WWE V5: Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens

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Guess what? This, fired or not, is still the

Sammy and Kevin Show! Hello and welcome to The

Pull Bag. This is episode 485. I am, of course,

JF Joe and Mike. Joining me for the second week

in a row is Ryan, the uneven flow, Mark Lee.

Hello, sir. You know, and WWE boom studios, WWE

volume five, the Sammy and Kevin show. One thing

we didn't mention in last week's episode that

I absolutely love, and I know that this has happened

on all of these trade covers. Is that we get

quotes from the people so last week I think Bailey's

quote was this comic deserves a hug or something

like that yes this week this week we have Kevin

and Sammy. Kevin goes does this graphic novel

give Sammy and I the respect we deserve and.

Sammy's like yep this is yep yep. and this was

initially published as 18 to oh well there are

actually more in here than just Sammy and Kevin

that I did not realize so it's 18 to 21 is this

batch however there are well actually no sorry

it's 18 to 20 technically so this is a much shorter

There are shorter stories, including Samoa Joe

writing one. Samoa Joe continuing the trend of,

now he writes his own story, but there have been

a number of different wrestlers who have written

comics. The first one I can remember is Raven.

Then with I think he was still with WCW back

then writing an issue of 100 bullets Which was

quite good. Or at least I enjoyed it. It was

a good kind of one -off and There was CM Punk

wrote a story in one of the Thor annuals and

most recently Brain freeze AEW, jeez. AEW's,

I believe it's Nyla Rose is... Or is it Thunder

Rose? No, I think it's Nyla Rose is writing an

issue of our story in one of the most recent

Thunderbird issues or compilations for Marvel

Comics. Very cool. So the four mini stories that

we have here are... Undrafted, as you already

said, written by Smojo and Michael Kingston,

illustrated by Michael... Molopia or Moloplia?

Sorry, Michael. Colored by Doug Garbach. The

Yes Movement, written by Julian May, illustrated

by Rodrigo Lorenzo. Unbroken, written by Lan

Pitts. Hey, I know Lan, I'm friends with him

on Facebook. Lan rules. Uh, and Fest Prep written

by Kevin Panetta. And then we have the main story,

which is the Sammy and Kevin show written by

Dennis Hopeless, uh, with our usual illustration

by basically the, the, the usual team. Yeah.

So the main story is the story roughly around

that timeframe, a little. earlier of Sammy Zane

and Kevin Owens reconnecting mostly during the,

so it takes place initially before the Hell in

a Cell match between Kevin Owens and Guy with

No Head, which incorporated his father, Guy with

No Head or Body ever seen. the sort of fallout

of the Hell in the Cell match, which, you know,

Owens should win easily because this guy has

no head. How does he see or anything else? But

it's the fallout of that where they sort of reconnected

at least briefly to take on man with no head.

And surprisingly enough, Daniel Bryan, who this

was his return match initially. That went really

well for WWE as he is killing it in another wrestling

promotion now. Anywho, where is he now? Daniel

Bryan's in AEW. That's right. That's right. He,

of course, is in AEW. He briefly, at least for

some time, and he's still sort of involved with

John Moxley. But yeah, he is, oh boy, has he

put on some matches. Also, I mean the two of

them just look completely different Moxley fully

completing rehab, which has helped him immensely

Good for him and Brian finally kind of getting

to do what he always wanted Because he was always

railing against Management and never got to do

any of the stuff you wanted to do any who that

is beside the point But this is the story of

Kevin Owens Sammy Zane Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn,

two of my favorite wrestlers going today, even

though sadly they're in the wrong promotion.

But they're still consistently two of the most

entertaining portions of said promotion. And

this was during the time where, frankly, they

were underused. And it tells a story during the

time that they were underused. However, the headless

and bodyless people in this are the McMahon family.

So, first of all, by the way, and this is not

the fault of the writer or artist, but it's really

weird that Shane is just not depicted ever. It

makes no sense. I know he's not with the company

now. So, in real life for a second, Shane McMahon

has been fired by WWE and this is not an angle

or anything else. right is sort of persona non

grata to them and This is before that though.

