WWE 2k26 is it worth it?

You ever buy the biggest edition of a wrestling game and still feel like the game is telling you “not yet”? We sit down with returning guest Lord Xzae and get into WWE 2K26 the way real players talk about it: what’s fun, what’s broken, and what feels like it’s designed to squeeze your wallet. We debate the Attitude Era obsession, why classic teams and even era-specific tag titles can be locked, and how the unlock system has shifted from “earn it through cool challenges” to “grind forever or pay $77.”

Then we get into the gameplay. The ragdoll physics and no more invisible walls create some hilarious, chaotic moments, but the new reversal limiter (that infamous purple circle) and ruthless AI can turn matches into a stress test. If you’re a Universe Mode or MyGM player, we also talk about why progression not counting in certain modes is such a slap in the face, especially when community creations and CAW downloads can get blocked by DLC parts and locked items.

From there, we zoom out into the wider wrestling landscape. TNA has talent but struggles with star power. AEW gives us bangers while tripping over start-stop storytelling, brand-split confusion, and social media controversies that hijack the conversation. WWE catches heat too, especially around WrestleMania season hot-shot booking and title decisions we don’t think help the right people. If you’ve been feeling like being a wrestling fan is getting expensive and strangely exhausting, you’re not alone.

Subscribe for more, share this with your group chat wrestling nerds, and leave a review if you want us to keep the rants honest. What’s the one thing you’d fix first: WWE 2K26 paywalls, AEW storytelling, or WWE booking?

Transcript

Welcome And Lord Zay Returns

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Welcome to another episode of the Big Brothers of Destruction podcast. It's your host who likes to post the Mazaku. And it's your boy, Swag Switcher in the building. And we actually have a guest with us here today. I'm gonna let you kindly introduce yourself for the audience as well.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Wait, hold on. A guest? He was a guest a year ago. And he's still a guest. He's still a guest.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Listen, remember the rule. Remember the rule with stories. Story was on multiple times before you became a part of the show. No, no, no, no, no. Second time.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

No, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The way that we all we said in the very beginning was the first time you were a guest, the second time you know where the fridge is and you know what drinks to get and what not to touch.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Well then, welcome back. Welcome back are no longer gecks, but I'm gonna still let them introduce themselves for the audience again.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

What up, what up? It's your favorite sad boy, Lord Zay. And I'm glad to be back with more bad hot takes that I had last time.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

And we have we all have our moments. It's cool, it is what it is, but we are here now. So uh I know previously we were talking about just a little bit of 2K and just the issues that the game has been providing for people, and also the the conversation of why we keep using the attitude era as the era of any of the games, why not use ruthless aggression? Why not use anything of that nature? But we actually have insider scoop to uh your boy Zay playing the game and actually telling us what are some of the things about the game that you've actually noticed uh that might be either a problem or some good to it. Well, wait, wait, wait.

Moving Past The Attitude Era

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Before we dig into, we need to get his, we need to see where he stands on it. Because everyone's heard how we feel about the whole and we had in our epiphany moment. So before we just dig into the game, because I'm interested to see what you got to say about it, but like for you, what is your take on the thought process of attitude era versus any other era of wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Uh I'm definitely on the wave of let's move on from the 90s as much as I can now. Uh attitude era happened, it was great, it can never happen again by any means. Uh have things that are on TV cannot fly nowadays. You can't have a uh porn star gimmick anymore with Valvinus. Uh or I mean Gangrell is like forever. You can always have a vampire. Wrestling needs more vampires. That's that's a fact. Agreed, agreed. You know, I was actually playing the game like earlier, like to stuff because I haven't had a chance to play way too much because of uh all the traveling I've been doing. But uh I was trying to do a tag team match of like attitude era people, because that's you know, that's what the game is selling itself on. So I I got you know raw 98, and I was like, cool, let me pick X Pac and uh Kane, and I'm just gonna pick a random tag team. There is no one you could play from attitude era, really, besides like the Road Warriors as a tag team. You have to unlock everybody else. And I was thinking about it, why not? We we I understand why we can't have Edge and Christian. Why can't we have Gang Guerrilla? At least. So they didn't have Gang Gorilla in there?

SPEAKER_03 3:36

No, no, apparently a lot of people like I I actually saw a video of somebody saying this themselves, like, it's crap that the the cover shows all the people that's supposed to be on the game, but they're behind a unlock wall, which old old school era, you know, we did have moments where SmackDown versus Raw, we did have to unlock, you know, Stone Cold or people of that nature, but that was just some in-game moments. But this is, I guess, because we're in the paywall area, era, excuse me, you see that and you immediately be like, man, fuck, I'm posing this automatically get this shit. What's going on?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I think the main difference between like the SmackDown versus Raw era and this is you had to earn those unlocks, which was kind of fun to do. You had to do certain missions or certain like criteria. This one is play the game a bunch, and we'll slowly give you more. And by the time that you've unlocked everything, you're like, Well, I played the game 100 fucking times. I don't know what other type of match I want to do. Or you could pay$77 after you bought the full$150 game.

SPEAKER_04 4:45

So wait, let me get this straight. So, because I'm a thousand percent with you, uh, Zay, but what you're telling me is that instead of it being like how it used to be, and I think SmackDown versus Raw was one that really that really had this, where it's like you play season mode, and then like when you go to the the WWE shop, which is where you unlock everything, it'll be all like, hey, you gotta earn this many points to unlock them, or you need to win in a hell in a cell match for the heavyweight title through season mode, or you know, different little things like that, which then gave you extra incentive to play through the game to do, you know, to experience it and do cool shit. But this one is all like, nah, just just keep playing the game, just doing random shit, and uh eventually you'll get nah, as nah that's I should preference.

Paywalls And The Unlock Grind

SPEAKER_00 5:43

I did get the game for free. Shout out Mega Ran. He gave me a copy. So I am a little skewed on that aspect. I did not spend$150. My my best friend did, and he is complaining way more than I am. Uh, because he is strictly a universe mode player, which you have matches in those. Those matches in universe mode do not count against the ringside pass. What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Oh man, I'm a universe guy too. I'm a universe guy too. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I I'm a GM guy, so uh, I haven't touched GM mode a lot until I unlocked everybody because I want the full roster to play with. So uh you can so far from what I'm my understanding is you you can unlock via like my play, like the quick match, or the CM Punk uh what's that showcase mode, it will give you unlocks as well. Uh but yeah, yeah, you you really have to grind, or you could pay$77.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Additional with the buying the actual wow, wow. And and this is also not including purchasing the seasons pass and yeah, that's what I'm saying. That stuff to get the unlocks or to to get the new people that come through.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

That's crazy. I what one of the things that also got me? It was like how to nickel and diamond, everything. Uh uh call mode, you know, where you could download your wrestlers. Yeah. I thought somebody made a really good Swerve Strickland, but they couldn't download that Swerve Strickland unless you had uh the DLC because uh Austin.

