Towers of Power

The NXT shake up and the Hulk Hogan doc

• Chris Martinez • Season 1 • Episode 40

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Today we are reviewing the Hulk Hogan documentary on Netflix.  What we learned or the "facts" we were shocked to find out. 

Plus we break down the NXT shake up from the call ups to all the new talent arriving and more.


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SPEAKER_01

Alright, I guess we gotta make this one quick because Gary says he has stuff to do. Is that the team name?

SPEAKER_02

The Pucks. Huh? No. Wednesday? I got Boston Bruins game six tonight at home, which I'm not feeling too great about, but hey, it's playoff hockey. And we also have San Diego Steals Lacrosse. Oh, yeah. Game one of three on ESPN Plus tonight. I need to watch that because game two is in San Diego on Sunday. Oh, nice. May third.

SPEAKER_01

May 3rd. Come on. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Towers of Power, a pro wrestling podcast. I am Hollywood Chris, otherwise known as Chris Martinez, and that is Gary with his beverage of choice today. It looks like it is Friday. So what do you what are you drinking over there, Gary? It is a Jamie Win Coke kind of a day. Oh, and I'm drinking an AW Zero Sugar. That's what kind of day it is for me, you know? Man, we've got to add a little captain to that one. You know, how that would taste. I gotta go ahead and quench my thirst. I grab an AW Zero Sugar Root beer. Available now. Product placement. No? Anybody want to sponsor that? Okay. That could be you. Imagine that. Imagine that if that's at your company, you have a company you want to go ahead and advertise.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Hey Yeti, hey Yeti, hey Yeti, hey Yeti. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We haven't heard that in a while, huh? I know, right? All right. So there is so much that we have to talk about, like we do each and every week. I feel like there's so much that happens after WrestleMania, including a lot of cuts that happened. Um we do have the full list up on our Instagram and our TikTok at Towers of PowerPod. I will say this, I think I was wrong about one because I did put that list together and I was checking like multiple sources. I yeah, I tried to do my best to kind of give you guys no BS, and I felt that there was one that I was kind of questioning, but I wasn't sure if it happened because there was a couple that were reporting that this person got released, and then I posted it, and then somebody called me out on TikTok like, where's this uh resource after this person? I was like, ah shit, here we go again.

SPEAKER_02

They're after you now.

SPEAKER_01

That be uh Piper Niven. So we don't know if she's officially uh gone or not. I think she is. I know she's been hurt for it feels like almost a year. Yeah, so she's been hurt, and the rumor was that she was gonna retire. That's something something so severe where she had to retire.

SPEAKER_02

She lost, she posted a picture recently, and she lost a lot, a lot of weight. I forget how much she said. She was down 50 plus. Oh um, so unless she was getting back into ring shape or just into um a better mindset after her injury or anything like that. Yeah, careful with your words here, Gary. I know, I know. We're going, we're going, we're getting big.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So uh that is one thing that I do want to go ahead and just right off the bat say, like, so if she's not, I do apologize. If she is, well, I told you so. Um the other thing is that the rumor was that TKO uh was the reason that we saw a couple of those releases because they felt that they didn't want too many um evil-esque dark characters, which I don't believe. So, according to some sources, they're saying that the why it's six uh sticks and um oyster sticks, right? Six six, six, six of them. What did I say? Sticks? Yeah, six. Oh, okay. Six, yeah. I'm I'm sorry, my S's and my T's sometimes get all jacked up and they mesh together. Um, but the Wyatt's how about that? The Wyatt's and Alistair Back Black and uh Selena Vega, apparently they were too too like evil as too many dark characters. So that's one rumor, but then it's like then you see who debuted on NXT with the name of just evil, and so unless unless he gets asked to change it, because and we'll get into the NXT callboard.

SPEAKER_02

They really didn't uh call anyone like by their name.

SPEAKER_01

Right, exactly. And that's the thing. I think they're still trying to work that out.

SPEAKER_02

And they did that with um with Ricky Starks when he first jumped over to NXT for that first episode what he did, they never ever said his name, and we waited until the next week until he debuted.

SPEAKER_01

So we'll say who is that? It's Ricky Saints.

SPEAKER_02

It could be love, because if you flip evil backwards, it's love. There you go. For you, Chris.

SPEAKER_01

Hell for love. Yep, and there's my other if you know that movie. No? L for love, no? No, dodge a bell. I know the movie. Don't know, I don't remember the clip. Oh, okay. Anyway, you gotta look it up. All right, so Monday Night Raw kicked off. Uh, we do have to talk about the call-ups from Monday Night Raw from NXT. We saw a couple of them debut. Ethan Page, your thoughts on him coming finally to Monday Night Raw. I think it was by finally.

SPEAKER_02

I'm so I'm so excited. Um, I'm actually a little surprised he's on Raw because I know he is a Cody Rhodes guy. Um, but I'm actually really glad he's on Raw. He's already getting thrown right into that Icy title picture. Yep. Um, so to see him have such a he's such a big talent on AEW, came right into NXT, and he is he's he's come out and said he how thankful he is for NXT. Saying, and I think a lot of them are I think I know Ricky uh Saints said it as well, where NXT really gave them the confidence and a lot of lessons that now they can bring up to the main roster that they really didn't get in AEW. Um so super, super, super excited to see uh Ethan Page up on Raw.

