My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 2 - FROM THE TOP ROPE RETURNS

Episode Date: April 1, 2019

Join Robbie Fox and his tag team partner Jared Carrabis on this week's 'From The Top Rope' edition of My Mom's Basement for an extensive WrestleMania 35 preview, prior to which Robbie addresses the Conor McGregor news, recaps UFC Philly, and looks ahead to UFC 239, the company's "International Fight Week" card. Robbie answers your questions at the end of the podcast. Outro Music: "Stand By Me" - OasisYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners. You can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. So thank you to everyone who listened, to everyone who subscribed, rated, reviewed, downloaded, whatever, sent me a message, especially those who sent me messages on Twitter and on Instagram and all over social media saying how excited you were about the podcast, how excited you were about the Dana White interview,

how much you liked the Dana White interview or one of the segments on it. Thank you so much. I can't express my gratitude enough. I know it's like super cheesy to say, but it was truly overwhelming. Like I got so many DMs. I tried to respond to them all. I know I didn't. I'm sorry if I didn't respond to yours.

Just know I am truly so appreciative of everyone that reached out. It meant the world to me. So without further ado, we got to get into this episode, the From the Top Rope Reunion episode where Jared Karabas and I reunited. We sat down and recorded a preview for this year's WrestleMania that I believe is one of the best shows we've ever done. I really had fun editing this. I laughed a lot. I hope you guys do the same. But we got to address some news first. My guy Conor McGregor was in the news a lot this week, and it was not for anything good. He tweeted on Monday night after I was sound asleep. This is 1.18 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. I was sound asleep celebrating the launch of My Mama's Basement. I was so excited. I was like,

man, that couldn't have gone any better. I get such great love and support from you guys. I went to bed early. I woke up to my R2-D2 text tone going bananas like R2-D2 is getting shot on the back of an X-Wing or something. And it's because Conor McGregor tweeted the following. He said, hey guys, quick announcement. I've decided to retire from the sport formerly known as mixed martial art today. I wish all my old colleagues well going forward in competition. I now join my former partners on this venture already in retirement. Proper pina coladas on me, fellas.

This obviously coming out of nowhere. Connor was just saying how much he wanted to get back in the cage, how much he wanted to fight on that July 6th UFC 239 card. And I spoke to Dana, as you guys heard last week, and it sounded like they were pushing to make that happen. Dana all of a sudden says they can't get something together. Conor retires. It very much felt like some sort of negotiating tactic or a power play. Dana responded and said,

Yep, we wish Conor the best. You know, stars come and go. This won't hurt us. And it was very passive-aggressive by both, really, and very immature, I would say, from both sides. One day later, the New York Times comes out and reveals that Conor McGregor is currently being investigated for a sexual assault case in Dublin, Ireland. Now, this was mixed martial arts' worst-kept secret for the past

few months. I've known about this since, I want to say, December 9th or 10th, as have pretty much every journalist or media member or even just fan that really paid close attention over the past few months, and it's real bad stuff. You could look into the rumors. They're nothing but rumors as of right now. These are strictly allegations, but Conor McGregor is confirmed being investigated for this. He was arrested over this and questioned by police. He was apparently all complying and whatnot, but it's all really, really bad stuff. There's some gruesome details in the rumors that I won't go into on this podcast because, as I said, they are just rumors still. But as I stated on the rundown, Barstool Radio, CCK, and in my blog, if these rumors wind up

having any weight to them whatsoever, if they're true, if they're sort of true, I want to let everybody know Conor McGregor will no longer have my support. I will no longer be the Conor McGregor fan that, you know, I am on Barstool Sports. For right now, I'm really toning down my shtick of the executive director of support thing, and that's just out of a respect for the seriousness of the allegations. I think it's really weird how he's responded to these allegations over the past few days, where he hasn't responded, but he's sort of thrown out a few Instagrams and tweets, and he's challenging Mark Wahlberg to fights, and he's posting pictures of him on Instagram, like checking out girls' asses,

mixed in between pictures of him and his family. I think it's been very weird. I think he's handled it horribly. I think his management team has handled it horribly. They put out a statement saying Conor should be respected for the athlete he is, and it felt like their response to this was like Dana White should pay him what he deserves for UFC 239, which was like, guys, not the time or place,

but that's the news as far as Conor McGregor goes. As far as the rest of the UFC goes, and more uplifting news, we had a card over the weekend in Philly headlined by Justin Gaethje versus Edson Barboza. A fight that was so motherfucking savage that everyone knew

it would deliver, and it did deliver. It lasted three minutes. Justin Gaethje picked up a knockout win over Edson Barboza who at 2.30 in the morning right after he gets knocked out, gets a call that his wife is in labor. He flies back to his home. I don't know where it was. And his wife gave birth, and he had a baby daughter.

I think he's all healthy and good, so congratulations to him. Congratulations to Justin Gaethje on picking up a phenomenal win. It was a really fun card. There was Josh Emmett versus Michael Johnson, another spectacular knockout in that fight. And we saw a lot of fights start to come into fruition for UFC 239. I believe Ben Askren versus George Masvidal is going to happen. I believe Tiago Santos versus Jon Jones is going to happen. What was it?

Amanda Nunez versus Holly Holm, I think, was in the works. So UFC 239, that International Fight Week card, is really taking shape and really starting to look good. That is the UFC's WrestleMania card for those unaware. Now getting into the actual WrestleMania card, I'm going to throw it to the conversation I had with my former tag team partner Jared Karabas on Friday where we break down this year's WrestleMania. I hope you guys enjoy. I'll catch you on the other side to answer the questions you submitted over the last week. Hello and welcome to From the Top Rope. Wow. Presented by Barstool Sports.

I am your host, Robbie Fox, and with me is my tag team partner, the one, the only, Jared Karabas. Bob. Jared. Feels good to be back. Feels good to be home. It feels so great. Finally, From the Top Rope has come back. Feels good to be home. It feels so great. Finally, From the Top Rope has come back

home. I think anyone did the intro with me like they do like the Road Dogg New Age Outlaws one. I would hope so. Any grapple fucks out there

that were chanting along and my tag team partner. I was saying this before we hit record. The From the Top Rope audience wasn't ginormous by any means. It was sizable. audience wasn't ginormous by any means. It was sizable.

It wasn't ginormous, but they were passionate. So passionate. I mean, they were super excited every time we dropped a podcast. How many times have you heard since From the Top Rope got canceled? Bring it back. When are you going to bring From the Top Rope back? Anytime that we tweeted each other. We cannot interact with each other on Twitter without people tweeting at us being like,

bring back From the Top Rope. If you're not familiar with From the Top Rope, it was our wrestling podcast, and all of the episodes are still available everywhere if you look up From the Top Rope, and I would urge you to go back and listen to some of them because we had some awesome guests. Great interviews. Our guest list was top notch. We basically made our debut. We got the Roman push.

We sort of did. We debuted and just started having literally the best guest list for any wrestling podcast in the game. Cody Rhodes is our first guest. We had Kevin Owens. We had X-Pac. We had Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho. Big Show.

The Bellas. Big Show. Bellas. Jim Ross. Yeah. God, who else? We had everybody. We had everybody.

It was a really fun time. Bruce Pritchard, who's back with the WWE now. Yes, he is. Man, it was a fun time. And we're bringing it back now in the form of the From the Top Rope segment of My Mama's Basement, which was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this podcast. Yeah. The idea that any time something big happens.

We're Trojan horsing From the Top Rope back into Boston. We really are. Any time something big happens in the wrestling world, you will be on My Mama's Basement to do a From the Top Rope. Maybe a mini From the Top Rope. Maybe a long From the Top Rope. Today will probably be somewhere in the middle do a from the top rope. Maybe a mini from the top rope. Maybe a long from the top rope. Today we'll probably be somewhere in the middle. Probably on the longer side. For sure.

Because we're talking about the grandest stage of them all. The showcase of the immortals. Which was another reason why I got pissed that we got canceled. Was because we started after WrestleMania and got canceled before the Rumble. We did. So like we did zero podcasts during WrestleMania season. Zero. Yeah, that's true.

It's crazy. So we did a few return episodes, a few sporadic. We were, like, part-timers for a while if we want to use wrestling terms. We had Seth Rollins, too. Oh, yeah, we did. We had Seth Rollins. We had Samoa Joe. We had Charlotte Flair, like, twice.

Yeah. But we're here today to talk about WrestleMania 35. Yeah, we are. It's on the horizon. Yep. We're recording this right now on Friday, March 29th. You will be listening to this if it's day of on April 1st. And no, this isn't an April Fool's Day prank.

No, it's not. The top rope is actually back. We're back. In a different form, but we're back. And so we haven't seen Monday Night Raw tonight. We haven't seen Tuesday Night Smackdown tomorrow. The go-home shows, which are huge. We know that.

But Jared's traveling for starting night stuff, and you're going to have to deal with this. I think it's better than nothing. It's better than nothing. So let's talk a little bit about the wrestling that we've missed since the last WrestleMania. So we did do an episode about the last WrestleMania in New Orleans, WrestleMania 34, which I felt at the time was a really fun WrestleMania.

Being there was really cool, and I remember at the time thinking, like, man, that was actually a good show. It was much better than I thought it would be, aside from, you know, the main event. And there was a few other duds, the whole Nicholas thing. Are we for sure going? That was last year? Yeah. Dude, that feels like three years ago. I know.

The Nicholas angle was last year? Yes. And the reason I bring this up in this way is because it feels like so long ago because it had nothing on that card had any effect on anything that currently exists right now. Yes. It's strange how meaningless WrestleMania 34 was in the grand scheme of things. And like Braun Strowman

was honestly decent. Red hot and then they kind of just like, let's put you in a match where literally it can do nothing for you. And everyone was talking I talked to people in the WWE the week of WrestleMania that told me they built up the big mystery tag team partner angle. Talked to people in the WWE, and they said, bro, this is going to be unbelievable.

Some people were teasing Rey Mysterio. Hulk Hogan was there. Some people were teasing Samoa Joe. And then the big one I heard from multiple WWE employees, people on the roster, wrestlers, said it's going to be Hulk Hogan. He's going to blow the roof off the place. He's going to win the tag titles with Braun.

He's going to hit a leg drop. Bro, he pulled a fucking child out of the crowd. He was like a little kid. Wasn't it like a referee's son in real life? Yeah. Nothing against Nicholas, but it was just... Well, no, it is against Nicholas. All right, fuck Nicholas. Yeah, Nicholas, if you're listening right now,

you should have said no. You should have been like, listen, brother, this has got to be the Hulkster or nobody. You should have vetoed the performance. And I was there with Pat McAfee, our former employee, Pat McAfee, who is currently employed by the WWE. He sure is.

