WWE Extreme Rules 2018 Review

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Ryan DeO... Hello and welcome to Mayhem Mikes.

This is episode 43. I'm of course TFG1 Mike.

Joining me as always is Ryan the Unevenflow Merkley.

Hello, sir. Hello. I think we're just sticking

to the four big pay -per -views a year from now

on, folks. I'm done. I'm so fucking done with

this shit. Oh my god. Four pay -per -views a

year and whatever other... old matches or old

or new series or whatever because this is between

the we the the go home show week going into extreme

rules and the aftermath of extreme rules in the

aftermath i'm like i'm bored i think out of my

enjoyed the rest sucked out of extreme rules

I mean, we'll see. We'll see. I don't know. And

now Tap Out AthleticWare presents Extreme Rules.

We started off the night with the Raw Tag Team

Championship, the Deleter of Worlds versus the

B Team. Why the hell do they let Curtis and whatever

his name is win? I think it's good. So the...

Oh, first of all, by the way, I'll mention the

pre -show for this was actually really good.

Who was on it? Surprisingly. So we had Sin Cara

versus Cien Almos, which was a rematch from the

previous Tuesday. It wasn't as good as their

match on Tuesday, but it was solid. And then

they had Sanity versus the New Day in a tables

match, which was actually quite good. Sweet.

And probably should have been on the main card

show, but whatever. for this I mean it's a good

it's a feel -good sort of thing with Axel and

Dallas who've been there for quite some time

and creative hasn't known what to do with them

and they've continued working and staying there

being on TV every week that sort of thing and

just I think it's alright it's a Feel it's more

of a feel -good moment than this was a good match

or a good feud See where we either see where

I differ is I feel like the weekly shows have

not been good at all the pay -per -views This

wasn't a great pay -per -view, but it was an

entertaining pay -per -view. Yeah Like this was

a feel -good sort of ending and match in the

end But it wasn't a great match or anything so

I'm fine with it. I think Axel and Dallas, I

mean, they certainly have talent. It's nice to

see them actually being used for something. And

again, it gives some of the people who are being

underutilized some hope that But it also took

them forever to do this and that's really disappointing

and the way it was done is not great either So

although having said that I mean overall the

writing has not been great again, especially

on the weekly shows What in the hell Curtis said

something so stupid at the end of this and I'm

like I can't even remember it was it was so stupid

that I don't remember it but like That guy needs

a lot of help on mic work. Then we get into Balor

versus Corbin. Pick a path for Corbin, please.

Either he's gonna be a wrestler or he's... I

mean, I know he's doing the whole corporate Kang

shtick again, but like... Seriously, did we need

Balor versus Corbin? Balor should be in contention

for the Universal Championship, which we will

talk about at the end of this thing. I think

inevitably they both will be it's just they don't

have a whole lot of time to figure it out or

to figure out With the title in limbo there's

only so much they can do with the two of them

and I'm okay with This hasn't been a great feud.

It's just sort of a placeholder the match here

was kind of eh It was all right. Nothing special

But yeah, this does nothing to highlight either

of them. And the feud's been pretty lackluster

thus far. Yep. Yeah, it really is. Then we had

Asuka versus Carmela for the women's championship,

with Ellsworth stuck in a shark cage. This was

terrible. I like... Love Asuka, but she has been

booked horribly. Yes. Yes the Carmela stuff.

I understand wanting to cover up the fact she's

not a great Wrestler yeah, and I don't she's

improved quite a bit and she's had some reasonably

good matches so I can understand that but this

was crap and it just seemed Bush League that

you could see the rigging and everything else

holding Ellsworth up this whole thing was just

terrible and I think the funniest part of this

is when the commentators were trying to cover

up the fact that the rigging was showing. Oh

yeah, they're like, is he wearing a flack jacket?

No, no. With a good try, Corey, you get an A

for effort, but no, this whole thing's been bad.

