Ring Chronicles
We focus on linking pro wrestling history to today. We delve into topics such as championship lineages and trends both current and historical.
Ring Chronicles
Rhodes Blocked: The Rock's Surprise WrestleMania Entry
In this electrifying episode of our pro wrestling podcast, "Rhodes Blocked: The Rock's Surprise WrestleMania Entry," we dissect the seismic shockwave that could occur if The Rock makes an unexpected leap into the WrestleMania spotlight. Join us as we explore the implications of this surprise entry, particularly for hardworking talents like Cody Rhodes, who may find their path to glory unexpectedly intercepted. Delve into the intrigue, drama, and potential fallout as we analyze the strategic genius or audacious power play behind The Rock's last-minute maneuver and how it may reshape the landscape of the grandest stage of them all. Strap in for a rollercoaster of speculation, excitement, and controversy as we break down the hypothetical clash that could redefine WrestleMania history.
You're listening to Ring Chronicles with Lance Vaughn and Glenn Richie. All right man, we are back on episode 20. How's it going? All right, how about you? Not bad. Speaking of camera, we're having discussions about the camera. Yeah. Does the YouTube channel have it taped the whole way through or is it just audio? Just audio. Gotcha. Okay. I was wondering about that. Yeah. Yeah. It just, I mean, YouTube picks up the, the, um, the podcast just like Spotify does. So the audio is just for shorts and, and things like that. I mean the video, the video. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just use that for the shorts and, and tick tock. Well, howdy there in case this makes the, uh, makes the cut for short. Yeah. So, um, speaking of a tick tock, I figured I would bring this up. Um, is it a lary of hate? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. Um, actually I'm not totally sure we have any, but we'll look, but we had two videos, uh, two videos this week on tick tock that had over 2000 views. Oh, wow. So one was the, it was the clip where you were talking about how over the Vaughn, the Vaughn Eriks were and the women finding over them and everything. Yeah. And then the other one was on, uh, uh, actually I forget why, why don't I play it because I forget what it was about. Okay. There were some anachronistic things like a tap out. So they didn't tap out back in the eighties. They said, Oh yeah. You were talking about telling his stuff like that. You know, on our first other thing. Yeah. So, so that one had 2000 as of now, 2,592 views. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, that's what happened. You know, like you, your, your dad's opened the door for somebody that like was threatened to kill him last week on TV and like, you know, like they go have a beer together. Yeah. You know, I use as an example of the iron sheet. Cause back then he was like, I mean, he was one of the most hated guys, uh, you could possibly have. Yeah. Um, and you know, the iron sheiks just a cool, well, he was just a cool guy. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Uh, I mean, I mean, gosh, I missed the guy. You know what I mean? But back in the, you know, the eighties, he was really hated. You think, or you got to think about sergeant slaughter when he turned against America and was an Iraq sympathizer, Iraqi sympathizer, the amount of hate that guy got because people thought it was real back then. It was, it was, you know, a big deal. Yep. Yep. All right. So I guess I'll go over a little bit of Larry and of hate. We got to hit the button first. Oh, I'm getting there. This is the Larry. All right. So, um, so on the, on the video about the Vaughn Eric's being over, somebody said pointless video, thanks. Uh, and I think that's the only one we had actually. Um, what was weird was that we had all these views, but we didn't have as many comments. Yeah. That's about all we had. A lot of views, a lot of likes, little comments. I need to find a way to fix that. Yeah. Um, so anyway, um, do we have any comments? Do we have any errors or omissions? No, no, no, no, no. Not that I can think of. I couldn't think of any, although, although technically I just thought about one, um, to my knowledge, at least not in wrestling. Um, the iron sheet never said anything about Allah. He just spoke about, um, Iran. Right. Um, if he spoke about Allah, it was, um, more him being, you know, um, a shoot comment about him being a Muslim, right? You know, because I mean, he was a Muslim person like in real life. Yep. Um, so I mean, I don't know how adherent he was, uh, given the cocaine and stuff. Uh, you know, uh, from my understanding, that's not part of Islam, uh, to use cocaine, but, you know, maybe the iron sheet had a different interpretation of things, you know, uh, there's a, I came by the speaking of cocaine in the eighties. Uh, I came across a video. I can probably play it here in a second. Um, it was, uh, it's an old promo of, of Hogan and Savage. And you can just tell there, there's just doped up. Hold on. I'll play it. I'll play it here in a second. Uh, and the, in, in the, the, the video was saying, uh, this is what happens when, when you and your buddy are on pre-workout and I'm last night pre-workout. That's cocaine. Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking, speaking of not necessarily following your religion, uh, you know, Hogan was going around saying, you know, say your prayers and eat your vitamins weren't a big gold cross around his neck. And then, you know, he was getting, you know, doped up on voids and other things. Here we go. I realized there was a whole nother universe out there for all the bucks here and the power of the madness and the media just blew my 24 inch guns out. I'm just worried about where we're going from here. Isn't this stratosphere man? Isn't the ionosphere? Yeah. The mega power. Yeah. We really don't know what we're dealing with here, man. Right now. Well, I'm worried about blocking up here. Right. We just might blow the whole planet up. You know, never been better yet with the madness and the mania as one God, he forced, we could go ahead and take the whole. Oh my God. Madness. Okay. They might've been doped up for that. Yeah. But I would, I would pay to see a promo like that these days. Yes. We might blow the whole planet up. You see, that's another great promo from the eighties. Like we showed last year. Yeah. I mean, you know, um, it was all good. I just had an idea. I think every, every week we do promos from the eighties. Okay. We were going to show great promos from the eighties. That sounds like a good idea to me. We'll have to find a good promo every week. Yeah. Every week. So I got to come up with a new intro. Kind of like our Larry to take one. This will be the, um, I don't