WWE Superstar Shakeup 2018 Analysis

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast

arena. Coming to the ring at this time... Oh,

you didn't know? Your ass better call somebody!

First, representing this week at GEEK, and from

hearts unknown, he is Mike. TfG1 Lanchard! I

got four words for ya! Check out my ass! Hello

and welcome to Mayhem Mikes. This is episode

35. This is the aftermath of WWE WrestleMania

34 out there in New Orleans. I'm, of course,

TFJ and Mike coming to you live from Chicago.

Well, we're not live. We might be dead, actually.

Returning to the show is Ryan and Flo Merkley.

Hello, sir. Hello. We'll kill this show yet.

Yeah, uh -huh. We haven't yet. I don't know why.

The shows been going on three years now at this

point. Holy crap So yes, Ryan tapped out for

WrestleMania cuz lots of life things are happening

with Ryan if you'd like to fill us in you can

if not, it's okay, I Mean I was available for

the original day of Recording geez Anyway, so

WrestleMania, just a quick summation. I thought

it was a huge improvement over last year. The

weekend overall was terrific. I haven't had a

chance to sit down and watch the Hall of Fame

stuff yet. I usually enjoy doing that. But it

started, at least for me, with the NXT pay -per

-view on Saturday, which was amazing and oof.

Might be one of the best might be the best pay

-per -view I've ever seen it was astoundingly

good and Then we had WrestleMania which I mean

I didn't watch the pre -show live It's hell with

spending seven hours watching it Anyway, but

the actual show itself actually really enjoyed

it the last hour was kind of Yeah, I mean the

I don't feel like anybody saw the rains Brock

ending coming which It worked as sort of a shock

but I Just I wish they pulled the band -aid off

we all know rains is their guy he's he's clearly

gonna win now in India because He's not gonna

get booed there That's the whole idea I mean

they that's what they want and that's fine but

at some point they got to kind of take that band

-aid off and just go for it and The more they

delay it the worse it seems. So I don't know

Yeah, a little weird but the rest of stuff. I

mean the show itself was terrific. There's some

Decisions, you know, maybe you could second guess

or something like that but overall is really

enjoyable so absolutely uh... and we're here

to try to talk about the this year's w w a superstar

shakeup before you read into this are actually

watched it or anything like that did you have

any idea or any You want this person to go to

this show or vice versa? The clear one was that

Owens and Zayn were gonna move over cuz they

had those storyline that they were fired, right?

I mean, that was an obvious one. I figured there'd

be some guys moving up from NXT. The obvious

one, one of the ones is the one that showed up

on Raw, Drew McIntyre, cuz - He got injured in

an NXT title match and has missed a good chunk

of time and was due back. So that one wasn't

a real joker. But, jeez, people are wanting to

see move over. I mean, let's be honest, the sort

of dream one is one that happened, right? In

The Miz being on the same show as Daniel Bryan.

Because I think a lot of people, so one of the

things I loved in NXT, the pay -per -view was

they finally had Tomas Ciampa versus Johnny Gargano

after a year of waiting and simmering now a lot

of that was because of injury but people wanted

the match so bad they wanted to see Ciampa get

his because he was such a dink on social media

and Yeah, he would interfere in the matches,

he would just be a jerk to Gargano online, everything.

And I try not to swear too much on the podcast,

but one of the moments I will not forget from

NXT was as he was coming to the ring, an absolutely

deafening, fuck you, Ciampa chant took place

in the match. And it was one of the first times

I can remember a chant like that. Miz can get

that against like that much heat against Brian.

The two of them just have always worked really

well against each other. Absolutely. But of course,

we weren't going to see it because Brian was

injured. Yes. And now we can actually see that.

And so that's something I think they should take

their time and build towards it. But that's an

inevitable money making match where people will

pay money to see Brian beat up the mids. The

two of them, it just works anytime they're on

the microphone against each other, so that should

be really entertaining. Yeah, absolutely. I remember

when we were doing stuff a couple years ago when

we were talking about Brian and the mids, like

on Talking Smack and things like that, where

Miz was just going after him. It was just, and

obviously, you know... the two of them just have

this way to get personal with each other just

enough to make it feel a thousand percent real

you know you remember brian went on and said

essentially called him lazy as a wrestler yeah

and miz went after him said you know i'm lazy

well maybe that's why i'm still competing and

you're retired yeah and it was harsh it was quite

possibly true but it was really hard. So stuff

like that, yeah. I look forward to that a lot.

