On today’s episode of Wrestling Republic’s Daily Broadcast Ben Allison, Clark Taylor, and Josh Markowitz answer your questions for Mailbag Monday.
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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 and Clark Taylor, 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.
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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 on YouTube. Wrestle’s better than Daniel Bryan. Brian Daniel better than Okaublic. What is up wrestling fans? Good evening from Swansea. I am your host Ben Allison and you are watching Wrestling Republic’s daily broadcast on a day where the wrestling world, well, it’s just all a little bit crazy because of these mystery vignettes which have been going around everywhere. On last night’s Wrestling Republic podcast, which aired this morning, we discussed it and at that time only two of the vignettes had come out. But now there’s been five of the things. We’re going to be getting into that and an awful lot more, plus answering some hot takes plus a Mount Rushmore. This is practically a special episode at this point. We have a lot to get into. But before we do, we have to introduce the panel. And let’s kick things off in California. just outside LA in Orange County. How are you, Clark? I’m fired up because just a few hours from now, I’ll be in still Orange County. Not even far enough north to be considered LA, but still north of where I’m located right now in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center for Monday Night Raw. And I’m fired up about it. It’s going to be a blast. All kinds of great things have happened at this venue. Wrestlemania 12, Rumble 99, uh Randy Orton and the Evolution turn, uh Chris Jericho winning the undisputed title for the first time. It’s a historic WWE venue. I’m excited to step through the doors once again. But before I do, we got some stuff to break down. Absolutely. And it should be a fun episode of Raw tonight as well. Of course, Mary is going as well here from Wrestling Republic. But also joining us today, we have Josh Marowitz. Josh, how are you? What’s up, Ben? What’s up, Clark? What’s up, everybody? How are we doing? Uh, yeah, I’m doing great. No complaints. I wish I was the one going to a wrestling event. I I always get a little jealous when people are going to wrestling events. I just found out today, as you guys know, of course, and some of the viewers may know, I’m a student at Syracuse University. WWE comes to Syracuse maybe once every three years. I get the email saying WWE is coming to Syracuse. There’s like one arena in in a 100 mile radius of us and I’m going to be on Christmas break. So, I won’t be here for WWE in Syracuse. Yeah, it is a brutal beat. It’s a uh it’s an uppercut to the jaw. But, it’s okay because I am going to John Cena’s final match in DC. So, I’m fired up for that. But, you know, that makes up for it. That certainly makes up that makes up for the house show. That does make up for the house show. Not to my own horn here, but yeah. Know I’m super excited for this show. It’s gonna be a good one. Let’s uh let’s get into it. I I think I take John Cena’s final match over a house show any day. I feel like you won that one. I I think I won that battle. Yeah. In four games. Yeah, absolutely. But up next, guys, we need to talk about this big topic. The topic which the wrestling world has been talking about for the past 24 hours. Because on Sunday morning, WWE posted a cryptic video of somebody walking to their Twitter. Around 6 hours later, they posted another video with somebody with different shoes. Then another four or five hours later, they posted another one. And then right before everybody went to bed, they posted another one as well. And now just a couple of hours before we went live, they posted a fifth one as well. And all of them are different people wearing different shoes. So everybody naturally was thinking okay five people that must mean the vision. And I was getting really really excited about this because in my head I thought okay this means Bron Breaker Bronson Reed Brock Lesnar. He’s clearly one of them because he’s wearing his jeans and his shoes. It’s clear one of them is him. And then as for the other two, I was really hoping for Austin Theory and some people were theorizing perhaps Tony D’Angelo as well because the shoe somebody was wearing looked like his. So I was getting really pumped up. I actually said in the comment section that this was a genius decision by WWE because now everybody is hyped for Monday Night Raw. However, PW Insider are reporting this will just be for a Wrestlemania promo. And if if WWE has got the hardcore wrestling fans talking for 48 hours non-stop about the announcement, or not even announcement, just to promote Wrestlemania 43. What on earth are we doing? This makes absolutely zero sense. And I’ll tell you why. is because you got everybody’s hopes up