Night of Champions: Long-Form Wrestling Debate

Twisted and Brother Pyro recap Night of Champions/King of the Ring, apologizing for the late upload after four shows in one weekend. They review Oba Femi defeating Jey Uso to win the 2026 King of the Ring, then discuss Raw follow-up where Brock Lesnar confronts Oba and a SummerSlam Hell in a Cell match is proposed, plus Jey admitting he’s avoiding Roman. They cover Liv Morgan vs IYO SKY, with IYO overcoming a knee tweak to win Queen of the Ring and immediately calling for a rematch, and they debate the lack of an active SmackDown women’s title scene due to Rhea’s injury. They praise Seth Rollins vs Bron Breakker in a steel cage and note Rollins later challenging Roman. They grade Trick Williams vs Ricky Saints and Tiffany Stratton vs Jade Cargill, then celebrate Sami Zayn winning the WWE title in a triple threat over Cody Rhodes and Gunther while worrying about a short reign.

Transcript

Welcome back update

0:15

What is up, guys? Welcome back to Wrestling Crossroads. As always, I am one half of Dynamic Duo, Twisted, alongside Brother Pyro Hello. Uh, we are sorry for this getting out a little late, obviously, with four kind of big, I don't really wanna say big shows, but two big shows, and obviously the other two being right around the 4th of July, so- Yeah, so we had a lot going on We had a lot going on, plus wrestling burnout does kind of happen with that big of shows. Yeah, we had four in one weekend. We kinda tired. Yeah. Um, and then obviously Brother Pyro's birthday we had as well, and as we said, the 4th of July. So without further ado, we are here to give you all four today. So all four will be uploaded by the end of the night. Yeah. Starting off, we have Night of Champions, Day of Champions, whatever you wanna call it. What did you think overall of this? Overall, it was a decent show. Uh, I think it helped us truly get ready for Summer Slam. I'm excited to see how things play out in the weeks to come, 'cause we have about four or five weeks now till we hit Minneapolis. Uh, there's a lot of things here that were set up very well. Mm-hmm. Let's, let's see how we, how the follow-through- lands- I hope- With the belt with the fact that we have two nights in Minneapolis that we end up with more title matches- I'm gonna say this- than what we're looking at once and once only, not everything needs to be two nights. No, no, it doesn't, but we have it as two nights again, just like we have Mania. Um, I just hope that there's a lot more titles on the line this time so we can showcase the champions that don't get showcased and only get the smaller pay-per-views like this one. Yeah. Um, do you wanna start us off or do you want me to? Um, I can definitely- Yep, start us off start us off. All right.

King of the Ring final

2:19

So kicking off the show, we had Oba Femi and Jey Uso to determine 2026 King of the Ring. Um, now this match wasn't very long, but I think this match did exactly everything it needed to do. Um, we got, uh, going right into the, uh, going right into the end of it, we got Oba Femi claiming the crown- Yes in a very not dominant, but dominant fashion. Mm-hmm. 'Cause Jey definitely, I think, has been the guy to give him the most fight outside of Brock Lesnar. I, I wouldn't say that 'cause you gotta think- On the main roster. Okay, there we go. I was gonna s- I was gonna tell you to fix your words a little bit 'cause you gotta think of- Main roster NXT. On the main roster we've, I think this has definitely been h- one of his tougher battles. Jey Uso definitely came and- Prepared came prepared for Oba, but Oba definitely was prepared for Jey. Mm-hmm. Both men really having a lot to prove, both men really needing a huge step forward in their career. Yeah. Jey Uso given instructions by, uh- The- Roman, "Hey, win this so you can bring home the other title." Boom and boom. Yep. So we can both say that either end of the table. Mm-hmm. We didn't really get interference, which made me happy. Yeah. Oba, like I said though, definitely came prepared for Jey Uso and his warning shots and whatever. Mm-hmm. 'Cause at the end of the day, it was a fall f- or was it? Yeah, he calls it fall from grace- Yep to pick up the win, one, two, three. Oba Femi, your new King