And I was in the crowd with him in New Orleans, and as Braun is going throughout the crowd trying to pick somebody, I swear to God, there was a moment where I was like... You locked eyes with Braun? I was like, I think Pat McAfee kayfabed the shit out of me. I think he's Braun's tag team partner. And Pat was wearing a suit, and I was like, God, I hope he has something under that suit.

He wasn't. He was a kid, like we said. But WrestleMania, in the grand scheme of things, didn't mean much. If you put a gun to my head right now, or even just like 10 minutes ago, and you were like, give me one memorable moment from last year's wrestlemania i as you just found out didn't even realize that nicholas was last year so what was the main event roman versus brock again and brock went over it was it was legitimately dreadful it was one of the worst matches i've ever been in attendance for yeah i don't remember dick from last year's WrestleMania. It was really bad.

The two main memorable moments for May 3, actually, the first being, I thought, Match of the Night was Charlotte and Asuka, and Charlotte made

Asuka tap, which I was excited about. I thought it was time for the streak to end. Yeah. In hindsight, that actually didn't really help Charlotte much,

and it kind of only hurt Asuka. Correct. But, we also had the debut of Ronda Rousey, and the third one, my favorite moment, the return of Daniel Bryan.

Daniel Bryan returned to tag team with Shane McMahon against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and I was a mess, Jared. You saw the videos of me. I was standing on my chair the whole damn match. I was obstructing the view of people behind me like a rude civilian because I just couldn't contain myself. I couldn't believe that Daniel Bryan was back. They had a very damn match. I was obstructing the view of people behind me like a rude civilian because I just couldn't contain myself.

I couldn't believe that Daniel Bryan was back. They had a very fun match. It was a very fan service-y match where Daniel Bryan gets taken out in the beginning and Kenny come back and almost taken off on a stretcher. They kind of did the WrestleMania 30 angle again. But he hit all his good spots

and he made Sammy tap, so it was a lot of fun. I was a mess. I was crying. There's videos of me like this. I was crying. There's videos of me like, I was crying, crying in the crowd because I was so excited. But after that,

the both of us kind of fell off the, the WWE wagon. We fell out of love with the WWE product. By me, I've still watched every NXT pay-per-view, I think as have you. Um, and then I've pretty much watched every pay-per-view. I think I've watched every pay-per-view. Yeah. as have you. And then I've pretty much watched every pay-per-view.

I think I've watched every pay-per-view, yeah. But just the weekly product, at points it got so bad, it was unfathomably unwatchable. Yeah. And I was like, I just can't do this. If I'm not doing a podcast about this, I can't put myself through five hours of dreadful television per week. I'm going to take a little break.

I'll watch the pay-per-views. I'll try to keep up online. And the two things in our off time that I kept up with the most were the rise of Becky Lynch, the man, and the heel turn of Daniel Bryan and his emergence as the new Daniel Bryan, who I, this should come as no surprise to anybody, I can't get enough of it.

I bet you can't. I fucking love the new Daniel Bryan. He has a Kemp WWE Championship made out of wood and turquoise stones. Hemp, yeah, not Kemp. I'm a fucking idiot. Kemp's a pitcher. A little starting line action. Bet you didn't know I knew that.

Yeah, damn, good for you. But those were the two things that I paid the most attention to. What have you been paying attention to over the past year? So it's the same thing. So I stopped watching wrestling after Kane took his mask off in 2003. That's right. I was like, I'm out. Your all-time favorite.

Yeah, my all-time favorite. I was like, I can't fucking do it anymore. Who I did interview on Dialed In with Dallas Braden, RIP to that show. It was an unbelievable moment. I was in the room for it, and Jared just couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Yeah, the great part about that interview was

I was in studio here in New York, and Dallas and Pecan were in LA. So they have Glenn Jacobs on the show. So they're getting him on as a guest thinking that we're talking to a political candidate. So Dallas and Pecan are interviewing Glenn while I'm jumping in and interviewing Kane. So he was doing two interviews at the same time

and they'd be like, all right, Glenn, so tell me a little bit about you running for office and you're doing this and that and for the city and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, all right, Kane, listen. Yes. I need to ask you about this. Bad Blood 97. Let's go back. My favorite moment from that was he had just gotten done talking about the opioid epidemic

in Knox County. It's really rough. We need to clean up the city because a lot of people are dying and there's a lot of lives at risk. You're like, Kane, when you and Xbox broke up, it was such a preposterous interview all around, but so

perfectly barstool. It was so funny, man. I sat in the room and said nothing i just wanted to watch jared karabas talk to his childhood hero kane still is and it was it was amazing yeah so continue so basically my my story is i started watching wrestling in 97 kane was my favorite still is um but i stopped watching when he took his mask off in 03 i was like you know i watched for like a little bit just to see where it would go but i just i don't know i was kind of turned off by it and then in 2011 he puts the mask back on and i'm like motherfucker i am back

back in so when i came back it was like i i came back for kane but I stayed for Punk I was like now Punk's my guy and then Punk leaves in 14 and I'm like well I need now what do I have you know cause Kane was like fucking corporate Kane I was like I couldn't care less for corporate Kane and then it was it became about the shield

I was like I fucking love the shield I love Roman I love Seth I love Dean. I love Seth. I love Dean. So those became my guys. I would defend Roman until the day that I die. I still don't understand why he gets booed. It's not his fault that he gets pushed to the moon. It's probably because he fucking deserves it. We are a very pro-Roman podcast here, by the way.

Big time. So if you boo Roman, you're going to hate that. It is what it is. It is what it is. Roman Reigns. We've spoken to many wrestlers in the WWE that consider Roman among the top workers they've ever been in the ring with. That's right. So that's kind of like when the Shield broke up the first time, I was like, I don't know where this is going.

I don't know if it's the right time. But I loved Seth's single run as a heel. As did I. And a lot of people shit on it, but I really enjoyed that title reign that Seth had. Because all I did was just recreate. I loved him with J&J security and the whole thing. I really enjoyed that.

Yeah, I did too. And I look back on that entire time with fond memories of the product. John Cena's US Open title was happening at the same time, which was fantastic. I loved WrestleMania 31, still do. WrestleMania 31 is so underrated, I think. Yeah, that was a, yeah, 30 was fantastic. I loved WrestleMania 31. Still do. WrestleMania 31 is so underrated, I think. Yeah, that was a... That was really Seth's big coming

out party. 29-30-31. Great match with Randy Orton. He got RKO'd at the Curbstomp. And then went on to win the main event, cashing in the Money in the Bank. Still one of my favorite WrestleMania ending moments ever. My favorite Money in the Bank cash-in by far. Oh, it has to be.

It's the heist of the century. Yeah. It gives me chills talking about it. Yeah. So basically, yeah, that was my transition was I needed to stay. Someone, something has to make me invested in the whole product, and then I'll stay for all the other stuff, and I'll pick up interest in it.

But there's just certain characters and storylines that get the juices flowing. Of course. I think that's the case with anybody. Right. And then once Roman leaves and then Dean turns heel, which is a terrible heel run, I was like, there's nothing on this particular program that gets the juices flowing for me. What has hooked you recently that has got you back invested in the product? Because since, I would say, the Royal Rumble,

I thought the Royal Rumble was a pretty good show. It was a good show. And about since then, I've been sort of back. I got the whole house in Atlanta going on that. You did, and you had the whole house watching the previous year's Royal Rumble, thinking it was live. Didn't realize it until, like, entry number five. Yeah, so Rumble. Yeah. Thinking it was live. Mm-hmm. Didn't realize it until like entry number five.

Yeah. So we put on, or it was either Roan or Big Cat ordered the Royal Rumble like via, like instead of, we were trying to find an HDMI for me to link up like WWE network to the TV. We couldn't find an HDMI. So then they were like, ah, fuck it. Like, we'll just charge it to the company. We'll buy it on pay-per-view.

So either Roan or Big Cat ordered the pay-per-view on the TV. And then, I mean, how the fuck? I don't fucking know what arena. It doesn't... And also... Any city for WWE, it's not like ballparks that look different.

Every WWE arena looks exactly the same. Here's my question. Yeah. How in the world was the previous year's Royal Rumble available for purchase on paper? Right. Again, because I wasn't keeping up with the product, red flag number two was I think Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn had a tag match together. And I was like, what, they get back together for like a fucking, like a tag match at this Royal Rumble?

They're like, these two injured people are just fine. Yeah. So I was confused about that. Again, didn't really think to be like, oh, there's no way we ordered. The thought didn't cross my mind that we ordered the wrong Royal Rumble until Baron Corbin comes out. And I was like,

is that a wig? Because, I mean, he still had his long hair. Full head of hair. Yeah, and I was like... Which, actually, no, not a full head of hair. He had half a head of hair.

Right. He was at his best. Yeah, his hairline was like Hubs-worthy.chet ricochet shot at hubs sorry about it so baron corbin comes out and i was like this can't be this year's royal rumble it just can't be there's a great video of the gears turning in your mind realizing that you had the entire house watching the previous year's royal rumble and hadn't said anything about it. I received a phone call from Big Cat. Yeah.

And he was like, hey, man, nobody's really talking about the Royal Rumble on Twitter. We're watching it right now. Did Heath Slater just enter for you? And I was like, Big Cat, the Royal Rumble match doesn't start for another two hours. Yeah. And that's when everyone – It did feel early, too. A light bulb went off for everybody.

They realized the Royal Rumble was not currently on. Yeah, it sure wasn't. Hysterical story. But, I mean, we got three Royal Rumbles. Yeah, you got to watch the previous years. We got to watch the women's twice. Yeah. It was a nice little evening.

It was cool to see other people who don't watch a single second of wrestling get super invested because we also did the, we cut up 30 numbers and I had everyone favorite Royal. Oh yeah. We had people, I think, what do we do? Like 10,

20 bucks a person. We all put it in a pot. Um, and then we had people pick out numbers and then like, as people are coming out, everyone's asking me, is this guy good? Is this guy good?

Does he have a chance? Yeah. But I was getting those texts too from people in the house that were like, yo, I got 17. Who's going to be at 17? YP. God bless YP. YP will be on the podcast at some point because he's one of our best friends. And we just have some very funny conversations with that guy.

Yeah. He doesn't understand wrestling in the slightest. None of them. And he was texting me being like, bro, which number should I pick to win the Royal Rumble? And I was like, I don't know. It doesn't work like that. I was like, I don't know. It's random.