know. Oh, I don't know what we'll call that. Say we'll figure it out and come up with something, but damn, that's a eighties promos are gold. I, you know, of course you got the, um, the hard times, dusty roads promo. Yeah. Any Rick flair. Yeah. Yeah. I was just about to say that. And I come across Rick flair, uh, promos like, like multiple times every day. So, yeah. Um, any Randy Savage promo? Yeah. Any Hogan promo? Yeah. Uh, of course any dusty roads promo is going to be great. Yep. Harley race. Yeah. I mean, just Roddy Piper. Yeah, absolutely. You bring out any Roddy Piper promo. It's, it's, it's going to be awesome. Yeah. I mean, that guy could talk. Uh, it's just, uh, oh yeah. Legion of doom. Yeah. Road warriors. Yeah. Yeah. Um, their promos were awesome. Cocaine fueled. I wouldn't call them awesome, but the ultimate warrior. Promo entertaining. God damn. Yes. You know, I wouldn't say they're good. Yeah. And then you also had like promos that weren't all like, you know, coked up, but we're good, like a Ricky steamboat doing promo. Yeah. I mean, he did some great stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Um, gosh, I mean, you know, you obviously, you talked about last week with David on Von Eric and his promos. Uh, those, those have been excellent. Uh, Jerry Lawler, Jerry, the King Lawler. Uh, I mean, gosh, anybody, uh, back then, uh, the road warrior promos really just come to mind. Um, you know, they, they, they, they had some amazing, some amazing, uh, promos. Yeah. And I mean, gosh, we'll have to find some. We got, we got plenty to choose from. There's a, there's a plethora of shit out there. Well, yeah, I don't think it'll be too, but we're probably going to have more problems choosing which one we're going to do. Yeah. Cause we're going to find a ton of them every week. Uh, probably my favorite eighties promo would have to be the hard times promo. Yeah. And then that's followed by the macho man's, uh, um, what is it? A cup of, Oh, um, the cream of the crop. Yeah. He keeps pulling out little creamers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even know what that was about, but it was a great, a great promo. You know, I just, it was just, it was just amazing. And Gene Oakland is just, he's just there doing it and everything. Yeah. Uh, and if we ever get tired of doing eighties promos, we could always move to the nineties. Yeah. Um, I mean, I'm sure we'll, we'll come across one where we're like, okay, we're going to take a break from the eighties because we have to show this amazing nineties promo, which when it comes to. These promos, you have like the rock. Yep. Um, you also have the infamous, uh, Booker T, uh, I'm coming for you. Yeah. Yeah. I know the one you're talking about. Yeah. I know the one you're talking about with the word that we can't say. Yeah. Yeah. That one instantly regrets it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was the funny. That's a promo that you have to watch the video of you couldn't just listen to the audio. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The audio doesn't really sell that. I mean, you'd have to see Sherry's face, how Gina Oakland, no sales, the whole thing, Stevie Ray, no sales, the whole thing. And like, and Sherry's face, she's trying not to sell it, but you can see it that, that she had a reaction like, you know, hold on. Yes. You know, she knew it wasn't good. Uh, so, uh, yeah, that that's some good stuff, but yeah, we'll start with the eighties and go from there. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. All right. So, uh, we, we, we, we have several ideas for topics. Um, you know, a lot of people have been rating the route Mount Russian war wrestling lately. Uh, there's also the current topic right now where, well, first of all, I want to point out a interesting tidbit that I saw on social media right now. Wrestling is dominated by some old guys named Joe. I saw that. Yes. We have, uh, Roman Reigns, whose name is Joe, uh, dominated the WWE. And then we have Samoa Joe, um, dominating AEW. And you know, that was kind of bleeding into another topic that I had thought about too was guys that never got their, their time until now Samoa. Joe was one of those guys. Yes. He could have been in the main event of the day. We, W E. Yeah. Absolutely. It's the man didn't know what to do with them. I saw a clip where he was, he was doing like one of those, uh, pre-shows with Michael Cole in the rain at WrestleMania. Yeah. Did you see that? Well, they were both wearing like raincoats doing the pre-show like standing by the ring. And I'm like, I'm like, you got some, oh, Joe doing a pre-show. Really? Really? Yeah. It's it. Sad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I mean, again, I can go on and on about the shit, but that's WWE having these, having great talent and not doing anything with it. They have a long history of that long history. So what's going on right now is, uh, as there's, there's a meme that kind of explains this. Yeah. Every 10 years, the prophecy says that the rock will return and take the slot of in WrestleMania of someone who's worked hard to deserve it all year. Yes. Absolutely. So, and this year it's Cody Rhodes. Yeah. He's the victim of the rock. This, if it happens, if it happens, if it happens. Okay. So at the Royal rumble, we got a pretty good match coming up. Roman Reigns versus Randy Orton versus AJ Styles versus LA night. Okay. Okay. So that's, so there's a four way match for the title of the Royal rumble. Yes. Okay. Okay. Um, first time the title has been defended in months. There's one guy in that match that hasn't had his time and that's LA night. That's right. That's right. Now, as much as I love AJ Styles, he's one of my favorite wrestlers. And as much as I'd love to see him win the belt and the from Roman, um, he doesn't deserve as much as LA night does. And he's had the belt before, right? Uh, yeah, he's held the WWE title twice. Okay. Um, then of course, Randy Orton, I believe is a 14 time champion. Yeah. He doesn't need the belt, you know, um, Roman Reigns doesn't need the belt, but they're probably going to keep the bell on him. That's the only thing I could think of is they're probably going to keep the bell on him because they're going to have the, him having the belt at freaking WrestleMania. Yeah. And if, if our worst dreams come true, they're going to have him fight against the rock if, and, and I hope that they don't do that. Yeah, me too. I, okay. I love the rock. I love the attitude era and all that. Well, although I don't love it as much as most people per my, um, rant about it. Yep. Uh, I love the rock. He's great. He's awesome. Uh, I know he's a draw, but please, please like just do like stone call Steve Austin did and stone call Steve Austin came back for a match fought against Kevin Owens. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Give somebody their, their time to shine and fighting against you in the match. Otherwise might not be on the card. That would be great for him to do. But if he's going for the title at WrestleMania, I understand that's a dream match, Roman Reigns versus the rock. You could do that elimination chamber. Um, I don't know if they're doing fast lane this year, but you can do it at fast lane. Yeah. Uh, I mean, hell you could do it on a roll. I don't give a fuck. Just, just don't do it at WrestleMania. Yeah. Um, I, I wouldn't mind him facing Roman Reigns if Roman Reigns didn't have the belt, that's the problem. The belt is the problem. Cause if Roman Reigns has the belt, even whether it's a title match or a non title match, you're taking that opportunity away from somebody. Yeah. There's somebody that's losing. Yeah. Right. Which if, if it winds up being the rock versus Roman Reigns, the person that loses the most is Cody Rhodes. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. He didn't win the belt last year. Yeah. He should have won the belt last year. Uh, the, the, the Roman Reigns. Okay. I, the, the, the, the legendary record breaking rain of Roman Reigns is so bloated and overrated. He defends the bell every few months and you're comparing him to guys like Hogan and Bruno San Martino. Now I understand later in life, Hogan didn't defend the belt all the time, but in the eighties, he defended the bell all the time. Uh, Bruno San Martino defended the bell all the time. Pedro Morales defended the bell all the time. Bob Backlund defended the belt all the time. And you're going to have Roman Reigns hold the belt for another year for no good reason for him to defend it, you know, two or three times and then fight against the rock. Right. WrestleMania. Right. That's going to be the payoff of all this. Right. Look, I understand that Roman Reigns is like been battling leukemia and stuff. And I probably have something to do with it, but don't hold the belt hostage. You know what I mean? I mean, I understand that that's a terrible thing, but why do you, why are you keeping the belt on them? Yeah. I mean, do they really think that they're going to lose money or something by giving the belt to somebody else? I mean, is Roman Reigns that big of a draw as champion? I mean, is I'm, I'm just trying to make sense of it. I don't know. He might be, um, because, uh, well, if we look at that, um, we go back to say 2016 due to being, it was like the AEW is now as far as crowd attendance, you know, they had a block. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. The hard cam side. Right. It was very embarrassing. Right. Okay. Roman Reigns has this historic rain, but I don't, the rain has part to do with it. But the other part was the, um, bloodline angle. Okay. Well, the blood, bloodline angle is, is cooling off. And now's the time for him to lose the belt. You know, at least at WrestleMania, if nothing else. Yeah. Okay. And he needs to lose it against Cody. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Who can carry the company better than, you know, as good as, as well as Roman Reigns right now, who's the best one in line to do it? I'm a huge LA night fan, but, but even, even, uh, I would still say Cody roger over LA night. Yeah. I mean, I, I just think, you know, you, you, you know, everybody has their place in line and it's Cody. And then I think it's LA night and you could have Cody at LA night at WrestleMania next year. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. I mean, the dude wrestled a hell in the cell match with the torn, uh, whatever pack, yeah, yeah. Uh, it, it, it, it, and it, I know that Dave Meltzer star rating doesn't matter that much, but it was a five star match and it was one of the times I actually agreed with day. I mean, when I watched that match, okay. To be honest with you. Um, I wasn't really that big on Cody, even when he came back to the WWE. Okay. I was like, okay, he's, um, I felt like he should have turned heel in the AEW and I felt like him coming to the WWE was him being so stubborn about being a face that he went to the WWE where it would be easier for him to get over as a face, which is still, I think true. Yeah. Okay. But he has a torn pack and he goes to hell in the cell and he takes his, uh, jacket off and all you see is like a big bruise, the biggest bruise I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. Yeah. The biggest bruise I've ever seen in life. And you could hear the crowd like gasp gas. Yeah. Have you ever heard the crowd gasp like they did in that hell in the cell match? Not in my whole life. And I've watched wrestling for over 30 years. Okay. I cannot think of a time that I've seen the crowd gasp like they did when they saw Cody Rhodes injury. I mean, all that was all purpose for him to just take his jacket off and just, you know, nobody knew how bad it was and we knew he was injured, but my goodness, we had no idea it was that bad. Yeah. And you know, I'm sure that that, that injury limited him and he was also putting himself at more risk and they, Seth Rollins did not like go easy on them at all. It was a hell on the cell mat. It was like they fought like, like they were really trying to kill each other in that match. And that was another thing I thought was going to happen when I saw that match. I said, Seth Rollins is going to go easy on him because he's injured. That didn't happen. He didn't go easy on him at all. Or if he did, I couldn't tell. He, like I said, it looked like they were trying to murder each other, even though Cody Rhodes was, was severely injured. And so then we had to wait for him to come back because he had to have surgery. Yeah. We had to wait for him to come back. So that just made you want to see him even more. And then he comes back and then he went to Royal rumble. He goes against Roman Reigns. You think this is it. Roman Reigns is going to lose the belt. This is the story of him, you know, finishing the story and then he loses. Okay. And I could not wrap my head around why did Cody Rhodes lose? I honestly thought it was just Vince McMahon, uh, uh, still hating the Rhodes from, from his grudge going back to the eighties and like, you know, I mean, I was like, well, what else are they going to do to Cody Rhodes now? They're going to make him wear polka dots. I mean, is he going to go out and, uh, drag, uh, a quick note, speaking of the polka dots, there was a fan front row at dynamite this week, where the polka dot get up of dusty roads. Well, that's awesome. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention that. So, so dusty road. I mean, um, not dusty roads, Cody Rhodes lost the match and, uh, he had a great feud with Brock Lesnar that helped push Cody Rhodes to the next level. I love Ellie night, but Ellie night hasn't had a big feud like that yet. We're like, he won a feud with Brock Lesnar. Right. He, he still has, I still think they need to give him a mid card title. Intercontinental, uh, United States, something like that. He's cooling off too quickly. Yeah, absolutely. They need to give them a title and, uh, they're, they're, they're screwing it up. They're screwing up Ellie night right now. Terribly. They're screwing it up because the iron was hot. Uh, you didn't have them beat Roman range, which we, we, we saw that coming. But after he had his first loss on this hot streak, you have them go for one of the other main titles, you have them go for, uh, United States or intercontinental haven't beat Gunther. I mean, so, so are they, uh, so after that match with, with Roman, have they slowly been moving him away from the main event picture or have they kept them in the picture? Well, I mean, he's still in the picture because he's at the main event or one of the main events, right? Right. Royal rumble. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, of course the main event, Royal rumble is the Royal rumble, right? The men and the women. Yeah. But, uh, he's fighting again in a match with Roman Reigns and AJ styles. And, um, it was other person, AJ styles, uh, Randy Orton, Randy Orton. Yeah. Yeah. So fatal four way match for the undisputed WWE intergalactic, galactic, intergalactic universal championship. By the way, have they gotten rid of the other belts that's supposed to represent the one belt? I haven't seen in a while. I haven't seen those other belts. Yeah. I've only seen the one belt lately. Uh, it's been a while since I've seen those belts. So I guess those are gone now. Yeah. But yeah, I, I totally agree. The, the, everything should be focused on Cody and LA night right now. Oh yeah. And it's, and it's not, I love, I love Gunter, but, um, it's time for him to drop the belt. I mean, he's already got the record now for the IC belt, um, having, you know, I don't know, uh, LA nights on smack down. So I guess he'd have to cross over. He could, he could be, uh, what? Okay. Uh, have LA night be, uh, Logan Paul at say, uh, WrestleMania. Yeah. When the United States bill, I think that'd be a great way to, um, and we have, have him at WrestleMania moment. Yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. That yeah, that'd be great. That or, or just say, screw it and have LA night fight against the rocket WrestleMania. Yeah. What? Yeah. And when, I mean, everybody would know who LA. Night is at that point, if they don't already. Yeah. Yeah. So have LA night fight against the rocket WrestleMania and have them win. Yeah. Absolutely. I don't need the rock to win anymore. The rock doesn't need anything. Um, this is just anything. This is just like, yeah. I mean, I, it, the only way I could see him winning is against Roman, Roman Reigns because he would be the face, but Roman Reigns has the belt and that can't happen. The rock does not need the fucking belt. Like I, I mean, that would be, that's the worst possible outcome of this is the rock winning the belt from Roman Reigns. That, that is the absolute worst outcome. That is the worst that could happen. Yeah. Um, I don't even know what to say about that. That, that depresses me to even think about it. I know. I just, well, I mean, look, compare the rock to John Cena, John Cena, who hasn't won a match in like, I don't know, five years or something, like in a singles match. Yeah. Okay. As much as I hated John Cena in the past, that dude is paying his dude is dudes back, you know, for all the unbeatable unstoppable nest that he hit once had. He's he's, he's given back. You know, it would be great if John Cena came out. So like say, say the rock was in the ring, cutting a promo and Roman range or something like that. It John Cena came out and called him out on what he's doing. That would be cool. That would be great. Okay. That, that, that could actually be another match. Uh, John Cena's retirement match against the rock. Yeah, sure. Sure. Why not? You know, why not? I mean, I'd rather see him lose against, uh, a new person, a new part, yeah, retirement match. Right. Yeah. Like, uh, like, uh, angle did cause an angle job to, um, Baron Corbin. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Uh, that was my only disappointment about edge his last match of the, to be, he won. Um, he should have, he could have lost, um, you know, give back, but edge did give back in his second run in the WWE. He didn't win any major titles or anything. I mean, he, he got people over. So I, I wasn't too upset about that, but I don't know. Like if you want to look at how to retire, like the classic best retirement match, even though it didn't wind up being a retirement match and the guys probably still itching to get in the ring right now is Rick flares retirement match against Shawn Michaels. That was the best retirement match in all of wrestling history. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And Rick flair screwed it up by getting back in the ring. Yeah. And I'm talking about the WrestleMania match against Shawn. I'm not talking about Rick flair's last match that happened like last year. And he like, like winning conscious three times. Yeah. You know, they had like check, make sure his heart monitor was still working. Yeah. All that, you know, uh, as much as I love Rick flair, that man has no business being the ring, but there's also a part of me that says, you know, I let the man just die in the ring. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Let him have his wish. Yeah. Uh, I just, uh, I let him, if that's what he wants, just give it to him. Yeah. Just, just give it to, he said, that's what he wants to do. He wants to die in the ring. Yeah. And so let them do it. Yeah. Yep. I mean, he's not like ink incompetent or anything. Right. He can make his own decisions. If he wants to die in the ring, let them die in the ring. Right. Right. I mean, we, you know, we don't go back in time and tell the Vikings, they, oh, you can't die in battle and go to the hollow. Right. Uh, so I mean, you know, that's the equivalent. Yeah. That's like the modern day. Yeah. Rip flyer dying in the rings. The modern equivalent of like Vikings dying and going to Valhalla with their acts in their head, you know? So it's like, I don't know how accurate this was, but like playing Assassin's creed Valhalla, like if a character was dying, like, like they would ask their opponent to like literally like give them their acts. So they could actually have the acts in their hand. Yeah. They die. Yeah. You know, uh, that's, that's Rick flair. He wants to be dying in the ring and he just wants to yell, pin me. Yeah. You know, like pay me before I die. Yeah. Yeah. So he can go to like