So yeah, I don't really know why This happened

And it's weird and then Vince is a disembodied

voice So Owens, you know gets sort of a rub because

he got to be kind of the last guy to beat up

Vince And it was pretty physical and that's depicted

in this. But it's again, it's sort of jarring

that we don't never see. He's not even referenced

by the way that it beat up Vince McMahon. Yeah.

It's just some dude basically. And apparently

it's a big deal, but they never really get into

it. No, they don't. I don't know. It's just weird

to me. I don't know either. I So I don't know

if it's the way that Dennis writes this or if

this is if it's me WWE remembering this stuff,

but Like yes, I see the friendship between them

in this first page You know when they're going

around when it shows them going around to the

to the No -name gyms and things like that But

once they hit WWE, it doesn't seem like they

were ever friends. I mean not on camera. Yeah,

obviously in real life Yes, obviously, you know

and I mentioned this in the previous episode

after the After each of their respective WrestleMania

matches the other one essentially tweeted about

how proud they were and yeah For Owens on night

one, it was an absolute dream come true. He got

to main event WrestleMania with Stone Cold Steve

Austin, which that's a guy he idolized growing

up. So that was a pretty big deal for him. And

then, yeah, Zayn got to surprisingly kill it

on night two. I would have preferred to. So getting

into the issues. And just being blunt, this was

probably the best time frame to do the Owen and

Zane story. Yup. But it was still not a great

storyline. I don't care about Shane. Yeah. And

frankly, making him headless. Makes me care about

him even less because you know really character

at that point I I don't know This is a weird

series and yes It's I don't know I prefer the

older stuff more I like seeing the initial stuff

and what's neat is I can read that and I can

hear it in, hear their voices saying it. Now,

to be fair, I can hear a lot of their voices

throughout this issue. I think the character

writing and everything is good, but it doesn't,

uh, the actual storyline they concentrate on

is some of the worst between them. The NXT stuff

was good and they only get brief sort of quick.

shots of it. Yeah. It's never gone into. No.

Yeah. It's never gone into and, and I get it.

This is a comic book titled WWE. I understand

your, your main focus is WWE. It's not the NXT

comic book, which there actually is an NXT comic

book that Boom Studios did that we'll have to

cover in some future time. But yeah, I mean going

through these Four chapters here man. Just this

this feels like the lowest stakes So the previous

one was the women's evolution, which I think

is enough is going to be In terms of pro wrestling

despite despite whatever you think of the current

state of it If you're going through sort of WWE

history, I think it's big enough to stand out

on a map. I think the shield is a big enough

deal to stand out on a map. If only because each

member has headlined different eras and frankly

different promotions in Moxley slash Dean Ambrose.

It was a big deal. Storyline was only a big deal

because of the McMahon involvement and The main

McMahon it involved got canned so yeah Yeah,

I don't know. It's it's sort of like a footnote

because it was very much an undercard the biggest

deal honestly is Daniel Bryan who it's not about

and it's The biggest deal is Daniel Bryan's return

to pro wrestling after years and years away because

of a terrible neck condition. It almost feels

like, so I mean, I love Owens and Zane, don't

get me wrong, obviously, but it almost feels

like we should have had the story of Daniel Bryan

and his reactions and everything else to being

allowed to do the thing he loves more than anything

else on earth again. Yeah. But obviously we'll

probably never see that aside from what's already

been aired of it. But I mean, probably never

get into it again just because he's with another

promotion now. Yeah. So really quickly, since

we're in an in -between moment here, I am on

the Comixology WWE page. And yeah, the main WWE

series from boom only had six volumes. They had

one through six. The next volume after this is

the phenomenal one. Yes. Obviously AJ Styles.

So that, yeah. And that begins at issue 21. Right.

