On today’s episode of Wrestling Republic’s Daily Broadcast…ITS SUNDAY FUNDAY! Ben Allison hosts Wrestling Heaven Or Hell where contestants Clark, Dez, and Ignacio debate what they think should be banished to wrestling hell, and what deserves to be in wrestling heaven.
Todays episode will be LIVE at 8:00pm BST / 3:00pm EST / 12:00pm PST!
Wrestling Republic’s Daily Broadcast is a 45 minute daily podcast (with video) discussing the days wrestling news and all of the latest shows. The show is hosted by Ben Allison, Clark Taylor and Shad Huda, with a cast of rotating panelists to join the discussion. To join in with the discussion, you can LIVE comment throughout the show via YouTube.
Check out our website for all the latest wresting news, opinions, lists and reviews:
WrestlingRepublic.com
Follow Wrestling Republic:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/wrestlingrepublic
Twitter – https://twitter.com/wraslinrepublic
🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5510335579291648
[Music] We are live 364 days a year. What are we doing here? If Dom turns at Summerslam, I’m shaving my mustache off. I’ve 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 me. [Music] Good afternoon from Swansea wrestling fans. I am your host Ben Allison and you are watching Wrestling Republic’s daily broadcast 24 hours after the Crown Jewel Premium live event which was undoubtedly a fantastic show. But of course here at Wrestling Republic something else happened 24 hours ago and that was that. Me, Clark, and Shard all were unavailable last minute for the show. Me and Clark both came down with a flu, but well, sorry, I came down with a mild flu. Clark, his story is a lot more dramatic and we’ll get into his straight away. Clark, how are you feeling now? Oh, it’s not too dramatic. If you’ve ever seen Michael Jordan in the flu game that he played against the Utah Jazz, I will not let It was pretty dramatic. Things like that mess me up. I’ll be here for Sunday. I can’t believe I missed yesterday, but like Jordan in the flu game, I’m about to put 40 on the Utah Jazz today. I can’t wait for this. I love He’s playing it down. He’s playing it down. He was very ill. He’s so coming through strong today. Uh but Josh is still going to uh criticize him. I’m the same way. I couldn’t even I couldn’t do it two days in a row. No joke, Josh. Thank you for filling in, man. I really do appreciate that. It means a lot. I was sick as a dog yesterday. Let’s put it that way. I don’t want to get into gross details. Archie and Josh 100% pulled through yesterday and so did Anthony doing a fantastic job hosting. But joining us today to play Wrestling Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, a Crown Jewel special, we also have Dez. How are you, Dez? I’m doing good. I’m glad you guys are doing better. Yesterday, I was off Instagram the entire day. Glad everybody’s not sick. We’re all good. We’re here for heaven, hell, purgatory. Crown Jewel. It was a really good show in my opinion. One of my favorite of the year. But let’s get into it. Absolutely. And we are going to have a fun time getting into it. But also joining us today, we have the always controversial Ignasio. How are you, Ignasio? I’m feeling pretty good, Ben. Sorry you all had to go through that yesterday, but just imagine the way you felt yesterday. That’s the way I feel every time I watch AW now. But today, we’re not talking about a Today we’re not talking about AW, we’re talking about WWE. And it was a good, solid pay-per-view. And you know what? I think the fans are more interested today, Ben, on how you guys, you and Clark specifically, are going to screw me out of today’s game. Because every time I play this game, you guys shack me. So, let’s get to the show. Let’s see how we’re going to Let’s see how you’re going to do it. Let’s see what excuses you all come up with. I still have a I still have a stuff. He knows you can’t just break me like that. There we are. Don’t always do the camera angles. Yeah, we’re all here. I still have a stuffy nose, man. You can’t just break me with that with one liners like that when I’m not muted. That is absolutely brilliant. Well, what I wanted to do is have a lugie in the middle of your intro. I’m going to be keeping it fair and square today. I’m going to be refereeing this down the line. Right guys, if you have not watched a wrestling heaven, hell, and purgatory before, the rules are really simple. Each of our contestants say something from rest say something good from crown jewel which they want to put into wrestling heaven and I pick the best argument. The same for wrestling hell and the same for wrestling purgatory which means something to be improved. It is always fun but today is the crown jewel special. So it has to be something relating to crown jewel and it has to be something specific as well. A general match is no good. It has to be a specific point, otherwise everyone’s going to just choose AJ Styles versus John Cena, which is a conversation for later in the show. Right, without further ado, let’s get into wrestling heaven. Clark, kick us off. This one to me was a no-brainer. Like you said, everyone might pick Cena versus Styles because it was amazing. I’m going to pick a part of it. Alicia Taylor being handed the note by John Cena. But Alicia Taylor is specifically who I want to send to heaven for this