WWE Podcast Throwback: 2021 WrestleMania Backlash Review w/YouTube's "The Botch Guy"

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Alright, everybody, welcome to the WWE Podcast, this is our WrestleMania

Backlash review show.

I've got YouTube's the botch guy as always

who joins me immediately following every paper review.

So I think you're gonna enjoy this conversation

as always.

He brings such a great energy

and gotta give a shout out to him.

So we're gonna get to that conversation

right after a word from our sponsor, okay.

Welcome to the WWE podcast, your number one source

for the latest in WWE news and straightforward analysis.

Are you ready to get this thing going?

Let's get this show started right now.

All right, it is time to discuss WrestleMania Backlash

with myself and the botch guy, of course.

We're gonna get to that conversation.

A very spirited conversation is always

in just a couple of moments.

But first, welcome to the show.

Thank you for those of you who have never joined us before.

I'd like to invite you to hit that subscribe button

because you're gonna miss out on a whole lot of content

if you don't.

We published nine shows a week.

Nine, yes, I know it's a lot.

But also soon, upcoming on Apple podcasts,

it's not available yet, but we will be offering

ad-free listening over on Apple podcasts.

Very shortly, of course, there's a software update

Apple has to do that's not in our control,

but just giving you a heads up that pretty soon,

the ad-free experience will be coming to Apple podcasts,

but all the other exclusive stuff, including shout outs

on the show and access to a Discord server

that I had a blast on this afternoon and evening,

talking to our patrons in real time about the pay-per-view

as it was going on.

We were chatting and giving our opinions.

It was so much fun.

That is still exclusive to Patreon.

And it will continue to be.

So the latest Patreon I want to give a shout out to,

of course, is Karen Douglas.

Thank you so much, Karen, for becoming a patron

of the show.

It is much appreciated.

And I hope you enjoyed all the benefits that come with it.

I think that you will.

And if you're interested also in joining Karen

and all of our other patrons, head on over

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I think that you will be pleasantly surprised

with how much we offer there.

So, okay, well, I think that is it for right now.

Again, tomorrow is Monday Night Raw.

And then Tuesday is when I review Monday Night Raw.

So I'll be back on Tuesday.

And Wednesday is the Wrestling nostalgia,

exclusive to Patreon from now on.

It won't be on our free feed.

And the mail bag, which is on our free feed

is also coming on Wednesday.

So I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend,

whatever's left of it, and get into your new week here.

So let's get things going enough of the blabber.

Let's talk to the botch guy, YouTube's the botch guy.

Go subscribe to him, by the way,

and follow him on Twitter at botch underscore guy.

That's where he's at now.

So don't miss it.

Thanks, everybody.

As always, I'll talk to you next time.

All right, well, it is another pay-per-view coming gone.

I think we can finally get rid of the WrestleMania brand name

and we can move on to Hell in a Cell next pay-per-view,

which I'll ask you about that a little bit later, botch guy.

But welcome to the show, botch guy.

And if no one knows who you are,

well, why don't you introduce yourself to our audience,

let them know what you do.

And you've also got a new social media council.

Share that as well.

Well, we're not going to call it WrestleMania in a Cell.

No, come on, miss marketing opportunity there.

How's it going, everybody?

Thanks for having me once again.

Matt, it's always a pleasure being here.

Yes, I am called the botch guy.

I'm on YouTube.

You can definitely catch me over there.

Subscribe to me if you like.

That would be fantastic.

We're growing the channel at a pretty rapid pace right now,

which is kind of crazy.

But more importantly, if you guys want to do me the honor,

everybody that is listening here, go check out my Twitter.

I actually just started Twitter a couple of days ago.

So I'm pretty new to the social media aspect for Twitter.

It's kind of scary place to kind of get myself into.

But head over there onto my Twitter.

It's called botch underscore guy at botch underscore guy.

The real botch guy, it's the title there.

And definitely give me a follow over there.

I would really appreciate it.

And yeah, let's talk some Wrestlemania backlash.

I love the pause there.

Yeah, let's talk some backlash here.

And overall, I would say, and you and I

were talking a little bit off the air here, that it was just

kind of a solid clean show is how you put it.

I think that's a good way to put it, too.

It was just kind of there.

And there were some standout matches.

Nothing was particularly terrible, although I

have some thoughts about the army of the dead.

That'll be coming shortly.

What did you think generally about this pay-per-view?

Is kind of looking at high level.

I think the best way to describe this pay-per-view, honestly,

is balanced.

I think it was a very well balanced show with good matches,

nothing overly surprising, very predictable, but entertaining.

Honestly, it was kind of nice as a YouTuber

to just kind of be able to watch the show instead

of creating a ton of content for it,

because it was one of those shows where nothing was like,

oh, I have to make a video on it, but at the same time,

I really did enjoy this show.

The zombie stuff was, I will talk about it.

It was something.

Yeah, I have some feelings on that,

but we'll get to that in just a couple minutes.

But first, of course, we had the kickoff match.

It was Shemus and Ricochet and Shemus beat Ricochet.

Again, it's kind of telling a board

of the United States championship is sitting right now

in the eyes of WWE's pecking order

that it's on the kickoff show, so there's that.

But in the proper show of the start out

with the Raw Women's Championship, rear-ripply versus Asuka

versus Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match.

And guys, don't worry if you don't understand the rules

of the triple threat match, WWE is there every time

to make sure that you know that the champion

can lose the belt without actually being involved

in the decision, I know it's confusing,

and they don't really make it clear.

Yeah, I'm very glad that they were there to clear things up

because every time they have these matches,

I'm like, what are the rules, right?

Because it's so confusing.

So, of course, we get the outcome here

of rear-ripply defeating or winning the match

and getting the pinfall after kind of a weird ending

of Charlotte Flair not interfering to break up the pin,

but it was explained by Corey Graves

that the reason she didn't come in to break the pin

is she fell off the apron from her kick.

