While everyone is gushing over the Fallout TV show and revisiting old Fallout games, Will decided to revisit Starfield and start from scratch, and he's having a ball! Will also relays his current feelings on Prince of Persia, and shares what he loves about the new Star Wars Outlaws story trailer.
On the pro wrestling side of things, Will wonders where WWE goes from here, especially after it regained some long lapsed fans thanks it storytelling leading into WrestleMania 40. And finally, Will analyzes the whole situation between the AEW footage, and how that played into what we saw from Jack Perry at New Japan's Windy City Riot. And wouldn't you know it, Jox Moxley is the new IWGP Heavyweight champion.
Timestamps
6:37: Back into the Starfield
20:39: Prince of Persia is getting more difficult
26:34: The Star Wars Outlaw story trailer (and controversy)
40:50: Where does WWE go from here?
58:40: The Jack Perry Affect
Don't forget to follow the podcast on X/Twitter; Threads; and subscribe on YouTube!
While everyone is gushing over the Fallout TV show and revisiting old Fallout games, Will decided to revisit Starfield and start from scratch, and he's having a ball! Will also relays his current feelings on Prince of Persia, and shares what he loves about the new Star Wars Outlaws story trailer.
On the pro wrestling side of things, Will wonders where WWE goes from here, especially after it regained some long lapsed fans thanks it storytelling leading into WrestleMania 40. And finally, Will analyzes the whole situation between the AEW footage, and how that played into what we saw from Jack Perry at New Japan's Windy City Riot. And wouldn't you know it, Jox Moxley is the new IWGP Heavyweight champion.
Timestamps
6:37: Back into the Starfield
20:39: Prince of Persia is getting more difficult
26:34: The Star Wars Outlaw story trailer (and controversy)
40:50: Where does WWE go from here?
58:40: The Jack Perry Affect
Don't forget to follow the podcast on X/Twitter; Threads; and subscribe on YouTube!
Hey everyone and welcome to episode number 22 of the Nerve Federation Podcast. I am your host, will Hernandez, and this is your weekly podcast for some things pro wrestling and video games related. It's a Tuesday night, the weather is fine out Actually, it's more than fine out and we're coming to you live from the uh, mid hudson valley here in upstate, uh, upstate new york, and, yeah, so I am. I'm doing things a little bit differently this week and I am purely recording episode in Zencaster, because the plan is hopefully maybe to put this on YouTube. But I could also see. The great thing about these, about these platforms that are out there, is that you can easily download the audio and do whatever you want with it. And you know, I can take the audio from this and easily slide it into garage band and make it seem like I recorded the episode natively in garage band. But yeah, this is, um, you know, trying to do something different as far as bringing more awareness to the podcast, and one of the things that they tell you is to do a video podcast to help with that. So that's what. That's what we're doing here on a tuesday night and, uh, just a few days from a big weekend in pro wrestling, because not only are there not only is there one big pay-per-view this weekend on Saturday, but there are two. You've got TNA on Saturday, you've got AEW on Sunday, and I will be watching both shows and I'll get into the second half of this in this episode, talking about this weekend. But we're going to start this week on the video game side of things and I feel like it's been a while since I've done that because, honestly, with the WrestleMania season I was very into what was going on in the pro wrestling world and now we're kind of past that. We're kind of pumping the brakes a little bit on the pro wrestling. Don't worry, it's still going to be there, that's never going to go away. Because I feel as though sometimes this should be a pro wrestling only podcast. But there are just too many of those out there and I think it's better if I focus my energy on both these forms of entertainment, whether it's pro wrestling and video games, and with some other things mixed in.
Speaker 1:I wanted to mix in the. I wanted to mix in Fallout this week. That's what I was trying to say. I wanted to mix in Fallout this week, but I just did not get a chance to watch it over the weekend. I was playing around in my head because it's eight episodes the first season, so my idea was to do two episodes a week. This way two, four, six, eight. I am getting four weeks of content out of that, but I don't know. We'll see. I'm going to start watching it this week, so we'll see how many episodes I do watch before the show next week.
Speaker 1:Episode number 23. This is episode number 22, but adjacent to that, as far as what's going on with fallout because it's interesting, right when the last of us actually let's go, let's take a step back, when cyberpunk uh oh god, what was that anime called the um netrunners came out. That was, I think I think now two years ago the interesting thing about that anime, and it was on Netflix, and I highly recommend watching that. It's the first anime I ever watched, so that was kind of one thing, and it is an anime at the end of the day, it was the first anime I had ever watched and it was done really, really well. I mean, I think you should really, whether you're an anime fan or not, go out of your way and watch that anime.
Speaker 1:The funny thing is, though, when Netrunners came out, a lot of people, including myself, either jumped back into cyberpunk or jumped into it for the first time. I was the latter where I jumped into it for the first time because there was something about the way they did that presented that world in that anime that made me want to jump in there and play the game for the first time. It was on my list, I had bought it, it had just been sitting there for a while, actually one of the one of the few uh games that I owe these days physically. So you had that part of it and, um, even though I didn't didn't necessarily love cyberpunk, I just didn't. It was just kind of one of those things where maybe I wasn't in the right mind space for that game. But I do want to go back because I do want to play it again and this time talk about Phantom Liberty and play the Phantom Liberty DVLC.
Speaker 1:But going back to Fallout, the interesting thing now is people are returning to Fallout, which I think is great because it's a series that in some cases has been much maligned, I think, over the years, and I'm going to kind of get into that a little bit, but I thought it was funny, as I kind of think about time stance, but then again, I'm recording this video, so I'm gonna have to go back and look at uh, look at the the audio again. And so while everybody was jumping into fallout whether it was Fallout 4 or Fallout 76, and they were doing that because of the rave reviews that the Fallout TV show was getting on Amazon I decided to zag while everybody else was zigging, and jump back into Starfield over the weekend and it's been a while since I've chatted about Starfield on this podcast. I can't remember. Let's see what episode was that that I basically talked about Starfield, really for the oh, this was episode seven. Go back to episode seven. And the title of that was Starfield Still has your Attention, and I forget what the reasoning was for that. Well, let's see what the description was of that episode. This is the beauty of this. Yeah, starfield, nearly four months after its release, is still on the tip of many tongues. That's what she said, and not for the best reasons. Anyway, you know what's funny about that episode, and I'm going to talk about Star Wars Outlaws this week. Oh, that's kind of funny because it's kind of a throwback. Look at that. Go back to Episode 7 if you want to get an idea about what I was talking about with starfield, uh, back then. But so been a while right, been since episode seven.
