We review BBBAACCKKLLLLAASSSHHH (in Triple H voice)

We are catching up with everyone and recaping Monday Night Raw, Backlash PLE and all the recent superstars leaving TKO and WWE.  What we would do if we were in charge of whats happening in the land of WWE.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:22

All right, we are back, another episode of the Towers of Power, a Pro Wrestling podcast. Hi, everybody. My name is Chris Martinez, otherwise known as Hollywood Chris, and there is Gary joining us as always. Brian is on the job assignment, so Brian will be joining us next episode. He reassured me. He said, next episode, I am there. Well, you know, we didn't do an episode last weekend, and the reason why we didn't do one last week was because there wasn't really a lot to talk about. You know, at the beginning of the week, we decided to go ahead and say, okay, well, we can review Monday Night Raw, but then we got a recap backlash. And, you know, we talk about backlash. Oh, where's my button? I can't. Oh no. Backlash. Yeah, I know. I had the button. Backlash.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Backlash. Backlash.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Yeah, Dan hasn't doing them all. Um, I thought that was a brilliant video that he did. And if you didn't see it on social media, he inserted himself in that 2000, what, 2003 or 2004 video of backlash? Somewhere in there. Something like that, where everyone's saying backlash, backlash and triple H at the end. Backlash. Um, so we decided to go ahead and kind of skip last week, but then I ended up getting sick, and that was something else that we just couldn't our timing was off completely. So we are back. A special Saturday episode, which will be released hopefully on Saturday the 16th. This is when we're taping it on Saturday the 16th. I'm trying not to do any edits whatsoever. So even though I couldn't find that button of uh Dan Housen saying backlash and it didn't queue up again one more time.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Backlash, backlash, backlash.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Um, we do have to cover backlash. I thought backlash, and I think Gary was kind of on the same page as me, that it was just a glorified SmackDown or Raw.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Yeah, it was a snooze fest. We watched together, yeah. It came over, chilled. Um, but yeah, I mean, it was one of those uh kind of uh PLEs, if you will. Definitely could have just been on your RAW, could have been on a SmackDown. Hell honestly, I feel like the lineup card for Saturday Night Main event that's happening next week is better or is going to be better than Backlash was a week and a half ago.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

And and Backlash kicked off with two matches. Uh that was on ESPN or ESPN2. Which one was it? Do you remember? I believe it was the Deuce of those. And uh Seth Rollins and Braun Breaker, and your thoughts on that match. You know, to me, I missed it, so that was a match that I missed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Um, going into it, I really didn't think much of it. Um, but I actually think that may have been the match of the night. Um, I think it went god 13 to 20 minutes give or two. I think actually, no, so 23 minutes. I think it may have been the longest match of the night. Um, it was entertaining. Um, there were a lot of, you know, one, two, a lot of false like two point eight, and then a kick out. So it definitely kind of started to catch my attention probably towards middle, towards the end of the match. Um, but overall, it was good. Um, I believe Braunbreaker won.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Yes, he did. I know, I know it was last Saturday. Um, but I I did see something on social that I thought was funny that a lot of people said that uh that Seth Rollins was trying to pull some Kenny Omega moves, or not Kenny Omega, a Will spray. Yeah, and and and like he had fumbled a couple ones that Will had like knocked out of the ballpark, but uh you know, Seth uh Seth just didn't look like he was on top of his game. Um you know when it came time so for those some some maneuvers, some you know, out of the box ones that he had tried and looked like for the first time, and and that goes back to them saying this is why they need house shows so they could perfect their craft because they're not really doing it. It's either TV on Raw, SmackDown, or a PLE or uh Saturday Night's Main Event or something like that. There's not enough time for these superstars to go ahead and get their practice that they normally have before years in the past. That's how they stay like loose as far as the body and the movements and things like that. This is where injuries happen a lot of the times because they take numerous weeks off and they're not really doing a lot of stuff. So that's why I'm surprised WWE announced that they are going back to house shows in the middle of the summer. I believe it kicks off in June, maybe July. Yeah, I think I believe it was somewhere around that. Uh select cities. It's right now it's only 10 cities, and that's not right. Yeah, uh, the closest one to us, we're based in San Diego, is gonna be Bakersfield. So Bakersfield will get one. Um it's still a little far. Apparently, there's supposed to be more family-friendly budgeted, so that means uh the seats and the tickets are gonna be a little bit less expensive than a Raw or a PLE. So that's kind of exciting. Um, but going back to uh you know the match overall, uh, it was good for Braun Breaker to go ahead and have the biggest win probably of his career to go ahead and catapult his his legitimacy in the ring. Uh the other match that kicked off on the free EASP and two was Trick Williams and uh Sammy Zayn, the rematch right there for the US championship. Your thoughts on that match?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I I always love it. I love a frantic and heel-ish Sammy, and I think Trick Williams is a diamond in the rough. Yeah, he's really, really good. Yeah. Again, like when he came in to NXT, he was uh Mello's sidekick. So to see him be a sidekick who really wasn't wrestling at all for at least the first god, six to maybe nine months of his NXT personality. He just he wasn't wrestling, started to wrestle, blew up an NXT a couple times. Champ, TNA champ, moved to the main roster. I don't think really anybody knew how to maybe take him at first, but they were chanting whoop that trick when he first came in. Oh, yeah. And he came in as a heel, that's the thing. And the crowd turned him into that heel baby face that I call almost like that Roman Reigns heel baby face. That I'm a bad guy, but everyone fucking loves me. Yeah, and the old stone. It was a great match.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

It was a great match, yeah. Um, you know, and then we kicked off the actual PLE, and this match I thought was gonna be I didn't know, I knew it was not gonna be like, you know, the five-star match that a Dave Melcher would go ahead and give, but it was Den Housen. I need to stop with those damn stars. Yeah, I know. I you know, she's Den Housen with his mystery partner taking on Kit Wilson and the Miz. Um, there was a lot of speculation on who his partner was gonna be. Um, and we didn't know exactly who his partner could have been, but there were things uh kind of leading up to you saw something about money or something like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

