Mae Young Classic First Round Review

Hey guys, what's going on? This is Mike the Birdman

Don and you are listening to 10 years of this

week in Keaton .net Believe me. I don't know

how you put up with my shit for this long Ladies

and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast arena coming

to the ring at this time You've reached Domino's

Pizza. For close to a century, women have more

than held their own in the male -dominated industry

of sports entertainment. There's your winner,

Mae Young. Mat Mavens like Mae Young helped shatter

the proverbial glass ceiling, inspiring generations

who would blaze a path. It's a blaze for sure.

Taking their preternatural skills to unprecedented

heights. Now, for the first time in history.

32 women from all over the globe take their rightful

place in the spotlight, celebrating the legacies

of those who have paved the way while showcasing

their modern -day virtuosity. Tonight, these

32 competitors vie for all the glory, the honor,

and the prestige of winning the inaugural Mae

Young Classic. Hello and welcome to mayhem Mike's

this is episode 26, I'm of course Mike TFG one

planter joining me is Ryan. They don't even flow

Merkley. Hello, sir Yo, yo And as I said at the

end of 25, I wasn't sure what we were gonna be

doing or when it would be back But we're back

and we're talking about not there's no pay -per

-views folks Well, not in the traditional sense,

anyway. But yeah, we're going to tackle the first

four episodes of the Mae Young Classic, which

is the WWE's all -female wrestling wrestlers

tournament. Because they started this trend with

the Cruiserweight tournament, and then they followed

that up with the European tournament, or UK,

sorry, United Kingdom. Championships and yeah

now they're doing a may young classic and this

The first four episodes encompasses the first

round full disclosure the start of the second

round is on Monday Monday being September 24th

or September 4th. Sorry not 24th. Geez Like damn

you fast forwarded us the end of the month already.

Geez And that's practically how they felt. Yeah,

really. September already. Yeah, when they first

started advertising this on the shows on Raw

and Smackdown and whatever else, and wherever

else pay -per -views, I'm like, oh, OK. So it's

four episodes. Oh, that's just round one. I'm

like, OK, well, that works. We'll split it up

into rounds. It's not that big of a deal. Four

episodes of These episodes ranged from I think

46 minutes to 50 something minutes was the last

one So yeah, I mean it's not like it's a three

-hour show Thank God or six -hour WrestleMania

It's more like the NXT episodes. There's sort

of minimal storytelling and backstage segments.

They do quick little vignettes. Yeah, they do

quick video packages, yeah. Yeah, in front of

each of the matches to kind of give at least

some idea of who the wrestlers are and what they're

about. And it is commentated by Jim Ross and

Amy Doumas, better known as Lita. So apparently...

they had to re -record their commentary there

was something wrong with the first recording

of it and so this is actually the second recording

that we're listening to of I don't know if it's

all of it I don't know if it's only a few matches

here or there but apparently there was something

up with it in any case the commentary is really

good yeah this makes me miss JR on Raw and or

smackdown. It doesn't matter which I don't care.

I I love JR the only overall negatives I'll just

get them out of the way because there's not many

is a lot of these are Very young wrestlers. So

some of them that were included are very early

20s or 20 and so there's some Some of them are

a little raw and some of the matches are not

great I'm not gonna point out which ones or anything

because that's unfair the other issue with that

is a lot of these people have never faced each

other before and It's hard to get sort of a timing

The other thingy too is you want to show off

both people you don't want a scenario because

I mean for a lot of These women this is their

WWE tryout or some of them they've been signed

for a while but they've never been shown on television

or this is sort of to see how they react in front

of a live crowd or there's all these different

factors that make this pretty difficult to pull

off and pretty high pressure for them yeah and

this is you know like ryan is saying this is

not the polished product this is the the developmental

portion of it it's you know like you said their

potential television debut and all of that. I

went into this knowing this was not going to

be Lights, Camera, Action, Monday Night Raw,

Tuesday Night Smackdown, or Smackdown Live, whatever.

I knew that going in because this is, like I

said, the developmental. And honestly, I'm digging

it. All of the negatives I've got. Overall, it's

still quite good and some of them... absolutely

stand out more so than some of the more so than

a lot of the wrestlers male or female on raw

smackdown the hour -long format even though the

downside is the matches are shorter and so some

of them you just can't really tell a story especially

when both characters both wrestlers need to get

at least something in because that's the whole

point of this to showcase a lot of the talent

but it's Even with that it still works and some

of them tell a better story then 12 backstage

segments on Monday night raw Do one of you know,

one of the issues is all the waste of time raw

is three hours. That's way too much We've been

over this a hundred times. I don't want to beat

a dead horse, but This is an example This could

do with a little more time But it still works

and some of these women a lot of them are Talented

enough that they tell a story or show off for

their character in ring and a couple of the young

ones really wowed me I don't know. Did you take

any notes or yeah, I've got some notes. I took

We're ready to make history. As I was watching

them, but yeah, like, because like I said, this

isn't the polished product, which means there's

virtually no, there is some storyline, but like

you said, most of these women are facing each

other for the first time. So there really is

no storyline buildup. They can build their character

as they're walking down the ramp and to the ring

and doing their show off type stuff and all of

that, but. This is pretty much pure athleticism

within WWE. There's no drama. Like you said,

there's no, I mean, hell. Lita and JR kept throwing

back to Charlie in the tournament room or whatever

the hell they were calling it. Tournament Central

or whatever. So it's not like Raw or SmackDown.

And honestly, like I said, I'm digging it. I

think it was cool. And hit on another one of

the positives too, which is without those - Vignettes

without all the backstage stuff. It's pitched

as a straightforward athletic competition Yeah,

which is made easier because JR and Lita say

Win or go home an awful lot during this Yeah,

and man that works so much better to me than

the whole who cares about wins and losses attitude

that seems to Just cover smackdown and raw. Yeah

You know, you've got guys like Finn Balor who

run down their opponents, no offense to Balor,

and he's right, by the way, like Bray Wyatt when

he says, you don't care about wins and losses.

