NXT Fallout with Nattie | SNME Preview ft. Baron Corbin

0:00Hey guys, welcome to the Busted Open podcast. This is Nadi Knighthart on today's episode. Peter Rosenberg and I talk all about the follow up from NXT Heatwave plus Peter Nick Nehmeth speak to Baron Corbin before his match at Sunday night's main event. All that right now on the Busted Open podcast. This is the Busted Open podcast. This man is a professional wrestler, a professional former professional broadcaster here in ways on the channel of our professional Kansas City Chiefs fan. I'm not even sure what else he does. He's a jack of all trades and he'll be defending is, well, not defending. He will be in a match on Sunday night's main event against Luliyadi. Should Luliyadi survive five minutes, he will be granting a US title opportunity to trick Williams. And with that, Baron Corbin joins us on Busted Open from a very muddy scene behind him. Baron, what's up, buddy? How are you? Life is good and I would definitely use that term professional loosely.

1:02Of course. Yeah, I mean, this, this, I'm not good at being a professional. I don't like rules or people telling me what to do. You know, that kind of stuff. Can I, can I, but the chiefs, but we are rocking with the chiefs. We're gonna have good season this year. So I want to ask, I want to ask the most, before we get into the wrestling of it all, I want to ask the most important question and I didn't get to ask you when I saw you. Were you invited to the Taylor Travis wedding and if not, what gives? I was not and I'm okay with that. You're good. You're sure you're good. I'm because some worse names were invited, Baron. That's a fact. Were you, were you invited? Of course not, but I saw some of the women. I mean, I had a lot of friends go that, that's for sure. A lot of friends had a great time, but I don't know New York and doing all that and putting the suit on. So look at you. And just listen, I'll just go hang with Travis and the box or a like, cheese game and then, you know, it's just, I don't, I don't need the stuffiness of it all. Plus, like all the rules and stuff. No, I'm not allowed.

2:03The India is just some rules. Yeah, you know, I'm not gonna do that. We were just talking about this before you came on and I, I think I'd love to catch up in general with how things are going and what it's like to be back. You and Yachtie have this thing coming up Sunday night, Sunday nights made event on peacock. And actually you can hear Sunday nights made event, the simulcast, you can hear it live on WWE radio as well on Sunday night. But I gotta tell you, I am fascinated by this situation. I've known Yachtie for a long time. I never knew he would be this good in this world. I did not, I knew he was a fan. No, I mean on the microphone. I just mean, you know, I find good. You didn't think a guy who wraps for a living and doesn't use it would, would not be good on the microphone. You know, it's a fair point by you. It's a fair, I just, I, you know what, maybe it's that I didn't know he'd be willing to do the work and he's clearly willing to do the work.

3:05But just what is your mindset? Besides wanting to beat his ass, what is your mindset in having a match with someone who has never had a wrestling match and it's their debut on television? What is your mindset as a veteran going into that? My mindset number one is to prove to the entire world that this job is not for everybody. Like that's the fact. The fact is we get people with this celebrity status, the YouTube or whatever it is. And they go, oh man, I want to be a WWE superstar. I can do that. And I'm going to show him very quickly that no, not everybody can do that. Like, you're a great hype man. I'll give it to him. He's funny. He's got a lot of personality. I think people enjoy his music. I don't know. I couldn't, if you offered me 10 grand right now, I couldn't name a song. But it's just, it's not for me. I'm a rock and roll guy. I like my metal. I like my, my, my full key music. I'm not saying he's not talented because he probably has more Instagram followers than

4:09me. And I think he does arenas. I'm not sure. You got to tell me that you're a rap guy. Does he feel arenas and stuff like that? So he did, he did an arena tour just recently, but he was the opener on the arena tour. I'd say he's more like a, with his own shows. I'd say he's like a five to nine thousand Cedar kind of guy. Fantastic. I, if I listen to, if I was like, hey, I'm holding a rap concert this weekend. Five thousand people aren't showing up. I can promise you. And I would fail miserably at it. Not at the, let's play me some old school like bone thugs and harmony where I can, you know, rattle off some of the lines from the songs. I'm going to fail miserably just like he will at something that made him in when he has to actually step in the ring and let the bell ring. It's going to be bad. It's not going to be fun for him. He's going to immediately regret his decision. It's going to be like all those things of like, you know, the, the, the efferound and find out. Like he's going to find out. Like people think that they're like, oh, the rest of things entertainment. But when I crack him in the teeth and knock one of them giant diamonds out, I'm going to put it in my pocket number one because my pants have pockets.

