Beyond The Mat with JoshhyWrestling

Naomi’s Big News, John Cena’s Farewell & WrestleMania's Biggest Moments | Ep 5

• JoshhyWrestling • Episode 5

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In this week’s episode of Beyond the Mat with JoshhyWrestling, we dive into all things wrestling with a mix of news, milestones, and your questions! We talk Naomi’s big moments, reflect on The Undertaker’s legendary legacy, and look at AEW’s Forbidden Door week. Plus, I celebrate some amazing milestones we’ve hit together and tackle a load of listener questions — because your questions take center stage every week.

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Speaker 1:

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Wednesday, the 20th of August, and it is episode number five of the Beyond the Mat podcast with Joshi Wrestling. I hope you are all well. I hope it has been a good week for you since episode number four. If you haven't seen that one yet, go back and check it out. Another great episode of the podcast. The reviews are glowing. The podcast has been great up to this point and this week we've had record amount of questions being sent through from people in the Discord server, from people commenting on videos, from people on all of the social. So thank you very much. We've got a very, very stacked episode, number five, probably the most stacked episode that we have to date. I am very, very excited.

Speaker 1:

It has been a very big week for myself. First off, we got the 15,000 followers on TikTok. I am absolutely over the moon with that 15,000 followers. This Saturday actually marks 365 days as a content creator. I hadn't even hit a year yet and I was like I would really like to hit 15,000 followers a couple of months ago. If I can do that, I'll be super happy. I'll get a giveaway going and that was the incentive. We got there. We got there, we hit 15,000 followers and I'm absolutely ecstatic. Couldn't even believe that we hit a thousand, nevermind 15,000, in the first year of doing it. I absolutely love it.

Speaker 1:

I would not go back. I really would not go back. I don't know what. I don't know. It would be a hugely missed opportunity if I never. I can't even imagine myself not doing this anymore.

Speaker 1:

If I'm honest, two videos a day, the podcast weekly. Like you know, it's small to some people, but to me this thing is absolutely huge and I absolutely love doing it. Two videos every single day. We've got the podcast every week long form 40, 50, 60 minutes long. I'm sat here talking to a camera. If you were to tell me that I would be doing this one year ago, not even one year ago 23rd of August 2024 was the first time I recorded a video. It was an AEW video and it wasn't great. But if you were to tell me that 365 days later, that I would be able to confidently sit and talk to a camera for almost 60 minutes, yeah, I would call you the craziest person that I've ever met in my entire life. Now I am sat here. I love making videos, I love creating content, I love building a community and talking to people no-transcript Podcasts. If you're on Amazon, if you were on Spotify, you can leave a five star rating or a star rating and also a little comment, if you could as well. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you drop a comment down below as well.

Speaker 1:

Do you like the episodes? What's going well? What's not going well? What would you like to get answered on episode six, next week's episode of the podcast? This is episode number five. Welcome.

Speaker 1:

We have got so so so much to talk to and about. There is so much going on this week in professional wrestling. First off, we've just finished Monday Night Raw. We've just finished Monday Night Raw that went down from the Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. It was an okay show, not too bad. It's the final US show before they do come to the UK.

Speaker 1:

We've got Friday Night Smackdown UK and Dublin. We've got Friday Night Smackdown this Friday that goes down from the Three Arena. We've got Friday Night Smackdown UK and Dublin. We've got Friday Night Smackdown this Friday that goes down from the three arena. That's very exciting. We have got a full week ahead.

Speaker 1:

This Saturday I'm going to be at WWE Liverpool this Sunday. As of a couple of days ago, I will now be attending AEW Forbidden Door 2025 in the O2 in London and I am very, very, very excited. I did not believe it was possible. I thought we were too busy and, to be fair, we are too busy. I mean, we have WWE Liverpool on Saturday, we have AEW Forbidden Door on the Sunday, going into Monday as well. We're going to be staying over and then the weekend afterwards we do have Clash in Paris. Yeah, we are super excited to go to Clash in Paris. We're super excited for all three events four events if you include Monday Night Raw as well. Honestly, super super lucky, fortunate, privileged to be able to go to all these wrestling shows. Like it really is, it really is awesome, it, it's, it's, it's the biggest passion of mine, but I understand that a lot of people can't make it to events and and for that I say I'm very humble that I am able to go to events and I am fortunate to um. Honestly, all the support, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. It's going to be a great couple of weeks. Like I said, I've just finished up Monday Night Raw and I thought it was an okay show.