And then a lot of the other moves, I mean, we'll

get into it. We're surprising. Yeah. One last

thing on the Miz since the Miz is going to smack

down. When they did this whole thing and he was

at his home wherever he was with Maurice and

the new baby. Was it just me or did the light

hit that baby the wrong way to make it look like

a doll? Like that that did not look like a real

big. I'm sorry I'm really sorry, but the way

that he was holding the phone or the camera or

the camera Whatever phone thing and the way that

the light was hitting the baby as she was holding

it. I'm like That thing looks like a doll from

Cabbage Patch or something. It does not look

real Well, if they'd used the stunt baby, it's

obvious somebody would have run in and... Yeah.

...tried to move on a... No, I don't know. Okay.

Overall, a lot of people, though, are saying

that SmackDown kind of came away the best of

the two. Yeah. And we'll get into it, but my

biggest issue is I feel like SmackDown got the

best heels. Like who's the bad who's gonna be

the major bad guy on raw against rains and so

because you know the whole thing is You need

good bad guys for a good guy to be good Yeah

There's not a lot on raw and listen. I love Owens.

I think I've been pretty clear about that But

he's not the best pure heel because WWE never

seems to know what to do with the guy to make

him hated. Because he's exceptionally entertaining.

He's generally funny when he's doing a lot of

his heel stuff. And WWE doesn't know how to make

him a heel. I mean, you look at his first month

on WWE rather than NXT where he beat up John

Cena. yeah which let's be honest especially at

that time was not a especially heel move no then

in the middle of that machine gun kelly performance

well actually it's right after it they have him

power bomb him which i mean the audience was

ready to you know anoint him the the nicest guy

in the world for that one i mean don't you do

we for some reason and they've never figured

out they don't need musical acts in the middle

of their shows yeah and that if they do that

that's not why the people are there and they

just get ticked off at them i mean you know what

was the last time ww was in canada uh... was

not long ago and they're headed back here again

now so they can always get nickel back i mean

no you know also like if i was power bombs and

can you imagine the cheers he would get I mean,

Bottoms Up was the raw theme song at one point

or another. Yeah, for a long time. yeah let's

get into it sorry the following superstars were

sent from smackdown to monday night rod during

the first night of the superstars shakeup we

already talked about uh... we haven't uh... jenner

mahal who is no longer the champion ruby riott

sarah logan and liv morgan kevin owen and sammy

zane Can I just say, though, the Jinder Mahal

thing? It saved us from another Jinder Mahal

-Randy Orton match. Like, thank goodness. Yeah,

that was bad. Have WWE and everybody else forgotten

how bad that series was? Apparently not. Let's

see. Like I said, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Liv

Morgan, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Zack Ryder, Fandango

and Tyler Breeze, Natalya... does it were with

drew mcintyre obviously drew is come back from

injury but that was cool how they did that were

golf comes and i have a light bulb in a long

time i liked him night one of superstars shakeup

is he's like and i didn't come alone but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but Two years Yeah, oh They just

they do not seem to know what to do with them.

Yeah, but yeah, he and Drew There's just something

that kind of works. Yeah with them Drew's got

the look he can speak really well now He's improved

a hundred times over what he was way back when

he was in WWE, but yeah don't know what it is

they sort of look alike despite not looking alike

at all mm -hmm and they're just something that

I don't know you could see them together so that

was smart the next all -new twin magic not really

Baron Corbin is gonna depress the hell out of

raw yeah when I said to you know top heels I

guess maybe they'll make him one? Maybe they'll

do something with him other than have him lose

the money in the bank. They're still supposedly

high on him so I mean take that for what it's

worth. Yeah really. I try not to put some stock

on internet rumors especially when the guy loses

all the time. Exactly. The Ascension Connor and

Victor um okay what the hell like well they had

to go over with breezango as my guess yeah probably

some of these are people who didn't even appear

on the show by the way so yeah well the ascension

is that they are a tag team but like they're

only ever featured in like grand tag team battle

royale over the top like they're not like i can't

remember the last singles match you know regulation

tag team match they've had against anybody um

bobby rude That was surprising mm -hmm he's gonna

have to change his gear from blue to red now

Let's see mojo Raleigh Yeah, whatever They haven't

done like outside of Outside of the hype bros

with him and Zack and Zack to it like I get it

Zack's a great guy, but Zack hasn't done a lot

Since seem to be interested. They're that shocking

thing. Yeah, where he won the Intercontinental

title. Yeah, and I just took it off. Um, yeah

the next night and since then I can't even remember

the last time he Beared on TV. Yeah me either.

