The Press Box - Ep. 221: 'The Masked Man Show' With Clark Duke

Episode Date: December 15, 2016

The Ringer's David Shoemaker welcomes Clark Duke to discuss his Doink sighting (1:12), politics in wrestling (9:05), the New Day passing Demolition (14:20), and 'Roadblock: End of the Line' (33:01). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. Today's episode of Channel 33 is brought to you by Seekek, the presenting sponsor for my podcast, as well as the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. With just two taps on your phone, you can instantly buy Seekkeek tickets to an event, and you can enter that event just using your phone. No paper tickets. Drop your old ticket app. Use one that's built for 2016.

Download the free Seekheek app or go to Seekekek.com. And now without first, Further ado, here is the Masked Man, David Shoeemaker. Welcome to the Maskman Show. This is a very, very special episode of the show. The whole family should listen to together. I'm joined here today by one of America's great actors. Sure. Clark Duke. Yeah. How you doing, man? I'll take that. Thanks, man. Also a huge wrestling fan. I assume people know that. That's more important than the acting part for the podcast probably. We were, you're, I was trying, been trying to get you to come on the

podcast for a while, but the, we started corresponding recently. because you got to just tell the story. You were home in Arkansas? So I'm from Arkansas originally, and I was home for Thanksgiving. And while I was there, there is this local wrestling promotion out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, that airs on Saturday nights on, like, you know, Channel 42 or whatever. Sure. And called TCW Wrestling, traditional championship wrestling.

And first of all, it's fantastic. I've done some, I can verify this. I've done a whole lot of YouTube viewing since you texted me. I'm pretty psyched just to shout out TCW. on the podcast here because they do have like YouTube videos and website and stuff but the reason that I emailed you about it was I was watching

the show and they have a guy come out and he's dressed as Doink the Clown which you know there's been a lot of guys that have played Doink over the years in like various stages but the guy but then his name came up and it didn't say doink it said Matt Bourne

which is the name of the original Doink the Clown who is decease Matt Osborne died in 2013, yeah. Yeah, you wrote an obit form for Deadspin, right? Yeah, correct. And I remember reading that, and that's why I immediately started texting you, like, hey, as the foremost, you know, pro wrestling journalists in the field, I need you to start looking into this because I'm bewildered. I have not been able, I have none of the time to source this yet or to figure it out.

I think Matt Bourne did indeed wrestle for TCW, and there's very little for. But this appeared to be new footage, man. This wasn't like a best of, like, he was wrestling like their young guys that they have there, like. Yeah, no, I mean, okay, this is either they're passing off footage from three years ago

or four years ago as new, or there's something really crazy going on. But it fits that it's doyink in a weird way, right? Because there have been... Yeah, there's been some... Well, that was a thing. If it would have just said doink, I would have been like, oh, it's some, you know...

There are little, like, Indications around the internet that WW has officially licensed like three or five people to use the doy gimmick on the indie scene. Really? Yeah, I haven't talked to anybody. They licensed characters out like that? Only doink seems to be the way. I don't really understand. I'm sure there's some other ones too.

But here's the reason it was scary to me because I started talking to my buddy Danny, who you know. Yeah, of course. We started like speculating maybe this is kind of like the Mandela effect where like there's a lot of people that remember Nelson Mandela dying. in the 80s, but maybe this is the same thing where Matt Bourne actually, like our two universes are colliding and some of us clearly remember him dying, but maybe he's still alive? First of all, that'd be great news if you were still alive. As far as I'm concerned, I mean, it looks like he is based on TCW. Listen, we got to, I got to do some research into this.

If there's any Arkansas wrestling fans listening to this, please tweet me and help me figure this out. This is, it's super weird. I mean, again, if this is a gimmick where someone's working as Matt Bourne, aka Doink, that is really poor taste. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't even know if it ranks in the top five for pro wrestling and poor taste. That's true. That's true. But, you know, a lot of people, like Steve Kern, the Brooklyn Brawler.

Didn't like Terry Taylor do it? He's not on the Wikipedia page as far as I recall, but Dusty Wolf, I think, was one of the guys who might have been doing it around. Dusty Wolf sounds like your e-fed character. Exactly. Just an automatic name generation generator. Ray Apollo was one of the guys who, one of the jobbers who did it in WWE for a while, or the WWF for a while. But this is, that's incredibly weird.

Well, and I did a little internet research of my own as did Danny, and we, you know, we came up with nothing. Yeah, it's, there's a black hole here. Yeah, and their website's not helpful. I mean, maybe you call, maybe you call the president of TCDW directly. I think I need to get on this. Yeah. Yeah, the TCW, and there's not a lot of like Facebook updates in the past couple of years.

So it's, you know, that's the way these things go sometimes. An indie promotion starts up and, you know, has a social media volunteer or something. And then they're just running shows. But have you been to the, have you been to a TCW show? No, I just stumbled on it watching TV back home. It's, what I've seen online makes me, makes me wish I could go see this stuff. It's honestly great. There's a guy, like the heel manager is like an,

a 1920s newsman. Like, he talks like this, see? Babies and gems, what you've just seen is the crown jewel of the Bradford Exchange. And he wears, like, the hat and the suspenders of the whole deal.

I think, I think there were guys, I watched guys like that growing up in, like, Memphis wrestling, right? But yeah, it's, it's, uh, there's, there was a Jim Cornett YouTube promo for the company that seemed very much like Jim Cornett was just rattling these off

for a bunch of different promotions. Tommy Dreamers. on there. I've seen, and this is over the last like, you know, a couple of years whenever I go home, I watch it, but I've seen, I've seen Dreamer on there. I've seen, I think I saw Matt Hardy on there. That would not surprise me at all. He was doing a lot of indie booking for a while. This was pre, pre-magnificent current Matt Hardy. Oh, man, he's top notch now. Boyd Bradford is the manager you're referring to. Yep, that's him. Double B. Oh my gosh. There's also a manager named Rich Trude, who has his shirt off and looks to be in better shape than most of the talents.

I don't really... That's a strange one. Lance Hoyt is listed on the talent roster. There's a couple of interesting people on here. So, yeah, Tommy Dreamer is actually listed as part of the active roster. Who knows when the last time this thing was updated was. But, wow. I got Dreamer's cell phone number.

I could text him and ask him about this. You should do that. Let's see if we can put this to bed. The investigation starts now. That's my biggest name drop. of the day. Yeah, that's probably the best one you're going to get out of me either. All right, well, I mean, I can't confirm whether or not Tim Storm is still the heavyweight champion of this promotion, but he was as of three weeks ago when I watched it.

