shape. There's a lack of subtlety in high-concept gimmicks and more topics. So let's get to it. This originally live-streamed on October 12, 2021. It's the Wade Keller Post Show. Five years ago flashback for Saturday, October 10, 2026.

Well, aloha, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to PWT Talks NXT. I'm Kelly Wells. I'm your host. You can find me all over social media at SpookyMilk or SpookyMilk.Games. I've been gone for two weeks. Two weeks ago, I'm going to be honest, I don't remember why. Last week, I was basking in the afterglow. That makes it sound like it was a good thing. I'm a co-owner of a collectible shop, and we got burglarized for $ 160, 000 worth of merchandise. So that's been great. If you want to watch me get interviewed on TV talking about that, look at WCCO's website.

They're an affiliate of, I don't know, CBS, NBC. I never remember. But they're a channel, and they talk to me online. because I got taken for a lot of money. But we have leads. Anyway, let's talk about something less good than being robbed for $ 160, 000. Let's talk about NXT 2.0. We're going to talk... I don't know. This is a busy show. It always is now. We have eight emails.

You can email us at pwtorchnxt at gmail.com, although you don't need to do that this week because we got a lot of emails already. So if you haven't already, we're good, gang. You can call us 515-605-9345, and you can talk to us as well. Let's talk main event and main event segment. You know, I mean, it sounds like I really hated this episode, but I just kind of hated some stuff. It's, for me, a little bit of an uptick. These last two weeks, I didn't see the show and have not watched it since. So I kind of got the download from the other two guys here while I was watching this one. And they trolled me, making me think that Mandy Rose was the women's champion already, which I could oh so easily believe and was not

thrilled about. But in two weeks, she will be. And I'm going to have to see that match. Let's talk main event news. This is Isaiah Swerve Scott defending his North American championship against Santos Escobar. These guys have great matches like clockwork.

11-14.

This would probably be the best match of most weeks of NXT. Easy best match, uh, these days. So there you go. Um, Swerve defends successfully against Santos Escobar. All of Swerve's teammates have been kidnapped in broad daylight because that's a thing. Um, and, uh, well, it is a thing, but, uh, but on camera also and not solved somehow, uh, it, He defends, even though they say if he wins, he's taking that championship to SmackDown and will no longer have it on NXT. Santos Escobar's cronies kind of try to help him out. Mendoza and Wilde, that is. They get jumped by Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams. It's a discredit to me, but even at this point, I had not...

figured out what was about to happen. Swerve defeats Santos Escobar, but afterwards, Carmelo Hayes, a cheap lariat on Swerve, and then he cashes in his championship opportunity, is the stupid thing they say, and in one minute and nine seconds, defeats Swerve in the ninth match of the night. Your new North American champion, Carmelo Hayes so there you go your match of the night followed by your angle of the night pretty hot ending to this show wouldn't you say Tom.

Stout Yeah, I suppose so.

I am at Tom Stout, which is the Twitter account still steadily decreasing in popularity ever since I started plugging it. And yeah, we got more abduction angles, not including Tony D'Angelo having somebody in his trunk.

Maybe it was B-Fab. But yeah, B-Fab.

Asked to do something physical again on the show. And she's even bad at making it seem like she's being abducted. Uh, I don't know, maybe they could have helped her by slamming the car door faster, but you know, she had clearly cleared her legs. So just like close that thing, Joaquin or whichever one it was. Uh, but yeah, gosh, I'd been, Ooh, I'd just been waiting so long to see what she had. And, uh, now I know why she was kept under wraps for all that time.

Um, and, But yeah, I don't know.

I was I was in the middle of typing like, hey, I didn't really call it, but I did say last week that I wanted Swerve to retain just because Escobar winning felt a preordained and be to been.

There, done that.

Because, again, maybe a lack of creative thinking on my part, but I just couldn't really foresee a North American championship run that would be all that different from what we already saw.

From him with the cruiserweights.

And I am very happy for Mello.

I do think this is the right spot for him.

I do like what he's doing with tricks so far, even though we haven't seen much of it. I think that there's some good potential there for that act. But, of course, the big thing here is that they never, ever established that the breakout.

Contract was a cash-in gimmick.

I am going to give it a pass for now because I think what I need to do is go back and watch Edge's first cash-in and maybe some of the lead-up to it. And, you know, full disclosure, I probably won't do that. But I feel like... They were talking about it like he could cash in for a match, and we just thought conventionally about that. So then when he came out to cash in on a– to coin that phrase on the failed Cena, I think that was the mind blower. That's what really solidified that in our minds, the ultimate opportunist. Oh, he's not going to do this in a conventional way. He's going to do it at an opportunistic moment. Um, so I'm going to give them a pass for now because maybe there is that precedent

set for it. But, uh, but yeah, that was a little bit like, oh, they're just sort of pulling this one out of their asses, aren't they?

Uh, Nate, um, I was going to call you Tom as well. Uh, sorry about that. Um, the guy's so nice. They named the same thing twice. That's how you'd say it, right? Nate, what did you think?

Oh, you know, I, uh, okay. I, so I enjoyed the match itself. Um, you know, obviously match of the night. Um, these two guys have fought for the, uh, cruiserweight title. Uh, I think it was twice. They had cruiserweight title matches. Escort coming out on top both times. They've had a handful of other matches. They've been involved in single, uh, tag matches together. Uh, so, uh, The match itself, it was obviously going to be the match of the night, and I certainly give that to them. What I honestly was not thinking about in the moment anyway, and I know I had thought about it. We talked about it a little bit last week. But in the moment, I was not thinking about this potential for a cash-in. And

I kind of agree with Tom. They never established that this could be a cash-in gimmick. so i was kind of thinking you know hey he was gonna i thought honestly he was gonna challenge uh swerve at halloween havoc not necessarily cash it in right that moment however i was okay with it it added a lot to the show um it added a lot to that particular moment um You know, it made it felt it made it feel it made it feel important, made it feel special, you know, because in the moment I'm thinking to myself, OK, North American title is now in a SmackDown guy. Are they actually going to? And I was playing chess when I should have been playing checkers here. I'm starting to think, like, are they going to be moving the North American title

to SmackDown? that's going to give SmackDown some extra shine and maybe appease Fox. Cause Fox is pissed off at them. Cause they keep plugging you a peacock and this, that the other thing, and that's where my mind's going. Right. And then of course we get the inevitable cash in here from, um, from Carmelo Hayes. And I'm like, Oh yeah.

Okay.

That makes a hell of a lot more sense than where I was going with it. Um, cause I was starting to think like, all right, NXT, you know, it's, it's not, the focus isn't there. Like it was once before, maybe they wanted to take one title away from NXT and, and, you know, shine up and SmackDown. That was kind of my thinking, but obviously not where they went. Um, and I think that's, that's the that shouldn't have been the way that they went anyway. Smackdown already has enough titles, especially for a two hour show. Uh, you know, NXT still needs, uh, an undercard title or mid card title. So, uh, I think that's, that's definitely a way to, way to keep it. Uh, Carmelo Hayes. I'm, I'm on board with

this guy. Um, know, he, he, he was slow to win me over. It took a few weeks for him to win me over before. And this was even before the NXT 2.0 thing. But I'm, I'm, I'm here for it. I like trick Williams. I think they've got a great, a great potential for a breakout act here. I obviously, we need to see some more out of them, especially Williams.

But I, I, I certainly like what we, what we have going on so far. I, I, can't say I thought he was going to be North American champion, Carmelo Hayes. I really thought that this was going to wind up being cut, becoming a cruiserweight angle, but quite frankly, I, at least a few weeks ago anyway, but Quite frankly, I think this is a great place for Carmelo Hayes, especially if they are going to be strapping a rocket to him in the future and making him a relatively top star in NXT and potentially the main roster. I think it's a great stepping stone for him.

Okay. Yeah, I like this act for Carmelo, too. I think he's in the right lane here. He's found... I thought he was maybe miscast as a face, even though I couldn't prove that. But the first time he spoke, I was like, I think they wanted him to be likable. But I think he's going to really work way better going way over the line into cocky, and that's what we've got now. So that makes sense for me. I'm going to go to a couple of emails first. Then we will go to the 615 caller. This is from Joe Bowen. I've never read one of his emails. So unless he emailed you guys in the last two weeks.

We haven't heard from him before. Gentlemen, thank you for doing the Lord's work and recapping NXT 2.0 like a Weather Channel reporter going into the eye of a hurricane so that us everyday folks can look away and feel safe. I'm sure there are a few good minutes of wrestling on this show, but I was laughing so hard at the descriptions of the vignettes and promos I had to take a minute. I tuned in long enough to see Lash Lasherson's talk show. And in 20 years of watching wrestling, it's now on my Mount Rushmore of most unintentionally funny WWE segments ever. I was literally crying when she leaned into the camera and said the WWE draft was like Squid Game and a cut to the studio audience absolutely

losing their minds. Almost every single member of the roster has the craziest name ever. We shared kidnappings. I believe two acts insinuating that they had guns on their person, a classroom with somebody named Brandon Von Wagner and pantyhose, uh, a producer getting locked in a trunk, a graveyard Champa as the face of toxic mass masculinity, a guy named Duke Hudson on his fourth gimmick in four weeks. He's not, but I wonder if he's got him mixed up with somebody.

I've never done acid, but if I did, I think it would pretty much be like watching this show. I was hollowing, howling in laughter, uh, At poor Pete Dunne trying to blend in with Von Wagner in a set that looks like a crayon factory. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll never stop reading recaps of this show.