And he's like, but isn't wrestling fake? And I was like, well, yeah, but like, what? And he was like, well, he's like, aren't you like an insider? Don't you know these things? I was like, no. It's not like the fucking NFL drafts were there. I don't know who's coming out where unless it's previously announced. But he was just confused about the

Royal Rumble all night. But I think, so basically what I told all of them I was like, whoever gets Seth Rollins congratulations, you're the winner. And whoever gets Becky, congratulations. Was it Becky? No. I was like, whoever gets Becky, congratulations, you're the winner. But you and me were

in agreement with the week before. We were pretty dead set on that. I was like, whoever gets those is probably going to win. But Braun, we didn't, at the time, didn't know that he was

going to be coming back for that. So YP had Braun. So it was YP had Braun Strowman and Feidelberg had Seth Rollins. So when Braun came out,

I was like, I don't know. And then it ended up coming down to them. And perfect final two because it felt like the Royal Rumble was a bit predictable, which I feel like it always is, which kind of stinks because it's such coming down to them. A perfect final two because it felt like the Royal Rumble was a bit predictable,

which I feel like it always is, which kind of stinks because it's such a match of surprises. I wish things were more tightly kept. Yeah. But once they got down to that final two, it got you thinking. Like, man, they might do this. Could be. Yeah. So let's talk about this year's WrestleMania.

We've done enough Talking about the Product itself The journey to get here We're gonna start At the top of the card The main event For the first time Ever Jared The women will

Main event the show So this felt This felt It's the right time The right thing to do The right time Since November Since the Survivor Series

When Becky Lynch Versus Ronda Rousey Was supposed to happen, and they were building to this match back in November, and it was a good build. It was, you know, Ronda had just won the title. Becky was on top of the world.

She was really rising. People were like, whoa, this new Becky is awesome. And Becky gets punched in the face by Nia Jax. Who just fucking hurts everybody. Potato City. And breaks her nose, breaks her face. She's bloody everywhere, concussed. And she has that, she just looked so badass,

leaving through the crowd. It was an invasion angle, so, you know, those always feel a little more real. That was actually pretty cool. I remember that. I was actually watching at that point. Yes. So when she leaves through the crowd

and she's yelling at Ronda, everyone's like, oh my God, Becky Lynch is like maybe the next Stone Cold. Like, this is outrageous. And they cancel that match at Survivor Series. In a weird way, every wrestling fan I knew, every wrestling fan I saw was like, this is a positive because that's your WrestleMania main event right there. And everyone was talking about it.

And then at Survivor Series, Charlotte Flair went on to have a match with Ronda Rousey that I found to be incredible. I really enjoyed that match, and it ended with Charlotte beating the shit out of Ronda and getting disqualified with a bunch of weapons. I think she beat her with kendo sticks and whatnot. But that's a forgotten match that I thought was great. So it eventually kept building. Becky and Ronda kept talking shit to each other on Twitter, on all over social media, and everyone realized this could be the WrestleMania main event

leading to Becky Lynch winning the Royal Rumble, the Women's Royal Rumble, and hurting her knee, which my biggest pet peeve in wrestling is when they do the hurt knee angle. For a year. Oh, my God. They've been doing it for so long with Becky.

She's walking around on crutches. The next second she's okay. The next second she isn't. But she wins the Royal Rumble. Fans go wild. Everyone's happy about it. And they have since inserted Charlotte Flair into that match. It's now a triple threat match,

which a lot of people have issues with. Here's why I don't like it. If they already had a women's main event at WrestleMania, I don't mind it at all. I think the first ever women's main event at a WrestleMania, I don't mind it at all. Okay. I think the first ever women's main event at a WrestleMania, Ronda and Becky was great enough to stand on its own and be a great match. I would agree. I would honestly agree with that.

And I think, I don't want to say it would have been better if it was just those two because I honestly don't have an issue with Charlotte Flair being in the match. If it was Becky, Ronda's the name. R it was Becky, like, Ronda's the name. Ronda's the star power. Ronda's the mainstream appeal. It'll get people talking about it that maybe don't care about the product on a day-to-day basis. But if you have a main event of just two women, I think that makes more of a statement for the first ever women's main event at WrestleMania. Then it's just like, it's this person, and that person, and this person.

Just have it be Becky and Ronda and make a fucking statement. Be like, yeah, we do have a women's main event at WrestleMania, and it's not a gimmicky match where everyone's got to get involved. Because when they did the Royal Rumble, they were bringing everyone back, and we've got to include this person, and that person, and this person, and that person. But if it were just Becky versus Ronda, that makes more of a statement than having a triple threat

match i agree with that charlotte flair obviously the face of the women's division for the past few years um is involved in so many historic moments for them it felt almost eminent that she would be added to this match for me since they did that match of survivor series and i was cool with it then i tweeted then. I was like, all right, make it a triple threat. That was really cool. The build has been interesting because some of it has been some of the best stuff imaginable.

There are some aspects of the Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair triangle build that I'm like, this is the best stuff they've done in years. And then there are other aspects where I'm like, what are they thinking? Because this is so good, we don't need Ronda Rousey to go on Twitter and say that wrestling is fake and I'm better than all these bitches and I'll knock them all out. It's like, we know that.

We're like, yeah, we know. Shut up. You don't need to work us into a shoot because the angle's already amazing. Everyone loves it. You're doing fine. You could work someone into a shoot if you're CM Punk. If you're one of the best talkers of your generation and you want to go- Blur the lines.

Blur the lines. Go right ahead. This isn't CM Punk talking to Triple H. This is Paul Avek talking to Phil Brooks. Cool. Go for it. If it's working, it's working. It has not been working with Ronda Rousey so overall have

would you say this is a are they a net positive in build for you are you excited for this match are you excited for the main event of Wrestlemania do you think this is the deserving main event still what are your thoughts on this main event I'm excited for it because of the spot not because it's the first time that it's a women's main event, but because I know that Vince likes to send the fans home happy at WrestleMania. Does he? Yeah, well, I mean, he tries. He does what he thinks is best. Yeah, he does.

I mean, it's always an intended happy ending at WrestleMania. So I think I'm not so much like, oh, I can't wait because it's the first ever women's main event at WrestleMania. I'm more excited because it's like, A, they deserve it. Yep. B, they've told the best story to this point, but C, if it is the main event of WrestleMania, whether it's men or women,

they're going to be telling a story like, give me a swerve. Like, what's the swerve here? What story are you going to be? Because it's not just going to be a technical wrestling match where you have three competitors in the ring, and here's a move, there's a move, there's a winner. It's not going to be that.

There's going to be some sort of dramatized angle in this where on the Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania, we're going to see somebody or multiple people differently. On that note, Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez discussed this very recently, I believe earlier this week, and said that this match may have some sort of convoluted gimmick to it, where it's a winner-take-all, because Charlotte Flair just won the SmackDown Women's title, Ronda Rousey is the Raw Women's Champion, and Becky Lynch currently is going to the match with no titles. They made it sound like it will be a winner-take-all, but convoluted in the sense

that if you pin a champion, you win their championship, but you need to pin a champion to win their championship. So this makes no sense to me. I'm going to be quite honest, this match, just make it for the Raw Women's title like it originally was. And have Charlotte work the angle. I would like 17 championships like my dad. And I'm not planning on losing this one. So I'm just going to add one or something. If Charlotte beats Becky, then nothing happens.

If Becky beats Charlotte, but Ronda beats Becky, Charlotte keeps her title or something? I don't know. It sounded really, really convoluted. If they clarify this on Monday or Tuesday, we're sorry. We're recording this on Friday. As of right now, it's just for the Raw Women's Championship, which I believe is the right way to go.

I'm really excited for this. One stat that I found even more interesting than the first women's main event, which is awesome. They're deserving and all that. A stat that I found even more interesting than the first women's main event, which is awesome. They're deserving and all that. A stat that I love about this is it's the first WrestleMania main event ever where all three of the competitors were born after WrestleMania was created. Ooh. Which is kind of cool.

Everyone in this match is younger than WrestleMania itself. I found that to be very interesting. Becky Lynch, the first Irish-born superstar to ever be in a WrestleMania main event as well. And someone that, goodness gracious, if you've been watching wrestling for the past few years, and especially the past year, you know how friggin' deserving this girl is.

Yeah, I mean, she was a flight attendant, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a rags-to-riches story, going from a flight attendant to a WrestleMania main eventer. Especially mean, that's a rags to riches story, going from a flight attendant to a WrestleMania main eventer. Who is it that she... Especially from Ireland,

where it's a very small country. People don't realize how tiny Ireland is to make it big and main event WrestleMania become the first woman to main event WrestleMania. It's outrageous. She was doing an interview. Who was it? Who's the really cute girl

that is like the WWE social interviewer? Oh, Cathy Kelly. Yeah. What's up, girl? I think she was... Kathy Kelly, if you're listening to this... Love you. What's up? Follow me back. We can chat. Don't follow him back. Follow me back. Follow us back. Alright. Follow us back. Yeah. Give us a chance.

What was that? An accent? Yeah, a little bit. What? Irish? A little bit. Why? I don't know. Alright. I don't hate it. becky lynch did this interview where i'm pretty sure that she was i don't know who the person is i can't remember if she named or did not name i'm pretty sure she did not name this person but she was like when i came into the company one of like my close friends or someone close to her said you know like you know you're never gonna to... What's your goal? WrestleMania main event.

She's like, have a more realistic goal. So I think it's really cool that that was her goal all along versus like, well, I'm going to this company and I love wrestling, but like, you know... If it works out, it works out. Yeah, like I'm a woman and I know that there's never obviously going to be

a women's main event at WrestleMania. Like that's just not the way that the company is constructed. That's not what like the fans want to see. And then she's right in the thick of the, the women's revolution. And it's, it's fitting. You knew that if there was going to be a main event at WrestleMania,

which kind of why I fucking, I don't know, like I, it kind of rubs me the wrong way that Rhonda's in it because she doesn't deserve it. And I would be pissed if I was someone like Sasha Banks or Bayley but you knew that one of the original four

was going to be in it and I'm glad that it's two. Yeah, so am I and the other two, having the first ever women's tag titles, it's pretty cool. That is cool. A lot of people believe we took some questions. That was one of the things back the when we interviewed the Bella Twins. That was one of the questions that we asked them.