for something. And all those people whose hopes you got up would have already known Wrestlemania is happening. Why? Because they are the IWC and this marketing campaign is for the IWC. It is absolutely delusional. I can’t believe a minute into this show and I’ve just completely lost it. But I have. Who on earth thought this was a good idea? I thought WWE were back. Well, guess what? They suddenly are back in the trash. Dreadful, dreadful decision. If that’s true, or maybe this is all a swerve. In which case, this is fantastic once again because you got everybody’s hopes up, then you drag them all down, and then you give us a surprise, and it’s perfect. Let’s hope that’s what this is, Clark. Well, Ben, I’ll tell you what. If they drop one with flip flops or sandals or bare feet in in this hour where we’re live on this show, I might lose my mind like you just did for a second. That might really freak me out. I am praying, as you mentioned, that this is a swerve. If this is just a promotion for Wrestlemania 42 or even 41, even if it’s if it’s a promotion for just a show and they’re releasing these vignettes, you’ve marketed to the wrong crowd. Who do you think you’re selling to? It has to be something else. It has to be something else or this is going to be dragged through the mud for months on end. It will be made fun of relentlessly, endlessly. And that’s my biggest fear. If if the rumor is true, and this is a vignette, a series of vignettes with various people’s shoes, different shoes walking just to advertise a show we already knew was going to happen. Knock it off. Knock it off. No way. I mean, they’re one or two different types of shoes away from a bouquet of all the different types of shoes. Maybe they’re announcing a sponsorship by a shoe store. It’s like a Khan deal. I I cannot wrap my mind around what it could possibly be besides besides a swerve. They even if the intention was for it to be an ad, they now they have to pivot. They have to do something else with it because it’s established. so much groundwork as you mentioned wi within the wrestling community and the hardcore fan community. I refuse to say IWC. That’s the internet whining community and I don’t like that. Uh but the the hardcore wrestling fan community deserves better than if this is just an ad. Yeah, I do completely agree with you, Clark. And Zach says in the chat, it’s National American Beer Day. Goodness, we need I might need one after this. Honestly, I think I’ve just killed my voice in the opening segment. Really smart on my behalf. A reasonable rage though, says DCX Warlord. And Fernando says, “Blood pressure, Ben. Blood pressure. It’s too late for that. It’s I I was a fan in 2019. It’s too late. It’s It’s too late. Got a few years left if I’m lucky on that one. But also joining also joining. Brilliant. I’m going back to the start of the show. I’m all over the place. But Josh, I want to get your thoughts on this entire situation. I’m still here. I’m joining in the conversation. You were correct. You weren’t wrong. Uh yeah, you know what? I I I don’t know what to say. I got to agree with both you guys. I’m not going to, you know, I don’t have that rage in me about all these vignettes. But I do agree that if this is an ad, man, they screwed up big time. And I think they did. I think Clark said it that they are marketing to the wrong people. If you want to do an advertisement about WrestleMania in Las Vegas, you put it on a commercial in the middle of Monday Night Raw on Netflix. That is your market. Not the Twitter account of WWE, not these hardcore wrestling fans or the IWC. That’s not it. So, I don’t know. You know, you got all these guys walking around. The shot is just their shoes. It looks like Brock Lesnar. It looks like maybe Roman Reigns. It could be Gunther. Who knows? You mean look since this report that you mentioned earlier Ben I really do think it’s going to be a Wrestlemania at I but I don’t know why and like one it’s just like kind of early like why why why now you know why why near Halloween are we just kind of promoting Wrestlemania out of nowhere with a random vignette the only thing like I can maybe think about is like maybe you know it looked like Gunter Guru doesn’t really wear socks or maybe really low socks maybe it’s something about Gunter and they’re promoting his final match with John Cena. There was a bunch of people maybe, you know, they’re the bringing back Imperium or some sort of group with Gunter. I I don’t know. I’m just really getting my hopes up that it’s anything but the Wrestlemania ad that we all I think deep down know it’s going to end up being. And if WWE doesn’t pivot real soon, I that yeah, I think that’s what it’s going to be. And it’s, you know, it’s the boring answer, but that’s just what I think it’s going to be. It sucks. It sucks to say the least. You forgot though, Josh. Triple H has personally banned the word pivot. See, you’re not even allowed to use that word. He’s