WhatCulture Wrestling

WWE SmackDown Preview - Roman Reigns Is BACK! The Road To Bash In Berlin! Kevin Owens Is The #1 Contender! Who Will Ruin Queen Nia's Championship Celebration?!

Adam and Michael preview tonight's Friday Night SmackDown and discuss...

Roman Reigns is BACK!

The road to Bash In Berlin!

Kevin Owens is the #1 contender!

Naomi vs. Blair Davenport!

Who will ruin Queen Nia's Championship Celebration?!

ENJOY!

@AdamWilbourn

@MSidgwick

@WhatCultureWWE

For more awesome content, check out: whatculture.com/wwe

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Duration:: 58m
Broadcast on:: 16 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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For J.D. Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards, only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com. See store for details. Hello, and welcome to the SmackDown preview. I'm Adam Wilborn from What Call to Join. My long-dollar is Michael Cedric from What Call to Talk Ed. Tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown. But before we get into it, if you're a fan of this sort of thing, make sure you subscribe to What Call to Wrestling on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube. We do daily wrestling podcasts where we're not going to review SmackDown, but also Manahan Rao, the show for being known as NXT. But we're going to be down to our AWS collision pay-per-views premium live events. We have interviews around table discussions and around the week complete, as I'm going to go quiz, of course, on WrestleCulture. As I said, though, joined by Michael Cedric, so look ahead to Friday Night SmackDown. Bit of a tradition, though. Yeah, and I gathered. I gathered. Because, of course. I didn't think it was for my benefit. Of course, what SmackDown is cinema. That's a television show. And so much more. We've obviously been out of the loop with wacky cinema being, as it is. I haven't really had a chance to talk to you much about what happened at some time, but let's talk about the big thing. Yes, yeah, I'm punking Drew McIntyre. Stunk disagree. But we're not here to talk about that. Good. We are here to talk about Roman Reigns, the tribal chief returned at SummerSlammy. Correct. Kick the race is the original tribal chief. The OTC. I am the OTGA, which we've been made aware of this, have you? Original Wontal Jagov, one true journalist. Brian, behind the brilliant SmackDown Photoshop, knocked that all for me in like two minutes. It was amazing. Getting out on the T-shirts. But, yeah, your thoughts on Roman Reigns being back and the whole bloodline saga. Well, they did it. It took them 10. Yes. It took them 10. Yes. A decade. But they did it. Do you know what? Let's talk about 10 years. Okay. I'm gonna fill some time. There's not that much announced for the show. And I will talk earnestly about Roman Reigns. Let's do it a bit here. Hey, this might not be as obvious all about his tangent. So, let's go. 10 years, right? Okay. 10 years. In 10 years between, let's go with just for one. 1992 and 2002. So, 10. Yeah, it got correct. Correct. In 1992, yes, he was on the way out. But Hulk Hogan was still full-time WWF headlining WrestleMania 8 against Sid Justice. 10 years after that, he'd been to WCW. During which time, WWE said, "Nice, too old. The Hulkster." And then, oh, he's not old, actually, dickheads. He's a mortal idiot. And then he comes back and does his nostalgia run. Yeah. When's the world title? When's the world title? And it's like, it's nostalgia and it's very fleeting in its brief. So, 10 years is the distance between Hulk and the tail end of his drawing prime and his nostalgia run. That's 10 years. 10 years. I'm not being rude. I'm gonna see if I can find what I was doing in 2014. Okay, and I'll tell you what I was doing in 2014 as well. 10 years is the distance between 1992 and 2002. Let's do that again. During that time frame, Eastern Champ, NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling exists. But extreme championship wrestling does not exist in 1992. By 2002, extreme championship wrestling has been closed down for a year. That's 10 years. Think of how much change has unfolded in the ECW era and how much influence and how much it changed everything. 10 years is the distance between my ages of 8 and 18, 10 years and the finally get a bit megastar baby face out of Roman Reigns. It's preposterous. When you consider especially how long it took them to try. Yes, he was a heel, a mega drawing heel and whatever you make of the run, whether you think it's too many monologues and too many ref bumps or what, they almost categorically positioned Roman Reigns. The mega heel is sort of in the conversation with the WWE Mount Rushmore. Yeah, like he's probably not Austin Rock Hogan, but definitely the Cena level. He's in and around everything. What are you doing in 2014? I feel bad that I should look that up because I looked at it and then something went, oh yeah, I probably should have just had that off the top of my head. 10 years ago, pretty much to the day is when me and Annie Louise started going out. So in that time, we have dated, moved to a new city for my job, got engaged, got married and tomorrow at time of recording because recording this on Thursday is my son's first birthday. That's how much my life has changed, bought a house as well, all that sort of stuff. I was 10 years ago, I was just a man about town, a, I don't know, tell me. Eligible bachelor on the streets of Birmingham and now, sorry ladies. 2014, I had no children. What job are you doing in 2014? 