RAW fallout Lesnar returns

4:16

of the Ring. Now, I wanna move into what we saw on Monday Night Raw. Okay. Oba Femi starts the show- Mm-hmm in Atlantic City. He comes out. Man, like, to the admir- like, to the absolute admiration of the crowd. Mm-hmm. Crowd is feeding him. He is feeding off this crowd. He is loving what he's hearing. Mm-hmm. He's like, "This is a response fit for a ruler, but I need one meant for a king," which is absolutely great. I love it. And now we fast-forward just a little bit as he's, you know, giving his thank you speech, his I told you a- this is what, uh, was gonna happen. Mm-hmm. I knew what I, I set out to do. I called my shot, and I, and I bit- Yeah I hit it. As he's about to declare champion, we hear Brock Lesnar's music. Mm-hmm. Man, was that fun. Okay. 'Cause he comes out. Lesnar openly admits, you know, he doesn't watch the product, but congratulates him on winning King of the Ring. Circle back to 2002, Brock Lesnar- Where Brock was the one King of the Ring, yep was King of the Ring. He admitted. He was like, "Yeah, I was that a long time ago," which is awesome. Now, Lesnar then, you know, reminds him, "Hey, so I haven't been around in a while, but Paul has been telling me you've been calling me names" And admonish her and, and as he's, you know, going through this, you know, he, he ends this with, "Talk ish, get hit." Takes him in the uprights, hits him with an F5, goes to leave the ring. Mm-hmm. Oba gets up. He lets him know, "Hey, I've been saying it behind your back, but you're in my face and I'm still gonna say exactly what I've been saying, and that, and it's that you're a Mm-hmm. Challenges him to a match at Summer Slam. Okay.

Slow burn story telling

6:23

There's a lot of the wrestling community online, "Oh, well, if this was the plan, why not- Give it to- give it to Jey? Why did he have to win?" What is the payoff if you blow your load right away? Right. If you give him all of the things right away, what makes any of his accomplishments special? Right. If you give everything to him right away, what are we building towards? What is the point? 'Cause as soon as you give him everything, if they were to give him everything right away, everybody would be mad. "Oh, well, what was the point in any of this if he's just gonna have everything right away and he's just gonna dominate and..." No matter what, somebody was gonna find something to complain about. Eh, everybody does. I'm okay with the slow burn. Again, I have, I predicted this story. I was talking with somebody at, uh, work. He was a hu- he's a huge wrestling fan. He's the guy that, uh, I sent the picture to our group chat with the, uh, spinner title. Um, me and him were talking, I was like, "See, now here's what I w- here's what a lot of people wanted to see. Night one, night two, Oba pulled double duty. I wouldn't have minded that, you know, uh, in, with Lesnar, especially as, with Lesnar raising the stakes of, "I accept your challenge, uh, but we're gonna do this at Hell in a Cell." Yeah. Love it. I- I mean, we called Last Man Standing, but We, I would've loved to have seen Last Man Standing. Yeah. But I'm not gonna be mad about Hell in a Cell, especially 'cause, you know what? In recent memory, you have made it mean something again. Yes. But it was, if you're giving me Lesnar-Oba, Oba then, you know. Where if you were to give us both, Oba then loses night two 'cause he's so beaten up from that battle with Lesnar, whatever, it would've made sense. Mm-hmm. Roman comes out, "You wanted to try to be like one of us, try to be one of the big dogs, try," whatever, and you couldn't hang. Mm-hmm. You tried to pull double duty, you couldn't hang, and that's why you lost. You're still a rookie. Come back to me when you, you know- When you can come ba- I'll get back to you- In a couple- when I feel you're actually ready. Or come back to me when you're actually ready to ha- to carry the load- Mm-hmm that you claim you're so ready for. Whatever. Yeah. What I wanna see now, story-driven right here. Obviously Oba, you know, Heyman talks to Pearce, sells it. 'Cause Hey- you can tell Pearce had that face of You're making way too much sense, and I hate it right now. Like, I hate it when you're right facing. Yeah. You give me that, you give me that when I start to be logical a lot. But it's very rare that you are logical. My, that- I love you like, when I start to make sense, you give me that eye hate. I hate you. I w- I wanna hate you, but I can't hate you. Exactly, and that's the, 'cause printing money, that's a main event. That's a main event. Night one or night two, Lesnar, Oba, Hell in a Cell, main event. That's, yeah, that's a main event. Now, you give me the fact that Oba then doubled it down and was like, "Yeah, I want the" Now, now, I don't agree with his word of, his choice of words, saying the title match will always be there, 'cause you and I both know his wrestling fans A lot of analysts know this. Wrestlers in the back, title opportunities aren't just handed out. No. They're not always there. You gotta work for them. Look at Sami Zayn. Going into our main event, this was his 10th opportunity at the title. It's taken him 10 years to really get to a spot of can he do it? Title opportunities don't come out of nowhere unless your name is Cody Rhodes at this point. They are very far and few in between, and that's my thing is, uh, Cody in the last three and a half, four years of the five years that he has been in the title run, but think of everything it took for him to get to that main event title spot. Oh, yeah. He had to leave. He had been with the company for, like, eight, nine, 10-plus years now; had to leave, reinvent himself, and then come back. Drew McIntyre had, got fi- he didn't leave, he got fired, reinvented himself, and then was brought back. And has barely been a champion. But he's been a champion. Yeah. But, a- and you know what? Let's... Drew McIntyre, champion during the pandemic, and I think that would've been amazing with the crowd, but obviously the world shut down. Yeah. And then what happened after he lost it? He had to kind of find his wa- he had to crawl his way back into that title picture, to then get knocked out, to then crawl his way back in. It doesn't happen often. So Oba, this is the rookie mentality that you have. The title opportunity isn't always gonna be there. No. Um, and Pierce was like, "Are you sure?" He's like, "Yeah." Cool. Now we have it. What I wanna see now is he, he conquers Lesnar in Minneapolis. Yeah. Now he's like, "All right," I think Money in the Bank is the next one. The next big, big one is Survivor Series. He's like, "All right, I'm calling my shot that I won with King of the Ring." Roman's like, "Nah, kid, that match was specifically for Summer Slam. Now you have to be put on the back burner. You de- Now you have to earn it you decided to give up your guaranteed shot for this specific night as per the rules of winning this- Yeah, tournament this tournament. Your guaranteed title shot was Summer Slam. Summer Slam done came and went. And went. Yep. You're back of the line. You gotta earn this. Now we build, and you see it, Roman, you know, throwing obstacles at his way. I, I need the collision course between Oba and Jacob at some point. Mm-hmm. You know, 'cause Jacob has been a very good soldier to Roman as of late. Handle this. Jacob fails to get it done, but now, you know, he... Even if he doesn't win the Rumble- Yeah what's the next opportunity to get a title shot? Elimination Chamber. He wins one of those two, Mania 43, night two main event, Roman Reigns, Oba Femi World Heavyweight Championship. Okay, okay. Done. There is your long-term storytelling. There is your payoff. You didn't blow your load all in the first, like, six months of this guy being in the ring. You played the long game, and watch, it will work out. All right, all right.

