WrestleMania 35 Review

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your glass to Heineken Zero Zero, great tasting

beer with zero alcohol. Cheers to when you're

keeping fit or even when you babysit. Cheers

to when you choose to drive or at your desk from

nine to five. But mostly, when your thirst needs

quenching, cheers to something so refreshing.

To all of these things we say, Heineken Zero

Zero, now you can't. Welcome to Man Mikes. This

is episode 50. It's only taken us four years

to get to episode 50, folks. I'm of course Mike,

TFG on a blanchard. Joining me is Ryan, The Uneven

Flow, Merkley. Hello, sir. Hello, I am Ryan,

The Uneven Flow. Yes, yes you are. I'm just trying

to sound like we did last week according to you.

So it's time for our seven and a half hour podcast.

Actually, it's not. Okay, so our good buddy -

Hey, remember last year when we - A lot of people

complained that WrestleMania was too long. Yeah,

I have a great idea. Let's make it longer Okay,

so that's if you watch everything Even if you

don't it still ran longer Yes, it did 34 was

seven hours 35 was five hours 35 was seven and

a half hours in total You're counting 34 being

seven hours with the pre -show No, no, I could

have sworn it was seven hours just the regular

event. Oh, yeah, you know, I ran Yeah, we ran

well after midnight on this one Well, I don't

watch the pre -show. So the actual event of WrestleMania

was five hours I Sadly did watch the pre -show.

I don't have a lot to add on it because he really

wasn't good. No really so Tony Nese and, surprise

surprise by the way, Tony Nese and Buddy Murphy

for the 205 Live title was the best part of the

pre -show. And it was alright. They've had better

matches on TV though. The women's battle royal

was not good. And the men's battle royal was

probably worse. And then Kurt Hawkins and Zack

Ryder versus the Revival. So the Revival are

one of the many teams that are out. Right or

sorry on their way out. I should say so Yeah,

it's not real surprising. They lost They asked

to be released not long ago. So that match wasn't

It wasn't great either and then the men's battle

royal was not good at all. It was really just

the story of Jost Che there we go and then Braun

man how whatever i was about to say how far has

brawn fallen but i mean i'm ecstatic with him

on tuesday because it's a match i've desperately

wanted brawn versus joe yes like i am i'm a thousand

percent behind that that is a great program for

both of them uh but i mean how far has he fallen

just that he's not even on the WrestleMania main

show this year not to mention Owens didn't even

show up at all. He wasn't even in the Battle

Royale Yeah, but he's come back since then he

was a he fought in the last pay -per -view so

He took Kofi's spot that fast line That's but

anyway, yeah, so whatever skip straight to it

Okay, so Both you and Alex and I'm sure Mike

is what Mike is well Mike Dodd folks this was

geek Alex said he watched everything Hall of

Fame NXT Pre -show plus the five -hour main event

of WrestleMania itself. Yep I saw snippets of

Hall of Fame. I saw... I think everybody's seen

one snippet of it, at least. I was gonna say.

I saw the moron that basically attacked Bret

Hart. Yeah, I don't wanna give a lot to this.

I mean, there's nothing more to add. No, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no. No, I'm just saying,

like, he doesn't deserve the publicity. Oh, no,

no, no. I mean, if anything, Dash Wilder deserves

the publicity. Oh, god, yes. Speaking of the

revival... Listen, I love the revival from NXT,

but yeah, I definitely like that. You know, thank

goodness that Travis, I think his name is Travis

Brown. I feel really bad if I get it wrong, but.

Ronda Rousey's husband? Yes, he was one of the

first to respond, as was Big E and Xavier Woods,

you know, getting in there and separating and

getting out of the way, which, you know. It's

a thing that happened that shouldn't have happened.

No, I was gonna say like massive finger of shame

I guess to the security. Yeah, really? I mean,

this is WWE. I don't think they would have planned

something like that. That's not a storyline,

folks. That was something that really friggin'

happened and it was really friggin' stupid. Well,

I attacked a geriatric cancer and stroke survivor

and at once there's not many wrestlers still

alive who have had a worse go of it than Hart

true very true it just yeah it was kind of sickening

on the good side the NXT stuff was great and

the Hall of Fame aside from you know that obviously

the Hall of Fame was good and it was really nice

that China got a pretty significant part of the

DX yep induction so I like that I enjoyed WrestleMania

as a whole but oh by the way I know I'm gonna

whine about the length like everybody else has

and we'll try to keep it to a minimum but anyway

I felt like this year was because I only watched

the main event of you know the main pay -per

-view it's an hour longer than like a money in

the bank or something or It's not like it wasn't

as bad like I didn't come away from watching

WrestleMania 35 the way I did last year Yes,

it's just getting straight into it. I thought

there was a lot more filler and stuff. I wouldn't

have bothered with But alternatively they spaced

things out better so for example we open with

I Was a big fan of bothering to open with Hogan

because to be blunt I'm not sure what he has

to do here. Yeah, I saw a lot of news articles

basically saying so WWE brought Hulk Hogan to

WrestleMania for no apparent reason or for no

real purpose or... But I will say the scene of

nobody knowing why, but the scene of Paul Heyman

coming straight out. During that from the back

and then just starting the You're bringing Brock

out essentially. I thought that was great. Yeah,

that worked out and holy cow. That was the first

match Yeah, like that was cool Absolutely amazing

thought it was great. Yeah, I think the real

reason why Hope was there Was so Alexa would

have something to do as the hostess I don't think

I mean we'll get to her later. I think a little

more but yeah the host thing this year was kind

of necessary it felt like Yeah, she basically

just came out later to hell without saying now

it came out later to announce the crowd And the

stupid dance break which they did not need that

late in the night Like the entire crowd is clearly

exhausted, which by the way is the good and bad.

