Smackdown Review: Sami Zayn Wins Back the WWE Title

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1:00Approved. Thanks. Oh, agents. Where would we be without you? Hmm, somewhere with a lot more tabs open. Create your first Monday agent in minutes at Monday.com. What's up everybody? You're listening to Busted Open with Denise Salcedo at Mark Henry and we are breaking down what went down on Friday night Smackdown, which included Sammy Zane recapturing the WWE Championship after he defeated CM Punk. Let's go. This is the Busted Open podcast. We're going to kick things off with the big news that came off of Friday night Smackdown last night. And that is that we got a brand new WWE champion in Sammy Zane. Or should I say some will? Because last night we were in Mexico City and that crowd was freaking lit by the way. So good. But let's start right there Mark. Sammy Zane, were you surprised? Did you think he was actually going to do it?

2:01You know what? I was hoping for it. And that's what the last three weeks. We've been like, Sammy's trying to ruin everything. I would have thought that it would have been money in the bank. But you can tell they went a different direction when Randy beat Cody. I went Randy wanted title. So I was like, okay now what? And the only option is to have Sammy beat champion. So now that Randy is number one, he can, you know, Sammy can face Randy, which that's one that we haven't seen. And I know that they wanted to get some new blood out there. Yes, okay. So there's quite a bit that you just said there. First of all, I mean complete and total agreements. Randy Orden of course kicked off the show and basically said like, I'm going for whoever, whoever wins this championship. It doesn't matter. CM Punk, Sammy Zane, I'm going to be coming after that person. And here's the thing. Randy has been saying this. Of course he told that to

3:06Cody Rhodes when Cody Rhodes was champion. We all thought he was going to defeat him for the title and then he didn't. And then he went and then he went again. And he even warned CM Punk. What was that? I think a week ago or two weeks ago where he basically told them, I also want your championship. And I'm telling you this face to face. So at some point Randy, who hasn't been championing quite a minute now, I think he is 100% the way to go. And I wonder if maybe that's why they, well, I think there's a couple of reasons that they put the title on Sammy Zane. First of all, right now we kind of have seen all their, not I want to say all there is to see with CM Punk, but CM Punk has had the matches already against all of the players that are in the championship picture. We've already seen it. I wouldn't mind seeing it again though, but it's okay. I understand. And then with Sammy Zane, he's wrestled a lot of these guys too. But I still think that now with him in this role where he psychotic and he's got the championship and it's driving him mad, there's a whole new layer to him.

4:09And all I want out of this mark, I just want a couple of things. Okay. One, I want this rain to be longer than nine days. Hell if it's 10 days, just kidding. We, I just needed to be longer than nine days. I don't need it to be extremely long, but I actually want to see Sammy Zane defend the actual title. And there's a bit right. We like successfully. Let me add successfully defend the title a couple of times. Well, I don't know if it'll be successfully because he made a promise that if he became champion that Johnny Gargano would get a shot at the title first. So Johnny Gargano is now going to be facing Sammy Zane soon. Yes. What says that with all the bullshit, Kevin Owens or punk or Randy or somebody comes down and screws him, he loses and Johnny Gargano is champion. Don't even say that mark.

5:11And John, like, I think it could happen because can you imagine how insane Sammy Zane would go if that happened? That dude would be pissed, man. You would have to hide every dangerous weapon around Sammy so that he doesn't make a bad decision. This could be his 13th reason. You know what? I would do it. I would do it. He would have the two shortest rounds. No, you're still being stupid. Because you want to be remembered. The knees, it's about longevity and being remembered, memorable moments. And they will show through the rest of time Sammy Zane World Champion a total of about 18 days if I was in charge. Wow. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. I don't know. I feel like it would be such a troll. It would be such a rib. It would be such a such an unfortunate thing if we were to see Sammy Zane drop