5:11I'm going to keep it. I'm going to put it on it by something cool. Maybe a new watch. But yeah, I think it's going to be a rude awakening from him. And then when they go, you know, triple H goes, hey, Yada, you know, do you ever want to have a second match here in WWE? He's going to go, no, I'm good. Just leave me with my diamond kind of stick and a microphone. And I just think that's where he belongs. I think that's the best part of this because we kind of glossed over it. You know, having celebrities involved and entertaining, hey, it's fond of the red on the mic. And maybe they're even doing the work and then like try and really hard to be there for it. But I like what you said, Baron, where you're like, yeah, that's so cool. And we're going to have a bunch of people watching. And then you have to realize that this is not for everyone and let alone once in a while or once ever once a week, twice a week. This is not for everybody. And I'm looking forward to some of the crowd is I know we're all rooting for trick to get a chance with you. But I like when a celebrity talks the talk and when they go to walk, they're like, man, they really backed them. Oh, they got me in shape. He practiced great.

6:12It's time for Baron to beat his ass and let everyone stand there and go, all right, this is what real pros do at the end of the day. How happy are you going to be when you're standing on top of him when this is? It's going to be amazing just because he does have that smug smile. And he did, I heard he moved to Orlando for like a month or two, two months, rented a house and he's trained into the PC. I thought about driving to Orlando and just kicking the crap out of him at the PC. But I was like, I don't want to waste an hour and a half driving up there just to beat him down in front of everybody. I'll save it for Atlanta when his friends and family are there watching, not just in the next heat talent. But I mean, that's the thing is like he's putting in the work, putting in the effort. Like if you really believe that you can accomplish in two months, what I've done for 15 years and then years prior of NFL and boxing and jujitsu and all of those things I've done to train, just to hurt people, you're not learning it in two months. Like I just don't think he could fight his way out of a wet paper bag. It's just not happening.

7:13Like I just don't see the toughness. Like I think when you're truly a tough guy and you know this, you've wrestled for a number of years, not only in WWE, but around the world, but also collegiate level. And you step on a mat and you look in a guy's eyes, you know if he's done already, right? I mean, you just see that. Like I think when you're a guy who is legitimate and brings legitimacy to the table, you can see through people and see through the bullshit of, yeah, I'm tough. I can do this. It's instantaneous and you know you've already won and I see that with him. I just, yeah, to him it's fun and games. Like to me, this is a livelihood. He can go back and do his music maybe after this. He might be a mumble rapper when I'm done with him because he may not have those teeth anymore. But I just think that like this isn't a world you can come in and just think you're going to play around and have fun and we've seen a lot of people do it. And there are some people who it does work. Logan Paul came in and was like, man, I think this will be fun. But he's also a hell of an athlete and he's done legitimate things before.

8:15He stepped in boxing rings. He's competed. So you can't lump him in kind of with these guys that are here, you know, for a flash. Does he help our product? Little Yadi, I think he does because he's entertaining. And he's a great mouthpiece for trick, but trick can also talk. So that is a fun dynamic and it makes it fun and makes it playful and you've seen it in the promo, you know, last Friday, like he is entertaining, but that's where it stops. So that's great. And I like if it's one on one, you're going to beat the hell out of him no matter how much training he's done, but it's WWE. It's pro wrestling. You have trick Williams obviously will be some way involved. Do you think he's got the guts to let you end this or does he get involved and possibly flip the outcome and what the hell happens then if trick gets involved and cost you this match? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of factors that I think plays because there's other people have already irritated. I mean, Ronaldo does not like me obviously because of me dropping him and then beating him in his hometown of Boston.

