On todays episode of Wrestling Republic’s Daily Broadcast Ben Allison, Clark Taylor, and Angie answer your questions for Mailbag Monday.
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We are live 364 days a year. What are we doing here? If Dom turns at Summerslam, I’m shaving my mustache off. I told you if that happens, it’s going. My lip is cold because of a stupid bet that I made to YouTube. Wrestle’s better than Daniel Bryan. Brian Daniel better than Okaublic. [Music] What is up wrestling fans? Good evening from Swansea. I am your host Ben Allison and you are watching Wrestling Republic’s daily broadcast. And today it’s mailbag Monday and we have some of the best hot takes which you guys have submitted. And trust me, they are controversial. You are not going to want to miss this. But before we get into all of those, I need to introduce the panel and let’s kick things off over in Orange County, not to be confused with LA, California. How are you, Clark? No doubt about it, Ben. I’m doing well. Obviously, geographically, that’s where I’m located, but basically all of my teams lost my birthday weekend, but I still had an excellent time. So, I’m stoked to be here, and I’m always excited to open up the mail on Mailbag Monday. Let’s get into it. Was one of those teams Chicago by any chance? Oh, uh, actually they play tonight, the Bears, but that’s not really my team. The Chiefs lost in and the Jay-Hawks. No, no, I thought you support them in like baseball, don’t you? Yes, of course. And and they did lose last night as well. That’s what I That’s what I was referencing. Pretty much all It’s like everybody I’ve ever rooted for lost on my birthday weekend. Well, it sucks the Chiefs lost, but I’m happy Chicago did. I I really am. I’m not forgiving you for the Sami Zayn thing. Honestly, I’m still just completely distraught over KU losing to Missou. I can’t even focus on things like Chicago right now. I’m My heart is with my heart is with my university. We should have won the border war. I hate Chicago now. Massive massive beef with them. But also joining us today, we have Angie once again. How are you, Angie? Hey guys, what is up? I’m super excited for today’s uh topics today because uh oh boy, we’ve got some we’ve got a lot to talk about apparently. We absolutely do and they are certainly hot takes. There’s no doubt about that. Let’s kick things off with a question from the Omar Hamod over on Instagram who says Lesnar Cena is bad booking just because no story, no buildup and not a single word from Lesnar yet feels like it was forced just to get views and reactions. Clark, I want to get your take on this out of the gates. This is interesting to me because I feel like it’s more of a debate on like do you care about history or not? The history between Brock and Cena is undeniable. I wouldn’t call it bad booking. I’d call it slightly rushed, but we’re also aware of the fact that John Cena is not going to be appearing on weekly television anymore after that Smackdown episode. Brock made one appearance on weekly television to build this. If you want to call it bad booking, I’m not gonna argue with you too heavily other than the history behind Cena being Brock’s opponent or the first one to defeat Brock upon his return as well as the famous squash at SummerSlam. It given that history, I don’t have too much of an issue with it. Um, but I don’t know where we place the blame here because part of it is I feel like based on schedule we did have a month of John Cena appearances. Brock wasn’t in the building until this weekend. So, it’s an interesting one there. Um, I would go with I wouldn’t call it bad booking, but I would I would call it rushed booking. Do you know what? I I’m actually going to agree with this person because to your point, Clark, it is about history. If you have watched WWE since their last rivalry, SummerSlam 2012, I believe, or was it 2013? 14. I was at that 14. Flip it. I was at the Staple Center at the time, Crypto Arena. Now, you’ve been in the same building. Great building. I actually sat in the same seats we sat at Raw. Wow. Or Cena and Lesnar. How funny is that? Yeah. Well, it was a great match and a great feud. There’s no denying that. But the fact is a lot of fans are new. Yes, everybody knows John Cena. Yes, everybody knows Brock Lesnar. But the fact is this feud has basically just been Lesnar F5 Cena. Lesnar then disappeared for a month. Then Lesnar F5d Cena again, went backstage, asked for a match, and that was it. I don’t think we are going to see either of them again before Wrestle Palooa. So yes, it’s absolutely dreadful storytelling. It is dreadful. They’ve not really covered anything yet. Yes, they have another two weeks to do so, but neither of them are going to be there. So yes, it absolutely sucks. But