And then we have WWE and XT take over. And then

we have in this collected altogether in this

series, we have wwe then now and forever volumes

one through four okay volume one of then now

and forever is by denis hopeless volume two is

by aj styles because it focuses on aj styles

apparently and volume three is by andy belanger

and erin gils gillespie and others and then yeah

so i mean Essentially, the Sammy and Kevin show

and the Phenomenal one. Man, I always thought

Boom Studios, I mean, they didn't let their stuff

go, but like, I thought this would get more than

just six trades. Yeah, 25 issues. Yeah, but who

knows how licensing or anything else. Yep, yep,

yep. It is what it is. Listen, the 10 plus years

of IDW and Transformers, for example, is pretty

rare. The now, God, what's it been? It's been

at least eight or nine years, right, of TMNT

and IDW. Doesn't happen all that often. Oh, no.

It's longer than that. Okay. TMNT IDW, I want

to say, started 2011? 2012? Somewhere around

there. So, yeah, I mean, you're essentially right.

But you know IDW is killing TMNT. So it's awesome

Literally in case of the last ronin. Oh Well

spoilers, I haven't read it yet. I've been waiting

for it to finish so I can read it. It's done

now Yes, well, so an issue one we have Mike.

Oh anyway, so Yeah, anywho, I don't know what

to what to say about this so This is, you know,

in case I didn't make it clear, I think this

is the weakest of the batch. I think it's the

weakest story. I think the highlights are the

interplay between Owens and Zane, but we have

an awful lot of pages between Shane and Daniel

Bryan. Don't know it says it feels very off or

it feels very different than the others Yeah,

it It feels like That they wanted to tell the

story just like they've told the story in the

previous four volumes Volume one was Seth volume

two was Dean Volume three was Roman slash Bray

Volume four we just covered last week, which

is the women's evolution and this is Sammy and

Kevin So I guess that's another one to throw

in here by the way that like Roman slash Bray

I had forgotten that was even Maybe there's more

than one that Well, I mean it's been a while

since we've done this so It's one of those things

where as I'm reading this I like seeing the behind

-the -scenes stuff More than the in -ring stuff

between Sammy and Kevin like I agree and there's

a fair amount of that I think my problem with

it is and I mentioned this last episode that

The women's evolution didn't feel like as much

of the WWE revisionist history as they love to

do. This did feel like it, it felt like they

were trying to figure out, they were trying to

figure out a reason why Zayn, who was not involved

at Owens, with Owens at the time, Zayn was a

face. Why Zayn would suddenly decide to save

Kevin Owens. at the Hell in a Cell match. But

didn't he do that in real life? He did. But but

we didn't. But as for why there was no setup,

it just happened. Right. And then we got the

sort of clumsy explanation later. Yeah. I mean,

so far as I'm looking through this, I'm trying

to see the you know, I think my favorite part

in this is right after the It's not a shower

scene, but it's a freaking shower scene between

Zane and Brian So it's right after that when

Kevin picks him up when he's like get in the

car. Okay, and My favorite part of this entire

thing is the recap or the time lapse of For the

next few months, Daniel Bryan lets Sammy and

Kevin fight to keep their jobs. I remember that

being a thing, but that's honestly the only in

-ring thing I cared about in this trade. Well,

to be fair, it was probably the most entertaining

aspect of the batch too, because even Bryan's

return, which should have been a big deal, it

was kind of a meh time or a meh. uh, tag team

match. It was, it was great seeing him back,

but I mean, you know what you're getting with

a Shane match? Yeah. Uh, I, you know, for me,

I mentioned it before the interplay. So my favorites,

I enjoyed Owen's kind of teaching or showing

Zane the ropes of being a heel or trying to sort

of explain his viewpoint of pro wrestling. Yeah,

and by the end of this we got The Kevin Owens

screw job Except it was on Sammy's hand because

believe it or not Kevin I was paying attention

Unfortunately, neither of them won that match

Obviously, but I'm just saying like the whole

culmination of this story from chapter one to

chapter four So this whole thing of like teasing

up let's go let's Whatever and then so being

honest like these are two guys. I like and yes,

I like Seeing them in comic form that kind of

thing and it's kind of fun but honestly it sucks

because you look at the other series and You

think of what are the most memorable moments

for these Larger than life characters for rains

and co Maybe now you could make a point that

for rains. It's the bloodline stuff currently

Rollins Maybe some of the stuff through his champion,

but certainly at the time the shield was the

biggest deal for For the women at the time that

was written most assuredly their ascent into

WWE is probably the best story to have chosen.