9:16So, you know, is he going to try to be involved? Is trick going to try to be involved? I think there are going to be those things, you know, how fast is Yachty running away scared for his life? I think I'll be able to catch him, but we shall see. You know, it's one of those things like I know there's going to be some shenanigans and things involved involved in this, but I have five minutes and I just don't think he is the cardio to run for four minutes and 57 seconds. I just need three to end it for him, but I want to enjoy beating him for a little bit. So, I want to keep my hands on him and put three minutes of just ragged on him around, throwing him into the ring post, slamming him into the announce table, cracking him in the eye, knocking those teeth out, throwing a clothesline that JBL will be proud of when I take his head off. Like all of those things, like I want to enjoy it. I want to show him that he made a mistake thinking that he can walk in and do this at this level. When I think what we do is obviously, you know, that top 1% of all of the wrestling in the world is not something you can just stroll into and take lightly.

10:17I trained for two months. I don't care. I don't care. And you're going to pay for it. Now, Baron, have you tried checking out Yaddi's album from 2023? Let's start here because it's actually like an experimental rock album and maybe you'd enjoy it. And like, should you beat his ass the way you're saying you're going to on Sunday, you can even like sing lyrics to him, you know, his own lyrics to his face as you beat him down. I mean, that would be hilarious. But what I would rather do is like pick a song off that album that say is like, I don't know, did I mean, what's a song like on his album? Can we get three and a half minutes out of it? And I just make a music video of me beating the brakes off of Yaddi for three and a half minutes to one of his own songs. Well, my favorite song on it's called the zone. It's four minutes and seven seconds. So that can still work. It's still on the rock. That's where we're at. So we're going to do a four minute and seven second, absolute mauling of little Yaddi.

11:22And then I'll put out the music video with that. Have you thought about that if after this, maybe this becomes your thing is beating up the people who think they want to mess around in this business and like, maybe bad bunny could be in your future as well? I mean, I love it. I would love to get that as my role to show people that this isn't a place you just pop into for fun, a little run in a paycheck, like this is livelihoods for a lot of people. And I've always kind of not been a gatekeeper, but been one of those guys like when we go to LA and do the show and there's 45 Hollywood people there just walking around with their crews, like it legitimately pisses me off. It's like, this is our home. Not you like, you got your feet on my couch, bro. And I don't approve of that. You got it on, but you're in my house with your shoes on and you just took a bite of some of my food. Now we got problems. Like, I'm fine with that. I will show people the door violently. But you got it. You got to give credit, though.

12:23Yaddi does not come with an entourage. Yaddi does not have a social media team that follows him around. You got to give credit to that. I give Yaddi a lot of credit. Again, go into the PC to train, putting in the time with Norman Smiley and, you know, come and it's in towns all over. I give him a ton of credit because he does love this. He really does. And I appreciate that. But it doesn't make you equal enough to stand in the ring across from him for a match. I appreciate what he does. Again, I love him with trick. I think it's a great place for him. Being on the outside of the ring. We've even grabbed a mic here and there. Two and introductions. I love it. All for it. But when you cross that barrier, you're in my world. There. There. All right. Here's the deal. No matter what happens. I got worked up and stood up there. Yeah. I see it. Pacing back and forth. I'm getting all worked up too. Yeah. I get it.

13:23Here's the best part. Okay. Got it. Trickets and maltress doesn't get involved. Five minutes of beating down. You little Yaddi, you come out of there. How are we celebrating? What are you making? Are we doing something on the grill afterwards to celebrate? Does it like, is there a certain momentous occasion that this stands out of a certain beef or meat that makes you go, ah, yes. Here's what I will be doing. A brisket. That's after tamptancing on little Yaddi. That's the two things. I'm going to ask little Yaddi while I'm whipping his ass all the way. Hey, what's your favorite food? And then you know, they'll mumble it to me. And then I'll cook that and throw it in the trash just to put it on social media. And then I'm going to cook. I've already got it. I picked up an A5 rib eye and I'm going to do like a Japanese style, like a five rib eye sandwich with the little toast when you cut it in half. Oh, God bless. You the flavor. I guess what I've been craving because my kids have been on a kick of lamb lately. So I've been cooking like lampacania, which is phenomenal. By the way, if you haven't put a lampacani on the grill, it's next world.