Angie, I want to get your take. Honestly, you know how I am. I am all about the buildup. I’m all about the show don’t tell kind of thing going on. This is just a dude who decided, “Hey, I don’t I still don’t like you. I’m just going to F5 you and leave.” And like, yeah, we already have like a little bit of the history like of what happened beforehand, but that’s about it. Like why should we care about the rivalry today? Why why should we why should we care about exactly what’s going on with Brock Lesnar and John Cena for uh Russell Palooa? Like what why should we care? Like you didn’t give us that. That’s why with booking the storytelling is very important because without it we’re just sitting here going okay. So you know what I mean? Yeah. Absolutely. I mean I always like to say story is king in professional wrestling. That matters a lot more to me than just good matches and good wrestling. Especially when it’s this far into John Cena’s retirement tour because that’s the part which is bugging me as well. To your point, Ben, how good of a match can they really have? We’ve seen the squash is the most famous one. Never like a Cena back and forth. We also had Cena and Lesnar recently, remember after the Money in the Bank return during the pandemic like and and essentially we haven’t seen an outstanding match between the two. The most memorable one is the one that was booked as a squash by Miles. So, we’re not going to get a Belltobell fivestar classic out of this. And and that’s the tough part. If that was going to be the case, right, if we were going to get, oh my gosh, they’re going to paint us a Picasso right at at Russell Palooa, then it’s different. Brock Lesnar is getting all the British wrestling holds out. He’s going to be just No. Listen, it’s going to be what it’s going to be and it’s going to be fun. I’m not denying that point. And Fernando disagrees with us. He’s saying Lesnar versus Cena already has a story built in. It doesn’t need any more added to it. The new fans can do their research on the rivalry. Here’s the thing, Fernando. I watched that then and I’m not interested in it now because I’m like, listen, then it made sense why what the story was. This time, I don’t know for the life of me. The last time we saw Brock Lesnar, he was actually a good guy. Why is he now a bad guy? Where has he been for the last few years? And from a KFA perspective, we’ve got answers to none of this. To your point, Ben, there’s one thing I think that could very simply solve this. What if Brock Lesnar just said, “I’m not going to let you ride off into the sunset. I’m going to beat you the same way I did in 2014 or whatever. I would Yeah. I you you can’t have this retirement tour and just walk away like this. I’m going to beat you up for it.” He I don’t even know if he needs a Y. just simply uh uh could like necessarily like a why he wants to attack Cena like uh Brock Lesnar does Brock Lesnar wants and I came back because your whole retirement tour is bogus whatever I mean even if you wanted to give the reason like I think you just did it to sell merch if he said that oh yeah I’m all over that whatever suddenly has an issue with merch when he went to all those cities with those suplex t uh suplex city t-shirts He’s just saying if he says it’s like a corporate copout or something or like whatever it may be, just give some little nugget and it and it’s it’s simple solution. Something. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Ben. No, no, no. Uh, but the other thing I will say is the one thing that it’s missing is almost Paul Heymon. Like this is the part where usually Paul Heymon would connect the dots for Brock, but this time he obviously isn’t with him anymore. He is now with Seth Rollins. He has left him twice. And now Brock’s got to do his own homework in a sense, but it doesn’t have to be just solely Brock Lesnar for that. You can actually make it to where like in addition to what Clark’s already said. Um, you can actually make it to where you have like this amazing video promo going on and like show a little bit of like their their rivalry as it was and then have that line. I’m not going to let you ride off in the sunset. Like that would be absolutely perfect. And then like show the carnage of like the times where he just ambushes him. uh now and that would be and I think that would bring in the story a little bit and kind of save this a bit and I if I see this happen if I see this happen I’m asking for royalties for that I reckon they’re going to do that they love to do the promo packages in like the last week before the show as well and they’re not going to have either guy to actually build the match so they’re definitely going to have to rely on some pro package but the question is to your point Is Lesnar going to say something