Who Faces Orton at Mania? WWE SmackDown 3/6/26 Review | RASD

0:00My name's Mackenzie and I started to go fund me for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform, trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com. This podcast is supported by GoFundMe. Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie

1:04Do It gaming team take on Gilly DeKing and wallow $267 million gaming in an epic global gaming league video game showdown, four rounds, multiple games, one winner, plus a halftime performance by multi-platonom artists, Travis McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match against Nio. Right now at globalgamingleague.com, that's globalgamingleague.com, everybody games. Hello, everybody watching us on youtube.com slash post wrestling or listening to us on our free feeds. My name is Wei Ting and I'm back for another edition of Rewind A Smackdown, the free edition

2:04with Neil Flanagan. Hi, Neil, Neil. I think as I mentioned last week, I've recorded several versions of my name and I think you went for the most monotone boring one that fit in there, but it still pops me two weeks in. Well, on the exhale portion, I asked you about the weather in Toronto and things are melting, which is good. Does this mean you're doing your rocky style training camp for the sea and tar climb at this point? I have not yet, but the steps are still a little bit treacherous. But as soon as they thought, yeah, I will have to. So for people that might not be aware, especially on our free portion of the shows, we are getting together one more time after a year break, I guess two year break, technically, for the post wrestling, Poison, Rana, sea and tower climb for the worldwide life fund, which I will be doing with John Pollock, Braden Harrington, Davey Portman, joining us this

3:09year will be Jack Wanen and also of course, returning will be Jesse from the six. We are climbing up all 1,776 steps of the sea and tower and it is all for a good cause. The World Wildlife Fund, not the World Wrestling Federation, which we gave you. At the F end. Yeah. So if you would like to support us because we're trying to raise donations for the World Wildlife Fund, you can go to postwrestling.com slash climb where you can be taken to our page. We have a goal right now of about $750, we hope to be able to at least, you know, surpass that. If you love the animals and if you want to see or hear about, I guess you're your favorite podcasters, be completely exhausted, do sign up by or do consider our donation by May 2nd. So yeah, thank you for that. You know, I'm using this as an opportunity to try to get back in shape after like being in, I would say, I'm currently in miserable shape with like, you know, terrible sleep. So I'm kind of starting from negative, you know, here a lot of say, but I don't want

4:14to string out or banter, but you look like you always do. I mean, it's not like you piled on pines or anything like that. Do you just, are you just sort of don't have the wins that you stay or are you always, I haven't even had the opportunity to indeed to test it. I mean, I just kind of know, you know, like I, I don't feel as well. So I'm hoping to change that in right now we got about two months, you know, thankfully this year, it's after WrestleMania season. So it's not like in previous years where like you'd have to do WrestleMania and then like the week after climate, the same tower or anything like that. So that might give us a little bit more time. But, you know, we will, we might all hopefully, you know, get together and do some physical activity, which is a lot tougher these days in our 40s. At some point, Neil, we're going to have to get you over here to do. John mentioned this on, I think either Monday or Tuesday, when you revealed the, the, the fundraiser, and if you do really well, you know, I should maybe come over and, and do this. If I fly to Toronto way to see you guys, it's probably not going to be to run up 1700

5:20steps. You know, it's probably going to be to sit in a nice restaurant or bar. Fair enough. Fair enough. But what better way to experience the city than to climb up? You know, very humid, sea and tower on, on a Sunday morning. So we will keep everybody updated, perhaps, on our progress, especially with a talk next week, which John and I will be recording in the Post-Ressa Cafe are rare at this point. Like, you know, sit down between the two of us live in person as we just discuss all things, non-professional wrestling. But for those of you in the Post-Ressa Cafe who want to hear us talk about plenty of pro wrestling, including a lot from the WWF, in fact, the last ever show branded under the WWF banner. Consider listening to this week's edition of Rewind Away, number 201. As we talk about WWF insurrection, insurrection on 2002. This is a review of a UK only show when they were doing these sort of like UK only pay

6:21reviews. Neil, do you have any memories of insurrection on 2002? I have a big recollection of this. I am absolutely certain that I bought this, because it was a, I think, a pushby informed John. It was on Sky Sports, which you pay for already. And then at that time, anything extra that WWE, WWF for its last time was presenting, you had to pay a little bit of a fee. It wasn't a huge amount. It was like 15 quid, 15 points. But yes, listening to your guys' review of it, it didn't ring any bells, but there's no way I didn't watch this. It just seemed like it was completely forgettable as a spectacle. I will certainly say spoiler alert, yeah, this was not really the most important or interesting show whatsoever. But it does offer us an opportunity to talk a lot about a time that I actually am very engaged by and actually really appreciate that we're talking after the invasion, after also being 18 and right as the brand split was in its infancy.

7:25So we'll be talking about Triple Edge taking on the Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin versus representing the NWO, the big show, all right. We'll be talking about William Regal and Spike Dudley, Brock Lesnar, pretty much like, you know, rookie at this point, only like about a month into his run as he takes on the Hardy Boys by teaming with Sean Staziac. So a lot of interesting information form from this period. And of course, this was the show that preceded the plane ride from hell. So we will touch on that, you know, very infamous story at this point now in this podcast as well. Yeah. But of a deep dive into the flight home, which was, yeah, something else, yeah, it certainly was. Let's go to our review of Smackdown tonight. This is a really, really big one. So let's not waste any time. This is Smackdown from Portland, Oregon in the motor center. It's out as of 6.30 pm Eastern time, according to Russell takes was 8,264 last January, January in 2025, they sold about 9,230 now.

8:27So we start things off here tonight. Of course, it is the big show involving not the big show, but Randy Orton coming out. He is our rubber winner and he says he's been in 20 WrestleMania's, but he's only main event at twice officially. He says now that he's going back to the main event of WrestleMania. Now, this coupled with Triple H earlier tweeting, you know, in promotion of tonight's Smackdown that the match between Cody and Drew tonight will determine the main event in WrestleMania. This seems like enough confirmation to me. Certainly that this match will be headlining presumably night one. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah, it looks that way to me. We're going to see a punk in Roman for the, if you like, I have asked Chris Ely, but the main event of the second night, the closer of the entire two-day event, this really does feel like a night one main event to me. So there's an argument for, well, there's an argument for Rhea because she's consistently

9:30one of the most popular performers on the entire roster. Is there an argument for Rhea versus J. Edgar? That's a different question. That's a different question. There's a lot to be made, but look, like in the shadow of like Orton and Cody, which feels like a major match at this point and certainly punk and Drew, it's maybe harder for me to buy. Not unless they can do whatever they want, they can change anything they want, you know, like, it's always been made event only in quotation marks, right, rather than actually headlining. Presumably tonight's result will be the main event of one of the nights of WrestleMania. So Orton says he's only done that twice in his career and he says he, it makes him really proud that people still think of him at the top of his game, but he says this position wasn't given to him, he's earned it. He says he feels different about each one of his potential opponents tonight, but it doesn't matter who wins. He is leaving Las Vegas with the WWE title using the three most dangerous letters in sports

