0:00

Today on Not Sam Wrestling is

0:02

the Royal Rumble rapidly approaches. We

0:04

look at the myriad of possibilities

0:06

that the WWE has set up

0:08

for us. Okada coming to

0:10

the United States, maybe? Where

0:12

is he going? And what did Samoa

0:14

Joe and Hook actually do for themselves

0:18

and for AEW? This is

0:20

Not Sam Wrestling. This

0:25

is Not Sam Wrestling. Not

0:28

Sam Wrestling. Introducing

0:30

your host from New York,

0:33

here is Sam Roberts.

0:37

I'll say it. There

0:40

has never been a better time to

0:43

be a professional wrestling podcaster. Never. I

0:47

can't imagine a time. I've had

0:50

more fun week to week than

0:52

right now just talking about

0:54

what the hell is going on

0:56

in this insane industry that

0:59

we all love so dearly. Welcome

1:02

to Not Sam Wrestling

1:04

and we come to you with the

1:07

Royal Rumble rapidly approaching. Of course, I'll

1:09

be in Tampa. I'll

1:11

be doing stuff with the Busted Open radio

1:13

show hosting for them on Friday and Saturday

1:15

morning hosting Not Sam Wrestling. Live Friday at

1:17

5pm. That's

1:21

happening at Side Splitters in Tampa. By the way, guests

1:23

have already been announced for that show. I'm talking about

1:25

R-Truth is going to be at that show. I'm talking

1:27

about Samantha Ervin is going to be at that show.

1:30

I'm talking about DJ Who Kid is going to be

1:32

at that show. And another guest, literally today, right

1:34

before I jumped in front of this mic, I

1:37

just confirmed a fourth guest,

1:39

which I don't know if I'm going to announce in advance

1:42

or not. You'll

1:44

never guess who is going to be at

1:46

that show. I will say this. Somebody

1:50

who has had a stellar

1:52

career across multiple eras and

1:55

an attitude era standout. I'll just say that.

1:57

Maybe you will guess. extremely

2:00

fun weekend, partly

2:03

because of everything that I get to do, but

2:05

let's be honest, mostly because of

2:07

what we all get to do. And

2:10

that's that's enjoy the Royal Rumble.

2:13

And I feel like

2:15

to me, the Royal Rumble is the funnest

2:18

match of the year, because

2:20

it is a snapshot

2:23

of everything that's going on in WWE at

2:25

that given moment. If you go back and

2:27

watch previous years, Royal Rumble

2:29

is you can kind of piece together who

2:32

the stars were, what their stories were and

2:34

what they were really doing in the WWE.

2:36

You can also see what's fun about the

2:38

Royal Rumble is you can you can look

2:40

at where WWE was

2:43

like intending to go. Right?

2:45

You can see where they're going, but where

2:47

they were also intending to go. I mean,

2:49

look no further than the Royal Rumble before

2:51

WrestleMania 30 and that they were

2:53

intending to go to WrestleMania with

2:56

Batista as a babyface to

2:59

challenge Randy Orton. At

3:02

the same time, you could go to the

3:05

93 Royal Rumble and see that they were

3:07

looking and successfully did made

3:10

a huge star out of Yokozuna. There's just

3:12

so much going on. And

3:14

I think this year is maybe more, maybe

3:17

more than ever in terms of just sheer storytelling.

3:19

This is what I noticed as I was watching,

3:21

especially Raw leading up to it. There's

3:24

been a lot more emphasis put on the

3:26

Royal Rumble match on the Raw show, but

3:28

I think that's because most of the top

3:31

male stars on SmackDown are in title matches,

3:33

right? When you look at the Royal Rumble

3:35

premium live event as a whole so far,

3:37

the only matches that have been announced are

3:40

the Women's Royal Rumble, the Men's Royal Rumble,

3:42

and then also Roman

3:45

Reigns, LA Knight, Randy Orton, and

3:47

AJ Styles in the Universal Championship

3:49

match, and Kevin Owens and

3:51

Logan Paul in the United States Championship

3:53

match. But that's six top male stars

3:55

from SmackDown that presumably won't be in

3:57

the Royal Rumble match. It's

4:01

really interesting how many

4:04

seeds are already

4:06

being planted for post-royal

4:09

rumble, but

4:11

they're seeds that can't all grow

4:13

fruit. There are stories that

4:15

all of the stories that are being planted

4:17

right now cannot be told by WrestleMania. One

4:20

of them will. For instance, you've

4:23

got Cody, right? On

4:26

one end, he's saying that

4:29

he wants to go to WrestleMania to challenge Roman Reigns.

4:33

On the other side of things, is

4:36

he really done with Shinsuke Nakamura? On a

4:38

third side of things, Drew McIntyre's got a

4:40

problem with him. On a fourth side of

4:42

things, CM Punk is over here saying, let's

4:44

confront each other on Monday Night Raw. What's

4:46

really interesting about Cody

4:48

Rhodes specifically and the idea

4:51

that Cody Rhodes needs to finish the story.

4:54

I mean, people are tired of me

4:57

saying finish the story on this podcast. I

4:59

can't imagine how they feel watching WWE TV,

5:01

but what I love is that Cody, the

5:04

story of

5:07

Cody coming in at WrestleMania 38

5:11

and going to WrestleMania 39 was

5:14

that the whole point was that

5:16

Cody's finishing the story. It was

5:18

the biggest headline of

5:20

the year, arguably. The

5:22

year that Cody Rhodes left

5:25

AEW and redebuted,

5:27

returned to WWE at WrestleMania

5:29

38 and had his

5:31

match with Seth Rollins and had

5:34

this year-long build that included the three matches

5:36

with Seth Rollins, included

5:38

getting his pec torn, which nobody could

5:40

have predicted, including coming back and winning

5:43

the Royal Rumble and

5:46

the whole time attempting to,

5:48

as he put it, finish the

5:50

story. But what's happened, right?

5:53

What's happened since he hasn't finished the

5:55

story? What's

5:57

happened in the year from WrestleMania 39 to And

6:01

what's great is

6:03

the whole roster has

6:06

picked up on Cody's mission and

6:08

has decided they all have stories.

6:10

It's like Cody has

6:12

as much time as he needs to quote-unquote

6:14

finish the story, but what happens is the

6:16

longer it takes for him to finish the

6:18

story, the more it becomes

6:20

members of the roster going, well, no.

6:23

I mean, who cares about your story? You tried. You

6:26

failed. It's time for me to finish my story. Every

6:29

single person going into this Royal Rumble

6:31

match is trying to finish the story

6:33

now. And on one end, you've got

6:35

Cody. That's a story you could finish,

6:37

but whose story are you actually finishing?

6:40

Who would have predicted a month

6:43

ago that you'd have people

6:45

talking about Jinder Mahal finishing the story?

6:47

You've had people – our truth needs

6:49

to finish the story all of a

6:52

sudden. I

6:54

mean, it's absolutely incredible, and

6:56

some of it is done facetiously,

6:59

right? Like the our truth

7:01

stuff is more like let's just ride this

7:03

wave of momentum, but the idea of our

7:05

truth winning the Royal Rumble while absurd has

7:08

also never been more possible

7:11

than it is right now. But

7:15

realistically, I mean, what did

7:17

– Drew

7:20

McIntyre shows up on Raw on

7:22

Monday, and he looks

7:24

at Cody in the face, and he's all heartfelt,

7:26

and he says, you will finish the story. Cody,

7:28

you will finish your story, and Cody's starting to

7:30

well up. But Drew says, not before

7:32

I finish mine, though, because

7:35

Drew's got a story, right? Cody,

7:37

you could make a whole-ass peacock

7:39

documentary about Drew's story, about

7:41

the fact that Drew did

7:45

not pan out in WWE, had

7:49

to leave and transform himself into

7:51

an entirely new athlete,

7:54

had to return to WWE and start from

7:57

literally the bottom, go back to developmental. Go

8:00

to NXT, become a star in

8:02

NXT, come to the main roster, but

8:04

not get skyrocketed on the main roster.

8:06

When he got to the main roster,

8:08

he was Dolph Ziggler's bodyguard, and

8:11

then he was the villain that good guys

8:13

would beat on their way to getting

8:16

the title match. He was the villain that

8:19

Roman Reigns would beat when Roman Reigns

8:21

was returning. The

8:25

one tier away from the top villain

8:27

that the guy would defeat before they

8:29

actually became the guy. And

8:32

then he finally, finally is able to

8:35

build enough momentum that

8:37

the trigger is pulled. He has

8:39

one of the greatest Royal Rumble

8:41

moments ever when he eliminates

8:43

Brock Lesnar in 2020. That's

8:47

still – I don't think that that Royal Rumble

8:49

match has been beaten in terms of just great

8:52

Royal Rumble matches since it happened. Is it the

8:55

greatest Royal Rumble match of all time? That's a

8:57

different conversation. But is it the greatest Royal Rumble

8:59

match of this decade? I would argue 100% yes.

9:03

And one of the main reasons for that is

9:05

the way he eliminates Brock Lesnar, and the way

9:07

Brock Lesnar just lays there after the

9:10

Claymore kick. And yes, Drew

9:12

McIntyre is able to ride that wave

9:14

of momentum all the way to

9:16

WrestleMania where he does defeat Brock Lesnar. And

9:18

then in a weird series

9:21

of events also happens to beat

9:23

the big show in the same night just because.

9:25

But he doesn't do

9:27

it in front of anybody. He

9:30

does it in the Performance Center with

9:32

nobody except Michael Cole and Corey Graves

9:34

sitting at ringside and that big fan

9:36

on the ceiling still. They hadn't even

9:38

uninstalled the fan when he won

9:40

the title. And

9:44

then WWE is finally after a year

9:46

able to put a couple of people into

9:49

a stadium, is able to

9:52

fill the stadium a third? I think less than

9:54

a half. Maybe a half. Half full stadium. Probably

9:56

a third. And

9:58

what happens? Not only. We drew Mcintyre,

10:00

not the championed by then. But.

10:04

He attempts to regain the title and he loses.