I mean I'm just gonna say the last couple of

there's Mike Kanellis. Yeah, I can't remember

if we mentioned with Natalia or not. The Natalia

thing is to give Rhonda somebody to Work with

yep, that's probably good tally is inevitably

gonna turn on her because that's what Natalia

does yeah The Mike Kanellis one too, by the way,

he is such a great story. I'm really happy for

him that he has had Will say some addiction problems

and that kind of thing and WWE's helped him Work

through them. Yeah the only when i really remember

is his wife because she used to be was sent you

know doing skits and sent you know was around

like that when they came back mike and ria canalis

i'm like okay i remember ria who else is mike

guy no mike is here he can't worked on the independence

for a really long time and we're tired to get

there and it's just he's had a rough time of

it and i'm really happy to see him doing better

Clean that kind of thing. It's just a great story

whether or not he appears on TV or anything much

more. Yeah, so And then the last one that came

to Where we're going wrong, okay was Chad Gable,

okay which they are they broke up so Chad gable

seems like he was the more talented one of the

two of them and now yeah they broke him up with

Shelton which uh i mean i think it'll help Shelton

Benj and it probably helps them both really you

know as a tank team i'm not sure where they were

going Shelton Benjamin can compete for the US

title no sir it's the intercontinental title

series that's on smackdown lives like it'll be

a solid mid -card guy and he can put on really

good matches and i mean we'll see where chad

gable goes he's got potential so and yeah that's

the raw group and then smackdown all boys smackdown

seems to be kind of one -sided like they had

It's way shorter, but man, look at some of the

names. Yeah. They got the new United States champion,

Jeff Hardy, because Jeff beat, uh, Jinder. Yay.

Yay. Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville. Yeah. Samoa Joe.

Big Cass is back. And on SmackDown, yeah. Asuka,

Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Cesaro and Sheamus,

and our truth returns! What? I mean, I know we

already talked about them is so that's twice.

Yeah, they have 15 compared to Roz 19 Groups

to they get sanity, which is a great stable From

NXT and they get on trade ACN almost with his

managers Alina Vega Yeah, who all the two of

them have just been masterful together and again,

so their heels Sanity can be whatever. They're

kind of meant to be heals. But I mean, Simojo,

heal. The Miz, heal. Big Cass comes back as a

heal. The Bar are really, really good tag team

heals. So, Ra loses pretty much all their bad

guys. Uh, that's weird. I do like having the

bar on the same show as New Day, the Usos, and

the Bludgeon Brothers, though. Right, yeah. Like,

there's some, if you insert them into their matchups,

that'll be really good tag team wrestling. Yeah,

well... And I'm curious to see what Cass does,

because he was really starting to kind of get

it together, and then he had the injury against

Enzo. And he started to kind of show something.

Yeah. I posed this question to Mike last episode

when we talked about WrestleMania at the end

of the podcast, I believe, and I'm going to pose

it to you as well. Even though Enzo has turned

out to be... Yeah. Well, let's just go with that.

Is it wrong of me to really want his and Cass's

Funko Pops? i'd keep the end so far away from

any female uh... yeah obviously uh... but i mean

like i keep you know i'd just looking through

some of the ones i don't have yet or whatever

someone's i'm interested to get looking through

some of the w w e pops it kinda but the the two

-pack of them popped up are they ever gonna come

out of the box probably not but you know it all

Um, but yeah overall the superstar shakeup. It's

gonna be interesting to see what everyone does

now Yeah, it's gonna be the Oscar one was pretty

obvious because I mean he was her tea Wow, dude

No, she's been feuding with Charlotte's and it

makes sense to kind of move her over there. Yeah

I don't know. I think eventually she's going

to avenge that loss. Well, obviously and you

know win the title from charlotte but yeah then

we'll see how long that takes but uh yeah that's

i don't know that's a good that's a good group

that switched yeah there's part of me that wishes

and i know this would have made things even more

one -sided if people aren't sure that it's one

-sided already part of me wishes they'd switched

seth Know where We I don't know what you do with

Seth at this point Well, he's I don't I think

the reason why they didn't switch him is because

they just gave him a new merchant a new gimmick

with the Monday night Rollins thing and basically

having him, you know be you know super ultra

man Thing going, you know an hour and five minutes

on they did just give him a title but still he

He he's very much he's tough to figure out though

because he very much is a workhorse guy You can

build a show around him. Yeah, but if he moved

if he moved from Rod to smackdown Do we really

need to see Seth Seth versus Miz again? Like

no, I mean, yeah, that's that's an issue, but

there's other guys they can yeah Yeah What I'm

- what's gonna be curious for me is how and where

and when are they going to put anybody up against

free agent John Cena? That's what's gonna be

interesting to me with this new roster change.