Speaker 1:

Naomi Naomi's pregnant Naomi has vacated the Women's World title and, wow, I could not be any more happier for naomi and big jim. Like naomi was going where we, so so she's. You know she obviously isn't cleared for last week's match against eo sky for the world title. It raises some questions. We know that something is going on with the world champion. What is going on? There's a bit a lot of speculation around what is going on. A lot of people on twitter jumping on kind of the same bandwagon and it turns out that it is true, naomi is pregnant and will be taking uh, to be fair significant time off, and so she should. She, uh.

Speaker 1:

She has spoke heavily recently about how she would like to have a child with big jim, um, and that she was getting older and she would like to have a child with Big Jim and that she was getting older and she would be kind of. You know, the older she gets, the less likely it's going to happen. And you know everyone is happy she is, she's pregnant, fantastic. I could not be any happier for both of them. You know they, they deserve, deserve. They seem like super incredible people. So absolutely huge news, absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people saying online that it's a shame because her career is absolutely blowing up right now. But look, there's not a comparison. You can't compare. Compare the two things. She's she wants to be a mom. That's going to be so, so much bigger than her going through her best run in wwe right now. And also she's leaving on a, on a pop like um. She's leaving on a huge, huge, huge note. The people were saying um, people were saying her catchphrase, the caution stuff with her. We haven't seen that before. The crowd was really, really loud for her. The crowd is super happy. We're gonna see a return in naomi in probably 18 months to two years and when she does, the crowd is gonna go crazy.

Speaker 1:

Um, I, I absolutely love the final, the final chat that she had kind of in the ring. She's going out in in the way that she did not foresee going out, but she's gone over with the crowd. The crowd absolutely loved it. You know, it felt like a real life moment that we were sharing in the ring there. Because it was, because it was a real life moment. Super, super happy for Naomi, super happy for Big Jim.

Speaker 1:

And look, now we have a vacated Women's World Championship. What is going to happen with that? We know that Stephanie Viqueur was meant to take on Naomi or the Women's World Champion at Clash in Paris. What is that going to look like? Now there's a lot of uncertainty around what that is going to look like. We do not know what Stephanie Viqueur's position is going forward with the championship. We don't know who is in the title picture at all.

Speaker 1:

We've got one more Monday Night Raw to decide if we're going to do this thing at Clash. Are we going to have, you know, a multi-person match to determine the, the new Women's World Champion? You know, I'd love to see a Rhea Ripley, an Io Sky, a Stephanie Vaquer, maybe a triple threat match? Maybe throw a returning Bianca Belair into the mix? You know, probably not. I'm just kind of fantasy booking at this point. That is something I would absolutely love to see. I would love to see that title be picked up at Clash. I really, really would.

Speaker 1:

A couple of other things that we picked up from tonight's Monday Night Raw. Sheamus versus Rusev has now been added to Clash in Paris. It's a good old-fashioned Donnybrook match. Very excited for that, very, very excited. If there are two men that know how to hit hard in the ring and get weapons involved, it is Rusev and Sheamus. Sheamus, a first singles PLE. First singles PLE attendance since 2022. How incredible is that? Sheamus obviously took a lot of time off. He came back a little bit bigger, he got in the shape of his life again and it's crazy that we haven't seen him on a PLE since 2022. He is a talent, he is a fan favorite, he is a hard hitter, he is a grafter. He is someone that absolutely deserves as many opportunities as possible. And look, he needs an IC championship. He does need that. I really hope he gets that before he ends his career. Step number one is getting him back on a PLE, and right here we're going to see Rusev versus Sheamus one final time in Paris.

Speaker 1:

Also, bronson Reed versus Roman Reigns. Now, this wasn't actually announced yet we haven't got a graphic for that yet but we do know that Roman Reigns is kind of the poster boy for Clash in Paris. He's on all the posters but he does not yet seem to have a match. Well, at the end of this past week's Monday Night Raw, last night's Monday Night Raw, there was obviously Roman Reigns coming out. He's hitting a superman punch on Bronson Reed. He's hitting Bron Breaker with the spear. He's getting involved in the Extreme Rules match at the end of Monday Night Raw between Bron Breaker and main event Jey Uso. The odds were stacked against Jey Uso, of course. La Knight's there, cm Punk's there and finally Roman Reigns.

Speaker 1:

Bronson Reed and the rest of Seth's guys have been all over Roman every single time we've seen him, bronson Reed, becoming the sure father, crazy, crazy, the tribal thief. He's stealing Roman Reigns' shoes and I'm here for it. I absolutely love it. How crazy is that Wrestling, right, wrestling. So at the end of it they've got a bit of a heated exchange. They're saying I'll see you, I'll see you in Paris, I will see you in Paris.