6:12the ball in his first title defense. And I'm dying because I said, oh, that'd be his 13th reasoning. You were like, yeah, they should do it. And I'm like, wait, what are you saying, Mark? What are you saying? But it would drive him off the edge completely. And that's the thing, Mark. I don't know if you've noticed this, but there's a lot of people right now that hate Sammy Zane. They hate him. They can't stand him right now. But the reason is that they can't stand themselves. Exactly. But no, but here's the thing like he's doing such a good job of being a lunatic right now that people are legitimately buying it. Like there are people that are like, can't stand this guy. I hate him so much. I get him off my TV. And they're even trying to discredit Sammy Zane. And because people are not people, he's doing such a good job with the character that people forgot. Like he's Sammy Zane. And he can go to a whole other degree. Well, I'm not even thinking character in this and that I'm talking about wrestling. Like that dude is extremely good at what he does. And I brag on him all the time, even though he

7:20pisses me off with all of the stuff that he says and does. But during COVID, man, that dude, he was the MVP of COVID area wrestling because of the fact that he could grab the microphone and look into the camera and give you 30 minutes of program. Like he, I mean, he was invaluable during that time. And now all it did was hone his skills for now. Like the way that we perceive him, is the way that it is. And we always say that in wrestling. What you see is what you get in perception is reality. And you said that people think that because he's been a psychotic and narcissists and any other technical term that you can describe for just crazy and outlandish

8:23behavior, that's him. That's who that's what he's doing. And tell me in any frame of wrestling, who's doing it better? Right, right. Yeah. No one's doing the craziness right now in WWE. Like that. No, he's driven by madness. You know what the scary part is, Mark? That that's kind of realistic. Think about people that are in the real world, right? That are in high positions, whether it be at some, I don't know, I was going to say I don't know Wall Street, for example, or some crazy job Wall Street government, you name it. Those high pressure kind of jobs where people are obsessed with power and success. And if something goes wrong status, if something goes wrong, they start acting like Sammy Zane because it's like, oh my god, I got to be number one. I got to be number one. Bob from the other department can be number one. I got to be number one. And that's kind of what we're seeing with Sammy Zane. So it's kind of scary, but there are people

9:25like that. So I feel like in a way, even though Sammy Zane's character seems a little crazy and a little unbelievable sometimes and a little outlandish, I believe it. I think that there is that like power, hungry, obsessed with status and money and thrills kind of people. And that's Sammy Zane right now. And we have one. I mean, you know, we busted open. You would say, but Greco, he goes spastic when things don't go his way. That is true. You can go back to the Cody Crabbaby deal. Man, that dude lost it. Like, we were like, are you okay? But he was doing it for someone else, though. If you do it for someone else, it's a little different. Now, if he was doing it for himself, and he was like, no, Denise and Mark can't be on on Saturdays. I got to be on Saturdays. And he would be on Saturday. Yeah. And you would, I would be asleep right now.

10:29I would be asleep. Are you kidding me? I'd be getting some REM right now. REM. Oh, God. We then is we would be Dave's co-host if he wanted Saturday. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So anyways, I love the character of Stanmy Zane. I love it so much because it even made me forget that I used to think that this was the most like whole sum individual on Smackdown. Like this used to be like our honorary ooze, the happy dang so passionate. Not too long ago, I was sad, Mark, because he had said that his son was like, why don't you have championships like John Cena? Oh, man, that broke my heart too. Like, you know, now he can go home for about six, eight days and tell his son he's a champion. Because I would book him in a match. And you know, you know, without come would be. Yes, I do. Okay. So now, you mentioned Randy.

11:35You think Randy's going to take that. How do you think this is going to be played? How do you think this is going to play out? Where do we end up? You know, if Sammy, Sammy, if Sammy successfully defense against Johnny Gargano, where do we go from there? Do we go automatically to Randy? I don't know. We got to get we got to get Randy either Randy to money in the bank briefcase or we got to get. We see who is in the money in the bank. But I during that time, either is a one on one with Randy and Sammy for the title at money in the bank or Randy going to money in the bank and Sammy being in a match with maybe Kevin Owens, I'll see him pump and Randy wins the money in the bank and catches it in at money in the bank in that main event.