You've got to wonder what the USA Network is thinking about investing heavily in the old NXT and getting this. Best regards, JB in Jacksonville. Joe, thank you for enjoying my recap under whatever circumstances that means. I have done acid, not recently, but if there's a segment where there is a dragon's head mounted on the wall, we'll know that they've done acid too. Okay, thank you. Joe, let's go to Dave Podnar. He sent us two emails. Brief. We started off hot with a kidnapping in the most dangerous place in America, the NXT parking lot. I see something hasn't changed with 2.0. So we went directly from the women's talking segment with toxic attraction to random guy. I guess we get a new women's champ. This feels like 2.0

moving from a work rate women's champs outside of Raquel to the new look. I have always given Mandy credit for lifting, but hopefully her in-ring has gotten better. God, I hope so. Just make Kyle a heel. People want to love the bruiser weight. See, no changes. Can we have dating with Cameron Grimes? He could pull it off.

Hoping everyone is doing good this week. Dave Podnar. Indeed. Cameron Grimes is one of the best wrestlers they have. One of the best pure wrestlers they have. But indeed, he's the guy most equipped to be in their goofy segments too. Because he makes them work.

Your time is valuable. Go VIP and listen to our shows commercial free. A nice streamlined listening experience. PWTorch.com.

So, We're going to go to 615, and I have just unmuted you. So let us know who you are and where you're calling from.

Kelly, Nate, and Tom.

Sean.

Always good to talk to you guys, man. How are you all doing tonight?

I'm doing okay, Sean. Um, I wasn't looking forward to the show, but I dare say when I, uh, got into it and, you know, got to talk to these two idiots, it seemed, uh, like we'd all make it through together.

Well, first of all, I want to say, Kelly, you know, I'm glad you're okay. Cause it could have been, you know, even worse what happened. So I'm glad, you know, you're okay. And hopefully everything's on the mend, you know, with you and, uh, so i'm glad you're back on the show of course name tom you guys are awesome as well the i told them last week that this would be my last week probably for a little while because my schedule changed it where i work so it's uh i'm kind of sad about it because i love talking to you guys about nxt even though nxt is definitely in this was a mixed bag show for sure um The, yeah, the kidnapping stuff, I didn't like that. The, I guess the two main things I was going to kind of try

to talk about, the first thing was going back to the Grayson Waller, you know, Duke Hudson with all the stuff Duke's been doing. I, again, I really like Grayson Waller. I think he's got some good athleticism.

He's very charismatic.

He's good in the ring.

For what we got.

And then to have Duke roll them up and when didn't.

Really understand that didn't get it, maybe I'm missing something. But afterwards, when he was talking, came back backstage, this is where I had the problem.

He goes back and he's talking to Cameron, which I'm with you guys. I love Cameron rhymes. I wish he'd get back in the ring and do more big time stuff. But to say great, you know, Grayson friend to say, I don't care about wins and losses. don't do that man like be sad you lost be somewhat discouraged by it don't just like oh you know i'm gonna go take a woman out tonight everything's gonna be great the woman was very attractive by the way so i give him credit for that but i did not like that at all am i way off base guys or what did you think about that backstage thing with grayson.

The line was, it's not about wins and losses. It's about likes and swipes. And when you have introduced somebody as an underdog worth cheering for, having him say like, this is basically like cutting his nuts off. I was so mad, um, that like, it seems like they got such a good thing going with him. They got the audience on his side. I really liked that match by the way it went. Um, Two minutes and 37 seconds is how I got that one. Grayson Waller falling to Duke Hudson with the handful of tights. I didn't have an issue with the outcome or even the length because there's more you can do with these two guys if you want. But at least you're also getting a little bit of ring time for Waller. I called him out

in my recap as one of the very smoothest of all these new acts in his transition to being on TV and being in the ring. But yes, I'm not a fan of any wrestler talking about how they don't care if they win or lose. It's worse if they're a babyface, and it's even worse if they're a new babyface that you're trying to get over. So I thought that was unfortunate, but I don't know... where the Waller story is headed, and these two unrelated babyfaces going off to do something together might mean that Waller is destined to turn heel on Cameron Grimes, in which case I'll look back and say, okay, it's fine that he was more interested in his vanity stuff than winning and losing.

But even then, I don't love it.

Nate? Yeah, I don't really love it either. I do feel like it kind of took some wind out of the sails of the, of the character. Cause like one of the things that I was writing in, in the hits and misses before that segment was I really liked the energy and, um, uh, uh, the care, the charisma of, of Grayson Waller. Uh, I think it was last week.

It might've been the week before he, uh, he came out during, um, I don't even remember the segment, but he came out while there was four other people in the ring. It might have even been Legado del Fantasma. I don't remember, but there was a stable in the ring, and he came out, faced them head-on, wanted a match, got a match, just got right in there, and I was like, dude, this is great. I liked that.

Almost.

He had a lot of heart. All I could think of was JR calling out X-Pac for having a lot of heart back in the day. That was the call that kept going through my head. And then tonight... That definitely just took some wind out of the sails for me for that act. Yeah, I mean, in a way, I can kind of understand, like, oh, it's all about likes and swipes type of thing. If, you know, you're just there to collect a paycheck and be famous. But that wasn't the direction that I felt like Grayson Waller has been going the past few times we've seen him on TV. So it just seemed like a weird thing.

unless I'm missing something, it seems like a weird direction, like just a weird left turn for the character to go. Um, you know, kind of similar what you said, maybe, you know, a few weeks down the line, we'll look at this, we'll understand it and, you know, it'll all make sense. The character will kind of come around, whatever. And, and, and the story will kind of just unfold. Um, but overall, I, I, I was left a little bit stumped here with what was going on, uh, you know, with that. Um, As far as Duke Hudson goes, you're kind of talking about the match a little bit. I do like Duke Hudson.

I think the loss... Again, kind of still took a little bit of the wind out of the sails, but I think obviously it's telling the story for Grayson Waller. But it's also putting some heat on Duke, Duke, Duke Wilson. Why do I want to say Duke Wilson, Duke Hudson? It's putting some more heat on Duke Hudson. I think he's done a great job portraying heel, getting the crowd to just dislike him. anytime he's out in the ring, he, you know, he, he's kind of got a way of getting the crowd getting under the skin of the crowd.

So I have to give him credit for that. The other JB Joe, Joe Bowen, I think his name was said something along the lines of, you know, Duke Hudson going through four gimmicks in four weeks. And it hasn't quite been four gimmicks in four weeks, but it, They added the poker gimmick. It was, what, I think maybe two weeks ago, so you may have missed that. I don't remember.

It occurred to me after I said that stuff like, oh, I guess he might have, but this was the Duke Hudson that I expected, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah.

So they added they did a vignette a couple of weeks ago where, you know, he was essentially just kind of portraying himself as a poker hand, you know, just incredibly great at poker, which is, you know, I guess a cool layer to add to the character to give him some more layers and things like that, some more story.

But.

Uh, we hadn't heard anything about poker before.

So it was just, I don't know.

It was, it was a little, it seemed a little forced to me. Um, but you know, it was more of a nitpick than anything. Uh, but, uh, but I do like Duke Hudson. I think he's, he's, he plays a great heel. Uh, he's like I said, he's got a way to get a great way of getting heat with the crowd. Um, you know, and I did enjoy the match between these two, you know, they, uh, Out of most of the 2.0 talent, I'd say both Duke Hudson and Grayson Waller rank on the higher side for me.

Thomas. Okay.

In response to the emails and some of Sean's sentiment, I think in a macro sense, I will point out something that, Kelly, you pointed out in our podcast Skype chat, of course, but it's something that's been on all of our minds, that this show feels like it should be and absolutely should.

Be one hour long.

And this like I'm I'm liking most of what I'm seeing for reasons that have been well established for people who have listened to just like the past four or five weeks of this show.

But of this podcast, rather.

But this match in particular was where it stood out to me because. I like both these guys, particularly Duke.

I've been invested in for a couple of years.

And Waller had, like Nate said, made a very good impression. And it's a matchup I wasn't expecting. It's a matchup that's intriguing, even in a little two minute. confrontation and I still just couldn't bring myself to care because I felt like we had seen so much of the same over the course of the past 90 minutes and in just an hour long 45 minute hour long program like NXT used to be on the network this is so much more palatable and I think so many of the I know there's a lot of other things going on, and especially with what NXT turned itself into over the past couple of years, which is not what it was before.

But I think that the hour-long format really does make this sort of thing so much more palatable, and I think that would cure a lot of things, as unrealistic as it seems for that to happen with whatever the USA situation is. Right now, I guess I say unrealistic, but I guess that is kind of a question mark.

But anyway, I know we all hope for multiple reasons that it ends up on Peacock. So, yeah, the poker thing was concerning when they did the vignette because, I mean, you know, Brendan Vink had said, Duke Hudson had said in dot-com interviews and on Twitter, it was a joke to play on why he hadn't been getting bribed. books for so long, like almost inexplicably, like why he wasn't on the show. He was just like, oh, well, our Wednesday was my poker night.

So thank goodness they moved NXT to Tuesdays.

Now I can actually be on the show again. So he had put that out there, but they really seemed to have latched onto it.

And the video package was a bit much for me.

I was like, oh, boy, you take somebody who has enough going on already. and you're just going to make him a poker gimmick guy. Tonight, that didn't happen. Commentary talked about the poker thing. Even Waller's characterization was happening outside of what he was actually doing in the ring with commentary talking about him and with that backstage segment.

So I think what we were seeing in this match was two guys who they have seen potential in, and they're, at least as yet, not mucking around with what they do already. They're just flavoring it. a little bit with commentary and vignettes and whatnot. Um, so, so far I'm fine with that with the Waller thing. I, um, I'm not gonna say that it's fine that he framed wins and losses that way. But in this case, I'm all day, you know, I'm giving this one a pass because it was just more characterization from someone who we don't have. They've, they've decided they want to lend some more character to him. And, um, But I don't think this is going to change how the crowd responds to him. I don't think this changes like, oh,

we're going to cheer for him less because, you know, he doesn't want it as much. I think he came off as kind of cool. The fact that he said, oh, it's about likes and swipes. I think that told us a lot about who he is. And I think the segment was so much more about Grimes that, I mean, I wouldn't even– Like I would have said the same thing about Lash Legend and Tony D'Angelo last week, but I wouldn't even expect Waller and Grimes to continue to be involved.