SPEAKER_01

Perfect fit, perfect fit, yes, all ego, Ethan Page. Yes, uh finally saw Joe Henry figure out where he was going. We both thought he was gonna go to SmackDown, but he showed up.

SPEAKER_02

Still think he should.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think I why because he wears a blue shirt.

SPEAKER_02

No, just because and then we talked about this on the last episode. If you didn't catch that, make sure you guys uh take a listen. But yeah, we talked about it, and he just seems very like hunky dory, and I think that's what SmackDown is. They're more on they're on cable TV, they're hunky dory you know, like then hunky dory. You never heard that saying before? I don't know, hunky dory. Anyway, um he's more like your Dan Housens, your your fun, your fun stuff, your your your your comedy mood. And I mean, if we're gonna put a rock show on Raw, it's gonna be the rock and with a guitar, it's not gonna be Joe Henry because I don't think that a lot of people are gonna get behind him on it, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I mean, a lot of people were chanting fire Logan Paul during his song.

SPEAKER_02

Well, yeah, when when he does the song that the crowd can get behind, yeah. But I I don't and again, it's it's right there. I don't understand that feud coming right out of it. Joe Henry is not a tag team, and he's going after Logan Paul, who is a tag team, but then the street profits get involved, and so there's a lot of no one really knows what's happening and going where right now.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you think about it, yes, the very first person that had that live in concert was The Rock, and then and then you kind of look, well, okay, then it was what Elias, and then it's been like other wrestlers that have done their song and dance, and now it's Joe Henry. So it's kind of just a revolving door when it comes to that little segment. So uh, I mean, meh, yeah. I mean, it was okay for me. I like Joe Henry, so I I th I kind of enjoyed it. Uh, we also saw I do believe in him, and I thought he was here. No, he's not here. Oh uh, we we do have to talk about Sol Ruga making her debut on the main roster as well on Monday Night Raw. Very excited to see what she's gonna do. She is such a phenomenal talent, and to be thrown right in the mix against Liv Morgan, wow, yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Well, remember, she came, I think she was in the top three of the Royal Rumble um this past year. So she's already gotten um a couple pushes. She was part of um the John Cena PLE, the his final PLE. Uh, he was uh she was handpicked to be part of that as well. So oh the Saturday Spain event. Yeah, yep. Yep. Um, so super excited to see her um and bring that soul snatcher move to Raw, which is just phenomenal. If you haven't seen it, it is it is quite the move. It is quite the mix of the RKO, Cody Cutter, whatever else you want to call it. But she's jumping, she's flipping off ropes to do it in the room.

SPEAKER_01

Tumbling, look like a gymnastics. Oh, yeah. Nope. On the blue brand, SmackDown. We saw the debut of uh, or we saw the debut of Ricky Saints. Actually, he's coming up right now, right? Yep, tonight. Tonight. Yes, go ahead, go ahead. Take the words out of my mouth. What are we saying, Gary? Are we putting this out tonight? We're putting this out tonight, hopefully. I'm not making any edits. I'm gonna go ahead and just release this, let this bad boy go.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Oh no, okay. Ricky Saints, he is debuting tonight on SmackDown, or maybe when this is out, he's already debuted. So probably again, another big guy. Um, super excited to see him up on the main brand. Um, he is definitely a Cody guy, so it's good to see him, I guess, paired with Cody, get um have that bestie in the building.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think it's an event.

SPEAKER_02

So um, yeah, super excited to see what he does and see kind of where where he goes. Is he a US title contender? Is he more than that? Is he just a mid-carter? Um, he was a mid-carter in AEW, but he was a top-tier guy on uh on NXT. He's uh two-time champ.

SPEAKER_01

So I could I could definitely see him going for the US championship right away and and kind of wake making his way up there and eventually. Oh, that's right, huh? From NXT. Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that that's actually so this is great because we are now seeing a lot of these people who have been in NXT for you know two to four years, yeah, and they're all getting called up roughly around the same time. Um, so they can continue those feuds. I think NXT has become big enough where you can now pull up these feuds and people are just right back in it. So I'm still waiting for uh mellow vs trick feud to hit back again with the US title, and hopefully we see that one soon.

SPEAKER_01

Blake Monroe making her way over to SmackDown. Your thoughts on that? I think uh I think Blake Monroe are excited. I don't know how I feel about this one. I I feel like she still needs to kind of get her feet planted a little bit more, you know, with WWE.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean she didn't really have they really didn't have a lot for her in NXT, and I just think it was because of the talent that is in NXT. Um when she came up from AEW, so sorry, she came over from AEW, uh the former Mariah May debuts on NXT, and some of those bigger uh female stars on NXT, they already had their feuds, so she kind of came in in like the middle of a lot of things, and she almost just seemed like too big of a talent, if you will. Um, so moving right me moving her over within God, I want to say within a year, if not just over a year, of her on NXT, bringing her up. I think it's it's okay. I think there's so many women, talented women in NXT right now. Yeah, and I think she's just gonna get logjamed in there.

SPEAKER_01

They're trying to well, I think she could have stayed there and actually can't captured the championship.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think there's gotta be some reason behind it while why they are br now bringing up people without winning any titles. I remember when NXT first kind of came out in the first couple years of people debuting, it's like once you've got at least that that NXT championship, either men or women's, then you knew your next move was to the main brand. Now it's if you're doing well enough or they need more bodies on the main roster and you're popular enough, that's kind of how I see it. They're gonna call you up. Um, I don't think there's enough singles women superstars. I think a lot of them are just thrown into tag teams. Yeah, um, and I don't see Blake Monroe as a tag team. I don't think there's a lot of other women um that she has meshed with on NXT um or even in WWE that may have come over from AEW. So we'll see. Maybe she's a standalone, maybe she's a US title to get that thing off of Julia. I think who that's who has it.