At Backlash. Yeah, on one of the episodes on Raw or At Backlash.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

I'm sorry, yeah. It was on Raw or on Raw or SmackDown. It was basically like, uh, yeah, my tag team partner, like he really loves money. So of course everyone's like, oh, it's gonna be Shane McMahon. It's gonna be so it's gonna be this, it's gonna be that. I mean, Oba's not in the show. Maybe it's gonna be Oba.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Like the reason why a lot of people jumped to Shane McMahon uh was because we saw him be part of the new active roster on WWE.com under superstars. So his name popped back up, and a lot of people thought that yes, it was gonna be Shane McMahon. Um, it was funny because I love the Den Hasen character just because how corny and kooky he is, and like I will say this, I hated him at first, completely didn't understand it, but now I'm I'm a full fan. And he was tweeting, yeah, and he tweeted out a few people, I think like Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, Triple H to be his partner for $400 human monies. Um, and there was a couple other people too that he had tweeted out, and I thought it was funny. I think AJ Styles was one. So, but ultimately what we got was uh Dan Housen bringing out the cloning machine, and a mini housen came out who ended up being the old um uh who is it?

SPEAKER_02 8:14

El Torito, yes, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Yes, uh from uh what tag team was that? Do you remember? It was it was the colognes, but I don't remember the tag team. Almatadors was the Almators, no? Something like that. But he was a little bull.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah, with uh with Primo and Upco. It was their uh the colognes. It was their tag team. Oh well, yep.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

So it was good to see him after 10 years uh coming back into WWE and uh he did an amazing job. Uh the the match overall was entertaining. Uh but I think in order to kick off you know a PLE, I didn't think it was it should have kicked off, you know, the the PLE itself. But I understand what they were trying to do was capture that audience that was watching it free on ESPN to go ahead and and to buy it and hope that the kids or maybe some casual fans would pick it up, but I don't think that it did any justice.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Um no, and it it was tough because it was a total of five matches, and two of them are for free on ESPN too. And that second match stopped maybe a couple minutes before, I guess what, seven o'clock Eastern time. Yeah, so there was no overlap. There was no oh shit, I gotta quickly buy so we can see who finishes or who wins the match. It was just stop. Hey, make sure you guys jump over to the ESPN app and you know do your thing and continue to watch. And but yeah, when it's a five matches and you have the world heavyweight you got Jacob versus Roman, yeah. Um, because we got the women's match, and then you have a Dan Housen, I wouldn't call it call a throwaway match, but throwaway match. Yeah, um, like you're not gonna start with with Roman um and Jacob on that. Maybe you could have started you could have done the women's match and then kind of had something in the middle, but yeah, you kind of shit out of luck with it's only five matches for this.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Yeah, I and I I think that's the thing. I think they could have added another match or showcase some NXT talent on that free ESPN. And I think that's one thing that they need to start doing is utilizing the time correctly. And I don't think that they need to put every single card, you know, or match that's on the card on that free ESPN. I totally understand what they're trying to do, but I think that you could utilize that to kind of get a bigger audience because I feel like the people that are watching ESPN too are gonna be the fans of WWE. I and I get they they're trying to get that casual fan, but I think in order to do so, just go ahead and throw in, you know, I don't want to say two randoms, but two up and comings or people, yeah, you know, and or maybe have a tag team match or something else, some kind of gimmick match also that could go ahead and help. You know, the Denhausen match, I understand they wanted to save it for the PLE. Totally understand that. But yeah, I think they could have or maybe give more time into the countdown, the pre-show, have more of the pre-show on ESPN, give us an inside look of something else. Give me, like, you know, I don't want to see everybody arriving with their suitcase and what kind of suitcase they have into the building in the back. I think I'm tired of seeing that. I think it's just a running joke. The first like 10 minutes of Raw for years. Well, for years, Raw used to be the first half hour, it's gonna be a promo. Okay, but now I feel like raw the first half hour is them just arriving to the damn building in whatever suitcase or or or how whatever car they're getting out of. It's like, all right, come on. Oh yeah, like I really want to see Penta walk in with his mask on and no paint. You know, do I really want to see the judgment day walking one by one through the securities on now? We're not really just getting let's just start.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Um you were saying that there's more pre and post-show than there was the actual PLE. Yeah, there's two hours of a pre-show, it's 45 minutes of a post-show. I mean, two hours to 45 minutes. You're you're right up against it for the actual event, which is just it's for me, it's going to be too much. Um, a lot of the PLE weekends I'm looking forward to already. And I was like, hell yeah, p uh the the pre-show starts two hours before I'm gonna start watching the interviews of this. That it's just basically turned into vignettes, 20-minute vignettes that recap each match that's happening. I'm like, I'm so tired of this. If you want to have like the desk that they already do, but add more guests and do something different. It's just gotten to be so cookie cutter, um, rinse and repeat for all of these PLEs now, no matter where they are, whether they're overseas or they're in the states. It's just like now I'll just wait till the damn show.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

And this is where I think they could utilize other things too, like the speed title, the speed title that's really only on X, right? And it's like, why don't you think it's no, it's only on NXT, it's not even on X anymore. Oh, it's not even on X anymore. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

They got rid of it like a a year plus ago off of Twitter. It's just it's just on an NXT, it's just the NXT title.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