wrestling Valhalla, you know, uh, that's, that's what Rick flair wants, but, uh, that was a great retirement match. That's a great model of how to do a retirement match. Um, the undertaker's match was also a great retirement match. Um, he did win the match, however, but I was okay with that. Uh, just because the match was, was done really well. I mean, it was just, it was just a great match. That the AJ styles against AJ. So, yeah, I showed you that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the reason, the reason why I was okay with the undertaker winning that match was his last few matches looked terrible. Yeah. And because of the cinematic nature of that match, they were able to make the undertaker look good one last time. Absolutely. And that, that I was okay with that because that, I think that was the whole point of it was let's let the undertaker look good one last time. Yeah. And that's what they did. The rock doesn't need anything though. He, he, he, he, he just needs to show up at WrestleMania, fight some opponent, uh, that wouldn't otherwise be on the card, uh, help get that person over and then disappear for 10 more years. Yeah. I mean, look, I understand the reasoning for his presence. He, he will bring eyes to the product. Yeah. The biggest star in anything right now. Yeah. So yeah, of course he, he's going to bring people there, but he doesn't, he doesn't need a match to win anything. He doesn't need a match against the world champion. I mean, shit. If he just shows up and just talks, you know, kind of like remember, uh, I can't remember which WrestleMania it was, but remember when it was kicked off with Hogan rock and Steve Austin. Yeah. Yeah. You know, something like that, whatever. So that's, that's pretty much our thoughts on the rock. Yeah. Don't, don't beat anybody or don't take anybody's spot. Yeah. Just go there and draw money. Yeah. And they go away again. They go away again. Yeah. Just, just go do the, just go do your football league and your movies and it was great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just, no, no, no, we don't want none of this. We do not want him in the main event. Yeah. Go away. Do your thing and then go away. Yeah. Just, just don't win any belts. Don't don't steal anybody's spot. Just, just, just get people over and make money and just focus on that and then don't do anything else. All right. Uh, anything else about the rock still in people's spots? Oh no, I just think it would just be such, I mean, anybody that knows anything for those people, this would be such a bad look for the rock. If he, if he did something like that, what if he gets booed? Yeah. Like, like if he wins or yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that. Although it's the WWE crowd. So that is the problem. The WWE crowd is kind of, if it was like an AEW crowd, yeah, he would get slaughtered by the crowd. Yeah. Um, I will, I will admit that, uh, actually there's even statistics on it. The AEW crowd is more educated. I saw that. Then then the WWE crowd. I saw that. Um, and I think the reason why is, um, there to be pills to a wider base. Yeah. And, uh, I think that's, that's good for wrestling though. Wrestling should appeal to a wider base. Yeah. Wrestling has historically been a working class sport. Yeah. Historically. And I think that, uh, you know, anybody that knows me about my origins, you know, I grew up in a trailer park. My dad was a janitor slash maintenance guy. You know, um, you know, I come from that working class environment, even though now I have a master's degree, so it's I've seen both ends of the spectrum. Yeah. And, you know, I grew up in this working class environment where, uh, this is before everything, I mean, there, I heard rumors that wrestling was, was rigged, but the working class environment I am nobody, people would fight over, over that subject. Yeah. You know, I mean, that was fighting words to call wrestling fake. And people took it very personal, very seriously. And so that was the environment I grew in was, was this working class environment. And so that was the historical environment for professional wrestling. I I'm not exactly sure why AEW fans are more educated. I mean, I know what they are in the wrestling term. Uh, they're a smarter, uh, fan base, but I don't, I don't know. Also, I mean, there's probably less children that watch wrestling. Yeah. Um, and a W wrestling. So I, I don't know, but it does draw a different crowd, uh, than the WWE does. And it's probably also an older crowd. It is. Um, because you probably got a lot of people from the ECW and attitude era days turned over to, to AEW because it's an edgier product, right? Right. So yeah, it's probably an older crowd and therefore people have been educated in that time between attitude era. And now, yeah, they've got their master's degree. I mean, uh, you know, technically, even though I consider myself a WWE fan more than a W fan, technically when I watch a W I contribute to that higher educated. Puller of fans. Right. Right. You know, right. And you know, maybe people that, you know, haven't, uh, your, your average fan base is less likely to crossover like that. You know? Uh, so I, I don't know. I, you know, Tony Khan actually kind of, he didn't touch on that exactly, but he did say this was after the, uh, the, the pay-per-view at the media scrum. Um, but he was talking about how it's a different product, you know, AEW is a different product from, you know, WWE or just a traditional wrestling show, I, I guess, but he, he was saying that. AEW is in his words. He called it punk rock as opposed to something mainstream. I'm not sure I understand that comparison. Is that the alternative lifestyle that, that, that, that we talked about? You could definitely look at it that way. Uh, think of it the, the way I took it is this WWE is like mainstream music. Taylor Swift. Okay. Okay. AEW. I'm insulted by that. No, but it, but it's accurate. There's more people in the world listening to Taylor Swift. Then cannibal corpse. Okay. Okay. All right. And AEW is kept the cannibal courts because that's death metal. That's not punk rock, but you get what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. So, so it's, it's, it's more niche. Okay. Is that better? Yeah. Maybe, maybe a better one that I would, I would tolerate is there to be, he's like Metallica and, um, AEW is like some, uh, basement Nordic. You could say that WWE is Metallica and AEW is Slayer. Okay. Okay. So cause same genre. Yeah. Same sub genre, but one's a lot bigger than the other. Yeah. Also one's a lot better than the mainstream one. I'm not saying AEW is better, although it's, you know, it's what I prefer. But anyway, um, well, you know, I, our, our friend Tony, uh, not, not big Tony that I need to get still need to ask if he wants to