CM Punk vs Johnny Gargano: SmackDown 9/4/26 Review | RASD

0:00as if they don't have too much on their face. The Kings of Combat's Boast podcast need the way. They're talking about the things they did that day. They let it let the work of Triple H. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. We want to smack down. And welcome everybody listening on our free feeds over at youtube.com slash post-rustling or Apple podcast Spotify. Stitcher. I don't think that exists anymore. Like, do you have a podcast? Do they have a podcast thing? Do you do music? You can move. That's it. Yeah, that sort of stuff. Yeah, I can prove it. Neil, OK. I'll pull up the app store anyway. So welcome everybody to the free side. We just spent a good chunk of time here. Neil and I talking about, well, Neil Flanagan's week. And what a busy week it was for him. Unfortunately, it didn't make it to London, but we did get an update on plenty in the life of Mr. Flanagan here.

1:03But we also spent some time talking about the day's top stories. And they include, well, some very unfortunate news, WWE's latest NXT roster cuts. As of 1046, we had a fuller list than what we had this earlier this evening. Thanks to us on our separate fightful. So to spoke a little bit about maybe some of the warm notable names that were on that list, including Adriana Brizzo, Wendy Chu, Jasper Troi, Dave Meltzer suggesting that all in may have set AEW's paper review record. We speak a little bit about that and maybe some of the confusion in difficulty and maybe acquiring some actual heart stats when it comes to paper review numbers these days. And also, John Cena's latest comments talking about his retirement year, heel run. Was it a success? Was it a financial success? I guess we could say so. Was it a creative success? Well, we'll see what we discuss what John Cena had to say about that one. Neil, tonight's edition of SmackDown comes to us from Cleveland, Ohio.

2:03Of course, this was where Raw was also taped. This was recorded last Friday. From the Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, Russell Tix had this had about 10,363 tickets out. And as the crew maybe enjoys some final days of summer, as they get set for Sunday night's main event, we are presented with, well, has this like sort of series of tape shows? Has it had any sort of like, has it made any sort of difference to you? Have you noticed a difference in the quality of the shows? What's your experience been? I think broadly, yes, because they know that spoilers will get out for those who want to see them. I think their safer shows for the most part. I did catch up, of course, with everything that happened last week. Some of it is going into the show, knowing that it's a tape show, and knowing which matches are on there, because they're hard to kind of avoid, even if you're trying to avoid some of the more angle stuff or results.

3:08But yeah, I think there is a difference between a tape show, particularly one where there's a week removed between, you know, it happening and us seeing it. I thought there was some post-production on this show as well. I was kind of listening for it, because normally it feels like they don't bother, but in some of the backstage segments, I'm certain there was some crowd sweetening this week, curious to hear where you may have, you know, where you may be accusing them of sweetening the audio a little bit. Did you read the spoilers ahead for this one? Not much. I saw bits and pieces. I don't actively see them out. And a bit like John, if I come across something, it doesn't just kind of ruin my experience of these shows. So yeah, I knew a bit, but not in full detail. I didn't seek out out ahead of time. I wanted to get proper reaction, you know. For me, I was curious enough to at least like see what people were posting about. And I thought it caught some attention that CM Punk, Russell Jarni Gardano, on the show.

4:10I thought like, in that sense, to me, that's really great matchmaking in that number one, it's Cleveland, of course, so that makes sense. But number two, I think it built anticipation. Like because you read that result, you read that that match. And even if you know the outcome of it, you're still interested in seeing it. I'm still interested in seeing like what that match looks like, how the audience sounds, you know, responding to Jarni Gardano in his hometown. So in that sense, like I do wonder if there's some intentionality in booking a tape show with heavily anticipated surprise to it, yeah, regardless. All right, we start things off here with Gunther, who comes out here, and he calls Sammy Zayn out for, of course, DQ and the number one contenders match last week. Although it wasn't even a DQ as a Jordan Goodman sort of pointed out. Can I weigh in on this very briefly? Well, I'm with Jordan. I hear that finish last week. I think that a triple threat match famously has no DQs.

5:12And no kind to it. So these three were to believe were dead. You know, no one was able to recover in time to like crawl on top of another to get a pen. I really did like that. The visual of Sammy with the belt at the end, a good visual to end the show. But yeah, logically, it just left a lot to be desired. So Gunther calls Sammy out and Sammy shows up in the crowd. He, well, he says his hand is still injured and he's not cleared. He asked Gunther first or he asked the audience for some perspective. He tells Gunther that he's not the victim. Sammy is because he should still be WWE champion. The champion should be a good guy. And instead it's CM Punk as the crowd chance for CM Punk, of course. Sammy just wants a title match and complains about not being included last week. He tells Gunther that there will be no more number one contenders matches until he gets his, nobody gets theirs until he gets his no justice, no peace. He says Gunther threatens to attack him, but here comes Finn Balor who rushes into the crowd.

6:13He traces Sammy down to the ring, but outcomes Kevin Owens down the ramp and he traces Sammy out of the arena. So at this point, CM Punk and Nick all this watch back stage, all this is sick of not having any number one contenders because of Sammy. We need a number one contender, but Sammy's ain't keeps ruining this. What are we going to do? So CM Punk has an idea. He walked past Johnny Gorgano, Catatonic Johnny Gorgano, depressed Johnny Gorgano, and he pumped Gorgano up about being Cleveland's favorite son and offers him a WWE championship match tonight. Gorgano does not react at first, but after Punk threatens to leave, he stands up and he says, let's do it. So that's our main event tonight. Johnny Gorgano versus CM Punk. Did you expect this to happen in what were your thoughts on the way all of this unfolded? It would be better surprise if I hadn't seen online that this was going to happen tonight, but it was a very interesting way to go about it.

7:14I thought something different. It puts an end at last to this month's long Catatonic Johnny Gorgano thing, which we assume. We don't know. You could go back to this the very next week. Please no. Well, he lost here. He'll fall deeper into the pressure. He could, I guess. Well, there's something to look out for. Where does Johnny go from here? Maybe a feud with Ricky Stark, if they can find him or something like that. But yeah, I don't think he's going into any title matches again anytime soon. But I mean, as a full on opening to the show right from Gontar, I think that was, that was entered. And it was entertaining. Sammy, this, this chase of all these four who can't stand each other was good. I mean, there's a little bit of a logic gap with, you know, you've got your GM backstage who's powerless. You know, oh, God, I can't think of anything to do.