Speaker 1:But I have said this over the course of the life of this podcast is that I have never finished the main campaign because I got distracted by spider-man 2 in oct, so the game comes out at the end of August. I paid for the upgrade on Game Pass to get the DLC, to get the early access. I think the early access was maybe five days, so I did that and I kept on playing it, playing it, playing it until Spider-Man 2 came out in October. And then I thought to myself, oh, I'm going to go back to Starfield and finish that, and I never did. And I didn't do that until I think I started playing it on Saturday night, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1:And part of the reason why I went back to play it is simple I miss playing a video game where I was shooting shit. I mean, honestly, that's where a lot of it comes from. And, as much as I've been enamored with Prince of Persia, I love a good shooter, always have, always will. It's a reason why games like Halo and Gears of War are always going to be at the top of the list for me as far as favorite games of all time, and while Starfield's shooting mechanics aren't great though, I think now they feel better than they did the first time around it's a game that's very familiar to me because of the time that I spent with it last fall, so when I jumped back into it over the weekend, I quickly fell back into this routine of the game.
Speaker 1:I know Starfield got mixed reviews. There's no denying that. It's one of those games right now, and still all these months later, that you either love or you hate, and I'm sure there are people in the middle. There are the people that think it's a mid-game. That's good enough, which is fine, that's fine. But playing that game over the weekend and I thought to myself wow, I still love Starfield after all this time later, is it perfect? Absolutely not. It's the same way I say about aw. Right, you can criticize things that you love anyway, even with the updates since I last played, the npcs still do some weird things in this fucking game, but I'm still in love with the gameplay loop.
Speaker 1:I'm still in love with this sci-fi-esque story that they have going on. Not even sci-fi-esque, it's a great it's a sci-fi story, is it? Does it have common tropes in it? Sure, I mean, what sci-fi these days is truly, truly original? But I still love that story, I still love the storytelling that's in the game and I still love exploring what the game has to offer.
Speaker 1:And as I was playing it over the weekend, I thought to myself I don't know if I'm necessarily playing this game any differently than I did before. I think I might be playing it a little bit more deliberately this time around. The main story is about 25 to 30 hours and honestly, I'm already 10 hours deep. That's how much time I've put into this game already, where I feel like I already kind of I already know what decisions I want to make in some sense. So I am trying to kind of mainline the game. I don't want to get too sidetracked while I'm playing it, and maybe it's possible that I finish the main mission, the main story, within the next four weeks, depending on how much I play. But I'm still playing Prince of Persia at the same time and I'll get into that a little bit. So basically, I'm alternating between the two games every time I turn on my Xbox and I've been playing a lot of my Xbox the last month, ever since I put down Final Fantasy 16 on PlayStation 5, I haven't touched my PlayStation. It's just been sitting there and that just happens to me.
Speaker 1:I go back and forth between the two systems, but the funny thing I thought about jumping into Starfield again over the weekend is it got me thinking about this thing that you hear about. As far as people talking about playing cozy games, and as much as I think that label is weird in some respects and I didn't really start hearing it until maybe two to three years ago and then, when I got more active on threads, I saw that moniker, that label, all over the place and it usually has to do with games like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. Never played Stardew Valley, but I have played Animal Crossing. I think a lot of people played Animal Crossing in 2020 when the pandemic hit, because that was like the game for a very, very long time and that game sold a shit ton of copies because of the pandemic. Anyway, I decided yesterday and I was giving this some thought and thinking about the way people talk about cozy games but Starfield is my cozy game, which is weird to say in some respects, because for a good portion of the game. You're going around killing space pirates game. You're going around killing space pirates. I mean, that's what you're doing and it's pretty damn fucking awesome, I have to say. And playing, going through that game, uh, gameplay loop over the weekend and uh, into yesterday, because I was playing it a little bit last night as well. That's why I'm I'm ten, ten and a half hours in already, even over two, three days. It just makes me wonder how some people just downright hated this game and I know Bethesda has a lot of. It's an interesting company right now because when it was independent from, on its own thing, from Microsoft, I think people were in some ways giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1:By the way, if you're on video and you keep me, keep on looking over to my right, it's because I've got the Mets game off to the side here. And yes, I know I'm wearing a fucking Blue Jays hat in the video, but I like to collect my hats, so keep the comments to yourself. That's just the way I am. It's a fashion thing. I don't know what you want me to do. I'm also wearing my Mustafa Ali shirt and I'll stand up here in the video, as you can see that right there. I got that for the upcoming show, even though I'm going to wear my Jordan Grace T-shirt for the show coming up here under siege in Albany.
Speaker 1:Anyway, going back to I got a little sidetracked there. Going back to Bethesda, when the talk about Bethesda and I'm not someone who's really played a lot of Bethesda games I've played a little bit of Skyrim, I'll get into that, played some Fallout 4. But the criticism against Bethesda is that when Fallout 4 came out it seemed very outdated because of what the Witcher was able to do in the same genre of action RPG. Now, I never played the Witcher. I know it's a glaring hole in my video game history, but people didn't have good feelings going into Starfield for that very reason. And in the past couple of weeks it just happens but listening to some podcasts and it came up that there are just folks that universally pan Starfield as being boring and honestly I just I don't get it. I think in some ways ignorance is bliss for me, right For all the chatter about Fallout that's happening right now.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned before, I've only played Fallout 4 and I only got into it for a few hours and I dropped it. The same thing happened with Skyrim. I didn't get it. Now. Keep in mind, back then, when I was playing video games, when those games were really Skyrim, in particular, I think, and then, to an extent, fallout 4, I wasn't really playing those types of games. I was more of the shooter, sports game type of person for a very long time, and I've talked about that on this podcast before.
Speaker 1:But I think if I went back and I played fallout four and I played Skyrim, I would have a much more, uh, appreciation for those games. And now people again it's funny, hindsight's always 2020 people are watching the show and now they are going back to fallout 4 and saying, oh, this isn't, this wasn't so bad, this isn't so bad. This is what I'm hearing from people on the internets. But going back to starfield, for some reason, out of the three bethesda games I played, starfield struck with me and it stuck with me. I should say it stuck with me and I think that's why I love it as much as I do. And it's probably because I didn't play Skyrim or Fallout 4 long enough to have the same appreciation for those games as others do.
