I'm Always Right Sports Podcast

I'm Always Right Ep. 307

Ep. 307 of the I'm Always Right Sports Podcast! Check out this week's rundown and make sure to subscribe! Also use our code: ALWAYSRIGHT for 15% our affiliate partners! - Pistons Season Preview - Way Too Early NBA Predictions - Robert Saleh is Fired - AEW/WWE Check-in - WrestleMania 4 Review

Duration:: 1h 47m
Broadcast on:: 13 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

I'm your host is always the mouth of Michigan Robin Dica with me is always my co host the Murch so and Mike Merkle. Oh, he is here. It's maybe the last day we have Mike on the show based on his later plans. I'm like going to see the terrify or three. So, you know, he may just, you know, spontaneously combust after watching so I'm a little nervous for him but don't worry your cousin Andrew's got your back. He lives in that kind of appreciate it. Um, lives in that whole thing. Um, it's great time. I'm so excited. Can you tell? I saw a report that that terrify or three may actually beat Joker too for opening. Has it already surpassed it? I think so. Oh boy, that is, uh, that is not, uh, not great. Not great. Not great. I cannot say I've contributed to either fund because I have not seen either one but that was fair. I just I'm about to see both. Yeah, that's true. I mean, you know what's really sad actually. It kind of makes me sad to say out loud. Okay, is that I missed the lion Seahawks game to see the stupid Joker to movie. Yeah, that's true. That was a good game. I know. I thought it would not have been a good game at the lion's loss but since they won. Yeah. I mean, it was a good game. They always play a good game. They really do. I don't know why they're like the match made in heaven for some reason. I think him and the Rams do always have pretty good chemistry. Like if you're talking about like, if you're bucking it. Yeah, if we let's draw this out. Yeah, listen, if you had like, okay, so how do we want to get the lines as you're pulling like the best? Yeah, like games possible. Have them play like Seattle in the first round. The Rams in the second round like Dallas in the conference final to beat the shit out of them. Yeah, and then you play the Chiefs and then you beat the Chiefs. I told someone the other day. Yeah, that I was like, I'm so sick of the Chiefs of the homes. I think like, I know you would die of just the lines made the circle and like one. Yeah, sure. If they beat the Chiefs. Oh my God. Like I would just be like, so Jared Goss your daddy. Yeah, I would. I would. We only Goss ever lost him a home. He hasn't. No, because he beat him in the Rams and that Monday night game, right? Yeah. Yeah, he beat him last year in Kansas City. Yeah, he's like three no against him or something. That's fantastic. Um, yeah, we would put up up here somewhere. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And just have Jared Goss number one. And then that's it. Like, I would be full. I would never say another bad word about him. So at this point, right? Like talking about that. If the lions won a Super Bowl, right? Say they say they won it this year. Yeah. How many statues and what players are getting statues? So Dan Campbell's automatic. Yeah, Dan Campbell automatically. Like he's art like immediately that next year. I think you could lose the next 40 games. It ain't very much. Um, I think it would depend on. Okay. I think the Super MVP gets one. Okay. Okay. So whoever you want to say that would be. Okay. And I think clearly Parker has. So I'm going to, I'm going to say it's golf just because usually the quarterback gets it unless it's like the weird once in a while guy, like a Malcolm Smith, Wednesday or whatever stupid one ever, but fine. Exactly. Like it's just like why why he had one interception. Cool. Okay. Um, and then I think if someone makes like a play that's like the play, like if Hutchinson, like remember the Ohio state game or like he threw the ball like an inch over Hutchinson's arm, but like if you would have caught it, everyone's like that would have been like the play of the century for Michigan. Sure. Like if, if Hutchinson like picked off my homes or shrimp sack, shrimp sacks or something, then that like picture embodiment would be a statue or whatever. So those are the, those are the credit or if like someone has, if Amunra has like a crazy like San Antonio homes, like, oh my God, like toe tap edge of the end zone last second of the game or something, like, or a Malcolm Butler and or something like if there's an iconic play that happens. Yep. That's immediately immortalize immortalize. And that's a statue of like the whatever play it is. Right. So those are the three statues I think would go up. Yeah. Pretty much immediately. Yeah. Like Barry's like, so I had to wait like 30 years and like, no, no, we're gonna do it like now. Yeah. Those are those are my predictions for statues. Yeah, I can dig that. I can, I can be behind that. And it would be, I think the MVP would be somebody like low key, like a David Montgomery who's like, it could be crucial to their team and their success. It's either the quarterback or it's like, I think golf would get one regardless. Yes, because like the, like in the, when the Rams won a couple years ago, it was Cooper Cup because like Cooper Cup was like Stafford played great, but like Cooper cups later, the reason why. Like Montgomery runs for like 200 yards, but golf has like three touchdowns. I think they'd be like Montgomery was like, a little more important in this when way action really worked out for you. Yeah. If like Kirby Joseph or someone had like three picks. Yeah. It'd be like Kirby Joseph. Like, it just depends on how the game would play out, but I lean it to be good golf because they would just give it to the quarterback usually. Sure. Would you think, by the way, real quick, say we didn't talk about this. What do you think of the black jerseys? Fan? No fan? I don't even watch it live. They're fine. Yeah. I think they're better than the gray ones that they used to have. Yeah, I agree. I never liked the gray ones. No, I didn't mind them, but I like, I like the helmet change and everything else. I thought that was pretty sweet. Like if you were like, Oh, great ones are these black ones. Black ones, like 10 out of 10 all the time. Yeah. But like they were in general, I think they were just fine. I just like their uniforms altogether better this year. Yeah. In general, it just, it just looks so much nicer. Anyway, as we get off our soapbox though, as we dream. That's how, let's talk reality. Let's talk reality. We got a lot of stuff to go over today, guys. We're talking pistons as we get ready for their season. I'm going to let Mike after we do that for 10 seconds talk about the NBA because, you know, how much can we really talk about a 20 win team? But we said that about the Tigers too, and now look at it. So we're clearly stupid idiots. Can we be shocked again? What's more improbable? Tigers making this playoff run or the pistons making the first round of the playoffs and getting swept? Oh, that's so sad. That means they won play ins though. That's true. Right? So let's just assume they win. Let's just assume they win. They win a play in game, right? So they knock out the Hornets improbable. Probably this Tigers run. Yeah, I think so too. Just based on where they were at the season. Well, because I'm like the pistons, I think theoretically, if you were like, oh, yeah, they beat the Hawks to make the playoffs. I go, that could happen. They're not great, but that could happen. The Tigers at that point, that's like the pistons being like 15 games under 500 after Christmas and then going on a massive run to make the playoffs, right? That's the equivalent. Yeah, it would be like all-star break. You know, like, you're like 18 and 10 or something after the all-star break or like 22 and eight or something after the all-star break and like make the playoffs. Yeah. Very like so unlikely. Yeah, that it just might as well happen. Book it now. But anyway, we're going to talk pistons. The NBA preview coming in as the season's upcoming. Also going to talk Robert Salah and his spiring and the NFL coaching carousel who might be next on the chopping block. We have some names. We're going to an AEW and WWE check in. And then finally, we're talking WrestleMania 4. It was a show. It did things. And yeah, things happened a long, long time ago. Looking forward to talking all of those shows. Let's just get right into it, Mike Pistons. Get a huge, and I mean, huge preseason victory over the Phoenix Suns. Kate Cunningham, 26 points, right? What, 12 rebounds, 9 assists or something like that? Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It's 10 for 16 from the field looking on fire. What are your expectations, Mike, for this, for this Pistons team? We joke a lot about it where it's like, okay, if they win 20 games, everybody will be over the moon. Is that really the bar? Is it 25? Is it 30? Are we like best case? They're 500? Like, where are you? You know, so, you know, they've added to buy his Harris, right? That was the big ticket free agent signing, right? They got, was it Malik Monk too, right? They signed him? Is that Sam? They signed him? Or is that the Lakers sign him? They signed a big three point shooter, right? Traded for Tim Hardaway for peanuts. You know, re-signed Fontainequio, right? You got Kate on a long-term deal, JD Bickerstaff is your new head coach, because so that's clearly an upgrade over, you know, Monty Williams, who was clearly just like, yeah, sure, let's just throw guys out there. What is the, what is the bar, I guess, that you're looking for in terms of progression, right? We can't just come right out and say playoffs. That seems a bit overzealous for a team that's won, you know, 80 games in six years. So, where are you at with this team in relation to the East, right? Because I do think that's an important distinction, right? Because you look at the team and you just go, okay, maybe, but as compared to who their competition is going to be, where do you think they're at? All right, well, let's see. So I'm pulling up some fan duel numbers to give you the exact representation of where I think they're going to be. Okay, okay. So he's cheating, it's fine. Yeah, I'm cheating a little bit. So there, what do you think fan duel has the Detroit Pistons regular season win over under total at? 21 and a half. They have it at 25. So I actually think 25 is actually a pretty solid number. And it just sounds like such a low number. It does sound like a quite a low number. Because then you think, okay, they won 25 games, which means they also lost like 50. Yeah, and you're like, yeah, they're not, they're their second worst projected odds in the East. Behind who? Washington. Really? Washington's over under 20 and a half. Wow. But they got Jordan Poole. Michigan legend. So Golden State Warrior MVP. Yeah, you can say a lot of words like that, but that's making any difference. And then Cal Kuzma's there, isn't he? He's still there, right? Is he? Yeah, I think so. Okay, yeah, sure, sure. And they have the second worst odds to make the playoffs in the East, obviously. So I'm expecting in the ballpark of a 25 win season. I think that's a fair number to say. And I think as long as everyone looks better than last year is the lowest bar I can give. I think I'm fine. Like Kade last year, averaged. Whoa, is it like 22? Yeah, right over that 20 point mark. Like right over this. I think like 27 and 7 or something like that. Yeah, exactly. I think, I think if Kade takes that step to like 26, 27 points per game, at least maybe considered like maybe he could be an all-star, like an all-star alternate. Yeah, fringe. A fringe guy because he plays on a bad team, but like he sticks out. Yeah, like he is like the, oh, yeah, that's the guy on the sheet. He's the tray young for the Atlanta Hawk. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So if he can be that, and then we just see better play from Ivy, from Durham, from Fontainequi, from all these guys who are your young guys who you're hoping you can build a big three out of or a big four out of or whatever. That's kind of my expectation. Well, bar. Yeah, I'm going to set my number. Okay. It's a round number, 32. Okay, I want to get to 32 and 50. That's the number. Because the math is really easy to get to that. No, no, and I have a logic behind it. Okay. I want to get out of the, I want us to, I want to feel like if they win 32 games this year, right, it's still not a good record by any stretch of the imagination. But I feel like getting into that 30 win category, I think is kind of like a ceiling barometer for them almost. And I think once you start, once you get to that number specifically, it's like, okay, now we can start to talk about, maybe we can flirt with 500, maybe we can flirt with that last play in spot next year, right? I think that's the next step for them. Now, do I think it's going to happen? No, I think a lot of things like you're saying would have to go right for them to be in that 30 ish win range. But that's my hope, right? Like that's my, this is the saddest pipe dream ever, but this is the dream I have is that you make a considerable jump in wins where you every once in a while, you beat a good team, right? And you're like, hey, all right, cool, we just beat Golden State or whatever, right? You're not getting run off the floor like you did last year. The rotations make sense. And you're seeing development out of guys. So that's my number for sure. Ron Holland, first over or fifth overall pick, first overall pick for the Pistons, expectations for him, any at all whatsoever. He's kind of this wild card him, Anna Sir Thompson to some extent, kind of the same guy. Any, any kind of hope? How do you think that they're going to use him? I know we've seen a little bit of preseason, you know, but it's hard to kind of tell. Yeah, I mean, I'm hopeful. I don't imagine he's going to get too much early in the season, especially when