So so that's something that they could feature there. You know, there's other things that they could feature that they're not really thinking about doing. Bless you, Gary. Thank you. So uh yeah, no problem. Hey, hey, hey, no way that I would I would ring the bell, but you know, I don't know what's happening over here with my little keypad today. Oh man, it's just uh not there we go. There we go. The box. Um, so he carried going on with backlash. EOSky taking on Asuka, and the match that I think had everybody very like emotional and looking back on is like, did we miss the signs? Because it made it seem that the end of this match, you know, Eosky going over Asuka, that Asuka kind of hung up the boots. Um your thoughts on on what your take is on all this, too.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Um God, so when we were when we were watching, we saw the end, and I'm looking at this is going on way too long, and she's getting all emotional, they're hugging, she's kissing her on the cheek, bowing to her in respect. And I'm like, something's gonna happen. Like the crowd's been calling for you know for Kyrie to come back, and and we saw this with the movement and bring our truth back, and everyone's like, oh my god, it worked, Kyrie's coming back, and they're gonna kick EO's ass. And then it was like another hug, another bow, and left the ring. I'm like, wait a minute, what the hell? And then I think we were just like, is she retiring? Yeah, is that like videos started popping up? And I'm like, holy shit. And we're I think we're still trying to figure out this whole thing are they getting released to be released? Are they requesting a release? Is their contract up? No one really knows. So Asuka, there was really nothing besides Kyrie going back to Japan from the rumors I heard. She requested that she wanted to go back home. Um, but now with with Asuka, I think it's kind of a shock to everyone. And we saw a lot of the superstars following that match, um, including Asuka herself, post like a selfie kind of saying, you know, the end. I think it was uh Frank Sinatra's My Way was the song that she had. Um, and then Charlotte's posting a picture of her and with hearts and everything. So a couple days later, it says that she is semi-retired. Who knows what that means? Maybe she's retired from WWE, but maybe she's going back to Japan. Um, I don't know. I don't know. She showed up on Monday night raw. Uh, I thought that was going to be the heel turn again, where she was just gonna just be like, I'm back, bitch, and slap her. Um, but no, she grabbed her suitcase and left. I'm like, man, they really fucking threw her, I flew her all the way to wherever you know where I was the other night to pack a suitcase and hug her and leave. Like it felt weird, but I mean, if it's the end of Asuka, like is she a Hall of Famer? I absolutely absolutely um yeah, hands down. And yeah, she'll be missed. Um, trying to find and uh now Eo's way um of where she's gonna go, because you know that was that was a big feud for almost uh uh four years, four-year feud, if you will.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

You know, one of the things I did hear was that she has some uh family emergency back in Japan. So she was gonna go handle that and then eventually come back, um, whether that be out of WrestleMania or you know, who knows, Saudi Arabia, WrestleMania, or uh, you know, you know, next year's backlash.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Backlash, you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Um, so it's very interesting to see. But one of the things that I think um Busted Open was talking about that it was nice that uh she was able to come back and kind of say goodbye in her way, and she had the original paint of uh the paint that she had, you know, just the line across her eyes and in her nose. That's how she debuted on WWE. So a lot of people were saying it's it was a full circle moment for her for her to come back and to do that. So it's gonna be interesting to see, but yeah, there's so many superstars that have uh gone out and tweeted and posted stuff on IG and uh posted pictures of her and stuff like that. So um and we'll get into that in just a second, but uh as far as other superstars that have recently left, and we we found out a little bit more why, but we gotta go on to the big announcement that happened at Backlash from John Cena, and he introduced the John Cena classic, which is gonna be uh presenting uh I guess uh superstars from past and present, uh not past, but more future.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yeah, NXT and present, if you will.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Right. So we're gonna see people from NXT taking on main roster people and uh for a brand new championship that I thought he was gonna reveal there. I thought it was gonna come out and show us that because they said it was gonna be a you know a groundbreak breaking announcement from John Cena. Um I I was like, okay, and like I didn't understand.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I don't you didn't understand, I didn't understand. I don't think Cena understood what he was presenting when he got into the ring because we kept looking at each other as he's announcing this, and it felt like he was just talking in circles and nothing made sense. Right. About how those classics are gonna go. Is it a one-night thing? Is it a tournament bracket? Is it gonna be over multiple weeks and then it uh it commences at a PLE or at a Saturday night main event or at a John Cena classic PLA? Who who the fuck knows? But it came down to it's gonna be somewhat of matches between main roster superstars, whether though it's the the Rollins, the Romans, um, the Jacob Fatus, or is it going to be the Matt Cardona's, your mid-carters, your Sami Zaynes going up against these NXT stars who they're rebranding, and not rebranding, they're basically re-re setting up their roster all over again. So currently on NXT, there are no eye-grabbing stars, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04 18:30

Yeah, there really isn't, huh?

SPEAKER_02 18:31

You have your champs, you have these these um um uh crook is uh yeah, crook is there, and you've got evil who's now new Naroku or something is his name. Um, so you have these bodies that are there, but no one no one knows about them, yeah. Exactly. They're not household names, and it's no disrespect, it just it just comes over time, right? If this was done god six, nine, twelve a year ago, yeah, um this it would have made a hell of a lot more sense. Set it up like you did for Cena's um last uh whatever Saturday Night Main event was, where you were showing off those people. That was a great start to it, but now you don't have those stars at NXT. No, there are so we're gonna see NXT stars are gonna go up against main roster stars. The fans are gonna vote for who they think the champion should be, but the matches don't matter in a way. Um, it doesn't matter if they win or lose, they can still be voted as a champ. So and Cena came out, I believe, like the next day on Twitter. It was kind of like it's not perfect, we're working on it. So basically, almost like taking a step back from everything he spoke about. Um, when we were talking while Cena was, or when you finished, I was like, the fans should vote like on the matchups. I'm all for that. But then if they want to, you know, pick the winner ahead of time and all that kind of stuff, do your thing. Um, it was just one of those things. It's just like just have the match. A champion's gonna be crowned, do it a tournament style, but let the fans vote on the matchups. Almost like uh, what was it, Taboo Tuesday?