at the end or is it just going to be all old stuff? And I don’t know. Auntu says maybe he has forgotten the respect for Cena like he gained for Cody and needs to have that last fight for the heel turn. Maybe maybe maybe that might work with John Cena kicking Cody in the nuts. I mean, maybe I actually like I like what Aunt said here, though, because remember Brock did and like you mentioned the baby face thing. He shook Cody’s hand and said like, “You’re good.” Right. Um maybe that’s if if if we get some of the hypothetical things we’ve suggested and we get a handshake at the end of the match, that would be actually a cool finish and a nice bow on what I actually think is an underrated rivalry in Cena’s career. If that’s the case, it’s acceptable. I still don’t think it’s perfect booking. I still don’t think it’s the best. I think we’re being a bit too nice here. He comes back, destroys him, has one bro baggage, and then shakes his hand. That is still dreadful story time because because we’re not doing Cena on Smackdown or Raw for the foreseeable future. And because of obviously the criticism about the heel turn aspect of Cena’s retirement tour at this point, he’s got to just be Billy Joel and just play the hits. That’s why people bought tickets to the concert. Play the I think that I think you just said that perfectly. I think that’s all this actually is. They are just playing the hits and selling tickets, right? They won something for ESPN. We know Brock Lesnar and ESPN. It’s a match made in heaven and has been a match made in heaven for years now. So, look, it makes sense ultimately, even if it is a little bit frustrating. Personally, the way I’d save this is I would make sure Brock Lesnar appears once more. I don’t think he is going to, but I’d make sure he did. And I’d put him in the ring and say, “Hey, you turned heel. You did all this bad thing.” and the locker room is just willing to forgive you. Well, maybe you need somebody to come out and be like, “No, you’ve got to pay for what you did.” And I’m here to make you pay for your actions, John. I said you a phony back in 2014. And I was right. But does that not then make Cena heal once again because that gets some cheers from Well, no, because now you’re playing back into the old hands at the end of the match. Sure. Yeah, that’s fair. But then it would make sense to do that. Um, and you saying Brock will not destroy Cena. This will be his never give up match. And Fernando says Cena should win this time. That’s perfect. Never give up. And I quit match. Ooh, that would be cool if they booked it that way. I don’t think they’re going to do it. I mean, they don’t book it for this. At least his last one. His last his last match should be an I quit match. I I give up. No, cuz I I think at the end of the day too, could you imagine that’d be the worst his last words last moment in a WWE ring. He said he was never going to do it. I I like it. I like it. Now, I think a lot of people I don’t think Cena should put anybody over until his last match. I agree. But I think he’s going to put Brock over, unfortunately. No, he doesn’t need Oh gosh. No. No. We’re not doing this again. We did this yesterday. He certainly doesn’t need it. I will say though, I asked our Instagram followers. I asked our Instagram followers earlier who they think will win at Wrestle or Palooa. 65% have said John Cena and 35% have said Brock Lesnar. So clearly more people do think John Cena is going to be getting the win. And I hope that they are right. But up next, let’s go on to the next question because the next question is submitted by Super Elite Wrestling on Instagram. Clearly no bias involved when they say this. AEW in 2025 is far better than WWE. Both in terms of storytelling and wrestling, WWE is a one-trick pony. They do things well and the e drones and the feds keep bragging about it for a whole year. Clark, a big hot take here and I want to get your thoughts on it. I love this. It’s so hip-hop. I love it. It It’s like It’s so hip-hop. It’s perfect. I think about how AEW was the cool kids on the block when they first arrived. And there was a little bit of a fear of like, are they going to directly compete? Do they have the resources to directly compete? Look, they’re doing the Wednesday nights thing and oh my goodness, NXT moved to Tuesday. Now where we are, WWE dominated in 24 and 23 and they did and that was the narrative online. The IWC loves to have a nice little narrative about who’s winning and the difference. Uh this is a marathon and not a sprint and there are going to be es and flows. This is hip-hop. This is punk rock. I am inclined to agree. I’m inclined to agree because WWE has disappointed people in a way they did not in the last few years this year. And that brings the alternative AEW back