2014, I was in what's called the wreck game. Okay, wrecks, reconciliations. So basically what it is, is you can't share like, maybe you can't now add, I don't think so. Because I worked, did administration and investment management firm and you cannot have the same data held by the companies that distribute shares and funds and all the rest of it. So you don't know what's on there, register, you only know what's on your internal database, some of which is just like, I think it's what's on there. Okay. So if you're getting like things transferred, paid in or what, it's like, it's not guesswork because you get the statements and then you think it up. But there's mistakes happen. So at times, at the end of the month, what you think you have shares wise, stock wise, in a certain company, compared to what you actually have versus what you're pretty sure you have, there's differences. So it was my job to resolve resolution, it was called. Right, what who's basically my job is who's ****ed up where? And how? And how do we fix it? It was, which, which I think I did well to grasp, I was so bad in my first two years, like I didn't get as like learning a new language, like I was never really, it's not maths necessarily, it's more problem solving than maths but it's to do with like shares and stuff. It's not what I was ever good at. I just kind of, you know, someone got me a job there and I just did it and I was quite lazy and, you know, but it was weird because like, I started off doing the actual inputs and making all the mistakes that the team that I eventually joined at the fix. He's made all these nice man. Yeah, it's me. I, so I did a bit of that. And that's what I was doing in 2014, a job that I was not really suited to do. I think it did well, it'd be okay to eventually, but it was weird because like you get like a tiny amount of power going ahead. It's like, I've identified this fix it. It's like that kind of atmosphere. There's some lovely people who work there but that kind of atmosphere and those, you got a really horrible like glimpse into people and the psyches and the way people take because like, when you see, you go up the levels of, oh, I've got not power. Like, I wasn't managing people, but like, you do have the kind of messed up here. Can you fix it, please? And you go up and up and up and up and he just get a glimpse into what people are like when they can tell other people what to do. And it's like, Oh, God, there's no one the way I am really, but 2014. So I was doing that. I was not a father. And I'm now, in 2014, I wasn't a father. Now, I am the father of a boy who was closer to being an adult than a baby. Well, he's halfway between being, and he's at that halfway point because he's like nine. That's mad in it. He's always jacked as well. Yeah, we should mention that. Such a thing as a jacked baby. Eric is, yeah, he's looking soft. He's got that like Rick Roody 1989 thing going on. He's got that potential. He has got a surprise. From her side, obviously. Yeah, surprisingly, surprisingly strong grip if you're like, time to take a spoon or something off. That's going nowhere. Yeah, doesn't mess about that boy. Get me a little, my first gym set. Yeah. Just looking back there. It's also funny because I've got this thing of like, I used to was in commercial radio, obviously back then. And it is funny to be like, 10 years what a time I was. And I look through. Single radio, Wilborn. I look like trainers. I look at some of these and I'm like, yeah, I don't like these. Because they were like pop stars at the time. And the amount of pictures I could show you here. And you'd be like, I don't know who that is. Like, turn stop and I'll pick one of these pictures. Stop. Even I don't know who that is. I can't remember. Not a clue. Right. There's a few like, bigger celebrities. But a lot of these are like, Hey, remember this boy band from 2014? No, I think they were called Rickston. I'm not mistaken. And there's just the amount of like, X factor. Well, didn't win. But you did well. And then I'll have a chat after this. Okay. Your eyes lit up there. Yeah, it's something, yeah. Oh, I won't talk. I really prefer not to speak. It was big, I'm in big trouble. It's done that again, you know. As a already, I think they got, is it Fennabachi? It's a Jose Marineo. It's management Fennabachi. And I think they got knocked out with the Champions League qualifiers. It was like, I can't speak about it. Maybe you didn't get screwed. Maybe you just finished. Yeah, maybe. Maybe you kind of fallen off there. We'll trip down memory that in there. Yeah, you might be able to get this one. He's a X factor. Oh, it's correct. Well, see, like, he's lovely. He's very well media trained, basically. That's a cool one with someone call them a fake bitch. No, well, I don't know. Then two Adams, one more excited to see the other one there. Who's that? That's Calvin Harris. He looks like you can't be asked with you at all. Basically every boxer and three, two, one. Smile. You can't even be asked. Okay. Oh, and that's probably the most famous. Not Miley Cyrus. That's Miley Cyrus, yeah. That was what warms up in 2014. There you go. Definitely not terrifying. Her manager just was, normally, they just sort of leave you in a little room and they'll be listening in or whatever, but they won't interfere too much. I had, like, a list of rules I got sent beforehand of, like, do not ask about this. All right. Okay. It's a West Midlands radio station. We ain't going to be like, "Hey, what do you think about this crucial issue in the world?" Despite that, her manager was like, "I'll be standing in the room whilst you interview her." So I ended up talking about donkeys at the seaside with her. God, of course you did. So if Brian wants to knock up me, Sige and Miley Cyrus riding the donkeys. Hey, don't let us tell you, Brian. You'd be led. So yes, Roman Reigns, babyface. Left by donkey. Indeed. Roman Reigns, huge babyface reaction. Obviously to him at SummerSlam, involving himself in the match with Zulu, Zulu and Cody Rhodes, of course. And then subsequently on last week's SmackDown, just kicking AS. It looks like we're heading to Bloodline versus Bloodline 2.0. It's a wide series. One would assume. Yes, absolutely. Interesting this. That match will be funny. I'll tell you what, I'm going to do the facetious thing and I'm going to do the earnest thing. I've just done the tangent facetious page. The order we're going to do things, right? So I've done the tangent. Here's the facetious. Like these will not be allowed to blink without certain stands interpreting it as some kind of facial expression or body language, right? It's going to, if this all comes to pass and it's, you know, the