So you have this match first Which is good because

it means the crowds definitely into it The negative

is of course that takes a lot of energy out of

it But there was a match later on that took a

lot more energy out of it But this one, holy

cow. I didn't see any of this happening. I wasn't

even entirely sure Rawlins would win Didn't like

I was terrified he was good So for those that

don't know for those that haven't watched but

are listening to this podcast for some odd reason

First of all, stop listening to us you douchebags

and go watch WrestleMania 35 You know go through

the five hours that we went through But you know,

it's one of those things where Brock and Seth

come out They don't even get the match started

until what, maybe 10 -15 minutes into the thing?

Yeah, Lesnar just lays into Rollins. Which I

also liked. I thought that was well done and

it made sense, especially after Heyman talking

about how they're not gonna sit around all night

and wait and that if he's not gonna be on last,

then he's gonna be on first just so he can leave

and... You don't get out of here now. Go to Vegas

and lose a bunch of money or whatever the hell

they're doing out there. It's a reference to

U of C, but anyway. Right. I understand. Well,

I'm saying, you know, it's yeah. So it's yeah.

Like, geez, they just, he just tosses Rollins

around the first chunk of it. Yeah. I mean, I

mean, Seth is basically Seth Rollins in this,

in this opening bit here is not Seth Rollins.

He's just Seth the rag doll. is what he is, because

Brock just tosses him all over everywhere. I

mean, the only thing Brock didn't do was basically

kick Seth Rollins all the way back into the stands

where the shield used to come out. That's the

only thing Brock could not do. But Rollins knows

that Brock's kryptonite is getting hits in the

dingling. Okay, so remember, was it last year?

Yeah, it didn't even last year, or it might have

even been 2017. It was the point when Shinsuke

first came on the scene. Ah yes, the Shinsuke.

Well, it was when he came out and turned heel

that he and AJ had their knocking each other

in the nuts. I was thinking more of the Undertaker.

Remember, the Undertaker used to love to work

over Brock's gonads. That did not come out right?

The only reason why I say Shinsuke is because...

That was the point where I got fed up with WWE

at the time with him and AJ though the time where

I kept saying This has gone on way too long.

This is one too many nutshots. This is one too.

There's only one here at least Exactly, you know,

there's one here and there's you know one on

raw or whatever it was beforehand But the point

is, you know You knew and I read an article somewhere

that you know It was originally supposed to go

the other way on raw before mania. Yeah, rock

was supposed to beat the ever -living crap Seth,

I'm glad it didn't go that way. And I thought

this went well, too. Like, it felt like, remember

last year we had Brock and Goldberg? Was it last

year? I think it was last year. Anyway, it reminded

me a lot of the Brock and Goldberg matches, especially

with how quick it was, you know, because Rollins

hits, nails Brock in the gonads, and then just

smacks him with the stomp three times, and...

It's over. Yeah. I thought it was well done.

I thought it was booked really intelligently.

The crowd was crazy for us. It was smart. It

was a great way to start. It was the coolest

way to start. You didn't know what was going

to happen on either side, kind of a thing. They

then follow that up with a SmackDown Live match

between AJ and Orton. I thought the match was

not bad, it just wasn't special, but having said

that, for anyone who hasn't heard, including

you possibly, AJ got hurt in the match, so he's

out for a bit. Yeah, I saw it again. That's not

good. Yeah, that's not good. Hopefully he gets

better very soon. Still, I mean, good. It was

what it needed to be. It was an alright match.

It didn't run super long. I like that it was

slower than the previous match. But, and oh,

and I like that, I think AJ winning is probably

the right call, no offense, Thornton. There were

some good spots in it, but yeah, it wasn't anything

super special, but it wasn't terrible or anything

like that. I don't know if it's me and my current

discontent with the way Raw and SmackDown are,

and we'll talk about that at the very end of

the show as well. But it's one of those things

where, am I missing something here? Like, I knew

AJ and Randy were gonna be fighting. at this

Wristlemania but have I missed some big feud

or something like I don't even though I skipped

through they've both taken shots at each other

the last two weeks now they might not be in the

Hulu version actually no they play the whole

thing that's right yeah they play the whole smackdown

it's just raw that they cut down by half it's

been pretty good yeah they could cut down raw

by a lot more than half oh well again Right to

the end, folks. We'll talk about that at the

end of that. wrestlers they all do a very difficult

job that I can never do but thus far I'm not

sure why WWE is so high on her she's been sloppy

we'll say yeah in the ring and yeah I don't even

think I'm not a fan of this stupid like come

out and twirl the last time you would have seen

her was in the Royal Rumble where she was right

that was not a good showing But like lately,

she just comes out, does her little southern

bell twirl, you know, sophisticated thing, and

doesn't really do anything until the Smackdown

After Mania, which we'll talk about later. Right.