14:25And then I did rack a lamb the other week, we did some pork ribs the other week. So yeah, no, I've got a nice delicate steak waiting for me when I come back from Atlanta. And I'm going to eat it, hopefully with a glass of trick's tears. Oh, okay. Next to it because he didn't get his title shot. His little buddy, Yaddi, didn't survive. And so he never gets that shot again. What's it been like being back? Like it kind of feels like nothing like you did not miss a step. It just feels like you were always supposed to be here. I have no idea what went into you coming back on any level. Was it a, you know, was this a foregone conclusion for you? And what has it been like for you just being back in back in action? Well, I mean, first, I think the coming back process was awesome because I never once in that year and a half that I was gone like reached out like, you know, you saw that whenever you're 100, I was like, well, guys are always texting me. I want to come home like I never did that. Like if they want me back, they'll they'll call me like I'm not going to, you know, beg for

15:28a job. I love that place. And I had, you know, communication through the time I was gone with Hunter, but it was never like work. I got texts of, hey, congrats on this or like, how's the family? How are the girls? Like those kinds of things. And even a few other people there and like I stayed in touch with a couple of the talent. But it was always there was never that that line was never crossed of like, hey, what would you think about me coming back? And then eventually they did reach out and like we had a conversation in December that was very brief and it didn't go anywhere because it was like, hey, you know, what would you think? Would you be interested in that? I think the reply was, I would be open to a conversation. Look, I'm not impressed. Like I'm doing things out here. I'm, you know, building back the reputation behind an aim. I'm racking up those wins and getting titles outside of here, traveling the world, kind of doing a thing that I missed that a lot of people get to do before they come to WWE. I'm upping my game. You know, I wrestled in Mexico and Australia and Europe and all of those places and it kind of leveled up my in ring ability, which was amazing. So then when the conversation started to actually be like, hey, man, like we're interested

16:32in bringing you back and then having a conversation with Hunter and what his plans were for me of taking me back to what I do best and that's being people up that lone wolf kind of persona, getting back to bringing legitimacy to when I step in the ring and hurt people and the belief ability that I can win big matches was so important. So being gone that year and a half was so vital to revitalizing my career and also the hunger in me. Like I explained in the interview before this, like that last year of my career in WWE before I left, like it just kind of became, oh, okay, this is my job. Time I'll go do it blah, blah, blah, blah. To where now I have that nervousness back. I have that kind of, I'm going to puke before I walk through this curtain. It's the same as when I step on a jujitsu mat at a high level tournament like that, that energy where you're just uncomfortable and you get to unleash that on somebody who's standing in front of you. And that is back and it's back full force. And so it's, I think the sky's the limit for this run. I look at collecting as many titles. I've never got that world title like the other man on this conversation.

17:33And so I need to accomplish that and we're on a mission and that year and a half was so beneficial to getting me in the right direction to get that done now being back home. Moving up next, Peter and I react to NXT heatwaves. The fastest growing pro wrestling show on the planet. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Busted open every day, ninth new Eastern. Heatwave on Sunday, not necessarily the outcome you were looking for with Jada Parker, but how did you feel overall, physically, mentally, emotionally with everything coming out of the weekend? I mean, here's a thing, first and foremost, I feel a lot of different things, but I've been waiting for today to talk about it because I haven't really broken my silence about the match with Jada and everything that was surrounding it. First and foremost, I want to say that I can't thank Shawn Michaels enough for allowing

18:34me to come to NXT when I first approached him about, hey, I want to do this storyline with Jada, I really want to test out my nanny character against her. He said yes immediately. And like to me, and I've said this before in the show, but I want to say it again, I want to thank Shawn for allowing me to come to NXT and do that story. Now with Jada and the outcome, here's the thing, and I haven't talked about this because I've always tried to be protective of the storyline because when you're in the trenches of a storyline, you don't want to give away all the magic behind the scenes. But prior to Jada and I ever doing that storyline, Jada took the initiative and she asked if she could come train with me privately at the dungeon. And so she had been coming and working with me privately and we had just been working on a lot of stuff. Jada, our students, TJ, she wanted to dial in, she wanted to fine tune, she wanted to take her work to the next level.