Do you think that we'll ever see women's tag titles? Yeah, and they said yes, we'd love to see them, and now we have them. Over a year later. And we took a few questions on Twitter for this episode. We said we were recording the episode, sending questions. Here's one that relates to what we're talking about right now, so we'll take it now. Do the Four horsewomen

close Wrestlemania in the ring together with their respective excuse me titles with their respective titles I think there's a very legitimate possibility that the answer is yes that the four of them

you're gonna get like a click moment the big happy ending all raising their titles Becky with the Raw Charlotte with the Raw, Charlotte with the SmackDown, and Bayley and Sasha with their tag team championships. I guess it all depends

on how much you believe the Ronda stuff, where she is like, I don't fucking need this. I do believe Ronda's going to leave at least for a little bit after WrestleMania.

I know she wants to start a family. I know she wants to have kids. How much of that do you actually believe though? I mean, I'm sure she wants to have a family. I know she wants to have kids. How much of that do you actually believe, though? I'm sure she wants to have a family and all that shit, but how much of her comments saying, I don't need this shit?

Is any of that? Because she's not saying that in the ring. She's kind of been saying that on interviews and stuff. It's interesting because I believe it in the sense that I believe that it's true. I don't believe that she's saying it in a legitimate, like, this is how I feel fashion.

I believe she's saying it in a heel fashion. I think she's trying to work everybody. But it is true. She doesn't need wrestling. She could retire right now and be good. Is she really that, like, invested in, like, the psychology of wrestling to where she could know how or why you would want to work a crowd like that

or an audience outside of the parameters of WWE? I think a little bit, yeah. I think she's familiar enough with how the media and people react to things that she says. Well, she's in a unique position because not just anyone in the WWE is someone that's being requested by media outside of WWE. So they're being given these platforms to conduct almost like a promo outside of WWE that's making its way back into WWE. Yeah.

And I do believe she loves wrestling. And credit to her, nobody really expected her to work as much as she does. When she debuted at WrestleMania, everyone thought she would be like a Brock Lesnar type. A few pay-per-views a year, maybe. She does every week on television. She does every pay-per-view. She does house shows. She is someone that really dove in headfirst.

She does do house shows? Yeah. Huh. She dove in headfirst. And, Jared, you're not a fan of her. No. I am. Everything she said about wrestling

being fake and I'm better than this. That's when this kind of jumped the shark for me. They've pulled it back because they've never used stuff like that on television, which I like. They kept it separated. But she's a fantastic wrestler. I find her to be a fantastic wrestler. Every Ronda Rousey match that I have seen, I have been tremendously invested in, especially the pay-per-view ones. So I'm looking forward to this. I can't wait for this main event, honestly. I can't wait for the moment where, in my eyes, Becky Lynch raises the Raw Women's Championship in the main event of WrestleMania in the closing moments and gets her moment.

I don't think we've mentioned this yet. Are we going? Yeah, we are. We'll be there. That's official. I don't know. We'll figure it out. We'll be there.

We're not going to not be at WrestleMania, bro. I mean, it's right down the street. We're not not going to be at WrestleMania. What are you, crazy? For the WWE Championship, we have a match that I am anticipating just as much, if not more, than the main event. The new Daniel Bryan takes on Kofi Kingston.

Jared, how long have I been hyping up Kofi Kingston on this show? Long time, Bob. Asking for him to be the Rumble winner finally. Asking him to have a singles run with the championship. 11 years as the workhorse of the WWE. He now has a run that is very reminiscent of Daniel Bryan's run in 2013. They've basically copied the angle. They've basically done the exact same thing,

down to Vince McMahon calling Kofi Kingston a B-plus player. That's what he's been calling him recently. The fans are so behind Kofi. They're saying Kofi mania. This is like a heartwarming story, because how long have Xavier Woods and Big E been saying that their ultimate goal in the WWE was to be there and somehow be a part of Kofi Kingston winning a WWE championship. It looks like we're going to get that.

This is like, I have chills right now. Look at my arm. I have chills talking about this. Goosebumps, Bob. Goosebumps talking about this match. Because Daniel Bryan went from being the most lovable underdog the WWE has seen since probably Stone Cold Steve Austin to now flipping the roles and being the dastardly heel that's always in that lovable underdog's way. It really speaks to how versatile he is as a performer and as a wrestler.

And it speaks to how much the fans, even if it takes them 11 years, appreciate someone that shows up day in and day out and works their ass off quite like Kofi Kingston. Are you excited for this one? I am excited for this one because I'm a big Kofi guy. Who isn't? If you're not a big Kofi guy, fuck you. Yeah. Fuck you. Fuck yourself.

Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Take a broken bottle. Yep. Shove it up your ass. Yep. And take a hike. And go fuck yourself with that

That's right That's right So Kofi Kingston is What are the odds That Vince McMahon is like I'll give you the match But I'm not gonna give you the moment Oh my goodness

It's gotta be low man I hope I hope those odds are low Because like It's not like But we have an issue on our hands with this WrestleMania. What? I think we're going to get a big babyface win in the main event for Becky Lynch.

I think we're going to get a big babyface win in the WWE Championship match. And I think we're going to get a big babyface win in the Universal Championship match. That's very rare. The babyface clean sweep in the top three matches is very, very rare. So here's the thing. Here's how you fix that, right? Okay. I'm listening. rare. The babyface clean sweep in the top three matches is very, very rare. So, here's the thing. Here's how you fix that, right? Okay, I'm listening. Becky Lynch has to win

the main event. If you're picking one person to win out of every match on the entire card, it's Becky Lynch. Has to win. So we're looking at the card as it's listed on WWE.com, and they obviously have the women's triple threat as the match that goes on last, the main event.

Then they have the new Daniel Bryan versus Kofi Kingston, and then they have Brock Lesnar versus Seth Rollins. How you fix that? You flip-flop them. So you would have, from top to bottom, women's main event, Lesnar-Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston. Seth Rollins doesn't need this one. Okay, you're saying you fix it by putting Brock over.

Yes. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, as much as it would suck to see Brock Lesnar retain and— I'm so tired of Brock Lesnar. I am too. I never need to see him wrestle another match for the rest of my life. Yeah, I'm good.

I'm good as well, and it would be nice to actually have the title on TV again. And on Seth Rollins, who I hated on a lot in this podcast. Yeah, you did, which was all wrong. It was all incorrect. I don't think it was incorrect at the time because he was working the knee injury in every match. That's not his call, though. He's not going into production meetings being like, all right, so my knee still hurts, right, guys? It was just I was tired of it.

I was real tired of it. That's not his fault though. I thought his promo stunk. I thought his match was stunk. I wasn't a fan. I think you stink. And he turned it all around maybe a year ago.

And by the time he won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 34, I was in on Seth Rollins. And I'm hardcore in on Seth Rollins right now. As you should be. And I think he's very deserving

of this spot. I think you have to put him over. I don't think you do. I think you do. I don't think you do. I think fans are so tired of Brock Lesnar. But that's the thing. Brock Lesnar also.

In order of who needs to win, this match is third. I agree with that. Still. You want to give the fans what they want. It's like you can't give them everything what they want. So it's like, damn it, if you want Becky and you want Kofi, then you're getting Brock too. Let's bounce back to a Twitter question.

Alec Bowman asks, is Brock off to the UFC after Mania? The answer to that question is yes. Brock Lesnar is back in the USADA pool. He has been talking to Dana White, and I spoke to Dana White last week on the show. And he told me when I was arguing with him about whether or not Conor McGregor should be a main eventer, that he was looking to book Conor McGregor in the co-main event of

UFC 239 versus Donald Cowboy Cerrone because the heavyweight championship should have the main event. Yep. The heavyweight championship, in that case, there's no doubt in my mind, he was insinuating that Brock Lesnar would be returning to face Daniel Cormier. That would be fucking wild. I think it's gonna happen, Jared. I'm very confident in that

main event in UFC 239. As long as Brock defeats USADA, I think it's gonna happen. Wait, so Brock has to get a win under his belt before he can face Cormier? No, no, no. USADA is the drug testing company that is implemented by the UFC. I'm saying as long as he's clean, as long as he's pissing clean, that's the main event.

So... So I think Brock is off. Okay. After this WrestleMania. I think it's going to be his last WrestleMania for a while. Fingers crossed that it is. So I think all three of these guys need to win. I don't think it's a problem. I'm going to say that. It looks like a problem on paper.

What, if all three end up being babyface victories? Dude, it's rare. I'm all for a completely crowd-pleasing, happy-ending WrestleMania. It just can't be that way. In the top three build matches. I'm cool with that. I don't know if it's going to...

I mean, I'm cool with it, but Vince McMahon's not cool with it. We would be naive to think that it's a no-brainer that all three would win. What do the Vegas odds say? I don't know. I don't like checking the Vegas odds. Me neither. I don't like those.

People send them to me. Don't send those to me. Come on. It's still real meat, damn it. I mean. Speaking of that Universal Championship match, it's Brock versus Seth Rollins. I'll be honest. I'm not excited for this one. Why? I'm excited for Seth Rollins. I'll be honest, I'm not excited for this one.

I'm excited for Seth Rollins to win the WWE Championship. You're not excited. I'm excited to see Brock Lesnar take a curb stomp because he takes it fantastically. Yes, he does. Well, because he puts his literal forehead through the canvas. He does. He just decides to drill his forehead through the canvas

like it's a jackhammer. Yeah. I don't know. Just the match is like, eh. It's like, when was the last time we saw Brock Lesnar have a match that we enjoyed the Finn Balor match I have never once

huffed and puffed over a Brock Lesnar match I do a lot of huffing and puffing if there's anything that upsets me about Brock Lesnar it's that it's kind of like a catch 22 I hate that the Universal title is not on TV every week, but I like that Brock Lesnar feels special because he's not on TV every week.

Does he still feel special to you? He doesn't for me. For big matches, he does. Moving on a bit, a match that I cannot wait for, and I never thought I would see the day where I can't wait for a Triple H match at WrestleMania. I am thrilled about this match. Triple H will be taking on Batista in a no-holds-barred match.

Career versus career. Oh, it is? It's technically only... Technically only Triple H's career is on the line, I believe, but Batista is saying it's his last match. He's saying he's going to retire Triple H in his last match. Batista coming back was out of left

field. We heard some rumors about it. I felt like by the rumble and then they were immediately shot down being like

yeah WWE doesn't have interest again. Batista doesn't really have interest and then out of nowhere Batista shows up on Monday Night Raw

Drax the Destroyer. Bigger star than he's ever been. And he beats the shit out of Ric Flair on his birthday. On his motherfucking birthday. Old seven-year-old Ric Flair.