new Bloodline versus some kind of super team comprised of like Roman Reigns, the Usals, Sami and Kevin, you know, maybe like five of the gets. I mean, Cody, Cody could be in it. I mean, the defer to Lavec, Paul Heyman, was it Paul Heyman? They've like there's so much continuity and history and interpersonal relationships that you need to keep tending to like all those little interactions between Jey Uso and Sami Zayn, like Tony Khan could do with doing some more of that in my opinion. And if that all comes to pass four on four or five on five, depending on whether they get Heykaleo in or whatever, they will not be allowed to blink or look waywardly. It's something or other without some stands interpreting their every move and every expression. We are going out, if nothing else, if it's not for you, this, you know, the Smackdown stuff, this cinema stuff, there's bloodline stuff, you'll get some Chardon Freud, you'll get some great posts out of this, like he's looking at the what's it called again? Ula Fala. Ula Fala. That means he wants to be the tribal chief and you know that the Ula Fala corrupts you and all the rest of it. That's not being funny. I'm trying to be obviously, yeah. Tonga Tango Loa, Tonga Loa now. Tonga Loa. Sometimes he might just like switch off and just stare at the distance. And it's like, what's going through his mind? You know, you know, solo sicore was saying something and that seemed to stop Tonga Loa and his tracks and maybe he's getting introspective or thinking and I just daydreaming because he's a bit hopeless. Oh, the bit where it was like Tama handed him the Ula Fala that had fallen in the ring. Does he want to get his hands on it? No, probably didn't want to faff around with solo reaching into the ring to get it. Yeah, pass it to him. Can you imagine Tonga Loa being like the tribal chief? He's the next chief actually, so put some acknowledgement. If you, you know my love for the bloodline story, that would be the moment where I even I go. I think that's it. Yeah, yeah, I think we're out. It's like putting friggin Vincent at the head of the NW will. Brian Adams. Headlining at the spring to my boy. So he's going to see a lot of that. Right. The earnest pit, we've done the preamble. Yeah, I took them 10 years, but he's enormous already. He's people always, I think. I think everyone was unanimous, which makes it ridiculous that it never happened, or at least it took them a decade for it to happen of like, clearly, the guys got something explosive powerhouse. He's actually a really good working baby face. Yeah, just a to be like a good baby face. You kind of need the fans to be behind you. That was explosive. You could really sell, I think Roman. But everyone just knew why he was getting pushed the extent to which he was going to get pushed whether you weren't ready for it or not all of these things. But everyone always thought like everyone. I'm not saying Vincent was bad at his job, but everyone in the friggin world except him had an idea for how to get Roman Reigns over. Roman Reigns had the idea of how to get over. Roman Reigns takes a sabbatical uses his star power leverage to do what is needed to get over and turn heel. And then guess what happens? Yeah, he gets over to an absolutely incredible transformative level. And like literally everyone except Vincent Mani want to do. Yeah, more so. I'm saying that's a pretty poor genius in my book. More so than winning big titles, more so than winning WrestleMania main events, more so than beating the undertaker at WrestleMania. The answer was staring you in the face. And it wasn't just because sometimes it's a bit lazy. People just going on an afternoon meal. It's like, no, just try. Look at what got him popular in the shield in the first place. I think you know, it's your demeanor. And like, you know, if it's just it's absolute one or one, heels are cooler, they're more fun. They did the bloodline briefly as baby faces years ago, if you remember, when it was just like, everyone likes the Usos. So let's stick them around, right? Yeah. And see if that kind of rubs off on him. It's just the most insane trajectory. Like, I don't have missed a bit as well. Yeah. So here we go. Everyone knows 2014, right? He's cocky. Probably a bit too good looking, if anything, that drives resentment. They're content. That was so weird and genuinely ugly. And they should have got more stick, more crap that they got at the time, like trying to like, yeah, then everyone knows what they were doing them. So 2014. Everyone knows, right? It's a bit cocky. Too handsome, if anything, he doesn't feel like he's earned it. Use those qualities, that essence, turn him heel. He might discover the sort of swagger, weight and edge that people gravitate. I mean, it was obvious. No, just push him down in throats in the baby face rule. Right. I sure Vince, because there are, you know, says 10 million WWE fans, 999,999. I think he should go heel. No, not doing it, right? Okay. Brandon Thurston of Wrestle Nomics does this incredible deep dive, right? Charts, the decline in viewership throughout the years and WWE spots a trend. This is all his work. Brandon Thurston Wrestle Nomics. It's on a slow decline. More than one factor, obviously, you know, the cable TV viewership at Lord. Royal Rumble 2015. It's like, all right, okay, there's a significant drop there a year from people wanting to win it, by the way, from a not insignificant and not insignificant drop, which you can basically attribute to. I mean, it's not the performer, it's the book and the megapush and all the rest of it. And then what happens? This is all pretty indirect and maybe you might say conspiratorial, but I don't think so. It's that WWE becomes increasingly unpopular with Roman on top and these desperate attempts to push him and make him that you eventually kind of create the conditions for AEW. So Vince creates his own competition, loses a bit of market share. It doesn't matter now, obviously, by not listening to everybody else in the world. And then everyone else in the world still has the same opinion, eventually. It's kind of pushed into it by Roman Reigns and then AEW. Yeah, and