SPEAKER_03 7:23

That's always been a thing now.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

I was gonna say because Austin's chain, you couldn't download Swerf with a chain. Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

That's always been a thing though. Yeah, that's always been a thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I was gonna say in the mode, you couldn't get his hair. You had to unlock his hair before you could download it.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

I remember when I got 2K25, I had a similar issue with that, where you know I wanted to immediately download some calls that I saw on there, and it was like, oh, I had to play this mode and I had to do this. And I actually had to play the storyline mode, the showcase mode, yeah, which was kind of interesting because it was the NXT takeover situation, and I did kind of get into it. So in moments like that, it was like I actually enjoyed doing that because I got to play a part of the mode that I probably would have never played and got to see a story. But sometimes you just kind of want to get in the game and just immediately go into what you want to do. I don't think I think as adults now, there are points where we, yes, we would like to be able to do that, but give us that feature they gave us back in the day. I don't know if you remember this, but you could just unlock everything immediately. There used to be that feature, and now it's just it's gone.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, you uh if you bought the highest version of the game, you could just Yeah, you could unlock everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

Now I can agree with the fact of if you dropped$150 to get the biggest version of the game, as well as getting the seasons passed, because I because that's also like a separate price kind of thing. I would I feel as if that like if you want to just unlock everything, you should not have to stack on an extra 77. But bro, at that point, and this is me just like eyeballing it, you're literally paying 200 and uh probably roughly 220 for a game. Literally,$220 for a game. But I mean at the same time, it it it's not too far-fetched considering the fact that for two nights at WrestleMania is$32,000. So at this point, I I guess I should have just assumed such tomfoolery.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Well, when I texted you when I was playing the game just to like get more feel for it, why if I have Monday Night War edition, why is my tag team titles from that era locked behind a paywall?

SPEAKER_04 10:09

That yeah, that's why he literally said that to me earlier. He was all like, Why? And it lurked locked. I'm like, You have the added to air edition.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

You have that. You I can't give the new age outlaws those tag titles. Yeah, that is dying laughing. But they have all these fake titles in the game that you can play, and I'm like, okay, well, these these are they're cool looking, but I was like, I just want the tag team titles. I don't care about the multiverse tag team titles.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Now, one thing, because I don't know if if you've tested or seen or not, because you play the game for some of the same reasons that I play the game. I I am head over hills addicted to GM mode. As a matter of fact, true story. I paid all that money for the last wrestling game, and I literally only played GM mode on that game. But and this and it was funny because like when you brought the fact of like everything's locked behind a paywall and you have to unlock everything, because on the other game you had to do the same thing too. Now, the only reason why I found that out was because I randomly was like, you know, I've had this game for all this time. Let me actually have a match. And then I scroll through, you know, the the regular exhibition matches, and I'm like, wait a second, why is all this shit locked? I thought I I I paid for this season's pass. And I'm talking like the people who are on the season's pass that the the that the DLC characters, like most of those DLC characters were locked. So I'm like, wait, I have to unlock the DLC characters that I paid for in the game. Now, in GM mode, I didn't see any of that because you can still use them in GM mode. Okay. However, what I think was the piece that I did not notice was the fact that if you're playing GM mode, but you actually want to like wrestle the match kind of thing, which I usually don't, but it's like, but if I did want to, I would not have been able to, and I would have had to simulate the match because I guess I did not have that person unlocked. But because I don't do that often, I didn't have to, I didn't notice that being a thing. And so I'm wondering if on this game they double downed on it. It was like, nah, if you have not unlocked them, you can't even see them in the GM mode.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

I haven't I didn't know that. So I'm gonna try that out now when I'm done here to see if they actually pop up or not. Uh because if they did, oh my god. That's that's wild.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

I mean, I the only the only reason I ever even thought about getting the game again was because me and Swag was talking about originally doing the My GM mode as a uh a form of content in the future, but uh also I I miss being able to make my original um show. And I wanted to finally do a version of where we combine our shows together and kind of do almost like an invasion angle in a sense. That'd be sick. And oh, go ahead. Sorry.

Gameplay Changes And Ruthless AI

SPEAKER_00 13:19

No, I was gonna say that'd be sick. I will preference still, the game is fun. The game is still fun. They added ragdog physics, so you just have wrestlers just falling from the top of the hell of the cell. They no longer have the invisible wall. You could Irish whip somebody off that. And they just they just die. And it's great. So the game is still fun. The worst aspect of the game mode, I would say, is this purple circle that they implemented where you have this randomly, this purple circle pop up, and you can't do any more reversals until that circle is gone.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Oh, yeah, I saw that actually. I did see somebody, uh, that one guy I show you, uh, swag, who does all the the the repeats of the same situation. Like he does a stop, he repeats it, repeats it, and then slow motion repeats it. Like that dude, he was explaining why you should stop trying to constantly pivot and what happens in the purple circle. So, yeah, sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Yeah, no, it is it is annoying as hell because if you do one reversal all of a sudden, purple circle, you can't do anything now. I'm like, all right, cool.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Now, I know in the previous games, uh, when I actually was playing them. I know instead of the a purple circle, they used to have this thing where you'd have to let your reversal charge, and depending on how technically sound your wrestler was, will depend on how quickly your, you know, will depend on how quickly you can get that reversal thing meter to charge up. And then also depending on how technically sound they were, will depend on how many reversals you can have in a row, which I think it was like three or four was the max.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

That's why I said uh before we recorded that Sid Justice is the most technical wrestler in the game for no reason.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Because apparently you just kept reversing your ass. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

That is uh I will say like the difficulty of the game, uh the AI in this game is ruthless, no matter what difficulty you put it on. You you're having you're having fights.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

They really throwing ads.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Oh, yeah. Which is funny. It's funny you say that because the same person that made that video was like, yo, just take the bump. It's okay to take a bump. Are you afraid to take a bump in a game about wrestling? Like, it's okay to take one boom. But I mean, back in the day when me and Swag used to play Here Comes the Pain, you couldn't take not one bump because that would be the trajectory of like the next five minutes, you getting your ass kicked. You because like Swag used to do this thing we talked about in an episode where he'll punch, punch, punch, and then do the move, and you're like, I gotta I gotta watch, I gotta watch the cutscene for like a fucking few minutes and then him doing another move because I can't reverse at this time. So for for us veteran players, it's like, man, you can't let a person do one move. That is why.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

I I do like the uh like the automatically like stand up button where you're like you can hit it and your player just jumped up, but like the timing of it, uh by the time you're up, that AI is coming right at you, so you're back down. So it's like, oh okay, I just wasted all that stamina for no reason.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Oh, so it's that stamina button where you, if you have like 80% stamina, you can get above.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