And at the very least, I would say that this

was entertaining, but it was still bad. the one

thing i didn't mention before we'd started talking

about this after i had wrote my notes for baller

versus corbin thirty two minutes in and i'm bored

but wait here we go the bludgeon's backstage

killing team hell no that was sort of exciting

we'll get to that later yeah later this week

but yeah this was much like The build for it

and the weekly shows it wasn't this has been

poorly written It was reasonably entertaining

but poorly written. I feel like that sums up

this pay -per -view The weekly shows have been

poorly written and not particularly entertaining

I'll get to that more later, but yeah Again,

at least I'd say the pay -per -view is entertaining

and the next match too, by the way Not poorly

written at least it was entertaining, but it

wasn't really a match and that was Nakamura versus

Hardy Which so I guess Hardy is banged up a But

having said that he put on a great match on Tuesday

With Shinsuke, so I don't think he's that banged

up having said that though. This was solid just

because It's a heel thing to do For him to win

in six seconds via cheating. I Don't have an

issue with it It would have been nice to see

the two of them have a solid match. Although

we did get that on smackdown at least You would

expect it for the pay -per -view But at the very

least if you're not gonna put on a good match

or you're gonna have a match that is overshadowed

by gimmick in this case the nut shot yeah at

least advance the storyline which it did and

I'm okay with so I'm okay with this and then

they had you know we had Orton come out and mall

I mean why does everyone hate Jeff Hardy's balls

really yeah really That really got worked over

here, but yeah Horton comes out and beats up

Artie And so we get advancement of that too and

his return. So I was okay with this It sounds

like you were less. Okay with it, but I Nakamura

if obviously he is a heel at this point if you're

gonna keep him heel Give him something else to

do to people other than the low blow I make sense

yeah here it makes sense but like after the second

time with AJ I'm like okay figure out something

else figure out some other way to cheat I don't

know I don't know but the magic they overuse

it with AJ but I think aside from that he's done

really well especially as a heal he does really

he does great mic work and he exists No, he does

he's very good at being both condescending and

then doing the no speak English bit, but I Don't

know I don't know where this is going because

of the whole Randy thing is this heading towards

a triple threat I don't know because the next

night on smackdown I'll talk about this here

because it relates to this match, but the next

night on smackdown or not next night, but that

this past Tuesday Randy comes out goes after

Jeff and like tries to rip the guy's ear off

like what the hell and keeps screaming if you

don't know why I'm out here you know like okay

Randy it looks like you're having a lot of fun

which is great because we know what happens when

he doesn't have fun when he's not into it because

we've talked about it before um but he looks

energized yeah he does very much so I think he

just works better as a heel though and I like

the fact that at least I don't know where this

is going because everything else it feels like

I kind of do and this is not well done so I'm

actually enjoying this feud and part of that

too is I mean I love I'm definitely a big fan

of Jeff Hardy he's a first ballot you know surefire

hall of famer shinsuke i don't think it's a secret

that i'm definitely a big fan of and orton when

he is motivated i can really enjoy so the fact

that you got three guys that are definitely motivated

and into it i like this and this is probably

the feud i am enjoying the most which is not

saying much considering the other ones but Yeah,

as long as this eventually ends up in a triple

threat for like the US title or something Maybe

or even some sort of almost round robin rights

where he gets Orton finally snaps and goes after

Nakamura but then Hardy still wants a piece of

them if these are three guys that I think we'll

work well enough together if they want to keep

them all in a program together They're good enough

to do that. So absolutely there This is one of

the few things that worked for me on both the

pay -per -view and is working for me on TV Absolutely,

then we have Braun versus Owens Man Kevin Owens

is so he deserves some sort of award slash iron

man for what he's been doing the last little

bit any I know the angle of Some of the shots

of the table you could see that there was a pad

Which by the way if somebody out there is going

oh, they wouldn't have used that years ago or

somebody's like oh Owens not real tough That

kind of thing you're an idiot and I don't want

to know you and I hate you because you know fully

we all know What happened to Mick Foley and how

horribly injured he was? Aside from the fact

that he could have easily been killed or something

worse Yeah, this is dangerous and any way they

can make any of this stuff safer for the performers.