Wow, wow, this is too much. I'm overwhelmed. I really, if the Mandela effect in wrestling, I mean, there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of weight. I mean, if the Mandela effect has any legitimacy to it, pro wrestling should be like the hotbed for it. I'm pretty sure... I think that we just blew the whole thing wide open. This is our, you know, Barronstein versus Barron Stain. If everything that I remember incorrectly about wrestling is evidence of an alternate universe,

and this is, there's a lot here. I'm pretty sure the Brian Kendrick is a big fan of the Mandela Effect. I think I heard you talking about that on this show, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He might be the foremost expert on wrestling and the Mandela effect. He lives in L.A. We could probably get a whole to him. Yeah, man, when he's not on the road, now that he's like... Yeah, that's true.

biggest stars in WWE. Best dress stars. Yeah, he does have some nice pants. We'll circle back around to Brian Kendrick because we got a raw brand pay-per-view coming up this weekend. Backlash Road to Backroad. Again, I'm in

favor of... I'm in favor of... A roadblock, sorry. Yeah, roadblock. I'm in favor if all of the unnecessary pay-per-views are going to be roadblocked. coal in something, that's fine by me. Just go back to the In Your House. Yeah. And Giveaway Houses?

Is that part of the allure for you? That would be incredible. I watched that best of In Your House DVD last, whenever that came out a couple years ago. Yeah. The giving the house away thing is just the funniest deal in the world. It's amazing. I somehow went in a weird rabbit hole recently reading about how fake game shows and like home remodeling shit.

Like everything that they give you on TV is just a scam and you end up losing money on it or whatever. You have to pay taxes on it. Yeah. So like if somebody wins a car and a boat, they usually have to. sell the boat to like pay the taxes. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

So I'm sure W.V. didn't, didn't factor in that when they were giving away the house. Probably not, though. I'm going to find, now, after I figure out what's going on

with the reincarnation of Matt Bourne, I'm going to figure, I'm going to find the person who won the first house. Yeah, that's so weird. My mind is blown. I know. If Matt Bourne coming back to life,

on any other week, Matt Bourne coming back to life, would be the most shocking thing, wrestling-related that's happened. But since I, last record a podcast, Linda McMahon, has gotten a role in the, of the federal government. I would hope so. I mean, she donated like $6 million. That's how pay for play works. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, let's not, let's not make it sound like she's more corrupt than a lot of

the other people that have gotten cabinet posts. I just think, you know, the first president, the first WWE Hall of Famer to be elected president, it makes sense that Linda would get a position. The W.E, yeah, certainly has lionized. Donald Trump over the years. And, but there's just, I mean, listen, Linda, by all accounts, is very, very smart and good and competent. Oh, yeah. And she could be, this, she could be very good for this.

So, you know, all do credit to, uh, to Linda McMahon. But there's just something so perfect about Trump. Do you think he'll be a mania this year? You think he'll go, does Trump? No way. But, but they've had like, I remember, they've had like the pre-recorded videos of presidents, like, giving messages before, like, on their show. and the tributes to the troops and stuff.

They got to get at least a video from Trump, right? Oh, yeah, the tribute to the troops is... Is that this week? It's next Monday, right? I don't know. Wrestling at this point, like, the way I watch wrestling, because it's on every night. It's kind of like the way I watch, like, basketball games.

Like, it's just sort of on in the background and all the TVs in my house. Like, my house, I have TVs in every room. It's like a Buffalo Wild Wings kind of thing. Like, even in the bathroom? Kitchen. In the bathroom, for real? Yeah, yeah, both bathrooms got TV.

Do they have separate? remote controls or is there a system where they're all showing the same thing so you can like never stop watching Monday night raw? Each bathroom is connected to the corresponding bedroom. So like, all right. There's like three, I guess, separate boxes in the whole house. Okay. But you can put it all on the same channel, yeah.

This is a lot of televisions. I'm very into this. Yeah. Very tasteful though. Yeah, wrestling on in every room of your home is probably the most tasteful way you can possibly go. But I agree. Like I do like I watch a lot

West Coast time is a weird thing too Like I got home yesterday at like six And I was just like well it's like if I If I turn on the East Coast feed I'm right in the middle of Smacktown I like it coming on a day I try I don't watch the East Coast I only I mean I when I first moved out here

I did every time and I was like I'm going to tweet about it And then but I was just like working so hard Like I would be doing other work while I was doing it And I would think I'll go back and watch the later time Or I'll watch it on Hulu And sometimes I do but sometimes Yeah, you just like, I realize I just kind of like, my eyes blurred during half the show, and I don't really remember. Yeah, you know, I got it on a lot, like making dinner, that kind of thing.

I mean, I don't have to watch it for work like you do, so I don't have to watch it as closely. Well, I mean, the worst thing about watching it for work, and I love it, but the worst part about it is some of the, like, some of the wrestling I want to watch most, be it like Lucha Underground or even NXT or whatever is the least essential to what I do. Yeah, totally. So, like, you know, there's not a lot of, I end up having to watch, like, 10 hours a week if I want to watch all the stuff I want to watch. But so anyway, best of, best luck to Linda McMahon. I was just going to say, it's just perfect that Trump just, like,

went out and found, like, the last living Carney family and, like, put one of them in his cabinet. But, yeah, it's a, I mean, whoof, I'm not going to get too deep into the politics of WWE. But there's a lot of political stuff this week. There was also a great article in Vice last week about the WWB business empire, which if people listening this haven't read, if you somehow haven't been

stumbled across that on Twitter or whatever, you should check it out. It's really good and really interesting, and there's a lot of stuff about the inner family politics of the McMahon clan. Really? Like about Shane's stuff? Yeah. That's the best. Oh, yeah. I mean,

yeah, I mean, it's it wouldn't, there's nothing in it that's like jaw dropping, but it's just that we interact with this every week on television. And they sort of dance around it and make it storyline. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, no, it's just, it's really, I mean, that's what makes wrestling interesting, like,

for the largely, just, you know, I mean, overall is that this dancing the fine line between what's real and what's not, right? Well, that's always the best stuff when you can kind of, like, when they do something so great that it makes you suspend disbelief. Yeah. And it's, when you, as a viewer, can talk yourself into it possibly being real, even if you know logically that it's not. It's like, wow, that chair shot looked really, really painful or whatever.

But yeah, man, I mean, there's We were talking about politics A couple of other things I want to touch on Before we get to Roadblock Did you see this tweet that Kofi Kingston sent out That's sort of this huge thing? You don't have Twitter at all? I don't have Twitter.

How do you communicate with your legions of fans? I don't. It's great. You're living the dream, man. Yeah, man, I just walk around oblivious. Sorry, I keep coughing, there's no Mew button in here. No, that's okay. Cough all you want. This is a rag-tag operation.

Yeah, I know, Kofi... What did he tweet? What happened? Fill me in. Oh, no, sorry, Big E. Coffi tweeted the response. Biggie tweeted a picture of Rich Swan, The New Day, and Sasha Banks, a picture of them all together with their belts and the hashtag Black Excellence. Now... Is that controversial?

