WWE RAW POST-SHOW (10/26): Keller & Griffin talk Liv vs. Becky, Sami vs. Je'Von, MITB cash-in teases, Cena, more

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

1:41 It's time to talk this week's WWE Monday Night Raw.

1:49 Well, Griffin, we got an unexpected main event tonight. Stephanie Becker not cleared for medical reasons. And so the Becky Lynch-Stephanie Becker match got replaced by Becky Lynch challenging Liv Morgan. And we got a nearly 20-minute, I think about 18-minute main event. And it ended disappointingly in a DQ run-in.

2:11 I mean.

2:12 two things can happen when there's an unexpected change in an advertised match. Not that the care Lynch would have necessarily been the main event. It certainly could have been, um, but you can either pay it off by giving the fans a surprise baby face win. And if the title's on the line, do a title change you weren't planning on or do a DQ finish, uh, just to get out of it because it's a bind you didn't expect to be and you didn't plan for it and there's you know a little bit of wiggle room to forgive that and then they tease the money in the bank with uh tiffany stratton and that would have been a big payoff obviously had they done that um but it also wasn't planned going into the night because live wasn't

2:50 going to be wrestling so to expect that that would be kind of a big change in plans and not sure that it's ultimately worth blowing up whatever your timeline is for that women's division and everything going on with the care. I don't know if she's, I don't know what her situation is, if she'll be out long or short, but, um, they're still talking about her. So all in all good, long main event match, hard work, but not a particularly satisfying finish and just to kind.

3:16 Of a usual array of run-ins. So I don't know.

3:19 I think people would be like, Oh, it's entertaining. They had to make a change.

3:22 I'll give them a little leeway, but it was still fun. How about you?

3:26 Yeah, I can forgive the main event finish and thought it was a really good main event at the end of a really wrestling heavy and women wrestling heavy Raw.

3:39 It was, yes. I was thinking about that, that, you know, this would.

3:46 We kind of get used to it now to an extent, although, you know, it's worth bringing up. It's not, it's novel enough to bring up, but it's not like a headline story. There was a time where women having more than one match on raw is what people wanted to see. And if a women's match had lined raw, that was a big deal. You know, like it just, and now, you know, Oh, makes sense. Live in Becky. Makes sense to be a main.

4:05 Event, you know?

4:06 But as I was thinking about the, the lineup in the matches, um, you know, you had, you had Bailey and Lyra and, you know, Sky and Raquel, and then the, um, the main event. So three out of five matches were women's matches. So a good, a good showing for them. So staying focused on a couple aspects of live and Becky for a moment, it struck me during ring entrances that Becky didn't get a big response. This is a big crowd, 10,000 people, you know, it almost felt like a collision Saturday night audience with 2,500 people in a building where it's just echoey and.

4:37 Not a lot of fans.

4:40 And then live got, I mean, it's hard to tell obviously on TV decisively, but it seemed like she got in the same neighborhood of Cheers as Becky. And it was maybe a little bit louder, but there were boos too. So I wasn't sure what to make of that because they were into the match, but I didn't get the sense that they had like this big investment in what they wanted the outcome to be or who they were rooting for. And part of that, Becky has been in kind of a mud, had a muddled character since her return.

5:05 Yeah.

5:05 I guess I didn't notice it or wasn't paying attention to it. I had to watch it back. Yeah. But, um, you know, the beginning, they, they did boo that Stephanie wasn't going to be there. They weren't going to get the match, but we're very happy. And maybe it was the title match. Maybe it was Becky getting the title shot. Um, I don't know, but combined with coming out, maybe it was just the title shot.

5:34 So another thing I wanted to bring up and the chat can chime into, if they noticed the reaction during ring entrances, like, um, I was I was curious, you know, what what the what the reception for Becky would be if they would just unify behind her excitedly because it's a clear cut match, unlike with with Stephanie McHare, where there's split loyalties. But I think Liv is kind of a heel who fans like. There's even a vignette. where Becky was like, I thought you would be, you know, somebody who would give more to the business than take, and I believed in you once. So, you know, a little bit of a reflection, I think, of how people genuinely feel about her entertainment value. ScytherVision3, by the way,

6:11 in the chat says, Becky's face turn still made no sense. She just turned for no reason. So that probably doesn't help. Yeah, but I mean, during the match too, Griffin, she was... she was like going to the crowd yeah yeah like really trying to get them uh cheering her and when wrestlers do that i'm not saying like you couldn't just see that in a match where the crowd's really into it it's not like a dead giveaway but it seemed like she you know she's like pumping her fists and playing to the crowd uh trying to get a reaction as they cut to that first commercial break so i think she sensed this wasn't a red hot crowd for whatever reason and trying to get them going um And a theory from Rude Dog in the chat, maybe the

6:53 crowd was rather quiet because they just knew there was going to be interference in the end anyway. And that is the price you pay for not doing a clean finish. You know, I mean, if Liv pins Becky clean so Liv keeps the title, that doesn't change any booking plans for Liv as champ, but it takes Becky out of contention and you got to kind of create a story to get her back. So it was a conundrum. But yeah, I mean, that could affect the crowd reaction, Griffin. Do you think fans.

7:21 On the whole, like that mainstream big crowds are thinking that way when they're watching the show?

7:28 Like, is it a big percentage at this, in this era or not?

7:32 I don't think so. I know not, not the casual fan. I've been doing enough live shows to know that that's not how they think.

7:41 Yeah.

7:42 People like us can think everyone thinks that way.

7:44 Yeah.

7:45 Yeah.

7:46 And that's what I like about getting up to live shows and interacting with the audience.

7:50 Yep. Yep.

7:51 It reminds you, uh, JC Scooby in the chat says, I love Becky, but she's become stale. I thought she was, I thought they did a good job tonight though.

7:58 Honestly.

7:58 I mean, with, with this match, building it up, um, calling the audible, explaining why giving a bigger match than they advertised. They had a prepared vignette that was nicely produced with Becky talking about live and facing her.

8:09 Um, live was complaining. She wasn't ready.

8:11 And, uh, Dom foreshadowing a bit saying I'll go follow her and, and, uh, keep an eye on her. So, yeah.

8:17 All right.

8:18 So another aspect of this talk about is the cash in tees.

8:22 It is a tradition. It just it's a thing WWE does.

8:26 I don't know if it counts as a trope or or what, but they're going to keep doing this.

8:33 Yeah.

8:34 And the thing is, is the crowd went nuts for it.

8:37 They went crazy.

8:38 For the tees.

8:40 So WWE is going to keep doing it, but this is kind of like the Uso J Uso ring entrance where everybody wanted to be there for it, but sitting at home, you didn't want to watch another crowd. You don't want to vicariously have to experience something that the crowd enjoys seeing in person, but you're watching it at home.

8:59 I don't, I just, I mean, I don't think it's as bad as, as the J entrance got where I just think, yeah, you're in the building.

9:04 It's exciting. I get to be part of this, but at home you're like, not.

9:06 Again, this has really taken up a lot of time. I don't think it's quite that bad with Money in the Bank, but I do think Dota B overestimates how over something is to their larger international Netflix or TV audience just because the local fans are like, wow, I've watched this on TV for years and now I get to be present for the tease or the cash in.

9:27 It doesn't mean that it makes for good TV for everybody at home.

9:30 Yeah.

9:31 I think the cash-in can still make for good TV because there is that, you know, you start paying attention. You know, the show is going to end and it's like, okay, it's a schmoz.

9:43 They're okay.

9:44 They're going to have a trios match next week and can see where this is going. And here comes Tiffany and, oh, maybe, you know, there's, and there's, and this gets, to people who think like us you know we don't know who's like I really don't want to go overseas and drops the belt before the show I know across my mind so there's that in the back of my mind so you know, it's kind of an anything is possible situation.

10:23 So it worked.

10:26 Yeah. Yeah.

10:28 Uh, Mark Biscotti in the chat says, I thought Becky was going to go over only because the substitution always wins.

10:33 That was a tradition on house shows.

10:34 You know, you, you try to make sure that the week that if, uh, somebody, if, uh, especially if a baby face replaced another baby face against a heel.

10:43 And the heel was going to win, you don't want the substitute baby face to lose.

10:46 So fans resent the no show even more that we got a weaker version of a baby face and all that wrestler loss. But if the wrestler who's supposed to be here was here, he would have won and I'd have been happy. And then, and then the fans get more upset. I think the psychology here is a little different than, than, than that because live was a substitute in a way, but she's the champion. So it was more Becky just shifted opponents and, I don't know. It's semantics, but I think it, it fits a little, little different than, than, than, than that. Uh, Southern vision three said talking about stale, the fake out cash in is like 10 years overdone.

11:23 I wish they got better at doing it. Like the, the, the, the thing that always gets me is when the wrestler is standing against the ropes, referee comes up, they extend the briefcase and, And they.

11:35 Start having a long conversation. How are your kids?

11:38 Any plans for Christmas? How was your summer? What are they talking about? They milk the moment so long. And you're just waiting for something to happen. And in this case, I guess Dom dragging Liv out of the ring takes away the opportunity.

11:53 How do you feel about the way they executed Griffin?

11:55 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was the... Here she comes with it. She's out. There's too many people out there, period, for anything to go down. You know, somebody was going to stop it, Dom dragging her out of the ring. You know, this is also the second cash-in tease we had in the show, too. So a little overdone there.

12:23 There was elements of Ra, as we kind of talked about. It felt like a show where people were supposed to be there weren't and they were having to like make it um fill out the two plus hours with a skeleton crew and you know we've seen that with tv shows before memphis notoriously back in the day in the 80s uh on wmc they'd have a live show and sometimes they'd like have six wrestlers to fill 90 minutes you know it's just it was crazy i always go to that example but um had a little bit of that vibe i don't know if austin theory was going to wrestle or not but he wasn't there and he wasn't part of the run-in um so anyway yeah.

12:59 Yeah, I thought overall it was a really good Raw, though. The matches were really good. We got five great matches. And, you know, I wasn't disappointed with it.

13:13 Griffin, sometimes when they strip away a lot of... When the show feels more bare-bone, you get like... It was like that Tuesday episode of Dynamite a couple weeks back. It was like, this is like a mini house show pay-per-view. Just like one good matchup and another few. If you want more of that and less nonsense or... I shouldn't even say it's nonsense. If you want, like, just good wrestling matches, it felt like a nice five-match card. Some other comments on the Money in the Bank here. Derek Mitchell in the chat says the refs milk the moment by taking forever to tell the ring announcer and then asking to ring the bell. And so, yeah, it feels very orchestrated and put on. Oh, and Roodog just said, yeah,

13:54 I thought there might be a title change because one of the champions didn't want to go.