into the fold. I said it during 23 and 24 so many times I felt like a broken record. Ben, you can attest to this. You would be like, “Just stop it.” I said, “EW just needs to weather the storm. They just need to keep the ship afloat.” And that’s what they’ve done. I don’t think they’ve done anything that drastically improved the product. I don’t think they’ve done anything that made it cooler or better than WWE this year, but they stayed the course. They’re back in the conversation when it comes to WWE because of the disappointment in what WWE has produced over the calendar year that’s been 2025. I think the future is bright for both companies, though. So, I want to say that full disclosure, like I’m not here to bash the WWE in any way. It is the bigger corporation. It is the brand name. It’s the Coca-Cola. It’s the Nike. It’s the Coke to the Pepsi. It’s the Nike to the Adidas. But AEW’s carved out a better space. They’ve done some little things, some little tweaks. And I would argue that they’ve had a better year if we’re making the comparison in a vacuum. They’ve had a slightly better year for themselves than the WWE has. So to summarize, Triple H sucks. WWE is going out of business next quarter and they’re losing all their TV deals. I literally said, Replay the tape. I said none of those. I’m you because Clark, I agree completely with you. I really do. Uh bang on everything you said. I mean, look, at the end of the day, WWE has had, you said it right, a disappointing year, right? They’ve disappointed us quite a few times. There’s been great moments, too, but they have just disappointed us on quite a few occasions. Meanwhile, AEW have kind of done the opposite this year when maybe the expectation for them wasn’t quite as high and that’s probably a big factor in that, too. But everything they’ve done is like, “Oh, either that’s delivered or it’s overd delivered.” Donnie Dilva, shout out Donnie says, “Weird analogy.” So the first place team that doesn’t win the World Series is most disappointing than the team that misses the playoff but is playing better than the last year. The answer is yes. That’s kind of exactly what I was alluding to is if you’re going to if you’re going to put your shoes in either organization and you’re going to assess what has been accomplished this year, the team that improved from last season h should probably have a more positive outlook than the one that failed with higher expectations. That that I believe that that’s absolutely that’s absolutely the case, right? Don’t get me wrong. The funny part is I think people get offended by that. They’re like, “Well, wait a minute. AW is still not as good.” We know that. We absolutely know that. But if you’re running either organization and you’re looking down at what has been accomplished thus far this year, there’s no argument. AW’s had a better year for AW than WWE has for WWE. If we want to make the comparison, we can have that conversation all day long. Resources aren’t the same. All of the above, but the the logic makes sense there. Absolutely. If you’re if you’re a leader of either organization and you’re looking at what has happened this year, AEW did better in relation to the expectations than the WWE did. Yeah. And just to clarify too, this isn’t in terms of business. It’s in terms of storytelling and wrestling. In terms of business, WWE have obviously had a better year. And I think you’ll struggle to find a year where they didn’t have a better year to be honest, but especially since Nick Khan’s gotten involved. Absolutely. Uh we got say here saying when you’re focused on trying to counterprogramming, trying to hurt the other competition, you’re going to end up hurting yourself. And that’s what WWE have has done this year. And I’ve said this over and over again. And not just counter programming. I don’t think it’s just about AEW here, but also just because the amount of events they’ve been doing. Yes, that means more money because more TV deals, but it also means you’re not got enough time on a weekly product to tell the stories so they can have a good enough conclusion and the conclusion means as much when it actually comes to the event itself. Mhm. Absolutely. And the funny thing, it’s almost kind of funny and this might be a little controversial to say, but um WWE is just doing the same thing that AEW did when they first debuted. when it comes down to the storytelling and everything, trying to go ahead and be all and try to compete with them on on a hey, we can tell the story better aspect at least. Uh the only difference is that AEW was a little on the nose when it came down to some of their story story lines and everything, especially when taking pot shots at uh at WWE. Um, like they did that a lot to where they winded up being that one trick pony. Now