I didn't see it, it was weird.

But I guess I'll toss it to you for the details

in terms of how you like the match

and you agree with the outcome.

Well, first of all, Adnan Burke, he had about seven,

oh my, that happened in that match, you know what?

I'm sure he's a super nice guy.

I'm sure he's a lovely Canadian there.

And, you know, I'm sure he does his job very, very well

when it comes to backstage stuff and like news,

but my God, man, it's been enough time now

where I can honestly say he doesn't have the charisma

to be a play-by-play guy for the WWE.

In my personal opinion, I think he's doing fine,

but it's just there's nothing there, in my opinion.

So sorry, Adnan, I don't mean to hate on you right there,

buddy, big fan of your other stuff,

but not so much as a play-by-play guy.

As for the match, I thought it was a really good match.

Nice, nice back and forth between Flaria and Charlotte there.

I liked kind of the spots on the outside.

I thought that was nice, good flurry of strikes as well.

Some nice armbar spots I thought were pretty,

kind of set up pretty well there.

I will say this, I was a big fan of kind of the setup

where they had with, what was the double natural selection

there?

I thought that was really well done.

Some funny twists and turns with Asuka to get the double pin

with Charlotte there, I think that was kind of weird,

but I thought Charlotte Flaria just continues.

She has so much talent, man.

And all these girls are obviously crazy talented,

but Charlotte Flaria, I thought she was gonna do

another corkscrew off the top, she likes to do the moonsault,

but I thought she was gonna pull a corkscrew.

I just, I feel like, I don't think,

okay, I know this is controversial.

People give Charlotte the credit she really deserves

because she does have a significant presence

whenever she has a match over other wrestlers.

And as for the finish, I think it was just

the camera guy screwed up because there was the big kick,

right?

And then she fell off the apron, I didn't see that either.

So I'm like, so when the three count came,

I was like really expecting Charlotte

to kind of stop it and it never happened.

So I was a little surprised there,

but I am happy with the real Ripley winning.

You gotta keep regrettable and the only way

to keep regrettable is keep that title on us for now.

So I'm okay with it.

I like the match, I thought it was a solid B.

Yeah, it was what you would have hoped

that these three women could put on.

I mean, looking at regardless of the storyline,

which is kind of a funky storyline with Ria and Asuka

and Charlotte, I think all three women,

as you said, are insanely talented

and they did put on a match that you would expect.

It didn't blow me away, but they didn't disappoint either.

It was kind of like, okay, yeah, that's what I thought it would be.

And it was very good.

And yeah, the ending, as you said,

probably a camera angle fail by the cameraman

because I don't see any of the reason

and it was told to Cory Graves who set it on air.

I'm like, oh, okay, I get it now.

So that's fine.

And yeah, I also noticed that Charlotte Flair's gear

was trending on Twitter.

Her gear was an homage to Corello de Ville.

She was wearing like the patch black and white.

So that was actually a supposed to be kind of a cue

to Corello de Ville, the villain.

So it was a very, it wasn't lost on Twitter,

which I didn't actually pick up on until I saw it.

So yeah, I actually had that in my,

because I do this series called Digi Catched.

I did not post it actually yet.

I'm not sure if I'm going to still post it

because I have some other stuff to do,

but I actually had that in there.

I also have, if you don't know,

the Rey Mysterio was actually dressed up as Batman's old comic.

Oh, man, okay.

Well, okay, I missed that completely.

See, that's your, you're more observant than I am

with that kind of stuff.

And so that's the job I know, I know, I know, I know,

certainly you do it well.

But yeah, I guess this match was fine.

And in rear-lipply winning, I actually picked Charlotte

to win this.

So I was wrong, rear-lipply retained.

And you know what, if you're going to have a WrestleMania

championship change hands,

like the Raw Women's Championship,

you want it to mean something and not just have it dropped

the next paper view.

I think that would have sent the wrong message now

that I think about it, would have sent the wrong message

to the women's division.

And yeah, you're right.

I don't think Charlotte Flair does get the credit she deserves.

There are times though, during her career

or last several years where it feels like Charlotte overload

where she's always in a title picture, always in your face.

She was like a double champion at one point

and it reaches a point of just too much Charlotte.

And her injury that had happened was to me last year

perfectly timed.

Don't think you want to see a talent get injured.

But to me, it was like I need a break from Charlotte

and it came in a perfect time.

And when she came back, it was just like a breath of fresh air.

She is clearly the alpha female of the women's division.

And whether the women there like it or not,

I'm sure there's some true friction there

between Charlotte and the women in the locker room

where they feel that she always gets the opportunity.

She's always here in the spotlight,

but she's deserving.

She's got a presence.

She is superior in the ring.

She's improved on the mic.

She's reinvented herself.

She's got, I know she's straightening her hair now

and she's got new makeup and new outfits.

That kind of stuff makes a difference.

She has really just become the true Charlotte Flair now.

I don't know, I'm loving it.

I have no problem with Charlotte Flair here,

not involved in the decision.

It protects her and remains champion.

Yeah, I think you cleared it up pretty perfectly there.

All right, well, let's move on.

Ray Mysterio and Dominic, who was injured,

but we all knew what was going to happen.

I think this one, you know,

out of all the matches seemed one of the matches

that seemed sort of predictable,

given circumstances and given the struggle,

the baby face that they have to overcome

and you have Dominic who's injured

and you know what's going to happen.

He's going to come out, WWE loves to make their history.

So you knew going in that there's a very high chance

of the Mysterios becoming tag team champions.

So once again, Mr. Batch guy, take it away on this.

First of all, it's pretty predictable.

What he got injured, I'm like,

oh, he's going to get to do the Brock Lesnar thing

where he's just going to come back

on the last second and pull out the win.