8:15And Punks just like, hmm, look over there. Johnny Gorgano is lying there. He'll do, you know, kind of. But look, they showed the seat in fairness to them. They showed some seats for this really right from when Punk arrived on Smackdown in July after winning the title from Zeyn on the, on the wall that week, where one of his first interactions was with Johnny and, and Candace, like, what are you doing? You know, and he has had a couple of interactions since. So I guess as a, as a last, if we take this as Punk really wanting to G up somebody he thinks is a really talented wrestler to get back into action. And this was his big thing to dangle in front of a title opportunity and it worked. Yeah, fair play. Although I don't think that was Punks intent here because I mean, as Kevin Owens suggested later on, I mean, he thinks Punk is simply doing all of this to lure Sammy Zeyn out, right? Which he Punk kind of confirmed pretty much later on.

9:17So does it make sense, you know, like in this sort of like, like world of pseudo sport, where we would assume like, stringing along a number of wins should corner, corner championship match, of course not. But I also don't, I don't care that much. I don't expect like personally, I don't expect that level of like rankings, you know, sort of like sports storytelling out of WWE. I just kind of want to see some cool matches and like they offered to me a pretty compelling match tonight for our main event. So we got Alex and Charlotte in the back. They are supposed to team tonight, but instead Alexa has put Tatum in her place as a bonding exercise. Tatum is excited because it means when she tags Charlotte and they their skin will be touching. She says Charlotte is not enthused, but goes along with it. So we get her match. Tatum packs Lee and Charlotte versus fatal influence. After the break with fatal influence dominating here, Charlotte tags in successfully and then

10:21packs Lee tags in delivering a nice high cross to the floor onto both heels. This prompts a Tatum chant from the crowd. Tatum is about to go for the figure four, but she's interrupted by Jane who gets taken out by Alexa Bliss. Meanwhile, Laney Reed is left alone in the ring, cemetery drive then gives packs Lee and Charlotte the win. All weeks now into Tatum packs Lee's main roster debut. What would you say about her call up so far and also what would you think about all of this? I think it's been hidden mess. It's been a bit sort of up and down. I think her, I've said this before on this show, her debut, we both, I think on the debut with the light side and all of that, the Lily doll was very effective. The crowd knew she was. That big dive that she did, she replicated again tonight from the ring post is a big impressive move. She's a very good worker and I think that they, I'll also say I like the cemetery drive. It's a cool looking finisher.

11:23Also I quite enjoyed this match, such as it was. I continued to enjoy Laney and Fallon as a tag team. I think they're great heels. Tatum and Charlotte made a decent team. There wasn't much not to like about this. Tatum got a lot of shine from it. That was clearly part of the point. Yeah, several weeks and I feel safe in saying that I think this has been a solid introduction for Tatum so far. I think she's being portrayed as, to me, the most interesting personality of the crew. She is made to look like the person we should be focused on. She's not just blending into the background, not just maybe a side character. She's the character of the unit right now. I thought in rain they continue to give her spots to make her feel, again, similarly, like the star, right? Or at least like the person that we should be paying attention to. She got the most impressive and memorable spot in the match with that high cross, which she does really well and they're very smart to continue to let her do that.

12:23These crowds are cheering her name. That tells the office that what they are doing is successful in that these crowds are gravitating towards her. It's not just one city. It's not just for the debut. Now it's across various parts of the country. I think they've done a good job integrating her into the main roster, making her stand out. I also think she just, to me, has like a, I've spoken about this, but like a real likeability about her that I think feels immediate and they're at least not stifling it in any way, with their presentation of her. They're letting it come out and her charm will do the rest. I hope so. I mean, in ring, I think there's, that's been the highlights for me so far. I think I have some issues with this odd, odd, thruple thing with Charlotte and Alexa and her in the backstead segments. Some of those have been a bit of a mess, but you know, having her attached to Charlotte and Alexa to the bigger stars in the company, this seems to be working. It's working for the life crowd anyway.

13:25Afterwards Jade and the baddies attack, the baddies hit the BTA too, Charlotte. Do you know what the, what BTA stands for? I've looked it up before and didn't get a, didn't get a status factor in the answer. A few weeks ago, they hit the BTA and I don't know what it is. Okay. Maybe somebody in the beat that ass. It's beat that ass actually. Beat that ass. Okay. I remember actually somebody's, they might have revealed it on screen. Okay. There we go. So they hit the beat that ass. I think like to be BDA, like beat that ass would be better. I think John made a joke that like shouldn't it be a, a move that like actually attacks the ass? Definitely a true dude. Yeah. Okay. So it's, they hit the beat that ass to Charlotte. Jade delivers Jade and we get our trio of spanish, of course, on Sunday in Jade's hometown. Your anticipation for this one? Not huge, but I mean, the post match was pretty much mandatory and going into Sunday's match. But I feel we'll probably, you know, we'll get into a deeper, maybe preview of Sunday

14:27Night's Mean Event later. But yeah, I feel it'll probably sort of mostly for a Jade and Charlotte program among maybe other things. Yeah. As Neil mentioned, we'll probably go through the, well, very limited card of Sunday Night's Mean Event. But we'll give some of our preview and predictions to in the Excel edition a little bit later on here. We go to the back where Nikki Bella is able to speak, talking to Kathy Kelly. And this is where, well, page quickly in Trump's, by the way, I mean, I don't know where they're finding spots to like do these interviews. But clearly they're not very private because I feel like in every backstage interview we've had on this show, they are interrupted by the person that the, the interviewee is talking about. So, um, Yes, this isn't the last time on the show either. Yeah, we know we know, we know, we don't share that by somebody who just sort of seems

15:28to be like a couple of yards away. Yeah. Like what we're really saying is like, you know, they're going to rely on this sort of trope in their writing, right? Like we know, A.W. has like a real, like Tony Khan has a real version to the invisible camera. Therefore, you, you may get instances like this where like there's just, there's no reason for the interviewer to be there other than to justify the existence of a camera capturing this interaction. And this is similar. Um, I think they really overthink it and it just kind of makes all of this feel really artificial or like maybe it's just one, actually, just like one big room and like anybody doing an interview, you could hear, oh, she's talking about me. I'm stepping to like, you know, two feet away. I'm going to interrupt this. So page interrupts here. Um, first of all, Nikki Bella, she's changing her look up a bit, you know, like, um, like what eyeshadow, yeah, smokey eyes going here. Yeah. Smokey eyes, you know, hair up because like she's evil now, you know, so that means hair

