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John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw with The Usos demanding an apology from CM Punk over his Sika comments, Penta defending the Intercontinental title against El Grande Americano, and a big angle involving the Judgment Day.
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XL: John & Wai discuss NXT Vengeance Day, AEW’s new streaming service, the New Japan Cup, Francis Ngannou being added to the Rousey vs. Carano card on Netflix, and Jon Jones being snubbed from UFC’s White House lineup.
The XL Edition continues at POSTwrestlingCafe.com with News of the Day and Feedback, ad-free and timestamped .
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Here we are. It is rewind a raw time with weighting and John Pollock, where we have just discussed lots of news.
Mainly focusing on me informing way of what's happening on in the world of MMA and ways response is basically what a stupid sport.
I had a lot of questions about a lot of things about how modern MMA works in particular with John Jones contract.
So that was a very enlightening discussion. Thank you, John. We did talk about that. We talked about the UFC card at the White House.
We talked about Francis Granu being on the undercard of this round of rassy fight on Netflix.
And John Jones reaction to not being on the White House card, of course.
Yes, you know, I had thrown the idea out of trying to get you to do the post show that night after the Netflix card.
And then I looked it up way is on vacation.
Oh, I'm sorry for that time. So unfortunately, I will rebook my vacation just to, you know,
I'm just sorry, family got to watch. It's carano rousey attitude, Felipe Lins is just that's the, that's the deal breaker right there.
I can't miss 40 year old Felipe Lins on May 16th. But yes, that is all happening on Netflix later this year.
You can catch all of our news breakdown. If you are a post wrestling cafe member, you get the XL edition of rewind a raw, the only way to ingest our shows.
But a lot to get to from a tonight's raw where we have a, well, it was headlined by way, wait, there's something falling from your ceiling.
I was playing with my Apple reactions here because we're not moving on just yet.
John, this is the biggest day in the post wrestling calendar. And that is because it is still March 9th for at least 45 more minutes.
And why is that special, John? Well, it's Monday. It's, it's the, you know what? I, I totally buried the lead. Happy birthday, Rick Steiner.
Happy birthday, Rick Steiner. And also happy birthday, John Paulic. All right. If I can send these, if I can send these fireworks and lasers out to you, I certainly would.
All right. How about how, how about how about some balloons here? Oh my goodness. Use a wild about as much as I can do for you on, on, you know, wonderful ways having a rave over at his place, but it seems like quite the party.
Are you, am I coming over after? You know what? I will say some of these virtual balloons for you. But yes, on behalf of everybody here at post wrestling, thank you very much for what you do. Congratulations on another spin around the sun.
John, I made it. I made it. I made it one more year. And, uh, and now we, we start off the, the five days of the year that I am one year older than you, technically.
Yeah. Technically you're five, your five days older than me. Yeah, technically alternative. I was thinking about that in my head. But regardless, yes.
Um, birthday week here at post wrestling. So yes, um, Monday. And then I guess, um, and then we're going to have a party Sunday night. We're going to watch revolution. That's it. That's it.
And then we're going to go live at two in the morning after that show ends and talk about. Yep. Yes. And I guess while we're at it, um, no need to send send us your birthday gifts.
Your, your, your only gift that we might ask for is your support for our CN tower climb. That's what we're gifting ourselves, John.
That's it. 1,7776 steps atop our, uh, the tallest freestanding structure, at least in our country, the CN tower. We're doing the CN tower climb post wrestling.com slash climb.
It is for the benefit of the worldwide life fund. We're back at it again ourselves. Poison, Rana, Jesse from the six Jack one and all trying to beat our times from two years ago. So if you want to, um, pledge your support for all of us, go to post wrestling.com slash climb.
Yes. We are, uh, we are attacking the CN tower. Once again, uh, this coming year. So if you want to, uh, give us some added incentive. Please, uh, please donate so we can reach our, reach our goal for, uh, for, for May.
But tonight we are heading to the climate pledge arena in Seattle, Washington, 8,755 last April. They were here for a Smackdown edition one week before WrestleMania with Russell takes reporting 10,572.
So a little softer this time back, um, which would be headlined by a promo, but quite the promo, uh, that we'll get to, we get the arrivals and, uh, Oscar and Kyrie are arriving and we get Paul's favorite, the background player is EO is, uh, observing her former Kabuki warrior sisters as they are entering the arena.
Adam Pierce starts off the show in the ring. He needs to have a talk with Seth Rollins and a masked man appears on the desk and then gets surrounded by dozens of indie ninjas and we just get, um, a fever dream of a segment to open this up as all of the ninjas, uh, run among one another to confuse us as do which one is Seth and wouldn't you know it. There's one final masked man in the ring.
Revealing himself as Seth and Adam Pierce speaking on behalf of all of us said, I didn't need any of that.
We truly did not need it. Like what was the point in story of the whole song and dance when Seth was just going to reveal himself anyway, like, he had to know that I'm going to be called to the principal's office.
And then I'm going to get 15 lackeys to confuse the man only for me to reveal myself at the end.
Like this, this was a lot of effort for nothing.
They, they look so silly, like getting in the ring and just running around amongst each other.
Um, and Seth, you know, um, do orchestrating it at all. It's just, it was, um, yeah.
The only, the only purpose I can see for this, this army that have just continued to grow is that if Seth is not fully 100% and you want to do some physicality over these weeks, you have all of the putty patrol here to just get to do physical stuff for Seth.
Uh, to get around if you want to just be careful with this guy, um, as they're alluding to in the story, but there, there could be some reality to that too.