because the delivery on the intro for AJ Styles made my day. She did more for TNA in 90 seconds than the TNA NXT partnership has done over the course of months. They announced the big crossover show, Invasion, and then they had to change the name to not Invasion. They changed it to something else. And I can’t remember what that something else was, but we’ll get to that. Showdown. Showdown. They changed it to showdown. And guess what? It didn’t do anything. But you know what made TNA look cool as could be? Alicia Taylor yesterday. She absolutely nailed that intro. It was cool. My favorite were both AJ and John Cena’s facial expressions during it. I love a good ring announcement. This was up there with some of my absolute favorites in wrestling history and I’d love to send it to heaven because you know who really deserves it? Licia Taylor. She’s the one who delivered the message. That is a fantastic shout. But I do have one issue with it, right? Because to your point, Cena delivered it. Why is she getting the credit? He wrote it. But that’s fine. I understand that. But at the Grammys, does the songwriter go up to get the award or does the artist get the award? Shout out Julia Michaels. my nominee for this year. I don’t get to vote, but if I do, the artist goes up and gets the award. And that’s the truth. It doesn’t matter how good of a piece of paper John Cena handed to anybody. If Alicia Taylor doesn’t deliver that one properly, it isn’t as impactful. And that’s who I think deserves it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying John Cena didn’t play a role in this. I’m not saying AJ Styles by having the career he’s had, didn’t play a role in this. What I am saying is Alicia Taylor made this what it was with an unbelievable delivery and the organic on the spot. I don’t want to know if it’s true that she knew that she was going to be doing it beforehand. To be handed a piece of paper and then still be that professional and and deliver in that way. That’s another reason I think that that Alicia deserves the credit here for going to heaven because to adapt on the spot like that is not usual for a ring announcer. It is usual for a professional wrestler in the ring in a promo, but it’s not usual for a ring announcer. Well, you know what, Clark, I will agree with you. A fantastic take there. We got a few comments I want to quickly read out. We got Mary in the comments. Shout out to you. Uh, we got DCX Warlord, uh, who is not a fan of Ignario’s takes, but is a fan of TNA and TNA Bound for Glory is indeed today. We will talk a little about it on the show tomorrow for sure. Uh, and uh, Josh isn’t happy that uh, De Cowboy fan. I I don’t think anybody’s happy that you’re a Cowboys fan. It’s like, it’s like back at home, it’s the same thing every time. My friends who don’t even watch football telling me, “Wow, your team’s trash.” Like, thanks. Well, my favorite part is we had one Giants fan, so we have the whole NFC East cover. One Giants fan, that’s Drizzy. Drizzy. Shout out decided to be a Steelers fan. He gave up on the Giants. Then Jackson Dartton goes out and beats the defending Super Bowl champion. Fly Eagles fly. What do you think about Dartton’s scat, Josh? Comments on that one. Wow. We got Bernardo saying go Bears. And is M and is mids is saying that Seth carried the whole PL yesterday. A big take. No doubt about it. But Dez, what is your take? What from Crown Jewel do you want to send to wrestling heaven? Well, the comic kind of did it. it was going to be Seth Rollins because I love that Seth Rollins won. Look, I’m a big Cody Rhodess fan, but if Cody Rhodess won, what is the point, right? I know it’s for the Crown Jewel Championship and I get all that, but the story they told with Seth Rollins finally beating Cody Rhodess, not to mention using that Rolex that Cody gave him at Wrestlemania 40 and not to mention also Seth did it without any help. This makes him look like a legitimate threat and someone who’s in serious contention to be one of the top champions in WWE. I’m going to send Seth Rollins a performance all the way to Wrestling Evan. Well, that is a great take, Dez, because like that comment said, he did have a fantastic show and he also had a show where he finally overcame Cody Rhodess, the one who he couldn’t beat in 22 matches, but the streak is over. DCX Wlord saying Arsenal are the goats. Chelsea are like the Dallas Cowboys. Great comparison. Fair enough. Absolute trash. In in even in the Premier League, I’m getting a dick. That’s nuts, dude. Yeah, I actually think they’re the Tottenham in all honesty because they never win anything. I think Tottenham’s the actual answer. I think that is the comparison to make. Spurs compared to the column. Yeah, Spurs. That’s actually what we consider a slur in uh in North London. Oh, sorry. You have to spell it with a star. If you don’t spell it with a star, you’ll get banned from Arsenal forums. So, yeah, that’s against the rules. But Fernando saying, “Cody might be the quarterback, but Seth is the MVP of the WWE.” But Ignasio, I want to get your take. What from Crown Jewel do you want to send to Wrestling Heaven? Well, everybody’s made some good some good points so far. I liked Dez’s uh assessment of the the the last match, the main event, but I think I’m going to go with Stephan Vaker and uh Tiffany Stratton specifically how uh Stephanie