Ricky Starks Jumps to NXT, AEW’s Viewership Crashes & NXT Vengeance Day Predictions | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #783 – 02/13/25

0:00 It's still real to me, damn it! [Music] [Music] Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's "A Dissimistor Real Test Show" episode number 783 from February 13, 2025. This is your NXT Vengeance Day 3VU and Predictions Edition of SRTU. I am one after show, I am Jeff Peck, joined typically every single week of my course on the Dictatoria Franklin.

0:41 There is no Dr. Tre here this week, my friends. It is I, it is just Jeff Peck, it is just a solo edition of SRTU. Dr. Tre unable to make it, he is out with his lovely pride celebrating Valentine's Day. He was unable to make the record this week, we tried to schedule it and unfortunately just did not work out. I am Riding Solo. Dr. Tre will be back next week for the 50th anniversary special, where we give our awards out for the last 15 years of SRTU. It is just me, Riding Solo, Riding Shotgun for all of you. Let's look at the world of professional wrestling, everything to take place.

1:24 We will give you our WrestleMania 41 card round up. Obviously, Preven Predict Vengeance Day, like I mentioned at the top. There has been some shocking releases in both WWE and AEW. I saw a glaring statistic from AEW that was eye-popping to me. A moment that a week ago I did not see coming, so lots of discuss all here on this week's edition of SRTU. We start this week with AEW. We discussed some shocking releases because this isn't typically something AEW does. Malachi Black's contract ran up and they did not continue to pursue the options. At one point Tony Khan said that he was under contract until 2027.

2:08 Malachi Black no longer with AEW, Miro no longer with AEW. He has not been used since World's End 2023 against Andrade, which I saw funny statistic in CJ Perry, Lana, the ex-wife of Miro. I think they are getting divorced. Miro released from AEW a year later. The last one being Ricky Starks. All gone from AEW. Ricky Starks has not been seen since the March when he lost in the title tournament match.

2:50 He and Big Bill lost a top flight. I remember on an episode of Collision. The Ricky Starks stuff has been out there for a while. I was very confused at the time I thought it was a work. Sometimes I thought it was a shoot. Usually I always lean towards work, but as we now have since found out, that was a total shoot. What was going on there? He was both for some GCW shows, GCW, Fee, Pistoff, Tony Khan, and they shut down AEW town going over there. The Ricky Starks just became the most recent Defy World Champion. And then obviously made some major headlines because on Tuesday night during the live edition of NXT, Ricky Starks walks down those steps at the Performance Center, announcing his debut on the NXT brand now signed with World Wrestling Entertainment.

3:42 A week ago, did not think that was going to happen. Here we are a week later, Ricky Starks is under the fold of WWE. There's a lot to peel apart with that. We'll dig into that in just a second, but Malachi Black and Miro, I would assume at least Malachi Black is on his way back to WWE. And the belief is that Miro, aka Rusev, will be back to WWE at some point as well. All three of these guys have had some interesting runs in AEW. And for the most part, haven't been like a focal point. I mean, the last would have been Malachi, which would have been, what was the pay-per-view where Edge got hurt?

4:23 Was it WrestleTynasty? Or maybe double or nothing where they had the Cage match, Edge got hurt, and that was the last time Malachi Black wrestled in a singles match. That seemed to be like a reboot of his career a little bit in AEW, but it was a lot of start stops. Debued Red Hot, like 30 days after his release because of the contract laws. I think he debuted in July 2021 in AEW. And then built the House of Black, which was a great act, great trio. A lot of fun, really enjoy the interactions. They were with Birdie King, Buddy Matthews, and Julie Hart, now known as the Hellhounds or the Hounds of Hell. Miro had a great run as TNT World Champion, TNT Champion.

5:04 At one point, I thought he was in line to become an AEW World Champion. And then creative differences there. I don't know. Never really worked out for the last two to three years. He's completely disappeared. It's reminiscent of guys like Wardlow and Scorpio Sky, who in the last two to three years in AEW have been on television for a brief period of time. He's been gone with no reason whatsoever. I think Wardlow's is injury. I'm unsure why Scorpio Sky isn't on TV anymore. So that was always very frustrating. And then Ricky Stark stuff is, like I think he was in line to be a top guy in the company.