So you do that instead of building your your finisher, you just used it for for that.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Got it, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Oh, I see. Okay, all right. Oh no, they incorporated AEW elements into the game.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Oh bro, you can I mean I love the no-celling in the game, bro. It's great. I I threw sorry, I I just had a uh like to test the like play. I had a ladder match with uh Gunther and Rusev, and I put Gunther through the announce table. I had Rusev jump off the top turnbuckle, put it through the announce table. As soon as I put the ladder up to climb, Gunther got up, ran into the ring, and threw me off the ladder.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

Yeah, I seen some clips of that where somebody would get like powerbombed off of something, and then boom! But because of rad dog physics, they'll be like, all right, I'm gonna get back up now. Because it doesn't fully register the impact as if it would if it hits the mat, if you hit a table or something else, it doesn't register the impact because of raddog physics. And that's why I like I like it, but then like back in the day, like again, here comes the pain or SmackDown versus Raw, whenever you land on your net, it shows and you took the impact, no matter what happened.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

Yeah, you fall off of the fist of if you fall off the smackdown fist and your body was blue, it's yellow instantly.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

The whole whole body is yellow because you're the smackdown fist. The funny part about it is you could be standing like this, but then suddenly on your neck. I like I don't we never understood the physics behind that, but we never complained about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

I don't know. It's hilarious. I I laugh my ass off. I was just like, this man just got up like a taker and just ran in a ring and threw me off this ladder.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

That's crazy. That's crazy. So you've you've understand the issues of okay, you bought you got the the highest version of the game. Yeah, you're behind paywalls technically, if you want to unlock the game. You you say, you know, for universe players, it's kind of difficult if you want to experience certain things. So we've talked about a little bit of the downs and a little bit of the high moments of the game, but overall, what would you say for people who are interested in buying the game, is it worth the buy or should you just go back to the basics?

Should You Buy Or Wait

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Um, with me, I always feel the same about 2K. Uh 2K games are always worth the buy when they're on sale. Unless you are a diehard and likes to have everything up front right now in play, get it. But if you're not, wait for that sale, wait for whatever spring sale. By the time you get it, most of the DLC we come out, the patches are in. You're gonna have fun regardless. That's how honestly, that's how I've been for the longest time. I'll just buy it on sale. Because I remember a long time ago I bought it brand new for$90. Wow,$90 seemed like a lot compared to$150 now.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

And then I was like, why did I why I spend$90 on this game? Like, it's fun, but like it's gonna come out again next year.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

So and that's the part that takes away the fun out of it for me, man. Like back in the day, no matter what, if it was 2K, uh, not 2K, um, if it was Smaad Out vs. Raw 20 um 10, or if it's any of those, you got it no matter what, because you know the quality of the game will increase and certain things would be added. In 2K, like I think it was 2K19, um and before, like WWE uh 19 and stuff like that, they they were kind of questionable if you should buy it because a lot of the games became repetitive, a lot of the modes became repetitive, and now that we have certain elements back, like the casket match and things of that nature, it's like they're trying to bring back us old wrestling fans, but there's still that. Do I really want to buy it? It's it don't look like it's changed. Perfect example is Javon Evans. I don't know if you saw a clip of him, but he's literally got the same exact entrance in 25 in 26. The only thing that has changed is he's wearing different gear. Nothing has changed, and at least that was something that changed. You had like Javon Evans won and Javon Evans 2 as your entrances. There was different versions of it. He didn't get not one single difference in his entrance.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Go watch the clip of Tiffany Stratton watching her entrance.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

No, that is so good. Have you seen that? Bro, she she did the thing where she she was trying not to hate on it, but her face was all like, Oh, this shit is ass. She tried to be all like, uh, I mean, they got my old entrance, but you know, it's kind of she wanted to be like, I'm ugly. Yo, I'm actually about to load it up while y'all talking about it right now. She already had that look of like, this is ugly, this is bad.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

It was like, oh, you missed this gear. Oh, I like that gear. That's my NXT entrance. Huh. Hmm. Like she's trying so hard to be PR trained in that moment. Without just like saying, like. This is ass. Like, what are you doing? I will say, like, I expect the game for me is a solid, like, C. And again, I should preference. I got it for free. Uh, you know, I am a little swayed by that. Am I having fun with the game? Yes. Is that paywall shit annoying me? Yes. Because I don't care if I got the game for free or not.$77 for me to have my tag team titles. It's ridiculous. That's bro. I'm also laughing at the fact like you have all the DX a lot from the jump. Well, if you do the Ag G Air mode or whatever, except for China. China's buying that ringside pass. So, like. Of course. Of course. You know.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Bro, I'm looking at Tiffany's strategy too. Monetize their dead hair.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

If there's anyone that we're gonna make you pay for is the is the is the dearly departed.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Listen, Bray White, it's he's late in the ringside pass. You gotta to get Bray, you gotta play.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

Monetize. And it's funny because I'm like, playing the game, like the this way that they're doing it is not fully unheard of. Because you this was this is how you unlocked everybody at Smash Brothers and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Yeah. Like way back in the day. Dang about it though. I know it's it sounds like first world complaining about man, I had problems. I had to play the game. I gotta play the game to get my game. But like, yeah. I don't know. It's they took the fun out of it in a sense.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

No, I can agree. If they like I said earlier, if they would have made it where, like, okay, I gotta, you know, like where it's like I gotta if I had to do things to unlock these characters, sure. Because that was also a thing in Smash as well. Because the point that I was making, because like way back in the day, you know, you had to play 99 hours of Smash Bros. to unlock Mewtwo. But for other characters, there was different things you had to do. If you just so happenly ran into them in the middle of a match kind of thing, if you beat them, you got them. If you lost, well, better luck next time, my boy. You know, in past wrestling games, there were if you did this, you can unlock them. If you did this, you can unlock them. For like really special prizes, like a Bray Wyatt, you know, if you triggered an event and Bray Wyatt shows up on hard mode, you know, that should you know beat him and then you get him. We will definitely probably complain about how fucking hard it'll be. However, that's just part of the fun of the game.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Yeah, it's a badge of honor.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

So it's like, or even better, because you know, we're all we all love getting achievements. They're like little micro badges. So it's like unlock this achievement and you get Bray Wyatt. Okay, sure. What's the achievement? Oh, break a thousand tables? Egregious, but fuck it, game on.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

It's like a bragging. Right. I mean, I remember in 64, I unlocked the uh the Super Mario World and Smash. And you had to do so much dumb stuff to do that. But when people came over, I'd be flexing them. I'm like, look, we're not unlocked.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Let's go. No, here's the real flex, okay? No mercy 64, getting a hoe. That is the real fucking flex, bro. That meant you spent time on this game, especially in the survival Royal Rumble, because that was the best way to get the most money in the game, is just constantly grinding it and trying to get as many people outside the ring so you can get as much money.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Bro, but that's how you got Andre the Giant in uh No Mercy.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

Bro, you saying that literally just brought back memories literally of you and me sitting there grinding the fuck out of that. Like, like we see how far we can go. As soon as I lose, all right, pass the sticks to you. Pass the stick. You go, all right, pass it back to me. You go use the bathroom, get something to eat. All right, I lost. All right, trade off. Pass it. Man, we worked for that hoe.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Working for the hoe is wild. You can't put that on TikTok. I was gonna get taken down.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

No, no, no. I'm putting that on there, bro. We just gonna put 304 over the mouth or something. No, I don't know. Lady of the night, okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

Or or or uh or a toned down uh uh um toned down godfather uh escort uh escort is actually even better, I ain't gonna lie.