banned it. I can’t remember the context of that, but he said said in some interview that they never pivot or something like that. And fans always love that word. They they need to pivot is the answer. That’s certainly not true. Yeah. I mean, they pivoted with our truth. I don’t even think they’ve ever established a pivot foot and that’s a basketball reference to Dutch. But one thing I will say is what if it’s just like all the potential John Cena opponents and somehow they just have him be Super Cena and wrestle them all. He just hits them all with all the moves. That’s what the final match is. You’re going maybe that’s maybe we go there. It’s everybody. It’s going to be Brock. It’s going to be Jericho. It’s going to be all the ones you wanted. Every single one of them. and he gauntlets him in DC on his final night. I think that’s what it is. I don’t even have anything to say to that. I really don’t. Numero one says, “What if they call a Vince a Vince Russo? This doesn’t sound good.” Uh, and just have it be Brock in all those videos with the difference being he’s just wearing different shoes. Um, that would still be better than a Wrestlemania commercial, which I think says the issue with this. Uh, for some reason, Totally Cool. Yeah. thinks this could be teasing Dragunov and Walter. They have history. Be excited. I mean, I don’t think it is, but if it was, I’d be delighted. I love both those guys. I’ve been watching them for years. I’ve seen every match they’ve had, and every single time it has been a banger. So, I hope you’re right. But I don’t understand how on earth this could be that. And Dragunovar versus Abushi is a dream match. There’s no doubt about it. But Clark, do you think WWE at this point after being quite good at PR for quite a number of years actually have suddenly kind of gone the wrong direction there? I hate to say it. I think there’s just the legitimate disconnect. Like there’s a lack of understanding of the of the audience. To say aloud earlier in the year that we used to market to families, now we’re on the ticket prices thing is outlandishly silly. That’s outlandishly silly. You have this if this is just an ad. It’s like we have in our own graphic that it’s a vignette. It better be a vignette a as a longtime fan because that’s who you played it for. It better be a vignette and not an ad. Like seriously, at at this stage there is a legitimate disconnect like somebody’s lost or somebody doesn’t understand the marketplace because it is very different than other marketplaces. I believe Triple H does have an understanding of the marketplace. I believe that the people directly involved in WWE creative do have an understanding and honestly we’re going to bring up things related to this in the next subject and that’s what’s really interesting. This goes back to the beginning of the of our program uh debating the hardcore versus casual thing and um we we talked about that often. I do think that there’s nuance. There’s levels of fandom and where you market it. It’s there’s I go back to my initial argument about no such thing as hardcore or casual, right, Ben? And I was I was probably wrong in that in that regard. But I wasn’t wholly wrong because it’s there’s levels. So there’s where is the line? Where do you put the line? What’s the difference between like the the almost hardcore and the hardcore light, right? Like what where do we draw where do we draw that line? And when it comes to marketing strategy, it I also think it’s a factor that we talked about on the daily, John Cena’s retirement tour being this umbrella over WWE creative for the year has made things a little bit more difficult. It’s been a slightly distracting. You add on top of that Cody Rhodess’s story being finished, which was the most enticing story in pro wrestling for two years. Everyone they can only a story like that only comes around once a decade in wrestling. There’s no top in that. Yeah. You can’t just organically make that. Yeah. Um but where we are right now, I think it’s more of even a PR issue than it is creative at times. Back breaking news, by the way. Okay. Breaking news right now relating to this. A sick video has been just posted to Twitter and we are going to play it right now. Right. Yes. We got we’re going to have to talk over this and I need to make sure I muted today cuz I didn’t yesterday. But a sick video has happened and as you can see it is not a hand. Let’s watch it. So here it is black screen like the other started out and now it’s right. It is a hand. It’s not a foot. It’s a hand. And the ring is on the ring finger. This that’s very fascinating to me. That’s adjustment. That’s got to be Heymon that’s Paul Heymon. You would assume by the by the size of the hands in the ring. So yeah, if we look at this for a second, let’s break this down for a second. There’s a chair there, right? Surely at this point they’ve done five people walking and now it’s Hmon next to a chair. Yeah, I don’t care what PW Insider say. With all due respect, I I I imagine they’re very reliable. I think they’re probably right, but I don’t care what they’re saying right now. This makes me think it’s the vision again. Yep, I am back on the vision. Yeah, that is a Hall of Fame ring. Good call, DCX Warlord with it paused. That is an excellent call when it goes into outstanding call when he moves. 