Yeah. And he cuts a great promo where he says, do I have your attention now? Right into the camera. Which is so... Cease and desist. If you've been following this,

this Batista WWE weird cat and mouse game for the past few years, it's so great on so many levels because Batista's been trying to make his return the past few years is so great on so many levels because Batista's been trying to make his return now for, like, years. And every time someone's like, hey, when are you coming back? He's like, I don't know. I keep calling the WWE and saying I want to,

and they keep ignoring my phone calls. Which is bizarre. Which is bizarre. Maybe it's because he shits on them sometimes. Which is fine because it's, like, he... It's good that he cares enough to shit on them. Yeah, he doesn't shit on them un. Which is fine, because it's like he... It's good that he cares enough to shit on them. Yeah, he doesn't shit on them unprovoked. It's usually when, like,

something shitty is going on, and he's sticking up for somebody. He's very much a stick-up-for-his-friends guy. He got James Gunn reinstated, basically, single-handedly to Guardians of the Galaxy 3, because he didn't feel that his firing was justified. Batista is back. He's been cutting some awesome promos.

The do I have your attention now promo is great. He's friends with Punk, right? Yes. Probably not anymore. The give me what I want with Triple H back and forth is one of the most memeable, one of the most gif-able. Just him screaming, give me what I want! You know what I want! You know what I want! Give me what I want! So fucking funny. He knows how to work a crowd way better than anyone gives him credit for.

Probably better now than ever, now that he's got this awesome acting career. But I can't wait for this. It's a no-holds-barred match as well, which is perfect, because at this stage in the game, throw smoke and mirrors in every Triple H match you have because it can only make the match better. A Triple H match with just singles action, exhibition, 1v1, DQ, rope breaks, all this stuff, I'm not really interested in it anymore. No Holds Barred, Triple H gets the sledgehammer, maybe someone goes through a table, I'm there.

Cool. Let's see what happens. How much time do you think they'll get? More time than anybody on the card. You think so? Yep. Triple H has been involved in the longest segment of Wrestlemania for I think the past like seven years barring the Roman Reigns versus Undertaker match. That's a real

stat. I want to say everyone stat check that if you would like. I think it's pretty close to being a real stat. Triple H always gives himself the most time on the card. I actually don't hate that move. It's my fucking show. He's like, what do you think?

Marry the boss's daughter. I've paid my dues. Good for old Hunter. Good for Hunter. Who do you have going over? Hunter. I think Batista's also been saying forever that his last match, he wants to have a match with Triple H and probably wants to put him over.

Triple H was kind of a mentor to him early on. Oh, of course. I think it would be, I think Batista would want to do that. We also got on the card Shane McMahon versus The Miz in a false count anywhere match. Got to be The Miz's first ever WrestleMania match as a face, yeah? When else has he had a WrestleMania? Did he have? Oh, no, because the year that he was, I mean, he was technically a heel, but they were over his baby faces with Miz Dow.

But they were in the Andre Memorial Battle Royal, I think. And then also they were over his faces in Miz and Maryse versus John Cena and Nikki Bella. Yeah. But they were very much heels. Yeah. Shane McMahon turned on The Miz at the last pay-per-view. WWE Fastlane, formerly known as WWE Race Cars on this podcast. It's about time they turned Shane.

And they turned Shane, which was a bold move a few years after his comeback. And it was a really good heel turn, really well executed. Shane was pushing Miz's dad, who is just a preposterous-looking human being. And he's ripping the Cleveland shirt off his back, throwing it at him, choking it with him in Cleveland. It was really well done, and the crowd was going crazy for the Miz, and I don't think it was just because it's his hometown. I think people almost like Kofi Kingston are realizing The Miz's work rate and his effort

and the fact that he's been working so hard for so many years and they're like, fuck it, we like this guy. Why wouldn't we like this guy? He's been in the company, he's been one of their most consistent workers for the last decade. Has he ever gotten hurt, bro? No.

I don't think he has. If he ever takes time off, it's to do movies. Yeah, The Marine 6 just came out. And he does them for the WWE studios. Did you know the Marine Six just came out? I mean, I was the first in line to watch it, Bob. Didn't we say all we needed to say with the first Marine movie?

No. I needed the continuation of insert the name of the character. Who do you think, do you think the guy that's writing the Marine Six is like, I fucking hate my job? Or do you think he's like, no, this is the one, this is gonna win the Oscar? I mean, I think the writers of the Marine franchise

are probably... Can we write the Marine 7? Probably. Can we put the call out, Jared Karabas, published author, Jared Karabas, Very true. and fucking nerdy-ass blogger,

Robbie Fox, are putting our hats in the ring, we would like to write the Marine 7. We'll take it seriously. We'll watch all the Marine movies, even the Ted DiBiase Jr. one. What was that, three? Two, I think.

Two. We'll watch all of them. We'll have a great continuation of the series. We would like to write it. The rest of the matches on this card, we'll go through a little bit faster because we are now down to the undercard. Roman Reigns makes his WrestleMania return versus Drew McIntyre.

Great comeback story here. I think Drew McIntyre is a good opponent for Roman Reigns to come back against. I love that he's- Great comeback story for both guys. A better comeback story for Roman Reigns, beating Leukemia. I mean, yeah, but Drew McIntyre, this fucking guy got released. He was in 3MB, and now he has a singles match at WrestleMania against Roman Reigns? Yeah.

I think it's perfect for Roman. He's mid-card, facing Drew McIntyre, a great worker, a guy that's going to make him look great. The fans are going to cheer Roman in this match. Roman's going to get his first WrestleMania win solo, where he's universally cheered. I'm not so sure that Roman goes over. You're not? You think this might be the beginning of a longer story? I mean, if you

just can't have Roman go over every single fucking year. I think Roman goes over because the headlines after WrestleMania will all be Roman Reigns wins first match back first singles match back after defeating Leukemia. How do you continue to make him a sympathetic character?

You have Drew McIntyre go over. Cheats to win, maybe. Should I... Did I come back too soon? Then you have people rooting for him. Not bad. I don't hate it. Honestly, either one going over,

I'm happy to see Roman Reigns back in the ring. I really am. Same. Demo wrote in and said, favorite match or moment since we last heard from you guys? My favorite moment might legitimately be Roman Reigns announcing that he's cancer free. It's cheesy maybe to say and corny, but he cut the promo in such a way. It was so real. It was so raw.

And, bro, it made me cry a lot. Yeah, I think... What was the question? Best moment of the year? No, best moment since we last heard from you guys. Like, what's your favorite moment? And I couldn't really think of one sticking out in my mind. Just a recent one was Roman Reigns coming back,

announcing that he's remission. He said it in such a Roman Reigns fashion, such a fucking cool motherfucker. He's like, I'm in remission, y said it in such a Roman Reigns fashion, such a fucking cool motherfucker. He's like, I'm in remission, y'all. Yeah. And the crowd popped like crazy, and it was like, fuck. He finally just got that crowd reaction,

and he had to beat cancer to do it, but he got it. And he did it. And Roman was so emotional. Seth went out and cried with him. People in the crowd are crying. I'm on my couch crying. Trent's looking at me.

He was watching The Bachelor at the time. I was watching it on my computer. He was like, bro, are you crying right now? I was like, Roman Reigns is remission, y'all. Y'all. But yeah, it's going to be cool to see Roman Reigns with a different reaction. It's going to be very cool. It's nice to see that the fans are like, all right, I mean, this is, we can get past Roman.

This is Joe. It's Joe. It's Joe Inouye. Yeah, it's Joe. And we love Joe. I love Roman. You don't have to fucking love Roman, but you should love Joe. Great guy.

You really should. For the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, champions Bayley and Sasha Banks, the Hug and Boss Connection. Might have got that swapped. It's a horrible tag team name. I fucking hate it. It's horrible. I'm sorry. I like these two. I like both of them.

I like them as a tag team. Yeah, I mean, if you're the first, like, women's tag team champs, stop playing off, like, something else that previously existed. And tell you what, Rock and Sock rhymed. That's why that was their tag team name. It sure did. Boss and Hug?

Yeah. Excuse me? Yeah, don't do that. Beth Phoenix and Natalia are challenging them, as are The Iconics and Nia Jax and Tamina. The fucking, the bruisers. The injury gang. I cannot believe that they put them together.

It's a crazy move by the company. It's just like, hey, if you guys are going to fucking hurt people, imagine showing up to the arena and looking at the card and being like, oh, we have a fucking tag match with Nia Jax and Tamina Snuka tonight. It's like, you know what? I'm going to pre-buy a heating pad.

I'm going to pre-buy some ice. I'm going to wear a face shield. With all due respect to Tamina, Tamina's the worst wrestler I've ever seen in my entire life. She's unbelievably bad at wrestling. This match will be I think short and sweet.

And I think Bailey and Sasha will be put over by Beth Phoenix and Natalia. I think Beth Phoenix is coming back to say, hey, I still got it and I want to put over the younger generation. I think that's what's going to happen here, especially for that moment at the end with all of the four horsewomen holding their titles in MetLife Stadium.

You know what would really put a damper on that moment, Bob? What? The fucking Iconics go over. I wouldn't have an issue with it. Me neither. A lot of people hate on the Iconics. Why? I don't know if you picked that up.

They've had a few flub matches, and they've had a few eh promos. I'm still a big fan of them, especially Peyton Royce. Yeah. You're also a big fan of him. I'm still a big fan of them, especially Peyton Royce, who you're also a big fan of. I'm also a big fan of Billy Kay as well. I remember I went to that NXT show in Lowell.

What a shithole. A total shithole. That's where Shawn Michaels lost his smile. Yeah, it sure was. I could feel it when I was in there. I couldn't smile if I fucking... Yeah, I've been to that arena once and I couldn't smile if I tried. I tried, and the muscles just don't work.

If someone wrote me a check for a million dollars and put it in my hand, I couldn't smile in that arena. No. But that was my first introduction to Peyton Royce was that night. Each and every week, Elias is reminding us that he's going to have a special WrestleMania performance. Who's going to interrupt this guy? I have a prediction.

Yeah, we're... Right off the bat, John Cena. I think we haven't heard a peep from John Cena. We haven't heard a peep about John Cena. I think this is his spot. For Elias? Yeah, because they had the thing last year a bit with the Undertaker thing, which the Undertaker, we also don't know anything about.

Not on the card? And we received a question from Matt Vaughn who said, will The Undertaker make any sort of appearance at WrestleMania? I'm going to make a bold prediction and say no. He just doesn't appear. No. I just find it odd

that if you were going to have The Undertaker officially just... I mean, there's no way. He posted on Instagram either today or yesterday. He needs to stop posting on Instagram. He needs to stop. Or if you're going to post like that, make a Mark Calloway account. Yes. Like stop posting as The Undertaker being like, hey, try out this new nutrition product.