be on the show one day, but, uh, a little Tony. Yeah. Yeah. Who still has all his hair. Yeah. Despite being nearly 40. Yeah. Fuck that guy. Hardly any gray, uh, little Tony. Yeah. He, he brought up that I'm more of like a traditional wrestling fan. Okay. You know, I like the traditional wrestling. Is that bad though? I think it's just different. Yeah. Yeah. No. Um, I don't like the AEW stuff. The silliness, you know, but that's like, it's a different, like what Tony Khan said, it is, it is a different product. I could go on. I could go on a little bit about that because they've, AEW has pulled back a lot on what I would call indie wrestling. Uh, when it first started, you know, you had a bunch of guys come in that were straight out of the Indies, right? Uh, there, there's a lot of those gimmicks that just aren't there anymore. Or those wrestlers have taken their gimmick and made it more mainstream. I guess, for instance, Chris Statlander is no longer an alien from the drama of the galaxy, right? She's Chris Statlander from Long Island, New York. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That, that alien stuff definitely was some indie stuff, like very indie stuff. And you're definitely seeing less of that now. Um, but like, and again, I could go on about this, but I like the way their stories are going lately, I'd say over the last month, I think they've done a great job with it. Um, do you think they're pulling themselves out of the hole? I, I think they're going in the right direction. I definitely liked the fact that they gave, I, I didn't believe they would do it. That they, you know, gave Samoa Joe the strap. Yeah. Yeah. Um, from, from what I was written out, I think it definitely makes sense right now, um, because MJF is pretty beat up and he needs to rest. He has a lot of injuries, has a torn labrum in his shoulder. And he's been working with that. Yeah. Um, so he definitely needs to rest. But apparently even before that, the plan was to give some, oh, Joe, the strap at the pay-per-view really. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I definitely think they're headed in the right direction. Um, I don't know if you saw, but they, they did reveal that it was Adam Cole. That was the devil. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people bitched about that. Like it was so obvious, but it's what made sense. Yeah. Who else could have, could have been the devil that would have made any damn sense? You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, it was obvious, but it made sense and it, and Adam Cole's a heal again. Okay. So, um, that's just the classic wrestling storyline. Your best friends, your enemy. Right. Uh, I saw, I saw a meme and it had a whole Hogan being betrayed by macho man, Randy Savage, Andre, the giant, uh, tugboat. And I can't remember who else it was. Sit, sit vicious to sit justice or whatever. Yeah. And it says, if all your friends are betraying you, maybe you're the problem. Yeah. Um, you know, that is just wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is just a wrestling. I mean, that that's just a basic wrestling storyline. Like I, I honestly, as much as I like criticize AEW, that didn't bother me. Right. Yeah. It didn't bother me either. Um, I mean, yeah, it, I guess it could have been more exciting, but it wouldn't have made any sense. It, if they had done anybody else, it would have been more exciting for that one single moment. And then it's like, well, that doesn't make any sense though. You know what I mean? And, and, and, and, and who they brought in. So, so basically they've resurrected the kingdom. Yeah. It is what they've done with this. Um, so yeah. And, and, and when MJF comes back, that, you know, and you'll give Adam Cole time to heal up so he can wrestle again. Cause he has the ankle thing. Injury. Yeah. And then they could have a match at, you know, whatever pay-per-view or whatever. I mean, it's right. That that should be a good match. Right. Right. So yeah, I, yeah, I definitely think AEW is going in the right direction. And there's some other stories they're doing. Um, Holy shit. Did you watch any of the media scrum after the Tony storms appearance at the media scrum was fucking gold. What happened? Like, Oh, I was like, she has to be drunk. She, she stayed. She, she maintained cave faith through the entire thing. Oh my God. It was fucking wonderful. She, she, she walks in and you know, Tony Khan's always there. So she walks in and she goes, bring it in boss man hugs them and everything. Oh my God. And she was wearing like this, I don't know what you call it, but she was wearing this fur hat that you see, like celebrities wear and these big glad, these big sunglasses, and she took, she took them off and put them on Tony. So, so Tony was sitting there with this big fuzzy hat on and sunglasses the whole time and she, and she called out, hang on, I'm, I'm gonna look this up. But, um, somebody asked her in the scrum. I want to say the question was about free agents and they were asking her if any free agents were going to come in that she would like to face or, or, or something like that. Um, and she brought up somebody from like the eighties. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hold on. Let me see if I can find the clip and I'll play it. Cause we do that now on this show. We play clips. She called out Wendy Richter. Are you serious? You ready? Are you serious? You ready? Oh my God. So, so just for those that, that, that may be wondering who Wendy Richter is. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I, I'm pretty sure I spoke on her on the, uh, episode we did on women's wrestling or one of the episodes we did on women's wrestling. Go ahead. And, uh, she was the victim of the first screw job. Oh yeah. Where Mula, uh, did a screw job match, um, against her. And even though she was a much bigger star at the time and probably it set back wrestling women's wrestling like decades. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Cause Wendy Richter was the big star in the eighties and women's wrestling. So, uh, appropriate choice of someone to call out. Okay. Here it is. Here's that. Here's that clip. Isn't there this money written all over it. Wendy Richter. I'm going to fuck you up. That's amazing. I appreciate that as somebody that's watched wrestling for a long time. I really appreciate. I love it. I love it when they reference anything from wrestling history. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so, uh, to, to, to reference Wendy Richter, uh, I would love to see a response from Wendy Richter, uh, to, to, to reference Wendy Richter. I would love to see a response from Wendy Richter, uh, Tony, Tony, Tony storms challenge. Yes. You know, I would love to see a response from her, you know, she's been retired for decades, you know, honestly, I didn't know who she was, but of course I looked her up afterwards. Um, I know she's in her sixties now, which would, which would make it even better. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I know who she is, but of course I would, you know, uh, I, I, I'm going to look it up and see if, uh, there's a Wendy Richter response. I doubt we're going to find anything, but it would be amazing. Okay. Well, it does, it does have Tony storms, uh, yeah. Calls out Wendy Richter, Wendy Richter. And, oh my God. Yeah. That's just amazing. The fact of the matter is, is that Tony storm called out Wendy Richter and told her she was going to fuck her up. Yeah. It does not get any better than that at a media scrum. God damn. Interesting choice of who to call out too. Yeah. I like it. I like it. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of women from women's history. You could have called out. Yeah. You know, she, she called out one that, that may even obscure you, but to me, I'm like, really? Really? Did she really just do that? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and like you said, you know, she's still alive. Yeah. This is a woman that's still alive, even though she's, you know, not in wrestling prime now, Wendy Richter had to have loved that. Oh God. Yeah. Well, I mean, you got to think about it. Like there were people like you that don't remember her who looked her up. Yeah. You know, who's Wendy Richter? Yep. Um, but, uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure I can't imagine that I didn't talk about her in the women's wrestling history, right? Um, podcast we did whenever I talked about the fabulous Mula, uh, because she was one of the last people that got screwed by her. Oh, okay. So it was, it was, uh, Wendy Richter was fighting against her. She was in a costume. She was a spider lady. It was really the fabulous Mula. Yeah. And you know, there was, it was the worst. It was so obvious that she kicked out, um, one, two, three, and the ref just counted her out anyways. Holy shit. Yeah. If you watch the tapes of it, give it a glance. I mean, it's so, it looks even worse than the Bret Hart, Sean, Michael screw job, Montreal is more obvious. It's more obvious. Yeah. I, it is so, it is so bad. It is so bad. Yeah. Any of the fans had to been really confused by the whole thing that we're, if they were watching it. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Tony storm caught out Wendy Richter. I mean, that's, that's just great. I mean, that's, that's just wonderful. Um, anything else you want to talk about Lance? I've got one more subject we could bring up. Uh, what's that? The, um, this has been going around a lot on social media. People are doing their Mount Rushmore professional wrestling. Okay. So who would I put on my Mount Rushmore or professional wrestling? Um, this is challenging because I haven't really honestly thought this through. I mean, there's an obvious choice. I'll talk about the obvious choices. Okay. Obvious choice. Rick flair, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler of all time. Yeah. The best he was, he was the greatest at everything. And just, I don't know. I mean, it just, he had everything, everything as far as checking off all the boxes of what it means to be a professional wrestler, Rick flair top. All of them. Next, I would say Holt Hogan. Okay. Okay. Simply due to the charisma and the, um, the draw he was and, and, and, and the fact that he, he would have made it if he just was a face and stopped. Yeah. But then he turned heel. Yeah. And wrestling went back into the stratosphere. Yeah. Okay. So he calls wrestling. He calls wrestling to go into the stratosphere twice. Yeah. Yeah, he did. He did. Once with the eighties. Yeah. And then, which I don't think anybody understands how big Hogan was in the eighties. Uh, I remember hearing a story that people identified him quicker than they could identify the president of the United States back in those times. You had the main event match against under the giant that had like the ridiculous, uh, all time highest rating of any wrestling event of all history. Yeah. Uh, still to this day has not been beat. Um, more eyes have seen Hogan than anybody else. I, I would dare say that historically Hogan is even, um, bigger than the rock. Okay. Okay. Um, I would have to put Luther's next. Okay. Just because he was basically, um, the big star during the television era of professional wrestling and the longevity of his career, I, the only one that probably would go to like a close second to that spot would be gorgeous George just because of the contributions he did to wrestling gimmicks and things like that, but you know, I had to give it to somebody, so I gave it to Lou Thes. And then, uh, the final spot I would have to give to, um, you would think I would give it to the rock, right? I've been going to give it to John Cena. Okay. Um, John Cena, the reason why is I think there are wrestlers who carried wrestling during dark times and kept it alive and kept it going. And these wrestlers often get forgotten about because they were wrestling in an era that isn't talked about as much. Okay. It's easy to be a big star when wrestling is seen by millions and millions of people. It's a lot harder to be a big star when only a few million people are watching wrestling. Right. So, um, an example of, of this would be dusty roads. Okay. He, he carried wrestling, uh, before it became huge. Uh, Harley race would be another example of this. Okay. So even though Harley race did wrestle during the whole, whole era and even went to the WWE at some point. Okay. John Cena kept wrestling alive during the PG era. And a lot of people would say, well, John Cena was the PG era, but he didn't cause the PG era, he was just going to work. Yeah. He was just showing up, doing what he was told and he kept wrestling going. Even when half the fans booed him out of the arena. Yeah. He, he can't, I mean, that's another thing you got to give him a lot of credit for. Okay. Um, half the fans are booing you and you're told to still go out there and do do your job and you can't switch. You can't turn Hill. Uh, Roman had even more booing than Cena, but eventually he was allowed to turn Hill and it worked out and he got more cheers as a Hill than he did as a face. Yeah. Okay. But John Cena was told he couldn't change nothing. Right. Right. Just go out there and wrestle. Okay. Yep. So here's the thing, even though the ratings went down during John Cena's career financially, the WWE got better. So, um, John Cena appealed to the child audience and he appealed to an international audience. Yeah. And, um, you know, he was, he was the big, the big star, uh, that kept wrestling going until we got to like the network era. Right. And everything. Right. And