My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 403 - THE NETFLIX ERA HAS ARRIVED (FROM THE TOP ROPE WITH JARED CARRABIS)

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Robbie and Jared Carrabis are back for the first From The Top Rope of 2025, breaking down the debut of Monday Night RAW on Netflix! They're talking Roman Reigns vs Solo Sikoa in Tribal Combat, The Rock's shill promo, John Cena's AWESOME promo, Seth Rollins vs CM Punk, Hulk Hogan getting booed out of the building, and more! #RAW #MondayNightRAW #WWE **************************************** My Mom's Basement is a weekly podcast hosted by Robbie Fox, started in March 2019, to discuss movies, music, comic books, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and more with his friends and idols alike! Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-moms-basement/id1457255205 Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatrobbiefox Follow Robbie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieBarstool My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou 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. What's going on with that jacket? Hey, Bob. It's a good jacket. It's a great jacket. This is my Ric Flair jacket. Is it custom made? No, it says Nature Boy on the back. Oh, is it's they sell that oh You not anybody

That's ridiculous That's the most ridiculous thing of our hell if you own that jacket honestly a couple years. This is the first time I brought it up Yeah, I've had this for a couple years now. Yeah first first time I brought it out for content. Really? Yeah, I've had this for a couple years now. First time you've broken it out for content, you've broken it out for non-content reasons? Yeah, you know, entertaining guests at the house. We're just getting to it. We're recording already. This is the show. This is all in. Welcome to From the Top Rope, the first edition of From the Top Rope in 2025. Can you believe it?

You, you never would have thought all those years ago when we got canceled, that we would be putting out episodes in 2025. It's our ninth year. We are. Is it our ninth year? We outlasted the Beatles. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

We, uh, we started in 17. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Started in 17. It's about to be 10 years soon that we're pals. That's crazy Decade of destruction is as they say in the business That's what our t-shirts will say on the back. We have all our tour dates. You could probably fit them all on there

I mean we've yes, we've done nine years worth of podcasts, but it's only like a hundred episodes If that probably not even you know what? Uh, it's been a while actually I was going through my old videos the other day And I found the video where we were at I believe it was MSG and we were doing the Enzo and Cass Entrance like we were mouthing it as they were doing it in the ring that was 2017 We haven't done like in person content in a while, but you are you are coming here for the rumble right correct so you're coming here for the rumble my my friend wrestling group chat is the dork party they're all gonna be they were here for I will fit in very well I

think big time yes one of them brought a fucking sword the other night I mean now we're recruiting new wrestling fans We I noticed that Coley was tweeting about Monday Night Raw. Yeah Yeah, I love it like that was a spectacle but like the people that came over Like Steve who does section 10 with me never watched a wrestling event in his life. He came to What was the last PLE? The very last one was survivor serious came to what was the last PLE? The very last one was Survivor Series.

Was it? Okay, so he came first. Yeah, he came for WarGames. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was his first PLE. Loved it. I saw him acknowledge and I saw a picture of him acknowledging the Tribal Chief. Yep. Came back for Raw and now he's like genuinely excited for the Royal Rumble.

I think it's great. I think this's great. I think this year is truly gonna be a great year for wrestling. I think it's gonna be a great year for WWE specifically. Obviously we're doing this podcast cause they just debuted on Netflix on Monday. Pretty fucking huge debut.

We knew it would be a huge debut going into it. But like everyone was tweeting about it. They obviously have Travis Scott and The Undertaker and The Rock and John Cena and Hulk Hogan and we'll get into all of that. But overall, I think it was a big success. Netflix tech held up. Obviously, we were worried about the Tyson Paul stuff.

That was not a concern. It was flawless on my end. I wasn't worried about it at all. Cuz I mean, I'll do respect to WWE and I love it. It's my favorite thing in the world. But it wasn't gonna draw the hundreds of millions of viewers that like Mike Tyson and Jake Paul was gonna do. If like the Tom Brady roast, like the Tom Brady roast didn't crash,

then this was not going to crash. And it was perfect streaming. Um, I, I'm excited because like, I think we've been, been kind of saying this for a while now, like wrestling is cool again. And I think that like that was kind of what The Rock was talking about when he came back last year. He's like wrestling, professional wrestling is cool again. And now with Netflix, we are getting to the point where even if you don't want to admit

it, people are intrigued. Like there's definitely people that are like, you know, maybe I'm not going to live tweet this event, but I checked it out. Now I heard that Roman was open and I heard the rock was going to be there. Maybe the Undertaker shows up. Like I remember those guys and they flip it on. And it's like, I kind of like this. And then they come back and they come back again. And then they watch. I also think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think wrestling became cool again a little bit before it became good again, where I think it was like starting to creep back in,

obviously final boss, rock stuff, everything leading up to Cody finishing the story, the ending of the bloodline, last year's Royal Rumble with Sammy and Kevin. That was all amazing. But it felt like as Vince was starting to lose control of the company and leave, it was just starting to get better and better. But it was already becoming like, oh, more people are talking about wrestling. And then at the perfect time, it was like, oh, and now it's in Triple H's hands and he knows how to book this show.

I think that's exactly when it became it was it's it was a Combination of it's cool again, and it's safe enough to say publicly that I like this yes There was a there was a big-time combination of those two things because when Vince left and then he came back Then it's like ah shit. You know I know everyone is like Jesus Christ. We thought we were back We were almost freeW helped as well. I think AEW really did help make wrestling cool again, like Punk coming back and AEW and Brian Danielson jumping ship and Adam Cole jumping ship. All of that happening around the same time really helped the business as a whole.

