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Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another beautiful Monday. with no contest wrestling podcast. Yes indeed. I am.
The heel that you love to hate. O'Shea Jackson Jr. A. K.A. Pettiguero.
Hey, yo, I got the toothpick in today, Chico. It's me, it's me. It's the T-double-O-J-I-G-G to Jiggy. TJ Jefferson. What up, Kate?
What are you doing, TJ? Man, I'm feeling better.
Okay. You were a little sick last week. Yeah, they tried to take me out. I saw that. You told me.
And then I was feeling a little down from like Tuesday until about. eight hours ago, so I I feel good. Feel better. I'm happy that we're able to sit here again on a Monday and talk about one of the greatest forms of art and entertainment: the world of professional wrestling. Absolutely.
And, you know, before we get. uh get things going I feel like it's only right. for us to pay our respects Pay our respects to the late great Sabu. Yeah, man. Bro, now.
Everyone who knows me knows I started watching wrestling towards the late 90s.
So E C W. was Kind of like just like whispers on the school ground, you know, just like, but have you seen this one? Have you seen this one? And I would only be able to catch it like. You remember those old commercials that would happen with ECW, or you'd see just little clips.
Uh of it on T V, but there were Three names that I knew. Like even without watching Like having access to ECW, three names that I knew were Sandman. Yep. I know Rob. And I know Sabu did.
Of course. Like that, that guy. Paul Heyman described him as somebody who was ahead of their time. And that happens a lot in professional wrestling, where you have somebody doing things that. Really, no one else is doing.
And he kind of got into the position where. The dude Put his body through everything. You want to talk about laying it on the line? No doubt. And, you know, so we have to give our respects, dude.
Have any words for Sebu, man? Yeah, the homicidal, suicidal, genocidal. Sabu, who You know, when you talk about putting it through. putting his body through it. The man did.
The scars. All over his body, told a story. Yeah. Told his story. Told the story of professional wrestling and.
You know, ECW definitely wouldn't have been what it was without him, without Rob, without Sandman. You know what? Without Tommy Dreamer, without New Jack. Um Paved the way for a lot, a lot of performers and You know, the weird thing is, he just had a match weeks ago, right? And so you hear something like that, and it's just always hard to believe because, you know, a lot of times someone will pass and you'll be like, oh, well, I hadn't heard from this person or I haven't seen this person.
But with him, he stayed active. It was always, you know, WrestleCon was in Vegas. Two weeks or three weeks ago, he was there taking pictures and making appearances.
So, yeah, just you know, the world of pro wrestling, it's one of the few things that will bring us together as opposed to dividing us, and that's when we lose, you know, one of our heroes, one of the pioneers, someone who paved the way.
So, again, man, just to the friends, the family, the colleagues, the co-workers of Sabu, man, just Respect and you know, all of our condolences and thoughts and prayers. You know, um, this one, you just have to watch, watch, read social media. It's hitting a lot of people hard, you know, a lot of your favorite performers. Absolutely. I would love to hear.
What uh Paul Heyman has to say about it. I read a nice tweet from Rob Van Damme. Hopefully, we'll be able to pop that up a little bit later. He just gave a heart foul. You know, kind of tribute because remember, they train together, yeah, coming up, so you know.
25, 30, 35, 40 years maybe. those guys have been making towns together as as the saying goes and Just beating the crap out of each other for our entertainment. Such a weird job. But yeah, like we said. Uh rest in peace to The late grape.
Sabu, man. All right.
Now. There's been a couple of things happening in wrestling. I wish I had a whistle. I do have a whistle. I would have blown it just like Bill Alfonso did.
Him bringing it. Just now it's like we wanted to move on, but now I'm thinking of all these memories and just like him and Fonzie coming to the ring with the whistle. Oh, man. It just.
Well, him debuting with the. The Hannibal Elector, when they wheeled him out, I was like, yo, this dude's nuts. You know, just do yourself a favor if you don't know for our, you know, our young fans out there, look this guy up. Parents, I'm sorry I told your kids to look him up, but they got to see, man. It's wrestling, baby.
We got to do it. And did you see that last thing he did in GCW? It was wrestled, Joey Janello, right? Yeah, dude. The bumps he was taking.
No ropes, barbed wire. Like, this dude's 60 years old. 60. Putting it on the line for us, for our entertainment. For the claps and the cheers, bro.
Pop. What a guy. Yeah, kind of sad to see. Yeah, wish we could have had him as a guest. That would have been the stories he probably had.
He probably wouldn't want to share some of those stories. Right. Just laugh to himself and move on. But We had a PLE happen, bro. Yeah, man.
We had a PLE backlash, which is really. WrestleMania Backlash. You remember them first, like the last two, three years it was called WrestleMania Backlash? And then they just was like, all right, never mind. We'll just take it back.
Too much going on. But yeah, Backlash had. Anybody who's seen my Twitter knows I have something to say about that ending.
Well, you know, Dawn Bowie sometimes likes us to not save the end part for the end and get it out in the early open.
So let's give Dawn what he wants. Let's talk about Dawn. Let's talk about the main event. I hated it, man. John Cena defending the world title against.
Great match. A lot of callbacks. You knew what it was going to be, especially for those of us that. Watch and look at the time, like, wow, the main event. It's got an hour left of this show.
We know what's about to be like slow, methodical. And yeah, I mean, it gave me what I would want to see in a Randy John Cena match. Uh and then You know that they gotta let Randy put on a show in his hometown. You know, last time he was. He was on for my shit.
Yeah, so when I saw him. RKOing Everybody, everybody, everybody. I was like, oh, Nick all the suck, Hurricane, Jamie Noble. I love that. All of it.
The dude with the yellow tie didn't really catch who that was, but he sold that thing immaculately. I didn't see who. He gotta sell it, bro. I don't know who that was. I didn't never caught that who that was, bro.
But, bro. It was. I love that all those people, the security and everybody, came out to help the ref. Like the ref gets knocked out all the time, but this ref takes a bump. They all come out, are you all right?
Like, it's like eight people making sure this ref is okay for Randy to get this spot. And yeah, you kind of knew, like, all right, they're letting him do his thing in front of the hometown crowd. How are they going to make John win this? We all know that Travis Scott was out of town. Fing, fing, fing.
You know, so he was going to help John. Travis Scott's not here. See that?
So. Was there any point in your head, though? You're watching this and you thought you were going to hear. Those who don't know, at WrestleMania, that's all I kept doing because I'm waiting for the rock. This dude just won't.
Waiting for the rock. Because as soon as you hear that, like it's a bop. Instant, bro. Instant.
So the entire eight and a half minutes that it took Travis Scott to walk down the ramp, O'Shea's just sitting going, But dude, if the rock came to backlash in St. Louis and not WrestleMania in Vegas, the internet would have imploded on itself. Are you kidding? There's no way rock was coming.
So you're wondering who's he gonna be? Who's gonna help Cena? R-Truth, get your ass out the ring. What are you doing? Don't make me mad at R-Truth.
You could never be mad at R-Truth, anyways. Like R-Truth. And then I'm thinking, like, okay.
So they have R-Truth come out. John Loblo belt across the head, same way he won the damn time. You gotta see a pattern for me. Yeah, exactly. And then John gets on the mic.
I'm like, all right, there's 15 minutes left. It's 15 minutes left. He gets on the mic. There's no music playing. And I'm like, somebody's coming.