I just lost 25 pounds. Fucking bubble tea taker. Yeah. Post under, make your this new nutrition product. I just lost 25 pounds. Fucking bubble tea taker. Yeah. Post under, make your username American Badass. Just make it Mark. You're Mark talking. The Undertaker doesn't do fucking ads for nutrition supplements. You're dead.

Did you see that The Undertaker is taking appearance fees that are apparently $25,000 an hour in other promotions? In other promotions. Like, I think, like, indie companies can book him not to work matches, I don't think, but to do signings and shit.

Apparently, it's $25,000 an hour. How the fuck do you recoup that price? You pay, like, 50 grand to, like, have him make his entrance. You know, because it's a two-hour entrance. Get it? Long entrance. It is a long one.

So, who interrupts Elias? Who's your prediction? My... P. Diddy? My 1A... My 1A is... Did P. So who interrupts Elias? Who's your prediction? My 1A. Did P. Diddy perform at 29? He did. My 1A is John Cena. And then after that, of course you can never count out The Rock.

That's true. Bray Wyatt. That would suck. It would suck because it doesn't make sense. It would be so underwhelming. You're just kind of a Bray Wyatt. Oh, that would suck. It would suck because it doesn't make sense. It would be so underwhelming. You're just kind of a Bray Wyatt hater. Don't do it.

Fucking Bray Wyatt. I would love... I mean, Bray Wyatt has been in the dark for a little bit. Yeah, he's having a kid with JoJo. That's a fucking insert. Crazy. Did you see the WWE announced that JoJo is pregnant and post all of her maternity pregnancy photos on the beach? But did not mention.

Including one of Bray Wyatt's arm, his tattooed arm, holding her stomach, where it's clearly him. And they just didn't mention Bray Wyatt. No. Why would you? I don't know. Congratulations to JoJo for fucking this cult leader from the woods. Sister Abigail?

Ooh. Hmm. Baby Abigail. Are you a Sister Abigail? Ooh. Hmm. Baby Abigail. Are you a Thrones guy? No. Damn, I was going to say, if JoJo gives birth to a smoke monster like Lady Melisandre, that would be a great storyline. Did he have kids with his previous wife? Yeah.

Damn. AJ Styles takes on Randy Orton in a SmackDown bout. This is a good one. I think this is a cool matchup where they probably were like, hey, we don't have anything for either of these guys, so let's put them together. And they have worked really well together in the past. They had a good match on SmackDown a year or two back.

They had a great outing in the Elimination Chamber this year. There's a lot of stuff you could do with AJ Styles potentially getting hit with an RKO or reversals. You know, he's one of them high flyer springboard guys. I think this is a fun match. I got nothing really, like, over the top to say about it, but it's fun. I mean, I like both guys. So, I mean, I'm not really going to say that I'm excited for it,

but I'll watch it and I'll be into it. Yeah, you know what? I'm with you. Holy fuck, I can't wait for this. When it comes on, I'm not going to take a piss. No, absolutely not. That's a pretty good compliment. Tell you what, we will take a piss during

is Kurt Angle versus Baron Corbin. Oh, God. This poor guy, Kurt Angle. Why would they announce that it's his farewell match? Why not have a retirement match? They wanted to do a farewell tour, a little farewell tour. It should have been John Cena. Like, John Cena should have retired

Kurt Angle. I agree. It would have been great. Like, Kurt Angle brought John Cena into WWE. John Cena takes him out of WWE I agree. It would have been great. Kurt Angle brought John Cena into WWE. John Cena takes him out of WWE. Something like that would have been awesome. Recently, he's been facing a lot of former opponents like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. He faced Chad Gable, who a lot of people considered a dream match for him. I felt like the WrestleMania match should have been Chad Gable. This guy could be the next Olympic-type Kurt Angle singlet wrestler,

which they had a great match together. But then they announced, he's like, my final match, I'll be taking on Baron Corbin. And you could hear a pin drop in the arena because everyone was like, fucking why? Yeah, why? Why are you doing that? Yeah. Like, he got his one-up on Baron Corbin in that Shield match where Kurt Angle was in the Shield, and he was, like, the dad of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.

I mean, that brought us together for an emergency podcast, by the way. It really did. That was fucking weird. Yeah, that was a weird time. There's a silver lining here. What's that? Well, there were rumors that Baron Corbin was going to be the singles opponent for Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. So at least we're not getting that.

Kurt Angle just deserves better. You know what I would honestly prefer to this? Anything. You don't see a lot of farewell matches that are triple threats. Add him to the AJ Styles versus Randy Orton. Two classic Kurt Angle opponents. He had Randy Orton beef WrestleMania 22, that classic match with Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, and Rey Mysterio. Yep.

One of my favorite triple threat matches of all time. Mm-hmm. AJ Styles, one of his favorite opponents ever. They work together all the time in TNA. TNA, yep. Throw him in that match. That's actually a great idea. Yeah.

But you've got to get Baron Corbin on the card somewhere. Throw him in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. That's what you do with everyone else that you've got no space for. Yeah, and build that up. He's like, come back to win it. You guys haven't given me the respect Battle Royal. That's what you do with everyone else that you've got no space for. Yeah, and build that up. He's like, come back to win it. You guys haven't given me the respect I need. Match that I can't wait for, that I expect to be changed on Tuesday. Oh, boy.

Samoa Joe versus Rey Mysterio for the United States Championship. I expect more people to be added to this match. And I might be dumb saying that. You've got to add El Mas. You've got to add him with the series of matches he and Rey Mysterio had and with the series of matches that they've had,

these multi-man matches, the triple threats, the fatal four ways. You could even throw R-Truth in here. I'd have no issue with that because R-Truth has been pretty good recently. He's got Carmelo with him as his manager so you could get her on the cards in that way.

I think they've been together for a little bit now. They have. And it's like, honestly, a pretty good pairing. Are you going to address the drama going on there? With Carmel? Mm-hmm. No, we're not.

Okay. All right. All right. All right. Okay. Samoa Joe versus Rey Mysterio for the United States Championship is a hell of a match. I can't wait for this match. I can't wait to see what Rey Mysterio wears. You gotta think he's doing

some kind of Avengers Endgame gear, being every WrestleMania he throws on superhero or supervillain themed attire. Yeah, I mean, I just don't... I'm just not getting up for it as much as you are, Bob. I got no room for your negativity, Jared. I'm not being negative. It's just like,

I'm not poo-pooing it. Don't poo-poo it. I'm not gonna poo-poo it. Don't poo-poo it. I will not being negative. It's just like I'm not poo-pooing it. I'm more just like I'm not going to poo-poo it. Don't poo-poo it. I will not. However. I'll be very upset if you poo-poo it. And I wouldn't because of you. If it weren't for you, I probably would poo-poo it.

Don't say that. I would. I don't even want to hear that you would poo-poo the match without me. Well, I'm more like excited for Samoa Joe. Yeah. Samoa Joe's getting a big spot. Be excited for that. For the Cruiserweight Championship.

Did Great Balls of Fire ever come back? Or is that a one-time deal? No, that was a one and done. What a great card, by the way. Great. Go back and listen to that episode. That's a classic from the top rope. Sure is.

For the Cruiserweight Championship, Buddy Murphy takes on Tony Nese. Who the fuck are these people? Tony Nese, who's the one that wears the shirt that's cut for his six-pack abs? Is that Tony Nese? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's him?

I think so. I have no thoughts. I like Tony Nese. I used to know Tony Nese. Who the fuck is Buddy Murphy? Bro, Buddy Murphy is one of the best cruiserweights we've had going since we stopped doing the podcast. Buddy Murphy's fantastic. He was part of that tag team originally.

I think he was the one that was engaged to Alexa Bliss for a bit. They're not anymore, but he's fantastic. He was part of that tag team originally. He was, I think he was the one that was engaged to Alexa Bliss for a bit. And they're not anymore, but he is fantastic. Don't you fucking ever propose to Alexa Bliss. Don't ever propose to Alexa Bliss? Why? Because I'll kill you. That's why. Me?

Anybody. That goes for anybody listening. I wasn't planning on proposing to Alexa Bliss. Anybody listening, anybody in this room, anybody in the world, if you propose to Alexa Bliss, I will kill you. All right. This is not admissible in court either, by the way. That's on the record.

That's fair. I'll be honest. Eh. I think it'll be good, but I'm not excited for it as a Cruiserweight guy. I think it'll be good, but it's not moving the needle much for me. Not moving the needle at all. My needle could not be more calm. Your needle's broken.

My needle is just like, meh. For the Intercontinental Championship, Bobby Lashley takes on Finn Balor. Eh. I, I, eh. Bobby Lashley is eh. I feel like every time that, like, I check back in after checking out, I'm like, oh, I see they're still trying to get Bobby Lashley over. Yeah, that's still the case.

You've got to put Finn Balor over here. I hope he does the demon paint. He's never done it at WrestleMania. Is Bobby Lashley worth demon paint? No, to be honest. But it's WrestleMania, so you have to, I guess. WrestleMania, I'd like to see it. He didn't do it last year at WrestleMania.

Has he put it on since the pumpkin match? He was supposed to be the pumpkin king. But Bobby Lashley, my God. I feel like if I ever do text you about wrestling, it's always to point out who's getting absolutely no reaction. Yeah, and it's usually Bobby Lashley. I'm like, wow. Like, Wrestler X is getting no crowd reaction whatsoever. And he's got Leo Rush with him now, which helps. And Leo's doing a good job, I will like, wow, like, Wrestler X is getting no crowd reaction whatsoever.

And he's got Leo Rush with him now, which helps, and Leo's doing a good job, I will say. For the role that he's in, he's doing a good job. It's just not— I don't know why Bobby Lashley doesn't get at least something, something of a heel reaction. Like, he's fucking massive. Yeah. You're a big body guy. I'm old school.

All right. But, like, where is he, Bellator? Yeah. I mean, it's guy. I'm old school. All right. But, like, where is he? Bellator? Yeah. I mean, it's not like he's a nobody. No, and, bro, his first run with the WWE, he was, like, on top of the world as over as anybody. He had that match with John Cena where everyone was more excited about him than John Cena at the time. It was 2007, I believe.

Great American Bash, I want to say. I don't know what happened that made him so blah. He was great in TNA, too. I was excited when they re-signed him, because man, he's been great in TNA for the past year and a half. Here he comes. He came in and injured everyone he was

in the ring with. He dropped Big Gas on his big old noggin. Yikes. Finn Balor, hope he goes over. Hope he wears the demon paint. Just for the sake of seeing the demon paint at WrestleMania, it'll be cool to see the arena all lit red. That's a match that you've got to save until at least it gets dark for that reason. And then other than that, we've got the two battle royals, the Andre the Giant battle royal, the women's battle royal, and Alexa Bliss is obviously the host of WrestleMania. A good role for Alexa Bliss.