One would think possibly not, but... Why is it controversial? Maybe you wouldn't be too surprised. You're not on Twitter a lot, so whatever. Is everything controversial? Everything is controversial? answer, but the answer, but the, the, the, the, the, the, some of the first responses to it were, if this was white, if this was hashtag white excellence, you would see it as being racist.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, and then, yeah, somebody else said, um, yeah, exactly. I mean, it repeats the same thing. Um, conflating, conflating it with white supremacy and this, I mean, absolutely, absolutely insane stuff. I'm so happy for Rich Swan, by the way. I remember, like, talking that guy at PWG, uh, like, two or three, three years ago and just such a cool dude. Yeah.

And he's great. He's so good. The only thing is I just would give anything if he could, his entrance music could be all night long by Lionel Richie. Yeah. Because that was the single greatest entrance I've ever seen in the crowd singing along. There's some things that, um, I mean, it's sort of tried to replicate it a little bit with no, they tried very hard, but yeah, I mean, at some point it's, he's not seeing punk yet.

They're not going to go right. They're not going to cut a check on Lionel Richie. I wish they would have. Um, I'm sure. when they signed him, they didn't have any idea that he was even going to get this far. I mean, like, he's just, he's, he's one of the quintessential guys who, um, you don't even realize that he has the potential, I mean, you see, I saw him on the Indies too. He was great, and I loved him, but yeah, I just watched him.

I was just like, it's too bad a guy like him will never get a shot. And the same with Stedric Alexander. Yeah. He's just amazing. Yeah, totally true. And, but it's not until they got in the WWE ring and you just see them, I mean, it takes 30 seconds and you're just like, oh, wow, this could be. a real thing.

I actually, this is probably going to be controversial. I'm not a big fan of the cruiserweight division. No. Because, like, the guys that we're talking about that are great, like those two guys and Kendrick, they would get over just fine without saying how much they weighed. Because, like, they don't, like, standing next to, like, Jericho, they don't really look that different. Yeah.

I mean, right. I mean, some of the guys, like the British guy with the mustache. Gower, yeah. her. I mean, he looks like, he looks a little tiny. He looks tiny. He looks tiny. But some of these guys like, like, Cedric, I mean, he had to lose like a bunch of weight just to even like get in it, right? Like, just let that dude go. Like, listen, I don't, I don't disagree with you. I like the idea of the, I just worry it's going to end up being a stigma for them, the cruiser weight thing. Well, I mean, it certainly like, it makes it so that let's just say that Rich Swan is so transcendent that he's

headlining WrestleMania and some underdog story in a year, you know, a year and a half from now. that's going to be the only slot open for a cruiserweight coming out of the division and making it to the top, right? I mean, it's like you're Ray Mysterio or you're a guy that the WW didn't sign when they bought WCW. But I mean, a lot of the, like Eddie Guerrero was a cruiserweight in WCW. I mean, he also got like super creepy jacked looking. I mean, I think part of that, I mean, that's part of what's going on is that we're in a transition period just in terms of wrestler sizes. And I used to always say, I used to always say on Chee Pete that like I needed to see a guy standing next to Randy Orton in the ring before. I could tell you if he was going to work or not.

Right. Where are all the giant guys? Like the guys like tugboat-looking motherfuckers. You know what? Like what happened to just the big... Well, we have Ron Stroman. Yeah, he's terrifying. But I mean, I guess I'm asking where are the fat guys?

Like, where are those guys? Do they just not... They've had a few of them in NXT. I mean, there have been a couple of like just brawny fat dudes that come up. They weren't that. They weren't like what I'm looking for. I'm talking about just a mountain of a man. Yeah, that's a really good question.

I saw a picture of tugboat the other day and he still looks like that like he still looks like I would be scared if he walked up to you in spandex and saved a bag you would run or if he walked up to me in anything like a tuxedo or just like a King Kong Mundy

just like where are these just like monstrous dudes at? I don't know it's really interesting I mean I think that like Are they all playing football? Do they not exist? I think some of them play football I think that there's I think that there's probably more of a premium

on athleticism not just in wrestling but like if you're going to go to the gym four or five days a week, then you're looking at other guys who are like chiseled and you're not just like, I can just binge a lot. But I don't want everybody to look like personal trainers.

I want to have, I want to have like the weird... Well, we're in a better fate. We're in a better spot for that now than we were, you know, 10 years ago or even five years ago. Yeah, that's true. But no, but it's totally true.

There's different sizes. I mean, like, the cruiserweight guys could feasibly, you know, just be regular guys, but this is the way they're going to get, this is the way they're getting the, you know, getting the opportunity. So hopefully it'll work out for the best.

I guess so, but is it working? Because I feel like they're not wrestling a different style at all. That's the problem right now. Like, if they came out and it looked like a ring of honor match or something, and be like, okay, that's different. But I mean, right now they wrestle the exact same style as everybody else. They're just way like 30 pounds less. It's true.

I'm hopeful for roadblock because we have a triple threat. I mean, who know, I can keep holding out hope forever. But, like, you know, the triple threat is a little bit more in the kind of PGW wheelhouse. Like the sort of wrestling that we've been holding out that we've been hoping for. But yeah, no, I think that's true. I was just going to say, like, I used to always say you put a guy next to Randy Orton to see what he looks like. And a couple of weeks ago, Randy Orton and Chad Gable were in the same ring. And Randy Orton looked like two Chad Gables, like, on each other's shoulders.

Yeah, he's tall. He's an enormous dude. And, I mean, there are a lot of people like Gable who've come up to the tag ranks still in, I mean, tag ranks in NXT right now, who are much closer to the cruiserweight weight class. Yeah. But I think the tag division is another way to get them up on the main roster. I agree with you, man. I mean, there's, I mean, Cedric is absolutely amazing.

He's, you know, impressed the hell out of me all the time. Yeah, I mean, and wait, why are we talking about? Oh, because of the big E, because of that big E tweet that somehow got controversial. It doesn't seem that controversial, man. No, but it was controversial enough that Kofi Kingston had to, came out and, like, released a statement that basically said, you know, it's not about black is better than white or whatever. It's just a, it says, I mean, the to quote of me, says,

it matters because even though it's hard for some to fathom, the fact is that there are many people who feel as though it's impossible to attain certain goals because of the color of their skin. And he's talking about just like how they're setting a positive example. It seems like the most obvious thing in the world. world, just a weird, weird state of... Was that a pre-existing hashtag? Like, is that a...

I have no idea. I don't either. But, you know, now that Donald... As soon as Donald Trump becomes president, all those hashtags are out the window. He disinvited Twitter from his tech conference, his tech summit today. Like, no one can, from Twitter can go? He's all the big CEOs. Why did he disinvite Twitter?