It's Goldberg coming out.
Somebody's coming out. And credits. And that shit broke my heart. Oh, that broke my heart.
So explain to me what you... didn't like about the it I hated that truth was the reason why Randy didn't get the dub. And also, it just felt like. It's just, and of course, as a fans, because we're always fantasy booking of just like what we think is going to happen and when it don't happen, like you feel a little deflated. Yeah, for sure.
But like, man, it felt flat. It felt like. There's no, but then with John's run, this is what you're supposed to be feeling. You know, this is what is going to ruin wrestling for you. He's doing a great job.
He ruined Backlash for you. Hold on, wait. You're sure it's not my daughter. You were upset.
So, so far, he's doing what he's doing. He's doing a great job. Plus, you can't get mad. The man told you what his MO was. He goes, I'm going to ruin professional wrestling.
And he's going about doing that. It's just like. This is why I hate you, John Cena. This is why I never cheered for you. Like, you beat Bradshaw for your first title, and I ain't cheered for you since.
And it's just like, and now you've had decades of disappointment then, because my man ain't taking a whole lot of L's. Like, who are you telling? And it's not John's fault. One of the hardest workers we've ever seen, you know, does what he's supposed to do, company man, yada, yada, yada. But this heel run Him and Seth are under my skin.
I'm getting worked, bro. You really are. I'm getting worked. You really are. It drives me crazy.
And, and, The fact that I gotta do this until December I might throw up. It's crazy right now. We then, then I start getting in my head of just like, all right, maybe there's a world where we start. Getting truth to help John on this run or whatever. And I was like, all right, we can get a little comedy out of that.
Like, we can, like, It can lead to a match between them. And then at the press conference, hey, truth comes out. Yeah, and he slams his ass through a table. FU's himself. Got right to it.
Right to it.
Now they got to fight. I call the FU because he's a bad guy. That's what it used to be, right? That's what the AA used to be called the FU. But somebody said, Michael Cole, I think, said the STFU when he put it in the STF.
Yeah, maybe we're both taking it back. Yeah, bro.
Now, R-Truth, you look ridiculous, brother. You just look crazy now. And that's why we love you. But it was a real pain in my ass the other night. In the NFL, there's zero margin for error.
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Well, you knew that Randall Kaye wasn't winning this title. Of course. So, why is it bothering you so much? Because someone had to come out and, you know. Yeah, I just It just felt like it needed a little.
You know, a little a little more seasoning on that ending. All right, so you know Randy's not winning. Let me give you a chance here. You know, the segment when we do these things, I like to call it creative liberties.
Well, we will take creative liberties with storylines. What would you have done at that moment? I mean, if if if somebody's gonna come out to help Cena win. Make it be somebody that Randy can go into Some sort of feud with. Or, you know, some Uh uh I knew somebody was going to debut at Backlash.
I didn't know it was going to be, you know, Jeff in the first match. But it just felt like truth. Like all the times that John Cena has been about to get hurt. You come out now. And it just pissed me off.
But That's the business. It made me feel something.
So thank you for slapping me in my face. Hey! And the slap you did get. I mean, you know, we got this till December. Also, In December, there's a Saturday night.
Saturday night main event. That's fun to say. In Boston.
Okay. John Cena, December in Boston. That that's got to be like A great ticket to get right now. All the T Leaves are leading us to him having his final match in his. Hometown.
Is he from Boston or just West Newberry? It's like, you know, being from Nebat, being from, I guess, Irvine and saying you're from LA. I don't know. I don't know how far it is. It just adds to another thing I don't like about him.
Okay. Okay. I hate the Celtics. I gotta tell you.
Well, I think everybody who knows you realizes. I just got to remind them, bro. I can't stand the leprechaun propaganda that's going on around here, especially Chris Brockman on the Rich Isaac. They do have some beef with each other. Yeah, man.
He's my enemy. You got to have an enemy at work. Friend of me, more like it. But. You mentioned Jeff, so let's go to the beginning of the card now.
Let's talk about that U.S. title match. Yeah. That fatal four-way. between fatu, loved it.
Bringing the gold into the match against Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest. Um Jacob fought too. Yeah. is on another level than me. Yeah man, and he's so over, it's like.
The entrance is amazing. Bye. Just the in-ring performance and yeah, you believe him. A whole lot of this is whether or not I believe you. And.
There's nothing fake about Jacob Fatu. Um. But In as far as the match goes. I love Drew McIntyre so much, DJ. Me too.
That's pretty much it. Because, like, whatever you put in front of the dude. He's gonna go hard. He's gonna give you. A hundred percent.
Like He makes it all work all the time. And I interrupt. Did I? I don't know. I think I forgot to mention LA Night.
I said four nights. LA Night. My bad. Bro, he's the only one of those four that's actually been on our show for that. Shout out to LA Night.
But yeah, dude. Drew McIntyre, box office. Damian Priest, as always, they seem to be going at it. Quite profusely. Yeah, no love loss there between those two.
And I heard um It's just whispers. I didn't get any confirmation. I'm not really a journalist. I'd just be reading stuff and not say it on camera. But I heard Drew might have.
Hurt himself a little bit on that When they fell off the table, he might have Missed. And hit his head. Oh, really? Yeah. But I mean, we didn't get any.
breaking news.
So, you know, he might be okay. You just have to know that spot, like, and I was thinking during that spot where he and Priest were up there. You kind of have to know. That if you go Put somebody in that position and you hit them with the move, you're essentially taking yourself out of the mat. No matter what was going to happen, you were going to mess up your opponent, but you were also, you were done for the night.
And I always, that makes me wonder with wrestlers who, like, do you ever think about, man, I'm going to hit him with this move? But. I ain't getting up from this either. Yeah, well, this is a wrap. And then, just like, if you're Drew, you're looking at Damian, like, all right, bro, I trust you.
All right, we got to A, we got to hit this. But only that, like, like, in like. Real match. I know if I hit this move on you from up here through a table, I ain't getting up either. This shows you how much I hate you, yeah, because I'm taking my chance of winning out as well just to put pain on you.
Yeah, if I'm not winning, you're not winning either. You notice Undertaker just pushed McFoe. Yeah, he was like, I'm not going with you. But yeah, Damien and Drew, we should be able to get something really good out of that. Obviously, the history behind it with Damien.
cashing in on Drew back at WrestleMania 40, so they got something to tie back to with that. And yeah, but yeah, let's get back to the match. Jacob fought too. You see LA Knight, put him on the announce table. You think it's curtains for.
The Simone Werewolf. And then... Who comes out to save the day? I love you, Solo. Yes, Solo Sokoa.
the finest turtlenecks that money can buy.
Solo comes out. Gets Jacob off the table, but Solo's not alone too. He's not alone. He's got that man with him, a guy who really did a great job with his social media. He posted a picture, I think, either earlier in the day or the day before about, you know, the Him doing something during his retirement, trying to throw people off the scent, but thinking then, you know, we knew his contract in New Japan ended.
He's trying to tell people I'm retiring. We do that, you know, you're too still too good at this, but uh. We just got a shot of somebody throwing a punch and it was Jeff Cobb. Yeah. And uh You know, of course, social media blows up because some of the people are going to be like, Who's Jeff Cobb?