10:31entertainment. And before he can spell them out, out comes trick Williams, who interrupts, he gets a huge reaction to his music. Trick Williams says he has a problem with Randy. He said that in the chamber, I don't doubt the sort of validity of this actually happening. He says Randy walked up to him in the chambers stood next to him on his tiptoes and he claimed to trick face that trick was not six foot five. This is absolutely true way. There's a clip of this or nine you can see there. Yes, it's very funny, very funny. So trick is about to launch into something talking about his love and pepper steppers. And as he looks down at his feet, before he can even finish the line, Orton, RKOs him laying him out to end the segment. What do you think about this opening segment here, to the next show? I thought it was pretty good. I did really enjoy, as he's refreshing change, last week's cold open with this sort of mayhem of J being loaded onto the ambulance rather than the formulaic main eventor comes

11:35out. Makes his speech gets interrupted. And with Randy, you know it's going to end up in an RKO. But these two both have undeniable starpire. I think the trick did his job very well here, which was to be a bit obnoxious, you know, it's just calling him, you know, talking about how sexy he is and how tall he is and all of that. I enjoyed that. And it doesn't hurt him to take an RKO. It never really hurts anyone to take one RKO in a situation like this. He's, he's so over. So I enjoyed it. Agreed. It does not hurt trickle ames. But I do find it peculiar that he was the one chosen for this particular role, you know. And of course, I understand, WrestleMania hitliner, you want to put everything behind it, right? But trick is also a guy who is arguably maybe the highest, fastest rising guy you don't have in the company. So why him when it could have been really any other person in this roster, my only thought is that maybe this will lead to something like could be a match between these two or

12:39it could be Sammy, maybe now having something to rub into trick's face if that might be their potential WrestleMania destination. So we'll see if that plays into anything. All right, let's go to Carmelo Hayes next. He's got an open challenge for tonight. So Nick Aldous informs him that he's been getting requests from all around the world, including tonight. Carmelo prefers to find out who the opponent is in ring. So he get, we get that. And it is answered by El Ijo, Del Dr. Wagner Jr. What did you think about the inclusion of somebody from AAA, I believe for the first time in one of these open challenges? Yeah, I was pretty surprised when El Ijo, Del Dr. Wagner Jr. came out here as the opponent. But somewhat pleasantly surprised, because I have been sampling the one our AAA shows. I've seen him before on other crossover shows as well. And yeah, I was looking forward to it as he walked down the ramp and the crowd got into

13:43this match, we'll get to all of that. But yeah, I was surprised that this was who it was. I found it to be like, really, if you're trying to insert a bit more integration of this AAA thing, I think the open challenge is really a perfect place for it. It makes the open challenge, first of all, a bit more unpredictable. It breaks it out of the confines of the Smackdown mid card, which I feel like we've been kind of recycling through Zane's run to Ilya's run, so this kind of opens it up a bit. So we get into the match itself. And I have to say, at least early on, by Mellow standards, I thought there was quite a bit of miscommunication between the two early with a weird soupux attempt until a small package. And then a messy thing that resulted in Carmelo selling this invisible flapjack with no actual offense from Wagner. Get that. Mellow goes on to deliver a dirty Diana, which is his version of La Mystica. First 48 is countered into a power bomb. Wagner misses a moon salt. Hayes follows up with nothing but net to get the victory.

14:46And what do you think about the match? Yeah, I've got to agree. There was some miscommunication here, and I think literally some miscommunication because the mic was picking up some attempts to communicate with each other as well, some audibles trying to be called. So there was a few not so smooth moments in the first half of the match. I think it ended up being okay though, and the finish was good. And I think a guy this size, potentially with Mellow, is a good mix as a base for him to do is, you know, all of his athletic, for his athleticism. So I came away from thinking, yeah, it wasn't the best start to the match, but ultimately fairly satisfying. I agree. Messy early goings, but they certainly found the rhythm and got some strong reactions by the end with, you know, like a crowd that I thought was like decently receptive to Dr. Wagner, Jr., Jr., but I'll say like through this performance alone, I didn't really

15:47see much main roster appeal for him if we are to look at this as some form of audition. I don't think his look is that great. I don't see that much charisma or spectacle in the wrestling, at least in the body of this match itself. So while I really like the showcase of like a non-spankdown talent, I don't know if I necessarily saw much more from El Ijo, the Dr. Wagner, Jr. Here. I agree. As a one off, sure, but I don't think he'll be making the jump. Dragonov is with Kathy and Kelly in the back, and he talks about not feeling deserving of the US Open Challenge Tuttle Shot. And Kathy asks him, how did you develop this mindset? And Ilia gets into a whole thing about people call him a warrior, but he got that from his mother. And when people call him a warrior, it means carrying the burden of being her son. And until he can be that warrior again, he will wait for his title opportunity. And at this point, the Miz comes in and chastises him for passing up a title shot.

16:50Great Wilson then shows up and calls Dragonov toxic. So Dragonov then challenges the both of them to a match. I would assume in a triple threat match, which doesn't, I don't think we got an actual announcement for it, did we? No, we didn't. We didn't get a resolution to this because there was a leader on in the show, a wrong dying of what has been booked for next week, and this was not amongst them. So yeah, Miz and Kit were sort of left arguing about who should be wrestling him. So my, my takeaway was, yeah, triple threat, perhaps, TBD, TBD. But I have to say, like this first time seeing like Kit Wilson and Miz on camera together, possibly teasing of like more interactions between the two, I'm, I'm going to do it. Like I think there could be a lot of potential here in just these two, just mixing as characters. I think there's some comedy to be had from the two of them together. Kit's stick is beginning to wear on me a little bit. It was in the beginning, then he got the cool theme song, and that picked things up all

17:54by itself really for a little while, and then he was just doing these jobs every week. So he needs something else and Miz could be it, I think that that's a good pairing. And they might not be the only people in this sort of like mid-card, I guess highly eccentric, you know, realm, and more on that a little bit later. But we got Damien Priest who meets up with Nick Alderson. Truth and Priest have been entered as a tag team in tonight's tag team turmoil match. Priest at first acts a little bit reluctant, but he goes along with the idea because he likes the idea of winning a championship. So this looks to be our confirmation that at least, you know, for the time being priest and truth will be proceeding as a tag team. What do you think about that pair? I'm not overly thrilled or excited by it. I'll get to why when we get to the tag team turmoil match. Interesting, okay. Because I feel differently. I'm very positive on these two as well. Like, I mean, since they've been interacting more on SmackDown lately, I've been kind of

18:54waiting for them to confirm this. And I like it because, I mean, quite simply, they kind of, you know, like help each other out in what they lack. Who certainly lacks credibility in ring and Priest gives him some of that. And Priest lacks a lot of personality, let's just say, or at least like, he lacks some levity to a personality, which I think like has just merged on being very boring over the past year. So we'll see if like this might be the thing that might get him over the hump to the next level because he's been very stagnant since coming to SmackDown a year ago. Drew McIntyre steps in with Nick Alders and says he's been giving all this one, he will give all this one more chance to make a make this right after he made the title match at elimination chamber. Drew reminds us that they had agreed that Cody would no longer be getting any title opportunities beyond winning the chamber or the rumble. I completely forget about this.