SPEAKER_01

Uh Tiffany Stratton has it. Oh, yeah. See? Tiffany Stratton beat her.

SPEAKER_02

So that's honestly right there. Now that you said that, that's a perfect feud right there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I guess I guess we'll wait and see. Uh, speaking about uh some more people coming into SmackDown, Fatal Influence. Your trio right here, huh?

SPEAKER_02

God, give me some Fallon Henley. Good lord.

SPEAKER_01

JC Jane and uh Laney Reed, right? Laney Reed. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So Laney Reed is actually um she's from LFG, and she was called up about God, three months ago to the NXT brand to kind of fill that role of that third member on Fatal Influence. JC Jane, uh, I believe a two-time NXT women's champ. Um she has she's basically one of the OGs of um of NXT. She's put in her work for like the five five or six years or so. Kudos to her, pumped to see her up on the main brand. And the three of them together are insane.

SPEAKER_01

Uh here's the thing though, like no a lot of the time they'll go ahead and come in threes, and then one will fall off, and then next thing you know, they split up, and it's like, come on. It's like it's it's the revolving door and it's the repetitiveness. Like we saw this with Gunther and and uh who else Kaiser and the other guy, yeah Vinci. Vinci, yeah. Vinci, yeah. So it's like they came in, and then all of a sudden one guy's off, and it's just two of them. So it's like, yeah, you know, even with the Kabuki Warriors, you know, we saw three of them, and then one by one.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's it's tough, but these these three have been together, at least JC and Fallon have been together for uh at least over a year. Dude, the riot squad. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so we'll see, we'll see what happens. I mean, they they came out and they they attacked Rhea uh on night number one, so they they put their stamp on uh on their debut. So really, really, really cool to see.

SPEAKER_01

And then they attacked Paige and Nikki and Charlotte and Alexa.

SPEAKER_02

I love it. You don't see enough women's like factions, like you said, the Kubi Kabuki Warriors and things like that, but you really don't see a whole lot other than that. It's a lot of tag teams.

SPEAKER_01

Now it's just the kabuki warrior. Yeah. There's no warriors, true, you know. So if you don't know, then uh go ahead and look at our Instagram. Yep. Somebody got released. Uh all right, so then uh let's see. We talk about NXT, you know, all the call-ups now. Brand new superstars in NXT. Okay, now you were saying that uh the the GM of NXT pretty much just said, hey, the door's open, let them come in. Yeah. And who are we talking about that came in through this door? There's a lot of interesting names. There's one that I'm actually really kind of excited to see what they're gonna do with, but go ahead and run down this list, Gary.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so we've got uh a handful of names popping up. Uh we'll start uh with Tate Wilder. He's a uh evolved performance center talent, debuted um this past week. Um, really think there's a lot of high hopes for him. He got um a little bit of uh extra camera time backstage with Robert Stone. Um, I think Shawn Michaels was backstage a lot during this past episode of NXT as well, saying again, echoing what you just said, open the doors, let's see who shows up because they now need to refill all of these superstars that just went. And I'm I'm even going back to Oba and Trick and like they lost probably 10 top talent to the main roster. So they are slowly rebuilding this. So um Cam Hendricks is another. We've saw him on LFG season one and two. San Diego State Local. We gotta get him on the show. You know, we gotta get him on the show.

SPEAKER_01

I will definitely reach out to him. It's my fault. I forgot to reach out to him after you told me that you that you were unsuccessful of reaching out to him. Yeah, let me fail miserably. Let me know.

SPEAKER_02

It's on my personal, we gotta do it from yours.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know. Uh let's see who else is the uh Tristan Angels.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but do you know who Cam Hendrix is? What do you mean? He's he's the husband of Maxine Dupree. Oh, yes. If you did okay, yeah, remember they just got they got married.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, I think it was was it around Royal Rumble? It was around the big PLEs. They got it, they got married around that time. Yes, yes, yes. You're right. Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, congratulations angels. Uh, another one. I think he was also, I remember seeing him on Evolve actually. Um, another big name from LF sorry, from Evolve was Callie Armstrong. Um, she's been on NXT a couple of times here and there. Um, but now she this is her official call-up, so she's officially part of NXT. Um Will Cruz.

SPEAKER_01

This is who I'm excited to see. I'm very excited to see.

SPEAKER_02

Did you watch NXT this past week?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I saw him run in and I've seen the highlights on social. I I I missed it, but I've seen social on it and how they're calling him who is this guy? Is this guy a fan? Yeah, and he looks like one.

SPEAKER_02

He does like one. He jumped on the top rope, like, okay, it is not a fan. Yeah, holy hell. Cena's come out and endorsed him already on his own. He is a big dude. He's huge on the indies.

SPEAKER_01

Reminds me of the of like, you know, what Walter or Gunther used to be. Yeah. So he kind of had that look, but he moves so quickly, almost like uh, you know, old school wrestling fans like a Vader or maybe like a Bam Bam Bigelow, something like that, so agile, but he is he is a big dude. And when he hit that top rope and he did a moonsault right to the middle of the ring, oh my gosh, I was like, no way. I'm like, if that guy could do one, I could easily do a moonsault, I could do like four. You know, I'm just kidding, now I can't.