And of course, that's exactly what happened.

I don't know, I really don't have too much affection.

I'm not affection, I don't know what the word I'm using.

We're here.

I'm going to be like excitement for the match itself,

except for obviously the ending and the finish.

I would actually more prefer to hear what you thought

about the match overall, because I do want to talk

about the finish, but as for the match itself,

I don't know, I'm curious what you thought about it.

The match itself, I thought was, you know what?

I thought it was good.

I think it was really a tribute to how good Ray Mysterio

has been.

It's like he's frozen in time.

Ray Mysterio has barely lost a step,

and he has been in the ring for like 20 plus years.

This guy has just will not age.

He is still almost as good as he once was.

And I think that him in this quote,

Hannecat match for about 75% of the match was good.

I could do without the kickout of Finisher's constantly.

This is kind of just a running scene

throughout almost every show.

And the first three out of four matches,

you had kickouts of Finisher's.

And it's like, you know, have we all just become complacent

to kickouts of Finisher's?

Have we all just kind of said, eh, well, it's expected?

We shouldn't feel that way, but here's my opinion quickly.

I feel like the super kick, I'm not talking about kickouts,

but like the super kick, I feel like every wrestler

should have signature moves that no one touches.

And I believe a super kick should be a finisher,

and not a set up mover, or even a close-pin move.

I think I feel like so many wrestlers

are doing the suicide dives and the super kicks

and make some, the value these moves so significantly,

especially when Ziggler goes and does it so well.

It like, that could be used as a finisher,

but because so many people use it nowadays,

it really makes the move weaker.

And that's just something I want to just quickly bring up.

No, I couldn't agree more that those types of things.

I mean, look at the DDT.

The DDT used to be a finish, and it's just a transition move.

And same with the super kick, it's a transition move.

Everyone does it.

If someone actually kicks you the way that they're trying

to make you believe they're kicking that person,

it's a knockout shot, and it should be.

I mean, it was Sean Michaels finish,

and it should remain that way.

If Ziggler wants to, you know, apply that finish

to his own fine, but keep it a finish,

it should not be transitional.

It's, you know, that it's never going to end a match,

and it should.

I mean, I could go on a rant about that whole thing,

and like you said, suicide dives over use of it,

and Braun Strowman doing things that,

while it's insane, we'll get to his match,

I don't think he should just because he can,

but anyway, I think that, yeah, this match was fine.

And I'm fine with the materials winning,

and the reason I'm fine with it is because

it's ultimately setting up for the Usos

to challenge the materials probably in the next month

or sooner, and gain those championships

so that the bloodline, although it's not labeled as such,

have all the gold.

And I think that's exactly what this is set up to do.

It's fine for the father and son moment,

and it's a feel good moment,

and they can dub some nice, you know,

harmonic music over this,

and some documentary of the first other father

and son tag team champions, fine.

Whatever, I really, yeah.

Did you not like that, though?

No, it's cool.

It's cool, I have no problem with it.

Like, but like you said,

I have very little emotional investment

towards the materials.

Like I'm just kind of like, okay.

Like I just, I'm, I'm misnistagic towards Ray.

Dominic does nothing for me on the mic or as a presence.

He's good in the ring,

but Dominic to me has been completely detached from me.

Like I'm just, he's just there for me anyway.

So it was a cool moment.

I mean, if you're actually thinking about it,

and I'm a father now,

so I'm kind of like, yeah, that would be pretty damn cool.

So I get it, I get it, but yeah, so.

Yeah, I love the moment.

I thought I did not need to get reminded every 30 seconds

that it was the history making moment.

Like how many times they're in the match and they say,

do you know if that the, the materials win here?

It's the father's son.

Hey, did you know that if they win here,

this is history demanding?

Oh, did you know that a Dominic material?

Do you know he's the son of Ray Mysterio?

But by the way, I agree wholeheartedly

that Ray has not lost a step.

Like it's insane.

Like I, he might be the most consistent worker

in WWE history, and I'm not even exaggerating.

I truly think he might be.

As for the ending, yeah, I thought it was great.

I really enjoyed the ending.

I never even thought about it with the whole bloodline thing.

And now it makes all the sense in the world.

So yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay with that.

I'm perfectly fine with that.

And one last thing I'll say on this match before we move on

is you know that there's a problem with finishers

being kicked out of and the fans expecting it too.

But now even the wrestlers are expecting it too.

The reason I say that is when Mysterio

who had gotten his ass kicked for the majority of the match,

gets a zigzag right in front of his son.

His son doesn't even come to save him for the three count.

He goes, eh, it's a finish, he'll kick out.

I mean, it was like the lamest trying to come in

to save him from a three count ever.

And he just looks at him and he goes,

oh, well, I guess that's either,

that's gonna be the end of the match

or he's gonna kick out.

I mean, that is one thing I'm like, dude,

why do you just stand in there?

Go break up the count.

So I don't know, that's just one thing.

But it's a cool moment for them.

And I'm sure in real life that they are truly like,

you know, over the moon about this.

And I'm sure that they are, they are as close as I believe.

They're showing us that they are on camera behind the scene.

So it is a cool moment, you know, I'm happy for them.

Okay, Damien Priest, oh God, help me.

Damien Priest versus the Miz in a lumberjack match.

Johnny, I don't even wanna say it.

I hate saying Johnny dripped up.

John Morrison goes back and goes to the lumberjack room.

Apparently they give all the lumberjacks a name tag now.

They just, they all just hang out in the room.

When he opens the door, who's there?

Well, I don't know if it's the cast of the Walking Dead

or part of the cast of some kind of zombie apocalypse movie.

Or, I mean, we all know what it is.

Army of the Dead, Batista is obviously

starring in that movie.

And that's the reason, I guess, why they did this.