16:29up and some smokey smokey eyes. She says page failed the Bella brand and called her a degrade skank. Wow. I mean, I couldn't believe this. This is too much. Not like those a grade skanks, you know, like, you know, like that, that I'm sure all skanks are aspire to be. She called her a degrade skank here. Um, she says, it's what I call you way. You know, I'm at least a C grade skank, okay? Neil, all right. A plus. Come on. What do you think? Thank you. Um, so she's, so Nikki says, page doesn't have passion for this. She has more passion behind closed doors. What, what is it? So what is she saying here? Like she's passionate in the bedroom. Is that what she thinks? That's what I took from this was some, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with being a passionate lover? How's that, how's that meant? I think it was, I might be overthinking it, but if it could be a some kind of backhanded reference

17:35to the sex tape, I don't know. Uh, but you know, just what degrades gang is, is it supposed to prefer to as well? I guess, you know, yeah. So that's where we are. That's the level we are sort of like, you know, solving around here. But not to be outdone page steps in. I don't listen to what page says. Page says, um, she realized Nikki hasn't liked her since day one. And you know why? Because I built my career on hustle, loyalty and respect. Oh, baby girl, baby girl isn't, isn't Nikki older than Nikki's definitely older. But she is. I like it. In Mexico city, she says, which is next week, you better bring it because I'm going to end your career quicker than your last relationship. So I mean, oh, line. Yeah. Yeah. I hated this way. I just thought it was just so, so try hard to get the, to get the ooze from the, from the crowd.

18:40I think the line about the last relationship, I feel in universe is supposed to be seen. But for those of us who know, Nikki's last relationship was hard and all of that was actually in real life. A very horrible breakup with some legal issues and all the rest of it. Well, I am not clutching my pearls, but I just thought this was all so shit. I don't think that I think she was exactly referring to that. Like, cause you do. Okay, she went there. Well, it's not like in, there's any sort of like, there's no sort of in universe, like restriction to, you know, these sort of comments, right? Like page of sex tape is not in universe. That's right. Um, like, paint, they were looking here for, I think the lowest common denominator of insult to, to throw at each other. And knowing that this is the match, taking place, what this is taking place next week, they haven't really had a ton of time to, I guess, like, have face to face interaction with it.

19:42They probably felt that need to like, let's, let's bring out our best material. And sadly, they felt their best material was attacking one or at least like throwing reference to page of sex tape or Nicky's failed relationships, either with John C. No, or worse, as you mentioned, Neil, you know, with her ex husband, or, or at least soon to be, I don't even know that, you know, resulted in a really ugly sort of like domestic violence or rest, right? So I, they were definitely like waiting in trash a little too much in an attempt to gain interest and I felt very obvious. And it just kind of, to me, reeks of like, people who aren't really confident in their ability to drum up interest in other ways. Absolutely. I mean, it is possible to do a one or two week build to a match that gets heat behind it. This was one of the worst attempts at it that I've seen lately.

20:43I mean, okay, okay, one punk part of me was one of the best attempts at FC. Not really. So we've had, we've had this spectrum over the last few weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's not to say you can't get into like, work, shoot, even like, you know, if we're talking about relationship. But I do think there's some territory that like requires at least a little bit more finesse and a lot more time before you can really kind of like, tastefully, even reference, you know, some of these things that have happened. Anyway, so that is the match take place next week in Mexico City. September on the post wrestling cafe, we're going to be presenting two editions of rewind away as we go back to February of 1997 to review the in your house final four pay per view. Then we're coming back to chat the slammy awards of 1996. Plus this month there's several big shows and we will have reviews of triple mania both nights from Las Vegas and from Mexico City. Plus it's CMLL's 93rd anniversary with John Pollock running down that card.

21:46Plus UFC 331, New Japan's destruction and Kobe book club and so much more including the XL versions of rewind a raw dynamite and Smackdown. Join now at post wrestling cafe.com. Then we go to Aldous and Gunther in the back. Gunther says Aldous has had a taste of the line light in his match with him at summer slam. Now he's trying to steal attention away by making silly decisions like giving a title shot to Johnny Carcano. Aldous says take it up with punk because I guess I'm seeing podcast, you know, abilities to call his own matches here in universe. Dan has and then comes into interrupt Gunther again, but Gunther tells him to never touch him. So what do you think they're building to here with Gunther and Dan housing? I'm really no idea the Dan, the Dan house integration into Gunther's universe is I find a bit puzzling because the Dan house integration in general has been done played. Of late. Generally across both shows. We've particularly had the complete dropping of his lab and his experiments and the body under the sheet and all of that.

22:49So I don't know where this is going because a rivalry with an in ring rivalry between these two doesn't seem like a, like a thing. I did though enjoy Gunther's logic here. There was some reasoning behind it, you know, I know what it is. You got a taste of the line light, you know, in your big match with me and now you're addicted and you want, you know, to call attention to yourself with these crazy decisions. I really like Gunther and his delivery. There's something about the accent. It even put me in mind very slightly although their characters are very different of tackless. So there's something about these Austrians they deliver they deliver well. Yeah, who would have thought like two of the best promos in either company right now are are Austrians. So the Austrians are killing her on the mic. Absolutely. So I can I see the appeal of putting them on screen together. You have one who is the most maybe off the wall character you have on your roster. And one of the guys who presents himself as the most serious or uptight, right?