SPEAKER_03 20:01

You said yep, taboo Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Whatever it was back in the day. Um, we'll see. I I don't know. I mean, it's probably it's not gonna be perfect. Yeah, not gonna be perfect this year. Um, is it a one-year, four-year, ten year, fifteen year, who the fuck knows? Um I'm not expecting much out of it. I just know that that belt better be a fucking spinner belt.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

And I and I think that's what they should have done. I think if if if they were gonna make this big announcement, I think they should have presented the title. I think that would have got people talking a little bit more than like what the hell is the John Cena classic? I think if you would have gone. I don't think they're prepared. No, I think they knew, and that's the thing, too. It's like then why even open up your mouth and say, Oh, John Cena's gonna make this huge announcement. It goes back to like Triple H saying, oh, this is a new era on the next pay pay-per-view. Oh, this is a new era. Oh, this is a brand new era, you know, brand new era.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

It was different because remember, we we were all joking, we all thought it was just gonna be uh an announcement to for something for club WWE. Yeah, that's what I thought. If you sign up today, like some stupid shit like that. And everyone thought that, like on the Twitter sphere out there, uh, or on X. Sorry. Um, so yeah, it it's it's it's something new, it's different. Um backlash.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

At backlash.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

It's gonna be cool to see. They just need to do it right. I don't think they should be rushing into this. This should be something that's probably done closer to the end of the year, um, maybe before what is it after Survivor, before um, before the rumble, somewhere in there. Give these people down at NXT, you know, eight months, seven months to build their name and build their brand. Because right now, I'm just like, cool, if it happens, I don't I don't care. I don't care for the Yeah, and that's the thing.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

I don't think anybody does care because it's like I don't even know if the superstars care. I don't think so. And I think it's gonna be like, oh great, that's another thing that we gotta do. And whose idea was this? Was this Triple H's? Was this TKO's? I think uh my opinion, I think it is TKO's because they're trying to they're trying to pull whatever they can out of John Cena. Because they know he's like the last real legit superstar that could actually talk about this on multiple different platforms, not just WWE.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Yep.

unknown 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

So I guess we've got to wait and see what this classic is about. But in one classic that happened also was Roman Reigns taking on his cousin Jacobatu for the World Heavyweight Championship. Um, you know, this match did nothing for me. I thought it was kind of a waste. I I think they kind of like rushed into a quick storyline that didn't really need too much explanation because there was a little back history. So I think they just because like Roman needs an appointment. Who do we got? Uh we can't go punk because we don't know what's happening with punk. Uh not Drew McIntyre. Yeah, we don't, yeah, we're gonna get into that in a second. But um, yeah, this match, uh, you know, it it was kind of like whatever, and it just kind of carried on over to Monday Night Raw, and then it's like carrying over again. So I, you know, I think that they're just trying to, I don't want to say just kind of have a filler, but it feels like that's what it is. We all knew that Jacob I too was not gonna win the championship. Everybody knew that. So it's like, why even do this? I think it would have been better if there was a tag team match or or uh a six-man tag, you know, Roman and the Usos taking on Jacob and two two partners, you know, street profits, and then that could have been your to the bloodlar, this this lineage, this Samoan lineage of Zilla and somebody else.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Like, I don't know. I think it's gonna there's still more carryover. I think there's still more to this um Jacob Fatu and the Usos storyline. I think there's still something there. Um, I think rumors were swirling um like the week of that Roman was gonna drop to to Jacob um as came out that Roman was not on anything, uh any schedule in June, which was again, it was it was incorrect. Uh he initially he eventually was um thinking that he was basically said, I'm done with this TKO bullshit, I'm done. Right. Which then he would have dropped the belt. But in in all's good, he's there, he's still the champ. Um, we'll see where the storyline goes.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Yeah, so let's talk about that. Let's talk about TKO and what's happening with WB and the superstars, uh, you know, with contracts and things of that nature. And you talked about Roman. Let's let's talk a little bit more about that. The rumor was that Roman was uh, I forget how much money he's making per year. I think it was I think it was like 15. And that was that was a price that was agreed upon. That's the price that was uh signed between the company and Roman. And now the rumor is that TKO went back and was like, Oh, you know what, we can't really do that. So we're gonna go ahead and cut your price. Can we get you for like five or whatever it is? And that's where Roman apparently, you know, this is all rumor was that like, no, I don't want that. If that's gonna happen, I'm out. And because essentially the company could come back and renegotiate at any time because the contracts aren't really for superstars, contracts in a company are for the company, you know. Um, so at any point, anybody could be let go. Point example would be me. You know, I had a contract and that contract was not up, and they came and they let me go. And they could go ahead and make any excuse they want, and they made, you know, some excuses for me. So it's like I understand how contracts work, and it's pretty much just to have somebody uh at bay. That's that's kind of what it is. You know, with Roman, the the rumors got cleared up saying that that wasn't the case, that uh that the reason why he wasn't on these uh schedule in June and August and the summertime, like how he said he was gonna be here for the summer, was because of different conflicting issues. But now we do understand that he is gonna be part of different RAWs and things of that nature going overseas. Now, one person that is not gonna be a part of that is CM Punk. Apparently, he was on every promotional thing moving forward, and now he is being pulled off of every single thing going overseas. Your thoughts on what's happening with CM Punk?

SPEAKER_02 25:56

I actually didn't even know that till you just told me. Oh, here's my thoughts. Yeah, damn. I mean, he's a top star that should be over there. They're gonna pull in more money. Um if you don't have one of your top stars going over there, what does that say about your company? Is is Punk tired? Is he just you know he was basically the Lone Ranger, if you will, with the title for a few months? Um, is he exhausted? Does he need a break? Is he a vacation? He's a lot older than a lot of the stupid stars there now. Um, so yeah, how's his body holding up? Is this a vacation? Is he done for a while? Is there something with him and TKL where he's like, I'm fucking done now? Like, yeah, nobody knows.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