And I'll be at the makeup was fine.

I'm gonna pause, what did you make of this match

and the army of the dead surrounding the ring

with this is the fog and all that.

Hey, that was the most elaborate commercial.

I have ever seen on a paper view in my entire life.

Okay, let's say hypothetically, I am 10 years older or younger.

I think that would be the greatest segment I have ever seen

in WWE history.

I've been so cool seeing all the zombies and all that stuff.

Unfortunately, I am a 35 year old boomer now.

So maybe I don't get it.

I think it was trying to be fun and I guess it was fun.

But the entire time I was thinking,

if you're a casual like watcher and let's just say you're

at a bar even though right now, COVID probably not.

But just say you're at a bar, they have the wrestling on.

And you see a bunch of these zombies attack wrestlers

in the middle of the ring.

Or if you're watching it and someone walks by,

it's not a wrestling fan.

Hey, watch this wrestling.

This is great.

And then they see this.

Like, what do you think their opinion will be?

You know what I mean?

Like, it was so ridiculous.

It wasn't so bad that it was good.

Like, I don't even know what to even think.

I think it made a mockery out of wrestling,

but at the same time, it was so bad.

I kind of enjoyed it.

I have no idea, man.

I want to go off on a tangent on this.

But I don't, I've seen, remember the old day?

The old day.

Yeah, remember the new day?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then story of life with Bailey.

I think those were worse than that.

But I think because it was a commercial, basically,

that was on live TV, I think that's what made

maybe this worse.

Like, I don't know, man, I thought it was ridiculous.

I don't know how to get in here.

You hear your rant here.

OK, so I've had time to cool off.

And I know that some of our listeners

have waited valiantly for me to just completely

destroy this segment.

And I'm ready for this.

I bought my drink ready for this.

So go, go off.

I'll save my rants for future stuff, but I'm ready for it.

I'll sit back and do my stuff.

OK, so here's what I thought.

First of all, let me dampen people's expectations

by saying, is this the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling?

The answer's no.

I've seen worse things in wrestling.

Certainly worse things.

Because this wasn't an actual angle, OK?

This was not somebody trying to make a segment good.

This, as you said, was just one long-in commercial.

And it was for the army of the dead.

And Bailey, this is your life, I think, was worse.

Because that was not meant to be bad.

That was actually meant to be part of a storyline.

Katie Vick, not meant to be bad, but it was awful.

There have been many worse things.

Now, that said, like you mentioned,

if you had a friend over, right?

And they were like watching it with you

and you were like, hey, just give this wrestling thing a chance.

And they see this.

They're going to look at you and go, you can't be.

You actually watch this crap?

Like, that's what a friend would say to you.

A true friend that would go, dude, I can't watch this.

That you seriously watch it.

It would be embarrassing as a true fan of wrestling

to try to introduce somebody else to wrestling.

And go, yeah, man, this is great, isn't it?

It is just a complete and utter embarrassment

for WWE to bring them into a match.

It was bad enough when I saw them in their, quote,

lumberjack backstage room, which apparently,

again, they have their own name tag now.

And they're all just hanging out,

waiting for some kind of life form to come in

so they can all just devour them.

I don't know.

And then they followed Morrison to the ring.

That's what I said, oh, no.

Like, it was bad enough seeing them backstage.

When I saw them on the move and escape from the room

and they're moving around, I really didn't know what to do.

At that point, my body temperature was rising significantly.

And I said, I know what they're going to do.

I know what they're going to do.

It's sure enough, sure as hell.

The ring gets surrounded by smoke.

They're coming out for those Game of Thrones.

Let me say that again.

Game of Thrones fans, which my wife and I

are actually watching for the third time,

I felt like I needed to just come in there

with fire or dragging glass and just take these people out.

Because it was an embarrassment of just, on another level

that you said it looked like it was so bad that it's good.

But that only applies to very specific situations.

There are things that are so bad that they're good.

But then there are things more often than that

that are so bad that they are really bad.

This was really bad because yes, it

was involved in a Damien Prismiz match, which really nobody

gives a damn about the outcome.

Let's be honest, no one really cares.

I couldn't find anybody that was emotionally invested

in that match.

So at least they buried it in the least important match possible

on the top.

Let me say this quickly.

They completely overshadowed Damien Prist

is a laughing stock now completely in the WWE.

Let's see, he teams up a bad body and bad body is amazing.

And no one talks about Damien Prist.

And now he's doing this thing.

And now everybody's going to be talking about how

the Miz got eaten by zombies.

Like zombies.

Well, I didn't even get to that part yet.

So yeah, no, no, no, no, this is what makes me really

wonder, like I'm 36.

So I'm like, hey, what am I doing with my life?

Why am I watching this right now?

I don't know who they were trying to appeal to other than,

hey, we got a whole bunch of money from this movie studio.

And we got around this promotion.

Like let's just do it.

Or Vince is like, dammit, you know what would be great

if they were the lumberjacks.

And he, you know, it comes up with this idea.

Instead of just having them backstage in an area

that I could at least tolerate them in.

Then we get, of course, the finish.

And Damien Prist goes over fine as we expected.

You know, that's not a surprise.

But then of course they come in.

The zombies come in to devour the Miz.

And they just, just basically lay on him, right?

Like they just lay on him.

They just kind of keep him warm.

They're all huddling together.

Like it's cold and they're keeping him safe.

It was putrid.

It was eye rolling.

It was bad.

It was every adjective that I can think of.

That's a four letter word that I can't say on my show.

It was embarrassing.

It was flat out embarrassing.

So I have nothing else to say about this.

And hopefully Damien Prist.

Damien Prist, like you said, to me is the collateral damage

of the last several months.

Damien Prist, every time I see him,

I just don't get a good feeling anymore.

Because he's involved in so much garbage.