Speaker 1:

So I'm hoping, hopefully, that match gets officially booked. I think it will be. Michael Cole was talking about it on the commentary, although we haven't seen it really officially booked yet as of the recording of this episode, and this is a Tuesday night, tuesday, the 19th of August. What we do have booked, though, and that this is kind of going to fall into what the initial question was with with John John Reed three is asking what match do you want? Slash think will be on the clash in Paris card. We know that we're getting john cena versus logan paul. We're gonna get that world heavyweight championship match, seth rollins defending against jay uso la knight and cm punk. I think that one is probably going to headline, maybe cena kicking the night off or maybe cena Cena even headlining I think it's between those two. In terms of who headlines. As such, we now know that we're going to get Sheamus versus Rusev.

Speaker 1:

A match that I would really like to see, john, is Dominic Mysterio versus AJ Styles for the Intercontinental Championship. We saw I mean, these two have been going at it for a while obviously we saw them fight of summer slam dominic massario and aj styles one-on-one. Lots of great eddie references, but ultimately dominic massario ended up walking out with the ic title. After that, that boot to the head to aj. Really good stuff. Really, really enjoyed all the eddie stuff in that match. But stuff really, really enjoyed all the eddie stuff in that match. But we know how over aj styles is in. Uh, in france they've got the phenomenal song. Okay, the phenomenal song wasn't made for aj styles but but they absolutely love aj styles in france.

Speaker 1:

It makes sense to me to book AJ Styles versus Dominic Mysterio for the IC title in France. Can we please book that match? Aj Styles is one of my favorite of all time. Dominic Mysterio is on an incredible run. He's done some great things over in AAA these last couple of weeks as well. We've seen him in the Fatal 4-Way at TripleMania and we saw AJ Styles cost him that match. We need to see that at Clash in Paris. That would probably be, even though Seth's on the card and also Cena's on the card and also Roman is on the card. That would probably be my favorite or most anticipated match for the night, because I would love to see AJ Styles take the win in France, somewhere that they absolutely love him.

Speaker 1:

What are we going to do with that Women's World title is a question that I've got on my mind. Do we have too many multi-person matches? We have Jay versus Seth versus LA versus Punk. That is the only multi-person match, actually, if I think about it, could we have a potential Stephanie Vique, rhea Ripley, io Sky kind of mash up in there somewhere, a triple threat match, maybe a fatal four-way? Maybe we are going to do something with that.

Speaker 1:

Do we crown it there or do we wait till over the limit? Over the limit? Possibly it's between over the limit and a wrestle palooza at the minute of what is going to, I don't even know if I've said that right at what is going to be the name of the September 20th card, the same one that goes up one-on-one against AEW, all in. We know the Brock Lesnar and John Cena are probably going to meet on that card because they need something to go up against AEW. They don't, by the way, they don't need anything to go up against AEW, they do not need to counter it. That's, that's. That's all I'm going to touch on here. Um, so okay.

Speaker 1:

So so are we going to wait that long to get a women's world champion? I don't think so. I think that we are going to see a women's world title match on the clash in paris card, and if that's the case, man, this card is absolutely stacked to the rafters. I mean, what other matches could we potentially have? Could we have a Nikki Bella versus a Becky Lynch for the women's IC title? I don't think we're going to do anything with the men's US title for a little bit. There is a little bit of movement over there, but I just don't think we're going to do anything with that currently. Maybe the women's tag titles. I think it's only going to be a five or six match card, in fairness, and that does put us up to five. Off the top of my head, I don't think we're going to see Tiffany. Yeah, I think it's probably going to be five. If that's the five, then I'm pretty happy with that. I can't lie to you, john.

Speaker 1:

It's clash in paris road two week as well. We've got the road to clash in paris. This friday we're kicking off with island, dublin island, at the three arena. We've got ww liverpool, which I'm going to be at we. We've got WWE Newcastle on the 24th Monday Night Raw in Birmingham, michael Cole calling that Burningham for some reason this week. We've got Manchester on Tuesday. Wednesday we're going to Leeds Thursday. We're going to Cardiff Friday. We're going to Lyon, france, for Friday Night Smackdown. On the Sunday we have got uh sorry, on the sunday we have got clash in paris, followed by monday night roar as well. If you are at any of those shows, let me know in the comment section down below, because this is going to go out before we start the tour.

Speaker 1:

The tour starts on friday. If you're going to any of the shows, let me know if you're going to liverpool, if you're going to clash, or if you're going to Clash, or if you're going to the Monday Night Raw or even AEW Forbidden Door as well. Please do let me know, come and say hi if you do spot me. It would be very, very cool to meet as many, many people as possible. I'm very, very excited. The Misses is very, very excited. It's going to be such a good two weeks, very, very, very, very, very excited. I keep saying it. I cannot portray how much I want to get through the work week and straight into the wrestling. But we digress. It is Wednesday.