Glitches Patched Exploits Monetized

SPEAKER_03 27:10

But you would say personally, as someone who has played wrestling games, that yes, even though you're biased to the fact that you got it for free, yeah, wait until the spring sales and stuff come in.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yes, yes. Even in fact, I got it for free, and I'm like, okay, you could you could hold off on this. Like it's the game itself is fun. I'm not gonna preface that. You're gonna have a good time. Glitches in the game always make the game. I don't care. Some glitches are just hilarious. As long as the glitch doesn't destroy your save file, glitches are welcome.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Um I I I have heard there's still the glitch about if you delete something on the a car, like an image or something like that, you can't go to like the image selection. If you do, it like fucks up everything. So you have to like manually delete things, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

You know, it's crazy that that's a thing, considering how fast they patched the ringside uh pass glitch that people found to unlock everything faster. Uh apparently what people were doing uh were they were just picking Eric Bischoff. Yeah, I heard about this one. Yes, the lowest ranked character in the game, and just making him tap out, skipping entrances and doing rematches. And you did it about 40 to 60 times and you unlocked everything. And they made it where matches have to be longer than a minute. So for it to count.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Yeah, they said, Oh, you want to cheat the system? Nah, bro, we fixed that.

SPEAKER_04 28:44

We'll stop the cheaters, but we're not gonna fix this blaring glitch over here that'll delete everything on your system.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

It's stupid though, because it's like, bruh, we're all just trying to unlock the game fast, okay? We're trying to get to the butt see that's the thing.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

We're in our pockets. That that that glitch over here, that's not fucking up the bag. People trying to speed run unlocking everything, they could just drop the 77 bucks. And that's the speed run at the end already.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

If I was me that it's an uneven number number two, why not just make it a full 80? Because it's an oddly specific number.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

I mean, I agree, because like when you first said the not to the price, I'm like, 77. Why 77? Not so much because it's expensive. I mean, it is, but like 77.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

They said probably it took us 77 hours to do this shit, and y'all paying for every every hour.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Well, here's the thing, you gotta do that each uh season pass. So they're gonna do it again. And you have to do we're 77? So this is just a triple A pass.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Oh, you ain't oh no. So so it does go into that whole effect of what I was talking about with last year's game, where when you choose a when you purchase the next five wrestlers that they decide to bring into the game, when you purchase them, they're locked. And now you have to go into the game and unlock the the people who you just dropped money to purchase, or you could spend$77 again. No.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

I think my my best friend said it costs about like$600 in total to play an entire game how you just want it.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

Oh God, that's$600. We already spend a lot of money.$300 a year as a wrestling fan to just watch wrestling. We already spend that much currently.

SPEAKER_04 31:04

You gotta drop six.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

This is becoming a very expensive habit. A very expensive habit. And now, and then here's a topic of where if people were like, man, wrestling's fake. Why you still watch that shit? You know what, man? It cost me almost a grand a year to be a wrestling fan. You know what? Why am I, okay? Why am I doing this? The last the last bit of money WWE's got for me is that penta shirt. That was it. The pinch shirt was it. I had to do it.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

You gotta be from WrestleMania, so never mind.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

Are you going out there?

SPEAKER_04 31:48

Yeah. Oh yeah, homie's making some big moves, brother. I tried to follow him, but that uh my uh my extra two days in Texas has told me now. Unless some kind of divine intervention happens, yeah, I'm not going to. I I can't try to spin the block on that one.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

I trust me, I wasn't planning it, but my arm got twisted to the point where I couldn't say no.

TNA’s Ceiling And Missing Star Power

SPEAKER_04 32:17

Motherfuckers put you in a crippler crossface and said, You're going.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

Yes. Speaking of spinning the block, did any of you guys actually see Sacrifice?

SPEAKER_00 32:29

I unfortunately did not. I was at uh my friend's going away party, so I didn't watch it.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

Which I was also at that party too. It was fun.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

But it wasn't to savor that conversation then.

SPEAKER_04 32:41

It wasn't it wasn't on him to need to watch. I watched it though. Which just to pivot a little bit off of the wrestling game, since we got you here, like what how are you feeling about TNA right now? Do you think it's going to make the uh the deadline that Matt Hardy uh kind of placed upon it?

SPEAKER_00 33:01

No.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

Just straight no. No explanation. No.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

No. Because AEW's barely making that same deadline, and they're number two, and they're clear number two.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

And uh it's and they have better talent there, technically. Yeah. I said I wouldn't be asked better talent there.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Man, they all have great talent. Because they all have the people they got from AEW isn't TN uh from TNA. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Let me ask you, and this is just off of one wrestler alone. Besides Leon Slayer, who is a better wrestler than Kyle Fletcher at NTNA right now?

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Damn, you got me.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

That alone. That alone as a person. Okay, okay. That's two.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

I didn't think about it. I didn't think about it. Mustafa Ali. That's two.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

That's two.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

We were just talking about Mustafa, because referring to his thing and and and since his heel work. Fair. When it c I need to know why they just don't go ahead and put Mustafa Ali in the main title picture.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

They're going to. I see the vision right now. And if again, when you watch uh Sacrifice, you'll kind of see those elements. But um Eddie Edwards has also made an alliance with Order 4 to say, hey, if you help me with the Moose problem, I will give you the first title shot once I get the heavyweight title. So that means if he gets it, by the way, it's if. But to me, in that situation, I feel what's going to happen is he gets the title, and then Mustafa comes up and says, Hey, so where's my title shot? Oh, I didn't mean right, right. Now, no, we had an agreement. I need to get my match. He gets his match, he wins the title, he finally becomes heavyweight champion. I feel like Eddie Edwards is gonna be a transitional champion because why am I gonna care about Eddie Edwards having the title? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

Yeah, that's which has been the main thing I've been preaching about the issues with TNA versus literally any other, maybe with New Japan off to the side, because New Japan's kind of suffered from the same situation. It's just the fact that that TNA does not have star power. They got great wrestlers, but they don't have stars. And currently on TNA, the closest thing to a star that they really have is, in my opinion, is Leon Slater. No offense to the TNA champion. He's great, he's good, but he doesn't he does not have that shine. He doesn't move the needle.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Well, here's the thing any star in TNA is going to NXT. That's where basically I I do I do have a hot take question for you guys, but uh you know, uh main event, mid-card, low tier. Which company is the worst to be a low tier wrestler in? Because my answer is I was gonna say my answer is AEW. Because always you could take a low-tier guy from WWE moving to TNA, what he's gonna be in TNA. Main event. He's gonna be a mid, yeah. You take mid a mid-card, upper main event. Take someone from TNA, main event, mid-mid-card, automatically NXT main event, or even AEW mid-card instantly. Look at the rascals, they already jumped. You take somebody from low card and AEW, they're either gonna go straight to GCW, they're not going to TNA, or if they do go to TNA, they're mid-card in TNA. They're not bumped up, even though they had to hire Shine. That's why I say even a number two company is struggling right now.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