Yeah. Up next was SDL tag team titles, the Usos

versus every other tag team. Which was pretty

good. It was a tag team four -way, I think. Yeah,

there were too many people. But to be fair, they

did a good job of everyone getting involved and

it not being a long match. Like, I thought this

was one of the better matches on the show and

it was pretty quick. I had no issues. Uso's win.

Uso is one of the most underrated tag teams of

all time at this point, I think. Yeah, and they're

one of the coolest, honestly, right now, currently,

at least on SmackDown, if not the entire... locker

room but it's very good at what they do where

the storyline for this was because they did the

noble thing you know on the raw go -home show

about you know forfeiting smackdown go -home

show smackdown whatever same difference fixing

them up smackdown is the good one by the way

also also an hour shorter thankfully not yeah

hold your breath on that one because WWE is about

to say, hold my beer. I like the Usos, I like

that they won. I don't particularly like any

of the other tag teams that were in this. No,

I like Cesaro and... Seamus. Seamus, thank you.

Geez, brain freeze. But the bar has been used

really poorly. They're used freaking terribly

on Raw. the next night too just what a shit spot

to put them in trying not to swear it's our it's

an explicit podcast it's rusev and shinsuke are

just wasted in this two guys that shouldn't be

together who are way too talented to be just

in a tank team and we're cachet and black i'm

not really sure why i think they just kind of

got paired up and yeah feels like they just don't

know what to do with them and so they decided

hey let's make them get another tag team we don't

have enough of those yeah whatever and then the

comedy aspect of of WrestleMania begins because

it's Miz versus Shane well we did get the we

summed it up earlier but I'll mention too the

Hall of Fame ceremony summit summary I'm fine

with that by the way uh if I mentioned there's

a lot of wasted time that's I don't that's not

Waste of time they deserve to be out there and

yeah, they do every year that every year They

do the Hall of Fame when they do the recognition

on the actual pay -per -view after the ceremony

Obviously kind of thing they deserve to be out

there You know to take their bows and the way

they did the DX thing was really cool at the

very end Yeah, and I'm in agree with it meant

with you by the way as much as I like them is

I didn't like this it was it oh my god so uh

when you say comedy i really hope you're referring

to the really silly bit with mrs dad yes which

like so first of all mrs dad is able to walk

into the ring which i guess as we saw from the

hall of fame show that you know i guess he can

just walk into a wwe ring and attack somebody

uh -huh anyway he gets in he gets beat up by

shane And then there's this hilarious thing where

A. Nobody ever came in. B. Miz sits there for

about 20 minutes waiting for somebody to come

check in his dad. Then Miz finally has to come

get the ringside trainer. Which to be fair, I

mean, they gave Miz's dad roughly the same medical

treatment they give C. So I guess that's accurate

too. But this... Feel bad because they took some

risks and that kind of thing and I'd like Miz

quite a bit. I think he's a very underrated Performer,

but this match was too long. I was not all that

interested the final spot Was I just I'm tired

of Shane just always having to jump off of something

I realized this was a lot safer than most which

was good. Yeah, this wasn't like him jumping

off hell in a cell No, it's much better, but

I didn't care about any of this. Like, if they

want to do a storyline about, you know, legacy

to legacy, father to father, that's kind of what

they're doing here, like, you know, making Shane

the heel, making Shane the younger version of

Vince. kind of thing obviously he is a younger

version of Vince because that's his dad whatever

but i'm saying like if they're gonna turn Shane

to the point of being so much of a heel that

he grabs Miz's potato face dad is what he actually

said oh my god i think it was Elias that started

that which was hilarious okay well but you know

it just the viciousness that has come off of

Shane for this feud and for this match is like

wow The one thing that I don't like about what

Shane is doing it's not well it is him but I

Believe it wastes time for him and for us That

he consistently has the ring announcer Repeat

repeat repeat. Oh, I thought you were just gonna

say which by the way, they did that bit again

on smackdown and it was annoying then too, but

my other issue is just being blunt. This would

have been better if it was Miz versus Kevin Owens.

Why couldn't we have seen a wrestler or something?

There's already, and I'm not saying Shane's not

talented because he is, but we already have some

kind of part -time stuff going on and there's

already Mustafa Ali is another great example.

He got relegated to that stupid pre -show. Battle

royal where he wasn't even a major part of it

or anything and then didn't he get injured? Yeah,

well I banged his head against the announce table

seems like he was okay, but we'll see but yeah,

just Whatever fatal for away for the women's

tech. Yeah, I Don't know where they're going

with this. No, and I don't care. I don't It looks

like they're going to keep going with it and

I just I can't be bothered and it sucks because

I like the Miz and I think he's very good at

pretty much anything he does. This is just not

a particularly interesting program and definitely

wasn't interesting enough to be a long WrestleMania

match. Yeah, I was talking about the Iconics.