13:57 To Saudi Arabia.

13:58 So that was always a possibility, as you noted. And let's see. Okay, I'll read that later. I thought that might be related. Let's pause and introduce ourselves quick and then get on with our conversation about the rest of the program. We've got some callers lined up to join us too. Your time is valuable. Go VIP and listen to our shows commercial free. A nice streamlined listening experience. pwtorch.com slash govip. for full details on a commercial-free listening experience.

14:30 And with a full VIP membership, you can create custom feeds for individual shows or groups of shows by theme and also unlock nearly four decades of archives and access our ad-free website with VIP-exclusive content. pwtorch.com slash govip. Your time is valuable, and that's one of the reasons we offer VIP membership. pwtorch.com slash govip. This is a Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Show for Monday, October 26, 2026.

14:56 I'm Wade Keller, host of the show, editor, publisher, and founder of the long-running Pro Wrestling Torch weekly newsletter. Here's the latest copy with Clockwork Carnage on the cover and Osprey winning. And also, I oversee and write for PWTorch.com, the website. I hope you're checking that out. Some cool articles.

15:16 We'll be talking about one in particular in a moment. And also a host of variety of podcasts, including this, the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post Show, our Red Logo Show, and the Wade Keller Podcast, our Blue Logo Show.

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15:31 To hear that, you have to subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever app you use to listen to podcasts. Search Wade Keller Podcast. and subscribe to both the Red Logo and Blue Logo shows, and you'll be covered for all the shows that I'm part of. That also includes, the Blue Logo show includes the flagship episode tomorrow. Jason Powell from ProWrestling.net joins me, as he has for 15-plus years on the flagship, now roughly over three weeks. So if you've got questions for us, WadeKellerPodcast at gmail.com. WadeKellerPodcast at gmail.com. But if you'd like to email the show tonight, email us at wadekellerpostshow.com. Any thoughts on Raw, any topics you want us to cover, any thoughts as our post

16:14 show is progressing you want to jump in with, you can do that. You can also just join us live in the chat. That's where the majority of you are commenting and we'll continue to throw comments up on the screen and read them to our podcast audience. And finally, you can be a caller. The link to be a caller changes with every post show. The link is updated in my Raw, Dynamite, or SmackDown report every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night. So just go to PW Torch. Hope you're reading that report anyway with my coverage of the show along with analysis of different segments and matches. But at the top and bottom, you'll find a link to be a caller. Just click on it. You can turn your camera on or off, but be sure your microphone

16:50 is on, of course, and we can hear from you. My guest co-host tonight is Chris Griffin.

16:55 He is.

16:59 The owner of Nerdstalgia Shop, and he has the best backgrounds on our shows on YouTube. I'm always using the trackpad to zoom in on what I can see in the background. Some cool stuff. Who is in the... uh, like to your left, but to the right of people on the screen, the, the, um, a plushie, not a plushie doll, but whatever.

17:28 Oh, it's a Kenny Omega.

17:30 That's Kenny Omega. Okay.

17:31 Yeah.

17:32 That would have been my 27th guess at this, at this zoom zoom range. Um, but cool stuff. So Griffin, welcome. Uh, tell people about your shop and also tell people about your column.

17:44 Uh, your top five lists. You have a real, you pick great themes and do a really good job of that.

17:48 Yeah.

17:49 So, yeah, I write top five for the Pro Wrestling Torch, and it's a variety of topics. It's... spurred by something that I see in current wrestling that I watch, old wrestling I watch. Sometimes a conversation on the message board will give me an idea for a top five. So put those out weekly-ish, and I'll be writing one the next couple of days again. So Nerdstalgia is what I do.

18:24 I'm here in Colorado Springs. I own a store where we sell vintage stuff that people are nerdy about. So whether you're into music or comics, toys... video games but we do carry the largest collection of pro wrestling merchandise in colorado so we have you know all the stuff behind me title belts new and used figures rings all anything that you can think of so a lot of wrestling merch love it i wish i had wrestling merch that went for 714 000 like conrad's belt did nothing that expensive.

19:07 Yeah, that's wild. Got a story up on PWTorch on that. By the way, speaking of PWTorch, search PWTorch in your podcast app. Subscribe to the PWTorch Daily Cast also, a different show each day of the week with different pairs of hosts covering different themes.

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19:48 And as I said, commercial-free versions of our free podcast come with it. We have our new PWTorch VIP forum. And Griffin's been in there. And a lot of familiar names and voices and faces from our post shows are part of that. And we invite you to join in the conversation. I made like five or six posts this afternoon in there. And it's a fun place that is not...

20:09 It doesn't carry all the negatives of just kind of open social media. It's a closed community of just VIP members, and it has been civil and fun, and we talk wrestling and some non-wrestling too. All right. So let's go to our first caller. Sean Plichta in Tennessee is available.

20:32 Hey, Sean.

20:32 How's it going?

20:34 Going well, Wade. How many weeks has it been?

20:38 It's been too long i'll say that it's been way too long um speak how you doing man good to talk good so i'm in a different spot as you can tell i'm not yeah in a bare wall it's just a yeah so wait look more fit at this angle you like you like it look like you've been you're like the after of a youtube video not that you look bad before but you're looking like you've been training or something OK, no, no, I know I'm eating bad things like normal and, you know, things I shouldn't be eating and all that stuff.

21:07 So I'm using what posture can do.

21:09 Yeah, it does.

21:10 It does.

21:11 So I went to I went to a place where that you love very much. I am actually in near Dubuque, Iowa. So I actually drove. We drove to Waterloo to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Dan gave a museum today.

21:25 Very cool place.

21:27 Very cool place.

21:28 It was very cool. I didn't know what to expect, of course. I'm going to Waterloo, Iowa. I don't know what's there.

21:33 I don't know what's going on.

21:34 I love Waterloo.

21:35 But it was fun. It was really fun. I took a picture of you, Wade, getting in the Hall of Fame. You deserve it. You definitely are an awesome wrestling journalist, one of the best out there. So it was a cool seeing you get honored like that. I wish I could have been there to see you get honored, but it is what it is.

21:52 Back in 2015.

21:54 So was I on the wall at the museum? Is that what you're saying?

21:58 Yeah, every year all the people that got inducted.

22:01 I know they rotate the display, so I didn't know if in the fall they had that necessarily up.

22:05 I used to live in Davenport, but I moved to Colorado 15 years ago. So it's been a little while since it was a two-hour drive just to go there.

22:14 Yeah.

22:14 So I've got to get back out there.

22:18 I think Waterloo is a cool small town to visit.

22:20 I mean, I don't think it would be worth driving eight hours to see it compared to other things. But if you have a reason to go there, I think it's beautiful. It's a nice resort. old good downtown that still has some vibrance to it and a lot of empty storefronts too like any kind of town and then if you drive about four miles there's the big highway full of all the big box chain stores if you need something yeah.

22:43 Yeah not far from iowa city which is a kick-ass town too.

22:46 Okay i haven't been there all right enough.

22:49 On iowa they're they're rivals in minnesota although we're feeling pretty good this week um if you're a college football fan.

22:56 It was fun being there. It was like a room where you could watch some different matches. We were actually watching Bob Backlund against Sgt. Slaughter in a steel cage match back in the day. That was pretty cool to see some of that, to see some of the old stuff. Even Dan Gable, what he meant to real wrestling as a whole, the Greco-Roman style and all those different things.

23:20 It was really cool just to see all the layout of everything. I had some Kurt Angle stuff in there which was cool and wade that had adam pierce a robe that he was when he had when pretty cool yep that was fun.

23:34 I uh i stood in the dan gable museum with dan gable once shook his head oh yeah kind of cool.

23:41 Yeah all right anyway So I just wanted to bring that up, and I wanted to just talk about the show real quick. I'm here with a friend of mine, so I don't want to be on too long, but the show was good. It was a very good show. I enjoyed it. It was more wrestling-centric, which, again, I like the promos of WWE. I like a lot of the talking they do, but it can get overdone, and tonight was more of– let's get to, you know, we have the show that we don't want to talk about, but it's there. So let's just have some good wrestling matches.

24:10 Let's kind of hype some stuff that's coming up. Let's, let's get into that. So that, that was good. I'm with you guys on the cash. And it's just, uh, I, you know, in Penta first, uh, look like, oh, he's going to get in there and make it triple threat, maybe. And then you just know he's not.

24:24 And it's like, oh, my.

24:25 Gosh, come on.

24:26 We don't need all of this. Just somebody cash in quickly and move on with it because it's just– I like Money in the Bank, the concept still, but this makes it not worthwhile to me. It makes it not– it just makes you dread it because of these. So the ending was a bummer too. But I like– I just love Sammy at the beginning. Sammy's just so good.

24:52 I mean, he is so awesome. Javon got good shine. He got good, some good Mike time. He got a good chance to show what he can do in the ring. And even though he lost again, it's still, he's in a good spot. And now him going with Penta and seeing what they do with the tag team. I don't know if they're going to win or not, but I think that's interesting. If him and Penta were tag team champions, I think that could be a good thing with Penta can focus on that too. While, you know, still have a plan of what he's going to do with it, with his money in the bank contract. So I liked the beginning of the show. What'd you guys think of Sammy's promo and all that real quick?

25:23 So I don't, I'm never, I praise Sammy, like 199 out of 200 things I say is praise. I felt like tonight it was really good, but it was a little too much of good Sammy. I felt like it actually started overstay its welcome a little bit. Um, I don't know at what moment that thought struck me. I'm not saying it's like definitive or or a huge thing, but it kind of it was the first thought that I had that I wonder how many people aren't here because they're out sick.

25:51 You know, like it.

25:52 I mean, between the opening segment and then Sammy Javon, I mean, we were deep into the show by the time that match ended. It was 35 minutes into the show when the match ended.

26:02 Then there was an angle. And then there was a commercial break.

26:05 So by the time we got to any new content after that, it was like like the Bayley Valkyrie match that started. Fifty five minutes of the hour, second match, 55 minutes into the hour. So, I mean, there was a lot of not just not filler, but the Sammy promo was long. And I thought, again, kind of like Jay White on Saturday, way better than that, but still pressed.

26:31 It went on a little too long. The match itself was fun, a fun 13 minutes, give or take. Griffin, what did you think?