Look at all the guys. Orton's come back from

a shoulder injury. Hardy came back from a shoulder

injury not long ago. We talked about Finn and

Seth. The last couple years, we've seen so many

guys get hurt really severely that any way they

can make it safer, go for it, especially with

Owens, who a week before took the insane, or

sorry, pay -per -view before. Yeah took the ladder

bump at money in the bank Which didn't look like

there was any sort of padding or anything anywhere

and now takes this Jesus Kevin Yeah, he needs

they need to give him something for all this

too because he's out there every week Despite

the fact he they have him doing insane shit trying

to kill himself and He's entertaining The mic

and when he's doing this stuff, so now we've

said on that by the way this match I liked the

fact so Normally, I would dislike the fact that

they were both stupid in the match But I figure

it cancels at each other out because he had Owens

who after the handcuffs were introduced took

way too long to decide I'm gonna climb the cage

now and win. Yeah, and then you've Braun who

loses the match by throwing Owens off of the

cage. Right. Because they both did something

kind of dumb though, I figure it canceled the

doubts. It canceled it out because they were

both great moments. Okay, Kevin climbing the

cage isn't the great moment part of that moment

in there. Like Braun trying to figure out, you

know, breaking the handcuffs. That's the great

moment in that part. I'd argue too, by the way,

Owen's work where after Baran is handcuffed,

he starts feeling cocky and starts trying to

beat him up. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. I

liked Owen's... ...for all, by the way. He starts

out kind of begging, and finally he kind of resides

himself, and then eventually he just decides,

alright, you know what, I'm gonna try to fight.

And that was really and then of course we have

the yeah later on the introduction of the handcuffs

Absolutely that fall though at the end Wow Wow,

yeah, even though there I don't care if there

is I don't care if they throw mattresses out

there not that they're gonna do that But I don't

care if I see like giant mattresses out there

a fall from let's just say the steel cages are

20 feet in the air Okay, let's just say the top

of this because because call was like all that's

going to be like fifteen twenty feet in the air

plus you know you added to that how tall brawn

is in holding kevin up over him or what what

he was a little bit over his shoulder but yeah

the fact is generally they're jumping off of

these cages it's not a straight just yeah wander

off yeah no and you gotta get the distance because

man if you miss that and you slam into that you're

fucked Yeah, and that's essentially what happened

to Foley I mean you still hit the table, but

it wasn't there was nothing to break it and Continuing

to do ridiculously dangerous stuff without making

it safer is just stupid and Like you were saying

even with a pad or whatever this guy really freaking

hurt Yeah, there's no way that He felt great

after all that and this is aside from all the

physical stuff beforehand. Oh, absolutely And

the other thing is is you got to think of as

a viewer as an audience member whether you're

there or whether you're watching it on TV or

computer or phone or whatever Most of the time

the commentators are talking as the action is

happening. Even when he's falling Michael Cole

was like My god, oh my god, Ron strong. I just

took it whatever he said I don't remember what

the hell he said, but I'm saying like the whole

point is they're talking is like You unless it's

really really bad. You're not gonna hear a lot

of the pain that Kevin Owens went through I mean,

yeah, we heard the table crunching but like You're

not gonna hit you. I didn't hear him hit the

floor I heard him obviously hit the table and

then the floor but like even if he had to be

thrown out on the floor itself. I don't know,

that's a little weird, but yeah, that match was

just so good. That's like one of my two favorite

parts of this pay -per -view was that match.

