The Press Box - Ep. 147: 'The Masked Man Show' (!!!) With David Shoemaker and Dan St. Germain

Episode Date: July 13, 2016

The Ringer's David Shoemaker and comedian Dan St. Germain discuss Brock Lesnar's UFC 200 upset (8:00), Dean Ambrose's draft stock (22:00), Shane McMahon's 'SmackDown' (42:00), the impending ‘Raw’ vs. ‘SmackDown’ brand split (52:00), and ‘Final Deletion’ and the Wyatts–New Day fight (58:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Maskman Show is brought to you by Seatgeek, our presenting sponsor and the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling sports and music tickets. Seat Geek makes buying tickets on your phone a total snap. With just two taps, you can instantly buy tickets to an event that same day, have your tickets delivered straight to your phone, and enter the event without ever having to print a ticket. And if you can't go to the show, you can sell your tickets directly from the app in less than 30 seconds. With Seat Geek, there's no guesswork.

You'll know exactly where you're sitting. what you'll pay, and whether or not you're getting a good deal all right from your phone. So drop your old ticket app and experience buying and selling tickets the way it should be. To start using Seatgeek, download the free Seatgeek app or go to Seatgeek.com. Welcome to The Masked Man Show. I can't believe it took that long to come up with such a boring name. Dan St. Germain. I love it. I'm pro the Masked Man show.

That's really great. I'll take on your Twitter Army. I thought you said you were going to take credit, which you sort of can. And we had a really heartfelt discussion in like the front seat of your Toyota Corolla or whatever about a month ago. It was a Honda Civic. And we did it looking out at the pier. Yeah. It was a very cinematic moment.

I didn't even know L.A. had a pier. Yeah, it was crazy. Well, it was where I keep my pigeons. I mean, I know L.A. had, I know the beaches have peers. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, Santa Monica has one. Yeah.

That's not really what I think of is L.A. I'm still learning, guys. It's been a giant week in the pro wrestling world, right? We're recording this on a, on a, what, Wednesday morning? Is today Wednesday? Yes. I'm so bleary-eyed right now. I think I've been on a-

Shoemaker is drunk right now. I know. I just started taking lots of illicit pills when a final deletion was released. One of the greatest things to happen to wrestling since the, those Dungeon of Doom segments for WCW or, I forget what they were called. Yeah, on the Dungeon of Doom. Yeah, Kevin Sullivan's thing. That was so weird.

I mentioned this briefly last week with Steve Kazee. There's something really wonderful about, like, some of the greatest moments in pro wrestling history have happened when there's only like six guys employed. Because you just get a lot of time for people to just explore the deep recesses of their minds, you know? It was, I loved it. And I understand this is the only criticism I'll accept from people about it is that if they were like, well, I thought it was going to be sillier than it was because people had built it up. That's the only criticism. I won't accept that it's bad. All right, let's come back around to this because I have so many thoughts.

The big, big news of the week, again, has nothing to do with pro wrestling or nothing direct. It is Brock Lesnar won his big fight against Mark Hunt at USC 200. I was on the edge of my seat, rooting for Lesnar. It was really fun to watch. But it's, like, as much as I love these crossovers, and it's going to be even worse when punk fights in a couple of months. But, like, it's hard. It's like watching your buddy fight. It's like, you really want him to do well, and I can't watch the actual match.

I have to, like, watch it through, like, you know, the reflection on somebody's pint glass because I'm worried that I'm about to see Brock Lesnar just get knocked out. I, well, I don't have the same, like, CM Punk I'm going to be actually, I was a huge CM Punk fan, I still am, but I'm going to actually be nervous for his health during that match. That is a different thing. Lesnar's like an ox, you know, so I'm like, there's no way this guy's going to kill Lesnar. Yeah, I mean, and I think with... Even if you lost.

I think with punk, obviously he's been training at a real gym. Rogan was, Joe Rogan was on Bill Simmons's wonderful TV show, Any Given Wednesday last week, to talk about 200, and made the point that, like, he didn't say this directly, but for all the doubters, that, like, he's in a really good camp, you know? He's, like, he's training really hard. He's training, like, a pro fighter, and he didn't say this. My takeaway was sort of like when a, like, a 50-year-old actor goes from,

like, Shlubby to Washboard Abs for a movie role. It's like, no human. Like, that seems like something a human being cannot do, right? It seems completely unattainable. But if that's your only goal in life and you have the most expensive trainers around you, you have the best dietitian, the best, like, you know, the best guy making you run up, run up and down stairs in the park. Like, it's possible.

It's possible, but you have to have, I know, and I know nothing about MMA. So let me preface this. But it seems like in any field that everyone wants to be in, you have to have an intrinsic amount of talent, you know, even before. Oh, yeah. So, you know what I mean? That's like saying like, like, you know, with the, with the right trainers, I could be an NBA star. It's just not going to have it. Well, there's a height issue. Yeah, there's a height issue. But, okay, first of all, everyone knows on the best point guard in comedy. You're going to be really offended by this probably. But like, just a random person from like the ringer office. Right. With the best

writers and like a lot of really hard practice could be a comedian that, that would, that would, like reach the top 15%. I don't know. I'm not saying the best comedian. I'm saying like they could get a TV show or like they could get like they could get out there. Yeah, but that's different. But no, I, maybe it depends on what they would look like. It's like there's a whole different thing, you know.

Okay. I don't think it's a certainty. I just think that like with the best people around you, you have a puncher's chance. You have, sure, you have a puncher's chance. More than if you just decided to be. And I hate talking about comedy. but like there are certain things as a comic that you can't learn. Okay.

And I think that that's true of fighting too. I just think that like when you put yourself in the position to do like, you know, if you put yourself in the best possible position, then maybe. Like just maybe. It's like you're way above like no possible way. That's it. Okay. That's it.

Anyway, this is a long weird digression about nothing. The, uh, but Brock Lesnar was out there fighting on Saturday. And. I mean, it was hard for me to watch because I really thought Mark Hunt was just, at some point, he seemed so passive. At some point I was just like, I just convinced myself he was waiting just to try to get an uppercut in when Brock went to take him down. But it never happened. Yeah, there was a point when Lesnar had him on the ground was just beating his head in, like literally just beating his head in. Then I'm like, this guy's not passing out.

This could have, he could just do this for another hour, I feel like. Yeah. I mean, there's this weird thing and UFC has dealt with it in a lot of different. ways. I don't know that it needs to be dealt with, but we're like, when a wrestler figure, when someone who comes from a wrestling background figures out that they can take their opponent down at will, they sometimes just get, I mean, that's, that's enough for them. Yeah. Like, Rock Lesnar won the first round so convincingly that all they had to do was not get knocked out for the rest of the fight. Right. Yeah. And Lesnar is a much more active,

is much more active than a lot of wrestlers. You know, some wrestlers are happy to, or like, happy to take the guy down and wait for the ref to make him stand up and then do it again, you know, and Lesner was like, Lesner was trying to punch him. Yes. Lesnar was trying to punch him in the face until he knocked out. He knocked him out. I think there's a point where you're like no longer willing to break your hand if it seems like the guy is not going out easily, you know? Yeah, I agree. And I actually said that right before the match started, I was watching with my buddy Andrew Goodman.