I don't think there's anything wrong with like the idea of the ninjas itself. In fact, I thought it was a great way to like, deliver your ultimate reveal of Seth Rollins.
But it's the whole sort of like getting into the rain, running around amongst each other to, um, confuse this felt like WCW 1990 with like, like, it looks so silly.
So Pierce explains to Rollins. I don't like the vision either, but what you're doing is unacceptable. And you had surgery five months ago, you're not medically cleared. And what happens when the vision does get their hands on you.
So Logan Paul and Austin theory come out, the remaining members, uh, no one injured tonight that were aware of Austin's theory says there's a bullet with your name on it.
It's like you're going to kill this guy. Like that's, that's where we're going. Okay. That's, you know, it's a metaphorical bullet. Okay. And the masked men return and, uh, Rollins, they do their mask man shuffle.
Michael Cole calls this an Uber shell game. So they're doing play in their Uber human shell game. So stupid. This is so unbelievable. When they're running among themselves doing their Uber shell game. I'm sorry. This is the goofiest thing. I see.
And think about the point of this. Okay. So like, here are, uh, here's the threatening duo of Logan Paul and Austin theory threatening to attack this group of 10, 15 men. And they do their Uber shell game. Just a run away.
Like you're 15 or two. How could you not? Like, why would you run away?
Imagine Austin just started opening fire and just like shooting them.
Different type of shell game.
So then LA night comes out and, uh, fights with Paul and theory. And he's, uh, being beaten down. So the Usos come out and they clear the ring of Paul and theory. And, uh, that was it. Nothing about what this guy did with Paul Heyman last week.
Um, is there any charges for upending an ambulance and, uh, driving off with it? Where did you stash Heyman? Nothing. Nothing.
Well, we had an update on, on Heyman's injuries and, and we, yeah, but like, what, what happened last week? Like, did that not require a minor follow-up?
I'm assuming he just drove really fast to the hospital. He just drive him to the hospital. All right, Paul. We're done here.
He did exactly as, as he was supposed to. Yeah. Okay.
Heyman has suffered, according to Michael Cole, a cervical spinal contusion, facial lacerations and a deviated septum. No timetable for a return.
Sounds serious. You know, a lot of syllables in there. So what, which means it must have, must be really bad.
Yeah. Sounds like a heavy makeup job when he does return.
Um, neck brace, you would expect. And he's going to have to talk with a DBA, a worked deviated septum. So he's going to have to really channel his, um, his, you know, some kind of vocal inspiration to be able to convey a deviated septum injury.
Jackie is with the Usos. They said they've got receipts to hand out. And she asks about punks, comments about Sika last week.
Jay says, I don't have anything to say to him. Jimmy says, well, maybe I do. And then off camera.
Jimmy's like, yeah, we should stick around. Jay's like, I'm, I'm done for the night. I was going to go, you know, catch up on like some Netflix or something.
Jimmy's like, no, we're, we're going to stick around for like two hours to, uh, address this. And Jay's like, do I have to stay?
You should probably stay.
Somehow in these two hours, we got a plan here.
Somehow in these two hours, he got really worked up because in this segment, like Jay was certainly like, he was like, I'm cool with punks.
Like, whatever. Like he said, he said, that's their thing. By the time the segment came around, he was really upset. So maybe the wait just made him more upset.
Jimmy didn't lose any sleep over the last week. But now that Jackie brings it up, we could have a few words. Just just go over what was the idea here?
Was it just a work promo?
So the women's gauntlet takes up the rest of the first hour, starting off with Lyra Valkyria and Eosky. This is determined who challenges AJ Lee for her intercontinental title next week.
These two had a nice match. I thought overall like the gauntlet was entertaining. It like this was not the hottest of crowds. And I think they realized that this gauntlet was going to be eating up a lot of minutes on this show.
And that that was evident here. But Lyra worked on Eos arm throughout the commercial break. Then she slipped on the rope, but still managed to complete the tornado DDT into a fisherman buster.
And then the night wing is countered, hits a stomp and Eo wins with over the moonsault. So Eo advances. Raquel Rodriguez is next and Raquel hit this big pounce drops are on the desk and Eo responds with a Frankenstein or off the buckle.
Goes for the over the moonsault when Liv Morgan shows up distracting Eo and Raquel knocks her down. Stephanie Valkyria runs down attacking Liv to the back and Eo comes off the top and turns it into a small package pinning Raquel, which the announcer says was a result of Liv's distraction.
So this distraction affected Raquel, but not but not Eo. So again, they are slowly putting the Raquel live dissension that I think would be a great fall follow up after Mania type of program.
So Raquel then attacks Eo, boots her to the floor, Tejana bomb onto the edge and leaves her laying for Ivy Nile to run out and pin Eo sky.
And that was it for Eo. No, no, no, no hair clip from Eo that read Ria. I was looking out for him.
Well, she was wrestling. Maybe she, you know, would have gotten lost. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, but like from all of this, I wonder if they do Raquel versus Eo, you know, because even though it was Ivy getting the pin, I mean, you really do attribute it to Raquel.
Ivy didn't even do any sort of like offensive maneuver. So I wonder if they'll build to Raquel Eo somewhere.
I think they'll do the match. I don't know if this has the legs towards being a Mania match, but certainly you would think you get a match out of this on on raw at least Ivy Nile faces Bailey. And this is probably the longest we have seen Ivy Nile have a match on raw.