19:35So we were working on different submissions like the rings of Saturn. We were working on just her conditioning, her vocals, her intensity, her energy, just being able, again, being able to just fine tune the fine tuning because they have amazing coaches at the Performance Center. But if you have resources, like, somebody like TJ who's been in the business for over 25 years, or even myself, I'm approaching my 20th year in WWE, to me, I was so touched that she ever wanted to come and privately work with us. And so, you know, it's not something every student is allowed to do at NXT. It's something that they have to be given permission to do, but she really wanted to up her game. And so it was something that I like, it was a great joy for me in doing that with her and then it was, it only solidified that I wanted to do this program with her even more. Sean Michaels, like I said, had a very, he let me come to NXT and he had a very specific vision for the story and for the ending of the story.

20:35And the thing is, is that I have so much respect for Sean. I know there's a ton of history with Sean and the heart family, of course, it's hard not to know that. You know all about that. And so I just have so much respect for him and I've always prided myself on having such a great relationship with him, which I still obviously do. He had a very specific vision for the story and how he wanted the story to play out. And so I also want people to understand too that because for everybody that's attacked me online or attacked the story or have, you know, because everybody has a feeling, you know, they've all had their opinions on the story and especially the ending of the story at heat waves. Here's the thing, if you're in a movie and for example, if you're in a movie and Stephen Spielberg is the director, who was the director by the way in that movie with Tom Hanks? Was it, who was the director? Which one? A force gum. That's Simecus, isn't it? So, yeah, Robert Simecus. So let's just say force gum is sitting on the bench and he's saying like, I don't want

21:38to eat the chocolates. I would never eat chocolates. That's not what I'm going to do. I always like people, especially at NXT to go, you know, students that are new and that are learning and coming up. We are actors in a play. We are, we are a cast in a play. So at the end of the day, I can bring ideas to the table. I can bring suggestions to the table. I can say, hey, this is what I want to do. This is what the nanny character should do. This is what has to be done. At the end of the day, Shawn Michaels welcomed me into his playground. And so I am very proud that I was able to execute the vision that he wanted. And at the end of the day, it's about building people up. Like for me, and this is going to sound shocking to you and probably everyone else, but the greatest joy that I had in that, like, Jada's win is my win. Because I left Jada better than when I found her. Well, that was what I wanted to ask is that how much do you feel she's developed during this story? Because Jada Parker is someone who has had the fans, she's had the fans' adoration for

22:39a long time. She is very popular. Social media loves her. The live crowd at the PC loves her. She is just resonated with fans. But she's also stuck around in NXT for a minute now while other people have her. Yeah, she's been there for a long time. Yeah, and she's been there for a minute. And I think Sean actually did an interview last week and it was so complimentary of me. He was like, Nadi's really helped Jada take her pro wrestling to another level. And so in real life, take the storyline out of all of it because it is a fake storyline. I know that's hard for people to watch. But I know that's shocking for you, Peter. But take the story out of it and take the, yeah, it's real. People trust me, wrestling is very real for me, but it's also a storyline and it's a vision that the ending of the match, the conclusion of the match, it was a very specific vision that they wanted. And so Sean is the director of that show. He welcomed me into his home and I believe that Jada's win is also my win.