Speaker 1:

Grant is asking who do we want to see as Cena's last opponent? For me it's going to be Randy Orton. Um, I would love to see Randy Orton and Cena run it back one more time, if I'm honest, um, but I just. I think the reason I say that, the reason I actually say Randy Orton, is because, because we know how long their feud was, I would probably almost have seen a redo his his run as the heel, but as the face, I mean I would love to see him heal. Randy orton versus a face, john cena. If I'm honest, you know, I wouldn't. I didn't really want to see the way that it went down. And also we saw cena versus cody at wrestle, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of how good SummerSlam was between Cena versus Cody. So what I'm getting at is okay, it would be a duplicated match, but I would like to see it the other way around, with Randy being the heel, cena being the face and also being able to put it on at the level that Cody and Cena put it on, because that was my favorite match of the entire year. I can't lie to you. It was such a good match. It's a better Cena, the best Cena that we've seen all year, maybe the best Cena we've seen since 2011. Money in the Bank versus CM Punk. I think that he would be a great final opponent if done right. Who else? Edge? I would absolutely love to see Edge versus Cena. I would like to see Bron Breaker versus Cena, but I only want to see the Cena that we are now getting. Not the Cena that we saw, but the Cena that we are now getting.

Speaker 1:

Grant also asked are you excited for Clash in Paris? Yes, I'm going to be brief with this one, just because I kind of just went over it. It's my fault completely, just kind of I didn't. Maybe I didn't structure this right, but 100%, 100% Grant, 100% man. It's a fresh market. It's a very exciting market Paris. The French love it. They don't get very much WWE stuff. So when WWE arrive in France, france, let them know. France is an absolutely fantastic market. It's going to be absolutely insane, insane.

Speaker 1:

And I think you're right about how predictable the fatal four-way is. The second part of your question was you feel, um, or not so much the second part of your question, but you kind of followed on with the statement that you feel like the world heavyweight title match is predictable, and I would say so too. I can't see any other ways, uh, than Seth Rollins picking up the win, if I'm honest. But I think there's going to be some honest, but I think there's going to be some big-time moments. I think there's going to be some really, really nice wrestling in this match. If I'm honest, I think, four well-experienced guys putting on a show. I can't see this match not being good. Whilst predictable, seth will walk out the champion. I would put my house on it, but I'm very, very much excited for this match. I really am.

Speaker 1:

You also ask who is my favorite male slash female on nxt at the moment. Okay, so favorite male ethan page. Ethan page has been my favorite for quite a while, probably since he actually rocked up in aw. Such a, such a huge fan man. He, he is he. His charisma absolutely screams future star in the WWE and there's no way that he isn't. He is great on the mic. He's a fantastic wrestler. He knows what it's like to be a champion. He's held the North American title twice. He's held the NXT title. He is someone that has come in and been able to slip into that NXT roster and the way that WWE do things very, very well. He has impressed me very, very much. He came from AEW, of course, so he was already very seasoned in terms of lots of people seeing him. And you know what? I don't think his, his entrance into the WWE could have gone any better without a. He is my favorite men's superstar at the minute.

Speaker 1:

Female is currently I say currently, it's been for a while is Sol Ruka. Sol Ruka is 100% the future of WWE. She is absolutely outstanding Athletic charisma, chemistry, chemistry as well in the ring with every opponent she to she seems to be able to make anyone look good. The, the athleticism you can tell she really likes to hone in on her crafts because she's got she's got a very wide range of moves that she does very, very well. You know the um. Um, I just think, I just think, without a doubt, she looks like a champion, she feels like a champion. She's been a great champion so far. I mean, she's been holding the women's North American for a while. She's also been holding the speed championship for a while, if we want to class that as anything, but I love that she's sticking the belts together. I honestly think she's great and she is is absolutely a future big star. She's already a star in my eyes, but I think she's a future big star. She, I think, is currently carrying the women's division for a little bit. Um, a lot of great names on that women's division as well, though, like it is, it is, in fairness, still the best women's division in the world, despite losing julia and roxanne panne Perez and Stephanie Viqueira as well. Before, if you were to ask me when Stephanie was about, it was definitely Stephanie, but I think right now I'm going to go with Sol Ruka. I absolutely love NXT. I love both the male and the females. There are some great stars. There really, really are some great stars coming up in those locker rooms, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Lil T Tills is asking. Tills is asking what is the best WrestleMania match of all time. The best WrestleMania match, not necessarily my favorite, but the one that I always speak about when someone says what is your favorite WrestleMania match. I will also give you honorable mentions afterwards. But the first, my favorite or sorry, the best WrestleMania match of all time, in my opinion, is Undertaker versus HBK, undertaker versus Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25.