26:39 I liked the long promo. I liked how he was talking about how. All the things that he was not going to brag about just had me chuckling. I love the humble brag. He's so good at his character work. When he's a baby face or a heel, it's in his subtleties. It's in his– he's very good at sticking to the core constitution of who his character is and why he reacts this way. Even though he's the same guy you loved a year ago, he's the same guy in his mind. Like, the crowd is turned against him, and it just comes out. He's my favorite character worker.

27:32 He's my favorite in-ring worker. So I'll take 45 minutes of Sammy. And while, you know, yes, it did stretch a lot of the show, I loved it.

27:45 It worked.

27:46 Yeah.

27:46 Obviously, when I say that, like 199 out of 200 things to say about Sammy's positive, even this negative, it's just sort of like, it was all good. It just, it felt like they're stretching it a bit. I love the line where he was complaining about Roman Reigns, not going to Fresno. And you're like, Ooh, is a crowd going to side with Sammy on this one? And then he goes, but you know, Roman has the pull, the power to do it. And I wish I did too.

28:11 You know, I didn't want to be here either. And it's just like, Oh, it was just perfect. You know, you just think you're about to be, um, Yeah, you're about to be like, if you're a Fresno fan, thinking, well, maybe we'll cheer Sammy tonight. He's like, I don't want to be here either. So, yeah, he's just, he has it all figured out. Crofton in the chat says Sammy is good. SadlerVision3 says Sammy is arguably the best character in WWE right now.

28:36 It's not arguable.

28:40 Darrell Freeman says they had Sammy come out there and do too much to help cover for them because they didn't have anyone on the show. So, he seems to I mean, that's harsher than me. But Crofton says they have had Sammy open three of the four WWE shows in a row right now. That might be what's playing on me, too. Just maybe too much of a really good thing. Fatigue can creep in for sure, says Crofton.

29:01 Not for me. Sammy is awesome.

29:03 Yeah, I'm right there with Crofton.

29:05 Yep, yep.

29:06 I get it. Nashville Diaz says, that's how you know Sammy's a real part of the bloodline, because he gets a 45-minute promo at the beginning of Raw.

29:14 Oh, we got good chat comments going here.

29:17 Yes.

29:19 And I love when he said, oh, you know, all this stuff he says. Then he's like, I'm not going to. I would normally brag about it, but I don't. And it's like you're bragging about it. It's so awesome.

29:30 Yeah, I know. Derek Mitchell says, who knew Sammy's one of the most versatile guys along with Shawn Michaels, Eddie Graham, Kurt Angle, or Kurt Henning? But I think he meant Kurt Angle. Yeah, he meant Kurt Angle for sure. And Kurt Angle was better than... kurt hennig but i'm not it's not a dig at heading it just angle was you know the next level um but for his era heading was great except mr perfect just didn't wasn't at his peak with his back injuries and stuff in his wwf run but people still look fondly at him because he was still a top tier worker uh given the mix of people he had to work with then but yeah he met kurt but yeah i love that i left him comparing him to those three.

30:06 A canadian left out the name brett oh.

30:11 Oh no I bet Brett's fuming.

30:15 He could be.

30:17 He could be.

30:18 He might write a longer rebuttal to that on social media than Donald Trump did to Bill Maher today. He more than doubled his record for spewing a bunch of petty, bickering nonsense, unbecoming.

30:32 I thought they were buddies now. I quit following Bill Maher. Oh, yeah.

30:37 Bill Maher's gone. lost everybody who was once a fan of his. But yeah, Bill was like saying, oh, I should speak up to the president when I meet him. But, you know, I'm in the White House. He's saying I mark out for it.

30:46 I am sorry.

30:47 And the crowd booed, his own crowd booed him. And then, but apparently it didn't praise him enough because Trump went off on him. And I don't know. We're talking about Bill Maher. So Bill Maher's happy. Let's stop talking about Bill Maher. But poor Bret Hart. I mean, it is the type of thing where, you know, I could see him just like, what.

31:04 Did I ever do to Sammy?

31:06 Can he just stick together?

31:07 I don't know.

31:09 All right.

31:11 I love the line, though. It was great.

31:13 No, no, totally.

31:14 Hey, everyone.

31:18 Longtime PWTorch columnist Sean Radican here to let you know I've revamped and renewed the Radican Worldwide Podcast for 2026. a weekly VIP exclusive. Every week, I break down four or five of the biggest trending topics in pro wrestling. I also present my analysis, providing insight that helps you understand the story better or see it another way than maybe is the controversial take out there. Then I bring on a special guest for the second half of the podcast.

31:45 Sometimes it's a wrestler or someone else who works in the business. Other times it's a guest analyst who brings their specialized point of view on a particular key topic in the news. Recent guests have included Bronson Reed from WWE and PCO. One of my areas of specialty is the Japan wrestling scene, so I often cover a big topic from Japan with PW Torch's own Alan Farrell, Kelly Wells, and Chris Lansdell. I don't just cover the news. I don't just riff on the news or give a standard hot take. I'll bring my decades of studying this industry and talking one-on-one with dozens of wrestling promoters to each week's show so you understand not just what's happening, but the context of why. Get ahead of the news. Get

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32:32 John Pooham says, waiting for WWE to put someone in the ring with Sami who can really tear him down on the mic. I need to see his rebuttal.

32:41 Yeah, I mean, anybody.

32:43 I mean, Kevin Owens could be around the corner. Won't rule that out. Crofton says, I like the context for why Sammy was there to begin with. He owned his mic time, Wade. Oh, don't come down to me. I'm not anti-Sammy. I'm just saying, I'm just saying it. I normally love everything. And then I'm like, after like 12 minutes, I'm like, well, maybe it's time to wrap it up.

33:01 And then they did not come down to me.

33:03 As a Sammy.

33:04 Critic now um cavante smalls says sammy's promo definitely dragged okay now i got two people on my side i'm gonna stick with my conviction all right two people that i thought it was great but it got a little long at the end and then they wrapped it up pretty quick um derrick mitchell says brett's gonna call sammy yukon cornelius for not mentioning him among the versatile guys um 7-eleven says yeah i bet brett isn't feeling very oozy.

33:29 Um crofton said.

33:30 I clocked the brett omission as well and uh cj la chapelle says bitter brett and be bitter tonight all right enough on that.

33:40 Sean back to you yeah it's a couple quick things because then i gotta get off i'm with my friend here uh the the first thing is frustrating about when when becky did her you know her vignette tonight and then she you know came out and had the match you said it weighed a couple weeks ago i've heard little bits of your you know stuff lately because i've been so busy with everything going on with me but I don't like when WWE— Becky is such a good heel, and then they just turn her face for no reason.

34:06 She's literally just back on the show, and you're just supposed to cheer her, and there's no backstory of why she did what she did, who she is, who she is now. It drives me crazy. I like story— I just don't want you just to be a face for– just because you're a good guy, people have cheered you in the past. I just want more than that, and that's a bummer with this feud is we don't know really what Becky stands for right now, and that's kind of a bummer. So I wanted to bring that out.

34:31 And then with– Ethan Page, I just hope there's more with him. I mean, he got the win tonight, so hopefully that's a step in the right direction. But I hope they have something planned for him in the future here because I think he's such a good peel and he can do so many good things. But the one question I have for you is with Bayley and Lyra, I thought the match was fantastic. I mean, a really, really good match. Lyra's really good in the ring, even though her characters can be a little up and down sometimes.

34:58 With Bayley, I like that she got the win. It's just... The question I have for you both you guys to answer when I get off and listen is where does Bailey go? I just don't know. I feel like she's just in the mud right now. I just don't feel like there's a lot of the fans are into her, but it's just kind of there's nothing to sink their teeth into. There's nothing to really get behind. So I want to know where you guys think she's going. I'll get off and listen and always fun being on. Hope I can get on more soon. And you guys are always fun to talk with.

35:27 Thanks, Sean. Glad you got to enjoy the Dan Cable.

35:30 Museum, too.

35:30 It was a blast.

35:31 See you guys.

35:32 Take care.

35:33 Griffin Crofton says, I agree, Sean. There should have been a rationale for Becky. That said, her backstage promo was awesome. And let's see. Michigan Sports Guy says, it seems like whenever a heel is gone for a decent bit of time, they get brought back as a face. Explanation or no explanation. Yeah, Griffin, what do you think about Becky's arc as a character since she returned?

35:57 Sure. Quickly, because he did mention Ethan Page, and I don't want to miss his comment. In the commercial breaks, they did give him some promo time and thought he was really good. So they'll probably load that up on socials. But it was about him and tag teaming with Cass and, you know, more character work working towards intercontinental title shot.

36:23 With Becky, I think they think she's just big enough of a star that like, hey, the fans missed you. You're back and you're facing someone we don't like. They'll just cheer. And to a certain degree, they're right.

36:37 But.

36:39 I think per our conversation here, the cheers would be bigger and louder if we really had a reason to love Becky other than just she's facing a really good heel in Liv Morgan.

36:55 Yeah. Some chat comments too along these lines. Nashville DS says, the whole women's division seems to just be buying time until Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair come back. I mean, there's probably something to that. Uh, MD 87 punk says, has Becky actually turned though? I know she's playing to the crowd, but her promos seem the same as her heel persona. It's the whole WWE not choosing a lane thing like they've been doing. I mean, is that part of what's going on here is just WWE has, there's a top tier of wrestlers who just kind of aren't picking a lane. And fans are sort of in the business of, well, whoever just feels kind of more cool or who I want to buy their merch, I'll cheer them.

37:33 And so we kind of get this muddled crowd reaction. And I mean, obviously, when Becky first turned heel, people were like, she shouldn't be a heel. But then her first run didn't really latch on as a heel. Second run, there was elements of it where people were going, OK, now it's working. And then she comes back as a baby face. It's like, wait, wait, wait, who is she?

37:49 I think part of it is just people. It's not that she's something in the middle. It's people don't know what she is anymore.

37:57 Yeah. It's a, people want to like her and when she's a heel, they like not liking her. Um, and that's why Sammy stands out because Sammy has a core constitution of who he is when he's baby face or heel, why he's baby face or heel.

38:21 And the, the, the circumstances change. But he doesn't.

38:25 But how we interpret his reaction to how we react to his reaction to the world changing around him, we either we either cheer or boo him for him or against him. But, yeah, there is a core through line of what drives and motivates him to say what he says that feels consistent, even though the crowd reactions are very different, depending on, you know, the stretch of time that we're in with him. Mark Biscotti says Becky's lack of a proper face turn irks me. Crofton says Becky was faced tonight. Big time promo plus playing to the crowd, plus showing tons of fire and fighting off the entire faction.