it’s um, now this year it seems like as if uh, WWE is kind of making it to where they’re trying to do better storytelling and then behind the scenes they’re all like, “Oh yeah, we can definitely outdo AEW.” When they really didn’t. Like like I said yesterday about uh about Forbidden Door, like they did excellent when it came down to that storytelling. They went ahead and basically did that show do tell which I absolutely eat up because it’s the best part of telling a story. It’s like it’s like you can really tell when someone is actually paying attention to what’s happening. like um like for instance uh there was one part during the last match where um what and excuse me like like I’ve mentioned before I do not follow AEW that well so I’m not too good on the game on the names but um what was it said uh I think it was Osprey Will Osprey that was in that match and he um was protecting the back of uh the older wrestlers’s head. What was his name? Uh, Takah Tanahashi. Sorry. Tanahashi. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He showed that he had great respect for him by like trying to almost protect him even though it’s kind of every man for him. Well, not kind of every man for himself. It was They were on the same team. They were on the same team. But like he was trying to make sure that he didn’t get hurt because not only were they teammates, but they were also but he also had that respect for the fact like he’s an older guy. He can’t take he can’t take bumps like that. But I saw the rest of that match. He can take bumps just fine. But like it still told that story of the fact that he had that respect to try and make sure that he was okay. And I really thought that that was an honorable moment for that. It really was. It made him, you know, made it clear that he was a legend and of course retiring early next year as well. Tanahashi. But we got a couple of comments. I’m going to quickly read out. We got BJ Dixon in the chat. Shout out to you. DCX Warlord saying yet WWE doesn’t see AEW as competition. Make it make sense. I mean, they might claim that, but they most certainly do. Um, we’ve got you forget what kind of people that we’re working with that are like taking charge of WWE. These are some proud some proud proud men. They’re not going to go ahead and just say, “Hey, yeah, we see them as competition.” No, they’re going to downplay it like like it’s nothing. And then in the background, they’re scrambling making sure that they could go ahead and tell a better story line than they did at a freaking Forbidden Door, which they haven’t done for the whole year because they keep falling off and it’s making me upset. I’m sorry. I’m I’m going off. No, go for it. and uses. Unfortunately, AEW doesn’t do a lot of storytelling, and when they do, it’s riddled with felonies. I mean, to be fair, you can say any any promotion, the storytelling is riddled with crimes. I mean, they’d all be in prison if this was real life, right? One of the best oneliners of all time, though. It’s hilarious. It’s just golden. It’s just riddled with felonies. They can’t. There’s so many. That was the entire attitude. I’ll say that much. But they do do stories when it’s not a million or $100,000 eightman tag match. There’s a lot of stories, right? Um D6 Warlord completely agreeing with Angie’s there saying, “Let Angie cook.” And Donnie says, “WWE sees everything as competition, sports, movies, sitcoms, and AEW.” Absolutely, Donnie. Bang on there. But up next, let’s go to the next topic and let’s talk about the question from @ notsoagicmike over on Instagram. Uh, honestly did not read out that username until I just read it out just then. Batista was overrated. I mean, what? Go for it, Angie. Go off one. What? No. No. Getting the list. Hold on. saying that he’s over actually if anything he was can I say that here uh ifit no it okay it’s not explicit though this might be a hard take he was a diva if anything like k if it was just kayfabe then like I I’ll give it to him it works really he did really well for the character Oh boy, overrated is not the word for it. Let me explain. So, we got here that he is a four-time world heavyweight champion champion and for that for that title at the time was the longest reign. Uh we also have it here there he is a two-time WWE champion. He was a three-time tag team champion twice with Ric Flair, once with John Cena. He was also a WWE tag team champ with Rey Mysterio. He won that once. Uh won the Royal Rumble twice, one in 2005 and one in 2014. Uh he headlined Wrestlemania 30 and 21. Uh, let’s see. All of those accomplishments, which isn’t a lot for someone who for the idea of being overrated. Now, where I’m saying that he might have been a diva was a fact of all of the times where he winded up leaving. Um, the first