23:45It's because I feel like I was able to help her get to the next level. I was able to teach her as much as I could possibly teach her. And I was able to leave her better than I found her. And I think that like that's honestly for me, again, take all the storyline stuff out of it. That's my greatest joy in this business. So what do you think that she improved upon during this time? And do you think like is what you're seeing from Jada someone who could be ready for Raw or Smackdown in the near future? Yeah, I felt like, listen, I felt Jada was ready for Raw or Smackdown before I even did the storyline with her. I think Sean was happy that she was able to improve on her pro wrestling because like I've said, and I put Jada over this entire time. I feel like she's got the look she's connected with the audience. She's got the sizzle, she's got the steak. And so if the last little piece of the puzzle was her dialing in her professional wrestling, it for me, I was so happy that I could do that for her very much the same way that I was able to help Charlotte Flair when Charlotte and I had that very first match at Takeover

24:47in 2014 at NXT. Like it's again, NXT is very special to me. It is a place where I've had some of my greatest matches. Now let's not forget, I had two other matches with Jada prior to this that people were just raving about and saying, man, that was like the best Jada match I've ever seen. That was so hard hitting. I don't know if you saw those matches, but they were hard hitting very, very physical matches. And I was just so proud that I was able to do that with her, but also build the story. You know, where it's like I'm calling Jada out because I'm saying, hey, I know you can be better. Show me. Show me. Show me that you can be everything that I wanted you to be and more. And then I thought you could be and she did. And so yeah, I do think Jada is ready for the main role. I've always felt that she was ready for the main roster and I love the work that, again, this is where I'm giving you guys inside stuff that, like I said, my grandmother would be probably rolling over in his grade because my grandfather never wanted his kids knowing that her wrestling was entertainment. He wanted everybody thinking he was really fighting Killer Kowalski.

25:50That's right. And that Ted the bear was really having one-on-one matches after he was hanging out at the hardhouse. Exactly. But for me, like just seeing like Jada put in the work, I loved, I especially loved our very first match that we had. It was so hard hitting. It was like, I remember Baba Dudley, bully Ray, aka bully Ray, calling me after me. It's like, damn, that was like, Nadi, that was something I'd never seen like pull out of Jada before. That was incredible. Because it was so hard hitting and so different. Now, submission matches are tricky because you don't get that cadence of a pinfall. You know what I mean? And Jada also, what I really, really wanted to work with her on more than anything, especially for the submission match, was establishing her own submission. One that she can use moving forward. But again, as far as the outcome goes and as far as the ending of the story, that is not in my wheelhouse. So I, within the parameters of what we were given, I felt really proud of her.

26:52I felt really proud of the match. And I did the best of, I did to the best of my ability. What was asked of me because I, also at the end of the day, want to make Sean Michaels proud. You know, I wanted to make him proud. I wanted to, I wanted to execute the vision that he, he had mind and I just wanted to leave everybody feeling really good. Leave NXT better than I found it. Well, I think that's exactly what you've done. It was a big week for NXT. So moving on beyond the you and Jada of it all. I mean, let's start with Kailani Jordan. I thought her and Kendall had an absolute banger. I was incredibly impressed with, with both of them. And it just seems like Kailani has, she's been very good for a while. But she at some point recently bought into her character on a different level. And honestly, I think if you go back and watch, you know, I watched the match after I knew the result.

27:53So I was a little bit biased. But if you go back and watch her entrance, you can just see from the aura, you're like, oh, she's champion. Like there is a gear has been reached. It seems like in Kailani, what did you make of that match and what do you make of where she is right now? I thought the exact same thing when I saw her on her entrance because I watched the entire triple A show that was on before because we were at the same arena. And then I stayed and watched, of course, I watched all of NXT besides doing my match. I watched it all from Gorilla. Like really close backstage. So I watched Kailani's match from Gorilla. And she just had this different energy about her that she was like, it was like everything aligning for her. And again, like being able to be at NXT since May and seeing the way that, you know, Shawn Michaels works with the talent on like, let's find what their strengths are and let's really focus it and zone in on those.