SPEAKER_02

Someone posted an awesome video of him saying I think one of his one-liners or some video he came out with is something, something, something, and I'll do it to your dad too. And someone posted, Oh man, don't let Dom Mysterio see this, like something like that. But he's already huge on the indies, huge overseas. And a lot of people are giving WWE a lot of credit for keeping this one on the hush. Um, and nobody nobody knew that he was coming over. So, yeah, shout out to them.

SPEAKER_01

I will say this. I did see some social from the organization that he was a part of, and they're holding like a big meeting with all the wrestlers and superstars, whatever you want to call them. And somebody was like, Oh, so we have to give it up to uh to uh to Will because he's uh just got signed by WWE, and everyone's like, Yeah, he's going to America to go ahead and wrestle with WWE.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't see that until after his debut. I don't know if yeah, so a lot of it was kept quiet.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, maybe it was kept quiet and we were in the dark, but I don't know. The way it made it seemed, I was like, wait, so did everybody over there know? Well, obviously everybody kind of knew.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, the everybody in the school post-t-poned, everyone knew across the bone chips.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, all right, who else is coming over to NXT? Chef.

SPEAKER_02

Uh Liz Liz Lizzie Rain, uh, the maiden of metal is what they're calling her. Um, incredible indie background, former progress women's champion. Um, she's getting thrown into the mix right away. Um, she is nuts. Like, that's the best way in the best way possible. Yes. Um, I don't know if you get you gotta check her out. Her moves are insane. She's going to be one to uh basically one to beat. I think she's gonna go right up towards that women's title uh sooner than later. Um big name. Yeah, big name, but one of the last ones that we're gonna talk about. Um, Evil, uh the former NJPW world champ. Uh he debuted by confronting uh Tony D'Angelo. Uh, I guess two weeks ago in NXT, Tony D'Angelo got a mysterious box, and no one knew what this box was, but it did have some some lettering on it that no one could read. He didn't know what it was. Um, so lights went out this past week, and evil shows up. Whether that is going to be his name, I don't know. Yeah. Um we'll we'll see what happens. And let's say that with Will's name uh as well. Uh, we don't know if if Will's gonna keep him his name.

SPEAKER_01

They're gonna probably call him the van. Oh my god, the van hit the top rope.

SPEAKER_02

Put him in all the black hoodie and everything. Yeah, um, and evil, yeah, he's also um, I believe it's either EO's EOS EO's husband or boyfriends in gay fiance. He there is some um there's something big between the two of them. So um, and again, he actually requested to debut on NXT first. That's great. Um, because obviously he he has a big enough name, um, I guess in in Japan that he could have just gone straight to the main roster. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01

But uh, but the thing is, I think that he would have got lost in the shuffle when it comes to the WWE audience because it's like if they're unfamiliar with that person in the in the least, they're not gonna care, right? So you know it does have to take some time. I mean, and I think that's just with change in general. So I think it's great that he actually wanted to go to NXT and put in, you know, kind of put in his dues, kind of sort of learn.

SPEAKER_02

He needs to learn and I think that's the best part about NXT. Um, and this is why I love watching NXT because now you're seeing the development of all of these superstars. You go back a few years and look at what um what Alexa Bliss came out as she was a cheerleader. That's right. Um, she was a cheerleader manager. Um, and now look at her now. So it's it's it's so cool to see the progression of these superstars um from NXT when they debut, the character that they start with, and then the character that they evolve into during the time in NXT, and then what happens to them once they get to the main roster.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh, you know, one thing I do want to talk about before we talk about Monday Night Raw, because we do kind of have to recap Monday Night Raw. Did you happen to catch Netflix documentary about Hulk Hogan yet?

SPEAKER_02

I actually meant to text you last night. I actually finished uh all four episodes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so in case you don't know, there's a documentary, including his very last interview before his death, and it's sitting down with him, kind of giving him a the back, I guess, like his history of being Hulk Hogan and learning a little bit more in depth of what happened, you know, with the Gawker scandals and the steroid trial, him jumping to WCW. For a lot of us wrestling fans, we do know the history as far as Hulk Hogan and what had happened, uh, you know, him leaving WWF at the time to go to WCW and wanted to do uh pursue movies, but it was very interesting to me because uh Bubba the Love Sponge is a radio host and now podcast host that was the one that let uh Hulk Terry uh sleep with his wife and they had filmed it. So and he he is very controversial. The the thing is he still does have a platform and he has uh I I I think it's just a podcast. I could be mistaken. He could be on the radio somewhere in Florida, but uh he had Brooke Hogan on. And Brooke Hogan, you know, after the documentary came out and uh Brook Brooke had said that she um wasn't invited to WrestleMania, uh, this past one in Vegas, because from Rick Con. Because in case you don't know at WrestleMania, they they unveiled the Hulk Hogan statue, you know, similar statues to like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, these legends and icons that they have these huge statues, uh, even Triple H Izo statue. I don't know why. Um we should have a statue. I know. There is ours, damn it. Yeah. So they unveiled the Hulk Hogan one. Nick Hogan was on hand, yeah. And then at the Hall of Fame, the match that went into the Hall of Fame this year was WrestleMania 3, the iconic Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant match. Like the moment or the moment where, yeah. So right when Hogan slammed the giant, they have this beautiful statue that they unveiled, and Nick Hogan's there along with Andre the uh Andre the Giant's daughter. She was present. Uh, but no Brooke Hogan. And so Bubba had her on and asked, like, hey, how come you weren't there? She's like, it's not like I didn't want to be there. She's like, Nick Khan or Triple H did not invite me personally, and so I didn't go and I wasn't un I was not known about it. She's like, until after the fact, where Nick Khan finally called her and said, Well, we invited you through your brother, so we thought your brother would be the one to tell you, like, hey, you're invited. I know there's some turmoil between the two kids because obviously Nick got everything. Um, I believe that you know, Brooke had said, I think it was maybe like five, six years ago, maybe even longer, said for her for told her dad, Hulk Hogan, hey, take me out of the will. I don't want to be in the will, I don't want anything.