Yeah, I'd also say that we're into the back half

of things as well, too, and I thought the back

half of the pay -per -view overall was a lot

better. However, we're about to get into a match,

which... We had so we had team hell no versus

the bludgeon brothers now who knows what would

happen if Cain didn't get hurt He got hurt at

a house show or something apparently and so they

had to find a way to kind of Keep them. Yeah

keep them from from wrestling and get them off

TV that kind of thing okay fine, but Yeah, again,

I had mentioned this on our last show Aside from

putting Brian and Kane together for a cheap kind

of quick feel -good moment. There wasn't a lot

Long -term well, it's made even worse when you

don't even really get the feel -good moments

or anything and the bludgeon brothers Beat the

hell out of Daniel Bryan and win the match. Yeah,

why don't I have Kane? lose When he's the injured

one by the way and protect Brian a little bit

I saw somebody else mention that and I thought

to myself. Yeah, that's Exactly how I kind of

feel you have the injured guy take the pin Brian

ever since it can he's come back. It just doesn't

feel I Don't know it just doesn't feel Great

so far. It doesn't feel good at all because it's

like what are you doing? Don't know and she hasn't

I having said that Miz on Tuesday was on point

and I like that he pointed out That since Brian's

come back. He hasn't been booked or involved

much also The wins against Cass are pretty much

erased because of course, they're not mentioning

him or anything else. So He hasn't had much since

he's come back, especially when you wipe out

the beauty one yeah, and so yeah, just I Don't

know this is this is weird. Yeah, this is really

weird like I don't know Like I understand again.

We won't know yeah, but I understand yeah, I

understand why they did the team hell no reunion

and I thought it was great I thought it was fun

I didn't think it was gonna last and even if

Kane didn't get injured so like I understand

that but at this point because I haven't seen

it in a few years I really hope that this is

gonna really end up as Miz versus Brian again

Think now is the time to finally kind of pull

that trigger. They've teased us with it That's

a feud that I'm definitely interested in seeing

because the two of them just work really well

together And are very much kind of fire and ice

in real life and in terms of their feud so it

just worked really well, so Yep Then was Uncle

Bob versus Roman oh god this was actually good

it was a good match but it was much better than

i thought it would be in a fairly surprising

ending so i have no issue with i was happy with

this i'm not too happy that the two of them are

going to do it again next week yeah but what

i am happy about is that it's not like they're

Sort of holding over preserving the fact the

shield could have a reunion whenever Dean gets

healthy because I'm like, oh hell No, you better

not have Seth and Roman win to have to go against

each other again for the shot So originally I

thought this was I mean I thought that was the

original plan though on this match specifically

for this pay -per -view Well, remember they had

the four -way teased originally and then something

happened with Brock in real life Okay, and they

scrapped that and suddenly these two hated each

other Yeah, I don't know this. Yeah, that was

a little weird They should have just had it that

this match was For the right to meet bronc instead.

We're gonna get a rehash on wrong again I know

but that's what I thought this was that's like

they didn't even say that they chant like you

said they something happened They changed it.

They did this they did that and obviously we

now have what's gonna happen with the the rehash

Alexa versus Naya again for the Raw Women's Champion

I thought it was a good I thought this was a

good storytelling match it was yeah the things

I didn't like oh by the way one thing I want

to mention too you can tell the Lashley Reigns

was pretty good because even the crowd stopped

Being idiots probably about halfway through They

kind of gone into it. That was impressive. But

anyway for this one The only thing I didn't like

is an Italian who's a ring vet? And been around

for years kind of looked like an idiot and just

kind of let Mickey help cheat Through until a

certain point where she was obviously supposed

to intervene and then we get the Ronda Rousey

interference, but having said that fairly good

and I Wasn't surprised bliss one. I was surprised

how she won. Yeah in terms of I like what they

did where Jax was able to Get the it looked like

Jax was gonna win. She had her up for the Samoa

drop possibly on the chairs, etc, etc Mickey

was able to interfere despite everything that

happened earlier. And then finally, Bliss wins

with the DDT onto the steel chair, which I'm

always a fan of. Yeah, that was really good.