Yeah. The host of WrestleMania is always the host of WrestleMania. A good role for Alexa Bliss. Yeah. The host of WrestleMania is always, like, a weird thing. When they did it with The Rock at 27, it stunk. And then they did it with... Why does that sink? Because he cut that weird promo for, like, the first half hour of the WrestleMania in Atlanta. What, with Stone Cold and Hulk Hogan? No, that was WrestleMania 30 when Hulk Hogan was host.

Oh, yeah. Oh, that was awesome. Yes. The Rock being the host was weird. I mean, he had a flamethrower, dog. No, that was WrestleMania 32. There was no Hulk Hogan. All right.

Then I don't know what you're talking about. He was the host of WrestleMania 27, Miz versus Jax. Oh, that's when he came back, but he didn't come back. Yes. It was very bizarre, and it wasn't good. Yeah, that was stupid. So the Rock in 2011 hosts WrestleMania. It's a big dud, and it's like, why did they do that?

Hulk Hogan hosts WrestleMania at WrestleMania 30, and it was fantastic. It was awesome. Awesome promo to start the show. A few backstage segments. Silver Dome, brother. A few backstage segments during the show, and he basically stayed out everybody's way. Yeah. The New Day hosted WrestleMania 33, and that was great, too, because they mostly stayed out everybody's way. The New Day hosted WrestleMania 33,

and that was great, too, because they mostly stayed out everybody's way. They did a segment in the beginning, and they announced the Hardy Boys coming back. That was the best part. And they did a great job with that. Yeah. Woo!

So I think Alexa Bliss will do a good job with her role as the host, especially being the moments of Bliss on Raw. She's been real good during. I just love her. She's great. She's real great. So what do we got for the Andre the Giant battle, Roy?

Who are you picking to win that thing? I mean, Braun Strowman's in it, so obviously he's going to win. Has he won one before? Not to my knowledge. Was it like Mojo? No, Mojo did win. Mojo. Baron Corbin.

Baron Corbin. Mojo Rawley. And then who won? Cesaro. Cesaro. Cesaro. Who won last year? Wasn't. Mojo Rawley. And then... Cesaro. Cesaro. Who won last year? Wasn't that Mojo? No, that was in Orlando.

He won. Two years ago? Yeah. Oh, dude. What? Matt Hardy won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal last year. Did he really? Yeah.

Bray Wyatt returned and helped Matt Hardy win it. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, that was cool. Here's the list of Andre the Giant battle royal winners. So you get a sense of how prestigious this thing is. Cesaro wins the first one, and it's fantastic. One of the best battle royals of all time. Big Show wins the next year in Santa Clara,

and everyone's like, all right, you're doing the Andre the Giant thing. It was fair. Baron Corbin wins the next one. His debut match on the main roster that Tatanka was in. Remember when Tatanka was just in the ring? He didn't get an entrance or anything. He was like halfway through the Battle Royale and everyone was like, who's that guy with the red? Oh my god!

That's Tatanka! Mojo Rawley wins the next one with the help of Rob Gronkowski. And Matt Hardy wins the next one. It's a weird list, bro. It is, because like- That's one motley crew. Well, here's the thing that is not, I mean like, I'm not saying remove it-

That would be the worst faction ever. Yeah, like, I'm not saying remove it from the card. It has its place. But not once has the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal launched anybody's career. It could have launched Cesaro's career, and they squashed it the next day. They turned him heel the next day, and everyone was like, why would you put him with Heyman, which seemed like a good idea, but it just didn't work.

There was no chemistry there or something. It didn't launch anyone's career. The Women's Battle Royal, I'm expecting. I mean, it's Asuka, Carmella, Naomi, Lana, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Nikki Cross, Dana Brooke, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Mickie James, Zelina Vega. I mean, I'm sure there's going to be more, but it's TBA. But of those that were named,

I wouldn't hate seeing someone like Nikki Cross win. I would like, as a Jersey guy, and WrestleMania is going to be in Jersey, I would like to see fellow member of the 201, Liv Morgan, win. I can't see it happening. I think it would be really cool, though. I don't know. Asuka? You have Asuka win?

Nah. Mandy Rose? Nah. Could you see Lacey Evans winning the Battle Royal? Being she's coming out, doing all these segments. Vince supposedly wants to make her the next face of the company. I'll be honest, Bob. No idea who the fuck that is.

Alright. So that's Wrestlemania. We got a few questions from the fans that we still haven't answered. You interested in answering some grapple fuck questions, Jared? Before we get out of here? I am literally only here for the grapple fox. First question from Jim Stout here.

If Kofi wins, do you think we see a big E heel turn after WrestleMania? Would it be a good time to break up the New Day after five years after Kofi wins the title? My answer is I didn't even think about this, and I wouldn't want it to happen immediately but I love the idea of Kofi Kingston going into SummerSlam to WWE Champion versus Big E with Xavier Woods kind of in that stuck in the middle position.

I think that would be great and maybe end it with Xavier Woods turning on Kofi and you know being the mouthpiece for Big E in a big shocking heartbreaking betrayal moment. Kofi and being the mouthpiece for Big E in a big shocking, heartbreaking betrayal moment. I love that idea from Jim Stout. I don't hate that at all.

I don't know that I would want it to happen right away. I like the idea of going into SummerSlam and having them feuding with each other. I like the roaming role for Xavier Woods. But I want him to at least, if you're going to put it on him,

and he would be the official first black WWE champion. Yes. Everyone wants to credit The Rock. It's like, he's Samoan. I also like, for that accolade, nobody's more deserving than Kofi Kingston. Yeah. Ahmed Johnson. No.

Why? Ron Simmons? Ron Simmons, I'll give you that, yeah. Okay. Ron Simmons, but I mean at the moment. Oh, at the moment, yeah, for sure. At the moment, nobody's more deserving. Yeah, no, Kofi is more deserving.

But, yeah, I don't know who I'd want. I'm sure that there's got to be, like, if you're going to beat Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, there's got to be some sort of, like, you know, the rematch clause, and I'm sure there's going to be, like, if you're going to beat Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, there's got to be some sort of, like, you know, the rematch clause, and I'm sure there's going to be like a... Yeah, you do a couple of those. It's going to be a trilogy. You do a couple of... I think you let the New Day breathe with that...

I think you let the New Day breathe with Kofi Kingston as the champion and Big E and Xavier behind him. As the hype man. Think about this. WWE always loves a huge summer angle. That's your summer angle. The breakup of the New Day, Big E heel turn,

you go back to three ain't enough, man. I need five Big E if you want to. You have Big E wearing the black singlets again, throwing away all those bright New Day colors. I think it would be really, really cool. Wouldn't hate it. Okay, next question from Joe DeMaio. He says, as we know, post-WrestleMania is essentially opening day for the new year of WWE.

Who is the breakout star of the year post-WrestleMania? My money is heavily on Drew McIntyre. It's a good guy to hang your hat on. I'm going to rattle off a name that I've been rattling off on this podcast since the very beginning. It's a guy that very much saw his come up in the last year and kind of is a breakout star, but I think he's going to get even bigger,

even better, and keep being the fantastic wrestler he is. Jinder Mahal. It's going to be Jinder Mahal, breakout star of the year again, because obviously he did have a breakout year. It's going to be Jinder Mahal, breakout star of the year again, because obviously he did have a breakout year. It's time to break out again, and I'm not talking about back knee.

I'm talking about blowing it up to the point where he is not just a sensation here in the United States, but a global sensation, not just Canada, where he's actually from, not just India, Punjabi. It's going to be all over the world. They're going to love him, and they're going to love him in all corners of the world. Jinder Mahal, hashtag my champion. We were having a really fun podcast.

I was having a lot of fun. You ruined it. Why? Because we a lot of fun. You ruined it. Why? Because we can't top that? You ruined it, Jared. My answer was Mustafa Ali. Yeah. That was my answer. He looked pretty good in the Rumble.

Finally, from DJ Clubber Lang. This is a question that I love. Okay? This is going to be our final question of the episode. Okay. He said, would you rather be in a steel cage match versus a Bengal tiger or 12 Bonesaws? Bonesaw being the wrestler that Macho Man Randy Savage played in the first Spider-Man movie. Oh, yeah.

I remember that. Bonesaw McGraw, wasn't it? Yes. Yeah. Bonesaw is ready. Oh, yeah. That was his quote. Fantastic scene.

One of my favorite childhood movies. One of my favorite childhood scenes. Seeing Spider-Man and Macho Man face off. My head was exploding in the theater in 2002. Let's take it like this. You and me are both in the cage together. It's a tag team. I can't believe I got the fucking last name right.

It was Bonesaw McGraw. Oh, you got it. I mean, you're the Rocket. You know. I'm a big Spider-Man guy, too. You and me are together. We're in the steel cage. Yeah.

One tiger. Yeah. One tiger or 12 actual, let's say, Macho Man, Bonesaw, Macho Man, you know, in that era, trying to kill us. 12 of them. Who do we have a better shot against? I think it's the tiger. It has to be the tiger. People forget that Macho Man Randy Savage was actually drafted to be a professional baseball player, and he had a cannon.

Oh, he had a cannon, and we saw a video resurface recently from a celebrity softball-type game he played in the 90s where he hits this moonshot. It's one of the craziest moonshots of all time. The ball still hasn't landed, and it was hit in the 90s. That's all I need to say about that, folks. I think we've got to take the tiger. We have to take the tiger because here's how we do it. One of us would distract the tiger towards one of the sides of the cage. Yep.

The other one would be clinging to the cage, and we would drop down on the tiger, and you'd have to choke it out. Yeah. You'd have to execute it perfectly, or else we're both dead, but that's how you do it. You think you could choke a tiger out? Yeah. You think you could get your arms around a tiger's neck? Yeah. You'd have to execute it perfectly or else you're both dead, but that's how you do it. You think you could choke a tiger out? Yeah. You think you could get your arms around a tiger's neck?

Yeah. Really? I think a tiger's probably got a really thick neck. Probably, but not thick enough to cover a six-foot wingspan. But you've got to choke it, so you've got to apply a rear naked choke of some sort with your bone. Yeah, I think you could choke a tiger out. yeah, I think you could choke a tiger out. Yeah. I think you could choke a tiger out.

That's how you do it. You would have to choke the tiger out because I definitely wouldn't be able to do it. My arms are so tiny and noodle pipe cleaner arms. Yeah. I think you could choke the tiger out. I would probably have to like take one for the team and die. I don't think you'd die. I think I would.