38:57 She was full face today. How did you full face today? The idea is, will she be next week? And because when you're when you come back and you haven't had a proper turn, you know, as Mark Piscetti said, you know, the lack of a proper turn irked him.

39:17 We don't have that. And then she's still kind of cocky.

39:19 And then they book her against a baby face instead of a care who's not as charismatic or bombastic, but is more traditional baby face likable, I guess, in in the again kind of the traditional more humble way instead of trash talking it's just you know yeah speccy was speccy was a rent a rent a baby face for tonight but she's been kind of a muddy muddled in the middle otherwise.

39:40 There needs to be a rebonding to her fans. There needs to be an, not necessarily a verbal apology, but something apologetic in that she changed. Like I was doing this, I should stop and I should do this. You know, sometimes it's a, it's as easy as I was fighting. This person saw how bad that was and stopped and fought the other person. Like that's just a common wrestling trope.

40:10 Of how you switch the core of who you switch your decision making as a character in the path that you're going down. And she just came back and we cheered.

40:25 Yep. Yep.

40:26 You got it.

40:27 Uh seven three says this is arguably the best women's match on raw this year this is the type of physical wrestling i love to watch hope there's more for lyra bailey just needs a storyline character to heat up again so yeah speaking of bailey we'll talk about that let's bring cj on to the show cj it's been a while good to see you hey sorry you know you have all.

40:49 The time my first time calling with you on.

40:52 Yeah how are you doing nice to meet you doing good Do.

40:57 You want to talk about Bailey first or Becky first?

41:02 Let's wrap up Becky since we were focused on her for a while there.

41:07 I like Becky. However, like I have to agree with Kevin Nash on a point on Becky. I think he said this early.

41:14 It's either this year or last.

41:16 Year where he said she's overrated as a heel because a lot of times as a heel, she relies on cheap heat. to really get heat, like dissing the town's teams and stuff like that. But I do like how she has leaned into the Becky Hogan stuff.

41:37 That's good.

41:40 So what would your response to, with Kevin Nash's point, that she has to rely on cheap heat?

41:47 I don't think she has to rely on it, but I think it.

41:51 I think.

41:53 what is considered in the bucket of cheap heat is not something you just say never do. It's something that can work. But when you're on national television and you're insulting the town and that's the main reason you want people to dislike you, that's not being.

42:10 A good heel. But Becky is cocky.

42:13 And full of herself in other ways. So I don't think that it disqualifies her from being a good heel. But I can understand a wrestler who You know, looks at other wrestlers who do cheap things for shortcuts and would look at somebody of Becky's accomplishments and talent doing it and say she's doing cheap heat because she should probably be a babyface because fans really like her. And she has to resort to that more than that's just her falling back on not knowing any better.

42:42 Griffin, what do you think?

42:44 I don't. Listening to Kevin Nash talk about it bugs me a little because he was Mr. Cool Heel. I was across my mind.

42:55 So I think Becky, when she's a heel, I think she's a really good heel.

43:06 I like that she's full of herself, talks down to her opponents, takes shortcuts when she should take shortcuts. I think she's a really good character as a heel. I like Becky. I think she's a good face, too. We just missed some chapters.

43:26 Cavante in the chat says, Becky's character is a face this week. Powder Repeat says, I love heel Becky, but I think she should be a face right now. Well, she kind of is. I mean, she is, you know, I mean, having the care out of the mix is and it's going to be.

43:42 Weird, too.

43:43 I don't mean to derail my thought there, but it's related. Now that Becky faced Liv, does she still have a match with the care when she's healthy? to decide who gets the next match against Liv. I'm curious how they handle it. I guess it depends on what's going on with Karen, how long she's out. But if they do wrestle again, winding back to my original point, you're going to now have Becky, again, kind of in a muddled state of, you know, you can cheer me if you want, but I'm facing somebody who you also like, and we're just going to say mean things about each other and whatever.

44:17 And so we're going to be back to that if they do do the match. Although my thought was maybe they won't now, and they'll just kind of abandon it just because Becky didn't win the title. She had said, if I win the title, when we wrestle, it'll be you challenging me for the title. The stakes will be higher, but if she's not champ, if she already got a title shot, I don't know. I'm not sure what they'll do.

44:36 Yeah.

44:36 Griffin.

44:38 Um, yeah, sorry. My, my, I, I, Went out for a second.

44:46 Yep, gotcha.

44:47 Well, when I talked, I saw you were about to talk, and then I was like, okay, well, I'll throw back to you when I'm done. But you, yep.

44:54 Anyway, it happens.

44:55 Trust me. Crofton says, Becky's heel didn't try to be liked. Unfortunately, she's so good that you end up wanting to cheer for her anyway. Yeah, there's the cheer, the charisma and talent of the heel, because you appreciate their craftsmanship. Sean Plichta adds, Becky's great. I just want to know why I'm supposed to get behind her and root for her.

45:13 I guess because of what Crofton said, she's just really good at what she does.

45:18 Um, yeah. Okay.

45:20 Uh, CJ, how about Bailey?

45:23 Yes. First of all, that match was awesome to comment slash question here. What did you think of Bailey's look tonight?

45:37 The hair low.

45:38 It looked like she was wearing jeans and said tights.

45:41 Hmm.

45:42 What did you think? I paid less attention than you, CJ, I promise you. So it didn't strike me all that much. Maybe I should go back and look. Griffin, did it jump out to you?

45:54 I just assume it was a trope for a street fight. You usually dress down for a street fight.

45:59 That, yes.

46:00 But if you noticed her hairdo, it was kind of a ponytail. Not like totally what she used to have.

46:10 But.

46:12 If you notice, she didn't use the rose plant at all tonight. She kept on doing the belly to belly.

46:18 Yeah.

46:19 So do you think this is her maybe about to go back somewhat to the hugger?

46:29 What do you think?

46:32 Who knows?

46:34 I'm going with what Griffin said, that it's because of the street fight. We shouldn't read into anything until we see her not in a street fight.

46:40 Yeah.

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47:35 I think that, you know, Sean brought it up earlier. It's time for her next chapter. Where does she go? So maybe she goes back to an older persona. Maybe it's kind of a combination of things. Bailey's always very good at what she's given. And I'm excited to see what's next for her.

48:02 Again, her pants did say, if I'm correct on this, ding dong, hello.

48:07 So I don't know.

48:08 Maybe it'll be a mix of the two. Yeah.

48:11 Yeah.

48:12 I mean, it's been long enough.

48:13 It would feel not like she's hanging on to something too long, but she's bringing something back that has.

48:18 Been gone a while.

48:18 And there might be an openness to that. Crofton says, CJ, I liked her outfit. Corey Standing said, Bailey's outfit made me think she was in the Judgment Day. uh sean plictus this bailey just needs a great one-on-one feud that she can really sink her teeth into against a heel that's really over but that's not but there's not a ton of those right now other than live well we could get could get live um and uh seven eleven said i always thought her move should be the bear hug uh derrick mitchell with griffin you dress down for a street fight unless you're blake monroe um and she is a femme fatale um.

48:58 And she doesn't jump down for anything uh crying with her yes.

49:03 Uh crofton says had bailey lost this match it would have been disastrous for getting the win allows her to be plugged into a high profile feud so dj plug her into a high profile feud yes who do.

49:15 You think would be your best challenger.

49:17 Right now.

49:19 What would mean? Oh, the best next opponent?

49:21 Yeah, I assume they can keep her baby face, I assume.

49:25 I wouldn't mind her seeing a run at Liv. Not necessarily to win, but she needs a challenger to work a program with.

49:38 I think Bailey's been good enough, steady, to have another title run. I wouldn't be against that.

49:45 Her ring work is good.

49:48 She's kind of the, weird to say, but the elder statesman of the division. I think it would actually, in a weird way, feel fresh after all this time. CJ, I told you all this angst that you have about her not being in the main events constantly with the world title constantly is allowing her to step back long enough that getting back to the main event could be greeted with a proverbial hug from the crowd see what i did there and.

50:12 Do you think raw is still the best show for her do you think she could go back she should go back to smackdown.

50:20 Oh i don't know smackdown's a little crowded yeah.

50:25 Yeah it could be tough you could get lost in the mix feels like raw's home right now i think yeah.

50:30 And then with live being a heel because on smackdown you have um Chelsea Green as a babyface champion, so I think Raw makes more sense.

50:41 Do you see her.

50:43 Being a participant in war games this year? Because I think she missed out last year.

50:47 She was in the year before, I know that.

50:49 I think she missed out last year. Well, Crofton says, if the end segment was a setup to war games, then Bayley could be brought in by Becky. Yeah, it seems like that would help even out the sides.

51:03 I'll be game for that.

51:04 Yeah.

51:05 Cool, CJ.

51:06 Anything else you want to say quick?

51:10 Nothing to think of.

51:11 All right. Well, good to see you.

51:12 Keep it going, Wade.

51:13 I'll try to keep watching.

51:15 I appreciate it.

51:16 Thanks, CJ.

51:17 Stay in touch.

51:17 Glad you're doing it.

51:18 Oh, real quick.

51:19 Did you see my email?

51:21 Yeah, but, you know, have you read the lawsuit and what he's accused of? I mean, I know you're marking out for a celebrity, but I mean, I would refresh yourself on that before you stand next to him smiling. I mean, you got to consider.

51:35 I hear that.

51:37 Yeah, yeah.

51:37 So I'm not going to.

51:38 I got friends with Nick Patrick, and on Facebook he said, worthless human being.

51:43 Yeah.

51:45 Yeah.

51:45 It's awful.

51:47 All right.

51:48 I hear you.

51:49 Yeah.

51:50 All right, CJ.

51:50 Thanks.

51:51 All right, CJ.

51:51 Yep. Take care.

51:52 All right.

51:54 All right.

51:57 Let's just bring Darrell into the show. Let's move to our next caller here. Darrell, good to see you.

52:02 Welcome.

52:02 What's going on?

52:04 How y'all doing today, Wade?

52:06 Good.

52:06 What's up, man? Your mic's rustling. If you do that again, I'm going to make you shave on the air.

52:13 I will. I'll shave my hair. I'll make it happen.

52:17 Goatee luck would be you can start a trend.

52:20 Hey, so what I want to speak on to start off is say this.