100% it’s the Hall of Fame ring. Oh, wait. So, are they going to just Is this just a Hall of Fame commercial for Wrestlemania weekend? No, it’s Heymon. It’s Heymon. And do you know what it is? He’s going in the Hall of Fame again. It’s going to be Brock. And they’re going to bring in more and he’s going to answer the question that I asked on the podcast yesterday, Ben, which is whose vision is it? Well, let’s quickly one up from last night because last night there one was one which was posted here, right? And this I mean that’s clearly Brock Lesnar. That is so clear. Obviously cowboy boots and the and the jeans boot cut jeans. That’s Brock. So we know it’s Brock. This one here. Let’s look at this real quick. I mean that could be anybody. Yeah. No legs. I have a weird feeling that that one is Bron Breaker. Yeah, that could be Bron Breaker. And let’s look at the one from earlier today as well. Right here. The one from earlier today, two hours ago, that’s somebody wearing It’s not It’s not bronzing suit. That could be like Santos. That could be Theory. Theory. That could be Santos Escobar. I wouldn’t be Well, actually, I don’t know how I’d feel about Santos in the vision if that’s it. I mean, to be honest with you, I will say this, Clark, that seems like this seems like Cody to be honest with you, which goes back to the Wrestlemania trailer. idea. I agree. This to me uh are where are the shoes with the straps? So, we’ll That’s the original, correct? Yeah, I believe. Now, this is the So, then there’s this one, which I think could be Bronson Reed. Yeah, cuz those are wide feet. Yeah, Flintstone feet, some would say. Now, some people are saying that this is actually uh Roman Reigns. This one actually, not Roman. Oh, that’s the other one again. Anyway, the original one was this. Yeah, these ones are interesting with the straps across. Yeah, cuz I don’t know whose shoes those are. No, Cody wouldn’t wear those. He’d wear some with laces. Well, we look, he’s gotten rid of tie clips before. Anything’s possible with him. It’s very true. It’s very true. You never know. You never know. But there we have it, guys. So, we’ve analyzed it. We got Se saying that it’s definitely Austin theory. DCX Warlord thinks one of them is Triple H. Uh, and that the first one is Cody. Look, if and some people were saying it last night as a joke, but if genuinely this ends up being Triple H coming and saying, “Are you ready?” I am going to lose it. I am going to just absolutely lose my mind. I You might turn the same. No, I genuinely like I’m going to freak out if it happens, too. And I’m going to the show tonight, too. So, we’ll be live. I mean, you need a boo like I will try to live stream the segment as best not live stream but I’ll try to post it somewhere. We’ll just send you just losing your mind. Yeah, I will send I’ll send what happens in my in my brain. Well, it’s good thing you’re sitting uh on the aisle which is near to the bar. I’ll say that much if that drops to the bar. Yeah, that’s huge. National national beer day as well. Yes, national beer day. That is a good point. Good thing it is National Beer Day. But right, up next guys, we need to talk about well, we need to go to the mail, right? Because it is mailbag Monday after all. And we do have a couple of submissions from last week, some hot takes from last week, which I want to get into. And I want to kick things off by talking about Jay Uso because any gi.ig says the J Uso hate is forced. But then we had another two comments. One from Gia Jacer 40 saying, “Get Jay Uso the hell away from the main event scene. He’s ruining everything.” And then we had Ethan Fraser 41 saying, “Jay Uso needs to stop getting every opportunity. Not only is he becoming the knockoff tribal chief, but the knockoff big dogs, they are shoving him down our throats and it’s annoying.” And he said that all in capital letters. This man was fuming. So clearly a difference of opinion is what’s happening in the IWC when it comes to this. But Clark, I want to go to you straight away. Of course, Jay Uso is the number one contender. But is this hate forced or is it justified? So I’m going to say this. It’s fascinating to me because I was at Money in the Bank. I was at the Rumble. I was also at Mania. And uh as far as those three were concerned, at the Rumble, it all felt organic. I mean, people were chanting for Jay Uso in on the way in to the arena and on the way out of the arena. At Money in the Bank, it was a little quieter. At WrestleMania, it was a little bit more in the middle. I think we’re now at a