I would stand corrected depending on who the wrestler is. Because I mean, when we I we me and Swag made this conversation about Tommaso Ciampa, he went to AEW, which, yeah, he became the TNT champion for like a day almost. He's upper mid card. No, literally was a day. He's upper mid-card. But if he would have gone to TNA, he would have been heavyweight champion right now. Well, that's the same.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

There's no standards on it. Yeah. A mid-card guy from WW going to AEW either slots him in the same spot or put him in the upper area.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Even though a lower card guy, you know, mid-card.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

It depends on who it is. Like, I feel like Orange Cassidy, if he went over to uh TNA, he'd be heavyweight champion too.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Well, he's upper mid-card. He's borderline main event.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

So, oh so, okay, so you're talking about like a Leo Rush.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yes, I'm talking about those guys. I'm talking about the Butcher and the Blade. I'm talking about I'm talking about uh why can't I remember?

SPEAKER_03 37:55

The Dark Order AEW.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Butcher and the Blade haven't been in AEW in years. I was like, I'm talking about the Dark Order. I'm talking about a Penelope Ford, a Kip Sabian. Where are those guys ranked? I feel like Kip Sabian would be an X Division champion right now.

SPEAKER_03 38:10

Yeah, but he has to cry. I don't think as much.

SPEAKER_04 38:16

I don't know. I uh uh because Alex he brings up a really good point, and I'm kind of with because at first I was gonna say WWE, but then I think about it, I was like, cuz a a good a good example, right? Especially after Oba Femi buried him, the the the the war raiders, okay? As far as I'm concerned, war raiders are currently jobbers in WWE.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Yeah, they're killing it in AAA.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

Yeah, but there is that. And so, and because of something like that, like if I look at the War Raiders and I see where they would place in like TNA or in AEW, even though they've been effectively jobbed out on main screen on main raw TV to Oba Femi, put them in AEW, like they are they're strong contenders. Put them in TNA, they're wrecking everything, in my opinion. But then it's like, but then what you're saying, if I take someone who's like at the bottom of the barrel in in AEW kind of thing, like funny enough, because to me he's kind of bottom the barrel right now, but like Sammy Guevara right now, like he's not.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

He's on ROH. Yeah, he's on ROH. AKA, he ain't doing shit.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

I think Sammy has enough name power where he can come into TNA and do something. He still has that name.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

He does, he does. And plus he has still has a dope he has a Jericho rub, but also, which is a big thing in wrestling, I've noticed if you have a bomb theme song, you automatically like get two notches up. And Sammy Guevara has a bomb ass theme song. I'm sorry. Well, the Darth Vader and Sammy Guevara. And it's just like it's to do rapid, which I thought was Mega Ran at one point. I thought it was easy. Yeah, no, that's why I was like, wait, is that Mare? No, that's not him. But I was confused at one point.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

I don't know. It's just one of those, like, I'm trying to think of somebody who's like the lower card. Well, Puego del Sol. He had to recreate himself. He's killing it now, Indies, but he had to go to GCW. Uh a good example is somebody in the lower card that had to like still grind Brian Pillman Jr. When he went to NXT, he was bottom of NXT. He had to be.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

I mean, he still technically is Langston King. He's still there. He's not bottom anymore.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

At least he's in a faction now. At least he's doing something.

SPEAKER_04 40:48

Yeah, Lex is funny, because like when he yeah, when he was in AEW as Pillman Jr., he he was there and then he just kind of got swept under the rug and he disappeared. They had to completely reinvent him. And then even after they reinvented him on NXT, like he he had with the amount of with the amount of time that you can see that they put into this man, he is still fighting for his fucking life. He though, yeah, sure, he is on a team right now, but it's like on that little team, he's not the most important person on that squad.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

He's arguably the leader, though.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

It gets even more crazy because what's the name went to uh because um Finley went to AEW. Apparently that team was built for him, but he said, nah, I looked at this, uh, I looked at this group and said, nah, I'm good, G.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

You said I never made money with my dad or my brother, but I made money with Gabe Kid and uh I can't remember the other guy's name off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

Uh Gabe Kidding.

SPEAKER_04 41:57

Wow, you can't remember his name either, huh?

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

That's a bit like an ongoing thing. Literally, last podcast we was talking about, we're like, what's that dude's name?

SPEAKER_00 42:07

I know he's dating Tecla. That's for all I know. Uh Tecla? I thought Tecla was dating the guy from ROH. No, I think he's dating, I think she's dating uh what's his name? Well, I gotta look him up.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

I just remember seeing a photo of her with the pure pure uh heavyweight champion. I was like, oh, are they an item?

SPEAKER_04 42:26

Or is or is Tecla out here double dipping?

SPEAKER_03 42:29

I mean, some people are nominus. I'm one of those individuals, so yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

Listen, anyone who can be lucky enough to get a little bit of Tecla. I mean, I'm just toxic.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Clark Connors. Clark Connors. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

Oh, that's the guy?

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

CC.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Coming forward, C.

AEW’s Start Stop Stories

SPEAKER_04 42:51

Clark Connors. There it is. Freaking because we're also now, we've we've kind of branched over into the AEW area. Cause I've told you prior, one of the reasons that made me be like, we need to get LX on here is because my original plan for this podcast was to bitch rant and complain about AEW.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Well, we can say that for a pod, we can say that for an individual pod because I feel like it was a lot of complaints, and I feel like if we go into that right now, it's gonna be another 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

I'm not going to go into the rant. I'm I'm going to internally hold that in. But I do know that of the people who are currently on the screen, I know that Lord Zay over here, he is a much higher uh uh uh uh uh what's the word I want to look for? He he he is he is more allied with AEW than he he's more allied with AEW in a way where I want to be, but AEW can't allow. Me to do so.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

And so from your That being said, I do have a lot of complaints about AEW.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

There it is. But I should preference. I am an AEW fan. I watch Dynamite Weekly. That's I that's all I watch weekly. I I'm not paying for ROH and or my Saturday nights are busy.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

That part. Okay, how about this? Have y'all at least seen that uh Claudio will forever be a luchador moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 44:30

I thought that was cool.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

Which, in my opinion, I think is at least he's doing something.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Cause like speaking of TNA going to AEW, I think I'd do more of my boy Ace Austin. I was at a literally, I was at a bar. Yes. Ace Austin, he was in Bullet Club. He was in the tag team with uh Chris Bay.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which Chris Bay, I I really hope he can he can get back in. Because I've only ever seen small bits of Chris Bay, and then I end up playing the Retro Mania game. I was like, man, I actually want to see this motherfucker go now, man. Retro Mania got me hyped for Chris Bay.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

And then person once.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Ah. See, he he's the guy, even though I know our boy Antonio has the the blonde, uh, the blonde dreads. I was like, man, he kind of made me want to get the blonde tips, bro. Oh shit. But I got the red ones, but he got me on that.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

It was just funny. I was celebrating my friend's birthday last night, and we ended up at this random bar, and they had AEW on the screen. And I was I just started watching it because I'm a fucking wrestling fan. What else can we do while I'm drinking? And uh it was Ace Austin versus Champa, and I'm like, this match is fucking banging. I don't know why they're fighting. This is great, love it. Uh why is Ace Austin just stuck on collision? I need my man on Dynamite. They have so many people, they have a brand split without a brand split. And he needed to like clarify that a little bit more. That's that's my thing.