But it was still a weird time where you didn't know if you wanted to, like, fully dive into supporting the WWE, because they still were putting out a lot of shit at that point. The pay-per-views were disappointing. They had Vince endings that were always just like, all right, well, the performers are great and we want to support them, but we don't want to support the storyline that they're, you know, being put through and stuff like that. Now it's at the point where I got to tell you, WWE is obviously thriving the most most but AEW is in a really good spot I know that WWE Bobos if you want to call him that will post like the attendance numbers and fucking the pictures that make it look bad

But AEW product wise is in a really good spot new Japan product wise is in a better spot than it's been in years WWE is definitely in a better spot than it's been in years, not only product wise, but business wise. We'll get into that rock promo, but he's talking biggest gate of all time for WWE arena was this Monday. Shit like that is crazy leading into two night WrestleMania. We have two nights Summer Slam this year. I think 2025 it might just be the year that wrestling is cool again.

I think we've, I think we've been there for a little bit. And to your point, I think it was when Triple H took over for good. There was even me, like there was still a little bit of like when Vince was still running the show. I'm like, yeah, there's a lot that I like here in terms of like the characters and the storylines and stuff, but it just still felt weird. Like I remember, I don't know why this storyline jumped out to me, but the Bobby Lashley Rusev Lana Cuck storyline. I'm like, this is like they're trying to, it's like it was almost like a 90s wrestling angle. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, what? Like we don't need this. Like, we can do better

than this. Like, there's ways to be funny and entertaining and captivating without this bullshit. But we haven't really seen that in the Triple H era. I think we're just there. I think it's like, we have finally modernized professional wrestling. I think Triple H talked about this in the press conference, where he was saying, you know, we're not insulting our fans anymore because that promo that they opened up Raw with he's like we use the words heal and face and work and shoot and you know, we are what we are like we're not trying to like K-Fa. How did you feel about that? Them using those terms in the in the cold open for Raw because I'll be honest I didn't love it. Like I't like, you can't do that,

you can never say that on television. It just, when they did it, I was watching that promo Captivated, when they said it took me out of it a little bit, I was like, oh, oh, they're saying that? I just didn't seem necessary. I didn't love it, but I wasn't like, you can never do that.

I think I was the perfect focus group for it because I had all my diehard wrestling fans, fan friends over, but I also had Steve there who was, it was his second wrestling show ever. And as he's, you know, sitting next to me and like I'm explaining wrestling terms to him, like there was, I think in the Roman Solo match, Roman really hit Solo pretty hard. And I noticed Solo hit him pretty hard. Early I was like, yeah, you're gonna wanna write this down.

That's called a receipt. I was like, if you hit someone a little bit too hard, they're gonna get you back, they're gonna hit you just as hard, if not harder. And I was explaining the Punk and Rollins match about how, you know, he put his foot on the rope and he was like, why did it stop the count? I was like, you can put your foot on the rope. If you're in a submission hold, you can grab the rope and it stops the hold. So like I'm explaining like this is exactly the purpose of Netflix

right now. And my girlfriend's youngest daughter, I'm really trying to get her into wrestling because she's a cheerleader. And I'm like, oh, there's Alexa Bliss. A lot of these women wrestlers, they come from cheerleading backgrounds and they're athletes first, and then they come here. And then when you turn on Netflix, like we have cable, the kids don't use cable.

They are on Netflix, and it's like, oh, all these profiles like now you can go and Like learn about like all these other people like I'm trying to do that I think that's gonna be a game changer to big time even just seeing like interstellar just went back on Netflix Everyone in the Barstool office is talking about interstellar this week just because it's on Netflix Everyone saw it on their home page and clicked it and they got curious I mean when the Vince thing obviously wasn't like WWE made when that documentary's on Netflix, everyone saw it on their homepage and clicked it and they got curious. I mean, when the Vince thing obviously wasn't like WWE made when that documentary went on Netflix, everyone was talking about wrestling and the attitude there and Vince

again, I think just these events, these documentaries existing on Netflix is going to bring in an audience that maybe even WWE didn't anticipate because like the documentaries they make are among the best content WWE produces. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think when I look back on my own case, I was diehard WWF fan, um, from 97 to 2003 stopped watching for a very long time. And because my favorite wrestler peaked my interest, that's when I came back

and I never stopped watching again. So what if your favorite wrestler isn't someone that came back or had a moment that, you know, piqued your interest or whatever? This is kind of putting WWE in front of your face. Like you can't not see it. You can't like there's plenty of people. How many times have you gone on Netflix and been like I don't know what I'm gonna watch tonight

But I'm just gonna browse and try and find something now people that gave up on wrestling in 2006 or whatever It's like oh, it wasn't cool when I was in high school. So I stopped watching in 2012 Now you like it's in front of your face. Oh people are talking about this again And we scroll be like is that the fucking Hardy boys in that thumbnail? What is this? Like random shit like that? It's easily accessible and uh, you know, I think if you gave up on wrestling a long time ago, then you're not gonna just randomly be watching SVU and then it runs into fucking Monday Night Raw, but you are gonna be on Netflix and it's gonna be in front of your face that way. Well, also not to not to shit on the cock here But like peacock isn't necessarily the best streaming service for WWE to be on it's been fine for like the live events are fine It is what it is

It still pisses me the fuck off that it's like WrestleMania season 20 episode 1 is WrestleMania tour just that the fact that they never even Considered fixing that for wrestling fans over the years really pisses me off But I'm happy they're on Netflix now. And the first show in general, I love the look of. I know that might not be every Monday night Raw because the Intuit Arena or Dome, whatever it's called is like a technological achievement

of an arena and they have lights in every seat. It looked really cool. But I hope they keep that entrance set up where they're selling the seats above it. The shots of punk walking out, the shot of the rock walking out in the opening when the crowd is above them. That looked so sick. I liked, I texted you this, the, you know, you're into deep as a wrestling fan. When you turn to your fiance, who really does not care at all about wrestling and is being tortured by Monday Night Raw. And you're like, they

got new mics for Netflix. See the flag on the middle of it. It's not a square anymore. It's been a square forever now It's a circle. So that's pretty cool. And she's like Nice looks nice, you know right back to her fucking New York Times game or whatever. She's playing But yeah, the whole look of raw Netflix. I liked I don't love the fortnight ring. I guess I'll get used to it I still don't love the you're gonna Love it when Cody fucking kisses it aren't you? Cody's gonna kiss fortnight The fortnight to me I don't know why but it I