Match grade and loose ends

13:15

Okay, um, so going back to the pay-per-view we're talking about, King of the Ring, what was your grade for this and why? Uh, what did I give it? I'm really ha- I gave it, I gave it a B+. There really wasn't interference, which I liked. They still, they did a good job of building Oba, but we all knew the outcome. Yeah. It's kind of predictable, which made it kind of meh. I mean, you even said it on, when we did the kickoff, that either way you had a story going here. You did. Either way you had a reason. But you- Either way it was predictable but also with Oba winning, you left a lot more open loose ends. Which they covered on Monday. Which thankfully on Monday, they, they came back around to those loose ends and were like, "Let's tie these off," and- Yep but we didn't know that was gonna happen on Monday. No. We didn't know what was gonna happen on Monday. We even talked about it on the, on the pre-show, that they don't ever, you know, sometimes they just leave those loose ends to be loose ends, and you don't want that to happen here. 'Cause you know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna derail just a little. Again. Speaking of loose ends, no, no, 'cause my derailing wasn't a derail. We, I was, you know- Okay from point A to point B, we were going based off of w- the information we have right now. Okay, okay. Continue. My, my- Derail El Grande Americano, that, that, that whole storyline. Okay. Chad Gable, Ludwig Kaiser, whatever. Yeah. Original versus new El Grande Americano. We are getting this Chad Gable redemption arc s- a- apology tour- Yeah whatever. Do you realize that there is a, a trio of loose ends when it comes to all of this? Where- so in this storyline- Yeah we are missing three people that were key to this storyline, that followed Chad to Mexico. Oh, are we talking about- Oh Br- the Creeds? Brutus, Julius- Ivy and Ivy Nile. Yeah. What's going on with them? No apology, haven't really seen or heard from them. Chad hasn't acknowledged that they've even existed. They were, they, they were part of this storyline from the beginning. Yeah. And now they- And now they just don't exist in the story? Loose end that you kinda need to get- Back to, yeah back to. 'Cause we got the loose ends of, all right, he's, l- like I said, we've gotten this whole grand sorry, sorry apology tour. Yeah. But no, so I really applaud WWE for tying up the loose end that is Obofemi, Brock Lesnar- Mm-hmm 'cause now it's what's gonna happen with Jay and Roman, and it was funny 'cause if you watched Raw- Nope. Unfortunately- You didn't get to watch Raw? I, I did not. During the Jimmy Uso/LA Knight match- Mm-hmm Jay Uso is on commentary. They're, you know, "Hey". They're talking to him about the loss. Yeah. They asked him one specific question, and that was, "Are you avoiding Roman?" He's like, "Yeah, kind of. I'm not gonna lie to you." I, I wouldn't, I don't, I, I, I wouldn't blame him for it. I don't blame him for it. Right. Right. But, like, now you gotta figure out what's the next move there, 'cause now that's a loose end that you gotta tie up. Yeah. How does Roman handle that? Yeah. All right.