Bailey did a spider suplex off the middle turnbuckle rose plant is stopped. And then Nile did a delayed vertical that the crowd got into here. And after a superplex and a spinning year on a G Bailey survived hit an elbow coming off the steps and then wins with the Bailey to belly.
And they really positioned Bailey as kind of fighting from underneath here and trying to get the crowd rallying behind her not not to the extent that maybe they were hoping for heat wise.
But it does set up Bailey and Oscar as the final match between the two. Oscar works for a stretch muffler goes to the ankle lock Bailey uses one of her own. And then the way this was shot is that Oscar goes for her knee strike.
And both graves and Cole yelled at the same time big knee. And it was from an angle where this was like the most obvious like thigh slapping knee that made no contacts and Colin graves just went nuts like this had just been you know a gunshot wound.
Bailey to belly is hit. Oscar kicks out of that. And then she is sent into the buckle Kyrie goes to attack on the floor when Lyra runs down taking out Kyrie and Bailey comes off the buckle. She's caught in the Oscar lock rolls out and turns into the rose plant.
Pining Oscar and Bailey will challenge AJ Lee next week.
I just want to like 30 37 minutes or so all told.
Yeah, I thought of like ultimately a good showcase for the rest of the division here, you know, but given them like in the case of like somebody like Ivy Nile some really rare like able ring time to really showcase what they currently have available.
Um, and I think like you had a good final chapter here between Bailey and Oscar here, especially.
Um, you know, going with Bailey right now, like part of the story is the fact that like she missed out on WrestleMania last year and she was trying to change that by becoming IC champions so as you can enter.
And in Bailey, I think is always somebody who's easy to build up to, you know, a certain level of interest. AJ versus Bailey is one of those big matches that we have not seen before.
I could see them like headlining the show with this next week. Yeah, I could too.
I must say I have like a big promo segment with Roman or Brock because they are on the show as well next week.
And it's fresh because it's our, it's going to be our chance to see AJ with somebody other than Becky Lynch. I mean, we saw some of her.
Well, maybe Becky's going to get involved in this match somehow. She will. Yeah, but I'm looking for a lot in the match itself. It'll be a further test of seeing where AJ is currently.
Yes. Um, so I think they're realizing for some of these lengthier shows open challenges and gauntlet matches that maybe that's the secret, uh, the secret remedy that they they used on Smackdown they used it here.
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The Post Wrestling Cafe is your one stop shop for all of the coverage that Post Wrestling has to offer two big rewindaways this month with WWF Insurrection from May of 2002.
This UK only pay per view featured the raw brand going overseas and ending with the infamous plane ride from hell.
Then we're going to take a look at AWA's Super Sunday from April of 1983. A new edition of Talk can be yours plus MCU later, Book Club and coverage of UFC 326, TNA Sacrifice and of course Excel editions of rewind a raw dynamite and Smackdown with all the news of the day.
Join now at Post Wrestling Cafe.com.
Natty cut a Netflix commercial break promo and was jumped by Maxine, which we got the highlights of.
I can't believe how long they're stretching this.
It's going to keep going.
Gable under the mask is confronted by Dan Housen and Dan Housen is playing around with his mask. He gets worn by Gable.
He tells him to go. He does his poor Spanish, his AI Spanish and it results in Dan Housen putting a curse on him.
Now I think there's one direction for Dan Housen and it is on Smackdown with the Miz. I think that is the pairing.
Yeah, he might be one of those acts that just pops up. He's a free agent.
Yeah, like permanently because he's not going to wrestle. He just might be one of those guys that just like he's like a Gremlin that just hangs out perhaps.
I so like I was wondering if in this they actually come to their senses and are finally turning Gable,
this Gable version of Americano into a heel because I mean, he was certainly acting a bit healish towards a fan favorite at this point in Dan Housen.
And acting a whole lot more like his sort of like annoying heel check Gable character than he has been over the past couple of weeks.
It's so confusing like that might be the thinking, but then it was like,
Kaiser's also a heal.
Kaiser's positioned as the heel that stole his spot and he he's working as the heel against Penta.
It's it's so messed up like this this version of it and just lots to play.
It's the far better retelling of of this story.
Yeah, and they're almost doing like identical like they for the Ray to Ray as qualifier.
Gable locked Kaiser. He handcuffed him in the back and took his spot in the match to win the qualifier.
Like they're just they're doing worse versions of the triple A angles.
So Penta comes out.
He cuts a long promo in the ring, which I was really glad they gave him a promo because I think the promo was to me stood out more than the match.
He thanks his family, his friends, his company and fans around the world.
And also I thank myself who believed in myself.
I was like, you know what? Pat yourself on the back.
Okay. You took a chance for you as did your brother and one of them paid off.
He says that this title is for everyone who never gave up.
So not dedicating this to John Cena and the fighters of the real life.
And we are going to make history and then he gave a lengthier speech in Spanish.
I mean, this guy was just trying to cover all bases here.
This I'm representing every single person unless you've given up at some point.
Then I don't have much time for you.
The fighters of the real life sounds like the real name.
Yeah, like a new Japan faction, the fighters of the real life.
I thought it was a great promo.
And like he's I'm really surprised they haven't given him this sort of mic time so much in the past years since we've seen him.
Because on night one, he already showed that he had this ability.
So you're glad that, you know, they're finally putting this sort of spotlight on him.
And primarily not just in ring, but also on the microphone as well.
You could just hear the passion in his voice.
A lot of emotion.
And he certainly does not like sound like somebody who's just remembering or regurgitating.