I just like, I know this is a holdover and all

that. It was a really good match for being a

holdover slash storytelling match, because obviously

the whole thing with Rhonda and all that. Meanwhile

on Raw the next night. it's okay ronda just go

home like i like corbin in his constable form

more so than putting him in matches at this point

so like he comes out and he's like oh come on

kurt no she needs another week on her suspension

or something or other or whatever i don't know

what the hell it was but that was kind of interesting

um then we get aj versus rusev Good a very good

match between the two of them unsurprisingly

Nothing it wasn't surprising in terms of the

end but whatever I mean a good match. I'm happy

I was really happy to see Rusev get his first

ever World title shot. I think it was long overdue

Yeah, and hopefully they find a way to keep him

involved and the fact that it was a good match

Is proof to them or hopefully it's it they'll

find it Hopefully they'll look at the fact it

was a good match and decide yeah, we should keep

them in there Yeah, hopefully I mean I love this

match other this is one of the best matches this

and Like I said earlier the brawn Owens thing

or my two favorites and AJ has worked a lot since

he's been in WWE But I don't think I've seen

him work this much in this match since his days

when he was going up against Cena. Like, this

was a tough match for him. I mean, this was a

tough win because Rusev is a very, very tough

opponent. And the fact that they have the whole

storyline angle of Aiden English removing the

turnbuckle and... And I liked the Rusev's, so

one of the things I've always liked about Rusev

is he's good at selling injuries and AJ working

the leg was the big thing he kind of sold here.

Yep. Yeah, worked for me. And then the pay -per

-view ends with the final match of the night

being Ziggler versus Rollins for the Iron Man

match. This was brutal. Mean Seth just Wow, I

mean we've seen Seth in recent like all year

this year. He has been a workhorse But Wow, this

match was crazy good The only thing that bugs

me about this was and now I'm finally gonna talk

about it because I'm gonna skip it until now.

So this worked out well, I do not like did not

like this crowd and They're stupid counting with

the clock I've always backed at least on this

show when we talk about it the whole You can

kind of react the way you want. I haven't been

with the people who just kind of boo rains for

no reason if they're booing him for bad writing

or something like that, that's okay, but I haven't

really been with them when they kind of boo him

just because or just because he's Roman Reigns

that kind of thing but I'm definitely not with

them on this one the whole I Just I don't get

it. These are two guys who the crowd supposedly

likes Yeah, really who were great workers. I

don't think there's a single person who could

explain to me how either of these guys is terrible

or how either of these guys deserves to be booed

while they're working or people counting down

the clock or doing other dumb bullshit during

their matches and I just it hurt the match to

me I thought this was a great match that the

crowd should have been into and normally would

have been but they were too busy Being jackasses

for whatever reason. I've no clue why This happens.

I mean there have been timers on other matches

and people don't act like idiots. I'm not I Don't

have a clue what the point of any of that was

and it really bugs me that These are two guys.

And again, people want to say, oh, we boo Roman

Reigns to teach the WWE a lesson that we don't

like this guy. Well, what are you trying to teach

them about these two? Because supposedly the

crowd likes these guys, but they were idiots

when they were out there as well. So anyway,

as for the match, yeah, it was quite good. I

was surprised I had that many falls. Yeah. Like

we ended with nine falls, which I believe is

the highest I sized I could remember and We had

the overtime as well, which by the wall get to

that in a second, but first I just want to say

I Ended up liking what they did with McIntyre

So McIntyre got Ziegler down three nothing, right?

And I remember thinking to myself, well, that

was dumb. But they let Ziegler get the two falls,

essentially, because Rollins was out of it. So

that was all right. What I don't like is the

end where A, McIntyre just appeared out of nowhere.