you're, you know, in your view of, oh, maybe you're optimistic. It's a new year, new year, new us, you know, we're all getting better, you know, let's make that run. I don't imagine he's going to get a lot of time then. I do think if how I think the season will probably end up going where maybe you're 500 through October, November and then December, you kind of start like sliding it away a little bit and then you're probably, you know, five, ten games under 500. If you have 21 straight losses, that would be a great step in the right direction. You know, when you hit January, if you're in the ballpark of like, you play about like 30 games or so. So, like if you're like 12 and 16, you know, I mean, I'd be over the motor there. You know, I mean, like 10, you know, 10 and 18, you know, just, you know, as long as you're not like, oh, we're four and 24 or whatever you were alive here. I think that's kind of like a higher bar to hit. And then, but then I think once you get like the all-star break and all the teams are like, all right, we got to really start getting to pile up these wins. That's kind of when the business start falling off. That's when I want to see Ron Holland and Asar and all of those guys really kind of build into their own to get ready more for the next season. When you have year two of Ron, you have your six of Kade, five of Kade, whatever it is, you know, you're three of Ivy and, you know, all these guys are kind of now kind of getting into, hopefully what their prime is going to be in the next couple years. And then if they do hit that 25, 30 or 32 wins, and you have a team that's 25, 24 year olds. Maybe maybe in a year or two, they can be the play ins and with a young team. That's kind of the hope. Yeah, that's if everything kind of goes according to plan, right? Yeah, that's all if, you know, Kade has to be the guy has to be the guy for all of this to work. If Kade's not the guy and he's going to average 22 forever. Yeah, shit out of luck. Right. Kind of taking this bigger picture here at the NBA, right. It's always a big focus for our show, obviously, because, you know, yeah, until LeBron retires and then it's never going to be mentioned again, but it's fine. Yeah, I'm so excited. Mike does not have any real affinity for besides anybody besides Luca and and LeBron. So once they're both done. Yeah, Luke, NBA is just not allowed on the show anymore. Yeah, I got some time with LeBron. I don't know. He's like Sylvain League looking pretty good right about now. They can just give him like a key to the country and he'd be like pretty much at this point. Yeah. All he's got to do is win a gold medal and his career is complete. I was going to say one. I was going to say he got him to like the bronze battle game or whatever a couple years ago. But I was like, if he would have somehow figured out a way to get him the gold medal, he's just like the key to the city. Key to the city. So he's been elected president. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'll catch almost did it. Yeah, he almost beat the US this year. He was like over time away from being the US. He would have also gotten the key to. Yeah, wherever Serbia. I mean, it's pet horse. So really the first question for you is it is, you know, as an as the objective NBA viewer, you just because you watch games. You don't like what I mean by that is you actively seek out good basketball and watch it, right? Where I don't think a lot of people, especially locally, are really paying attention to the league in that way because the Pistons are so bad. So like the NBA viewership here in the red relative Metro Detroit area has to be down. It has to be right. Yeah, look at the attendance. No shit. You know, people are coming to games to go see the other team, you know, like that's how it's happened. Yeah, right. But, you know, in terms of favorites and all that stuff, right? Like if you had a pinpoint it right now, what is who is the team that you're like? This is the team that has a target on by whether the defending champions are not like is there one team or maybe one from each conference that you're just like, yep. These are the teams that going into the season are going to be heavy favorites, you know, to start the year. Yeah. So I run the philosophy of I have the bubble philosophy. Okay. So I think and I do is for the NFL and the NBA. Maybe we can do this in the NFL segment. Sure is I think every year, there's about eight teams that I fit my bubble that I think can win the championship as usually about it. Everyone's like, Oh, look at all these other teams. There's usually a flaw or something about this, they're not going to overcome that long term in the NFL. Everyone's always like, Oh, Dallas, I go here's a laundry list of reasons why they're not in my bubble, right? Like Seattle. I would like to say they were in the bubble at one point. They're not in the bubble. You know, you mean, but like a city obviously is reason the bubble. So I always think there's about eight teams in this bubble. The top two teams of this bubble, one from each conference, I think Boston, the repeat champions or the champions of last year coming in. I think are, I want to say far and away the best team in the East, but they are the top dogs by a good margin in the East. When you basically coast the whole playoff run, exactly like they got a ton of breaks. Don't get me wrong. Like everyone and their mother got hurt and everything and their fault, but like they did what they were supposed to do. They won and all congrats, but they are the top dog in the East. They are, I think by far and away, the best team in the East. I think if you set a second, it'd probably be like the Knicks or the Bucks. Okay, but I think they are pretty sizable away from them. Sure. So Boston with the Carl Anthony towns edition. Yeah. Yeah. Even though I do think that helps them stretch the quarter a little bit. I know some people were surprised by the trade because the Knicks played so well together. Like you really got to break up what you have going for Carl Anthony towns considering Carl Anthony towns kind of was getting phased out a little bit in Minnesota. So, yeah, I can bring it up in Minnesota. I think the prime Minnesota is having is having two giant bigs starting. It was kind of a problem because it was just a defensive struggle. Do you think that takes away, though, from how they were able to beat Denver? In my mind, but I think it helps try to beat a team like Dallas, because I think having Julius Randall helps guard like a PJ Washington. We're having cat and go bare. Like, no one was guarding PJ. Well, where did he go there? I wasn't playing basketball. He was running. He was doing track and field. So, I guess so much flack for me. And I don't even, I watch him. I go, he's fine. He's just useless. Like, he's just the most useless basketball player ever. The thing in the trade, I thought, hurt the most for the Knicks was losing Dante DiVin Genzo because I think having that, it's one of those things where like Denver lost Bruce Brown and everyone's like, "Ah, it's just Bruce Brown. He's a bench guy." And then you saw him, like, "It'd be really nice that Bruce Brown right now." Like, I think that's the Dante DiVin Genzo thing where you're like, "You don't realize?" He's quietly putting up 15 and you're just like, "Yeah." And you don't have it anymore off the bench and you're like, "I wish I had that guy right now." Sure. So, I think losing him sucks, but I think cats, a big addition to them, can have run a nice five-man rotation and like spread the cord out a little bit, which I think will help. So, but I think Boston's number one. I think Boston's number one overall going in. The western side. You can just say it's the Phoenix Suns. It's not the Phoenix Suns. Listen, in 2K, everyone's going to use them. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. You got Katie, Devooker, and Bradley Beal. Yeah. And 2K, awesome. In real life, watching it happen. Listen, just say it. All right. We already know. Okay. You're not lying, anybody. All right? Yeah. Okay. Just say it. It's the San Antonio Spurs. One B is going to be awesome. Yeah. One B is going to take it. He's going to be MVP, defense player of the year, and maybe win the championship all this year. And coach of the year. I don't know if you know that. Yeah. Yeah. He's a general manager of the year. Yeah. He's a god. Yeah. He's seven foot 18 and incredible. Sure. The actual best team, I think, in the west is OKC. Okay. You think they're going to take that step now, right? Yeah, I think. I think they're no longer being tryhards in the regular season. Yeah. I think they are as good as you can possibly. I wasn't surprised. I was a little surprised to actually hear you say that. I didn't know where you were at on them because they were the one seed last year. So my thing with them was I thought altogether they're really, really good last year. I think they had one fundamental weakness. Okay. It was Josh Giddy. Yeah. His defense is not good. Yeah. And I think he was like a big net negative. Sure. And took them out of games that they could have beat Dallas in. Um, basically one for one. No picks or anything. Yeah. Just getting Alex Caruso. Yeah. Your defense. Massive upgrade. Massive upgrade. Yeah. Better defense. Yeah. Shoots the ball. Yeah. Gives the ball to Shay Moore to do his thing. Yeah. I just think that's been there. Right. He's played in there. And he's won a, he's won a finals with LeBron and the bubble and everything. Yep. So he's been there, done that. So. So it doesn't count, but it's fine. It doesn't count, but like it happened. Like I watched it happen on TV. Uh, I think OKC is like two overall and pretty far and away in the west. Far away in the west. Yeah. Okay. All right. So. And I hate to say it, but like I think it's true. Yeah. It's hard to stop. They go like nine deep and they have 10 first round picks where if they're like, man, we need another forward or we need another guard. Here's four first round picks to give us your guy. Yeah. Like it's, it's like one of those things where their war chest is so big and they have such great players. Thunder. I don't know if you guys know this, but we have a guy on the pistons. It was pretty good. He's a career. Uh, what is he 37%? Yeah. Three point shooter. Yeah. Just saying plays really good defense plays really good defense. He's a forward and center. I mean, if you want to trade three first round picks for him. Yeah. I'm just saying only $15 million a year. I'm not going to say names because I think everybody knows we're talking about. I'm just, I'm just saying, just saying he's there and available. Yeah. Uh, he's his nicknames like a food. It's got it all. He's got everything. Everything you want. Yeah. But okay. See for me is like is pretty high up there in terms of the Western side. Okay. Give me, give me a team that you're looking at that you're going. That's an interesting one. Like in terms of, you know, a success, not like one really like, Oh, that's going to blow up in their face. Yeah. Like, is there a team that is kind of going under the radar a little bit that you're kind of have your eye on? Doesn't have to be, I don't need to, but like, is there one where you go? Okay. You know, maybe not the most talented roster on paper, but you really like what they do based on their roles and their fit and everything else. And if you say the Lakers, I'm kicking you off this. I promise you, I won't see the Lakers because I don't know. I don't know about those Lakers. Yeah. Ronnie. Ronnie. Ronnie. All right. Here we go. The one team. LeBron is just going to play with Ronnie for six seconds and then he's going to sit on and he goes, I'm going to get now. I'm going to retire. Yeah. Basically. Eastern Conference team. Okay. All right. So I do think the body boss is pretty good. Like I said, I think the next. Yeah. The box are up there. Yeah. I think an underrated team. Okay. Made the playoffs last year. Okay. The Orlando magic. Okay. I like it. I think are really fun team. Yeah. They've drafted really well. They've drafted well. They're pretty deep team. And I think Paulo's going to take that step after this after game seven loss that they had last year. Sure. And I think he's going to get to that point where maybe they're kind of what Cleveland and what some of these teams are, which is like, you're probably going to be a three, four, five, six seed. Yeah. Kind of like the Pacers in a little bit where we don't really know if you're going to be able to beat the top dogs. Yeah. But if you play Cleveland again, yeah, I think you could be Cleveland. Sure. Sure. I think you could beat, you know, the Pacers. I think you could beat a lot of these teams. I think there's a couple like sixers. I think you could at least put up a fight with depending on what it be does. Right. I think Orlando can be a sneaky. Like, damn, I don't want to play it. Like if you were the next as a two seed or three seed and they were the six seed, you'd be like. Yeah. I don't want to go deep into a seven game or even lose to them. Yeah. I mean, so I think Orlando's sneaky underdog and they're a fun team to watch. Yeah. I love it. I dig it for sure. I think they could be this last year's Nick team. Yes. We're like, we're like, yeah, we're just like all of a sudden, you're like, man, they just, they're playing good basketball. Yeah. They're young enough where they don't care. Have a good head cut. Like you just a lot of things are kind of stuck. Yeah, Wagner takes another step and you got Paulo there and Cole Anthony's doing this thing. Yeah. You got, you know, Gary Smith and like, they just have a lot of John and Isaac, you know, a lot of good solid team, solid seven, eight, nine main rotation that I think can just. I dig it. All right. Now let's beat Debbie downers here for a second. And, you know, you're not allowed to say the Milwaukee Bucks because Doc Rivers is there. That's that's low hanging fruit. And we know they're going to lose. But is there a team that you think a lot of people are really hyping up right now? And you're just like, I don't see it. And why is it the Phoenix Suns? It's not the Phoenix Suns. Okay. I mean, I could do. There's so many teams that have so many good players on it. It's weird that I honestly, I'm like, yeah, I have no confidence that you're going to be able to pull it off. Yeah. Yeah. In the slightest, like Phoenix, no, no, no, Milwaukee, you're dead already. You had back rivers. Like, I don't know why that is. I don't think the 76ers really have a shot either. I know they got Paul George. I don't care. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm not high in the 76ers. Yeah. I'm going to say a team that may, that may get you the really reaction. I don't know if you're going to be on the same boat with me on this one. Okay. Okay. I'm here. I think Minnesota played a little above their edges. I think so too. I think so too. I'm not. I'm not against that at all. I think Anthony Edwards went god mode. I think he went unbelievable. Like Phoenix, because I don't think Phoenix is very good. Yeah. So I think they were able to cruise through. Sure. Sure. I think Denver. Yeah. He played out of his mind, out of his mind. And remember, like, let's not be revisionist about things, right? They get up to a 3.0 lead, blow the 3.0 lead, go to game seven, and then Yoakich could make shot. Yeah. So it's like, and yeah, and then I would give, I would give Minnesota credit to the point where they, they were up 18 or at the blue and 18 point lead. Probably shouldn't have blown them big. Right. Game six, they got annihilated by like 50 or something. Yes. But you had two chances to close the series out and didn't. Yep. But yeah, I just met something about Minnesota. I just feel like they were just playing ungodly basketball. Yeah. And I think when they played Dallas, and it felt the same way when Dallas, their first time when they played Golden State, where I think Dallas is playing above their hinges. They beat Phoenix in that crazy seven game series and then played the Warriors and was like, we're just not in this league right now. Yeah. I think when they played Dallas, it was, yeah. So you're not really. Yeah. Dallas was ready for it. And you're a Minnesota team. You're like, Holy shit, we just beat the defending champions. We beat the MVP. Like, oh my gosh. And now, oh shit, we have two more series. We have to play. Yeah. Oh, oh crap. And I think, and I'll give Anthony Edwards this. So I watch part of, they have that new show. Yes. I know what you're talking about. The basketball show. It's basically receivers, but it's for basketball. Yep. Anthony Edwards on that show. And he was like, after that game seven game against Denver. Yeah. He sat in the press conference. He was like, I'm taking Kyrie. After like halfway through the game, he went shit. I shouldn't have called out Kyrie like that because I'm exhausted. Yeah. Like, I just, I think one thing that helps Minnesota is that they got to that point. So they're like, okay, we know how hard it is to get to this point. Sure. So like maybe keep a little bit more in the gas. You're not as ignorant into the situation. Exactly. Yeah. But also, I do think it's like, I think now they're going to conserve energy a little bit and who was their guy that the center that got cat benched? Oh, Nas Reed. Nas Reed. Nas Reed was really cool. Dude, it's like six three pointers and some of those. I was like, I know they're going to lean into that even more. And I go, man, that just doesn't. It's hard to. I'm sure as a Minnesota fan, you're like, well, he was he was lights out. Yeah. That's a hard thing to rely on night and night out. And the thing with Minnesota is I think they built a team and we see is all the time in the NFL where you build a team specifically to beat somebody, but it's not universally a great team. So I think if they play Denver in the second round again, sure. I think they could beat Denver, but okay. See, Dallas, even maybe like the lake, like I think there's a lot of teams you can name that go. I just don't think you're going to beat these top. Yeah. Like like Denver's built to beat LA. Yes. Anthony Davis just can't hang with my opinion on is I think if the Lakers didn't have to play Denver, I think they could make the Western Conference finals. Sure. It's just like, you just play Denver. It's the one thing you can't beat. I think Denver is going to struggle against Minnesota, but everyone else. I think it's like, yeah, we're at least going to be favorites or have a good shot at. So Minnesota is my team and I just I just don't. Yeah. No, Minnesota's a team for me where I look at them and I go. I like what you have. I think you've got you've got your guy, right? Anthony is a dude, right? I like so, like I like their Michael eggs and a Walker. Yeah. I think my kindly is a fine point guard. Yeah. I think Julius Randall is going to help a lot. Yeah. Right. Sure. A little bit, but yeah. I just. Yeah. It's going to be a different and you're no longer the hunter. You're the hunted. Yeah. Right. I think we'll have expectations of you. So now all of a sudden you're getting, you know, everyone's best shot. Like, it's, you know, not, it's not a true one to one comparison, but like this Tiger scene. If the Tigers win today, we're recording on a Saturday. So we don't know the results before the game for the game, right? So, Tigers make the ALCS, right? Say they make the World Series. Say whatever the hell that happens, right? Next year, I can't 100% respect. Oh, yeah. Tigers are playoff team. You can't do it because of the way the run happened. Yeah. It's very hard for me to do that. Now, I think Minnesota is a playoff team. Yes. But in terms of making that run to like, Oh, we've got to go. We're going to go to the Western Conference. We're going to go to the finals and compete with the Boston's of the world. Yeah. I don't know if you know if you have that yet, you know, so it's, it's one of those things. No, 100%. I'm not sold. I do think, obviously, I think they can make the playoffs. Yeah. They played Phoenix, Clippers. Yeah. Name a couple of teams. I think they can win the first round, but I think if they get matched up with OKC or Dallas or something, I'm just like, I just don't know if you have enough in the, to beat something that seems, I think some of your teams are really good. Last question I have for you. Is there a team that you think similar? It's a similar question to what I just asked, right? But I think we can agree that Minnesota is still a playoff team. Sure. Not like NBA finals, final four level team right now, right? Is there a team that people think is still a playoff team that maybe you're like, I don't necessarily know if they have enough to get to the playoffs anymore. OK, I have one that's a pin point in my mind right now. I want you to say it because I don't want to be like, yep. I will conference. You think it's West? OK, we might be thinking the same. OK, go ahead. Clippers. Yep. OK. Yep. I was. I was right there with. I have two. I think Golden State's also. Sure, but Golden State also was a play in that they actually end up making it. Right. So they're a little bit outside of that bubble. Um, Clippers, I think losing Paul George, why landed my play 30 games if that having Russ, or no, sorry, not having Russ, having just James Harden kind of doing his thing, because Russ is on Denver now. Oh, yeah, I forgot. I totally forgot. I like playing to for a sec. James Harden and Quai basically are your two stars. James Harden is in the Clippers now. Yeah. When did I miss? Did we talk about that? User, all of the postseason, Rod. Oh, he tried. He was. Wasn't he? Yeah, he played. I'm still like him like, Oh, he's in the 76. No, no, no, he's not. OK. Yeah. Sorry. I'm an idiot. Keep going. Yeah. But yeah. So it's basically James Harden, Quai Leonard with a whole bunch of. Guys. Guys. Yeah. Well, you got the Norman Powell's of the world at Zubox of the world. None of these names. Yeah. Tyler can only do so much. Exactly. Yeah. I've come so far. I think we both got tired. I have a very long. We went from 20, like 16, 18 going. So it's just LeBron and you're sitting there because he got fired. Yeah. And Tyler might be like a top four or five coach. I do. Maybe even top three coach in the NBA is awesome. But even Tyler, I don't know. It's coming out of just having Quai, James Harden and. Yeah. To do so. Because once they have a bad record to start, James Harden's going to be like, I want out of here and then Quai's not going to play any games and then you're just going to be done. Yeah. Like Jackson and a whole bunch of. Yeah. So I think if someone misses it, I think it's, I put the money on the Clippers. Yeah. From last year. And I think if they do miss the playoffs, I think you're going to get into that situation where everybody goes. Maybe it's time to sell high as best we can. Yeah. I think the thing is the, I think they wanted to sell more. Yeah. I think because they're having their new arena open this year. I think they were like, we need to get like, we can't have a, we can't have a farm system. Right. With a brand new arena because no one's going to go. So having James Harden and Quai there, at least like gets opening night. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like opening night is going to be sell out and all these people and whatever. And then like once you start off like 10 and 25 or whatever and you're like, wow, Quai's not playing and Harden doesn't want to be here anymore. It gets rough. Then I think they're going to start trading away. But I think, yeah, it's, I don't think the Clippers. If they somehow miraculously survive, they're like a 7, 8 seed at best and get tanked by like the nuggets or something. Yeah. Okay. See. Yeah. It's not looking great for them for sure. Yeah. I'm looking forward to this NBA season though. It's a new, it's a new Pistons era. Right. We're going to get there. You know, if anything, I think the optimism is going to try to be there because everyone's like, oh, we didn't think of this Tigers team was going to be any good. ALDS or sorry. Yeah. ALDS. That's right. Yeah. You're right. The wings like playoff or a tiebreaker away from the playoff lines just once the answer championship game. Mine make it back there even farther. Like the Pistons, you know, the optimism train. I think it's going to start rolling a little bit. If they can start out fine and not just be terrible off the gate. Yeah. I think that optimism train will if after the first 10 games, they're five and five. I think you're going to get a ton of buy in. Exactly. Because they start out 2 and 0 and then they went and lost a gajillion. So you're just like, well, that was fun. Exactly. Like just be average. Yeah. Through 20 games, if you're 10 and 10, 11 and 9, you're like, you're like, I can buy into like a play and buy or something. You know what I mean? So I think it's just good God. Yeah. Just like if they stay, I'm going to say the same thing that I said about the Tigers. If you stay in the 500 range, I'll watching. Yeah, pretty much. Because then you're giving me hope that listen, yeah, we're not good now. But maybe the foundation's being laid right now so that we can be excited about this team year, two, three years down the road. We're like, hey, we've made the necessary corrections to now. Hey, there's an expectation about this team. Exactly. So I'll watch their five. I mean, I'll watch basketball in general, but if the Pistons are 500, I'm watching. Yeah. The second they go 4 and 22, I'm like, all right, so you're never on a screen of mine ever again. 100% absolutely. All right, let's pivot here. Let's go into the world of the NFL. Robert Salah, the first head coach, Domino to fall. New York Jets decided to let him go on Tuesday morning or whatever the hell it was. That was a reaction shock. I was a little surprised personally, just because they did it mid-year, you know, early on, just got through the first quarter of the season. You know, they're two and three right now. Did not look particularly good against this Minnesota Vikings team. Rogers hasn't looked great. Anything. I skill 110. Like, how shocked were you? I wasn't too shocked at all. Not really. Are you surprised? He was the first coach fired. I think that New York is hard. If he was in Miami or if he was in, you know, Cleveland. I'm not saying those coaches are bad. I'm just saying like a city that's not as aggressive, I guess, the best way of saying that. Yeah, he doesn't like Arizona. Yeah, I don't think he would have gotten fired right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no, I mean, I think we talked off. There's like five or six coaches. I think you're sitting on a super hot seat that I think any day if it came out that they got fired. If literally, I think week to week, I think Doug Peterson right now is hanging on by a thread. I think Doug Peterson. I think Zach Taylor should be if I don't know if he is, but I think he should be. I think Nick Sirianni. You mentioned Mike McDonough or Mike McDaniel. I always, yeah, I did. Your names are so similar. I know Miami coach. I think there's like, yeah, like four or five coaches. I'm like, if they came out on Monday of any of these next three weeks that they're fired. I'm like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. They're not playing. It just depends on which order they want to go in. What, what causes the glass to break? At least to an interesting question, though. And that is, you know, um, what is that? What does this mean for the New York Jets, right? And obviously we're not a New York show. So I mean, they could, you know, burn in hell for all I care. But, um, you know, this was a team that had quote unquote Super Bowl aspirations, right? You've got your quarterback in theory. Um, you know, do you. The roundabout question is, so is Belichick going there? Or do you think because he still hates the Jets so much from his previous experiences there that he's still going to be the Dallas head coach? I think so too. Like just with the Jerry Jones thing, you're just like, this is never going to work, but they're going to try. It's Jerry Jones, the big market Dallas. So like the big team in the NFL. Oh my god, it would be so much fun. Well, the Jets, though, you're back in the AFC East. You get to play New England twice a year. You were the head coach of the Jets for about 12 minutes. Yeah, you were signed on an abkin on areas. Yeah. I don't know. It's not as fun to me. I get the appeal, but it's not as fun to me as Dallas. I doubt it's like it's so much fun. So, but yeah, no, I think, um, yeah, I don't know who the coach would be. I don't know either. I think that I think Woody Johnson really wants to give this Jeff Albrick, the defense coordinator, a legitimate chance at it. I don't know how often though, and you can fact check me on this if you can, like go back in your roll index. How often does it really work when you promote permanently the head coach that was the interim. Like Antonio Pierce just got his gig because the Raiders kind of finished strong down the stretch, but like how often historically has it really worked where you go, hey, we fired the head coach. And now we're going to hire permanently the interim guy. I just don't feel like it works very often. I don't know. I don't know why that is maybe because not enough staff overhaul, maybe or something. I'm not sure. But like we've seen it happen multiple times, you know, like the Cleveland did it with Freddy kitchens. That was an unmitigated disaster lasted one season. But Ben McAdoo for the Giants. He was the OC and then Coughlin left like, Oh, no, we're just going to promote Ben McAdoo back to not work at all. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't happen very often. I don't think it's your long term solution at all. I really think that if they lose the bills on Monday night, yeah, I think the jet season is pretty done anyway. Yeah, sure. I don't think I know they play the Patriots again and they play Miami twice. So if two is not playing, those should be wins and whatnot. But I think their team is pretty much cooked if they don't be buffalo. Right. Well, they've in the demoted Nathaniel Hackett. They promoted their quarterback coach to offensive coordinator or at least play caller, whatever you want to go with that route. It brings up an interesting conversation about, you know, Rogers at this point, right in his career. I know he was like, I didn't do anything. Nobody believes that. Sorry. Well, it was funny because he said that he was like on a call about it, but didn't say anything about it. Yeah. Like he was on a call to ownership, but we didn't talk about him. I go, yeah, because you maybe didn't say, but you're just like, it's not working. That's why I was like, I don't know about that. Sure. I 1000% don't believe him at all that he didn't have some sort of say about this. I don't think they make this move without some rumblings or some things through back channels that somebody's saying this. Roger. Yeah. Roger is at the point where it's weird because NFL doesn't usually get to this point too often. It's usually an NBA thing where it's like, Hey, we're thinking about making this massive change. What do you think about it? Yeah, sure. And he's at that point now. So there's no way that he doesn't get involved in that. You know, I mean, it was like every time anything happened with like the OC when Brady was in New England. It was like, so do you like this guy? No. Okay. We're not doing that guy. Yeah. Like, once you hit that pedestal, I feel like my homes would get to that point where if Andy Reid retires, it's like, Oh, we're going to promote Jim Nagging. You're like, I guess because my homes like some exactly like that was Stafford. They, you know, when Jim Caldwell got hired, like Stafford was consulted about who to hire at the time, you know, so, you know, I don't, it's not, I don't think it's, I think it happens more than we think because it's not reported on as much, right? But certain guys, I think earn the stroke. It's at some point, but, you know, it's just an interesting kind of conversation to have because now you're looking at this jets team that had super aspirations there. One or two wins away from losses away from basically the season going. Well, that was fun. You know, Raj is only here one more year after this anyway, right? You don't really know his commitment long term. It's just a lot of negativity around a team that didn't need the negativity. Yes, so much pub already. It's just, it's just sketchy more than anything else. And the reason why I want to bring this jets up too, though, is, you know, the lot of reports are the jets may want to go after Ben Johnson to be their head coach. Now, I don't know Ben Johnson. Never had a conversation with the man. I'm guessing he wouldn't have liked me very much after the first three weeks of this football season because I was a very strong critique of his performance. I cannot see a world where Ben Johnson would ever want to go to the jets, especially with an aging Aaron Rodgers. In a New York mark, it just seems like the war, like if you were going to go somewhere, that is one of like Carolina, the worst possible ways to go. The jets may be close just because of where you're going. You go, yeah, there's no room. It's, it lines up to me a little bit where I would not be shocked. Yeah. And you can throw the flag, but I think I think you would kind of agree with me on this. Yeah. If Doug Peterson and or is that Taylor get fired? Yeah. If you're like, hey, Ben Johnson, you want Joe Burrow or Trevor Lawrence for quick Cincinnati. I think I would be Cincinnati one hundred percent less because I go, oh, patient owners have a franchise quarterback who's done it at a high level. Right. Jamar Chase, Jamar Chase. You got the wetter legs. You're like, ooh, that'd be scary. Yeah. I would be very scary or would be interesting in the sense because you have Trevor. I'm going to save Trevor's career that whole thing. Yeah. Like, I think both those teams or those teams get fired. They give those a call and those are very, very scary to me. Very scary. Yes. I agree with you. I just, I was like, man, I can't, I think that's a New York jet fan pipe dream more than anything that I just can't imagine. It's not good ownership there. It's, there's a tumultuous relationship. It just doesn't make a lot of sense if I'm Ben Johnson to go there. Now, you know, who would be in play for them, I think, a little bit. And this is going to be a little off the wall. So throw the flag, right? Cause I think it would be hilarious is Aaron Glenn. And the only reason I say this, and I don't think it's happened. I definitely think they're going to get a higher on offensive coach that Rogers is buddy buddy with. Right. Like, if they're putting up 40 points a game right now and still losing, I think Nathaniel Hack would be their head coach, but that's neither here nor there. Aaron Glenn, former jet, player guy, most respected coach in the league, you know, according to the athletics report by players, right? And can bring the whole Dan Campbell sizzle thing, right? Get an offensive young mind in there that they really like. It's just one of those things where like, it's a, it's a complete culture shift from the, for the jets, right? And I think there's enough ties there. Where you go, we're going to try this instead, right? Instead of getting the new hotness in terms of coordinator, we're going to get the new hotness in the, Hey, this guy loves his players players want to play for them. They want to be there. We're going to make the culture strong. Yeah. And that's why we're, you know, cause Aaron Glenn had, if you look at Aaron Glenn's resume as a coordinator, it's not good. Right. But I could see a situation where from a cultural reset, you go, we need to, we need to get this. We need to get feeling good again before we can play good again. You know what I mean? I don't know. Thoughts on that too big of a stretch on my part. No, I mean, I wouldn't like, I think this thing is, is I would imagine ownership would go. Okay. If we have Rogers and say we have Rogers for like two more years, we go defensive minded for the head coach, because you want to fix that side of the ball. You think, okay, Aaron Rogers has this side of the ball, even though maybe he doesn't, but that's what you would think about, right? That's what you're banking on. That's what you're banking on is that one of the best quarterbacks of all time can fix the offense and then you can get someone to fix the defense and then boom, you're there. I think the only thing I would throw the flag on a little bit is if, you know, if like Rogers was like, this is my last year, then I go, maybe you want to go offensive because then you're going to be drafting a quarterback and you probably don't want a defensive minded coach with a rookie quarterback because those never really tried that you try that didn't work and it never usually works that way, even flus with Caleb, you're kind of seeing right now, you're like, it's not great because I think you want an offensive minded guy to work with the quarterback more. So I think if Rogers was either to retire or be like, this is my last year or something, I think they'd more go offensive minded because they're going to be looking for the future instead of the now a day. So I think it kind of just depends on what the next couple years look like for the Jets, but Aaron's going to be in play for there. Yeah, I just, it's one of those things where it's like it's such a big departure from what you would normally do for the Jets, right? Not a big splashy name, like a Belichick, right? Or Mike McCarthy or that type of person where the Super Bowl level guy and say like, no, I'm going to bring a guy in who's going to, you know, hope players accountable, players love him, you know, as a person, that kind of thing because, you know, that was the thing with Dan Campbell, right? Never called plays was never a coordinator. You know, what, what do we get it? It would be interesting, depending on how long, how many years it takes if Aaron Glenn eventually just turns into Spagnola for Kansas City for us. Yeah, because like at this point, it's like, because the defense isn't ever awesome. It's just there. It's fine. It's good enough to like, so the offense is awesome to win games. Sure. And it's like, I wonder if you get to the point where it's just like, no one looks at Aaron Glenn too much because they look at the defense and go, that's definitely the weak point of the team. Yeah, like it's just an interesting idea. No, sure. I'm with you. I think the difference is with Spagg's is Spagg won multiple Super Bowls right with the Giants and then he went to the Rams and it was a disaster. No, I know. He had a disaster had coaching and so no one wants to just wonder. The problem I think with Aaron Glenn is is the fact that his defense has never had that one year where you go. Lions D or even if he was like, say he was a New Orleans guy and you're like, man, he had that one season where they were top five. No, that's what I mean. It's like, he's never awesome. So I wonder if I know he's gotten interviews and stuff beforehand, but I don't know if anyone's ever going to want to make the move because it's like your defense. You have no track record of like turning around a unit that was bad. It's just gotten progressively okay. Yeah. And they're just average, right? So it's like, I don't know how to like do that. Yeah. So I think Aaron Glenn might be a little more safe with the Lions. Yeah. A long term. I don't know if it's great. I don't know if it's great, but I do think he has longevity here. If he wants it. We're like Johnson, I think it's gone. Yeah. If they win the Super Bowl, Ben Johnson is a hundred percent. Yes. Even if they go to like NFC, again, if the Cincinnati job opened up, I think you can jump onto that if you can. Where do you think Robert saw the lens? You think he's going to, I can't imagine he's going to get another head coaching job right off the grip. You don't have a 20 in some record over four years. And people are like, yeah, let me sign that up. Yeah, I imagine he's you think he just goes back to San Francisco after this year. Maybe I wouldn't be shocked if he got hired already. Like soon to be like a consultant. Yes. You know, and then next year, it's like, maybe just Robert, just comes back and calls plays defensively. Like, I know every lion's fans are like, oh, man, Aaron Glenn goes away. We're just going to bring in the Detroit native. And I'm like, I don't necessarily see that happening. I don't either. As cool as it would a story would be. And it probably doesn't want to be here. It was very clear by the fact that they wanted. I mean, apparently the interview didn't go great. So something happened when they interviewed the head coach. Yeah, I think you just go back to the nine. I think he's just going to go back to the Niners and just go. Yeah, I'm just going to come back here and make the defense look good again. And then got to be a so unfortunate. Kyle Shanahan and then Salah. Oh, God. Yeah. Those are so good. I know. I know. Yep. It's unfortunate. Don't worry, though. Shanahan, when he gets the Super Bowls, when he poops himself. That's true. Not only unfortunate artists. See, they did an AI dub of him talking a presser. Yeah, about Kelly Murray. And he's like this little gnome. And I was like, this is the best deep fake. It is so funny. I was laughing my butt off. Anyway, I loved it. All right, let's pivot. Let's get to this jump in the squared circle, Mike, AWW news and notes before we talk about WrestleMania four. I guess first kind of big newsy type of thing coming out of it is, you know, we're finally getting from the WWE side work. Finally, we've got a confirmation on the debut of the Motor City Machine Guns coming next week on SmackDown. And then we're also kind of getting this tease of like, okay, bloodline, the