19:56They actually said this. Yes. I think this is probably a response to some online criticism of the storyline where they were saying, you know, no, Cody had to either win the rumble or the chamber to get this opportunity and Alders has gone back on his word, which he admits to here is what you went back on your word swine going back on mine. Yeah. Yeah. So this basically sort of like answers that for all the critics where Alders says, Drew went back on his word by interfering in all of those matches, so Alders went back on his. Drew is threatened to, I guess, to be given a forfeit or at least be classified as a forfeit in losing the title if he does not show up. So Drew says he's beaten Cody before and he'll do it again. So if you know, the need to perhaps do a bit of patchwork in explaining something like this.

20:56It's kind of further tells you this was never the plan, at least as far back as when Drew and Cody was an original feud. But I was satisfied enough with the answer here. Like it was simple enough and I thought all this is delivery was good. Me too. And I'm somebody who's been proved completely wrong by my, you know, all right, shot in the dark prediction about what might happen at WrestleMania. And I thought this was headed for three way for that title. I soon picked up from, from John on your other shows that your other reviews that he probably had some information about what might the current plans might be and that that might not be the case. I don't know. Not sure. I have to ask him. Bring incredible sound into every corner of your home with the new WIM sound smart speaker. Get high resolution audio with a 1.8 inch touchscreen, smart control and modern design in one powerful speaker for just $299. From quiet mornings to lively family gatherings, WIM sound makes every moment sound better and

22:00feel better too. Create a home filled with sound you love. Ready to upgrade your sound? Shop now at Amazon and search WIM sound. That's W-I-M-S-O-U-N-D. The Post Wrestling Cafe is your one stop shop for all of the coverage that Post Wrestling has to offer two big rewindaways this month with WWF insurrection from May of 2002. This UK only pay per view featured the RAW brand going overseas and ending with the infamous plane ride from hell. Then we're going to take a look at AWA's Super Sunday from April of 1983. A new edition of Talk can be yours plus MCU later, Book Club and coverage of UFC 326, TNA Sacrifice and of course, XL editions of rewind or RAW, Dynamite and Smackdown with all the news of the day. And now at Post Wrestling Cafe dot com. Let's go to back to the ring here for our The Resistable Forces Tech Team Tuddle Wind celebration. They're in the ring. They got their balloons. It's not that much of a celebration. It looked quite lame actually.

23:00I think they got to fire works, but they made a toast to being dominant champs, whatever that means. And they issue a warning to the entire locker room. So I'll come Charlotte and Alexa who remind them that they only lost their their their chance at the titles because they the The Resistable Forces interfered in their Kabuki Kabuki Warriors match. And then Kiana James and Julia come out. Kiana talks about her recent string of accomplishments somehow using this as some way to justify getting a tag title shot while Julia speaks Japanese and that alone was also enough to give them a title. Let's just say so outcomes Nick Aldis who makes a tag match between those two teams to determine the number one contenders and we get Charlotte Alexa taking on James and Julia. A lot of heat on Bliss during the commercial break. Big hot tag to Charlotte that the crowd responded pretty well to Charlotte delivers a moonsault to both heels for a two count Charlotte then counters the northern lights bomb Alexa comes in with a DDT to James and Charlotte hits the natural selection giving Charlotte Alexa

24:04the victory in a path towards the tag team titles. Your thoughts on the match in the segment. It's all. I thought this was just okay. The setup was kind of mid. I think I might have preferred a longer, maybe slightly more comedic setup for something else with the celebration segment than this pretty quick match. I'm also and I know I signed like a stock record. I am not against them pushing Kiana James that's fine, you know, and she is proved to herself to look really good. You know, I think she was good in the rumble and she's been good before that and since. But this route to push her is weird and I think they need to separate her from Julia, do something different with Julia. The pairing is not working and it's beginning to bother me a little bit. The transition to James now kind of feeling like she's taken a lead in the group has been

25:07very awkward, you know, and I see the talent there. I would even say like I think I see some chemistry in them inside the ring as a tag team. But I think they've been going about the sort of like context of the team, like all wrong without really offering any sort of reasoning for how this relationship has kind of become now a James dominant relationship. Yeah. Unless we forget Julia still holds the the women's US title, you know, which has been completely forgotten by this and really even hard to ever mentioned. Yeah. They did announce in passing on commentary, I believe last week that like or or may have been social media video or something like like James has been scouting all their opponents by being ringside all those months for Julia matches. I feel like they need a bit more than that, you know, I think they need to either complete rebranding, you know, or just maybe break them off at single stars, which they might be better off for. But at this point, he heading into WrestleMania, I don't really see that much like change for

26:08them. No, I feel it's too late for WrestleMania, whatever the if these two feature on WrestleMania at all. Yeah, there's no capacity really at the moment to sort of spin them off into two separate singles programs. Yeah. Which I think would be a little bit of a shame just given like how much push they they've given James, you know, in the lead up to the chamber. And hopefully that just doesn't dissipate, you know, now that we're focused on WrestleMania. So we get to hear from Jelly Roll up next who sends in a video basically promoting his attending SmackDown next week. So do you think what we're getting another Jelly Roll match or is just just another appearance? I think it's probably just another appearance. Last time he did more or less set up comp in Orlando and was training pretty hard. Although he's looking pretty lean and all of that, I've heard nothing about him training. So I don't know. I would assume some sort of an announcement for a role at WrestleMania, wouldn't you think?

27:10Yeah, I think that he could probably be a special enforcer for a match. He could be in a hosting role, something like that, but I don't know that he'd be tagging with anyone. And does he play a pivotal role in the Cody Orton build? But he did, he talked about both men in this meeting. He checked both of them, we know he's tied with the Orton, he's friends with the Orton. And he sort of also said that he respected Cody as well. There's definitely room there for him to play a part in that story, yeah. So Cody is interviewed in the back and all Cody wants to do is point at the sign. He says, poor man, let him point at the sign. So then in comes, I think our favorite, on these Fridays, Neal. Yeah. Sami Zayn, who walks in, he says things haven't been great between the two of them. And he doesn't want to get into Cody's head before the match, so I'm going to choke top.