Even though in his case, you would of course give him a pass if he was doing that.
And I'm sure there was a lot of memory involved.
But it doesn't come out like it's just, you know, somebody reading off the script.
So it's Kaiser taking the spot of Gable and he's absorbing punches and then goes to the eyes of Penta.
Penta gets caught with his forearm during a during a dive to the floor.
And then after the break, it's a topic on hero onto Kaiser.
The Penta driver gets blocked and then tries for the Mexican destroyer, which Kaiser turns into a Death Valley driver.
And Grande comes off the buckle is hit with the double knees.
And then the springboard Mexican destroyer that Penta seems to have now adopted the springboard setup for.
12 minutes and 13 seconds.
This one went, I thought the match was fine.
But if you were to tell me like these two, I just thought this was going to be a lot more exciting of a match than it was.
I didn't think it was bad.
It just to me was, I was more, I thought the promo was the more standout portion of Penta here than the actual match.
I thought it was lacking heat.
A lot of the matches on this show were lacking in heat.
Like I think punk was kind of thrown in this promo.
Like there were definitely a lot of like rough patches here from the crowd.
In this case though, I feel like it might have at least been a slightly dampened by the fact that like I'm sure this crowd was expecting some sort of running from the actual Americano, you know, after the Danhausen curse, like which they haven't they didn't really touch on at all.
And I'm sure next week will get some answer.
But what took place early in the show really felt like a setup for something that would be, you know, resulted in some sort of running here.
Given that Seattle being the origin, do you think that Seattle might have a favorability towards the Americano as popularized at Starbucks?
Oh, is that where Americanos came from?
That's where Starbucks came from.
Right.
Okay.
I'm giving them credit for, I don't know, I'm trying.
So which one would they be favoring?
Well, I'll Grande Americano.
I'm thinking they would be well, which one I was going to say the original or the well, they weren't forced to choose here.
So may God default.
Okay.
Someone with Kaiser here.
I don't know. I'm trying to, I'm trying to explain to you the Seattle crowd.
Then we had our Stephanie Vicar video, the response to live Morgan last week.
You know, I think that they should have hired Luke Thomas for a rebuttal.
Oh my goodness.
I don't, you know, that's, I don't, I think CM Punk should be replaced by Luke Thomas.
I think at this point, I mean, that, that, that's about a pipe bomb.
That was a WrestleMania level promo.
So Vicar, this is all subtitled, said that live, you were signed at 20 and I see how good you are from the privilege that you had and training with the best.
You had all the tools to be great, but now you're too ignorant to use them.
You hide behind a trashy man.
I just, I love to turn to you a trashy man.
I'm sure it sounded worse in Spanish.
Probably.
And you have your friends to do your dirty work and says those mudhuts made me who I am.
And this was the line, a line that live used in the, in the promo last week that did definitely get some pushback from, from people of a categorizing it as such.
But they just, I, I'm, I must have glossed over what I was listening to the party.
I didn't know what I mentioned it.
Yeah, like, but yeah, it was one of the more controversial things.
Yeah, but I mean, they're, they're, they're using it here.
We, we had photos of Stephanie Vicar with her father as a child.
She says she was forged in hell and fire.
And both of us took different roads to get here.
But now we both have the skill to be here.
The difference is you became lazy and it's funny because I see more in you than you see in yourself.
Live you're a worthy opponent.
But you believe you think you are just a cheap blonde and tells her bring all your tools to WrestleMania because I'm going to continue to make history.
I thought this was great.
I thought this was really, really strong stuff.
And I thought this was like your classic promo where it's like instead of just, you know, running down your opponent.
It's like, no, you're, you're a great opposition for me.
I don't agree with the way you have gotten here.
But we're going to find out at WrestleMania.
Like they're, they're building this up.
And I, I think like this is, this is one of the mania programs that maybe at the beginning, you wouldn't have been as like, that's a lock.
But thus far, six weeks out, like, I think they've done a fairly good job with these two so far.
Like of, of the programs that we currently have.
Okay, pumpkin reigns, certainly at the top.
Cody and Orton, like, just, just getting started.
So we don't exactly know the level of depth.
Same with Ryan Jade.
We don't really know.
But like, I don't think this one's at the longest time, I guess.
And living there's certainly not getting lost in terms of like story in terms of like, you know, real feeling of hatred between the two.
You really buy it, especially from step, step name of care in these sort of promos.
Again, like, similar to, I think what we were talking about with Penta.
Like, sir, okay, if there's some difficulty with the language, you, it doesn't matter.
Number one, she sounds great, even when she's speaking English.
But like, when she's largely speaking Spanish in a segment like this, you hear the fire.
You hear the passion in her voice.
And, and, and you 100% buy that this person really, really, really hates live Morgan.
And, and ultimately, and that's all you want out of a wrestling promo.
She completely nailed it.
And, and she's been pressing me so much as a storyteller in these segments.
Yeah, I like this a lot.
Dan House and comes out.
But this is all during Netflix.
And he actually got a better reaction here than in Chicago.
The music stopped. They were cheering him.
And it was funny because he was all set to just, he mentioned Seattle for the easy pop.
Then he throws out t-shirts.
And then he just says, he just leads the crowd to chant the curse.
And I mean, this was really a nothing segment.
I thought that this was going to be setting up something with Dominic who was about to come out to the ring.
But this was strictly for the crowd and those watching during the commercial.
He's essentially the person who like, you know, throws out like there's a t-shirt gun.
Like he's, he's there to just like sell merch.
Rather than build to any sort of significant story.