Well, seemingly nobody does because they just

kind of bounce back and forth. And the way this

is pitched and the way it's commentated, because

there's such a focus on winning over losing,

which any actual non predetermined sport has,

It just feels more genuine and JR and Lita do

such a good job with all of them. I forgot how

good a two -person commentator team was. And

they're not selling or advertising anything either.

That's one thing I did notice a couple of times

on a couple of the comebacks from whatever, like,

you know, we'll be back or whatever. I did notice

that Lita eventually took it, not necessarily

took it from JR, but took it over from JR because

JR did the Rocket League ad I think like once

in the four episodes and then the rest of the

time it was Lita doing it. JR mentioned the WWE

Network like twice, I think, or maybe, but yeah,

you're right. They don't have to necessarily

shill Every single thing that is shilled on Ron

smackdown, which is nice It just makes for such

a difference and it feels like the old commentating

that a lot of us grew up with or That was really

popular in the attitude era where it wasn't just

buy the app or go to wwe .com now and download

you know all this other stuff that they just

keep inserting and they sit there and they talk

about the wrestlers and the matches and even

the jokes are okay so again this will give away

the timing of this but whatever jbl's gone Yeah,

we were going to talk about that at the end.

We'll talk about that in another episode when

we get back to actual WWE. But I'm bringing it

up here because he would go off on these long

stories to tell a joke when Leeda or JR tell

a joke. It's related to what's happening in the

ring or the wrestler or it's something they're

doing related to themselves Like jr repeatedly

brought up the or at least a running joke Was

him wearing tony storm's hat Yeah versus his

own, but it was so quick It wasn't i'm gonna

tell a story for three minutes out of the match.

It was just quick little comments and it was

still about the wrestler that's in there it wasn't

you know Booker is bad at this too goes off on

starts telling a story it doesn't actually have

anything to do with anything we're watching in

the ring no but he just keeps going uh anyway

so episode one the matches in this episode were

uh Kaylee ray versus princess I'm probably pronouncing

that wrong Most likely there's that match. There's

Serena D versus I think it's Suhee, but there

we go That sounds right. Yeah, you're right.

I don't know. I could be that's you know No,

that's that that I do remember JR saying it that

way. So yeah, you're right Serena D versus Vanessa

born Shayna Basler versus Zeta or Zeta and Abby

Leith versus Jazzy Gabbard. And yeah, this opening

was great. Do you have, out of these first four

matches here, did you have a favorite? The ones

I only get, so there's... Abby Lathe versus Jazzy

Gabbard, which was, I thought, the best match

of the bunch. Jazzy Gabbard has worked in TNA

and some other places and good Lord, does she

have a great look to her? She was the German

one who just looked like she could beat the crap

out of pretty much anybody. And she just carried

herself with such weight. So I was super impressed

with her. Even though she lost and didn't get

a whole lot of offense in Kaylee Ray Some of

her stuff in the opener her strikes and that

kind of thing. I like she's got a good look to

her. She just Yeah, and then the other one was

it was kind of cool seeing Serena deep I knew

I knew I remembered her for something from something

and then they quickly showed the fact that yes,

she was part of the straight -edge society with

CM Punk way back when in WWE and She lost her

job pretty quickly there and I mean they even

mentioned it Yeah, they talked about her her

journey cuz she was using alcohol and things

like that Yeah The other thing we have to draw

attention to here is that this is the first time.

Now, I don't think this is gonna happen on Raw

or SmackDown anytime soon. Maybe any of the NXT

women's matches, sure. We have our first ever

WWE female referee in Jessica Carr, which is

really cool. What? Let's just say WWE tends to

erase things they don't like. They have had other

female referees, one of which sued the company

because she was sexually harassed slash assaulted.

Yeah. So anyway, they've scrubbed her from the

record books, but for all the exact line is she's

the first full time referee. Which is more, which

is actually accurate. Yeah. No, it's not your

fault. It's just, I don't like WWE just dumps

people who, for example, Eva Lise, who displayed

a decent amount of talent coming up in NXT and

on tough enough was one of the ones that got

bill demont fired for basically being a piece

of shit and because of that she you know lost

her job with wwe very rapidly and is never going

to be allowed back i don't like how they do some

of that stuff obviously certain times it makes

sense to not mention anybody one wrestler in

particular that i don't want to bring up or talk

about but yeah anyway yeah certain wwe superstars

whether they be male or female have um really

really complicated histories uh and sometimes

with very very tragic outcomes anyway um yes

but serena versus venessa i liked venessa when

she came out i was hoping she was gonna win just

based on her um the way she was talking and whatever

else, but she just couldn't back it up. Like

she barely got any offense in. She got maybe

one or two things. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I

think she's there to try to try to make Bourne

look good. Bourne is 28 years old and she has

not been doing this an exceptionally long amount

of time. And so I think that's part of the reason

to pair her up with her. I mean, Serena won.

I expect there's a chance she turns this into

she might become a trainer or something like

that. She's 31, so the best part of her career

isn't necessarily behind her, but she's not the

youngest on this, although there are older ones

too. The Shayna Zeta match was Zeta. The beginning

of this, the back and forth submission stuff,

that looks like a nasty cat fight. It was awesome,

but it just looked like they were two cats scratching

each other to death. It's interesting that they

put the two girls together who have done MMA,

one for a much longer time than the other, but

it made for a good match, and it was really well...

thought out that they established both of them

and It was well done and Zeta is I'm hoping I'm

Zeta Zeta. Anyway, she I think they said Zeta

but they pronounce it D more than T and all of

the first thing I thought was like, you know

Yeah, she works. Yeah, she works for WWE first

of all, and she just works at the Performance

Center. So she's one of the extremely young ones

to To come through this and this is just kind

of like our first look at her So yeah, and it

went pretty well. They paired her up with an

established veteran, which was really smart,

too. So The thing with Jazzy Gabbard the whole

time I was watching her and Abby's match and

then we can move on to episode 2 here is I thought

damn That's the next Beth Phoenix Yeah, I really

like her. I hope they do actually sign her That

was really cool. This is the other one, Abby

Laith has wrestled quite a bit in the independence.

The engine is also extremely good, so. Absolutely.

Congratulations to all of you. To me, this has

been a long time coming. And I'm happy for all

of you to have this opportunity. You've done

this against all odds. You've done this with

people telling you you can't do it. There's your

glass ceiling. I'm going to give you the platform

to smash through that like it's not even there.