28:12It's Sami's acting, so I'm getting so worked up at just seeing Sami Zayn here. He says, he casually says that, you know, you getting a total shot, that alone is a little crazy. And of course Cody takes offense to this. Sami says, are you kidding? You lost the chamber match, but you're still getting this total match. You get second chances, and I basically never get any. Cody at this point gets really, really mad. He cues, cues the same of Paul taking for a total match with him. And Cody hasn't even won the damn thing yet. Zayn gets more angry as a result of this and he says, you think I'm trying to stay by way into this total match? Zayn says he actually came here to wish Cody good luck. He says he's rooting for him and wants what's best for him. Cody says okay in leads. And Sami freaks out as he does every week and takes out his frustrations on the nearest table or equipment box, or a water bottle that he slapped.

29:13Yeah. I love these. Being apologies, my boys are just very dry. Honestly, I think these two could be arguing over like, I don't know who's supposed to do the dishes. And I think it would be just as good. I think they're just so excellent at ramping up intensity in whatever they have to talk about here. Where is all this heading now? I honestly still don't know, but I don't mind that I don't know because I am fairly confident there's a decent direction coming out of all of this. And we get a bit of that later when Sami walks into Randy Orton as well. And I agree with it. These two together are really good because they're just, Cody's good at the old intensity. Sami's good at ramping up the intensity as well, which he does here. You think I'm being self-serving and then it's kind of, I don't know. And Sami's left for saying, I don't know either, man, I came here to say good luck and here it is. I love this thing. This thing he does every week where he gets himself completely worked up and then he kind

30:18of has to back off and apologize. And we know that just one of these weeks he's going to completely explode from this. I hope he does the water bottle that gets it. Yeah. And I just like, I marvel at how like every week we start from like this base, right? Like, okay, like they're, you know, like they're kind of calm afterwards, you know, like Zayn's apologized, Cody, you could tell he's like, I know it is held by this guy and just seeing him like he knows, oh shit, okay, here we go, here we go with another one of these. And just like, they just, he just worked himself up into like this like very heated exchange with Cody, even when he's not necessarily trying to, they, they've organically like just built, I think some really fun interactions with Zayn. The other thing I enjoy, but it is that Sami always seems to have a point, you know, I mean, Sami is right about, you know, he doesn't get the second chances that Cody does. As we discussed earlier in this stipulation thing, Cody lost at the rumble, lost at the

31:20chamber yet, you know, here he is, you know, so Sami is, is, is, is cracked in, in some way. It's true. There's a real like sort of Drew McIntyre appeal to him right now in that. Like, I mean, I think like the expected direction may be Zayn turning heel, but he's doing it in a way that is completely relatable. And from a different lens, you would completely side with him as instead of the other guy. So more with Sami Zayn, a little bit later on on the show. He's not wrestling very much these days, but I, I continued to think he, to me like, you know, is, is, is kind of stealing these shows in some ways. Trick Williams, it was on the breakfast club and they actually showed a clip of it. So that was kind of cool. Tag team turmoil, is our next match and that this is basically a gauntlet match to determine the next tag team tunnel contenders. And we start things off with the Motor City Machine Guns taken on Fraxium. Two teams that you would not have seen Russell as teams, sits November of last year. Yes. Motor City Machine Guns music heads, they walk out in the crowd are like, who are these

32:25guys new? Razor, I think Razor, what? Yeah. Razor fists. That's right. They have a match here and they, Fraxium work really, really fast, delivering repeated toe paces. We go to commercial breaks, more dyes from Frazier as we come back from break. The finish to this portion of the match comes as Axium delivers a missile drop kick to Sabin. Shelly puts Sabin's foot on the ropes, but the ref does not see it. So the machine guns are eliminated and a little bit more on this particular finish, a little later on on the show. For the time they were in, what did you think about Fraxium versus machine guns? Great. I really enjoy this. It was a bit of a sprint. It was quick. But two proper tag teams, two sort of cooperative tag team moves. I've really missed it. And that goes to what I was saying a little earlier about Artritz and Damien Priest and maybe I'll talk a little bit more about who wins this match later on. But it did put me in mind of last year, the three-hour SmackDown era, when these guys were

33:30getting time to have excellent matches every weekend. It was kind of always one of the in-ring highlights of the show. So yeah, this first portion of the goal of the match, I really, really enjoyed seeing these silks doing what they do best. So they are followed by Lose Garza, who keep up the pace, I would say pretty well with Fraxium here. They're fighting on opposite corners and the finish comes as Fraxium. They're setting up their power and glory spot. When Burdo shoves Fraxium to the floor, leading to Lose Garza hitting MT-Y for the victory. Yeah. And then let's let me just move on here. The lights go out and we are met with the Wyatt, Lumus and Gacy versus Lose Garza up next. Tonga Loa and Tomatonga interfere, which allows Lose Garza to advance. They break off and they're all to the back, leading us to the final team. Artritz and Damien Priest coming out to face Lose Garza. The crowd certainly loves our truth and they're cheering for him during the commercial break. Priest comes in with the hot tag. Burdo goes on a big run and in with a big moonsault for a two count.

34:30Truth then tags back in, hits scene as five moves of doom, including an STF at the end, which is broken up by Angel. Priest tags back in and then he and truth delivers stereo thunder claps before delivering a simultaneous set of heaven and AA, getting the victory and the future tag title opportunity. Yeah, the match, as I say, when it was the real tight team workers at the beginning and include Lose Garza and Natu are great, I was really enjoying the work. I know they have a story that they want to tell, but I'm a snow, I'm a purist, I enjoy the in-ring work. So the crowd really reacted pretty hard for Priest and Artritz. That's who they wanted to win. That's probably who shoot when this match, particularly since we've had weeks upon weeks of the tag team division, just being non-existent, sitting in the back, you know, learning about

35:31how do you use ESPN or whatever it is. So I think for the broader audience, this is definitely the correct result, but it just put me in mind of what we could have had over the past few months in the tag team division. Where are the and where are the street profits as well, because that's not a mystery. That's a very good one, yeah. In the case of Fragsy and Garza, I thought those two teams really stood out to me in this match. It felt like they were, I mean, probably all of them were on a bit of a mission to just remind the audience and remind the people in charge of this company exactly, you know, what the state team division was about and how overlooked they've all been. I'll say though, I mean, on the note of like maybe teams not necessarily fitting into like the division style, I think the why it's continued to, to me, kind of struggle to live up to that standard, and loomis and gasey, but they're not as good, but it's very clear, like judging by this car match itself, none of these teams are able to get half the response

