Is Rock/Roman vs. Rhodes/Rollins Overshadowing WM 40? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #736 – 3/21/24

0:00 It's still welcome, everybody. Welcome to this week's edition The Story Real To Show, episode number seven and thirty six from March twenty first, twenty twenty four. Welcome to this week's edition of ass RT for you. I am one after the show, I am Jeff Packer, joined as always to my host, the Only Doctor Try Franklin, Doctor Trey. It's less than two weeks away from now, my friend. Uh, yes, the NFL Draft is right. No, the NFL drafts park are out. Oh yeah, we're right. We're on the road to wrestle media. It's a yellow brick road full of poppy and puppies and all those good things. So it's getting close. I'm just I have a question for you. I bet to ask you this. I heard that if you're not a heel, you're just an a hole. Is that a bad thing nowadays? I don't. I don't think so at all. I mean, to get those booze, you have to be an a hole. Yeah, I think that's basically like like I tell you all the time, like I'm I'm kind of an a hole.

1:19 So you either love me or you hate me. So that I just didn't know that was a bad thing, So I just wanted to clarify usually being mister goody two shoes is a bad thing. Yeah, speaking of the road to WrestleMania forty, a ton of focus on the Cody Road, Sethron's Roman Reigns Rock tag team match that will headline reportedly headline WrestleMania sat. I'd be shocked if it doesn't, as this has progressed Doctor Trey and even pre and then once it was formally announced as taking place and now post, all I can think about was the amount of shine and time and focus this tag team match has been heading arrest of Matty forty and I simply ask has this tag team match actually taken away from the two world title matches? I would I would think, yeah, a little bit. And you saw a little bit of that of then trying to compensate for that on Monday Night with the seth Rawlins Drew McIntyre segment. But you know, I asked you, you know, we talked about a couple weeks ago. I kind of felt like Roman Rains has I'd have been lost in the shuffle of this a little bit, Like it kind of feels like Cody and the Rock and Seth and Roman are a part of it, but the focus seems to be on Cody and the Rock right now, so it does feel like the tag match is overshadowing everything else, and I think that's why ww's trying to compensate and and put some

2:50 light on the world title matches for Sunday Night. It's it's a really interesting dichotomy that they're in right now as I watch it, because at times you like almost forget okay, this tag team match is supposed to fill feed into the Road's Rains match for WrestleMania Sunday, but it is really taking a little way to a little wait, a little amount of shine away from Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins heading into WRESTLEMANI forty, And they're playing it off on the screen as such, and I don't know if it's in a good storyline spot when it comes to Rollins and Drew McIntyre or if it's legitimately taking away shine from that match right now, Doctor True, which is which is kind of scary. It's reminiscent to me a little bit of was it WrestleMania? See Where was It? Thirty twenty nine? Miz and Sena and the Rock twenty seven, twenty seven, twenty seven, You're you're the history when it comes to actual resumated numbers. But that whole thing felt like it was about the Rock in John Cena and the Miz was the world champion heading into that match.

4:01 That's a great comparison, by the way, and Men's was completely overshadowed, and he did one of the greatest promos of all times when the Men's came out dresses the raw heye had the sprays and the ball cap, you know, everything else to fit and it. But he felt like the afterthoughts in that story for that match, And that's where I'm at now, where it feels like Seth and Roman, who are your two world champions heading into WrestleMania, are kind of the afterthoughts of this because it does feel like Cody and Rock are overshadowing anybody or both of those guys, and who would have thought and in a WrestleMania season, our world champion, who's coming up in almost four years as world champion and probably the most dominant champion of our lifetime, is overshadowed by his cousin. Right now, I feel like ww W is playing the hot hand, and I cannot blame them for this, and the hot Hand is right now that the tension between Cody and the Rock is much more entertaining and engaging for their audience than anything else that we're seeing involved in that storyline right now, which again is scary. But I credit to WWE for playing the hot hand. But it's like, wait a minute, this tag match is still supposed to feed into rains and roads too, And oh, by the way, there's another World Championship match that Drew McIntyre won the elimination Chamber match to get that spot, and he's not even a focal

5:34 point in this right now. I mean, it's like insane to see at WrestleMania that two men's world title matches are playing not even like one B, one C. They are playing number two, number three to a tag team match that feeds into one of the title matches. It's it's insane to get your head around this. Yeah, I mean, hell, the stipulation in the tag match directly affects the world title match the next night. And can I stop you right there real fast? Sorry, doctor Trey. Do you think that maybe they should have somehow added some sort of stipulation for the Drew Rollins match into this one as well to bring in her interest into it.

6:20 See I I was gonna mention this, and to me, I almost feel like this is I think you said will not one being once even two and three. I feel like three here is because of the potential cash in of Damian Priest. Yeah, something more is going on. So I think that I don't want to say it's it's it's weak booking, but I think if that's the plan for the night, then it's it's being taken. Like I guess, I don't know, it's already got enough complications to it to add in their stipulation into it. But I mean if they come out like I mean, Drew doesn't like the blood lines opposed either, So I don't know what sipulation you could have in a bloodline match to then that Drew would agree to to feed into that, because then Drew would have to affiliate himself, you know, characterized with the bloodline, which you can't stand. So I'm okay with it not having it. But you know, to me, I think it's just them going, hey, well, if we're playing on doing this whole Damian cash in, then we probably will need Drew to be the baby face coming out of it, and if he aligns himself with the Bloodline, he's more heel instead of his tweeter character he's been working with. And I think that's why they've kind of set that one up this way. So that leads me to the next thing I wanted to bring up on this week's This to the podcast is how would you book this tag team match? While thinking of the world title matches WrestleMania. I've been really again trying to get my hat around this since they started teasing this, how they and then once