Liked it less than the prime the prime when I saw it. I was like alright. That's not too bad Something about this apron. I was just like, oh, it's the Fortnite ring now. Kind of looks like, I also don't, this is so nitpicky wrestling fan stuff that like, it doesn't matter at all. I don't love the new ref outfits. I think they should just wear stripes. Yeah, I mean, I'm all for change, I guess. They're fine, you know, I'll get used to it next week. It's one of those like, I'll instantly whatever. Like I liked when the if I'll get used to it next week. It's one of those like I'll instantly

Whatever like I liked when the smackdown refs used to wear the blue Yeah, right kind of thing, but yeah, I saw that and there's something about this side It looked like a soccer Jersey to me or something looks strange. I Just if it's gonna be a new era then make it all new like yeah, I'm fine with it You know the the stage was new the the the ramp was new the ring was new the the ref's uniforms were new yeah like everything about it was new it wasn't LED overload sometimes it's just LEDs everywhere it almost seems like they scaled down the LED you know crazy

fucking conundrum whatever you want to call it that's cuz all the ads are on the canvas now true also that was the other thing we were kind of promised less commercials with Netflix. It did not feel like that to me. It felt like a normal Monday night roll commercial wise. Parts of it. Yes. Like the moments that they went to commercial felt raw ish to me. I think the frequency was like the I think the frequency was PLE ish, but the timing of the commercials like going to a commercial and during a match and when when raw was on USA first match, I was like, come on, give us an hour. No commercials just

to kick it off. Right. But also the fact that when it was on USA, they would go to commercial and they would keep a box to still show you I know They go full commercial on netflix now. Give us the box. I like the box I never mind that when you could watch the little thing. It's whatever it's fine Um, let's let's get into it because we started with the triple h promo I thought that was cool the way they did the curtains over the fucking ring I thought he was gonna have like a kiss entrance I thought it was gonna fucking boom and he's like lowering from the ceiling fucking spitting water or some shit, but his promo was good I thought exactly what it should have been. I wish they would have went straight from his promo to the combat the trough

Whatever the tribal combat. I wish they went straight into the match I feel like the crowd would have been so hot. Instead, they went into The Rock, which you would think on paper, good move. The crowd's gonna pop like crazy for The Rock. Jared, I think he took the fucking air out of the room. This was one of the worst rock promos I've ever seen. It was not final boss rock. It was not heel rock.

It was Dwayne Johnson, the TKO board guy, coming out to say his catchphrases, almost as if Netflix needed like a clean cut of every one of his catchphrases. So he was like, all right, ready? Action. If you smell, it was weird. He's thanking the board members. They cut to the board members, like holding up their replica title in the press box. And then he hugged Cody and thanked Cody and shouted out Roman Reigns left. And then he hugged Cody and thanked Cody and shouted out Roman Reigns left. This took all the tension out of the Cody and Roman thing for me. It took the tension away from the final boss, removed some of that aura to me.

I don't know what they were thinking here, but I hated it. Did you hate it as much as I did? I hated it as much as you did. I the tie-in for me is that promo the out-of-character all that is fine if Roman and solo go on last because now If Roman and solo go on last in the back of my mind I'm think I'm still thinking that promo is weird, but I'm like they're trying to swerve us there They're telling us hope like yeah rocks a good guy and He's gonna go screw over Roman

and further the storyline. I was hoping that was the case. I was like, maybe they're thinking, like he said on NXT, trying to rationalize everything. I was like, maybe he is thinking 20 steps ahead of us and maybe I'm the sucker here. I don't think I was the sucker. Did they think that we would all love this? It was just weird. Someone was like, what do you not understand about this? On Twitter, they weird someone was like what do you not understand about this on Twitter they said to me what do you not understand about this he wasn't in character and I was like he would he came out to the final boss theme and he was dressed like the final boss yes and never acknowledged like hey guys I'm gonna not be in character now I said that's not a thing that happens in wrestling or on any other TV show where someone comes out and they're just the actor that plays the character, no acknowledgement of what's going on. And he kept saying, me and Nate were talking about this, he kept saying, all right, before we get the show on the road, it's like the show is on the road. You're live.

What are you talking about, bro? We are live. The show started 20 minutes ago. Triple H already did his promo. If you're going to do that promo, almost let The Rock do the opening promo that Triple H did. Because then it feels like, all right, now let's get the show started. It was such a strange decision

that I'm surprised made it through all, and then he went and drank tequila with Cody afterwards. What was that all about? Them showing that too on live. If you're gonna do it on Instagram Live, it is what it is, that's kind of a removed thing where I could accept that we're gonna push K-Fabe to the side. To show it on the live show and have Cole be like, look at them drinking tequila. Isn't that great? A respect formed. Like when did it form? Off camera?

It's like the last time these two gentlemen met, The Rock handed a bloody weight belt, a weight belt covered in Cody's blood to Cody's mother, and now they're drinking tequila together. And The Rock is confident. He's like, Cody, tell your mama. I said, hi, ha ha. And Cody's like, ha ha, I will. Yeah, I don't know, I hated that.

And I'm not one of those guys where it's like, oh, you gotta protect K-Fave, but if you're gonna do that, at least in the context of the show Yeah, the context of the show protect kayfabe outside of wrestling do whatever you got to do. I got this 2025 I know it's a different world than it used to be But like Monday Night Raw is on the air right now Let's act like your character when Monday Night Raw is on or and even putting Cody in the front row for the first raw on Netflix. I know they gave him his run in spot during this match, but that was weird, too.