SPEAKER_02

I remember that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So, you know, I I don't know if there's kind of some kind of animosity because she even talked about the fact that she owns nothing of her dad's, right? And which kind of sucks because it's like she had to go buy something from somebody else that was selling, I think, a pair of his trunks or boots or something like that. So she is like buying stuff at auctions just to have and preserve as her own because she has nothing to pass on to her kids and keep the tradition going of her family. So it was kind of very interesting to see. Um, your thoughts on Brooke Hogan not being also in the documentary because she was nowhere to be found, it was more Linda and the ex-wife and Nick, his son.

SPEAKER_02

Uh honestly, it didn't surprise me at all just because I knew of the relationship towards the end of Hogan's life, of Hulk's life, Terry's life, however you want to call him. Um, I knew that they were on the outs. I knew this whole sex tape thing, and you know, him and Hogan sleeping with one of uh Brooks' friends way, way, way back when. So her not being in that documentary didn't surprise me at all. I knew Nick would be all over it. Um not because he has everything, he got everything. I think that he's always just been by Hulk's side through everything. Right um, Linda, Linda, yes, Linda. Um Linda is his first wife. Yes. Um, not again, not surprised that she was on it. I think she was part of his career. She was there from the very beginning, and of course, things happened um in the last couple years of his life between them. Well, not a couple, probably eight years of his life. Um I think even longer. Yeah, I mean, I think there was flashing up some dates and stuff up there. I'm like, holy shit, like this 2026, that happened that long ago.

SPEAKER_01

2007, I believe they got divorced because I was I had met Hulk. I met Hulk the day that that it came out that Linda filed for divorce.

SPEAKER_02

Damn, okay, because I remember watching that morning VH1 show. I definitely watched that um on VH1, Hogan Knows Best. Um, and that's kind of when I'm like, okay, cool. I can kind of get back into Hogan a little bit. But overall, the um the documentary, I don't know. I thought it would hit more on the scandals, I think, and not like the last 30 minutes of the fourth episode, spoiler alert. Um, but it really dug into just his career and him being the icon um that he was in WWF, WCW, WWE, kind of like when he came back. Wasn't always wasn't always received well, whether that was in the back because of his political stance, and he even came out and said he really didn't do much. Um, I think in in Trump's first run at presidency, um, and then the second time around, he's like, screw it, let's go for it, knowing that there was gonna be a backlash. And you know, we saw that um on that Netflix debut, and they kind of re-aired that again on the documentary. So cool to watch.

SPEAKER_01

And I love the fact that how Jimmy Hart's like, oh, you know, red state, blue state, uh, and then Nanny Nighthart's like, I don't think it was about politics. You know, you're going you're going into an environment like LA where you know it is diverse, and he has had some he's had some words to say about different cultures and different races, and yet really didn't come out and fully apologize, in my opinion, that he didn't come out and fully apologize sincerely. It was more just like, let me read this on paper and move on. And hopefully, I'm Hulk Hogan. Hopefully, that'll trump anything. You know, no pun intended. No pun intended. Yeah, but it's like you even talk about like uh Mark Henry, you know, he's been very vocal about it since day one where you know, where all everything came out and he saw Hulk back, you know, after the ever the audio leaked, and he told Hulk, you know, like, you know, you were my hero. He he confronted him and he told Hulk, like, you know, what you gotta do is go into some black uh schools and talk to them and tell them, you know, apologize to them and tell them like what you meant because he's like, Oh, I was drunk and I shouldn't have said stuff, and you know, kind of blamed you like that. Almost almost was kind of making an excuse for it, and there's no excuse for that whatsoever. And so he was trying to do that, and so Mark's like, listen, Mark Henry's like, I will help you get into those schools and we'll we'll go together, you know. That way, that way we could go ahead and pres preserve your legacy. And um WWE asked Mark if that was true, and he said yes, and then um he's like no, he's like that's well, pretty much that's not gonna work for me, brother. Um so yeah, and then he told him, I think years later, whoever was telling Hulk not to go, years later, Hulk told Mark Henry, he's like, I wish I had gone and listened to you. So, or actually, no, he said, I'm so sorry. No, he said that somebody close to Hulk after he passed had said that uh told that person, I wish I listened to Mark Henry and actually did that. And I think it things could have been different. Who knows? I mean, we don't know, we don't know what that would have been, the what-ifs and could'ves. But I think I think, in my opinion, I think that should have been something that he handled a little bit more professionally and more hands-on rather than just let me read the statement, let me get fired from WWE, you know, we erased from history and then brought back a couple years later like nothing happened. Um yeah, so that says a lot about you know WWE as well. So that's my two cents on that. Um, but I think it was I think it was a decent documentary. I think there was nothing really shocking that to learn. I think maybe the most shocking thing that you know he was on fentanyl like towards the end, um, you know, because of uh all the surgeries and things of that nature. So I think that was the only big shocker for me where I was like, well, wow, I can't believe that he was still going. Um but here's the sad truth is that you know, Hulk uh Terry uh was kind of known for being a liar and embellished things. You know, he said Andre the Giant's weight was 500, 600, 700, 800 pounds. So like each year he was adding weight, or you know, so you just don't know. He you know, he was the reason why certain things had happened, and he said he wanted to be the original Triple H, you know, back in the day. God and he had said that he had pitched that idea to Vince McMahon Sr. So you know, there's a lot of like embellishments from Hulk Hogan. So you just honestly you don't know until maybe you sit down and you talk to the doctors was this true? Was this actually something that happened? I think that would have been something for them to do. Um so I don't know if you haven't if you haven't seen it, you know, give it a watch. I think it's pretty good. You know, one other documentary that I saw, I I don't know if it's been out for a while, but I just kind of uh came across it. It was the Shawn Michaels one, the Heartbreak Kid becoming Shawn Michaels. Has that been out for a while? Uh I want to say within the last month. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