Again, after being banned, we were booted from

ringside, A. Be it was during the overtime where

angle restarted things and he says, uh, you know

Crowd doesn't want to see its eye We're going

to some of them death over time and then two

seconds in McIntyre and Ziegler cheat Why wouldn't

ankle go out again and say well Well, that was

bullshit The guy we banned from ringside for

interfering came out and interfered again. We're

gonna restart it or Can't end like this or something

like that, but so that was a little weird makes

angle seem kind of odd that he just I Don't know

he was okay. He was not okay with it ending in

a tie, but he's okay if somebody cheats in two

seconds and That was so the ending was a little

odd, but the match itself was really really good

And again, it was entertaining, but the logic

just kind of doesn't hold up. So, I don't know.

Yeah, it's just crazy. I think this card needed

to be flip -flopped. You could still dedicate

the same amount of time to each match, but just

move the matches around. This, I think, should

have maybe been in the middle. instead of the

ending. I don't know, I just really care for

the placement of this last match. What a bunch

of... So, I wouldn't have... I wouldn't have

had the pre -show at all. We've talked about

this before. It's way too long to have fans sit

there for four hours of wrestling. And I would

have probably had the opener be the sanity new

day because I thought that was a good opening

match it had an extreme rules gimmick to it as

in the tables match and I thought it would all

worked well and then yeah, maybe after that hit

the Iron Man match for Rollins and Ziegler for

the Intercontinental belt, but I don't know then

where do you move some of the other stuff? I

hate the fact that we get tag team matches on

The early show or they get rushed or that kind

of thing. So where do you put that? Although

maybe you move Corbin Baller to Yeah, you can

another that you can do that. Yeah something

again, I remember I said don't have a pre -show

so So we're not allowed to move it to the pre

-show If Kane is hurt, why not reschedule it

or something? That's another option actually.

Maybe just say the match has been moved or maybe

have the Bludgeon Brothers attack him before

the match like they did and then you have Paige

or somebody come out from SmackDown and say,

well, we're not going to have the match because

you guys just cheated and beat the crap out of

them backstage. So then you could move that around.

We've been over this a number of times that With

the brand split they have so much talent and

they want to get everybody on TV Which I'm in

favor of I'm in favor I think all of these people

deserve to get those pay -per -view paychecks

and everything else because they work hard weekly

and They should get paid for it and their job

is dangerous Especially if your name's Owens,

but yeah the amount I'm trying to there we go

now I figured out how I want to word this the

amount the amount of concentration it takes me

and I'm not a I don't feel like I'm dumb guy

the amount of concentration it takes to sit down

and watch something for four hours with It's

very short breaks in between and half the time

by the way the breaks insultingly just show us

what we just saw Which bugs me, but let's skip

over that for now the amount of concentration

it takes me Watching on my TV where I can just

get up and do something else or go grab something

to eat or whatever It's a fair amount of commitment

and concentration. I can't imagine sitting there

through a whole show And I was at the NXT pay

-per -view a little over a year ago. Oh, geez,

actually, it's about to be two years ago. But

in any case, I was there, and that was perfect.

It was the perfect length. The crowd was hot.

Everybody was having a good time. And then I

went to the SummerSlam the next night in Toronto.

They were both in Toronto. You're getting pretty

much similar crowds because the people going

to the NXT pay -per -view are wrestling fans

So yeah, if it's in their city, they're gonna

go see the WWE pay -per -view, right? So you're

asking them the crowd to come back and in that

case good god that was what six hours I think

if I remember right after two hours the night

before and I got back to the hotel pretty quickly

we were I got a hotel really close to the Air

Canada Center so it worked out well and we're

both huge wrestling fans it was neat to see it

live and everything else but you're beat by the

time the actual pay -per -view starts because

of the pre -show stuff and Didn't talk about

it much at the time, but you know by the end

of the show you're tired You just want to go

home, but in my case. I had to travel back to

Ottawa Yeah, which is a good five -hour drive

lucky me and just I I don't understand this to

me I Would rather shorten it if I were WWE sorry

I'd rather shorten it and pay people for doing

nothing. You know, maybe say, all right, sorry,

we moved your match, we're gonna pay you anyway.