Twitter, like got him elected? Yeah. That's insane. Apparently they refused to do a, like a Hillary, like a... lock up Hillary, like emoji, custom emoji or something, and he's still holding a grudge. That sounds like, it sounds like a bit. But he's like the world's most famous Twitter user.

I know, it's crazy. He's really biting the hand that feeds him. Yeah, well, that's enough Trump. We'll save it for when he appears at WrestleMania. It would be really, truly great. All politics aside, if Trump was, if Trump was like in the skybox at WrestleMania, like Obama going to a Final Four game or something,

You know, it's like, this is Donald Trump's, this is Donald Trump's Super Bowl. I think, like, instead of going to the Army-Navy game, Trump should have went to whatever the Raw versus Smackdown pay-per-view is called Bragging Rites or whatever. That would be really great. See which side Trump aligns with? Yeah, well, he's got to say neutral. He's the president. You know, he's just there to have a good time. That would be great.

If he, like, had a raw T-shirt, and Melania had a Smackdown T-shirt, and they were just sort of posing, that would be really good. The only other thing that I was thinking of when I saw this was Like the other this is a totally different sort of politics Than black excellence outrage which is just totally insane But I'm so obsessed right now with demolition because they are like the biggest heel on raw Just by the I mean now now it's over right now it's over well as of the time we're recording this I think it's formally over But yeah the new day is a lasted longer than demolition and it's so it reminded me of the thing where like

ever there's all these conspiracy theories that Marvel Comics is trying to kill the X-Men and the comic because they don't I believe that you this is your Mandela effect no but it's like but they keep publishing the comics and they keep re-booting them and they keep they've been terrible for like years they're trying to push the inhumans and make them the X-Men like it's awful but the storyline the inhuman storyline involves the X-Men like it's not like they're just shoving them to the side yeah but they're just trying to like get some shine off the X-Men like because nobody gives a shit about the inhumans

This is true that no one gives a shit about the inhumans. That was their gimmick for a long time in Marvel Comics. But they're better now. The reason why I bring this up is because there's this, the conspiracy, I'm not going to say conspiracy theory because it's not crazy. But the conventional wisdom was that they're going to let the New Day win the, you know, have the record for the tag title reign because demolition is like locked in a long lawsuit with WWE. What is the lawsuit over?

I don't even remember, man. And because of that, like, that's why they're desperate to, like, have the new day. They won't have to have. Say the demolition is the longest range. But they've mentioned demolition 10 times an episode for the past two. Like, if you're actually trying to pretend demolition doesn't exist, you're doing it the wrong way. I just don't.

It feels like they're trolling demolition to me at this point. Yeah, maybe so. I don't know if trolling really has anything to. I mean, I guess I take that back. I mean, why does everybody lose in their hometown? Like, they're totally about trolling. So yeah, so Bloomberg's actually reported on this, but WWE has been sued by dozens of retired wrestlers who were claiming the WWE is responsible for neurological injuries they suffered from years of wrestling. I mean.

Yeah, Axe was like 55 years old when he got signed by WWE, so I'm not sure that they're solely responsible for that. He was an older dude. That's why they brought in crush because he was like beyond wrestling age pretty soon. I could just do a whole episode on demolition. They were just like, what a great, like what, first of all, a total. total gimmick rip off of the road warriors. But kind of, they look more like kiss. Yeah, oh, sure.

They look like S&M. Although early Road Warriors were very S&M before they got the big shoulder pads. They were like leather daddies. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, yeah, I mean, demolition. Talk about two scary guys, especially acts, because you could tell he was like 50 years old. Right.

He was just like a really strong dad. There's nothing scarier than like a grown man. You know what I mean? That's what I mean. Yeah. Like that grown man's strength. Yeah. A grown man who's like in briefs with leather and studs.

I mean, he's clearly a crazy person. And Mr. Fuji, who died earlier this year, right? And God rest his soul. He's a really, I mean, those guys are, I mean, they're absolutely legends. And I'm just, all of this is to say, I don't think, WW may very well be trolling demolition. I don't think they're trying to pretend they never exist because they're doing the opposite of that. How incredible would it have been if the New Day came up one day short of the record?

Like I kept kind of thinking maybe they would do that. Because it'd just be so funny. Yeah. Well, didn't the same thing have... I feel like a fantasy book this when Nikki Bello was going for like the Divas Championship record or whatever. I thought she got it. She did. Because they were trying to like erase AJ...

Yeah, well, that's the other thing. There's always the conspiracy theory that or whatever, the theory that they're trying to spite somebody else by doing this. Now, maybe they just want... I think maybe Occam's Razor would dictate that it's more important than just to be able to say, these guys who are on TV today are the longest reigning champion. of all time. But it seems like the logical next step now is to immediately have them lose the belts because they've got the record and like there's no storyline for the tag team division

on Raw because like everybody that challenges like they've essentially ruined the club by having them like not be able to win for a year or however long they've been feuding with them. They've been feuding like eight or nine years. The title is never a cure-all but it's a but yeah you can definitely retroactively fantasy book that you know it would have been beneficial for that. the club just to grab the titles immediately and hold them for six months. Yeah.

Or, and I think the new day would be way more exciting kind of fighting from underneath, too. Yeah. Well, I mean, the new days, this is, I think it's more than just the title. I think the new day is at that spot now where, I mean, I guess we can, they're probably on a holding, everything's on a little bit of a gimmick holding pattern until WrestleMania, but we're at that spot where they have to figure out what the next phase is. I don't think it has to be a dramatic change. I just think, you know, it can't just be more of this for another year.

Yeah, because it's like they were building all these storylines and all these challengers, like the Shamis and Cesaro thing and, like, the club. But then they can never pay off the story because these guys couldn't lose because they had to beat this record. Were they going towards Owens and Jericho versus the New Day before Owens had to get shotguned into the title? Or no, I guess that wouldn't have happened. No, I'm conflating things in my head. But I think that would be great, though. I'm a big fan of the Orton Bray-Wiatt like two stars forming a tag team thing.

I think it's great. Orton and Bray White, like the parallel that I can never quite make work is, whenever I see Orton and Bray White is recruit, before ravishing Rick Rood in the NWA.W.A. In the Carolina Territory's, Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez were a tag team. And Manny Fernandez was just like acts of demolition,

just like strong dad with a mustache. And he was like a hairy chest. And he was like scary as hell. And Rick Rude was just this, I mean, he was a little bit smaller, I think, than his WD. Yeah, just amazing. An Adonis. What are they called?