Congratulations and good luck. The first round

of the historic Mae Young Classic is officially

underway. After some scintillating action in

our first episode, four women have advanced.

She did it! Four have been sent packing. The

bar has already been set very high. Well, how

bad do you want to be? Yes! I can't believe this

is finally happening. We're seeing a lot of physicality

here. In this episode eight more competitors

will have a chance to advance But only four will

succeed the Chinese Kung Fu practitioner Xia

Li does battle with the seasoned heavy hitter

Mercedes Martinez the sassy Dominican lioness

Marty Bell faces off with the second -generation

powerhouse, Rachel Evers. The 20 -year -old prodigy,

Ozzy Rhea Ripley, faces off with the petite powder

keg, Miranda Salinas. And the second -degree

black belt rebel, Mia Yim, brings her taekwondo

expertise against Kentucky strong, Sarah Logan.

The Mae Young Classic continues right now. Episode

2's matchups are Mercedes Martinez vs. Zia, Rachel

Evers vs. Marty Bell, Rhea Ripley vs. Miranda

Salinas, and is that it? No, Mia Yim vs. Sarah

Logan. Yeah, that was the main event and probably

the best match in the night again. They seem

to save the best ones for last, which makes sense.

Favorite one for me out of this was probably

Probably the Rhea Ripley match. I like the way

those two matched up between her and Miranda.

I thought that was pretty cool Yeah That was

pretty solid Rhea Ripley looks really good early

on her kicks and the way she's able to move She's

20 years old. Both of these women are extremely

young she but Ripley moved on here and she's

20 years old and She just there's something about

her I think she She's got a bright future. I

think yeah, even if she doesn't win this whole

thing Hope they eventually sign her, you know

put her into NXT or something if you mean Ripley

she's signed to WWE already But this this was

her first sort of major Show -off because like

I said, she's 20 years old Yeah, and man like

some of her stuff. So she did a couple drop kicks

in this which Just so crisp better some of the

best drop kicks I've ever seen since Kurt Henning

and some of the real greats at it so she really

impressed me with that and yeah the main events

like I said before really impressed me Sarah

Logan is another one really young she's 23 years

old she is actually signed as well she's another

one that's part of WWE Because yeah, I was hoping

Sarah was going to win because I mean she just

looked so strong in this. Yeah, they did a good

job of really building her up, but it was another

one. I think I think for one of the younger ones,

it's just they want them there for the experience.

They're not necessarily ready to move on, which

is why I'm a little surprised that Ripley moved

on. But I'm perfectly OK with it. But yes, Sarah

Logan, I think she has a. Very strong career

ahead of her. Oh, absolutely Absolutely We like

I said before we had Rachel Evers versus Marty

Bell. This one was a good match Wasn't the best

match but it was alright. Yeah Evers looked really

good the End was a little bit sloppy, but It

happens and I talked about it before that first

time And you get some younger ones, you know,

ever is is 24 years old And yeah, I think Like

she's another one, you know, I need the young

Any of the women that were on any of this win

or lose? when they're young, all of them acquitted

themselves more than well enough to be on television

again in the future, and I suspect they probably

will be. Absolutely. This is gonna be, um...

You know, any of these people, any of these women

that have, that lost their matches and were told

to go home, because as we've said, and as JR

and Lita said, this is, that was the basis of

this tournament. Each of these rounds, each of

these matches were... 15 minute matches and you

basically they didn't it's not like a beat the

clock thing Thank God, but you know, basically

it's a 15 minute match. You have to win in that

amount of time Yeah, most of them run about five

by the way Actually, yes them run less than five

the majority of them about three or four minutes

Which is why you know, I stated earlier that

it's tough to kind of tell a story That's what

the women used to get in the attitude era and

the somewhat post Attitude era when they weren't

getting any TV time. It's hard to tell a decent

story, although I Shouldn't say that because

I mean some of those matches were So those matches

were under a minute. That was actually pretty

regular that a woman's match would be Under two

minutes. So that's not good We also had in this

episode Mercedes Martinez versus Zia. This was

an interesting one Thought it was one of those

matches where you've got two very different styles.

Yep coming together and Working fairly well together.

Yeah, I Thought it was really good man Episode

3 we had Tony Storm versus Aisha Raymond Dakota

Kai versus Kavita Devi Bianca Belair Bel Air

I should say versus Sage Beckett and Piper Nevin

versus Santana Garrett. Yes. Yes Santana Garrett

I was not expecting Piper to win No, they seem

to so first of all the only Negative I have to

say about this episode really is they did a lot

of this seemed to be the episode of the much

larger or stronger woman versus the Weaker or

smaller one, which is a little weird that they

had all of them on it what might have been better

to Spread it out between episodes, but it's gonna

happen again The tournament is set with the idea

of showcasing and giving these women the chance

to show themselves off Versus hey, this is gonna

work for TV So, standouts here, Good Lord, Toni

Storm I think is a future star. It was sort of

a short match and the end was a bit awkward,

but oh, she's got something. She has charisma.

Yeah, she does. And they can add so much to her

character. And like you said at the beginning

of the show, here, her... JR talking about her

hat and his hat. That was hilarious. Everything

just seems to work well on these in this entire

thing, especially with regards to the commentary.

If either JR or Leto wanted to step in for JBL

or if we get Morrow back, that would be very

nice. Yeah, that would be awesome. That was the

other thing I forgot to mention. This didn't

happen in the very first episode, but it happened

in in this one and all the other ones It happened

in two three and four the first episode Stephanie

introduced it and she has this nice long Video

montage package thing that you all would have

heard at the beginning of the podcast But after

that Maro takes over a now like in introduction

duties, and I was like hey, it's Maro That's

I mean I knew from what you told me I knew that

he was doing NXT stuff I knew that, but I just

was not expecting Steph to do voiceovers for

the whole thing. It's a women's thing. I wasn't

even expecting JR to be there. It's nice if they

kind of rotate them and that kind of thing. It

would be nice if Steph maybe did sort of guest

commentary or had something to do with the final

episode slash final of the tournament. I mean,

I guess we'll see. Yeah, we'll see eventually.