52:26 If I was SmackDown... I.

52:28 Would be so heated with Raw and what they did with my, like, top attraction and having him come out there and cut a promo that could be saved and chopped up a little bit and used on my show with who he's been helping create stories. for my show that doesn't set up for so many other people and they just use him to pass time by because they didn't have nothing going on.

52:53 I'll be so upset right now with them.

52:56 If this was a legit show versus show type of thing, because this, this.

53:01 Show told you that they didn't have nothing. What people really wanted to see.

53:05 I know they did the little promos that they take last week with nine, four, six. And, um, and the bloodline. But what they really wanted to see, they wanted to see a follow-up with any one of those groups. You could have any one of those groups come out there and say something. Maybe not the bloodline without Roman, because without Roman there, that's why I say they have a Roman Reigns problem, because once you enter him into this match, people wanted to see him go up against. That's why I didn't like that they got the advantage.

53:40 Nothing came after it.

53:42 No follow-up, no incredible follow-up afterwards.

53:45 So Eric Moy in the chat says, I know there were promos, but it was nice to let the Bloodline 946 feud breathe a bit.

53:53 I think if you're paying for a ticket and.

53:55 You're going to the building and you don't see any of them, I mean, I can imagine being disappointed because that's a central storyline. But having them each cut promos, by the way, the solo one was weird because it felt like he was standing in front of like a blue screen. And Roman and the Usos were pre-recorded, not really reacting. It was shot weird where it didn't look like they were actually all together or it was AI or something. I don't know.

54:21 I think it's some of the cameras they use now do that. The cameras they use for the ring shot, it almost looks like a video game where it's in focus in the front and the back looks like it's separated. So I think it's just some of the cameras that they use now.

54:37 It's rare you see... a promo where there's someone in the foreground closer than usual, which Sola was, and then everyone else far in the background. And it did kind of have a, you know, if you watch a movie from the 1960s, it's like the background of a character walking through a field or in front of a haunted house.

54:55 It's like clearly a haunted house, just a projection in the background.

54:58 That's what they look like. No big deal. Neither here nor there.

55:02 But I thought Royce Key's promo was good and sinister, and they spent time building up a match for next week. I'd rather leave. I understand being a ticket buying fan and going, wait, that's all we get. If you're in particular, what Darrell is saying, which is I came to see the top storyline on this brand and I didn't get anything but a thing I watched on a big screen.

55:26 But I think from a larger perspective, I think it is good, as Eric says, to let it breathe a bit. And we did get fresh promos and now a match is announced for next week. Griffin, where do you come down on that?

55:37 Yeah, I can see both ways. I did like that, you know, at the end of Raw, I almost expected, like, okay, is there going to be another segment after this and bring out somebody? No, they actually let the women main event the show. But I do like that we didn't get... We got follow-up, but we didn't get big follow-up. It does let it breathe a little bit because... if you hit us with the same thing every week, every week, every week, that's where fatigue can sit in. So, you know, it makes you appreciate it more the next week.

56:20 I would say this.

56:22 It was a little lazy to me because what made it lazy to me is because we've been expecting follow-up after follow-up for some other things too. You won't follow up on why Jay is there. You won't follow up why Carmelo Hayes is there. You on all these different things. They're letting stuff rest because they're showing their inability to tell stories with these guys. That's another reason why I had so much on adding Roman, and then letting Roman come out there 1v4, then while everybody else was beat down and taken out, and then you get no follow-up on that. I like what Royce Key's doing.

57:02 He's fitting.

57:03 I like those promos for him right now because it makes him feel more of a star, but you still need to build up that whole group because that hurts that group. in the long run because I'm just looking at it as in story and how you can build off from it from this moment forward and once you get away from the bloodline and stuff like that those individual stories help continue on and add another chapter and that's what we have in Giardin and also with the solo promo with that looking like how Wade said which I so do agree that look like some AI type of stuff in the background and everything. But it also took an aura off of Solo as well by seeing him saying that and with Romanel standing in the back

57:47 and like he's reverting back to something that we don't see him pass.

57:52 And fans like seeing him pass the bloodline right now as in a baby face than what they're seeing right now.

58:00 I agree with you there. I. I thought the same thing when Solo was cutting that promo. That was a missing chapter of, hey, I don't get along with my family, but, you know, sometimes blood is thicker and we got to stand up. We're going to get together this time. Yeah, I agree with you there.

58:27 Wade.

58:28 Thanks.

58:29 What you brought up, Darrell, about not having character development furthered with Jada Parker, Carmelo Hayes, frankly, Royce Keyes also like what and his cohorts. I mean, they're they're just sort of it's nine for six in a in a catchphrase. You know, they have their mood.

58:45 They have their vibe.

58:46 They're threatening. They're ominous.

58:48 They lean in.

58:49 It's dark.

58:50 They talk like this. It stands out. It's distinct.

58:53 It has a brand of its own. But we don't know anything. What does Royce Keyes want and why? What's motivating him? Where did his cohorts come from? What each of them, what is their motivation for joining? Is there, does Carmelo Hayes have a reason he joined them? Was he recruited? did he offer um i genuinely think fans want to know answers to these questions but even more important than what fans want and don't get is it's evidence of a lack of wb creative thinking it matters because the feud is just a bunch of people in one faction fighting a bunch of people in another and I think people as we learn from the bloodline we want more than that you know we I mean in heck the Don Callis family you know we just see

59:39 intra intra family disputes and and side-eyeing people and all of that and it's too early for them to be teasing a breakup but yeah Darrell this should have been a week where you know it where we should have learned more about them I will say this in their defense they are a group that isn't officially sanctioned by wwe in storyline so if we start doing profiles of them it's like well shouldn't they be like have charges pressed against them for vehicular assault and attempted homicide and um you know attacking people outside outside of a ring i mean if if you start making them seem like the wwe machine is behind promoting them it can actually hurt the sense that they're rebels too. So I think

1:00:22 they have in their own mind, a rationalization for it. I come down on the side of figure out a way to give us more one way or the other on Jada and Carmelo and more of the backstory there. Cause people know Carmelo, especially why do you do this? They can't not address that. That'd be a bummer.

1:00:39 Yeah.

1:00:39 I think a faction has to develop each member, not just the main member. But part of the problem is we don't really know the main member. We don't really know Royce Keyes. He's still new. You've got to give him the promo time to develop him. Usually you put young guys with a more established star in a faction.

1:01:05 And Wade, you said, where did they come from? They came from the 9-4-6.

1:01:07 Right, yes.

1:01:10 Yeah, I mean, point taken and point proven. That is pretty much the beginning of that.

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1:02:21 See you in the paradise.

1:02:26 All right, Jarrell, what else?

1:02:28 And I take what I've learned from you as well, Wade, is this. Especially, like you said, when they lean in and talking. That reminds me of what you said that Jake the Snake used to say. I want to speak quietly because I want to bring people in and talk to me and listen to me. And they want to hear what I have to say. And I like that they're doing that. I like that Royce Keys is doing that.

1:02:51 But what I would say about the story. Telling that they could tell if they did do the storytelling right, you wouldn't have to worry about if WWE sanctioned them because not like I know what NWO did when they said they paid for this time and stuff like that. Even if you didn't want to go and do it like this, you could have the announcers who we all, sometimes people have so much issues with and how they don't add.

1:03:15 Nothing to the story itself.

1:03:17 You can tell them, hey, we got this strange package early in the day and it was labeled from the 946 and.

1:03:24 We're just curious and we want to know more about them. So we're going to play this.

1:03:27 We've already previewed it and make sure that everything's straight and we won't get off air.

1:03:32 And we're going to play this for you guys.

1:03:34 And that can help the commentators build on to whatever you want to tell them and use them what they're supposed to be there for.

1:03:42 And that's to help navigate the audience at home.

1:03:45 Into a story so we can be more interested in the story and By them navigating us there, and that'll cut that all out right there. And then you can use that to continue to tell stories with everybody else.

1:03:58 You absolutely could have had.

1:04:02 Joe Tessitore at ringside and just kind of, we talk about talking quietly and slowly to get people's attention.

1:04:07 You could be like, I have to say, and.

1:04:11 I don't normally editorialize because I have bosses and I do what they say, but I was against what I'm about to have to do. And people are like, what is going on? And he can just lean in a little bit. Wade Barrett can be like, Joe, keep this.

1:04:25 What are you doing?

1:04:26 And Joe can go, I don't think we should be giving these people time on our TV show. I'm the host of the show. I don't like giving time to them. But management believes fans want answers. And I understand the perspective. Respectfully, I disagree with it. But we're going to show this video that the 946 sent in. And my understanding is this is Carmelo explaining why he joined the group.

1:04:47 Boom.

1:04:48 Everything's solved.

1:04:51 Yeah.

1:04:52 I mean, like, yeah, because it doesn't then it doesn't feel like you're putting on a show. It feels like people are reacting naturally to why are we taking this group that's rebelling against breaking, breaking things, setting things on fire, hitting people with cars. You don't want to act like, oh, you're welcome to the company. We're paying you, you know, and they've covered that a little bit. There's been some cognizance of the awkwardness with the way the GM talk, you know, have talked about them. You know, it's like, well, I'd rather have you fight. you know, officially then cause more chaos. You know, you don't want to say we might as well make money off of it. Cause you don't want to act like money overrides the principle of,

1:05:27 of people doing the things that.

1:05:29 The nine for six has done so far.

1:05:30 But, um, yeah.

1:05:33 Uh, swole trying to kiss up says, Wade is always right.

1:05:37 All right.

1:05:38 Uh, draw, uh, good.

1:05:41 And I go to another story that's showing you how you build by rebuilding somebody back up and how you do it the right way. I'm liking the story that they're telling with the rivalry again between Braun and Penta and Javon Evans, the three-man rivalry. That's going up and that's helping that also is helping build a vision back up because we obviously seen tonight who are the three main stars in the vision who they see as the three main stars and stuff like that.

1:06:09 And that's Braun Brunson and Logan Paul.