No, I don't think you would. You lock us in a cage with a tiger. You don't think one of us is dying. How tall is the cage? Say standard steel cage size. All right, so if we have a steel cage match against one tiger... Bro, you think you're fast enough to climb a cage before a tiger gets you? He would be looking at you.

I know, you think I'm fast enough? I would die. I don't think you would. I think there's a chance that you'd choke it out if you get the high ground, you get it while it's eating my body, you drop down. No. Yeah. We would have to start on opposite ends, and when it's looking at you, you run. I mean, you can also climb the cage as well.

They're all not fast enough to run or climb the cage against the tiger. They're not fast tigers, are they? They're super fast. Super fast. But what are the odds a tiger could climb a steel cage? Fucking high. Yeah, that's true.

They got claws. They're huge. He could probably scratch the chain link. Well, I think, I think there's a chance we take the tiger, but not without a casualty. I think you could,

if I, if I distract a tiger, and I'm, Hey, look over here. Yeah. And the tiger kind of looks at me, and I'm like, fucking climb up the cage, Grubbs. You climb up the cage. You got to drop from high, too, because when you drop on that thing, I think you got to drop hard enough on it to almost hurt it. So you got to drop hard.

You got to drop perfectly. So you want to try to paralyze it first. No, you can't paralyze it. I don't think you'd be strong enough to paralyze it. If a missile drop kicked its spine? But you can't drop kick it. You have to drop and immediately grab the choke, because if not, it's going to wiggle you off, and it's going to

just eat you. That's what I'm saying. We'll both probably end up dead. I would, yes. I agree. But I think our best course of action is I'm waving my arms in the corner of the ring, tiger comes after me, tiger eats me, and then you drop down on the tiger and try to choke it out. So don't you think that we should choose 12 bone saws?

Because at worst we're just going to get an ass beat. He's not going to murder us. Oh, fuck, you're right. We just put him over. You know what? We're doing bone saw. Yeah, we got to do bone saw. We're taking 12 bone saws.

We're just going to put him over. We have to put him over. We'll put him over. That's all we got to do is put him over. It's a big deal. Take a couple bumps, put him over. Put him over, make him look good. Make him look strong.

All right. We're taking bone saw. Taking bone saw. We're taking bone saw. That is the end of the From the Top Rope segment, the From the Top Rope reunion on My Mom's Basement. We got a question for everyone out there before we let you go. What was your first WrestleMania memory?

What's your first memory of WrestleMania? We want you to tweet at us, throw in videos, throw in GIFs if you must. My first was Wrestlemania 19 I'll never forget Throwing it on, the first Wrestlemania I ever watched live And I still haven't missed one live since But Rey Mysterio vs. Matt Hardy Was the first match

I think it might have been a pre-show even Back then And I had never seen Rey Mysterio ever before Daredevil had just come out with Ben Affleck It was all about Daredevil And Rey Mysterio came out in that Daredevil outfit. I remember turning to my brother and being like, he's my favorite wrestler now. Like, it was that easy for me.

He lost the match due to Matt Hardy and Shannon Moore kind of double teaming him and using heel tactics to get over on him. But that whole WrestleMania is fantastic. The Undertaker has Limp Bizkit performing his entrance roll-in. Vince McMahon versus Hulk Hogan is an awesome street fight, super underrated. It's Stone Cold Steve Austin's last match against The Rock, which is fantastic. It's really just an awesome card, top to bottom, and I get so much nostalgia for it. Shawn Michaels versus Chris Jericho is an iconic, timeless match. Jared, what was your first WrestleMania memory? My first WrestleMania memory was WrestleMania 14 in Boston. Obviously, being a huge Kane fan,

this was Kane's WrestleMania debut against The Undertaker. And I remember it was like my friends loved wrestling, so they were super into it. But my friends' dads all loved wrestling, so it was like the friends loved wrestling so they were super into it but like my friends dads all love wrestling so it was like the kids were watching it and then the adults were watching it and then they were trying to explain it to like the wives and then like the wives were all like well why does he just like let him hit him like that like he doesn't even defend himself and i had to be like because he's fucking Like, he can just eat those punches.

And then, like, they were trying to explain the concept of, like, a finisher. So, like, after the first tombstone, she's like, wait, so, like, that's it? Like, he hit the finisher? And then they couldn't understand the concept of, like, kicking out of it. Why is it called a finisher if it doesn't finish it? But, in fairness, that had to have been the first time that anybody kicked out of the tombstone, and he did it twice. On the three count, he kicked out.

It was one, two, and then barely three, and he still kicked out. Yeah, I want to say there was a moment where it's not a kick out, but I want to say there was a moment where Hulk Hogan got tombstoned, and he just stood up from it and hulked up. What an asshole. Which is just so classic golden where Hulk Hogan got tombstoned and he just stood up from it and like hulked up. What an asshole.

Which is just so classic golden era Hulk Hogan. But that's Jared's first WrestleMania memory. I just gave you mine. We want to hear yours. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this From the Top Rope Reunion. We hope you have a fantastic WrestleMania Sunday. Happy WrestleMania week. It's the greatest week of the year every year.

It's the greatest day of the year every year. It's the greatest day of the year every year. I don't care how shitty the card looks to you. I think it's actually a great card this year. It's a great card. But even if the card were to look shitty, even if the card were shitty itself, WrestleMania will never not be my favorite day of the year. It's my Christmas,

and I hope you enjoy it quite as much as we will. For Robbie Fox, I'm Jared Karabas. So there you have it. From the Top Rope is officially back. I hope you had as much as we will. For Robbie Fox, I'm Jared Karabas. So there you have it. From the Top Rope is officially back. I hope you had as much fun listening to that as we did recording it. It was honestly a blast. So before I get out of here, I will answer some questions that you guys submitted over the last week. Again, if you'd like to submit your question, search My Mom's Basement on iTunes,

hit subscribe, leave us a rating, and then put your question right in the review box of the podcast. Or you could always DM me on Twitter as well, at Robbie Barstool, but there's a lesser chance that I see it there, because I've been flooded with those over the last week. Thanks to you guys. I do appreciate it, but it is a lot to keep up with. So if you really want me to see your question, put it in the iTunes review box. I don't know if Spotify has one of those as well. If they do, put it there, and I'll be informed by someone that knows what they're talking about that Spotify has one. I'll check those as well. So let's get right into it. Luke wants to know, will there be any Game of Thrones content on the podcast, possibly with Clem? As of right now, the plan is yes. The plan was to have myself, Clem, and Trent recapping each and every episode of the final season of Game of Thrones the day after they air. So this is a Monday morning podcast. Episodes would air on Sunday night. The next morning you

would have our recap. That being said, everyone at Barstool right now is trying to figure out all collectively what the best way to cover Game of Thrones would be. So it might be on this feed. It might be on the KFC radio feed. It might be on its own feed. We're still working out the kinks. We're still working out the details. As of right now, myself, Clem, and Trent will be recapping every episode the day after they air right here in my mom's basement. Darbs wants to know what my favorite WrestleMania match ever is. My favorite WrestleMania match ever is Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 30. It's my favorite match of all time. Daniel Bryan being my favorite all-time wrestler,

and that being his moment, that being his miracle on Bourbon Street. I've talked about it a ton in the past, but it's my favorite match ever. As far as like what I think is the best match ever at WrestleMania, and honestly the best match ever wrestled. That belongs to Shawn Michaels versus The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25, a match that I could watch over and over and over and over and over again and never get tired of. There's one botch in the match where Undertaker flies over the top rope and Shawn Michaels pulls a cameraman in the way and Undertaker lands on his neck.

And it's one of those botches that, especially in hindsight, hindsight's 2020, knowing that he's completely fine from that, that made the match so much better because it made it so much more real. That's the greatest match ever wrestled. And then I'll even throw in, to make this a three-part answer, my most underrated WrestleMania match ever

is Rey Mysterio versus Randy Orton versus Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 22 for the World Heavyweight Championship. It's probably my favorite under-15-minute match of all time, and it's just so fast-paced the whole time. I think they might have got their time cut at the last minute, so they're like, alright, we're going to fit 25 minutes worth of material in 15 minutes, and they went out and had a balls-to-the-wall banger of a match. Go check that out. Three very recent matches, I know that. I'm well-versed in the Golden Era,

I'm well-versed in the Attitude Era, but those were just my three picks for that. DJ wants to know what my favorite concert I've been to in the last calendar year has been. I was thinking about it, and I was looking down the list. I actually haven't been to that many concerts in this past year in relation to like I don't know the past few years so I saw the wonder years pop punk band I really dig I saw all time low my favorite band of all time a couple of times I saw paramour a couple of times foo fighters were great as always jack white was really cool gov ball I just saw fleetwood mac and I just saw kiss both at the garden kiss was a really fun show to be at, them being

one of my first favorite bands as a kid, and still to this day one of my favorite bands, honestly, but Kiss at this stage in the game, I can't really put in such a high echelon. I saw Smashing Pumpkins over the summer, I saw OAR, The Killers, but the best concert I was at in the last calendar year, and this might be a polarizing answer, I might get some hate for this. It was Greta Van Fleet at Terminal 5. I went and saw Greta Van Fleet with my brother, with a few co-workers. Glennie Balls was there, Chuck, our social media guy, was there. It was an absolute blast, and those four kids are so goddamn talented, you wouldn't believe it. If you're a hater, if you're a Greta Van Fleet hater that says they're just Led Zeppelin Muppet babies, there's Led Zeppelin clones who have no originality, no talent, whatever, just go see them live. Go see them live because I guarantee they will prove

that opinion incorrect when you realize how talented the four of them are, how much chemistry they have up on the stage. It feels good as a Greta Van Fleet fan to know that you're on the right side of history about a band that a lot of people are doubting right now. And finally, my last question from Jeremy. This one I had to answer because it was so out of left field, and so I couldn't imagine why this person would want my input on this subject, but I thought it was fun. He said, do you believe in Bigfoot? And my answer to that is yes. I think it would be boring not to believe in Bigfoot. That being said, I'm from New Jersey, and we have the Jersey Devil there. That's our version of Bigfoot. So I really believe in the Jersey Devil. Bigfoot, I also believe in, but he's probably not one I'll find one day, the Jersey

Devil. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll be in the woods in Jersey, see the Jersey Devil. It'll be a hell of a Barstool Outdoors episode with young page views. So that is it for this episode of My Mom's Basement. Thank you so much for making it to the end of the episode. Next week, I'll have Jared back on to recap WrestleMania, a show that we will have been at. And don't forget to send us your first WrestleMania memory over the course of this week.