I think it came up uh maybe a couple weeks ago. I think I watched it the day after it came out, and it was really good.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's actually really good too. So if you want to be in the mood for some documentaries, it talks about like him. Someone's on uh Peacock, I believe. Shawn Michaels is on Peacock, yes, correct. And Hogan's It's on the cock. Uh sorry. Oh, okay. Never mind. Yeah, we're not editing. Everybody has Gary. You can follow him at G Dubs33 on IG. Tell him what you think about his jokes. Um, all right, we got to get on Monday Night Raw, and then I think we gotta get out of here because you're wild right now. I think it must be that Jack Daniels that you're having over there.

SPEAKER_02

Am I red? Well, I was also outside all day, but yeah, I'm a little red.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, you're a little red, and you know, we're on Zoom, so uh the people who are not watching this because no one's watching it because it's not out on video. But yes, you are a little red. I can definitely see you. Um, let's go ahead and talk about Monday Night Raw. We saw, let's see, uh Jacob Fatou and Fatou and Roman Reigns score off in the middle of the ring, you know. Fatou attacked him and they were going back and forth, and at the end, you know, you see him standing there with a world heavyweight championship. Your thoughts on this feud is it something that is gonna be good? Is it kind of like a whatever, like a filler?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's definitely a filler, and it sucks because I think Fatu has put in a lot of work and deserves um a world heavyweight championship, whether that is on Raw or SmackDown. Um and him going he him being the first one to go after Roman facing each other at backlash. It's it's we're not stupid. We're not stupid TKO, WWE, we know Backlash, don't forget that. Yeah, uh, we know Fatu's not gonna win. Yeah, but what are we gonna get out of that match at Backlash? Are we going to get the Usos jumping over to Jacob's side? Are we going to see another bloodline member? Is solo because he mentioned solo, is solo gonna slowly leave his MFTs in a line with Jacob. Is the MFTs gonna help? So I think there's a lot more storyline to this. Um, I think it's a lot has a lot more to do with the family story than the title itself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I I don't know, like you see him talking on the phone too. The video came out of him talking on the phone, and at the very end, like he's crying, he's emotional, and at the end he's like, you know, well, I just want to tell you you guys, thank you, and I love you guys. So it's like okay, and and my friend uh Chino and Rob said, like, oh, is he talking to Pat McAfee? So I think anybody that uh that knows if you're talking on the phone in the back to somebody, it's gonna be Pat McAfee. Um so stupid, right? Okay, uh your thoughts on uh let's see what else happened on Raw. Oh, Bron Breaker and and Seth Rollins in the middle of the ring, that promo at the very beginning of Raw. Your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02

I'm excited to see it. Let's finally see these two just go at it. Um, and again, another another backlash match. Um I think it's gonna be good. I don't know where they're gonna go from here. Yeah. Uh if if Seth wins, what what happens? If Braunbreaker wins, what happens? Is someone else gonna get involved?

SPEAKER_01

I think it's gonna be a no contest. Okay, something's gonna happen. It's gonna be a no contest. Uh Bronson Reed come back? I don't think he's ready to go, but maybe I I personally don't know, but yeah, maybe I and I think the promo, I think the promo itself was was good, yeah, but I think I can't take Braun Breaker serious.

SPEAKER_02

I laughed when I love that they kept bringing the Steiners into it because we all knew we all we all know who Braun Breaker is and who his family is. And by the way, his what his cousin or brother got drafted by the Tennessee Titans. Um NFL draft last week, which was awesome. Do we know I might get that too? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Do we know if that's his cousin or brother? I can't keep up. He is a Steiner. Um, I know I know the last name is your last name could be Steiners. Are you related? It could be, yeah. Could be okay.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I know. I'm uh yeah, um, so yeah, for for those that are not watching on YouTube, I'm flexing the muscles that you can't see.

SPEAKER_01

So yes, they're so big that you can't see them. So big.