Other people will be like, I can't believe you don't know who Jeff Cobb is. Do yourself a favor because at some point you're going to get on Twitter, Instagram, you'll see a post or a question like, Who is Jeff Cobb? Don't do the internet thing and gatekeep Jeff Cobb. If you know Jeff Cobb and you've seen what he can do, share matches with people, man. Say, hey, you should look up the monster man Taza from Lucha Underground, right?
That was Jeff Cobb under a mask. You should look up Jeff Cobb. He was an Olympic wrestler. He went to the Olympics for Guam. I don't think people realize that about Jeff Cobb.
Just One of the masters of the suplex, he's going to be suplexing people out their shoes. And just a tough Half Tough dude in It was, I got hyped. I can't front because right off the bat, I'm imagining him and Jacob going at it. And I can't wait for these battles to happen. I can't wait.
You see that? Thank you, TJ. That was informative. I feel invested, and I feel like I want to look up Jeff Cop. As you should, I feel like there's something for me to be excited about as a fan.
And. You didn't have to call me an an asshole for not knowing.
Well, you know, I wouldn't do that anyway, though. How about that, Internet? Isn't that crazy? Like somebody asks a question, get some answers, and a trail where to go? Thank you, TJ.
That's what we're here to do, folks. We're here to enlighten you. No contest wrestling, but educate you.
So, Jeff Copp. Jacob Fatu, you see. Jacob's not really happy that that's how he had to get the victory. That's how he had to retain.
So. We see the We see the the face turn happening. And could you ask for a cooler face to cheer for? I mean, like, you remember when Solo first made it up to the main roster, right? I found an old tweet, and I remember writing, I love how quickly Solo got over.
Because if you remember, Solo at first, people were cheering solo during the bloodline. For some reason, you know, the cheers turn to booze, blah, blah, blah. But. And now you find yourself having Jacob In that position, where the dude, I mean, you're a little bit frightened of him, as you should be, but he's got this cool factor, man. And having the cool factor is a hard thing.
You can't. You're cool, or you ain't. Yeah, it is. You know what I mean? Like, some people can pull off cool, some people can't pull off cool.
Jacob's got this thing about him, man. He just got an aura and. People love the dude. Yeah. He wins the title.
Doesn't want to take the help right off the bat, which is also going to help this face turn, looks like coming to fruition. Not really excited about the fact that Solo went out and brought someone else into the fold.
So I can't wait to see how this conversation is going to go because there's been beef, maybe not beef, but there's been tension. Yeah. Right there for a minute now. Yeah. So we got to see where this is going.
But I'm here for it, man. I'm excited. I'm excited to see what Jeff Cobb can do in the WWE ring. I'm excited to. You know, watch Solo get better.
I'm excited to watch Jacob. You know, my boy Tomatonga. Can't wait for him to get healthy and back. Like. This story's going to keep going on, man, and I'm here for it.
Yeah, I saw some people online talking about, you know. How is he a part of the bloodline? Bloodline's gone, dude. Yeah. Bloodline is that that is done.
You know, that that. That whole uh Beautiful thing that we saw on Rival. It's new possibilities now because the main storyline of that whole thing is done.
So excited to see about the amount of people that elevated too, though. Yeah, bro.
It was one of probably my favorite storyline ever: that bloodline. The success rate, though, I mean, look, you've got. Jacob coming out of that. You got solo, you got Jay, you know, Jimmy. You know, solo bringing on the other tongue.
You know, they're just a lot has come out of that, man. And it's not stopping. Like that particular, I'd say, chapter. Yeah. Close for now, but there's still a story there, and it ain't gonna end no time.
It can be called back to until the end of time. End of time, man. They got. Jacob 2 will tell you immediately that he got seven kids. Like that.
Right. That. Can always be called back to later down generations, bro. And it's set in. In the ground, you know, like the tree that it is, and so it that is a beautiful thing.
It was one of my favorite storylines ever. I had such an amazing time, 1000. Three hundred and sixteen days, TJ. And I will never let y'all forget. Which is why Uh, I was cheering for John Cena at WrestleMania because of the Cody cry baby success.
But I'm sorry. I can't. I got internet beefs that I can't help it. You really because, like, I come from a rap family, and it was toxic on the tour bus. Like, it's just in me, man.
I'm sorry. Anyway, Jacob Fartu, we love you. You got it, I mean, what was next on that card?
Well, we had the women's IC title match. Oh. Lyra Valkyrie did her thing against Becky Lynch. Low-key, I don't think low-key, this was a good match. Good match, bro.
It made Lyra so strong in this match. Yeah, and it's like I told you, I think two weeks ago, people complaining about Becky. You can kind of see where Becky's going. She's going to make a star out of Lyra if Lyra isn't already there. But, you know, you got to.
Sit back sometimes and watch what these vets are doing. You know, I don't think Becky thinks her time's up yet, but at the same point, she's going to elevate this. this woman Because One thing I think Lyra was missing was kind of like the personality on the mic. Yeah. That started to come out a little bit more the more she goes one-on-one with Becky, because that ain't an easy thing to do, right?
Becky on the mic will. Chew you up and spit you out. You know, but Lyra is, you know, that's what she's there for to help build her up to each week, get a little better, get a little better. Like her in-ring is really great, in my opinion. Big fan of her on the mic.
A little bit behind the in-ring, but you can see, man, she's she held her own against one of those promo battles, though. I'll give her that. She did, she held her own up against Becky. But in this match, in particular, the There were a lot of moments where I felt Lyra looked very strong. She looked like...
Like, just the technical aspect of her moveset, what she was doing, and it didn't look like. Um you know, somebody who was too young for the moment or anything like that. And Obviously, Becky being, you know, heel Becky. She's not going to take that loss too well. No, no.
Definitely thought there was going to be some.
Something with Bailey at at at some point at the end of the match. But I don't, it's not the end of Lyra versus Becky.
So they're going to milk this thing because it was a great match. It was a great match. I didn't completely love the ending. You know, we had to finger poke to the eye. I think she really got poked in the eye.
I think she did. And then, but the roll-up, it just was like, I mean, I can't see. But you were on top. It should have been maybe. The person who got one aren't.
Yeah, so I didn't truly love the ending, but overall, the match was a banger, I thought. I mean, we don't grade matches or give out a star system, but. I think you know, and a B on the three and a half, four stars, a B on the No Contest Wrestling Podcasts. Rating system is 27 stars. We need to maybe work on our star system.
Maybe that's what we need. Maybe we do need a star system. Eric Bishop can make fun of me? Yeah, that's so bad. I don't want that.
I don't want that. Nah, nah, bro. But yeah, Lyra, Becky. Banger. Yeah.
Banger. And then you had the, let's just talk about this, man. Um. There was a shot Which is kind of funny. Becky going over to Lyra's fiancé.
It's like, you know, this your woman, this your woman. That was pretty great. And then, of course, the internet blows up with someone like. This goes back to the internet thing with the Jeff Cobb thing.
Now Becky Goes up to Lyra's boyfriend, this is your woman, blah, blah, blah. The internet, like, oh, that's Lyra's boyfriend. Turns out the dude's a pro wrestler. But then it's like, everyone's like, oh, that's LJ Clear. You don't know?
Like, no. Like, a lot of people don't know.
So instead of saying, Like un in disbelief, like Oh, that's so-and-so? No, tell us about him. Like, and then that's what was starting to happen. Yo, Matt Cardona came out and was like, yo, he beat me. He beat you.
You know, and so a lot of other people were saying how good of a wrestler this is.
