Drew McIntyre Wins the WWE Title… Now What? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #831 – 1/15/26

0:00 It's still real to be damaged! [Music] Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of the Show Episode 831 for January 15th, 2020. Welcome to this week's edition of AskRTU. I am one after the show, I am Jeff Packard, joined every single week like us along with Dr. Trey Franklin, Dr. Trey, and a new WWE Champion, my friend.

0:41 Yeah, it is not hard to swallow. I'm so disappointed that a horse swagger never got to run with the WWE title, but... Well, Vince isn't around anymore, so his dad. Yeah, but that would have been nepotism because he was Vince's son. Yeah, talk about great storylines, huh? What's it made you go, man, I'm so happy to be a wrestling fan. Yeah, it's... I'll always say that is I literally just saw a video of horn swagger when he wrestled a Brit Baker and Adam Cole showed up. So that's why I got horn swagger on the brain right now. But yes, new WWE Champion, and I wasn't far off. He is from the United Kingdom, just not Ireland, but he's from Scotland.

1:22 Yeah, it was a really fun episode to smack down this past Friday. Drew McAttire captures the WWE Champion Chip. Dr. Trey, I remember you, like, poetically comparing him to that Kevin Owens run. And what was it like? Basically, from my 2020 to 2023 word, always felt like Kevin Owens was on the precipice of winning the WWE Champion Chip, typically from Roman Reigns, and was always some sort of fodder as taking the L from Roman because he was on that historic run that he was on, holding the title for three, four years. Over a thousand days, the WWE Champion in the modern era is something we probably will never see again. And that's what Drew was. I mean, Drew was always knocking on the doorstep of becoming WWE Champion, no matter how good his character was.

2:08 Especially as a heel over the last several years, it just always felt like Drew should get a run with the title, but he was being fed as the guy to make the baby face as look strong or whether it be CM Punk, whether it be Seth Rollins, whether it be Cody Rhodes, Damien Priest. The time that Drew held the title since the COVID era was for just what, a little over five minutes at WrestleMania 41 in Philadelphia or 40. It was WrestleMania 40. >> It was like five minutes and 34 seconds or something like that. >> Yep, defeated Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, wins the world. Every way of championship drew and then Punk takes him out, Damien cash is in, which going back to those days, we predicted that as potentially happening. And then he leaves and doesn't hold the championship again up until now. There was some push in the fall of last year that Drew McIntyre should win the WWE Championship from both Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre reportedly around WrestleMania time and they did not go forward with that. Then we had this gap until now and it was basically like a huge moment in Drew McIntyre's career because if he walks out of three stages hell on SmackDown without winning the WWE Championship, I mean, there could be a near ride over in Europe.

3:26 And I'm happy that he did. I'm happy that he won the championship. He's been such a good character. He's a guy that deserves the opportunity to be holding a championship in front of live crowds, especially over on the European tour that he's been doing in the last several weeks or so. I think he was in his hometown the next night after SmackDown on a house show. He'll be there this Friday. I believe they're in London. I want to say on Friday. I think they're in Wembley this weekend or Friday. Okay, okay. And then they're in Belfast for RAW on Monday. I think it's London on Friday on SmackDown. So he gets the win. It's very controversial, which we'll get to that point.

4:06 But let's look at it here from the Drew McIntyre standpoint, Dr. Trey, as he finally captures the WWE Championship by defeating Cody Rhodes on SmackDown in a three stages of Hell match. Yeah, I mean, like I said, like I said, last time when he wrestled Cody the PLE, like he had to get one of these. Like you can only have him come up short so many times before he kind of becomes like just like an unbelievable, like he used to bump below bills in a lot of ways. Like if you have coming up short, you just never bought into it. Even heading into SmackDown. I'm like, I can't remember the last time a heel won a three stages of Hell match. Like that's typically a very baby face kind of winning situation because there's a lot of endurance. You have to outlast, you know, all that stuff. So the fact that they pulled the trigger and the timing of it was really great because I mean, I remember you and I sent here when he didn't win and clash at the castle, you know, against Roman.

5:10 And we were like, why do you not pull the trigger there and get the biggest pop possible? Like this kind of fills that void a little bit. And it is kind of like, Drew's been arguably the best character in WWE the last five years. And even since turning heel, just even better. The fact that he's finally getting that payoff to be the champion heading into Royal Rumble season is a hell of an accomplishment. And just shows you like like, no, no, no, we actually do value you. We do think you're a top guy. We think we can put you out there on the circuit. We saw it a little bit during the COVID era, like the kind of via satellite type interviews he was doing back then. But this is a showcase for Drew McIntyre. The hey, we're going to give you the chance to kind of carry the ball for a little bit heading into Rumble season, possibly WrestleMania season. Let's see what you do with it. Yeah, I love that they're given this opportunity. And I love that it is kind of shaken up the WrestleMania stuff, which we'll get into a little bit more here momentarily.