Speaker 1:

If you haven't seen it, pause the podcast, go and watch that match. That is peak wrestling, storytelling at its finest. The drama, the crowd, thebk versus the Undertaker was one of the most perfect things that we ever have seen in wrestling. It is one that you can just go and watch and think that you're going to just put it on in the back, but you actually sit and lock in because, despite watching it X amount of times and despite knowing who the winner is every single time, you still feel drawn to watching it as if it was your first time. That is an incredible match. It really is. If you haven't watched it, I would 100% recommend you to go and watch it.

Speaker 1:

Two of the absolute best Under the Saker, in my eyes, is the greatest character in professional wrestling. Shawn Michaels, in my eyes is Mr WrestleMania. He knows how to put on a great show, a great match, a great storyline, a great feud Two of my all-time favorites as well. So the fact that this is, in my eyes, the best WrestleMania match of all time Honorable mentions man, wrestlemania 17, the TLC match it's incredible. Who else am I thinking of here? I'm thinking of John Cena vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 23,. I'm thinking of Daniel Bryan Batista and Triple H. I'm thinking of in terms of best. What else am I thinking of? Do you know what I'm thinking? Two triple threat match from this year's Wrestlemania, in fact, seth Rollins, roman Reigns, cm Punk I absolutely love that match. I'm also thinking of Bianca Belair, io Sky, rhea Ripley another incredible match, both from this year's Wrestlemania. May I add, both from this year's Wrestlemania.

Speaker 1:

Lil T also asked do we prefer WWE's focus on entertainment or AEW's focus on wrestling? I love both. I can't lie. That's such a cop-out answer. I absolutely love both. I am a WWE fan deep down from the roots because that's what I grew up watching, right, that's what I grew up making the memories with my family, with my friends, with everyone around me.

Speaker 1:

If you haven't seen episode one of the podcast or if you haven't read my blog on how I got into wrestling. I'd probably recommend you watching the podcast or listening to the podcast episode number one. But even if you're not a wrestling fan, you can appreciate kind of the words that I was saying and how I got to watch wrestling. And it was all WWE. Right, it was WWE, it was a little sprinkle of TNA. Aew is still very, very new if we look at it, but I love both. I really really do love both.

Speaker 1:

The wrestling in AEW is incredible. I feel like the storylines with WWE have always been more, always been more consistent. I think the weekly shows in WWE are more consistent, but I think the wrestling in AEW PLEs is very, very consistently high level and blows a lot of WWE PLEs out of the water. Which would I prefer, though so hard to say. It's really really hard to say which I prefer. Probably probably the entertainment, because I've always watched a lot of wrestling and I still watch a lot of wrestling. I watch WWE, I watch TNA, I watch AEW, I watch New Japan. I go to a lot of indie shows, so I see a lot of wrestling. But WWE is fantastic entertainment as well and I have to give it its props. It does get a lot of stick it really does. What is my opinion?

Speaker 1:

Tilly also asked what is my opinion on Triple H's booking compared to Vince McMahon. I mean, it's so different, right, it's so different. I thought the Triple H coming in was a breath of fresh air initially. I really did. The storytelling felt and feels a little bit more logical, built up a little bit better. I mean, triple H lately has been a little bit prone to leaving things very last minute, before things get announced for ples, whereas I feel like I feel like vince was a lot better at making sure that we knew ples and they were well marketed, well in advance, you know. But I do like the unpredictability that trips brings. You know, vince believe was more about spectacle as well. I feel these big arenas, these fireworks, the titantrons are huge. Triple H is looking.

Speaker 1:

And to be fair to Triple H, it's not just Triple H, you know, triple H is unfortunately now sat under people. Triple H is now sat under the TKO banner, whereas Vince McMahon didn't need to be. This is, you know, vince McMahon could do what he want at his say, he wouldn't have to go through people. Or, you know, if you ask Triple H if he wants fireworks and big titrons? I'm certain he does. But does TKO want to pay for these things? I'm certain they don't. And I think that that's that's what we have to consider when we're.

Speaker 1:

When we're comparing Vince McMahon versus Triple H, like we can see, we can look at them from a creative point of view, but when it comes to who was the spectacle and who was who, who prefers the details, we've got to remember that one one could do what he wanted and one had a multi-billion pound organization on top of him that realistically make the bigger decisions than Triple H does. And it really is a shame, because this is now where we're at. You know, rtko almost taking something away from us, potentially, absolutely potentially. But I think WWE is in a good place. Despite a lot of crazy decisions as of late. I'm enjoying I'm still enjoying what Hunter is doing, without a shadow of doubt. Absolutely, tilly.