Speaker 1:And I realize the biggest thing that people, the biggest problem that people have with Starfield is that it doesn't have the sense of exploration as the aforementioned games I can't even say that word, aforementioned games but I think that's okay because for me anyway, because I think I do get open world fatigue and people complain in starfield about kind of, you can just fast travel everywhere and you can't just really like explore, uh, the way you did in skyrim and fallout 4 and the fallout games in, and you know what. That's okay with me. I'm okay with fast traveling everywhere because time is money for me and I want to enjoy these games Don't get me wrong but I also want to get through them as quickly as possible. So shout out to Starfield. I'll be curious to see what people say in the comments because I am going to title this video something that has to do with Starfield. And again, shout out to Starfield, because I'm loving it all over again and I'm looking forward to finally finishing the main campaign of the game.
Speaker 1:I mentioned before that I am playing Prince of Persia Still playing it, I think, since Saturday I put five, about five hours into it. It's getting to this point now where I'm playing it one to two hours at a time, then putting it down, then coming back to it, and I think the reason why is because it is because of the type of game that it is. It is very, very frustrating in some respects. I mean it really is. I'm watching my video over here and it seems to be flickering a little bit and I don't know why and I don't know if that's going to come out in the final product. Anyway, apologies for that. I know I got to do a better job with getting maybe some better video, because I'm using right now I'm using the video camera that's on my MacBook Pro, so I don't know. I don't know what's happening with that. But I'm getting to this point and I might be a little bit by it now that I'm thinking about it because, like I said, I got through a main area last night and took a pause, but the platforming part of the game is getting more difficult, but they're doing it in some very unique ways and, again, for somebody who doesn't play these types of games, I don't know if this is just a natural thing that happens in Metroidvania or not, but bear with me.
Speaker 1:So there's one section of the game where you go to, you have this encounter in this environment. I should say that I would best describe as sand waterfalls. The waterfalls are always moving in a downward direction, which makes sense even in a video game environment. The waterfall, obviously the flow is south, going down, but you could also move up the waterfall by continuously pressing the jump button. So it's very clever. It's a very clever mechanic in that way and I'm honestly not sure if other metroidvanias have a similar mechanic where, I don't know, maybe there's like a water waterfall that sounds really weird and you can kind of travel within it. But nonetheless it's a pretty cool experience and environmental thing and I think it's stuff like this waterfall that keeps me coming back to play the game.
Speaker 1:At one point on Saturday I almost completely gave up on the game, honestly, because it was getting frustrating and I have very little patience. I think over the weekend was the first time I looked up having to look how to do an assortment of puzzles Because, honestly, I took a look at those puzzles I think the first one I actually figured out on my own, believe it or not, and then I looked up the remaining three puzzles and I thought to myself I probably would not have figured this out on my own because I am just not good at puzzles and video games. It's just not my thing and I am not playing a video game to complete fucking puzzles. That's just the way I am. I've always been that way. I mentioned this before that I'm worried about Indiana Jones because I know that's going to have puzzles in it, but we shall cross that bridge when we get there later on this year.
Speaker 1:But going back to almost giving up on the game, I got to a new environment that had some new enemies and a new way to platform and I think the new way, if I'm not mistaken, is this whole the, the sand mechanic. Um, but yeah, it suddenly got me back into the game because I thought, just when I was getting tired with a certain environment in that game, I was able to get by it and on to like the next quote-unquote level or our next or next mission. Basically, every mission is basically taking you through our new environment and the map on this game is so fucking overwhelming because it is a metroidvania and there are different sections in this map that and I was using the map constantly, basically hitting the. There's a button you can press on the xbox controller that immediately brings up the at the map. So move a few minutes. You know, move, move, uh, whatever, to the right, to the left, and then press the map. Okay, am I going the right way? Yada, yada, yada, making sure I buy the map extension thing from the um, the little girl that you meet along the way that sells you hints and things like that. I don't think it's a spoiler, but when she comes around and has a map pack to buy which I think is kind of funny in a way I go ahead and I make sure I buy that from her.
Speaker 1:I will say and I mentioned this before that Prince of Persia prompted me to jump back into Starfield because I wanted to shoot shit again and I think, if I'm not mistaken, I am 14 hours into playing this game. And don't forget, I die a lot. I don't think I die to the effect of I'm adding, like hours and hours and hours to the experience, but maybe the backtracking is adding to that. But you look at how long to beat and I don't know how accurate that website is, but I seem to be getting close to the end. Accurate that website is, but I seem to be getting close to the end, and the part of the story where I am at now it seems to indicate that I am kind of in the stretch run of the game, so I probably won't talk about it again until I finish it. Hopefully that's going to be soon, but we shall see.
Speaker 1:Now I had a note, a headline in my notes, that I was going to talk about Starfield episode one. Clearly I have not watched that show yet, but I figured that I would spend the remaining part of this video game portion of the podcast talking about the Star Wars Outlaws trailer. The story, the story storyline is that what we want to call it the story trailer. And there has been some controversy over how Ubisoft has priced out the game and there was an article. It came out today because Ubisoft put out a statement about it and I will get into it, because I was reading the IGN story before, because I wanted to see before I talked about what was going on here, kind of what the latest was as far as this controversy. But first the trailer itself, which I've probably watched about five or six times already.
Speaker 1:Look, I am a huge Star Wars mark. There is just something about it that tickles me in a way that I don't think any other franchise tickles me. I think the only thing that touches me, that does not sound right, impacts me in that way, is probably old school WWF. Just as far as where things are in a pecking order in my fandom, my nerddom, in my life, star Wars is up there. For me, it is always my go-to as far as wanting to watch something.