10:06

Early in the show. And

10:11

this wave of momentum that was

10:13

stopped. By. The Pandemic.

10:16

And and to ride that wave momentum

10:18

and become the flag bearer. When.

10:21

Nobody else could be. For.

10:23

Pandemic Wrestling when there was nobody in

10:25

the audience. And.

10:28

Then I just. Slips. Away. And

10:31

right under his nose, Roman Reigns comes and

10:33

starts this story that the. Is.

10:36

The thing that leads us out of the pandemic

10:38

in that new title is announced, but. Rollins.

10:41

Is the guy now? And

10:43

that story that started in Two Thousand Twenty

10:46

is one that Drew never got to finish.

10:48

What about gender? story? What? About

10:50

the fact. That. Gender.

10:53

Has been hindered. From. The

10:55

very beginning. That. Gender

10:58

is a former W W E champion.

11:00

Not. Taken terribly seriously. But this story

11:02

starts to build when he comes out on

11:05

raw. When. A former champion

11:07

has announced and the whole crowd boos

11:09

him. The whole crowd is disappointed. How

11:11

dare you be disappointed? I am a

11:13

former W W E champion. What do

11:15

I have to do? To.

11:18

Earn your was respect is what

11:20

gender Hall is wondering to himself

11:22

paraphrase of course. And.

11:25

Then and then and then the promoter.

11:28

From. A rival organization goes on his

11:30

Twitter account and says it's absurd that

11:32

that matches even happening. That gender mahal

11:34

all he does his lose matches. He

11:36

doesn't deserve a world title match. And.

11:40

All that happens is Momentum Bills. And

11:42

Momentum Bills. And Momentum Bills. And he

11:44

has this World Title match with Seth

11:47

Rollins. And there is this feeling

11:49

in the main event of Monday Night Raw

11:51

that people could actually. See.

11:53

This and want to see if. I.

11:55

Would argue that had gender won that match

11:58

he would have been sued by the. Audience!

12:00

I can't believe we saw it! He

12:03

deserves it. After. Everything he's

12:05

done. That guy deserves it. Because.

12:09

He added title reign. That.

12:11

While it started out of

12:13

nowhere also ended fairly abruptly.

12:16

And. Was never treated like a former champion after

12:18

that title Run by the way, Genders that a

12:20

very similar story to Drew. Who.

12:23

Didn't pan out. Who had to leave? Why

12:25

does add transform himself wouldn't put the work

12:27

and and come back and become gender mall

12:29

and he's never had that moment. And

12:32

people are ready for it. What? About Cm

12:34

Punk. What about

12:36

Cm Punk? What

12:39

About that story? What About this story?

12:42

That cm. Punk. Walks

12:45

out on W Ii as one

12:47

of most popular performers. The that

12:49

company has. A

12:51

goes on this podcast that sets

12:54

the industry on fire when it

12:56

comes out. net fire has not

12:58

gone out sense. Far

13:01

still burns as a matter of fact. And

13:04

what he say on that podcast. They.

13:07

Told me I was going to wrestle Triple H

13:09

at Wrestlemania. I wanna

13:11

wrestle Aaa to Wrestle Mean. It.

13:14

Was time for me to be in

13:16

the main event he says at Wrestlemania

13:18

Twenty nine he got the Undertaker match.

13:22

The. Undertaker match that Hitler was

13:24

at a place where it had

13:26

a higher stop then ever. The

13:29

Undertaker mates was always a biggie at one that

13:31

always a big deal at Wrestlemania. but you know

13:33

the after after ten years or so of the

13:35

Undertaker winning. He. Became a bigger

13:38

and bigger deal each time we got

13:40

to Wrestlemania. And

13:42

it really really starting to take

13:44

in. Right around wrestling.

13:47

you're twenty four when the Undertaker beats Edge.

13:51

You. Could argue Wrestlemania twenty Three when the energy could

13:53

be Randy Orton. It was there. But.

13:57

Wrestlemania Twenty Five. twenty

13:59

six 27, 28, Sean, Sean, Hunter, Hunter. And

14:04

what happens after that series of four of

14:06

the most classic WrestleMania matches of all time?

14:08

The Undertaker takes all that stock and he

14:10

goes into New York and CM Punk's the

14:12

guy that gets that match. And what does

14:14

CM Punk say? Look, no disrespect to the

14:16

Undertaker. I fully understand the spot that I'm

14:18

in, but

14:20

I want the main event of WrestleMania. This

14:24

is 11 years ago. This is WrestleMania 29,

14:26

he says this. And

14:28

he realizes that he's not getting it at

14:31

WrestleMania 30. It means so much to him

14:33

that that, among everything else that's

14:35

happened to him, causes him to walk out on the

14:37

company and be gone for

14:40

a full decade. Carry

14:42

a grudge with him for

14:44

the way that he was treated, depending

14:46

on how you tell the story, the

14:48

kernel of which can be boiled down

14:50

to the fact that he wants to

14:52

main event WrestleMania. The

14:55

unthinkable happens at Survivor Series 2023.

14:59

CM Punk returns to the ring.

15:02

Why does CM Punk return to the ring? He

15:04

never got to main event WrestleMania. And what's

15:06

the first thing that he says when he's

15:09

got a WWE microphone? Well, he says he's

15:11

back home, but he

15:13

says he's here to finish his

15:16

story, which

15:18

means main eventing WrestleMania. Now

15:23

CM Punk's got a story. So

15:25

now we got Cody's story, but we got Drew's story, we got Jinder's

15:27

story, we got Punk's story. You

15:31

gonna tell me Jey Uso? Doesn't

15:33

have a story? You

15:35

gonna tell me Jey Uso? Who's

15:38

gone through everything that he's gone through

15:40

with the bloodline that came to Monday

15:43

Night Raw after leaving the bloodline and

15:45

was met with a locker room full

15:47

of hostility, only

15:49

to become one of the most popular stars

15:52

on that show by shouting the word YEET.

15:55

You Can tell me he doesn't have a story that

15:57

he'd like to finish by winning the Royal Rumble and

15:59

going to WrestleMania. Romania to challenge the head of

16:01

the table, Roman Reigns. And speaking of the

16:03

head of the table, Roman reigns. Over

16:07

three years ago. At this point, Three.

16:09

And a half years ago. Getting to the

16:11

point where we're close to for. The.

16:14

Stories. Of

16:16

the bloodline begins. Roman.

16:20

Reigns being the head of the table, And

16:23

from the moment the Roman

16:25

reigns cited. Vienna.

16:28

Why he family. From. The

16:30

road with a moment that the lineage of

16:32

Roman reigns. came into

16:34

the conversation. Whether. You're

16:37

talking about. The Eu

16:39

says as his cousins and solo. When.

16:41

You take met the greats the came before

16:43

him from ah offer and sega. Or.

16:45

Maga Yokozuna. When.

16:49

Roman declared himself the head of the table.

16:52

The. Immediate question was. What?

16:54

About the rock. Why?

16:57

Isn't a rock the head of the table? And

16:59

how does the rock feel? About

17:02

Roman reigns proclaiming himself the head of

17:04

the table. And.

17:07

We didn't think we're going to get the rak

17:09

at Wrestlemania. Thirty eight, Get Thirty seven. Coming.

17:13

Right off the pandemic. But.

17:16

There were rumors about the rock. At

17:18

Wrestlemania Thirty eight. Coming in

17:20

the year that Roman ended up beating Brock

17:22

Lesnar, there were rumors that The Rock. Could.

17:26

Make his return. The Rock vs. Roman

17:28

Reigns was that mass the people talked

17:30

about a year later. More.

17:33

Rumors of the Rod even as Cody Rhodes

17:35

was talking about finishing his story. More.

17:38

Rumors of the Rock. Doesn't.

17:40

Happen or year after that.

17:44

The. Rock shows up on Monday night Raw Asked the

17:46

audience they think he should sit at the head

17:48

of the table. This is months after he goes

17:50

on Pat Mcafee show and talks about the fact

17:52

that it was supposed to happen at Thirty nine.

17:54

It didn't happen at Thirty Ninth. But that's not

17:56

to say won't happen. And

17:59

when. Rock says should I sit at the

18:01

head of the table. There's.

18:04

A Our collective here. From.

18:07

Everybody watching. Because

18:10

we're all these other stories are important as

18:12

well. What? About

18:14

that story. What about the rock story? What

18:17

about the fact that the entire story

18:19

of the Bloodline. Has.

18:22

Involved the Rock whether he's here or

18:24

not. From. The

18:26

beginning. The. Fact

18:28

is. The.

18:30

Rock has to finish the story. And

18:35

rock story may be the story of the

18:37

bloodline. Because. Ultimately,

18:40

Whose. Story are we telling. His.

18:45

Cody. Story. On overlap

18:47

of the bigger story which is roman story

18:49

which is the rock story. War.

18:53

Story All we all. We

18:57

get. Cody. With a problem

18:59

with punk. Punk with a problem

19:01

with Cody go to with from withdrew Drew the

19:03

prom with Cody Druid the prom with Punk J

19:05

with a problem Drew. They would have a

19:07

jet. We.

19:11

Don't know whose story were finishing. Everyone

19:14

gone into this Royal Rumble has a story.

19:16

Got their got a story? Got

19:19

there sitting there going? You go and look

19:21

at Twenty Twenty Three. From.

19:23

The Royal Rumble. Did.

19:25

Today. From.

19:28

Rumble. Who is that?

19:30

A year like Gunter? When.

19:33

You like Gunther? Going

19:35

from the number one spot to being the

19:38

final person eliminated at the Royal Rumble. When.

19:41

You work at the at the triple threat. The

19:44

Gunther had a Wrestlemania when you go through

19:46

the year. Who's had a year

19:48

like Gunther? Nobody. Gone.

19:53

Thera wants to go out there and be

19:55

the top person in the industry. How does

19:57

that story get resolved? While you gotta Wrestlemania?

20:00

Be the World Champion! How did he do that?

20:02

He wins the Royal Rumble another. Story.