7:53 it was becoming official and they built up towards that, all I could think of was in my mind rang Now, I feel like Rock Costs reigns the tag team match so that Rhodes has Bloodline free, and we've seen Rock turned babyface in that match, Rhodes Rolins win, But then the next night do you do Rhodes winning the championship and then Rollin's losing the championship to Drew McIntyre, Because then that makes sense for then Rollins to somewhere down the line, Let's say Rollins goes away for a little bit licks his wounds and recovers from some of these injuries he's been dealing with. Does he come back as a heel and blame Cody for losing the championship, And then you've got that layer that you just mentioned, Doctor Trey. Is the vibe right now is that a Damian Priest cash in is potentially taking place at WrestleMania, and it would be over Drew McIntyre, would lead into that storyline of Drew McIntyre who comes out as the baby face in that is anybody's guest in all honesty, because it could go either way because Drew finally gets his moment at WrestleMania that he didn't get from wrestle MANI thirty six because of the pandemic four years later, and then that's stolen from him by Damian Priest. There are so many different layers here, and I don't know if it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think as I talk it out loud, I'll say it's a good thing because you don't want it to be predictable. But there's a lot of layers to this tag team match that feeds into the next

9:24 night of WrestleMania that if let's say Rhodes wins, Rollins doesn't, well, if I'm Rollins, I'm pissed off. Maybe I you know, unloaded the tank a little bit. If they both lose, why do they wrestle on Saturday? But if they both win, then it makes sense. Do you get my thoughts on this? Yeah? I mean, and you could easily have Seth win and Damien still catch in on him, and then Drew Blaine and Damien were taking the spotlight that we saw there. So I mean there's different layers on it because I could see you know, Cody and Seth winning the tag match, and like you said, Rock blames and blames Rock for his loss to come back on SmackDown or wherever they both come back on TV. I'm saying Rock costs him the match. I think there's a turn at WrestleMania. See, I think that you could have Rock take the loss and then Roman's like you you know, you you know you losing? Yo?

10:18 Met me know, made me have this stipulation the way it was. I I you know, because if if if Cody wins intenally, Rock can't be a reside. Rock can't come out because then the blood line does get it. Well, what if he leaves the bloodline that night? Right there? Is there a membership card or something, you get a discount of David Busters. I believe so. But like to me, at some point, you're gonna have to get back to Seth and Cody, because right now, Cody's three to zero against Seth. You know, we talked about that when you know Cody gave a spot to the Rock initially and that we thought Cody's are going through Seth. Well, like Cody's got three wins over set at some point, Seth's gonna have to try to get one victory over Cody at some point. But how could you say that? You know, if I hadn't taken this match, I could have been Drew mcatire when he's the one who accepted the match. It was Seth who accepted the tag match. So yeah, the one thing I love about this is that there's so many layers to it that we don't you know, we have our ideas on how the shows going to go out, but we don't know the storyline path they're going to take coming out of it. Because the other thing I thought about was, let's say Cody wins and Roman goes away for a little bit, Rock goes away fort well, who wants SmackDown? Do you have ready to step up to challenge Cody to make compelling television? Is it solo? Is it Jimmy?

11:43 If Jimmy loses the Jay, is it solo? Then that Solo's the most logical number one contender because I don't know, really have they built any other strong challengers up on the heel side to challenge a potential Cody Rhodes world champion? So so low, Yeah, this is it's about. It's solo, and he's actually solo in is Roy he might be the only one who the fans would go, that's incredible threats. I would even say that maybe depending on the direction at Wrestlemanian Post, maybe in a heel AJ styles starts to build up a little bit as well. But I think if that's the case, I think how the show lays out when you have the AJ match and you have them come up like you know, even I know they're doing the Final Testament and the Prime Match at some point during the WrestleMania weekend at somewhere there, whether it's Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you know, is it a Carrion Cross, is it somebody else? I think as you're watching the show, the booking of the heels might tell you who the next inline guy is, because don't forget we still got Randy or that triple threat match at Orton Olwen's logo. Paul, one of those guys is not going to win. And obviously you could do Ko and a Ko Heel turny at some point if you wanted to, But that's like the big show at this point.

13:03 Yeah, I know, but it does Logan Paul step up as your next logical World Champion challenger if he loses the US title. I mean, Waller and Theory aren't ready yet, so that basically leaves AJ. Basically your your options are AJ, Logan Paul or Theory and Waller and Carrion Cross as the next guys step up. If you're doing if you want to, you know, start building your next challenger to a potential Cody Rose World Championship. Run back to the tag team match and the way that you would book the world title matches. We have one, two, three, four, five shows left bron Smackdowns combined before WRESTMANI forty takes place starting on Saturday, April sixth. At some point, do you have some sort of segment where Drew McIntyre and the Bloodline interact with one another, at least of Paul Hayman Drew McIntyre segment, especially if the Bloodline, if they have to make a contingency plan just because because this is where Paul Hayman is really good, Because Paul Hayman could approach McIntire and basically look like worst case scenario Roman and Rock lose.