I'd rather shorten it and pay the people and

have the crowd into it, because it's a better

visual and audio for that matter, when the crowd's

celebrating. Yeah, they're gonna find a way to

shorten these pay -per -views because they just

keep getting longer and longer and longer Like

30 minutes 32 minutes in when I felt like I was

bored with Extreme rules. I'm like I feel like

I've been sitting here for two hours Like that's

how bad this the beginning of this pay -per -view

was And I'd still say it was entertaining but

by the end it did feel long despite that so The

pay -per -view on a whole was entertaining at

points, but that first 32 minutes, oh my god,

was just, no. No, no, no, no, no. I'm really

glad I don't watch the pre and the post shows.

Like, have they given up doing raw talk and talking

smack because they've added the post shows now?

Is that what that's supposed to be? I don't even

know. Yeah, I dunno. I miss... The talking smack

and stuff worked because it was a network kind

of thing and I could go watch a I could go watch

it whenever I wanted to after the show was Done

and that was kind of nice that worked. Well,

right And yeah, I find if I'm not there at the

time. I never watched the post Pay -per -view

stuff. I watched it this time where Lashley was

about Ten times more charismatic and on point

than he's been on TV Which was really impressive.

It makes me wonder if somebody's giving him talking

points or that kind of thing before his actual

promos Because this was pretty clearly him being

himself and it worked a lot better. I don't know

Rating for me for extreme rules Three out of

five Yeah, this is tough I like I said I thought

it was entertaining But I didn't think it was

well written nor do I think it was great So I

agree actually I'm gonna say three out of five

because that's what I was thinking is three to

five six out of ten that kind of range but the

and the raw afterwards I They did not particularly

enjoy it. SmackDown was, I'm gonna be honest,

SmackDown I thought was a lot better, but a lot

of that was because I really enjoyed The Miz

and his terrible slash outstanding eulogy for

Team Hell No, because I thought that worked.

That was the best part of that, yeah. Yeah, but

I thought the Raw was mediocre at best, and I

enjoy a lot of the guys that were working in

those triple threats, but... As soon as Reigns

won, you knew Lashley was winning the second

one. Oh, of course. Of course. Like, yeah, no.

Who wants to pin Elias? Oh, sorry. Let's hope

nobody, because, yeah, no. It would have been

so much more entertaining if pretty much anyone

else won, but instead we get a rehash of a match

we just saw a couple nights earlier. I was okay

with them rehashing Nakamura Hardy because we

didn't get to see that Yeah in the at the pay

-per -view and I thought this worked well Like

everything everything I want to say about the

weekly show I just enjoyed smackdown so much

more than raw and again part of that is Three

hours versus two hours. Yeah, there were a couple

of man things in Smackdown. I didn't like but

the show's so much shorter that I can digest

them better instead of an extra hour with even

more stuff potentially that I was meh on. I mean

even me watching Raw on on Hulu and having it

be the cut down version, the no three hour version

thing, it was still way too long. It's funny

because We're at a point where I would argue

that wrestling's in some of the best shape It's

ever been in in terms of pure entertainment value.

The issue is that it's not collected in one place

so what I'm trying to say is the Even at the

height of the attitude era It was easier because

you really only had two shows You had raw and

you had nitro And, you know, the other shows

were B -shows that you could generally skip.