There's a lot of people that are upset. And point example too is one thing that could have you know feel that fire for CM Punk to say I don't want to go, is his quote unquote road wife and his work wife walked out of WWE with his tag team partner Xavier Woods. I'm talking about Kofi Kingston. CM Punk and Kofi Kingston are very, very close, they're very good friends. They traveled up and down the road together. And recently, the New Day and TKO could not come to an arranged new contract. And once again, it goes back to the contracts. They arranged, uh they actually agreed upon a certain amount back in October. The New Day signed a brand new deal, and for whatever reason, TKO comes back to them and says, Hey, can't offer you the same amount of money, we need to renegotiate, and this these are gonna be you know the new amount and maybe more stipulations, we don't know. And at that point, the new day said, nah, we're good, we're out, and they are done with WWE. And it came as a shock. Yes, good for them, came as a shock. Um, your thoughts on them leaving and where you could see them going.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

AEW, uh I think they have a lot of connections over there. I honestly they they can go anywhere, yeah. Um, they can absolutely go anywhere. Um, will it be TNA? TNA? Doubtful. Um, just because how uh uh WWE kind of runs a show over there, but AEW New Japan, um sky's the limit for them. They've made so many connections, they've been in this world for for so long. Kofi's a true blood WWE guy, right? Just built his name on the indies before he even got over to NXT and then up to WWE. So good for them for knowing their worth. And I think that was one of Kofi's quotes in one of his posts saying, like, yeah, to anyone that ever has to go through this, just know what you're worth. Yeah, I mean, don't don't get lowballed, and it it's it's great to know. And I think you again, you and I are in the same position right now. We are still looking for a full-time job because we're both let go from our our jobs, and yeah, just know your worth. Um, do what's best for you if you're somewhere and you're not happy, get out. The grass can always be greener on the other side, and yeah, I cannot wait for their 90 days to be up uh and see where they're see where they land because I I I will be a New Day fan until I die. They're great.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

And and I think that they will probably go to AEW. They have a lot of connections with the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, and that's one match that everybody wanted to see for years with the Young Bucks taking on the New Day. So it'll be very interesting, interesting to see how they pop up and where they pop up because it's probably gonna be well, you would you say 90 days, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Yeah, 90 days, but then there was also something that came out about WB WWE trying to retain Xavier just for like his up, up, down, down, and like all of these other things. And I mean, if I were him, I'd still say F off.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

I know like I'd be like, nah, I'm good because that's how they have that's how they have uh Tyler Breeze. Tyler Breeze is still WWE employee, and that's how they still have him, is by the up up down uh podcast and doing all stuff like that. So that's how he's still kind of involved in the company. Uh, I think TKO is is okay. So here's my here's my take on it. I think that it was time for the new day to go. And the reason why is because they weren't being utilized. What was the big storyline? It was them with Grayson Waller, right? And that's and that was kind of it. They weren't doing much, and I understand coming from a company's aspect of like, okay, how much am I paying these two guys just to kind of sit there and not really bring in anything? They're not doing much. So I think that they needed to go ahead and have some new creative, or you let them go. And I think it was the right call. I think it was good for both parties in the end. I I think it sucks the fact that they do have that they had to leave like that, but at the same time, I think they're just gonna go be stars somewhere else, without a doubt, and it'll be exciting for them to see. Other people that have left the company recently because of contracts, or possibly could be leaving, uh Los Gar uh Garzas, uh, right? Uh, and so we don't know what's happening with them. They were attacked on Monday Night Raw by uh Oba Femi. Yeah, you did it right. Um so the rumor was that they that was like their last thing that they had to do. They were squashed, and then that was it. Both profiles on Instagram, I believe, or might be ex are blocked out. So we don't know what that means. Over time, they were kind of like it looked like they were kind of sharing the fact that they were frustrated with the company because it's it that they had that endgame effect where they were vanishing and and you know, you know, so they had photos of themselves kind of like uh deteriorating. So we don't know exactly what's going on with them. I could see them ending up in Mexico at CMLL. Uh I could see them at AWE.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

They were doing great work in AAA when they were sitting down there to do a bunch of stuff. Um, and we started seeing them kind of pop up like here and there just a little bit more, and it almost I think at the beginning of Monday night. Thank you so much for Monday Night Raw. We're so excited to be here, and then it was the home squash. Um, but yeah, I think they can they'll they'll they're gonna land on their feet too. They are multi-generational uh talent. Uh their families have been in the in WWE or in wrestling for many, many, many years. So they'll bounce back. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

And and that's a they're two young guys that could figure out, and I think they'll be fine. They'll go overseas, so you know, they might go to Mexico, and they might go, who knows? You know, I don't know what other organizations they could pop at, but uh Japan, you know, it's something that they could probably do. They would probably be great at both both phenomenal teams.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

That's the problem. That's the problem, Al, and I think you were and I were talking about this as well. Is you're getting released, you're getting cut from WWE. You only have so many options to go and continue your career. You get cut from the NBA team, your NFL team. You've got 30 plus other teams that can pick you up or that you can go to. If you're getting dropped from WWE, who are now obviously oversees AAA and TNA, like you're basically going either overseas or you're going to AEW, like that's it, or you're just legit indies, you're going to the boys and girls club um in front of 50 to you know 200 people.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

And there's nothing wrong with that, too.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

If you if you're no, you know, you're nothing wrong whatsoever. It's just those are those, unfortunately, are your options. So it's it's it's tough to come by when when you get these releases and you're where you were a year ago or two years ago, or you know, in the new day before they turned heel uh with whole the whole big E storyline and where they were and selling out any arena, they were headlining and this and that, and now it's who knows where they're gonna end up and and others.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Yeah, so I mean there's so many different things now, I believe, that people could do too. Not only that, but it's like if they don't want to go back into wrestling, they could be coaches, trainers, open up a school, things of that nature. Podcasting. I mean, everybody got a podcast, you know, but not everybody has podcasts. Unless you get shut down.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Backlash. Backlash.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Yeah, that's the other thing. TKO taking uh aim at uh recap videos of of streamers recapping and watching watch along videos for WWE product and TKO. They you know they all kind of knew it was coming one day, but a lot of them have either lost pages, lost a lot of their content. Um crazy that sucks. Yeah, it's we haven't been shut down yet, which is great.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