Speaker 1:

They're great questions. Thank you so so much, grant as well. Also great questions, my friend. Thank you very much. If I don't get through every single person's questions, we did have about 20 questions for this week's episode of Beyond the Map podcast. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. If I don't get through all of them, I want to make sure that these sit about 50 minutes to an hour. I don't want them to go too crazy in terms of length, but I am going to try and get through as many questions as possible.

Speaker 1:

Zlata, zlata. This is a great question, by the way. You're asking if I could have any superstar on the podcast. Who and why? You also noted that it cannot be Seth Rollins. You said it cannot be Seth Zlata knows me well. Zlata is in every single live and she's telling me she's a huge CM Punk fan, may I add. So she's telling me that we're not allowed to use Seth. She hates it when we play Seth in the live. She absolutely hates it. But to answer the question, it's a great question.

Speaker 1:

If I could have somebody on the Beyond the Mat podcast, I would actually have the Undertaker. The Undertaker went 30 years as the dead man. He never did an interview once. He kept kayfabe so safe for the Undertaker Mark Calloway, that is, kept kayfabe so safe for the Undertaker. He didn't want it getting out what he was really like in real life. He wanted to keep the Undertaker under wraps. Why would the dead man do interviews? That just doesn't suit the character, the dark character that he is, and I love that.

Speaker 1:

But what comes with that is knowledge, insane stories, a mix of history, wisdom behind the scenes. You tell me you don't want to sit and talk to the undertaker. If I could sit here for 20 minutes with the undertaker and learn more in 20 minutes than I did in a full week of university. But that's the point, right? Taker has got all these stories. He knows everything about the business inside and out, and he has never told people about it because he has never wanted to break the character. Now he is the American badass he is. He is Mark Calloway. He is playing himself wherever we see him. He's not even playing a character, he is himself. He can talk about all these stories because that doesn't damage the reputation of the undertaker.

Speaker 1:

Could you imagine if undertaker versus mankind just happened and then the undertaker's just backstage and just goofing around and being like you know what? Yeah, just just is what it is. You know that's, that's the sport. Um, imagine. But now, 30 years later, he's got his own podcast and he is telling some incredible stories. I I absolutely try not to miss a single episode of that podcast, because the man has been kept under wraps for 30 years. Now he's allowed to talk.

Speaker 1:

People have got millions of questions because they've been built up until this moment right here. It's so cool to see. It really is cool to see it would be the Undertaker, without a doubt. So that's a great question, by the way. Thank you so much, ethan. These are also great questions.

Speaker 1:

My friend, you're asking if I had to pick the following wrestlers, final matches in the WWE, who would they be? Do you know what? I'm going to rattle through these very quickly, because you've got a lot of names here. I wrote these down so that I can remember them. You said Seth. I said Cody Rhodes. I think their first hell in the cell was an incredible 5 star match. I would love to see that again.

Speaker 1:

Final, final matches in the WWE. If it's not going to be Cody Rhodes for Seth, it has to be Roman for Seth. I think that would be a beautiful ending. I think that Roman and Seth go at it this next WrestleMania, wrestlemania 42, but if we do that at 42, maybe we do Cody at 43, and we end it there. Brock Lesnar's final match. I would love to be Gunther. It feels like a Passer of the Torch moment. Two heavy hitters, two dominant wrestlers. I would really love to see that match be in their final matches. Cm Punk for me would again be Seth Rollins. He feels like he's the real. That is the real hero and anti-hero right now and Seth Rollins is, without a doubt, the anti-heel these days.

Speaker 1:

Jey Uso I would probably go for Jimmy Uso, but hopefully better than what that WrestleMania match was. I mean, they had the brother versus brother final chapter, one last chapter. That'd be a great way for them to go out. I think, undertaker, his last match should have been WrestleMania, kind of before the streak was broken. I think that was enough. I don't think the streak ever needed to be ended and I don't think he needed to do much more after that.

Speaker 1:

You know, becky, I think, rhea Ripley, because I think that would be the biggest match possible. Ronda Rousey, probably someone like Shayna Baszler, just because of how kind of tight they were. You know, obviously real-life friends getting each other into wrestling. For Charlotte Flair, I would actually go. For Bianca Bella, it feels. It feels, despite Bianca being around forever, what feels like at this point, a passing of the torch moment. You know, aj Lee, honestly, bailey, like a dream generational match. You probably weren't expecting that one. And for Nikki Bella. I would actually go for a twin showdown with Brie Bella. I think that would be pretty epic.

Speaker 1:

You also ask who are the next? So who are the next? Then I name a superstar and then I'll tell you who I think are the next of them. You asked who is the next Batista? To me it's pretty obvious. I think the next Batista is Braun Breaker.