They're called like the fearsome twosome or something like that. But yeah, it's like I love that look. It's just such a cool thing. I mean, I wouldn't be, if the move now is just a, I mean, maybe it's tag team, a champ versus champ at WrestleMania because it's just, I've said it before, but it's, there's so many titles now, their WrestleMania is either going to be all title matches or they're going to have, or a title, you know. Well, they already did the Wyatt's versus New Day. They did the same kind of thing with them.

They've already kind of blown through that. You're right, you're right. But I'd be more interested in that for WrestleMania than saying two different. I mean, even though I'm excited to see American Alpha finally get their shine. Yeah. I don't know if WrestleMania. Yeah, having two tag team championship matches on Mania is going to be kind of exhausting. But the show's already like seven hours long.

It's going to be so long. I'm already, yeah, I'm already. Are you going this year? Yeah, I'll be there. It's Orlando, right? Yeah, the lovely Orlando, Florida. Are you going to go? I don't know.

I've only been to one. I was at Phoenix, which was at 26, maybe? Yeah. It was an HBK Undertaker last match. And it was fantastic. But I went because we were guest hosting Monday Night Raw the next night. Me and Cordy were promoting Hot Tub Time Machine. So like I got to go that like WWB flew us there and put us up.

We got to hang out backstage and do the whole thing. But I don't know if I want to go, like, just deal with all the logistics myself almost. It's a lot of logistics. It's a lot, man. I mean, it's 100,000 people. Yeah. I mean, it's so boring to hear me talk about it because, like, I, it's work for me. And I sound like the biggest asshole probably.

No, and that's why I don't talk about it that much, too. It's like, I miss, just thinking about it, I already miss Rosenberg because he would just, like, get the schedule together and just be like, this is the party we're going to. This is where we're going to. I would just follow him around for three days. And he probably would call WWU and publicists to make them deal with all of it, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, he does work for them sometimes.

So, like, yeah, he's on the pre show now. He's put him up in the talent hotel and whatever. He's not doing it. Sam Roberts is doing the next one. He just announced. They're alternating. I think they're just cycling in all of the professional broadcasters who are wrestling fans. And they should.

It's a good look. It really felt better with an actual broadcaster doing it. I mean, not that like Renee is an actual broadcaster. Yeah. But to have, when you have four people on there, to have... I think it's cool just having, like, somebody that's totally... I mean, they're not, like, objective, obviously, but somebody that's from outside the company.

Sure. I think so, too. It definitely, it has a sort of weird era of legitimacy, which is hard to come by in the pro wrestling world. That's the main thing I miss the most about, like, is just, like, the presentation of it being more of, like, a live sporting event. Like, that was what I always thought was so great about Nitro. Yeah.

Was that Nitro felt like... It felt more like a live event you were watching, and less like a TV show. That's what's so great about the old, when you go back and watch old, like, guerrilla monsoon, like the old matches that Gorilla Monsoon called on the network or whatever.

Like, you're almost, you feel like you're watching it through a haze of cigarette smoke, you know? Like, it's just, it feels like you're at a fight, and I don't know, I'm not the biggest boxing fan in the world,

but I love going to boxing fights. I don't even know who the guys are in the ring half the time, but it just feels like... The vibe, yeah. The vibe is great. I mean, that's like Connor McGregor's whole mystique is he's figured out a way

to make it feel like a big fight. Yeah. All right, we're going to do a quick break here before we get to our roadblock preview. I need to thank today's sponsor, which is Tune In. The Ringer Podcast Network is available right now on Tune In. And while you can, listen to every episode on the Tune In audio app for free. Tune in right now is giving listeners 20% off its premium subscription for a limited time. You can catch the home calls of your favorite sports team at home or on the road, every play, every team, every game. You love sports. I know you do. Fake sports, but also real sports, right?

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I actually am contractually obligated to mention my own personal sponsor while we're here too. Go right ahead. Miller High Life. Are you being serious? No. That would be so great if that were true. You can't see it, but I'm wearing all. Yeah.

If I was just wearing all high life gear right now. That would be so awesome. So we got a pay-per-view this weekend. Every weekend. Every weekend. It is a weekend, so there's a WWU pay-per-view. Roadblock, colon, end of the line. I last last or what it was two days ago we had a TLC with um we on the on the on the

smackdown side and I love TLC like I enjoy TLC a lot I'd start to finish that was a beautifully constructed pay-per-view and I enjoyed the whole thing anybody that doesn't like is not on board with Ellsworth like I think me and you were saying this the other day like yeah I don't understand anybody that's not on the Hillsworth bandwagon yeah he's the greatest it's that's totally he's he's so so good um that said when you look at at the lineup, when you look at the card for this coming roadblock, this is like everything I could want out of a raw paper view. You got to run down the card for me. I don't have any notes. Well, just run through this really quickly. I mean, I'll just name the fight, but if you want

to touch on any of these feuds, because they're all, there are a lot of really good ones. Sammy Zane versus Braun-Stromen. Yeah, that'll be fun. So is the Sammy Zane versus Braun-Stromen, like, is the stipulation he's got to last like 10 minutes? Because I feel like they kept hitting that pretty hard. It's a 10-minute time limit. Like, that's all they're giving it. But that's a weird, like. I think that there must be a set up for like if like Sammy Zameh it goes to a draw

yeah he's going to last he's going to get demolished but he's going to last right it's been a really weird storyline not weird interesting storyline just in the sense that like the first half of it was Braun Stromen demanding

competition and to Mick Foley and the second half is Mick Foley or Sammy Zane demanding Bronz Strowman right like Mick Foley is very involved in this on both sides I don't know where it goes because I don't see

like it's not going to be good for whoever loses you know what because they should not let Braun lose ever at all. And is it just going to be like one more like brick wall that Sammy hits and doesn't go anywhere from it? I'm very interested in this too. So the out of the match, the more interesting part is what they do.

The tease about trading him to Smackdown, I don't know. I have no reason to believe it was based in anything, but that's immediately where my mind goes. Like if he lasts, I mean, there are a lot of reasons to put Sammy Zane on Smackdown. It seems like he would fit better there. They can use some baby faces on. Smackdown. They need to get him away from Kevin Owens for a while, you know, all that kind of stuff. Didn't they wrestle last week? Or was that two weeks

ago? Yeah, last week. It was great. But those guys shouldn't have touched for like two years, I feel like. Yeah. That's another, if you want to add to this, my own personal conspiracy theory, more evidence that they're going to pull them apart for a little while. Maybe. But if, I mean, I have no idea if that's where they're going to go, but I could imagine

Sammy Zane lasts for 10 minutes, but gets destroyed and McFolly out of the kindness of his heart trades into Smackdown. But I don't, but I got the feeling after after this week's Raw that he doesn't actually want to go to SmackDown. He doesn't, fully doesn't want to send him. So, yeah, that's, storyline-wise, I guess my idea doesn't make a lot of sense. Well, then this is actually a really exciting match because we're curious to see what the outcome is.