It's like what Main Event is now. No offense

to SmackDown, and Thunder was crap, so full offense

to it. But, so you only had the two. Now, we've

got all this other stuff though, because there's

a lot of great stuff in the Indies, like Cody

Rhodes has been fantastic. The New Japan stuff,

the pay -per -views have been amazing and are

readily available. You've got NXT, which is consistently

very, very good. So, you've got all this stuff,

but it's spread out everywhere. And then you've

got elements of SmackDown and Raw that are good,

but you've got a lot of crap. Mm -hmm, and there's

a lot of junk in the other ones too, but because

their shows are a Less high -profile because

Ron smackdown are everywhere. Yeah, they're the

big leagues quote unquote But you've got all

the other stuff it's easier just again It's easier

to forget about the not good stuff when it's

you're only committing an hour or two of your

time right when it's five hours a week of I Really

think they've been hurt too by having it back

-to -back Because man by the time I hit Wednesday,

I'm burnt out on wrestling Oh, yeah, like if

I bought that's if I bother to watch them live

Yep, but yeah, it's I just don't I don't know

what they're doing and I don't Know where they're

going creatively and all of the stuff. I'm not

enjoying and It's not enough to not make me a

fan because a lot of it is I love the wrestlers

and I love the wrestling I don't think there's

anything that can turn me off of watching somebody

like Rollins or Owens work. Yeah But they're

certainly trying with these storylines Yes, they

are Guess it's the same of So we did the pull

leg Yes, where we talked about boom studios WWE

comic. Yep volume one my general rule is if a

comic is consistently not enjoyable for me I

drop it obviously and I don't want to drop in

WWE television But I'm kind of closing in at

the point where I'm just gonna kind of watch

the stuff I'm interested in and the guys I'm

interested in I'm getting there Like oh, yeah,

it's I don't know and I don't know what the solution

is. It's easy for me to sit here and criticize

But I don't have a fix You know, the first thing

I would fix is cut down on the programming, obviously.

But in terms of fixing the writing or that kind

of thing, do they need to fire the writers? Do

they need to change the whole sort of creative

direction? Do they need somebody different overseeing

things? Like Hunter apparently oversees a lot

of NXT. So is that the answer? I don't know.

I don't know enough about the... Scenarios or

the buildup of these things. So again, it's easy

for me to sit here and criticize But I'll have

a solution for it. I Have an entertaining solution

for it Have a match to decide who runs the company.

Okay, there's that Or we can just you know for

at least one week of the podcast just go away

from the wrestling and we can review the upcoming

Release of Miz and Mrs. Episode 1 We could because

it would be funny to hear your commentary on

WWE reality programming Yeah, I may check it

out because the Miz is entertaining even at his

worst It's so weird his Man, he's somebody we

should probably do some sort of career retrospective

on we will be he has had He has had one of the

weirdest careers really if you sit back and think

about it And he's still relatively the same guy

like it's so odd And It's interesting to me because

he gets accused of being lazy most notably by

dying Daniel Bryan himself once and yet it's

clear he's a ridiculously hard worker that takes

everything seriously and he's just one of the

weirdest guys like if you were setting up a list

of wrestlers and that kind of thing it just feels

like he is one of the how did this guy end up

becoming a wrestler how did all this turn out

Oh, absolutely, yeah. Most definitely. Anyway.

Anyway. I think that's gonna do it for us, folks.

Oh, yeah. We were talking like ten minutes ago.

Yeah, I know. Where are the people who find you

online, sir? At Night Beats, on Twitter. Send

me wrestling tweets. Why? Yeah, you can. I'm

at TFU and Mike on Twitter. You can also follow

at GeekCastRadio and at This Week in Geek for

all the other respective network content from

each of our networks. Next time around, who knows?

Actually, next time, I do know. I don't know

what specific ones, because we'll talk about

that off air. But next episode, episode 44 of

the podcast, we're going to do an episode of

Ride Along and an episode of Table for Three.

Yep. And we also have one of the big paper views

coming up. Which is oh shoot summer slam that's

in five weeks though Yep, yeah That's summer

slam right after that we don't have to do anything

until Survivor series Come on that was funny

anyway, hey god you're bad all right We're gonna

get the heck out of here. We will catch you next

time here on Mayhem Mikes. Hey, hey, ride along.

The Shield's in the car together. You just made

the list!