6:20 Do you feel like Drew is the best heel in WWE right now? As a wrestler heel, yes. I think that I still get say Paul, Paul Haymes the best heel in wrestling, but he's not in ring. So as an in-ring performer, I think it has to be Drew because he's the person that kind of knows what buttons to push with the crowd. And he has the believability factor to also kind of back it up in the ring. But that's something you and I have discussed months ago, which was there wasn't a lot of great heels in wrestling. Do you put, I mean maybe Logan Paul is second on that list of actually like being a true heel in ring performer because it's not Braun Breaker because Braun gets cheered too much. But Drew gets cheered too. I mean people do love Drew. Maybe I maybe have to go back. Maybe it might still be Gunther. Yeah, it's gotta be it's gotta be Gunther. It's gotta be Gunther Dom because it was Dom but Dom's getting cheered now also because he become kind of the cool heel. So I think Gunther is just maybe universally hated by most wrestling fans where like Drew is getting those cheers, Dom's starting to get a lot more cheers. It might be Gunther Logan Paul and then Drew. Let's take a look at the Cody Rhodes aspect of

7:53 it because we're obviously glossing over the finish right now, which I want to get to here in the next bullet point basically. But the Cody Rhodes stuff. I felt like Dr. Trey even watching the show live, sitting down on like if Cody walks out of here with the victory and retains the title. I think he could be getting close to John Cena reverse baby face. You know, we hate you because you're you've been dominating WWE over the last year is the the white meat baby face that he would be getting like John Cena reactions, especially over in Europe because I think people wanted to see Drew win. I think for me character standpoint, I think this was the right move for Cody to lose the title because I prefer to him being someone that is chasing the champion, chip heading in the WrestleMania rather than being the champion. And I just felt like with him at the top for a little bit, it's just creatively. It's it's not as flourishing as I would like to see as as as a viewer. It felt very vanilla over the last several months with him as champion. So I just felt like even going into that match is like if they come out and Cody is still champion like this could be really, really bad both creatively because it's could be very predictable the direction they could be going with Cody because we saw the reports out about it and now that's influx, which we'll get to here in just a little bit as well. But even more so like I thought Cody was getting close to that 2000s 2010s

9:24 era of John Cena that is just it's not a positive thing for the business. Well, I think it just kind of depends on where you fall in the demographic range because I know there's a lot of kids who love Cody Rose and love everything that the Cody Rose character stands for. But then as you get older and life kind of beats you up and you know things are not black and white. There's shades of gray. We tend to kind of you know root for the anti-heroes or the anti- establishment and we kind of turn our nose up at those kind of Cody Rose, John Cena, Paul Cogan, surfer sting type characters because like the good guys don't always win. And so I like that they mixed it up and changed it up a little bit. But you know you have to in order to stay a relevant top good guy you have to have obstacles to overcome and you can't win every fight like we would not be hyped up about Avengers Doomsday if we knew the good guys were always going to win in the end.

10:29 Like we like those movies where hey it looks really dicey it looks really sketchy I don't know if I think he might win but there's those those real possibilities that he might not come out. That's why I like for me as I like having heel champions because we always get more in grossed into the baby face chasing that guy down as opposed to when we were kids and we love when we had the whole Cogan rains or the dust but baby faces typically don't have long rains as champion in the modern era. It's usually the heels that have the longer rains because that's how you make good guy stars is by chasing those villains down and finally conquering them. Yeah that's what we like to see as viewers is you want to see the chase you don't want to see you know the dominant villain being the baby face all the time. So I thought that was the right direction I thought that it was going to be a definite problem for WWE if they walked out of there with Cody Rhodes as champion because at so many levels I talked about the character stuff but also from a storyline standpoint it's like what do you do next with him because at this point in droves like the top heel on a Smackdown brand unless he sits idle up until Mania or he's being royal rumble and whoever walks out of the rumble is let's say a raw guy and they win the match and then they you know come over to Smackdown to challenge Cody there's been a lot of talk about Roman it just felt very easy to predict if Cody's Cody retain now without

12:00 Cody retaining there is a layer that's been added here where it's it's extremely intriguing to enter us in hand in Mania season which again we will get to here in just a second the third point Dr. Trey in this entire thing is the Jacob Fattu factor. Fattu makes his return for Mindry was last shown on Smackdown being laid out behind the scenes I think he was set to face was he got a face Cody that night. I suppose face drew that was it. He's got a face drew yes and then that led to an in-prob to Cody and Drew match and I said at the time and and Kit Wilson was behind the scenes and he was he like viewed the whole thing take place with Jacob Fattu and that part hasn't come out yet on Smackdown he was like in the background like staring with the officials so he may have seen who actually attacked Jake Fattu I'm surprised they haven't pulled that lever yet or even teased it maybe they will this upcoming Friday or the following weeks that leads to the whole Fattu stuff but with that said you know I approached the idea like do you think there's a possibility that Cody was responsible because the way that Cody was acting was kind of quasi-healish like it was a baby face that was entering the heel zone and that's like how he treated it maybe that's a direction that they go I thought Fattu's here I'm like oh man is this it they're going to turn Cody Cody heel Cody was the one responsible Fattu enters ring takes out Cody no he attacks Drew because he probably thinks Drew is the one that took him out unless he knows for sure Drew took him out

13:31 which we'll add a very nice layer to which is I hope the direction that they go that it's still a mystery this entire thing and then you know he he enters the ring and Cody's like what the hell are you doing he starts fighting Cody and then allows Drew McAttire to slide out the ring and win the WWE championship while Cody and Jacob are still brawling because Jacob Fattu is cost Cody Rhodes the WWE championship I really like that finished dr. Trey I thought it was different I thought it was intriguing I thought it was entertaining I thought it will it leads well to this Friday's edition of Smackdown to get more answers your thoughts on the finish and the return of Jacob Fattu on the Smackdown brand yeah I thought it was a really good job I was really excited to see Jacob Fattu back I took it that it was a really smart creative decision because if not that buys them time I'm sure they have a plan for where they want to go but in the meantime as this story is playing out you're kind of setting Jacob Fattu as that tweener character because you know most fans love Cody most fans hate Drew and then you got Jacob out there who the fans like but he just beat up Cody so Jacob and I'm not saying this as in a direct link but he can kind of be that stone cold character in the sense of you don't know who he's going to take out like you might be a good guy and catch you know some hands from him you might be a bad guy and catch some hands much like Austin did for a while where he was just stunning everybody didn't matter I mean you can have Jacob play the unhinged