Like, this is what I was trying to explain to, like, my girlfriend is, you know, never watch wrestling. But I was like, congratulations. Right, yeah. Well, she is now, but, you know, because it's always on all the TVs. But I was, but I was. You can't get away from it. I just want to go to the veteran to close the door. but there's wrestling on in every room.

But I was trying to explain, like, that really, the way that we watch it is sort of more to see, like, what the storyline will be. Like, I'm more curious to see where they're going to go with it, like how they get themselves out of the situation than I am who wins or loses.

So the storyline is Sammy Zane proving that he's worth, well, the threat was he was going to be traded for Eva Marie. And he said, I'm worth a thousand even, was that the quote? I just love that. I don't know why. That was great. I immediately started thinking, like,

would you rather, It's like the duck-sized horses or the horse-sized ducks question. Like, would a thousand even-marie-sized Sammy Zanes be? I don't even know. We touched on this earlier, the triple threat match for the cruiserweight title, Rich Swan versus T.J. Perkins versus the Brian Kendrick. I feel like Rich Swan is just the king of this division. I could see it going back to Brian Kendrick.

Like I don't, I'm just excited to see the match. Like you said, I think the fact that it is a triple threat will make it hopefully stylistically more exciting than the other identical cruiserweight matches they've been having for however many months now. I haven't watched the cruiserweight show at all, 205. Is it any good? Yeah. Is it stylistically different than the matches on Raw? The wrestling style is different, but it feels like it's hopefully it's arcing in the direction of being more different. Yeah. It's pretty safe, but the vibe feels like.

like a sort of... Is it like the Cruiserweight Classic? Because the Cruiserweight Classic was like... No, it's much more story. It feels more like they're trying to do... It feels a little bit like a watered down Lucha Underground right now. Like they're trying... Oh, really?

Like, they're trying to go all in on the backstories and stuff, but like there's a lot of just like, you know, promo packages with wrestlers histories and like, you know, just whatever's getting them in the ring to fight this other guy. There's really not... That's over saying it. It's not watered down, but it's... if they were trying to do Lucha Underground

and put it through the filter of WWE, this is sort of how it would feel. And maybe it's going to go further in the direction of an indie style, you know, as the time goes on. It's definitely worthwhile. Like, I enjoy watching it. Like, I enjoy watching Nxte when there's not, like, a champion that I'm in love with.

You know, it's like a cool, fun show to watch. You know, it's just not always... I think NXT is kind of the most fun when it resets every so often. Yeah, it's true. No, and it's really cool right now where there's, I mean, It's nuts. Did you go to the show that was over here at the Palladian? Dude, I didn't know about it.

Yeah, I've heard that from a lot of people. Like, did they advertise it at all? Or like, I don't even know. I live like a mile away. But it's weird to be at a show where it's like, you know, like Aska is like the reason why I'm showing up. Not weird. It's like when I realize that like I'm there because of the revival, Aska, it's just like, wow, this is like a new era of wrestling here, you know? I got that was great.

Yeah, I'm bummed. The venue was the best part. I mean, the wrestling was great, but just be, I just love, I'm such a weird venue snob. All right. Oh, the pre-show match, the way he skipped over was Big Cast versus Rusef. I'm not quite sure why that's the pre-show? That's how it's listed on Wikipedia. Wasn't that the main event of Raw?

Yeah, well, you know, Raw has been doing a good job of giving everything a little shine. But, yeah. It feels like Raw switched their format, though, that the main event is actually at 10. It does definitely feel that. And then there's another hour of show. Yeah. And maybe that's deliberate, you know. I mean, people have been complaining about the three hours forever.

It's pretty unbearable, the three hours. It's tough. It's a lot, unless you're just, you know, it's on the background while you're doing other stuff. Yep. That's why it's all in the background. Do you think this Rusev versus Cass and Inzo feud is going to keep going? Or is this just like a weird treading water moment for both? I mean, who cares? Yeah.

I don't know. They're all great. I just like, I don't know where this goes of like Enzo keeps trying to like sleep with the dude's wife. So now his friend does the fight the guy? Like where does it go? In some ways it's very on brand for Inzo and Cass in K-Fabe. Like this seems like the sort of thing that those guys would get themselves mixed up. My biggest takeaway from the segments over the last couple weeks was that Enzo had the new Jordan Space Jam 11s before they were released.

Enzo is a very connected guy. I was like, how did he get those? How did he get those a week early? He has a Twitter account that probably helps. Right. If you're jealous, I'm saying that's the... That might push me over. I mean, I got a pair.

I just had to wait a week. Oh, well. You have very little complaint about them. Yeah. Do you have any wrestling merch in any WW merch in your rotation right now? I always have some. I have a lot of like the Indy Guys shirts from like PWG and stuff like that. I have like I try to buy all Dolph's shirts.

Like Dolph's a friend of mine. Oh, number one contender to the Smackdown title, Dol Ziegler? Yeah. He has great. He has great merch. He does have good merch. They turn a corner. When that black just simple DZ shirt that looks sort of like a band shirt, it's great.

I've got to imagine that he took more of an active hand in the design because he's super into like hair metal and stuff. Like I went and saw a motley crew and poison with him. Like he's like he actually. You wouldn't you saw a motley crew and poison with Dolve Ziegler? At the Hollywood Bowl. I'm so mad that I didn't know about that. I would have paid money used to follow you guys creepily around all day. Poison was my first concert.

I was in like seventh grade. It was the coolest thing I'd ever done in my life. I brought a banner. That said poison? Yeah. In case they forgot their name? They filmed the video for Ride the Wind at that concert. And like if you squint in one frame, there's like maybe there's a white space in the crowd.

I got the dudes at homage that do all those like throwback wrestling shirts and like various other stuff just sent me a couple, like some of their new ones. And there's some like incredible stuff. I don't think I know this company. It's really cool. I mean, you've seen it around. It's all these guys that have like the four horsemen shirts. and it's just like nice quality. Like everybody at wrestling events is wearing this stuff now.

But is this sold through WWE or no? No, they licensed it from WWE as I understand. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh, I got to get on that. I didn't know about this. Yeah, well, they're, that's when you're a basketball guy. Like when LeBron was wearing the undertaker shirt after the date.

Yeah, that's all. Okay. Apparently, yeah, apparently that somehow, the Cavalier's got a giant stack of free homage gear and they were just paving it everywhere. Did you talk about how LeBron big time The Undertaker? When the Undertaker went to the Cavs game, LeBron wouldn't come out and say hi.