really established herself and showed everybody that she is a ring general and that that’s the main reason why she’s in the positions she’s in is she she’s flourished. Uh, and given the reason for her mediocre rise, I think it’s because of her ring general ship because, you know, and I know Shad doesn’t not not going to like this, but with Tiffany Trans Stratton, Tiffany Stratton, she can’t um she can’t lead a match by her own. I think we’ve seen that in matches in the past that she’s not ready for that. And I don’t think she’s ready for the position uh that she’s in. But when people like when she goes up against people like Charlotte Flair and Stephanie Vaker and then more a little bit more people with a little bit more experience, the veterans, uh they bring out the best in her. That’s why she’s in the business that she’s in. It’s not because she can lead a match on her own because when they put her up against uh more veterans, people with more in ring uh finesse that she fl she flourishes. And that’s because she flourished yesterday because of Stephanie Becker. And you know, she has the she has the look, she has the sex appeal of course, but I think it’s really because her ring generalship and uh the m really that she is in the ring and because she has a lot of international experience. She’s able to do a lot of things and she’s going to be the focal point for WWE going into Latin America and Mexico. Uh, and I think they’re going to eventually do more uh, pay-per-views there, more ples because of stars like Dominic Mysterio and Stephanie Vagerin because she showed that yesterday. That’s what she really showed me. So, she proved why she’s in the position that she even though she’s only been there for 15 months is because of her ring general ship. Do you know what I mean? I don’t know how I feel about this the Tiffany Stratton part of that take, but Stephanie Vay did very much impress. Now, Clark, I saw your face during that. What’s your response? Uh, honestly, I I actually I agree with him on how great Vakair was on the show. My my face was actually more related to a comment that I was reading on the side. I’m not going to lie to you. What was the comment? Uh, it’s the it’s Donniey’s about the bronze and Heymon. It’s It’s So, Donnie is saying Haymon’s comment to the bronze that they know what happens if Seph loses is foreshadowing a huge split at Mania. That could be very very stuff I’ll talk about later, but I actually I I really have no unfortunately I have no argument against uh what Ignosio said because I do believe Vakair showed up. That’s not the game. The the Tiffany Stratton stuff. The game is you’re meant to defend your take and slam his where the issue is. I believe that my take on paper is is slightly a nudge better because I think it it mattered more when it comes to what happened in what I spoke about a and that’s enough for me at least in my eyes when it comes to this one. But I I I’m with Ignasio enough on Vakair that I have a hard time arguing against that specific part of his take. Tiffany Stratton I think is better than Ignasio will give credit for as well. And and it takes two to tango. No doubt. I thought that match was excellent. But um but for me, I’m going to go with I’m going to go with my original stuff. I I think I delivered. Well, Clark lost this round, Dez. But what about you in terms of why do you think Rollins winning should go in instead of Stephanie Ver? Does it cement him as one of the top stars in WWE? You know, we already said did not cement uh Stephanie Vera as one of the top stars. Oh, of course it did. Yeah, I agree with Stephanie winning. That was 100% the right call. Plus her beating Tiffany who’s undefeated that propels her like all the way up to the sky. WWE is really high on her. I already told you guys in the next year or two we are going to be talking about Stephanie Ver the same way we talk about Ria Ripley. She’s becoming that popular and she deserves it because she’s fantastic. I will say I agree with him. What is going on here? I can’t believe Alicia Taylor got eliminated. Alicia Taylor did great too, man. She’s did enough for herself that I didn’t need to double argue it. I mean, Donny’s jumping off train as well withio here, but Dez has got this one, says Mary. But what do I think? Right. Yeah. This week, as you guys know, watching wrestling heaven and hell, I always have a different lever to pull to represent something going to heaven, hell, and purgatory. That’s a lever for the Americans. this week, right? Obviously, it was in Australia. So, in the scheme of things, I’ve decided to use the Eiffel Tower from front as my lever. Uh, obviously, it’s very related. So, there we go. The thing going into wrestling heaven is Stephanie Vair. Ignasio, you are one point up. You’re leading. There we go. Stephanio got it. Unbelievable. Ask and you shall receive in the intro. the manifestation is there. It’s true. All those uh girls Instagram bios are coming true. But up next, guys, let’s talk about wrestling. Hell, because look, you guys have all said it was a very good show. But look, even the best wrestling show ever will have some issues, some specific issues. And out of the gate stairs, I want to find out what your biggest issue from Crown Jewel was. All right. I was actually having a tough time really thinking about this, but I read the ESPN reviews. I did