36:32of an art truth, who immediately comes in and already feels like the start of the division. And for that reason, I think, you know, like these shows aren't necessarily just like built off of great and ring action, but like connection to the crowd and art truth has a lot of it, and he's bringing priests along with him who, you know, like has, like bringing brings a good level of relevance and you can even say star power to the division itself, but I do have similar questions about whether or not they can live up to, you know, like the work rate abilities of a Fragsy or even a Las Garza or in machine guns. Yeah, but I don't think they can, but I don't, I also don't think that a matters that much in the WWE ecosystem, so I get that. The only thing, the only reply I would give way to, you know, I'll not string this out too long, is that last year, there was a little bit of outcry from the fan base that these tag team titles were not being defended at WrestleMania. They had instead an incredible sort of title match on

37:34this one thing before. And that's because they had built up these teams and they were getting reactions. The cries were into it. They recognized the great wrestling. I think when you throw them back after several months into the ring, yeah, you're going to get minimal reaction because there hasn't been any build. Yeah, there's certainly that. But, you know, like, I don't know if there's a real house style to the tag division anymore. When you don't have the profits, you don't have DIY. And you've had the better part of the past year, like dominated by what the MFTs and the riots. So I don't really think like, you can't, you can't keep up like, you know, a Fragsium pace for the entire tag team division. I don't really think that this is that division anymore. So it, you know, I'm assuming priests and truth might even go on to win the championship because I think it would be that much more of a fresh coat of paint. And at that point, it would look like a bit of a different division.

38:35So we'll see what that could lead to. But I could also like see WrestleMania for whatever this matches, whenever this matches. Orn and Sami Zayn are backstage. Zayn brings up Cody taking advantage of Jews interference in their chamber qualifier and then says Orn did the exact same thing when Drew interrupted in the chamber. He took advantage of Drew's interference to beat Cody. So he wants to know from Randy. How do you do it? How do you talk to Cody about, um, like, you know, how do you talk about Cody? Like he's the best friend and then be okay taking that shortcut to win. And then Orn says sometimes you got to be selfish. Zayn asks, don't you think that makes you a bad person? And Orn says it makes me a 14 time world champion. So Zayn says he appreciates the advice. Orn then goes out to say, I believe in you and think you should believe in yourself. He tells Zayn to listen to the voices in his head. And of course at this point,

39:37Zayn is met by Alistair Black in Zalina who look at Orn in the distance and they tell Zayn, don't mind him. It's just the nature of the beast. Um, these two, yeah, these two I could have talked about at the end of this. I think it would have been more effective without them. Um, because Sami's wrestling with the nature, the very essence of the nature of morality here. Does that make you a bad person, Randy? You know, he's sort of like, you know, he's struggling with this and around his well makes me a 14 time world champion and Sami's well can't argue with that. And that did we really need the kind of don't worry about him. Sami. I mean, Black is the person attached to the Orn and this is essentially what Randy confirming what Black has been suggesting this whole time that your nature is to be a bad guy or at least somebody with those tendencies, right? So I felt like again, too, like, Black is going to play a big role in all of this somehow.

40:43Maybe still a little bit yet to be revealed, but I thought this was like important to remind us of you know, his influence in Randy Orton, you want to say? Okay. And maybe even like a further influence on Sami Zayn a little bit later on too. So maybe Alistair Black will get done what Caring Cross could done. And that's turned Sami Zayn heal. But I thought the interaction between these two was great. I mean, Sami was he's kind of like a son asking dad for advice here on how to turn heal. And I like the fact that Orton has always been the babyface who has been very upfront and honest about like his dark side. You know, in fact, like this whole run, especially with like Arcade Pearl, we've been waiting for him to turn on Randy. What is it? Riddle. And up until now, he's never turned. So it could come right now. But I love that he is able to credit selflessness as one of his reasons for success. And I thought like here, they got into like a good sort of highlighting of differences between shades of good guy. So it probably will lead

41:47into something both with Cody and also Black and of course, whatever Zayn is building up here as well. And again, by within the realms, within the sort of guardrails of its progress, is still you have a pair of, look at Sami's face. Like this is totally convincing. He is, he is wrestling with this. They're both great. They're really hitting on something really interesting, especially with Zayn. And again, like how he plays into this whole Cody, Randy thing, will be interesting because it's now not just a mid-tier program, but Zayn could have some influence in what is going to be one of the big programs heading into WrestleMania. So we'll see about that. Hello, hello, hello, Davey Portman here from Poison Rarner. 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 Rarner 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 PoisonRarner.ca.

42:52Up next, we got Rhea Ripley, who is now, I mean, SmackDown exclusive. I don't know if you want to call it that or not, but she is challenging the SmackDown champion. So she's away from her love, but I thought it was really cute here. She had a hairpin, that red, EO, the adorable. So she calls Jade Cargill out. Jade says she respects Rhea and all of her accomplishments, but she's not impressed by Rhea. She says your arms are big, but mine are bigger. You're powerful, but I'm more powerful. And she is that bitch. And she drops her mic. Rhea says Jade does impress her, physically. But if Jade hits her with her best shot, she's not going to stay down. But if Rhea hits her with hers, then Jade will not get back up. She says your body was built for show. Maul Mine was built for fighting. You work out to look good. I work out to survive in this business. She says she's going to win because she's that bitch, as she also drops the microphone.

43:53What do you think about the start to this program? I enjoyed this. Part of me would have liked them to play into the social media spot a little more that they had earlier this week, but not everyone watching will even be aware of that. So they went with something a little more conventional. I was pleased to see that the handshake didn't turn into the kind of one wouldn't let go of the other thing. And it became more of a verbal sparring about body types and all of that. And you can flex all you want, but I'm going to fight. No, I thought this was good because every confidence in Rhea, she's one of the, say this every week, she is like one of the most popular performers on the on the entire roster, male or female and always gets that reaction. She's great on the mic too. I have somewhat slightly more nervous about Jade, even though she can do the side eye and the center and that kind of facial expression really well. She gives off

44:56that attitude, great. Sometimes on the mic, it's a bit a little bit ropey. Not so much tonight. I thought this was really good. I totally agree. I thought it was a good start to the program. Um, I think Jade, like, you know, let's let's let's remind ourselves like during this run, she really hasn't had many people to play off of in ring in these sort of like segments, at least not not somebody to the level of Rhea Ripley, in my opinion. Like she's had people with zero credibility attached to him, like a beef ab and Jordan Grace and, you know, uh, uh, uh, Mietchen. So we haven't really seen her in these sort of like high profile talking segments too much during this title run, or even as this like heel character that she's only had since, you know, becoming champion. So I thought she came across really well here and, uh, she, you know, through her very very rich with Rhea, they gave us a basis for this grudge. You know, uh, Jade, I didn't even know this, but okay, like Jade is bigger than Rhea, uh, has bigger arms and legs than Rhea sure. And, but Rhea thinks Jade, Jade's body is, is, is all flash while she says she substance. So