20:05

To. Story or retelling? We don't

20:07

know. All. These

20:09

stories are around. And

20:12

it's not just the man look over the winning

20:14

side of things. look at the fact that we've

20:16

got a. Becky Lynch and

20:18

Ria Ripley. Steering. Each other

20:20

down on Monday night raw. Will.

20:23

Does this mean that That. The.

20:27

The Becky is gonna win the Royal Rumble. And.

20:29

Go to Wrestlemania against Real Ripley. Possibly

20:31

it's a veggie, still got unresolved issues

20:33

and Naya Jax we have one paper

20:35

view maybe was you get Naya Jackson

20:37

vs Becky Elimination Chamber and Mbeki goes

20:40

to wrestle me to face Real Ripley.

20:42

Yeah, that's true, but what about everybody

20:44

else does in that match? Where.

20:47

I'd everybody out. What about the vegan Naya Jacks and

20:50

Ria Ripley don't get along. Night.

20:53

Jackson Becky to get settled at elimination Chamber.

20:55

But what about the fact that die a

20:58

jags be Becky once. And.

21:00

Has issues or three. Ripley: When does that

21:02

get settled? All. Of these

21:05

these these plates. Are

21:07

being juggled. right? In front

21:09

of our eyes. Not. To

21:11

mention the fact. That. As of

21:13

this recording. We. Don't

21:15

even know where Seth Rollins stands. I mean, look, I

21:18

fully intend. On dropping

21:21

an emergency podcast. Probably.

21:24

About twenty four hours of not

21:26

thirty six hours from the time

21:28

this show comes out. Because.

21:31

There. Are rumors circulating? That.

21:33

Seth Rollins. Is injured

21:35

coming off of his match with Ginger. Mahal.

21:39

Which. Puts the world title in an odd spot.

21:43

Is says. So.

21:45

Injured that he knows you won't make it to wrestle me.

21:48

And. If is not going to make it to Wrestlemania,

21:50

does that mean the World titles Gonna get decided in

21:52

the Royal Rumble Semi The World titles gonna get decided

21:54

in the Elimination Chamber. What

21:56

does that mean? that? The line up

21:58

for Wrestlemania. Get in shape, Get up because we're

22:01

not going to get Seth versus the and Punky

22:03

more Or. Is.

22:05

It or his injuries less severe than we think. Are

22:09

they that have injuries? It'll keep him out

22:11

for two months. But. By the time we get

22:13

to Wrestle Mania, he'll be okay, which means that he can keep

22:15

the title until then. Will. He be back

22:17

for Wrestlemania but he has to give up the title because

22:19

you're going to be gone for so long and then you

22:21

gotta try to win back the title at Wrestlemania. Nobody knows.

22:24

We're. Going to hit our that topic probably

22:26

later this week. But.

22:29

With all of these questions, I mean we

22:31

the all these questions and like internal, six

22:33

people announced for the Royal Rumble. Eight I

22:35

think announced for the women's Royal Rumble. Something

22:37

low like that and I hope it stays

22:39

that way. Because.

22:42

All the mystery. Spots in

22:44

the rumble. Add. Even more

22:47

intrigue add even more drama. Who's

22:49

to say? Did

22:51

the person whose story were finishing in either

22:54

the men's or the women's Royal Rumble or

22:56

these writing the next chapter of. His

22:58

even somebody does on the roster right now. It

23:02

could be somebody completely different. I mean, when you're

23:04

looking at Ed Ed. Potential.

23:06

Surprise entrants. In. The Royal

23:08

Rumble this year. Are

23:11

we looking at it? And Roddy we know and

23:14

right is not a part of a W anymore.

23:17

We. Know Triple H has to be a fan

23:19

of and ride A because of the way was

23:21

a book in Nxt. I would imagine I would

23:23

think. His

23:26

wife works for the company. That doesn't hurt but he's

23:28

of the got his connections is what I'm saying. The.

23:33

Royal Rumble seems like a perfect time for and

23:35

righty to combat. Maybe it's not, I don't know,

23:37

but maybe it is. And. If he

23:39

does, Where. Does he rank? Or

23:42

that you look at the at the women. How

23:45

about the fact. That. Trinity.

23:48

Lost the Dna Knockouts Championship and seems

23:50

to have wrapped up with T at

23:52

it. All. Signs would

23:54

point to the fact that Trinity formerly

23:57

known as Naomi. Is. On our way back

23:59

to the Debbie I'm you eat. And if

24:01

they only is coming back Naomi walked

24:03

out of the W W we as

24:05

a champion if see shows up in

24:07

the Royal Rumble. What's.

24:09

Her mission statement. They.

24:12

See here and were to see. Be

24:14

wary, she expected to be ranked. And

24:18

her by this one. How

24:20

about somebody that the dummy w We.

24:23

Invested quite a bit of time.

24:26

In convincing the W W

24:28

E audience. Was. A massive

24:30

star And a giant signing.

24:35

And then in the last month or so. Has.

24:38

Gone completely excommunicate.

24:40

Oh on. And.

24:42

Same a jade cargo. A

24:45

new foundation. Has. Been

24:47

laid. Were. Whenever we

24:49

Cj Cargill. Whether.

24:51

We have been following her career In aid of

24:53

You or Know. We've. Been

24:56

conditioned to believe that this woman

24:58

is a massive star. That.

25:00

This woman is a game changer.

25:02

That's how she's been presented. See.

25:05

Them presented on Raw. And

25:08

Smackdown on Nxt on

25:10

Premium Live Events. She's.

25:13

Had face to face interactions with

25:16

the top people on the roster.

25:19

The. Idea is that would Jade Cargill

25:21

finally does arrive. She.

25:24

Is at the top of the card. Because.

25:27

He's that type of performer. That's what I've

25:29

been conditioned to believe based on the way

25:32

the television is played itself out. Now.

25:35

The fact that we haven't heard anything about Jay got

25:37

we were hearing from her. Every.

25:39

Single week. There. Was a

25:41

period of time where she beyond like every show

25:43

just kind of they are. Shown

25:46

up with a different outfit inside of a

25:48

car every week. Shown up on a big

25:50

screen on Nxt. Shoes.

25:52

In Up In the Bird's Nest in Nxt one week.

25:56

And. Then. Nothing.

25:58

to the point where people are like Oh, you know,

26:01

some of the experts, some of

26:03

the wrestling news reporter experts were

26:05

going, well, they've lost confidence, which

26:07

is absurd. The idea that

26:10

she's disappeared from the

26:13

conversation because she's lost confidence, because WWE

26:15

has lost confidence in her, is

26:19

not only is there no direct evidence

26:21

of that, but it's even misguided to

26:23

assume that that would be the case

26:26

when in reality, the

26:28

reason that the conversation about

26:30

her has started to dry up is

26:32

probably intentional because that

26:35

way, when she does show up on TV,

26:38

it's a bigger deal. It's a surprise. Oh,

26:40

I wasn't even thinking about her. Oh,

26:43

like if you're talking about her every week and

26:45

then she shows up, it's like, oh,

26:47

yeah, yeah, yeah. She's been top of mind because

26:49

you've been talking about her every week. But

26:52

if you lay the foundation that she's a

26:54

giant star and then you stop talking about

26:56

her, when she does show up, it's a

26:58

surprise and also, oh, that's right. All

27:01

that foundation that was laid comes to

27:03

the front of my cerebellum,

27:07

and this is what you get. The

27:10

crowd goes wild. If

27:13

Jade Cargill shows up in the Royal Rumble,

27:17

there's a great chance that she's going to win that match, and

27:20

if she does, I've got

27:22

to believe that the fantasy match

27:24

that everybody wants to see played out at

27:26

WrestleMania is Rhea Ripley versus Jade Cargill. I

27:31

said last week, my pick is still, talking

27:33

about stories, Bayley to finally

27:35

win the Royal Rumble. She's

27:38

put in – again, when the

27:40

four horsewomen came to WWE from

27:42

NXT, Bayley was the one left

27:44

behind. It

27:46

was Charlotte, Sasha, Zeki

27:51

coming to the main roster, going

27:53

to WrestleMania, and it was Bayley going,

27:55

we'll get to you when we get to you. Bayley

27:57

is the one now who has not won the Royal

27:59

Rumble. This

28:01

is the year for me to have Bayley win the

28:03

Royal Rumble, send

28:07

her back into Babyfaceville, have her

28:09

be a good guy again, and

28:11

have her conquer the monster

28:13

that she created, damage control at WrestleMania. Or

28:15

not conquer it. Just attempt to conquer it.

28:18

But for me, that's the direction to go. Many

28:21

different directions to go in. I

28:23

think when you talk about potential

28:25

surprises in the Royal

28:27

Rumble and just potential debuts

28:30

coming up, and

28:32

it may not be for the Royal Rumble, I

28:34

don't know contractually if the Royal Rumble is a

28:37

possibility or not. But

28:39

I think the name that is on

28:41

everybody's mind, at least at the moment

28:44

right now, is

28:46

Okada. Okada is the

28:49

tippity top guy in

28:51

New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the announcement

28:53

was made that Okada is

28:55

leaving New Japan. So

28:59

the question then goes, and this is, I

29:02

believe, fairly unprecedented.