some research and there was a there was a review that I saw that it hit me and it’s this Tiffany Stratton versus Stephanie Vaker. The match is great. We should send the fact that it’s too short into Wrestling Hell. This match was shorter than Brock Lesnar versus John Cena at Wrestle Palooa, right? I get it. Brock and Cena, it’s a squash match. but to have a squash match be longer than the Crown Jew women’s championship that showcases both the women’s world champion and the women’s champion. That match being shorter than Cena versus Lesnar. I’m sorry that’s ridiculous, man. The match it was good. Look, I agree, Tiffany. She is green, right? But she’s getting there. She’s improving and we’re starting to see little snippets of it. It takes two to tango and I feel like these two women should have more time to go. I was enjoying the match, right? Tiffany the counter into the Alabama slam. You had the Swanton. They had great chemistry together. I just don’t understand why the women just get so much short time. Let them have their time. Give them like 15 20 minutes. Just let them do their thing, man. They’re two of the Well, Stephanie is one of the best wrestlers in the company right now. And to make Tiffany look like a stronger champion because her rank really hasn’t been that great booking wise, you got to have the woman really go out and perform. So, I’m going to send a time limit to help. Well, as we all know, Tiffany Stratton is a fan of Wrestling Republic. As you guys know, if you watch the uh intro, right? She reposted Shard’s post before saying that he was speaking facts. Of course, when he said she was better than Okarda, I think something quite a few people here would probably disagree with, but I do completely agree with you, Dez. It got too short, right? The men’s match got like 20 minutes extra. The tag team match later in the show got a lot longer as well. at Ignasio. What do you want to send from this show to wrestling hell? Well, I’ll tell you what my runner up is. My runner up was Alicia Taylor’s hairdo. That’s for sure. I think I would that came pretty close. I mean, it was so distracting. And by the way, I don’t think she’s as good as you guys say she is. I don’t even think she should be on TV, but we’ll get to that some other time. Uh uh man, I was conflicted uh between another two, but I’m gonna go with uh I’m gonna go with Bron’s the finish with Bronson Reed and and Roman Reigns, you know, and I get why they did it. They’re they’re rack cracking up, ranking up for war games and all that good stuff. But I really don’t think it does Bronty Reed any favors for them to have a finish like that. You know, I think it doesn’t hurt Roman either if he gets beat flat in the middle of the ring like one, two, three, fair and square. I don’t think it does anything to him or his reputation or if anything, it would probably build to the storyline that you know, baby Roman does need help to beat uh Bronson or or Braun Breaker Seth Rollins. Maybe he can’t do it on his own. And I think that would have been better coming out of the match than the schmos with everybody’s interference and so forth. Uh, I think, you know, it would have helped the u Bronson a lot better if he just would have beat Roman Flat. I thought it was it was a solid match for what they’re building building towards, but all the interference and and and stuff, you know, and Haymon’s involved and I know Haymon’s involved and you know, the Usos and you know, it’s all good and well, but I just think it we we didn’t really need that, you know, for for I think it would have made the vision stronger as a whole going into War Games and going into what Seth Rollins is building as a whole with the faction and what Heymon’s uh building as well with the faction. if he just would have beat a top star like Roman Reigns fair and square, it would have made him look a lot stronger. And I think that’s what they needed. That’s a very interesting point. I’ll say that much. It’s not actually something I’ve heard, but I will get to it in just a minute. Uh I disagree with you on Alicia Taylor. That is for sure. And so does DCX Warlord. But Clark, I want to find out what from this show you want to banish to the deep, dark depths of wrestling hell. There’s one thing from this show, Ben, that very obviously needs to be sent to wrestling hell. And if you’ve heard me in the past, you followed the program for a long time. You know my distaste for uh tie clips. But basically, this fellow has been wearing a waist tie clip for years now. Cody Rhodess weight belt needs to go straight to wrestling hell. And I’ll give you the reason right now. It represents the two lowest points of his career. Number one, I’m a little salty. the Cubs loss yesterday, but just like Cub fans when he was in AEW and he tossed that goofy belt into the stands, they threw it back like an away team home run right at him. Oh yeah. The second instance in his career was when he got a little too cocky on the bench press and snapped that old pec trying to trying to lift more than he could. And guess what he was obviously wearing in the gym at that moment? A goofy weight belt. Stop it with the weight belt. No one cares anymore. He’s not going to whip anybody with it. If anything, someone’s going to take it from him and hit him over the back with that stupid big leather heavy thing. It looks