he was a, still a huge star during the early period of the network era. Speaking of the rock, he fought against, you know, uh, and the prophecy of all the rocks return, he fought against John Cena at WrestleMania. So, um, so yeah, that would be my Mount Rushmore. What about you Lance? All right. We're about to hear some new folks that, uh, in the past 10 years and indie people, uh, Orange Cassidy. Uh, I was about to punch you. Okay. Uh, real quick. I can do this very quick. Rick Flair undertaker rock Austin. Okay. Why Rick Flair? Cause he's Rick Flair. Okay. That one's kind of self-explanatory. Uh, rock. Um, I, uh, I think one of the important things of his run was African Americans Samoan heritage. He was the biggest name in wrestling for a long time. Carried the belt several times. Um, to me it's self-explanatory. I, I didn't think about the diversity part of that. And how quickly he did it. He debuted in 96. He was a champion in 98. I mean, although I would argue that being a Samoan in professional wrestling is definitely not a strike against you. No, well, no, no, no, it's not. Be black maybe is, but not, but how many Samoans had the run he did? Uh, no, none. Right. Uh, aside from, uh, Roman Reigns. Yeah. Uh, okay. So undertaker, I think, I think undertaker's importance is how that character made you feel. Yeah. I think, I think that stood out above anybody else. What, what he was able to do. He, he was revered towards the end of his career. Yeah. I mean, I mean, hell it, whenever I play they would be 2k 23 and it's WrestleMania, even though he's retired undertaker still comes back in my game. Fights at WrestleMania once a year. Right. Right. Right. And every year I got to decide who is he going to fight this year? You know, he's been retired for years and I still have the undertaker come back in my game. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, when that, when that music hit and he came out with the fog and it was dark and he did the lights, it's, it was just all about how it made you feel. Uh, I'm going to comment on the undertaker when he done. Okay. And then, uh, and then Austin, because, uh, the, the path he, his career went, went was, was tough. It was very tough. He was in a company that didn't use them properly. Uh, Paul Heyman was there to say, Hey, come in and say whatever you want. And I really think that I really don't think Stone Cold would have happened without that opportunity in ECW. The undertaker. By far the best gimmick ever, ever made and worked. He he's definitely been one of my favorite guys to watch. Um, I didn't really care much for the American badass gimmick. Yeah. Yeah. Me either. But, uh, the, the undertaker gimmick was, was insane. And I think fans still, you know, he still worked the American badass gimmick enough that it got over. Uh, even though I wasn't a fan of it, but, um, uh, I liked it. I like it more now in hindsight, cause it was more of, of him, of himself in that gimmick and his last match was done as kind of, well, it was done as the American badass, but it was also kind of like a mold because he still had supernatural powers. Yeah. You know, he can teleport behind you. He can shoot out lightning and fire. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. Um, there's gosh talking about talking about, uh, clips. Okay. So basically what this video does, it talks about Triple H his career, and it gets to the undertaker and then he describes to non wrestling fans what the undertaker is now ready to play it. All right. Oh, hold on to your sister's suspension of disbelief because it's about to take a fucking beating. He's here. I like turtles. The undertaker is a wizard, a satanic magician. And no, I don't know why he's a wrestler. He was part of this. He was a little kid. They sacrifice his three little girls. Now he's got this creepy guy, Paul with them. He has this intense relationship with his demon brother, Kane. It's all pretty fucking insane. And add to that, he commands a cult of hundreds of hooded figures. You know, it's fake, right? What matters is that undertaker has never been defeated at WrestleMania. Shawn Michaels is like, I think I could beat him. He couldn't. Shawn Michaels is like, damn it. I feel like I could really beat him if I just had one more chance, you know, undertaker says, Hey, Undertaker says, I will give you another match at next year's WrestleMania. But only if when you lose, you lose the game. Shawn Michaels is like, I don't know if I should do that. What do you think Triple H Triple H is like, no, it would be so terrible if you left and never came back. That would be the worst. Oh my God. You should do it. You should do it. Why don't you do it? Don't be a pussy. You should do it. Do it. Do it. Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels is like, okay, sure. So Shawn Michaels loses to the undertaker is permanently retired. Three, two, one. And he's like, I'm going to beat him. I'm going to beat him. I'm going to beat him. I'm going to beat him. I'm going to beat him. I'm tired. Oh, poor Shawn Michaels. What? What the fuck? You're going to feel real stupid when I beat the Undertaker at WrestleMania. I'm wasted. Baaaah. An important thing to remember about Triple H is that he views himself when he looks in the mirror as this warrior knight, Conan destroyer, super badass, unstoppable guy. The fact that he's actually an insecure, cheating, undercutting, manipulative coward, he's kind of blind to. He can't see it. And that's why when the Undertaker beats him, all Triple H can think about is, well, I still got some good hits in though, right? And everyone's like, sort of. Hey, stop acting like you beat me. Yeah, but I kind of did sort of. No, you didn't. Yeah, but I hit you a bunch of times. That's not how wrestling works. You can't win. Just you lost. Admit that you lost. No. Fight me again then. No. You're not as good as Shawn Michaels. Rich, I will fight you anywhere. I will fight you on the moon. It's going to be a hell in the cell match where I'm allowed to use any weapon I want. My sledgehammer. And the referee is going to be my best friend, Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels is like, well, chill it on the best friend. You chill it on the best friend. Triple H is like, you're my best friend. And with Shawn Michaels as the guest referee, access to any weapon he wants in a match that he chose. Triple H loses to The Undertaker. This is the end. So. I just thought that was a good way to explain The Undertaker to people. Yeah. He's an undead wizard. You know, we don't know why he's a wrestler. All right. Well, that's pretty much it. I don't have anything else. How about you, Lance? Um, I think that's a good way to wrap it up. Yeah. All right. Well, uh, I guess until next time, uh, see you guys later. Later. Bye.