Oh, sorry. I don't know what they're doing. Like

I understand, you know, women's tag titles. That's

great. The women should have had tag titles five

years ago. That's awesome. Absolutely. But I'm

sorry, Billy Kay and Peyton Royce? Really? Yeah,

they're probably, they might be the least seasoned

out of everybody that was in the ring. And I'm

sorry, wasn't their whole shtick that obviously

they are Australian, or at least they're, I assume

they are. If they're not, they're putting on

really good fake accents to be, but I assume

that they are. Australian both of them what the

hell's up with Peyton dyeing her hair bleach

brown blondes I thought the whole point was that

they kind of look alike not they don't really

look like but at least have the same damn hair

color yeah that was weird I'll say this though

the end of this and this is why this match and

the outcome doesn't bother me as much was very

genuine the iconic the iconics just balling I

thought that it was enough of a good moment that

the tank, we had women's tank titles, A, and

then B, they actually got to be on WrestleMania,

and then C, you get a moment of two people genuinely

ecstatic about winning them. I don't know, it

made up for it for me, at least. I know that's

sort of weird. I just don't, I see them more

as a, at least from what I've seen from them

on television, they're more of like the joke,

make fun of. Yeah, they're very much a comedy

act. They're not, they don't, when I think of

women's champions, I think of, you know, Beth

Phoenix and Natalia being the first women tag

team champions. Well, we're getting Paige to

introduce somebody. So we'll see what happens.

and Sasha seemingly is out for a bit with something.

Nobody seems to know exactly. Nobody seems to

know exactly what and I read an article earlier

today as we're recording this Wednesday after

WrestleMania April 10th. Apparently she was a

no -show at the Wendy Williams show and the Wendy

Williams show producers were pissed and apparently

they're never gonna have her on there again or

whatever. But apparently it's something personal.

It's something personal. Hopefully everything's

okay. Yeah And yeah, maybe that's kind of figured

into this and they wanted to do something quick

knows Kofi versus Daniel Bryan. Oh my god. Well,

this was the match of the night Yeah, I mean

I thought I thought it was the best match a B

they did something that it's been a while since

I just lost myself in a match yeah and ideally

that's what wrestling does yeah that you just

kind of lose yourself and this was near perfect

and they had the right outcome the fans went

nuts well you had all that build -up all the

weeks and weeks and weeks of Kofi getting a shot

Kofi getting his shot taken away for not anything

he did but just because Vince is a dick um you

know all this all that and everything else well

kofi's here kofi's in the match he's gonna win

and if he didn't win or if the plan was for him

not to win oh my god people would basically go

buckshot over ww Daniel Bryan a lot of credit

because to be to have a good strong good guy

you gotta have a great bad guy first of all Brian

the ultimate kind of underdog who everybody wants

to cheer for he's he's been able to find a way

to make people hate him that's impressive yep

and then in addition to that he I figured Kofi

would win but I definitely wasn't 100 % sure

he did a good enough job that you weren't always

sure that it was gonna turn out this way yeah

absolutely And he becomes the first African American

WWE champ. I mean, it's the WWE. So the SmackDown

belt has always been the actual kind of WWE champion.

Yeah. Like that's how I remember it when they

split everything else. And that's how it's generally

considered. And the raw one was the WCW title.

So yeah, it was a big moment and Kofi. The fan

reaction was amazing and some of the old WWE

or WWF in this case superstars can go to hell

because we had a few of them complain about this

and most notably one not even gonna use his name

doesn't deserve to be named but we had one in

particular complain that he didn't think Kofi

looked like WWE champ and thought Kofi was too

small, which by the way is hilarious because

he's fighting a guy who's even smaller, but this

guy didn't have a problem with Bryan. By the

way, gee, what's one of the differences between

Daniel and Kofi? I wonder what his problem could

be. I hope this wasn't Stone Cold. No, no, no.

I wouldn't think it would be. No, Stone Cold.

So the amount of people happy about this to peruse

what kind of guy Kofi is on the outside. You

know, that CM Punk talking about really happily

about it. Edge, Christian, Stone Cold. Everybody's

ecstatic for Kofi and a lot of them say that

they should have done this forever ago. So no,

good for him. And then the moment at the end

where... Xavier just loses it. Yeah, that was

great. He is tearing up, Kofi's crying, Xavier's

just completely bawling, and they bring in Kofi's

kids. It was great. I love it when they do stuff

like that. Yeah, and it felt 100 % genuine. If

this hadn't been on this show, Daniel in one

no offense to Daniel Bryan who is fantastic I

get the impression we probably would feel way

different about WrestleMania yeah like this was

this was the part of the night I remember best

yeah probably always will because it was great

it was good storytelling in the ring the celebration

after was great this was just fantastic cannot

think of a negative thing about any of it. It

was told beautifully. Yeah, it really was. If

you can get annoyed about it and if you can,

you know, feel great at the end of a match or

the outcome or something like that and you just

feel happy, they've done their job. Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, I liked Kofi before the whole

New Day thing. I liked him as a singles guy.

I liked what he did. you know, off and on that

I would see him. I liked Big E as a singles guy.

In the beginning of the new day, I just, it was

Xavier Woods that just drove me the wrong way.

Now I'm okay. I'm okay with it. I get it. It's

cool. It's whatever, you know, and I'm very happy

for them. Obviously very happy for Kofi. Who

knows, maybe Xavier and Big E can get the SmackDown

tag belts off of whoever they... Well, it's now

in the hands of two very iconic people, but we'll

talk about that later. The iconics? No, no, no.