12:37Hmm. Yeah. I haven't really figured out like the timeline of all of this and how it's going to be like what it's going to look like laid out to us. But I just know that at the end of this, we got to be standing with Randy Orton having that 15th world title win. I always thought that he should be Cody for the title. Like I always thought that that was going to happen. And when it didn't, I'm like, Oh, that's kind of what happened. Right. Because I felt like that was the direction that they were going to go that they should have gone in at the time. And they didn't decide to go with it right then and there. I and I get it. I get into I like what they did with Sam. I love what they did with CM Punk. I love what they did with with all of that. But I think it kind of feels a little overdue right now to have Randy as champ. Mark, the fact that Randy is still on TV and that he looks the way that he does. He moves the way that he does. You know, he's 46 years old. And you probably wouldn't have known that unless I said it right now. Right. You wouldn't. Randy looks tremendous.

13:40And he's in great shape. And I mean, he's Sammy. He's no spring chicken. Like Kevin, like all those guys are late 30s, early 40s. You know, like, I mean, punk is what he's got to be 45. You know, somewhere in that. So like, it's not like that. It's a bunch of young people running things at the top. And it's coming in the next three to five years. You know, you'll see the, you know, younger guys start to trickle into the main events area. But right now, all of these guys are veterans. They paid their dues. They they look great for their age. They move well for their age. And the whole point now is the is the plate cautious and don't get hurt. Exactly. And it's been so many years since

14:41we last saw Randy in this kind of a position where if he was to be champion again, I mean, it's been, I mean, according here, I think the last time he was champion was in 2020. According to his cage match. Yeah, 2020, WWE champion. And he only held that for a very short period, 22 days lost the title to Drew McIntyre in a hell in a cell 20. God dang, isn't that crazy? I don't even remember 2020 anymore. That that time. I remember it was COVID time. Oh my God. So think about how long it's been. I mean, for us, I know sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday. But God, I have a, my memory 26. I know. Isn't that crazy? That was six years ago. And I'm like, wow, I can't, it's hard for me to sit here and fathom the fact that it's been six years since Randy was champion. Yeah. So they got to do it, man. They got to do it. It's going to

15:42feel like fresh and exciting. And oh, did you see the way the crowd reacted to Randy last night? I mean, they kind of always do at these places, but still. They went absolutely crazy. I think it would be a good idea to have Randy be at the very top of the mountain on SmackDown ash champ for a good amount of time. What's a good amount of time to you? Oh, see, I'm a girl who likes long title reigns. Maybe not four years long. Don't get me wrong. I like the man. I like like a good three, six, nine months of a reign. That's usually my like number were after like, maybe after six, I'm like, I'm starting to look around depending on what kind of champion you are. If you're still doing really good, because you know me, Mark, I got, I love a workhorse champion. If you're a workhorse champion, every time you defend that title, I add another two weeks on top of your reign in my head. She look at you. I you're boy, you also. I want you to put you at the top.

16:46Have you booking? Yeah. Now, I'm like, your match stinks. Guess what? Two weeks off of your reign. That's how it works around here, Mark. Your match is good. We add two more weeks. Your match is bad. We take away two weeks. Come on. Look at you. You, well, you savage. I know bad promo. I'm taking three weeks off. Oh my god. I dare you to be a little sensitive. Be a little sensitive, boss. Mark, this is the top of the game. This is the top of the chain. All right. No, we can't, this is, this is the, this is the place you cannot know no sensitivity. If you was boss, business would pick up because don't nobody want they shine the diminish. Exactly. All. Yeah. No, I wouldn't be doing none of this participation trophy stuff. I'd be like, all right, sit down. Let's talk about how you've been doing right now. You think you want more TV time? All right. Let's see what you did the last 10 minutes that you had of TV time. Damn, I'd be terrible. Do not put me in charge of