5:44 And I think that's what they wanted. I mean, he won the Owen Hart tournament. He was in line to take on, was it Danielson? He was going to be facing our punk. I think he was in line to take on punk at all out in any strap match. Yeah, that's right. They were feuding. It was going to be punk and Ricky Stark's with Ricky Steamboat as like the special guest referee because Ricky Stark's going to laid out Ricky Steamboat on an episode of collision. This is like the 10 to 12 weeks where collision was like really, really super good. One of the best shows on television for a period of time from professional wrestling standpoint. And then, yeah, he had that run with the tag team with Big Bill. And I thought that was actually a really good tag team, enjoyed that stuff. And then Ricky went off television and did not return.

6:25 Coming to find out that he asked AW not to trigger his option at the end of 2024 because he wanted a test for the agency. Go to WWE most likely as we see now. They did not do that. They triggered his option and kept him on a contract. It's all very weird. These are three guys that I think we've all been assuming would be on their way out of AW for the last two to three years. Ricky Stark's more earlier momentum there than the other two. And I think when you see these releases here and Ricky Stark shows up in WWE less than 24 hours later. You got a question like, okay, why aren't they doing this with Ray Phoenix at this point?

7:06 As well, like what's the hold up here? Is there some sort of contractual stuff that's going on? Why isn't AW releasing Ray Phoenix? Like if they're willing to release Malachi Black, Miro and Ricky Stark is all from their contract and they are free to go to WWE within 24 hours, then why not doing this is Ray Phoenix right now? I think Meltzer said that WWE would be doing the same thing and it's like, okay, fine, but I don't know, it's just shitty because it's stuff like Ricky Stark's as well. I mean, what is he doing? Early to mid 30s. This is the prime of his career and he has put on the shelf for reasons where he wanted to test Kareena Pastors and leave AW.

7:47 I can understand AW wanting people that are loyal, but they were still paying them and these situations have not improved. There have been times that WWE were situations that didn't improve, like they kept moxley on television when he was DN Ambrose. They brought back the late great Brody Lee as Luke Harper for a period of time where he was tagging with Eric Rohn again doing the Bloodshin Brother stuff before he landed back in AW or landed in AW for that period of time. So I mean WWE has brought back people to work who wanted out of the company. We saw it, especially with the WWE AW going on. And it's like, okay, just let Ray Phoenix go at this point. I mean, he's not coming back, he's not going to work for your company. The company doesn't want him back, so what's the big deal here?

8:34 So three very, very, very talented people, one already in WWE, the two others we expect there. Yeah, I think it's good for all the parties. Essentially, I mean, I think they were out there welcoming AW. AW didn't want to utilize them, AW didn't want them back. WWE wants them and well, hopefully utilize them to their maximum potential. So, yeah, the Ricky Stark stuff is for old school wrestling fans out there too. To me, it's like a Scott Hall, it's a Rick Rude type moment where, under AW contract, the four released shows up at number 24 hours later. You don't see that often, did not expect it as quickly as it was. So it was a very, very nice surprise. A lot of people are saying like, well, why is it in the on Raw, why is it in the on SmackDown?

9:21 And the reason being is creatively, they're in full steam head to WrestleMania 41 and those plans are pretty much concrete and they really don't have a lot of wiggle room to move things around. So putting Ricky and NXT makes sense because those plans are fluid right now and I like that transition. I think Ricky Sarks will be very successful in NXT and I think there's some things going on with NXT that have me excited because Josh Alexander is a free agent right now. If WWE signs him, puts him in NXT, that is a really big name to put in there. We expect Jordan Grace to be appearing in NXT soon. And quickly NXT went from like this growing developmental brand back in 2014. Had a lot of buzz and they had some sprinkled independent stars in there too. It was really growing and they added some top level independent wrestling talent like Samojo, Adam Cole, Colin Riley, Roderick Strong, and Agro, Groon Groon Groo.