I'm glad we're flying under the radar, so it's it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

I don't know now though.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

I mean all this it was it was funny. I saw some I saw some guy post uh the other day on X that on Monday Night Raw, they did like a recap like of the slash and he's like there's no way they just used my video, they just shut me down, they used his reaction video on raw in the vignette. Yeah, I pasted that on Instagram. Shut me down, and this is where it is. Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Yeah, so it's like they gotta get their shit together. Yeah, DK and WWE. Um, let's see what else. Uh, let's go into Monday Night Raw. So Monday Night Raw, we kind of touched upon a little bit. Um, one of the biggest things that I felt that was kind of really cool was the triple A champion, Dominic Mysterio, defended that championship on Monday Night Raw. The very first time that the Triple A heavyweight championship, the mega championship, was actually defended on WWE TV, let alone Monday Night Raw. So that was really cool. Took on uh the original uh Grande Americana and Chad Gable.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

And so you don't know that, you don't know who he is.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

I don't know, I don't know, but I thought that was a great match. I know. I thought he was cut. He could have been released, him and Kaiser, I think.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

We haven't seen him in god months, yeah. I know he was injured, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

He had injured, and then I don't know what happened. Yeah, so I don't know, man. Only time we'll tell with him. Um, let's see what else did happen on Monday Night Raw. I'm just trying to quickly go over Monday Night Raw. Um Jacob Jacob 2, of course, beat up Roman and the Usos again. Beat up everybody, yeah. Oba with Los Garzas with the open challenge. Um, let's see, what else do we have?

SPEAKER_02 35:30

I feel like they need to be done with this Oba open challenge, and that's just my take. It's you go from beating Brock at WrestleMania to these random Monday night open challenges where you faced Otis last week, Los Garza, because nobody wanted to come out, so he just went to the back and grabbed the first two people you saw. Um, and then next week they said uh on you know they announced on Raw that next week it will be back again. Like Oba should have been thrown right into the mix. I I have a feeling that once Brock retired, some other shit kind of trickled down and that kind of fucked Oba's, you know, his his what is supposed to happen to him after WrestleMania. I think something else is supposed to keep going and going, going. Where now Oba's like in this weird thing where they weren't gonna send him right to to Roman because they just that would have been even I think that would have been even worse. Let this build up if they really want to push Oba, start to build this match for SummerSlam. But they need to stop these open challenges. He needs to face someone that is not not a jobber, not not like a Dan Housen, not a Kit Wilson, not not Tazawa. Let Bronson Reed come back and let him answer the open challenge. Let it be Seamus, let it be these bigger guys, let it have been Rusev. I mean, I think this is this is what they did a while ago um when Oba first came in, is they started small and then they got the bigger guys, and then boom, Brock Lesnar. I think he's just gonna start to lose a lot of steam, and fans are gonna they're it's just gonna get stale. It's just gonna okay, open open challenge. What yeah, what work from the back is gonna is gonna come out that's half the size of Oba and Oba's gonna win in 30 seconds. Give us a star, give give us someone um that can compete with him, and then let's gear it up for a summer slam.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

They did this with somebody, and um, I'm gonna find the person's name, and you're gonna be like, who? And this is when they did the open challenge with uh Veer. Do you remember Veer? Viermann. I think that's how you say his name. Oh, yeah, I kind of remember. Remember they had this vin the vignettes of him, like, oh my god, Veer is Vierman is coming. And he showed up and he did the open challenge and he beat up a couple people, and then the next thing you know, he's gone. And we were like, what the hell happened to Virman? Because like, Vir Vierman, Vir Virman. And the next thing you know, he's being managed by Jinder Mahal. Yeah. And and he was in a tag team. And um, yeah, so I hope it doesn't open with with Oba. You know, maybe maybe in time we'll see Oba and Omar Femi come together and be managed by Paul Heyman or something. But um, yeah, so uh the other thing that I don't like about Oba is how they kind of changed his look. Have you noticed they changed his look? So really, I don't think so. Everybody knows Oba right now, uh in my opinion. He's just an intro. That's all he is. People people like doing the intro and like listening to the music, you know, yeah. Doing the little walk oh doing the strut. Oh yeah. Um they changed his appearance after WrestleMania, and I think I'm gonna just say it. I hate it, I hate the new look because the reason why is they gave him arm tassels to look like Ultimate Warrior to make his arm. So he had those in NXT, like like that? No, he hadn't he did not have them like that. He did have like tape around his arm, but no yes, the real furry, little little furry armbands. He did not have the tassels that string down like the ultimate warrior. I'm gonna have to go back and look. And that's why I was like, why are we doing this? And it to me it felt like a Vince McMahon thing where Vince, you know, didn't like the the war raiders and he called them the Viking Express, you know, and gave them a brand new gimmick. And I'm like, and then they changed like the necklace where they look like what'd you call them munchkins before, and then they're it's like they're bright red beads now. And I'm like, huh, like okay, I get your marketing now because you're trying to figure out what will sell to the kids, you know, and that makes sense. Totally understand that. But I mean, like the subtle things, I'm like, okay, now they're just trying to capitalize on Oba, in my opinion. Yep, okay, cool. What what can we sell that says Oba Femi? Oh, you know what? We can sell him his arm tassels like Ultimate Warrior and give him the little munchkin necklace, you know, so the kids could do it, you know, do the dance. Totally understand it, but I hate it. I just hate it.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

It's tough. I'm I'm looking forward to seeing who his next opponent's gonna be next week, but I I think this whole squash thing has to stop. Yes, I agree with that. I want him back on the mic, I want him to after a clash and everything, I want him to now go after Roman, which was already hinted to right after WrestleMania. Yeah, um, Roman made it clear you guys will see me through the summer. Where maybe we're basically Roman saying, I'm done after the summer, I'm going back on vacation. I will take my 15 bill and I'll go back on vacation. Yeah, what do you think? You think he's done? I don't think he's done, done. I think he's just gonna be back to his vacation part-time wrestler, unfortunately. I think he's got more movies probably coming up and yeah, family time and things. I mean, these things don't last forever. And and don't forget, like he was he's battling leukemia. I I think he's in almost positive he's in remission. Yeah, but again, that's stuff that still stays with you. Yeah, so the amount of work that this guy does um to keep his his his mind and body good to go week after week, it does it's gonna take a toll on anyone, um, especially those that have gone through um the disease that he's going through or went through. Um, so he he does deserve that time off, um, which is probably why TKO's like, now he's gone too.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

You know what? I know the news now, I'm all right.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Yeah, so we'll we'll see what happens. I mean, I think Oba is is the next in line um to carry a title for many, you know, I don't think years on end, um, but for at least a year, um, you know, get rid of this Kobe, uh Cody QB1 thing over that. Um over that too.