time that he left, let me go ahead and check my notes one more time on that before I go further. Uh, the first time he left was in 2010. he was not getting over too well when it came over came to the PG era. He was starting to get that back that backlash from the fans. He was also he also didn’t get booked the way that he was hoping to. Um, then there was also the 2014 return and the Roy Royal Rumble backlash. That didn’t work out too well. And because of that booking, he winded up there winded up being the fact of adding Daniel Bryan to to the main event of uh, Wrestlemania. Uh then of course the 2019 storybook ending where he had that whole thing with Triple H which honestly from a fans perspective that whole thing was an absolute joke. Like it was just him whining and complaining of how he wanted another match. He wanted it against Triple H and blah blah blah blah blah. But it didn’t work out. It didn’t work out as like that storyline to really care too much about. Um, so a lot of times it was him being a diva on screen and from the looks of it also being a diva backstage. He was trying to be Shawn Michaels when No, no, you can only do that once and that’s with Shawn Michaels. Um, and even then, oh, you know what? I’m gonna leave Shawn Michaels alone for today. For today. I will get on him another time. Anyway, the fact that you’ve had all of these chances to go ahead and make yourself that that great to where being overrated could even be here. It didn’t happen. Yeah, it didn’t happen. He decided to be a diva. He decided that he wanted to go ahead and pursue being in Hollywood. He left the WWE three three times, thrice. So, guess what? It’s It’s He’s He’s not overrated. He was kind of He was being a prick the entire time. Like, it And also might have not used the word we can’t use, but yes. Oh, did I? Oh, I’m sorry. I actually didn’t even know that one was that bad, but I think UK wise, you can’t say that one. Oh, we can’t. Okay, my bad. My bad. Sorry, YouTube. Sorry, YouTube. Sorry. But I completely agree with you, Angie, there 100%. We’ve got Donnie, who I actually I also agree with, saying overrated as an inring wrestler, 100%. But was he a great worker that knew how to be a star? Absolutely. Says that I feel Batista was underutilized. Okay, that I can agree with. I think his I feel like he was underutilized to where him wanting more out of this and almost coming off divaish would have been that would have been sufficient. But it seemed like he was asking for a lot for something that you know he just would not have fit in for. Um, and honestly I kind of blame creative more for that because of the fact that like there could have been times where they could have made something work and they tried. There was at one point where they did the um where they did the rivalry between him and Raymond Serio where um where like their friendship just came to a whole explosive end. Um, yeah, he even held him down and said, “You were supposed to be my friend.” Like, I thought it was a really cool angle for that. I don’t know what happened to that one. I don’t know what happened to that storyline. I’d have to I’ll have to go back and like really do a deep dive. One of these days I’m just going to do a deep dive of each of each wrestler and just be like, “Hey, here are some of their feuds.” But I feel like it’s been done to death already. Yeah. I mean there are definitely a lot of things you can check out from Batista. That is for sure. Auntu says Batista didn’t like to share. He was always a great actor but being a great work and putting over younger talents. He was terrible. I mean to be honest that is a fair point and Donnie saying that he was literally handed a top spot for years. That is also true. But what I can also say is from my perspective I was obviously very young when I was watching him. I always enjoyed his stuff. Whether I was loving him or hating him, I was always enjoying watching it. I I think it’s interesting to note if you if you gauge the back end of his career, I I do think there maybe is an argument for overrated and whatnot. Uh but based on the front end of his career, like he got off to one of the hottest starts you’ve ever seen. He also started later than a lot of the guys that came up in that era. But at the end of the day, if you look at Wrestlemania Hollywood, Wrestlemania 21, he was given that spot in the main event against Triple H. John Cena took on JBL and on the same show and that was John Cena’s first world title win of his entire career, but the choice for the main event was Batista and Triple H. And as far as the inring work thing is concerned, I know Donny’s been in the industry forever and knows as well as anybody, but the one match I will point to where Batista I think was at his absolute finest was