So this made me want to go and learn about him. Because I had people saying to me, Like this guy's good, you know?
So, yeah, just be a snobby wrestling fan. Like, they just don't feel. It doesn't make sense. It's like you get mad at somebody. Oh, I like basketball.
Oh, you only watch the NBA?
Some fan you are. Like, wait, what? You didn't see the MVP of the Turkish League? What a fool. Like, bro.
Oh, you like football, though. But you only watch the National Football League? What kind of fan are you, bro? You don't love grappling. You don't love this shit.
Bro, come on, dude. Come on. Tell me. Inform me. Yeah, tell me why I should pay attention.
Because honestly, we just hate on the dude, not because of the bad he looks like, just because, you know, he pulled Lyra Valkyria. That's the only reason. You know, that's the only reason he would hate on it. You know, other than that, but I'm glad people were like, nah, man, this dude's nice. Tell me some matches to watch.
I looked him up. I'm like, all right, bet. Cool. And good for him, too, by the way. Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? Good for you, sir. And. You got you a nice spot on WWE TV, brother. Can't be mad at it.
You can't be mad at you. It's a good day at work, and your woman pulled it out. Come on, dog. Welcome to AutoZone. What are you working on today?
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After the match. You know, Becky. Throws her uh tantrum as heels do. And uh You know, I'm leaving here with something. Almost turned into Denzel's?
Yeah, I'm leaving here with something. I'm from around the way. I'm leaving here with something. And yeah, I almost took off Lyra's arm. And somebody pointed out.
You know, with Charlotte losing to Tiffy. And You know, the injury that she had from that match, you know, the little bit of dental work. Um and with The way that Becky just lost to Lyra. The old guard kind of made the new school kind of, you're going to have to feel me if I'm going to push you over. You got to feel me a little bit.
You got to earn this. Yeah, and it made me, you know, it. Made me really kind of step back and look at what's going on. And yeah, this new guard is coming, and Lyra is going to be a big player in it, especially if you keep putting on performances like that. Would love to have her on the No Contest Wrestling Podcast.
But we want to have everybody on here. You know, the funny thing about Lyra, too, is, you know, you like to talk about like. Explaining who people are. Vignettes have been something that don't get used a whole lot. I remember watching NXT one day.
I had never heard of Lyra Valkyrie. I don't know what her name was before. That's one thing I never even bothered to look, but I saw a promo for her. That was like a three-minute promo of A bird in the woods, and they were telling this story. And I was just sitting there like, what is this?
And then it was over and her name popped up. And I remember sitting there going, okay, I like her. Never even saw the woman wrestle. Just was like from the vignette that was two to three minutes. I went.
And it could have been one to two minutes. Point being, I had no knowledge of her. Then I saw this and I just went. Sign me up. I'm in.
And I've been a fan of hers through NXT up to now. And it just goes to prove what you said. Just give us a little bit. Yeah. Make me understand the character or why I should care about somebody.
You'd be surprised how well when you are at the end of the day, this is a TV show. All right, and you got to sell it, bro. You got to. You got to give me something enticing, baby. And it can be something so simple.
To make you really wanna pay attention, to anticipate, wait, feel like you have to tune in every week so you don't miss. Veer Mahant. Is Veer still coming? Is he still in the middle? I was waiting for Veer.
People were waiting for Veer like they were waiting for Guffman. And that boy, as soon as I met him, as soon as I met him, didn't see him anymore. He was gone. He's gone, bro. And Veer had a fever dream we all had.
I thought he had some, you know, some potential. I could like you could sell that character, dude. I mean, the package that they presented was great. But man. That is how you do some video packaging, bro.
I was so excited and waiting for this dude. And he just was months on his way. It's like the dragons and Game of Thrones. But. Yeah, like I said, uh congratulations to Lyra Valkyrie.
Yeah. That was the end of that. And congratulations to LJ Cleary, too. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Did you self-wear those, son?
You did well. Gunther. GONTO! The ring had a rogue. Yep.
Evil man. The biggest bully. Evil man. The biggest bully in WWE decided he was going to go bully. Michael Cole?
Yeah, of all people, Michael Cole. This ain't like you know, 2000, what, 11-12 wrestling Jerry the King Lawler in the orange singlet. A-hole Michael Cole. No, this is a turned over a new leaf mentioning, you know, New Japan, like the reins being taken off of him, like no one in his ear holding them back. This is now goaded, Michael Cole.
Yeah, you want to come out, you want to put your hands on Michael Cole? Yeah, we can't have that. You know who didn't have that was Pat McAfee. That's right. My man Pat stood up.
Yeah. He said, no, no, no, no, no. We, you are not, not while I'm here. You can't be putting your hands on Michael Cole. And then what happened?
He suffered a beatdown for it. You know, he got choked out. But you know what? I remember O'Shea when This is before you start wrestling. I watch him wrestling apparently 'cause Hogan Was now he was in WCW, so maybe you were watching at this point.
There was a point. With The Rock, and I'm gonna say this is like 97, 98, where the rock was right on the precipice, like of becoming like the man. And there was one point where the Undertaker and I believe Kane came out, they did something, Rock jumped into a situation, and he took a nice little beat down. And The Rock got on TV the next week, and if I remember it correctly, he said, I I knew I was going to get my ass kicked. But that was an ass kicking the Rock had to take.
And it was that moment where I was like. Bona fide. Official, it's a rap. My man's a star at that moment. And I'm not saying that that was what happened with Pat, but I'm saying Pat had to know If I step into this Probably gonna end with me getting my ass kicked, but this is ass kicking that I'm gonna have to take.
Yeah. And he got choked out. Down for the homie. But he didn't just take it laying down. He said, uh-uh.
I'm a man. You're a man. I'm a man. We gotta throw hands. Yeah, we gotta get down.
You know, we can't. You can't just. punk me out and beat me down like that, like I'm a man. I gotta get. My lick backer at least tried to, so That led us to this match, Gunther against Pat McAfee.
And Pat, we know that Pat can put on a match. We can go back and watch somebody who is an athlete. He's an athlete. Very athletic. Dude, you know, he's.
All decade punter.
Well, yeah, one of the. Short list of people that made it to national football. Like the dude, the dude's an athlete, loves wrestling.
So you know, that fan in there, that fan in his head waits for shit like this.
So, like, when you hear Pat on the card, you know, Pat is going to get down. Wrestling in the cool gray Jordan 11s, buddy. Yeah, that was a choice. That was the first thing I thought. I was like, damn, you might bleed today, G.
Do you want to do it? Put him up. That's how I kept thinking. Oh, don't step on his J's, man. I was like, damn, in the cool grays, Pat.
But um yeah. Did his thing, obviously he's not gonna be good. No. And he shouldn't. He shouldn't.
He should not be able to beat them. No, and you don't make somebody like Gunther have back-to-back losses. No, it's just the man's only, we can count the amount of people that have beaten him in the last four years.
So you don't.
Now, I think One of the things where is people online talking about, well, maybe this should have been a squash, right?
Well, what's the point of doing a squash? Taking up card space for a squash?
So the thing is. Gunther was very cocky. He's a very cocky, arrogant man. He didn't respect Jey Uso and everything he's done. Of course, he's not going to respect Pat.
There were times where he could have maybe won. He didn't go for the pen. He took him lightly. He wanted to just put up more punishment. That's what drew the match out.