I mean– wouldn't say no to it. He could do a dating.

Advice thing, whether it's Hitch or Cyrano de Bergerac. And I say that not even having seen Hitch, and now I'm wondering if Hitch is a take on Cyrano de Bergerac. But anyway, sight unseen, I have no idea, and I will never find out. But Uh, not for myself anyway. Uh, I, it, it is okay.

Okay.

Um, man, if, if only we could all have Kevin James helping us out.

Oh no, it's the other way around.

It is the other way around.

I guess that is a funnier concept. Um, still not going to see the movie though. Uh, anyway, I was worried. It's kind of like the poker thing.

I was worried.

Last week when Cameron Grimes just sort of like wandered off backstage to go hit on a woman. I was like, oh, no, he's just going to be letching backstage now. Is this what they're doing with this guy? Even though, again, like I said last week, he's clearly not forgotten because even though he was taking an unceremonious loss to Pete Dunne, he was still in the crossover segment.

He's in the Cameron Grimes spot.

But if they're going to do Cameron Grimes on Tinder, if they're going to do Cameron Grimes online dating, that sounds hilarious to me.

So let's go.

Yes, indeed. Tom, I've seen Hitch. I had to see it for the sake of a girl. I don't hate Hitch. that I had to watch it, I suppose.

I guess.

But you could, it is so formulaic that you could right now write down all the scenes you think happened, and you'd be right. You'd absolutely be 100% correct. You know how it goes already.

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 PWTorch Daily Cast feed.

Yeah, Sean, let's go back to you, and we'll probably get a third from you if you have one. But, yeah, go ahead and hit us.

Yeah, I guess I just wanted to kind of make a quick thing going back to when, well, I will say I do like Ivy.

Oh, gosh, Nate, help me.

What's her name?

Ivy.

Ivy Nile.

Yes. Okay.

Uh, her, her power stuff is great. Like she's strong as all get out, man. And she, you know, the, the power moves she did show were really good. I mean, obviously it wasn't a long enough match and there, you know, he had the, the ugly drop kick from Valentina at the beginning. And, uh, you know, when she, Ivy threw into the corner, I don't know what that was, but other than that, like her power moves were good. I mean, I'm curious to see where they go with her. She's got some upside for sure. We'll see where she goes from there, but obviously she's super green right now, but, But that was pretty good. I wonder what you guys thought about her. And the other thing I wanted to say, like, Aiken Minjiro is super talented. So it's just weird seeing

him just job out every week.

I mean, I know why.

They want to get a good match, whatever they can. And I just think Minjiro is so talented. I know Vince, you know, wouldn't use Japanese guys very well just because they can't speak much English. I think he speaks pretty good English from what I remember, though. I just feel like Giro's super talented. He could do way more than what he's doing, just losing every week. I just think that's kind of weird. But the main question I had, and you can talk about all that, but the main question was going back to the O'Reilly-Von Wagner against Dunn and Holland. I mean, I wonder what you thought about the match. I thought the match was pretty good.

I like.

Fit the, obviously the thing was, you know, can they, can O'Reilly and bond coexist? And I thought bond looked, I was pretty impressed by Vaughn Wagner. I mean, he's, you know, again, still green, but I liked his power move. I moved pretty well in the ring. I thought he was, was pretty agile. I thought he did pretty well. So I want to know what you guys thought about that match and especially, you know, just Vaughn and Kyle and kind of how they coexisted in the match. And hopefully, guys, I hope I get to call again soon. But if I do get a chance, you know I best be doing it. That's for sure. And Nate, Tom, you guys are great. Kelly, I'm glad you're back, man. Like I said, I'm glad you're doing well. And like I said, I

always appreciate you guys taking my call.

Thanks, man.

Be well.

Keep talking, man.

Yes, indeed. So let's start with the tag match, and then we will go on to the Diamond Mind crossover segment stuff, or maybe this match was the crossover segment. I think it was right at the hour. Kyle O'Reilly and Von Wagner defeat Pete Dunne and Ridge Holland because you've got to defeat the guy who's leaving the territory.

That's what WWE still thinks is happening with their own brands. Von Wagner pins Ridge Hall in 12 minutes and 39 seconds. By the way, right around 50 minutes of wrestling on this show, which is high by NXT 2.0 standards. I, in my recap, said this was kind of a low-rent spot fest. I didn't hate it, but it just seemed like...

I don't know. I just really felt like I wanted to fast-forward to Wagner... getting a rub from beating a guy who got promoted to the main roster, and that's what happened. Still fighting the tide with Kyle O'Reilly, I suppose. I just don't know what they're going to do with him, because they took such a big chance turning him in the first place, but now the reason he turned is not even in the company anymore. It just seems like he's...

kind of lost right now. Um, but yeah, this match contains multitudes, uh, Tom.

My notes on this match comprise four words or are comprised of four words, rather solid. Doesn't feel relevant. Um, this whole bit started as the collection of people who are perennial to the top title. And now they just feel like the also rands. Um, so yeah, I'm like you. I'm just like, all right, let's give on Wagner that rub.

I'm liking liking what I'm seeing from him so far.

Kelly, you missed last week.

He spoke and and the Frankenstein jokes ensued.

But.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I like what I'm seeing from him so far, but everybody else feels like their show has passed them by, that the focus is so much more on the newer people now. I think it was last week that we got Kyle versus Ridge, if that was even the match. And it was weird because it was like, man, every single 2.0 segment involves new blood. And this is just Kyle versus Ridge with Dunn on the outside. So we're just like, you spend the whole match waiting for Von Wagner to come out.

Um, so yeah, I, I don't know.

I feel like, I feel like Kyle, um, I mean, you know, broken record time here. Kyle is the guy who I kept saying was an inevitable future NXT champion over the course of the next year. And it feels like that ship has completely sailed.

Um, so yeah.

I'm more curious where Wagner lands. And I, I guess done.

I said this last week too.

I'm just hoping that Ridge going up helps freshen and done up a bit because while everything he's doing is still really good because Pete Dunn barely knows how to do anything that doesn't fit that bill.

It's just all the same stuff. It's, it's very stale. So, so yeah, this, made over and over again because there was really nothing new here.

Yeah, and I was with you where we both thought that Kyle had to be not only a future champion but the next champion a couple of different times.

And then.

I was wondering during that segment if you were feeling the same thing because you've said it aloud more often. I was like, I wonder if Tom thinks that he's still a future champ because I– I no longer do in this context.

Nate?

So I think I enjoyed this match a little bit more than you guys did. I don't know. I got into it. I stopped kind of typing and just kind of watched the match. I agree with what Tom said. It did kind of feel a little... irrelevant simply because, you know, all the other guys in the match, especially Ridge Holland, we know, we know he's going up. The other two guys have been around for awhile. You know, and we all kind of knew the match was kind of focused around Vaughn Wagner. All of the spots are really focused around Vaughn Wagner. And it was really designed to make him look good to kind of keep Kyle O'Reilly looking like a scrappy underdog, but it was also still designed to make Pete Dunn and Ridge Holland still

still look relatively strong. Obviously Ridge still took the pin. I kind of expect that again, like, you know, you said earlier, he's the one leaving the territory. And so you do the honors on the way out, I guess, as did swerve. but you know, it is what it is.

Overall.

I enjoyed the match. I like what I'm seeing out of on Wagner. I also agree. I think it was also Joe, Joe Bauer, Joe Bowen. I forget his last name, JB.

I apologize.

Other JB. I apologize, but you said it too. It seemed like he was wearing pantyhose or something like that. His choice of attire tonight was awful. It really seemed like something pulled out of, like, you know, BeARestler.com or some generic wrestling website. I don't even know if BeARestler.com is a thing. I just made it up. But, you know, just some random generic wrestling attire website.

It did not look like any sort of attire that a.

future NXT star, future WWE star should be wearing. It didn't look, didn't look good at all. It did really kind of look like lingerie or pantyhose or something like that.

I didn't, I don't know.

It was weird.

I didn't, I didn't really like it. It did not fit the gimmick or fit his, his gimmick whatsoever. The, the link between him and Kyle O'Reilly, I'm, I'm kind of okay on it because it, With Kyle O'Reilly, I forget which one of you guys just said it, but the whole reason that he– I think it was Tom that said the whole reason he turned is no longer with the company. Adam Cole is no longer with the company.

His main– oh, it was you, Kelly.

I'm sorry.

Okay. All right, fine. I'll give credit where credit's due. But, you know, his whole reason for being heel and kind of having his back turned on everybody else is now gone. So it's an interesting way to introduce a new character, and I'm curious to see where this goes. If they wind up doing a double turn, because in a way, I kind of feel like Von Wagner sounds like a heel, right?

I feel like he kind of looks like a heel.

He.

they could certainly use them as a baby face, but I kind of feel like he could, he could work better as a heel. So I'm wondering if maybe they start feuding and there's some sort of a double turn that happens there. But yeah, obviously we'll see, we'll see what happens. But, but for now I am still high on Vaughn Wagner. He certainly needs to work on his mic skills. I don't believe he spoke on the mic tonight, but last week he did. And as Tom alluded to the, the Frankenstein comparisons were absolutely there and well-deserved.

Let's go to Diamond Mine. We got Valentina Feroz. They're saying Feroz. And they were.

It was Feroz, Valentina Feroz. And then Vic tonight goes, Ferez?

I mean Feroz.

Yes, and then Beth said it a couple times. So either she's the most impressionable person in the world, or it really is this, and they're trying to learn it. At any rate, Valentina does another job. This one to Ivy Nile, 2 minutes and 41 seconds. I like what we saw yesterday. from Ivy as far as power moveset. Um, I always love a good torture rack and it always helps.