10:13 And then like 2019, 2020, they hit their peak. With the pandemic and the NAW came and AW was like a bigger version of NXT. It was the version of NXT that wasn't under the WWE umbrella. And was very successful, pandemic happens, Triple H gets sick. Vince takes it over with Bruce Britchard, gives it a horrible rebrand under 2.0 and they kind of struggled there from like 2021 under the relaunch. Until about early to mid 2024, like last year. And now you're starting to see NXT return back to its glory days, which is very exciting because there was a period of time I did not think that was ever going to happen again. So you get some recognizable names in there, sprinkled with the WWE talents that are up and coming that are really exciting because people like Jada Parker, Clonnie Jordan, they're not from the world of independence.

11:02 They are homegrown WWE talents and they're very exciting, fun to watch. You put them in there with the folks of Ethan Page, Julia, Stephanie Valkore, Ricky Starks, and you add them in there. Add some people into the mix and that brand is once again equivalent to a Raw or SmackDown in my eyes. So exciting times, Ricky Starks and NXT did not see that coming. It's a really cool moment. I'm going to be excited to the direction that they go. Obviously, Babyface is the way to go. I would imagine he plays a massive role this Saturday of Vengeance Day. He already canceled an independent wrestling appearance that he was supposed to be at in the match.

11:42 How do they prepare him for standing in the liver? I think the direction right now to me and this is kind of spoiling some things is Oba Femi and Trick Williams at standing in the liver. How do you add Ricky Starks in there? Does Ricky get into the NXT World Championship match? Does Ricky get into another match with Josh Alexander appears? Do you decide that we're going to do Josh Alexander and Ricky Starks? Because that's a high quality match. Ricky Starks is a major player. I think he has a total amount of upside. Obviously, his size isn't the Vince McMahon types out there, but that doesn't mean he won't be successful. Charisma off the chain, great character for all the intensive purposes, well-liked backstage from everything that we're seeing and I'm excited for him.

12:24 I'm excited that he can get an opportunity and to be creative because for AW just to keep on the sideline for 10 months is near criminal. And anybody out there that's like, well, he got paid, yeah, that's great, but you tell me, right? If you're someone that's passionate about your craft and they're just like, hey, sit home and do nothing for 10 months, you're still going to paycheck every two weeks, but you're not able to grow your brand, grow your abilities, grow your creativity and you just are in those four walls. Is that really happiness? I think all of us can relate to that. I think there's obviously people out there that will be very content staying at home collecting to paycheck, but I think in this business and professional wrestling, you just can't survive off that. You need to keep growing, you need to keep going and props to Ricky Starks, the newest NXT superstar WV superstar under the fold from AW2Wa.

13:15 So speaking of AW, these are some things that we've been talking about as of late. I think our show has been very open and honest about the decline of AW started pointing out pretty spot on in the later parts of 2024. And I know we get called out about it. It is what it is. We are rooting for AW to be successful, but there are things that they need to do to make things very successful. And I saw a statistic recently from viewership from 9 of my that I found startling. So in 2023 at the same time it was like the middle of January, an episode of AW Dynamite was 901,000 viewers. A year later, 818,000 viewers, two years later, 2025, same week, same episode, sometime in January, 604,000 viewers.

14:01 So well over 200,000 drop, not dollar drop, 200,000 viewership drop from the year prior, 300,000 nearly 300,000 viewership drop from two years prior, 2023, which is startling because that's a massive decline. And we always wonder, it's like what the hell happened in AW? I think case in point is this past week's edition of collision and dynamite. I watched collision, I thought it was a very solid episode of collision. It was live, very good crowd, watched dynamite on Wednesday. And the opening, I was like, man, this crowd is red hot, props awesome, Texas. And then I quickly realized that it was a taped episode of AW Dynamite.

14:43 And it was kind of weird production wise, like the opening to dynamite was very strange where they're like just warming up, not saying anything completely different from what you see in collision. And then you know, just the overall booking of AW is confusing. I don't understand what happened to Matt Taven and Mike Bennett of the Inus Puted Kingdom. Like, how did we just go to the Inus Puted era, Inus Puted Elite edition of the Inus Puted Kingdom again? Did Taven and Bennett like go on an excursion like where they kicked out of the group? Am I missing something? They have not been really seen since AW's world's end, the final three-per-view of the year. The MJF Hangman stuff was really good, but those are two guys that are homegrown and you're seeing AW thankfully listen to fans where they want to start cheering on Hangman page again.