Dakota Kai versus Kavita Davee. Kai has a long

way to go. Sorry, not Kai. Sorry, Davee has a

long way to go. Yeah. Trained by the great Kali,

which... Not sure if that's a great thing, but

hey. Yeah. She does the power moves well though,

and she's she's got a really good look to her

So I really hope she keeps keeps it up Dakota

Kai is so she works with WWE both of these women

by the way are signed to WWE but Dakota Kai has

worked in NXT a couple other things but The two

moves she did at the end. So she's got that kind

of running kick where she Runs in sort of a half

circle versus just going straight towards the

corner like Sami Zayn does with his yeah But

man, does it look like she connects with a ton

of force? I really like that and then her finisher

was essentially the coup de grace Finn Bowler's

finisher, which is a double stomp from the top

rope She does it better than Fowler does and

Bowler is one of the best wrestlers in the world

right now, but I'm really looking forward to

seeing more of her as the tournament goes on.

She meets the one we talked about earlier, Rhea

Ripley, the 20 -year -old with the colossal legs

and really strong kicks as well. So I am looking

forward to that match because Kali definitely

has talent. Bianca Belair versus Sage Beckett.

Bianca won this. Both of them WWE workers. Okay,

I like Sage a little bit more in this. Bianca's

good. She is, but I like Sage a little bit more.

Yeah, Sage Beckett. So they're both... I don't

know how to say this properly. They're both not

the youngest in here. Beckett is 32 years old

and was trained by the Dudleys in case you couldn't

tell by some of the moveset, which was pretty

cool. And Belair is 28 and has really only been

doing this for about a year. And that's part

of the reason why I think this one was not perfect.

And Beckett was solid enough. I want to see both

of them keep working, obviously. Yeah. Yeah,

absolutely. And yeah, I remember JR, one of them,

I think it was JR, pointed out that Sage was

trained by the Dudleys. And it's not painfully,

but it's very pleasantly obvious to realize that,

oh, yeah, you know. Did like Bel Air hits her

with the whip of her braid before finisher in

this match I noted that I really liked that it

doesn't stuff like that doesn't get used often

enough You know, it's something that if you're

a heel or something You can use a part of your

body or something you have that somebody else

doesn't to win And I was kind of free cheap eat

And the final match for this episode was since

Santana Garrett Santana Garrett and Piper Nevin

Yeah, this one was So Nevin is not signed she's

29 years old I'm surprised she's not because

she looks very much like What WWE usually? likes

Yeah, she she's not as big and strong as say

We just What is her name I Don't know Not night.

Yeah, Nia Jax. That's what it is. She's not as

big as Nia is but that's the impression I got

I think you're mixing them up. Nevin's the larger

of the two. Yeah, I know. Oh, okay. Sorry, I

wasn't sure. Garrett reminds me a little bit.

She's got sort of the... Sasha. Yeah, but a little

taller build. And as for Nevin, she's 26 and

she's worked in a number of different places.

Don't think either of them I could be wrong on

this. I don't think either of them are Signed

by WWE. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're not

But yeah, that's They put on a very good match

They out of I mentioned it earlier that everybody

kind of has the David Bertha versus Goliath Set

up in this I thought this one told the story

the best out of the bunch of them Yeah, I did.

Absolutely did. The reason why I compare Niven

to Nia Jax is because of her size. Because she's

a bigger wrestling woman and that's, you know,

put Nia next to Alexa or next to Sasha or, you

know. And that's what I mean, that's someone

they don't normally sign until really - recently

whereas Garrett's kind of got the look they usually

go for yeah but either one of them I'm kind of

sad to see Garrett's go out early I'm sad to

see most of the actually not most of so to see

any of the women go out early because I mean

the second round matches are gonna be better

quality to have a full day of work in front of

cameras that kind of thing in their pockets and

possibly have a little more familiarity with

the other women having been able to watch them.

So it's yeah, it's really unfortunate that anybody

has to lose in these. Yeah, it really is. I felt

the same way during the Cruiserweight Championship.

And if you ever want to see what the what 205

Live probably should be. That tournament was

a good example because they were allowed to wrestle

their way and then for some reason when they

get to WWE they go, no you can't wrestle like

that. Well okay, then why are they any different

from anyone else on the roster? I don't know.

Thanks, thanks WWE. Good old WWE. Episode 4 and

this will be our final review here for this episode

of The Man Mikes but... Featured Renee Michelle

versus Candice LeRae Tanara Conti versus Lacey

Evans Savoy versus Gonzalez and Tessa Blanchard

versus Kairi Sane Where to start so the opening

match Candice LeRae is an indie wrestler I Fairly

certain she's signed to NXT actually I am quite

certain Married to Johnny Gargano thus the Candice

wrestling chance, which was which were abusing

but good match Yeah, it was a good match It was

a really really good match the only kind of thing

I commented on was Candice Michelle's ring attire.

She looks like Santa's little helper yeah like

really seriously I mean I don't not like the

attire the attire is fine but you know Candice

just yeah it was matched it was fairly evenly

matched until it wasn't and Candice just out

wrestled her at the end the only thing you know

Michelle Renee Michelle that is could Think she

needs more time in front of a camera and working

a WWE ring that kind of thing her kicks and stuff

looked fantastic I thought and then she just

had a couple things that didn't look as good

but She's one that with some seasoning could

be quite good. I'm gonna say I really like Candice

Michelle's finisher, which was a sort of second

rope neck breaker See Candice LeRae, but yeah

Candice LeRae. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's

the the second rope neckbreaker That was that

was just all brutally cool Yeah, I like that

finisher same with I forgot to mention Piper

Nevins got sort of a weird mission Oku driver

as her finisher. That was really nice, too. So

And then Tanara Conti versus Lacey Evans I don't

know how evenly matched they were. They didn't.

It seemed like it was like one way and then the

other way. It was back and forth a little bit

on who was going to win. I thought they both

looked really good in terms of their wrestling

ability, though. They've combined wrestled next

to none. So Conti is 22 years old. They're both

signed to WWE and Conti. I have no idea how many

but she is very few Matches wrestled period and

Evans doesn't have a whole lot more So the fact

that I thought it actually looked pretty good.