then WWE. Couldn't have been more of an idiot and that's not obviously the worst thing about Vince McKnight, indeed. Right. All the prophecy has been fulfilled. He is turned heel. He is like significantly more comfortable in the world. My favorite like WWE images or sites of the last hour of many years. Roman in the tracksuit looks like a million dollars. He looks like he's the king. He's got this unbelievably cruel sense of comic time and he's got these incredibly smoked facial expressions. His range of facials is absolutely magnificent in this heel rule because he's allowed to be more of himself. You can have fun with it when Jay's corpse in half the time. Yeah, you can have fun with it. You can be menacing. He's got that look when he's like shutting people down. He's like, Oh, come on, you cannot step to me and all the rest of it. Guess who said he was like this backstage during his babyface years. Every wrestler in all of his peers who wanted him to turn heel as well. Like I remember. So it's 2019. Roman comes back after he's all clear of leukemia. Thank Christ as well. But as much as fans are like a lot more. It's sort of forgiving of the performers as well. It should have been in all the rest of it. It's still not clicking. It's dog food era, blah, blah, blah. By the time we got to him and Drew who's already gone so weird. I was just like, I should be wanting to stay and see him win this. And I was like, I might use this as an opportunity to go and get a drink because there's nothing. It's Drew and Roman looking back now. It's insane. It's insane. So all of that's going on. I'd say, that's a shame. Sorry. I'd be grave your dog's ham flip work. Oh, but that was the one good thing you did in 2019. Yeah, like doppelganger Eric Rowan. Dog food. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, remember that in the Tron? Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. It's the worst crap ever. The worst crap ever called in for about six months, if I like. So bear in mind that this is the context. All of this is going on. All of this is going on, you think? Roman Reigns. He's not cool. He's not cool. And then I can't maybe dig it up. I don't think you'll find it because it'll be buried behind reams and reams of pages on Google's algorithm at this point. Fairly certain like Chris Jericho's doing the media rounds, LaChompion, you know, he's on top of the world. He's like, everyone wants to hear from him. He's getting interviewed. And the same questions, you know, get asked. One of which is, if you could have anyone for AW, who would it be? Chris Jericho goes Roman Reigns. He's the coolest guy in the world. And you would never ever know it in a million years. I'd love to get him here to show us. I'm just double check. If you can't find it, you know, it's fine. I would just like to think that I haven't made this up in my head. Just Google something like Chris Jericho wants Roman Reigns and AW. Chris Jericho eyeing this WWE main event for AW. What year was this posted? This was June of 2020. He was in interview with whatculture.com's Adam Wilborn, it turns out, who asked him who the company might go for in the future. And he said, I'd put Roman Reigns at the top of that wish list for anybody. Not only is a great worker, but he's such a cool guy. If they let him be the biggest star in the industry, for real, that's the guy I'd love to get my hands on for sure. Great question. And a great answer. Great question. Great answer. So what's that? June, 2020. He's not in the ecstasy, Roman, because he's gone home and he's gone home and he's nowhere near, well, he's two, three months away from becoming the actual Roman Reigns. Saving so much left. I don't think it was just Chris Jericho. I think like Fox has said it before. He is the coolest guy. He's really witty. He comes off in the locker room as basically the tribal freaking chief, but there was no tribal chief yet, so no one was to know. Everyone knew, like everyone knew. And just the way he's carried himself, it's like he's really funny as well, Roman. Like, I was like, what the hell are you doing? God step to me. That Roman has always existed. He coaxed out of him. And if anything, right, I know he's always had his fans. That's probably true. The babyface days, like if he's not selling any merchandise, the might we think he's kind of always had fans probably drowned out. Like, if anything, he's so nailed the role so well. And I think he's better. The first year of the tribal chief was very serious and monologue-y. He's still had that menace, but when he got the swagger about a year or two in, I'm honestly shocked that the clamor for babyface Roman Reigns didn't begin earlier than he did. I think he's a testament to the... It's so crap how you can't say storytelling without like instantly trying to get like defensive and not like that. It's the fundamental thing of the freaking prisoner. I think he's a testament of the storytelling that fans were like, we're really like him. But we also love Cody and we love Sammy and we love Drew for a bit. So we'll just go along with the script as it's playing out for once this freaking century. So I was always poised to do this just in any of the alternate universe, which Vince goes away earlier, in terms of what he does. He doesn't really have to tweak his personality now. He's already kind of like big banter Roman. It has to be less of a gaslighting prick. Do they have to square that off? I don't think so. That's an interesting question. A bit like Jay has to make amends. I think because Hamlet's obviously him and I've talked in great detail about how you get to, like you say, the original bloodline reuniting, but all his baby faces. And like, think of the work that Jay Uso had to do when he went to Raw where people were like, why should I be nice to you? Just because you got kicked out of the bloodline, doesn't negate the fact that you tried to kill me and your brother and what have you. So I like the fact that he has to do that even with just the Uso's. Like, no, why should I forgive you? So it's going to be a really interesting road to where we're heading. Interesting wrinkle, because