46:02flashers to substance, that's easy to enough to follow. Um, but I think the thing that'll sell this food more than anything is, and the reason you can understand why they made this match between these two. I mean, it's the star power and the aura they share in ring. And that's something, you know, maybe on paper, you can't necessarily just like, um, predict, but see them together in the ring like this. I mean, this books like a WrestleMania made of it, you know, they're both larger than life characters that simply pop out on screen. And I thought the stair down was very magnetic. They both look super heroes. So to me, the food is already a 10 visually. In terms of substance, maybe I would say like, you know, they kind of got off to maybe a six in ring is going to be another question altogether. But, um, I have some confidence that like they can like rehearse a strong enough match that they can deliver on a big stage. But are you optimistic about the food after seeing the segment? Somewhat, and that is also my hope way is that, you know, we're, I think it's going to be six weeks from WrestleMania tomorrow, something like that. They have lots of time. This match is

47:06set. That's good. They have a lot of time to, like you said, and it will take it, I think, with Cade to rehearse and work, you know, a good match, which will play well. And they've shown that they can do that with people who aren't, you know, I don't want to be too far down on Cade, but aren't maybe as natural in the ring or as accomplished or as, you know, as much of a veteran, as Rhea is. We saw it with, um, we saw it in the tag match way back with the debut of Ronda Royce, where, you know, that match was rehearsed to death at the party, but it was really entertaining the way it was done. So, of course, this is singles match. There's a lot more on T.H. shoulders. She doesn't have a tag partner to help protect, but protect her. But, yeah, you know, I'm sort of quietly confident that this could be better than I thought it was going to be. And I'm hopeful that the promos will be able to deliver, like a deep enough story as well.

48:09Like, I'm, you know, this is where the writing staff will really have to shine, you know, the way that they have with live versus vacare and the great job they've done with that feud. I hope they're able to help us build something a bit more personal that we could stick our teeth into between Rhea and Jade. Up next, we've got, uh, well, the Motor City Machine Guns are in the back with Johnny Gargano and Candace. And, um, Chris David is mad that Alex Shelley is consoling Johnny Gargano who is again on top of a crate instead of reacting to their tag team turmoil or loss. Save and ask Shelley why he didn't break up the pin to which Shelley says he did. The referee just didn't see it. So, this leads to some friction between these two and maybe notable in that it's the first bit of friction we've seen between the machine guns since they've arrived. So, wonder if that'll lead to anything between the two. I think, apart from that, some bubble with the ESPN segment last week, there's probably the first time we've heard them speak in months, you know, so maybe it leads to something although, um, Shelley's absolutely right, um, you know,

49:09save and just needs to watch it back. It was very much on television that he did, he did, uh, lift the leg. Uh, so Candace tries one more time to motivate Johnny who finally gets up and says you're right. Let's go to the ring. And he will, he will go to the ring. Bo Dallas, uh, we get one of the, your wide sex promos. He says he won't rest until the lanterners return to him. He has family will keep looking over their shoulders and realize there's nothing to do but run. So then we go to the ring as Johnny Gorgano is, is there he's standing up right? He says Candace was right. He is one of the best wrestlers in the world and he says it's time to be Johnny wrestling again. And it starts tonight. So Johnny Gorgano opens up an open challenge and he throws it out there to anybody in the back. And it is, of course, answered by Oba Femi comes out and, um, no sells all of Gorgano's offense repeated running uppercuts, the puff puff toss. And then the

50:12fall from grace is delivered in a very, very quick win here. Uh, so, you know, a brief, um, sort of a escape from depression here from Johnny Gorgano, but we can expect them. I don't know how, how much, will he be inside the crate now instead of, uh, possibly, uh, uh, probably on the drink or something. I don't know, yeah, this, this cannot help the man. Uh, out of his, out of his depression, out of his depression, but a good use of over here, I think compared to the previous two weeks where it was just, as we said last week, two comedians, I think that the setups to the match, where this was sort of almost comedic for a different reason, just to, you know, the absolute ease with which he dispatched, um, Johnny and, uh, his offense was completely nothing to this man. Between this and, um, Rusev on Monday, I definitely think like they've been treating Oba a bit better than to have him, like, overstay is welcome. I want to say in these sort of, like, pro one comedic segments, this was, of course, somewhat comedic, but there, like, Oba played zero part in

51:13sort of, like, setting up the, like, you know, like, being out there and communicating with Johnny to try to set up the punch line. It was just him being physical and getting out of there, which I thought was more effective. So they're, they're continuing to, like, sell us on, like, Oba being, um, what a free agent between Ron Smackdown. Like, at this point, can we expect them to not announce, like, his actual signing until after WrestleMania? I don't know. It's not, it's an awful long time still to go a month and a half with like, resolving this matter, you know, it seems, it seems a bit of a feeling on the, on the, uh, management side. Yeah. How long can somebody stay out of the market? There must be some deadline, you know, you would think so. Yeah. Um, I guess we'll see. Yeah. Um, so that was Oba for me this week, and that was Johnny Greg, Greg, Greg, I know this week. Honestly, like, I don't know when he and Candace may be done, but this does not feel like the role you give somebody, like a Johnny and Greg, I know,

52:15unless you know or sense that he is on his way out. He may well be following his friend at the door. I'm thinking, um, it's a suspicion rather than anything else, but, um, you're right. The way the, the way this guy is being put on television each week is just, uh, you know, there's nothing to this. Um, he, he may as well not be there, and when he is there, he's getting destroyed. So yeah, it feels like the type of, like, it feels like they're just squeezing whatever name value they can out of John and your piano before, you know, like the competition might take them. That's just the sense I get, because if they find it, like, if there's any thought that they could still you start a car cano after this, I just, I, I, I can't really see them treating him this way, right? So, um, also wonder where an R. T. Wood slot at, at this point, as the singles, I mean, wall in the US title, um, division, you know, but they're not even using them for that. And how could they after like, he, he loses like this to open for me? Um, so we'll

53:20see where this, uh, story is headed, um, possibly towards Wednesdays or John and Greg Dano. Jade is in the back with mecha and B-Fab. And in case you were, uh, just wondering, you know, on the edge of your seat, about, uh, when mecha would finally get her opportunity against Jade. Well, that'll be next week, because Jade has had enough talk. Jade even asked mecha, why she let Ria skip the line as of mecha and would have had any say in, like, whether or not Ria would, would, um, get her title shot. Anyway, um, it's been a very cold and nothing build between these two, but I, I don't even see any value or purpose to it. Other than it possibly ending with mecha and inner B-Fab turning heel and joining Jade. What do you think? Hmm. I hadn't even thought of that, but yeah, I mean, this has been going on for maybe three weeks. This sort of, the, the mecha and B-Fab show up. Mecha's got her candlestick and they get in Jade's face. And I, I don't know, it just feels like they don't belong on screen together. And