It made him look like like the guy or our champ is just the guy in the front row. It was weird. Yeah, I think if the rock came out in just a black blazer with like dress pants, it's like you're telling us that this is not the final boss. Like, yeah, we know that he's the rock. We know he's Dwayne Johnson. But if he came out and was just dressed differently, it's almost like when Kane was corporate Kane and then he put on the mask and it's like, oh, he's the demon. Yeah, yeah. It's like, it's you know, we get it. It's wrestling's wrestling. We follow but he came out to the final boss music He was wearing the final boss like vest and the necklace

He was wearing the exact same thing he was wearing when he beat the shit out of Cody and bloodied him in the in the rain By the tour bus he was going to referee like get the fuck away from me. Yeah, the show's fucking off Fuck up. This same guy. Yeah, that was fucked. I hated that I hate and I hated this promo on NXT the next night that which to me again It just seemed like he was trying to like rationalize it or try to be like oh, I knew what I was doing all along But it was just damage control based on Obviously everyone being like hey, what the fuck was that last night? You just came out I was hoping he would insult the audience at one point. I was like hopefully is like hey, this is the biggest Nobody would say this is the biggest raw gate ever because you lazy sons of bitches fucking spent all the money

You should have spent on your kids on tickets or something like that Instead no no no the the final boss rock is easily my favorite rock of all time And this showed how much better he is as a heel to like sure the catchphrases are fun for the live audience But watching at home. It's way more fun when we don't know what the hell the rocks gonna say next not just like oh He's gonna say finally he's come home like whatever I'm mad. Wait. Do you think that the final boss rock has done or do you think we're gonna see him again? No, no, I think he'll be back.

Yeah. I just think this was this weird like non-canon segment where he thought we would all just understand like, I think especially based on the reaction to that segment, the final boss rock has to be back. It's also gotta be way more fun for him, right? Well, he also did the one two three Like he was at no explanation there No explanation of what he put in Cody's hand the last time he was on wrong. See this is a little a

Worry that we got to put in the back of our minds triple H might know what he's doing But the rock is that guy that can kind of come in and say hey, we're rewriting a story. I'm doing this now That's not always gonna make sense Like I don't know if the Rock fully knows what he's doing because I think the Rock fucked everything up with WrestleMania last year And I wound up working out for the best But I think it was one of those happy accidents where it was like the Rock wanted to fucking step in and have Cody shake His hand and say you could have my match, sir. And do all that stuff. And I'm not positive The Rock has got his finger on the pulse of

wrestling fans anymore. It doesn't like, to me it's coming off as he's not working mania. I don't know if he is. There's rumors that he's going to have like live action Moana reshoots around the same time. And that that's such a big Disney production that the insurance on him is gonna be like he's not gonna be able to do wrestling I don't know that promo certainly seems like no rocket mania this year to me because now we're match Maybe he could come out at the end of mania and set something up next year, but I don't think he's working WrestleMania

It doesn't feel like it Jared your phones ringing is it the rock? but I don't think he's working WrestleMania. It doesn't feel like it. JARED RINGTONE Jared, your phone's ringing. Is it The Rock? Swain Johnson, yep. Yeah, no, it doesn't feel like they're working. Which is weird. Because now is the time. There was the report,

Dave Meltzer put out a report months ago that said The Rock's not working Mania this year, and The Rock was like, don't believe everything you read, winky face. I don't know. Doesn't mean he's gonna have a match. No it doesn't and he could be working everybody still to this day. He probably should be working everybody to have the will he won't he still. The match that followed the Rock promo the Tribal

Combat match was awesome I thought. Solo versus Reigns and it's a interesting dynamic having this match kick it off. But I think it was the right move cuz the Seth Rollins CM Punk promo that led into their match was so good that that felt like the main event. This was booked like a main event in that we had the like almost overbooking towards the end. It was like a mini version of the WrestleMania 40 main event with like running, running, running, running.

We got Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes and the bloodline and Sammy Zane and you know, Jey Uso and all everyone came in to help Roman. He wound up winning. He gets the ulla falla. Is that what it's called? Did I say it right? Ulla falla. He gets that put on him.

He is now the OTC, the the original tribal chief, the one tribal chief. Heyman was doing his little dance. I sent you the video. It was so funny. A little sway and dance. The Rock comes back out to do this like acknowledgement thing. That sucked too. It was the only thing about this match I didn't like was The Rock wasting time afterwards. I was hoping he was gonna like, you know, they do the big handshake. I thought he's gonna pull him in rock bottom and oh my God, raw Netflix is already the most talked about wrestling show in years, but no, it's just, he just

wanted to be there for something. Well, I mean, he did like in actual Samoan culture, like he, he's a high chief. So it's almost like, but like, so the last time- Is this about the Samoans? Is this about the Samoans settle their beef tribal combat? Think about it this way. The last time or the first time that the Ulefala was introduced was when Roman beat Jay and then he went to the top of the stage and the elders, which would be Alpha and Sika,

they put the Ulefala on Roman. They have since both passed. So the rock would be the elder. Nobody did it at SummerSlam, right? He faced Jay again and it was him versus Jay in Detroit SummerSlam. Well he just had it. Like there was no changing of the Ulefala. Fair enough. Yeah and then Solo basically just stole it after he lost at WrestleMania.

Yeah so like an official presentation changing of the guard Ulefala comes from the others. But what does this do for the Roman bloodline feud? Because I didn't feel like an end to me. I don't think this is the end of it, even though kind of is a payoff, a blow off. The end of it to me. So I don't know, like I always kind of pay attention to social media in addition to what's on like the TV show. and on Roman's social media page, he celebrated with the Ulefala and had it on, and he said, like, now everyone has to acknowledge me as the travel chief, and he gave, like, a sinister smirk. So it's almost like with the Ulefala is he'll Roman back,

and then you have to figure, all right, so maybe the Roman bloodline, like that was almost like in Avengers. It's like, together we're great, but as individuals we're also pretty awesome too. And Jay has obviously worked his ass off to become a single star. Jimmy, I think, needs either Jay or Roman. And Sammy can kind of, like, obviously does his best work with the bloodline, but can exist on his own and whatever. The story kind of pivots to there's two directions or two ways that they could go with it.