For Owens and Zayn, it's not this timeframe.

For Owens, frankly, and most obviously, it's

the Chris Jericho stuff, but they're never going

to write about that because Jericho is with that

other company again, and they've forgotten he

existed, which is unfortunate because frankly,

That is it was so good Stuff was so yes, you

know you had Chris Jericho is one of the greatest

wrestlers ever whatever you think of him Personally

or outside of that or whatever he is what I think

anybody would say Hall of Famer through and through

and yeah, that was some of the best and even

when WWE did their best to absolutely tank it.

Like say, I don't know, interjecting Goldberg

winning the title for no reason. So they, so

they can put it on a 50 year old man so he can

have a five minute match. Yeah. And when I find

absolutely ironic about you saying all of this,

and I remember all of that, you have to remember

this was, I want to say this was published right

along the side of volume four, so maybe 29, I

don't remember when volume five came out, but.

So it came out only a few months after volume

four. March 2019. Okay, March of 2019. The previous

volume was December 2018. Right. Had the other

company even begun yet? I believe so. But yeah,

either way Okay, but the reason why I'm saying

this is because you're saying all this stuff

about the list of Jericho and then the friendship

and and all this getting into the cover gallery

the very first cover done by Dan Mora amazing

art Dan as always Daniel Bryan Chris Jericho

the undertaker and and one of Mick's various

so when they characters So when they, the first

issue came out, AEW didn't exist. However, they

did know Chris Jericho wasn't going to be in

WWE and it wouldn't be too long. Cause it just,

I mean, I remember what you're saying. It's just

like he, there was no chance in hell he was going

to be a part of this comic. Yes. And that is

kind of sad because. These three covers The first

three covers in the cover gallery as I just mentioned

the one with Brian Jericho Undertaker and Foley

and then the actual list of Jericho as a cover

with AJ Styles Sammy Zane that one guy in the

third row Renee Young Mm -hmm, by the way, how

many of those people are no longer with the company?

Well true by most of them. It's kind of funny.

Absolutely. And then the very next cover is just

the overall, the list of Jericho, just the overall

title. And then we get into Sammy and Kevin's

cover. Happy Rusev Day. I wonder how that worked

out for WWE. Another guy also in that other company.

And not to mention another great example of a

storyline that they just did their best to get

rid of and Barry and The people loved it, but

man, they tried so hard to get rid of it. Anywho.

If Vince doesn't get the reaction that he wants,

whatever he allows to come up, he will take a

shovel to it immediately. Oh, yeah. The only

other covers I want to mention here, because

I mentioned them in the last one, are the action

figure comic book covers. You have Kurt Angle,

Zack Ryder. Carmella and King Booker. I miss

Booker. Yeah, two more people not in the company.

And then, yeah, there you go. Right. And yeah,

I mean, I don't know when we're going to do AJ's

volume, volume six, phenomenal, because I was

never an AJ fan. Really? I don't dislike the

man, but I don't necessarily like him either.

I don't know. Again, it's been way too long.

I feel like 2022 is as far away from 2015 as

1990 is as far away from 2022 because like I

said, I had to read volume four twice before

I came around to actually liking the overall

story that they were telling with Bailey as the,

as the point of view character. And like I said,

the Sammy and Kevin stuff, when they weren't

in the ring, when they were showing the actual

friendship stuff, when they didn't have the cameras

pointed at them, I loved it. I thought it was

great. I don't know. This one, I agree with you.

You are absolutely right. There could have been

so much more to this volume. Three out of five,

maybe. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going

to say. And it's not, I have no idea how this

is. But, or sorry, so I have, we have no idea

obviously what the status is of what they tell

Dennis hopeless, he can write. Right. Or what

timeframe they give him or people or whatever.