15:34 He's a great dynamic character and he's somebody that I think that they can really build off of. And that's like the biggest complaint that I have with AW is the people that the fans look at as the top guys for whatever reason. Tony Khan's like, no, we're not going to put Osprey in the spot. We're not going to put Hangman in the spot. I'm going to put a cope. I'm going to put orange Cassidy. I'm going to put Darby on the sidelines for a couple of months so he could climb Mount Everest. It's like very confusing. It's a lot of start stops. I think they need to do a better job of telling people like where is Wardlow, where is Scope Riosky?

16:14 The infrequency of the roster. You could never really get behind people like I was thinking they had the Megan Bain segment with Penelope Ford in there. I was like, I remember Penelope Ford would always tag with the bunny who's no longer with the company and she has some really great matches with. Anna J and Sammy Kavarra's wife whose name is escaping me. Take Hanti. And it was like what happened in those days? Like why is it Anna J getting pushed? Why is Sammy Kavar on ROH television right now? It's hard to get behind a product when there's no consistency. And I think that is one of the biggest problems with AW right now. To see that decline in viewership is very startling. The attendance is startling obviously. I think they've been in a very good swing as of late because they are in the right types of arenas that they should be in.

17:02 They're not these gigantic 18,000 seat venues. They're two to three, 4,000 venues and they're nearly having a full house. Crowd is red hot, they're buzzing. That's what you need to do. It's tough though. I saw a video of MJF had an autograph signing and he was taking shots. He literally said, remember when we used to draw fans? And he's like, who was the champion at the time and the fan was like, you were? He's like, ah see, there's something to that. One of the top guys in the company really shouldn't be saying that even though it's true, during an autograph signing. I thought he was all teammate W as the tattoo on his ankle. His booking has obviously been very confusing. And his 2024 was not great. And I'm a huge MJF fan.

17:46 And I think a lot of this has to do with just poor creative honesty. So Dr. Trayn, I mentioned this a lot. If you're an NFL fan and you're following what's going on with the Jaguars, which is the team owned by Tony Khan's father and family. It's not a surprise because it's reminiscent of how the Jaguars being ran right now as a business as an organization. But you hate to see happen in the wrestling promotions because AW low ease has looked like that for a role number two in the United States. It really looked like there were times that they could be challenging WWE. I talk about it often when we get down this road.

18:26 And I think I beat this topic up a little bit much lately because I think I'm just like flabbergasted in Florida that this happened because I didn't think it would happen from like 2019 to 2021-22. It was like this was a great company and they kind of lost their way a little bit. It's just inconsistent. It's not fun. They don't push the right wrestlers and it went from a formidable number two that could challenge the number one to it reminds me of late early 2000's TNA wrestling where TNA tried some stuff and then they were in University of Florida from that point forward and they weren't doing live shows anymore.

19:06 They were being taped and TNA wrestling has had a renaissance as of late and the reason why they're having a renaissance is because of how good they are. So it's nice to see. It's nice to see TNA be successful and you would hope that AW could take a look at that and be like, oh, maybe there is hope. They got to find the renaissance. They got to find the secret sauce of what made them successful for that two to three year time period. I think Dr. Trey pointed out in an episode recently and I agree with him. It aligns with Wincoady Winaway. So to see the strap from 901,000 viewers in 2023 same week of AW Dynamite to 600 or 4000 viewers two years later is very drastic and when does it stop?

19:58 To hear from now is it 504,000 viewers is 404,000 viewers. I certainly hope not. Strange times indeed when it comes to all the wrestling and something that I'm very closely monitoring here in 2025. WWE like AW they had a round of releases. This came out of nowhere. There was no belief that releases were coming and of course as always shocking names. So the releases from WWE include Cedric Alexander, Song You Deville, Blair Davenport, Paul Allering, The Authors of Pain, Acom, Acom and Razar, Eilodon, Luke Gallos and Carl Anderson, Givon Eventhji, and Electro Lopez.