OG bloodline, I guess, is slowly trickulating back in, I guess, kind of sort of thoughts on that at all. Do you care? You just like, yep, sounds good, whatever. Anything, anything at all on it? Yeah, I mean, I think it's fine. See, I watch parts of SmackDown as best Friday. Sure. And it kind of just, and you know what, they probably do it just to annoy people like me. But solo's still coming out with the, it just irks me, because I go, you literally have no reason to wear it. Like your ass, you lost, like T lost, and then he had a promo where he was like, I didn't really lose to you. And I was like, you did, you got pinned. Yeah, and you were, it wasn't like, it wasn't like Jacob Five Two got pinned. So it's like you lost the match, but like you weren't, you literally got pinned, you lost, you lose it. That's how that works. No, he still has it. I just don't understand. So I was just all types of frustration. I don't know. It's just sometimes, like sometimes with these stories, they can get really, really good. And you have some like, they're teasing the JU, so coming back with Jimmy on the shirt, that's all cool. But sometimes, because it's been so long and they have so much lore in it, that now they're doing things that are just counteracting things that they did previously. And I just go, but you, like Roman said, when you lose, you lose this. That's why that summer slam match was such a big D or J, because he didn't want to lose it. Not just the championship, but you don't want to lose the necklace. So you get pinned, but now you just don't lose it. Like, so you're just counteracting that point. Like, you're just at that point. Now we're just like, we're going to con that a little bit, so we can keep the story going. But like, if you really think about someone such as it doesn't make sense anymore. Yeah. So it's just kind of irritating for me. It's kind of playing a backdrop for me. Honestly, I'm more interested in this Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes. I'm just happy that they finally were like, maybe we'll give Cody a story. No shit, instead of just, hey, I want to face you for the time. We've gone from April to early October. Yeah. And like, I guess AJ Styles was a story. Yeah, I would say that was at least something. But like, you had the match with Logan Paul, which was just a match. You had the AJ Styles stuff, and then you had the solo stuff, which is just an addendum to your Roman stuff. You haven't really had your own story, your own reason of being world champion. You've just been holding the belt basically for five months. I'm just happy now that he's finally like, in something that's going to be interesting. So go through winning a crown jewel, right? 100%. Okay. It's like not even close. Yeah, okay. I was like, I don't feel, I don't see this well for Mr. Codester here. I do not. I would be stunned through the roof. Yeah. If he pulled out the way. Now, I want to talk about that a little bit, right? Cause Gunther retained the world title over Sami Zayn, right? I guess that was kind of like the biggest news coming out of raw. I don't really think anything else major happened. I'll say it being two hours. Yeah, which was fine. Yeah. We had the Xavier Woods intercontinental championship failure thing. But I do think it's interesting how they're playing the crown jewel story. Like, you know, like Nick also, like, yeah, I kind of need you to get focused because I need you to win this match. Like it's kind of brand supremacy, a little bit, right? I kind of dig it. You know, like I said, I am really appreciating the fact that they're giving crown jewel its own thing. Yeah. Rather than like, we've gone from, well, we're just going to bring back all the old guys because that's the only fucking people that these guys know, right? Well, now we're going to make it a show, but nothing's ever going to happen to now let's at least give it its own feel so that now I can care about the results of the match, but not be so invested where I go. Well, if Cody loses, it's not the bigger video because it's not going to be mentioned two weeks from now. Yeah, right? It's kind of like that weird middle ground almost where I'm kind of low key excited about the show just to kind of see Gunther and Cody go at it. I think it's kind of a fun thing, I guess. Yeah, I'm like, I think it'll be fine. Yeah. I'm not like looking forward to it, but I usually never look forward to these shows. No, I don't think there's a lot you could do other than actually having like an interesting story or an interesting angle going into it, where I'm like, oh, I wonder, like if they did the puncture Hona Cell in Saudi Arabia, I'm like, oh, okay, I have a reason to be interested. But other than that, and they'll never actually put any of their big stuff on these Saudi shows. So, like, they're just still a throw away. But at least they're like, we're going to try to create stakes and ounce of effort into nothing rather than just give you enough. We're going to create stakes that at least you get a reward for watching the show other than, oh, everything is the exact same, right? Yes, at the end of the day, yes, Lynne Morgan is still going to be World Champion, Nia Jax is still going to be winning. And I will appreciate the fact that even though they're doing Champion vs Champion, they have subsidiary story lines going on. Yes, contributing to it. That kind of makes sense into it. They did a good job thinking this one through, which I appreciate. Because it is the, Cody's got to focus up story line, and you have this monster Goon Therm in front of you, but he's like, no, no, I've got to have no ones over here. I was like, no, no, no, no, this is first, that's secondary. But, like, I've got to win this match for us. And I think the brand's been good enough to where it's like, okay, Cody is a SmackDown guy right now. Yeah, sure. Like, he hasn't been on Raw the last three weeks or anything. I know he was on last, but that was because of the stuff. Of the stuff, the cross promotion stuff. But, like, the last, like, five months, he's been a SmackDown guy. You haven't seen him on Raw. And so is the Women's Champions and stuff. So, there are enough split where the brand supremacy thing feels like, yeah, we want to fight for SmackDown. Because you're a SmackDown guy instead of like, all right, so you're on Raw 90% of the time, but you're technically a SmackDown person. So, fight for SmackDown. Like, it has been in the past. So, I also appreciate that. Yeah. Switching to the AEW side of things. We had Title Tuesday this past week. It was a show. It was a show. I don't know. I didn't really -- I didn't take a whole lot from it, quite frankly. I kind of forgot I was on. Yeah, I did too. It's Tuesday. I was like, yeah, everyone forgot. Yeah, pretty much. Not anything really to write home about. It's a hard thing to promote when you're like, but Russell Dream's Saturday. So, like -- Yeah, exactly. It was your go-home show. It was on a different night. So, it was hard to be like, look at everyone. Like, our go-home show is on. It would be like if you're building to SummerSlam, but SmackDown was on a Wednesday. And you're like, guys, don't forget, SmackDown's on Wednesday this week because we have -- And everyone's watching anyway. No one gives a shit about it. Like, SummerSlam's coming out like it's -- you couldn't put anything too big on the show because all your big matches are happening in five days. So, you had like your TBS champion going at it and you had like qualifying, whatever. And a lot of promos. A lot of promos. Yeah. It was a show. It happened. Russell Dream, I think the card still looks good, but it's just -- Yeah. Just the lead-up show is not what you'd want for a lead-up show, I don't think. No, no, no. Like, they didn't do anything on the show to be like, "Oh, shit. Here we go." Yeah. Like, I'm not -- I'm not more excited about the show. I'm still at like a seven or eight excited. Yeah. But the -- usually the go-home show is like, "Oh, now I'm ten because of this." Right. Right. So just a seven or eight. Yeah. I mean, how could you not be looking forward to a Jericho, Mark Briscoe? Ring of honor. World show. You're so funny that you're like, "I'm going to put the worst." Yeah. That's the -- I got skills, Mark. Okay. I don't know if you noticed or not. I know how to do this. How are you not excited for hologram and Bismortos going two out of three falls? Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. Don't forget. Listen, Matt, you know, we got the maximum male model guys against the acclaimed now. It's on the pre-show. It's on the pre-show. Sure. The card is only like nine matches. Yeah. Only. I see. WV is like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's like two months for the paper for W. Coming down." What are you guys doing? The problem is, though, is that this E.W. show is going to go three and a half hours, and the bad blood went three and a half hours. And I go, "How do you have four more matches?" Yeah. It's not -- It's not great. I do want to ask you one thing, though. We got a report earlier this morning. Jimmy Jacobs resigning from E.W. from the creative team as there's a report. I don't want to try to freshen things up. Do you think that that is a response to the ratings dip over, you know -- I mean, if you want to just look up any old-time wrestling person ever, everybody hates A.W. if you're over the age of 40, it's very clear and obvious. So just look up one of those accounts. Literally. They're all over the place. Yeah. Just type in A.E.W. and Twitter, and you'll be like, "Sucks is going to die. Is dead." Yeah. They got a three-year deal for $185 million, but sure. Yeah. They're dying. They have no one. It's fine. But, you know, to that point, right, there is declining ratings, right? Sure. The attendance has not been up, and we are seeing a gradual decline in both over the last couple years. Those are objective facts. Yes. Whether you want to acclaim to whatever. Yeah. Do you think that they are -- you're going to see -- I think drastic is too drastic of a word in terms of their creative, but do you think that there is going to be changes in their creative approach to help kind of combat this? Because -- and I think it's the worst time for them in terms of having this regression. Like, if they would have started last year as a company, or A.E.W. is peaking, right? W.E.E. is making so much money right now. They're really firing in all cylinders, you know, for whatever the multitude of reasons that they have. When we talked about A.E.W. and its inception, that first year, year and a half, two years, a dynamite was really good shit. Like, we were really setting foundations for feuds, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Is it more the fact that they're dwindling now, a more of like -- that sense of panic or doom and gloom is exacerbated by the fact that W.E. is just killing it? So therefore, by defacto, you're looking at A.E.W. and you go, well, this is just, you know, they're dying, right? They're clearly not, because Turner just went, no, no, come on back. Yeah, they must be doing fine if they want it for a long time. So do you think that they are actively making a concerted effort to change their creative in order to kind of mitigate this, or do you think it's just a happenstance of, well, they're just kind of hiring and firing people as they go? Because I think it's worthy conversation to at least think about. I think it's a little bit of both, from one of the internal reports said that Jimmy Jacobs was doing a lot of the learning tree segments, and that's why they were like, these are not doing well, so you're gone, and I was like, if that's truly the case, probably a good idea. Hi, guys. Oh, God, it's just the worst. But -- Who let Hook talk? Jimmy? Knock it off. Dang it. No, I do think it is a concerted effort to at least try. I think the problem is, like you said, I think WWE being high. I think the mass audience would prefer WWE or AEW, so when they're peaking and they're awesome, it's going to be almost impossible to be like, watch our show when all their shows are just white-hot right now. Yeah, and let's talk about that, right? Because I think we fit into a unique category, you and I do, where it's -- we're going to watch both, right, like we watch all the shows, right, we watch -- we're going to watch Crown Jewel, we're going to watch WrestleDream, we're going to watch, you know, name it. But the problem is, is that, because you're right, WWE appeals to a mass or a bigger, a mass audience, right, they have something for everybody, AEW does not do that, intentionally. They don't -- they're not going to do the big celebrity spot for SummerSlam match. They're not going to bring in a Logan Paul. They're just not going to do that. They've dabbled with the shack and, you know, some guys every once in a while, but that's not their forte because, to their quote, this is where the best wrestle, it is a more in-ring, you know, product, you know, product where you're like, we're so heavily focused in this direction. They're gearing towards the ring of honor in New Japan 2015 crowd, where it was -- remember all these tours that we would go on, where no one would call any promos, but we just have 12 matches. You just look at the card and we go, oh, we got to go. Yeah, exactly. Like, it was like, you're not going to cut in between promos. You'll get the once in a while where it's like, Adam Cole gets kicked out of Bullet Club. Yep, sure. Angle or whatever. Right. But that was more of a wrestling angle anyway than, uh, we hate you. You suck. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, I think that's the core audience that they're looking for, is those people like, like me, where I was like, ah, WWE wasn't very good in 2018, 2019, but this wrestling stuff, I can get behind. Well, and it was a, and it was a fresh take, right? I think, I think there's a twofold problem with the way AEW is kind of in right now is number one is a lot of AEW spans also watch WWE. Yes. It's not a mutually exclusive thing. There is a big chunk of WWE's audience that does not watch AEW on a consistent basis. Yes, I agree. They just don't, right? And honestly, if we're being fully transparent, it's very possible to do that because in vice versa, there's just so much wrestling. There's wrestling on every day of the week, right? It is actually insane how much American wrestling is on television every week. It's kind of insane, and I know for a fact, I don't watch every show. I can't. You'd be watching it all day, every day for everything. I think the other problem is, and I think this is where I hope maybe we're going to start to kind of see maybe the winds have changed a little bit, is they need a hit. And I think this Moxley thing could be their next big hit, right? When you don't have MJF on your show, when Kenny Omega's not on your show, you are your, I think people under, yeah, I think people underrate some of their big stars not being there. Yeah. Because you just look at SmackDown. Yeah. When Roman's not there, it's almost unwatchable. Well, yeah, you're like, okay, we got Cody and his feud, whatever that's about. Yeah. And we're trying this US title thing, but you're like, but where's my big A story? Yeah. I don't really have one. Right. And I think when MJF and Kenny and stuff aren't there, you don't get those as much. Oh, you need, Daniel Garcia just came back, right? Adam Cole has been out for a year, right? That was a big signing for them. Hangman has just returned, not that long ago. Uh, uh, what's his name, J White, just like, they're just starting to kind of finally get back into that. What I would say to AEW fans who are worried is, don't worry, number one, we just literally just signed a new TV deal. Yeah, one, I won. Don't worry. You're here for at least three years. Three to five years. Yeah. But if you were to worry at all, catch me after the continental classic and if it's still really bad, we'll talk. Yeah. Right. Because I think that is going to bring ratings up and I think the stories that you can build off of that will run into early next year. Absolutely. And I think you can, because last year, I think around this time, we were kind of like, the MGF stuff wasn't hitting as world champion at this time last year, because we were just like, when's Cole going to turn? Yeah. It was very obvious. We're like, we're just sitting waiting. It was, it was a waiting game. It was the end of Romans run waiting for code to beat you. Yeah. We were just, yeah. Like Russell Dream wasn't great. Yeah. Full gear was good, but like it was really just the, the one match was Swerve and Hangman where he was like bleeding each other, whether they were drinking each other's blood, basically. And World's End was not a good show at all. No. Not the turn, but then early this year, heading into revolution was some of the best AEWs ever done, because they took so much stuff from the Continental Classic and some of all that stuff kind of- They made new stars. And they made stars and they were filling everything, Sting's final run and everything. Like, they had so much- Swerve's entire run. Swerve's whole run, like, from like January to like, all in, has been pretty solid for AEW, I would say. Yeah. All things considered. Well, I think once you hit the Continental Classic, we go into early next year, heading into revolution. If it's still like this where people are like, ratings are down and no one's really caring, I think that's when you can be like, maybe their creative's just not good. Yeah. But let's get to there before I- And I think the other problem is, is when you take the new Japan Ring of Honor approach to things. Yeah. You're not necessarily fulfilling that general audiences want. Yeah. To your point, right? It's- You're getting a lot of quality matches. You look at this Russell Dream card and you go, "Man, there's a lot of shit up here. Top to- We make fun of the Jericho Brisco thing, but like, looking at it objectively, even like this hologram, Mortos match. It's gonna be a good match. It's gonna be a good match. It's gonna be a good match. So it's a really fun match to watch. Listen, he's Mr. Pape-like pay-per-view. No, sure. Like, pay-per-views. Yeah. But usually head. I think part of the issue, though, is, is there any true discernible difference, in your opinion, to their pay-per-view quality matches, to their big-time dynamite matches? A little bit, but not enough to be super discernible. Okay. So I think part of their issue is a little bit, right? And you can flag me here if I'm going too off course. I think WWE does a nice job of balancing between like having the ability to go, "All right, hey, we're gonna let Sammy and go in there, go for 25 minutes, right, and let him tell a great story and go." But in between that, I'm gonna get a six-minute Chad Gable segment with them is. Or, you know what I mean? Yeah. I'm gonna do enough of these things. I don't think AEW does a good enough job yet of balancing, "Hey, here's how we accentuate these guys, or this match, or this angle, or this moment, because we're trying to put everything out there as a thing, and by the fact it takes everything down to a B or a C." No, I agree with that. I also think though that doing so many, and this is, I think WWE might hit this problem soon, depending on how they keep going with her TV. I think having so many big matches not take place on pay-per-view, hurts the pay-per-views, and I think WWE, to me, I'm starting to see it a little bit because having such a good goon through Sammy's A-match, or having such an awesome three-way ladder match on SmackDown, bad blood to me. I was like the middle of the show, I was like, "You could have substituted one of the women's matches for that triple threat ladder match, and the show would have been much better in my opinion." Absolutely. So I think having these big matches, and they have shows like their fifth anniversary or whatever, where it's like six pay-per-view level matches, and I go, "I don't know if we need to sit." Yeah. You could have put two on, and you would have gotten the exact same result. Do the Osprey Ricochet, Brian Okada, and the middle, just do whatever. Yeah. It's a normal dynamite. This is a regular dynamite, and it would have been perfectly fine, but they want to have like six-studded matches on there, and I do think it takes it down from the pay-per-view a little bit, because then you look at the pay-per-view, and you're like, "Is this match going to be better than Osprey Kyle Fletcher dynamite?" Right. I don't know. I don't think so. Again, and I think that's a great example, because like when we talked about Osprey before, because I do think they are trying to force it a little bit too much right now, right? There's no two bigger Osprey fans than Osprey on this show. I really appreciate it. Mike's the number one man of fans. I am. I'm leading the train hard. But we can both agree though, right? He goes from having his debut, who did he have his debut against? Tkeshta. Tkeshta. And then two days later, he's going 20 minutes with Fletcher, right. You negate those performances, because they're both great, right, and you just go, "But I saw this." Right? You know what I mean? There's a fine line that's a fine between them, because here's the complete opposite example. Yeah. Mercedes. Sure. Why are you in there for three months and have it wrestle once? Right. And you're going to do the one thing that you can't do which is talk for three months. Like there's a happy medium of, maybe you're not wrestling on every single guide for a second show. Yeah. But also, when you do come, it's a big deal. It's a big enough deal where I want to tune in. Yeah. I think they're hitting the nail perfect with Okada, because I think Okada's got the perfect mix right now. I still don't understand the criticism on the Okada usage. And I think I know why is because when you bring him up, it's like, "This is like the guy." It's like the God of wrestling. Yeah. And he's the guy from New Japan, like, "This was the big fish." Right? Because everybody was like, "Oh, is he going to go to WWE?" And we had that conversation as well. So the fact that he came in, you were like, "Holy shit." And he hasn't had that match yet where you went, "I don't get it." Right? And he hasn't seen next level, "Hey, we've seen tag match. We've seen--" I'm going to have a good match. Like, his match with Bryan was good. Him and Paco are good. Yes. Exactly. You have not seen him go, "All right, we're going to go 45, and it's a slow climb." And then all of a sudden, we're going to flip that switch and you go, "Holy shit. Just blew my pants off." We haven't seen that yet. And I agree with you. I think this continental classic is so huge. Because more importantly than just using Ocata and elevating him to where I think he's going to be in that world title picture going forward, you need to make new stars and you need to establish people that you haven't established yet. I think it's why Tkestja's run here is going to be important, depending on what happens against WrestleDream. I think this Moxley thing is going to be hugely important, but they really need to shake up their upper midcard of their roster. They need to start cycling through some people. They need Ocata in the main event. They need Tkestja's continental champion and they need three or four credible people for Tkestja. Tkestja, I think, is going to be a huge part of it. Tkestja, I think, if you can get Malachi or anyone from the House of Black to really come out and be a threat for Tkestja or Osprey or something, maybe you put Pock in it and Pock has a really good run or whatever, get him in the singles run. And now we saw a potential tag team with Kyle O'Reilly and Orange Cassidy, so they clearly do this in our show last week when we talked about, maybe you need to start taking some of these names that you've invested a lot of TV time in, maybe start putting some of these guys together for a while for a year or two and let them become a thing because your tag division, which went from being a massive strength to where as we saw in that match, we're like, "Ooh, there's nobody left," right? You're like, "Ugh, it was not the best thing in the world." Exactly. I do think there's continental classic at this two and a half month run of AWS in the year. I think it's so important because if they do it wrong and it sucks, I think the start of next year is going to sing and it's not going to be wrong. I think the distinction is it's not going to suck in-ring. AEW has never had a problem with their in-ring product in terms of, "Is this match going to…?" The only time we can actively say, in my opinion, that shit truly did not deliver was the exploding death match thing with Kenny and Moxley, right? That fell flat because of outside reasons and we can talk about, you know, punk fucking shit up. The punk stuff wasn't great either, but there because there was more story and because it was like, "Oh, see, I'm punk's back," everyone looked past it until he left. But in totality, I think when they try to deliver their main event level shit, it's delivering in terms of their in-ring product. The problem is that when you can't discern between a dynamite main event and your wrestle dream main event, that's where I think all of a sudden you start running into an issue because it no longer feels special. It feels like the next day. And I think they really need to start, honestly, scaling back some of their in-ring stuff where maybe I don't need every main event match to go 27 minutes. Let's maybe let's go 15 and maybe we don't get a happy conclusion at the end of it, right? And instead maybe we have something we make think about. So when we get to this pay-per-view, now I'm like, "All right, we're going to get a finish here," you know? So just a little bit interesting, but I'm waiting for the participants to be announced for the kind of classic. Yeah. I was trying to remember last year. Because I know they were-- I literally wish I thought they had one. Do you remember when it happened? Because you were on it. I love the kind of classic. Yeah. Well, I just love the G1 from New Japan. I just love-- I love the Bao for Glory series. Bao for Glory series. That was a great idea. That was a great idea. Sure. Awesome. Trying to think-- I think they had matches during full gear. Yeah. Like, I think on full gear. I think they had one or two continental classic matches. Yeah. So I'm trying to-- I don't exactly-- I could probably-- well, you probably look up continental classic. They'll be like, "On this day," they announced-- I'm going to look-- yeah. I'm going to set up full gear for last year, full gear 2023. Because I want to say they had like one or two-- honestly, Brian was on the show taking on someone from a continental classic, but I could be wrong. I don't have anything on that. Let's see, E. W. Let's do some research here, continental. Yeah. Yeah. Classic 2023. It was an interesting show, to say the least. Full gear? Yeah. Yeah. It was the greatest thing they've ever done. No, definitely. We've definitely had better. So it was from November 22nd, 2023 to December 30th. OK. So when was full gear? It was like November something. So it might have been right after full gear. Full gear was November 18th. So it was that Wednesday after full gear. It was when they started. Yep. Yep. The continental clap. OK. So then the announcements are probably-- Yeah. It's coming. It's coming soon. On November 11th, 2023, they announced. OK. So that was like a week before full gear. Yeah. So we got about a month. Yeah. So around full gear time, we'll have the continental classic starting. We'll have about a month and a half of continental classic wrestling. Make collision worth watching a little bit and have some fun. No shit. Yeah. Very much looking forward to it. It's a great time. All right. Let's get to it. WrestleMania 4. We've been teasing it for several weeks now. We're finally here. We teased this show as it was like, oh my god, it's not a great show. Oh, 4? Yeah. Oh, god. No, it's terrible. It's so funny because we were like, we're going to do this. Oh, we're going to do it next week. And everyone's going to be like, and we're going to go to, like, man, you guys didn't really enjoy the show very much. I'm like, well, I mean, you know, you know, the worst part about this show was watching it on Peacock with ads because you'd have a three minute match and then immediately go to 30s. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this sucks. I know mine's Adless. Oh, is it? Oh, you lucky bastard. Oh, I almost literally got the extra five bucks just I know, I almost did like halfway through the show, I go, nope, nope, be strong, Rob, be strong. There is like 17 matches on here. Well, because I think because, you know, I say it's just the tournament, but it's not. You've got the battle royal, you've got the tag title match, you've got the intercontinental title match. It's a lot. Yeah. Let's get to it. Russ me for Trump Plaza, what the world is watching in Trump Plaza Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, first of two back to back that they have in Trump Plaza. Attendance was 18,165, I'm sorry, I think you meant to say 18,412,906. I think that's what you meant, but it's fine broadcast day was March 27th of 1988. Wow. That's crazy. Gorilla Monsoon, Justin Mature, and Bob Euchar. So we opened the show with a fun battle royal, yeah, nothing better to get the hype than the hype up than everyone standing in the ring, getting individually recognized. It's so great. Yeah. So we had the junkyard dog. We had Sam Houston. We had sicko. We had Ron Bass. We had, oh my God, there's so many people. King Harley race. Yeah. Paul Romo. Raymond Raghu. Raghu. Raghu. Raghu. Raghu. We shot Raghu. We shot Raghu. Is that Raghu? The Raghu. The Raghu brothers. Oh my God. Jim Nihard. Yes. Hey, Hilberry Jim, George Steele, Danny Davis, do you care, like, Brett Hart, oh my God, Brett Hart's in this. Hey, he put eight, and we've got, I've got context for this too, so you want your history lesson. You're about to get it, buddy. Boris Yukoff. Brian Blair. Yep. B Brian Blair. Yes. I already know exactly what you're talking about. Yep. Oh my God. Okay. So we have way too many people that I don't know when it's matched. Yeah. Ten minutes and 40 seconds. Hold on, hold on. Can you go through it one more time, and I'll tell you through a Hall of Famer. Just quickly. Okay. Brian Blair. Nope. Boris. Zukoff. No. Brett Hart. Yes. Shouldn't be a foot. How? Get off my show. Get off my show. Dead to me forever. Danny Davis. Nope. George Steele. Yes. Hibler Jim. Yes. Jacques Rojo. No. Jim Brunzel. Nope. Jim Nihard. Yes, technically. Jim Powers. Nope. Ken Patera. Yes. King Harley Rice. Yes. No. Ron Bass. Nope. Sam Houston. Nope. Sika. Sika. Yes. Sika. No, I'm saying Sika. Yeah, it's the family. Well, I know. I'm saying Sika. Okay. Yeah. When I watch Brother Bear, he says Sika. I love it. Oh, my gosh. And the junkyard talk. Yes. My whole reason for that exercise is there's a lot of Hall of Famer's in this match. So. And then the Ragoos. And then the Ragoos. Oh, my God. I cried. That was funny. The Ragoos. So. Our final four here. Yeah. So we had Brett Hart. Yeah. Obviously. The junkyard talk. Yeah. Paul Roma gets immediately thrown out. Yeah, Paul. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bad news brown just kind of throws him out in the final four years. Sure. We had Brett Hart at Bad News Brown eliminating the junkyard dog. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Here's why this happened. And this is the dumbest thing ever. So I'm glad that they've changed the way they do this. Okay. So. The whole point of this match. Okay. If you'll believe this. These are fun facts. I'm giving you RAM. Spitting them. Okay. This was technically the first time they tried to break up the heart foundation. This was the first time that they were actively it. Would you believe that they thought this was the way to turn Brett Hart baby face? I would not believe it. Right. No seriously. This is how because they thought. They thought this was the way to turn a baby face. Turn a baby face. Right. So they team up together. The thing is going to do it. And then bad news brown that son of a bitch turns on Brett and throws him over and then Brett breaks the trophy. He's like yeah. And then brand news brown runs away. That was technically the first time they tried to split up the heart foundation and make Brett Hart a baby face. It didn't work because very quickly afterwards as we'll see on WrestleMania once we get to WrestleMania seven they're still a tag team. So this is their first real attempt to try to break up the foundation and then realize it's not really going to work and then they become a baby face tag team later on. But yeah. Fun fact for them. All right. Yeah. So that happens. The bad news brown wins. Yeah. Big trophy and then they break it up. And yeah. It's a thing. So the next up we had the reading of the rules of the tournament segment which the fact that this was like a whole thing that I had to skip through and then have watched another commercial for wanted to hang myself but it's fine. So he gives the whole rules basically the important part of the rules is you have to win to advance. Get out of town. But like you get like if you get disqualified you're out. Yeah. You're out and that will come into play. And it will work like a hundred fifty times in this in this if you couldn't tell they're trying to put much through like all hell. Yes. Absolutely. But you have to win by pinfall or submission to advance. If you're double counted out you're out. If you get de-cute you're out for shadowing. I don't think so. Absolutely not. But like they made it a clear point. You have to win a small and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was really. Yeah. But yeah. So just for reminders so when we go through these matches and you go count out and they're both out. Yeah. Crazy. What? Yeah. That means somebody gets a buy that's not fair. Yeah. Life's not fair. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. So this isn't a superhero movie Rob they don't always win. Actually for the first about eight. Yeah they do. That's probably actually for the first a hundred and fifty. At least ten. Ten minis. That's fine. WWF World Heavyweight title first round tournament. We had ten DBATZ walking out with Andre the Giant and Virgil defeating Jim Duggan. Yes. Four minutes and fifty four seconds. This match doesn't even get rated because it didn't go long enough. Yeah. These guys work together a ton for the Mid-South territory Duggan and DBS. It's both where they came from actually. So a little fun fact for you there obviously you know the the back strip how we get to the tournament right is we have the second main event the double referee. Andre beats Hogan right wins the title and then Andre basically sells the championship to Ted DBS the million dollar man right and then basically Jack Tunney the de facto president on television goes can't do that we're going to hold the title up right so Andre's champion for seven minutes right this this if you did this today's WWE would be the craziest thing had to rep because you know Earl and what's the other head in your name but the brothers they were twins right so you ever saw that so it was like oh my gosh it's a he paid another referee to get plastic surgery like the whole thing I know a hundred percent no just the idea that you sell the championship it's like I can't do that so we're going to make it tournament yeah would have been like in today's WWE like what the fun part is is DBS actually did a couple house shows with the title actually being introduced as WWF champions so that's how you know this is the end so to put in context how long Hogan's been champion we're at Wrestle Mania 4 right Hogan has been champion continuously the entire time up until that Saturday night's main event so like four years 84 to 88 so this is the first time in a long time that we don't have Hulk Hogan as the world champion main event level guy so that's the how we got to the tournament DBSC is clearly a heavy favorite in this thing you know yes there you go 100 percent so just Jim the Battle Royal got a 3.4 or 5 out of 10 as it should have so sure I don't know why they've been rate bad roles they're all terrible yeah pretty much so if the match was over five minutes they have a rating here sure yeah I'll give the ratings yeah WWF World title tournament first round match is up next Don Morocco with superstar Billy Graham takes on Dino Bravo yep with Frenchy Martin yeah and he Don Morocco wins by DQ did you see what his nickname was I did not the rock I did not yeah I must have skipped that entrance yeah oh yeah they just said it a lot like I got to say in the rock I go with a rock I'm like oh my god that's right he did go by the rock Don Morocco their baby face yep but yes Don Margaret's win but by DQ yep meaning that's you still get these yeah it's a thing it's a thing that happened sure yeah that match you know Bravo pulls the referee in front of him and it's a whole thing yeah so four minutes 53 seconds doesn't get a rating I'll tell you right now you can skip it we're good we got it yeah we got a lot of these matches we can go yeah we got we get what happens pretty much next match is another tournament match we had Greg Valentine with Jimmy Hart defeating Ricky Steamboat I would have been really sad in 1988 if this happened well the other thing too is is that you were like oh so how do you not position Steamboat Savage again again and they were just like why would we want to do that no I got forbid so they only had a five star match last year yeah no shit yeah I didn't really understand the whole thing but good finish right Valentine gets the roll up after the the fly you know the cross body thing exactly gets the tights and everyone's like what no way this is the best traded match on here at 5.8 three out of ten there you go so we're almost passing take this we don't get a passing grade on the show bad a lot of a lot of Hall Famers though Greg Valentine you know yeah so then we enter another first row match yep Randy Savage yep with Miss Elizabeth yep no foreshadowing defeats but read in five minutes and seven seconds did you like that they have two guys with the same nickname as hacksaw hacksaw but read hacksaw Jim Duggan you go couldn't think of another name huh no absolutely no sure this match gets a 3.8 seven out of ten I will say this though real quick before we go out because this there's nothing to talk about in this match right literally five seconds but yeah cry was hot for match yeah love immediately immediately when he goes up with the the elbow people are like oh right yes the pan super people pop actually out of their seats when he gets the win so you can tell they're very much behind modules hundreds it's like one of it's very like obvious that there was like yeah you ain't winning to some of these guys yeah it's like if they did a 16 man tournament today yeah and you had a whole bunch of guys like oh you got a gable in there yeah and you had like but then like at the end you have like Roman encoding you're like so yeah none of the other people are winning yeah yeah unless Roman and Cody are in the first round and then you go who booked this shit the same thing as Andre and Hogan like what the hell yeah next up we had the one man game was slick yeah take it out big bam bam big low yep and young bam bam big low and in three minutes yeah count out either advance dang it darn it man I wonder how that's going to play out later on in the tournament darn it's saying it yeah yeah next unfortunate the entrance just take longer than the match does yeah and then another first round match Jesus god mighty first round match Jake Roberts oh yeah Rick rude yeah this one's interesting yep in a sense because it goes to a time limit draw 15 minutes so WWE at one point did the time limit draws to get away eventually but they did the whole thing and so because it was a draw guess what neither advance yep don't want to be either guy right to bigger names for them right ravishing recruits going to go on next year to win the Intercontinental Championship spoiler alert and then you know Jake the Snake Roberts is you know huge baby face for them at the time they had a big feud right you had the the ravishing recruit came out with Jake the snake's wife's at the time her face on his tights like the airbrush which I that was really good again two more Hall famers though yeah not a great 2.9 7 out of 10 here slowish yeah go to war scene it's been falling it was 40 minutes methodical no it's not it's just we're just not moving yeah they're like they're like restful again sure okay when we have to watch yoko oh yeah it'll be fun so next up we have singles match because true it's not a tournament match not good enough it's not good enough to be a tournament match ultimate warrior Hercules Hercules and in four minutes thirty seconds guess what who do you think wins this one the ultimate warrior stunned stunned ultimately this is the very beginning of yeah you can tell he's got the popularity a little about three more months he's intercontinental champions so think of it that way yeah summer slam summer slam baby so yeah four minutes three seconds ultimate warrior that's about as good as you're gonna get we're gonna get one match by the work I like you're gonna see two matches by the ultimate warrior as we go through these manias that are pretty solid six and seven when he faces savage those are the two best match you'll ever have his entire career everything else after that all downhill so now we enter the quarterfinals of the tournament here oh yeah some of these guys got a buy which is why they weren't mentioned earlier damn it whatever so somehow it's just so happens yeah Andre and Hulk yeah gotta be got it got a match got a buy because they were the last ones