Maybe I should have said it's in the hands of

two very twisted people. No, Bray isn't back

yet. Hey! Next up, we had Samoa Joe versus Rey

Mysterio the piñata? So every time Joe is in

a match that no one is not even near his weight

class or even close. I'm like Joe's just gonna

rag doll you which they always which they never

seem to do I was actually happy about this and

no offense to Rey Mysterio was absolutely amazing

and the fact that He's still as good as he is

into his 40s is astounding by the way for this

match. We had more crappy filler Which was? Well,

there was the recap of the Andre the Giant Battle

Royal, which I didn't care about. Next, they

had Alexa and they had Kevin Nash and Scott Hall

as the doctors looking at the SNL stars, which

I don't care. Go away. Super Shredder looking

at the SNL stars. Yeah, no one cares. This show's

too long. Why was that bad? Exactly. So yeah,

Joe annihilates Rey. And they should have depicted

Joe as a badass forever ago. Yup. It's much needed.

Again, no offense to Rey. Apparently this was

cut for time, which gee, why didn't you cut any

of the other crap for time? Exactly. Peep is

your matches that could have been cut for time.

We have... Roman versus Drew I don't know why

this felt flat and it sucks because I like both

of them and Reigns It's nice to see Reigns finally

kind of get out of his shell and But I don't

know this match and the feud kind of just Felt

kind of flat and I don't know why it Okay, so

it felt like it could have used something like

why didn't I kind of wish they had used Ambrose

or something here, something. Something, yeah.

Something about it just didn't work. Not only

is the feud flat, it's also fizzled out. Again,

this is one of those things where you had, what

was it, Dru, Brawn, and was it The Bar? It was

earlier last year when it was like The Shield

versus Brawn and... It was Rung, Drew, and Baron.

And Baron, that's what it was. Which by the way,

that's not a bad group. I don't know why they

just kind of ran away from that. Yeah, well,

because Baron Corbin has to do something to insult

everybody. And then, what remarkably is probably

the most surprising thing of the night... Well,

don't finish off, by the way. I just wanted to

say that these two guys deserve better. Yeah.

Both Roman and Drew are better than this. And

yeah, as to what you're gonna say, what the hell

was with the first part of this? Because no offense,

I've always loved - I always liked Elias, but

that was way too long. A. B. What the hell is

with this - the Babe Ruth thing? They're in New

York, or they're in the shadow of New York. I

know, I'm gonna try to say like - And they're

trying to say, like, Sina's the babe or something

like that. Which is crazy to me and it's almost

- It didn't make sense. It's crazy to me and

it's almost insulting. Yes, I know. They're at,

um, whatever it's called, MetLife Stadium or

whatever. They actually called it its original

name at the very beginning of the show. I think

Hulk Hogan said it. Yeah, Hogan messed up the

stadium name after joking about not messing it

up. He then immediately did. Did, yeah. Here's

the thing. John Cena, as cool as he is and as,

you know, accommodating as he is, he's from fucking

Massachusetts. There's no way in hell, no matter

how much money. I'm getting paid. Am I putting

on a fucking Yankees jersey if I'm a Boston person

and I'm a Boston sports fan? There's no way.

No way. Anyway, so the point of all of this is

to say that the Doctor of Thuganomics is back.

It's 2002 all over again. It was fantastic. Yeah,

it was it was amazing. It was like I said. To

me, it was the biggest surprise of the night

because yeah, I would have cut down the first

part, but the back part was perfect. Perfect.

Yeah. I don't like also would have had seen it

come out again later on, but we'll get to that.

Yeah. I don't think that, you know, him, him

not him not being currently super active. If

at all, he's not really he's doing his movies.

He's doing whatever else he wants to do. But

how can you not have WrestleMania without something

with John Cena? You know, the one year he sat

in the audience until he got his match with The

Undertaker or whatever it was, yada yada yada.

This year, he full -on just goes back X number

of years ago to his debut and his original kind

of character that he, you know, perfected that

at that time and just brings it all back. Oh

man, if only I could remember who that character

originally debuted with. Hmm the Undertaker no

Wrong guy. Oh, well, yeah, that's hurt. That's

true Yeah, if only I could remember who one of

his first opponents was and if only that person

was having a big high -profile match gee Yeah,

really like this was I Love the thuganomics part

of it and you're right He should have come back

later in the night so he could basically just

kick Baron Corbin's head into that fucking Trinitron,

you know the big whatever the big screen at the

top of the stage kind of a thing but the Elias

thing that was hilarious that was great for a

wrestling mania that had no Undertaker I have

to say this now what they did the next night

on Raw was amazing yeah that was solid I was

surprised I wasn't expecting to see him but hey

let's get back to stuff that runs too long Batista

versus Triple H First of all, listen, I'm happy

Batista got his end off. It was the right thing

to do and I'm happy he got to end his career

in wrestling the way he wanted to. What I'm not

happy about is Triple H. I adore Mad Max and

I adore it as a franchise and Fury Road is one

of my all -time favorite films. I could have

done without the really long ass entrance. Like

Triple H can cut these out any time he wants.

He's not an active wrestler anymore. Maybe give

the long, awesome entrances to somebody who wrestles

every week. And honestly, it made this match

which was... They did a good job of covering

up the fact that both guys are older. and not

full -time wrestlers, but it still ran too long.