17:52anything. Powered power drunk. You ain't boss. I'm not even the boss yet. But I mean like, hey, why not? How would you feel if you got sat down if you were like, hey, why am I not, why am I not on TV? What? I'll be like, okay, well, let's sit down and review your last three segments and how they went. That's mean, actually, that's very mean. I take it back. I would never do that. Good. Then you'll have nothing to worry about. But if you, if you, if you melted in, then you could be docked two to three weeks. Oh, man, that's terrible. We got to have more patience. I take it back. I don't need this out there. I don't need this rumor about power hungry, so I'll stay though out there. But no, seriously, I am intrigued by the possibility of Randy being champion again. I do want to give, I want to take a second though and give CM Punk his flowers because he did some good stuff with the championship. You know, he didn't hold it that long, but

18:56a couple months, but that was fine. Like, he did a lot of really good stuff. I loved, uh, of course, him and the only match I probably didn't like. Let me take this back. The only match I didn't love was the Cody Rhodes match that they had, but I loved the triple threat was fine. I enjoyed that. I loved his work with Kevin Noons. I enjoyed that. I even enjoyed the stuff that he did with Sammy Zane, both when he won the title and then also when he lost the title. Look at last night. I mean, the knee injury, the selling, the fighting back and the happenstance of trying to take Sammy's injury and make that a thing and them going back and forth. Man, I thought it was very well done. The best match for sure was the Johnny Gargano one. That one was so, I mean, not the Johnny Gargano one. I'm sorry. The Kevin Noons one. Sorry, sorry. I meant the Kevin Noons one. The Kevin Noons one was so freaking good. That was like his best match during that title reign. But honestly, though,

19:59punk has been having some fun reigns because that was that one. Then the one before that for the World's Heavyweight Championship. I loved what he did with all of those guys. Finn, AJ, I think, yeah, Finn, AJ, Roman, of course. That one was awesome. Uh, so he's kind of been in a, in a fun little place where we've been seeing some good, some good challenges, some good defenses. Yeah, and I think that's it's going to be more that I think that now is the time because you have so many people and it's just like me and you brought up last week. Like we didn't get, where's Drew McIntyre? Like there's a lot of things that can happen now. We got a priest that looks like he's going to start going to singles route and trying to be a champion. Like it's the business about to pick up. Coming up next, Mark Henry and I talk about the future of the demon Finn Balor. The fastest growing pro wrestling show on the planet.

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23:09competitive landscape. Approved. Oh agents. Where would we be without you? Somewhere with a lot more tabs open. Create your first Monday agent in minutes at Monday.com. Hey listeners, Dave LaGrecca here. Loving BustedOpen. If you want to hear new episodes, add free and get access to exclusive bonus content. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple podcast or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to start your free trial today. Let's go ahead and dive into some of these other other moments that we saw play out on Friday Night Smackdown. I do want to get your thoughts on a couple of these. I want to, okay, since we're on the topic of the men's division and we haven't, I think there's a little bit more I want to get at here because Finn Balor, by the way, he met with Nick Aldous about possibly getting a title shot, but Nick basically told him to consider maybe a ladder match, but then Goon Thur, Goon Thur basically goes out there and tells Finn Balor, no, your moment has passed. It was long

24:10ago. Yeah, you got to move aside and blah, blah, blah. He's not having it at all and then he starts yelling at Nick Aldous. I think at this point, he yells at Nick Aldous every week. But anyways, the fact that that was mentioned though, that Finn Balor should be moving aside because his moment was 10 years ago. Does that make you maybe make you feel like there's an actual chance that they might go and do something with Finn because Finn has just kind of been waiting there. He's been waiting for an opportunity. When he wrestled CM Punk and Balfast, that was amazing. And that match reminded me not that I forgot, but I did need that little bit of reminder that Finn Balor is a major player. Exactly. A major player. Exactly. And I don't think that it's by like that they're doing it intentionally. Like, I mean, you just keep getting guys that can't come

25:10in as good. And one store leaves to another and you look up a year and two years and pass and you haven't used something that was valuable already. Finn is one of those guys that I hope they do the right thing by because he is valuable. But I think that Finn is multifaceted doing the demon, like, you just have to find a happy medium to explore having Finn Balor and having the demon too. Because I don't think that Finn wants to do the demon. You know, maybe I'm wrong, but that's kind of the impression that I got before from things that hurt. Really, I feel like he should keep doing the demon because anytime he does it, it just feels like a much bigger deal. And people love that stuff. But see, Denise, you remember, there was a show called Flip Wilson back in the 70s. I'm a lot older than you. And Flip Wilson played a character named Geraldine,