So yeah, there really was no follow up with Dominic whatsoever on the show.
They don't seem to be pushing that narrative at all.
But I also maybe see this as kind of Dan House's role is like show up during the Netflix commercial breaks to sell his merch,
which apparently is already selling incredibly well.
So that's that's great.
I mean, it's a great role if you can land it sounds like he was a great hire.
I mean, if only for that metric alone, right?
So Dom, sorry, after the Vicar video, we had the judgment they react.
JD has gone to look for Finn and Raquel and live come out with Dom to the ring.
So Dom wants a rematch with Penta and he's blaming Finn Baller for last week.
Says, I'm sorry we've got to air our dirty laundry here in public.
And before he can go on, Baller comes out with JD and Dom is pissed.
He hopes, Finn, have you gotten me my rematch?
Baller apologizes for last week.
I tried to help you and teach you a lesson because we're family.
And I, you wanted to be the greatest material of all time.
And sometimes you need to fight your own battles.
I've tried to guide you for two years, but maybe your father was right.
You're just a spoiled little prick.
And Dominic attacks Baller and with that, Baller turns around.
And he hits, he hits the kick taking out Dominic and lays him out.
And with that, JD steps in.
And he fires at Dom with a sling blade.
JD then stops Baller with a clothesline.
And this crowd, they booed heavily here as everyone, including Liv and Raquel started beating on Baller.
It was a four on one attack.
And the Dominic gets a chair and a hammer and nails Baller with the hammer in the face.
Loads up his shoe with the hammer and hits a six one nine with the hammer.
And then uses the chair, including a frog splash onto the chair on Baller.
Really big beat down here of Finn.
And you know, if Liv wasn't, maybe Liv is occupied, but the rest three on one handicap match at WrestleMania.
Maybe that's the option we go through.
But this was certainly more than I was expecting, I was not expecting them to do this type of angle so early with so much time.
But they pretty much have set up Dominic and Baller for WrestleMania here.
So I was, I was expecting, I mean, we've been expecting it for a long, long time.
But like I was expecting it at the chamber didn't happen at the chamber.
I was maybe expecting it on the raw afterwards didn't happen on the raw afterwards.
It took place here, like two weeks after the, well, like the chamber one week plus, you know, one event after the chamber match.
And like for that reason, maybe it came a little bit unexpected to me.
I thought they would like they were playing the long game and drawing this out a little bit longer.
But I, I was perfectly happy with the way things, you know, turned out here.
I love the fact that like Finn was, at least like to me, it looked like he was the first to like actually attack, you know.
And therefore it, it made it look like it was his decision to exit the group rather than have the decision made for him.
Like, like we often see with these sort of like, you know, outstings.
But I'm sure there's a lot they could play with, you know, on Roots of WrestleMania.
This is now a very hateable group, you know, except Dom.
Like Dom is, is getting to be somewhat likeable.
But he's certainly in a position where like, well, he along with Liv, you know, feel like they could be the leaders of this group.
And I wonder if they add anybody else out to round it out.
Yeah, I mean, it will be, it'll be curious to see what they do with him on Saturday at Rey de Reyes.
If they take the belt off him, I do not think they should be, they should stop using him in triple A.
Like he's, he feels like a superstar in triple A.
And I don't think it harms him at all to still have this mega championship.
I mean, it's really just a side piece here for him in WWE.
But that's coming up on Saturday.
Yeah, and I mean, given yes, you had the punk thing with you, so is at the end.
But this is really the big angle of, of raw.
It's not like this was a show where you had all the, like there was no reigns, no Lesnar, no Becky, no Rhea.
It's like this, this was the main angle of, of the show by the end of things.
So Finn Dom straight up singles match or do you think so?
I think so.
I think so.
I could see Baller potentially facing JD in the lead up to it, doing something there before.
And maybe he's got to get to Dom at WrestleMania.
You got six weeks.
You got to put some obstacles in front of Finn here to get there.
So we'll see how they get there.
Does the demon come back?
Oh boy.
Maybe it'll be interesting.
Maybe if they play up this curse, that's on Dominic.
And Finn's going to put the ultimate curse on him.
Well, that's the thing.
I thought Dan Housen would be a lot more attached to all of this stuff.
But like no reference, no reference from Dom about Dan Housen at all.
The announcers kept bringing up the curse aspect.
So I mean, that was at least mentioned here.
And they are doing something with this curse with El Grande disappearing and Dominic.
So.
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The second biggest angle on the show was Adam Pierce with Javan Evans.
And he told Javan, man, I saw what you did at the chamber.
And they're just like celebrating like.
Yeah, you were like the first guy eliminated and it's awesome, man.
You're gonna have a great year.
He's like, cool, man, thanks.
And then Kofi Kingston and Grayson Waller come in.
And Kofi kicks Waller out.
And he explains to Javan about their match a few weeks ago.
He says offset was out of line.
And I took it out on you.
I see a lot of myself in you.
And I took a lot of my skills trying to do the best maneuvers.
And I became champion.
That could be you one day.
You just need the right team around you.
And he says that your dreams can come true.
And you don't have to do it alone.
Just think about it.
And Javan is like, dude, I've been watching WWE for the last 18 months.
And this is the last group I would want to attach myself to.
So that is how this should end.
But yeah, this is literally something for Javan Evans to do.
It's something for the new day to do specifically Kofi Kingston.
We're remaining new day.
I mean, Woods is, Woods is off.
Sure.
Yeah.
Do we know how long Woods is gone?
I don't know.