what you make, you make a grey point, it makes perfect sense. I did it with Jay. One thing about Roman is that increasingly we sort of WrestleMania 39, he's got Sway and he's got a lot of political pull. He kind of likes to be on top. Is he going to, I mean, this is the story, they should be careful with it. He can't just have him as like the sort of apologetic nice guy. Obviously, because that's not what the appeal of the character is, the wrestler is, but he's sat under the rock, you know, in terms of learning trees. How, if he's got the rock as his primary influence in wrestling, which it probably does, how quick is he to like, show us and show that vulnerability and be like, you know, like, owning up to his past mistakes. Just interesting politically, how far he'll allow himself to be taken on that kind of Jay Uso esque path for forgiveness. That's an interesting political wrinkle as is that it's sort of that Austin Rock Cody Roman thing now, who's on top, who gets the biggest cheers, who runs with it, because the differences is like, I'm not religious, but God willing. The thing with rock and Austin is that it all came, but we're heading 2001 and formed the bill for mania. You know, they made the decision to turn Austin heel and it didn't work out at all business plummeted, but they kind of missed each other because by the time Austin went down with an injury in late 1999, like rock was just undeniable. Like, he turned chicken chicken salad. So in that 1999, he'd worked with Billy Gunn, the British bulldog, and he was still completely over as hell. And then by the time, he's just like, the gave him literal, they gave him literal dog crap, like, like, in the case of British bulldog, they gave him Billy Gunn, and he was still just his incandescent baby face. And then couldn't like for him, like, Austin going down the neck injury. It's like, well, I can go on there. Now, as I'm Austin comes back, it's, so there was no real answer to that question of if they were both healthy throughout all of 2000, what happens then? Yeah, it's an it's pretty intriguing. What if scenario? And now we've got a very similar one. If they can both stay healthy, politically, what happens? Do they now look at Cody as right? We finished the story, that built up a load of equity and goodwill with the audience, because now we can prove ourselves capable of both telling and finishing stories and making them happy as long as they stay the course. Do they now think, I mean, it's a massive draw, though, a massive draw, but like, the Roman things, they can't coexist in the same spot at the same time. Oh, so it's the end of the day. I was like, what does Roman do at WrestleMania? Yeah. Because you asked me right now, I think two WrestleMania main events are, well, Gunther in one, maybe against CM Punk, but Gunther, he's going to be the world champion there. And obviously, Rock versus Cody Rhodes. And then arguably, you could say, and then the WrestleMania after that, you can do the Rock versus Roman. That's a hell of a run of WrestleMania, you've got obviously. But then, okay, you're doing that. What are you doing with Roman at WrestleMania? I know. Is he, he's not going to be fighting for the, you know, nothing against the IC or the US title, but he's, that's not him anymore. Of course, it's nothing. You'll never touch that again. If he touches those titles again, something's gone badly wrong. Is it, is it so low? Is it now arguably Jacob Fatou? It's just funny because I think that's big enough for Roman's ego. I really don't, I noticed the family and stuff. I don't think it's big enough for his ego. I just fascinating because like, with, with what's happening now is we were there, and it was amazing that Rock Cody interaction. And obviously they, from WrestleMania night one, they've built the idea of doing Rock versus Cody. And at the time, it was very much, well, Rock Cody is much bigger than Cody Roman. That was the conversation that was bubbling up ahead of WrestleMania weekend this year. And then on the row after WrestleMania, Cody literally could not be hot. He's literally just finished the story. He survived a political hatchet job from the rock. He couldn't be any bigger and the rock's gone. Well, working with him, they set up, you know, I'll beat you and I'll see you when I'm back. The base that you told you on the row after WrestleMania, it's a main event for WrestleMania 41. In the meantime, much of this is overstated in the bubble that is social media, and it is a bubble. It is that, you know, Cody, this is Kevin Owens thing, really, has his reign been that great. Yes, it has. It's the match quality's been there. The business is there. But if this trend continues and Roman gets so hot as a baby face, does a rock go, huh? Maybe I've got a little bit early in terms of my next plan. I'm just fascinated as much politically. Well, let's face it. I'm way more fascinated about the political ramifications of all of this going on than the television, but Roman's good television as well. Roman and Seth, you also set up at WrestleMania, Roman and CM Punk. I mean, you've got lots of options here. You've got lots of options. But when I was getting out as well, before I trailed off and went on a tangent, now that they've done the story, now that they've finished the story, and he's won the actual main WWE title with Roman back in that baby face, a lot to the same. I've done it now. You can't say we didn't do it with Cody. You go to that A minus slot under the A slot and cover that world heavyweight title. What does that do for Cody's ego? Because he's like, I'm kind of did all of this. Really, I know Cody. It's just fascinating, politically. I think the solo and hopefully he's not too injured, Jacob Fatu stuff. I would say either of those for WrestleMania. I'm infinitely interested in one more match than the other. It's Jacob Fatu. But I can't say either of them at Mania. I really can't. I don't think it's big enough for Roman's ego. And maybe that's correct. Triple threat? Don't know. It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax and think about work. You really, really wanted all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that piece of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow wherever you are. Tap the banner to go to monday.com. This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. 