The Miz you know, the Miz is always involved

in this kind of stuff.

It kind of goes hand in hand with his career.

But Damien Prist, who just essentially got called up,

I feel for him.

Um, how long until one of the zombies

become the 24-7 champion?

Stop.

Stop.

And how about our truth makes a zombie faction?

And then he can be the leader of the,

and then he's the leader with the 24-7 champion, huh?

Stop.

No, the problem is you're going to give somebody an idea

and then Vince is going to run with it, right?

Like somebody's listening right now.

It's interesting for sure.

Yeah.

We haven't seen our truth in a while.

That'd be hilarious.

Wouldn't it be our truth carrying the championship?

And they're all just dragging themselves towards our truth

to try, no, no, no, no, no.

I mean, it was clearly, I would hope, local talent

that were in the Tampa area.

That I don't think so, man.

No zombies look like they did a great, like I saw.

They make up what's good.

They looked way too good, like I saw zombies,

like the way their mannerisms were.

They took bumps.

I see.

Hey, baby, they want to say maybe they asked which ones

you guys want to take a bump on a paper review, right?

Honestly, the zombie lumberjacks had a more credible push

than the retribution that, to be honest,

like, I feel like I don't know, man.

One of them looked like Ellen DeGeneres.

There's another one that looked like Zelda,

or sorry, like Elvis.

Oh, Elvis, I saw the dead Elvis, yes.

I don't know what to, I don't really know what to say anymore.

This is, yeah, I mean, honestly,

but should I really be surprised, though?

That's the thing.

I saw this and I wasn't really surprised

because what do they do with a lot of the cinematic matches

over the pandemic era?

Like, I mean, I was not a fan of the majority of them

because they were just so out of touch to me

and not my style of wrestling.

So I think they took that cinematic part

and they were like, oh, cool.

We can bring it to life and make it actually in ring.

And they were salivating at that opportunity.

And I, you know, I shouldn't be surprised

given all the, the hoax focus nonsense that they did.

And, uh, okay, I mean, I will say,

the probably the worst thing I've ever seen

if someone's asking the worst match I've ever seen on TV

that was absolutely embarrassing.

You don't have to go back too far.

To me, it was last year's money in the bank

when they scaled the corporate ladder

and they were in the headquarters.

Maybe you feel differently.

To me, that was the absolute abomination

of wrestling at so many levels.

I don't even wanna begin with that match.

Yes.

I like that match.

Oh, I will, I can't throw it on the roof.

Stuff wasn't the great.

Well, no, it didn't.

Yeah, so many threw Rey Mysterio off the roof

and like no one even talked about it.

I think one of them got thrown off the roof

and they were, they were there next, uh, next episode.

I might deny you're all or whatever.

The next one were all, they said that he got on the edge

of the, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

Yeah, the way that he got thrown off.

No.

Oh my God.

Okay, let's move on because this was,

this was just, this got awful.

Okay, something that was not got awful.

The SmackDown Women's Championship,

Bianca Belair, of course, Defeats Bailey

and I don't think that was a surprise either.

The thing with this card, you look up and down,

there was a lot of predictable outcomes

and they didn't do a whole lot to swear of you either,

which is fine.

I don't need to be swerved every time

if it's not the right move.

And Bianca Belair Defeats Bailey

and I thought was a very good match.

Was it as good as Sasha Banks in Bianca?

I don't think so.

But it was, it was good.

I really, really liked this match.

I think probably more than most,

but I thought that they were,

they had good chemistry

given that they haven't been on a big stage together before.

Bianca Belair was put over like a million bucks.

The announcers were telling,

reminding us how great her stamina is

and that she, her cardiovascular,

all these things about just putting her over

and that's their job, that's fine.

And so Bianca Belair again shows you

how she can rise to the occasion in a big moment.

Yes, there was the botch at the end with her hair.

Now, even if that botch didn't happen,

which I think is really one of the only botches of the show

is that, you know,

do you want Bianca Belair using something like that,

even if the botch didn't happen

and it went cleanly to win the match

and they could say,

all turn abouts fair play.

Yeah, but it's her own hair.

I mean, you're not,

I don't know.

I mean, I guess the equivalent would be,

you're opponents trying to pull your tights

so you reverse it and pull their tights

and get the victory.

It's still kind of underhanded to do,

but I understand the logic.

However, it is kind of a tainted victory

with Bianca Belair.

But overall, I really like this match.

I don't have any complaints about it.

What about you?

I think that was Bianca Belair's best match in the WWE.

I truly believe that was,

she did a great job.

She's getting better.

She's getting better every single match,

getting more confident in the ring.

I thought Bailey was, you know, taunting really well there

and playing the veteran role quite well.

And Bailey's a good talent now, man.

She's really becoming,

she's kind of becoming like the miz of the females, no?

Like she can kind of be put anywhere around

and do really well.

And, you know, I can see her in comedy stuff

and I can see her in serious stuff.

So I'm a big fan of what Bailey's doing

and Bianca looked great.

The ending was weird.

I understand what they were trying to do,

use the hair to kind of make a dirty finish for Bianca,

but I thought they got enough of the hair

so it wasn't really worth.

Like I didn't make a video on it on my YouTube channel

or my Twitter or anything like that.

So it's not like it was that bad.

I thought it was just like kind of sloppy more than anything.

But I also agree like there's not too much to say about it.

Another, I hear you, he wore it again.

Ready?

Balanced match, another balanced match.

Yeah, though, they should have just renamed this

to WrestleMania balance.

I mean, like it was, this was a,

just a kind of buying the numbers pay-per-view.

I mean, it was just kind of there.

It was fine.

We've seen way worse.

We've seen way better.

It's just kind of like cool, okay, cool pay-per-view.

Let's move on.

I don't think this is a pay-per-view.