14:22 I need a plan be to keep the belts on Roman, you know, could you be the plan be? Because and I was thinking about what we're talking. One thing that I used to love about the time of the year was usually the draft would happen us around the NFL Draft. At one point when we were growing up, this would be a great time because if Cody wins, you could draft Drew to SmackDown, and then Seth can still win, and Damian cash in on Seth and then you got Damien's Seth and you can do Drew and Cody. But we haven't heard anything about the draft or anything like that. So I would at least plug in a segment where Hayman's kind of slyly recruiting somebody else just as a play and b in case the case Rocket are on the lose, because then you can still have the potential for somebody to get involved in that match to help romanout. And for all intensive purposes, how great would be if Drew wins loses the Belt of Damien on the cash head. Drew comes out during Cody and Rock or excuse me, Cody and Roman and actually Claymore's Roman and then Cody that allows could get away. So that way Drew still gets a little bit of shine from the crowd for helping Cody, you're saying at Wrestlemaning forty Yeah, Wrestlmating second night. I think if Rhodes is winning the title, and we talked about this a couple of weeks back with the Rock and Cody's stuff. Initially I think if Rhodes wins the title, it has to be clean. Yeah, I think for all intensive purposes it does too. But you know, if you see that Drew Hayman interaction and then let's say, for some reason it

15:52 looks like something is going to come down and maybe Drew takes that guy out. See I was thinking more along the lines of that he needs to be intersected, intertwined into this at some point so that people don't forget like hey, by the way, seth Rawlins is defending his World of aweight championship against Drew Mcatarre the next night, and Drew has been one of the best characters since late summer of last year, like legitimately one of the best, very entertaining, great entering worker, really good promos, great character development, and he deserves that shine. I think that's always the problem people have when Rock comes back, especially, is that people take a back seat because of his shine. And it's you know, whether you hear the reports over the weekend last weekend that people were complaining internally in w about his promos, He's allowed to curse and all that stuff. Listen, guys and girls, I appreciate and love and adore you that you do three sixty five twenty four to seven WWE, and Rock only comes in for a couple of weeks, a couple months, helps build up the biggest show, gets a lot of shine, gets a huge payday, board of directors, all that stuff. At the end of the day, the Rock is one of the most recognizable people in the world, not the United States, the world. The other night, I was at my family's house. We were enjoying some corn, beef and cabbage for Saint Patrick's Day. I put on SmackDown. It was Friday night and Rock was the opening segment, and my parents, who were they were like, what is the Rock doing back in WWWA Does he need money?

17:26 And I was like, no, not at all. But they knew right away, like who that was and what he's it does and what he's accomplished very recognizable. I mean, that's just how it is at the end of the day, and I think some of that shine from the Rock For these next five shows, they gotta use this momentum for the tag team match and divvy it up a little bit better towards Roads and Rains, which I know that that is equally, you know, very easily tied to, but also Rollin's and Big Drew. It's you know, the enemy of my enemy is my friends. I love the idea that you pitch their Doctor Trey have Big Drew in the back stage area talking to Paul Hayman. Paul Hayman confronts him, you know, says you need Roman reigns and the bloodline, and you see that Drew is going through that that inner demons, the inner feelings that he has of issues of aligning with the bloodline or not. And that's, you know, something that is compelling to see on television. I just feel like they need to do something before we get to wrestle Anty forty. And maybe it's just Hayman pitching him to get involved in the tag match. You know, hey, if you help out Roman and Rock if we need it, I am. That's very simple and softens up seth for you on night too, even though you know Drew's saying, look, I need you there if I got to carry your ass down to the ring. You know we're

18:57 having you know, whatever it is, we're having that match. I mean Drew's Drew's on that tweeer kick right now where he's like, I have to beat you. But if you see that backstage segment that could once again create so many branchings and anything else. One other thing, requick I saw somebody I came up for his melt or of somebody else talking about l A. Knight And for a lot of people, like like we talked about the show that a lot of people say the LA Knights had like a cross version of Austin and Rock. You know, his promos are rockesque in a way. But then I saw all the people like complaining that when La Knight cuts a promo the same night that Rock does his stuff, he does look like a poor imitation. Did you feel that way watching SmackDown? No, No, I don't. I've never I'm not on the same level as a lot of other fans are when it comes to the hype around La Knight because I think I'm an old head that saw this same come up. It's in the late nineties of Austin and Rock, and I can understand the comparisons there, and there's a heavy influence for both those guys in his character. And plus I remember him on TNA Impact Wrestling as well, which is no different than the character that we're seeing. So no, I don't feel like it gets taken away in all honesty, but I just don't. I don't. I hate saying I just don't believe in La Knight as a main event player. I think his his finisher is not the best. It doesn't look like it hurts

20:30 at all. It looks very hokey in a way and hard to do. And yeah, I mean his characters just remind me so much of the late nineties Rock Austin, what have you. Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't for me. I think this is where this is. This is where I might get called the hypocrite because I get I give the AW fans crap for this, but you know, the AW fans are like, oh, well, you don't know what osprey because you didn't watch his new Japan work. It's like I feel that night. I'm like, no, the La Night character is the Eli Drake character. Like it's the same character, and if you didn't watch TNA, you don't know these things. But I kind of feel that way at times. I'm like, nothing's changed. And to me, in the La Night character in twenty twelve, if you had put him as a world champion, I would have bought into it a little bit more because the roster was thinner and maybe not as deep as it is now.