Well, I'm not mad at this whatsoever.
I would be mad if it means Javan Evans joins the new day at the end of it all.
Because I don't think that's a great fit for him right now or ever.
But the idea that this will lead to some sort of like sustained feud between Kofi and Javan Evans.
I think it could be strong.
I think it could be a way to rehabilitate Kofi Kingston.
There was a little bit of tension between like Kofi and Waller as well here too.
So I wonder how much they'll play up on all of that going forward.
Jackie interviews Bailey and Lyra.
And she's pumped up for her title match with AJ praises Lyra.
She's always wanted the icy title.
And she will give her first title shot to Lyra next week.
Probably not.
She's not going to win that title.
But what are their destinations for WrestleMania?
Any idea?
Is it against each other?
I don't think so.
I think they're going to keep these two as a team.
I.
I think Lash and Nia are going to do some multi woman tag match.
And I could see these two in there.
I could see the bell is in there.
The bell is we haven't seen since what the rumble the raw after rumble.
I don't even know if you see them at Mania.
Honestly, the bell is I really don't like what other reason would you have brought
her back at this point if not the remaining.
I mean, they can't she was clearly coming back for more than one night.
So.
But I guess I just like I wonder.
You have so you have only so many spots.
Okay for tag teams.
And I don't I don't know if like.
If you were to put like say for four or five way tag match.
Like who are your teams at this point?
You want me to go through the whole division.
Like you don't every any or any more Alexa.
Okay.
Okay.
And I guess it depends on if Julia is defending the US championship,
but potentially Kiana and Julia Lyra and Bailey.
The irresistible forces were the champions, of course.
I guess Kari and Oscar seem like Oscar seems to be destined for maybe something else.
Potentially.
I don't see them in the tag title hunt.
I feel.
Roxanne done is Roxanne not coming back.
She.
What was the deal that she had?
She was only supposed to be out like a short amount of time.
So.
Not sure.
Yeah.
Okay.
So is that not enough for.
Well, it's.
I could certainly see if the bells are coming back, that would be the match for them is all I'm saying here.
And I just feel like they would have they would have continued using them to tell some sort of story.
If that was the idea.
But we.
Well, they have they have totally disappeared since the rumble.
Okay, then we go to Oba Femi and Rusev.
And Oba's got the best entrance and wrestling at the moment.
He just comes out.
The whole place is chanting Oba as the bell rings.
And they just start clothes lining one another.
And they go to punches.
Femi hits a big boot.
Close lines them over the top.
And Rusev sends them into the post.
And then does a spin kick on to the table.
On to the desk.
And he brings Oba into the ring.
He's throwing head kicks at him.
Machka kick.
But Femi won't go down.
So Femi fires back with a flying elbow.
Toss his Rusev in the air, fall from grace in three minutes and eight seconds.
I thought this was fantastic.
I thought this was like the perfect opponent for Oba Femi.
He gave just enough for Rusev who I thought understood the assignment here.
And I just thought this was a great handling of Oba Femi here.
And I mean, it's kind of Rusev's role.
But he certainly, I thought this was a lot of fun for the three minutes that lasted.
Yeah, I agree.
Not that there's much comparison.
But like this was probably his best match outing so far on the main roster.
And I think like squashes are necessary for like big men like this.
I think they're ultimately effective.
But only to some extent, you know, you're talking about audiences at this point that want to see especially for baby faces.
Like they want to see the full range of what somebody can offer.
That includes some level of struggle, which we got to see for the first time.
Again, on the main roster here from Oba Femi.
And this was just ultimately, I think like very entertaining second level escalation for an Oba Femi introduction.
And so this match ends and immediately they go to the graphic of Brock Lesnar.
Who will be on the show next week.
I don't think that was accidental.
Okay.
And what's going to be interesting next week is this Brock segment.
I think you almost have to do the reveal of the opponent next week.
Like it looks totally stupid if he's come back all these weeks later.
And it's the open challenge you've had weeks to decide and no one comes out.
I think you have to do the angle next week.
I think you could have somebody who's a joke comes out.
Like, you know, to to at least like build a little bit more anticipation.
You want to get those open chance running at least like for at least one more week.
Maybe even two more weeks, right?
I would just I would maybe even put at the end of the show.
And it's because they're all come for the rest of the entire build.
I mean Brock is only doing I think like three shows or so before Mania.
I think you've got the contract signing.
You've got the face to face and you have under one roof.
I think they can drag it out at least for one more appearance.
Well, maybe.
And they also know payment as well.
But I think whether you do it next week or his next appearance.
I think it should just be like the end of the show.
Everyone's chanting oba.
He comes out.
And it's just a wall of people trying to keep these two apart.
And it's just a chaotic scene.
And you know what the direction is.
I think that's I think that is a match that people will respond to.
Like this is a big deal.
Yeah.
If they they do it right.
So Brock's on the show next week.
AJ and Bailey.
Original El Grande versus El Grande Americano.
Is this the end?
Is this the blow off next week?
Probably maybe maybe for the main like the main roster.
I hope.
And then they could just stay in AAA for the rest of all this.
That's right.
And Roman Reigns is also on the show next week to.
We'll see which family member he goes after on fill side.
So the final segment is CM Punk coming out.
And he comes out.
I think this guy seriously thought he was going to get booze.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
He was.
I felt like it almost felt like the first half of this promo was him.
Like.
Ajustic.
And.
It's like yeah.
The line was like designed to have kind of a heel reaction.
But there was not a second that I thought that this man was going to get booed by this crowd.