Speaker 1:

You asked who is the next? Eddie Guerrero, dominic Mysterio, the cheeky heel, charisma, he, that man is Eddie's son man. I'm telling you. I'm telling you Kurt Angle, this one again. Chad Gable, the absolute, the absolute technical wizardry. If these guys looked exactly the same, you wouldn't know which one Kurt Angle was. I'm telling you, chad Gable is that damn good. Chad Gable is a very, very good wrestler. It's literally the perfect. Chad Gable is the modern day. Kurt Angle, without a doubt. It could not be any closer. Shawn Michaels, I think. Carmelo Hayes. He's flashy, smooth, he's got charisma, he's got style.

Speaker 1:

Stone Cold Stone Cold, I've always said, is a mixture of sorry, no LA Knight. So you asked who is the next Stone Cold? But I think this question here is who is the next Stone Cold or the Rock? Because I think that LA Knight is the love child of Stone Cold, steve Austin and the Rock. They are just both mixtures of what the LA Knight character is right now and I think he's tried to portray that. I think that's what he's gone for when they've decided what to do with this LA Knight character. He's great on the mic, he's charismatic, he is a great wrestler. He is, without a doubt, a mixture of those two wrestlers Red Panda. Red Panda Waltz asks who do you think could be the next larger-than-life top heel in WWE?

Speaker 1:

I've said his name once. I will say it again I believe it's going to be Braun Breaker. I mean, I think Braun Breaker needs to elevate his mic game a lot more. I think as a wrestler, he's very good, he's got the power, he's got the speed, but I think Bron Breaker needs to work on promos. I think he needs to be able to. The issue that he's currently got is he sits under Seth, and Seth is incredible on the mic. And not only does he sit under Seth, he also sits under Paul Heyman, the wise man like the Oracle how, paul Heyman, also one of the greatest on the mic. What he's got now in the vision is this really tough spot where he's probably not going to get much mic time, but he needs to be on the mic in order to develop, because I'm not sure how he's going to develop that without being involved on the mic as much. He's got the look, he's got the intensity, he has got everything he needs to be a star, but he has to develop on the mic.

Speaker 1:

Grayson wall, you know, could be a really a real great heel. He he is. He's great at kayfabe as well. He's really good at going to these fan meet and greets and being the absolute heel. He seems to naturally do that very, very well and I think he could be a really larger than life character. There's not a lot that he needs to do better. He just needs to be booked better. In my opinion, his is um, it's just enough to get under anyone's skin and I think he is the perfect guy going forward to be a great heel. But they just need to book him better is the issue.

Speaker 1:

Joshua asks if you could rebook john cena's retirement tour, what would you include? Well, I would rewrite the farewell tour to a certain extent I would. I would have john cena turn and heal. Okay, I really enjoyed the john cena heel turn. For the most part, I didn't like the wrestling. But as fans we have to understand that john cena was never going to be the same wrestler that we saw wrestle CM Punk all them years ago, or Randy Orton over and over, or Edge or Rob Van Dam. This is a you know how old is he? 48, 48 year old John Cena. That was never going to look like he currently was. So I wouldn't say I would change matches or change how good he was in matches, because unfortunately, that's just how good he was or how good, unfortunately, that's just how good he was or how good he could have been.

Speaker 1:

With that much time away for the ring, that much time to prepare, what we saw Cody at SummerSlam versus Cena was incredible. Cm Punk versus Cena, I thought was a great match. Cena is at the great point of his turn right now where his matches now have become very good. He's got a lot better. You can tell that he's been very focused on getting better. But in terms of booking it, I would I honestly would have booked it in the sense of like an open challenge. So in the same way as that he, he won the IC title sorry, the United States title all those years ago from Kevin Owens. No, it wasn't Kevin Owens, was it? Who did he take the title from? He lost it to. Honestly, it's slipping my mind.

Speaker 1:

But the open challenge stuff that Cena had, I think would have been a really good idea going into his retirement tour. We could have had a lot of surprises. We could have had an LA Knight surprises. We could have had like a an la knight pop up and take on cena one more time. A gunther, a cody rhodes, who would probably try and reclaim his belt, a randy orton, a cm punk, rather than them kind of being like, all right, well, punk's next or, oh, randy orton's next. I think it would have been a great shout to have the open challenge bring brought back. You know, I think I think I would have had r great shout to have the open challenge bring brought back. You know, I think I think I would have had Randy Orton versus John Cena WrestleMania as well. I think that would have been the perfect place to kind of accumulate that, that rivalry, and also also with that it would have probably elevated the next generation. You know, that open challenge, if he's doing an open challenge on every show, almost every show he's at, then there would have been a lot of time to fit in your Bron Breakers, your Carmelo Hazers, your kind of, your Dominic Mysterios, your people up on the rise. We now know that he's going to take on Logan Paul in Paris, which I think is a great match, but I honestly wouldn't have had that in his final run. So that's definitely something I wouldn't have changed, but I really would have fell heavily on the open challenge stuff, because I really really do like that.