I think the only reason why he got the big...

is because he's the boss. Well, that's pretty

much it. He's the COO, he's the this, he's the

that. That's the real reason why, because he

gets long ones every single WrestleMania. I don't

mean to disrespect him, he's one of the best

of all time. Yeah. And he should be able to do

what he wants within reason, but he's gotta understand

that, yeah, some people are gonna kinda bitch

and moan like I... Like, um, let's see, who else

is on this car? Like... I mean, Brock versus

Seth deserved a more cinematic entrance than

what they got. or if you want long entrances

for somebody how about one of the greatest pure

wrestlers of all time retiring instead of just

getting a really quick you suck match and quick

entrance whatever Triple H wins everybody knew

that was gonna happen Triple H wins via Ric Flair

bringing him A sledgehammer. A third sledgehammer,

yeah. Or sorry, second sledgehammer. It is what

it is. The match was great for these two guys.

Yeah, the match was bad, by the way. I wouldn't

have shortened it, but it wasn't terrible. I

mean, as long as they could have each, which

they did, hit their major moves, like the Batista

Bomb or the Pedigree or whatever, it was fine

and it worked. all this and all that and then

we get to the most disappointing part of the

night. I feel like this just deflated the crowd

and they could have they should have done something

more special. I understand storyline. I understand

it's the right thing to do to have Angle put

over the young guy but it just it felt flat and

I liked Angle's post -match. Bit I thought that

made me feel a little better about it, but it

was just deflating and it makes me feel even

worse What happened on wall? I hated that I don't

understand stupid no and Sullivan And then the

next night he just beats up a tag team for no

reason smackdown. Yeah, which was also why I

just I feel like they don't know how to debut

these guys. I know they they did the same thing

with Braun forever where he just kind of goes

out and beats up people. But there was no reason

for him to do any of this. It wasn't even within

matches or anything like that. And honestly,

it doesn't make him look good. It makes the other

people look bad. Exactly. And I argue the same

out of this match. I don't feel like it made

Corbin look like a star. It makes me like him

even less than I already did. No, and having

said that, if they're able to use that to get

people to boo him, it works out and was the right

thing to do, but we're a ways off. It just felt

flat. So we got the penultimate match for the

Intercontinental title for Bobby Lashley versus

Finn. Alright, so I liked this. I thought it

was perfect for what it needed to be. A. B. If

you recall, I complained, I don't know, forever

ago, or at least I wished, sorry, not complained,

that Balor, when he does the Demon Stick, he

should do different moves. He did different moves.

I was so happy. That's exactly how it should

be. He should do like one or two moves that...

the Finn Balor portion of him doesn't do. And

a powerbomb, by the way, is perfect. That was

fine. And this match was short. And I thought

it was perfect for what it was and for its placement.

If only some of the other ones were this short.

Yeah, were this short, yeah. And then the first

time in... WWF WWE history. Whoa, you're leaving

out the dance break which is pointless and Blizz

coming out and telling us how many people are

there. That's why I'm leaving it out. And making

this even longer. So I looked at WrestleMania

34. The time stamp was five hours three minutes

for the main thing. This I think was five hours

24 minutes or 14 minutes so this is longer. Not

by much, but it is Ronda versus Charlotte versus

Becky for the raw and smackdown women's championship

winner take all Whoever wins gets both belts

Now you know the only reason why they did they

did this is not for winner take all it's for

the shakeup next week Whoever I guess I don't

know that's the only thing I can think of Yeah,

I don't know why they felt the need to insert

a second belt into it. Yeah, makes no sense.

Whatever. I like the match. The match was good.

Yeah, the match was solid for people that were

going to be super fired up and for Rousey breaking

her hand apparently severely pretty early on.

Hello? I love that. I was ecstatic. That was

weird. Uh, you just broke up. I didn't hear a

thing you said for the last, like, ten seconds.

Good. Oh, sorry. So. Can you hear me now? It's

a surprise and we're sheltered. Alright, fine.

Exactly. The last thing I heard was about her

breaking her hand, apparently. Yeah, so Rosie

broke her hand early on. And there were a bunch

of spots I loved in this. And one, I love the

figure four on a ring post. Yup. Which Blair

did. I love any time anyone does that. It's a

great move. The vicious drop kick and then Rousy

landing basically on her shoulder, neck, head.

Yup. And my personal favorite, Rousy tipping

over the table and saying, quote, tables are

for bitches. That was strong. Yeah, that was.

Somewhat controversial ending, though. Well,

they botched the pin, apparently. And, by the

way, it's kind of sad the ref apparently got

fined. Which, geez, not his fault, sort of. I

mean, I guess it's, I don't know, whatever. It

is what it is. And Lynch won. And so we ended

up... all three major titles won by the faces.

Yep. And we also had Baller winning. So another

sort of feel good. I feel like that's one of

the reasons why despite the length and the complaints

about it, we have a pretty good feeling about

this. Yeah. Is that the good guys kind of won.