SPEAKER_04 46:01

I don't see, I'm I'm with you on that, especially since they have enough titles. And to a certain degree, it it I feel as if the reason why they probably don't want a brand split is because as soon as they split the brand, one brand is going to instantly be better than the other, and everyone's gonna watch one, and the other one is just gonna fall to the shithole.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

I'm not gonna lie. When collision first dropped and it was a semi-brand split where it was just punks boys, I was I was liking collision more. I'm not even gonna lie.

SPEAKER_04 46:35

Uh and so because of that fact, I feel that's the reason why AEW doesn't want to like supremely settle on a brand split because when they do it this way, granted, there are a lot of people who are specifically, what's the term I've heard? Uh uh who are specifically colliders. All right. There are some people who you can just always tie to collision, but the main roster people, but the main roster people who are on dynamite, every once in a while, just to kind of make you want to see, they'll make Tony Storm show up there. Uh MJF might pop up and do like a a a spot or whatever or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Solishn is the filler arc to AW's main storyline.

SPEAKER_04 47:32

You speak the true true. Because that's that's a really good way to look at it.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

Yeah, there's there's fun in filler. There's always fun in filler.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

But do you think fun things that do happen on collision? Like, I would almost say, comparably speaking, collision is where the best wrestle.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

Go watch that Champa Ace Austin match. It was fire. I'm in the bar. Tomara Champa is great.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Anything.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

Anything. And I granted, I like how he was in an interview and people were talking about the fact that he used the same uh heel turn method that he did on uh Jarny Gargana. And it was like, well, think about it like this people are talking now, right? And as a wrestler, that is the number one thing. It's all about the business. And getting people talking is part of the business.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

It is, but you also gotta know your limits before you end up like Ricochet.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

Uh yeah, Ricochet put a foot in his damn mouth. Uh that he he's fucked himself.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

He went two heel. Or you know, some wrestlers, I I've said this to my friends before. Log off. You don't need to be on Twitter. 24-7. Log off.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

That part. But that is their business, though. That is how they market themselves.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

So I get what you mean, but I don't I don't see Kenny Omega doing it all the time. You know.

SPEAKER_04 48:57

And the thing is though, to what you're saying, because like the one time the last time I saw that Kenny Omega did say something, he put his foot in his mouth talking shit to Gail Kim. Oh, yeah. And not having all the right information. And Gail Kim was all like, all right, first off, little nigga, let me tell you. And then and then Kenny Omega had to get hush mouthed and just kind of be like, mm-hmm. And so it's just like, yes.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

Log off. It's helpful. AEW needs a social media person to help PR train some of these guys. Because oh why is it after that? Why is it after every great pay-per-view, they always have some controversy taken away from the pay-per-view. It's like a terrible luck. They just had a really good pay-per-view, and all of a sudden Ricochet says, I hope you get a like I'm happy you have this disease. No one's talking about the pay-per-view no more. No, no, we're all talking about Ricochet. And I do feel bad for Kenny Omega because it was great that he got into Street Fighter and he got the motion capture, Alex, and all of a sudden they decided to give Alex an incest storyline.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

That shit, I just told Swag about it, bro. It's literally crazy. And not earlier retconning the fact that they he fucked his cousin, just take the cousin out of it. Oh no, no, no. They just fixed it to where it's not his cousin anymore, I think. But they've they've completely have addressed it and say, yo, we apologize, we have fixed it. We're uploading an update, it is no longer his sister, his cousin.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

Which to me, in hindsight, when I look at it, I'm like, you know, this is a very AEW thing for them to do. This is a very AEW situation. It's not true. It is, but at the same time, this girl McMahon, he's the one that wants incest. But I'm just just just the the idea of the fact that someone from AEW was involved in a situation where they forgot the continuity of their own process is hilarious to me because AEW is very famous for just forgetting the continuity of their own processes. As a matter of fact, specifically with Kenny Omega, there are several occasions that we could go over and be all like, so Kenny, did you just forget that that you know uh what was it, that that that that Kyle Fletcher like injured the fuck out of you? Did you just for forget the fact that uh Andrade beat the shit out of you? Like it did you forget I mean, granted, I'm glad they didn't forget about the Jack Perry thing, but at the same time, it was real quick to forgive, but alright, you know, I mean I'll I'll I'll chuck that up to the to the game. But AEW is so famous for starting and then stopping and forgetting and then proceeding as if it never happened.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

Hey, kind of all wrestling companies, because Triple H be doing that over there too. We just moved on from the braker AJ Styles thing, they have it. You probably forgot that was a thing.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

Bra breaker and AJ Styles. Which now I'm trying to remember when that happened.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

AJ caught the shirt from him. It was icy champ. He was outside the ring, he kind of almost like the woman grabbed the I remember I remember that piece and whatnot. I'm gonna say all wrestling companies are terrible with that, man. I'm I'm gonna shit on one. I'm gonna make sure we shit all everybody.

SPEAKER_04 52:53

Yep. I would agree that it's it is something that does happen, but I feel it comparably speaking, it is it's one of those things, and maybe it's also just because of the fact that also AEW just has a really hard time with their storytelling. Yes, which I don't know why, because three years ago, the storytelling was fine. As a matter of fact, I would say the storytelling was fine, but they was overbooking their matches. They were they were getting way too crazy with the stuff that they was doing in the ring. Now, I could easily say that I think they've fixed the way that they do things in the ring. Like, we don't, you know, we're not seeing like five power drivers, and then you get hit with a chop to the chest and you get pinned because we call it the hidden blade or something like that. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're not doing that anymore. So we've cut down on the overbooking of the match, but in the process of doing that, we've seem to have forgot how to tell a cohesive story that makes sense. And because of the fact that they're telling these stories that they start off making sense and then they instantly stop making sense, looking at you, Death Riders. It's like they're human, yeah. Apparently so. Yeah, they're they're they are as bad as bad as can be, just like that. Now, granted, I will at least give a little leeway because what was it, Tony Schiavani at the pay-per-view did try to be all like I mean, you know, the the the the the Death Riders started to get just recently started to get the fans behind them and and all this other stuff since what's his name got the belt, but it looks like his past is coming back to haunt him from the things that he did before. So I'm like, all right. Which was uh that they that they really tried to make make a little bit make sense, and so in that one occasion, I'm like, all right, I will I will applaud you because you guys are trying right now, because at least you acknowledged everything. However, because now that you did acknowledge it, does make me now question everything prior, but I'm gonna I'm gonna try and move forward.