54:21that's, I don't mean that in a totally disrespectful sense to B-Fab and mecha. And it's just the way they're being positioned. Jade's at the very top of the card. She's got the title. These two have no business challenging her. I mean, that's been, that has been settled by, by the rumble and, and by the chamber, you know, who is going to be challenging the, uh, the champion. So, I don't understand this mecha and thing, but I guess we've got to give Jade some squashes to build her up before I don't think a squash or good to becha does anything for her. Like, I mean, she's already seen way as way of up, right? Yeah. Um, I, I do want to maybe play out the idea of like them being her heel back up, you know, in a, in a few to get free of Ripley. Um, like, just to kind of like take us further towards WrestleMania by making things a bit more interesting and more like slanted towards Jade being dominant. I can maybe see that happening, you know, Jade doing the like hiding behind a mecha and B-Fab. I don't know how effective it would be because it

55:26just, I mean, even, even in a heel roll, they seem so beneath Rear Ripley. Um, but that's the only reason I could see them even entertaining any of this right now. So we'll see you next week. That is the, uh, that is the match for Jade. Dan housing is in the back with Nick all this. So Dan housing is, um, is this for free agency? Dan housing as well. I think so because he's, he's how does, how does demands on Monday and he's got his demands of, of Nick as well? Or, or, or does Ron's back down share equal custody of Dan housing? Could be because, you know, I, he can appear and disappear well. So, uh, so he's got his list of demands on his, uh, tattered piece of paper for Nick all this. And one of his demands is that he wants a mentor that'll take him straight to the top. And before all this can just miss him, all this sees the Miz who has been looking for a mentee. So he gives Dan housing to him. And the Miz says I don't really want to mentor a goth kid. And he says he's not going to mentor him. But Dan housing says if you

56:30don't mentor me, the Miz, you'll be cursed as he reminds us of what happened to Dom on Monday. Yeah, I don't know how you felt about this deal, but I gotta say, I, I never thought I would have so much fun simply watching Dan house and be Dan house and interacting with like our regular WWE cast, right? Like, yeah. I think both interactions so far with Dom and now also with Miz, like just to purely WWE mainstays at this point have been a lot of fun. And, and for me, they've had the appeal of like seeing, you know, like a DZ character suddenly popping up into a marble comic, you know, and just having like quirky interactions. I agree with you. And I think he's going to get over huge. He was already, he's already over to this portland cry. They were kind of chanting along with the you are cursed part of the speech. And I think I heard some laughter as well as, you know, the introduction was crap as, you know, has been well documented

57:31at the PLE, but I think is his appearance on Monday and again tonight, very entertaining. And this is sort of author, this is Dan, this is not some sort of WWE if I'd Dan house and this is Dan house, and as you would expect him to be. So yeah, like you said, seeing him to crop up with complete mainstays, particularly someone like the Miz has been there forever. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. It made me chuckle. And I think the two of these, this is another pairing for the Miz. We talked about another one earlier on, you know, that I think could work rather well. Kate Wilson and Dan housing on screen together. I think we'll be magnetic. Yeah, sign me up. Yeah, I'm loving this. And I don't think it to me discounts our feelings on the introduction. I thought it was a bad introduction and a bad way to introduce him. I think you could have gotten to this point and maybe even better, you know, through maybe like a way of presenting him with a little less like over hype, but I always felt like confident in feeling

58:38like the moment he was on screen. I think especially children, but like adults as well, like they totally get into the gimmick. And I think we're already seeing how much of a better fit he might be in WWE that AW where he was basically not featured. But even when he was featured, it was largely kept to like, you know, like in rings, sort of like running types of type of gags. Yeah. Nothing where I think he excels in like these backstage segments, you know. Absolutely. And I think in ring will not be his forte in WWE either. Of course, they will use him at some point. But yeah, these sorts of back stage skits, we do, I mean, of course they do backstage stuff on AEW, but not like this, not in the sports center team, sort of zone. And I think Dan Huy, Dan Huysten is proving already to be a good fit for this. The Miz and Dan housing. Yeah, let's go. Lovely. His housing. Miz housing. Beautiful. I love it. Love it already. And we got to remain

59:40event for the WWE undisputed championship. It is. Is it? We're still calling this undisputed, please. It's officially the undisputed WWE championship. Why are we doing that? When I do my written reports, I occasionally check whether they've changed it. So it is Cody versus Drew for the WWE championship. This is a straightforward match between the two. And there are a lot of commercials, you know, in the, in the presentation of this, we get commercials between the video package, reminding us how this match was made. And then the entrances and introductions before we get more commercials, before we get to the actual match itself. So we finally, after like what, like feels like like 15 minutes, we finally get to the match here. Drew starts to match, running to the back is Cody catches up to him and then brings him back and takes control. Drew then gains control after hitting Cody with a nice like surprise claymore to the left arm off of an up and over. So Drew then continues working on the arm throughout the match,

1:00:40doing like even a Shayna Basler, you know, Pete Dunn style stomped to the elbow. Cody comes back and brings Drew to the desk as he attempts across roads on top of the desk to which Drew escapes, but they're combined weight, unfortunately, collapse the table anyway. So Drew seemingly improvising at this point pulls the table from underneath the ring and power bombs Cody through it. Back in the ring, Drew follows up with his own crossroads to Cody for a two count. Drew then delivers his own claymore, sorry, Cody then delivers his own claymore for a two count. They both narrowly avoid Charles Robinson until Drew deliberately drags Robinson in front of a disaster kick attempt laying him out. Cody then hits the crossroads, but there's no referee. So Dan Angler rushes from the back, but a flash claymore from Drew gives Drew a two count. Drew is mad at Dan Angler and he continues taking it out on Cody's left arm and shoulder. Drew then has had enough and Glasgow kisses the referee. He then goes outside and takes a chair. When Jacob Fattu comes out to take the chair away, Cody goes for another pin, but Robinson is back right now and

1:01:44counts a two count. Drew then delivers a future shock and misses the claymore. Cody Cutter leads to the crossroads as Cody Rhodes wins the championship and heads to the presumed main event of WrestleMania. A very good match, I think, and enhanced by the fact that there were no commercial breaks in this. There were like you said, seemingly three or something in the build up to the match from when they're taping up backstage. Then we got the ring annoyance from Mark Nash and then we're out. So maybe a worthy sacrifice. Maybe that, like, their justification is that we take all the commercial breaks beforehand so that we can leave it on tour. I believe there might have been one that Netflix ran through, of course, so we got to see all the action, but I'm assuming on the USA, there's probably at least one that interrupted. I felt they said that they were going to run it without commercial interruptions, but I may be wrong on that. A very kind of WWE