Maybe they can go with both at the same time. Now that Solo is not the travel chief, does his bloodline disintegrate the same way that it happened with Roman's bloodline? Because Jacob fought too. I mean, he's he's a psychopath. So if he only acknowledges solo because he's the tribal chief, well, does he acknowledge Roman now? Like is there dissension in the ranks there? Also, I sniffed out and it still hasn't happened yet. But it's definitely where

they're going, I think, especially after Seth losing the Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre potentially Seth Rollins Faction of guys that need to take down certain individuals You did sniff that out early on this podcast I think that would be sick out you've like fully convinced me that That almost should be the direction going forward It makes a lot of sense even on raw like if you're looking at the Kevin Owens Cody Rhodes thing, what did Cody Rhodes do on raw? He drank tequila with the rock and he helped Roman Reigns win a match. Like I love Cody. You know I love Cody. I'm the Cody Bobo. You love Cody too. Come on now. Like Kevin Owens is making some fucking points here. No one loves Cody Rhodes more than you, but I think with that storyline in particular

Well to kind of pivot back to the Rocks whole thing now Roman needs a partner they they we we got WrestleMania matches on the raw debut of on Netflix Seth and Punk I was supposed to be a WrestleMania match Solo and Roman that was supposed to be like this year's WrestleMania. Could have been. Could have been. So now Roman needs a partner. Like the only way that you can do this now is Roman and Punk.

Roman and Punk would be good. He still owes him that favor from Survivor Series and you know, Paul Heyman always punked that favor. Maybe he did. A favor is the main event. It's like, well, how do you guarantee the main event? I can't guarantee that you win the royal rumble i can't guarantee that you win money in the banker elimination chamber but i can turning on solo is they're gonna have a match of wrestlemania this

year it's gonna be jacob versus solo he's gonna he's gonna hit the i hate you solo everyone's gonna pop like crazy jacob's gonna be a crazy over face, but it's weird because so Sina declares himself for the rumble on this show. Great promo. Loved seen as promo. I loved that he acknowledged that he's on a losing streak. We're not just going to act like his part time thing was, oh, yeah. He came in and lost a bunch of magic.

He's like making that part of the story. If he wins the rumble and it's Cena versus Cody, which I think is probably the direction, that's the rumored direction. Is it punk versus Roman? Then what do you do with Seth? My brother even said to me today, he said, it's kind of weird that like there was no even tease of Roman and Seth being the direction for WrestleMania this year, when like the chair shot to the Seth might've been what lost them the title. And I kind of There's no even tease of Roman and Seth being the direction for WrestleMania this year when like the chair shot to the Seth might have been what lost them the title. And I kind of agree like Seth versus Roman, I would be down for that at WrestleMania this

year. Their match with the Rumble a few years ago is amazing. Their one match in the tribal chief head of the table era was a no contest. And it was great too. Like a truly awesome match. He came out in the shield gear, the mind games, everything about it. They have that built in storyline. They're just in this weird realm with two night mania where it's like, all right, Cody

versus Cena. That's one of the biggest matches you can make punk versus Roman. That's the other biggest match you could make. Now what do you do with all of your other big stars? Gunther versus Seth. That'd be cool too. I would be down for that. But is a title on it or do you take the title

off of Gunther at some point so that Punk and Roman has a title attached to it? I don't think Punk and Roman need it. I mean, they- I don't think it needs it either. But would they want it to have it though? No, I mean, if they're looking at the numbers- Is that the main event?

If that's like your main event night one would be Punk vs. Roman, no title. Your main event night two would be Cena vs. Cody for the title. Yeah. Then the World Heavyweight title is kind of, it's a co-main event or you know. Well, it can be the first match on the card. It's the first match. It's been the first match on the card a bunch of times. I know.

It's just like pushing it down like that. I feel like WrestleMania, two-night WrestleMania, when you have two world titles, it should almost be a world title that's up for grabs in each main event. Well, what about the years when the tag titles main evented? It made so much sense though. The tag titles main eventing last year also kind of made sense with, all right, night one is going to have an effect on night two. It's just, I don't, I don't think there's, I don't think there should be two world titles. I just don't. I think the champ should work both brands and it would keep things fresh. But it's just like, if

you're going to have two titles, you're just, it just feels like they're constantly diminishing the one title and reminding us that it's not as important while introducing like 100 mid card titles. It's like, well, what's the point of all these titles? Yeah. I don't know. That's a bit of an old man yelling at clouds rant. It's not though, because the only thing that's wrong

with that title is that they just don't acknowledge that it's a continuation of the WCW World Heavyweight title. Like if it was just like, hey, this is the big gold belt. So we can go back. It's the one you remember from when you were kids. Yes. We can go back and say, this is the Ric Flair belt. This is, you know, the Dusty belt. It's just, it looks different. It's the same thing as, you know, the winged eagle is the same thing that Cody carries around. Same belt, just looks different. Lineage is the same. Yeah, that's what they should have done is like told us that this is that we're bringing it back not we're introducing a new title.

Correct. That's what I should have done. Yeah, the lineages what makes it or helps it make it feel more important. Aside from that you on the same page about that scene of promo rocking. Yeah, not. I was like, I was like I was like he better go back to Dwayne and say that's how you cut a fucking promo Dwayne mmm like I mean like I don't think I'm gonna win a world title the

crowd being like what do you mean you're not gonna win a world title he's like on less they were in the palm of his hands Jared they're like like they everyone forgot Royal Rumble was in four weeks Yeah, I've never been a scene a guy. I've always been a respect scene a guy. I've never liked popped for Respect I've never bought seen a merch. Oh, I had it all Never bought seen a merch never like I mean he's in one of if not my favorite match of all time The CM Punk money in the bank 11 match never like, I mean, he's in one of if not my favorite match of all time, the CM punk money in the bank 11 match. So like I've

I've all time for me, no doubt. Top five all time. Yeah, you're he's he's Mount Rushmore where he doesn't make the cut. He might make my cut. My number one would be Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danielson, whatever you want to call him. Number two, you have here. Yeah on the well This is like your I'm talking like my favorites my favorites. Yeah, I'm talking the WWE Mount Rushmore No, he no he wouldn't no he would be on V Yeah, he would be on the you think so kept the company afloat longer than anybody dude Like Hogan's run at the top was like a couple years. Austin's run at the top a couple years.