They've got some good There's something there

with both of them in the future And I mean Evans

won and gets to move on Evans I'm curious how

she'll look because she faces Tony Storm who

I thought Just comes off as a star and looks

like a million bucks but There's potential for

both of these I think it's it doesn't surprise

me that they're both WWE wrestlers because they

both have Looks like a lot ahead of them. I was

impressed Absolutely, and then we had was the

next one here Savoy versus Raina Gonzalez. So

Nicole Savoy, and this is not her fault by the

way, whoever wrote up this match and they keep

talking how she's the queen of the suplexes etc

etc, and then performs exactly zero suplexes.

That was not a good decision, but she gets to

move on, and she's moving on against Candice

LeRae, who we saw earlier in this episode. So

I think that'll be a lot better for her. And

that's not to say Gonzalez just works a... I

think she just works a... Style that's harder

for Savile. I don't think she's used to wrestling

somebody who's probably about 200 pounds and

Just looks much bigger than she is So something

about the styles I just didn't necessarily mesh

that well I mean, there are going to be plenty,

whether it's the women, whether it's the men,

it doesn't matter. There are going to be plenty

of wrestlers that meet up against each other,

and their styles just don't clash. No pun intended,

AJ, but it's one of those things where... Sometimes

they work, and sometimes they don't. I mean,

it wasn't a bad match. It was not a bad match.

It just... But you see it with the guys at the

top, too. So the PWI... top 500 wrestlers came

out this week. Number two is AJ Styles, and number

three is Kevin Owens. You'd think any time the

two of them faced each other, you'd get a five

-star classic, but their matches have just been

very, very good. There's something just sort

of slightly off with it, and that happens. There's

nothing wrong with it. Yeah, no. And then the

final match, which is by far my favorite. Almost

out of I mean, I like several of these out of

all four but like this is by far my favorite

Tessa Blanchard no relation to me Versus kairi

saying this was an amazing match the kairi saying

is I can't remember. She's I think she's somewhere

in the middle of stardom in Japan has three female

wrestlers who are just absolutely killing it

and three of the absolute best out there, male

or female. And so when WWE signed her, it was

a huge deal. I don't want to bring this up because

it makes me sad. But anyway, she has had issues

with concussions. Behind the scenes info here.

She suffers a concussion in a later round of

this. this tournament which is why the final

hasn't happened yet because there are delays

because of injuries but it sucks especially after

we just talked about Daniel Bryan or Bryan Danielson

whatever you want to call him in the previous

episode and his issues and whether or not he

can return and as well as whether or not he should

return but yeah it's really unfortunate uh i

mean hopefully she's fine we'll find out so ww

does pay attention to this stuff now which is

a huge improvement over how it used to be yeah

and yeah good so both of these women can wrestle

tessa is 22 years old another extremely young

And she has wrestling lineage, I mean. Yeah,

Tully Blanchard's daughter. Yup. Yeah, this was

really good. Kyrie Sane has one of the best elbow

drops you'll ever see. Holy cow, I had heard

that she does it as well, possibly better than

even the Macho Man, and this was the first time

I really saw it. I'm gonna go... look at some

of the other ones on YouTube at some point but

holy cow does she pull it off well it looks like

she absolutely drills her opponent hopefully

she doesn't by the way yeah because apparently

those hurt just ask Charles Robinson who broke

a bunch of his ribs but yeah this was a really

good match I am very excited to see more of Kyrie

saying And Tessa Blanchard, man, I thought she

was good enough. She could be on TV now, but

some more seasoning, that kind of thing, will

never hurt. She's got a whole lot of time ahead

of her. I mentioned, she's only 22 years old.

Absolutely. There was one point in the match,

and this image will be in the post here, where

Kyrie goes to wrap her up in JR's. This is why

we need JR back on regular commentary. JR's description

of it was that octopus -like hold of Kyrie because

it's the way that Kyrie has basically wrapped

her left leg around Tess's neck and she's got

her right leg turned in and she's just kind of

half, you know... Up on Tess's back, almost like

Tess is a life raft. Like Kyrie fell off the

Titanic or something. This hold just looks so

friggin' cool. There's a bunch of... So one thing

too, all of these women do really good submissions.

I don't remember seeing any and thinking, eh,

that's kind of loose or that's kind of a lazy

application, that kind of thing. Yeah, like I'm

the expert, but still. Point out the fact that

I don't know what the hell I'm doing. But anyway,

she Yes, both women in this looked good Going

forward just one of the questions. So I mentioned

it more than a few times and so have you These

women are all pretty much all young Yeah, I almost

wonder what you do with all of them because there's

so much young talent coming up Don't want to

see another 205 live where WWE makes a new show

and just dumps them in the middle of nowhere

yeah, but in the future eventually and a lot

of this is because of the really strong good

women wrestlers From years ago that have started

coming up Trish Stratus Lita Beth Phoenix a lot

of those were mentioned as women that a lot of

these younger wrestlers coming up were interested

in and inspired by so I mean I kind of wonder

what you do with them in the future there's gonna

be enough talent to do something more than what

they have now Although you know part of the problem

is just the fact that Smackdown and Raw are not

very good at the moment Yeah, and the time allocation

just flat out sucks period not just for the women

but for the men. Yeah, you'll have to Let me

know about this because I don't know In NXT in

the women's part of NXT like Could they eventually

go to NXT and do some sort of either feuding

with each other or feuding with whoever's already

on NXT? Yeah, they'll go to NXT. Yeah, it's just

where do you go after that and NXT is not NXT

is what it is. It's a really good sort of development

for WWE. It's a place to season some of these

people before they're brought up Some of them

didn't necessarily need it somebody like Bobby

rude knew what he was doing the second he Wandered

into the company Joe Joe said probably would

have been okay, too But somebody like Kevin Owens

who worked as Kevin Steen forever in the Indies

never necessarily was familiar with working hard

cams and that kind of thing somebody like him

will say that it helped him even though he only

spent seven months there but for the women but

for the women i mean you look at charlotte and

sasha and honestly anybody that's on the raw

or smackdown roster now that came up from an

xt i mean it's all of their good ones essentially

i mean aside from natalia is sort of a holdover

from the era where they didn't choose one of

the few really good wrestlers from an era when

they didn't care about it. Yeah. And again, Natalia

has lineage with all of that. I mean, am I saying

that lineage should be the only, hell no. I'm

just saying that that's one of the reasons why

she is still around. Natalia Nyhart, the Hart

family and all that. It's because of that naming

that It's partly because of that that she's still

around, and she is a good wrestler when she's

allowed to actually wrestle. Yeah, which she

is now, finally. Well, yeah, because as of this

recording, she's SmackDown Women's Champion.