You see it more in the, uh, women's division where someone so limber or so light or just can move in such a way that Valentina really looks like she's being folded backwards in half. Um, If I can nitpick, I will say that it took her too long to tap out, but that also allowed us to see Ivy holding her there just effortlessly. Ivy's not that big, and it She showed no signs of having any trouble just holding there for as long as she wanted for the rest of her life. So I, too, was really taken aback by that awful moment where Ivy tried to Irish whip Valentina and Valentina instead thought maybe she'd been peeled.

Did she trip? Did she? crumble because she thought that spot would, I don't know. It was, it was very odd. And for a second, I thought something went awry and she was about to like, just bash her head on the bottom, uh, turnbuckle or something. And it was, it was a bucket of no good, but that did happen. Uh, Malcolm Bivens gets some mic time, always love when he does a lot of that and, um, puts over his whole squad. Ike Mangiro comes out, takes a, uh, relatively cheap shot at Julius Creed, uh, when Creed is talking down to him. Julius Creed is, for me, the lesser of the two in the ring, or at least the less interesting. They're both very interesting in the ring to me, but Brutus is more so. So I was interested to

see Julius in this singles context. If I'm trying to put myself... in the mind of Vince McMahon, then the one who looks a little bit more like a star is Julius. So I'm not surprised as far as that goes. In 328, Julius Creed defeats Ike Manjiro, who gets some token offense, but for the most part, This was a real squash. Tom and I moan often that so many squash wins by new talent involve them getting beat up a lot and then hitting their signature offense. That is not what happened here. Kushida makes the save, but soon enough he is beat down when he holds back on taking a shot at Ivy Nile when he realizes that's who he's about to hit. Brutus just levels him from behind.

I'm going to be honest. I'm surprised. Kushida is still there with all the changes. I thought Oni, Danny and Kushida were all going to be the odd men out and they were all going to be let go. I'm still not convinced that's not going to happen. But if Kushida gets let go, he will be in the junior division, junior heavyweight division of my favorite company in the world again.

So whatever, I can live with it.

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Tom?

So check off another that I've been waiting to see for a while. And so far, so good from Ivy Nile. It does help that she looks like half of my Instagram feed.

Fitness girls, what can I say?

But yeah, I think this reminded me a lot of Zoe Stark's debut against the same opponent. Perhaps not coincidentally, but it it was deliberately. And like Zoe, I didn't think was going to get as good as she did as fast as she did. And maybe she was already that good when she first went up against Valentina.

Yeah.

First name only. Let's just do that. But.

Oh, I heard Kelly hit that.

Yeah, I was just like, did you notice I, too, was trying not to say her last name?

We'll just Alexander Rusev this one. We'll Antonio Cesaro it. So, yeah, no, I thought that the good about this match was very good.

And I loved the finish. I actually it was definitely noticeable. I was like this.

This might this looks like it could be your finisher but it might not be the finish because it's going on for a while but i really liked that it did because the visual of it was excellent and you know i enjoy that like when nikki bella was doing push-ups during what during her matches i enjoy that showy heel kind of thing um you know when anybody except for jack swagger was doing it because that was at a time when jack just couldn't get me to buy into anything he was doing but i When she started doing the squats, I was like, OK, this could go the Nikki Bella way or this could go the Jack Swagger way.

And it actually wasn't that at all.

It was I mean, yeah, it's showing off, but it's also she's bending down to bend Valentina that much more.

So I I enjoyed the show. The duality of that? Nah, that's too much too big of a term for that. But anyway, good stuff so far.

So then Diamond Mine cuts their promo, and I just love that Roderick Strong, who forgets to take the stickers off of his show shirts, and that little holographic WWE is just staring you in the face all the time, he now has his own faction, and his followers also forget to take the logo stickers off of their show shirts.

Um.

Heike Manjaro is not somebody who I've gotten on the bandwagon of, but it may not be long because I can.

See objectively that he works for the crowd.

And I think that he is proving himself as decent enhancement. So perhaps his day will come, as Sean is hoping and many others are probably hoping, considering the love that he's been getting. But right now, I think he's proving himself in the spot that he's given. And yes, of course, thank goodness this wasn't the NXT special. And I'll just echo your thoughts on Kushida.

I basically thought the same.

On Giro, I will say that as far as Sean says, shouldn't he be used for more? I guess I would say at whose expense, because it's not obvious where he fits in. I really like him, but I don't think I would be using him differently. All right, so let's go. I'm going to do a couple of emails here.

Or we could talk to me.

Oh, sure.

Yeah, I guess we can do that.

You know, we could do that. You know, so first off, Ike Mangiro, I love this guy. Great enhanced talent. I love the character, just the flamboyanceness of him. I don't even know if that's a word, but, man, it is now.

It's close. It's so close.

It's close. So close, but you know, words aren't always my thing. Hey, I do podcasts and go figure. No, I absolutely love him.

But I agree.

I think he's, he's in the spot that he should be in. I, at least for right now, he hasn't really established himself or the company hasn't really established him as anything more than just, you know, kind of a comedic enhancement talent. And I think that's, that's okay for right now. Maybe his day will come, but, and I really hope it does. But for right now, I absolutely agree. That's, that's where he should be. Um, with, um, with Julius, I also agree with you, Kelly. I think that he is kind of the, um, the lesser of the two, but he's obviously the one that he's, uh, you know, kind of looks a little bit more like a star regardless, man.

I absolutely love watching either one of those Creed brothers in the ring. Um, I was curious to see how he was going to do in singles competition tonight. I think he did a great job. Um, you know, and it'd be thinking we've worked, uh, worked really well. Ivy Nile.

I agree.

One of my new favorite pet projects here. So For a few reasons. A, you know, I really loved the power moves at the torture rack finisher, something that you don't see often. I mean, you see torture racks, I guess, I guess common enough, but not necessarily used as a finisher. And I think she executed it brilliantly. I do think you guys agree. I agree that, you know, went on a little bit too long, but I think it might have been by design. So they kind of show off power, but more like Kelly was alluding to. Um, which I was fine, kind of fine with that as well. Um, what I did like is now where there were a couple of those spots that looked a little bit off and, and, you know, there were a couple of things, you know,

like the Irish whip into the Beale thing and, and what, and whatnot. Um, what I did kind of like about that is there were spot after those spots. And there were a few other times in the match where I think the nerves may have actually taken over, like legit may have taken over. I'm not sure, or it could have been by design, but she kept looking at Hachiman, the coach. And I felt like that was kind of just a cool little detail, whether it was on purpose or not, but Hachiman, we really don't know much about him.

He's just kind of there, he's in the background, he's so-called the coach, right? So it's kind of cool. He's sitting at ringside and there, you know, he's, he's cheering her on kind of giving her direction and she's looking at him and acknowledging him and, and, you know, seemingly taking that direction from him. So I, I felt like even though there was some of that greenness and clumsiness in the match, it was at least kind of, at least for me, it explained away from Hachiman's presence and As well as her kind of acknowledging that presence. So I did appreciate that as well. Now, if you'd like, you can move on that I've actually gotten to flap my gums. Oh, may I?

Okay, let's go to a couple of emails. This one's from Jared Buhager, the original JB. Two takeaways from tonight's show. One positive, one negative. Number one, I liked how they started the show with Legato's attack on Hit Row and kidnapping of B-Fab. It was a nice callback to Legato's introduction to NXT with the kidnapping angle a few years back.

I did think Santos Escobar should have been the one to take the NA title off Swerve. It would have made the feud like it had come full circle. I guess I was with Tom. I thought it would be stale at this moment. And I like what they did. Uh, number two, there are too many wrestlers near the NXT title right now. Gacy and mystery guy tonight and breaker at Halloween havoc. I'm not sure the point of muddling the scene right before the build for what is all intents and purposes, a takeover as always love the show and go VIP. I love a muddy title picture. I love a lot of people wanting to be champion. I think that's how it should be. Um, You can make a case for clearing it up a little bit when you get to a major show. I just don't know

if I'm ready to call Halloween Havoc a major show. So let's go to Ginny Edelstone. She emailed this one after we started the show. Woe is me. Those amongst you who love watching green wrestlers struggling to do fundamental lifts do more than two basic moves must be in your glory. That show was a slog. When Escobar and Swerve fought, the crowd came to life because they were finally getting to see competent wrestlers actually crafting a match.

I don't know if it was awesome, but it sure was wrestling. Even liked Hayes cashing in on Swerve. But after this show, I have to ask, what is next for Pete Dunn, Kyle O'Reilly, Santos Escobar? And what I saw tonight is probably the absolute worst new crop of female wrestlers. Wosome. Ginny E. from New Jersey. I don't dislike NXT as much as Ginny. I'm not sure I dislike anything as much as Ginny dislikes NXT right now.

But it is. I, too, have noticed that outside of Ivy, who I, too, am high on, I'm not sure about this crop of women either.

And.

Yeah, there's stuff. Well, unless you're counting Gigi, I think Gigi is great. Just awesome. And I can't wait to see more of her. And I can't wait to see more of her after she breaks away from this thing. Although this thing is working as much as I wish that it wasn't so I could complain that Gigi was stuck in it. Anyway, that's me off on a tangent.

That is from Ginny Edelstone. Wouldn't you know, we got a couple more calls, so now we've got three people waiting as far as I can tell. I'm going to go to Darrell, and we're going to keep it fairly brief with him because we got other callers. So, Darrell, if you have heard yourself be unmuted, say hey.

How you guys doing today?

Hey.

Very glad to be back. Wanted to be here last week, but I had only hours before found out about the burglary, and I would not have been much fun to listen to because I was very angry.

Understandable, understandable. I would have been angry, too. You can go back and look at it now as you're a TV star. That should bring you some more obviously.