I have to wonder if real life stuff's going in

- is impacting Cena, right? With the - yeah,

I mean, let's be honest. Everybody's, I'm sure,

read or heard it somewhere that he and Nikki

broke up. Oh, really? I had not heard that. I

don't know. Oh, wow. I did not. It was on mainstream

sites. Really? Yeah, that's so we'll see when

he kind of reappears after that. But yeah, that's

one I have to wonder. What is W? So Reigns is

not on the same Show is Joe. No, I suspect Reigns

is going to win the title from Brock, which means

Joe has absolutely no chance of winning. When

they face a month after that anyway, if that's

matches still on, I guess we'll see. But who's

Reigns going to feud with then? I don't know.

Also, I mean the Bobby Lashley is. I don't know

what they're going to do with him. They seem

to want a Lashley versus Brock match which It's

to Lashley's back full -time, but is not a young

man will say So I don't know how all all in they're

gonna want to go with him or I don't know there's

a lot of questions here a lot of good questions,

but It does kind of feel like SmackDown has some

of the more interesting things. I mean, I said

it before, Miz Brian is money. I legitimately

believe in an era where people don't necessarily

pay for wrestling that they could generate something

people would want to pay for. There's just something

with them that is electric. Yeah, it is two things

John has coming up outside of wrestling is he's

going to be Baron Draxum and rise of the TMNT

Animated series that's coming later this year

apparently He's also going to be in Dallas and

Robo. He's also executive producing that so I

don't know what the heck that is I thought you

were going to mention the Transformers Okay,

yeah, there is a movie. Yeah, I was looking at

yeah. No, it's not my favorite I was looking

at television stuff, but yeah, there is transformers

bumblebee And there's also the voyage of dr.

Doolittle what the hell Yeah, I think he's a

voice in that. Yeah, he's gonna be Yoshi. I'm

like, wait a second. Where's Mario? That's a

yeah, that's a odd Maybe don't don't name some

of your characters the same as pretty well known

mario characters yeah yeah really because yeah

um but yeah superstar shakeup it's going to be

interesting it's going to be interesting to see

how um stefan kurt with this whole ronda kurt

team up thing how that works in the future because

look what happened to mick once he you know decided

to i mean i know there's probably life things

firstly but storyline wise you know they fired

him storyline wise in this whole kurt steff thing

and well we got some sort of you know invigoration

with uh... shane and page so that's gonna be

different yeah hopefully this means that the

gm people are gonna kind of step back again it

looks like they will mean everybody else everybody

involved in these few seems to have People they're

gonna feud with who aren't the general managers.

So yeah Yep, absolutely All right, folks. I think

that's gonna do it for us on this shortish mayhem

mics For once we're summing up just two shows

yeah really i mean it's a nice change of pace

usually it's get twelve hours of paper views

or something well that's the cool thing now that

after mania w w is going to go back to one paper

view a month uh... yes it's going to be kind

of weird we mentioned the superstar shakeup i'll

i wonder if it's going to feel like there was

even a shakeup happens because we're still going

to see all these people together on the same

paper views now Yep, and I said it before I said

it again I wonder too if this means the pay -per

-views are gonna slowly get longer or what's

gonna happen there or Or are legitimately important,

you know title matches gonna get thrown into

the pre -shows. Yeah let's hope not I hope not

too because one of the things with Neville was

Apparently you don't get paid as much for the

pre -shows Right. It would suck if you've worked

hard enough that they put a belt on you but they

don't want to pay you full money for the pay

-per -view so they dump you on a pre -show. Yeah,

that sucks. That would kind of suck. Very much

sucks. Alright, folks. So yeah, I am at TFG1Mike

on Twitter. You can follow at GeekCastRadio and

at This Week in Geek on Twitter as well. This

has been the Superstar Shakeup. Join us next

time. I've actually had to switch the schedule

around a little bit because it's actually going

to be coming up in current. Next episode, episode

36, was going to be Andre the Giant, the HBO

doc, but we're moving that to episode 37. Next

time, WWE, the greatest royal rumble. So that's

the next one so yeah another special so that's

airing on the network for anyone who doesn't

know on greatest royal rumble Yeah, yeah on the

27th. I believe Friday the 27th. Yeah, we'll

be watching it live at work, but Yeah, I want

to see that though. It's interesting to see a

rumble with 50 people. It's that and all of the

main inventors Like, I remember the days in the

80s when everybody participated in the Rumbles.

It's been a long time since that happened. It's

just kind of, I think it's an opportunity for

them to kind of have fun with it, so. Yeah, absolutely.

And like I said, Honor of the Giant HBO documentary

will be after that. Then there's gonna be one

more episode before backlash, but I'm not sure

what that's gonna be just yet, so That could

be a superstar spotlight it could be Something

else as I said last episode a lot of new content

coming out for mayhem mics a lot of different

content stuff That's on the network that is not

a pay -per -view so Exciting things happening

here We will see you next time when we talk about

the greatest royal rumble You just made the list!