29:05

It's very rare that the top guy leaves New

29:07

Japan when still a top guy – I don't

29:09

know if it ever happens. Nakamura

29:12

leaving New Japan was a

29:14

huge, huge, huge deal. And

29:18

he was certainly

29:21

one of the most buzzed about

29:23

guys. He was one of the most

29:25

popular guys. I don't know

29:27

that he was the tippy tippy top guy when he

29:29

left. He was the top guy, but – Cody

29:32

Rhodes was technically not the tippy tippy top

29:35

guy in AEW when he left. He wasn't

29:37

the champion. I

29:39

think Shinsuke was in a similar position in

29:42

New Japan, and that's to say that Okada

29:44

leaving New Japan, as big of a deal

29:46

as it was when Shinsuke left New Japan,

29:48

Okada leaving New Japan is

29:50

an even bigger deal. The

29:53

question is, where is he going? If

29:58

you're leaving New Japan, The

30:00

only places to go are WWE and

30:03

AEW you're not leaving because New Japan

30:05

would have you back You're

30:07

not leaving New Japan to work

30:09

the Indies New Japan has not decided to release

30:11

their biggest star They their

30:14

biggest star has decided to move on to other

30:16

things So

30:18

did you go to AEW or WWE? I mean

30:20

if I were a betting man, and if I

30:22

had a betting sponsorship, I would claim to be

30:25

a betting man But this week I do

30:27

not However, if I did I

30:29

would put my money on Okada going to

30:32

AEW. I would bet that's

30:34

where he'll end up It's

30:37

the decision that J. White made it's

30:39

the decision that Will Ospreay made And

30:42

I say that because I feel like

30:45

there is Not as big of

30:47

a leap Going

30:49

from New Japan to AEW as there

30:51

is going from New Japan to WWE

30:54

and I say that because number one

30:56

There is a working partnership that exists

30:59

between New Japan and AEW You know

31:01

whether it's the Forbidden Door whether

31:03

it's athletes coming in like that that There

31:06

there seems to be a at least

31:08

some kind of working relationship between those

31:10

two organizations but also the presentation is

31:14

More similar between AEW and New

31:17

Japan than between WWE and

31:19

New Japan. It's not exactly the same But

31:23

it's certainly more similar. WWE

31:25

is its own beast. WWE does

31:27

things the WWE way I was

31:30

talking about this last week and

31:32

to put it maybe

31:35

to simplify it even too much I

31:39

have always felt like in WWE the

31:42

stories are the nucleus of what's going on

31:44

and the matches revolve around those stories I

31:47

think in both AEW and New Japan

31:49

the matches are the nucleus and the

31:51

stories revolve around the matches And

31:54

that's a different way of performing. That's a

31:56

different way of presenting the product.

31:58

That's a different philosophy in getting

32:01

fans into buildings and getting fans to

32:03

tune into shows. And

32:05

I would imagine, I couldn't speak

32:07

on this factually because I've never had to do it, but

32:10

I would imagine that there may be a

32:12

learning curve in doing what you do

32:14

differently. That said, I don't

32:18

know what Okada wants to do. I

32:20

don't know if Okada wants to continue to

32:24

do something similar to what he's been

32:26

doing and just continue to do it

32:28

on the highest level possible to go

32:30

to AEW and to go, hey, now

32:32

we can do Samoa Joe versus Okada.

32:35

Now we can do even MJF versus Okada.

32:38

We can go to Wembley Stadium and

32:40

do Bryan Danielson versus Okada. You

32:42

know, there's a million things you could do with him. And

32:46

Wembley Stadium has changed everything, right? Because people

32:48

have come up with quotes saying, you know,

32:50

well, Okada has always wanted to perform

32:53

at WrestleMania. That's a Benucola his. Sure.

32:59

But he probably wouldn't mind doing Wembley. You

33:01

know what I mean? Like WrestleMania is always

33:03

going to be WrestleMania and there's always only

33:05

one WrestleMania. But.

33:11

80,000 people in Wembley Stadium is pretty good, too. If you

33:14

don't want to do everything that's around that, if

33:17

you want to do everything that's around WrestleMania, then

33:19

then WrestleMania is the only place to do

33:22

WrestleMania. But if you want to do what

33:24

you do now. On

33:27

a WrestleMania scale, then that feels a little

33:30

bit more like Wembley Stadium. What

33:32

do I want? Well, I mean, I'm

33:34

a WWE guy. I'm a WWE loyalist

33:37

historically. I would love to see Okada

33:40

show up in WWE. I would love

33:42

to for WWE to show because I

33:44

feel like with with Cody.

33:48

They're starting to with Jade. That's the plan

33:50

with Jade Cargill. Not

33:53

as much with with Punk, but maybe a little bit

33:55

with Punk. The idea

33:57

of look what we can do when we have

33:59

talent. And

34:02

I think that if WWE is able to get their hands

34:04

on Okada, then WWE can

34:06

really show the world. Look

34:09

what we can do. I know you're

34:11

a top star wherever you are in the world, but

34:13

look what it means to be a top star here. And

34:17

Okada would be the grandest

34:19

experiment of all when

34:22

it comes to portraying people like that. I

34:24

think that there is some

34:26

truth to the idea that you go,

34:29

well, a lot of WWE fans have probably

34:31

not seen Okada wrestle, and that's probably true.

34:34

But there's no organization like the WWE

34:37

that can convince somebody that

34:39

an athlete is a star before

34:41

they show up. I

34:44

think that the same

34:46

way WWE fans lost their

34:49

minds for the fact that Nakamura

34:51

was even coming when they realized Nakamura was on

34:53

his way, things

34:55

were at a fever pitch. There

34:58

was an excitement from groups of people that

35:00

had never seen this guy wrestle, the

35:02

likes of which you don't see very often. And

35:05

I think that that's something that they could

35:07

do on an even larger scale with

35:10

Okada. And

35:14

it would also certainly

35:16

change things going into WrestleMania. I

35:18

mean, if you go, well,

35:21

we need to see Cody

35:24

finish the story. How

35:26

can Cody go into WrestleMania without

35:29

the Roman Reigns match? How could his character survive

35:31

that well if his character was

35:33

having a match against Okada at WrestleMania?

35:37

Then you could put off finishing the story. If

35:41

it's like, well, we're not going to see Cody versus

35:43

Roman, but we're going to see Cody versus Okada. And

35:47

maybe it's Okada's first match in WWE? Yeah,

35:50

I think that that would probably be worth a

35:53

lot of eyeballs. That would probably be worth

35:55

postponing the story for months, if not a

35:57

year. But

36:00

who knows? I'm very,

36:02

very anxious to see where

36:06

Okada goes and what he decides to do. Because it's

36:08

going to be a big deal. Wherever he goes, it's

36:10

going to be a big deal. We

36:14

had two big deal matches. What's

36:18

great is that with all this Tony

36:21

Khan Twitter drama that we were talking

36:23

about last week, what ended up happening

36:25

because of it is two awesome world

36:27

title matches on television. We

36:29

got Jinder versus Seth on Monday,

36:31

which was excellent and actually had

36:33

the crowd and those

36:36

of us at home, including myself, believing a

36:38

couple of times, oh my God, is this

36:40

actually going to happen? Is

36:43

Jinder going to do it again? Could

36:45

lightning strike twice? And

36:48

between Hook and Samoa Joe, it wasn't the

36:50

same feeling, but that's good because it wasn't

36:53

the same story. I

36:55

didn't necessarily at any point think that Hook was

36:57

going to beat Samoa Joe, and I

36:59

don't think that the intention was

37:02

to make people believe that Hook can beat Samoa Joe.

37:05

I think the intention was make

37:08

the world believe that even Samoa Joe doesn't

37:12

have an easy time with Hook, and

37:15

that's what they did. To

37:17

me, I feel like

37:20

this is a moment for

37:22

AEW. I think what AEW needs

37:25

to get really good at really

37:27

fast is figuring out how to

37:29

capitalize on momentum. AEW

37:31

can create moments that create

37:34

momentum, and they've done it before,

37:36

and they did it on Wednesday. AEW

37:39

put Hook on a different level on

37:42

Wednesday. I've been a Hook fan from

37:45

the jump, but

37:48

the ball was dropped on him some time

37:51

ago. It

37:53

was almost like there was this – and My

37:56

personal opinion, people could argue this. Orange.

38:00

Cassidy A suffered from this even though you'd say

38:02

why He: they put the title on him, they

38:04

put him in the main events. Yeah, yeah. But.

38:07

When he main event did with Marks

38:09

and he lost. What? Happened

38:11

after that. Did.

38:14

A orange Cassie a bigger after that. Or.

38:17

Cassie is one of those home grown guys

38:19

that like some in the industry might laugh

38:21

at at dead at his gimmick. But.

38:24

Realistically for period of time he

38:26

was getting attention outside of the

38:28

wrestling bubble. People. Were like

38:30

oh my god, There's this like insane like slacker

38:32

gimmick going on on this other wrestling show that's

38:34

not W W E. It's hilarious and people were

38:37

paying attention to it. And then.

38:39

Then. He caught the heart of the hearts

38:42

of of see and that weren't Sands of

38:44

His. For. No particular reason

38:46

other than it is hadn't connected

38:48

yet. And they got him. He.

38:51

Was beloved. And.

38:53

We didn't seal the deal. Hook.

38:56

Same thing Dan, How's and same

38:58

thing there's this group. Of

39:01

of. Home

39:03

Grown Quote: Unquote a dub you guys because like the

39:05

orange Guess he was doing his character for he got

39:07

a Derby day and has were doing his character board

39:09

A W M J F was doing his character. Before.

39:12

He got to a of you. But. Realistically

39:14

seen them on our on

39:16

our on a national or

39:18

international scale. They weren't

39:20

seen before. A W. What's.

39:24

Great about these characters. Aside

39:26

from M J, F and I Met Her

39:28

can take that day and house and I'm

39:31

saying that Orange Cassidy is. These are characters

39:33

that traditionally. Wouldn't

39:36

be able to be top guys and W

39:38

W. W. W E

39:40

traditionally probably wouldn't go all the

39:43

way with characters like this. But.

39:46

I feel like that makes them even more appealing

39:49

in a w. It

39:51

makes it says is one of the things

39:53

that separates a dab you is that they

39:56

are a place though when somebody like Orange

39:58

Cassidy or Dan How's in or. The Hook.

40:01

Catches. Fire. That.

40:03

They can be. A. Top to

40:06

guy I mean Wardlow caught fire. They.

40:08

Dropped the ball on Wardlow. I feel

40:10

like Hobbs is had the ball dropped

40:12

on him multiple times. And

40:14

I think that that's something that has to stop

40:17

in a w and will see if it does.

40:19

Because. They've put hooked in this

40:21

amazing position a watching that match

40:24

and and listening to the support

40:26

grow and grow and grow. For.