SPEAKER_03 55:11

It looks stupid. It looks stupid because yes, as your boy is starting to become more of a face and being more of a face, it's like suddenly, okay, he comes back, he does what he's doing now. It's like, but he's not really an asshole now. My fans actually like him, so like how did it be now?

SPEAKER_04 55:32

And that's why we got last episode where everybody in Death Riders came out there and beat the shit out of everybody. It was all like, and then he gave that little promo saying, like, hey, listen, well, back then was that was business. But like, if you want to throw hands, throw hands, just watch your mouth. And I'm like, all right, all right, Mox, whatever's.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

But they went from teasing that Mox was gonna be kicked out as the leader. I remember when Claudio beat Mox, Danielson made something in a commentary. He's like, that's why Mox was the leader, because no one could beat Mox. I couldn't even beat Mox. And then now Claudio beat us, it was like, oh, and then nothing came for that. Mox won the tournament, and like, all right, we that was never brought up again. Claudio's just a man in uh CMLO now. Like, that's where we're at with that. I will also want to talk about like uh the start and stop with Sheeta so much uh with him against Okada, they keep teasing that storyline. Oh my bro.

SPEAKER_04 56:26

Go ahead, talk talk about it. Talk about it because I go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 56:29

Go ahead, rap, go ahead and wrap that up real quick. Because when I think about the Continental Classic, the storyline was there. Just give it to fucking Sheeta. There's no reason. Sorry, Shita, Takesha. Sorry, excuse me. Give it to Takeshta. There was no reason why Mock should have won that tournament just for him to be a face and as a champion when the storyline was being built to cut Takeshta right there. And then I just saw, like, again, I was watching AEW Collision, and he just had a backstage segment between Fletcher and Takeshta, and they're just like, hey, all is forgiven. Yep. And I'm like, Yeah, that your best friend is teaming with your op and they won the titles together, and you're just like, eh, it's whatever. You gotta finish the storyline because I'm over it. Like, we when are you gonna do Okada versus Takesha? You keep teasing it and moving it, moving it, moving it to the point where no one gives a fuck.

SPEAKER_04 57:23

LX, uh not LX, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh Moz over here said the fact, and I'm like, I really hope he's wrong, but as time goes on, I'm like, damn, this nigga's probably correct. But he says going to they're going to finally run this story and finish it at their their WrestleMania of pay-per-views at all in August, when this story has been going on since prior to Last All In.

SPEAKER_00 57:54

This storyline's been going on since correct me if I'm wrong, since Okada was part of the elite. Because they did not like each other then. They were paced off.

SPEAKER_04 58:10

I myself have been trying to pinpoint when this started. And I think you might actually have been right because when it was the elite in the Don Callis family, before they end up joining forces, kind of thing, yeah, they didn't like each other. And then when Okada officially joined the family, Takeshka was all like, Don, the hell are you doing? And he was like, Okada is so good. I'm sorry, Tekeshka is okay. We he's he's one of us now, everything's gonna be good. And ever since then, he'd been looking over shore like, I don't trust this motherfucker over here. And so I I think you might be right.

SPEAKER_03 58:47

You might which if that's what I also I also mentioned about about the fact that maybe they might do it in New Japan when you was like, nah, it probably won't happen at New Japan.

SPEAKER_04 58:58

Yes, he's that part. And and and so when he was talking about so what he was talking about with the New Japan thing was the fact that maybe they're gonna save for these two guys to face each other in a new Japan ring. But I'm just like, that would not make any sense because one of them was never a real New Japan talent, while where the other one was, there's nothing holding him to New Japan anymore. It's not like he has a new Japan title or anything like that. If they was really wanting to make this in New Japan, it would have made so much more sense for them to fight when Takeshka had the belt. But because they don't have the belt, there's no reason for this to happen in New Japan.

SPEAKER_00 59:43

The storyline was easy right there. All you had to do was like, oh, you're champion? Well, it's because I'm not there anymore. That's all Okada had to say. And that was the storyline. Okada was champion when New Japan was stacked. Takeshta was championed when everybody's gone. There's a level difference. And you that's basic storyline you could have told right there with that title. And then he just lost the title and we moved on from it. It was never brought up. Like Okada could have just laughed at him all the time. Okada's an asshole, a character. He could have just laughed off that title.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:13

Literally. What I originally was saying was like, maybe, you know, when Takeshka has his match, Okada costs him the title match type thing. That's what I was thinking. And then if that happened, then, you know, in uh uh was it Tanahashi's last match, right? Um whenever he had his last match against Okada, in my mind, I'm like, Tanahashi could win his last match because of an interference. Kind of that that that was one thing I thought of because then that would give Tanahashi his thing, and this it'd be like an interference like after like you know, Okada cheated type situation, type deal. And so it's like that would give him his big win, but then that would also further this story and make them be directly going at each other type situation. Okay, but that never happened either. And so now here we are. It's like the story is is ever so slightly cold, but now they're doing these things where they're talking like, yeah, I'm I'm glad that we're friends and everything. Because Takeshka's garbage. You saw how he betrayed us, shaking hands with the enemy, and da-da-da-da. You know, it's like, all right, so now they're still doing this whole talking behind each other's backs to different members, but now they have, but they're not they're not meeting each other anymore. So I'm like, man, they're really dragging.

WWE Booking Gripes Before Mania

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

Unless they're really dragging. Make it for the TNT title involved Fletcher somehow as to like the middle guy between both of them, but that's gonna be all hold for the city.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:45

We all know now, unfortunately. We hope you get well soon, Fletcher. Hope you get well soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:50

Just to quickly pivot a WWE because they need to get smacked as well. I'm a preference. I love Sami Zayn.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:02

Oh boy, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

I'm wearing a shirt. I love Trick Williams. Their mania match did not need the title. Nope. Especially what Dragonoff and Carmelo were doing. Their final blow off for that title should have been a mania. 100% not a random episode of SmackDown. God damn it! Do Dragonoff and Mello better. This is hot shot booking shit is annoying. Because not everybody hates Sammy.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:42

Oh, you mean you mean Sammy Hogan? You mean Sammy Hogan? He's not even dead. That's what they're they're already calling him Sammy Hogan.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

We're on the Sammy Hogan thing. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

And he's not even that bad. But like, Jesus, that title, that few did not need the title.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:59