ridiculous. It’s stupid. The match was annoying because he hit 9 million finishers in the match and and Seth still wins. It It’s It’s egregious to me that he continues to wear this weight belt just to pull the wool over our eyes and have these honest, hardworking people buy merch that’s irrelevant. Wow. Okay. Clark’s distaste for Cody continues. Some things change, some things stay the same. First tie clips, now weight belt. I mean, basically just anything that Cody wears on him at any time. Jack Island in the comments saying it’s next level. His, hey, shout out Jack. We’ve got Danny in the chat sticking up for Alicia Taylor, but saying she should be in NXT with Mike Rome needing to be on Raw. How about put Mike Roman on Smackdown? Get rid of that Smackdown guy. I don’t like him at all. And put him in wrestling hell. And um and Donnie is convinced that Clark actually has a secret. We’re like best buddies. We go a couple times a week. Yeah. We go up a few times a week. He actually comes up with He actually does all his attires. He’s actually Cody’s uh he’s the commissioner of my family. Yeah. We’re members of the same club. Hit the pool. Look, I’m going to be honest, guys, right? I’m going to summarize on this one, and I’m going to summarize quite quickly. Clark, uh, Cody’s weight belt, it it sells. It looks cool. It does the job. Kids get it. It makes their childhoods. I mean, it no, just no. It’s not going to wrestling hell. Ignario, up next, it’s you. And you said the finish to Bronson Reed, Roman Reigns. And look, I see where you’re coming from. Roman Reigns could take a loss, but it wasn’t like Bronson Reed was going to lose that match before Braun came out. It was still the middle of the match at that point. And not only that, but at the same time, Roman Reigns is meant to be the biggest baby face other than Cody in this company at this point. So, he didn’t really need to lose cleanly. And to say it doesn’t benefit Bronson, I think is completely and utterly false because Bronson Reed is the only the only the second person in Single’s capacity to pin Roman Reigns since 2020. And he’s only the second person ever to ping both Casualty Okada and Roman Reigns. And that is a big thing, a huge thing to have on his resume. It is. So for that reason, that isn’t going to wrestling hell either. But the one issue which I really did have with this show was the length for Stephanie Vair versus Tiffany Stratton. So Dez, congratulations. Where’s the Eiffel Tower? Here it is. That is going to wrestling hell. Got the belt right here. Here we go. Cody’s waist belt. It’s not better than this belt. Operating from a difficult spot here. There you go. I would have also accepted, just so you guys know, in terms of answers, I would have also accepted uh singing the American anthem in Australia. That was one of the things I would have accepted. And the other one I would have accepted uh was that uh crunchy title package. You you’ve got to show three Americans today, Ben. No, no, I’ll tell you why. No, I No, I’ll tell you why. Straight up. They don’t do it in the UK. They don’t do it in Saudi Arabia. So why are they now suddenly doing it in Australia? Because we’re buddies with them, dude. Unlike y’all. Till you need us. Did you show that crowd? Till you need us. Unlike y’all. Also, you need way more buddies than you call with you guys than they are. Out of necessity. Big brother. Oh, out of necessity. Is it big brother? Big brother. Who you going to call? Ghostbusters. Donnie says people are literally talking about Brunson as a future world champion since that match. It has totally changed the way he is perceived. Oh, wait till you hear my purgatory tick, Johnny. I wouldn’t go that far. Well, really, you know what? Maybe I mean, we got this transition then. No, we’re not going to let you go first, Clark. Actually, Ignasio deserves a chance to go first. Ignasio, what do you want to send to Wrestling Purgatory? Something from Crown Jewel, which should be improved. uh was kind of hard. It’s going to be kind of difficult for me to explain, but not the match itself. I mean, the match itself was very good. I thought Cody and um Cody and Seth Rollins was really good. Whenever they’re you’re going to put them together, I thought that it’s it’s going to be good. But I just don’t think that the match itself should have been on the pay-per-view because I think with a match of their magnitude, with their status, it it it’s bigger than a pay-per-view like this. It’s, you know, Crown Jewels, it’s a it’s not a Royal Rumble. It’s not a Wrestlemania, but I just think there’s more meat on the bone, more of a story they could have told leading up to the match. And I think that story is best told on the way to like a big grand event. Like I think Seth Ro I think uh uh Cody Rhodess against the vision is more it’s a bigger story or more impactful than even CM Punk against the vision and with built right I think that can be it can be the vision trying to topple the kingdom of Cody Rose that he’s built for himself his brand and I think you know I don’t think this match should have been on the show because it deserved to be on a bigger platform is what I’m trying to say they could have a tag team match and have the the crown jewel championship for something else. I know it’s champion versus champion and and all good good stuff. And that’s the concept