15:05 character really really well and it's believable and the fans can kind of ride that fence of I don't know where this is going but it's entertaining like maybe this does turn Cody heel and Jacob becomes a top baby face maybe it's revealed that it was Drew and Jacob slots in as the number two baby face so it's a really good way of kind of positioning it and kind of seeing how the crowd responds to know which direction you want to go with Drew and Cody coming out of this yeah there were reports circulating leading into Friday Smackdown that Jacob Fattu was due to return soon and that the belief was he was going to have very significant creative that was going to help him like elevate his game on the WWE roster I I think that this guy's a star I think there's a potential for him to win the WWE championship this year I had him down in my WrestleMania predictions is taking on Brock Lesnar putting him in a big match I think that is now off the table but I'm glad that Fattu is back I think he's very likable both as a baby face and as a heel I tend to lean more to the heel version of Jacob because it was just so damn dominant but I think you can totally get over as a baby face as well on the Smackdown brand which then takes us to the WrestleMania 42 plans now in Fluxeddoctor Trey it was reported after Survivor Series War games in November that we were basically getting foreshadowing from the WrestleMania matches and those foreshadowing matches were CM Punk vs Braun Breaker which has since happened at Barclays last week on RAW and Cody versus

16:39 Roman 3 at WrestleMania 42 according to reports now after last week's title change it would appear that the Cody Roman match is now off the table for WrestleMania 42 I guess it could still happen maybe in a title match maybe in an on title match but if Cody and Roman is off the table Cody Roman 3 did WWE make the right call in your opinion? a big time match and unless Jacob gets super red hot and this is something I wanted to bring up to you and boy like when you look at Smackdown like you have Cody and Drew and then it just felt like there's a huge drop off to the next level like there's really nobody else that you kind of feel like is on those guys as level like like RAW feels like really top heavy Smackdown feels really mid-card and I was trying to think about earlier I'm like okay if Drew is your top heel who's number two who's number three and I kept getting the solo as number two like I don't know where else people slot in as so like if if it's Cody and like to me it's like okay you knew Cody and Brock Cody and Roman Cody and you know if Randy Orton turns heel but where like I don't know where the

18:10 Cody big match is coming from if it's not Roman Randy or Brock unless Jacob catches fire as a heel or a baby face and you go that route like I don't really know where else they go with a big time Cody match unless it's one of those other options yeah it felt like for a while Cody Randy was going to be a match that I was thinking at WrestleMania and it would be Randy turning heel because he so damn good as a heel even though I think a lot of people nowadays don't want to see Randy Orton as a heel because you couldn't make the case potentially he's in the twilight of his career maybe five more years left I know he wants to keep going for a while but he's in now I thought Randy and Cody would have been a very good title WrestleMania match I'm not upset that Cody Roman three is not happening I thought their matches have been very good I just think that there should be a little bit more space I think you really got to have people want it and then that that really puts a lot of like question marks around the Roman Reigns match for his direction dr. Trey where does this leave Roman right now like what do you do with Roman at WrestleMania do you have him deviate and it's him in punk does I mean there's still the Rollins factor there's been a lot of videos of Seth Rollins unfortunately celebrating the Chicago Bears fan with his shoulder looking pretty damn good he worked the Netflix Christmas football games I was watching he was working as like a like a host and a sideline reporter which was awesome to see for him I mean it appears Rollins could be

19:44 back here very soon as well do you run it back with with punk Roman Rollins three or two is Rollins going to be back as a heel as a baby face as he looking towards the vision as his matches I mean there is a lot in play here right now with WrestleMania and that's why when we do the show like several weeks ago to preview the the upcoming year it is so damn hard nowadays to predict WrestleMania which is a good thing and even more so because you and I do that show we pre-record that way beforehand I mean it is pre Christmas and we're trying to figure out WrestleMania but I mean even as we sit here today January 15th like it's hard to pick what the direction is because even though they've got an away from it on both the men and women's matches over the years for the titles you've got the rumble coming up and that's just a one-on-one match winner picks who they want to face as champion elimination chamber is the month after that in late February in Chicago and the winner of that is setting up another one-on-one match so it's not as easy being like oh they could just do a triple threat they could just do a fatal four-way with that said all directing back around to it the original question now to tray what do you do with Roman Reigns now so if you keep Roman involved with the vision stuff like we saw a survivor I would do Roman and Braun Breaker like I think if you that's if you want to keep Braun as a heal we really haven't seen we saw the suspension angle play out on a raw Monday night with Adam Pearce and Braun Breaker getting suspended but at some point you also get to like Braun Breaker