And I think I just turned to him and I was just like, I don't know why this hasn't occurred to me. The worst thing that could happen is not Brock Lesnar getting knocked out. It's Brock Lesnar like breaking his hand trying to block a punch and then just not being able to go. You know? Yeah. Like just some like minor injury that's just on the like we can't like really you probably shouldn't wrestle level. You know, it's like you're not you're not but um but you know I watch in the fight I'm like Dana White's so smart. He's like he literally picked the best match up for Lesnar.

That's what I said at the beginning. I said it was the closest to like a pushover he could get and then everybody talked me out of it. And I and I think there's a lot. I mean Mark Hunt's looked great lately and he's a real. He's a legit fighter. But I think that. Oh, I'm not saying he's not a legit fighter. I'm just saying the best matchup for him.

Because as long as he didn't get hit, like there was nothing else Mark Hunt was going to be able to do. Yeah. Like once Wesner took him down. Well, I think, and I think not getting, I think you're right. Not getting hit was not a given. And that was the craziest thing about the match.

It wasn't that Brock won. It was that Brock is, what, 38 or whatever and looked like he was, and looked exactly the same as when he left. I mean, looked like he was in his father. Yeah. Well, certainly, then right before he left. looked the same as, you know, his heyday.

Guy's a freak. He's a freak. I mean, that's just it. He physically, just the little, like, fast-twitch muscle action just seemed like crazy. Like, he was just doing exactly what he wanted to do and didn't seem weighed down by it. Now, I wrote about Brock last week, and, you know, it was, I guess the thesis of the piece was that he's kept himself vital. He's kept himself, he's made himself matter by never doing a thing.

thing for too long. And this is, if he gets into a rhythm of just doing UFC's and WVE shows sort of like back and forth, I think that's sort of a win for everybody. I mean, I think so. This is a side note. I was watching the pay-per-view in Houston with his comic.

Sammy's a Houston comic. And there was a point like after Wesner won when, how nervous were you? And we were talking about it there where he, this other comic gave the point like when Wesner grabbed the microphone and was like, and you know, was a white boy for him and you're like, oh, my gosh.

And luckily it turned out the best way it could have, like, where he's just like, oh, man, nationalities. You're like, whoof. Okay, thank God. I was like, is he about to get banned from both? That could have been worse than a broken hand. I mean, that could have been, like, it is possible that he could have said something that would have made WWE go out of business and he wasn't even on a WWE show.

Well, yeah, it was like when he did that interview on the network and he said, he said, you know, you got to feed the Jew. And you're like, what the? No, you don't. You don't. You don't say that. I don't mean to demean anybody's experience. Except wrestling fans.

I try to demean you all the time. So, yeah, I mean, I think that the big takeaway from UFC 200 is that we can all be thankful that Brock is every bit the monster that we hoped he would be and that now we just have to worry about the next time that he leaves. I mean, he gave an interview the other day and he's like, well, my next month is booked up. Like, that's all I'll say, you know? And, like, he, and I, I mean, I said that it would be a win-win if he, if he kept fighting. I mean, part of that is implicit that he, implicit in that is that he, I don't think he has to keep winning every match.

But just kind of like, at this point, he's, I don't think, yeah, as long as he kind of stays around 500. Well, now I think even if he loses the next one, then that's a good, the storyline for WB, because then he comes back and then he loses to, like, Kevin Owens or something like that. And then the story is him getting built up. Yes, I agree. I think that it's fine. He doesn't have to win every match. I think it's just as long as he stay, as long as it's not this drama of his,

whether or not his available, whether or not he's available for the show they want, you know? Yeah. If there's something where it's just like, oh, yeah, well, he's agreed to, he's going to do WrestleMania, but he's agreed to do a UFC show two weeks later. So, like, how's that going to affect how he works at WrestleMania?

Oh, he's not showing up for media day. Like, I love the, my favorite thing about the draft, like I keep saying, is the outside of the ring storylines that could be brought into it. But, you know, I'm not... Does Wesner get drafted? Really? I mean... It's funny.

JBL talked about that. What did he say? The craziest thing about Raw to me, and man, I'm all in on it, was the announced team acting like this was a real draft and just trying to bring in every aspect of, like, like, you know, NBA draft talk. You know, they were... I mean, they're basically, like, just a... desk full of like woes over there i mean it was really really weird um but yeah jbl was like i think it was

jbl at some point was just like but do you even draft lesner i mean do you take do you take lesnar number what or do you take i forgot who was in the rank or you take like apollo cruise knowing he's going to be there night in and night out like working really hard and long matches and like it was just like oh wow this is you're kind of shooting on brock lesner right now i got i mean after after dean ambrose at our before after dean ambrose basically did the same thing that night Dean Ambrose is going to be the only WWE champion in history to go fifth. Yeah.

Dean Ambrose could be an undrafted free agent. But yeah, I mean, let's backtrack to Brock really quickly. So we know Brock is fighting Randy Orton at SummerSlam. The rumor leaked last week. And then WWE formally announced it they announced it on Raw this week. Also just a side. I'm sorry, just a side note. Wasn't it so weird to see like Brock hold the Canadian flag and stuff?

Did you see that? At UFC? There's like a bunch of pictures. I don't know if they did there, but I guess it was on Russell Zones website, but he was like holding the Canadian because he's guess, I guess he was in Canada right now, right? Does he? Is that where he's training?

I'm totally oblivious to this. That would be great if he just came out as like the Canada loving dude. Yeah, it would be so in a character. After, I don't know, because didn't he buy like a bunch of land in Canada? Oh, yeah, the first time he got diverticulitis or whatever, he was in Canada. Yeah. And came out and talked about how they had this third world health care system.

Because he almost died. Yeah. In Canada? I'm pretty sure. That was the, yeah. I mean, he, like, was, like, sort of political about, like, I mean, about American health care for a while because of this. Oh, he hated American health care. No, I mean, he prefers American health care.

The free market stuff. Yeah, of course, best money you can, best health care. Speaking of the free market, the rumor, I mean, the word came out that he got, that he got $2.5 million. to fight, like his guarantee was $2.5 million for UFC. And that's, that's roughly his annual contract with WWE. Now, everything is not UFC 200. I'm sure a lot of the, I mean, there was a lot of money of bonuses, the fact that he got bumped up to the main event or semi-main event.

He probably got way more than that, right? Well, it's because that wasn't included in the pay-per-view by, I don't think. Which WWE, that's never been resolved with WWE. One of the weirdest question marks that, like, they used to give their guys these huge pay-per-view bonuses. They have to give them bonuses at WrestleMania or something, right? I'm sure they still do give them a little bit something based on pay-per-view buys, but there's no pay-per-view buys anymore.