But more than that, I think the people who should

have won for the most part won. Yep. And we have,

it feels like that's another reason why the angle

stuff sticks out like a sore thumb. And it just

feels crappy. Like I just feel down when I think

about it. He deserves so much better and he's

had such a tough road. He broke his neck multiple

times in pro wrestling, not just when he was

doing the amateurs wrestling in the Olympics.

and just gave so much to the business and its

end is to get beat up by Corbin and then get

the crap beat out of him by Lars Sullivan the

next night. Like that's the point where I wish

John would have come out and kind of took up

for Kurt in like the respectful way that John

would have and John turns to Lars and says, you

want ruthless aggression. come get it or something

you know some way of of repeating the ruthless

aggression line but it isn't obviously towards

Kurt because Kurt's you know leaving um well

or he's retired or whatever hopefully retired

hopefully they find something for him to do he's

talented enough but yeah whatever uh maybe we

have Aaron Anderson's job or something don't

get me started on why they fired him dumb dude

whatever right the So final grade for WrestleMania,

by the way, I would give it a solid four out

of five. Yeah, I'm right there with you, four

out of five. It wasn't perfect. I've complained

enough about the negatives, but it left me with

a good feeling. Yeah. Part of what our good buddy

Alex Ricci says is... Vince can die anytime now,

so the product can improve. That's not... It's

a little harsh. It's a little harsh, you know,

and like we said earlier, he says next year will

have to be substantially shorter and better to

compete with AEW. I wish. AEW is just too far

off to be competition. They need a TV contract.

They would need some type of pay -per -view.

I desperately want competition between somebody

and WWE. But yeah, it's a ways off unfortunately.

Very long ways off. Raw and SmackDown the next

night, we're not gonna spend too much on this.

Honestly, my favorite bit wasn't even on Raw.

It was after Raw when - Seth had Roman and Dean

come back out because earlier in the night Dean

was supposed to have his last match even though

news outlets report that he is listed as talent

on WWE things all month long here in April 2019.

But he had his last match supposedly against

Bobby Lashley. Yeah, he's under contract through

the month. Yeah, but after that apparently he's

done. Yeah. I'm not a Bobby Lashley fan anymore.

I kind of liked Bobby in the beginning, but ever

since they put that little germaphobe with him,

God, that little pissing. Well, it feels like

a random course. It's course. We talked about

it last week. Yeah. Yeah. I would have broken

them up and let Lashley kind of do something

and be different, but... Dean didn't do... whatever

Who was it was Elias or somebody? Somebody this

was last year when Bobby first came back. They

like did a thing with his sisters or whatever

Sammy Zane. Yeah, so it was Sammy. That's the

other way He came back. Yeah, he's back. That's

cool but you know Dean didn't do any of that

kind of crap to Bobby and then all of a sudden

Bobby goes after Renee Young really Dean's wife?

Come on. Yeah, I don't know. It didn't... So,

quick summary of Raw for me. I liked The Undertaker,

obviously. Obviously. I thought that was a good

way to use it. I was so happy when they had the

Kofi Kingston versus Seth Rollins match. That

was a cool match. Get to the negatives in a second.

The angle stuff sucked. I was not a fan. The

Lashley Dean, not to mention the whole kind of

treating Dean like crap. I mean, when was the

last time he won? Yeah. Ever since he announced

he was on his way out. But whatever. And yeah,

my last super negative thing, I was ecstatic

to see Sammy back. I thought he was terrific.

But the stuff I really hated. Don't tease everybody.

with Kingston and Rollins if you're not going

to do it. And I feel so bad for Seamus and Cesaro

who get put in a crap position which people are

absolutely irate about. I mean the fans chanted

bullshit through the whole match. They were not

happy and I do not blame them. It was silly to

tease everybody and then just not do it. They

should have just had the match. And SmackDown

continues to be... It was better. We didn't get

a lame interruption in the main event. Drew and

Kofi worked pretty well together. It could be

a good feud if they decide to do it. As you mentioned,

so I'll go through my SmackDown highlights. I

don't have a lot of low lights, aside from Shane,

we talked about that. My highlights, the Hardy

Boys. Yeah, I was surprised. I'm happy for them

because I think they both deserve one last kind

of run. I was really surprised because this whole

thing with Matt came out earlier this year, he's

retiring, he's retiring, he's retiring. I remember

at one point he couldn't walk, remember just

to kind of limp to the ring and I was so scared

for the guy and now he's moving like a young

man again. Whatever he did I need to do that

And then my last sort of positive More Sammy

Zane. Yeah, Mr. Sammy But yeah, I enjoyed smackdown,

but my biggest thing overall Joe and brawn that

is oh my god thing. They should have tried forever

That was great. Joe just comes in talks about

how he destroyed Rey Mysterio Yeah, says he wants

to beat up anybody and then Braun comes out which

is great. And then Joe doesn't move Like he they

actually let him not be a coward and they actually

fought. Yeah, that was an awesome match Joe versus

Braun, but it wasn't a it wasn't a match. But

yeah, it's something they should do that. Yeah

Yeah, and they should learn trade wins. So nobody

looks bad, but they're both I don't know, they

both looked great in this. It was... Do more

of them. Yeah, do more of that. What we need

for Joe versus Braun is like, you know... They

should have had Joe as a badass forever ago.