Speaker 1:I enjoy the lore of it, I enjoy the even when you have something like Andor that came out. What was it now A couple years ago, a year and a half ago, even something like Andor, while it was not, it didn't involve Jedi or the Force or anything like that they're still foreshadowing. I love shows that do foreshadowing and Andor did that for me In spades and I'm not going to spoil it. But Andor, here's the thing. Andor is basically a prequel to the movie Rogue One, which is obviously a prequel to Episode 4 of Star Wars, and there's just something about that when you kind of combine a new story but you make reference to things that come before it. Reference to things that come before it. And I know over the years Star Wars has had that problem where it's relied too much on quote, unquote the old guard. But people still appreciate that type of stuff because it's nostalgia. And I said it last week when I was talking about the Rock and WrestleMania people love nostalgia. Nostalgia sells and people can't get enough of it and there are suckers for it and they will spend ungodly amounts of money on nostalgia. Keep that in mind, because I'm going to come back to that point about spending ungodly amounts of money on nostalgia. I think Ubisoft was onto something here.
Speaker 1:Anyway, going back to the trailer itself, that trailer I'm banging on my laptop right now. That trailer it sparked something in me because it's this new story that is taking place between episodes five and episode six. So it's happening between the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the original trilogy. That is very near and dear to my heart, because I cannot tell you how many times I've seen those movies over the years. So you're taking a new story, which I love. It's the same thing with Andor. You're taking a new story with new characters and you're putting it in a familiar part of the timeline when it comes to Star Wars, and that instantly sells me on it, because when you're playing the game and you're watching the story trailer, it is showing stormtroopers, it is showing TIE fighters, and then, during the story, guess where you fucking wind up. You wind up in Jabba the Hutt's palace and when you're there, guess who's on the wall? It's Han Solo in the Carbonite.
Speaker 1:Now this is where the controversy starts. So I'm just going to go ahead and read parts of the IGN story from today, if I can find it. And here it is. And here it is Basically the title. It's by Wesley Yinpool on IGN today and the headline is Ubisoft response to Star Wars Outlaws season pass backlash. Insist, jabba the Hutt.
Speaker 1:Because they came under fire for locking this thing called the Jabba's Gambit mission behind what was already viewed as a very controversial season pass, which comes with the $109.99 gold edition. Think about how much. That's fucking $40 more than the base game at $70. And then there's even more expensive, $130 ultimate edition. And basically what the season pass says, and I'm going to quote it from here, because they quoted themselves play the exclusive Jabba's gamut mission at launch. Just as Kay, who's the main protagonist in the game, is putting together a crew for the Kanto bite heist, she receives a job from Jabba the Hutt himself. Turns out that ND5 owes Jabba a debt from years ago and has come to collect. Now this is what they say, because there was a lot of controversy over this particular mission and Ubisoft put out the statement to IGN today.
Speaker 1:Quote to clarify Jabba the Hutt and the Hutt Cartel are one of the main syndicates in Star Wars Outlaws and will be part of the experience for everyone who purchases the game, regardless of edition. Our Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN the Jabba's Gambit mission is an optional additional mission with the Hutt Cartel along K and Nyx's journey across the Outer Rim. This mission will be available to those who purchase the season pass or an addition of the game which includes a season pass. So now, they said here. However, this is IGN talking now. Now, they said here. However, this is IGN talking now. However, the scope of Jabba's gamut mission remains unclear, leaving those who do not buy the season pass unsure what they're missing out on.
Speaker 1:Ubisoft, ubisoft, I don't know how the fuck. I forget how people I've heard both ways say it. Ubisoft said that in past, has said in the past that players can work for and even portray Jabba as the head of one of Star Wars outlaws criminal factions. By the way, if you're not familiar with the game outlaws, criminals, syndicates, crimes this is all about, like, this is basically Italian mobsters in Star Wars. It's what I'm getting from this and I fucking can't play to read it.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'm'm gonna say about this, because I I have seen a varying amount of takes about this since last week. I just think it's funny because when I was growing up, you bought a single player game and that was it. I didn't play a lot of them, but you bought fucking super mario brothers 3. There, there was no fucking DLC in Super Mario Bros 3. That was not a thing that existed. It wasn't until the advent of the internet and connected consoles that people really started taking advantage of this DLC. I'm sure it happened in the PC space way before consoles, but it wasn't until, again, the advent of the internet on both PlayStation and Xbox, that you really had this quote-unquote DLC that's what they used to call it back in the day Downloadable content.
Speaker 1:For those that need an explainer, I will say this I have paid for these type of things in the past, and I just the most recent outside of Starfield right, because I paid to play it early I think it was five days early and I get the first expansion, which we're still fucking waiting for. I did this for Hogwarts Legacy, and here's the thing. The controversy with the Hogwarts Legacy thing is that PlayStation 5 had an exclusive mission in it. If you ordered it early, got whatever edition it was, it came with a PS5 exclusive mission in the game. Now I will say this Because people are worried about the scope of the Jabba the Hutt thing. For those who played it and paid for the extra edition and got that PS5 exclusive mission, honestly it was okay.
Speaker 1:It wasn't all that great. It was a little bit of a pain in the ass. I do remember because, if I had this correctly, you kind of have to go through like this maze-like thing and you're almost figuring out like a puzzle maze in some ways, and it was like this spooky type of thing, almost Halloween-related type of mission that was there and at the end you have to fight like this wizard and I don't remember it was either a wizard or a death eater. I, I forget what it was exactly. See, that's how not memorable this was. But I I think about that and I think are you being hoodwinked into buying this thing and the mission is not all that great? I am surprised that this thing, the next level up in the edition, is $110. Like that is insane. I can see. Ah, if it was $80, okay, you got my fucking money. If it's $80, you probably have my money, $110, though, like what is I want to see now? Exactly like what is coming with this, let's see. Probably some digital art book shit. Let's take a sip of water. It's already for pre-order on Amazon, let's see.
Speaker 1:So the Gold Edition includes two upcoming story pack DLCs Doesn't really say why and there's a pre-order thing of the Kessel Runner bonus pack. That's the gold edition. Three days early, I think. Oh shit, no, ultimate edition only has three days early. That is fucking insane, holy shit. So the ultimate edition only has three days early. That is fucking insane, holy shit.
Speaker 1:So the ultimate edition, you get three days early play. You get the pre-order castle run. You get the two story pack things. You get the stuff called ultimate pack and it looks like it's like different skins for like outfits and shit and some speeder uh skins, it looks like. And then you get this digital up out.