The Rocks run at the top same time as Austin's run at the top. Cena kept the company afloat at the top for like 15 years. But that 15 year run was probably like my least favorite run of professional wrestling. But WWE might not exist without John Cena right now. I guess but it's it's it belongs on the rush more is it the knockoff. It is Austin Rocks. You know, the two biggest peaks in WWE history are both without Cena like the attitude error. No Cena and like sure. But if we look at bloodline, most merch in the history of wrestling, I bet Cena is number one. Who drew the most houses in the history of wrestling. I bet Cena is number one

Who drew the most houses in the history of wrestling scene is number one. Yeah, that's why I respect him You know, he's got these got those stats. I love Cena. I can't wait for the farewell tour I think it's gonna be awesome. He's yeah He would be it'd be in my personal Mount Rushmore of wrestling It would be Brian Danielson Shawn Sean Michaels, Rey Mysterio, John Cena. Those would be my favorite. And John Cena, a little thing. Some people know this, some people don't. I've told the story before. When he was in the office to do Pardon My Take, he was in a bad mood. And I noticed he was in a bad mood. And I left without ever saying hi to him because I was like, I want to meet Cena when it's right. I don't want

to meet him on this day when he's in a bad mood We found out later was like the day after him and Nikki Bella broke up, correct? It was that raw now. Did you see the meme of Bill Simmons not looking at her? He's like doing the like maintain eye contact with anyone but Nikki Bella as she gyrates right next to me. Mm-hmm Funny clip. Yeah that uh, that was opening day 2018 that Sino was in the office. Was it? Yeah, he was fucking busy. You weren't in the office? I was there. I got a picture. Oh, you remember? Oh, you did? Yeah. I thought you remembered it because you were at opening day or something. I remember because I was watching the game and I was like, you still

like the Red Sox? And he's like, I don't care about baseball. He was like, I don't like anything, man. I don't like anything, brother, he was that was his era where he was going out between like the hours of six and nine and talking to strangers He said he was like, yeah, I just go out and talk to strangers. He's like, well, that's really fucking sad, dude. Yeah Well, but he's back now. He's back. He's funny. His wife was at raw. He's wearing the little ring on his finger He's fucking living life when I meet him in the future. I'm gonna be grateful for I'm gonna be grateful I didn't meet him that one day I'm tone of celebrities in the crowd speaking of people in the crowd Maybe biggest pop pop of the night was Macaulay Culkin when he did. Yeah, that was wild

What a pop he looked up and people were like That was awesome. I thought they didn't show Kieran Culkin his brother in the front row. He won a Golden Globe the night before He had an interaction with CM Punk. I saw that today but like why not cut to the guy in camera? Golden Globe winner, he won the night before. I don't know who that was. I've never heard the name. You live under a rock, bro. Mcculkey Culkin never had a brother in my eyes.

Bro, he's in Home Alone. Easy on the pencil, and it cuts to the fucking kid that's like... That's like That's ever I've never made it all the way through home alone before it's in the beginning. It's the first ten minutes Never made it that far this fucking guy this fucking guy tons of celebrities in the crowd We got Liv Morgan versus Ria Ripley good match Nothing crazy. Nothing great, but I would say good match re Ripley retain or not retains regains the women's world championship and then the undertaker came out at the end in a spot where it was almost like they looked at the raw

lineup right before they went live and they're like oh fuck we made the undertaker fly infants we don't have a spot for him I don't know let him fucking put re Ripley over and I'm sure he was like she's goth sure That fits my character. He came out on the motorcycle. He did a fucking lap and they threw the fist up I put in my notes The undertaker comes out to give Rhea Rhea the rub I didn't realize how that that sounded when I wrote it, but yeah, he gave her the rub He sure did and you joke

But I think that is probably close to what happened. Not that they forgot. You think they're like, that we just don't know where to put them? I think that it got cut because wasn't it like Penta got cut. Was he supposed to be on Raw, though, or was that just supposed to be a tease? Because they were supposed to set it up, you know? It was supposed to be Kofi and Woods versus Ray and a mystery partner and that was supposed to be Penta.

They cut that whole match. That's right. And they did a segment here where they're like, oh, I'm the perfect guy for you and it's going to be on Monday now. I'm excited for Penta, but I'm a little trepidatious. Penta's very good, don't get me wrong, but I'm a little trepidatious. Penta's very good, don't get me wrong, but I'm a little worried he might come in like a Shinsuke where he's like, all right, I've literally,

I've worked an entire career in my life. Like WWE is where I'm gonna come and coast. I'm worried that that might be his mindset. Not, my only worry, my only reasoning for that worry is because that's kind of what Nakamura did after that Sami Zayn NXT Takeover match where it was like the greatest match ever He was like, all right. I'm all fucking good. I'm gonna go surf and come in and do my two moves

He's been a little better recently. I like the Nakamura missed shit, but we'll see jury still out on Penta My my concerns are different. My concerns with Penta are that he can be a singles star But the WWE is like, oh you're a luchador. You either have to be no partner with Rey Mysterio or you have to be the arch nemesis of Rey Mysterio. Like, why can't Penta come in and have a feud with a white man? They're going to feed him with Andrade right away. Like it's a weird thing that I

Don't know if it's a triple H thing necessarily because Vince did the exact same thing But they have this like they want to put everyone in compartments when it's like no I think the most interesting thing would be like Penta versus Gunther or Penta versus Sami Zayn or Penta versus you know Like it's not necessarily just like oh luchador. Let's put them with luchadors like right No, we've seen that they'll you know And in penza specifically doesn't need to do that or be a new finisher too, right? I think his finishers the package pile driver and obviously who can't chaos. Yeah Love that. They're letting KO do that. Absolutely love it, which I made a video for barstool We did like a little ad if you're gonna have a tag team partner like who do you want?