1:06:14 But even tonight, you see more character growth with just Braun Breaker coming up. After everybody done cut their promos and using Logan as the straight man to direct the process of what they wanted to say, he got the information out because he was the better talker. Even his information and allowing him to get it out, you know the fans not going to like it. They're going to instantly hate them and put heat upon them. And then you've seen the intensity that we have been seeing with Bronson, since he done came back, and even in the feud with Oba, he's continued on with that intensity. He's looking like a 1A, 1B star next to Braun, and then this new character that they're trying to get over with Braun,

1:07:00 just coming over there with that cheesy smirk on his face and stuff like that, and you thinking that he finna do what you used to see in Braun do, but no, he and Twitter, we accept. And it makes you feel like he knows something that we don't know. Like, okay, we got something up our sleeve. Y'all don't know, but I know. The other guys know. Even Brunson gave you the intensity. Like, he knew something because of the intensity that he was saying and stuff. Taking off of what Paul Heyman told him with that, you got a tsunami after tsunami after tsunami. And he took that, and he's keeping that part of him and that type of intensity.

1:07:39 And again, with Logan and his warmness and instant heat maker and letting him describe it, it all fit together. And I felt like that was more of a growth tonight, what we've seen with the vision, putting them back up to a level that they foreseen them being without all the injuries.

1:07:58 Griffin, what do you think of that?

1:07:59 I'll throw Sean Plichtos' comment up first. The Vision is in a better spot than they were just because Bronson is back. Griffin, yeah, where are you on the Vision and what they did tonight in particular?

1:08:09 Great segment tonight. One of the things I'm not a fan of is what they call the Freebird Rule, where anybody in a faction can just take the tag team title because it looks like it's going to be Braun and Bronson defending the tag titles. But even though I don't love that rule... What an intimidating tag team. Way better with Bronson Reed back. I mean, that's a really cool, viable tag team. And I'm excited to see that match.

1:08:46 You know, definitely a fight from underneath. Babyface, big boy heels. Yeah, I liked a lot of what they did tonight showing their dominance.

1:08:57 And I'm not convinced Theory won't be healthy in time for that match. I mean, just missed tonight due to illness, so he could be back. And I thought it was notable that they had Logan with the belts on his shoulders rather than Bronson and Braun holding them or Braun holding both of them. Sort of felt like Logan just holding him for the group.

1:09:13 But....

1:09:16 Bronzer and Bron Breaker. If I go back to like my childhood in thinking of like, like there was a time period where the road wars were so hot in the mid 1980s. I spent half of my time at school thinking who in the world can you team up to be credible opponents for the road wars?

1:09:33 I mean, it was like, it was a problem.

1:09:35 Like the AWA and the NWA, they're splitting their time and do it Japan. Like who can face the road wars? One who's willing to, do a job for them or have them no sell for them. So you had sort of politically some, some opposition, but it was like, you know, Vern Gagne put together, you know, King Kong Bundy and, and, uh, um, uh, was it Bruiser?

1:09:55 Who did, who did?

1:09:56 No, I'm on, no, I'm drawing a blank after all these years. Uh, Boom Boom Bundy. Oh, Jerry Blackwell, of course.

1:10:00 Sorry. Yeah.

1:10:01 Um, Crusher Blackwell and Boom Boom Bundy, or he called them Boom Boom Bundy. brody bruce brody is called king kong brody so it just was a whole chain reaction but nevertheless bundy and blackwell were like these two 400 builders 400 pound monsters team together and i was super excited we finally have credible threats to the road warriors when you put like two people together and they just complement each other but they're also powerhouses which with bronson and braun are you get some magic that like isn't doesn't quite work with the viking raiders like they just they're too similar and they're trying to do fancy moves instead of being just Bruisers, I think Doyle and Davis are working in NAW for that reason.

1:10:39 And, you know, the beat on the Bucs last week worked.

1:10:42 Reminds me a little of Dr. Death and Terry Gordy.

1:10:46 Yes.

1:10:46 That was a favorite team of mine that, you know, complimented each other well, but had their own distinct styles.

1:10:53 Yep.

1:10:55 And so, yeah, there's, I think.

1:10:58 Modern day wrestling promoters and bookers because wrestling's changed it's about so many wrestlers come up through the indie scene and the indie scene is about high spots when there's 200 people in a building popping for seeing flips and dives and top rope moves and you know seeing the just the brawling bruiser type has has gone a little bit out of vogue but um on a national scale Bronson Reed and Braun Breaker remind me of that era and of course with the roadways the ultimate answer was Nikita Koloff you know whether it's with Ivan Koloff or Khrushchev the Russians that the national wrestling magazines had, you know, just went nuts promoting are the Colas finally the answer to stop the road warriors. Cause it wasn't the fabulous ones.

1:11:35 It wasn't Baron and crusher. It wasn't, you know, the Greg honey, Jim Brunzel didn't want to be anywhere near the road warriors. Cause that would have been an embarrassment. So there's a rock and roll express didn't work. You know, I mean, it's just, they broke things. They broke down the normal tag division parody. And I don't, I think they want, braunbreaker to be a single star and breed is getting a singles push but as a tag team i think they could be a a centerpiece semi-long-term force that actually turns their those tag belts into a draw and it you end up with kind of the road worry thing all over again where it's just like who can stop them and you start trying to in your mind assemble assemble teams and you watch wrestling just to

1:12:14 see who finally will do that.

1:12:16 The problem I have with that is I have zero faith in WWE to turn those tag belts into anything. Well, right.

1:12:23 I am not giving up my pitch, my hope. But, yeah, I know. Standard Aviation said the bar was kind of that for me. Yeah, I get that.

1:12:33 Oh, yeah. Yep, yep.

1:12:36 Michigan Sports Guy says, I think Braun and Bronson would have been take champs at some point had it not been for injuries. uh, 93 octane 67 says both bronze are very dynamic in their own distinct, unique, unique way. Um, Derek Mitchell, who lived through the roadway period with me, he says the roadways looked invincible and eventually they'd lost a gorgeous Jimmy Garvin and Mr. Electricity, Steve Regal. Not fairly, but, uh, yeah, that was, that was kind of the, one of the key turning points for the AWA when Garvin and I mean, Regal was.

1:13:06 A, Light heavyweight, was it junior heavyweight? Light heavyweight, like semi-jobber.

1:13:11 And they teamed with gorgeous Jimmy Garvin because they were available and cheap and AWA didn't have a lot of money left. They were one of the big three, you know, in my hometown promotion. Anyway, Triple H, oh, okay. Triple H said on social media that Braun, in theory, would be defending the titles.

1:13:31 Okay, good.

1:13:32 Yep.

1:13:33 I mean, theory has a flu, so that can last a while.

1:13:36 But yeah, it's not like an injury where he hurt his ankle during warm-ups or something. You know that last segment you're just listening to and the next one that you're waiting to listen to? Those can be one second apart with a VIP membership. You can unlock our commercial-free versions of our shows. PWTorch.com slash GoVIP tells you how to do it. That's PWTorch.com. Go to pwtorch.com slash govip for full details on all the options to listen commercial-free.

1:14:04 And with upper-tier options, unlock our VIP-exclusive podcasts that run throughout the week every week. Yeah, okay.

1:14:31 Anyway, a little sidebar there.

1:14:32 Darrell, back to you.

1:14:33 But I would say this.

1:14:35 They can make the tag team titles still feel more important once they continue to get serious.

1:14:41 The way that they are.

1:14:42 And the reason why they're getting serious is because they have a new focus.

1:14:48 They had a focus of OBRA. They switched that focus now into OBRA.

1:14:53 I'm not going to let Penta or Javon, I'm not going to let y'all win the title. We so hard still focused that we're not going to let y'all win the title because I want to win the title. So really, they're title focused, but they also got people to focus on to build a rivalry with. And this could help build those tag team titles up just by having all these guys and these main event guys for that title while they still saying they have a focus on the main title which is where you didn't used to have when Roman had the title you didn't have people that their mindset was on that title as a whole so that's a good thing as well but I'm just liking that they have something to focus on and that is helping elevate them into a totally different way and now

1:15:42 you're using the pieces right and And with Braun reinventing himself is helping the group as well because now you have a focus with Brunson who's.

1:15:54 Giving you intensity and he's giving you good promos.

1:15:57 You can let Logan come with the heel-less swarming promos that get you heat. And Braun can give you this confident character where he's showing that, hey, I can be a leader, I can be this, but I'm getting my heat a certain way in my way and I'm not doing it the... the breaker way nor the steiner way i'm doing it my way and i can't wait to see him and then they also got that car to play because i think logan should be getting healthy where he should be able to um get involved soon they've been letting him get some hits in here and there so that's another thing that they can add and then once they get that back they're really complete and then you.

1:16:37 Can see what you can do with them then.

1:16:40 Anything else you want to bring up daryl.

1:16:43 That'll be all right. Those are the main two things about this whole show.

1:16:46 Again, the whole show was something that they had to piece together, but I just wanted to get that contrast of the two different groups.

1:16:53 Yeah.

1:16:54 No, and Logan Paul's an X Factor, and Paul Heyman continues to be. We're in a holding pattern, I think, for the Breaker thing to pay off, just going back to that, too.

1:17:04 All right, Terrell, I was good hearing from you. Thanks for your contribution.

1:17:08 Nice talking to you guys, too. Nice talking to you, Griffin. Nice talking to you, Wade. And two weeks without Oba, and the show ain't died yet. So, hey.

1:17:16 Another, when we talk about the quality, the star power depth on this show, yeah, I mean, they got an impromptu world title match. And actually, two unscheduled top singles titles being defended. So, there is that, and I'm sure that that was their thought their rationalization for not having other big stars there. Um, you know, I don't know, you know, for some people it's going to be more than enough that they got to be there. Uh, Griffin for that.

1:17:49 What'd you think? Yeah.

1:17:51 I mean, they definitely did really well with what they had. Like I said, I enjoyed the show beginning to end.

1:17:59 Yup. Yup.

1:18:01 Um, Javon Evans, how did, is he working for you as the, um, uh, he's hungry.

1:18:11 He's, uh, motivated. He's confident. And he's speaking up.

1:18:18 To the veteran Sammy Zane and not showing fear. And then obviously he goes in the ring and is distinct and flashy, but, Kavante Smalls in the chat says, hot take. Javon Evans promos are borderline cringy and annoying in a Liv Morgan kind of way. So how do you feel about this use of Javon and in general how he's doing?

1:18:45 How old is cavante that that's what i would.

1:18:48 Wonder cavante can jump in and tell us.

1:18:52 Because to me like i'm an old man and he's not for me but i see how kids respond to it um i do find some of the stuff cringy but but again it's not for me um It's kind of like in music when genres pass you by and you hear a new hit and you're like, why would anybody listen to that? It's not for you. Taylor Swift is not for me. I have no interest in her music.