Queen of the Ring Final

16:45

Uh, jumping into our next match, we have the Queen of the Ring Final, Liv Morgan takes on IYO SKY. This match, um, to start it off, was pretty much back and forth. Um, good storytelling between the women. There was a moment on the outside where IYO did tweak her knee, um, so that did play a factor into the rest of the match. Obviously hobbling on just one leg. Liv Morgan trying to take advantage of that. But in the end- I also then using the, uh, the leg injury- Yeah as part of the match, like, to help further the story, um- Was really good was absolutely well done. I applaud it solid. Um, closing moments, IYO is able to overcome the injury for a few seconds, hit the Over the Moonsault, picking up the win, one, two, three. Your Queen of the Ring, IYO SKY. Out crawls Liv Morgan, and IYO immediately says, "I'm picking you" I- we running it back. Like, I just beat you. Of course I'm gonna come back. Right? I'ma get my get back. That's what I was thinking. They- Bro, what? instantly. Immedia- And I think that's part of the, one, we've beaten the IYO versus Rhea storyline to absolute death at this point. What sense does it make knowing that they're fri- like, they're absolute best friends. Rhea's- 'Cause it's the possible heel turn that everybody's hoping for Rhea's currently injured. Like- Yeah honestly, and as much as I hate to be this guy, listen, we don't know when Rhea's supposed to come back. Yeah.

Rhea Injury title plans

18:18

I think Pearce or Triple H or whatever gets on the phone with Rhea, "Hey" We don't know when you're coming back. It's not fair that we don't have a champion active on SmackDown right now. Think you should vacate, and when you come back you'll, you know, you'll have- Earn it up you'll be- You'll have an opportunity you'll have an opportunity to regain this title since you didn't lose it or whatever. But I think, you know, you're doing something wrong with not having something for the women on SmackDown- Yeah to play for right now. And I mean, who's to say, we're a month away from Summer Slam. Who's to say she doesn't come back for it? But then- But, but you set up, like, a tournament to, here's your, here's your opponent for Summer Slam. Yeah, but, like, with this, like- It's- We don't know if she'll make it, if she'll be cleared. And that's what I say. Especially with the, the strain of the knee injury, 'cause knee injuries are very dif- difficult, they're very temperamental. Yeah. You never know. Mm-hmm. That's why I said, depending upon- So, like- if, like, if, like, she is to look cleared by Summer Slam, and she's doing all that she needs to, you set up a tournament. Like, if, if, if I- There's your number one contender. And like I said, I feel like you, you give the call, like, "Hey, we're gonna pull," like what they did with, uh, Roxanne in NXT a couple years ago. Okay. She got injured. They had to strip her of the title. Mm-hmm. And when she got cleared, she got added to the ladder match- Yep for the vacated tit- So what you do is, you know, you announce this tournament, whatever. You go through, you go through, you go through, or whatever. You, hey, you know, five matwomen, six-woman ladder match or whatever- Yeah at Summer Slam to crown the vac- The vacated the vacated title. Okay. Rhea then makes an appearance, like, the SmackDown or Raw- Before, like Roxanne did Ra... Yeah. Like, "Hey, I got the okay. I'm cleared to go." Okay. "Listen, you've already vacated your title. But since you didn't actually lose it, I'll insert you into the match." Okay. Give me something like that. If, like, this is, but right now you need to give the women on SmackDown something to fight for. Mm-hmm. 'Cause Liv being your only champion isn't fair to what is a very stacked and talented women's roster. Isn't fair to literally anybody, 'cause nobody can stand her as champion. But also, also, um, props to my man Dan. Oh, yeah. I, I think that was honestly stupid 'cause it gave you the winner. It did. Oh yeah, no, like you 100%, like, hey, hey, hey, Liv Morgan could have beaten the Curse. She didn't, but she could have. Yeah, sure. But like, I, I thought it was... It made sense for the storyline that they're telling with Judgment Day- Yeah and Danhausen. I, I thought it was that fun little tidbit that like everybody is just hehe-haha, especially with, you know, Danhausen being part of everything New York Knicks right now. Mm-hmm. His f- consistent features on ESPN, like if you didn't put him within that free hour on ESPN, you dropped the ball. Danhausen is the biggest merch magnet to date- Right now in the company. Yeah. All right. There was your opportunity to make it happen. Um, your grade for this and the reason. I also gave this one a B+. A- again- The, the fact that Iyo was able to overcome the injury was great. Yeah. You set up the follow-up right away But there were a few moments where you're like, you know, this is kind of Dragon. Oh, yeah. There's, there's a few moments where you're like, are... Like, it was kind of hard to pay attention to here and there. Like, overall it was a, it was a great match. These, these two women know each other really well. They work really well together. So I'm not entirely upset with the fact that this was the match. If I remember correctly, funny enough, this was the longest match on the card. It was not. It was either the- It was- it was the second longest I wanna say it was the second longest, but the longest match on the card was the Triple Threat match. Okay. All right. Taking your word- It was the Triple Threat match, and then it was the steel cage match. Okay. Then it was this one.