But it really felt like this was structured like he was expecting at worst a mixed reaction.
So he's like, all right.
Well, you guys seem to still like me.
Some people were upset over what I said last week.
And for being disrespectful.
Well, Roman Reigns has never respected me.
And there was a brief OTC chant.
And.
And then it dies out.
And I don't know if Punk was hoping it was going to come back or what.
But there was like just this long, long, just nothing happening here.
I didn't know what was going on here.
So like, so I was thinking, okay, is he doing this pause for dramatic effect?
Or I think he was waiting for the either the chance to come back or some reaction that was not coming.
Or was he searching for his lines in his head?
That has happened with Punk like there.
Or could it just be that like maybe he's hearing something that the mics just start picking up well enough for for us?
Like this might be one of those shows where we'll get feedback from somebody who will say like,
it's not an amazing my section.
What are you guys talking about?
I don't care.
It's the I'm watching on this and this dude.
The first half of this was just like I think it was awkward.
Yeah, terrible.
Like it was just I didn't know where this was going.
It just felt like he was off.
So then he explains that this championship was created because Roman shunned his title responsibilities.
I defend this title because I'm proud you deserve a fighting champion.
I level people up physically and verbally.
You've got to cut promos with me.
And then last week I lowered myself to Roman's level.
But before he can explain how the Usos come down.
They have waited two hours for this moment.
They're not wasting any more time.
Jay is starving.
He wants to get this on the road.
Even if we come come up short on our Netflix time with Joseph Park with his stopwatch.
So they want an apology.
Punk asks why is Roman still sending his cousins to do his heavy lifting to Jay is like.
You ever see the scared straight skits on SNL with no.
Keenan Thompson would like react and he just like, oh, and the other guy would be like the straight guy.
Like Jay was had to react like he was just so angry at everything.
Punk would say and Jimmy.
It's just like right off his shoulder man.
He's just like, okay, let's let's just chat this out.
So Jimmy says this has to do with respect.
I respect you Phil.
You're the voice of the voiceless.
And you can speak trash about Roman.
But you disrespected our late uncle.
Who has no voice.
And punk thinks for a long time.
And he says, you're right.
And he says, I'm not very spiritual.
But do you think Sika can hear us?
And they're both like, yeah.
Yeah, like where God's name is this going?
And he explains how much he respects Sika.
And that while he didn't know Sika as well.
He very much knew off of who he would drive to Allentown to work on his shows.
Learning from his family and having that knowledge handed down from him.
He respects everyone in their family except for that one son of a bitch.
That lying, conniving, gaslighting, narcissistic, plastic, politician.
And Jay steps in and says, you haven't said you're sorry yet.
And then this crowd who have been on their hands for most of the show start chanting.
Say you're sorry.
It's like for fuck's sake.
Like some of these wrestling crowds.
I swear to God, like there are times believe me.
I very much will defend.
Fans can chant whatever they want at people.
But they're like trying to do this promo.
And you just can't help yourselves with the lamest chance that you come up with.
That's what this was.
Say you're so I don't get so mad.
Like listen, it's these crowds are going to so annoying.
Can't whatever they feel coming out of a segment.
I don't think it's in their interest to ensure like they provide the best soundtrack for what the producers or the performers.
It's fine.
I'm not putting I'm not locking them in prison.
They're allowed to chant whatever they want.
But I can also insult them for their chant choices.
These are chance you would have muted from a wrestling.
Oh, if I was on if I was on the production team.
Yeah, these these would have been out of there.
So punk finally says, I'm sorry.
And Jimmy's just like, is that easy, man?
It was okay.
But he's not done.
I'm sorry.
That Roman treated you guys like garbage along with all the members of the bloodline.
Jay.
Oh.
He was amazing here, by the way.
Okay.
He says he never apologized for the way he treated his family.
He disrespected dusty calling him irrelevant.
I was like, Dusty is like, you're your father now.
I believe.
So he's just.
Well, he doesn't come on.
I understand.
I understand.
And he's also the father of his good friend Cody Broats.
All right.
He feel.
Feel, baby.
No, not gay.
Dusty tonight.
He says Roman never had to apologize for that one.
So we don't get enough.
We don't get enough of these, these equivalencies.
There is a true double standard though.
You know, like at times when, when Roman has made similar threats insults.
He's never had to apologize for anything.
Bitch.
You made fun of Paul Barrow week after he died.
How about that one?
Huh?
You brought out the urn.
So he says Roman never had to apologize for calling Dusty irrelevant.
He says Roman has tricked the Usos and the Samoan family.
He doesn't care about any of you guys.
And if he did care, he'd be in the middle of this ring and not sending out his young boys.
And funk just shoves the mic right into Jay's chest.
And then Jay, who's sent to sit through all of this, has heard his uncle be degraded here by this man.
And then sit here for 10 minutes.
The guy's starving.
He waited two hours for this shoves punk down.
And punk's got this look on his face like, that was a little uncalled for.
He didn't seem too happy about this.
I mean, in the moment, I think he was plenty fine with it by the end.
Well, that's how the show ended here.
Oh, you got Jimmy punching him, decking him.
Was it Jimmy or Jay shoved him?
Oh, Jimmy punched him.
Jay shoved him.
Punk went back to retaliate.
And before he could do that, Jay, Jimmy decked him.
Okay.
And the show ends with punk actually smiling looking at the camera.
So again, just to kind of give you the impression that somehow this was all according to his plan.
Like he's continues to play the mind games and he continues to puppet all of this to his advantage somehow.