Right. But yeah, I just said it before that it

just, it would be nice. it would have been nicer

if they had been able to do you know the best

time frame for these guys you'd think you would

really think it would be best to do the best

thing and choking on my own rage here that wasn't

that hard was it so yes it's a three out of five

i feel bad about that i'll also say this so you

mentioned the supplemental material there's also

stories at the end of each of these as they were

originally sort of short stories, but unlike

the Oscar short, it doesn't tell it. Each one

is just sort of a one -off. Yeah. It doesn't

tell, you know, so they've got one that's Bobby

Roode and Bobby Roode is just his, it's his theme

song, lyrics over scenes of him wrestling or

the most entertaining one, honestly, is probably

the Rusev day one. Sort of hinted at Yeah, they're

not I don't know. There's just not to it there's

nothing much to it and and as much as I Am okay

with not following WWE anymore like I've been

out of it for so long I don't eat I think the

last thing I remember watching is that Supposed

retirement of the Undertaker, that final match

with him and Wyatt is the last thing I actually

remember seeing. Where he tries to bury him,

the bury me match or whatever the hell that was,

whenever the hell that was, I don't know. But

I don't miss having to pay attention to... Just

on two television shows alone, five and a half

to six hours of television a week. I mean, the

bright side is you can follow if you like somebody,

you know, you only watch one of them in theory.

Right. But yeah, it's a little too much. Yeah.

Now, AEW, I've seen like we've done like a couple

of AEW things before when it first started, but

I haven't followed it. I don't dislike it. I

just don't know if I want to get back into full

-on wrestling right now and the sad thing is

I just searched AEW on Comixology. They list

three comic books that I don't even think have

anything to do with AEW. No, I don't think they

have one. Yeah, so, you know, it is what it is,

folks. Like I said, we've got, you know, volume

six at some point and, you know, maybe we can

go through the other ones at some point as well.

I do know that in the future here inside the

pull bag, we will be having Autobotly August

this year. Steve Megatron wants to finish up

the Marvel US run, so we will be doing that in

August. And what else we got coming up? We've

got Beast Wars 15 and 16. Are you at least up

to the Marvel US era where Furman sort of takes

over? I started at volume one for Mighty W, so

whatever volume one, whatever the original 80,

no, so probably not. No, we're going in collected

trade order because it's just easier that way.

whatever volume two of the Transformers classics

from IDW collects. Yeah, I don't know how they

go. Obviously, I know them initially. And it

got much better after the 50s when he sort of

took over, although there was some good stuff

initially. But it told a better storyline. And

this was kind of in the this is way back when

before Furman's kind of ticks got real old. And

the fact that he loves to kind of use the same.

Right. Use the same stuff, but it's held up reasonably

well. I don't know. I still enjoy the Marvel,

the old Marvel stuff. Yep. So in June, we've

got Beast Wars with 15 and 16 plus the annual.

The annual is essentially of no consequence to

the overall series. It's three. individual stories

where some of the events take place between 15

and 16, but it's enough of a non sequitur to

just have a separate episode for that. I'd argue

most of the Beast Wars. Stop it. Stop it. Anyway,

those crazy Canadians folks. And then in July,

celebrating it's what is it going to be? It's

it's 30. 6th anniversary I think of Transformers

back to the future so that that thing will be

doing and then we'll wrap up Beast Wars with

the finale issue of issue 17. I want to eventually

cover Livio Remedelli's The Kill Lock, the first

trade that he did for his creator own series

The Kill Lock. And then according to this list,

it says Transformers versus Terminator, enemy

of my enemy. So that's another IDW crossover

that they did. So we will see what that entails.

And yeah, that's what's coming up here inside

the pull bag. I guess I'm going to go ahead and

close it out because I don't care about doing

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I am at TFG1 Mike. You can also check out GeekCastRadio

network and The Pull Bag on Facebook. As I mentioned

next time around, Beast Wars issues 15 and 16

or 15 in the annual or something I don't remember

off the top of my head now. I am TF2 and Mike

with... Whatever my name is. Make your greatest

game in the comics and we will catch you next

time. But wait, there's more! Why are you creating

more? It's a good thing these are on separate

tracks now, because I can just cut out the coughing.

This was so much easier with the things where,

oh, I can still mute my mic. Well, we learned

something new in this recording today, folks.

There's not really any more. That's about it.

You've just heard the latest episode of The Pullback.

the GCRN's first comic review and discussion

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