Bron vs Seth Steel Cage tease

22:32

Speaking of steel cages, Bron Breakker, Seth Rollins, first hour, or first match off of the three-hour. Now, originally this was slated to be in that first hour. And personally speaking, if I'm WWE, that's what I would've made the attention-grabber. That would've been my opening contest. You always wanna start your night off on a massive, massive high. And that's the thing- And you wanna end on the massive, massive high. Everything in the middle you can play around with, but you want your opener and your ender to be the top- most rated, most viewed, the absolute top spots. And that's what Triple H is really good at, but ever since TKO- TKO's been cutting his legs out from under him this is the beginning. 'Cause honestly, this match was absolutely amazing. It was everything you expected and then some. Probably one of my f- favorite cage matches that has been done in recent memory. Oh, yeah. 'Cause I think the last cage match we got was Drew/Cody, and I really di- and- Oh my God I, I, I berated that one. I, I, I beat that one... I'm gonna, I'm gonna- I just- I just- I, I talked down on that one till I was blue in the face this one might make you laugh. The last, um, steel cage match obviously you're saying was Drew/Cody. Uh, Baby Crossroads fell asleep to that. That's hilarious. I knew, I knew you'd love that. That's, that's hilarious. Yeah. Baby Crossroads, I, I was watching it and he's watching it with me, and all of a sudden just out. Well, okay, so it wasn't an entertaining cage match. No, it wasn't. And that sucked, but, like, we started right away. Rollins makes his entrance. I'm gonna introduce a bunch of stuff into the cage, throw a bunch of stuff into the cage. Breakker made his entrance. He was, he was onslaught either. Everything that got introduced got used. This was about as personal as they were going to get, and I loved every second of it. This should've been your opening match. 'Cause obviously you weren't gonna make it your main event. If, if he had the chance to, uh, this should've been the main event. Th- I mean, even if you would've made this the main event, your main event then should've been your opener. Right. Like, I- What an opening put over the two best match- Oh, yeah on the card. Like, A+ match. There wasn't anything I really had to complain about- No for any of this. You got to see a little bit of blood, which is something we don't normally see in WWE.

Booking future stars

25:01

Personally, I would've loved it if Breakker did go over. You wanna kind of try to build your future, but considering what- The storyline was the storyline was, Rollins is looking to put the vision behind him, this made sense. Now, if you would've put Breakker over, you could've maybe started building him to, you know, towards the IC title again, to then build h- start building him toward the World Heavyweight Championship 'cause you want, you, you want to cement your younger stars to then ta- take over when the Roman Reigns, the Seth Rollins, the CM Punks, the s- you know, the Cody Rhodes, the Drew McIntyres, these start to fade out. Yeah. You wanna phase in your- New guys Bron Breakkers, your Je'Von Evans, your- Bronson Reed your Bronson Reed, maybe your Austin Theory, your Oba Femis. Yeah. Your Jacob Fatu. Like, you wanna phase those guys in. Yeah. You wanna give them more of the Ws now than ever. So, and, you know, obviously we talked about this. Again, another great follow-up to this match, closing segment- Mm-hmm of Monday Night Raw. Okay.

Roman and Rollins Promo

26:15

Roman comes out, you know, acknowledge me. I'm, I'm, I'm thinking, oh, he's gonna come out, he's gonna call Jey Uso out, he's gonna confront him and be like, "Yo, you dropped the ball. What was wrong?" Mm-hmm. But before he could even do any of that, Seth Rollins comes out. Mm-hmm. Makes a really good point. "You and I are tied together. We're always gonna be tied together." Mm-hmm. "But I, your career isn't anything without me. If I don't stab you in the back with that chair, if I don't attack you with that chair back in 2014, your career doesn't take the j- trajectory that it does, and I fully stand on that." I agree. "I fully support that statement, Mr. Rollins." Yep. You and like everybody at Wrestling Crossroads. "But you and I are forever tied together." One last dance. I, you have something that's mine. I never lost that title. 'Cause Rollins really never- No, he didn't did lose that title. He vacated it due to injury. Mm-hmm. Never lost it. I feel like he had a per- a right to- To have it, yeah be the one to challenge for it. Oh, hell yeah. Now, him also bringing up we're a lot closer to the end than we are to the beginning of our careers, 'cause when he made that statement of when we were the young guys back in 2012 to whenever- Yeah, when we- when they made it- debuted we went to take everything that, that o- take over the, from the older generation. Yeah. And now we have a young locker room in the back hungry and ready to do the same thing to us. Oh, yeah.