21:23 He was a world champion there, right, I mean in w W, oh gotcha? You know what I'm saying. Like, if you if during that time when we had the seamuses and the League of Nations and all that stuff, the Albertio Deel reels. If the La Night character come on at that point and you put him in the World Champion, I've been like spot on great choice right now with the roster being so so heavy, like him on top, I would be like, Yeah, there's a lot of other guys. I think I would pick over him right now to be World Champions. So I don't think some people call him a knockoff of The Rock or poor like the Balmart version of The Rock. To me, I'm like, it's just he's influenced, and I'm like, I can see that with a lot of young wrestlers where they get I mean to me, when you watch Brayson Waller. To me, he's influenced heavily by the Miz, you know, Like, I don't like, I see a lot of these similarities and a lot of the younger guys coming up. It just sucks that when your influence is all the same show as you, it's going to make you look a little bit weaker in comparison. Going back to the tag team match and how you're going to book that while thinking the world title matches, what is your as of March twenty first, right now, Doctor Trey, what is your prediction for the tag team match and then the two men's world title matches for Rust many forty. I have Cody and Seth winning the tag match, Cody winning his match against Roman, and Seth losing his match to Drew.

22:48 Yeah, I'm the same one. And that's the thing that I'm having trouble with is Rollins takes that match on Saturday help Cody but loses his world title. Do they end up doing Seth as a heel down the line feuding with Cody, like over SummerSlam or something like that. I mean what if? I mean I could also see like a member of the Bloodline helping cost Seth that match to where that way it's not Seth was as clean. That's an interesting twist, you know, maybe depending on you know, Solo doesn't have a match at wressele Media right now, which is wild to me. Yeah. So if Solo, because you know, the Bloodlight, can't get involved in Cody match to get revenge, Solo hits the spike on Seth, Drew hits the claim or cashes in, you know, exhausted, but he wins.

23:41 I could see that happening. But then Damien cashes in on Drew. I like that plan, because then that would make sense to me. I don't want to get to bitter seth Rons and we get another, you know, rehash of the Cody Roade Seth Ron's feud, because I got to be honest, I was not the biggest fan of how that feud went in twenty twenty two. No, because I'm not a bad I'm not a fan of one guy winning three nothing over. Yeah. Yeah, it's like at some point, but to me, also at some point one of those two guys are gonna be healed at some point in the next couple it's not you know, it's no. I mean, that would be Hollywood Hogan the moment, you know, but you know, if if a member of the blood Line, and maybe it's Jimmy and then Jay, you know that's Jay beats Jimmy, Jimmy still bad and cost Seth and somebody I think somebody gets involved cost Seth the match. That way, Seth doesn't come out, and Seth still just pissed off at that member of the blood line. But then by the time he comes back from healing up because he knows it's gonna be a I think it's Seth loses. Also, where does he Seth take a couple of months off to kind of rest and recuperate, so uh, and then when he comes back, he'll get right back into the world title picture. Whoever is on top of that time. There's another match that cat all tie in this as well. You've got that real Ripley Backy Lynch in the background right now. Maybe that there's they reopen the friendly nature banter between Rhea Ripley and Drew McIntyre, which also includes the rest of the judgment day and feeds into

25:12 that one being add at Seth Rond's wife, Becky Lynch's. It's an interesting time frame and I'm not confused by it that it's not like head scratching. I'm not looking at it as a negative. I think it's a massive positive. And I really like that resting fans can look at all different angles here than rather than seeing it be so cut and dry and very predictable as it has been in the past. So I think it's I think it's a pretty exciting booking right now, Doctor Trey. But my only concern is the tag team match is getting too much shine over the two men's world title matches, which initially started this conversation. Yeah, and we basically at some point, I think you need Roman too. We saw a little bit a few weeks ago with Roman told Rock that he needed a handling dog. We Roman to reassert his roman Esque nature in this because it to me, it feels like Roman's become the sidekick in this as well. So Roman needs to kind of rest. And I know it's it's hard to not be the secondary character to the Rock. But the Rock got thirty minutes basically to start the show.

26:21 It's back down, you know. I think that the reason why that's happening is because they needed to do a quick challenge and pivot of turning him here. Yeah, if he was a babyface, I think there is no you know, Roman playing in a background player in this. And if it's Rock and Roman going in the WrestleMania, I think there's that's pretty equal. I think that they needed to get Rock heel pretty fast, and then once he did that, and with the nostalgia route, I mean, the fans are eating it up. I mean, how could you not. Well, I'm a huge Rock fan, so I'm very biased, So I guess this is more of a question to you, Doctor Trey, is how could you not be watching the rock stuff right now on SmackDown and just be like highly entertained and smiling, Like I thought the rock concert was great. Yeah, I mean it's really good. It's really entertaining. But you know, to kind of we like I said, we saw a lived on Monday night with Drew reasserting himself and reminding everybody, hey, we have our match on Sunday.