SPEAKER_03 41:57

Uh, you know, one of the things that I found very interesting on one in Iraq was did you see when the vision left the building? We're talking about do you remember how Jackie was asking them about you know what's happening and how he feels about you know the song and all this stuff? And Logan Paul kind of like shoot her away, and then she was trying to get an interview with Austin Theory, and he was one foot inside of his car. And in that car, did you see who was in the passenger seat? I did. Maxine Dupree.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

And we've seen this, and we've seen them talking.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

Yes, that's like the third week, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

Yeah, oh, longer than that. This is the first time it was like clear as day, like right in your face at the camera. Everything else has been like down the hallway. We could see a blonde and we can see it's it's Austin Theory, and we figured out that it was Maxine. But it's good, they're kind of they're pulling her away from Otis and Tizawa. I think they need to, I don't know what needs to happen, but she does not need to be with them anymore. She's a two-time IC champ. Yeah, um, there's more coming for her. I think it'd be really cool to see her part of the vision and kind of let um uh let um Paul Heyman kind of just do his magic uh with her as well.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Now, do you think this kind of takes away the surprise element uh in professional wrestling when you start showing little Easter eggs like this over and over and over again?

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Or is it I feel like the surprise factor has been gone for many years because of social media.

SPEAKER_03 43:25

Right. Okay, I do agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

So I mean, I I I think it's gonna be like, oh shit, now she's actually coming out with them, not oh yeah, she was in the back. You know, it's just like I think it's finally gonna be it's good. Add a woman to this faction. Um there's all men faction, there's all women faction. There's not many, especially in on the main roster that has men and women in one faction. You got the judgment day, yeah, and that's really it. Um and NXT, you got the culling, and you gotta, you know, it's just it doesn't do it doesn't do a whole lot.

SPEAKER_03 43:55

Yeah, I think I to m to me, I'm like, you know, maybe just stop with the Easter. For a little bit. It was very cool when you know Triple H took over originally and there was stuff like that happening in the back. We saw Dom and Liv, you know, kind of blossom for that. We saw the Wyatt's. We saw we saw a lot of things that happened, and that was cool, but then what? Yeah. You know, so it was just like okay. And then when we saw stuff that that happened backstage that nothing ever happened with.

unknown 44:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

So it's like, oh, all right. So like, you know, we saw Alistair Black, you know, lurking in the back of certain people here and there. Yeah. And what happened? Nothing happened.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

So it's just like I think a lot of the current storylines where it was like, hey, remember where that where the hell did that happen? Yeah. It's because they were all fucking fired and all that goes. So all these new storylines need to happen.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

And that was the Gunther storyline where he, you know, when Heyman owed him a favor, what we all know was supposed to be Lesnar at SummerSlam. Um, which turned into Heyman getting uh Gunther a contract to be on Smackdown and also a contract to face Cody for the for the title uh at Clash.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

All right, so speak speaking about this, okay. Let's just jump right into Smackdown because that's kind of what happened on SmackDown was that uh Gunther uh went uh what face to face with Nick Aldous, and Nick Aldous told him what exactly?

SPEAKER_02 45:11

It was basically yes, uh you're you know, we figured out you are now going to be on SmackDown. So we we believe that's the trade. It's basically a Smackdown or Gunther for Fatu, if you will.

SPEAKER_04 45:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Um, and yeah, that was it turned out that that was the favor. Um Heyman came out and said it on SmackDown. This was the favor that Gunther wanted to be on Smackdown and really to go after Cody for the title. That's how that's how that went. It was a supposed to be a contract signing last week. Um, didn't happen, you know. Gunther's just playing the total heel. Um, or people were cheering for him, to be honest with you, up against Cody um when he came into the ring. They were cheering for Gunther to as he's beating the shit out of out of Cody. I think just people are just so over Cody as the champ in this this QB1 golden boy. Like you see the superstars calling him this on television. Um, so we'll we'll see. We'll we'll see, we'll see where it goes.

SPEAKER_03 46:05

I mean kind of over a lot of WWE right now, to be honest. Because I don't blame you.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

I almost kind of like I watched Smackdown this morning, but it was one of those on in the background while I was doing something. I was just like, eh, fuck it, I'll just check it out in case, you know, because I knew that we were gonna record today. Yeah, but yeah, it's like it's just getting to be almost like too much, too much empty promises. Oh, yeah, too much going on, too much. This is gonna happen, that's gonna happen, new era. This new era that you've got raw, you've got uh NXT, you've got SmackDown, you've got 15 different podcasts, you've got you've got superstars and WWE blowing up everything on X and adding more content there. Um, their YouTube channel's got more things on there. It's just it's getting to be oversaturated. And I think years ago I was like excited, like, yes, we got this to watch, we can watch that, we got this, and this is gonna lead into that. Now I'm like, I need a fucking break.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Yeah, I need a break. And I think the thing that kills it mostly is is the commercials and the ads. I think you know, when I was at WrestleMania, you know, and I'm sitting there, and I'm not realizing that the intros are way longer than the match. Like, you know, I didn't know, and I'm like, oh my god, like now looking back, I'm like, geez, like, all right, so that I think really kind of set the tone for me recently, and I'm just like, uh, do I really want to watch this? Like, Raw's good, you know. I think to me, Raw Raw's always been the staple show and the foundation of WWE, but then it's like with SmackDown, I'm like, I really don't watch it.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