So I thought this was a terrific segment.
Really, really excellent.
By the end of it was there were two segments here to me.
The first half and then the Usos part.
The Usos.
Something was up before the Usos came out.
But like once the Usos came here, I thought this was I think the best thing that we've had in this entire build so far.
That includes I would say two very good, you know, punk and Roman segments.
But once you get like the Usos in this, I.
I think there's a level of emotion that you can get out of the Usos that you simply can't get out of Roman reigns.
And that's because the Usos, especially Jay in this case are free to just like be emotional.
And this was the type of segment that brought me back to some of the great bloodline segments, including like, you know, the Sami Zayn turn at at
Royal Rumble where you got like a very similarly emotionally charged Usos reacting in the background to everything that was going on there.
Except in this case, you had, you know, Jay Uso who at this point has had so much more development and a friendship with punk that we've seen on screen.
At this way, which I think adds just a whole lot more, I think depth to this interaction.
This was one of those arguments where you can I think like understand why everybody's upset.
And you're, you might side with somebody, but you can ultimately understand why your friends are fighting and they hate each other suddenly.
I thought like punk in all of this, like on the surface, a guy insulting like somebody's like dead dad, like that's awful.
You would want to boo that, but he still came across very much like a baby face to me after it all because he sounded very justified in his rage at Roman reigns.
He very clearly conveyed also that he has respect for the family that he has respects for Seca despite what he says, but he hates Roman reigns.
And I thought he made that very, very clear.
He also made great points about like the double standard that he was being held to that the Usos don't hold to Roman reigns.
So I thought punk was excellent here, but you have to of course like sympathize with the Usos who, you know, like you hear something like that about a family member who's deceased.
You, you see nothing but red and they came out here with only one mission.
And that was to get the apology to get those words, I'm sorry from CM Punk.
And at that sort of resistance, trust me.
Like I meet it all the time with a three year old who refuses to say, I'm sorry or to show any sort of like remorse.
You go into a blind rage yourself.
And so I thought Jameen J were both so good here.
This was fantastic.
Are you comparing CM Punk to your three year old child?
Yes, I am. Yeah, he dropped pipe bombs on us all day. Trust me.
All right. Well, yeah, I overall enjoyed the segment quite a bit.
And there's some, you know, again, you have six weeks here.
You can do some interesting stuff here with, you know, punk with the Usos as sort of stand-ins when Roman is not there.
And I like based off of last week, like I think you do want to kind of limit the Roman punk interactions if they're just going to be your promos.
And save those for the last week or two.
You don't have to have these guys doing their 10, 15 minutes together.
And this can break things up a little and you could do singles matches.
You could do, you know, some tags with punk finding somebody as well.
Like there's ways to at least divert from just straight reins and punk for all these appearances.
Yeah, but they have to do it in a way that still manages to protect the Usos as your tag team champions.
And it doesn't just treat them as like, you know, supporting acts for punk to beat, for instance.
Right? So I'm looking for this as a way to maybe for the Usos to branch off into like their title match so that their program feels substantial and somewhat attached to all of this.
So we'll see how they weave all that.
Yeah, because they're still doing the duel.
Like they came out to attack the vision.
So you still have the Usos with LA Knight attached to the vision.
So they're kind of, you know, doing doing both at at the same time.
I thought tonight it was a more, I thought like the angles kind of or video packages stood out more.
Like certainly you had the punk Usos segment, the turn on Finn Balor, the Stephanie Bacare video.
And I really enjoyed just the presentation of Oba Femi with Rusev.
That worked really well as well.
Not like a blow way, great raw, but there were some very good parts to it.
Yeah, not a raw that I think you'll remember for the in ring, but like substantial interest of storyline.
Especially leading up to WrestleMania with some big programs and no gumther tonight either, by the way.
So a bunch of stars that were absent tonight.
So there you go.
Those were, well, that was raw from Seattle, Washington.
And before we sign off here on the YouTube channel coming up this week, we are going to be getting together for one of our applauded editions of talk.
Ways final talk before he turns 40 something.
Oh boy.
42.
We could be honest.
We're the same age as WrestleMania.
So a big one here.
I look forward.
I'm assuming your place again, John.
If possible.
Okay.
Yes, we'll do.
Of course, of course it's possible.
I mean, it's nice weather out.
I mean, I, I, if you want me to come to your place, I can do that too.
I guess we could do something outside, you know, potentially.
They are also calling for snow later this week too.
So let's not take today for today was maybe the nicest day of the whole year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It really was.
So hopefully a good weather, weather permitting, maybe an outdoor talk, maybe an indoor talk.
Other way you will get us really catching us catching up on a lot that we have not been able to discuss.
So that's this Thursday.
Yes.
And then all the regular shows this week are coming your way.
Sunday night, we will be live here on the channel after revolution.
I can't say Sunday night AEW pay-per-views are my favorite, but this should be a very good show on Sunday night.
So I imagine we're going to have a lot of stuff to talk about on Sunday evening.
And you can catch the whole schedule up at postreston.com.
A new post pro res with WH Park and Karen Peterson just dropped today.
They went through the first round of the Cinderella tournament.
New Japan's 54th anniversary card and all the other highlights of many, many promotions across Japan.
So always a good time with Karen and WH as they were getting together this month to go over everything that is happening as a tournament season continues in Japan.
That's going to do it for us here on the YouTube channel.
Hit subscribe or else you can just get out of here.
We don't need you, but we are going to continue over on the postreston cafe.
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