27:21 I need you at as close as HUT present as possible, you know type of thing. You just need Roman to reassert himself because as much as we love Cody finishing his story, his story is winning the championship, but his story now is also defeating Roman, and so we do need a little bit of that, a little bit more of that mixed in to kind of up the anting and his tag match, because, like I said earlier, it does feel like it's it's very Cody rock centric when it needs to be a little bit more focused also on Cody and Roman as well. Well. Props wly because they're leaning into Drew McIntyre being overshadowed as well, because they have that great segment where McIntyre comes out for an entring promo segment and as he's making his way down the RNK, he gets interrupted by Seth Freakin Rollins who just walks by them and ignores them, and then that leads into their promo battles, So a lot of odds and ends, and then I'd like to see tied up a little bit as we had in a WrestleMania and maybe we decides to do that intertwine some of these because I do feel like the two Men's Bold Heavyweight Championship matches need to get some shine equally as well Roads and Rains and Rollins and McIntyre, and that could all stem off of this tag team match that has gotten a ton of shine. Right now, heading into the build for Wrestmania forty, We're going to quickly pivot to AW and go back to Mercedes mon A signing with a company. According reports, it's a very historic signing because the belief is that when she was in negotiations with w W and AW, the one thing that she wanted to accomplish was to be

28:52 the highest paid female in professional wrestling, and according to reports, the lodge behind that from Mercedes Monette in her camp is because she wants to open up the door for women wrestlers to get equal and or more pay than her. And when you really think about it, and there's not a lot of going back to the phrase shine again on this signing, you think of it that way and how that is being reported, and this is a really historic signing Doctor Trey. If she is making more money than reportedly Becky Lynch's in we and she's the highest paid female wrestler in all professional wrestling right now. This is just like in sports, right I mean, you and I see it as NFL fans. My favorite thing is the quarterback money. Lamar Jackson will sign for forty six point five million dollars of guaranteed money in the first annual you know, aav annual average value, and it's like, well, where do they get the forty six point five million, Well, it's because he wanted to make more money than the highest paid quarterback, which was Aaron Rodgers who was making forty six And you could see that, you know, transcend over to the professional wrestling scene. And when you think of it that way, and she's setting the standard, she's setting the bar so that when Becky Bailey, Charlotte Bianca, whomever goes back to contract negotiations, whether it be with WE and or AW, They're going to use this as the jump point of well, I want more money than Mercedes Monet. It makes you think,

30:25 like, was this signing really historic for the continued development and growth of women's wrestling in the world of professional wrestling. It's a double edged sword. Like, on one hand, if you are seen as a draw, then yeah, it's great leverage. You know, you mentioned Charlotte Flair or the Becky lynchs or Rhea Ripley or beyonc or whoever it is. If you're seen as a main event talent, regardless of gender, it's great for you. The issue that we have to be careful of is is she a draw? Is Mercedes money a draw? Is are the Rady's gonna go up? Are those numbers gonna go up to justify the pay? Because otherwise it becomes the you mentioned the quarterbacks. It becomes the Jimmy Garoppolo of women's wrestling, where like, you sign a great contract because at one point, you know, Bbying, the dieharded Iron fan, Garoppolo is the highest paid quarterback in the league for about a month and then people are using his deal as a benchmark.

31:30 But then after a while you're like, man, like this guy is costing us twenty eight million dollars a year and we're really not improving at all. We're not getting any better, we're not seeing the results. Well, is the next person then gonna go, well, I want to get more by the Mercedes Modet. Well, yeah, but that was a really bad contract and we don't pay people that much. So it does kind of become that double edged sword as to whether or not does is she going to be able to outperform, like perform to the level of or outperform the level of that contract to make it worthwhile to an AW or WW two side of their talents to equal or more money than issues getting mm hmm. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a really it may be a historical moment there that kind of catapults I've felt like, well, I certainly feel like I think the women's wrestlers absolutely deserve to be paid just as equal value as the male wrestlers nowadays.

32:24 Out to try, I would say the top level talent. Oh absolutely, that's it. Yes, the main that's what I mean. Like, if I don't think anybody is rowing rain's money, but can you make a case that Ria Ripley, Bianca Belaire, Becky, Charlotte Bailey should be knocking on the door in the range of where Seth Freakin, Rollins, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, Kevin Owens are yes and okay in that little grouping, I would say there's a level. There's a different level where Rawlin's and Rhodes and Randy because of his history, I always say, be slightly above where you put back in Tyre Owens like those, Ria Ripley deserve drew back entire money. Yes, you know, does you know Bria's on the level now where she's on the buses, she's on the billboard, she's main eventing shows her merchandise itself. I think that's where they are looking at it and go, you know, are you driving the money in to justify us paying you that much? As well? So for somebody like Riha and you know Becky and Charlotte to a degree, I don't think Charles ever moved the merchandise the other two have. But Seawn's never been a great baby face, but as a heel she can help. She builds baby faces where even in that little segment of women you mentioned I don't know if Biaka and Bailey are on the level where Ria, Becky and Charlotte are, so I think they're even within

33:58 those groupings. There's tears as well. So I think if Bailey came up as a free agent, I don't think Bailey could go to aw'd be like, hey, I want to make more money than Mercedes, because I don't. You don't think she could or should I think she could ask. I don't know she'd get paid that because I don't know if you put Bailey on the level of main event, and I'm just perception in fans eyes of what Mercedes gets. I think to most fans, Sawsha is a bigger star than Bailey. I don't think I think AW will write that check book. Well it does. I think it'll be equal or more. I think the day when I saw that Shad Cohn was worth twelve point two billion dollars in AWW combined, we're worth nine. That helps that Dad's got a much deeper checkbook than than WWE to a degree. I think I think you can leverage at times and get there. But you know, do you think Bianca would get paid more than than Mercedes? But a by aw Yes, I do, I do, I would say, and that's that's that's where you got That's where that leverage comes in. That's why the beauty of having two companies that are competition, you can leverage one against other. Because I I don't think ww B wo if if if Bianco or Bailey came up as free agents this week and they went to Triple Agent and uh nick con and like I want Mercedes Modet money or out walking, I think they would let them walk.