20:38 Go through the list here. Cedric Alexander was working the NXT brand for a while. It just wasn't cutting in. He had like JV on Evans under his, JV on Evans under his wing. It's a mentor. I think everybody obviously points to well. He'll land an AW who work with the Hertz and to get full reunions but some people on X that I saw had pointed out some stuff that is absolutely legit. And that is Cedric Alexander's wife Big Swole did work for the company and claimed that there was racism in all lead wrestling and is Tony Khan going to be okay with bringing Big Swole's husband into the fold. And more importantly does Cedric Alexander want to work at AW after his wife had these types of issues. So that's something to monitor. So I need to Ville.

21:22 She was clearly a Vince McMahon favorite back in the day when she was working on that executive role behind the scenes in WWE without him pierced on the raw brand. I thought she did really good in there. I enjoyed the stuff with the pure fusion collection. So to see her be gone from the company is a shame because I thought they had some really cool stuff just I think they need some more TV time. Blair Davenport is so immensely talented and when they advanced smack down from two hours to three hours literally her name was one of the talents they were like they want to start focusing on talents like Blair Davenport. And then you saw her behind the scenes talking with Piper Niven. She was supposed to be involved with the Chelsea Green Piper Niven stuff is like part of the secret or shirt, her vis whatever they call it, which is secret.

22:16 She was supposed to be part of that and that is obviously not happening. Paul Eleanor in the authors of Payne, Aikim and Razar never really felt like they got going with the final testament, the final testament some really cool stuff but that seems to be because of carrying cross. I thought the authors of Payne coming back to the company was surprising and maybe this is one of those cases as to why they got released to begin with. Ily Dawn, I've enjoyed her stuff on NXT UK, enjoy this sort of stuff on NXT become the main roster her now but fires a tag team nothing really to write home about other than that victory last year in their homeland of Scotland that was really cool and that was kind of the saving point.

23:05 So seemed like a cool character never really got going on the SmackDown brand. Luke Gallic and Carl Anderson immensely talented. I feel like WWE has never known how to utilize them for some reason. I don't know why they've never really been pushed. They had a couple runs on the tag team champions Carl Anderson's out with injury. The OC stuff never really got going. Never understood it. They brought it back. I was excited that they were back and once again they were like regulated to NXT for a period of time and they were losing on NXT and this was a tag team that at one time was one of the best and I don't know. I just don't see them returning to WWE again. I mean Luke Gallic has been now released from the company three times. Givane Vinci, he had some really good vignettes with his new character on the SmackDown brand after he got removed from in Pyram and of course they haven't come out there and lose in his debut which is not good.

23:57 It reminds me of the Kizarani stuff that they did where they ran all these vignettes for Kizarani. He comes out there and never I don't know if he lost in the debut but I think that was like his only match. I think I saw recently Vinci in a backstage of vignette with Carmelo Hayes and Cody Rhodes interacting but Vinci is extremely talented. I mean watch some of the stuff of Fabian Eichner during the Cruiserweight Classic. I mean he is very talented and it's a shame that it did not pan out for him because I enjoyed his work as an Imperium and enjoyed his in-ring style as well. I let you Lopez, that's a damn shame. I mean she was on SmackDown on Friday night working with Lugado Dotto, Lugado Delphan Tasma. I thought she was a great mouthpiece for the stable there.

24:41 It had a great look when she's been in the ring. I think she's done a very decent job. I thought that was very surprising, very confident in her character and just ultimately with all of these releases very sad to see because there's a ton of positives with all of them. I hope for nothing but success after these next 90 days and they can get back on their feet. I think gone on the days where it's like well they'll just pop up some of them will pop up in AEW. I don't think that's like a slam dunk. You know, hijacked in not pop up in AEW. Baron Corbin did not pop up in AEW. There's other things to go out there and I think what we've learned with AEW in general is that sometimes going there isn't really the best place to land once you get released because you may not be utilized to your maximum potential.