What I would love to know. Oh, no, no, yes, there are WrestleMania bonuses built into contracts and stuff. Sure. Because it's free contracts, I would love to know. I know they arrange their own travel, but do they pay for their own travel or hotels? Yeah. Like, I've heard it both ways. And because then when you see, like, because when that happens and you see, like,

oh, a wrestler makes $400,000 a year, well, that's not a lot of money if you're also paying like for your hotel and for your travel. WWE covers a lot of it now, but it's still very, it's still very murky to me too. Or they handle a lot of the stuff. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot of like group situations, you know?

I mean like when they're all staying at the same. You mean backstage? That could have been anything. Different website. Yeah. I mean, obviously when they're all staying in the same hotel for Rosamania, they're not, it's not like,

oh, Keith Slater forgot to make his reservation, so he's at the holiday and down the road. Like, WWE's got that handled. I'm pretty sure. I know. But yeah, anyway, Randy Orton versus Brock Lesner. Yeah. SummerSlam.

They were kind of, their hand was sort of forced, WWE, to make this match because they didn't know if Lesnar was going to win or lose. And Orton is the sort of, he's the, he is the blank slate. Like you can make it into a clash of the champions, do credit to the NWA and WCW. But you could also make it into, just whatever. You can make it into a Brock Lesnar squash match. Yeah.

You know? And without knowing, I think, like, having, they had to book SummerSlam. They didn't know if they were booking Brock the most dominant athlete in the world or Brock coming off, you know, a 30-second knockout to Marc Hunt. So it's just like, Lesnar, I mean, Orton is a safe opponent. Also, we've seen Orton versus Lesnar. On Smackdown. On Smackdown, like, 10 years ago. But we haven't seen it a long time. Yeah. It was one of the last, one of the last big name versus big name fights for Lesner of the, of that, of his own generation. My, my, my, yeah, I, you know, like, it almost seems like when I saw them against each other, I'm like, this could like, won't be one of those things like, I'm not unexcited, but I was excited in the beginning, but then I think about it more and I'm like, this could headline an independent show outside WWE and have the same build. Does that make sense? Yeah. I don't mean as far as a murky draw, but I'm saying like, it's almost like the Ambrose storyline and I thought they shit the bed with the actual match at WrestleMania, but the Ambrose Lesnar story. what I actually thought was pretty good.

Yeah. Interesting. Agreed. And the build was cool. And it may, and it, it, it was important, you know. And almost every Lesnar fight that he's had has seemed important and necessary. And this one just seems kind of like more thrown together. Like, well, it certainly was thrown together.

I mean, it is, it, it's the. Anderson Silva, Cormiere. Yeah. Well, it's, it's actually like every UFC fight. I mean, that's a, I mean, sometimes they have longer leads, but that was the sort of interesting thing to me is that they did it. in the way in the style of like real sports it wasn't like orton came in and like you know hit brock's mom with a chair and then that's our feud this was like hey these two athletes are going to fight at

this big show like yeah now let's figure out the story like that like they don't do a thing where hayman turns on him yet like not for this guy i really i mean fantasy booking i would love it if hayman hooked up with a good talker again like a kevin oans because he was he's so good Sam Punk, it was really good. Yeah, he's one of those guys. Heyman is like an amazing manager, but he actually doesn't elevate someone. So that's like a weird thing. His presence is already great.

Yeah, and his presence elevates it a little, I mean, like it opens the door a little bit, but you're right. I mean, like we saw Cesarroo or Ryback or Cizaro. You know, they've kind of like. Yeah. No, no, I guess I guess that you're actually right about that. I think that and just as far as the talking goes, like I think Hayman's the best talker in the company and and and probably. will always be, but it does help if you have someone to play off of, you know? Because it's a little bit like Bray Wyatt.

It's a little bit like, you know what? I mean, it's just like a really great singer or something like that. It's like everybody loves a duet more. What is Beyonce with that Kelly Rollin? That's exactly the parallel I was like more. But yeah, so I'm like, I think Orton versus Lesnar, I mean, listen, we don't really know. I mean, some of these Lesnar matches just are, like, the Ambrose match you were talking about, just like, it's a kind of a glorified squash match, you know?

I mean, like, how, I don't know what the, how many minutes long that match was. They shit the bed with that match so hardcore. They could have made a much bigger star at a Dean Ambrose if they just did the Austin Brett Hart thing. Exactly. Just let him, just let him get the crab beat out of them and not give up a few times instead of, you know. I mean, and also just the relentless wave of teases with all the weapons they weren't going to use anyway. Yeah. I mean, it was just crazy.

Like, you couldn't gimmick. You look back of that WrestleMania and it really, it was, I mean, I think because 30 and 31 were so good, but that WrestleMania sucked. Not to, like, not to, like, I don't want to be one of those trolls, but it was. I always, I always say this, I mean, I come back around at this point, but, like, it sounds so dumb. But, you know, within the context of a match, within a storyline and within a card, you as a fan need to have some frame of reference for, like, the shape of this thing. Yeah. so that you can, one, like, respond appropriately, but two, so that you can be surprised when the surprises,

when it breaks the norm, right? Yeah. And there were a part, the whole last hour of that show, I was, of WrestleMania, I was so just sort of a float, like a drift. Like, I didn't know, it kept dragging and dragging. They kept adding, like, more and more segments, and it ended, you know, 45 minutes later or whatever. Like, I didn't, I was so confused by just the shape of the show

that I really don't feel like I had... In 15 minutes was The Rock just figuring out how to work that flame thrower. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it just seemed so... Like, I just didn't have any context for, like, loving it,

even if I were inclined to love it. And that, that NXD show, the night before was so good that I think that that also got... Yeah, we're going to just be saying that over and over again for the next few years, though. It doesn't matter.

Tonight, they're having a dream match on the network. Not Camaro... Literally, literally tonight as Dave and I are talking, yeah, Nakamura Baller. Yeah, it's... I think, it's tonight. It's whatever. I think it's tonight. Dude, a guy that I know, our mutual friend showed us this, was just walking down the street in Manhattan the other day and looks over and

this convertible pulls up with a random dude driving and Finn Baller sitting in the passenger seat. Oh, that's awesome. And the dude just perfectly timed ran over, did the Wolfpack sign with him on the curb and Finn Baller was like grinning ear to ear. He thought it was the greatest thing ever. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. He's still at the stage of being cool, bad stuff. I think that, yeah, the last, I mean, I'm sure that he's a great guy. When I've met him, he seemed normal, but that's not real life or whatever. But, like, it, the last stage must be, like, getting, still getting recognized in New York City. You know, it's like, you think that you're sort of never going to be.

I mean, there's a lot of people there, but still that someone's going to run up to a car in New York. Like, there's so many other famous people around. Well, I think in New York, too, there's this weird dignity with New York where, you know, in L.A., they're kind of used to it. Paparazzi and stuff like that. In New York, it's not the same thing. New York, you almost, you know, nobody gives us, nobody cares. Yeah, everybody's too cool. New York, sometimes people are like, they go out of their way not to, you know,

that's what people, that's what people usually did it with me. You know, I feel like there are a lot of Maskman fans. I've been out with you in L.A., swamped. Yeah, well. It's crazy. It's hard to drive with all the paparazzi around. Yeah, exactly. All those, like, like, dirt sheet paparazzi, just everywhere.