I said Kevin Owens cuz nobody gets up from the pop-up powerbomb and two seconds after I filmed that ad He brought the package pile driver back. It was like bro. You could give me a heads up Well, I couldn't help that in there because people do get up from the fucking pop-up powerbomb Okay, they go for you, but people do get up from that one. They do we also got J Uso verse drew McIntyre another one I would describe just like live Morgan re Ripley. It's a very good TV match. Not like anything amazing didn't blow me away You know was blown in this match weed smoke out of Travis Scott's mouth as Travis Scott One of the biggest hip-hop stars in the world. Have you heard of him? Jared? I know who Travis Scott is. I know him more for sneakers than his music

But yes, he walks J U so out to the ring Which was such a cool visual as it always is for J U so at this point coming out through the crowd whole crowd Yeating whole crowd going nuts and Travis Scott just standing there looking cool as fuck with his custom hardcore championship Smoking a blunt on his way down to the ring. The way Michael Cole dapped him up, cracked me up too, Michael Cole's like, falling over the table. He looked like a character from Mickey Masters.

He looked like Goofy, literally, on the top of the table. Perposterous. Crazy though, crazy that this is the kind of mainstream crossover we're getting night one, Travis Scott smoking blunts. Good match as well, I liked the match. The match was fine. I know people complained about the finish being a roll up, but I was like, I know tonight feels like a PLE, but it's not. If you were to sit down and watch Monday Night Raw,

there are plenty of matches that end in roll ups or just it's quick or whatever like you wouldn't end drew versus Jay at the Royal Rumble like that But on Monday night raw yeah, like I know yeah, you just have to have perspective. This is still raw I know it doesn't feel like it, but it is and it's also Leading into like a main event main event where you're getting a big conclusion CM Punk versus Seth Rollins, obviously you need You're getting a big conclusion CM Punk versus Seth Rollins, obviously you need Something to different like the first match had a main event ending had like a definitive conclusion even Re-rippley live Morton you needed one match to at least give a little separate vibe from the rest of the night No heels on Bob. Oh

Good point. No heels. Well, I'm happy happy fucking, know ending they'll triple-h sending the crowd home. I'm happy I like that. Um Hey who wasn't happy leaving Hulk Hogan. Oh my god Jared. This was so fucking awkward I had a feeling it would be awkward when they say Hulk Hogan's coming out to do a promo and They announced a real American beer sponsorship the same day You're like was he he going to go out and plug beer? Cause that really only works for one guy on wrestling and it's Stone Cold, Steve Austin, who people are already speculating.

People wanted Stone Cold at this show. So he's thinking if he comes out and starts to plug a beer and Stone Cold isn't involved at all, that might go over like a fart in church. And it went over even worse. He does the broken skull IPA, which right. Weird that they like partnered with Hulk Hogan's and Stone Cold hasn't been coming back for recent offenses. That really going to help pull him back?

And I don't know. But this was awkward as fuck. Him and Jimmy Hart went out there, booed out of the building. And you could kind of hear it like during Real American. Soon as it faded out and he's just like what's going on brother? And it's just boo And he's like I love the hokumaniacs for sticking with me through thick and thin, but The great thing me that ever had is the fans brother boo

You sent me to comment. That was just like they really hated you out there, Jimmy They drop their brother awkward though awkward as fuck comment that was just like they really hated you out there Jimmy. Yeah, they hate you out there brother. Awkward though. Awkward as fuck. There's a report today that said that he was instantly disappointed, which I would understand, yes, as a human you have to be disappointed in that, but that the WWE is going to bring him back to work with a heel character. Not the worst idea, but like after that I was almost like, I don't know if they want the PR of like it was in variety like Hulk Hogan booed out of building at WWE debut like and people are talking our area Hawani has people on his show my friend Kaz is on a show talking about

like it might be politics but probably not because the Undertaker was out there and everyone loved him and he had Trump on his podcast it's probably a combination of the politics and the n-word thing and people are just kind of fed up. It's hard to pinpoint one thing on it, but it's awkward as fuck and it's awkward for everybody. It goes beyond like, because there are people that get caught saying the N word, but they're not necessarily racist. You know, they're wanting it in a song. Yeah, there's one example of like a cooking show where like some dude like was just reading the lyrics and just said it. I don't think that those Yeah, those people aren't racist. They're just you know, maybe a little slow. Still dumb. Yeah. But Hogan was like against his daughter dating a man

of color. That is yeah, blatantant like other super like a super against it. Yeah. So like that's where people are like, you know, this guy sucks. And then he's like, you pointed out he has been back a number of times throughout the years. Since then, he isn't always food like this. Sometimes he is I said to you, I remember in Tampa, specifically the COVID mania, they sent him out there with Titus O'Neill the host and it was real awkward because it was also The arena was the like everyone was you got two seats every six seats was like partial seating It was so weird, but you could almost hear it more that way because it was quieter. So you can only hear booze It's weird. They're in a weird spot with Hulk Hogan. It's like yeah like

Hulk Hogan's in this spot And it's also the intro video has no Vince and I'm not saying Vince should be in the intro video I understand why he's not but we have so many now of the bigger Big years in the history of the business that are just kind of Ben Wad. It's like yeah, like alright We're not gonna not talk about Hulk Hogan. They'll show him slamming Andre, but it's just a weird thought It's very it's uncomfortable Because it is sort of I mean think about it this way though. It's a it's LA It's blue state saw and and the difference between the undertaker and Hogan would be like, okay

You know leaders undertaker had Hogan undertaker had Trump on his podcast Hogan went to the fucking convention and was like, let me tell you, he's wearing a shirt to California when he landed in California, he said the MAGA power, the MAGA powers. Yeah. Yeah. He like idolized really in on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's where that is. Like in a blue state, maybe really into it. Maybe it's also like if, if he didn't have the N word thing, it's like, all right, we could forgive political leaning. Cause everyone's got an uncle who you disagree with politically that you still

love. That's the undertaker. And then it's like, all right, you pair it. It's like we can't forgive everything. And it's what I said to you last night, where they're like, Mark had Trump on his podcast. There's no Terry Balaya anymore. Hulk Hogan spoke at the Republican convention. You're right. People could separate the Undertaker and Mark in their mind. They're like, yeah, but he's fucking the Undertaker when he's on the bike and American badass is playing.