40:29

Hook in that match with Samoa Joe

40:31

and is giving his Samoa Joe was

40:33

Ah Joe. Hook was remarkable. It was

40:35

like. It's so great! We.

40:38

Go out there. And there's

40:40

clearly a plan. And. The

40:42

plan just work. And

40:45

that to me is what happened between

40:47

Hook and Samoa Joe. The plan jess

40:49

work or their little things I would

40:51

have done differently. Yet I was. I

40:54

wish we had had ah a little

40:56

less has a little more Dad. On

40:58

commentary. There. Were a couple

41:00

of instances where Taz brought up the fact that

41:02

he would they do a while I know, I'm

41:04

his father. A. Little more concern over

41:07

the fag like when he took that bump on

41:09

that table and that table didn't budge. Like.

41:12

I was tears and stepped out

41:14

of commentator character. I

41:17

don't need to get in the ring. I don't

41:20

need Taz to come out. only the human soup

41:22

likes missing to come out. But.

41:24

The human being. I. Would have liked to

41:26

have heard a little bit more from that human being. Ah

41:29

little things you know when when hook

41:32

eventually did get shoved out. By.

41:34

Samoa Joe. Instead.

41:36

Of the wrestling, you know, one

41:39

arm, one arm, one arm. Okay.

41:41

ring the bell. That's. Like

41:43

the old school sleeper hold way of knowing

41:45

somebody was asleep. I would have preferred now

41:47

that we've got this ever may education the

41:49

we've all seen people get choked out. for

41:51

real. I would have preferred the quicker sort

41:53

of. How. Can know is that

41:56

ring the bell the next. Biggest.

41:58

For a guy to be unconscious? Her.

42:00

Curry's. Referee drops of

42:02

the arm is very damaging thing to do.

42:05

Like a minute he'd be passes out. The referee rings

42:07

the bell. I think that would have a doubt that

42:09

probably would have it. He added to it even more

42:12

for me. But.

42:14

Those that's all to say. this

42:16

was to me extremely successful. I

42:18

love the hook character. You know

42:20

when hook first started. When.

42:22

He hadn't had a match. He.

42:24

That's super popular and part

42:27

of their popularity was. Because.

42:29

People saw him like Homer

42:31

saw that little guy in

42:33

the you kusa. When. The A

42:36

to Z showed up. In. Front of his

42:38

front door. And they're having a

42:40

big giant ninja battle. and there's a little

42:42

guy in a suit. And

42:44

Marge makes Homer come inside. And.

42:47

Homer goes but Marge the little guy

42:49

hasn't done anything yet and you know

42:52

that when he does is gonna be

42:54

something awesome. And Marge makes

42:56

him come inside anyway. And. Homer

42:58

shuts the door and then you just here.

43:02

And home or goes all. That.

43:05

Little guy. Is. Hook.

43:09

He. Hasn't done anything yet, but when he does,

43:11

Is. Gonna be awesome. That.

43:16

Combined. With. Lucky. To

43:19

me is hop. I.

43:21

Think. That the. Coming.

43:24

Off this Samoa Joe minutes the fact that

43:26

they have kicked out of finisher a one

43:29

the fact that have kicked out of of

43:31

of that bump off the table affected hook

43:33

hook fought back as much as he did

43:35

slipped off Samoa Joe. You've

43:39

got a hoax not in world title contention

43:42

anymore, right for for a hook to keep

43:44

going after Samoa Joe would only confuse things.

43:46

That already. Have Adam page and

43:49

swerve connected to him. But.

43:52

I think that what you need to do. Is.

43:55

Have a new avenue for hook to go

43:57

down. And maybe that's Korea.

44:00

Jericho is a heel. Ah,

44:02

you know, a maybe?

44:04

that's. Christian. Wow.

44:07

Wow! Adam Copeland is doing the

44:09

cobol been. May. I

44:11

don't know. it it maybe it's Wardlow. Whoever.

44:15

It is. It's gotta be able to get be by hook

44:17

eventually. But. I but but I think you

44:19

have to get. A great opponent lined

44:21

up for hook. And to

44:23

me, Hoax. Whole thing. Is.

44:27

Defense. It's the

44:29

exact opposite. Of his

44:31

dad. Has. His.

44:34

Character was abnormal Favorite wrestlers in the

44:36

history of a W. He would just

44:38

go in and ask people up. He

44:41

would just a would just walk right

44:43

in the ring on his path of

44:45

rage. Soup likes them into oblivion and

44:47

pin them and beat them. Take.

44:49

Zero. Authentic.

44:52

Nothing. And when

44:54

and that's what has would do. I.

44:57

Think hook should be the opposite. I.

44:59

Think hook is a guy. Who. Just

45:02

goes out there and takes punishment.

45:05

And. Keeps taken out and keeps getting out.

45:08

He's. A Small: A smaller dude than most. The other

45:10

guys is a younger dude said most of the

45:12

other guys. Most the other guys think they can

45:14

take his ass and they go in and they

45:16

can kick his ass. For.

45:19

Seats get not. To

45:21

the point where they got nothing left.

45:23

And that's when Hulk is able to

45:25

to overcome them by sheer willpower. And

45:28

he can end up put them in the red rum. Host.

45:32

I feel like most hook

45:34

matches unless it's against I

45:36

guess. Ah, ah, Dante Martin

45:38

unless it's against somebody like

45:40

that. Most. Home matches

45:42

I think. Hook

45:45

should be doing very little except taking

45:47

punishment. For. Just continuously

45:49

coming back from it. It.

45:51

Should be all about the the come back.

45:54

And. Finish. And.

45:56

That's it. And.

45:58

and i think if you give you do that going

46:00

forward with Hook, you'll be

46:02

onto something with that character. Speaking of being

46:05

onto something, I'm really enjoying

46:07

what we're seeing with Adam

46:09

Copeland and the Cope Open. I know

46:12

that people are polarized on this, they're separated.

46:14

Some people think it's a waste of Copeland,

46:16

other people really like it. You can put

46:18

me in the category of people that really

46:20

like it. And I really like it. Sure,

46:23

it's fun seeing the individual

46:26

matches. Of course you go,

46:28

well, did we sign Adam Copeland? So

46:30

he can fight Griff Garrison? No, no,

46:32

that's an oversimplification of what's going on.

46:34

But the full body of work here

46:36

is now you've got this group

46:38

of matches where we've seen Adam

46:41

Copeland versus Griff Garrison, Adam Copeland

46:43

versus Lee Moriarty. Amazing.

46:45

Adam Copeland versus Dante

46:47

Martin. Amazing. Now we're

46:50

going on to Dynamite and we're

46:52

seeing Adam Copeland versus Minoru Suzuki.

46:55

And the fact that in 2024, we've

46:57

got Adam Copeland versus Minoru

46:59

Suzuki is exactly why AEW

47:01

should exist. That match on

47:04

paper is like,

47:06

it just feels like AEW is starting

47:08

to figure out again who

47:11

they are and who they're supposed to

47:13

be. So the question is, what's

47:15

going to be the ultimate goal of

47:19

the Cope Open? What's going to be the

47:21

ultimate goal of Adam Copeland's Open Challenge? The

47:24

promo on collision was great. And

47:28

when he explains that he's going through all of this so

47:31

that he can get back to that TNT championship, so

47:35

he can bring the TNT championship back to TNT.

47:40

I think that these open challenges, there's no reason

47:42

that he shouldn't be able to keep this going

47:45

until full gear. There's

47:48

no reason that Copeland shouldn't be able to keep this going

47:50

until the next pay-per-view. And

47:53

when he does, there's two

47:55

ways you could go about it. Either

47:57

announce that it's Copeland versus Christian pay-per-view

48:00

and get some interference going on or what

48:02

I would do is at the

48:04

next pay-per-view He goes

48:06

I've got one more open challenge

48:12

One more open challenge and they make it clear Adam

48:15

Copeland if he can win his next open

48:18

challenge He gets a shot at the TNT

48:20

championship and I actually think that's better because

48:22

I think the TNT championship should be defended

48:24

on TNT So

48:27

the idea is if Adam Copeland

48:29

can win his last open challenge

48:31

the next week on collision he

48:34

gets the match against Christian and

48:37

the final open challenge happens at the

48:39

next pay-per-view and he

48:41

gets to the ring and he says who is

48:43

it who is the final challenger and The

48:46

last person that he's got to beat before he

48:49

gets Christian Is

48:51

another ghost from his past? This

48:53

is the moment Where

48:56

a ew signs Matt Cardona

48:59

Matt Cardona comes out as

49:01

the final challenger in Adam

49:03

Copeland open challenge and he

49:05

beats Adam Copeland at the

49:07

pay-per-view Matt

49:09

Cardona is the one that

49:11

stops Adam Copeland From

49:14

getting the TNT title back from

49:16

Christian and coming off of that

49:18

pay-per-view. We start an epic feud

49:20

an epic story between

49:23

Matt Cardona the former edge head

49:26

the person who could

49:29

never get over in WWE

49:31

because they only ever saw him as

49:35

Edges assistant as

49:38

the guy who painted Edges tattoos on his arm

49:41

And when Edges gone and done interviews and talked about

49:43

that period of time he laughs At

49:46

the fact that Cardona Painted

49:48

his tattoos on his arm Well

49:52

now he's back In

49:54

front of the national spotlight and he's better

49:57

than Edge ever was because

50:00

Unlike Edge, Matt

50:02

Cardona had to go out and

50:05

make a name for himself. See Adam Copeland has

50:08

only ever been

50:11

under contract and gotten

50:13

paid by a billionaire. Adam

50:15

Copeland has only ever gotten

50:17

to perform in front of a national audience.