A lot of, yeah, it's, it's really next level with you. It's crazy. So, yeah, so, so the Summer's Lank. SummerSlam is sort of coming into focus a little bit. I hope I got to go this year. Yeah, we'll go. I'd love to if I'm hopefully. We'll get the cheap seats.

Can you get me in the back? Yeah. The back meaning the back row. Yeah. You're the Diane Sawyer of wrestling, right? I've often been referred to as such. Well, okay, so SummerSlam sort of coming into focus. We have Battleground in the not too distant future.

I don't know that any of this really matters. Why are they booking Battleground? after the draft. They're doing the draft next week and then Battlegrounds next Sunday. Doesn't Battleground not mean shit then? Like as soon as they draft everybody and then they have this car.

I think that my guess, and this is not based on anything, my guess is that they're doing the draft, that the draft is unmoored from any sort of normal timeline because this is when they decide, because Smackdown is going live. And this was a decision that was made in a different department by USA executives. But then why didn't they do Battleground this weekend?

That's because Roman Raines got Suspent, no, that's not true. I think Battleground was already on the calendar, has been on the calendar for a while. I don't know if that, I don't know, those two things just might have come, just might have ran into each other in a weird way. It certainly seems like they're booking the brand split on the fly.

Yeah. Like there seems like there's two separate, there's two separate creative or like, yeah, I guess creative in a broad sense decisions being made with Battleground on one side and the brand split on the other. We can talk about these two things really quickly. I don't think,

My guess is that they're going to do this brand split and then find a way to sort of dot, dot, dot it until after SummerSlam. Like, SummerSlam will be, they'll do Battleground, and then they'll say SummerSlam is the last joint pay-per-view. And then after that, we'll be going to the two a month or something like that. She's a nightmare. They're going to do, join it. They're going to do, why don't they just do one pay-per-view a month? This is, like, going to be crazy. I don't know if this has even been decided.

I'd keep talking about it as if it's a fact, but, like, it would be nuts. And whatever. But that's my guess is that they'll, that they are doing it now just because it's the arbitrary date that the USA Network decided. And then the ramifications will just like slowly ramp up until SummerSlam. It's so weird to see Raw like promote Mr. Robot or something because it's such a genuinely like highbrow show, you know. Yeah. Like burn notice made sense. Also a good show.

But like suits. Like when W.B. brought up suits or Royal Pains, you're like, yeah, this is the same world, you know? But now, or Chris was the best. That was all that WW, I mean, that USA had at that point. Yeah, now they're starting to go

the FX route. I think that the USA, it'd be, uh, Mr. Robot ratings are like getting in raw territory. Really? Yeah, which is a very interesting phenomenon. But, because that, because that was like, W.W.E's like, you know, that what made them the USA staple that they've been for so long is that they were just the ratings anchor.

Are they going to have a crossover? Mr. Robot. As a casual Mr. Robot fan, I hope to God not. But I think that it would be awkward to see the characters of Mr. Robot. I went to school with Rami. Really? Yeah, he's a good dude. Really tiny, right?

He's a smaller guy. Could he compete in the Cruiserweight classic? He was the star of a play I wrote. Really? Yeah, he was like did the reading. I mean like a reading. It wasn't like a full up, but he's incredible. You should hit him up, man.

You might actually get your big break finally here. I know, my God, I'm looking fingers crossed. The, yeah, I mean, he's really good. I really, I really enjoy that show. But, like, the universes don't quite mesh. Unless, this is a good segue. I could see a crossover between Mr. Robot and the world that the Wyat's and the New Day brawl from Monday Night inhabited.

Yeah. I have such mixed feelings about that. So we talked about this. I did not discuss Final Deletion last week to the consternation of everyone that listened to the show. We recorded a little bit early last week. I did on Saturday night, just my one tweet of the night was, what was better that Lesnar match for Final Deletion and got, like, I understand. You got like a thousand response.

Yeah, I understand why people troll on Twitter now. I mean, it's like all you have to do is just ask one dumb question. I mean, and like, I think it's a really funny conversation. The answer is Final Deletion. The answer was, I don't think anybody said Brock Lesnar. I think half the people said Final Deletion and the pro-lesner people were just like, fuck you for asking that question. Like, why would you demean a real fight by comparing it to the worst thing in wrestling?

First off, it's not the, everybody bitches about like, I'm so sick of this. Everybody bitches about you, you know, W.W.E. being boring. Yeah. And like the same thing. And then Jeff Hardy and Man Hardy basically, you know, they deliver us, you know, the room of wrestling, right? That's what everyone's saying. Oh, yeah. And, and then, and then people are like bitching about that.

And it's like, how much fun did you have watching the Final Deletion? As a, as a writer, an actor, everything, are you a filmmaker? Oh, me? Yeah. Have you ever made an amateur film? I have, I mean, I've written a lot of shorts and stuff. I mean, a guy who's usually directing this guy named Adam Words, who's incredible. And, you know, when I did an animated one for Comedy Central was Dan Powell,

who shows Amy Schumer's show. Now I'm just dropping names, but I had saying it, but I would never be able to say I'm a director. My only note for this, and I'm not, and I don't think that it was right, but if I was part of the TNA executive production committee, which is probably just like a room full of like pillows with hats on them. It's Billy Corgan and pillows. Yeah. at the very end of the first scene

when Matt was making dinner or having dinner with sitting whatever he opens the present he looks at the camera and gives a cartoony villain laugh that makes it clear that he's in on the joke and that was the entire thing that might have been the only moment where it took me out of the room

like the joke is so weird too the joke but you're right so I'm not sure that I'm right but like if that had if that moment hadn't been there. The conversation we'd be having right now is like Matt Hardy might be the stupidest person to ever get this sort of creative control over anything, right? But now, but because of that laugh, so maybe it's a great move, but like because of that laugh, it's like, like you give it all the credit that it could possibly get. I mean, just the, oh, look, a dilapidated boat is the greatest line in wrestling history when Matt Hardy says,

a dilapidated boat and then he runs behind it and Jeff Hardy's shooting fireworks at him. It's amazing and like every single line from that has just already become an internet meme. Like there's, I mean, it was crazy. Now, I'm not entirely sure Jeff Hardy was in on the joke. Jeff Hardy, it was just a, it was just a fever dream for him. Yeah, that was like a dream Jeff Hardy had during his painkiller phase. Yes, that could be a regular day for Jeff Hardy. Like his experience, it was not that much,

his experience of a normal day is not that much different than Final Deletion. It's, you know what? You know what's so cool about it too? Is that now no one will ever compare Mad Hardy to Marty Genetti again. There's no way. Now he's elevated himself to a new level. Broken Matt Hardy? What a weird thing to get over.