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Individual results may vary. What do you think they do? Because Romans back now, he's obviously been on last week's show. He's going to be on tonight's show as well, and he's putting heads already, like I say, with Solos Ocoa and he's destroyed on the lower with the chair last week. Do you do match with him in Berlin? Sorry, say our trailer. Do you do Roman using start talking about the Smackdown, on the Smackdown preview, last week's Smackdown, I said what? Do you do Roman Reigns work in Berlin? Or is that too soon? Do you want to wait for? It's not a case of do I think it's going to happen? Like Roman Reigns, didn't he stop doing a Saudi one even this earlier this year? Maybe. It wasn't those ones where it was like, what's the point of what we doing here? Because it doesn't really do these little shows. How big is the Uber arena? I don't think he does it. I do not think he does it. I think they've got the two title matches. I think like 17k. It's yeah, I think the two my title matches that they've already promoted. It's not in the Levesque playbook or the political interests of Roman Reigns to put them on a bash in the bash in Berlin. Just I'd be kind of like stunned if Roman wrestles at this show. I doubt you will. He just doesn't do him. Doesn't do him. And I've mentioned this before. I think there's five match B level PLE model. Some people laugh at it. Some people who try and I mean I do it accurately. Some people bury WWE for kind of like the wrong things and that annoys me. It's weird he can bury it still. Just don't you know be bad faith or lazy about it. You could still get him. I think it's a good idea. You don't want to over saturate. You don't want to like kill off interest. You want to give people too much. And Levesque certainly doesn't give them too much on these MB levels. So yeah, I don't think Roman does it then. You've got three matches confirmed so far. Yeah, he's not wrestling a bash. Obviously I mean you could. I've been holding my hands up a decent amount on these parts recently but I can't say. I would assume I'm doing the tournament right now with the tag titles and with LA Knights a US championship. I think maybe at least one of those will go on it. If not the usual gimmick of the SmackDown before. But yeah, Gunther Annual and Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens and the Terror Twins versus Street Dreesh is well whatever. Terror Twins. That's what it says here. I think that's more of a like a fan sort of updated make it accurate. But yeah, you've got a fair bit of time. It's August 15th, 16th right now. Bastion Berlin August 31st. Oh, there's a need chance he's doing it. None. The next day, the day after, I don't think in what we're going to do after Bastion Berlin. Well, that would be NXT. Oh, no. Merci. What a weekend. That is going to be in the world born household. Bastion Berlin. No, Merci. Oh my God. They just realized how far our head or behind us. It's like an hour max, isn't it to us? Yeah, Germany. What is it? Check it. Hey, Siri. What time is it in Germany right now? We're an hour ahead. She's keeping quiet. An hour ahead. What time do these shows typically start? Seven or eight? Yeah, probably at nine p.m. start maybe for us. No. All the way around. Yeah. Eight p.m. start. Could be. Could be a dream that because that's one of them is a bed by then. If I do the younger bedtime, James will actually dull just make and watch it. What's this? No, go to bed actually, pal. Anything's better than you get leverage because usually you just give in. What do you want to watch? I'd rather watch this. All right. Okay. Well, I've got a recent argument of I've been at work all day. Trade offer. I've been at work all day. All right. Here's a tantrum for the ages. All right. Okay. You win. You get let you'll tell fatherhood advice. Yeah. What you'll find is like during the day. They win. You lose when there are certain age, right? They win. You lose their activities. You can drag them to things. You can make you can try and make them watch something, but they'll just ask questions, say they're bored, ask for their own thing and you just give up, right? When there are certain age, they get such we call them cheapies in Newcastle, cheap thrills, like a bit of like, you know, like excitement about staying up late that I watch the food network with my oldest. Yeah. Well, it's amazing. Like most nights, like all like, you know, I need to catch with this rastly much, but you wouldn't usually during the day like food network or like Francis Watchers like race around the world. Like she likes, but there's childish friendly. I have a weird flashback there to, yeah, being like allowed to stay up and watch the news and thinking like this is big time. Yeah. It's like something like it's just your parents. I think it's nine o'clock as well by then because they know that, right? Well, staying up to do like in their heads. I don't know what's wrong with them. Like sleep's amazing. Yeah, it's going. But like in their heads, like doing anything past bedtimes automatically go with, you know, like we talk about the rules and, you know, rules are rules. Yeah, but rules are rules where, you know, anything backstage at wrestling shows usually go with those little banter in the past. That's a rule. Another one that you born earlier. Be born earlier else. You don't get it. A kid's rule is staying up and doing literally anything as good as long as you get to stay up. So this is an incredibly long winded way of saying, I think I'm going to watch Basher at the Berth. Basher at the Berlin. It's a red heart. Basher at the Berlin. I like probably going to watch that live. Yeah. I hope so. Can't wait for that. Oh, it speaks out of Sunday, isn't it? That must be sad if normally I'll seize the day after. Of course. I think what I'm thinking. I'll never forget when no bass is on. This is a ball arena. I've got