Speaker 1:Um, you get this digital, uh, digital book, art book, and it's just like, if this, if there was some kind of physical thing like a fucking figure or something like that, I could justify paying this much for it. But fuck man, 110 and 130 for these additions. Nah, man, I'm good, I'm gonna buy the game when it, when it comes out, I'm going to enjoy it, and then I'm going to go on youtube and find a recap of the mission that I missed and it. It's as simple as that. But anyway, I wanted to talk about that because I felt like, man, there is so much that I loved about that trailer and I was, as I say, nerding out about that trailer that I thought to myself I am fucking buying that game August 30th, day one, and playing the shit out of it. That's going to be one of those games where I take my time playing it, because I love being immersed in that world. So that is going to do it for the video game portion of the Nerd Federation podcast. I'm going to pause this now. I'm going to pause the video and hopefully this comes back sounding good and yeah, we'll see what this sounds like in the audio. But stay right there. I'll be right back for talking about some pro wrestling. Okay, talk soon.
Speaker 1:And welcome back to the nerd federation podcast, episode number 22. I am your host, will hernandez. I got my water, I went to the bathroom. I'm checking on the mets game as of this time, top of the sixthth already. This game's flying by. They're down 1-0. That's been playing well lately. They started off 0-5, I think it was, and now they're 8-8. So, yeah, I don't think this team is going to make the playoffs, but we shall see how things go.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to start the pro wrestling portion of this podcast, kind of looking back a little bit, and I have a note here, like it's the headline in my notes here for the week in this section, about how the lapsed WWE fan was watching WrestleMania. Now we're going on to almost two weekends ago and the question being now, what Now? What happens now that we're past WrestleMania 40? And again, the one thing I found interesting listening to podcasts over the past couple of weeks and internet, you know, looking on twitter and threads and stuff like that is is that the labs wwe fan, some of them who haven't watched since the attitude era, believe it or not, and how they get back into WWE the past, let's say, couple of months, because of the Rock's involvement leading up to WrestleMania 40.
Speaker 1:And some of the video game podcasts that I listen to they're talking about. Oh, you know, I watched both nights of WrestleMania. It's because of Rock. Blah, blah, blah and then they start doing like some history. It's really funny, somebody. If you're listening to this podcast right now, let me tell you something, brother, we are in the 1% of the 1% of fucking nerds. Because it's interesting, I'll give you a perfect example. It was one podcast I'm listening to.
Speaker 1:This is from the second one, crew, and Marty Sleva was the host of one of the podcasts, the Firelink podcast, that I listen to. So he starts talking a little bit about WrestleMania. The topic itself was just like there's so much content out there between video games and movies and TV and comic books and books and whatnot, and Marty had thrown in pro wrestling into the mix because he said, oh, I think I'm back, I'm back, I'm back, I'm back watching this again. So he starts talking about Cody Rhodes a little bit and it was interesting because he had no idea what happened with Cody Rhodes when he left WWE all those years ago. Like no idea.
Speaker 1:So at one point Marty is like, yeah, you know he left, um, he left, uh, wwe to go his own, you know his own, to do his own thing. He goes to japan, he joins this thing called the bullet club and I'm like, oh, I had to laugh like I. I had to laugh that. Uh, like I had to laugh that this was the history lesson that he was doing as far as getting into the weeds about these things and finding out about the Bullet Club. You know, I just thought that was. He never made the connection about how the Bullet Club is basically the modern day version of the NWO. He didn't go that far into it and maybe he's got some more research he has to do. But I thought it was interesting that people were taking it that far that they were doing this type of research into this stuff.
Speaker 1:And here's what I'll say about this interest that the lapsed WWE fan might have right now. And I think it's a good thing and I think it's a bad thing. I think it's a good thing in the sense that whenever you can get more eyes on the product, that's a good thing. No one's ever going to complain about that. A good thing. No one's ever going to complain about that. Wwe is hot right now. They've sold out all of these TV the TV shows, raws and Smackdowns and pay-per-views right. They're on a big streak right now. There was a lot of attention on WWE leading into WrestleMania because of the Rock. There is no denying that whatsoever.
Speaker 1:But here's the bad thing, and this is something that I feel that I think was a problem with WWE the last 20 to 25 years, wwe potentially has not and didn't build up enough memorable characters to keep people's interest, with the exception of a John Cena and with the exception of a post-UFC Brock Lesnar, because there was a lot of interest in Brock when he came back to WWE after his UFC stint. He had made a name for himself and people were interested now in Brock. The problem with that is that you had a part-time champion in a lot of ways Well, not in a lot of ways, that was a reality and they have, over the years since his reign as champion, kind of leaned on him too much in a part-time role. Bro comes and goes as he basically pleases, and now, well, we know what's happening right now with that whole thing with Brock and his involvement in the Janelle Grant lawsuit. And I think it's somewhat funny because that whole criticism about relying on part-timers, particularly when WWE has gone back to old reliables in the past for WrestleMania and for other storylines, I just think that that criticism is kind of I don't know. I don't know if it's really coming back. But when you build an entire WrestleMania, your WrestleMania 40, around a part-timer, I don't know, are you risking people not coming back? Because the rock made it very clear on the Roth, the WrestleMania, he's going. He's going to go go away for a while. Right, he's got a film. Dwayne has got to go film some movies now. And now you wonder okay, when is the next time we're going to see this man in a full-on storyline with cody rhodes? Because we know that's the direction that they're going in right now. Right, I mean, that is going to happen. They're going the full cody route. We're going to get rock versus cody, probably either at summer slam or at survivor series or, like I said, maybe a Saudi event.
Speaker 1:So the question now becomes in my mind, if you're watching a WWE and you're a fan of WWE, is how they keep up this momentum, how they maintain this momentum and I already saw somebody the internet, it's just, it's funny. I didn't watch raw this past week, I just didn't listen. I didn't watch collision on saturday either. So I'm kind of, I'm kind of. You know, there's only so much I can watch in a week. Really. I just it's, it's a lot, it's it's really, it's really a lot. But going back to WWE, going back to Raw, I already saw somebody say, oh, this Raw was like a step back. But I also know that every Raw can be a banger. Listen, we're past.
Speaker 1:Historically, this has always happened, even when I was watching WWE religiously. There's always this step back in what they do post-WrestleMania, because now you have to ramp up and get big storylines going and start building going into SummerSlam, because that's really the next major, major, major show for them, right? So you've got that for them, right, so you've got that. But also keep in mind that they've got they're selling out TV events. Like I said, I'm not too sure how the house show business is going. I know they're doing less house shows than they've ever before. Thank God finally giving these guys a bit of a break.