He did this great. He had a great run in Ring of Honor as the kind of Xbox Heat champion. Like he was just, nobody wanted him there and he just he was the top heel there for a while because he played it up like it was great well it's like when everyone didn't TNA said they were having like money

problems yeah and then he just Instagramed a photo of all his checks from TNA and being like I'm not having a problem you're right this is the most heelish thing to do in this situation that's so great yeah I mean it's really it's really it's the

the Hardy Renaissance has been really incredible. Yeah, I mean, I had so much fun watching it. Everything about it was so fun bad, you know? It's fun bad. I mean, I think the problem that people have, and I can sympathize with it somewhat, is just how this relates to what happens in the ring, right?

Yeah. Let's, let's, we brought this up deliberately. We have to talk about it in comparison to the Wyatt's New Day sketch, because, man, I don't know if that was a direct response to final deletion, but I don't see how it couldn't be. I'm sure the people at W.D. were like, you know, like, we, first off, like, we've had this Wyatt compound forever. You know, like, and even though the, even though Jeff Horry and Matt Hardy shared the same property,

that's what I hear, that they live on the same property, which is crazy. That could be a lot of property. I know, but it's still crazy. It's still crazy. that there's somewhere there's a Hardy compound. By the way, I like just the subtlety aside that like that's, that is how Jeff Hardy cuts his lawn. I mean, there's no, that doesn't make sense if that's not really how it does it. Like I looked at that and I'm like, is this the new tattoo Randy Orton's getting?

It's like Jeff Hardy's crazy tattoos. It's like this is just like Jeff Hardy from, and I love the guy. Like I wish you would come back to WWE for a run like whatever. Probably will. But like his creative process is like, you know, a 15 year old drawing in the margins of a spiral notebook. Yeah. I mean,

that's a... I would say 12 year old, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, just the idea of like, let's shoot fireworks and act like their weapons is an idea that like...

But here's my question, like, or here's my problem, I should say. It's like, everyone thought that how crazy that is. That is so much less crazy than Bray Wyatt taking a pickaxe and trying to kill Xavier Woods.

All right. Like, it was a horror movie. That's like so... That's like when Pilman pulls the gun on Stone Cold. that is so jumping the shark. That's another great example of when

WW's roster was so thin that great things happened. Great things happened. I mean, it's a scene that should have never been filmed. They were just like trying to fill it sick. How much can we make an whole episode about this thing happening at somebody's house? One of those guys shouldn't have even been on TV. He's on the disabled list.

Yeah. I mean, like it was crazy. Or both of those guys? Were both of those guys hurt at the time? I don't think Stone Cold was yet because I don't think that Owen Hart match happened yet. Was the Stone Cold sitting there with a cast on his leg or something? No, that was Brian Pilman.

No, Castles. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. And he was the one Brian Kiliman was holding the gun, and then it went, and then the camera went to, you know, fuzz snow. Yeah, so anyway, it was a, like, what a, but that was a good example of these weird moments in pro wrestling. Now, WWE's roster, as they head towards the draft,

is kind of bloated, but they're still taking time to make these great short films. The one thing... The best upper midcar in history with the, uh, with emphasis on the mid. Yeah. That's what I would say for the roster right now. So the first thing I thought when the Wyatt New Day thing started happening, before it devolved into its full Final Deletianesque glory,

was I wish they had started it out. This is such a weird concern, and maybe it goes against everything I've said in the past. I wish they'd started out as if it was being filmed by the WWE camera crew. And then, you know, just like, like, you know, the camera guys, like, running up to the scene. Like, oh, these, like, our guys are going to fight. better get this.

Almost like paranormal activity. Yeah, and then have it like somehow like segue into a feature film, you know, this, but like this style was so different. And I think that that going back to final deletion is, is the concern here. It's like what, whether it's the high com or the screwball comedy of final deletion or the horror movie, like we're really trying to murder each other aspect of the, of the WWE one, the way. And that's, and all of that setting aside the film quality for both, just the tone of both.

is wildly different. Like, how does this relate to what goes on? Well, here's the thing that's even weirder about it. It's like now they like, now this is sitting up for a match at Battleground, right? Where they're just going to have a normal wrestling match after they just try to kill each other with weapons. It seems like you're kind of, you know, like the stakes are lowering now for the network event. Or, you know, like, why would they? It almost feels like it should have been switched, you know, like this should have been on the pay-per-view.

I guess maybe they're setting up Woods to becoming part of the Wyatt family or something like that. Yeah. I mean, they also, I mean, the other thing about the draft is they keep teasing breakup split-ups of all these crews, right? Yeah. So, I mean, maybe that this is a, I mean, maybe this, we're looking towards, you know, both of these crews losing, dropping a member or kind of going their separate ways. I mean, I think Kofi would be the most interesting person to join the Wyatt's because they need somebody who moves around like that. And also, everyone's expecting it's going to be Woods. They already have a good talker at the Wyatt.

So why would you draft another really good talk? I mean, I think more, I would just think of it as like a major league baseball trade. Just go one for one, you know? Oh, bring Eric Rowan in a new day. Yeah. I just think that there's, I just, I mean, that, that obviously would peter out. I think that, I think that I might have said this in the show last week. But I would love to see, I mean, I don't think that you can really swap them.

I think that for the storyline terms, I mean, like for the, like for the, for the rest of the storyline you can play around with that but for the future i would love to see bray white on his own be it on r smackdown and have the the rest of the guys keep the white family going with like luke harper is the new talker the new main guy yeah i mean you know they never did anything um with the wyatt's as far as making them a real threat for wb like i always thought it would have been really cool is if they put the title on wyatt and they set the title on fire in the middle of the ring like hey these are all meaningless you know yeah but instead they just built him up to lose to whatever top guy that was already a top guy unfortunately yeah the more likely thing for them to do

would be to put the title on them and have it set it on fire and then become two titles and that's how they do the brand split you know it's like somehow bray white created a second championship bills and then he owns yeah um yeah that i i agree they've never quite done it they haven't quite gotten them right and maybe this is the opportunity i mean i we let's We can go ahead and talk about the brand split because the draft is next week. I think I'm going to do a – I'm going to write a piece definitely next week for Monday or Tuesday morning where I do my own little draft. And then I might do a podcast earlier in the week, too, just to go to discuss some of the stuff. But because the draft is becoming – at least – I mean, WWE is treating this draft like a real thing.

Right. I mean, the PR push is real. The way they've talked about it on Monday certainly made it seem like a real thing. They did a fantasy draft on www.com, which basically where you just pick RAR a Smackdown for everybody. I don't understand how that works, yeah. It's not like, it's not. Do you play it with other people? Huh?

Do you do the draft with other people? No, it just looks like you just make your rosters. So you just pick like the top five big things? You didn't need a website for this. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what they do. On Raw, the big moment was, I mean, the main event spot was Vince coming out to announce that Shane was the new showrunner of Smackdown.

God, Vince looks so weird now. With the kind of like the light brown hair. Yeah. Something weird's going on there. Yeah. I love the, I love the like Shane with gray hair and Vince with like fake brown hair look. It's a, it's a wonderful look. But the, um, so I, you know, the one, the thing that they're clearly trying to do is make, make the audience, trick the audience into thinking that Smackdown is more important than Raw while, while not, while not limiting the importance of Raw.