1:19:33 But I understand how she's a hit. So that's kind of how I look at Javon. The 6-7 thing is overdone. It needs to go away. And I'd have loved to have heard him call Sammy Unk. That would have been great. I love the way he hits the ropes. I love the way he jumps over ropes. The kid's amazing, and he's hungry, and I think he's got a massive future.

1:20:02 He's going to keep working hard and listen to the right people and work himself into a character that, as he gets older, he'll be less cringy. He's 22, 23 years old. You say cringy things.

1:20:15 Yeah.

1:20:15 Yeah.

1:20:19 Well, but it's if you're going to get natural to this, I'm not along to almost everything you're saying. But I think what Cavante would say is, yeah, you're 22 or 23. Listen to the adults in the room who tell you you're being cringy and you're turning people off. You're going a little too far. Let's dial it down. That would be the counter argument.

1:20:37 But I would say attract the kids, attract the ones that do like that. Like it's that wrestling buffet thing. He's not for Cavante. A lot of things on the show are. Um, I love lives cringy promos. I think that's one of the best things about her. Um, but, um, but that's just me. I get an appreciation. I have an appreciation for those. Um, so I, I do see where, I don't think it's enough to turn people off of the whole show. I think it is something to add people to the show.

1:21:11 Yep.

1:21:12 I think that's very true that he's not like, oh, my God, I can't watch WV anymore because Javon is cringy. Like it's not that's certainly it doesn't race to that level. Sadler version three says Javon is back and forth with me on the mic when he's serious.

1:21:25 I love it.

1:21:26 But when he's goofy, it comes off like an annoying.

1:21:28 High school kid.

1:21:30 Derek Mitchell says Javon would be the equivalent of Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, young guns. That's not going to appeal to everyone. but appeals to a certain demographic. No spoilers, please, on tonight's game, everyone. No spoilers. No spoilers. I want to watch this later tomorrow. 7-Eleven says, Javon has undeniable talent, but he does act like a kid in high school.

1:21:49 But my son loves him.

1:21:51 There it is.

1:21:52 Yeah, there it is. Sean Plichta says, Javon is doing well. I think they have him in a good spot. But I wish he came a little more from underneath than his provost. But I like his confidence overall. Piledriver Pete states the obvious. Javon can fly. Yes, indeed.

1:22:09 Good profile pic, too, Piledriver Pete.

1:22:14 And to our podcast audience, what is it?

1:22:17 Oh, it's Lon Chaney. Yeah. Old horror movie.

1:22:22 Yep.

1:22:22 It is the season.

1:22:24 Sean Plick adds, I love Liv on the mic, but I want to be more serious when she's in front of the crowd. Oh, I thought that was going to be related to Javon. Anyway, Darrell says Javon fits the age range and the background he comes from, plus the culture he's giving us a look into, he fits that in a real honest way.

1:22:38 Yeah. Um, I think the intensity is what I like.

1:22:41 Absolutely.

1:22:42 Yeah.

1:22:42 I was going to say earlier, he doesn't come across like somebody who was told, okay, now go turn it up to 11 and show us your youthful enthusiasm. Like, I feel like what we see is after Paula Beck or Michael Hayes or somebody just goes, all right, Siobhan, we love you. Got to dial it down a bit for the cameras. And then we see a dial down version of him on TV. That's kind of what I imagine. Um, He doesn't come across as following a script, according to Piledriver Pete. Goodfellas says, I'm old, but I find Javon is for me. I do agree. His catchphrase and some of his promos don't resonate. His upbeat attitude, charisma, and electricity in the ring draws me to him. I love watching his journey.

1:23:19 What I don't want to.

1:23:20 Hear is Michael Cole declaring him cool or gotta love that he's bouncy. You don't want the middle-aged man telling people, how cool that they have endorsed him and christened him as officially cool.

1:23:35 Uh, yeah.

1:23:36 No, I actually like it when, uh, um, Corey Graves was, um, you know, tells me he needs to dial it down and, you know, kind of becomes a curmudgeon old man. I think that's great.

1:23:48 Yep.

1:23:49 Uh, 7-Eleven says Javon needs to be the one who comes through the crowd now.

1:23:52 Yeah.

1:23:53 All right.

1:23:54 Um, you mentioned earlier, Pentos cash in, tease, um, Comment a little bit more on it. Actually, I'll read Profton's post first. Penta's cash-in got me because it was mid-match, because it was Sammy. I thought that was going to be the finish. Maybe Sammy didn't.

1:24:08 Want to go to Saudi.

1:24:10 I should have known better. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people are thinking about the Saudi thing watching. Obviously, thousands of people are, but I don't think it's like a. I don't even know the double-digit percentage who are thinking about that when they're processing storylines. But Sammy, his promo was so long and so like whining. It was just like, he like, it almost felt like it was to set up a bigger pop for him to lose. Cause finally he just, this will shut him up. He just lost his title and money in the bank. But of course that wouldn't, he just complained more about what a farce losing under those circumstances were.

1:24:44 Um, but I don't know.

1:24:45 I mean, I, the crowd, I, every local crowd's going to pop for maybe being witnessed to history. It doesn't mean it's a good thing to do every year as a gimmick for the TV audience, but W gets wrapped up in anything that's a crowd reaction, even if it's counterproductive to ultimately being good for the, for the product. Um, but that's that, I mean, I don't think it was just live audience.

1:25:03 And people at home.

1:25:04 Griffin, we're looking at Pentacle and.

1:25:07 Maybe, maybe, uh, yeah. Talk about it.

1:25:10 And his case is just so cool. I want to replicate case in my store. Um, yeah, I didn't think he was going to cash in and when, um, it just didn't seem like the right setup for it. Um, but you know, it, it is that pop and, from the live audience. It is keeping it in the back of your mind that this could happen at any point.

1:25:36 I was waiting to get him on the show and to set up the tag title matches coming up.

1:25:43 Exactly.

1:25:44 It was a conduit to other things. Let's see.

1:25:49 What else haven't we given due time to? Oh, EO Sky and Raquel Rodriguez. Sky winning this one 11 minutes. And yeah, I mean, what stood out to you?

1:26:00 I don't understand the rationale of making it a non-title match when you've got a former world champion challenging. So why is it essentially an eliminator match? But they'll get another match and gave Io a win without taking the title off of Raquel. Yeah, it was really good.

1:26:25 I mean.

1:26:27 Io's very good in the ring, obviously. I like Raquel. I like her being a big, dominant woman in the division. It was great.

1:26:36 Who was more excited, the five-year-old kid and his two siblings or something at ringside, or Io Sky to be shaking the kid's hand? Io was more excited to high-five and shake the kid's hand.

1:26:46 She's a cartoon character. Wow. I love Wade's call that she should be disqualified. That was hilarious.

1:26:56 And then actually Joe Testoren, he get a little heat in the chat and I get it. Um, he goes, Wade, he's only five. Like it was just a great line.

1:27:10 Yeah.

1:27:10 Um, Oh no, actually the quote is even better. He goes, it's a five-year-old. It's a five-year-old.

1:27:18 Yeah.

1:27:18 He was just, so anyway, um, yeah, that was funny. That was an unfair advantage says Wade Barrett.

1:27:24 All right.

1:27:25 Um, A couple of super chats from Derek Mitchell before we get close to wrapping up here. I love the inconsistency of WWE. On NXT, Ren was suspended during a title match three weeks ago. Montana was arrested two weeks ago. And on Raw, 946 has committed all kinds of crimes with no repercussions.

1:27:41 Yeah.

1:27:42 I mean, it's.

1:27:45 A creative license.

1:27:46 Well, they're rookies at NXT, so they don't get away with as many things because they're not money drawers.

1:27:51 Yeah, yeah. Obviously, I would like to see. No, I mean, there's all kinds of. contributing reasons, but it would be nice to have a canon story that made even somewhat close to that much sense. Although, it's not like Jada Parker and.

1:28:08 I don't know.

1:28:08 I mean, like, it's not like.

1:28:10 it's not like Roman Reigns is getting away with stuff, you know, they, they're, they're too. So yeah. All right. Derek, much says super chat from Derek. Thank you, Derek for the super chats. Always, always, always appreciate it. Trick wanted a title match versus Sammy. It was placed in a tag match. He secured a title shot for next week.

1:28:28 GM Adam Pierce granted Javon a WWE title shot tonight. He'd never do that to Roman. um yeah so i mean speaking of consistencies and inconsistencies this i'm trying to think what i guess it's just sammy is such was so aggravating tonight um.

1:28:51 He interrupted pierce and pierce is like screw you you're not gonna do that to me Yeah. And Sammy acknowledges that Roman has more pull. I mean, he said he had the pull not to be here. I wish I had that type of pull.

1:29:05 Yep.

1:29:05 Yep.

1:29:06 I agree.

1:29:09 Yeah.

1:29:09 So anything else, Griffin, that stands out for you? I'm looking over the chat to see if there's anything else you want to throw out.

1:29:15 How bad are these Michael Hayes shorts going to be? I kind of want to see them out of like the same way I watch bad movies.

1:29:24 Yeah.

1:29:25 That was not a Wonderful. If that's the best scene of Michael Hayes' acting, I don't know.

1:29:32 Yeah.

1:29:33 I mean, Tiffany's still worse, but yeah.

1:29:38 Hey, everyone.

1:29:39 Greg Parks here. You've probably heard me hosting Wrestling Night in America after pay-per-views and also co-hosting the Tuesday flagship with Wade Keller. I also host a VIP exclusive podcast every week called Greg Parks Out Loud. In this podcast, I delve into a single topic for around 20 minutes, perfect length for one of your daily commutes or while walking the dog. A couple of my recent episodes included a look at TNA as they move to AMC and WWE and AEW injuries for the year 2025. You can listen to VIP Podcasts with a VIP membership on many platforms, including on Patreon, Spotify, the Apple Podcasts native app on iPhone and CarPlay, just about every popular iOS and Android podcast app out there, and even stream right from the

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1:30:40 Speaking of Tiffany, a couple of other chats on her. First of all, for God's sake, we've done the whole Tiffany-teasing the cash-in already.

1:30:46 I'm so over it.

1:30:46 I actually thought they were going to do it, because surely they're not going to retread it. FF says, MD87Punk. John says, why would Tiffany do her finish if she wasn't going to cash in? Fresh new creative, please. In defense of them, she did the finish to see if it was worth cashing in. I mean, actually, I thought I actually thought it was smart. Griffin, Tiffany was smart.

1:31:08 She didn't cash in and then say, let me see if I can land my finisher. She said, let me land my finisher. Assess the situation. Oh, yeah, she's a squash bug. I can pin her. Now I'm going to cash in.