that very same year at Vengeance, one of the most underrated Hell in a Cell matches I’ve ever seen against Triple H. That is a very underrated match. The spine buster on the steps in the middle of the ring is absolutely lethal. The back and forth, I thought that was his masterpiece. I I think that’s to Donny’s point. He was a great great worker, right? No. No. Donnie is saying he wasn’t a great worker, but he was a star. And And I do agree. I I agree with that. The only match I point to where I was like, man, Dave really painted a story in the ring that that was sublime was that one. That That’s the only one. He said he was a great worker. He said he was a great worker, not annoying. Let’s bring that comment back up real quick. Nobody can argue his resume, which he was a great worker. Overrated as an inring worker 100%. Was he a great worker that No, in ring wrestler. Wrestler and worker are two different things. Okay, whatever. Right. I mean, yeah, they go. He’s not out doing Zack Saber Jr. here, but what he does do, he does very, very well. He sells it well. It’s believable. and all of those points, but he’s not going to be suddenly pulling out these moves which you’ve never seen before. And you know, but worker, there you go, Donnie. My bad. I was trying to actually say I agree with you. You got the wording mixed up there, my guy. Louise throws me on the spot like that. But now you got Ben all upset and I have to do the last segment. Oh gosh, you’ve done Look what you’ve done, Donnie. Look what you made me do. Up next, let’s move on to the next question. Last question of the day submitted by Uday_TV, who says, “Roman and Seth will finish next to Rock and Austin as the top rivalry in the history of the business.” I mean, two huge huge shouts here out of the gates. Firstly, seeing with that much confidence that Rock and Austin is the best in the history history of the business as a big show itself to be honest. But Angie, what’s your take on both of these claims? I who so um personally personally I would say it’s one of the best rivalries. I wouldn’t say it’s the best rivalry, but then again, saying something could be the best rivalry is more up to said person because I’m sure if we asked Inasio, he’d probably say something back in like the golden era of it being the uh the best one. But I digress on that. Um, I would say I would personally say one of the best rivalries was with Trish and Lita. But again, I digress. Um, but if we’re talking about on the men’s side of things, um, at least comparing Seth and Roman to this one, I just I don’t know about that. I feel like there there’s elements that needs to be added here to make it more crucial like how it was with um with with that time. Um because like I don’t know cuz like there’s I feel like it’s almost there. It just needs something. You ever just have it to where like you’re making you’re making some food and you go to do a taste test and it’s like it’s missing something and you don’t know what it is. That’s how I feel about this. Like I’m sure it can be just as great, but if anything if anything that I’ve had the most fun watching involving Seth is Seth and CM Punk because it’s just absolute grudge. Like if you like it’s one of those things like if if like two wrestling fans got mad at each other and one of them was holding a grudge and one was just like, “Hey, are you still mad?” And they send you a picture of Seth Rollins. Yeah. Yeah. You’re in trouble. I’m going to treat you the same way that Seth treats CM Punk. Yeah. No, that’s that’s how you It’s going to be a long beef. That one is It’s going to be a long beef and it’s going to be an entertaining beef. So like something like that I would say like would be one of the best rivalries at least in today’s in today’s WWE um storytelling. Like that’s the best one right now. The one thing I will say on the Seph Roman rivalry is this right? They’ve actually never had like a proper blowoff match because every time they’ve ever wrestled, either it was like some DQ finish or something or there was something such as Dean Ambrose cashing in afterwards, something like that. They’ve never had a one-on-one Wrestlemania match, whereas Austin and Rock had multiple. So, for that reason, I don’t think they can be compared. But let’s say when it’s all finished, if they do have a couple of Wrestlemania matches, and I think we could be heading towards that this year, then who knows? Maybe. But right now, nowhere close for me. What’s your thoughts, Clark? Absolutely no. What in the world are we talking about here? What are we doing here? Are you kidding me? That is the biggest joke I’ve ever heard in my life. First of all, Rock and Austin traded victories. As Ben just mentioned, Roman and Seth mostly triple threats and funky finishes. They’ve