23:53And in that combination, I think it could result in some fun comedy. I can also see a situation where like maybe Gunther beats up Danhausen to prompt a bigger person to come to Danhausen's aid. Who that bigger person is? I mean, I don't know. Could it be the clone? Could it be this like, you know, Frankenstein that that Danhausen has been working on this whole time or could it be somebody else? For those reasons, maybe I can see this, you know, have be existing for those reasons. At the same time, it's like, man, Gunther retired Goldenberg. Yes. Tired John Cena retired H.A. And who would have thought like it by September he'd be sort of like so far off from the title picture, you know? And I can understand maybe they're saving him for WrestleMania, but still I wouldn't have expected that journey to take this long. You know, like at least long enough in time for him to have a Danhausen feud in the middle of it. So I do wonder if they are like really kind of like risking, you know, the great value they built into Gunther by dragging it out this long

25:01by having him viewed with like comedy figures in that time. Nick called us not to say that was a waste of time, but like it certainly is staring, you know, Gunther away from the path. How long is he going to spend fighting the GM for a title shot versus actually fighting a champion? How long can you hold that off before the audience loses interest, you know? Exactly. He is in this holding pattern at the moment, which feels wrong for this character and the build and the steam that was put behind him up tonight. And I think it talks, it speaks to the number of big players in the on the men's side who are in Smackdown at the moment hovering around the title. There's so many and even adjacent to the title, Cody and Randy is, which we'll get to, I mean, they're even there. Their ultimate desire is to get back to the title. Randy wants number 14, you know, this stipulation that they can't touch each other or they'll never get a title shot again. And then the four in Sami and Ben and, you know, you kicked off the show Gunther all want the title to.

26:05So it almost feels like the main event scene is almost too stacked on Smackdown. I wouldn't be averse to a little transplantation if I were looking at Raw at the moment, thinking, oh, certainly, to any of these guys maybe on Smackdown. So it is a really stacked scene, but Gunther should be at the very top. Yeah, he shouldn't go through it. And so I feel like they're in it. I would say the same about overfemming. So it feels like on Raw, they have two very dominant threats right now to everybody that they are holding off because they know once they hold when the championship, then they shouldn't be able to lose it. But they are really having to justify why they aren't winning the championship. In the case of overfemming, they had them win the ring and then take it away. Like stupidly, that made absolutely no sense. And not to heart back, not to keep harping on the main event from last week, but the weakest belt shot was the over sort of over the back of the head one from Sami to Gunther. And that took him out. And that's like, that's crazy, especially when we get to tonight's main event and what happened with the belt shot.

27:09It just led to a two-point. Well, Gunther should not be laid out by an overhead belt shot. In both of their cases, to me, it feels very obvious they're waiting for WrestleMania season to actually do serious story, telling with them. But I'm much happier with the effort they're making with Obafemi and keeping his appearances rather limited and serious. In fused with Brock Lesnar or Obafemi, not looking silly, getting victimized in these sort of DQ matches, arguing with Sami Zayn or Dan Housen. So I think they're risking things with Gunther here. Yep. We go to the ring where Nick Alders is with Dr. Woodruff here. Would you think of this Dr. Woodruff? First of all, do you think he's a real doctor? He may be, because his performance was that of someone who's not a professional performer. He absolutely could be a member of the crew that they got to do that.

28:11This felt really quite old school. This sort of felt mid-2000s to me to have this like, Rondo in the ring to deliver these rather stilted lines. I feel he would probably have as much qualification as the NXT doctor or Ariel Schner for the LLTNA. So at this point, he's here to talk to us about the state of Chelsea Green's injury. And this is when Chelsea Green arrives. And she cuts another very spirited babyface speech about wanting to defend her title as a champion. Similar to the material she, you don't deliver two weeks ago. Or was it three weeks ago at this point, I forgot. She realizes she has a bullseye on her face, but she's waited 13 years for this championship. And she's willing to let people try to take it from her if they think it's that easy. She's not worried about her safety. She's concerned about her legacy. All this says it's not up to him anymore and puts it onto the doctor to deliver his, well, statement. Dr. Woodruff says her bone isn't fully healed, but it's healing. And as long as Chelsea keeps wearing the mask, then she can compete. And outcome, Naya and Lash.

29:13Naya, of course, is very happy to hear about this because she's been waiting for her championship match. And knows that she, this was her green light. She threatens to break Chelsea Green's other orbital bone as she doesn't get her shot. So outcome, Stephanie Stratton just to kind of rescue her friend from the two on one, her vulnerable friend for the two on one, we should mention. And then all this makes the match for next week in Mexico City, but she, but he also makes Tiffany Stratton versus Naya Jackson for right now. So yeah, go. I thought this was an uptick for Chelsea. After a couple of weeks after the initial promo where, you know, where she sort of carried the entire opening of the show three weeks ago. Was it three or two? Three. I bought anyway, you know what I'm talking about. And then there was a bit of a dip. And I quite like this slight switch of gears from being very emotional to actually being much more kind of hard headed about it all. She's not, you know, she's I'm not begging. There'll be no waterworks this week. Cleveland's getting an extremely pissed off.

30:15WWE Women's Champion. Don't you dare take this from me. All of those lines I thought I kind of like that, you know, it's showing a bit of fire. I'm delivering it well because this is one thing that Chelsea Green's very good at. Yeah, I've been very pleasantly surprised at like how comfortable and how I think like strong. She sounded as this baby face defiant baby face voice, you know. Like she to me is finally able to play into I think what the crowd thinks of her as like the, you know, underdog who has never been given her flowers now that she has, she's going to fight with everything to be able to protect it. This has this like orbital injury has actually been wonderful for her. I think they've kind of missed out over the past couple weeks. It's been three weeks by the way. I had to look it up myself. In being able to like just kind of build on that and I understand the limitations with her in ring. But I just want to hear her talk a lot more in this voice. And we got a little bit of that today. The material was very much the same.

31:16This felt kind of like a redo of like, you know, three weeks ago, but except like, you know, with the, with the, like even with the clearance actually, like this. This didn't really give us any information. She's been able to compete with the mask anyway. So what is the doctor here to like actually say? Yeah, he's just saying things you can't even change. Yeah, okay. I suppose the idea is last week, Nia's attack may have, you know, they need to reassess her after the okay. Anyway, so Tiffany Stratton versus Nia Jax is our next match in Stratton. Well, after, goes for the PME in last distracts her. There's, there's much more match before this. I'm just not really recapping, but the finish comes as Stratton goes for the PME. Last distracts her leaving tonight, delivering the annihilator. But the match itself, there wasn't that much more match because outside of the commercial breaks, I mean, this was relatively simple and a lot more brief than you would expect for a Tiffany Stratton, you know, Nia Jax match. And, you know, Stratton has taken these losses, which I think is,