Did you read about this? I didn't realize that he refused to say hi. He never came out. Kevin Love's like the only guy that came out and said hi to him. Kevin Love, I think, is the wrestling fan of that team. I think LeBron was more in it for the metaphor. sure but yeah that is really crazy

I love that just there were sports writers that were referring to the Undertaker right there's no oh yeah he never is mentioned by his name ever yeah it's just we all know like respectable writers on Twitter just like The Undertaker is here

and he wasn't in costume or anything so he wasn't costume oh he what I think he wasn't costume what the Undertaker was dressed in the the duster in the hat no yeah how did I totally miss this yeah he was like and there was like a shot of him like standing around

the locker room, you know, like with the outfit on. If you show up in a duster and a hat and LeBron James needs to come out and say hi. Just, yeah. That's big timing. I totally missed that. Man, I'm just, I'm a terrible fan of wrestling basketball. Sasha Banks versus Charlotte Flair, a 30-minute Iron Woman match, Iron Man match for the WWU Raw Women's Championship. I mean, that's more of a bronze or silver man match, right?

30 minutes. I feel like there's matches 30 minutes every week. Maybe not every week, but at paper views, I think, you know, the big matches. Yeah, 20 minutes. 20 to 25 is not out of the picture. Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't think hour-long Iron Man matches even exist anymore. There's no way.

It would have to be. It would be incredible. Imagine how the pleaded a card would have to be for an hour to go to one thing. I think Lucha Underground did it one time. Yeah. Yeah, well, you can do a whole episode and that makes it feel like a big deal. I mean, it would be a cool thing for Raw for them just to say like, all right, it's 10 o'clock. Oh, man, they should totally do that on Raw.

Yeah. That's a good way to make me excited about three hours. Just two hours of regular Raw and one hour of an Iron Man match. Do you think that Sasha and Charlotte will swap the belt again? I hope not because I feel like the swapping the belt so much has sort of made it seem kind of arbitrary. Like, I don't know. It feels like they keep missing all their big obvious moments

of like when they should swap the belt, but then they just keep swapping it anyway. I feel like, yes, I agree with that. I think that the story, like if I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, then the storyline is the story they're trying to tell is these are the two most elite women's athlete, women, female athletes in the world. And they're so evenly matched that, you know,

it can't just be one of them holding it. It could go either way. It could go either way on any given night. But you're right, the fact that, like, the moment that you think they should swap it, they wait till the next week. And then it just keeps... Yeah, like, why did Sasha not win in Boston,

the hell of the cell? Yeah, it's... It just seems weird. If that's a story that they're telling, they're doing it in a very kind of halting way. Like, it's a little bit inscrutable, which is not the way you should... I mean, this is a simple story to tell.

if that's what they're doing. But yeah, I think that, I mean, we had the Hell in a Cell match, the TLC, I mean, not the TLC, the Falls Count Anywhere match for the title when Sasha won it. Now we're in an Iron Man match. I mean, we're kind of running out of match options.

If this feud carries on through WrestleMania, and I don't have any reason to believe it will, except that we're getting into that end game where you kind of have to, like, WrestleMania storylines are going to be set one month from now. Right. So if this case, carries on through, I don't know what they can do at

WrestleMania to top it. Something on a pole match. Is the pole really, no pun intended, is the pole a step up. I mean, I'm sure there's something that I'm not thinking of, but we've been in the cage. I wish they'd bring back the like the WCW gimmicks, like the war games and the three rings.

Everybody always says that. The double layer cage. I think at this point, it's got to be on the table. Because the reason why the reason they've always given, it's totally legit. It's like a seating thing, right? Yeah, it's a seating thing. And it's the thing you have to like, I know everything leaks in wrestling anyway, but I think that people would just look at the seating chart and they would know, like, six months in advance. You know, honestly, though, I don't think they have enough guys on the roster to even have one of those three ring battle royals.

Not with the brand split. That's the best part of watching like the WCW pay-per-views. It's just like seeing like, man, they had like 300 guys on the payroll. Oh, yeah. It's like Firebreaker Chip would have a chance to shine in the match or whatever. And you'd be like, oh, this guy could totally plausibly win. We got to move. The two big matches, obviously, Seth Rons versus Christian.

What's your pick and Sasha Charlotte? Do you think Sasha will retain because you hope so? I don't know. I mean, it seems like they swap it every week or two, so I don't know. Maybe Charlotte's the way to pick. It's going to be a good match. I think this is, I'm more excited about an Iron Man match than the Hell and a Selle match because I feel like they are very good at the women's division in general,

but these two in particular are very good at telling stories, and maybe we won't have as many. spots that I feel like someone's about to die. To me, the 30-minute time limit is kind of, like, meaningless for an Iron Man. Like, I just don't... Because, like, the main event of most of the pay-per-view is 30-minute long a lot of time. So, like, the 30-minute time limit

seems kind of... That takes away from it for me. Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of... I understand why they can't do the hour, but I'm just saying it. Maybe that's WrestleMania. Maybe WrestleMania will just be... The pre-show. Everything else, and it'll just be a two-hour Iron Man match between these... The pre-show is an hour 45-minute. That would be great. Time limit draw.

Seth Rons versus Chris Jericho. I think I like the way. they've sort of segued into Rollins and Reins versus Jericho and Owens and have it be two separate matches and it doesn't feel like Rawlins got demoted and it kind of everything just sort of I don't know it and it also doesn't feel like

Raines is being forced in our throats terribly I don't know it's the weirdest thing on Raw this week though is when at the end of it like when everybody's just booing you know Raines as he's about to about to hit Kevin Owens and I'm like it's just at a certain point like the weird disconnect of like what the crowd all cheers for Owens, and he's like, his best friend is betraying him,

and now he's getting, like, double-teamed and beat up by this, like, great-looking, like, monster man. Like, why is Kevin Owens the bad guy? Like... I have no idea. We're at a weird spot for, like, heel-face alignments. Even though, like, it's a little bit... We are in the sort of post-heel era or the post-whatever,

but, like, it's very strange, like... Well, on SmackDown right now, Dahl Ziegler and AJ Styles are going to be competing for the title in a match where I think everybody watching wishes that AJ was the face and Ziegler was the heel Oh yeah well it would be way easier on both those guys probably Sure AJ's been great as a heel though He's been really really good but I think that like we're getting to the time

Dolph is just such a natural heel Like he's and they've never known him well So you if he's a natural heel you're the guy to ask Well he's a very nice guy but I mean he just like him like when he won the The title when he cashed in the money in the bank that time Like that was the greatest Yeah I mean, the crowd went wild, but it's okay to cheer for a big moment, even if it's not your cup of tea.

But I agree. I'm rooting for Doff, but I'm biased. Yeah, the Roman Reins thing is weird, too. And especially on those rare occasions that they edit the audio on Hulu or on the web. It's just like, why? The Roman Rains thing over the last couple years is just so bizarre because it just, it feels like they swim upstream so much. Like, stuff, like Roman Rains would have been so great as a heel. Like, and then there's nothing better than when a heel gets so popular that they eventually turn.