never In fact, Roman Reigns has never even really beat Seth Rollins. Not even once. Not even not even with a spear in the middle of the ring. Never tapped him. Never. Nothing. And then they dress up like their old group half the time. This isn’t even close. the honest to goodness and I hate to have to say this and choke this out and I can’t believe I was put on the spot on this program today where I have to say this but Roman and Cody is significantly closer than Roman and Seth. They’ve traded victories at at WrestleMania’s. They It’s 1-1. Roman and Cody is nine miles closer. And I can’t believe I was forced to say something that just makes me sick to my stomach about Cody Rhodess like that. But at the end of the day, this is a joke. No way. Roman and Seth, Rock and Austin? Absolutely not. The Rock and Austin were never buddies. Roman and Seth are such good buddies. If the network was still up, you can go watch them do car rides together on Ride Along. Like the is this is not the same at all. This is not the same at all. It’s not even close to the same and it never will be the same. I don’t care if they trade victories for the next 10 years at WrestleMania. This will never be Rock and Austin. I don’t agree to that length, but I don’t also think that it’s going to reach rock and Austin at you says this. Sh. I think this is a really good comment. Seph and Roman when all is done will be classified as a masterpiece. That I agree with, but it definitely doesn’t have the level of importance that Rock and Austin did. No, not close. And Fernando says, “Ricky Steamboat versus Ric Flair is the best rivalry with Austin versus Rock.” A close second. There’s actually a lot of rivalries I actually think you can make an argument are better than Austin and Rock before Austin and Rock. I don’t even know if Steamboat Flare is the best Flare rivalry, though. I’d say Flare and Dusty before. I’d say Steamboat. That one I I think Flare and Dusty has almost age better with time though, too. To Hard Times, Ben. Hard Times. One of the best permac times. What do you mean it aged better? Of course. It’s like a fine wine. Everything ages better that time. No, fair point. You can make that point 100%. But at the time, Steamboat and Flower I definitely say was bigger. Uh Hogan and Macho man’s another great show as well. There’s quite a few Hogan ones you can argue as well to be honest, which did a lot in terms of importance in the growth of the industry. But the atomic mers is exactly until one pins another clean one-on-one. No ridiculous pins, no BS, an actual victory between the two. If anyone was to pair it, I’d say Roman Brock. Wow, that’s an even bigger shout. H I disagree, but I I like the confidence on it. I think you can argue it. That is for sure. But say he says Rock versus Austin made an era of attitude. Roman and Seth won’t even main event at Wrestlemania. They could do that though. Nobody thousand% could main event at Wrestlemania. Nobody said that. It just needs a little bit of paprika in that and I feel like that that would be all it needs. But like John and it’s always missing it’s missing something for it to get there. But like these are really good points on this. Um, also like it we could have got actually no no we almost had that kind of match. There was a match between Seth and Roman and I believe it was a false count anywhere match and it was one of the times where Seth was playing the mind games and came out to the Shield music and had had the gear and everything too. Royal Rumble 22 I believe so because he because Roman said the line he won’t let me let it go like it was something like that. It was like he won’t he won’t let me forget that kind of thing. That would have been it right there. That would have been it ended in DQ. Um did it end? Yeah. Technically Rollins won but he didn’t win the title so it ended in DQ. So, Reigns has still technically never beaten Rollins because Rollins won that match. So, Rollins should have had a rematch. But no, they swiftly moved on. Uh cuz I think that was at the point where they kind of realized, oh way, Rollins has never beaten, sorry, Reigns has never beaten Rollins. Let’s probably drag this out for a couple more years so we can make a big program out of it rather than this throw together match. But that does bring us to the end of the show, guys. Thank you so much for watching. If you did enjoy, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button and check out this week’s edition of the Wrestling Republic podcast with me, Clark, and Shard, where we discuss our takes of the week and AJ Lee returning. It’s out now on the Wrestling Republic YouTube channel. But thank you to Angie, thank you to Clark, and thank you to everybody in the comments. We will be back same time, same place tomorrow. Pa