in the title and they were both champ former champions or something something then whatever they explained it so they they have a match here and this is the magic putting Hogan and Andre in the middle of your show as unbelievable after like having the biggest being a fan of like ever last year you're like it's like if you just did Roman and Cody in the middle what's after a six man women tag yeah what yeah okay brands a primacy match was Zack Ryder yeah exactly yeah Andre and Hogan this match gave me a little bit of my one big qualm of the show was not a big fan of was so they did a double DQ yeah the problem I had with the double DQ is Hogan was an Andre hit first or two I don't remember but Andre hits Hogan with the chair referee sees it happen by the way yeah Hogan then picks up the chair goes you hit me I'ma hit you hits Andre with the chair the second hit it's like oh no yeah throw it out goodbye throw the match out and they both get DQ'd my qualm is in any other match literally ever yeah with the second that chair shot hits you're DQ'd like there's no like even if like you it was the 80's mind if you come back with it like I get the idea they went for it's just one of the that didn't wasn't applied properly makes the ref look stupid it until insult your intelligence right and I think they were more like no one's gonna pay attention that cuz it's the shocker wait Hogan's out yeah Andre's out oh my god mmm we're gonna we're gonna crown a new champion yeah it was one of the ones like where you when you're looking at the list of matches and you're like double DQ oh my god that's great how they get DQ'd but when you watch it actually you're like that was dumb I was just like one of the stupid things I've ever seen true so this man's got 2.53 out of 10 because it was what what how long this match five minutes 22 seconds felt about 40 yeah since about right yeah so then next quarter final match we had Ted DiBiazzi and Don Morocco this man's went five minutes and 44 seconds yep unbelievable and Ted DiBiazzi gets the win yes he enters into the semi-finals yes sir and gets technically the by in the semi-final right because of the DQ's and everything I think he got the I think he got a buy right yeah I think March is the only one who doesn't get a buy yeah one shocker spoiler alert so then we walk into the next savage match we had Randy Savage defeating Greg Valentine again so in six minutes this match gets a 5.12 actually pretty solid six minute match yeah I mean it is what I mean here's the problem is you're doing a six like they should have cut it to eight is really what they should have done eight man would have been a lot better having 16 people in one show all those preliminary ones like these are all all meant for raw right like if raw existed you know like where's main event at when I need it um so Savage wins this in six minutes again crowd goes crazy when he wins but yep yeah that's pretty solid so far so then we get an intercontinental title match to kind of break up the action a little bit here so we get Brutus beefcake yep and the hockey talk man yep and by hooker by crook yep by DQ yep hockey talk man survives yep and I think Brutus actually gets the win right yeah Brutus gets the win by disqualification it's the most 80s/early 90s finish ever where it's like yeah the baby face won yay got him winner of the match Brutus beefcake however because it was my disqualification still you're intercontinental champion hockey talk man everyone's like uh dang it that honky man one on it one point eight eight out of ten you wanna smash on the show this was never this was never gonna be good Brutus was never good in ring honky tonk was never honky tonk is the most WWE performer ever all sizzle no steak yep six minutes 30 seconds maybe a little too long fun fact i've actually seen honky tonk wrestle in person live i watched him at a county fair one a year yep when i was like seven i love it wrestled outside it rained earlier in the day so they couldn't walk on the grass so they got rode in by like a four wheeler just like got dropped off by the steps legendary yeah saw a joint wrestle that night saw an early young chris saben oh that night too i know next up we had a six okay six feet attack i'm about to watch on tv in a week so that's true i'm very excited for that by the way six man tag balahinan and the islanders haku and tama take it on co will be wear and the british bulldogs and davey and died of my kid smashco sevens and thirty seconds this is this is the most prototypical like why is this match exist on this show 100 what the hell up until this point outside of the draw the 15-minute draw and the opening match was greg and ricky steamboat yep this is the longest match on the show so far and this is the most what yes why what this show was already long enough why is this show why is this even on here and it's very quick it's like well we want to get them a payday then pay them yeah jesus yeah just just if it not be pay do the pre-show do a pre-show match something good god totally useless so yeah probably he and the islanders win um seven minutes thirty seconds got four point three eight outside and we move lots of hall of famers cocoa be wear somehow a hall of famer don't explain it how yeah uh now we're in the semi-final so like i said so um Ted DBS he got the buy yes because all the dq's the count outs and everything that million dollar man so savage has a semi-final match when the other guy doesn't which you know babyface come on come on randy savage and the one-man gang with slick and randy savage wins by dq sure he does so why not because why not so he gets beaten up he's got to go he's had to go through the one-man gang greg valentine and who's the first one again um and butch read but at hacksaw butch read yeah so i don't know how he's gonna make it through this main event but gotta be exhausted so imagine when we went four minute i mean in totality his in-ring and this is like 17 minutes i think more Wrestlemania 5 than he does in four matches but yeah it's actually just four six so he's at ten says it's ten five fifteen fifteen minutes yep 15 minutes up until this point now the main event gets time sure in like air quotes sure so but we were at 15 minutes for any savage at this point yeah now in fairness Ted DBS is fresh as a damn daisy he's at like three minutes i think yeah he's fresh as a damn daisy Ted DBS actually Ted DBS at five five five forty four and four fifty four so he's at like 11 minutes yeah so he's not even that much more fresh but no he's got a whole buy but he had a whole buy so doesn't man the fundamental problem with this show is you're seeing the same people like 12 times and you're just like at some point you're like i'm kind of yeah can i see like i'm like i'm like oh it's macho man again co-man event here yep because we who wants to go shoot to the finals you gotta give savage at least a minute yeah he's got it's i hope he's got enough in in that you know he's taking a beating all night gorilla so we have a WWF world tag team title match we have demolition yep smash strike force and rick martell and teal san tana spent his 12 minutes 33 seconds long smash on the show outside of the draw and demolition new new tag team champions yep strike force originally was supposed to be the can am connection with rick martell and tom sink we saw them at last year's rustlemania in the opening match there um strike force actually beat the heart foundation for the tag titles and then demolition goes on one of their two lengthy runs as champion so when we talked about our demolition has tech tips for hot minute here and then we walk out of that which is a pretty solid match 5.35 out of 10 one of the better matches on the show for sure yeah walking into this main event here ranny savage who said three matches prior to this teddy yachty's had two matches by exhausted exhausted world heavyweight title tournament final for the vacant championship savage db yachty yep db yachty's with andre savaged with elizabeth in the nine minutes 30 seconds new champion ranny savage world champion hulko even comes down to point at him and he's give him the hulk dust you're the guy and you're awesome and elizabeth is on the shoulder and all the all the all the all the get it because that's the name of the song all the all the uh all the moments that you ever see from us waiting for are like this ending match here basically everything i've ever seen from russian before pretty much outside of people running down the ramp is pretty much this uh post match celebration basically this show was three and a half hours long felt like 12 three and a half hours long by the way felt like it was 12 just goodness gracious um match gets the win five i'm looking forward to five's main event by itself delivers i don't remember last time you've seen russian magnify with match and hogan if you ever you know you haven't ever seen it okay so that that is a good match and hogan is a good match i that is an objectively solid performance by both guys right we'll talk about the mega powers and how that comes together and then it explodes right and the amount of intensity that gets played into that um and the way they navigated how you had two big baby faces right you have macho man he's the champion right all year but you got hogan kind of lingering around so you're like you're trying to make much but at the same time you're like man you're not really given mach like chance to grow yeah it's a weird dynamic so when you do flip macho man you're like oh shit here we go like a lot of it just it really works it's it's a really solid main event um five is is is a pretty decent show from what i remember not granted do i remember anything not really i remember the main event that's what i remember the main event and i know exactly how the intercontinental title match finishes after that i'm a little bit but it should be a solid one five five has a good main event six has a good main event seven oh yeah so all right so now in terms of ranking yep okay we're gonna try to do this and so we get to like the teens when we have a lot of them and i want to rank through all of them all the time um until we get to like ten maybe yeah but like all right one through four okay how we feel three is better three is the best i think i think it's three i think it might go three two four one oh god four four just has too many matches it's too long it's too long there's not enough stuff in there that's like memorable outside of macho winning yes right so you're just like k yeah like sometimes i just take like the short movie over the long one yes even if the long one has like a really good ending and like a good moment or something the short one just has the edge sometimes because they're both about the same quality to me it's got two is so bad though two has like two has nothing redeeming for me i think i might go four second for me okay just because like you've got a you've got a a moment there right you've got a couple solid title matches like two is bad two is not good at all um two has like parts like i think the not the main event every single one but like i think a couple of the the third place they go to was which one was la or whatever one whatever the cage was yeah i think they had a couple good matches in that one they've had good matches the first spot yeah chicago spot was tough yeah but the middle two or the middle one in the end one i think had one or two good one is this one just has like 15 matches like i'll go like four minutes yeah i agreed it's kind of too long yeah so that's that's my reasoning i'll put two i think it's three that very large margins yes because three you have individual moments that you could point to like multiple throughout the show where like wrestle mania three is the first one that really felt like wrestle mania yeah does that make sense yeah no other sense um you had big pillar matches you had moments you had a little bit of every little bit everything one was so heavily invested in the let's get as many celebrities as big names as possible right just to make it a success commercially two was like well we did that what if we just try to do three big cities right and you overextended mm-hmm and the quality tip to open was not great three was holy shit four was let's just try to get as many people on the show as possible show our depth as a roster and then you go depths not there um yeah not great three and then all the you can throw the rest of the trash they're all pretty pretty rough yeah but yeah i i'd go three two four how have you liked real quick how have you liked the transformation in terms of like the production like are you getting back to a point where you're like okay this is watchable and not in a dark alley anymore yeah i mean it's not it's not been bad yeah um one was a culture shock for me one was like holy shit it's dark in here like in like their product in 1984 right so it's like that i think the the jump from one to four is massive oh yeah in terms of production quality and like it just feels like i don't think i'm gonna fully feel it until everyone has mansions music because it still drives me well yeah that i think like nine because i remember it looking so unique in turn because it was outside and everything that one and then once you get like the early tens yeah where you do like like where once everyone starts entrance music that's when i'll be like okay now we're yeah which will be you know in the next few i can't remember five has it or not it's got to be because like a warrior head music match head music like rude head music so you're hitting like 1990s now like i feel like early 90s yeah i feel like like 89 90s like a big thing so i guess i can think of everybody on the you know like you all had music anyway that's wrestling before next week we'll talk wrestling 85 we'll talk rustle dream uh we'll talk tigers as well lots of good stuff coming your way guys but on behalf of the merc zone i'm the mouth fish can we will see you guys as always next time