Which I mean, at the end of the day, it means Trick will get the bell. Think about it. Trick is not losing at mania. He's not.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

But I don't trust them with a face Trick Williams. Oh right now. You got a point. I don't trust them with a heel Sammy Zayn right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:16

No, he'll Sami Zayn, he'll heel Sammy Zayn wasn't bad at one point.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

You know, when it wasn't bad, but I don't trust how they're gonna book him right now. Because I feel like they're gonna flip it so fast.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:25

And then there's also the fact that it's like, okay, so this heel Sammy Zane, him taking his aggression and all this stuff out on Swerv, not Swerve, Jesus Christ. Um, all black person is the same. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

Damn.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:41

True, true. As a dreadheaded African American, calm down. I'm allowed to fuck up once. As someone who my own child has said, like, looking at swerve strickle on TV, my son looked at me and it's like, Daddy, is that you? I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:59

You can't, you can't really not that one though.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:01

Listen, I always say the fact that Swerve took my gimmick, so you're fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

I literally called it Cheetah earlier. That's a man and a woman. So you're fine. But wait, what? I said she'd have before I was trying to say the cashta.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:16

I love it. We let it slide under the radar. Like, I wasn't gonna bring it in.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:20

I I I'll call myself. That was funny. Before somebody on TikTok, like he called it. Yeah, no, I said it.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:28

But but it was like when it comes to like Trick Williams and Sami Zayn, it's like this is easily, which is why I'm I agree with you on the fact I'm like, why are we doing this? Because like this is very, it's very forced. You know what I'm saying? Like, Sami Zayn, he's mad because he's not in the main title picture. Now, unless this is going to boil down to where he loses it at WrestleMania, and then he's gonna get involved in the main title picture, which is where he's where his story actually is. Because right now, this all we're doing is just this is for this is for Trick Williams, which is kind of fine, but like Trick Williams does not need the heavyweight title. He needs because I'm sorry, not the heavyweight, he does not need the U.S. title, because the U.S. title makes him firmly planted in mid-card land, mid-cardia, and that's not where he's supposed to be. He is upper level plus. If anything, main event jobber status right now, where he's in the main event but never wins it. That's where he's supposed to be, or at least that's where he's fine to be, but he needs to be winning the main event because he's currently the brightest star that is shining right now. But the problem is the people who you that that WWE makes money off of right now, they gotta keep them shining bright so that they can sell WrestleMania.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

Yeah, yeah. Because honestly, the story would have been um me personally, I would have had Sam. Sammy beat Drew for that title and had Trick win the elimination chamber. You built a new star right there, and you give Sammy that finally that title win. And for them to go to Mania, and Sammy lose that title on his first defense, the Trick Transitional. It would have been, but it would have been great. I think that would have. But granted, right now, the Orton Cody Rhodes is very it's interesting. I'll give it that. So they pivoted to make the make that story interesting. It's because WrestleMania wasn't selling out. But now Sammy and Trick didn't need that title.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

I don't think Sammy needed to do anything. I mean, you have a story right there with Mello and and uh Trick, but uh maybe they're probably saving it for next WrestleMania. But it's like they were beefing last time they saw each other. Y'all don't see each other in the back. Y'all don't be like, yo, I'm here now, bro. What you been doing for the last year and a half? Nothing. Like something, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

They did have matches together recently. Uh I remember Melo came down to NXT tagged with Trick. So they kind of squashed some stuff there. And then the triple threat, they worked together for a little bit in that match. They still don't like each other, but he has some respect for each other. Yeah, still that could have been a cost mellow. Melo should be that match should be a triple threat. Because Melo didn't lose that title clean. So there's no reason why that match is like, oh, this is happening now.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:28

Yeah, because they really did kind of like, hey Melo, you lost, uh, hit the bricks, bud. Like they really as of right now, they really hit the bricks on them.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:38

I'm gonna get mad if they do that because, you know, again, this is another moment where, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people in the the black Twitter are gonna be like, man, you had a perfectly good opportunity to put two black men in a main in a match at Mania against each other, but then you add Sammy Zayn. I already know that's gonna be the conversation immediately if they do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:01

Insert Sammy Zayn promo where he was a black man cutting. Uh oh no, he's an oosse. He's an oosse. No, no, have you not seen that video of Sammy? He hates it. No. There's a video of Sammy, it's like as a black man, like he's doing a full promo as like as a person.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

Wait, was it an ROH?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

Yeah, it's like early, early, like before Generico. When he was Big Larry.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:27

Nah, I'm about to find out. We're about to put it on the pod, bro. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:31

Early Sami Zayn needs to be studied because he was a wild cat back then. Bro, yeah. Look at Big Larry promo. I've seen some random things of like Sami Zayn back when he was like in his young 20s doing shit. And it's just like, all right, Sami Zayn. You, you, you a low-key, a wild one.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:48

Fun fact. Fun fact. The last person to ever get power bombed by Sid Justice was Sami Zayn in any show. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:56

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:57

Or it was his first power bomb. Sorry, let me correct that. His first power bomb back from the the when Sid broke his leg was Big Larry. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's big correct. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:08

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:09

Interesting indeed. Interesting indeed.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:12

Well, we love Sid Vicious here.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:14

I I we we we love him, and he should have been in the Hall of Fame before he passed, and it is unfortunate he's not. Agreed. Um to kind of bring everything back to where we mainly would talk about today, just to summarize, guys, apparently getting WWE 2K is right now not the best opportunity. You might want to wait till the sales come up, as Zay said. Save some money. Save some money. But also TNA, AEW, and WWE are really just not hitting it right now. Wrestling is kind of boring. I think we can all agree on that. We're just waiting for this WrestleMania season to end so that way Raw After Mania could possibly just put something in our system again and get us hype for wrestling right now. Because boy, is it tough to watch. I think we can all agree that it's tough to watch.

Final Takes And Listener Questions

SPEAKER_00 1:10:07

What they're expecting out of our pockets? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:12

It is very expensive to be a wrestling fan currently. So I would love to just hear from you guys in the comments. First off, are you guys playing WWE 2K26? Have you seen what's recently going on with TNA and AEW? And just obviously WWE, because that's what we're primarily watching here. And what are your thoughts about what's going on in wrestling currently? If you feel like it's shit, please let us know so we can also agree with you in the comments. But with all that being said, I want to thank Lord Zay for coming back here again and just joining us. You know, the fridge is always open, as Swag said. You can grab what you need to and step out. It's a family affair, as always. But from the Big Brothers of Destruction podcast, it's your host who likes to post the Mazakou.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:54

And it's your boy, Swag Switches in the building.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:57

And as always, the ring is sacred. The questions are real, and the destruction is guaranteed. So till next time, audio.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:05

Hold up. I want to say something. Bring back Saturday Night Slam Masters. We need more different wrestling video games. That's all.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:13

That's what my show is on. It's literally all about Saturday Slam Masters. I'll talk about it after the pod, but till next time, guys.