35:29 They'd be like, go ahead, We're not. I don't think so, man. I think I think it's a company that we all know. They're making billions of dollars and just got what like a five billion dollars deal from Netflix. They can't say like, all right, well we can't afford that. Go somewhere else. Yeah. I just think that in their mind they can create another star. I mean, look what they have done with Tiffany Stratton on a very small scale. That's what I'm saying, Like, I think they they could look at their roster and go, can we afford to lose Yanka because we have JAKEE. Cargill? Can we afford to lose Bailey? When we have a Tiffany strap. Can we afford to lose one or two of these people and pay somebody else who's maybe a notch below them or coming up what they're making now, and not lose a step, because that's basically what they did. I mean, they offered sas money. She took the eight w deal, but they really didn't. I don't think. I don't know how hard they really fought to bring Sasha back into the fault or Mercedes money back into the fault. Uh Well, according to reports, there was a pretty decent college try. At the end of the day, it came down to finances. Yeah, I think that they were. They did not want to pay her more money than Becky Lynch's Yeah it's mine. It's kind of the pay like once he is. Use a sports analogy. The Patriots always had. They had values based on position, like we could pay this you know, this position up to this amount of money, or this position to this amount of money, and they don't. They didn't cross those lines. I think WW has the same kind of idea, like, hey, we can pay our top female up to this line. We don't want

37:00 to go past it or pass it too far. Obviously, everybody's will get raises and get bumps and pay if you're performing. But they have a budget in light of where they want to pay people, and if somebody came through, they were like, hey, I want the top pay in this history, in the history of women's wrestling. And then he looks like goes, well, you're the number seven woman on our roster. They might let number seven walk because ten, eleven to twelve could easily take number seven spot. It's really interesting times. I think at the end of the day, I still think it's a historic signing. I think it's a huge needle mover for finances and money that will be paid to female wrestlers. And yeah, I think you're seeing the ground level of where negotiations now will start and end for a lot of female stars. Because if you're willing to pay Mercedes mone this money, you know there's that upper rational of female talent. And yeah, I think it's a very historic moment. Doctor Trey. Do you think this makes it more likely that when Bailey's deal comes up, she goes to AW I think she's a w wee girl. Yeah, but I mean literally like, and I'll say why, because did you see there was that interview that they ended up like scrubbing the the clip off of because as she was getting ready to debut in AW that Mercedes Bone said in this interview she knew she

38:31 was going She's going to return in w someday. Yeah. I saw them scrub that part. Yeah yeah, and then she like backtracked a little bit or there was a little bit more contacts and contacts and it was like, well, I mean, I may just come back for one match and I'll be against Bailey and it's like, oh, shut up, that's not that's not happening. So I thought that was very strange. I just I just I just saw that. I saw that the Instagram post of Bailey and Naomi putting on disguises to go visit the AW show to see Mercedes debut in Boston. I love that. I think that's great to support your friends. We've seen it when they went to New Japan, they went to Mercedes and Bailey went to TNA to see I think Trinity, Naomi's last match and one of her first matches. They were behind the scenes as well. I liked it.

39:21 There's a little bit more flexibility in that. And in case in point, I did not gain a lot of traction from my eyes. But Matt Hardy was at RAW this past Monthay, well they were in Raw well, but I mean no, I mean they could be in New York or in New York and and I don't know is MJF got to show up to watch in Brooklyn in a couple of weeks. I mean Matt Hardy also had I mean there's still people in the company that he's worked with. In those folks, I mean we talked about like, well, there's reports that his contracts coming up. Yeah, but we also saw that when see Aim Punk was in Chicago and visited Money that I visited Raw. From what we've learned, that was clearly Punk trying to figure out how to get back to really well. He also with a TNA. He did, he did, and that nearly became a reality as well, which is I guess one of the reasons why Scott the Moore left the company. So interesting times for professional wrestling.

40:12 It's cool to see as well as as always this time of the year is a lot of fun. And then to bounce back to WW Doctor Trey. There's a report out there right now from Wrestle Votes, which is this is. So this is is clear as Day and his concrete, because they're very rarely wrong. Four more WrestleMania matches are expected to be announced for the event, with seven matches per night on the card. Do you think so we've got then we've got ten matches announced? Is seven matches each night? Fourteen total? The right amount for WrestleMania forty I I don't know if there's an actual right amount. I think there's a time. I think there is.

40:57 I think there's a right I get your point, but I do you think that there is can be a right amount as well? I mean, if you have six matches and it goes three hours, or you have seven matches and it goes three hours, is they're really a difference? That is a very good point. That is a very good point. I mean to me, it doesn't if you're staying in that three hour window. That does mean one of the matches. If you do seven matches versus six matches, or I mean, dear god, what we just have pay for review? They had four matches, yeah, well, I mean two of them were the elimination champe but you know two of these on night two are world title matches. So obviously they're gonna get twenty to twenty to thirty minutes apiece. Well that's an hour between two matches. It's five matches for the other two hours, and then plus your little you know, celebrity things or intermissions, not intermission, but either the breaks between the matches and stuff like that. So there is, you know, there is there is a line at times because I mean, your god, we don't want to go back to WrestleMania when you had the eighteen second matches or a seven minute match, because that doesn't feel like a good blowoff to a few seven minute match is not a good blowoff. You want to give matches time, but then you also want to make sure you're getting value for your time as well. And sometimes that quantity versus quality line is where I think they dance on a lot, like you know, and plus I don't know if it's still the case, but for for many many years, there was a WrestleMania bonus that the performers got, and that's why we used to get crazy number matches and all the Battle Royals and all the multiman badges. So that way they felt like they were giving