It's the second time that same station has interviewed me. Six months ago, they interviewed me because we were talking about the way that the card market had blown up. So it was all good news. We were like, sweet. Now people know where we are. Apparently, that's the last thing we needed.

Yes, sir.

But now I'll be quick and snappy with it. Two things. The first thing that I had, I liked the first match of the show with Tommaso Ciampa. And I figured this is when we would get the union of those two and him coming out of the audience and someone teasing that he's going to join Joe's. But I wish, well, I'm wishing that they continue to roll on with this, in which I thought and have it. So he do something to interfere in that title match in two weeks.

And this is where Tommaso Chamba can move on, win, and Rick Steiner can get an excuse. Well, Braun Breaker can get an excuse. And he has someone else to chase, and he can continue to be built up until you can have a person to have that title shot. What are you guys figuring? How did you guys... Do you think he'll play a part? Those two will play a part in that match? So.

Okay, yeah. We got Tommaso Ciampa over Joe Gacy in about 11 minutes in our opener. I'll just get it out of the way. I'm so, so down on the Gacy character. Like, he's giving it his best shot, but just like whoever came up with this on paper is such a spiteful, hateful douche. Just don't... Maybe it'll come together...

when we see more of the relationship between Joe Gacy and Harland, because that does have me intrigued. That is intriguing. Um, apparently Harland is the name of this character, H-A-R-L-A-N-D. Um, don't know much about him. so there you go. But afterwards, Harlan jumps Champa. Looks like he's going to jump Gacy, but he's essentially an animal, and Gacy can cage him.

So you've got your cult leader dressed up in The very bizarre clothing of making him like a social justice warrior, which the two things don't marry at all, but whatever. So there you go. Safe spaces, snowflakes, Tom.

Yeah, and last week they had him coming out in front of a peace sign graphic and holding up a peace sign with sort of hippie-ish music playing. So there's a lot of hodgepodging going on. course, if, if the name Parker Boudreau doesn't, uh, uh, doesn't ring a bell, he's the guy that got signed posing next to Triple H. I, if I, if memory serves as like the.

Signal, like this guy's the next Lesnar. Um, so, so he's that guy.

Um, I, I, am okay like like last week i said i figured that gacy would just lose here and i was hoping that there wouldn't be any interference to i thought he should just lose clean he's the kind of character that like by default he can get his heat back on the mic um and and.

His character uh this might have been the worst night for.

It yet uh with saying that like his you did the crowd is the snowflake You know, it's just more empty hot buttoning, even though, as I've also observed that apparently there are a lot of layers here, as I've also observed a couple of weeks in a row, he's speaking on stuff that I'm just not on the wavelength on like multiple other people.

On the show, like Dr.

Kikani two weeks ago pointed out that he was talking about something that I had no idea was a thing. And then last week he pointed out something that I had no idea was a thing. Um, like I wouldn't have gotten the reference if I hadn't just happened to see it mentioned on one thing.

I'm just like, it's, I don't know. He it's, aiming for the younger demo, I guess.

If they want to do that, they need to start advertising differently and not just showing something during Raw that says, hey, look at JC Jane's breasts. That's just my thought. I think they could actually see a lot of success if they ran different ads.

Anyway.

What I mean to say is that I am still giving the character a wide berth because I think that there is yet a festering scab to be peeled back. Then we will realize much more about him, and Harland is the key to that. Um, so, so we'll see last week we were speculating, like, is he going to be on Gacy's side? Is he going to be somebody who like knows Gacy's dark secret? And, uh, which of course there's no confirmation that there is one. That's just part of the speculation. Um, and tonight added to the intrigue.

I think we didn't really get an answer and the mannerisms were, uh, coming from multiple places. So, um, interesting, I guess, but, um, Pulling my way back to how I entered that rabbit hole, I'm okay with the idea of elevating Gacy here by giving him a match with Ciampa with the implication that if he wins, he gets added to the– again, that was my understanding. Other people were saying that the title was on the line, and I don't know. Maybe I missed something. Maybe commentary cleared it up, and I was writing down a note.

Commentary made it worse.

Oh, okay, fair enough.

Commentary muddied the waters. Yeah, at least once they were like, he could win the championship, and I was like, no, the hell he could not.

Yeah, I thought that I did hear that, and I was like, wait, do they mean that he could win it in two weeks?

But I don't know, whatever.

So.

Yes.

In theory, this dude lost in the first round of the breakout tournament. He he hasn't looked like he's supposed to be that firm. I haven't gotten the impression that he's supposed to be that formidable.

In the ring.

So then you have a guy that is going for as long as he went across the commercial break and too heavy on on, you know, May not during commercial segments with Tommaso Ciampa, like.

The NXT work rate guy. So I don't know.

I just not only did it feel like a mismatch for the character, a character that could have survived a, you know, losing clean in a much shorter match, but. It also felt like a mismatch for Gacy. I was not super thrilled with his performance tier and I wasn't in the breakout tournament either, but his past couple of times were much more character focused. And I respond to that so much more. It was slowed down a bit.

And I, and I respond to that so much more. I'm the guy who likes a good bear hug when we can get it. Eric Rowan, where are you, man? Um, so, uh, actually I do know.

Where he is. He's promoting a movie, but anyway, um, You would have loved the Warlord.

Man, when I was young and watching. He would have been your dude.

Yeah, I think I've gone back and watched all.

The pay-per-views, but I think I only remember him from Royal Rumble appearances.

Oh my god, dude. He put Coco Beware in bear hugs that lasted... Well, they're still going on, Tom. I'm sure of it.

He's a genius worker, let me tell you. So....

Uh anyway i i don't know can we can we get well actually we already know and see now i'm thinking of like oh well what what would be like the anti-work rate thing where you just like work a headlock forever and then i'm remembering that now i've i've seen that a couple times in non-indie shows and the crowd goes wrestling because it's all rocky horror picture picture show now um Anyway, yeah, I just didn't think this was a good match for Gacy.

I don't think he.

looked like he belonged in there with Ciampa. And the stuff that he had been doing in the past couple of weeks was much more suited to him. And it was a little bit more maddening than that too, because they could have forgiven it so much. If Ciampa didn't have to go out there and be like, I'm so proud of my body and I want to zoom around the ring and do my Tommaso Ciampa thing, then they could have just like had some, I don't know what, some kind of angle where he had an excuse, some reason why he had to have his ribs taped.

And that would have excused Everything. So, yeah, not super. I've been to to see where the Gacy thing goes. Oh, and no, you know what? Darrell brought it up. But Katani also asks in an email. So I guess I'll wait for that.

There you go.

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I've been to, I don't know, 40, 50 shows live. Longest headlock I have ever seen, Tino Sabatelli on Rich Swann.

Oh, yeah, which was unironic, of course.

Yes, longest abdominal stretch I've ever seen. Tino Sabatelli on Rich Swann in the same match. That show, guys, that show was seven matches, and it went like three hours and 45 minutes.

I wish I could remember who I had seen do it. I want to say it's multiple people. Montez Ford comes to mind, so I'm not just talking indies here. comes to mind and probably more people than that but it's like they run the ropes they make it look like they're going to do something fancy and then they just grab a grab a headlock and the whole crowd goes wrestling wow because we're all jackass.

Right i i mean yes but yeah i i haven't seen that but i'm not surprised that uh that that is happening nathaniel.

All right, Joe Gacy. I'm kind of with Tom a little bit more here on this one. The first week really wasn't sold on it. Second week kind of started to grow on me. I'm kind of somewhere in the middle on it. Um, I I'm intrigued by it. I want to see where this goes. I'm getting, I am also getting the cult leader type vibe from him. Um, especially with Harland now kind of being, uh, you know, being a bit of an addition to the act. Uh, Corbin is also starting to come to life. If you hear a squeaky toy in the background, uh, But yeah, I'm intrigued by it. I don't like all the snowflake-y type safe space stuff necessarily, but it's... I don't know.

I also like do like the vibe of it I don't necessarily like the content but I kind of like the vibe of the character if that makes sense just kind of like a little off kilter a little spooky creepy weird cult leader-esque so I kind of like that.

Harland you know what for me he's a I didn't like that at all, but I bet the next one is going to be good. That's what I keep thinking.

Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. So I'm willing to give it a chance. I'm willing to give it a chance. Harland, I'm also willing to give a chance here. I think because kind of what Tom said, there were so many– uh so many people took those comparisons for from to brock lesnar uh with with parker bordreau now repackaged as harland um they probably kind of wanted to get away from that that's why they shaved his head they're giving a bit of a you know different gimmick here i can kind of see that um you know if if they obviously didn't want to try and book him and bill him as like a mini brock lesnar or the next the next next big thing uh so yeah whatever.

Um I'm intrigued by it.

He he's, he's got a great look Harland. I mean, I'm curious to see how that translates into the ring. And I'm also curious to see, you know, if, if this really does become a cult leader type of a thing, or if it actually does, you know, we, we wind up seeing them actually in a match before, you know, they, they get together or something along those lines, but I have a feeling we're going to, they're going to wind up together and, on some sort of a team, some sort of a stable. I could probably, especially with how many different stables there are within NXT right now, I can even see them adding a couple other people, a one or two other people to this stable, whether it be new talent, they recruit some older talent, something along

those lines. I could certainly see that happening. Corbin, I think is throwing up.

Yep. Yep.

He's throwing up. I get to clean that up in a minute. Um, that's, that's great timing. Thank you, buddy.

Um, you can mute if you want and I'll move on.

Yeah. Okay.

You got it.

Yeah.

I'm going to, I'm going to do that. You move on.

This is great podcasting. That was wonderful because like the way Corbin was doing it was as if he was a cartoon dog. That didn't sound real. That sounded like he was milking the moment. He knew he was on the podcast. Darrell, if you're still there, we'll take one more. If you're still there, Darrell, because we had two calls that came out of nowhere and then lost both. So I don't know if that was just a foible of this strange blog talk radio we use. But Darrell, if you've got another one, go ahead.