That's what made it go longer. But the more you let an underdog with heart, and Pat got all the heart, the more you let him hang on. The greater there's a chance that for three seconds, because that's all it takes. One shot, three seconds. That you might take that L.
Wait, when Michael Cole was holding on to Gunther's foot, I thought that was it. I did. I did. Because the whole time, I'm like, obviously, Pat can't win this match. And I love the fact that Michael was very open about it.
Like, I am not going to be professional. I am going to be rooting for this man. And so the way he called the match, I enjoyed. I enjoyed Wade Barrett kind of being. You could tell, like, he didn't really, you know, he didn't really know what to do, right?
And then when Michael gets involved, I'm like, all right, is Barrett now? Because out of the three, like Pat, Mike, and Barrett, like, wait, there's one guy who I really want, like, you know, there's a dude who's won that IC title five times who was a bare knuckle fighter in England. Yeah, help, help, yeah, help, help, you know, can you, can you, can you, bro, so I think we all kind of were waiting. Is this? The Wade Barrett movement.
So he didn't get involved. You know, against all odds, Pat did his thing. Of course, you know, he took the L because. He's a gunther. Have to, dude.
You have to. He just had the world title. Like, come on, we're not going against Joe Schmo here.
So. Uh no disrespect to uh Adam Cole, because that's who Pat McAfee beat. But Pat, I thought he did a great job. He took a lot of punishment, man. Like those chops, you can't.
You got to take them. There's no way to fake the chop. There's no way to fake the slap other than. And I loved how. like you would see Pat start to like rally and uh Then Gunther shut it down one move.
Boom. One move. This is crap. I'll give you five chops, but one from Gunther, and I'm down. And that makes sense.
Yeah, one kick, down. Down. And I just feel like they protected Gunther in such a great way during that match. And also, did make Pat look like a punk. It didn't.
Yeah, no, like at all. And Pat got some offense in, you know, the moon salt. Yeah. He did. Then the germ, like, man, Pat, Pat and the cool gray Jordan.
And the cool gray, you know. Gunther got back into the win column, which he needed. McAfee went out there. He stood up for his man, Michael Cole, and himself like a man would do. And, you know, he fought a fight that he knew he probably wasn't going to win, but that didn't stop him.
And he went out there and he put on a really good show, man.
So, props to you, Pat, for doing, I think, what all of us who's ever, all of us who've ever been a wrestling fan, right, have always. Had a secret desire to be able to get in that ring and do something, but not all of us. are ever really going to be able to do that.
So as a lifelong fan that he is, and you get to if you watch Stephanie's Places on the SPN, she did a great interview with Pat. He talked about being a lifelong wrestling fan, the fact that one night he got drunk and ordered a ring. He was found out. He's like, he's like, I found out I was boozed up. I found out I could order a ring.
It got delivered to my barn. He was back there practicing before he even started with NXT. Like, wow, this man is one of us. You know, he's a lifelong wrestling fan.
So, you know, anytime I get to see someone who I know is a wrestling fan and grew up loving it the way I did or you did, to see them get that chance to do this, man, that's super cool, bro. Super cool. You bring that point up. And you had a conversation one day. Above the Miz.
Him getting as much hate as he did in the beginning, it makes so unpleasant. It makes no sense. And look, I booed The Miz, but I had a story and there's a reason. And one day we will tell that story. We will tell that story to The Miz as he sits in this chair because I'll be over there.
But at some point, so when I tell you why I just booed The Miz for years, you'll and you know, I know. You'll be like, oh, okay. But that was just because of an incident that happened. But the fact of the matter is, here's a kid who is a lifelong wrestling fan, just like all of us who are watching, who got on a reality show. And his whole thing on the reality show is, I love wrestling.
I'm going to KB Toy Store, Toys R Us, and I'm buying a WWE title belt. And oh, I'm going to make up a character right now on the real world. Why when that guy made it to WW, would we not be like, that is us, that is our dude? But instead, we chose to boo him. This dude from the real world.
No, man, I was going to do this, but the real world called me. I got to pay these bills, baby. You know, like, what do you want me to do?
So War Miz. Yeah, Miz should have been cheered long ago, but he fell into the hill roll and he does it. He's good at it. As well, if not better, than almost anybody. But yeah, we were talking about that.
It should have been, we all should have been like, yeah, man. He's one of us. He's doing what we wish we did. He can do it. Like, he should have been just like a beacon of hope.
Nope. But the fans turned their back on this. And because of that, though. We help make one of the greatest heels of all time.
So, you know, props to the Miz. She talked about Grand Slam. And I'll say this. I don't know if I mentioned this on an earlier episode, but after night one, going back to the hotel with the Fountain Blue, I saw Miz, and he's telling me how he got called out of bed to go make an appearance in the middle of the night. Middle of the night, we were at, Liv, we were at the club when he came in, grabbed the mic, did the Miz thing, which he does better than anyone else.
I'm walking back to my hotel. He's, I'm coming this way, he comes this way. I'm like, yo, what's up? He goes, oh man, I just was at this club. I was like, bro, me and O'Shea were just there.
He's like, yeah, they called me, said somebody didn't show up. I was in bed in my underwear. I got dressed through on his clothes. Got to the club. Cut a two, three-minute promo, did the missed thing, and then headed back to bed.
And I was like, bro, that's why you are who you are, because they know. That I'm and I guess it's a good or a bad thing. I don't know. They can call you, which kind of sucks if you're in bed, but also knowing that because you are that person, you'll never have to worry about collecting an unemployment check. Yeah, that's you know, they keep the missed.
Oh, without a doubt. Come on, man. Because who else is going to do that? Yeah. You know, who else can you count on and depend?
To in the middle of the night, go to a club and cut a promo and get the crowd worked up and fired up and then. I literally just saw the man walking back to his room to go to this. Without the Miz, who are you going to make random tag teams with? Right? Bro, the dudes that teamed up with everybody.
And I said this weeks ago. When it first looked like it was gonna happen for whatever reason, him and Mello together, I'm like, I don't know why, but I am 1000% buying this, and it makes sense to me. And I like watching them together. Yeah. It's a lot of things we got to get to.
What's left on the boy? Greatest intercontinental champion ever? Maybe. Oh my God. Maybe.
I don't know. It's not for me to say. Greatest. Mysterio of all time. He might be.
The greatest. Intercontinental champion of all time. Dirty, dirty, dumb, dirty, dirty, dumb. Dirty. Bro, take my money now.
Dominic Mysterio is on my television. Oh, yeah. But, you know, earlier I talked about someone having the cool factor, right? Like, you can't teach cool. This dude Penta Oh my god, he's so smooth operator.
Dude Penta. Is the coolest cat walking right now? Yeah. The dude's theme is banging, the tight camera shot when he comes out, and then just the stroll. Smooth operator.
No need to ask. He's a smooth pent out. And then the. Yeah, bro.
Yeah, hello. Like, just the walk, just everything about this dude is just cool. Yeah, he's just cool. He he Is a star. He's a star, and it made me feel like.
I was nervous a little bit about this match. Because it's like Kind of felt like WWE put themselves in a corner because you don't want. Dom cannot lose that title. Nah, nah. Are you kidding?
Did you hear WrestleMania? Like Dom can't lose that. I don't, I don't, you know. Maybe he should just vacate it. I don't want him to ever lose.