Speaker 1:

Ramirez is asking who is my favorite general manager of all time. Without a doubt, it is Teddy Long. Nobody could hype up a tag team match like Teddy Long, or nobody could hype up going one team match like Teddy Long, or nobody could hype up going one-on-one with the Undertaker player. Yeah, teddy Long is the GOAT manager. In my eyes. He really is Favorite tag team.

Speaker 1:

Ramirez asks that would be the Hardy Boys. I grew up watching the Hardy Boys. I'd have the socks on my arms. I'd be doing the. You can't see it if you listen on Apple Podcasts, spotify or Amazon, but I'm doing the Hardys thing right now. You know what I mean the arm thing. And yeah, the Hardy Boys man, what they did for tag team wrestling is just untouched. I mean, it's the same as the Dudleys. To be fair as well, it's definitely those two at the top for me, but the Hardy Boys just push it because of how cool they were. They were so cool. And then seeing Jeff go on and have his matches with John Cena and have his matches with Edge and have his matches with Umaga, I absolutely love that kind of time of wrestling.

Speaker 1:

You know, mark Moran is asking if there was an intergender match in wwe, who would you pick as the two wrestlers? Uh, in the past or present, I went into this one, not even not even having any notes for this. So I'm just to spit ball and see where we go. Okay, I'm going to spit ball and see where we go. Okay, what would I? What would I say? I would say I would probably try and try and match people on what they kind of, their style or maybe their culture or something, something of that stature. I think Maybe we would do like, maybe we would do okay. So I mean, the first one seems like a pretty easy one. If I was going to do, if I was going to do, pick four wrestlers, but I would do Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch versus AJ Lee and CM Punk. That one feels like that could have happened if AJ Lee was a little bit more for it. Now I think that could have been a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

Let's think, maybe Randy Orton versus Rhea Ripley that's not something you've ever even thought of before. That seems absolutely crazy. But they're both dominant, they're both intense. I mean Rhea Ripley versus Damian Priest. Maybe they are kind of similar. Um, wow, that's, that's a really tough question mark. I won't lie to you. I mean, what, what else? What else could that, what else could there be? Um, roxanne perez, let's just spitball them and they could be quite funny. Roxanne Perez versus Rey Mysterio, dominic Mysterio versus Liv Morgan. That would have been funny, right?

Speaker 1:

Okay, final question Max is asking what made me become a wrestling content creator. So I mean, for a full, detailed kind of answer, I would absolutely recommend you you check out episode number one of the beyond the mountain podcast, because I do kind of go well into detail on all that kind of stuff. But briefly, I just I've always loved wrestling. Talking to a camera has never been natural to me, but but it's something I wanted to develop and I wanted to. I wanted to do something for myself, be creative on my own and build something, and that's what this has become. And if I'm sitting here and I'm summarizing, I said the same thing to that exact question a year ago and I sit here now summarizing probably the first time I've actually sat and reflected, but that's exactly what I've done.

Speaker 1:

I have taken things that I care about or think that I care about that. Being pro wrestling, I've had a goal of wanting to become more creative, and that's where Joshy Wrestling was born. It was be creative, talk about something you care about. And here we are now. I've built this fantastic community where we share opinions, we share dream matches, favorite matches, we share moments, we share memories and, honestly, it's the most beautiful thing in the world. We've hit 15,000 followers on TikTok, 20,000 across all socials, and I could not be any more thankful.

Speaker 1:

Guys, thank you so so much for all of the fantastic questions. We've got about 20 questions there. If any were not answered, I will push them on to next week. If you would like to send a question, you can send it on Spotify in the comment section. You can send it on Apple Podcasts. You can send it on Amazon. You can put it in the comment section of the YouTube video. You can send me something over in Discord, a message on any of the socials. You can also send me an email over to contact at joshyrwrestlingcom. That is right, we are all official Contact at joshyrwrestlingcom if you want to email over any questions.

Speaker 1:

Guys, you have listened to episode number five of Beyond the Mat podcast. I would like to thank you all, so so so much for tuning in to this week's episode. Next week, episode number six, get your questions in. Make sure you follow the podcast wherever you're watching, hit a like wherever you're watching and leave a five star. I will see you all on episode number six. If you are on any of the socials, make sure you check into the lives as well, every Monday, every Friday and every PLE. Guys, have a fantastic week. I appreciate all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I will see you for episode number six.