1:31:19 But.

1:31:19 She didn't foresee Dom would pull Liv out of the ring. And once Liv's pulled out of the ring, then Tiffany has stopped short of officially cashing in because she'd have to chase Liv down and drag her back into the ring at that point. I mean, the execution is a little bit sloppy and a little bit put on, but I would actually defend that a little bit.

1:31:36 Hit your finisher first, then cash in. I think everyone should do that.

1:31:39 Yeah, it's also why I like it when heels win the money in the bank because that's a heel tactic to, hey, let me hit my finisher and then let's start this match now that I've got the advantage.

1:31:50 Yep, yep.

1:31:52 Uh, Crofton noted Fresno got a WWE women's title match and a WWE women's title match. So they don't get nine for six to end to yeet boohoo for them. Um, yeah, it's not that they got a bad show.

1:32:05 We agree.

1:32:06 This was a good show wrestling wise.

1:32:08 Um, and two big surprise main events, book ending the show. I think Griffin and I agree on that. I, the issue is. You buy a ticket thinking you're going to see the top stars who you watch week after week. And, you know, if you pay to see a band, you don't want to see the lead singer and the guitarist not there just because the drummer is really good and the bass guitarist is highly respected. And a guest guitarist or keyboardist shows up who you don't care as much about.

1:32:33 It can still be a good concert, which is what we got, but you didn't see the star.

1:32:37 I went to see Wu-Tang Clan and Method Man wasn't there. I know that feeling completely.

1:32:42 I saw Oasis and Liam was having a tantrum or sick. I saw The Verve once and their great wasn't there. And so their lead singer had to play guitar and he didn't then didn't dance as much and wasn't able to be as charismatic.

1:32:56 That happens, you know?

1:32:57 Yeah.

1:32:57 I saw David Bowie once and David Bowie was there and that was great.

1:33:01 I would have been bummed if David White didn't show up for the David White concert.

1:33:04 I saw Prince at Paisley Park.

1:33:05 I was standing three feet from him while he played at three in the morning for a bunch of people and got free food from Paisley Park.

1:33:11 Jealous every time I hear that story.

1:33:13 Yes.

1:33:14 Just like as far as my camera screen is, I was that far from his fingers playing guitar. Just I, yeah, I appreciate it at the moment. I would like to go back and appreciate it even more now. But yeah, it was amazing. Amazing.

1:33:26 So yeah.

1:33:28 Anyway, a bit of a sidebar. Uh, Derek Mitchell points out if you're a SmackDown GM, Nick Aldis, you should be pissed that Adam Pierce put Sammy in a world title match.

1:33:36 There'll be a phone call.

1:33:37 We, we hear next week or later this week on SmackDown, probably, um, where Nick Aldis would be on the phone, you know, saying you check with me from now on when you put my champion in the ring. Um, And, oh, so as far as the next, if War Games is five on five, we have another nine for six members. There's been some speculation on that, Griffin. Jacob Patu's in the mix.

1:33:57 WWE didn't give us a lot new to do, to work on this week, but since it is kind of the A topic last couple weeks on Raw, just give me your, since we haven't talked about it, what are your thoughts on what they're doing with Jacob and the Build-A-War games and Solo joining up with Roman and the Usos?

1:34:12 We'll close with your thoughts on that.

1:34:14 My assumption is that Jacob will be back for war games and possibly drew McIntyre saying, Hey, I like these guys going against the bloodline. Um, wouldn't be a bad, uh, Way to bring Drew back, he's been feuding with the bloodline for years, no matter which side of the fence he's on, baby phase or heel. I don't know that the group fits together, but a one-time alliance to throw somebody else in there, because I don't think you need to grow the group 9-4-6 anymore. We just talked about how we've got all these personalities to develop. I think you always throw him in there as a veteran on that side.

1:35:00 Yep, I think that works.

1:35:01 Works as good as any theory that I've heard. All right, Griffin, any closing words from you?

1:35:08 No, check out the top five column. Head over to at Nerdstalgia Shop on YouTube. Check out podcasts that we've put up and talked about.

1:35:19 Well, we got a late Super Chat that's going to delay the close of the show, Griffin. We got to honor the Super Chat, and it's a good topic. Nima Pazar says, should we read into John Cena's appearance next week a few days before they risk their lives in Riyadh?

1:35:33 Yeah, there's a couple things I thought was weird about that, and I can't believe we missed that, but maybe it's because they barely made a big deal about it.

1:35:41 I know.

1:35:43 Like right before the main event, it's like, oh, Cena's going to be here next week? And that was it.

1:35:50 I think it's reflective of, honestly, a lot of people just being glad they're done with Cena behind the scenes, to be honest. It's just it's disruptive. And he kind of comes in and does what he wants. And he doesn't seem like he's aware that sometimes it's not. He's bracing them with his presence is more disruptive than helpful.

1:36:08 And all of that.

1:36:08 I think there's a little bit of that fair or unfair. I think that there's a perception of that, at least I'm not going. And I also just think they're exhausted from building him up as the greatest champ ever. And I think there's some current roster resentment of him saying, I'm the last real champion. I don't think Cena meant anything by it, but it exposed kind of a dope when it comes to wrestling IQ and unselfaware and wrapped up his own stuff.

1:36:29 So that could be why they didn't blow it up much.

1:36:32 I mean, he's very talented and very popular and very likable in many, many ways. But I'm not going to go on the critics side. The criticisms of him, I think, have some validity, and it happens when people get in the stratosphere of celebrityhood that he's in.

1:36:47 Yeah. I think it's weird to put him on there on a show that's going to be lower viewers anyway because of the time change. People are going to forget, and they're going to tune in at the normal time. I don't think they care, though.

1:37:04 What?

1:37:05 I'm not sure if you're saying, I don't think WWE cares when people tune in.

1:37:08 They get their money anyway.

1:37:10 WWE cares, but I think Netflix does. Um, they want that live viewership, um, as a company. Um, the Riyadh thing, I had a little thought on that too. Cause I'm like, yeah, he's probably coming in to, um, talk about the John Cena classic or some type of plug for that. Cause that's a couple of months away. Um, we'll be, you know, just a month away at that point. We'll be in November. Um, but yeah, I'm like, yeah, funny. He'll show up on that show. No way star of his caliber would put himself at risk. Um, going to Riyadh. Um, that's a whole other topic that, uh, we don't have time to spend on.

1:37:52 All right, Manuel and Nick Khan, they should all, they should all be on that jet with the wrestlers and the show of solidarity and to commit in a, they should not be scared to do that. And the fact that they are willing to put the talent on, on airplanes to fly out there.

1:38:06 Um, Because they want to take the lion's share.

1:38:09 Of $ 50 million or whatever.

1:38:12 I mean, they should be on those airplanes.

1:38:14 It's a show I have to skip. I just can't. I mean, not everybody can. And no judgment on those that watch. But it's gross.

1:38:27 Goodfellas says, why is Raw at 6 p.m.

1:38:29 Eastern?

1:38:29 What's going on there?

1:38:30 Night?

1:38:30 They're taping SmackDown right afterwards so they can get to Riyadh if that remains the plan.

1:38:35 And as of now, all systems go.

1:38:37 I talked about it on the Wade Keller hotline for VIP members earlier today. I've been covering every day. We have four or five Wade Keller hotlines in a row, five days in a row. of 20, 30 minute news updates. Um, and, uh, the, I've covered the cron jewel stuff. So if you're interested in more details on that, that's your source, PW torch, VIP info.com. Uh, good fellas says, ah, thanks Wade.

1:38:58 Yep.

1:38:58 You're welcome.

1:38:59 Um, and let's see if there's any other, uh, chats here that snuck.

1:39:05 In at the end.

1:39:06 They're promoting their extras. They're promoting the heck out of that Ron Brooklyn next week.

1:39:10 Um, indeed they are.

1:39:12 Um, and, uh, Yeah, I think that's just scrolling through things. I don't think anything else came up. I don't know if Chad Gable's okay or not. It seemed to work into the finish, and they didn't have doctors checking on him, just referees. So I generally don't know if he was legit stunned or not, but they had three arrests but not a doctor there.

1:39:33 It didn't sound concerning from the announcer voice perspective, so I assumed it was story.

1:39:43 Eric Moises I want to hear more about this Paisley Park concert back in the day this was when there was internet but not social media that you would hear through word of mouth essentially Prince would send out that he's in the mood to perform at his home base where he lived at Paisley Park and in Chanhessen and word would get out like word of mouth through whatever means they'd send a little email to a mailing list And then it was just kind of first come, first serve.

1:40:15 You would reserve a spot, and then you would go stand starting around 1 a.m. I'm maybe getting details wrong. It was decades ago.

1:40:23 But you'd stand.

1:40:25 You'd go to Paisley Park, and it was really rainy and really cold that night. I remember just wishing I dressed better and ate more before I got there. And I think we waited outside. We actually probably got there like 1130 or something. But we stood outside for like an hour and a half, two hours. And finally, he got around to letting us in. But it's typical that it would be a late start. Um, I could, again, I can have my time off by an hour here or there, but, um, we were outside for.

1:40:48 A long time in the cold.

1:40:49 And then when he finally opened up, it was just in his, in his studio, like his, where the kind of the entry area where there was a stage set up. I toured Paisley Park a few years back and was back in that room. Although they did some remodeling since then. So I think I was in one room thinking it was it. And it was actually another one that they've since remodeled nevertheless. Um, and he, he had free food and free non-alcoholic drinks. You were very, um, No phones were allowed, no alcohol, and you went through metal detectors and a pat-down. It was a very highly secure situation.

1:41:22 But once you got in, you just hung out. It was like being in a club, except it was the one he owned. He just turned the lights down, turned the lights on the stage, and it was just free soft drinks and snacks and people hanging out, watching him play. And he did it for like three hours.

1:41:40 That's it.

1:41:41 It was awesome.

1:41:42 Very cool experience.

1:41:43 That's pretty cool.

1:41:44 Yep.

1:41:44 I had heard about it, but never had a friend who knew, and I finally did. And so, yeah, we won.

1:41:53 All right.

1:41:53 We'll end there. Griffin, thanks so much.

1:41:55 Awesome having you on.

1:41:56 Yeah, thanks, Wade.

1:41:58 At Nostalgia Shop on social media.

1:42:00 All right.

1:42:01 Cool.

1:42:02 Take care, everybody.

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