Okay. Now, this question right here is going to be a little bit off the path. So I know there's something that we don't really talk about. There's ratings and stuff like that. So after the first two episodes, the ratings kind of been dropping, and last week wasn't doing too well, and they definitely haven't been doing too well to the crowd that they're trying to attract. And I see this week, every week they've been changing the intro.

This week on the intro, it was less of the newer people that they was showing and more of the kind of old established people. And just looking at some of the matchups that we have coming up, and I know you guys were talking about toxic attraction. I think. Seeing what happened at Halloween Habit is going to tell a lot. I was thinking that they were just going to be going through all of the newer talent and just giving them a tryout. None of them were really going to win. They were going to move past them and just see, and then allow them to feud with each other and then see who come out of the top.

Do you still, what are you guys thinking about that? Because I don't really think tops of the attraction is going to win, but they're going to use the hyphen them up to maybe elevate somebody else or other people, or even some people from the old. How do you guys feel about that? And that's my question.

All right.

So in the past, in NXT, for a long time now, I've felt like I was either going to pick most of it right or anything I missed, I would be able to see quickly like, oh, I get it. But right now, all bets are off. I feel like predicting is... literal gambling at this point. Like it feels so up in the air because we really, we haven't seen a major show with this roster yet. We haven't seen like the last takeover seems like an age ago and it was, it was just weeks. Um, but it really seems like it's a fool's errand to try to predict what they're going to do. So, um, I don't pay attention to ratings, like, at all. I just pay attention to whether I like something. Like, if something was bad enough ratings that it would be

in danger of being canceled, then I'd pay attention. But that's not where we are. And even if it got canceled, it would just change. It would continue to exist. They'd continue to air it on Peacock. So, I. About how even though this isn't what I pay attention to this was going to have a very detrimental effect on ratings and that needs to be part of the puzzle and if they were I don't end up paying a lot of attention to the opening titles the opening credits at all but if they're focusing on the more established people now it seems like A very early acknowledgement that maybe taking as hard of a left turn as they did might have been ill-advised. I guess they wanted to rip the Band-Aid off. I get that. But trying

to get that many people over at once, I said it before, it's... you're not doing your show any favors, but you're not doing the talent any favors either because it's hard enough to get over in a wrestling company. But to ask someone to do it while like 15 other people are trying to do it for the first time seems extremely unfair to some of the talent.

Tom?

So I think if I went back to.

The episodes of our podcast pre-2.0 where I was going on diatribes, arguing in favor of 2.0 in theory, I think I would still agree with myself. And I think– I think everything is panned out to the point where, you know, a hard turn was almost well, if it wasn't if it wasn't all they could do. It's still something that where I'm coming from as a viewer, I appreciate because we're finally back to a version of NXT that that I'm here for. Even though it should be an hour long, and I think that that is a major, major issue as touched on previously.

But as also touched on previously, I think the advertising is a major issue.

There's still no crossover, and this was a problem before. This was a problem when NXT was still on the network. that there was almost no crossover with Raw and SmackDown. Like every once in a while, they'd pay it lip service. Every once in a while, there's a commercial that runs.

But that's it. And it's easy to miss.

So.

And like I said with the Joe Gacy thing, maybe there are wavelengths that they are– I very much recognize that I am not of the TikTok generation. I don't understand that app. I think it's great that Casey and Lacey do their TikTok dances to the ring.

I think that's wonderful. I really do. Um, but I don't get it.

I opened that app to promote my YouTube channel. And I, it takes me, you know, I feel like I'm 80 years old trying to, trying to understand new technology. Um, so maybe they are advertising in places that touch who they're reaching because it seems like they are very overtly trying to gear characters toward a younger demographic and Darrell, you and I have talked before about how, uh, they seem to be, especially on, uh, After the draft, I'd have to reevaluate where people have landed, but especially on Raw for the past little bit and with 2.0, it seems like they are very deliberately imbuing Black culture into their shows. So I think that they need to bring that into the advertising. The advertising so far, again, has

just been like, look, we have girls. Come see the girls. Look at Indi doing her Ursula Andress be mentioning ursula andrews's name on a podcast three weeks in a row but here we.

Are uh i didn't think i would hear ursula andrews brought up twice today.

But i did oh yes that's right that's right i saw that other one. By Blaine Kapach on Twitter? Oh, well, there's an email in our eight years back VIP inbox.

You have got to be kidding. Thrice?

I don't know if.

She was mentioned specifically, but this week on NXT, eight years back on VIP, we will be talking Bond girls since the final Daniel Craig movie is.

In.

COVID auditoriums now.

So, oh, I guess the other thing I'll mention is just that since so much of this is swirling around toxic attraction, I mean, I think that they have done a sufficient job. Again, since this is the week of me just repeating all my points from last week, I think they have done a very sufficient job of signaling that toxic attraction is the new face of NXT. Mandy Rose is the new face of NXT and the presentation is strong enough. And I feel like they are living up to the spot enough that, uh, that, that JC and Gigi should just be absolutely thrilled that they are hitched to the ride. I don't know if they will win the championships at Havoc. If I had to put money on it, I probably would. Uh, because again, this,

the signaling that we're getting in the, to the forefront to which they are putting Mandy in particular, uh, across their socials and on the those, you know, ill-advised ads that are showing on on Raw and whatnot. I think that that has told us not to sleep on how far WWE is willing.

To go with with this new act.

And I guess there are probably other spots where I can talk more about toxic attraction.

So I'll leave it at that for now.

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every week.

Nate.

All right.

This is actually going to be the portion of the show where I tap out because I need to tend to a sick little canine. So I am at Nate Lindberg on Twitter and you can follow me there. I do the NXT hits and misses, which I already have up on the website for you guys to check out. So I'm going to be jumping off now. I'll keep the Skype call open so it doesn't hang up on the listeners. And I will just check back in in about an hour and shut everything down. But you guys have a good rest of the show.

Good luck, buddy. Boy, we have the most chaotic podcast.

Don't we, though?

Nate's so confused. It's supposed to start as a tag team match and become a six-man when things come together. We're not supposed to lose people on the way. But here we are. Sorry. Teddy Long would be so upset. But here we go. We're going to.

Go one-on-one with The Undertaker.

Let's go to a couple of matches, Tom. Do you have anything to say on Zion Quinn beating Malik Blade with... A running forearm, or Sarray and Amari Miller versus Indi Hartwell and Persia Parada in 223 in a match that led to, they didn't announce the Triple Threat Women's Tag Team Championship, but I think that will come soon. Io and Zoe come out to answer the call of Persia Parada and Indi Hartwell, and Toxic Attraction joins the fun as well on those two final matches we haven't talked about, Tom.

Come on without, come on within. It was a good win for the mighty Quinn.

Uh, he hit his forearm better last time he did it, but honestly, that was probably the camera angles fault this time.

I like the finish. Um, I like, I like finishes like that. Uh, and Tom, do you like the heart punch?

Do you like the heart punch?

I can't go that far.

Always so positive, Tom.

I'm telling you, man, just get, get Eric Rowan, giving someone a bear hug.

And I'm a happy man. You know, I run into Eric Rowan every now and then I got to tell him like, Hey man, I know a guy who's like unironically in love with you. Thanks man. Can you leave me alone? I'm trying to eat.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

So, Kelly, one of the things that didn't come up in us catching you up on what happened over the past couple weeks of NXT, boy, somebody should really start a podcast about that that you could listen to, is that Mei Ying more or less jobbed to Indi Hartwell.

More or less. It wasn't, she wasn't enhancement talent.

But the match came out of nowhere, and Indi just creamed her. So here we've got Sarray, and yes, Amari Miller there as well, but Sarray, who seemed like a project, but then again, so did Kay Lee Ray, and where the heck has she been?

And Indi just.

plows through them I mean I really like Indi Hartwell I am totally fine with her winning matches and winning matches strong but it's just really strange and sudden especially at a time when it seemed like she had other stuff going on like can't we have like Johnny and Candice are doing their thing and Austin's doing his thing on uh on.

Whichever show he got drafted to now but uh.

Oh which one was it It must have been SmackDown because I think he did his like Ruthless Aggression segment with Sammy.

I don't remember.

It reminded me of Ruthless Aggression anyway.

But anyway. So, yeah, it's just it's just weird to see this.

And Persia Parada is.

This is where the Ginny thing comes in, I think.

It's certainly part of it.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

And, like, again, I like... You know, I said it about B-Fab to a much stronger extent. That was... I stick by it.

One of the worst matches I have ever seen on WWE TV, B-Fab versus Elektra Lopez.

This was Coconut Loop.

This is.

the person in the performance center who she's got her clothes lined us down. She's got her big boots down. She's, she's getting all of her reps in and everything. And she just figured out a new move that she wants to try out in front of a crowd. So they're going to put her in a tag team and they're going to give her some good opponents so she can try it out. And if you go to the coconut loop, you get to see it. And it's cool that you got to see it on TV and, Again, I love seeing this stuff, but boy, it's just like they're putting so much out there that they have already– like several weeks ago, they ran out of acts that– were TV ready and they're putting out, you know, putting out there the ones that are, are sinking rather than swimming as

it were.

Um, so, so yeah, that was what it was. Um, and then, uh, oh, and then in the.

Post match, uh, JC and Gigi run in and Zoe and EO run in. So then we've got Indy, JC and Zoe all in the same segment and who boy I'm in trouble here.

Yeah, I do. Let's not, Tom.

No, no, no.