Anyone's gonna rewatch.

Maybe with the exception of a match or two,

this may be one of them.

This was really good.

And it does remind you that Bailey is a top tier contender,

even if she's not gonna grab that championship

probably for some time.

And we've seen Bailey.

We know her 300 plus day reign.

She's a made woman.

And now she's just trying to adapt and evolve.

And she's done it with even frizzing up her hair,

something like that, adding the laughing to her character,

changing a little bit of the outfit she's wearing.

Like little things like that and the taunting,

like you said, those little nuances make all the difference

to make it her character feel a little bit fresh.

And like you said, she can play multiple roles.

I expect her to be probably still in the championship picture

given the outcome of this match.

She's gonna be complaining about on Smackdown.

And did you see what she did?

She legally used her hair.

I mean, so she's got a gripping point

that'll spill into Hell in a Cell, I think.

So any final thoughts before we move on

to the two main events?

No, that's good.

All right.

The WWE Championship match Bobby Lashley

versus Braun Strowman versus Drew McIntyre.

And again, one of these very confusing rules here

with triple threat rules.

But go ahead, I'll let you take this one first.

Well, it was interesting, kind of confusing.

I know, once again, they did the whole,

I got injured, I'm gonna disappear

and then come back again, which was, I thought, again,

the word of the day, you ready?

Another balanced affair, I thought,

every competitor looked strong.

I, you know, Braun Strowman,

when they want him to look decent,

they can do a good job.

The only problem I have with him is like,

he has no gimmick right now.

And I feel like he kind of needs one.

And I know this whole choo-choo train thing

is kind of going on with him.

But I don't know.

I just feel like he doesn't really have a gimmick right now.

And I feel like he could go much further with a gimmick.

I don't know what.

I'll ask WWE Creative to ask what kind of zombie character

he wants to be for the Monday Night Raw.

He's gonna kill me.

He's gonna kill me, but honestly, definitely,

definitely think something there.

Drew McIntyre, man, he did a lot of power spots,

more than usual.

He had his, what was that move that he hit?

The Mitchanoku driver, right?

Yeah, he had a Mitchanoku driver on Strowman.

And he made it look so easy, too.

The stalling two flex with brawl.

Yeah, the stalling, that was nice as well.

Of course, the spot, you know, with the whole LED lights.

How many times we see that?

Okay, remember the first time we saw it

when they went through, not the first time,

but the first time since Angle and Shane McMahon

kind of through each other.

Like, when we remember when Braun speared someone through it,

the very first time they stopped the match and everything,

man, I was so crazy, I remember.

And then they've done that spot like five times after that.

And it's just every time they do that spot,

it's just, it's not as fun to watch.

It's like, I've seen it already.

I've seen it, it stopped doing the same thing over and over.

It's the barricade breaks, breaking,

and it just tries something different

and people will react differently, too.

I guess they're being safe right now

because of course, there's no fans in the building, right?

So they could basically do whatever the hell they want

and pump in whatever sound effects they want, right?

So I did like that there was a holy S-chat

in the middle of the match.

I thought that was piped in pretty well.

So we had to go Vince on that one, for sure.

I don't know if the crowd was doing it,

but I think it was piped in.

I thought it was a good solid match.

Of course, the ending with Bobby, I don't know.

Like, another predictable ending.

I don't, a balanced, I don't know, 8-10, the same thing.

Yeah, yeah, that, you know what?

And I'm not two to buy in Horn,

but I will say that even the exact finish,

not only who was gonna win, but I called the exact finish

of how the match would end given the circumstances of this.

And you don't, you were trying to protect Mac and Tyre.

Strowman was there to take the fall.

Lashley was gonna come in, take advantage, hit the spear,

and goodnight the lights.

And that's exactly what happened and that's fine.

I think that was the right move.

But first of all, you're right about Braun Strowman.

I've been saying this for many, many, many weeks now,

that Braun Strowman is extremely one-dimensional.

He's a guy that's just angry about everything all the time.

Everything angers him.

He's always yelling, he's always sweating.

I mean, can we just move on from the monster among men

or not 180 degrees, but for God's sakes.

I mean, at least he changed his, you know,

two tight army type of camo outfit that he was wearing.

I mean, I'll get, that's good.

He changed it to like a tank top and, you know,

I don't know if we were on tights or jeans or what.

But that is good.

But man, does he need something to latch onto?

He's so one-dimensional.

At the same time, he's really good in the ring.

He's gotten in himself in amazing shape.

If you look, when he first debuted in the Wyatt family,

how heavy he was to now, the guy has busted his ass

to get himself in shape.

I can't take anything away from him.

He's done such a nice job of getting himself in shape.

And his promo work is fine.

It doesn't blow me away.

It's not awful.

It's just kind of like, it's serviceable.

And I just feel like Strowman needs something.

And he doesn't have that third or,

even second dimension, he's just this monster.

You look at him and you go, okay,

who's he gonna, you know, power slam?

Who's he gonna scream at?

Who's he gonna put through a table?

And that's all superficial stuff.

I want something deeper with Braun Strowman

because I don't feel anything for him.

Other than he's a great talent

who can do more than he should,

given his size.

And he has a lot of potential.

And I'm not saying that again,

he shouldn't be in a title picture,

but I just feel like he's very one dimensional.

Then that said, I will say with Braun Strowman,

just because he can do something, should he do something?

You know, they were trying to mimic

the current WWE style of what, you know,

lighter guys in, say the light heavyweight division

if there is such a thing or guys that are like 200 pounds

or, you know, in 171.80 range.

They're doing things that, do they really need to do it?

Just because you can, you know,

I want to see a different style of wrestling

and not just mimic the typical, quote,

WWE style we see today with, like,

well, they mentioned who driver was actually really cool,

but Braun Strowman jumping off the top

or open doing like a summer salt dive on somebody.