place where people got kind of tired of it. He sort of finished his story with with Gunther and then we put the title right back on Gunther. And that’s where I think a lot of this comes from. I don’t think it’s Jay’s fault. So, I wouldn’t go as far as it’s forced, but I understand how we’re here. It’s a little weird because it was like, oh, we’re still going to love him after the run’s over and it doesn’t necessarily feel like that. I think that’s the precipice of the problem, Ben. At least in my eyes. I mean, that is a good point. You know, like after a push, and it’s the same with a lot of people. A lot of people thought it would be like that with coding. It hasn’t necessarily been where when you build up a baby face. Once they actually get to the top, you have told their story. And it is a lot harder to book a a baby face on top compared to a heel on top. So, I do see your point there. But at the same time, I mean, Jay Uso fans wanted him to get this push and like he didn’t do anything bad. Like everything he did, at least in my opinion, was solid enough. I don’t get I don’t think I don’t think it is justified to ask the question. The The most telling thing to me is in this calendar year at the Royal Rumble in Indianapolis, they sold two male I’ve said this a thousand times on the show. They sold two male superstars merch at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis when we went before the men’s rumble to go buy gear for with my best friend from college and for my godson. Right. They were sold out of Jay Uso gear and you could still buy scenic gear and wow that is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen. So you can’t take that away from Jay. That’s January. I get that. But my point do you think they stalked more Cena and merch? I don’t think so. No. There was only two stars and honestly there was as many options for both. I I I I if they did it wasn’t by much. It it wasn’t it every kid was wearing Jay Uso. Yeah. I mean I said it earlier in the year were crazy. Walking out of Lucas Oil was one of the most fun things because genuinely it was and you could tell by like the tone of the chance. It was all of the kids that were so excited ye eating and doing all of that on the way out and like singing and like it it was really really really cool and organic and Mania wasn’t quite the same. Vegas is a different crowd than you would see also in and it’s also an older crowd as well which I think absolutely Wrestlemania it’s 100% a factor. It was close but not nearly the same and it was early in the card. Money in the Bank during the entrance in the match. Yes, Jay got a lot of credit there, but uh was not on the merch stand on like the Rumble, which I found real interesting. Right. Had he lost the title here and you had Right. had or hadn’t he? He had. Yeah. But he’s also in the tag main event, right? Right. alongside and so you could get American Nightmare gear unlike at the Rumble. No way. Yes, you couldn’t get Cody gear at the R. That is that is nuts in itself to me. No, no, no. The most frustrating thing to me is we went up to the concourse to watch. So, we had seats on the floor, but we were we’re in the middle of a row and honestly like there was a really good spot on the concourse that we could meet up with our other friends who had seats. So, we watched the first half of the men’s rumble down in the seats, right? Cuz they were really cool like watching them run by on the on the railing. Um, then we popped up to the concourse to watch the rest and that’s when we bought the gear, right? Basically. So, we watched probably the first eight entrance and then we were like, let’s watch because we had spent a lot of time on the floor too. So, we just went up to the spot we got the gear, met up with our friends. It was easy and it’s a perfect view right up right above the entrance ramp. And um I was stunned but also annoyed because there was plenty of time left in the rumble and I just thought about it. I’m like why would there be only two? Yeah. No, you are. And that’s your final two. It was I thought it was a mistake at the time. The way that I viewed it, I was like what? Come on. Of course. Because then like when it got down to the final three, I’m like it’s Jay and Cena. Look at the merch tent. It’s right there. Yeah, it does give it away a little bit. Well, right. But I do think he’s kind of the modernday uh and I always say the modern day Jeff Hardy. He is too like when I was a kid, Jeff Hardy. Now that is Jay Uso, you know, a tag team guy who’s broken out. He’s a good baby face. He’s not going to be main eventing at Wrestlemania, but he can be a world champion. He can be in those big fights, just never the top top of the card for too much time. Fernando says, “Jay already has had a run with the world championship. Let’s give fresh faces a chance at the top.” That I understand, but this Jay hate started before last Monday. It’s just after last Monday, it got a