two arenas to do as well. Yeah, that's a Uber arena. So what's that? Booper arena. Yeah, a Tet. And then what was he all I said? That's a ball arena. Sorry. I just got distracted. I've already done cock-and-pauled torture arena. I've also realized that survives. Is it the Rogers arena? So don't hump. You're all on YouTube. I haven't entirely forgot that. We were on YouTube then. Don't hump. Don't hump. No, you're thinking, where's the wound? Make you feel any kind of way? That gives me the crease. Yeah. Any kind of way? It's at the giant center. So I mean, we are going to be eating well in the weeks leading up to that. You can put giant cat, giant tits. Giant tits. The giant tits arena, right? But would you go there? I'll probably have to. The work work. But that's in Berlin. I'm going to get around to this. Kevin Owens is now the number one contender. Cody Rhodes basically said, "Solo, you don't deserve a rematch." Kevin Owens does. Kevin Owens was like, "Nah, I shouldn't have a rematch." And then Logan Paul was like, "Was it Logan Paul?" Someone last week said, "I should probably have a title shot, if anything, it wasn't Logan Paul." Maybe Austin Theory or something like that. And Dave, well, before you give anyone else a title shot, I'll be having that. Thank you very much. It's... I've got an interesting question, because like I say, it's only a few weeks away. And there's this obviously friendship that is developed through Cody and Kevin Owens. I've got takes on this, so I'll ask away. But you're also... I'm also got one eye on the fact that presumably you're getting Randy Orton as Cody Rhodes down the road, which will be a best friend betraying, it's all coming. So do you do the same thing here? What story do you tell with Owens and Rhodes? So I've got takes on all this. And also do you think Kevin Owens beats Grace and Wall or on tonight's episode? Yes, yes, I do. So that's that part of the preview covered off good. Right. Check. Check. Come miss you, Kenny. When you come back, don't really have... don't team with a pushy against the Young Bucks again. Big, big, much play. You don't even need the Young Bucks around for a while, maybe. I love the Young Bucks, but you know, maybe it's some separation with you, you bought the Will of Good. Yeah, this thing with Kevin Owens and Cody. I saw some controversy about it. And guess what? I don't just bury WWE for the sake of it. I'm going to be nice here. It's... it's contrived in that I think what's... this exists for Cody to be the nicest guy in the world, Kevin Owens. Have you a title shot? Easy. I think more sense will be made of this when the Cody Randy stuff happens. So that if he's a little bit more reluctant to hand out the title shot or doesn't automatically give him it or whatever, Randy will go, you know, if Kevin might not be on. Even some kind... it's designed to contrast. I think this Cody Kevin Owens stuff is designed to contrast in some way with however the Cody Randy stuff plays out. It's meant... yeah, you're meant to think of one thing and Randy, I think will... this exists for the other thing. There's a long-winded way of saying it. So I don't hate it in that regard because it's forward thinking and all the rest of it. Now, the problem that I think... I don't want to be a Dave bashing podcast, but I disagree with them. It's not going to outright say it. He said that he thinks it's so bizarre and so weird that the baby phase, that you should always fight... you should always want a championship, no matter which way you get it, whether you earn it or whether it's... you ask to do it and say, yeah, go ahead. You found it weird that Kevin Owens, the character, wouldn't just want the title shot immediately. I disagree with that. I think it's a decent... it's a bit different, but I think from a baby phase point of view, especially Kevin Owens, who's like the one guy in WWE who like knows how it works and kind of hates it. And he's like... he's a very logic-driven guy, Kevin Owens, and he's baffled by a lot of things that go on. He's the one character who's like, yeah, this is weird. And you buy him being humble. And being like, you know what, my win-loss record doesn't support this. So it's a bit odd, but I think it's fine as a characteristic. Now, I don't know what Dave said at the time, but I recall the shudder, especially with it being Darby. But in AEW last year, Double or Nothing, they did that four-pillars tournament that it was like, buys and we had finishes to get to the pillars match at Double or Nothing. And it was like, our Darby gets a buy, and it was between Jack Perry and Sami Guevara. And it was like, our Darby gets a buy, and he went, whoo-hoo, that's our Darby Allen. It's absolutely not Darby Allen at all, nor is it a baby face. So I always thought, like, celebrating a buy is weird. So applying that logic to this Kevin owned stuff, I think it's absolutely fine. Like, you wouldn't want a baby face going, yeah, it sounds great. See you there. You know what I mean? We're not even having to work for it. Yeah, fantastic. It's a bit unwieldy and a bit contrived, because I think it exists for another thing, but I think it's fine. Yeah. I'm intrigued to see how it plays out as well in the coming weeks, in the build-up to bash in Berlin. How many times, sorry, I'm going to... Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, my queen. How many times, right, do we... Ah, I, in particular, like, talk about, all right, this Fu-Ed, this program is just starting in anything, right? Okay, well, probably going to lose the first. It's just an example. You'll lose the first match, and you'll win the first match by maybe stealing one, and then I'm using "Little Nightingale" and "Statelyn". It was an example here. It's like, I can kind of see how it was all going to go on end. So, will win the first one by, like, skin of a teeth. Didn't steal one, but it started definitive. I've just kicked your ass. So, you leave scope for the rematch, and then you know, right, well, "Statelyn" is winning the next one by cheating, and then it'll have a third. It's not just that storyline, it's many where it's like, yeah, that's where it's going to go. We'll probably take this step and all this step to get there. I don't know what happens here at all. Cool, Ian's Kevin. So, I can't complain about this. Why would I? I think it's quite interesting. Also on tonight's show, we have Naomi versus Blair Davenport. I reckon, right, if there's, you know, where are we at? Oh, for the arena. It's a great question, and I will look that up whilst talking about the fact that Naomi has just recently sided, of course, with the former tag team champions, Bianca Belair and Jade Kargill. So, against the team now of Blair Davenport and the unholy union, a team that I have dubbed, Blair Witch Project. It's really catchy, though. Those words just seem to belong together. Indeed. Right. So, you'll find out the name of the arena. I'm wondering about the, you know, the conditions of the show going on at the Burton Cummings, the winner peg. I went to pick for a wrestling rumble in the birt. Thank you to Rastik's for that information. So, I worry about the maintenance of this building. I worry about the sanitary conditions of this building, whichever building it is, and whatever the name of the bill is. It's the, yes, August 16th, the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida, 12,000 tickets distributed already. Kia's here. I actually might have. So, the what? Kia. Boyer stuff. Yeah, exactly. Or Kia, fancier, quicky, my dear. I don't know. It's very hard this one. It's very, very, I don't know. It would last ages of anything. So, I don't even know what a quickie is. So, I'm worried about the conditions, you know, the majority of arenas that I've been new in the state have been quite like really well maintained. Like, obviously, MSG is not going to be a crap hole. Barclays Center, really nice. The MGM grain. I mean, I mean, that's the writs and dazzle of vegas. That's not going to be disgusting. I'm sure there's not all in the best of Nick, you know, like, I was worried about the conditions and how sanitary it is. And maybe, you know, if there's like, so dirty and run down. An infestation. An infestation of like rodents. And, you know, if there is some rodent activity in the Kia Center, and there's some rodents there, and here, you know, one of them just, we need to go to the toilet. I think when Neil and me were asked to play a Davenport, you're going to be able to hear a rat piss on cat, okay? Because, oh my God, they've done next step, absolutely, Bobkiss to get played Davenport over. Yeah. And Neil, he's not set the ring on fire. No, I think this match is going to be pretty mediocre. I don't get a deathly sign. I'm going to get a result either. 100% there. Oh, yeah. I need to fear it. Almer fire. I'm a dawn. You're a rat piss. I'm going. I look forward. This new bit that I've just done to make it a convoluted, as way imaginable. You're in support of this. I like it. Is convoluted a route to that bit as possible? I'll go work at it. One final question to ask you, Sage. I wonder if there's one that's close to them. I'm writing this down here. I'm going to waste it. I'm going to do it once. One where there will be deafening amounts of noise is the final thing we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about the queen, the queen Nia herself, who I'm running bloody late on this. A brilliant, yes. A brilliant title win over. Bailey at SummerSlam with help from the Princess who is hosting queen Nia's championship celebration. I've got a feeling, Sage. She's going to get a pink crown. Maybe. But I've got a feeling someone's going to try and ruin this. I don't think this is going to be the moment that Tiffany catches in. Maybe it's, do you think they just do? Bailey crashes this and says, I'm having my rematch at Berlin because it's, again, the Europe love for Bailey could be exemplified on. I would exploit that. She crashes it and Tiffany's pissed off because she's ruined it, but also there's the implication of like, Tiffany's also eyeing up Nia now, now she's the champion because we all know where this is going. It's just cool with that. We've talked quite often. Quite long enough. My contribution to this question that you just asked is pink crown. God, I can't. A pink. It's a title celebration. It's, yeah, it's queen Nia's championship celebration hosted by Tiffany Strada. So it's still a queen, but it's more important that she's a champion now. That's more important, Kyle. Yeah. Pink strap to belt. Oh, that's some good stuff. And then, like, I'm not being facetious here because Nia, who's got a good eye roll on her. Remember this? Yeah. What's you kept doing that? I love the fact she's given Tiffany this pink briefcase with the, like, strap as well. I mean, it's glass. Sort of pink because it's like night and go. I mean, I guess and Tiffany can go. I love it already. But then it's like, dumb bitch. The reason why it's pink is because it kind of belongs to me and we're foreshadowing it. Yeah. And then Bailey's terrible theme will hit to interrupt. I'll never know what it sounds like and I heard it. Yeah. We were there twice because she won. Yeah. Well, let us know your thoughts. I will skip the entrances when I catch up on SmackDown. And on all WWE programming. Let us know your thoughts ahead of SmackDown in there either in the comments section below or on X at What Culture WWE Watch. So you can follow both of us, follow Michael Sidwick at them. Situate. Follow me at Adam Wuhlman. Follow us all at What Culture WWE and make sure you subscribe to What Culture I think we're going to get your podcasts from for daily wrestling podcasts. But for now, it's been the SmackDown preview. My thanks to Michael Sidwick. Thank you for joining us and we will see you soon. Hi, this is Farneesh Tarabi, host of the Webby Winning podcast So Money. If you're aiming for a goal, be it saving for a house, growing your family or retiring, life makes it difficult to stay the course. But with a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. Having the bull at your back helps your whole financial life move with you. So when your plans change, Merrill's with you every step of the way. 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