21:19 is going to be a baby face but if you're keeping him as a heal through WrestleMania Braun Breaker Roman Reigns you know that'd be good match up you don't want to do Roman and Brock again you could go to Roman and punk because we saw that you know that moment in the ring you know a month or so ago where Roman's looking at Cody and punk he goes man that belt looks nice and both guys are like wait who are you talking about so you go and use that as the Easter egg to come back to Roman and punk I was thinking as we're talking like how cool would it be if we if if the whole plan is to divert us from Cody and Roman to go back to Cody and Roman and Roman is also the person who got in Jacob's head to send Jacob out there to cost Cody the title and then you get Jacob and Drew for the title but Cody and Roman three because Roman sent his cousin out to cost Cody the belt so there I mean there are ways of playing it but like to me those are the most obvious choices would either be Roman punk Roman Braun or Roman and Cody again I think Roman Braun Breaker is a match I'd love to say that would be number one I am fearful that the direction WWE wants to go you know we're talking about Trilogy's what have you is Roman Lesnar three at WrestleMania um there was Roman Lesnar

22:50 at 31 Roman Lesnar at 38 in the biggest WrestleMania match of all time and then it would be this one no WrestleMania 34 the one that you were at as well so it would be Roman Brock four I think that could be a likely solution as well events was still at the helm I would say that would be the direction they would be going for sure but I prefer to see Roman Braun Breaker and I would love to see Braun Breaker get the victory obviously but part of me is thinking that number two is Roman and Brock again because they were teasing that at Survivor Series War games as well is it is it for you did you count the Summerslam match I'm only counting WrestleMania matches okay yeah yeah yeah no there's the Summerslam match that I was at were those two went out again and Roman walked out there with the championship and you were at 34 so you and I are lucky to have been part of this chapter of our lives but even to the that that point Dr. Trilogy Roman and Brock on on another level than they were even back at WrestleMania 38 and dare I say I think they're both better workers now than they were at WrestleMania 38 I mean you can say they're better workers but then I'd always go back to the John Cena Brock Lesnar match and be like was that a really good work it was that really a well-worked match for Brock but uh yeah I mean if Vince was still there he would just have like the crowd you know some double chant fight forever that would be the Vince thing for Roman and Brock like oh you guys just go out there and find it every WrestleMania from here

24:22 until you die my Vince is getting better by the way and he's nowhere to be found so it loses luster but yeah like I it's it's this is probably the most confusing time for WrestleMania that we've had and maybe our entire history like a lot of matches we could kind of pick out six months ahead of time like I'm looking at the card now and I'm like I have no idea where they're going with anybody upgrade at the top of the card right now because you don't know when Rollins is coming back I'm pretty sure he's coming back as a baby face just because you just did the whole Austin theory stomping people to you know make people think it was Seth um I think we'll probably we might get Rollins if Rollins can make it back by WrestleMania we might get Rollins in theory at WrestleMania um I don't know what you do with Bronson Reed in that I don't know what you do with Logan Paul um if you do Braun and Roman that's a fantastic match but then do you do the Usos against like Logan Paul and Bronson Reed the tag belts like I don't like there's so many questions as to where you go with stuff um it it's really it's almost like like the old family guy joke of you're just throwing stuff in the wall and seeing what kind of comes out of it and then that's the story we're going with because it's just and not mentioned you still have LA night on the sidelines right now we don't know where LA night slots in all this heading into Royal Rumble season if he's going to be a baby

25:53 face if he'll in it come back as he heal uh you have smackdowns only got maybe four top guys and the rest of the cards of mid card where is Sammy Zane slottings all of this trick Williams they're all on Smackdown like the it's it's a good like there is no pecking order really it's like on Smackdowns like top four guys and then just everybody else and it's a free for all to see who claims the next spot up yeah it's it's it's major in flux and you know I pitched the idea of Sammy winning the Rumble and Saudi Arabia I thought that would be good I like a Sammy run going into Mania trying to win the World Heavyweight Championship they tried touching upon that uh several times over the years it was like I remember I think fall last year uh he's talked about it heading into uh this past year even that he wanted to get in there and and win the World Championship finally because he always was someone that couldn't win the big one and they like go back and forth to that I think that would be a great storyline you bring up LA night uh as well I think it's time for him to catapult to the top of the card and get an opportunity as champion it's a tough job to have as a creative member of WWE according to reports they know what they want to do with those title matches and uh I guess we'll have well we certainly have a much better view of it in in about two to three weeks time once the Rumble passes uh I have at least one match under the books but the Roman stuff is is extremely intriguing what happens with him now um and then going back to the Smackdown brand

27:27 doctor tray there's early reports right now that that match for the WWE Championship will be Drew versus Fat 2 versus Cody Rhodes somehow getting in an Attribute Threat Match which if that's the direction I'm here I'm for that right now because I prefer seeing a storyline build now early January that takes me to you know mid April or WrestleMania then waiting you know early February mid February for just a couple months I would love to see this thing play out uh until then with a lot of different twists and turns going back to big Drew going back to the WWE Championship do you want to see that being a Triple Threat match with Cody Drew in Fat 2 uh over the next several months heading into WrestleMania yeah because I think it's interesting I mean you have Drew's champion Fah 2 is the tweeter Cody on the chase again like fans love that stuff I mean like we love Cody in the chase we love Jacob being on hand do we like Drew being the mega villain so uh I'm for that which if you do that then you can always do the cool thing at Limitian Chamber and like let's say because I think my prediction was Roman winning the rumble uh so if Roman wins the rumble and you put Roman with punk brawn with Seth you do Cody and Jacob in the chamber and the chamber match ends with those two being taken out by Drew and there's no winner and then uh Nick all this comes out and declares that we're gonna triple threat match at Mania with all three of those guys and then you get