million times worse. And we spoke about it on the podcast this week as well, but the the three most disliked WWE YouTube videos this year are all Jay Uso. Nuts. Nuts. Crazy. Breaking all the rules. comment just broke me. That’s justified because Rakkeshi only complains about Jay’s booking. No, not you. You can’t blame him. Oh, Jeff Hardy was bigger than Yeah, honestly was. It’s true. It was so good. That is gold. Right, without further ado, guys, let’s get on to the next topic because this next submission is from Jason_API who says Johnny Gargano could have dethroned Roman Reigns. Now, this take sounds absolutely ridiculous. Clark’s reaction says it all, right? But I will defend Jason API for just one moment before Josh gets into it. during the height of Roman Reigns’s reign, right? Johnny Gargano was still in NXT. He just taken a break from NXT, left the company for a little while. A lot of people thought he was going to turn up in AEW. A lot of people were extremely excited to see where he would go. So if they brought him back and they booked him in a prominent main event position, he was somebody who was extremely over. Now Josh, take it away and give us your thoughts on this one. All right. Well, I’m glad personally, you know, I got nothing against hot takes. You know, I love hot takes in wrestling, but I’m glad Jason doesn’t got the pen in the paper here with WWE Creative because look, this is out of left field. I think I think you know everybody’s and I look Ben I think you do bring up a good point. I will address that point but this is one of the crazier takes I’ve heard. Now should Gorggano have been in the scene with Roman Reigns? Perhaps. Should he have dethroned him? Absolutely not. That’s that’s that’s that’s complete bogus. That is incredible. But look, this is a discussion very similar to Sami Zayn’s. But but look, I’m I’m not saying NXT was at developmental and they were below the main roster because at that point in time where NXT and Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Champa, the black and gold era, they were above, they were head and shoulders above the main roster. But could Johnny Gorgano have done a Sami Zayn type run where he was the miracle baby phase going against the dictator heel in a David verse Goliath like story? Absolutely. Johnny Gorganiano could have played that part and I’m a massive Gorganiano fan and I would have pushed for that but he would have needed main roster work first. So, nobody would have ever considered Sami Zayn for that until he spent months on that main roster doing incredible storytelling with the Bloodline. And then with all that work, it then, okay, it makes sense. Roman versus Sami Zayn, Elimination Chamber, Montreal. And it was an incredible match. And people actually, including myself, somehow believed that Sami Zayn would actually win the pay-per-view before Wrestlemania. Now, deep down I knew he wouldn’t, but somehow something about that match, that story, it just made sense. So, no matter how hot Johnny was coming out of NXT, I don’t personally believe it was enough to have him say interrupt Roman Reigns in a promo making his main roster debut and just challenge him to a title match in the main event. And could he have maybe gone to the main roster, had a championship run with, I don’t know, the Intercontinental title or something midc card and then ended up, you know, challenging Roman maybe. And I agree with you, Johnny was probably the hottest baby face at that time. But back then, I feel like the NXT and the main roster had different fan bases. Like for example, I was big into the main roster. I was just a kid. I didn’t know a lot about NXT. I think there were different fan bases. And I think to see Johnny Goriano just come out of nowhere and debut and dethrone dethrone Roman Reigns, it would be the craziest thing ever. It would be it would be the craziest thing ever. It’d be the craziest decision in WWE history. Wow. Okay. I mean, that is wild in itself. A hot take on top of a hot take. Sure, why not? The worst decision in WWE history. Really? I agree with Josh. Roman Reigns before Clark before you speak at one more cent. Roman Reigns was the greatest character in WWE history in my opinion. To have a guy like Johnny Gargano come and just defeat him like that would be the worst mistake in the company. I mean, they’ve made some pretty bad decisions. I think How did you not laugh in the mirror after you typed this? Like, what in the world are we talking about? This is a joke. Johnny Gargano looks like he was put in a dryer. next to Roman Reigns. Like, he looks like a t-shirt that shrunk and doesn’t fit anymore. Like, are you serious? Johnny Gargano beating Roman Reigns at what? Hopscotch? Like, are we joking? This is out of this world. No, it is. It would have been the dumbest booking decision in the history. They would have been smarter to have Santino Mela actually win that Rumble. No. Than to have than to have