50:21

Matt Cardona

50:24

had to carry Adam

50:26

Copeland's bags. And

50:29

then while Adam Copeland got to have the return

50:31

run of a lifetime, Matt Cardona

50:33

got fired from his dream job. And

50:37

when Matt Cardona got fired from his dream job,

50:40

he was left to his own devices and when left

50:43

to his own devices, Matt

50:46

Cardona became the unstoppable machine that you

50:48

see in front of you. Can

50:52

you imagine if

50:54

A.W. is able

50:56

to sign Matt Cardona, do

50:59

everything with him that fans say WWE

51:01

should have done with him and

51:04

create the Edge

51:07

versus Edge head Matt Cardona

51:09

versus Adam Copeland story that

51:11

we never got? It's

51:14

a no brainer to me. It's

51:16

everything I want to see. We'll

51:19

see if it happens. This

51:22

week and everything counts. Quick

51:25

this week and everything counts before we get to

51:27

emails. This

51:30

is how you know everything counts. Number one, Pete

51:32

Dunne's back. And

51:34

the bruiser waits back and the vest is

51:36

back and all the credibility that he built

51:38

is Pete Dunne returns

51:41

in a tidal wave and I

51:43

love to see it. But also

51:45

when everything counts. When we say

51:47

everything counts, it doesn't just mean

51:49

everything historically counts. It

51:51

also means that everything going on counts.

51:56

There was a time When

51:58

being the top merch seller. With

52:00

something that meant something you know

52:02

in the dirt sheets on Twitter

52:04

wherever. For. Being the top merge seller

52:06

didn't have anything to do with the story that's

52:08

being told on television. Those. Days are

52:10

gone, Because. Everything else. Are

52:14

True becoming the top merge seller. Became.

52:16

A story line. On Monday night Raw.

52:19

Are. True getting royalties. To.

52:21

The Judgment Day and that's how we stayed in. The

52:24

Judgment Day can only happen if our truth is the

52:26

top marks seller. And

52:28

why did that become a story on television? Because

52:30

everything counts. Speaking.

52:32

Emerge by the way you can get

52:35

the Not Sam Wrestling merge that blue

52:37

logo. The. You see and funny.

52:39

If you're watching the show on you

52:41

tube right now, you can get the

52:43

are Notsam Wrestling navy blue t shirt

52:45

that says speculate wildly on the back

52:48

or the amazing it's aura same appease

52:50

the Merchants ever done Notsam zip hoodie

52:52

We have it available right now not

52:54

see him shirts.com You can also go

52:56

to notsam.com There's links on the top

52:58

of the page to get tickets to

53:01

the show in Tampa. This.

53:03

Coming Friday January twenty six or.

53:06

To. Get Your merge. Ah, Emerge will only

53:08

be up for another week to get

53:10

it Right now. Or. You won't

53:12

have a chance to get again. It

53:14

goes back in the vault. Ah, but

53:16

yeah, it's I. I'm very proud

53:18

of the merge that we put out here. I

53:20

work very hard to make sure that it is.

53:24

The Top quality merge. Have

53:26

any. Anybody. Even.

53:29

Comparable to yours Truly. And let's be honest,

53:32

there aren't that many people comparable to the

53:34

last professional broadcast. to be you won't find

53:36

better Merge in the podcast sphere. Than.

53:40

Ours The quality is high. The margins

53:42

are razor thin. So. Grab

53:44

it, scoop it up. Enjoy it. Now

53:46

I pride myself on making Merge The.

53:49

You. Actually want to were. Not

53:51

same shirts.com Let's go to the

53:54

emails not say I'm wrestling Edgy

53:56

email.com It's not Sam wrestling adds

53:58

email dot com. Now,

54:05

a lot of these emails are going to

54:07

be wild speculation about Seth. I'm not going

54:09

to really get into that because by the

54:11

time this podcast comes out, we're going to

54:13

be pretty close to finding out what's going

54:15

on with Seth, I believe. So

54:17

I'm going to leave that alone until we can actually

54:20

talk about it. Will writes

54:22

in, I started listening after

54:24

WrestleMania 39. I love that. The

54:26

podcast I used to listen to got very

54:28

negative on its take on Cody losing to

54:30

Roman, but you managed to keep it positive.

54:33

I appreciated that. You made a loyal listener.

54:35

Hey, man, why are we here? We

54:37

love wrestling. Let's have fun talking about it.

54:41

My idea is this, and I'd like to get your take.

54:43

If Seth is out for Mania, which I know remains to

54:45

be seen, we can speculate wildly though. That is rule number

54:47

two. What if

54:49

the Rumble becomes a winner wins the

54:51

World Heavyweight Championship and Elimination Chamber becomes

54:54

the event to name the WrestleMania

54:56

contender? I

54:59

think that that's fair. I think

55:01

this idea freshens up the Rumble match. Yeah,

55:03

I mean, look, I'm going to

55:05

talk again more about this. I

55:07

think that, yeah,

55:12

I mean, there's a lot that can go on, right?

55:14

I think that putting

55:17

the world title on the line at the Royal Rumble would be a

55:19

lot of fun. One idea that I had was

55:21

put my idea right now is put the world title on the line at

55:27

the Royal Rumble and then take the final

55:29

six that were eliminated and put them in the Elimination

55:35

Chamber so that when you look, the final

55:38

seven in the Rumble match, one is the

55:42

winner. He becomes the World Heavyweight Champion, and the

55:44

six below him enter into the Elimination Chamber.

55:47

And that's how you determine who gets a shot at

55:49

WrestleMania. That

55:52

could get us to Cody winning the Rumble. the

56:00

title at the Royal Rumble, which

56:03

makes it so we're not worried about him finishing

56:05

the story. We don't claim that he's finished the

56:07

story, but he's not going

56:09

to poo poo winning the World Heavyweight title at

56:11

the Royal Rumble. Then we can

56:14

have CM Punk win the Elimination Chamber match,

56:19

and then it's Punk versus Cody

56:21

with Punk challenging Cody at WrestleMania.

56:23

We could also have Punk win

56:25

the World title in the Royal

56:27

Rumble. He goes and defends

56:29

the World title against Drew McIntyre at

56:31

the Elimination Chamber, who was eliminated eighth,

56:33

so he just got squeaked out of

56:35

the WrestleMania main event. And

56:38

then Cody wins the Chamber, Punk beats

56:40

Drew, Cody's got to beat Punk at

56:42

WrestleMania. I

56:44

mean there's a million different scenarios. Austin

56:49

writes in, lately I've

56:51

been watching a lot of wrestling. I should hope

56:53

so. Watch the product. Every week

56:55

I've watched Raw, NXT, Dynamite, SmackDown, Rampage, and

56:57

Collision. That's awesome. My wife has told me

56:59

I've been watching too much wrestling and I

57:02

need to lay off a little. I got

57:04

it. Sam, I love wrestling,

57:06

but I love my wife more. That's shocking. If

57:09

I watch only three wrestling shows a

57:11

week, whoa, which would you recommend? I

57:19

mean, see, it's

57:26

tough because

57:29

I feel like I

57:33

feel like you have to do four. I

57:36

feel like you have to watch Raw and SmackDown. If

57:42

you're going to do three, you have to either pick

57:44

after that, you have to watch Raw and SmackDown and

57:47

then either Dynamite or NXT.

57:50

And what it boils down to is, what are

57:53

you more likely to watch? An

57:55

NXT premium live event or

57:57

an AEW pay-per-view? Because

58:00

you should watch the TV leading up to it. For

58:03

me, I'll

58:06

be honest, when

58:08

my wife has had enough, I wait till she's asleep, I

58:10

watch it on DVR. I

58:12

gotta watch everything. But, I

58:14

will, I will try to

58:17

do raw

58:19

SmackDown NXT dynamite,

58:24

then do highlights of collision, clips

58:28

of Rampage. That's

58:31

probably what I would do. Scan

58:33

through collision on my DVR. Like,

58:36

watch the main event, watch the Copeland segment.

58:39

You know what I mean? Like, watch that

58:41

stuff. Yeah. But

58:45

it depends. I mean, dynamite and NXT is

58:47

a toss-up every week in terms of, it's

58:49

just, it's, they're both great shows. So, you

58:51

know. And I think they're, every

58:54

show's getting better. I think NXT keeps getting better.

58:56

And I think dynamite is starting to get to

58:58

a place where it's getting better again, which

59:00

you don't want to miss out on. Kanjay

59:03

writes in, alright Sam,

59:05

I'm 100% positive you'll love this. Ooh!

59:08

Okay. That's very confident of you. You'll

59:11

love this four-way booking of mine.

59:14

Okay. And if I'm

59:16

wrong, roast the hell out of me. I have no problem doing

59:19

that. So

59:21

towards the end of the match, oh, this is the

59:23

four-way at the Rumble. The

59:25

bloodline try to interfere as usual, but

59:27

Roman stops them and tells them

59:30

he'll win by himself. Okay. This sounds already

59:32

like the booking that I did in the

59:34

Predicting 2024 podcast, the first

59:37

week of the year. But, but Solo is

59:39

visibly upset. This is literally what I said

59:41

three weeks ago by the Tribal

59:43

Chiefs Choice. And as

59:46

they are leaving, Roman gets caught by an

59:48

RKO, but

59:50

the pin is broken up by Styles' 450 splash. So

59:54

about four minutes later, I love that you're

59:56

down to the minute, when the match is

59:58

ending, LA Knight, yeah, is hitting. AJ

1:00:02

with his main combo, you know, the boots

1:00:04

in the corner, right, right, right, then

1:00:06

the slam, but when he's about to

1:00:08

hit the elbow on Styles, LA bounces

1:00:10

off the ropes, then Spear

1:00:13

from Roman, then Randy tries another

1:00:15

RKO on Roman, gets pushed off,

1:00:18

tries to hit a clothesline. You're really getting into

1:00:20

the physicality here. Like, are you

1:00:22

a producer? Are you fantasy producing or fantasy

1:00:24

booking? Those are two different things. Spear

1:00:29

to the Viper, then AJ tries

1:00:31

to surprise Roman the Phenomenal Forearm,

1:00:33

but nope, just like Extreme Rules

1:00:36

2016, gets caught with a Spear

1:00:38

by Roman, then he stacks the

1:00:40

three of them, one, two, three, boom, the head of the t-

1:00:42

Look, I mean, this isn't a- this

1:00:45

is my booking, except you just added the moves

1:00:47

that would get us there. This

1:00:50

is all, I mean, you- yeah, the reason

1:00:52

that you think I'm gonna love it

1:00:55

is because it's stuff that I've already said should happen. I

1:00:58

mean, yeah. Yeah.