SPEAKER_02

24 inch pythons, bro. Oh hey, brother. Um, but no, I'm excited to see the match. I love that. I love Rollins's uh little jabs at him, you know. Hey Steiner in your family, you're not even number one. I was rolling at that stuff, and Steiner, whatever he's in. It's not the fourth wall they're breaking anymore. I don't think that's what it is, but they're just they're they're breaking they're breaking everything. Yeah, every everyone knows he's a Steiner, and he's not his last name is not Breaker. Um what? No way. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

Get out of here. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_00

I don't believe you need to go.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, alien base. That was uh uh larger robot. Sorry, I meant to hit Gary. You need to go. Oh no. No, I like that one. You like that one? No, I don't like that one. Um, all right, so going uh speaking about backlash, we did see Eosky and Asuka. It looks like they're gonna be going at it one-on-one on Saturday, May 9th for backlash. Um, I don't know how I feel about that. I'm kind of like, I feel like they're just kind of throwing them together because they got rid of uh Kyrie, so which is kind of still a shock to me.

SPEAKER_02

But I heard that she's she asked, she wanted to go back to Japan. So yeah, what did you hear? Not to be the dead horse, but going back to a lot of these releases. Yeah, um, I heard Mark Henry say on busted open radio where we don't know the story behind a lot of these releases. They're very easily people could have asked for their release, they could have asked for this, they could have asked that they're not just because they're on this list. Um they may have not just been fired just to be fired to open up rosters or or you know money issues or anything like that for the company. Is I heard that Eosky has been asking she wants to go back to Japan. Uh it's not Eosky, Kairi Sain wants to go back to Japan. Um, so maybe that was something that WWE they granted her her wish. She wanted to go back home to her family. Um and maybe this is just around the time that they do cuts and like, well, this is where you want to go. Well, we'll let you go. And that was that. So maybe her contract was coming up. No, I have no person, I have no idea. Right. Yeah, we just what I've read. Um, but you've seen some of the Wyatt Six, um, Joey Gacy and a couple others have basically put the date, you know, I'll see you on July 26th because yeah, that's the end of their 90 days. That they're gonna pull these up somewhere.

SPEAKER_01

Is that what that is? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Their 90 days Joey Gacy's first thing was cool, see you in 90. I'm like, okay, cool. So a lot of these superstars know that they're going somewhere, right? Um where we don't know. Exactly. Yeah, we saw it was a really cool um a cool vignette the other night. Um I don't know why I keep blanking on. Who's it Dexter? Thank you, Dexter Loomis. Yeah, oh my gosh, cutting his hair with Indy Hartwell, who he was together with during his time at NXT. I I've always said there, I think they're all gonna go over to TNA. That way they have that WWE TNA relationship still going. Um, but yeah, really cool. Again, see you in 90. So I'm excited to see what comes July.

SPEAKER_01

Dexter did have the dreads and he had the full-on beard, the shaggy beard. So you do see him cutting off all the dreads one by one. It's funny because he has them in his hand and he throws them on the floor. Yeah, I was like, Oh, that's a cool video.

SPEAKER_02

Like he's going back to what he used to, he never had the dreads in the beard until the Wyatt Six faction. He was very clean cut, like almost like military look. He had the mustache, um, he had like the slicked hair to the side. Yes, um, very and I think his name is a turn-off Dexter Morgan from the H or the Showtime series Dexter. Yeah, just like you. You could be Dexter Loomis. Um, so I think maybe getting back into that character of his.

SPEAKER_01

So uh it's gonna be interesting to see where all these wrestlers and superstars end up, if it's gonna be TNA, if it's gonna be AEW, if it's gonna be New Japan, or maybe uh CMLL in Mexico. And speaking about Mexico, don't forget AAA is is you're gonna see Mask versus Mask, the Grande Mascara versus Mascara. Yeah, I'm so excited. Who is gonna lose that? Is it gonna be El Grande Americano or the original El Grande?

SPEAKER_02

The original, the original Gable has to lose. Yeah, I don't think we're ever gonna see Kaiser again Kaiser as Kaiser ever again, and that's awesome because look look what he's done.

SPEAKER_01

No, they have the opportunity at the Royal Rumble to have them come in as as themselves, and they failed to do so. They should have done the old McFoley dude love cactus jack mankind thing at the Royal Rumble when they failed to do so. So you're right.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe I'm I'm pumped. May 30th, triple A. I will be watching. I'm I'm stoked. What what Undertaker, if you don't know, Undertaker is booking, he he is the basically the GM of Triple A. And the way that he has booked these one hour shows on Saturday night, fucking incredible. Fucking I I'm I found myself, I don't have anything else to do on a Saturday night. I'm gonna watch. It's on it's on the WWE uh YouTube channel. It's one hour long, and it's amazing, it's absolutely amazing. You're seeing these talents that you may have not have ever heard of. I know half of them I haven't heard of, right? But they're roping me in. They're roping me in. Yeah, it's all in Spanish, but you got Rey Mysterio translating, you've got Corey Graves, and I think JBL on commentary. Yes. Um, so they're they do a great job. They're doing a great job.