Yeah, that's the Undertaker. Mark Calloway had Trump on his podcast. Hulk Hogan is just Hulk Hogan. He came out and cut a Hulk Hogan promo on stage for Trump and he's a racist. So it's very much a no-brainer easy decision to boo Hogan and then be like, yeah, well maybe my political views don't align with Mark Calloway's, but god damn it, do I love the undertaker brother? God damn the last rods, a good finish brother. Yeah. Um, what did you think of the main event?

You got CM punk versus Seth Rollins. First time they faced in years, probably 11 years, I think they said something like that, um, I thought it was a really good match, my only slight critique. Punk kicked out of like two pedigrees to go to sleep. There was a lot of finishers that they just didn't really need that many finishers. But I guess they're keeping punk real strong. You know, again, it's like a pay per view main event. So I'll forgive it. But um, that would be my only critique of it. I thought good match overall.

Yeah, when he did the pedigree on the table into the pedigree in the ring and then that wasn't enough for the one, two, three and then there was no, you know, someone pulling the ref out of the ring or a foot on the rope, like just straight up kicked out of two pedigrees. And it was, he had what? 15 seconds in between the pedigree on the table? Yeah. He pedigree on the table and then put him in the ring and pedigree him. Like it wasn't like, oh man, like he kicked out of two pedigrees.

I wasn't the only person like you were picking up on that as well. That it was like, yes, holy fuck. We're kicking out a lot of moves here. And it wasn't like it was like because it was the on the table, it wasn't necessarily like the rock versus scene at WrestleMania 29 where it's like finisher kick out, finisher kick out. It was more spaced out. And I don't know if that made it better or worse.

You know, I did not love the double pedigree consecutive. No, I didn't love that. No. Did you like this match or the Roman solo match better overall? Uh, I definitely liked punk Rollins better as a match. Uh, I liked Roman and solo solo like the theater of it better Yeah, I think I liked that finished better and I think I like this match better. Yeah, that makes this was more of a classic one-on-one Straight up wrestling match like very you know

Want to say I want to say old school, but a little right it was a wrestling match It was and I will admit I liked this I didn't like all the kick-ass, but I did like the finish of the Falcon Arrow Reversal when he did the superplex off the top rope and then punk caught him in the GTS And then he like fell back into the position. I thought that was like pretty cool I was down with that and like it's a cool way to end the first raw on Netflix with just a straight-up wrestling match I felt like it was kind of a statement from Triple H of being like this like yes I know we had like two matches in two hours, and there's four matches total on the show But this is gonna be more of a wrestling era than the Vince era was No doubt yeah, I mean it was um it was a raw and steroids. It was, uh,

you had backstage segments that were great. You had in-ring promos. A tease for 2K as well, which people think is going to be a Roman showcase mode. I know you're not a huge video game guy, but Roman on the cover with a tribal chief, like his entire title reign as a showcase mode would be really fun To play through yeah, that'd be cool Yeah, no, I thought the show was great. I saw people being like oh this didn't deliver or I didn't like it No Big thumbs up other than the rock shit the rock is the only thing that was a detriment to the show and I never thought

I would say that but the rock stuff is the only stuff. I didn't like everything else was The Hogan promo I didn't like love, obviously like that was weird. Everything else aside from that was like fine. Yeah, true. But I agree with you. I would give it a big thumbs up. I'm excited for Raw and Netflix again. I feel like this is like a shot of adrenaline

to Raw in general. Bringing SmackDown back to two hours will be a shot of adrenaline to that. Three hour SmackDown is too much. It's too much to have two, three-hour shows every week. But I'm excited. I'm excited for the Royal Rumble. I'm excited for the Road to WrestleMania.

I'm excited to do more of these with you, Jared. Yeah, I'm excited that you're actually going to come to the Rumble here. Yeah, and I think I'm bringing Lady Fox, who I kind of explained the Rumble to her. She's watched it with me before. She was kind of like, I was like, you want to come? She was like, is there going to before she was kind of like I was like you want to come she was like is there gonna be any other girls there I was like I think Jared's girlfriend will be there she's like all right sure so that she lives yeah they can hang out good I think there are two other maybe three other members the dork party that

are bringing significant others they might there might be a decent amount of like I don't know we put the kids by the kids table and the adults get to business. Well, some of them will watch. They will sit there and at least give it a shot. Lady Fox will watch but she'll lose interest quickly, I think. We'll see. She's not negative. She's just, you know, she's not super into it. My girlfriend, we call her D-T train when we talk about her in content. She will like for WrestleMania and for it must have been survivor series last year. She'll come in and like fall asleep like on my lap like a baby. Yeah. And she was sleeping when punk returned. And we were fucking nuts. and she thought we were under attack.

She was in a deep sleep and his music hit and grown men were shrieking, shrieking and she thought we were in grave danger. So yeah, there are people that come, but not necessarily are into it, but for the most part, you're gonna love the vibes. The vibes are incredible. All right. I'm excited. Thanks for listening.

From the Top Rope, first episode, but certainly not the last of 2025. We'll see you when we see you.