that they’re building into. But I just thought that that this match should have been on a bigger platform. I think it should have been something else. I think could have been a tag match. They could have had Punk and and Cody against Rollins and somebody else or against the the tag team. I don’t know. I just I just think that it it shouldn’t have happened at at this event even even though it was a good match and there’s some criticisms about some of the moves and and the false finishes and stuff, you know, that so that we were talking about before the show started, but false finishes, I mean, if you’re talking about false finishes, I mean, that that happens weekly on uh uh weekly after big moves, big finishes, and then you have a false finish, that happens weekly on both shows with both major promotions. I’m kind of numb to it by now. So, that’s not really a deal with me really anymore. I’ll criticize it all day long, but uh it was a good match, but I just think they they just they needed a bigger platform for this match. I think there’s more meat on the bone. We’ll probably see it again in the future, the f between these two. But, yeah, I just take the match, the whole match itself. I think I think this was just too big for him. I think it should have been something else. Do you know what, Ignasio, that is actually a very, you know, fair take. I mean, this is a match which could main event a Wrestlemania. There is no doubt about it. Especially like you said with the history there and Danny is saying I think the entire Crown Jewel concept should go away. It is pretty pointless when you look at the big picture. And I mean look again I I think that’s a fair take as well. The flip side of the argument will be WWE has kind of been a little bit stale since SummerSlam. So doing a match of this magnitude now I guess you know and it did actually bring some more interest to the weekly product. But at the same time, you are right. This could have been a Wrestlemania match. But Clark, I know you were dying to give your take on this one. What do you want to send to Wrestling Purgatory? And no pressure because if you don’t win this, you are out obviously, and Purgatory isn’t always an interesting one, but I’ll say this. This was supposed to be the big night for The Vision. And if you look strictly at results, it was the big night for The Vision. You get the victory from big Bronson Reed like Donnie said over in the comments that he’s a future world champion and finger quotes people have been talking about that I don’t know the people I haven’t met one I do all of them on the daily yesterday Josh is real numbers not Archie’s real I apologize numbers I don’t listen to those people but why don’t we not cut me off when I’m rolling here dog at the same time at the same time at the end of the day when it comes to purgatory I’m going to have to quote the Great Ron Truth. Ron the truth killings. Our truth. And that’s I’m talking about you, Paul Heymon. Paul Heymon needs to be sent to purgatory for that night. He’s supposed to be the most creative guy in the industry. Why did I not feel shocked when the opening match was Roman Reigns against Bronson Reed and Bronson Reed picks up the victory? Why didn’t I feel shocked? Why didn’t it feel like the biggest victory of his career? Why did I feel like it was already written in stone? Not only that, the way it damages Roman Reigns in certain ways and then everyone’s going to do the, “Oh, he’s teflon.” I don’t care if they’re Teflon. Stop it. It is Roman Reigns. He doesn’t need to be teflon. He needs to win all the time. Have him beat CM Punk. I don’t care. But Bronson Reed’s biggest victory needs to feel not telegraphed. And guess what felt telegraphed? Bronson Reed’s victory. And so did Seth Rollins. And so does the idea of what’s going to happen down the road with the split. So does all of it. Paul Heymon, this is on you. You’re in purgatory because you’ve built an excellent group filled with talent. Whether it’s Seth Rowan, whether it’s Bron Breaker, whether it’s Bronson Reed, but last night was supposed to be the not the Swan song, but the big moment for the group. And it didn’t feel like a big moment for the group. It felt like a big moment for individuals out. And that is that is why I want to send it to purgatory because I want to see a united front until we get to the split. I understand the teases of the split, but let’s make it look united from here on out. And that’s why it belongs in purgatory. And I hate to do that to someone I respect as much as Paul Heymon, but that’s why it’s purgatory and it’s not heaven or hell. Do you know what, Clark? I think if you’re going to go in that direction, the better move would have actually been to target the main event because the main event felt obvious because of a promo which Paul Heyaymon did on Monday as well. That’s part of the thing as well. It’s part of my argument as well, Ben, and I didn’t need honestly like uh look at Cody Rhodess hit every every move he could on Seth Rollins, right? And it just wasn’t enough. That’s okay. But it also it it’s undeniable what took us to get here and or what it took for us to get here and to have that competitive of a match and now know it’s what 1 and 22. It’s not that much better. It’s not enough better. Yeah. Well, it is you need to beat him more I think definitively. I think he