You know, there was a, there was a segment a few weeks ago where Stephanie and Shane were kind of trying to trick each other into letting the other one be the in charge of Smack, like they both desperately wanted Smackdown. And I guess if the idea was that you, they got. to keep sharing raw, but then only one of them would get SmackDown. If that was the idea, which they sort of alluded to, then they didn't do a good job of conveying it. But Shane is running SmackDown, which I think is the right move, because SmackDown has always been the sort of smarkier of the two shows, right? It's like the pure wrestling.

I mean, like 10 years ago it was, you know, not really anything. Yeah, I mean, that's the legacy of Smackdown, I'll say. And as far as just differentiating the brands, like I would, I think it makes more sense for Shane to be running Smackdown and just to go all in on, you know, things that will make people like you and me happy. Yeah, Paul, you know, I think that the most important thing with this draft is, you know, like Paul Heyman, he always talks about the four people that he wanted more than anything else were Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Chris Benoit, rest in peace, I'm just joking, Chris Benoit.

And then I forget who the fourth guy, Kurt. angle, I think. Like, those are his, like, and then by drafting those, by putting emphasis on those four guys, it, like, it had its own identity. So I hope they don't just go, like, like, all right, well, seen on one, Roman reigns on the other, because those are the two cop guys, and that's how it should go. I hope that they draft in terms of who complements one another. And it's not just like, who were the biggest stars and it goes in order of biggest back and

forth, because I don't think that helps anybody. Yeah, I agree. I think that's exactly the right move. I mean, I think that, like, I mean, who do you think the top two picks are? Like, if you wanted to define your brand. I mean, it depends. Lesnar.

Is Lesnar in it? Let's just say Lesnar is not in it. Okay. Because that is, I mean, seriously. Like, I think if you're picking Lesnar, uh, I mean, it's seen as going to be number two, and it's either going to be Roman Ranger, Seth Rollins is number one.

Not Dean Ambrose. No. I don't think, I think, I think, do you think that they give it. Dean Ambrose goes, I think Dean Ambrose goes like, third. But do you think, okay, so functionally, though, for real next week, do they give it to Ambrose because he's the champion? What I think happens next week is, because the drafts on Tuesday, right? Yeah, and Rollins and Ambrose are fighting. It's a bold prediction is that Rollins picks up the title Monday and then goes number one of the draft Tuesday.

Wait, wouldn't it make more sense for them to go to a no decision or something and then they're the, then they become the respective champions of each show? I don't think that's how that's going to, because then you lose, you can have a whole pay-per-view where it's a tournament for the smackdown title or whatever. So I don't know why you would do that. I love how you're trying to argue logic with me. I'm trying to... I'm going lowest common denominator here. I ultimately lost any sense of humor.

Debateably way before this, but... So, yeah, I think that you're right. I mean, I think that it's... I think that to me, this is the interesting thing. That they're either gonna... that Sina is either... Sina either stays on Raw or goes to Raw, whatever. Yeah. And we had this kind of clear

delineation between Raw is Disneyland and Smackdown is, you know, is ring of honor. Right. You know what I mean? Like that's the sort of like, it's wrestling and like a little grittier on the, on the Smackdown side and that Raw is just like 100% for the kids. I think that that's, that would be cool. So or, or Sina goes to Smackdown. Yeah. And it's sort of like the John Cena US Open Challenge is now like the, like, I mean, I still think Smackdown is going to be the more wrestling heavy show.

But it's like, whether or not seen. becomes the anchor sort of making SmackDown matter the way that they had the rock on Smackdown years ago and then Raw is a little bit more Roman Raines, A.J. Stiles, maybe Seth Rollins.

To me the real interesting thing is who's the other number one pick like you were just saying whether it's Rollins. It's basically like which member of the shield goes to Smackdown is what interests me the most. I think it's going to go Seth Rollins, John Cena and then either then probably Roman

rain, then Dean Ambrose, and then AJ Styles. That makes the most sense to me. That's your top, that's- Five. I mean, that's how it'll go. As far as how I would draft, I haven't done the hours and hours of research needed to make that decision. No, I know. You need a big team to help you do this. I need a big team, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I mean, I think that there's, I mean, I think that there's obviously some wildcards as far as, uh, I mean, it's, it's storytelling, right? Did you draft the Undertaker? See, that's a good question. So, Brock Lesner, Brock Lesnar, uh, Yeah. You know, it would be really interesting as if, like, Triple H, the wrestler was available. Obviously, you can't draft his C-O-O, like, job responsibilities. But, yeah.

Are they setting up, you think, Triple H versus Shane or Triple H versus Seth for SummerSlam? I have no idea. I mean, Triple H versus Shane. Yeah. I don't know. I don't need to see Shane wrestle anymore. I enjoy saying Shane Russell, but, like, they could save that. They could do one or two more, I guess.

I mean, it's cool. He's a big, he's a name. It will get me hyped up. in the moment, but it's sort of like watching, you know, watching Seampunk get punched in the face. Like, I, I just don't, I don't, it's a little bit uncomfortable, you know. But yeah, so I think that, I think that the interesting questions are the veteran, like the old timers, like the legacy guys, like the Undertaker or even, even like, like Triple Age. Brock Lesnar, you can kind of put in that category because his schedule is so loose.

Yeah. And then there's going to be, then there's the question of like what they do with, there's going to be some tag teams and also the women's division, like how high those two things go just for the sake of storytelling, right? Yeah. By the way, like, I watched that Dana Brooke Sasha Banks match, and I think Sasha got the best match out of Dana Brooks she possibly could have. Absolutely. It's so weird that, like, Sasha's like, I like it, too, so I don't know what it, but she's

a face, but she's still working heel in the ring. Like, Dana got on the side and then immediately Sasha hit her, you know, it's, anyway, that just got really wrestling nerdy, but. I think that that's actually an interesting conversation. I think that if the draft were real, I think I would take Sasha maybe at number three or number four. As high as I needed to take her to get her because at that point, like once you get Sasha, I think that you can, like you own the women's division. For me, yes.