29:01 basically a month and a half buildup of those three guys just beating the hell of each other leading into WrestleMania like I'm fine with that I think that would be a pretty good card yeah I would be as well I I don't know if I like the idea of like Drew taking out people in in huge matches like the elimination chamber uh I know you like clear you like clear cut winners but you know if you're storytelling and you know your end story is that triple threat how do you get to it in the easiest fashion is having the two guys at the end of the chamber not having a winner I I like fans in attendance especially with the ticket prices that they're paying today if they want to go to elimination chamber I like to see them get the most out of their dollar value rather than you know serving up as a storyline for WrestleMania to pay even more money to get to that's why that's that's why you put the men's chamber match on first and then you have the women's chamber match be the main event and whoever your woman is that you want to have the clear cut finished to challenge WrestleMania she wins in the main event at the chamber and the fans go home happy because then that first match can be your storyline match that second chamber match is your clear cut victor we got plenty of time to talk about elimination chamber for sure and maybe that's how it plays out but WrestleMania 42 plans currently in flux there is a direction creative knows what they want to do we don't know yet as fans maybe we're seeing seeds planted maybe we're not maybe those seeds will be planted in two weeks times three weeks times four weeks time but it is a very intriguing time to to

30:38 see how the build to WrestleMania goes on and goes forward here it's some of my favorite time in the year because I really love the creative process that goes into the WrestleMania card being built so maybe we're seeing it play out right now or maybe we're not so more to come here in the coming weeks because what we do in our WrestleMania 42 roundup card roundup here soon which it's just wild it just felt like we we literally just did that speaking of storylines dr. Trey on raw this past Monday CM Punk said that the vision is behind him following his victory over Braun Breaker at the first raw of 2026 in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and he is heading towards the royal rumble he will have a match in Belfast against Finn Baller for the Royal Way Championship this Monday in CM Punk what should CM Punk's path be right now because even though he says storyline wise the vision is behind him it feels like it's just beginning for him and the vision especially heading towards WrestleMania 42 what do you think the path is now for Punk as we move forward I still think you get a royal rumble match with Punk and Braun Breaker or something like that I don't it's funny that he said that because didn't Cody say the same thing about Drew McIntyre a couple months ago and then Drew didn't let it go and now Drew's champion so I think that's just kind of their way of saying like hey I'm moving on to something else and then when the vision jumps up again they get more heat on them to me the storyline is not going to die until Rawlings comes back because I'm fully

32:12 envisioning at some point CM Punk and Seth Rawlings are going to have to team up against people in the vision and that's going to be great storytelling so I think you kind of play with some of the other characters until you decide to ramp up the visioning again the Finn Baller and Belfast that might cause a riot if Finn doesn't win in Belfast because the Irish fans are not known for being very polite I mean they were ECW arena before ECW arena so but I think that's a good way of kind of continuing the storyline on and then maybe you get some crossover from the Judgment Day getting upset if somebody from the vision interferes in that match and costs Finn the title because we haven't seen a baby face Judgment Day yet really so there's a way of playing with that and then leading into playing into Dom's popularity and then you might get vision and Judgment Day for a little bit until we get to more towards WrestleMania season. Yeah I would I love that we're seeing this match with Punk and Finn Baller on Monday night I love that Finn's got this opportunity I wish he was getting this opportunity more often I hope this is not just a homecoming thing for Finn because I think Finn should be a main event player and in the discussion of world titles the punk direction right now is is is you know really interesting to watch because it's not as

33:45 cut and dry as it was and maybe that's the whole point of what WWE is trying to do there is the thing in the background right now where Braun Breaker was suspended by Adam Pierce and the last thing interaction they had together was Paul Heyman walking away and saying that you had hit your hands on him first we could see a situation that is similar to to Drew and Nick Aldous or the force was made for Drew McAhtar to get his title match where Braun Breaker now gets that title match at maybe rumble or at a later date or maybe it's something I would love to see it play out not as predictable where let's just say that Heyman forces to avoid legal action that they gave Braun Breaker the number 30 entry at the Royal Rumble or something along those lines like I'd like to see something different so I don't think punk is done with the vision I think the vision is who he feuds with for now until after WrestleMania that is the direction and he goes it will be something to watch for though on the direction of that because if they do separate the two they do continue to separate and widen the gap between punk and vision interactions it makes you wonder how close Seth Rollins is I could see a scenario with Seth is involved with them punk is away from the vision he's focused on someone else maybe he is setting up a match with Sammie's Ain't a WrestleMania maybe he is setting up a match with LA Knight at WrestleMania and that's the direction they go for that period of

35:16 time and then eventually we get to the Seth and and punk having a tag to one another with one another against the vision where you know enemies the enemy of my enemy is my friend situation takes place so yeah the punk stuff is is not very clear right now which is a good thing again I don't think we should have predictable WrestleMania matches in January and I think that we should have the opportunity to sit here and go I wonder if they're going to go this way I want to figure out going to go that way so see a punk's direction heading into Royal Rumble is one to watch and we'll see where things go this Monday's he takes on Finn Balor in a title match in Belfast Ireland we have to say something Dr. Trey yeah just before we move on I was going to ask you this as well is Finn Balor in that Drew McIntyre era or area where it's like Finn's has some title shots over the last year and hasn't come through we saw that weird promo was about three weeks ago with Byron and Finn up in the balcony and Finn's like I'm coming for all the gold like and we saw reports that hey Finn might really get pushed this year are we trending that if Finn doesn't come through shortly he's kind of going to be locked in is that like non believable challenger type thing where like yeah Finn's a great wrestler but we know they're never going to title on him like is he in that range and he was one of the triple age guys building NXT like I kind of wonder like if he doesn't get