28:54And then let's also like figure out where Kailani needs to build. And I feel like she had never had that type of feeling on her entrance before until that day. Like where you know, I knew I just knew from her entrance she was winning. And because she just, she looked confident, she looked dialed in, she looked like it was time. All the training that these girls do and guys at the PC, it's all building for moments like that, you know, where she can finally fully embrace everything that she's been working on. You know, she has a cool background. She comes from gymnastics. But you know what I love about Kailani and I know she plays the role of a heel. So this again is, so you know me speaking just for my heart, she has such, she is the sweetest girl. There was a girl, there was a friend of mine that was getting a WWE try out. And it was promise Braxton, she's from Booker T school. And Kailani reached out to me and said, please tell promise that, you know, she could reach out to me, she could talk to me, anything I can do to help her for her try out. You know, I'll show her the drills. I'll work with her. I'll tell if she has questions about the promo stuff. Like Kailani is sitting here giving, saying, hey, I want to give this girl that's having

29:58a try out the answers to the test. Like this girl could potentially be, you know, promise could have been Kailani's competition. And here Kailani is saying, let me help her in any way that I can. Like she's just a good person. She's a team player. She wants to help others. But I think, I think that Kailani being in the role of a heel is also helped her with her confidence. You know, like she's, she just feels to me that she has a different edge, she has a different confidence. And I think she and Kendall did, I think their match was so much fun to watch and they bring out the best in each other. And now, again, one last little comment about Jada. But now again, what I'm so proud of is that now Jada could like we saw on NXT this week, Jada's challenging Kailani for the championship. Now we see Jada taking this turn where Jada's found that confidence to go, yeah, I can't be a champion. Just like Nadi said, I can be, I can't run this division. I can run this entire division. So now we see Jada this stronger version of Jada Parker, challenging Kailani Jordan.

30:58That is a match I'm excited to see. Yeah, no, it is an exciting time for sure. Great to see Kailani take the step. Hopefully, Kendall is okay in back in action soon. It's been an insane run to watch her from her debut and evolve a year plus ago to now relinquishing the title to Kailani after having a solid few months as champion in which I think she really delivered the ceiling for Kendall is still immensely high. And obviously there's work to be done for her on the mic. I think they're still developing of her character. She being a virtuoso in the ring is not going to be enough. I mean, except for Dave Meltzer, who's already, I think already put her as number one on the Mount Rush more of women's wrestling and for all of history. But for the rest of us, for the rest of us who grade people based on, you know, body

32:03of work, what I see in Kendall is someone who has been doing all the works and she got there. She hurt to me. Yes, she's got the look. She has all these things, right? To me, it's the smoothness that has made Kendall. Kendall reminds me. And I know this is a huge compliment. Kendall reminds me of Randy Orton in the smoothness that she naturally has. And for someone who is not a second generation superstar, someone who was an amateur wrestler, yes, and a proficient amateur wrestler, but you still don't see a lot of people without it in their DNA to be pro wrestlers come in and handle things so smoothly. And like from the first second, you see Randy appear in OVW. They're like, oh, this guy just knows how to move like a wrestler. That is what's always struck me about Kendall. And then she backs it up with the work. So while I still think she has a lot to work on, and again, the character and Mike work

33:05is going to take time. Of course. And get there. What she shows is an incredible amount of potential. So great run and lots in the future for her. But I'm excited to see what the future holds immediately for Kalani. As we all know, man, this business is incredibly interesting. A Carmelo Hayes was in the same spot, essentially, that his fiance is in now. And we saw the video circulating of him celebrating her win. It was beautiful to see. But you also know that Carmelo is on TV every week waiting for his moment to really come together. And the right things he's putting in the work, he looks like a million bucks. We all know that Carmelo is him. When will he get that shot? But these things all come in ebbs and flows. That is what the business is. You may have the biggest moment in NXT. And then you don't get your next big spot on TV.

34:06Right. You could be Grayson Waller who's a part of huge stories. But all of a sudden, before you know it, you're going, what exactly am I doing here? Boom, you show up on NXT. And now your character is completely revitalized. So that's what makes this such an interesting business, right, Nadi? It's an adventure for Kalani and Kendall. It's going to be incredibly fun to watch. Well, and that's the thing is that that's what is fun about wrestling. It's fun. That's what's fun about pro wrestling. That's why I love pro wrestling, especially on the level of WWE. Because here's the thing. We are like, whether you have a good match or a bad match. And this is what I've tried to explain to Jada and to the girls at NXT, the ones that I had a chance to work with. I was very proud of the matches that I have with Jada, the match that I have with Kendall for the championship. I had a match with Thea Hale. But whether they're good, bad or somewhere in between, we always live to see another day. Because guess what? We are the longest running episodic TV show in television history. We got Monday Night Raw in a day. We got Smackdown in a couple days.