If the draft were real, I get Charlotte as the champion, has been the anchor, she's much more important. But I think, but first of all, I want Sasha more. But, and also I think is if you take, again, if the draft were real, if you and I were playing draft poker right now. Yeah. As soon as you go, as soon as you take a, if you take one of the women really high, I think that the person you're drafting against probably doesn't go female wrestler for the next like 15 picks. I think that they're just sort of like out of that market. And then you could like, you might be able to just like get, you know, get a monopoly. Well, it's going to be really sad of the people because they always did a draft where like, like some people, you just.

find out they were drafted during like a smackdown taping like not announced but tyler breeze went to smackdown i think that the worst thing they could happen to tyler breeze is not being yeah i mean if you're if you've been put in a makeshift tag team within the past three months just to like just to make it seem like there's a bigger tag division than there is and then you get split up via the draft that's the worst thing that could possibly happen well i mean i think that this is what proves that like heath slater is one of the best talents they have because he's is the master of the makeshift tag team. Oh yeah. Slater Gator. Yeah, Slatergator,

one man band, uh, or three man band or whatever the hell that was called. And now to the social outcasts like he's somehow, okay, he doesn't make them the most important, but he keeps those guys from being irrelevant. Whenever you hook up with Heath Slater, it's a good thing. Yeah. Heath Slater is the

least important guy to have and I say this is a compliment. He's the least important guy to get televised ring entrances on a regular basis. Yeah. There's just no there's no there's no point of comparison for that like ever like there's no like with judging by the win loss record he should be coming out during the commercial break every week and sometimes he does but often like on monday they got a real entrance no he's i mean he's great

speaking i mean they both they all were in the battle royal to start the show what do you think about darren young earning his uh well first off i want to give a shout at to the city of detroit um for the most progressive chance because you know they were cheering him because he was a gay dude who's been through shit. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like they weren't like cheering him because of his character. I don't know if his character has been established enough yet.

I think it was like this guy's kind of been buried. And also he had the courage to come out as a gay wrestler in an intrinsically homophobic business. Yeah. Also he follows me on Twitter. We've been trying to get him on our podcast. So please guys, Darren Young, if you listen. Which podcast? Big fan.

One of my three. We can get them on here too. But I'm, you know. I'm more of a friend of the show here than the other. I think that's, I would love to listen to him on your podcast. I think that's, yeah,

I think he's, he's really, really good. I mean, I think also it was just sort of like the, he's getting a little bit of the, um, whof,

I don't think I've ever, I don't think anyone's ever, like, given a direct term for this, but it's sort of like the, like the, like the, the,

the, the, the, the really thick NXT gimmicks that come up, like the Adam Rose pop. Yeah, where it's just like, we're so happy for this silly,

silly thing just for a minute. I guess Fandango Pop is the answer. Fandango Pop. Yeah, he's getting a little bit of the Fandango Pop because they're just repackaging him in such a silly way that we're like the child and all of the smart fans are endorsing this. What I don't understand that was like

you know, after he came out in real life, Stephanie McMahon did a whole thing about like, and maybe Darren Young even agree with this, but Darren Young, the character isn't gay. And I'm like, why not? Why? You know, like, that's a great storyline is this like a gay wrestler in a homophobic business why not use that but i guess

they're nervous and also i'd be nervous too if i went to like some places in alabama and then you see everybody boo them or something like that you know not saying all about abama is homophobic i don't i think that it's an interesting world and i don't know exactly how it plays i mean wrestling has a long tradition of like fans reacting in the in the in like baby the the pc the the p the p c the p the p c reaction is the baby face reaction, right? Right, right. I mean, like, fans in the deep south booed racists, you know, and cheered black guys at a time when one would, when maybe that wasn't like, you know, the widespread feeling.

Right. Because you know that like there's certain, like this is how a good guy acts, you know, and that's not, you know, racism is a bad guy trait or whatever. So there is certainly that question about it. But then wrestling also has a long, long tradition of, you know, playing up, you know, gay or sexually ambiguous characters is like for like like like like yeah for like heal guffaws so uh it would be i think that i think the answer is they don't know what would happen and they're yeah they're too they'd be too nervous about it yeah i think i definitely think that

there's a way to and and also it's sort of like the i guess there's some things that don't necessarily need to get in the ring you know i mean it's it's don't say some things after we talk to the game yeah no i just mean that like it's not it doesn't need to be part of the character and it can it can be true and not be part of the storyline, right? It's a less significant thing. It's not the same as the WB's seeming, you know, it seems like it's come down from the top

that we're just not going to refer to the wellness policy, and I think that's a good move. Yeah. We can't k-fabe the wellness policy because it's a real thing that matters. Yeah. You know, but so we talk about the Roman reigns, what's the word they keep using?

The Roman reigns fiasco, the Roman reign. Oh, by the way, that's Seth Rohn's interview. I thought it was real legit great, like when he did the fake. Who's my favorite Seth Rollins on, like, since he's been back? Me too. Me too. I just, they need to give him a new finisher. Jesus Christ,

WWE. It's amazing how many times a day I hear complaints about Seth Rollins as finisher. Yeah. But yeah, it's sort of like there's some things that we just, you can just, you know, like, Darren Young can be gay in, like, interviews, you know, like, whatever. Like the more, and we're, and you and I keep having this conversation off, off the mic about the sort of, like, documentary side of WWW and what it means. but yeah it'll be interesting but anyway Darren Young is our number one contender for the IAC title which is great yeah I think that if we don't have if there's not a few if there's not a go-to few

let's use it to elevate somebody and Darren Young needs it title on Darren Young fine yeah I mean it's not like the Miz makes it any more prestigious here's another thing that like I'm not sure like this is a weird moment where like the mid card titles are kind of flip-flopped because like Darren Young with the US title makes sense because he's the all-American dude yeah yeah And Zach Ryder is somehow flailing away trying to get the U.S. title win. I think he should still be trying to get the I-C title back. But anyway. I mean, it's so interchangeable.

I like Rusev with the U.S. title. What if they just came out? What if Rusef and Miz came out this week with their titles flip-flopped and they just never mentioned, they just never, like, explained it. They've done weirder stuff. Do you think anybody would notice? I don't know. It would almost be like, you know, when they kill off a grandma without saying it on a sitcom or something.

and nobody I don't think would notice it. I think that's probably right. But it was, you know, and it wasn't, shout out to Bob Back one for looking better than me and being 50 years older than me. Yeah. Is he, how old is that guy, 70 now? No, I think he's probably in the 60s. Jesus Christ, that guy looks good.

He looks exactly the same. It's crazy. Yeah. Good for him, man. Let's see, he was born in a... Where is it? He was born in... How does this say?

It's 1949. So what does that make? It means, yeah, 667 or something like that. Wow. Looks great. Yeah, he looks really good. And he's every bit the intelligent, coherent person he was in his prime. Is there anything else we need to talk about before we get out of here?

I don't think so. Yeah. I think we touch on everything. Smackdown is, Shane is running Smackdown. We talked about, we'd have no idea what that means. Next week they're announcing new general managers to run. run because they're both commissioners. I was talking to Ron Funches about it and he had a good point of

what if Angle was picked as one of the GMs. I mean, that's great fantasy booking. I don't know. I guess I'm doing the thing that you do like, would have Sean Michaels came back and Brett Hart got healthy again? And they had one more Iron Man match. It's almost like, you know, kind of. So yeah, that'll be interesting to see.

I mean, I guess these people are basically just existing to give Shane and Stephanie like, you know, the ability to go on vacation on a fairly. irregular basis. Yeah. So, yeah, we'll see who they pick. But yeah, I mean, do you want to, do you have any final thoughts about, about final deletion and or, you know, I think it's great. I really hope that it did show you when the Wyat did the next night how great the final

deletion was just because, because once you start replicating it, then it becomes the new establishment. So I would say that what the lessons to be learned from final deletion is not copying final deletion, but to do something outside the box, you know, and why, why I love the final deletion, but I think, you know, some stuff that's, you know, but I always love, I kind of like some of that chinty stuff, like, you know, like the Hollywood backlaw brawl between Gold Duss and Roddy Piper. And, you know, like, even the stupid monster truck thing between Hogan and Paul.