42:30 everybody, you know, their bonus shine to use the word that you used several times a night. So there is that line. I mean, dear guy, I mean that's that would be fourteen matches at a WrestleMania you know if we still had one night. I mean, that's like an aw card. Yeah, yeah, that aw card is rather long. I just had that moment of like my heart stopping the five hour pay per views and stuff like that, like I may like WrestleMania New Organs and when I went to I mean we got to the show at I think we got there like doors open at four thirty, and then the pre show stuff started like five thirty six, and then we left. You know, that's the infamous Rollman Brock match that we left right after introductions and we left there at ten thirty and that match still with like another thirty forty minutes. I mean I was only went another two days. Yeah, So, like I learned, my entire night was just I just want to hear Paul I haven't do the intros, and that was very I remember restumating thirty five. I started watching the show at five pm because they were doing the pre show and aired a couple of matches on USA Network. I remember like FTR and Hawkins and Ryder had a match, and then I remember the main event went on close to midnight, which was the Triple Threat Women's match, and it like ended at twelve thirty, you know, twelve forty five, and it was like I just sat on the couch for seven and a half hours watching restuming, and I remember we had the discussion like they need to break this up, and then they did it the next year, well circumstance because of COVID and then him a

44:00 regular thing on thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine and now forty and I love that they do that. So I do get your point where it's like it's not quantity, it's more quality, and yeah, yeah, I guess it's not the right amount. It's more of the time overall. Yeah, that was the year we actually talked about Wrestle king to be two nights and if ww should do like what Wressell Kingdom does. We sat he would let me be a great idea, and then the next year they went through with it because of COVID. But that's something that you and I might want a research. But to go back to Wrestle Batien and see how many matches on average they had at wrestle Media prior to going at two knights. Oh dude, they had like fifteen or sixteen on thirty five. Do you remember like some Moa Joe and Raymysterio had like a ninety second match. Yeah, and that's and that's where like if you' which was so damn disrespectful, and that way, if you're looking at going, okay, well, if they if they do sixteen matches, divide that too, eight would be the number.

44:55 And if they're coming in at seven or coming in at six, And that makes sense because that way you're still getting the quantity of previous wrestlemtings with the qualities better because it's broken up over two nights and you can digest it better. All right, let's take a look here real quick, and then we'll go through the card round up. And I want to know what matches we think may be missing of the four WrestleMania thirty four Doctor Trey, you were there live, how many matches do you think took place at that card on the main show? No, no, do the whole show. The whole shows one, two, three, four, five, six. It was probably around twelve twelve, I believe it was fourteen fourteen, okay, fourteen matches on thirty four and then there's two matches I forgot. I think one of them involved Nicholas and then thirty five. How many matches do you think we're on there start to finish counting the pre show, I would say sixteen for that one, because that way you are dead on sixteen matches.

45:58 Rollins and brock lesra on that card went two minutes and thirty seconds. Samo Joe and Raymisterio my apologies, it went fifty eight seconds. Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre went ten minutes. Corbyn Kurdang and went six minutes. Finn Baler and Bobby Lashley Interconinal Championship match at WrestleMania four minutes and five seconds. Don't forget. We've also had, like you know JBL and Raybisterio was like, was what like forty five seconds? Well they did that purposely, Yeah, that was that was JBL's way of paying respect to Eddie who had passed away at that point and wanted to retire on the sword against Ray Asterio. So h but I mean, that's that's one thing we haven't had since we've gone to two nights are those like what the hell did I just see matches where it's like that short. We've had longer batches the guys that had better build And I think I think Triple H, being a former performer, understands that, Like im if I'm going to be at WrestleMania. I mean, dear guy, he's had some stinkers at WRESTLEMANI he's has some brain matches Wrestleman.

47:02 So I think he understands, Hey, we got to get these guys some time to tell their story. So yeah, let's get the guys on the show. It might be a multi man match, but dear God, let's get the guys on the show. Let me get their money, but also give them time to actually perform up their standards. Triple H got jobbed out to Ultimate Warrior WrestleMania in like seconds, so yeah, he certainly knows what that is like. Looking at the Wrestlemanting forty card round up, what was announced since we last recorded this podcast, La Knight and AJ Styles is official as official Jay Uso and Jimmy Uso is official. And there's a really cool stat here that every fifteen years since WrestleMania at ten. A WrestleMania match has had a brother versus brother match Brent No and at WrestleMania at ten Matt versus Jeff at Restman. In twenty five. Michael Cole actually mentioned it mentioned in Unraw this past week. That is now official Logan Paul defending the United States Championship against Randy Norton Kevin Owens, which Doctor Treyna trying to figure out where that match was going is now official. DIY, the Awesome Truth and The New Day have been added to the six Pack Ladder match for the NSP to WA Tag Team Championship. There are two spots remaining. Those will go to SmackDown which is doing a mini tournament right now. Sidebar on that DIY versus the Creed Brothers go back and watch that match. That was awesome for a television match. So LA and I AJ styles USA versus USO Logan or in Kevin Owens, DIY, Awesome Truth, New Day added to the tag match.