36:46 this where does Finn go long term in WWE is he always going to be kind of upper mid card at best at this point I don't think Finn's there yet because Finn has been in the tag division for like the last year with JD McDonough he is like a background player he is a mid card upper mid card the way he is booked I think if they continue to push him upwards he will enter that face where if he becomes as good as Drew and Kevin Owens were as a character we all know we know he could do it in rainwise then as a heel that then he needs to find that moment like Drew I don't think he's there yet just because the type of creative he has had has not been one where it's comparable to Drew where Drew has had multiple chances for a world title as completely failed and is like just obsessed with becoming WWE champion and Drew Finn's not there yet but he certainly could be for sure okay yeah because I mean like to have I mean this is kind of like it is in a weird way Drew losing at clash at the castle like this is Finn challenging for the title in his hometown basically I mean Belfaz is only like 45 minutes from Brooks County or Brooks Windsor County Ireland or whatever they say he's from like it's not that far away and so like when you put this kind of position if he loses back at lead to storytelling within the judgment day of like Dom you know still being

38:19 double champ and you know Finn guy getting pushed down like there's some good storyline coming out but also like I mean every time we see Finn in a big match in a singles match he hasn't come through in quite a while and that's why I'm kind of wondering like maybe they shock us all and Finn walks out with the belt because Braun interferes in the match that would be extremely shocking I mean you want to talk about like WrestleMania in flux like presently like there there was there was like a 50 50 split that like Drew McIntyre walks out of there is WWE champion like I I think it is like 80 20 yeah yeah yeah if Finn wins this match I'd be like holy crap like what do they what do we do now I mean that could is this the opening for L.A.9 now is then punk solely just going after the vision without a championship involved and Finn is the transition champion to guy like L.A.9 like those are the discussions that we're having it would be nice again I like creative that's putting things upside down in WWE rather than being very very predictable I thought that they've been very vanilla very easy to predict over the last let's say 12 to 15 months they got away from that 2002 to 2000 early 2024 run that they were on creatively when when Triple H took over where it wasn't as predictable and it was very very fun to watch as a fan now it's become a little bit more predictable to an extent or some creative has been more like let me just try to get some buzz and stuff for unreal

39:50 or stuff for you know YouTube and Twitter and X for these these viral clips whether it be our truth returning as a heel and I'm Ron killings now to just can be completely forgotten about now or seen as heel turn or the knee issue with the Seth Rollins like they went to go do more viral shit than stuff that actually matters long term for the company I was saying we were talking about predictable I did go undefeated my last two PLE predictions like I got I nail survivor series and I think the NXT show like I went I didn't miss a match the last two PLE because they got in kind of predictable so I'm with you I like them shaking up stuff but we haven't really seen that big shocking like you said Drew and Cody is 50 50 we haven't seen that big shocking upside down win out of nowhere and quite some time and this would be a great chance to do it especially if Finn wins and we get Dominic and Finn like Dom's jealous of Finn because Finn's got the big belt and even though Dom has two it's not that one like it's one of those things where like you can shake up all of WWE if you had the gust of pull the trigger on this and really make WrestleMania completely unpredictable going into the last three months it the Drew title change definitely is close I would say it's still surprising it happened given it was Cody close to WrestleMania that type of stuff if this was September I'd be like yeah this is definitely happening but being that it's close to WrestleMania

41:23 I was like will they do it will they pull the trigger and they did it's not like this jog to the floor moment but it was certainly surprising that they finally pulled the trigger there so lots to discuss in regards to the at least on the men's side of the main roster here of where things are going with the titles heading into Mania season and that's a good thing that's we we like to see that we like to see good creative creative that isn't predictable taking place right now in WWE speaking of the men's division dr. Tre if we go down to the NXT crew right now there feels like I was watching Tuesday night's edition of NXT there feels like there is a huge roster shake up going on in NXT right now it is giving me 2.0 vibes when they launched there is no clear cut star at the moment you have a lot of established names that are now working with not so established names we saw Ricky Starks or Ricky Saints taking claim to be the guy to be the next NXT men's champion there's going to be a six person NXT championship ladder match taking place in early February I think it was like the second or third Ricky Saints is already the match you've got miles born that wants to go in there Keanu Carter who I don't want to evolve he comes out of nowhere and lays claim is like being the next dominant oba femey brawn breaker those types of likes of a guy's that came out of nowhere we've seen that creative happen out of NXT over the last five

42:54 years as someone that's going to be in this match and dominate it's it's like a total crapshoot right now of where this men's division is going to go I eventually think guys like Saints and even Ethan Page on the North American side are going to find themselves facing up to Raw or Smackdown over the next three to six months which then leaves us no true quote established names you've got Tony DeAngelo that's out there laying people out wanting the run of the NXT championship finally he is an established name but the men's division like I'm watching like this could be either a lot of fun or be this could be some rough times ahead for the NXT brand because the women's division is just dominating on so many different levels your thoughts here right now Dr. Trays you look at the men's division of NXT yeah I mean it's funny like we've talked about this for almost the entire history of NXT like it goes through cycles it like the women's division we stacked the tag team division is solid the men's division is weak and then it'll cycle out the tag team division stacked the men's division solid the women's division is weak it goes to a cycle and I feel like we're in one right now where like the women's division is base is carrying the show the tag team division is eh and now the men's division with Oba Femi vacating the title is like completely in flux because like you mentioned like I'd love to see Ethan Page get another run he's one of my favorite people to watch Ricky Stain's good you still got Joe Henry floating around as well I don't