Well, that, and I mean, they actually give them

time, and it's not go out there and fill five

minutes and be a bathroom break match anymore.

Yeah. It's they're allowed to main events They're

allowed to have ladder matches and do the same

sort of things the men are finally which is something

that was long overdue but In any case, I just

I wonder what you do Eventually, it's a great

problem to have that the division is starting

to get stacked as it is I mean Asuka is on her

way up to Smackdown and Raw She held the NXT

title for over 500 days Which is insane and she's

just absolutely phenomenal her worst match is

better than a lot of best matches I've seen from

wrestlers, so it's just Like I said before it's

a great problem to have I some of them. I almost

hope they don't stay with WWE because there's

a saturation point at some point and They can

probably do better with some of the independent

promotions that are coming up You've got WCPW

that puts on a lot of its shows on YouTube and

it's quite good there's The triple a Thing that

name I can't remember that's great who have started

using twitch to show pay -per -views and larger

events there's lucha underground which is on

netflix and other places and presented as a television

series which is really different so there's a

lot of options for everybody at least or at least

there's more it's just i almost wish there was

a wcw again there needs to be some sort of major

competition on television or yeah because a it

would force WWE to be better because one of the

issues we have now is I want to watch wrestling

well Smackdown and Raw are not good what else

can I watch that's on TV that I can watch live

there's not much I mean TNA slash GFW is shown

on fairly obscure Channels you can occasionally

get ring of honor and some of those but it's

not the same It's not the same as it was where

you could flip the channel and oh look nitro,

you know Ross sucks I'm gonna watch nitro this

week or whatever it's we don't have those options

anymore and more to the point the wrestlers don't

have those major options they can Take more money

or sometimes less money for exposure in WWE Or

you can take your chances trying to get Consistent

indie bookings Yeah, even if some of these women

that are so far at least in these first four

episodes the first round of this may own classic

here Even if some of them go off away from WWE

and then you know come back late You know take

AJ Styles. He went all around the world You know

and then finally came to WWE so even if some

of these women don't get called up or don't get

used right away even if they were to use them

you know like I was trying to say earlier was

you know have them in NXT with a feud with whatever

whatever storyline you want to set up and then

what whichever one like well let's just say and

I don't think this would actually work in a match

it might let's just say Tessa Blanchard versus

Ripley And, you know, those are two powerhouses.

Let's say they feud for a while back and forth

over the NXT Women's Championship, and one of

them beats the other one in there. You know,

they have that attitude of, okay, I'm done with

you. Kind of like the whole Kevin Owens thing.

I'm done with you. I want to go get an actual

WWE Championship or whatever. And then you have

her, whichever one, go into... WWE and challenge

for either the raw or the women or the or the

Smackdown Women's Championship I don't know it

just like you said there is a saturation point

and I think WWE is almost shooting themselves

in the foot With this because what's supposed

to be the outcome of this tournament? What are

they supposed to win? Are they supposed to win

a spot on the main roster? Are they supposed

to win a spot in NXT? What's the because that's

the one thing I have not heard anything about

other than the fact that this is going to be

the first ever may young classic it's generally

a belt and a trophy for these uh they've done

it with the european belt is defended on nxt

on occasion or the the title from the uk tournament

is defended there so i suspect it'll be sort

of a similar kind of scenario or you know maybe

they won't do a belt or they won't have it Defend

defendant who knows but I think this is just

it's anything they can do to make things better

for Wrestling in general is gonna help them So

it's just something that kind of makes sense

for them to do Just so that they can Give these

women exposure give a lot of their younger ones

that are in development or not the opportunity

to face somebody different or to face some veterans

or just to see What it's like when you're on

camera figure out if they want to do it All of

this helps them in the long run and I think that

I would suspect anyway That's the real reason

for doing it. The other reason too just to be

blunt is they've canned a lot of stuff on wwe

network and they need something to convince people

to get it yeah because it's it i still maintain

it's a good deal there's a lot of great content

that they have kept but man they've axed a lot

of shows and if you're trying to convince somebody

who's on the fence about getting it not having

any new shows or new content not a good way to

do it No, the first round of the me on classic

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was really

really fun Overall give it a four out of five

for the entire wrap the entire thing And do the

same and I definitely think it's worth checking

out if you're a fan of wrestling Period or in

general at all It's entertaining It's a very

different presentation than we're used to at

this point with WWE and the others, which also

makes it kind of worth checking out just because

it's something different. I'm not trying to trash.

Yeah, no, you're right. But it's something that's

it's not something that you see all the time.

It's different from how even the other places

I listed are are portrayed. Yeah, I mean, like,

the only flash and panache and style kind of

thing that you really see in this, the only production

value you see in this, is either the video packages

or the entrances. Like, there's no, you know,

theme music hitting, you know, if one of these

women hits her signature. Like, they were all

clamoring for Kairi to do the elbow drop. You

know, they were all clamoring for her to do all

her her moves that apparently the entire audience

already knows because they've seen her more than

I have which is fine, you know and But yeah,

I mean that's essentially the only you know flash

To the substance of the rest of this is the the

opening entrances to each of the women and I'd

like that a lot I think that's great Should know

to was filmed at Full Sail University, which

is where NXT is filmed So I think that helped

to the audience is a little more It's much smaller

than you're used to if you watch raw smackdown

and the like but it's very sort of rowdy audience

they go along with What's being shown and for

the most part? I thought they did a good job

of kind of adding to it They also don't make

it about themselves. You don't see dumb stuff

like The audience isn't playing with a beach

ball in the middle of a match the yeah the It

wasn't filled with this is awesome chance or

that kind of thing the audience is just there

to They cheer what they enjoy Yeah, and they

just kind of stay out of the way for the rest

of it. I Did like the let's go back and forth

chance. I thought that was kind of cool Yeah,

they do that a lot in NXT. I like that they you

know it doesn't matter if they're presented as

a good guy bad guy or good girl bad girl they

are just willing to cheer them for working hard

and that sort of thing and that's something I

can kind of get behind because I mean there's

not those backstop backstage vignettes telling

everybody this is who you should cheer for and

why and if you're cheering for this women woman

well she just I don't know, stole somebody's

boyfriend or something. Something really bad.