needed to beat him more definitively. But it was pretty definitive. But it he didn’t outclass. He used to watch but he’s a heel. Of course, of course he was going to do that. You got to protect the WWE champion. And I’m glad he used the watch. This is why it’s purgatory and not hellbent. But what I’m saying is it it needed to be more definite. It needed to be more to take the crossroads off the top and kick out felt gross. It didn’t feel like oh my goodness, no matter what Cody does. I agree on that point. Well, no matter what Cody does, that’s going to kick out. It didn’t feel like that. It felt like what? Like why? That’s the thing. Paul Haymon’s promo on Monday when he said the vision will split up if Seth loses. That was the issue here. Exactly where the issue is and that’s why I have presented it for purgatory and not have that’s not Bronson Reed. Like I’m going to be honest. I thought Bronson was going to win for the country. Nothing to do with Paul Heymon. Think about this though. It’s The Vision is a group led by Paul Heyaymon and Seth Rollins. Essentially both matches are factors. And I didn’t just mention the Bronson Reed match. also mentioned the Cody match as well in my argument and I I believe that both are the reasons and and and that’s the thing Clark just be happy that Cody lost DCX Warlord. Normally I would be but it just didn’t it didn’t feel like and I he used the watch like I begged for all week but it just didn’t it was close but not quite there. That’s why it’s purgatory. It’s right in the middle for me. Interesting. Very interesting indeed. Dez, you were up last. What do you want to send to the deep not the deep depths the I guess middle ground of I mean where is purgatory? What is purgatory? I I don’t know either. I know the Uso Penitentiary that it’s meant to be a place where things are like where you’re awaiting judgment essentially. So the verdict’s still out on but I don’t know where it is. That’s a great question for another day. But TZ to the wrestling division. All right. Um, this was pretty difficult for me to really think about because I feel like there was most of the stuff was honestly pretty good and we already talked about wrestling hell. I get this is like a really small nitpick, but I guess I I just got I have to take which is probably Rio Ria and Eio Sky winning here. Like I I like the idea they wanted, you know, Ria is the hometown girl and I understand that, but I feel like if they had the Kabuki Warriors win, it would have made them look more dominant, right? Having the Kabuki Warriors pinning Ria Ripley, it’s almost like telling Io Sky like, “All right, you want to side with her? She lost. We’re better off without you.” With Ria and Io winning, the Kabuki Warriors, they aren’t really a threat. You know what I mean? Like they are and they aren’t. So, I feel like for them to become an even bigger threat in a women’s division, one that should be feared because Asuka, like she’s scary, she’s crazy, you know? She’s being super toxic to Kyrie Saint. Even though Kyrie Saint did take the bullet for Asuka, pushing her out of the way. Like, it’s really small, but I guess if you had the Kabuki Warriors winning, it would make them look more uh how should I say, more a more of a dominant force heading into war games. Maybe I would say that I’d say the Korea and IO losing. I mean, wait. Interesting. I’m going to summarize you guys, right? Clark, your take Paul Heyaymon, I think it’s a very good take, but it was badly explained if I’m being completely honest here, right? I feel like you should have gone at it from a different angle. And if you did, I think you would have been, you know, an easy winner in this round. And then there’s Ignasio Rollins versus Cody. And look, I can see the argument for it could be on a bigger stage. I agree. But at the same time, WWE programming needed a big feud right now because it was stale. And I don’t think this hurt Cody and in fact I think this opened the door to potentially a Wrestlemania main event down the line. So actually I don’t agree with that one either. And then Dez Ria and IO look I could see the Kabuki Warriors winning. I definitely could but at the same time this was Australia. This was Ria Ripley’s home nation. And you got to give the home fans something to cheer for, right? Yes, Bronson won but at the end of the day he’s a heel. You got to have one of the hometown favorites win. Vince hated to do it, but I quite like it. So, for that reason, I’m in a difficult position here, but I have made my decision and I have got the Eiffel Tower because while I didn’t like the argument, wait, is that the I actually do agree with Paul Heymon going to wrestling purgatory because of the promo on Monday. Clark, you win. Yes. What? Tiebreaker round. Also, this one Fernando said, “Good question about where is purgatory.” I can’t lie. I have a funny story. When I was about seven years old, I was dead convinced it was on the moon. Would make sense. That I never knew. People up there before we decide if we want to put I was like, “Yeah, logically, it’s got to be the moon.” I guess that’s fair. I guess the moon isn’t as it seems like halfway to heaven. Fair enough. Uh the Atomic Mer saying it’s setting up for a match between Io and Oscar. That’s where it’s heading. Uh yeah, that’s a fair point there. But Fernando does agree with you there. But