Speaker 1:But it's also and girls, it's also going to come down to compelling stories, because I think that's what drives WWE. It's, it's and I saw this comparison somewhat I'm kind of rejiggering it for my use by WWE has become like comfort food for a lot of people and it is like it is the Amazon or Walmart of professional wrestling. I mean, it just is For better or worse, it is. It's a popular thing, right. It's always going to be the only thing in some people's minds, unfortunately, and you know, that's just kind of the way the way things go. But I think the other question that you can ask, coming off of all this momentum for WWE, is how do these other promotions cash in on the momentum momentum and what I mean by that.
Speaker 1:If you go back pre-pandemic, there was, I would say, a three to four year period before the pandemic let's just call it 2015 to 2019, that there was just this huge resurgence of the independent pro wrestling scene and I saw it in my own eyes. I said many times that I would go to AAW in Chicago and it was a super independent. Super independent. I mean, you had. Some of the people you see on your TV screen today were a huge part of AAW all those years ago, and I'm talking about Eddie Kingston, I'm talking about Penta, I'm talking about Phoenix. Mustafa Ali how dovelace who is? Oh my God, I can't even. How the hell did I pull that name out of my ass? Heidi is now Ruby Soho. Oh my God, I had to think about that for a second. You had Matt Riddle, who was there as well. You had a bunch of TNA guys from that 2015 to 2019 era that were on those AAW shows. It was huge.
Speaker 1:There was a resurgence happening, for whatever reason. It could have been because people were just tired of WWE, I don't know. I always thought it was interesting when I started talking to people around me that they vehemently I completely said that vehemently, just like despised WWE and what it turned into and they thought that even with NXT, which was starting to really be a thing, that it was already kind of too late in their minds and they just couldn't stand. I remember sitting next to somebody at an AAW show it was Mustafa Ali's last match with AAW before he went to WWE and the guy saying like, yeah, man, I'm so upset that he's going to WWE because they're going to fucking ruin him. You know what? They fucking ruined him. So that guy was right on about that. So we'll order here quick. The thing was is that at that point I really had a long pause there.
Speaker 1:Aaw was, I guess, cashing in on the, I don't know. People were just tired of WWE. You also have to understand too. You had the likes of Cole Cabana, who was really bringing a spotlight to the independent scene, and then when you have somebody like Cody Rhodes leave WWE and he had that infamous picture with the list, remember that he had all these guys that he wants to wrestle on the independent scene Then he goes to New Japan, joins Bullet Club club the elites there and the rest there is really history. They really, like cashed in on the momentum during that period.
Speaker 1:I think now wrestling is getting hot again. In many ways, there was a very it was very shaky there because of the pandemic. A lot of the independent scene suffered because of the pandemic, and now we're finally getting back to normal here. And now going back to the question of how do you cash in. It's interesting because we saw over the weekend and I will talk about this New Japan's Windy City Riot. They had a near sellout or a sellout Friday night and that's a really nice building for pro wrestling. I've been there. I was there. It's a wind trust arena. I was there for Revolution 2020. Little did we know the world was going to shut down like two, three weeks later there, anyway.
Speaker 1:But you look at AEW and AEW is still having issues with week-to-week TV attendance. I don't know why. For the life of me, they're going to be tomorrow, from when I'm recording this at the Fieldhouse in Indiana and the place is only set up for like fucking 3,000 tickets. That's like a double-digit arena. I don't understand. They got to get back to again I've said it before and I'll say it again that BU campus-sized arena. That's like 6,000 people. They need to get back to those types of arenas. They just have to For now. Just get back to those types of arenas. They just have to for now. Just get back to those type of arenas. And then you do like the big shows at the big arenas. Look, dynasty's almost sold out. I think it's set up for like 6500 and they're about 400 tickets away from a sellout. That's probably probably going to sell out.
Speaker 1:So it's a really weird time for AEW from that perspective with the week-to-week in television there. But you look at TNA and they're really struggling to sell tickets to Saturday's pay-per-view in Vegas and a lot of that's because they were just in Vegas. They were just in Vegas and I mentioned way back when I think it was after heart to kill that there was a rumor going around that they were going to run this particular pay-per-view at the Hammerstein ballroom in the city, in New York City, and that didn't pan out and they decided to go back to Vegas. I'll tell you this right now they made a huge fucking mistake by putting that show back in Vegas. They should have had it in New York City because I guarantee you, I guarantee you that that show would have sold out.
Speaker 1:And again, looking back at the promotions and the momentum, and for all the doom and gloom that people like to put out there about AEW, aew is fine. Aew is not going anywhere. When Warner Brothers Discovery is giving you a shout out in its Q1 press release and your programming between your three shows is averaging 4 million viewers a week, you're not in trouble Because there are a lot of people that would kill for those type of numbers that AW programming is doing right now in this day and age in cable television. And you know what WWE is doing great numbers as well. So let's not complain about the TV numbers per se, about the fucking ratings. New Japan is going to be fine as well. They sold out Sakura Genesis earlier this month. I think it was like 4,000 or 5,000 people that they fit into that arena. They sold out Chicago. They're good.
Speaker 1:The issue right now I have to admit I'm a little worried is TNA is the one promotion that would really benefit from cashing in on WWE's momentum, and I think a lot of people thought that that was going to start happening when Jordan Grace made an appearance at this year's Royal Rumble and many people thought that that was going to be the beginning of some kind of partnership between TNA and WWE. But I do wonder if Scott the more not being there now had any impact no pun intended there on future plans. There's also a part of me that thinks, because TNA is lasted 2020, 22 years, that it's not going any way, and he, you know that it's not going anywhere anytime soon. And I think it's funny in the context of AEW, because people think that AEW is dying and again, I'm not saying that AEW doesn't have its issues, because it does, but Tony Khan has deep fucking pockets and he can mask some of those issues. Okay, pause there.