Johnny Gargano, Johnny Wrestling beat Roman Reigns. Have you seen them have you seen them make eye contact? No. Because Johnny would fall down if he had to make eye contact with Roman Reigns one time. That’s ridiculous. There’s not a good enough writer in the world to tell me a story that makes enough sense where Johnny Gargano beats Roman Reigns. Knock it off. This is goofier than a football bat. Oh, there it is. There’s the uh the finisher from Clark off the top throat. But what I will say about this is it would be incredibly dumb. I agree with you guys. But I don’t think it would be the dumbest decision in the history of the company. There’s quite a few ones. It’s I mean there’s a lot which are worse. One be at worst. I mean like they you know they’ve done a lot of worse things, right? There’s no denying that Ben’s like I could just see the like the Matrix list going through your head. Yeah. Bad WWE decisions. That was actually hilarious. That’s one of the greatest moments in show history. Ben, I can see the list. You were like which I can’t say any of those. Yeah. I was like, can I say no? I can’t really. Uh DCX Warlord saying Clauddio should have dethroned Roman. Now we’re talking. That’s realistic. Yeah, I’m in. Yeah, it’s not crazy. I’m sorry, DCX Warlord. I honestly think uh Carano might be a better shout. No one. I mean, okay. No, not okay. No, Clauddio’s better than Gargano, but it’s not by much. It’s not by much. It’s a lot closer than we’re thinking. Yeah. He also Claudio was also, apart from for a little bit of time in 2016, was never nearly as over as Gargano was. Claudio looks like a human being that could actually beat Roman Reigns. Johnny Gargano doesn’t. Okay, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean anything in WWE. It does. Now, Rey Mysterio, I mean, he defeated the Big Show. Yeah, but he looks like he can beat people because of the speed. Yeah. Johnny Gargano was probably just as fast. If Johnny Gargano was wearing a mask, he would not be if they anti mask propaganda. If they went if they ran the 40 right now, I guarantee you Mysterio still gets him even at his age. That’s probably another scandal in WWE history. But anyway, guys, up next, we need to do a Mount Rushmore because in case you guys don’t know, Mount Rushmore is basically we all give our top four names. We go around. It’s a snake draft. We can’t say the same person. So, we’ll list a total of 12 names, but this one is stars who jumped from WWE to AEW. So, without further ado, this is a Mount Rushmore of WWE stars who jumped to AEW. I’m going to kick us off with John Moxley. He was the guy who really made AEW out of the gates feel like the place to be. He left out of Louisie on top and went there and made it feel important and a lot of people ended up following. If it wasn’t for him, Clark, maybe they wouldn’t have. But what’s your pick? It’s true. I am going to go ahead and go with Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho as my number one. It wasn’t a direct jump, but I think you count him for this list because honestly the impact that counts. That counts. This is my number one. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. And we spoke about this on the podcast today as well, but Jericho gets a lot of hate and he did do some rubbish stuff in AW, but the fact is he brought a lot of hype and he got them a TV deal. Yep. There’s there’s no denying it. There’s no debate about it. He He had a massive impact positively on AW. No doubt about it. But Josh, what are your next two picks? I’m going to take Brian Danielson. I I think it’s, you know, I think after this 2014 run, nobody really thought he would ever get to that hype again. And then he did a decade later, all out London. I I think that main event maybe topped Yesmania. Wow, another hot take. I was there for it. It was big. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I was. And then for my next pick, I’m going to take Mercedes Monae. I mean, just an absolute star. Was she a star in WWE? Absolutely. But was she this mega star that’s carrying 11 belts around? No. And without AW, she could not have been that. Honestly, I love the shout. I’m shocked she’s going so early, but I love it. You know me, I’m a Monae Mark, as she likes to say. But Clark, what’s your next pick? Not a heck of a pick, but I’m going to go with even better. Timeless Tony Storm. Almost went with her at one, but yeah, I just almost went with Timeless at one. She’s to me the transformation from what she had in the WWE and what she was because I was a fan of her work in the WWE. What she became, I did not visualize was possible. what she has become, what what she does now is she’s the absolute best in the business at her craft. Period. She just is. She does not miss. You can hand her anything and she will turn it to gold. A She’s the most plugandplay superstar on any roster right now, man or woman. No doubt. Honestly, it’s hard to deny. It really is. And