26:18which was a woman on his show on the Flip Wilson show. And Geraldine got so popular that people wanted him to just be Geraldine and have Flip Wilson be the brother that came in every now and then. And and he was like, no, and they killed the shop. I feel like that's kind of what we're getting. Like, I think they would use him more if he did the demon, the demon more. And he don't want the demon to be greater than him to take, you know, presidents. But the demon is so freaking cool, man. And if you got it in your pocket, you got it in your back pocket. Use it, man. You don't got to use it every time. But every now and then it's something that you have. You don't have many people don't have something in their back pocket. Mark, think about it. And then a lot that

27:21don't exactly. But look at it from his perspective. Like you, you want to be acknowledged for your greatness and not be used as a gimmick. There's a lot of people in wrestling that once once you're the gimmick, like, you know, Eugene, you can't do nothing else after Eugene. Yeah, but it's totally different though. It's totally different. I feel like with the demon, again, you don't got to bring it out every time. I think people have realized like, oh, every now and then we get the return of the demon. And when it does happen, it's cool. And the fans appreciate it. They're not expecting it every single week or even every month. I mean, I think he should at least I think he should personally, I think he should do it for every big matchup that he's in, like a like a big P.O.E. match or something like that. But the way that I see it is I much rather use the thing that I got in my back pocket so that I could one get on TV, make money and have the fans talking about me, then be waiting around on the sidelines for hoping that somebody gives

28:26me an opportunity. Well, I mean, I see what you're saying, but I look at it from like where fan was because once a long time, you remember I did a sexual chocolate. It took for me to go away, go through some things, reassert myself as the strongest man in the world legitimately before people stopped saying sexual chocolate. They said sexual chocolate. Even now, I don't know if you remember during my retirement, right in the middle of me doing my shit, somebody said, may young and I went no dummy. Yeah. Like the fans are never going to forget. So you have to be able to have something of dominance to take over or they're going to revert you back to what they

29:29want you to be. And that's what the demon does. The demon is powerful. And I love seeing it. It is. Man, that when he does all the lights and like the pageantry, when I'm going to tell you, one of the matches that stand out to me this past year more than any match I've seen was when Dominic Mysterio and the demon had that match. It was the pageantry, the entrances, the matches sales was great. Don't you think there's a place in this wrestling stratosphere for the demon to be a star? But what about Finn? But he could be both. Like he doesn't got to pick one or the other. That's what I'm saying. Like, find out the fans. I want to ask the collars to call in and say what they think because

30:32do they feel like the demon was surpassed the true incarnation of who the guy is? Telling you, he could do both. I don't feel like this is like a one or the other type of situation. But whatever he doesn't want to, I mean, we don't know. We don't know. We got to hear from him from Finn Balor himself. Does he still want to be the demon? Let's try to get him on. I know. I'm going to be my whole time. I would just be convincing him as to why he should still do the demon gimmick. Because it's cool. Mark. It's cool. Anyway, so there he goes. He's going to say Denise. Thank you. Appreciate you looking out for me. But no. Damn, I'm going to be like fine then. Whatever. All right. Don't make your money. All right. I'm just saying. Look at Danhausen. All right. Danhausen is forever a Danhausen. Okay. He could never be anything else. Okay. Right. You know what? That dude is raking in the big bucks.

31:33What if he wanted to be? What if what if what if Donovan wanted to be a champion? You think they're going to put Donovan in there over over Danhausen? Of course not. It would be Danhausen. Okay. If that ever came down to it. Yeah. I know. Cause like Danhausen is the thing. I'm just going to say this. You want to make some money? Let's make some money. All right. That's all I'm saying. Okay. Let's say it. Catch the full three hours of Busted Open every day of the week at 9am Eastern on WWE Radio on Sirius XM Channel 156. Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash Podcasts Plus to start your free trial today.