44:26 know who Kiana Carter is I don't know who Ilya Le Croix or LaFlora Le Croix or whatever his name is I don't know that is you know you had Jasper Troy got this big push and then now he's the speed champion but he's kind of in the background Tony D I don't think Tony D will ever be a main roster guy if he is he's gonna be kind of like middle of the card I just don't see world champion when I see Tony D so like you have a couple of guys you can build off of but yeah I don't know who I don't know if it's bad as nsc 2.0 but that men's division yeah it's it's struggling really really hard right now is that a good thing or a bad thing if it's struggling I would say it's actually it's it's a land it's the uh what's the old smackdown edge the land of opportunity yep like who's gonna jump out and catch fire it's never a bad thing when things are in flux because that's when they get really creative and they try different stuff and people try different things there was a point um right about time that brawn breaker came out that nxt was kind of weak in the men's division like right after Adam Cole and all those guys left were like okay well who's left like it was kind of flux and that's when the brawn breakers started jumping out at you that's when the Carmelo Hays is started jumping out the Ilya dragon offs don't there like that's when those guys kind of took hold and but right before that you didn't know who was gonna be the guy that broke out we all thought hey at one point we all thought Tyler bait was gonna be the the the focal point of nxt and nxt uk and then that now he's

46:02 Hispanic or something so you don't really know who's gonna be that guy that breaks out and that ww also goes hey not only is he good in this setting but he can be good on the main roster as well and be a bankable star the main roster so it's you know this is when guys can really just shoot their shot and go all out and kind of see who lands and lands on top well this is all happening dr. tre because there have been some call ups here very significant call ups when it comes to the men's division trick Williams now on the Smackdown brand javad Evans now on the raw brand and of course on last week's edition of nxt oba femmy gets the victory really on slater leaves it out in the ring leaves it vacant relic which is it which is leading to the eventual six pack challenge ladder match for the in the vacant nxt championship that'll take place in early February your thoughts on javad Evans signing with raw trick Williams signing with Smackdown and then where do you think oba femmy oba femmy lands because that is a factor that was like in the back of my mind when we were talking about all these wrestle many matches like could we see oba femmy playing a factor either on the raw brand side with the world of weight championship or even on the Smackdown side with the WWE championship your thoughts on the two signings and then we're oba femmy eventually lands i think trick going to Smackdowns good because a it puts i mean Carmelo Hayes is one of his best friends so at least it puts somebody on that roster that he's super tight with to help him kind of grow on

47:33 that brand and like we're saying Smackdowns kind of i don't want to say they're starving for stars but that that show feels very very flat for a while so getting a little injection of new blood in their role will always help you know ilya coming back was a big help as well i don't know if i'm a fan of the javad Evans going to raw because it just kind of feels like he's going to get lost in the shuffle for a while he might be the new version of Evan born like in on a raw we're like you love to see his matches but like is he beating anybody at the top of the card do you think like javad Evans could be like just on paper like looking at going he's not beating Gunther we saw that match he's not beating uh you know jay loose so anytime soon he's probably not beating la nai he's not beating bronzen or eater bron breaker like it's gonna like anytime he wins you're gonna be like oh wow that was crazy on Smackdown i think you can see javad Evans beating Carmelo Hayes and being us champion and that's believable so i'm worried about that move and then also the fact they had to sign his contract during a commercial break is just kind of disrespectful i would have liked to see javad and triq and oba all go to Smackdown because i think that would have injected some life into it and then if you needed to move some people around your mid card guys back over to raw you could do that um because we saw oba and kody at saryas made event you could inject oba into that kody jay kofatu drew mac entire mix and i don't think any of us would bat

49:08 an eye because oba looks the part and we all know he can perform in the ring so even the casual if you were like oh damn that guy's big he moves good yeah i can tell you see him being a top guy so i would have liked all of them go to Smackdown i am worried about javad getting lost in the shuffle under all i disagree and javad i really think he is he is gonna be a major player and i could see him involved on like the intercontinental championship stuff with like tomas terriol moving forward yeah i mean and but that's my worries like on on on raw i feel like he's always gonna be kind of in the middle like he needs he needs to add a little size this is the the will osprey conversation you and i had like eight years ago if will could put on some size he could be a main event guide he did but javad is only 22 i think you could have put javad on Smackdown and he could have factored into the upper mid card lower made event range faster than he can on Monday night raw well i think something but go ahead doctor i say it might be that this is the kind of their way of testing i mean the kids only i mean javad's 21 22 years old so it's kind of might be a way of like hey let's see if you can swim with the big fish because putting him on a very veteran heavy side might be a great learning tool for him as well so then you know in a year if they do the draft and he ends up on Smackdown we're like okay yeah i can see javad now being a main event player i just don't see him being a main event guy on raw anytime soon i think his path to main event was we would have been faster on Smackdown i