SPEAKER_01

And and they are looking for a new GM. I don't know if you saw that. No. The the okay, so the former owner, she of a triple A in real life. Oh, she there's a video out of her saying we're looking for a GM of Triple A, somebody that could, you know, hold up the rules and stuff like that. The the the thing that I thought of right away, I'm like, oh, it's gonna be Rey Mysterio. It's gotta be Rey Mysterio. Um, because who else could it be? I you know, originally I would be like, oh, Conan, but you know, I don't know his condition because there was rumors that he had his legs amputated in San Diego. I don't know if that's you know, obviously it's rumors and there's no facts behind that yet.

SPEAKER_02

He's been off triple A for a while because he was part of the commentating team as well.

SPEAKER_01

And he did a great job, you know, uh during I think it was a World Collide, the first one that WWE and Triple A combined together in LA. He did a phenomenal job on the commentating. But uh yes, um, but you know, it is Friday, uh, May 1st. SmackDown is happening tonight, and we're gonna see Cody Rhodes, who knows, probably do something, you know, with his belt and his song going, whoa. Um we do see uh Bree Bella and Paige taking on the irresistible forces, you know, for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. Who do you think's gonna walk away winners of this championship match?

SPEAKER_02

Uh they'll keep it at the Bella's.

SPEAKER_01

It's gotta be yeah, Bella and Paige, right? Bree Bree and Paige, yeah. Bella and Paige. All right, and then uh Jacob too, like I said, we maybe we'll find out who he's talking to on the phone because a lot of people, it's either they're talking to somebody on the phone or somebody's coming back in a black hoodie and black pants and a black ski mask, or or what else? What are the other WWE T K O uh costumes that they do? Uh people shave their head. I mean, I don't know, I don't know. Um all right, yeah. So we also see JCJ will be making her in-ring debut on SmackDown, taking on Charlotte Flair. Your thoughts on that match? Who do you think is gonna win? Um I think it's gonna be Charlotte Flair. Yes, I think Gary is frozen, and we lost Gary. Um I'm right here. There you are. Wait, what where are you?

unknown

Gary.

SPEAKER_01

I'm right here. I'm over here. There you are. Gary's uh yeah, your your mic and your video went out at the same time. So it was just me on the screen by myself. I thought it was you. You did the same thing. I think it's you. All right. Well, we're also gonna see Trick Williams taking on Sammy Zayn. Your thoughts on this. We're gonna actually, I'm sorry, we're not gonna see that. We're gonna hear from Sammy Zayn after sorry after his attack on Trick and Gingerbread. Yes, the gingerbread man. Gingerbread man. Your your thoughts on good is that? I'm sorry. Here's the thing. Sami Zayn is so good as a heel, he is phenomenal as a heel, and it's always without a belt. Without a belt, yes, without a belt. I think I think it's gonna be right. Uh, and then uh Ricky Saints making his SmackDown debut as well. So there's gonna be a lot happening this coming weekend or week on wrestling.

SPEAKER_02

Still three hours long, but this summer they're dropping back down to two.

SPEAKER_01

Finally, finally. But we'll see. So we'll see more Danhausen for sure than tonight, probably. Yes, you are cursed. You uh cursed. Yes, you are, Gary. All right, I think that should be it for today's episode. You know, hopefully we'll get Brian back. You know, he's on set again. Brian, I was trying to find that. Do you do you ever watch Family Guy? Yeah. Okay, there's an episode where Brian the dog gets lost, and Stu's going walking around.

unknown

Brian! Brian, Brian!

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you gotta find that. I was trying to find that clip before we started this episode, and I could not find it. So if you guys know of that clip or uh can send it to me on DM at Towers of Power. I was looking on YouTube, I couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_03

Damn.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I maybe I was typing something wrong. I don't know. But uh nonetheless, Brian will be back with us next week, and uh hopefully we'll get some guests on here. I know we got uh a local wrestler uh at SoCal Pro who's ready to go ahead and jump on with us. I'm reaching out to who am I reaching out to again? Cam Hendrix.

SPEAKER_02

Cam Hendrix, the masterpiece, the masterpiece. And um I say fuck it. Let's let's get uh let's get Naya back on. We'll get Naya back on. Yeah. No, no, no. You blew your fucking shot. You could have talked to him. Could have talked to Maven, Fred. What a man.

SPEAKER_01

Sargaret, I can't hear you. Yeah, exactly. God damn it. You know, here's the thing. I just see his YouTube on social. I think I was just clipped on social, and he was at the gate at WrestleMania, and he was taking photos of people and saying hi to people, and I'm like, how did I not see him? I was at WrestleMania. How did I not see the icon made of the entrances?

SPEAKER_02

He's why one of the entrances of six to get it in there. Oh, yeah, there was a lot of entrances.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Well, let's go ahead and call the show. Gary, let's run down socials. What are yours? All right. What am I?

SPEAKER_02

G Dubs33 on Instagram. Gary underscore Duban on X. Towers PowerPod on X.

SPEAKER_01

You can follow me at HollywoodCris. And by the way, we still have a contest up on our Instagram at Towers of PowerPod. At Towers of PowerPod on our IG, your limited edition. One of one, really. I don't know if it's one on one. I mean, well, we only have one. It's CM Punk and Roman Reigns, the official poster from WrestleMania 42 in Vegas. We have that up at Towers of PowerPod on IG. Like I say at the end of every podcast, we're in the wrestling community just like you. So go ahead and make sure to like, subscribe, share this podcast because we just want to grow our audience and we want to entertain you, our faithful listeners. Thank you so much. So we will see you again next time. Later.

Contributor

Chris Martinez - Hollywood Chris

Host