Okay. All right. Yeah, it was really bad. Okay, that was really bad. But, like, I mean, and I made fun of it on a podcast. but how much fun. You know, like, what are we going to remember? You know, remember, are we going to remember the sixth great Kevin Owen Cizaro match?

Are we going to remember the Yeti coming out, dresses of mummy, you know, holding on to somebody? Like, what's giving us more long-term joy? You just brought this thing full circle, man, that was incredible. The Dungeon of Doom is, I mean, and honestly, talking about, you know, like the good things that happen in wrestling when people are just given the time to do whatever the hell they want. Kevin Sullivan is probably the best example. the roster wasn't really as limited when he was booking WCW, but he just had full control. So he could do, you know, 15-minute weird segments about, you know,

debuting crazy wrestlers that would never end up wrestling, you know, and this sort of, I mean, those Dungeon of Doom segments were just next level weird. I mean, that was like, it's good to have a little of that back. Like, I think I was listening to Wall or on Jericho or something like this. This was a couple months ago. Yeah. But, you know, he was talking about how, like, you know, back then there would be like, Yeah, we just have Santa Claus versus Jason in a match, you know?

Yeah. And I think that some of that, why doesn't T&A just do that be the goofy? Well, they don't have the ability to skirt copyright laws the way that Jerry Lawler did in Memphis. True. He was probably just like literally just selling memorabilil, like selling Star Wars stuff. Oh, yeah. I'm sure like the teenage, he had a fake Ninja Turtle and Kawabunga. He had a Spider-Man.

Like he was just putting, like, you know, popular copyrighted figures into the ring. and I'm sure selling like iron on decals for their t-shirts. Right. What a weird guy. Bought a Batmobile. Anybody who buys a Batmobile, weird guy. Yeah, and has a lot of other interesting stuff going on in his life. Yeah.

I don't know what that is. He's a really good Jenga player? What are he's talking about? Yes, his jingo skills are renowned. Was there anything else that we wanted to talk about today? Not really. I think we hit everything, right? Yeah, I think it's pretty good.

The Final Deletion will go down in history. I feel like in pro wrestling. It's weird how to do it because I was thinking, does this get nominated on that website, Russell Crap? Does it get nominated for the Gooker Award? Yeah, I think it can be both Russell Crap and just wrestling awesome. Yeah, I think it's somewhere in the middle.

But, you know, like, I had a lot of fun. And I remember I was depressed Friday night to think about something and I watched it. And I was like, it actually got me into a better mood, which I can't say about most wrestling. Yeah, no, I thought it was really good. And I can't even believe people thought it was. thought it wasn't weird enough because it was

I had already heard about it when I watched it. It's pretty fucking weird. Yeah, it was very, very strange in the best possible way. Jeff Hardy, Chase Matt Hardy's drone on a dirt pike throughout his property. There's nothing weirder than that. I just don't, yeah, I would have given anything to be there for the filming of that. Maybe if there's a, I don't think, I don't think,

Oh, my favorite part was the referee just showing up. That was, it was so great. Just driving. Right, that was another moment of clear self-awareness. I don't want to say there was only the one. There was a couple moments of clear self-awareness. Yeah, but like Matt has such a crazy look on his face in general that like you almost believe that he's that crazy. It was perfect, man.

It was just like this is the argument for him why he's actually really great is because he knows and he's able to use it. He like he's sort of, he's just weirdly self-aware. Well, you're one of the people who say like I always ask you, when is a wrestler working you? And he said all the time. Oh, yeah. When they're not working with you. And when they're not. you know Randy Orton I wrote a piece for Grantland that was just like saying like it's called in defensive Orton just kind of making the case that he's the like that he is a legit headliner and one of the top guys WWE has but this is when he was champion yeah because there's that because he was actually playing this dick character it's kind of like slightly slow asshole and that's the sort of that's what we imagine him to be and when he's really amping that up then it's like then he has earned the top spot like he belongs up in the upper echelon I mean he does like genuine

heel. Like, you can go on YouTube and find videos of him. I like to pretend I'm a casual wrestling fan. But you can find videos of him like at house shows, just leaving the house showed and asking a fan for a cigarette outside. Smoking a cigarette with a fan, then going back in and like giving the guys like a P sign, which is like the most heel thing you could do. Oh my gosh.

Smoking a Newport light with a fan outside the Continental Airlines Arena. That's the most heel thing you can do. That is true. And that is, there's nothing else I can say to top that. Uh, anyway, thanks for coming by, Dan. We'll see you again soon. Can I, uh, can I promote some stuff? Yeah, plug your stuff.

Sorry, uh, I'm doing at midnight on Comedy Central in a week on Tuesday. I'm back on at midnight. So check that out. I also co-hosts the, uh, my dumb friends and not safe podcast, the not safe show on, uh, it's a, with Nikki Glaser on, uh, it's on, uh, Comedy Central at 1030s after, after Tosh on Tuesday. So you can watch Not Save and then me up on at Midnight with just, Now I'm just really putting myself over.

And I'm going to be at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival at the end of the month. I'm going to be doing a TV set. Oh, it's the big festival. I know. I've heard all that. The WrestleMania of French comedy festivals. But I'm going to be out there and I'm going to be doing a TV set.

And on actually Nikki's TV kind of shows, she's got up there. And I'm also going to be doing our, which David did, our podcast, My Dumb Friends. We're going to do a live version on that at the Hyatt Hotel at noon that day. So come by, danceate germane.net. This is great. You're getting into Rick Flair territory. You're going to be in the lobby of the Hyatt if you want to come by and have a drink.

We will be doing, we're thinking about doing a super sex trip afterwards, which is a famed strip club in Montreal. So our fans, you know, I'm going to be styling and profiling and drinking them Diet Coke's and, you know. This is, I mean, I am so, I am so jealous of all this. I am, I have no comedy shows to promote. You went to one last night. I did not I didn't enough going I had some crazy stuff happened but

yeah LA's fully comedy shows I could I could do this all the time I'm at David Shoemaker read the ringer I have stuff that that uh the ringer dot com I have stuff that comes up there a lot and read the stuff that I don't write to wrestling fans I read something about Tim Doug in there last night

is great really good Chase Serrano has been brought into the family brought back into the family I don't really know how that goes there's a lot of really really crazy good stuff that's kind of this week but yeah I you'll be doing your comedy.

I'll be here doing art and writing for the Ringer in this podcast. And thanks to Tate, I'm going to go outside. Thanks, Tate. I'm going to go outside and ask a pretty fucking sweet tracksy right now. I'm going to go outside and ask a fan

for a Newport Light. We'll be back here next week, Humanoids. Bye guys.