And like, it's like that's what everybody used to do. Like, Stone Cold, the Rock, everybody. Like, that was like the path. Yeah. And it's like they forgot how to do it. Well, when the Rock actually came out to help Roman Raines and they booed the rock and the rock was just like, what the hell am I doing here? This doesn't make any sense. It's like, how do you not look at that and just immediately?

Just like turn him heel, just try it. How do you know, how does that part in the brain not go off for the creative team to say like, oh, this is what happened with the Rock? too. Or when Rawlins came back from injury and got the biggest pop in the world, like, why did they turn them? And then they spent all this effort trying to turn him heel and it never worked. And now they've tried to turn him back and it hasn't really worked either. Yeah.

It's tough. I mean, I think part of it's that they don't, that it's more about just being characters than being faces or heels in WWE. But I mean, listen, Roman Raines has been, I mean, he's working as a heel, but they're so pushing him as a bait. I mean, he's fighting Kevin Owens in the main event of this pay-per-view, you know? I think that, yeah, I mean, my fear is that they're placating Vince whoever was calling the shots and, you know, who just really wants Roman to get his WrestleMania moment as a baby face.

It's never going to work. It's never going to work. And especially that WrestleMania crowd. What if WrestleMania ends with, like, Roman Rains and John Cena both turning heel and, like, starting a new NWO? It'd be the greatest thing. I'm wearing a, this, the dominant. of you a shirt right now, by the way. So that would,

that's, that's all I'm going to hope for from now on. I don't even want Sina to turn ever, like, at this point. Yeah, but isn't he the model then? Isn't he the argument against turning Roman Rains or like, turn or whatever? No, because I don't think Roman Rains is like this beloved national figure. You know, like,

John Sina is, like, they don't have another John Sina. Like, that's, that's why the shows feel kind of, like, lesser than when he's not there because, like, and Cina is the only guy that's ever

close to being those guys as far as just like mainstream appeal like your mom knows who he is. Yeah. And it just doesn't feel like they have that guy. Is there any, I mean, certainly like we all, you know, we can put Roman Rans and Seth Rollins

and, you know, Kevin Owens is getting there on that sort of the upper tier. Jericho being elevated back to the pseudo-main event sort of helps. And, you know, AJ and Dean on Smackdown are close. I think they could do it with the MIS. I think the Mizz is doing the best. He's also a friend of mine, so I'm biased,

but I literally think he's doing the best stuff of his career. I mean... I think so, too. I think he's the MVP right now. He's really, really great. For the last few months. Smackdown was really cool this week. Because all the eliminations in the tag match,

but also in that number one contenders match were surprising. Yeah. I went in and I was... And I was just like, I think it's going to be, for some reason, I felt like it was going to be Dolf because, like, or a schmaws, because it just seemed like they're not going to. I always assume it's going to be a schmaz.

Yeah. I was sort of scared it would just be Ambrose to get. I'm not a big Ambrose fan. I go back and forward between, like, being deeply and vet. My girlfriend, my girlfriend, not a big wrestling fan before dating me either. And she actually didn't watch when we dated for the longest time, but she's been watching over the past few months. And she said to me last night, she was just like,

you know what, when I first saw Dean Ambrose, and this is like three months ago, it was like when I first saw him, I thought he was just like the grossest guy I'd ever seen, I never wanted to look at him again, but the more I watch, the more I love him. Yeah, I don't feel that way. Yeah, I don't know.

It was interesting to hear that point of view, though. He looks like an old screamo guy. Like, I just don't, I don't know. I just don't, I just don't, they've never, you know what it is? It's also like they've never followed through with, like, the logical progression of like what you do with that gimmick,

of like he's got to be an actual crazy person fucking maniac he's got to be he's got to be Terry Funk or something you know he's got to like maim someone I think that we gotta get out of here but I think that the

wrestler you were looking to compare him to is probably maniac Matt Bourne who who nicely puts a bow on this on the podcast yeah no I think Terry Funk would be

would be the right it would be a perfect I mean everybody should emulate Terry Funk sure I saw there was I saw the Funk Brothers had a star on the Walk of Fame. I'm pretty sure. They do?

It's not, there are other Funk brothers in the world. Oh. There's no way that like, even if Terry Funk from me. You don't think it's Dorian? I know. Even if Terry Funk got,

we somehow got it because he was a stunt man or whatever, there's no way than anybody else. Or just for Roadhouse. Yeah, they're, I think they're Motown stars. Yeah, Detroit Bay session musicians. That would make more sense.

That would make more sense. I just like, I took a photo, though. I just like to think. that Terry and Dory have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside Donald Trump and Vince McMahon. He's got all mangled. Yeah, yeah. They got to have like, yeah, just got to have like security out there all the time.

Anyway, we got to get out of here. Are you excited about Roadblock? Are you going to watch Roblock? He's going to have it on the bathroom while you're doing other stuff? Like, look, they've got me at this point. You know what? Like I said the other day, like, I was like, you know what? If this show didn't pick up and get better soon,

I'm only going to watch another 15 or 20 years before I, I'm always watched it. I'm going to watch it. Yeah. Like they don't even have to worry about me. I'm going to watch it. I guess I'm excited. You should play hard to get. Maybe they'll fly you out there to WrestleMania again and give you the red carpet. If it was in Tampa, I'd go. I feel like Tampa is the promised land. That's like wrestler heaven, you know?

It is wrestler heaven. If it was in Tampa, I'd go. Do you have anything you need to plug before we get out of here? No, not really. I have a show coming out in like April, but I feel like that's so far away. What's it called? I'm dying up here beyond showtime. So if anybody's listening to this in April of 2017.

People do that sometimes. Really? Yeah. All right. Well, there you go. That's what podcasts are great for. You can just listen to them. I mean, I don't know why people listen to a wrestling podcast.

It's about this week in wrestling, but people do, and I love them for it. Anyway, thanks for coming on, man. This is a lot of fun. Thank everybody for listening. Thanks for your insight into traditional championship wrestling. Let's figure this out, man. We do. Let's look in at this.

Everybody listening to this. Never forget. Doinck the clown, and more importantly, never forget Maniac Matt Born, humanoid. Hi, I'm Ben Lindberg from The Ringer MLB Show, and on this week's episode, Michael Bowman and I talk to Cleveland Indians coach Sandy Almar Jr. About his team's 2016 pennant, his two heartbreaking world series losses. The crazy clubhouses he played in in the 90s and manager Terry Francona's extremely disgusting gum chewing, among many other topics. You can subscribe to The Ringer MLB show on iTunes by going to iTunes.com slash the Ringer or find us wherever you get podcasts.