48:31 Doctor Trey, your thoughts on the recently added matches to Russell Many forty. I'm looking forward the tag match because I mean everybody have been added like so far, like everybody added. Some matches has has a role. Like we've seen Dy against Judgment Day. We've seen the interactions of New Day and Judgment Day going back a few months ago. Awesome truth. You know obviously have their issues with Judgment Day. So everything storyline wise fits. I'm looking forward to that one. Or and Logan Paul is going to be really really fun U USSO and USO is great. And then does this mean at WrestleMania fifty five we get Logan against Jake Paul. It is predictab intersting. They be in their forties, so you know, projecting it out interesting. And then, like we mentioned earlier here Doctor Trey, there are four matches left to be added on our list of rumor slash expected. We had down the Final Testament versus The Pride, Grayson Waller versus Austin Theory, Raymisterira versus Santos Escobar. I know it's taking place on SmackDown on Friday. I do think that happens at WrestleMania somehow, or maybe there's like Raymons Stereo and Bad Bunny versus Santos and someone, and then Jade Cargill and Bianca Belaire are down as our rumored expected list of those four, which ones do you think do make

50:02 it to the WrestleMania Card one and then two? What matches are we missing to fill these spots for the four voids? I guess we could always go back to Well, they'll have the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal. That can fill that as well. I think the Pride Final Testament things happening. I think we get some kind of Ray and Santos interaction, whether it's a you know, one on one or they do l W o versus Lake Gado, Delfa Tasma, some kind of thing that I think that will happen. The Jade Bianca thing is there because since the since the Rubble, we haven't seen Jay Carter. I know so here and there, but we have not seen her like play a significant role, and at this point I don't think it's happening. I think what we might get is Naomi and against the Kabuki Warriors, which is something else I had thought about was doing. You know, I mentioned if you did Beca and Jade against the Warriors, they're just somebuting Jake Cargo out for Naomi. And then what was the other one we did. You mentioned Ray Santo's Pride, Fantastic Grayson and Austin theory that one. I don't know. We haven't seen Austin turned yet, and I think if you're going to do that, just being a few weeks out for WrestleMania, you would have pulled the trigger on that one. So I think they might get dumped into the Battle Royal. I just think there's one more out there. Let's see, where are we missing women's match for anybody? Unless they do die and limb to do like a

51:37 David versus Malaiath. I think I'm starting to as we talk it out loud, I'm starting to think that two of those four matches andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. I can't see that not happening unless they do it on the SmackDown before and WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, which the focus would be nigh and live on that match. Yeah, I think those are two of the four. So then which one of the of the two men's match? I mean, are so are you on the page with the Pride and Final Testament though I am not on the same page with that. I think Mysterio Santos either one on one or some sort of like tag team match happens at WrestleMania, And I'm going to I really like your idea of Bianca and Naomi taking on the Kabooki Warriors. I could totally see that. I'm gonna say, Jade, Bianca is still on the table. They still have time to build towards it. But I mean, if nothing happens on SmackDown on Friday, I mean, I think we can almost x that from our list because we saw Naomi get involved with Bailey, yes, and damage Control and that, and then we saw the interaction of Naomi and Bianca, yeah, the week priory.

52:43 So that's why I was trying to tie it all together. Yeah, I like that plan. And the only thing that plays a role in that is how significant is Oscar's injury that she clearly suffered at the end of SmackDown this past Friday. Well, I mean, do you pull does damage Control pull Freebird rules and Da Kodagish subbed in for Oscar. Yep, that's a great save as well. They certainly can do that. So it's gonna be like, but you, I mean the last couple of years, I mean that the Battle of Royals were done on SmackDown as well. I know, I know, so interesting. We'll see where SmackDown goes on Friday and if we get a little bit more light shined on which matches will be added to WrestleMania come the next five shows of Raw and SmackDown. So that is the latest WrestleMania forty card roundup. Uh And that with that being said, let's close up this week's edition in the show and get a couple of plugs and sponsors out of the way. You can download the show every Thursday or Friday at Real Guy Radio dot com, wrestle chatnett on X and the still Real to Us show iTunes feed. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help help us climb the charts on iTunes. You could fall us individually on X for myself at s r TU Jeff and for Doctor Trey Franklin at The Doctor Trey. And of course don't forget to follow a show on X at SRTU podcast. With that being said, what is going on in the one for world of Doctor Trey Franklyn this week. Well, like Jess said, you can follow me on X at the Doctor Trey. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook, Doctor Trey Franklin. When you're on Facebook, checkout Rocketea Championship Wrestling, Spartan Championship Wrestling, and All Star Wrestling Association, the

54:14 three shows here in Alabama I work with GILD check out their Facebook pages. But most importantly, just go out and visit your local independent wrestling shows, whether it's in a small arena, high school, gym, the local VFW. Hell, they're running shows in bars in Alabama right now, wrestlings everywhere. Go out and find it. Because the guy you watch today might be headlining Wrestlminni because seth rawlins an it me in Mid South at one point during backflips off of Fat Guy. Yeah, there you go. You never know what it can happen, and you may be that person. It may be your belly. So go out there and support all the great things that support SRTU and support all the great things that support the world of professional wrestling. We will be back next week. It's our last regular show in two weeks.

54:58 We will preview and predict everything going on during the Wrestlmanting forty card weekend, whether it be the Restumating forty card itself stand to deliver from NXT the Hall of Fame. We will be doing that in two weeks, and of course in three weeks we will recap everything from WrestleMania forty weekend, all here on SRTU. So until next week for Doctor Trey Franklin, I'm Jeff Pack. Thank you for downloading. This has been this st a real use show