Best Promo teachers

27:52

And I don't think I have ever felt a more real promo come out of Seth Rollins in he- my God, does that man know how to speak. Like, you gravitate to everything he says. I swear, se- like, it needs to be a group of three men, and it needs to be Punk, Rollins, and Miz to teach everybody in the back how to talk. Like, honestly, like if you- I'm not talking manager-wise, 'cause obviously that would just be Paul Heyman. You give that to Paul Heyman and you call it a day. But if I'm- But those three men- If I, I, if I'm looking at guys that can work in the ring, that can also speak on the mic, and I need, you know, these guys in LFG, in Evolve, in the ID Pro- Program, in, in like these guys that need the promo- More you give me, your promo teachers are, I'm gonna go ahead and agree with you. I'm gonna go with CM Punk, I'm gonna go with The Miz. I will give you Seth freakin' Rollins. LA Knight. Give me LA Knight, 'cause man, he can talk like a- Mm. Man, he knows how to speak. But like, these are all guy... And honestly, one of the, one of my favorite talkers right now because he makes, uh, he's a younger guy, but he makes every word mean something, is Oba freakin' Femi. Oba knows how to speak so well, and you hang on every word he says. You want, when you're cutting your promos, you want the crowd invested and paying attention. And yet, before his trip at NXT, he lost and was, like he lost every single match and was not a good speaker. That, I find it so funny 'cause the, that, that little transition, I d- can't remember what he was on. I wanna say it was LFG, or it was ID, but just that little twist to see how far he's come with it is so shocking. Because now it, it's like a completely different person You know who else, who else is a really good speaker? Who? Kevin Owens. Yes. That is another one, yes. But yes, no, I am r- I enjoy that we got the follow-up that we did- Yes with Rollins challenging for the World Heavyweight title. But now it's, and I wanna, I wanna say this I need Seth Rollins to be the only guy on the, in the company- Okay that Roman cannot conquer. All right. All right. I need, the, as a wrestling fan, we all have that one hurdle we can never get past, and I need that to be Se- Seth Rollins for Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns needs to retire with never having beaten Seth Rollins one-on-one. Okay. Okay. It just, it makes sense to their story, to their- To their back- their build. Yes. Like, everything says- "You can't beat me" and it needs to stay that way. Okay. Like, Roman can dominate anybody else. This is- Rollins has been- this one hurdle the biggest thorn in your side and the biggest hurdle of your career for- Ever 12 years now. Yeah. Keep it that way. Okay. Okay. All

Trick vs Ricky Review

31:27

right. Um, jumping into our next match, 'cause I believe you gave your grade for this one. I did. A Tuesday night post-match. All right. Uh, we have the US title, Trick Williams takes on Ricky Saints. Um, for me, this match was not the greatest, honestly. It wasn't. It was kind of just- It was very- thrown in there it was very slow with everything. These men looked... I, I know they've worked together numerously in NXT, but it looked really- They really didn't get much of a chance to work together in NXT it looked very sloppy to me. It was. There were a lot of moments that dragged, a lot of awkward moments. Um, there's not really much that I can say to it. There was a tiny bit of interference on the outside, 'cause obviously Trick still has Lil Yachty- Yachty uh, but not much to where the ref had to- I was gonna say, yeah, he, he didn't play a big factor. No, but still that little bit, um, and the finish of it just looked really rushed, I feel. Yeah. Um- Their in-ring chemistry wasn't great. No. And that's part of the reason I gave it the, the grade that I did. So picking up the win in that and retaining his championship was Trick Williams. I, you gave this match a B. I did. And your reasoning for that, obviously- There was a lot of awkward moments, you could tell, so, 'cause you can tell their chemistry wasn't great. It dragged out a little bit, but I think it was, one, you gave me the correct winner 'cause- Mm-hmm Trick shouldn't lose this title, not for a while. Yeah. And two, I think you gave them a chance to really- showcase uh, themselves on a bigger light that I don't think they would get on a weekly programming. Okay. Okay. I also just don't feel Ricky Saints was the right opponent. But- I agree, but- But- You know, they're trying to set up for Trick Melo somehow, so But I was gonna say, but if, I, 'cause I didn't get to watch Smackdown, but catching some of the highlights- Mm-hmm you started getting that build. Okay. Okay. Um, so I'm excited to- I saw a little bit of Smackdown- Like I said- I, I- But- fortunately didn't get to see much I didn't get to see, I didn't really get to watch any of it. Um, but I did catch that on socials of their, that slow build. All right. Uh, our next match up?