Well, yeah. What they need for that... match

or that feud or whatever they might do with the

two of them together in a feud is that they each

win something they then have the rubber match

where it's a Count out or something. I have probably

win the rubber match because he's younger guy

no offense to Joe, but I wouldn't yeah, I don't

want him to just My issue is that Joe's lost

enough. I don't want to just go out and lose

another Right, exactly. Yeah, no, no, no. And

I don't think it does anything to Braun if he

just runs over the guy. Yeah, so no it doesn't.

See? I mean, Joe's not a guy that Braun, I mean

Braun can run him over, but literally and figuratively,

but... Joe is not Rey Mysterio, Joe is not...

He's not a small man, he's a large scary man,

and I realize Braun's much bigger than he is.

But Joe is thick, and he's really strong, and

he moves. He moves like a guy half his size.

Yeah, he moves not like what he looks like. He

moves, like you just said, he's like, there's

a guy half his size kind of thing. My biggest

takeaway from... this entire WrestleMania week.

I know this is silly, but you know, and everybody

that's listened to this show knows I'm a huge

mark for the shield. And I'll put the video in

the show notes so you guys can see. They did

this after Robin off the air. It was cool. Just

had Seth bring Roman out, had him bring Dean

out, and just thank Dean and whatever. And then

Dean... probably cuts the best promo of his entire

career. And it's not even a real promo. It's

just a thank you reel kind of thing. And it was

the coolest thing ever. And they did it the right

way. I feel like Dean's last moment probably

should have been the fast lane ending where the

shield got their triumphant send off, beating

them up three weeks in a row. I don't know. It

didn't do much for me. It doesn't feel like it

did much for Drew. And we've talked about Lashley

enough. Too much. Yeah, he's good enough to be

on his own. And so is Rush, by the way. But together,

I just feel like they've worn out their welcome

at this point. And we're almost too long. Okay,

so speaking of things that are too long, this

will be the final part of the show, folks, the

last thing we talk about. Before, I think right

before WrestleMania happened, like the week of

or the week before WrestleMania, like right after

the Raw and SmackDown go -home shows, it was

announced that when SmackDown eventually goes

to Fox... Yeah, just so you're clear, we talked

about this on the show last week, right? Unless

you took it out. No, we talked about it briefly,

but again, I want to mention it again simply

because we've watched WrestleMania at five hours

and whatever seconds, whatever minutes it is.

Or if you count everything, seven, eight hours,

too long, too long. They're going to eventually

make SmackDown Live three hours. So you're going

to have Raw and SmackDown at a total of six hours

per week, not counting any of the Facebook live

things they do, not counting 205 live, not counting

main event, not counting anything else. Between

Raw and SmackDown, you're gonna have a WrestleMania

long television program thing. I might stop watching.

We'll see. Clearly, the amount of money they

get. from sponsors yeah offsets the drop in ratings

they get at being at being too long yeah i mean

i know disney now owns fox i know the mouse and

the fox can throw a crap ton of money at wwe

and whatever I think it's fine where it is like

it doesn't need to because my biggest thing is

if if and when it goes to Fox are they gonna

change the night because I kind of like having

it Monday and Tuesday night I hated that Monday

Thursday thing or the Monday Friday thing I just

didn't care enough I like the Monday Tuesday

and hell honestly I was out of town Tuesday into

Wednesday this week that we recorded this and

I didn't even watch for our smackdown till about

two hours before we recorded this podcast and

I basically you know thumbed through all of it

to make sure I got all the highlights and everything

else whatever I don't know it's crazy Next week,

hopefully Mike the Bird Bandod will be back because

next week is the WWE Draft, the WWE Superstar

Shake -Up, whatever you want to call it. So we'll

see who ends up on Raw, SmackDown, 205 Live,

or wherever else, you know, Total Divas, Total

Bellas, whatever, I don't know. Can you move

to the other show if you've got the belt from

the other show? the raw tag champs end up on

SmackDown because they'll just be confusing.

I mean, unless you're going to have a winner

take all match for everything and then, you know,

those people that win both belts like Becky Lynch

go to one of the other things and she loses the

SmackDown belt to a SmackDown superstar and she

just goes back to raw. I don't know how this

winner take all stuff is confusing. Yeah, I don't

know. was designed for the purpose of having

her on both shows because they're worried about

star power, but that's their own problem. I mean,

they're the ones that kind of buried Asuka. Ember

Moon returned in the stupid Battle Royal instead

of actually having a match. They've kind of ruined

Bailey. This is a problem of their own creation.

They have tons of talented women. They have a

ridiculously deep roster. They just never know

what to do with any of them. Yep. It's crazy.

It's absolutely crazy. So where can the people

find you? That's my line, you jackass. I am at

TFD1Mike on Twitter, you are at Nightbeat on

Twitter, follow at GeekCastRadio, and at This

Week in Geek on Twitter as well. Join us next

time, as I said earlier, hopefully Mike will

be back to talk about the Superstar Shake -Up

of 2019. Who knows who will end up on what show,

we won't know until we find out. So that's coming

up here in Mayhem Mike's after that, I'm not

sure. I'm really getting burnt out on this. Kevin

Owens on both shows. Well that would mean he

would have to have the WWE and the Universal

Champion. That would take it away from poking.

Why do you want to do that? They can view it

for it. All right, folks, um... Yeah, we'll catch

you next time here on Mega Mikes. I don't know

what to do after that. You just made the list!

All clear. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast,

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