Speaker 1:Speaking of AEW, let's talk about Windy City Riot on last Friday, and I think before we talk about Windy City Riot, we have to talk about what happened on Dynamite last week. Now, there was a lot of controversy about this footage that the Young Bucks were going to show and that they did show, and people thought it was a work and it wasn't a work. This was not a work, but in the context now, because context is king, as Eric Bischoff likes to say, in the context of the storyline at hand for the Yumbucks, the storyline at hand for the young bucks, the storyline at hand for ftr, the storyline at hand for jack perry, and I took a look at that. And then you look at what happened over the weekend with perry in new japan riot and, holy shit, mission accomplished, as they say. I just here's the thing, that and there's been a lot of shit going on today about what Tony Schiavone said in regard to people thinking that he was upset about the Young Bucks, about the video Bro, he was playing his role to perfection.
Speaker 1:That's the thing. And the thing is, too, tony Khan does not. I mean Tony Khan, tony Schiavone does not give a fuck what you think or what anybody else thinks. And I think it's silly that people were saying that, hey, he's just saying that because of who pays his paycheck, who pays him? Let me tell you something Listen to that fucking podcast. Tony is being very sincere there and again, he just does not give a shit. What the fuck you think about his facial expressions to sell something that was being done by the heels that are the, that are the evps. He doesn't care. So say what you want, he just doesn't give a shit. Go watch that video because it was making the rounds today, because he was talking to conrad thompson about all that stuff and he was basically going to tell his listeners to fuck off. So that says a lot about Tony Schiavone and what he's thinking these days. I mean for him to come out and say he didn't really give a shit about the footage itself, he doesn't care, it doesn't affect him, right? That's a guy with his own free will saying that stuff.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the one thing I'm going to say about the footage itself and kind of the aftermath of it, so I still think that, listen, we're in 2024. I'm sorry, we are. This is not 25, 30 years ago and this is not even being like a fucking, like woke thing or anything like that, because I fucking hate that term, just hate it, because it's lost its meaning at this point. But I would like to think that we have evolved as human beings. Right, that's hit or miss right now, honestly, with the way the direction that this country is going, and I would be saying that regardless if it was in charge, because I'm one of those people, I don't care who the hell's in charge. Shit's been going down south for a long, long time through multiple, multiple parties in charge, anyway. But I like to say that I have evolved as a person over the years, so I am now looking at a lot of these situations very differently.
Speaker 1:Now, two things punk and I said this on Threads and I'm reading this directly from Threads Punk, as the veteran, should have been the bigger person in that situation, because that's what a veteran is supposed to do. Number two if I had done that to a coworker and then lunged at my boss, I would have been fired on the spot, because that is what happens in the real world, and who knows if charges would have been pressed in that situation, in that situation. I have been in situations in my work career very early on that I lost my cool and, while I did not strike anybody physically, did something that could be construed as very aggressive and I was sent home for the day because of it. I didn't get fired, but I was forced to kind of sit down and mediate and talk out my issues. That was 25 years ago that people were doing that.
Speaker 1:I don't care that pro wrestling is like this. I don't know Wild Wild West, you still can't be doing that shit. I don't care, regardless of how many times they told Jack Perry to cut it out. Punk is not the boss. Tony Khan is. And, yeah, probably Punk is right. Khan might be a nice guy but he's not a boss character. And I said it a couple of weeks ago last week, where Tony Khan, I think, just needs to be the money guy going forward and get other people to run the day-to-day creative and maybe even the backstage stuff as well, to be the good cop and the bad cop. Scott D'Amore's out there. Maybe it needs be him anyway. That's it.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to talk about the impact of the fucking the tape anymore. I saw some really bad takes about that because apparently workplace violence is okay. Now I don't know. I don't know. I've been there and done that, so I think I have a different perspective. And then somebody had, like the audacity, some current wrestler, which I don't even know who the fuck this guy was, reposts that thread and then lists like six or seven reasons and it wasn't even worth me arguing over it, because that guy's mind is made up because he's in the biz, brother and he knows better than anybody else. One thing I thought it was funny he was bad mouthing aw. But I wonder if aw came knocking on the door and say, hey, can you do a ring of honor match for us? Is he gonna say no? Is he gonna regret that at the end of the day? You got to think before you put shit out there on the internet, brother. I'll tell you that right now. Anyway, this tape is out there. Right, one of the Bucks is wearing a scapegoat t-shirt. Guess what happened. That t-shirt sold out Like that. Perry's also got three t-shirts out there right now. I think I don't know if they're on the New Japan store or not. Those things are going to sell out now.
Speaker 1:Fast forward to Friday night, two days later. I will talk about Friday night from two perspectives. One, I will talk about Friday night from two perspectives. One, the Jack Perry perspective and two, the overall presentation of when they see the riot and the craziness that ensued that night in various different ways. Now one thing, let's talk about the Perry stuff First. By the way, great show, very. It was a great show, like from top to bottom. They really came and brought it On Friday night.
Speaker 1:I thought every match, with the exception of that street fight and I am just Sick and fucking tired of street fights. I'm done with that Like I would be okay if pro wrestling never had another street fight, because I am like tapped out of street fights right now. That being said, the rest of the matches banger after banger after banger. Man, I was really, really impressed with that Vaker and AZM match and like right five minutes into the match, and Azuma is that the way? Azuma, her speed was like off the charts and I mentioned this on Twitter, on social media, how I thought I was really impressed by that match because it was hard hitting, it was smooth and their contrast of styles worked really, really well together. Again, just a really great women's wrestling match from two talented females there in the ring, two talented females there in the ring.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to talk about Perry, because the Perry match came after that whole thing and I'm watching my Mets are rallying. They just tied the game 1-1. Bottom of the seventh, there's one out. I'm not exactly sure what's going on here. Somebody had an RBI single here. That was a double down the line, down the left field line into the corner. Ball rattles around. Alonzo comes around second base and they don't send them home. So the Mets got second and third right now with a one out. And Alvarez is up, who's been struggling big time. He's already down. Oh, and two in the count got two strikeouts tonight.
Speaker 1:You like this play by play that I'm giving you people? Man, I feel like what a fucking presentation here. This guy is eating this shit up. He is leaning into it. I'm going to get into a little bit later about why that might not be the best thing long term, but let's talk about what's going on here.
Speaker 1:He comes to the ring surrounded by guards in riot gear and draped in a Chicago flag, while also wearing a jacket that says Crimea River, and he is being booed out of the building. Don't forget where they are. They're in Chicago, the second city. He's being booed out of the building. But you know what was also interesting about that? There were cheers happening. People were cheering him as Alvarez flies out to shadow left field. Still runners on second and third were two outs. Anyway, I got to stop doing this, apologies. So he is getting cheers. People are eating this shit up, man. They are into it now people are into it. You're coming off of what happened on wednesday with the release of the tape.