35:06We got NXT again. We got the next PLE. It used to be where the big show of the year was like, okay, we got a bill to WrestleMania. And granted, listen, WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year. But especially in WWE, every other day, it feels like we're doing a stadium show. We went to Calgary, my hometown, I wrestled in Calgary and had this insane, it was just, I've never felt like an entrance like that. You're saddled home, you're saddled home, send off the end of the saddled home, yeah? I came out and it was just like, I just felt so loved and so appreciated in that moment because they understood the history with the family. They understood everything with the hearts. But the thing is, it's ever changing, it's ever building. No city, state, country, continent is ever the same. So while Kendall and Kalani, for example, had this amazing match at NXT, they have to live to see another day. Now Kendall's got to work on making the match with Jada next week. Amazing. Will it be amazing? I hope so. If it's okay, it's not the end of the world. We don't just sit there and live in like, if something doesn't go perfect or

36:11that wasn't as good as this match or like, we don't, in WWE, especially, we don't have time for that. We don't have time to rest on. We have to keep building and building and building. And like, you talk about, for example, and I wanted to elaborate on this, you talk about Kendall, you said, Kendall, you want to see her work on her character and her promo work, but that Rome wasn't built in a day. Like, I've had, I've nearing or closing in on, I think, like 2000 matches. But like, someone like Jada, I don't know how many matches that Jada's had. I don't know how many matches Kendall has had. And I don't know how many, not just matches, but how many promos has Kendall had. But then you look at somebody like Randy Orton, he's been in WWE for over 20 years. So he is able to be that complete package because he's had reps. And now we are seeing more live events. We're seeing more, like I said, there's just always these big shows coming up and there's always a chance for everyone to improve on stuff. I remember it's funny, after the match I had with Kendall, I remember her. She was very gracious and she was very thankful to me after the championship match that we had.

37:14But she was beating herself up because she's like, I could have done this better and I should have done this and I could have been, she's such a perfectionist. But I love that. I love that she was not just happy that somebody said, good job. Because Shawn Michaels afterwards is like, you girls did great and he gave us a big hug and he gave us some feedback. But she was going back in her mind thinking, what can I do to be better? But that's the beauty of this is that we always have next week. We've always got, you know, we've always got, we've always got time to keep building and elaborating and there's so much more time to grow. Yeah, it's, it's, it's one of the things that makes it so cool. The evolution of a character, what they become, like I just said, we just talked about this with Kalani. Kalani, I think just a year or two ago, you saw so many boxes checked. But there was still another thing that a gear she hadn't shown yet. And then you see her walk out the curtain at heat wave on Sunday and you go, oh, she found the other gear.

38:15She now believes it. Kalani Jordan, you would, and this is such an impressive thing about her. If you look at her or talk to her, the last thing you would think is, is heal, right? Like that's just not the vibe she gives. And there are some heels who are great because it's just their character turned up a little bit. And then there are some heels that are great and they're nothing like what they're really like. Exactly. I think that's what Kalani is because, you know, even, even from a look standpoint, right? Like beauty can go different ways. Beauty can lend itself to being a heal. Blake Monroe, great example. In her case, her looks, I think, lend towards easy to make her a heal. There is a girl next door thing about Kalani that doesn't lend itself to that. It lends itself more to like sweet, affable, the kind of person you'd want to be friends with. But she has been able instead to flip that on its head and the attitude that she has now,

39:19when she walks down the aisle, it's so impressive to see such a cool thing. Catch the full three hours of busted open every day of the week at 9am Eastern on WWE Radio on Sirius XM Channel 156.