Tiffany vs Jade critique

34:00

Uh, next match up, from one US title to the next, the US Women's Title on the line, Tiffany Stratton versus Jade Cargill. Again, not the greatest match. No. God, their chemistry is horrible. I will say, this was better than their match at Saturday Night's main event for the women's title, but it still wasn't great They don't have chemistry at all, do they? No, they don't. They need to figure that out, though. They need to figure out something. This is only, like, their second match together. But at the same time- Second or third when you look at, going back, all of Jade Cargill's matches, she's kind of the, you know, the, um, common denominator. Yes. She needs to go back. She needs to go down to NXT. She needs to get- She, she, sh- a look at Oh, she should have made that stint through NXT. I had stated it when they signed her. Oh, yeah. Now drop her back down. Drop- Drop her down to NXT, and don't make her bulldoze her way through, because- No she needs to learn. E- exactly. Um- I'll let you get back to it. Going into the closing moments, we saw a lot of, you know, Michin and B-Fab make their way. Uh, Chelsea and Charlotte came and played equalizer- Mm uh, and that opened the door for Tiffany to pick up the win, retain her title. I gave it a C+ match just 'cause it was slightly above mid. It told the story it needed to, but again, you can tell the chemistry is off. Think way too much happened at the end. Oh, yeah. Too much interference, way too cluttered. Just... And again, it was just slightly better than their previous match. Yep, I agree. Not that it really mattered all that much. No.

Triple threat main event

35:54

All right, uh, jumping into our main event, we have the WWE title in a Triple Threat match. Cody defends against Gunther and Sami. Before we even get into just parts of this match, what did you think about this main event overall, honestly? Dude, I was invested. I was invested the minute it was announced. I was like, it's about time you give Sami some love. I was like, you know what? No matter who comes out, it's a believable winner. It's- Yep gonna be a fun match. All three of these men are honestly probably working some of the best programs that they have in recent memory, 'cause let's be real, Gunther has been kind of stale and stagnant and on a downward spiral- Yeah since- Uh, retiring AJ Styles 'cause let's be real, that Mania match really wasn't all needed. No. Cody's been kind of stale as champion in general, and I think this is probably Sami's best work since the Bloodline. Okay. Um, so obviously a lot of back and forth with it being a Triple Threat match, a lot of break-ups throughout the entirety of the match. Um, there were some moments where Gunther did lock in that sleeper hold, and a lot of moments during this match where you could see a lot more tension build between Cody and Sami as, uh, Sami pulled the ref out of the ring during a three, almost a three-count for Cody, uh, to retain his championship, and then Sami pulling the same thing onto Sam- or Co- yeah, Cody pulling the same thing onto Sami later on in the match. Uh, it build, it built more of a storyline for these two going forward, and Gunther just kind of being that third wheel in this whole thing at this point. And I- With the way that they were playing it I was gonna say, I don't feel Gunther was really much of a third wheel. Like, everybody played equal parts, right? Yeah. They were a very well-formed tricycle. They were. However, when you look at, like, the wheels on a tricycle, there's one in front and there's two in back. So the one in front being the odd wheel out. Yes, but if you also think of the design of a tricycle, if any one of those wheels is not in place- It goes- the other two are pointless. I agree. I agree. 'Cause without that front wheel, which I'll say is Cody 'cause he entered this match as champion. Yep. Your, your two challengers are the two back wheels. Cody's not in that, you have a busted tricycle. Yeah. It doesn't work the way it's supposed to. You take off either side wheel, it's not working the way it's supposed to. No. But I do think that if you pay a lot of attention to the story that they were telling during this match, they're going more towards this Cody-Sami point than they are with that sprinkle of Gunther in the mix. This was just that one, let's see how this match- You know- works Sam- Sami being the common denominator here, you could have told a story of him and Cody, you could tell the story of him and Gunther. Regardless, it's a g- it's a great story. Um, so closing moments with this match, a lot of, um, technical and back and