I'm sort of making that my bit recently, and I really shouldn't, because of course that's not why I like women's wrestling. But I mean, they're all on screen at the same time, and I'm like, oh my gosh, what are they doing to me? But for real, actually, speaking of Ginny, since she was calling out the up-and-coming women that were showcased on the show tonight, I would actually, Ginny, if you're interested, I would... Be interested in hearing from you via email or however you want to contact us a more detailed explanation as to why you're not as interested in the incoming women. Is it the presentation? Is it how you're perceiving the talent level? I'm personally pretty excited about it. I feel like it's it's been a

while since we got a. um such a hard like okay this is the new generation like after oscar left it was like okay this is the new generation after shana left it was like all right this is the new you know um so this is uh the new generation again and yeah the water level is lower than it has been before but i think there's a lot of good talent here so um so i am i am excited for that like uh I guess I'll just say it now. I think that Mandy Rose's matches on NXT have actually been pretty darn good so far. I really liked her and Ember last week. Really liked that sixth person that she was in. She was fine against Sarray, as fine as anyone can be against Sarray at this point in Sarray's run anyway, hopefully.

I don't know. See, I try to throw out that optimism just to seem like a nice guy, but.

I am not actually hopeful that Sarai will go anywhere. I haven't seen anything that makes me hopeful that that things will improve there.

But yeah. And then, yeah, I don't know. I just I'm liking.

what we're seeing in in the ring so uh even though there is more sexuality now they are still uh they are still backing it up this isn't like hashtag give give these uh excuse me give divas a chance right now uh although maybe it's bad timing to say that because everyone is very upset with the queen's crown tournament matches only getting like 30 seconds each.

Well, we did get Valentina, Amari Miller, Persia Parada all on the show. And they all were in matches. So I guess I understand the fear that Ginny has here. And it's possible that Ginny wasn't like NXT awake for the very beginning when, I mean, we saw... Alicia Fox's sister just kind of muddling through matches. We saw a number of enhancement women early on. We saw 10 years of Santana Garrett, Tom.

Go VIP, everybody.

And yeah, and I certainly I don't mean to sound like I'm challenging Ginny.

I'm just I'm very curious because we.

Don't we don't hear from the female perspective often. And maybe there's something that that my male brain is missing here.

Yeah, okay. Well, let's go to a few more of these segments. Let's see, what do we even have here? McKenzie talked to Ciampa, Grizzle Young Veterans, Braun. I don't know if there's anything there. McKenzie talked to Swerve. Swerve was good in this segment, like every segment he has ever done. We had Chase University. He lost it and went on a swearing binge, which... I found awesome. I really did. I, I don't know how good he is, but him losing it and like swearing at stuff that did not warrant it. It was funny to me. Uh, Tony D'Angelo is, uh, he's going to murder a guy, get it? Cement shoes, jokes. Um, Imperium spoke in their, uh, respective native tongues about MSK. Um, Then we got Grayson and Cameron. We already talked about that. And then we

also have Solo Sikoa coming soon. Looks to be a Samoan wrestler who grew up on the streets. Tom, on any of that stuff?

Let's see, what is in the grab bag here? Oh, did you want to include the Unbury the Past video, or is that a different one?

Do you know what's funny is I saw that right after I threw it at you, and I was like, I'll have to roll that into something. Roll it into this!

All right.

So saw this before they showed that it was, you know, and then we heard that it was a female, even though they did the ember reveal last year. And I was theorizing that it wasn't actually female. No, it was it was sort of like a male modulation. And I was theorizing that it would be a woman, although I think everybody kind of came around to that by the end.

So it wasn't like I was on an island there.

But, you know, so anyway, like if they didn't show the silhouette, then it could have been either. But with the imagery and everything and the last time that we saw Elias do anything on the main roster, the first thing that came to mind was like, oh, are they bringing Elias back to NXT?

Yeah.

But, of course, the question is, who is it? And I'm just focusing so much on the only words that she seemed to or spoke, which was unbury the past so I can start again.

And it's like, all right, well. Instantly, I'm thinking, well, it's got to be Ember, right?

But Ember doesn't really have that much of a different past to Unbury unless they write in a bunch of stuff. Like, this new version of Ember that we've been seeing is not all that removed from the, like, werewolf contact swearing Ember that was losing to Asuka until Asuka left.

And then I thought, oh, it's Scarlet.

That makes sense, because even though her past isn't on NXT TV, she is a wrestler and we haven't seen that. And she was very well known beyond the walls of, you know, whatever gym, you know, community rec centers and impact zones she was representing. wrestling in and for her smoke show gimmick. So that would be interesting. And then the graveyard, uh, the graveyard setting would just be because it's October.

Um, and then of course.

The thought of Dakota Kai runs through my mind since she did not get called up and what the heck are they going to do with her? But I, I really, I rested on Scarlet and I thought that would be pretty cool if.

They're not going to put her with cross.

Um, uh, Champa and Breaker and GYV didn't really do anything for me. Champa and Breaker keep on having these stare offs and it's just like, OK, cut camera, cut camera, please. This is they're just standing there. They're just they're just standing there waiting for camera to cut. Raquel's response to toxic attraction. They're just arbitrarily throwing a spin the wheel stipulation in there.

Sure.

I don't know.

Did you say lashing out?

Nope.

That is its own thing. Not supposed to sound so foreboding.

I don't know why I'm enjoying Andre Chase and I'm not even in love with it. I like honestly watching these university segments and even when he stood up and did.

Thing at the wedding.

I was like, wow, that's stupid. But I'm also kind of chuckling at it. So I hope that they do this again. And then the person that he calls on in the back is Odyssey Jones. That seems like the logical next thing to happen, that Odyssey Jones attends a class at Andre Chase University and then.

Andre can't Act. He can't behave the way that he did in this segment.

And Tony. Oh, I didn't even write anything down about that. But what was there to write down? I had mentioned before.

Wow.

They're being really careful about, you know, Tony is in the family, but like he's not talking about killing people.

Oh, well, you know, never mind.

Yeah.

He's literally got somebody in his trunk. So so we're just.

Like, oh, ha ha ha.

He's kidnapped someone and is probably going to murder them. Oh, you know, aw shucks, that Tony D'Angelo guy.

Just because.

You didn't hear it i'm going to tell you why tony d'angelo despite his promising debut will inevitably disappoint me it's because i want him to wrestle his way into a big match and then his cousin shows up and is like hey the family says it's time you got to throw the match we're betting on the other guy so you know he could have been a contender but uh.

But that's that's why that's why we'll like him because you.

Know he's so he's so funny making people sleep with the fishes uh.

Oh, and Solo Sakoa.

What's his real name? He's one of Rikishi's many, many offspring. So he was very recently signed and given a pretty cool sounding name. Yeah, and that's it for the Grab Bag.

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Uh, unbury the past. Hear me out, Tom Santana Garrett.

Oh my God.

Uh, I, I, I want to say I'm for it.

If, um, if her, you know, the quality of her matches hasn't been steadily on the, on the downswing for several years.

Now, steadily the same since the beginning of her career. I don't, I don't get it, Tom. All right, let's go to Blake Riley. Thoughts on tonight? Hey, guys, not going to lie. I was only half paying attention to NXT tonight as me and Mandy, my wife, were watching Disney Villains Night on Dancing with the Stars. But I do want to say that Andre Chase is turning into a guilty pleasure for me. Him flipping out, getting censored, and then snapping back into Teacher openly made me laugh.

As for DWTS, I included pictures of Miz's performance as Scar to be prepared, which was fantastic. And I'm writing this before elimination, but he's definitely safe. Then he gave me some pictures of Scar. as played by Miz, which is weird to behold. Can't wait to listen to the full podcast while I'm working tonight to see what I missed. Also, thanks, Kelly, for the live report tonight. And for those in Chicago, I'm co-hosting a wrestling panel at Wizard World, Blake from Milwaukee, and the Blake and Sal show. DWTS. Does that take longer to say than dancing with the stars? It's really close, Tom.

I always hated it. Like when people were like NKOTB and I was like, that takes the same amount of time. Just say new kids on the block or ideally don't say either of them.

Um, just, yeah, I mean, okay, well point taken, but new kids, I always heard new kids.

That's true. They did say that. Um, Important stuff, Tom. That's where we get to at Minute 80. In this show, it's all dog barf and new kids.

One and the same.

Indeed seem like nice guys um the doctor is in this is this is kevin katani salutations gents i hope this email finds you well it's finally starting to cool down and i'm loving every minute i was a big fan of tonight's episode and love the continued dedication to building the non-wrestling segments dare i say that lash legend was much improved this week well there was no other option i know we talk about the dangers of overexposing wrestlers from time to time but if loving ike manjaro on my tv is wrong i don't ever want to be right Yes, I was kind of deciding maybe to do the Eddie Murphy thing there. I wanted to re-ask my question from last week, as each champ was given another chance to hype their Halloween Havoc match in two weeks.

So that said, which current singles champ, Ciampa and Gonzalez, will still be champ after Havoc? I'm going to say Champa probably and Gonzalez probably not. Thanks as always. Go VIP and listen to 8YB. Office hours are now over. The professor, Kevin Picatani, PhD.

Um, Yeah.

I mean, I knew that Katani would be the first one to be like pretty rosy about the show. Like it would have really been difficult if he too would have hated this show. Cause he's a, he's, he's, he's a pretty sunny dude that Kevin Katani. I guess since we're there, let's go to Michael McGivern's email and, It's rough around the edges for sure, but I get a kick out of lashing out. It's like an edited WWE talking segment with the audience from a Married with Children taping from 1992. Yeah, I like this idea. I don't know why it exists exactly. We don't know that at all yet. But I don't dislike bringing in this whole world.

That WWE has never even tapped into like this, um, loud, abrasive Wendy Williams style, the talk, the view that there's another one. Um, they're all the four letter word. And, uh, and I feel like there's one more, all those shows, um, with just highly agreeable and suggestible audience members. Uh, like I get that, but she makes like this really strained joke about the draft being squid game. Although she says squid games, which is not the name of the show.