Speaker 1:By the way, it is very clear that jack perry is coming back to aw and he's going to join the elite. I mean, that is, you're going to have this new elite of the Young Bucks Jack Perry and Okada very, very soon, maybe as soon as this Sunday, at Dynasty. Hmm, that makes me think Dynasty All Elite, okay. Anyway, people are eating the shit up. Now Perry loses, but I don't think that mattered. He was playing to that fucking crowd, man, he really was.
Speaker 1:There was that one point where he does the high knee into the corner that Punk does, and that got a fucking response. That got a huge response. Then I think it was after that move, he does the whole you know go to sleep thing to the side and gets on his knees and like, stays in that position for a while and and is doing that and then he tries to put the gts on umino and that didn't work out. But hey, it happens, umino wins, jack does the job. Maybe I don't know if it's his last match in new japan, because you figure he's still going to be heavily involved with house of torture. But hey, again, just a great presentation here and I am so fucking interested. They got me.
Speaker 1:Listen, I don't know if I'm just. I think it's because I'm looking for stories in my pro wrestling and I get frustrated a little bit that AEW does not have enough of them. Who loves stories? Who used to be a journalist and enjoys stories? I think this Perry thing can be a great story and if you're getting him involved with the elite, I think in some ways the possibilities there are endless.
Speaker 1:Now, as for the rest of the show. As for the rest of the show, there's really only one thing to talk about with the rest of the show, and that is the main event and the fact that Jon fucking Moxley is now the IWGP heavyweight champion. Nobody saw that coming. I don't think. Listen, people want to say, oh, based on some of the interviews that he did going into the match, that it was apparent that he was going to win. I don't know about that and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1:New Japan and I've said this before can be very predictable. They just are. They can be very predictable. So naito wins his title match against yoda suji almost two weeks ago at sakura, leading you know, showing you know, title match now for the IWGP heavyweight title in Chicago. I mean, I just never thought that they would have Naito lose his title so quickly. He's only been champion since the first week of January and I think he's only had like two title defenses in that time, two or three maybe. So I think that's why, where the surprise comes from, so they they pull the trigger on this and I was just like fucking dumbfounded over it. I was just like, holy shit, there have there are very few times, with the exception of and I'm not even counting what happened with the Undertaker at WrestleMania 40. That doesn't count from the perspective of match results. I am talking about match results. I have not been that surprised in a very, very long time and it's because New Japan is very predictable with its booking and has been for a while. So when you have something like this, when you have a full-time wrestler of another promotion, come in and win your top prize.
Speaker 1:Don't know about you, but I've got questions and maybe we're going to get some answers tomorrow night from when? I'm recording this because moxley is going to be on dynamite tomorrow night. But if you look at the next major card for new japan and I'm going to bring it up right now. He's already Going to be the main event At the next big Pay-per-view and he's going to fight Ren Narita For his first title match and that is Let me just make sure, I think it's May 3rd or May 4th is when he is going to be defending that title for the first time. Let me just check, it's a big weekend, the first weekend of May. Of course, when I'm, you know, going to be doing my, I'll be at TNA. Yeah, so this is this.
Speaker 1:Is it May 4th? Saturday, may 4th, wrestling Donataku? This is going to be his main event here against Ren Narita for the heavyweight title. So yeah, because Ren came out and Moxley, after the match, was going to challenge Umino, it was like, hey, this is like it's funny, because it was like almost like a final boss situation in some ways, and Ren Narita comes out and attacks, he attacks Moxley and basically lays down the challenge for the IWGP heavyweight title.
Speaker 1:But I've got questions how long is Moxley going to be gone? I mean, I think that's like the big thing and I'm looking now. It's funny. I probably should have looked this up. Is he going to be on tour as well? Let's see. They got the match lineups for this stuff already here and I'm just trying to see in real time if he's involved with any of these shows leading up into wrestling.
Speaker 1:Donataku, he is not on some of these shows, but I think what they're going to do is they're going to have him go away for a little bit and you know he'll make some appearances, like here and there for both New Japan and AEW, and then we'll see what happens at Forbidden Door. But it's crazy, man Like I just again surprised that happened. He becomes, believe it or not, the first pro wrestler to win the AEW world title, the WWE world title and the IWGP heavyweight title. So as I sit on social media on Friday night, color me shocked because I cannot believe that that actually happened on Friday night.
Speaker 1:So that's New Japan, windy City Riot and listen, you got a big again, like I said, a big pro wrestling weekend coming up. You've got TNA on Saturday night, you got AEW on Sunday night and I think the big match that I'm looking forward to this weekend, I mean it's got to be Ospreay and Danielson. I can't who else would it be. I mean that is like a dream match and people want to make fun of AEW for their dream match, and people want to make fun of AW for their dream matches. But listen, as a pro wrestling fan, that is a match that I want to see between two of the very, very best in the business, and one of them in Danielson being one of my favorites that's out there. So I'm really looking forward to Sunday night and it should be a great weekend of wrestling.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to TNA on Saturday. I am going going to watch that. I am going to order it and watch it. I'm going to watch uh uh impact on thursday and try to get myself re-acclimated, because I really do want to start getting back into tna, especially if I'm going to be going to a pay-per-view coming up here soon. So, uh, yeah, I am. I'm looking forward to it. It should be a really good weekend for pro wrestling. It should be a really good weekend for my video game play. So that's going to do it for episode number 22 of the Nerd Federation podcast.
Speaker 1:Again, as I always ask in these situations, as the Mets have a 3-1 lead now in the bottom of the seventh inning, I always ask if you found this podcast to be. You know you enjoyed it, it was good. You had a good time listening to me ramble for almost an hour and a half. Please share it. Please share the podcast. I'm also on all the socials. I am hoping to have this video up, hopefully tomorrow, thursday, I don't know yet. The audio version will come first, obviously, because that's just going to be easier for me to do. I'm going to have to do some magic here with this video, because I am not somebody who edits a video very well. So anyway, thanks for joining me, appreciate it and I will see you next time. Have a good night, take care. Bye-bye.