up next, guys, that’s what I was saying. Yes, we’re going to do pick a number between one and three, Clark. Two. Two. That’s the only do wrestling hell. Uh there was no big formula for this. If you picked one, it would have been heaven. If you break three, William Purgatory, we’re going to do hell. One and three is two. Ha. Right. Wrestling hell. Anything from that can go in wrestling hell. Right. Anything wrestling related. There’s something which you hate and you want to send down there. Clark, because you laughed, you’re up first. What do you want to banish? You know what I want to banish to wrestling hell is the same thing I wanted to banish the first time. It’s Cody Rhodess stupid weight belts. I’ve been saying it all along. What’s the point? It represents the two lowest points of his career. Send him, Ben. Do the right thing this time. Instant disqualification. Giving you a second chance. Do the right thing. Instant disqualification. Send the belts to hell. Instant disqualification. You can’t send the same thing twice. Right. Up next, there’s Jaw. What do you want to send to Wrestling Hell? Uh, I guess I could say there was a lot of commercials during the show during the ESPN app. Maybe I’d say maybe not as much commercials, kind of focus more on the matches. I don’t know if that’s going to work. It could be anything from wrestling you could send, but commercials during PLE’s we’ll take if you want. Yeah, I’ll go with that one. That hard of an argument. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, look, a lot of people have the same complaint there. Uh, Ignasio, what about you? What do you want to send? Well, I think for the sake of the show, I’ll just stay on topic. But, uh, I’m going to pick Ria Ripley’s involvement in this whole storyline with the Kabuki Warriors and Neo Sky because I think I’m I’m going to have to hold her accountable because I think she has enough clout where she can go to WWE management and say, “Hey, I don’t want to be involved in this. I think I need to take a break. How am I supposed to miss you if you don’t go away for a little while?” because and she’s lost a lot of size with the past couple of weeks and I don’t think that does well for her character but I mean she still looks good but I think maybe because you know she’s probably wants to uh play uh see what she can do in Hollywood which is great for WWE and TKO but she doesn’t have to be a part of this because this is all silliness every week with involved with these these the Kabuki work worker and all these people who can’t cut promos and you know ring right okay I’m going to summarize once again right Because while you were cutting that promo, Nasio, I saw an Instagram comment and that Instagram comment was from Trojan Aurora 456. And I haven’t laughed this much at a comment for a while. It very simply says, “I watch 2024 Crown Jewel instead of 2025.” That’s outstanding. Really? No way. That’s how a minute into the show. You go on Peacock. Yeah. 2024 wasn’t even that good. It was not current 2025. That’s It did. It did happen though, Dez. When did Seth Rollins turn Austrian? What’s going on? Did you join? Can we get a response on that? Did you Oh, they watched on Netflix. Okay, so they’re a UK viewer even still. Trojan, I want to know. Surely you would have like known. Okay, this was last year’s a minute into the show when they’re promoting different champions versus champions and suddenly I mean who had the world title belt this time last year. Wait, didn’t wasn’t on that show? So I feel like he went Dun had the world title belt. Surely it would have been the second match too. Wait, when did come back? Yo, you that’s the least surprising thing. He could have come back by this point, right? might be back in WWE next week. Honestly, he might be family. Oh my god. This is usually the part where I hype this up, right? This is the easiest argument ever. Clark’s disqualified. Ignasio’s gone off on um on Eio Sky again. So, look, Dez, at the end of the day, I mean, you’re an easy winner. Commercials suck. Why are they on PL? I don’t get it. They are going to wrestling hell. There we are. The funniest part about this guys, Trojan Aurora has replied once again. I was shocked to see Reed versus Seth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was the first match. That’s amazing. Thank you. That’s amazing. I love that more than you know. That is absolutely gold. And I agree. D6 Wlord Wesley getting released should go to Wrestling Helen. More on that on tomorrow’s episode of the Wrestling Republic podcast comes out 200 p.m. Actually, I think we’re going to move it an hour forward. It comes out 300 p.m. UK time, 10 a.m. Eastern and 7 a.m. Pacific time. Make sure to check that out tomorrow. But well done to today’s winner, Dez. Dez, you got anyone you want to thank? Just want to thank everybody who allowed me to be on the show today. Thank everybody who’s tuned in to watch today. And I want to send a very special wrestling hell for the Dallas Cowboys defense because they’re losing to the Panthers right now. Besides that, I’m I’m doing pretty good. We got the first W. Let’s just keep it rolling. Sending their own team to hell. I mean, he really is like a Tottenham fan, isn’t he? Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you. Thank you, Dez. Thank you, Clark. We will see you guys tomorrow. B east.