Sami wins the big one

39:22

forth. Sami ends up hitting, was it the Helluva Kick? Yes. Helluva Kick, and pins Gunther, right? One, two, three, new champion, Sami Zayn, and I can't believe- Did he? No, he pinned Cody. Did he pin Cody? I couldn't remember. He pinned Cody 'cause Cody went, um- Cody went crossroads crossroads on Gunther. Yep, okay. He tried to hit a double crossroads. Sami took advantage of that. Took advantage of that, Helluva Kick to Cody, and was able to get the pin on Cody. Okay. So yeah, um, I couldn't remember who it was exactly that he had pinned, but at least I remember that Sami Zayn is the new freaking champion. And it's about time. They needed to give him his love. Yes. A- again, like I, uh, like I brought up earlier when we were talking, you know, the championship opportunities or title reigns don't come o- Sami Zayn 10 years, 10th attempt at the worl- at a title. Yep. He finally got the big one. All right, what was your grade for this one? A+. It was a perf- You had the right winner. It was a believable story. Everybody intertwined. Like, everybody's story was told together without missing a beat. And honestly, Sami and Gunther are two of those guys- That can work with anyone and it look like magic. Cody is al- you know what? I'm not even- all three of them, all three of these guys can work so well- Yeah with just about anybody. And you're not, like, and if somebody's messing up, they, they'll, they are the guys to, like, "I'm so good and I can make you look so good, nobody's gonna realize you messed up." Like The Miz. Like- That, that's always your biggest pointer is The Miz can work, you could give this man a paper bag, "Here, make this something," and he's gonna make it something. You know who else is, is really good at that coming out of a different company? Hmm. Kenny Omega. Okay. Also in that same company, Jericho. Yes. I- Jericho. He- Made a list go over Twice now. Twice. Three times, I'm sorry, 'cause he made it happen in WCW. The list of a thousand holds. Okay. Th- the list of- Jericho of Jericho, and he very briefly brought it back in AEW. He made sparkly scarves go over. He made light jackets go over. He made high ponytails go over. He, he got the word "it" over You're going to get It. Like, guys that can ma- you can put into a program with absolutely no prep time and they make it look like this has been a storyline for the last, like, four, four years of their career- Mm-hmm Miz, Omega, Jericho, Cody, Sammy, Gunther. And I will die on that hill. Owens. Owens, Rollins. Yeah. I'm gonna die on the hill of they can make anything work. Oh, yeah. Sammy deserved every op- He has worked so hard throughout his career, and I r- I remember Sammy before Sammy. Y- yeah, El Generico? I remember- Yeah El Generico. Well, yeah, you've been watching him that long. Yes, I have. Shush your face. I know I've But- You're only older than me by a year. Yeah, well, apparently that's an eternity according to my wifey. That's 'cause your wifey's, like, two years younger than us. Okay? Okay. I- Three years younger than me and two years younger than you. Okay. Well- But point being, point being I'm really happy to see this moment happen for him Yes. You kind of got a semblance of what the heck is going on on SmackDown, 'cause, you know, Cody came out to congratulate him. Jay came out. I wanna, talking behind the scenes, Becky being, coming out of character and not being Becky Lynch- Yeah for a minute Being Rebecca Quinn instead, yeah And congr- having a feel-good moment on social, congratulating her friend Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens also having that moment of, yo. 'Cause they have been- Owens and Sami are Roman and Rollins Oh, yeah Their careers will forever be intertwined Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah You will not, you cannot think of one without thinking of the other No And it makes sense Yeah. Definitely But that's my thing, is for all, for them to give him the admiration that they did. But you got, you know, Co- he, he used Cody's words against him. "What was it that you told me last week? That as lo- or the week before or a couple weeks a- whatever, "As long as I have this, you never will. Well, I have it." Looked at Jey. "You say you wanna bring the title back to the family. Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's in the family" I don't really- Bringing back that nod, man Made me so happy.

Bloodline boundaries

44:58

I, I, I was like- How hilarious is it gonna be if Roman just, like, makes a phone call and is like, "Yeah, so you're back to being honorary Uce- No. No so we can add this together" No. No. No. No. I need this version of The Bloodline- To be strictly family to stay strictly Bloodline. No h- no Wiseman, no honorary Uce, no allies of convenience. Pure blood, pure Samoan blood in The Bloodline, uh- Going forward go from here on out. Mm-hmm. I love Sami. Yeah, cool, you're considered one, you're, you're considered an honorary member of the family, but no more ties. Okay. I... And then what happened, small scuffle, Pierce comes out, "Sami, we're gonna determine who your next challenger's gonna be for this coming Monday in Chicago." Mm-hmm. Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, one-on-one, winner takes you on. Cody Rhodes is now ta- taking on Sami

Title reign fears

46:07

Zayn. God damn it. They better not have Sami lose this. Oh, let's hope not, but from all the reports that I've seen- I, I need to see Sami hold this 'til Summer Slam. I do not need, I do not want transitional champion. I want Sami Zayn to actually have a meaningful title reign. From everything that I have seen with this, he's losing it come Monday. And, and that's just the reports that I've been seeing- And honestly- 'cause obviously rumor mill has not visited one, uh, so, yeah, absolutely. Uh, this kind of gives me Rey Mysterio, I wanna say it was like 2011- Okay wins the WWE title on Raw in a tournament. Okay. Cena then comes out, "If you're really this guy"- "Beat me" "You'll, you'll put it on the line," and then, so Rey Mysterio was WWE Champion for all of two hours. It's a very similar path right now, and I don't wanna see that happen to Sami. Sami Zayn is gonna be champion for all of nine days. Yeah, one of the shortest reigns. All right. Um, so your grade for this one? A+ match. Okay. A+ match. No matter how you would've played it, I don't think any, I don't think my opinion on it would've changed. All right. Well, that does conclude our Night of Champions. We hope you guys enjoyed the show just as much as we did. Um, and at this point, onto the rest of them. Laters.