32:18are coming a little bit more easier than been usual. But I do think it makes sense because like she, she is here having to, you know, fight Chelsea's battles for her. And she's not as effective anymore. And that, of course, is going to lead to her being driven so much to the edge that she will eventually lose it on Chelsea. You know, yeah. I think so too. Yeah, she's taking these losses. And I think that was that will play into this longer storyline of frustration beginning to build with Tiffany that I think we suspect will lead to the, the eventual turn. So I don't mind that this match was was pretty brave. And it puts over Nia, you know, was the monster again, ahead of next week. In Chelsea, Green, wearing a mask in Mexico. That's right. Yeah. Will she will, will she will a full wear a full which adore? No, I don't think so either the women really don't do that. So afterwards, Nia takes Chelsea's mask and Chelsea is able to just go up there to,

33:19I guess, get her to give it back. So, that's it. There's that. In the back, we get Kevin Owens who speaks to and what who has an interview. And Owens expects suspects, CM Punk, agreed to this match because he wants to draw Sam. He's in out to the ring. And he essentially says, whenever that happens, I will be there as well. We have this pre-recorded interview with Cody in Randy Orton that takes place somewhere in the back. And you know, this is immediately again, interrupted by Randy Orton, who is going to be there. Well, they must have a rundown somewhere telling everybody about these locations because these guys just immediately step in. It's not even like mid-air interview. Like they barely get a word in. It's like, Corey, you're talking about it. You're talking about it. Corey is on this and he gets maybe a sense. I think it's like, hey Cody, how do we get here? And Andy just walks in. Again, he's talking back in the year Cody Rhodes. Again, it just, like, you know, reads to me,

34:21like it's just the justification for why there happens to be this beautiful lighting setup in these high 4K cameras, you know, capturing this interaction. Orton basically continues the promo from last week and reiterates, you know, the some of the material he delivered to. Was it two weeks ago now? No, it was last week. Last week. He tries to get Cody to hit him again. And he does this with like very much the same energy that he had last week's promo. He also reveals that, oh, it turns out, Farrow isn't dead, but he's close. He's what he said, right? I hope that's not true. I mean, I hope he's not close. I hope Farrow is very healthy and very much alive. Orton says Cody, he knows will not hit him. And he says that means Cody cares more about the title than he does about his own family, because he won't defend his own family with these verbal attacks. He calls Cody an addict for the championship and he calls him sick. Cody simply stands up and says, sick. Everybody thinks I am. But if they're right, then you're screwed.

35:23So yeah, this to me felt no more, I would say like, important, nor did it really sort of build on the tension of last week. It just kind of like this, in effect, this was almost just a recap of what they did last week, but in a different condensed form, I feel. That's exactly what it was. It was a retread of last week's promo, except in a different setting. Dad said, they thought really good chemistry, these two together, the cold man and the viper. And that should be the basis of the fear. Do you call me this stupid nickname? It's a stuff calling me not for years. At it. And Ronnie does look genuinely intimidating. The size of the sky and with the camera sort of up there and he performs well, you know. He's pretty magnetic in this incarnation, as to say, the chemistry is there. As performance, as performers, they feel very invested in this. And I think that comes through.

36:24And it does further this harder edge to Cody that we're all expecting, and which I argues is desperately needed for the character. But nothing particularly new compared to his last week. I really like last week's segment because I thought, well, like I thought both were terrific. I thought Cody's comeback was really strong. I do think this promise of like a more harder edge sick Cody road. I am curious to see how they display it in the match itself. And I hope it's a lot more than just like him threatening to use a steel chair or something. Like I or holding a championship and like, debating whether or not he should be able to use it. I hope it's a bit more than his hands. Yeah. All right. Let's go to trick and yachty there in the back. And yachty says he's been training all week. And to this, he plays a music video to show trick of his training. And well, it's a music video here, you know, like shot like, like I would say maybe, you know, cliche rap video with a strobe lighting.

37:27He's in the ring and instead of training, of course, he's drinking champagne. There are women there just to dance with him. And he's throwing money around and he sits in front of an ice bath. And instead of going into it, he pulls champagne out of it. So there's also a new song here that he, I believe he made for this called Baron Boring. So yeah. Yeah. This is where I felt there was some audio sweetening going on. Because the crowd seemed to be so into this. I was like, well, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's mildly entertaining. But I don't know that it's, it deserves kind of, I'm hearing actually laughter here during the point. Where he has it on screen for, for our visual consumers, where the women are fanning this tired man with, with wads of money. And I could audibly hear the crowds reacting to this, which is just felt unusual. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe never. I, I imagine like the sort of like enjoyment out of this would, would probably be a lot stronger

38:28if you're like a fan of yachty and, and you're like, see this rapper in this situation on WWTV. Like if it was, I don't know, like somebody that I was used to seeing out of this world, in this world doing this, I, I'd probably enjoyed a lot more than I did. As it existed, I thought it was like a fine, you know, psych gag. But to me, it didn't land as hard as maybe, you know, was intended for others. So, uh, trick to this is concern about yachty slacking. And this is when Baron Corbin shows up in Tells him. He's making this into a joke. They, of course, talk trash a little bit. Corbin tells trick that you're only chance to regain this championship, relies on this guy. So that is our match, potentially matches on Sunday. Yeah. So once again, Baron is a yard or so away. Here's his name, some point on books into shot. So that's nearly every backstead segment so far. I did notice too that the belt is still furry, despite, um,

39:30Baron two weeks ago telling us he didn't have the belt because it was a way being having a haircut. So if that doesn't perhaps telegraph the result on Sunday, um, you know, he's never bothered to have this belt altered, despite saying he would, on the night he won it. And then saying it was going to have a haircut two weeks ago. I think this is the belt from now on. I think every champion who wins it from this point on is, is going to have this one. And it's been good on to look a bit afraid. Yeah, this really does spell title change, especially, um, like you don't go through Yachty surviving the five minutes to have the match for trick to lose. At least I don't think so. It would also be trick losing for like a third time against Corbin, which I, sure. Like because like what the stipulation is, if what you can't challenge me again, if you lose or something like that. Oh wait, no, if Yachty doesn't survive, you can't challenge me again. Yeah. So I guess Yachty could win trick or lose again and could challenge him again some of the way, but I just don't see them doing that. You know, I don't either. All right, up next is our match between Kit Wilson, the Miz and the day viewing