1:02:46mentality match, the slow, let's slow it down, because it was lengthy and we did get a lot of sort of, you know, limb work and that kind of thing and telling the story. But who better than these two to do that? I really think they've worked it really, really well. We got the the unfortunate incident of the the announcer desk just collapsing onto them, but they worked through that really, really well. I think like Cody just staggered around, drew, grabbed the table, par bono to it, and they didn't really feel like they missed a beat. There, the the ref bump was predictable, I think, and although less so the glass go, okay, it's on for dying. So entertaining. I do wonder in the bigger picture, is this enough at the moment for Drew to move on from Cody and his obsession with the title? I mean, he he he has talked so many times, are we praying for, you know, he wanted to protect the title. Kisses the title, you know, he wanders around with

1:03:49his sleeves with it and then posted online. And clearly where we're supposed to be headed here, I think is Drew and Jacob, but I think they've got some work to do to get a convincing pivot to that. I think, you know, Drew will be his character ought to be absolutely crazed with rage, you know what, losing the title at this point to Cody, but I'm probably getting ahead of where you wanted me to go there away, which was just to talk about the match itself. And I thought it was like a really good TV min event. I agree. I thought I thought it was wall wrestle, you know, and they managed to, here's what I'm kind of surprised by it for a few that we've seen like so much of already, including a three stages of the hell match. I mean, a straight-up wrestling match from these two granted a lot was at stake here, you know, but still a pure wrestling match between these two or as pure as like, you know, two rough bumps in a wrestling match, maybe I thought they delivered a really compelling one, you know, and I felt as interested

1:04:54in this one as maybe as many of their others. So good story telling with the arm, rough bumps I found were effective here. But yeah, going back to what you were talking about, you know, I think Drew will be livid as he should be, and he will be looking to take it out on Jacob Fattu, first and foremost, before he has his further sights set on regaining the championship. The championship is still the motivation, but he's got to deal with Jacob Fattu first, and I think that's maybe how he'll be building to that WrestleMania match. So yeah, we've got our WrestleMania made event. I think we could say now in Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton, they're going the one-on-one direction instead of any sort of like three-way or four-way, your thoughts on this new match. I like it. And I was wrong about where they might go. Of course, it's all guesswork. It's sort of fantasy-broken and stuff. I just felt that with one of the titles, they might go the three-way direction, even four-way at one point. I thought Jacob might be involved too, but I much prefer the dynamic of the Code Man and his body, the Code Man and the Orton. I think this is

1:06:04way, you've brought up this WrestleMania graphic for the match. I don't know if you've seen the CM punk and the Roman Reigns one. No. It does not look good. It's got that vertical lettering, and for all the world looks like you should be reading it from left to right, and it looks like a complete mess. It's a very, for example, of graphic design. Like are we talking, are we talking this one, the blue one? This one, this thing? Yeah, proven king. I think that's terrible. Yeah, really. You have to actually fight your eyesight to make it say. I wonder why it has that effect. I mean, the Orton Cody one is perfectly fine. That looks actually completely different. What are we looking at here? This sort of dystopian, are we looking at Las Vegas in the background? I'm not sure what that is in the background.

1:07:09Yes, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Las Vegas sign. What about the, what about Reigns and punk? There are more of like a futuristic, yeah, they're in troll or something. Yeah. That's going on there. Interesting. I know what you're saying. Sorry about this detour, but I do understand. Maybe maybe they'll, maybe they'll correct this, maybe not. So, okay, back to the topic. I ultimately am more of a fan of having a one-on-one match between two guys. You get into much more personal storytelling between when it's just a few between two people. This allows you to get into the deep history between the two, which I think they can fully get into. I think the most interesting element of all of this is what role Sammy Zayn will play in it all. And whether or not which one of them will be turning heel. If one of them will actually be turning heel ahead of the match itself to give us a more sort of like favorite, right? Both of them are baby faces right now. And you can argue Cody might be like flirting with a bit of negativity set towards him.

1:08:14But that was not the case tonight. This crowd like treated him like, you know, like a very standard like over baby face against vanquishing the heel in Drew McIntyre. I certainly felt like there would have been a chance that, you know, the sort of meta narrative being there of like Drew having his opportunity taken away by Cody Rhodes, the chosen one. I guess the other chosen one that audiences would eventually turn on him. And maybe online, I haven't read anything. Maybe there's still some of that. But at least tonight in front of Portland, they treated this like their hero one. So, I'm curious to see how those famous may be stoked. And again, what role Sammy Zayn will play in all of it? Yeah, really curious about that because there isn't a particularly obvious way in which Sammy kind of finds his way into this. But it's pretty clear he's going to. And like you said, we need somewhat of a heel dynamic, I think. And who they go with is going to be interesting because like yourself, I was thinking, okay, this is Portland. The perhaps, perhaps at least

1:09:20somewhat more sophisticated cry than some, you know, maybe we'll get some doing of Cody. None of that whatsoever. He was treated as the full-on baby face here. And of course, Randy got the giant puppy always gets. So yeah, I think that's going to be, they've got some more cut out to get a heel turn if they're going to do one. Yeah, sorry, I'm just distracted because I just pulled up the the the future version of the Randy Orton Cody Rhodes poster. Or Rotto or Interesting. All right. So yeah, that was our WrestleMania. And now set, you know, between our matches here, we've got, of course, Randy Orton Cody Rhodes, Roman and Rincey and Punk. We've got Lidmorgan versus Stephanie Bacare and Rhea Ripley versus Jade Cargill. What do you think about that? At least our top, you know, four total matches. So I think promising. Definitely. We've got big stars with star power put together. I like

1:10:26this pairing that we got cemented tonight. And I think we've got five or six weeks to really play with that and try and, you know, get some hype going and get the build right. So yeah, and so far, so good with the build for WrestleMania this year. My confidence levels work particularly high until just the last couple of weeks or so to be honest. And and the rest of the car looks like it still remains to be seen, of course, as well. But I think they're off to a pretty good start at the top level. Yeah, up top with Cody and Orton. I like that. I like that as one of the nights of main of the main event. Certainly more than I would have Cody versus Drew or, you know, Jacob Fattu being somewhat, somewhat, somehow inserted and all that. So we'll see if they can build any more steam attached to it. We've got a lot of weeks to go. And we will keep everybody updated on every single edition of one of these shows as we

1:11:28head towards WrestleMania 42. Neil Flanagan, let's say, goodbye to all of our free feeders. And thank you all for joining us. Let's just a quick reminder that the post-wrestling cafe will have collision course this coming weekend. We've also got our review of WWFN Selection. That's up there right now. Coming up next week, a new edition of Polyconting Talk. And a whole lot more including our New Japan finals review that's coming out. And everything, including MCU later, Daredevil season two, sign up at postwrestlingcafe.com weekly, just podcasts, just more than you, you'd be able to finish, I'm sure, and a seven day free trial for those of you that may want to sign up for the very first time. All right, let's go over to post-wrestling forum.postwrestling.com.