It's squid game, whatever. Um, she's just kind of the first time we saw her talk backstage, I was like, this is going to be the worst segment ever. It's just absolutely going to be terrible. Um, But I thought she was fairly palatable here, even though I thought the audience going crazy after her not-really-a-joke joke was a little egotistical on the part of the writers of this segment, because it wasn't funny. But she's just.

I think she's getting comfortable in the role. But the role she's in, unfortunately... requires somebody to be all in and just absolutely barreling through the door from the word go. So they're asking a lot of her from a character standpoint. And the upside of that is it's high risk, high reward. So when she nails this, and I think it's possible, but it's to ask a lot. If she nails this, this is going to be really, really hot.

Tom?

Yes, it will, but I'll circle back to Dr. Katani because I know I'll forget if I focus on Lash Legend.

This is also what Darrell.

Asked in his way, and I decided to save it. Just very simply, Champa is retaining. This is a rub spot for Breaker, and like you said, Kelly. NXT is harder to predict than ever right now because they've changed a lot. So how much do they want to hotshot into the new generation? But I think Ciampa is retaining and Gonzalez is not. I have predicted more championship programs that will ultimately end. from the point I predicted them at some point in the next several months, uh, with Gonzalez losing to Dakota Kai or Taya.

Valkyrie, uh, Frankie Monet. I still haven't gotten used to that.

Uh, good, good new name, but I'm still calling her Taya, um, uh, or, uh, or Ember moon. I feel like I predicted more, uh, programs to end at some point in a loss for Gonzalez than I predicted people to beat Shane Shayna Baszler that that never beat Shayna Baszler at TakeOver. But now that all of a sudden, boom, Mandy Rose, who we had no idea what the heck she was doing on on NXT, is now. oh, they're putting that belt on her.

They're going all the way, and what will Gonzalez do? I guess she'll hang around to put some people over, as is usually the way, even though, I don't know, I said the same about Io Shirai, and here she still is.

But yes, Lash Legend, last week.

I mean, it's the kind of thing that you have to see the potential in, especially if and, you know, for the third time tonight, I will point out that so many segments of culture have just like bypassed me and I don't have my finger on like anywhere near the pulse.

But even still, I mean, Michael's email, I still don't.

That they're liking lashing out. So I just have to be objective and be like, look, there's something here. And I, I want a lash legend to keep getting a chance to do this and hopefully grow it. And this week, the production was a step up because last, I mean, you know, the, You could have only gone up and there wasn't too significant of a change, but they did some different stuff showing the audience. I don't think they did that last time. But last time, the video just seemed like it wasn't even intended for air. It just seemed like it was the dry run and like they played the wrong tape.

It really just seemed like the practice run. It also didn't help that they didn't.

Establish ahead of time that this was not going to be something that was happening live in front of the audience.

So that was a bit jarring that.

First time, but knowing what to expect this time, I was like, all right, let's, let's see what lash legend has, has got. So that's a name that you kind of feel like you have to say both parts of, because either just saying the first name or just saying the last name, it doesn't sound right.

But, uh, But then she does. And you pointed out that it's not even a joke. We've talked about this before.

The Friedman and Seltzer style of referential comedy. It's not even comedy. All you're doing is referencing something. All she did was say Squid Game just because that's something that's trending.

There's no joke there.

It's it's like Friedman and Seltzer saying, oh, in Meet the Spartans, one of the characters is randomly going to be a Transformer because there are other movies with Transformers in them.

Get it?

No, because there's nothing to get. There's no joke. You didn't write a joke. There's nothing clever. You just pointed out something that exists in pop culture. Um, so that was terrible. And I was like, all right, well, you know, not a good open, but she's got, she had three last time. Let's see what her other two are. And then I blinked and it was over. She, she had something to say about Tony D'Angelo. And, and I think it's kind, even though I didn't like either segment tonight, I think it's kind of cute that they're already tying these characters together.

Um, in some kind of way.

I just love, I love the conceit of this. She's like, I'll see you next week. And I'm like, what, why would somebody get an entire studio audience together to create 35 seconds of content?

Like, yeah.

And last week, last week she said, Oh, I'm going to spill the tea or like, I've got some major tea to spill. Like she said that she had something major that she was going to say this week.

And she didn't say anything. There was zero substance to this.

So I really don't want to be one of the many people who's just crapping all over it because.

I didn't like it.

I didn't like it, but I also see its potential. But boy, this was not a good sophomore effort.

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Okay, so let's go to Brian Alston, 368-month senior VIP subscriber. Hello, friends. It's time for our favorite game show, the PWT Talks NXT crew as a wrestling group. So far, we've done Undisputed Era and the Three, Four Horsemen. I threatened the Forgotten Sons, and they are still forgotten. Since Hit Row is leaving to go up to SmackDown, let's do this.

Which member of PWT Talks NXT is which member of Hit Row? Example, if I do purely by first letter or first name. Kelly is Ashante the Adonis. Nate is Isaiah Squirf Scott. Tom is Top Dala. Bonus, which NXT woman would be your B-Fab? Nate, since Kelly is going to pick Dakota Kai and Tom is going to pick Zoe Stark, you get to pick a current NXT woman.

Kelly and Tom, you each get to pick a classic NXT woman, someone who is currently not on the NXT roster. Note, she could be on Raw or SmackDown. And don't forget to listen to the exclusive VIP podcast, PWT Live. Talks to NXT eight years back every Saturday. Thanks, Brian Alston. Yes, we agree with you there, do Tom and I.

You know, I felt... Nate is Persia Parada.

Yeah, I was going to say Nate's not here, so he gets dog barf. And then I was going to say.

And.

Then I was going to say a wrestler's name... to suggest that she was dog barf, but I'm glad that I have thought better of that.

Um, no, don't, don't, don't worry. She's the one that I'm picking for my B fab.

I had a, I had a glass. I had a classic NXT woman in mind.

For dog barf, but, um, Oh yes.

Oh, we're thinking of the same person. I, is it, is it somebody that we've already seen on eight years back?

Uh, no, it's okay.

We are thinking, we are thinking of the same person.

Okay.

Um, Oh, fun.

Fun.

I hope nobody's listening anymore. Yeah, so some of them are straightforward. Some of them are not.

I don't know.

I'm kind of fiery and angry all the time, so I guess that could make me swerve. But I don't know how to make... I don't know. Nate is. Is he Top Dolla? I don't know. Tom, help me out.

This one is really tough. It's really tough.

I don't, as much as I admire them for different reasons, especially Swerve, of course, I don't personally relate to any of these people. I'm just going to put my name in the hat for Top Dolla because I like the name Top Dolla.

Okay, I'm down with that. And Nate is Ashante the Adonis because he's tiny. So Isaiah Swerve Scott, that's me. I do relate somewhat. I have actually recorded a couple of rap tracks. And Tom, I don't know if I've ever sent them to you. I have to have. Have I?

Go VIP, everybody. Go VIP.

So there you go. I probably have.

Really?

No.

Do I actually want to hear them? I don't know if I do. You do.

I'm actually a pretty good rapper. That feels really weird to say, but I am. I'm a much better writer of lyrics than rapper, but I'm a good rapper too.

I shouldn't say this out loud, but I wrote one once, and then I was just like, yeah, I'm good at just the one.

That was enough.

I've written many. I've recorded two, and I've actually written a lot. for friends who were rapping kind of semi seriously, but weren't good at lyrics, but it was really important to them that like, I capture what they were doing, but it was never like out there that it was ghostwritten by me. Um, it's, it's a weird world in some ways, but, um, but anyway, and, uh, and my BFAB, uh, Dakota Kai. Um, so, and if classic NXT woman, um, I don't know, Hey, this, this goes so deep. I'm not even sure how I'm more focused on my joke about dog barf than I am anything else. Tom, go ahead.

Oh, boy.

Well, I will be surprised if we're not talking about the same one just based on the the running bit. But I thought, well, I mean, duh, Shayna Baszler. But wait, I don't want to put her in the beef roll.

Shayna Baszler.

Deeper what about bailey oh no she doesn't belong in the b-fab role either who can be my b-fab i guess oh do i want to try to force ruby riot into there because i didn't get her when she was at nxt but then i got her in her final match and i enjoyed her main roster run so i want to see if maybe i can do something different with her during that time oh wait duh it's carmella so Easy answer. Well, it took me a little bit of thinking about it, but once I realized there's no other correct answer for me, my BFAB is absolutely Carmella, who I still very much enjoy.

And for the record, I love the mask.

It's so ridiculous, which is so perfect for her.

It's an upgrade. Um, it's God, I wasn't talking about her.

Um, wow.

I wasn't, uh, because.

I was someone we've seen years back.

I was talking about wrestling talent. So, um, that was, that was my dog. So anyway.

Oh, oh.

And she is, she's still with the company.

No.

Okay.

So, um, that, wow.

I really don't.

Hmm.

Our show. Um, I'm Kelly Wells. You can find me all over social media at spooky milk or spooky milk dot games, Tom.

And I am at Tom Stout, but that's where all my links.

Did I say stelp? Um, I'm tired. Uh, Tom Stout.

I'm, uh, that's where all my links are, but let's finish up so we can get off. live and you can tell me who this wrestler is it's not carmella and it's not eva marie what.

Yeah um so so there you go um if you live in.

A brook either she's still with the company unless i missed something in.

The past hour if you live in the midwest you should go to games by james um my game funded the gravest show on earth is there um a card game uh that you can play with another person and eat their brains because, uh, because zombies are related. I'm Kelly Wells saying, uh, it was Chelsea green. Cheers folks.

This is not a cat.

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5 YRS AGO NXT ON USA POST-SHOW: Wells, Stoup, and Lindberg cover Carmelo Hayes cashing in title shot, Halloween Havoc taking shape, more

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