I mean, you know, the PLE three hours, it's gonna go back down to two hours in the summer, yeah. Um, but even at that, it's like you know, now you can downsize because you have half the amount of superstars, right? And it's now you really gotta take the superstars that you have and like give us good stories. Stop yeah fucking throwing Cody down our throat. Like, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I you frustrate me, WWE. You frustrate me.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

I do like the fact that WWE is actually finally going back on the road. I you know, going back to that in that full circle moment is that they are going back to the house shows. Um, I do want to share, let's see, what cities are they going to? Like New Mexico, uh Luz Cruz, New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, uh Allentown, Pennsylvania, Stockton, California, Bakersfield, California, uh, Springfield, Illinois, Fairfax, Virginia, Manchester, New Hampshire, Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. And uh, yeah, so that's kind of where they're going this summer. And I just, I'm like, well, whatever. You know, WWE is coming to the West Coast for all you SoCal fans, uh, July 27th, Monday Night Raw in Englewood. Don't know exactly what the price is gonna be for those tickets.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Thank God.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

But you can only imagine it's probably gonna be something outrageous. There's one story that I'm trying to find right now, Gary, and maybe you can help me look for it real quickly, is that um that you had posted something about Piper Niven, an update on her. I don't remember what that was, but uh, as you search for that, you know, one thing that we do have to talk about too is that Triple H has signed a brand new deal with TKO along with Nick Khan, who signed a new deal as well. And I'm just like, oh, why? Um, you know, I think Triple H is great. Nick Khan, I don't know what he really does. And for the amount of money, you know anybody knows.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

That's that's the problem. Nobody knows.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

So I don't know about that. You know, another thing that happened is that uh Jelly Roll, his new uh song Lighter, will be the new theme song for WWE Smackdown. Kind of tired of Jelly Roll myself. I think that just needs to go away. So uh another rumor is Alistair Black Alistair Black and Zelina Vega could be all elite because apparently they are going to meet with Tony Khan. Another WWE News, a former intercontinental champion, just recently posted that he had his foot amputated today, as a matter of fact. That uh actually, I don't know about if it was happening if it actually happened today or maybe a couple days ago, but WWE superstar, former superstar Marty Ginetti, one half for the Rockers, posted that uh he had his foot recently amputated. He had a lot of problems with his foot, and it looks like things probably just didn't heal correctly for him. So we're wishing him the best of luck in whatever is happening with him. Uh were you able to find that post? Uh I just sent it to you. Oh, okay. You just sent it to me.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

I'm still scrolling for the other one.

SPEAKER_03 50:31

Okay, you know, we did have we did talk about Piper Niven uh recently and uh I had wrote that she was let go in that big last layoff but it says, um said uh went to California and I got this uh da da da da. I have so much probably the past eight months. Uh or for now I want to express my de uh deepest love and gratitude for every single soul that helped me and care for me during this difficult, scary time. So I know it was neck surgery that she had.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Yeah, so the photo that's with it has she does have uh an incision on her neck covered up by a bandage. Um so yeah, scary stuff is basically just you know, she has been discharged um as of a couple of days ago. Um, but yeah, just neck surgery that could easily be career ending. Um, she has not come out and said that she's retiring or she thought, yeah. Yeah, or that she would let go. So she is still under WWE contract, as far as we know. She is just recovering from a severe neck injury and surgery from that.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

Yeah, so wishing her a speedy recovery. Um, let's see. Anything else that you want to talk about, Gary, that I might have missed for this week's episode.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Uh unfortunately, there just hasn't been that much stuff, especially on the shows. Um we have uh Saturday night main event coming up uh a week from today. Right. If well today we're recording this on Saturday, so next Saturday, the 23rd. Um, and then the following weekend um we have um triple A mask versus mask. Uh yes, El Grande versus El Grande. Uh we'll see, and then the 31st is on Sunday, the 31st, because it's in Italy. Uh Clash, 11 a.m. Pacific time.

SPEAKER_03 52:22

Oh, clash.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Come back, clash?

SPEAKER_03 52:24

No, clash. No? Oh, okay. Clash. Okay. Clash, clash, clash. A clash, a clash, a clash. Um, all right.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

Yeah, if you want, we can go over a couple of the matches. Yeah, let's go and save that for next week until more matches come out, and then do we do a let's let's save that.

SPEAKER_03 52:39

Let's let's say that plus Brian will be on the show, hopefully, maybe. Empty promises Brian. We might as well call Brian TKO because that's that's what he's doing. He's giving us empty promises. Yeah, I know. Uh, and I can't ring my bell for whatever reason. All right, let's get out of here, Gary. Let's go ahead and hit them with social. There we go. What's your social?

SPEAKER_02 52:58

G Dubs33 on Instagram, uh, Gary underscore dubin on X and Towers PowerPod on X.

SPEAKER_03 53:06

And on IG at Towers of PowerPod, and we will announce our WrestleMania poster winner. Also, right there. In case you don't know, we do giveaways on our Instagram. So make sure you go ahead and follow us because the next one will be a fun co pop. That's what I said. And so I have to pull which one out of the storage unit, and I believe it's the AJ Styles one. So if you're looking for an AJ Styles Co Pop, you can win that for free. All you have to do is follow us at Towers of PowerPod. I'll give you all the details right there at Towers of PowerPod on IG. You can follow me as well at Hollywood Chris. And once again, like I say, at the end of every podcast, we are in the Resident Community just like you. Wait, hold on, let me take it over. We are in the resident community just like you. So go ahead and make sure you like, subscribe, share this podcast because we just want to grow at the end, and we want to say thank you very much. And we will see you guys again next time. You know, next time, and that means.