Oh, Dirty Dumb's going to break the Honky Tonk Man's record. He's going to break Gunther's record. He's going to break Bruno San Martino's record. Yeah, give me two. He's going to break Lou Fez's record.
He's going to break Nick Bockwinkle's records. Any type of record for length of championship. I'm going to let you know right now: two of them names. You never heard of them? Two of them names were crazy.
The last two, I was like, what the hell is he talking about? You never heard of Nick Bockwinkle? You know, oh, it missed me at the water cooler, bro. At Wilbur Elementary. Maybe, perhaps, you know, one of the greatest American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Champions of all time, Nick Bockwinkle, was the man.
That's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to have you watch Nick Bockwinkle matches. I'm going to send you Nick Bockwinkle promos. You know who his manager was? No.
Bobby LeBrain Heenan. Oh, I know that. I know that. People asked me if I know who his manager was, and I just met the dude right now, Bach Winkle. Bock Winkle.
You said you didn't know who he was.
Well, I didn't. I know his manager, but I didn't know that that was his manager. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Thank you for informing me.
I will look up some. Nick Bockwinkle was probably one of the most articulate promos. He was from Beverly Hills. He talked about plebeians, much like Bobby Heenan. He was so above everyone.
He looked down upon you. Yeah, with that name, you got it. He just, he, you know, the words he would use, you need a dictionary. He's like Rich Eisen with the big word alert. He would say some words.
You're like, I don't even know what that means, but I'm going to take it as a sign of disrespect.
Okay. Wait, I might know this person now. I might know who you're talking about now, but like the name is insane. The name is great. He's second-generation Nick Bockowinkle, one of the greatest of all time.
Actually, I tried to pass myself on to. As the black Nick Bockwinkle. It didn't work. But Nick Bockwinkle was. Wow, man.
Who was the other name I said that you didn't know? I think right before him. Runo, I think. No, no, not a lot. Luthes?
Yeah, Luthes. How many? I know the move. I know the move. But like, yeah, you are the Padawan here.
Yeah, bro.
I told you, I'm Anakin. You are Obi-Wan. Yeah, Net Luthez, one of the original, one of the greatest NWA world heavyweight champions of all time. He was.
Well, you know who my favorite NWA champion is: Ric Flair. Our truth. Oh, I thought you I thought you were going to say a d uh Dr. Dre was your favorite. Hell no.
I'm an ice cube man myself. But uh Yeah, dude.
So back where we were, Dirty Dom, Penta, the IC title. Yeah, bro.
Um,. You knew they were going to put on a banger. The. The move? The DDT.
That move was crazy. Dom doing the dive out into the ring, catching Penta. That was with the DDT. Dude, that was so... And then.
Flagstone is what he stood up. I mean, Dom just. He knows he'd be. He just gets it, man. He totally gets it.
He's got that crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. And it's going to be interesting to see going forward because now he's not getting the booze that he once had, like, how he's going to. You know, tweak his character, if any tweaks. Who knows if he's going to make any tweaks? But right now, he's just rolling right now.
And you know, we see JD come back, we see Carlito come back that to help out because you knew Judgment Day obviously wasn't going to let Dom go out there and fight alone. But then Finn, right? The thing with Finn is. What's up with the hesitation? I love what they're doing with Finns.
Hesitation. Because it's so borderline. Like, you're a little petty on Finns. It's so borderline. Like.
And it is it's They've both been situations because he he also had a um Another one on Raw where the ref caught him early, where you're like. Fan got to be a little quicker than that. But, like, this one was done so well. It was done so well. And he has such a feasible argument of just like.
I just forgot the chairs. Like, I'm sorry. I'll be better next time. It's such a gaslighting character, right? And I love that.
And I love to see where we're going to go with this. You know, when AJ came into the clubhouse the other day and he said, What up, Prince? What up, Prince? It was very subtle. You heard it though?
Wow. Like, dude, that was slight. And now we're getting, I think today on Raw, we're going to get AJ. Verse Finn. Verse Finn.
Is it today or is it? Yeah. It is today. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember they showed it at Backlash, and I was like, oh, this match tonight? And I was like, nah. Gotta give that to Raw.
So this is going to be interesting because I think we all see the writing on the wall. Finn's going to break off from Judgment Day. But in this time, Ain't no way do we get some Point on the side. Can we just get that? Together, AJ Finn.
You know, I don't know. It's a high possibility. But this is the thing. I'm I'm here for it. I'm enthused.
Like, I'm looking forward. To this, like they got me a little bit, and that's all you want. Like, keep me entertained, like, make me think. Mm give me a reason to Want next Monday to hurry up and get here. You know what I mean?
And that's where we're at right there with that. I am, I love AJ, I love Finn. I want to see them together. Let's see how this plays out. I feel like Finn.
Finn Balor has gotten Just unlucky. Yeah. Unlucky. Had he not had his arm out when Seth. Threw him against the, you know, in the universal match.
His arm was just in, maybe like an inch. Maybe he doesn't take that brunt on his shoulder. And where do things go? Yeah, where things go from there. He is in the record book and forever because the title doesn't exist anymore.
But Universal Champion. I used to think the red belt was cursed, bro. Because like Finn would get it. Bam. And then Roman, when he got sick.
Like, it was just certain things where it was just like, bro, this red belt gotta go. And then they changed it to blue, and everything was all right. I used to think that shit was cursed. But so the match is going on. Obviously, they're putting on a banger, the thin spot happens.
It's amazing. And then Somebody who's not even on the same show comes. Grande Americano. Like this. Grande Americano.
This guy from the Gulf of America. His nose in places it shouldn't be. Had nothing to do with it. You have nothing to do with it. You don't even go here, right?
You have nothing to do with this situation. Comes out, headbutts Pinta. Obviously, I want Dirty Dom to win, but I don't want Pinta to lose. Not like this. Yeah, and so.
He helps Dominic Mysterio. And it just makes you see. That Grande Americano For whatever reason. Hates the Lucha Brothers. He does.
He really does. He hates them.
So I saw this idea from a guy on Twitter, and I'm bringing it here to the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. I am calling TJ.
Okay. For the Lucha Bros versus Grande Americano. And Chad Gable. Oh, wow. Banger.
You're talking about, wow, let me just wrap my mind about this because now you're talking about a match. When you talk about greatest tag team matches of all time, you're now making me think Rock and Roll Express against the Midnight Express. You've got me thinking the fabulous ones against the Fantastics. You got me thinking about, you know, Tony Gore and Rick Martell against the Wild Samoans. You got me thinking Mr.
Fuji and Mr. Saito against the Youngbloods. I mean, we're talking the greatest tag team battles ever. We're talking Ivan and Nikita Koloff against, you know, Magnum TA and Dusty Rhodes. Like, uh, Man, El Grande Americano and Chad Gable as a tag team?
As a tag team versus the Lucha bros. I got to be honest with you. If I'm a tag team champion and I'm looking at you, street profits, I'm looking at you, New Day, you should be very worried if this comes to fruition. Because El Grande Amara Condo and Chad Gable as a tag team. You got both sides of the spectrum.
Bro, you got the technical masterpiece, that is Chad Gable. And then you got the greatest Luchador of all time.
Well, I mean, I mean, Rey Mysterio is still right. Still there, and Dom is there. He's not the greatest Mysterio of all time. It's hard to be a heel. But yeah.
Yeah, bro.
I need that match. Sweet Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton right now. That's what that pairing is reminding me of. Ricky and Robert, like you just Rick and Scott. You know, man.