40:35Bucksai. They start things off here. By the way, this is, um, the 20th anniversary of the Miz's WWE debut. At least the 20, the week of his WWE debut. So that is tremendously impressive because not many people last that long. And he's probably made a lot of money in that time. So, you know what that has? Because we thought video packages are that policy lives in. That's right. Okay. You know what? Um, so I don't know if your version had this Neil, but like, they start things off here with Bucksai, uh, by showing a video of them backstage. And I did not have subtitles across. Same. Didn't have subtitles. That video was all this blur. So that was confusing on a visual level. And there were no subtitles. And I think there was some. I'm just going to have to say I'd broken English in amongst it, which was really difficult for me to pick up even on a slight, uh,

41:36rewatch, but on the, on the Netflix feed that we got, they were, they were, they were no subtitles. Because that was my main complaint about this. I'm watching this on Netflix. There are no subtitles. And like, I could, I'm sorry, not understand what they were talking about at all. Like I'm hearing this stuff stuff, stuff about, about explosions. And I imagine like so, WWE.com has uploaded a version of what subtitles. And I'm not sure if on USA, whether or not this actually aired with subtitles, or whether or not it's like a Netflix thing because they have those uptattles. I don't know. I'm not sure, but I could have really used this. And like, I'm scrolling through this, looking through it. And I'm, I'm trying to read here what they're actually saying here. They say what we do is an art. The exquisite defeat of our opponents is an art. We bring colors, expression, individuality, and complete destruction. We have an explosion of energy. I wish John was here to be a madness that we will no longer keep inside.

42:39Tonight, we are acting on our impulses. We are Bacchusai. Okay. So not helping matters is the fact that no human being would ever talk this way. Much less shinsuke Nakamura norho wo romu takahashi. So not only did they give him some of the most convoluted, you know, this side of Alistair Black scripting or words that sound pretty, but me nothing. They've had two people that are still like relatively inexperienced, you know, what we could say in the English language, deliver it. This was, this was very ineffective in my opinion. Yeah. I was left totally baffled, as I said, because what you've just read, beautifully way, was missing from our least our broadcast in subtitle form. So I didn't know what was going on. I'm not sure that having those. Do you understand it anymore with subtitles? I was about to say, it's basically the sort of we are chaos.

43:42We are this we are that kind of weird ass promo that used to get sometimes from the riots. Used to get from Alistair Black. It's you're just left at the end of it going okay. I understand her, oh, Takahashi. Way more without subtitles when he's speaking just in those backstage interviews, like just yelling about some craziness, you know, because he is able to talk and bring an energy that you know what he means. You know what? And somehow you're incredibly captivated. You do not get that here, you know. So yeah, that was very disinported by all of this. So then we get the entrance here and the any thoughts on the music or the entrance itself, which is like to me one of the more intriguing parts of the presentation. I quite enjoy it. It'll take me a while to get used to that really not going to attempt it, but the really high pitched singing of... Paxa! Paxa! At the beginning. No, it's like it was like a children's choir or something. It sounded like yeah, when you say high pitched, it was either, you know, soprano or a children's choir.

44:43And a bit like you mentioned last week, it does sound like back side without the... I like the D, but anyway. Yes, so I didn't really think it was anything special. Like you're not that much sort of like the fanfare attachment. You do get the pretty horrible robe, which you know they have imported here. So sorry, Kiyoki is his name now. Everybody. Kiyoki is here and delivers a series of crossbodies to Wilson to start and then it's the maze. And you know, let's pause for a second and appreciate that we are seeing. The maze versus Harumutaka Hashi on our TV screens here. Kiyoki knows how to chop, then asks Miz for more please and he tops back at the maze. This is why Nakamura tags in and now we... Well, Wilson distracts, Miz kicks the middle rope to crotch-shin. Wilson then delivers a flying back elbow attack to Nakamura on the floor, take it as the commercial break.

45:44We come back as they build to a Kiyoki hot tag to not much reaction, I have to say. Kiyoki takes out both heels. Does this like new like this spinning thing? And then a diving sent-on to the floor to take both heels out. Kiyoki then avoids the skull crushing finale and then goes for his new finisher, which is this sort of like, inverted stunner where he faces an opponent and then drops on his ass crushing their chin onto his shoulder. This opens the door for Nakamura to deliver the kinshasa to Miz, taking the Miz out. Kiyoki then delivers this inverted stunner again to Kitwelsen to get the victory. What I will say is I really like the visual of this front facing stunner. I don't really know. They should have an aim for this and try and put it over straight away, that look good. Hello, you will meet the demise of our Imperial K.Rs. Or whatever.

46:46Yeah, we'll get into Zack Saber, Jr. territory with the deep not long, but yeah, that will do anything. I don't know quite what to say here. I mean, I really love Harumu. Transplanted into this environment, it just feels so strange at the moment. It's going to take some getting used to. They gave him quite a lot of shine in this match. Most of the selling was done by Shinsuke, who all through the break was having to sell to the post-break hot tag. So they gave Harumu a lot of Kiyoki a lot in this match. But as you mentioned, the Kroyd didn't seem particularly invested and Atoma have to say neither was I. Particularly after the post match when the mother fucking Tongans and Aku come out for the Stairdion, because that telegraphs where this is all going, which is not something which is supremely mid-card. So yeah.

47:50Well, we knew that was happening. We did almost all about the mother fucking Tongans here, but that is our feud as Aku joins the MFTs coming up next. So, okay. Maybe to somebody like seeing Romu for the first time here, like this might have even been considered good, right? He certainly looked competitive. I thought his charisma was able to come across in spurts in the body of the match itself. And certainly felt like a big personality just seeing his wrestling here. But was it a tenth of the talent that I think we're all used to seeing of Haru Takashi on screen here? I think absolutely not. As a tag match, this was about as like, templative and boring of a WWE style match as you can get. And I mean, I just thought overall it garnered very little reaction. You know, debuting and new move is well and good, but it's not

48:55like such a high impact move. And you understand like what why they're doing it. Like the time bomb maybe would be tricky to deliver to bigger opponents. Maybe that's the reason this requires less lifting. But it's still unfamiliar and not the big sort of visual spectacle that would elicit a major reaction upon first viewing. And in fact, like this kind of looks like it's one of those moves where it looks like the person taking the move is delivering the you know, the offense here. The promo, if you didn't have the benefit of the subtitles, like we didn't was unintelligible. So I overall came out of this like debut pretty disappointed. And I have to also say like none of this reads to me like it's being put together by people who understand the appeal of the Haru Muta-Kahashi. Maybe to some degree, like maybe to some minor degree. Oh, he's a colorful colorful guy with ropes who kind of like you know, shouts mindlessly. Like you got some of that here, but it just it's not on the fun. None of the sort of intrigue and the mystery of like what what is behind this guy's brain, you know. Yeah.