I mean, crazy stuff like that.

It's, oh my God, moments,

but when you dig deeper and go,

but do I really want to see that from Braun Strowman?

I, does every match have to feel the same?

I don't want every match to feel the same.

So there is that,

but I guess it depends on how you look at it.

As far as the spot with Bobby Lashley,

yeah, I mean, we've seen it a hundred million times.

The pyro goes off.

Apparently he's supposedly electrocuted,

which Ashley's not the case, but he goes off

and you're trying, you're trying to forget about him.

Or at least that's the objective.

The WWE is trying to get you to just forget about,

oh, he's out of the ring, he's out of the match.

And you get your one-on-one

and it ended up being Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre

beating the holy hell out of one another.

And he hits the Claymore, McIntyre does.

Of course, Ashley gives in.

Boom, hits the spear as Drew wasn't involved in the decision

and Bobby Lashley retains.

It's the right move.

And more importantly, the best thing out of this whole thing

is McIntyre gets away from the title picture.

He desperately needs also to change his mission up.

Do something beyond the WWE Championship

because we've seen him chase it for like 18 months now.

Like I'm kind of over him going after the championship.

So do you feel the same way or no?

Well, like isn't that kind of, like, indication,

I don't know, that's not a word, right?

Indicative?

That's the word I'm looking for.

Of where Drew McIntyre is right now.

Like we don't want to see him in the title picture anymore.

Like he's doing a good job, but it's just

I feel like a misdirection would be quite a nice for him.

So I agree with what you're saying.

It's just, I'm kind of not sick and tired of seeing him

in the title picture, but I feel like a change of pace

would be nice as well.

So I definitely agree with you spot on

and man, that Roman Reigns guy.

I don't think Drew McIntyre is at that level yet.

And we will talk about him right now, man.

Yeah, let's go.

Let's go, man.

Man, oh man.

You can start this fire off.

All right, so I'm sure there will be things that I miss

and you can certainly tag on everything you have to say.

Okay, this match, man, oh man, like you said,

Cesaro came to play.

And I'll say, concluding this match with everything

that happened, certainly Cesaro will be waking up

tomorrow morning or this morning, actually for me,

as it's past almost 1 a.m. here, but he'll be waking up going,

oh, I mean, he is going to be sore.

So I know that he's super human, super human strength,

the guy's a machine, but he took a beating

from everyone in that match.

And no one came to help him, by the way,

like nobody came to help him, you know, this was a,

this was indicative to steal your word of WWE

needing a massive baby face.

And they need somebody to counter Roman Reigns.

They don't have that person right now.

And so they, it's like a glaring hole.

They don't have that top guy that you're like,

oh man, I can't wait till he faces him.

There's nobody right now.

Nobody, okay, yeah, Drew's on a different brand.

There's nobody, okay, Biggie.

Well, Biggie's not ready yet.

Biggie is probably going to be summer slam or beyond.

It's just, there's nobody left.

Daniel Bryan's gone.

Cesaro, they're trying to make, and that's fine.

They're trying to get him to that level.

But it's just, that was, I was waiting for like,

you know, that glass breaking moment

when Stone Cold would come out to make the save

or something and nothing happened.

No one came to Cesaro's aid.

But this match itself was so good.

Cesaro, the chain wrestling,

the submission into submission into reversal.

The, all of it, oh my God.

Cesaro, I mean, I give this match an A.

I mean, it was so good from both ends.

It not just Cesaro, but Roman Reigns.

Who has shown you that the days of him being

that limited kind of video game version of a wrestler

that even I made fun of at the time several years ago

is long, long gone.

His music is awesome.

His presence is spot on.

Paul Hammond adds a lot to his character as well.

And he beat, Roman, he beat Cesaro clean.

This was not a tainted Joso, Jimmy Uso, Conundrum

of who's gonna, who's loyalty where lies.

Where this was straight up Roman Reigns defeating Cesaro.

And that's fine.

I don't always need a heel to cheat to win.

You can still be an S-O-B and win clean.

That's still the thing.

And Roman Reigns, I think, adds credibility.

Also Cesaro won in the loss here.

I don't think anyone really expected Cesaro to win,

but Cesaro still won in this loss.

Jay comes out, super kick Cesaro.

Seth Rollins, which I totally forgot about.

I mean, I really forgot about him until his music hit

coming down with that like spilled paint jacket.

I mean, I don't even want to call it.

He's coming out in the most ridiculous outfit.

Yeah, like, I don't know where he gets his attire.

Seth Rollins comes out in the most idiotic, hilarious outfits

you've ever seen.

And Smiles at Roman, in the moment I said,

oh boy, are they trying to turn Seth Rollins' baby face here?

And they didn't thank God.

And he just attacks Cesaro, which is inevitably going to lead

to a hell of a sell match.

You would think at the next pay-per-view.

But this match was really good.

Seth Rollins added another bruiser too to Cesaro

with the stomp and with the arm and the chair,

which was brutal, twisting the arm man.

Man-o-man, really everyone involved here.

Wow.

Wow, that was good.

That was really good, Matt, by the way.

I just want to mention that.

OK, I'm sorry.

No, you're so passionate about it.

I loved it.

I was just sitting back drinking my Coke.

I'm like, this is fantastic.

It's good time to head straight.

I love it.

I just let you know right off the bat.

I didn't believe that if you could have a clean finish

and to make Cesaro look good, and they did it.

They made Cesaro look like an absolute star,

and he lost clean.

When was the last time we saw that happen?

That, well, Cesaro looked like a million dollars, like you said.

Like he was, he's at another level now.

I am looking at him differently than I looked at him before.

And I've never looked at him this way.

I've always thought he had all the talent in the world.

But I truly believe that he is at another planet right now.

I just think he would be a complete shame

if he's out of this picture completely.