El Grande Barico. Scott Steiner, uh, follow me. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I gotta make that happen. We need big pop-ups.
Because Big Papa Pump on Twitter lately is. Been amazing. Yeah, bro.
One of the best mathematicians the world's ever seen. The greatest. Like I said, if Skyder math was taught at Wright Elementary School where I'm from, I don't know. I might be a NASA rocket scientist as it is instead of somebody who works with words.
Somebody who works with words. Yeah, that tag team match against the Lucha brothers. Those four men would put on. I know we had a match that once was called the greatest wrestling match of all time. Yeah, right.
I think if that tag team match were to happen between those four men, that would take the mantle. That would take the crown as the greatest wrestling match of all time. Do we get to see it though? I don't know. Bro, Triple H, don't do this to us.
Like, you gotta. You got to make it happen somewhere. Once again, shout out to my. I don't know your name, but I'll put your tweet in the video. Uh, the dude who passed that idea as soon as the match was over.
I love it. It needs to happen. What a tag team. What are we doing? That would rest.
I mean, why couldn't this have happened four weeks ago? That would have been night two WrestleMania main event. Main event. Are you kidding? Come on.
We wait w Come on, we were robbed. We were robbed. By the way, shout out to my best friend Roman who did not take his chair. Uh when John Cena won his seventeenth title.
Okay. Roman didn't want the chair? What a fish. You know, we got the chair running. Yeah, no, who doesn't take their chair after John Cena wins the 17th title?
That would never be me. No, it couldn't be me, TJ. It wasn't clear, though. Couldn't give me my chair.
So, shout out to Roman. I hope you feel bad about it. All right, so that was Backlash. Yeah. Great card.
I mean, great. It was fun. It was, you know, it was a Saturday five matches. It was quick. It was solid.
Solid. You know what I mean? It moved some storylines along. It kind of gave us. Thought about other storylines.
And right now, the match of the greatest tag team match of all time floating out there. That's in the air. But there were some, you know, some mub Other things too, because I don't know what the time is. We just started talking wrestling, we don't know what the time is. Don Bowie kind of led us together.
We got an hour in, so you know, we got a few more minutes. Yeah, we got a few more. All right, who I want to give a shout out to? Shout out to AR Fox. Oh, okay.
AR Fox. Put on Like Get this dude on TV more Tony. A. R. Fox, bro.
He's that guy who Everybody at some point on their way to greatness has. Been with A.R. Fox. Right. And the match he put on on on uh Collision.
Do put on some moves that like were so crisp. No. It looks so effortless. And right now. I think A.R.
Fox has. He has, like, not not heat, but his iron is hot. Like, the dude has this in the palm of his hand.
So, I am. advocating For more, AR Fox. And also, Ricochet is doing some great heel work over there. Oh, for sure. The dude's got a leg up on the competition right now.
What an evil man. Evil. Very evil. Evil man. You know what it is, Bald.
Oh, yeah. Why'd you call it? I like that giving the A.R. Fox a shout out. You know, if you go back and you watch our Swerve Strickland interview, Swerve.
Speaks very highly of the match that he and A.R. Fox had back in Luch Underground, which ESPN called the most violent wrestling match ever, I think. I believe that's what it was. That's from Espen. That was Espen.
What else do we got to talk about?
Well. Releases, man. Unfortunately, the releases that happened last week, you know, and it's really weird because we have these situations happen every year. You know, and then every year it happens. It stinks because some of your favorites, people that you like, unfortunately find themselves without a job with the company.
And I think I'm kind of. I don't know, uniquely qualified to talk about this because I used to work for ATT, as you know. You know, back in 2020, you know, AT ⁇ T was a $200 billion corporation. And they, uh, what they did was they got rid of a lot of us. I'm talking thousands of employees.
You know, we worked here in El Segundo, we worked for the um uh Original content pro team, like on-air programming, you know. Original TV series. We had a great thing going on here with DirecTV and then it transitioned to ATT. Then ATT, I guess, didn't CV the use for Our particular organization.
So we all got surplused. and let go and you you mentioned game of thrones earlier yeah um Somebody died? Oh, well, I got lucky. I was risen from the dead, not once, but twice. Like, I got fired twice.
Twice. I got risen from the dead. It wasn't by the lady Melisandra, though. It was by the lady Jerry Ann. And it was also.
By Sir Rickard. of house eisen. who really went the bat for me when when I was getting let go. You know, I'll just say this: Rich really went to bat. He worked hard to help save my job and to help me get put with another group that allowed me to have a few more months of employment before they finally shuttered the entire department.
So I thank Jerry Ann, I thank Rich. For helping me out. But yeah, you know, it just stinks sometimes, but that's what happens with in big corporations. They're always looking for ways, no matter how much money they make, to cut costs. And unfortunately, that's what happens every year.
We have these releases. You know, and But the thing is, you know, every time the releases happen, you you have, you know, Different Reactions, but they're all always the same, right?
Now, you're going to have people who are going to see these names get released and they're going to legitimately feel bad that people are losing their jobs, which makes sense. But then you have the people who. We'll spend, you know, 12 months bashing the company. Mm. from their couch.
From their basement. I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this. And then someone gets released, and then they have.
Not even a great. They just make a statement. And that person Who had nothing to do with it will ultimately get online and be like, well, no one paid to see you anyway. Oh, we didn't like you anyway. No one cares what you think.
It's like, wait a minute. This person's been directly affected by this. This was their life. This was their livelihood. But now we don't care what they have to say, but you've spent all this time complaining yourself.
Like, I don't get people like that, man. I don't understand how. People, yeah, you can have your opinion, but this person's opinion to me matters more because they were actually there, they were living this. Yeah. And we Respectfully, yeah.
Let me hear what your gripe is. You know, so. They get, fans get really weird around this time, you know, and then it's always the last thing. Oh, well, they fumbled this person or they dropped the ball.
Well, chances are, respectfully. They didn't. The the ball wasn't fumbled. The ball wasn't dropped. It was because that person at that moment wasn't.
I don't know. They weren't doing everything. They fit what was necessary. It didn't fit the game plan. And it sucks.
It truly does. Yeah. When you look at these names and you see who got let go, it does suck. But it's part of the business. Yeah, you know, the...
I think It's always difficult. To Kind of put into words about these releases because as a fan, You can See and think of all these things that could have happened. And oh, well, they were just doing that, and yada, yada, yada. Not knowing the inner workings and conversations, we'll never really know why they happen. I remember when I woke up.
One morning and Aleister Black was gone. Crazy. Bro, I could not fathom. I was shook by that. Bro, I remember waking up and Tony Storm was gone.
Well, Tony asked for her release. He asked for her release, but just like that feeling of like, wow, we won't know what's happening behind closed doors. And same thing with Andrade. Same thing with Andrade.
Well, Bray was one that I think. Mm the had the most people like, Wait What? We just don't know. And. Anybody who watches NCW knows that we are.
Basically, the hub for NXT talent, and we know. There's a lot of talent on the rise, yeah, man. There's a lot of talent on the rise, and NXT is still signing people, right?
So, the same way that. those talents on NXT Kind of got to move out the way for the people that they're signing. Where are they going to go? They got to go to Raw or SmackDown.
So it's. It's it's happening where somebody. Like Jeff Cobb coming in, or you know, there's still whispers about Mariah May. We don't know where that's gonna go, but like, there's gotta be room to be made. I Have a bit of Confusion as a fan.