49:58It feels much more me. I don't know if simplified is the word, but it's just like it doesn't feel nearly as appearing appealing. And I wonder if this is a situation where like I might have preferred his getting a shorter run on NXT so that they can at least like maybe deliver first of all a more authentic presentation to him. Because like I think for an NXT audience, they they're a lot more likely to just like directly transplant somebody from like their their former selves to to the show. But also maybe would allow them to have an understanding for for the main roster staff, you know, of who this guy is, what makes him appealing so that they could at least like workshop a better way to present him as it existed. I don't know if he felt that much more special than like I don't know like you name it like an a carrot as awa like good wrestler, but not that much else in my opinion. Yeah. It's a very WWEified version

51:04of Furo Motaka Hashi. He looks familiar, but in this debut, very much kind of a shadow of what we're used to, those who are familiar with them in New Japan, do our flashes of it, the athleticism, the exuberance of it all. And I'm left thinking the same things you were that perhaps a short run on NXT would have been beneficial here on both sides, but I'm to get used to things how things are done on the production side of it all and how the matches are laid out, not to not to say that he botched anything and for them to get a greater handle on who this character should really be in their system. Hello, hello, hello, David Portman here from Poison Rana. We cover NXT every Tuesday night on the post wrestling feed in a show we call up next, but we do so much more. Follow Poison Rana pod on YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts for our live Sunday show, plus our Patreon with movie reviews, retro wrestling reviews and more. Find out everything at PoisonRana.ca.

52:10Okay, so in the back we go to another video package, just one of the war Raiders and priest truth building up to their Triple A tag title match next week in Mexico City, priest and truth, say that they are combined for a championship reigns, or was it a championship reigns? And truth says me too. So truth, you know, mistakes of the war Raiders for luchador says they're going to take their luchador status and their mask and to this priest just, you know, has had enough of truth's confusion and just walks off. So I just don't shit because it's the usual thing of bad comedy from truth with priest having to be the straight man who's correcting him except now you've got three straight man because the war Raiders are being super mega aggressive, you know, prepare to protect, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, I don't know, my interest level in this match is about as low as it could be for nice reason. I actually thought these two came

53:12across and their comedy even came across to me much better in this sort of like hyper edited, you know, like quick form rather than like seeing the actual scenes try to play out, you know, like I didn't mind it as much this week, but I mean, maybe it's too far gone for both of us at this point. Your skank way. I think it's kank is me. So next week from Mexico City, where Ra and Smackdown will be presented from, we have the war Raiders versus priest and truth with the triple A tag titles for the women's championship Chelsea Green defends against nine jacks and we have page versus Nikki Bella, the battle of the what? I was skank versus like unmariable. Does feel like a bigger addition of Smackdown than usual, you know, not not necessarily because of that, but but because they're putting like, you know, the culmination of like several built to the feuds you could say, you know, yeah, the crowd are going to be incredible. I assume.

54:16Which I will lift everything. So of course, Julia versus Blake Monroe was advertised for the smash. They have the goal to advertise it. And of course, immediately in the back as as Blake Monroe is being interviewed, well, Julia tax her and the action spills up to the ringside area. And you know, this matches immediately called and there is no match again. So a lot of disappointment, I'm sure from everybody involved Neil, I'm sure, you know, next to not making it to AW all in the second most disappointing thing about your week. Pretty much. Yeah, but no, I've revised my opinion. I think let's never have Blake Monroe in an actual match. That can be the gimmick. She can go back to the diary for a while. She can't go on backstage then again. I'm going back to the next day. Yeah. Then AW. Okay. So just like a whole reverse thing.

55:18I mean, they're trying to inject some intensity into these beatdowns, but they're dragging along this thing that I don't think enough people care to actually want in the first place. You know, it's like, oh, you're going to make me wait another week. Okay. I'm good. Like, yeah, fine. I didn't want it anyway. It's really producing more groans than anticipation. I would say definitely. Yeah. I think it's been awful. It's been awful. Sammy Zane finds Johnny Gorgano in the back and he's happy for Johnny getting this title shot because a win for him is a win for good guys like the two of them. He tells him if it's an opportunity though, presents itself to take it. And Gorgano also makes the promise that Sammy will get the first shot if he wins the championship. So in our main event, main event tonight, it is Johnny Gorgano versus CM Punk here. Crowd is alive, chanting Johnny wrestling here in Cleveland. Gorgano has, you know,

56:19we got to remember like he's been doing this catatonic gimmicks since February of this year. And do you remember why he entered the state of depression in the first place? I think it was because he didn't have a tag partner anymore. At least that's what they kind of alluded to, you know, and they didn't say, oh, Tomasel Champa has left the company. They never said anything as blatant as that, but I think it just felt lonely. And that's what we were left to I think that's what you want to think it was. And maybe it was at least part of reason, but I believe that the initial reason was because he lost his axiom mask that he stayed. Shit, you're right. He became so sad that he lost his axiom mask. That is six months. In six months of this state, I mean, I'm sure it was other reasons too, you know, but that's what picking that it starts very innocently, you know, then six months later, look at us. So C. and punk dominates this match. He's the, you know, he's the role in presenting this match as

57:23the champion versus the guy who has been laying on a stomach for six months here. Punk is about to go up top and, you know, to confirm Kevin Owen's suspicions, he says, where's Sam? He's ain't at. So punk, you know, throughout the rest of the match, he's got to take in Gorgano a bit lightly, but Gorgano comes back with a big super kick getting a close two count. Punk at this point starts to get frustrated. He, uh, Gorgano manages to get a slingshot spear. Then he sets up for a big kick, but delivers the GTS pose ahead of it. Punk, however, stops him with the blues under power bomb for two. And the announcers, of course, make connection to Sami Zayn here. Punk signals for the GTS, but he gets booed here. And now finally, Sami Zayn arrives. Punk starts fighting him on the floor. The referee is distracted getting Sami out of there. Candace then delivers a Rana off the apron to CM Punk. Gorgano then delivers one final beat and CM Punk kicks out at 2.9999, totally getting this crap to bite. Zayn at this point grabs the title. He's about to toss the