I hope they do something, maybe triple threat here

with Roman and Seth and Cesaro.

And then you could have Seth take the pin, right?

And then you have Roman Reigns survive.

Maybe Cesaro can win the next paper of year or something.

I don't know.

But I thought Cesaro was amazing, man.

And just the way that, like I said, chain wrestling, man.

There was such great chain wrestling.

I just love the mannerisms Roman Reigns does.

The way they sold the arm, the right arm.

Like he was selling that for little punches.

Like he wasn't able to pick up anything.

Like it was such good selling.

He made it look like he was legitimately her.

And it's just a natural talent with him with Cesaro.

I love that.

It took multiple guillotines to take him out.

He got out of the first one.

I love that he didn't tap.

I love that he kind of just went out, you know, strong.

I can't believe it was a clean finish just because of all

the storylines that was attached to this for so long.

So it's kind of shocking to me that it was a clean ending.

But at the same time is because of how good the match was,

I'm okay with it.

And I thought it was just a great match.

Now, as for Jimmy and Jay, nothing happened with them, right?

Like there was no, I guess they're going to continue that

on Monday Night Raw basically.

But Roman Reigns looked even stronger now, right?

Because he got his win by himself, right?

So I don't know, man.

And Seth Rollins coming out, you said like you're hoping

for a baby fair or if I got it, wasn't a baby face?

Oh my god, like I, when I was coming out,

I thought he was joining with Roman Reigns,

like legitimately joining the crew somehow,

like the family, because they're shield members in the past.

But cut the thick of it now.

I would have loved the face turned there.

Can you imagine Seth coming out, walking up the thick of Cesaro?

And then like attacking Roman Reigns with, I don't know,

a super kick that I told you not to do.

But oh my god, now you're making me think.

I don't know, but the ending, I thought it was okay.

A balance, I guess.

I'm satisfied at the end of the show.

But again, I thought there was going to be some more shenanigans,

something bigger happening.

So I don't know.

This paper, if you were looking for surprises,

big returns and oh my god, moments,

you would have been sadly disappointed from this paper.

But not every paper you has to have that.

I think sometimes we have unrealistic expectations as fans.

But it's funny.

I don't know if you caught it on what was it?

Last Friday when Michael Cole called,

he actually called Cesaro an upstart.

He actually called, he labeled Cesaro as an upstart.

I'm not kidding.

And I'm like, Cole, what's your definition of upstart?

I mean, the guy's been in WWE for 10 years.

He's been wrestling for 15, 20 years.

What the hell is it, have we redefined what upstart means?

So I don't know if that was just a miscommunication in his part,

but nonetheless, the little thing that you mentioned,

and I think such a big deal is Roman Reigns during the match.

You know, when guys are in a match,

99% of the time, they're just in the moment.

They're in the word about the moves and the kickouts and everything.

Roman is emotionally there throughout the match.

What I mean by that is what you said,

where he is, he's making facial expressions, he's laughing.

He's saying things under his breath that the mic is picking up.

That kind of stuff, it makes you feel like you're not supposed to hear it,

and it makes it more real,

where they don't have a microphone in their hand.

It's just the audio from the camera that catches it.

That stuff that he does, no one else is doing in their match.

I mean, Roman Reigns is, it's throughout,

one of the things he said, what was it?

You don't belong here, or I told you man,

this is what was going to happen.

Just trash talking throughout the match in an authentic way.

Smiling, all that kind of stuff that is really,

I think, missed on a lot of matches in professional wrestling is such a big deal.

And it adds to the emotional investment throughout the match,

because as he does that, you're like,

you want to see Cesaro just punch him right in the face,

and that's emotional investment, man.

So yeah, this was really good.

Yeah, and I will say this,

I'm curious where they're going to take this storyline.

I really don't know what they're going to do here moving forward,

but I am curious what they're going to do here for sure.

And Helena sells next.

They move that up about five months, I think.

I mean, this was supposed to be extreme rules.

So I don't know, maybe, I don't know why they just rebranded it

or removed the pay-per-view up.

I'm trying to think if there was something offensive

that is something about extreme rules

and thinking of politics or current situations.

I'm like, I don't think that's offensive.

So they wanted to move Helena's sell-up

and they did it much earlier this year.

So yeah, I don't know where they're going with this either.

We'll see where Jimmy and J. Usos, Loyalty's lie.

But yeah, so anything else about the pay-per-view

before we close things out here?

No, it's an eight at a 10.

It was a perfectly balanced favor.

How many times did I see that out?

Somebody's keeping count.

I know somebody out there is like doing that.

Someone let me know on Twitter how many times I said it, man,

because I feel like I've said it at least seven times.

But yeah, man, this is a good average.

No, no, no, not average.

It was above average show.

And I think it was above average show.

I'd give it a B minus.

I mean, just B minus.

To me, it wasn't average.

It was, like you said, I'd say slightly above average.

So yeah.

But all right, well, I think we've concluded our conversation.

But Helena's sell is next on June 20th.

But before we go, of course, I want you to let all of our listeners

know where they can find you again on social media

and of course on YouTube.

Well, thank you so much for having me once again.

I always have a blast doing this.

I love doing this every single paid preview.

So thank you so much.

You can find me at botch underscore guy on Twitter.

And my YouTube channel is the botch guy.

Just go ahead over there, give me a sub on there.

And I'm Twitter, of course.

I'm trying to get my Twitter game up there.

I don't know, I'm new here.

I heard it's toxic here.

So you got to help me out with that a little bit there.

And yeah, it's going to be pretty excited

for the next paid preview.

I hope it's a good show.

Absolutely.

So thanks so much.

And we will be talking very soon.

Five weeks goes quick.

I mean, it's been six weeks since WrestleMania.

Five weeks is nothing.

So no problem.