Somebody stole Candice LeRae's husband. Yeah,

somebody stole Johnny Gargano. Once again, Thomas

Chiampa sort of did, but that's another story.

Okay. That's a great feud in NXT. Anyway. Cool.

We did have one comment on the ThisWeekendGeek

.net website from Jake Salo. uh... for last episode

he says i'm one hundred percent with you both

on smackdown's championship i was originally

willing to give jinder a chance to prove himself

and be a good champ but he really isn't which

is the right way to look at it too by the way

it's just i don't mind that they gave him the

chance it's just yeah anyway sorry continue sorry

to cut you off too and he said exactly what we

said his character is very one -dimensional and

he is incapable of winning without the help of

someone else it really reminds me of when Seth

was champ and JJ Security or Kane were always

interfering to keep him from losing the belt,

except way worse. I'm really hoping someone else

gets it soon, preferably Shinsuke since he really

deserves a shot. He says, as for the content

you'll be putting out with the podcast, I wouldn't

mind hearing you guys talk about older stuff

like previous Royal Rumbles or something with

the huge iconic spotlight King of the Ring 98.

I can tell both of you have a lot of passion

for the WWE and the content it produces, and

I enjoy the podcast, so it would be cool to keep

hearing y 'all talk about it. And to respond

to him too, I mentioned the PWI Top 500. Well,

for SmackDown people, Styles, Owens, Nakamura,

Ambrose isn't there anymore, Bobby Roode is there,

but he's new. So you've got four guys right there.

who are above gender in the listings. Now the

listings are not the be all end all, but those

are four guys not involved in the title picture

with the exception of Nakamura obviously, but

he's got to fight Randy for a rematch. So in

general my feeling is that your best guys should

be the ones competing. if you watch football

or baseball or hockey soccer basketball whatever

generally the best players and the best teams

are the ones winning now wrestling because it's

predetermined there's other stuff that goes into

it but still i just feel like your best performers

should be the guys at the top why aren't they

yeah exactly it's just baffling to me you know

and who knows what's going and we can talk about

this next time or whenever but you know talking

about certain guys burying other guys every time

they're out well mr free agent over there is

now doing something on raw so smackdown can do

whatever the hell it wants to do without having

to worry about john coming in and eventually

john's going to go back to smackdown because

of that 17th Championship and to break the record

and be the new record holder and all of that.

We assume so Yeah, I would be really stupid for

them to not do it when they have the opportunity

or do not or to at least not try I If they if

they don't want to if they don't want to do it

now or they don't have him surpass it because

Flair is recovering now, by the way, which is

great news. He's getting better but hypothetical

and I really hope this doesn't happen and I don't

you know I certainly wish him nothing but the

best but hypothetical if something happens to

flair in the next few years I wouldn't understand

them going you know what just because of timing

maybe we don't have seen a break the record and

it's not that he doesn't deserve it it's just

it's the timing of it all yeah so It's funny

you say that because that was my thought now

with the news coming out about Rick being in

the hospital and potentially in bad shape like

until I saw the thing of him recovering and getting

better. That's why I thought John went outside

of storyline in real life. That's why I thought

John went to raw to go away from and let Jinder

and Randy and all of the SmackDown people fight

over the championship for now. That's what I

thought was because holy shit if rick flair dies

boom that would just be cruel unusual punishment

to have john beat his record as soon as the guy

dies oh by the way yeah his record's gone now

too oh yeah that's nice wwe real classy yeah

that would not be good at all no And I don't

mean to laugh, folks, I'm just saying that. No,

it would just be terrible. It would be terrible.

It would make them look bad. Absolutely. It's

just not a nice thing to do. And to be blunt,

they've done a lot of nice things with that family

over the years, too. And that's something that,

yeah, they should not mess around with. So, yeah,

I just... So, that's a scenario where maybe Cena

doesn't break it. But yeah, I would assume he's

going to. And to your point, too, that people

want to bring up that Cena's going to bury young

talent, that kind of thing. Cena does what he's

told. Yeah, I know he does. Yeah. If he's booked

to beat somebody who's younger, now you can talk

about the way. that he beats them, that is something

we're not privy to, so who knows? But in any

case, if he's told to go out there and beat somebody

younger, who may be hotter than he is, or is

up and coming, that's a job. He's gotta go out

and do it. Oh, yeah. I mean, no, I'm just saying

that... No, I know, I understood what you're

saying. I'm just debuting the people on the internet

that always say, well, Cena's gonna bury talent.

Listen, I got my issues with Cena, but again...

He does what he's told in a stone cold didn't

want to Give away a match with the up -and -coming

Brock Lesnar. So he walked out and quit Yeah,

Cena doesn't want to do that. He obviously loves

the business So he's gonna go out and do what

he's told one way or another win or lose It's

not up to him. I don't remember. Did we mention

the Cena thing last time? Which the video? of

all the fans surprising him? Oh no, which we've

talked about it a lot. The fact that he does

a lot of charity work. A lot of the wrestlers

do, I think I've mentioned it before too, that

if the wrestler is a heel, WWE will not show

videos of it. Which is kind of unfortunate because

a lot of the heels do an awful lot of work for

it as well. For make -a -wish, but in any case

I can understand why they want to they sort of

want to protect the business Yeah, well they

did this whole video. I'll see if I can find

it again about the fans basically Someone came

in and gave John like I don't know 19 20 letters

whatever else and he read them all on the video

on air kind of thing and whatever else and Instances

where he inspired somebody by the way yeah well

absolutely yeah um and then all of these people

came out and surprised him and this that it was

just such a such a cool cool video you have some

of the best fans in the world a few of them have

written you some thank you okay let's check them

out Hey, Cena. Thank you for changing my life.