58:26third Gorgano. Remember, because you know, he told Gorgano to take advantage of every opportunity. But Kevin Owen comes out and beats Sami Zayn down. He's about to power bomb him onto the apron, but Gunther stops him because he wants to do it himself. But here comes Finn Baller with a sling blade to Gunther. This allows Sami Zayn to grab the championship. He decks Baller, decks Gunther, decks Owens, back in the ring. The GTS is delivered to Johnny Gorgano, but Candace distracts the referee. Sami is in the ring. He nails Punk with the belt. The crowd is going crazy as Johnny Gorgano slowly crawls over for 1, 2, and I would say another perfect 2.9 from CM Punk here. This crowd goes crazy at this point. Sami then whispers something to Candace, but all this finally gets to eject him out of the ring here with security. Punk then delivers another GTS. This one finally puts Johnny Gorgano away for the 3. Yeah. Pretty awesome, mate event. I'm going to ignore all this

59:33stuff about the fact that Johnny Gorgano is no business being in that kind of physical shape after lying on his front for 6 months. Never mind having a nice haircut. Maybe it's really good for your core. I guess. Yeah. For that one. But, Niggles aside, I've already talked about even within the body of this match and the interference, a belt shot takes out Kevin Owens, Gunther, Finn, no problem, not Punk. After everything else that happened in the entire match of belt shot, it only yields a 2.4 for Johnny Gorgano. 2.9, but look at all of that aside. I think the crowd lifted this match too because by the Punk role, anyone really wants to say about him. There is a pattern to these WWE matches, but I think he works on the fly quite a bit. He probably suspected that the crowd would get

1:00:38behind Johnny and they did. And so he started to lean into a bit of arrogance and the healishness as the match continued as well, which had just sort of added to it or the A-Boo spots. There's lots of interference, count is getting involved in all the rest of it, but it was just, it was a lot of fun and a large part of that is the novelty of seeing Johnny Gorgano wrestle at length in a singles match after so very long, because even before all the axiom stuff, that mask, nonsense that you talked about, he was stuck in the tag to the business. So just a reminder that this guy can wrestle and does wrestle very well. And I wonder whether Punk himself had some hand in this story. I don't know. Maybe that's giving credit words on to you. I don't know, but anyway, for the one night, I think in Cleveland, I thought this was great for Johnny Gorgano,

1:01:38where he goes from here. I'm not very confident, but we'll see. Back onto the great until the next time they're in Cleveland maybe. Yeah, I thought this was great. I really enjoyed it as a contact. I really enjoyed the execution. I like the idea of CM Punk going to another perhaps like enemy territory to face like that home territories representative is a wonderful gimmick. And CM Punk is the type of like, you know, baby face with an edge to him that I think like could still be a bit of a dick, you know, like to a certain crowd, but then you still fall in love with him afterwards. Like he's able to weave that, I think very seamlessly as you saw with Owens and as you you saw tonight in Cleveland, if you were to tell me that like CM Punk versus Johnny Gorgano would elicit that type of like reaction to a near fall, I would say this match was already greatly exceeding expectations and that it was a tremendous success. They managed to manage two of those spots, two excellent kickouts here. And you of course, pin it on the design of the match, the design of

1:02:41those particular moments. And on CM Punk for kicking out at really, really, really, really perfect timing here at the very last second. So those two, I think I represented some really memorable moments that to me made this match all the more enjoyable and certainly memorable and recommended it lived this crowd to an incredible atmosphere. There are a lot of shenanigans in the end, but I mean, these shenanigans were responsible for one of those big kickouts. You know, and of course, they're also responsible for some of the storytelling that would go on later here because we close the show with CM Punk basically telling Nick all this that, hey, Sammy, don't go anywhere. He's not afraid to enter enemy territory and getting booed. He says, Sammy Zane can have a title shot if he wants one next week in Mexico City. So next week, we got Sammy Zane versus CM Punk to add to our two other championship matches that I believe were already announced. And, uh, well, Pedro Zanekibela. Yeah. All right. Big match for next week. I mean, there's no chance it's a

1:03:44clean one-on-one encounter, not with the whole Gunter KO and Finn, yeah, hovering around issue of it all, but pretty big match to put on next week in Mexico and certainly looking forward to yeah. Uh, wouldn't you think about tonight's edition of SmackDown? As a tape show, I think it's certainly exceeded last week. So sorry, Jordan, you got the, you got the, you got the, the worst of the two taped shows largely elevated by this, uh, this main event, which as you say, recommend, I do recommend that people seek the site and, um, and enjoy, enjoy Johnny, Gargano wrestling and resting really well in it in a, in a, in a good match. Um, um, um, I must have much else to really recommend it. Um, I would recommend like, as, as much as I enjoyed the main event, I felt maybe equally disappointed in seeing Hurumu Takahashi's WWE debut. It's something I hope that they're able to at least slightly improve. Not just, again, not to say it was even all that bad, but I just have higher expectations for

1:04:49somebody like Hurumu Takahashi. So we'll see. Um, yeah, what else we got here? Tadem Paxley again, I think, you know, they're doing a, doing a decent job of elevating her and she's getting across with the crowd who, who, you know, we're chanting her name. So that was, that was an up, there was an awful lot of just, um, keeping things in place for, you know, Cody and round the segment, for example. Um, if you're strictly looking for good, I would really just recommend the main event. Yeah, me too. Uh, okay, well, that, um, does it for this portion of Rolina Smackdown, Neil and I are going to go through some of our predictions for Sunday Night's Main event, which has four matches, of course, uh, Gunther, sorry, Oba Family versus Braun Breaker. We've got Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton. We've got, um, D Fab, Meachin, Jade Cargo versus Tatum, Alexa Charlotte and, uh, what's the fourth match? I'm in trick, trick and, trick and Yachty versus, uh, Baron Corbin. Yeah. So, all right. Uh, so thank you all for listening

1:05:52on the free side. Please like and subscribe. Leave us a, a comment in, uh, whatever podcast after that you're listening or even a, you know, shitty comment, sure, whatever, tell us what you honestly think. That's fine. Um, and then we'll talk to you guys on Sunday with John Pollock in myself covering Sunday Night's Main event sometime in the evening.