1:01:01

Roman should stack them without interference. This

1:01:03

is- that's the booking. And

1:01:06

Roman turns down Solo's interference and Solo's

1:01:08

visibly upset is literally something that I

1:01:10

said in the Predicting 2024

1:01:12

podcast, the first podcast of the year. So

1:01:15

yes, I like your ideas because

1:01:17

they're my ideas. But

1:01:20

I appreciate you- you

1:01:23

know, that's a tactic that people use sometimes. They

1:01:25

try to impress

1:01:27

somebody or get somebody

1:01:29

on their side by regurgitating their ideas

1:01:31

back to them so that they're

1:01:33

in agreement. But I

1:01:36

did that already. I mean, I see what you're doing here.

1:01:39

All right,

1:01:41

this is from Coop. Coop

1:01:43

from SoCal. Long overdue,

1:01:45

so I'll be quick. I booked two front row seats

1:01:47

to not Sam and Mania in LA the week of

1:01:50

WrestleMania 39, okay? It

1:01:53

was so refreshing getting to know the greats, getting

1:01:56

to know the guests and you

1:01:58

live. bigger fans of

1:02:00

the superstars after the sit down interviews and interactions

1:02:02

with the audience. I highly

1:02:05

recommend to anyone even considering this experience, get

1:02:07

your tickets ASAP when Sam comes to your

1:02:09

city. Get the Tampa tickets. Tampa

1:02:11

is going to be a wild one. Tampa is

1:02:13

going to be so fun. notsamlive.com

1:02:16

for those tickets or the link at

1:02:18

the top of notsam.com. The

1:02:22

entire show and the event was nothing short of a five

1:02:24

star match. What a great way to kick

1:02:27

off mania week. You really did deserve

1:02:29

that 10 pounds of gold presented to

1:02:31

you. Was

1:02:33

even kind and awesome that you took photos with us after the

1:02:35

show too. Awesome been down with you since 2015. You

1:02:39

have a personal chef whenever you come

1:02:41

to SoCal. Thank you very much buddy.

1:02:44

I appreciate that. Just an email to

1:02:46

say thank you. It's always welcomed. Cade

1:02:49

writes in, this is speculation.

1:02:51

I hope it's wild speculation. Can

1:02:55

you tell me if this sounds good to you? Of course I can. I'd

1:02:58

be happy to. In

1:03:00

the Royal Rumble, Roman Reign stacks up LA Knight,

1:03:02

AJ Styles and Randy Orton to pin them all

1:03:04

at once to win. Yes, that sounds good to

1:03:06

me. CM Punk wins the Royal

1:03:08

Rumble by sending Cody Rhodes over the top

1:03:11

rope. Yes, that sounds good to me. At

1:03:13

Elimination Chamber, desperate for a match at the

1:03:15

Royal Rumble, desperate for,

1:03:17

I'm assuming you mean WrestleMania, Cody

1:03:19

enters a fatal four away with

1:03:21

Kevin Owens, Trick Williams and Bobby

1:03:23

Lashley for who would face Logan

1:03:25

Paul at WrestleMania for the US title? I

1:03:28

don't know about that. Cody wins by

1:03:32

pinning Bobby and gets to

1:03:34

face Logan Paul at WrestleMania. The

1:03:36

Rock also appears to challenge Roman

1:03:38

Reigns. At

1:03:40

WrestleMania, Cody wins the US title and Roman

1:03:43

beats The Rock and Seth beats

1:03:45

Punk. The following Raw,

1:03:47

Punk wants a rematch. Seth

1:03:49

says that he has to beat someone of

1:03:52

his choosing, which is Cody Rhodes in the

1:03:54

main event of Raw. CM Punk wins. No.

1:03:58

And the next night... The next

1:04:00

rogering, the Mad Damian Priests comes out

1:04:02

to cash. No, no. Cash.

1:04:04

And but aren't shrewd. stops him saying not

1:04:07

now and because of that Punk wins becoming

1:04:09

the new World Heavyweight Champion! Know that sounds

1:04:11

like a mess l I get at all.

1:04:14

No, I don't like that. Or. He told you

1:04:16

no, no, No No. Ah,

1:04:19

Liam Rights and Ah Sahm! Out of my

1:04:21

friend group I'm the only one who is

1:04:24

a diehard wrestling say I have one question:

1:04:26

what would you recommend me to do to

1:04:28

make my friends like wrestling? Now's the perfect

1:04:30

time bro! Have you got friends

1:04:32

and you want your friend group to

1:04:34

get lake into wrestling? You. Gotta!

1:04:36

You gotta have much Royal

1:04:38

Rumble! Royal Rumble is

1:04:41

the easiest time in the world to

1:04:43

get your friends into wrestling and I

1:04:45

guarantee of it's a good Royal Rumble.

1:04:47

You'll have them on the hook until

1:04:49

Wrestlemania. And then

1:04:51

you Now. It's a crapshoot.

1:04:54

But. Get your friends over your house for Royal

1:04:57

Rumble, bet on the match, And here's how

1:04:59

you do it. Everybody. Puts

1:05:01

ah. Whatever. Everybody

1:05:03

puts money And five bucks. Ten bucks. Twenty bucks.

1:05:05

Whatever you want to do. If

1:05:07

you that ten friends over they each get

1:05:09

three names. If you get three friends over

1:05:12

they each get ten not name's numbers. They

1:05:14

get ten numbers. Whatever it is you know

1:05:16

everybody gets numbers. then. You.

1:05:19

Draw amount of a hat. So.

1:05:21

As you've got, you know, Ten.

1:05:23

Friends over you get three numbers drawn out of a

1:05:25

hat. To Ten and Thirteen

1:05:28

Or the numbers that I get. Whoever.

1:05:31

Gets the number to the person who

1:05:33

wins. Came in at Windsor Money now

1:05:35

Arabic gambling on it. Everybody's invested so

1:05:37

they're paying attention and people get to

1:05:39

pick their favorites. They get the farm

1:05:41

to wrestle mania. It's. The perfect

1:05:43

Ever. Aids Perfect. Everybody wins. Ah,

1:05:47

That's that's that's what I would do. If

1:05:50

I were you. this

1:05:53

one comes in from mark ah hey

1:05:55

sam the habs ah is you rule

1:05:57

out thank you very much mark i

1:05:59

appreciate that What's your name? Mark?

1:06:02

I saw you and the little guy at

1:06:04

MSG holiday event. Oh, that's fun. And

1:06:07

out of respect for you and the family and family time

1:06:09

didn't want to intrude. Oh, thank you, buddy. For

1:06:11

the record, you're the ultimate

1:06:13

pops. This is a great email.

1:06:16

Whatever you say, I agree with it. I've

1:06:19

been discussing a theory with friends and want

1:06:21

your take on Cody Rhodes. It goes without

1:06:24

saying that Stone Cold Steve Austin was the

1:06:26

first or at least the most memorable anti-hero

1:06:28

of our generation. In contrast,

1:06:30

an anti-villain or anti-heel

1:06:34

is a character who has heroic personality

1:06:36

traits but is ultimately the bad guy in

1:06:38

this story. Everything

1:06:41

about Cody from branding of

1:06:44

his name, American Nightmare and

1:06:46

American Flag Skull logo, the

1:06:49

kingdom theme music, the proclamation

1:06:52

of there not only being one royal

1:06:54

family in wrestling, to the

1:06:56

dashing suits, bleached blonde hair,

1:06:59

tour bus and chartered jet tweets, to

1:07:01

me present on the surface as a

1:07:03

heel, coupled with

1:07:06

Cody's loving, caring and genuine ultra

1:07:08

babyface mannerisms and traits alongside

1:07:10

the presentation to me screams

1:07:13

anti-heel. Everything about

1:07:15

this American Nightmare presentation, with

1:07:18

the exception of how he carries

1:07:20

himself, makes him an anti-heel. Part

1:07:22

of finishing the story, I passionately feel,

1:07:25

is Cody ultimately fulfilling the obvious that

1:07:27

has been in front of us all

1:07:29

along and perhaps eventually what will be

1:07:31

a very compelling heel Cody storyline. I

1:07:35

love that thought that

1:07:38

– and I agree with you – that

1:07:41

eventually Cody has to turn heel and

1:07:44

that the eventuality of Cody's story does

1:07:47

have him as a villain and

1:07:50

that maybe wanting to finish the story so badly

1:07:52

drives him to the point that he's a villain.

1:07:55

But it's interesting that the foundation of

1:07:58

that is already here. that

1:08:01

everything that makes him a heel is already

1:08:03

in front of us and one day we'll

1:08:05

stop cheering it and He'll

1:08:09

resent us for that Yeah,

1:08:12

I think it's possible I like I'm picking up what you're

1:08:14

putting down I like it I think it's fun I like

1:08:16

that. I like that observation

1:08:21

Let's see mark Is

1:08:24

a different mark what's your name mark? They

1:08:27

say I'm that oh, oh, it's the same email. Oh, I

1:08:29

guess you sent it to two different You

1:08:31

said it twice. This is Nicholas now.