2011, I was left for dead after getting hit by

a car. When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor

told me I would never wrestle again and let alone

walk. One thing I learned from you was to never

give up. Thank you for being a positive role

model for a generation of kids who watched you

grow up. Dear John, you have heard thousands

of times, but you deserve to hear a thousand

more. Thank you. By the time I was 19 years old,

I had lost both of my parents. Never give up.

Those words repeated in my head because you were

my light in a decade of darkness. Dear John Cena,

your words, never give up, has helped me fight

for a chance to be a mother through adoption.

Many years passed and things seemed impossible,

but you helped me believe that my dream can become

real. This year, finalized my adoption. My time

to become a mother has become a reality. You,

John Cena, changed my life. All right, so I have

one more thing to show you, and we have a video

of him just telling you a story. Sure. My mom

was diagnosed with breast cancer, and when she

got her results, I asked her, um, why don't we

just... what her results were. She said they

were positive. I was crying and I was shocked.

John's message helped my family because I got

his wristband that he gave to me. And when my

mom was having her six hour surgery, I gave her

the wristband that I told her to never give up.

And she's now cancer free. It's pretty cool.

At a young age, he has such a great perspective.

It's really cool to see him, man. Thank you for

everything you've done. Stop. Stop. You're my

family? Get over here. Coolest surprise ever.

You're extremely strong, Elif. That's, uh, that's

pretty cool. This is what you gave him? He made

sure that through my cancer journey, I'd say,

Mom, Sena says never give up. And I'm now cancer

-free. That's great. That's great. Hi, John.

Not handicapped to be capable because of your

message. Your mind goes to a dark place when

you get injured. Never give up. And you know

that I learned that from you. I fell into a deep

depression, and I'd just given up on life. I

got back on my feet. You showed me I can. I owe

it all to you. Thanks for changing all of our

lives. That's extra special. Thank you. I don't

know what to say. Just remember that you guys

do the work. And I mean that. And don't think

that you're the only one who's up against it.

And don't think you're the only one who doesn't

have challenges to face every day. But you all

lead by example. And I mean it when I say I'd

never give up. This is a championship squad right

here. This is a great moment, like some really,

really heartfelt stuff, and it's a reaffirming

message of be mindful that your actions affect

those close to you. Scared the jeebies out of

me. Our stories touched him. How often does someone

get to tell their hero about what they did for

them? This is one of those extremely rare moments,

and I really appreciate that. That was the coolest

surprise ever. The other video I saw in the last

couple of weeks, at least since the last time

we did episode 25 of the podcast, was the one

about where, I forget, it was some metal music

website, I forget what it is, I'll find it later

and put it in the post, where they interviewed

various WWE stars and what kind of rock and roll

music and things like that that they like. And

of course, Jinder was the one that said he liked

Nickelback and the video just kind of slows down.

Well, he's Canadian. Yeah, I know I know and

I understand that and that's that's fine I'm

just saying my point in bringing this up is not

the gender nickelback thing. It's Seeing someone

like Braun Strowman or Bray Wyatt almost out

of character and talking about metal I'm like,

wow, that is so cool. Oh the Strowman stuff,

especially there's a lot of Braun Strowman reacts

or Braun Strowman reads children's stories and

stuff like that, which is hilarious. Who would

have thought, by the way, oh man, I and a lot

of other people completely wrong about him. When

he debuted, he looked so green, is usually the

term used, and I honestly didn't think he had

a future or anything. Now he is absolutely a

bright spot. Anytime he shows up on raw or he's

only on raw now, but Yeah, he I was wrong about

him Absolutely But yeah, I mean Braun is one

of my favorites now like I absolutely love him

You know Yeah, and if you ever want to as well

and for people who are on the fence or don't

like rains watch some of his stuff not as Roman

Reigns that's online when he's actually allowed

to be himself. Stuff like some of the old 2K

panels where they're talking about the games.

There's one in particular I'm thinking of and

I can't remember which year it is. But anyway,

it's Reigns and Cesaro go completely off script

and just start ripping each other. And it's amazing.

The two of them are so good. Reigns has so much

talent when he's not given a script it doesn't

have to just remember lines and Cesaro is the

same but of course that's not what they're supposed

to slash allowed to do I mean Austin said it

before too if he was just given a script he doesn't

think the stone cold stuff or any of that would

have happened Honestly, it probably wouldn't

have. And, you know, Stone Cold is somebody that

doesn't, you know... He was okay. He was okay.

I'm gonna knock you out. The hell... Give me

a hell no for Ryan folks All right, uh next time

around we're gonna talk about NXT Brooklyn three

which was the NXT takeover Right before summer

slam. Yeah Yay, we're gonna talk about that and

after that who knows like I said no mercy's coming

up and Whatever whatever Smackdown one after

that is I don't have the page pulled up. So We're

gonna people find you online sir at nightbeat

on Twitter Yeah, I am at TFU and Mike on Twitter

You can follow at geek cast radio and at this

week in geek on Twitter visit the websites geek

cast radio calm and this week geek net So comments

if there's any yes, killer pay -per -views or

anything you want us to watch because obviously

we're kind of going through stuff I'm excited

that you're going to watch a takeover pay -per

-view because they are terrific. Imagine the

women's classic. Except with men, yeah. Well,

that and longer matches where they're able to

tell a story, but still the minimalistic kind

of attitude, not the... What I'd like to kind

of do is, at some point, I'd like to, specifically

with Kevin, with Owens and Zane, I'd like to

look at their feud. through NXT going up to Raw

and Smack, like, you know, like I said, like

we said last time, I almost thought that it was

going to be Sammy and Kevin teamed up again.

Obviously that didn't happen because he didn't

want him as his referee. But like, I was kind

of hoping because I never like originally saw

that. I mean, I saw the fallout of that feud

and like I saw it. Owens obviously destroy Sammy

and come up to WWE and I saw their feuds the

first Few months that they were there But I didn't

see any of the original NXT stuff that they didn't

remember friends and all of that and everything

else So so yeah, it's gonna be fun and interesting

and we'll just have to see what happens. You

just made the list All clear