I remember reading Braun Strowman being gone, especially when I seen him just. Help elevate, what's my man? Bronson Reed and Bronson Reed and Jacob Fatu. Like those storylines made those dudes look like beasts. Yeah, you beat the monster.
Yeah, look like beasts. And so, you know, that was a little puzzling. When you think about Dakota Kai being in the finals for the IC title, I know that bothered you, right? I was like, dang, like, we can't. like nothing and then when especially because I know her work with Zelina on uh you know their their their streaming work And so, you know, you saw Zelena's success and I'm Kind of thought, you know, maybe it was gonna be time for.
Dakota, especially with her name being in the news about her saying, you know, I'm not hurt or anything, and I miss you guys. And so now you kind of see what writing was really on the wall. It's unfortunate, but the thing about wrestling is, it's never really over. It's never really over. There are so many places that people can go to elevate themselves.
Um you see some people that WWE let go that are Thriving over there at AEW, and you never know what boomerang you might land on. Because look at what happened with Drew McIntyre, look at what happened with Cody Rhodes. Yeah you Just don't know that it's completely done. But for now, to all the talent that's out there. You don't lose your love for the game.
You know, just get out there and Be a badass somewhere. Show them that they were wrong. Show them that they made a mistake. And yeah, you always have the fans that you do. And to the fans that are upset.
When you see These superstars in other promotions or in other ventures, support them. Get out there, support them. Get behind them. You see Zelina in her ZV army online. She got gold around her waist right now.
You have to be That uh that wall of support. wherever these dudes go don't be a weirdo don't be a tribalist Follow them and support them. And that was my soapbox. Yeah, you know, you spoke about the NXT talents, right? And I know a lot, you know, we talk about some of the women who got released.
But the thing is, right, like you said, there's got to be room because Roxanne and Julia. They're already there. Guess what? Lash Legend is coming. Stephanie Vacare, she's coming.
She's on her way. Jakara Jackson, too. Shout out to Jakara Jackson. She, unfortunately, which, you know, I don't get that one. I don't get that one.
But like I said, like... Lola Weiss is on her way. Jada Parker is on her way. Fallon Henley is on the way. Saul Ruka is on the way.
Like you look at LFG, like the girl Xena, the blonde powerlifter girl. She's coming. Like the girl Bailey, who's going to have to change her name because she can't be Bailey. You've never seen anyone like Bailey, man. When they get her right and they get her presentation and her character right, she's going to be a force.
All these women, man, they're on their way.
So. you know, it it stinks, but In order to make room, like Jordan Grace is coming. Like all these women, Izzy Dame, you know, they're on their way up, and there's gotta be spaces for them because these women that I mentioned, I truly believe you're gonna have. five just like certified superstars out of them, if not more. Like These women are stars, man.
And you got to make room for him. That's just unfortunately, you know, part of the business. You know, there's a lot of names that got released that I do scratch my head about. But the great thing about it is there's places, man. That's why you people who are into this tribalism who want AW to fail or you want WWE to fail, man, get over yourself because that's allowing people to eat, man.
That's allowing people to put food on the table and to continue entertainment and entertaining. You know, we got AW, TNA, ROH, MLW, WWE.
Some people might be better off going to Japan. Like, I would love to see a Braun Strowman work over in Japan. Like, they would love this dude. You know what I mean? So, a lot of opportunities.
You know, Time for a lot of people, maybe, to step their games up, maybe, you know, tinker around with what wasn't working and maybe make it work, try a new character, try something else, but like. This new crop of women, especially in particular, Did I mention Lash? Yeah. Okay, I did say last good these next crop of women are coming up, man, are some monsters and I can't wait to see it. Yeah, and just to speak to tribalism because I I fell into that maybe Yeah.
Two years ago was really... admin just because of arguments online. Argument, that's who you really mad at. Yeah, you're mad at the pair about. AEW being more successful than WWE, or vice versa.
You just want to win. Arguments with people who are not in the room. And probably people weren't real. Like, I see some of these people, like, sometimes you see you getting to people, and I'll go look at that person's page and be like, oh, they got 100 followers. And like, Shay, this ain't even a real person, man.
Yeah, bro.
I like shooting fake ducks sometimes. But yeah, i i i it's Without These other places You have no idea what type of barren wasteland it would really be. It would be awful. It would be awful. And these.
Right now, the the top two, obviously WWE and AEW. You need each other. You need each other because that's how you keep your fangs sharp. You got to watch what the other one is doing so you can. innovate, you know, stay ahead of the curve.
You need that other. Alpha in the room. You need that. And so Wherever these superstars go. You got to show support.
Yeah. You got to show support. Make sure you cheer for them loudly, as loudly as you are complaining that they got released the next time they got an indie show or the next time they're making an appearance. Go there and support because chances are some of them are going to make their way back. to the promotion they just got and if if they do make their way back Really support because the one thing that will keep somebody's job is if you move that dollar, bro, they're not getting rid of you.
It is what it is.
So you have to. Be more supportive wherever they go, once again. And one thing I do know for sure. The three letters that they can always find a home at is NCW, TJ. You see it.
NCW. That's right. You know what it is, and you know what it ain't. What else, bro? I mean, I think that's it for this week, man.
Really solid, dude. We had a great time. We discussed, we got in a little bit last week with AJ Francis. Again, TNA has just been treating us so well. Right.
Man, I feel like we still feel like we're family and. Tonight? I mean, not tonight, but... A couple days from now, we got invited. We're going to be heading down to watch a TNA taping.
AJ called it, the first class penthouse. Yeah. So that I think that'll be Thursday. Yeah, bro.
And man. Excited. I love watching wrestling, man. Yeah, it's fun. And now.
I'm media. How about that?
Well, but I will say. Monday. I might have a surprise for you guys. Yeah, I might have a surprise for you. Do we need the planets to align the right way?
We think we got to, but we think we got a guess that you guys are going to really enjoy. Um, but I told you a whole lot of nothing, so you're exactly where you were before I started talking now. Thank you guys for watching the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. TJ Jefferson, will you please? Tell them where to find.
Oh, it would be my pleasure. You see, you can find us. on Twitter at There's no contest on Instagram at No Contest Wrestling Podcast. You find all the videos on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube page, and you will find us here.
Next Monday. Back live with you, hopefully, with a very special guest that, uh, Like I said, fingers crossed. But yeah, it's been a couple weeks since we had a guest.
Well, no, actually, we had a guest last week, but I mean a few weeks since we've had an in-studio with us. Yeah. Yeah, we need that. Yeah, I was gonna tell you to have a nice day, but do what you want. Enjoy your day.
And tell them what to do. Bye, Miss Parker. Did we say thank you to Jada Parker? I just did. Hey, thank you, Jada, for everything you do.
Have a good day, y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Former MLB All-Star Sean Casey, aka the mayor, keeps hitting it out of the park. Take my 30 years of experience. Take the wisdom and knowledge I've learned from the failures when I got sent down my rookie year, all the injuries I had to overcome.
Your mind is the most important tool you have in life. Be relentless. Keep charging. It matters how you talk to yourself, how you look at the world. That matters.
We talk about that. I don't know. I'm fired up. Baseball's back and it's going to be incredible. I love it.
The mayor's office with Sean Casey from Believe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Mm-hmm.