1:08:33

Hi boss. So the last few weeks. I made you

1:08:35

read the rules in French You did well for a

1:08:37

first-timer. Thank you very much. Congratulations. But now I understand

1:08:39

why my language can be such a pain in the

1:08:41

ass to learn Now

1:08:44

on to the wild speculation of the week big E

1:08:46

returns at the rumble to begin a story with the

1:08:48

Judgment Day leading to The new day versus the Judgment

1:08:51

Day at mania for the title For

1:08:53

which title for tag team championship? I'm down

1:08:55

with that I'm

1:08:58

down with big E returning Man,

1:09:01

that would be wild, huh? I mean,

1:09:03

I don't know it's hard to book fantasy book big

1:09:05

E because you just don't know He's like the new

1:09:07

Randy Orton, but it'd be

1:09:10

really fun if that happened I'd be I'd be

1:09:12

all for it and it would be a great

1:09:14

space for the Judgment Day to be in that's

1:09:16

for sure Because isn't it interesting that like the

1:09:19

Judgment Day have been the top heels on

1:09:21

Raw for months And going

1:09:23

into WrestleMania all the planning for the top matches

1:09:25

have nothing to do with the Judgment Day And

1:09:28

we got Brock Lesnar probably coming back for the

1:09:30

Royal Rumble. We're not even talking about it. It's wild Rico

1:09:34

writes in just wanted to ask about Rollins. I

1:09:38

Personally feel terrible for his injury if

1:09:40

he's forced to vacate again If

1:09:42

he does I personally believe that the redemption arc

1:09:45

after being robbed of two WrestleMania main events by

1:09:47

injury Should have him in serious

1:09:49

contention to be the one to win the Royal

1:09:51

Rumble next year I don't know. I mean, that's

1:09:53

that's that's very wild speculation We'll probably be able

1:09:55

to talk about that more after we hear from

1:09:58

Rollins on Monday Night Raw Jacob

1:10:00

writes in, big fan of the show, just wanted to throw out

1:10:03

the idea, this will be the last email by the way, just

1:10:07

wanted to throw out the idea of Drew McIntyre

1:10:09

beating Damian Priest for the Money in the Bank

1:10:11

briefcase. We will

1:10:13

not be the last email. I'll do one

1:10:15

more after this, sorry. I think

1:10:18

McIntyre should be a bigger priority

1:10:21

and with Punk's return, I don't see where Priest

1:10:23

fits into the title picture moving forward. As

1:10:25

it just feels like he's a level below

1:10:28

Punk Rollins' McIntyre Cody. This

1:10:30

is all under the assumption that Rollins doesn't have to

1:10:32

vacate the title. But

1:10:34

even if he does, I feel like a Priest reign

1:10:36

will devalue the title. He's solid

1:10:38

but doesn't belong in current main event scene.

1:10:41

His feud possibilities below

1:10:43

Balor are just not

1:10:46

intriguing. I mean, listen, I

1:10:49

think that absolutely

1:10:51

Damian Priest, I think you're selling him

1:10:53

very short here. I think

1:10:55

switching the briefcase off him would be a huge

1:10:58

mistake. I don't think Drew McIntyre needs the briefcase

1:11:00

at all. I think that we

1:11:04

could easily see Damian Priest cash that

1:11:06

briefcase in the night after WrestleMania. I

1:11:10

think that CM Punk could leave WrestleMania

1:11:12

with the World Heavyweight title regardless of

1:11:14

the outcome with Seth Rollins. And I

1:11:16

believe that Priest could cash in on

1:11:18

Punk beating Punk for that title. I

1:11:21

believe that a backlash main event of

1:11:23

CM Punk versus Damian Priest would be

1:11:25

great. And I believe

1:11:27

that even if Damian Priest

1:11:29

only holds the title to backlash, I think

1:11:32

that that would be fine. And

1:11:34

I think that Drew McIntyre versus either

1:11:36

Priest or Punk coming off of backlash

1:11:38

for the title would be great. So

1:11:41

yeah, I don't have a problem with

1:11:44

– I know. I'm against it. I

1:11:46

think switching the briefcase would be a huge – it

1:11:49

would do real damage to Damian Priest,

1:11:51

real damage. Alright, this will be the

1:11:54

last email. This is from my man,

1:11:56

Raj in Queens. If Rollins is injured

1:11:58

– I'm not going to do it. I'm

1:12:00

gonna do one more email again. I can't do

1:12:02

another Rollins thing. But

1:12:04

this is still, I'm here for the wild speculation.

1:12:08

If Rollins is injured in any way, he

1:12:10

should drop the title and take some time to heal

1:12:12

up and rest. Well, if Rollins has an injury that

1:12:15

will be veteran six weeks, then

1:12:19

there's no reason for him to miss WrestleMania if

1:12:21

he doesn't have to miss WrestleMania. Like,

1:12:24

he shouldn't just take extra time just

1:12:26

because everyone knows

1:12:28

he's been a workhorse and a fighting champion. The

1:12:31

vacant title can be up for grabs at this

1:12:33

year's Rumble. Punk can win the title, and the

1:12:35

winner of the Elimination Chamber match can face Punk

1:12:37

at Mania, correct. Punk will retain

1:12:39

the title at Mania. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe

1:12:42

not if it's Cody. At

1:12:44

some point in the story arc,

1:12:46

Punk will have to turn heel, either before

1:12:49

or after Mania, not necessarily. Seth

1:12:51

can make his return and fight for the

1:12:53

title he never lost at SummerSlam or Survivor

1:12:55

Series. Punk's story is to main event Mania.

1:12:57

Seth versus Punk does not have to happen

1:12:59

at Mania. True.

1:13:03

Only if Seth is injured though. If Seth's not

1:13:05

injured, it should happen at Mania. All

1:13:10

right, this is the last one. When

1:13:12

do you think the men's tag team championship will

1:13:14

have its design changed? This isn't the last one.

1:13:16

I don't know, it doesn't matter. Okay,

1:13:19

here's a long one. Who's

1:13:22

this coming from? This

1:13:24

will be the last one. This is from Chad. Sam,

1:13:27

big fan of the show. Hate

1:13:29

waiting a full week between episodes. I appreciate

1:13:32

that, man. Here's my wild

1:13:34

speculation. With heavy rumors of

1:13:36

Seth, heavy rumors of

1:13:38

Seth with legitimate injuries, I'd love

1:13:40

to see Damian Priest cash in and

1:13:43

win the title on Raw. That's an interesting thought.

1:13:46

While Seth is announcing that

1:13:48

he's gotta vacate the title before he can actually

1:13:51

vacate, Damian Priest cashes in on him. That's

1:13:53

interesting. Adam

1:13:56

Pearce comes down and says, "'Seth made the world-heavy title

1:13:58

a fight.'" fighters

1:14:00

championship. Congratulations Damian on

1:14:02

your win. And

1:14:06

let you know you'll be defending the World Heavyweight title at

1:14:08

the Royal Rumble as the number one

1:14:10

entrant. That I hate. My

1:14:13

original thought was to have Damian beat down.

1:14:16

My original thought was to have Gunther beat down

1:14:18

Seth on Raw after Mania after

1:14:22

losing his title a la

1:14:24

Bane breaking Batman's back and

1:14:26

Damian cashing in on Punk. Yeah

1:14:30

I don't know. I mean

1:14:32

but this roaming goes on to face Rocket Knight

1:14:34

2. Winner

1:14:37

of the Rumble faces the

1:14:39

winner of the Chamber on Knight 1. That's

1:14:41

overly complicated. Oh no no no. Oh

1:14:44

no no no. That's fine. That's fine.

1:14:46

That's fine. I thought you meant the

1:14:48

title was still vacant. That's fine. As

1:14:51

the first entrant, Damian has a

1:14:53

strong and long credible showing until

1:14:55

he's eventually eliminated by Finn Balor. Damian

1:14:59

goes ape at ringside and this leads

1:15:02

to a good blood feud at Mania.

1:15:05

A returning Brock Lesnar eliminates

1:15:07

Gunther setting up their encounter.

1:15:11

Fine with that. Punk eliminates

1:15:13

Cody to win his first Rumble

1:15:16

guaranteeing his Mania main

1:15:18

event. Cody wins the Chamber where

1:15:20

they already have background. The

1:15:23

rest of the card is tough but I'd love to see the

1:15:25

following. Dominik vs. R-Truth

1:15:27

retirement match. That's crazy. Nobody's

1:15:29

ready to retire there. I see ladder

1:15:31

match Gunther vs. Sammy vs. Drew vs.

1:15:34

Kofi. Kofi? Why wouldn't you have

1:15:36

Brock vs. Gunther? You just said you're setting up Gunther

1:15:38

vs. Brock. You forget already? U.S.

1:15:42

title triple KO vs. LA vs.

1:15:44

AJ Styles. Oh you got

1:15:46

KO beating Logan Paul already. Jay

1:15:49

vs. Jimmy I'm with you. Finn vs.

1:15:51

Damian I get how you got there. Oh

1:15:53

this is why. Logan Paul vs. Randy Orton.

1:15:56

In a Philadelphia ECW reunion

1:15:58

segment after WrestleMania. You did a

1:16:00

long email. I'd love to see raw

1:16:02

kickoff The tournament

1:16:05

for a new cruiserweight type. Okay. All right enough of

1:16:07

that No,

1:16:10

I think that you're much better off Having

1:16:14

the Royal Rumble be for a vacant title

1:16:16

than having Damien Priest have to defend at

1:16:18

the Rumble that would make Damien look I

1:16:22

don't like that at all, but I appreciate the

1:16:24

email and I appreciate all you guys emailing

1:16:26

in It's always good to hear from you

1:16:28

not Sam [email protected]. Don't forget to go to

1:16:30

not Sam calm Click the links

1:16:33

in the top one will get

1:16:35

you to get tickets to the live show Friday

1:16:37

before the Rumble It is going to be absolutely

1:16:39

epic. Make sure you are there live Friday

1:16:42

January 26th Tampa Sidesplitters

1:16:45

comedy club our truth Samantha

1:16:48

Ervin DJ who kid myself

1:16:51

and more guests yet to be announced who may

1:16:53

or may not be a surprise as

1:16:56

well as The not Sam

1:16:58

wrestling merch available now for a limited time

1:17:00

only available for the next week go to

1:17:02

not Sam shirts calm to get that or

1:17:04

click the link at the top of not

1:17:07

Sam calm and We'll

1:17:09

see you soon Here

1:17:12

and and and and all over the

1:17:14

place Royal Rumble weekend Who

1:17:17

knows what the world will look like? Post

1:17:19

Rumble next week. I'm not

1:17:21

Sam wrestling