50:43 i think he's gonna be a big time star for the company without a doubt i i don't feel like he should have been on in NXT one more year i think he should have gotten a run with the championship i mean i mean yeah i would have loved if they were going to put oba up on the main roster and the plan was New Year's evil then they should have stuck with javad Evans versus oba femey for New Year's evil and let javad finally beat him and javad is the NXT champion for a period of time and stand to deliver during the WrestleMania season he's NXT champion he's holding it for a while and then maybe he gets that call up in the summer you know the word was anybody who basically performed on the john cnc and saturday night's main event show was gonna get an immediate call up well soul ruka is still in NXT right now and she's someone that i also feel like should remain an xd for a period of time because you should give her a run as NXT women's champion and oba and trick have been tested like it's time elevate them put them up there even lash legend um i think lash legend is a very just looking at recent call up from NXT she is the perfect example of somebody who uh doesn't work out well in NXT but just has the makings of a main roster player even when she's in NXT and that's how she plays out nia jacks was that way Alexa bliss was that way um and i think lash legend falls into that same category but i would have kept javad Evans in NXT for a little bit especially during the

52:13 transition period and let him run with the championship for a while let him let him you know feud with ricky saints um let oba put him over on his way out of NXT but clearly they want to elevate javad Evans um and yeah it it'll be be interesting where oba fami ends up i i i'm always with you right because raw is always super studded for the last 25 years that they've been doing the draft they've been doing the brand separation is always felt like smackdown has been the underdog they add the extra hour to smack down so you know that there's some time to fill some void that they need to fill but there's also wrestlers on the smackdown brand that we're not getting a lot of run on smackdown because they were you know basically an hour and 20 minutes of actual airtime each and every week i mean gaming priests announced her black would be in and out on on smackdown and now they could be a little bit more featured players the up and comers like kit wilson i think there's a lot of potential there for him um but yeah i'm always with you like they should always end up on smackdown because they could get lost on raw especially when they come from NXT uh with that said i think oba should get the call to raw i think oba is someone that could be feuding with punk feuding with roman or feuding with brock lesnar heading in a restaurant and out to tray the word on him is that their eyes opened up oddly enough in that match with Cody Rhodes at saturday night's main event where they were like oh crap we've got something here if if that was at the reaction of people in wwe after watching oba

53:44 feme over the last 12 to 18 months when he had his right running NXT uh he is good on the microphone he is a great character presence and he is a good in ring worker so i don't know what they weren't watching up until now but oba feme could be that he could have that brock lesnar run where you get debuting debuting april and you're debuting to be champion in four months time after that so i think oba ends up on raw i just because for me i go back to the obw class of 2000 with cina batista lesnar and ordin and for the most part you remember early on they always kept cina and batista on opposite shows and i look at it right now and go and you got brawn breaker on one show you want to keep oba on the other show because otherwise if they're both heels are going to cross pass that they're on the same show so keep them separate for a while to build up in the fans minds like once again i want to see oba and brawn go brawn breaker go at it and then you make that moves where they're both on the same show and you can set that up so i would just keep them separate for a while to build up that anticipation for them becoming the perennial main eventers that we know they're going to come and then have that big match at a wrestlemania 44 45 and then then it's off to the races for the next 10 years yeah it's intriguing times for NXT intriguing times for rons smack down with these additions and it's fun to watch i love seeing this stuff taking place when they do these runs and

55:19 because you know hopefully a year or two years so now you can look back and go hey remember that those call ups remember how the men's division looked and how they've kind of refreshed the brand because that is basically the cycle NXT goes through during each and every time period it's definitely a chapter that's ended on the men's side of NXT with that said dr. Tray let's close up shop on episode number 831 for jaynor 15th 2026 in a couple plugs and sponsor the way you can sports over at patreon.com/srtupodcast that remains free that remains your number one spot to receive this podcast at free and available once it is a release to everybody out there you can also download the show over at realguymedia.com wrestlechat and add on x or the still real a show feed on apple spotify wherever you download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe you can follow us individually on x for myself at srtu Jeff and for dr. Tray Franklin at the dr. Tray and of course don't forget to fall show on x at srtu podcast with that being said what is going on the wonderful world of dr. Tray Franklin this week well like Jeff said you can follow me on x at the dr. Tray you can find me on instagram and facebook dr. Tray Franklin when you're on facebook be sure to check out rock and city championship wrestling we just had the rock and city rumble two weeks ago we have a big show coming this weekend but i will not be there because as i told Jeff off air this is sammy franklin's birthday weekend so sammy frank will be turning seven so we're going to be having a blowout big party forum so i'll have to mr. rocket

56:51 city show but hey if you're not going to send money for sammy franklin's birthday go check out your local independent wrestling show where you two can go find the next kiana carter uh kiana reaves kiana ilio luflore like go find the next guy that'll be on nxc that jeff and i go who is that damn he's good i didn't see that coming so go go find those guys go support local independent wrestling because that's your bread and butter that's where wrestle mania 49 is coming from is that little local gym right down the ruff from your house so there you go support all the great things that support sRTU and once again thank you for making us part of it your week thank you for downloading the show thank you for supporting us again if you want to continue to support us go to patreon.com/srtupodcast sign up for free that is the way that we are tracking all of our listeners how many people tune in each and every week on the still real to us show so we're pleading everybody to go there please sign up for free and uh show your support to sRTU uh would that be in said dr tre that'll do it for this week's dish to the show we'll back next week we'll get you closer to the royal rumble and everything else that is going on the world of professional wrestling look back at maximum carnage from aew and a whole lot more so until next week for dr trey franklin i am jeff pack this has been this to release show