to your point as well, I thought Tony Storm was going to go in round one. Being completely honest, my top three were John Moxley, Tony Storm, and then my second pick, Swerve Strickland. This was a guy who in AEW was sorry, in AEW, Swerve Strickland was a guy who was in WWE, but in WWE, he was a midcarder, right? He was stuck in the midc card. He wasn’t a top guy, but they got it. He got called up to the main roster and in fact then thought Top Dollar was a bigger star than he was going to be as well, didn’t he? And in the end, he started pushing Top Dollar and Swift Strickland was in a tag team with a guy who Clark, I know you’re a big fan of Ashante, the Adonis. Don’t do that on a poster. Um but but yeah, I mean Swerve Strickland honestly he’s become one of AW’s biggest stars and I I think he deserves a lot of praise for what he has done. It is back to me once again and I have to go for the late great Broady Lee. Obviously he was not in AEW for too long, but the work that he did there, it was some of the best stuff of his career and I will remember it fondly forever. the exalted one, the dark order. I’m gonna be honest, it was a cringy gimmick which he somehow made work. It was so entertaining and I miss him so much and he deserves a place on this Mount Rushmore. Clark, who do you have? No doubt about it, Brody Lee monster shout out, but I am going to take your father figure, Ben Christian Cage with my next pick. I mean, dude, come on now. This guy made turtlenecks fun again. Yeah. And that is hard to do. Honestly, I I couldn’t agree more with you there. I mean, he has had a fantastic run in AEW and I don’t think he would have had the same run if he ended up, you know, staying in WWE either. So, I do think that is a great pick. But Josh, what are your final two picks? I’m torn here. To start, I’m going to go FTR. I think WWE let them go in during CO during tough times and I think they never looked back. They’ve became loyal soldiers to AW and they’ve just put on spectacular matches and stories. They can play the face, they can play the heel. Think they’ve been great. So, I’m going to take FTR. And then my final pick, I’m really torn between two here. I am going to go with I’m going to go with Claudio Castanoli. I think he wasn’t he wasn’t elevated enough in WWE. WWE did not use his potential. He has come to AW since and now he is a star. I think he looks like more like a star. He has a character more like a star and I think he has been a big help to the Black Bull Combat Club. Absolutely. There’s no denying that. But Clark, what is your final pick? Wait, I’m sorry. I missed the team. Did you pick FTR? I did. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I thought that was the case. I’m sorry. That that threw me for a bit of a loop. So, I’ve got to I’ve got to change my pick slightly here. I’m going to go with Samoa Joe. Give me Samoa Joe because I also think this man was underutilized. Utilized. I get he was retired for a time as a commentator, but he’s come back and he can be a top heel in the business and he’s proven it and he’s speaking of plug-andplay so versatile. Samoa Joe is is a logical next one. Thank Thankfully I actually remembered who my backup pick was because I was going FDR. I’m going to be honest guys. I think there’s two major names missing off this Mount Rushmore. One of them is CM Punk. Yes, it ended badly but he brought so many eyes. He went to the UFC first. Doesn’t matter that he’s still an X of the blue guy. The other one is my final pick and you we have to pick him because he helped create this company and that is Cody Rhodess. You can’t overlock it. Yes, he wasn’t there for too long, but what he did, you can’t overlook. You can’t overlock it. You really can’t. No, you can’t. If it wasn’t for Cody Rhodess Clark, if it wasn’t for a Cody Rhodess tweet, AEW would not have existed. I would have put Dustin Rhodess ahead of Cody on my list draftwise. He The company would not have existed. That’s point blank truth. Dustin I think Dustin carried it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Brilliant. I I lean towards the put him on a poster. See if he can sell 10K tickets before they were even a promotion. Sold a heck of a lot of those bloody action figures. Just saying. Not 10K. Old Dust was pretty famous. Look, I mean I agree with Say here in the comments. Uh Keith Lee was really underutilizing both companies as DCX warlord. I agree with that. But that guys does bring us to the end of the show. And that is our Mount Rushmore of WWE Stars who jumped to AEW. Thank you Joss. Thank you Clark. And thank you to all of you who have watched at home. We will be back the same time, same place tomorrow. Just to remind you. Although if you’re watching this, you probably know in the United States. We will be an hour later every day this week because your clocks haven’t changed yet. But even still, UK it will be the same time as normal. See you guys tomorrow. Papa