25:30 So, you know, there's other locations out there. Go back on the Indy scene, TNA and Wrestling. I think maybe some of them like Blair Davenport and Isle of Dawn will go overseas back to the UK. Maybe over to Japan and just kind of take it from there. So sad for all of them and I wish them nothing but luck and hope that they get some really good success because all of them serve because they are great talents at the end of the day. All right, next we will get into this week's edition of the WrestleMania 41 card roundup and we have our first match confirmed for WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas and that is Gunther defending the World Heavyweight Championship against J. Uso. J. Uso making his intentions known on Monday's Raw, picking Gunther. I think that was the foregone conclusion from all of us. It would be odd if he did not choose Gunther based on the storyline and how everything was progressing.

26:22 And then he said he chose Cody Rhodes so that match will now be taking place at WrestleMania. I think that is obviously primed for a big opportunity for J. Uso to break through and defeat. Hopefully defeat the ring general. I could also see in a scenario where it's like nope, he goes on three against Gunther. So it's very interested to see how the fans react to this. I would say early on, early stages, they're into it, they're buying it. It's exciting. Fans want to see J over come overcome this. It's the Rocky III scenario. So really cool to see how that has played out other stuff that's going on right now on the WrestleMania card from the rumored standpoint.

27:04 Still kind of the leader in the clubhouse is the Cody Rhodes, John Cena stuff. There are some people that are making and I have no idea how this would work out given the elimination chamber. There's a belief that there's a chance that it could be Cody Rhodes versus John Cena versus CM Punk in a triple threat match. I don't know how we get there. Again with the elimination chamber. I still was like intrigued by the Jacob Fattu luck during the rumble match because it's like why would they have done that if that's not anything but foreshadowing. So Cody Rhodes, John Cena is the rumored match. I think Cody and CM Punk to me would be better. I really enjoyed that promo to close RAW going in the rumble.

27:47 We know Dr. Tray had mentioned last week Cody Rhodes versus Rainy Jordan. No sign of Randy back yet. This match I expect to be confirmed. But the next time we do the episode next week, I think Tiffany Stratton versus Charlotte Flair for the Women's Champion, WWE Women's Championship does get confirmed because I think the stuff with the Rhea Ripley right now is very open ended. And that's the kind of the direction that they want to go. I think to me, I was thinking EO Sky on last week's show but now that is happening. I think it's the RAW after elimination chamber. The title will be on the line against EO Sky because she is one. So then it's like, well, could we see Rhea Ripley versus Becky Lynch at elimination chamber or at WrestleMania like does Becky get into this match?

28:36 Now I mean because we're getting closer to WrestleMania and Becky doesn't have a match. So how do we get there? There was some belief that it would be Bianca Belair. I would be fine with that as well. I think that'd be a very fun match but right now there's no animosity between the two that would lead to a buildup. So Rhea Ripley stuff is still up in the air at this point. The Drew McIntyre versus Damien Priest stuff is still like the leader of the clubhouse but there have been some discussions and reports out there that WWE is potentially changing course on the entire thing. Which would then lead you to believe maybe it's Drew McIntyre versus L.A. Night. I thought they had a really good segment on SmackDown.

29:18 They alluded to the real life beef. Their interactions in the match made you think it was more real than staged or planned or choreographed. How are you going to talk about it? So could a Drew McIntyre L.A. Night match be one that is on the table for WrestleMania 41? Roman Reigns, Seth Frickin-Roll and CM Punk, that's still out there right now as a match. Kevin Owens for Sami Zayn is getting closer to a match that we see at WrestleMania 41. Part of me wonders. Randy Orton was taken out by KO. We're getting into WrestleMania season. Could we see Randy Orton in Sami Zayn tagged with one another to take on Kevin Owens? I think that's something that we're kind of forgetting about in our descriptions of everything that's going on is we've forgotten about Randy. I think Randy's definitely going to be involved.

30:07 We did not forget about Randy but I think we've forgot about where Randy's storyline last left us. And I think Randy being involved with Kevin Owens is potentially more likely than Sami in Kevin unless Randy comes back like after WrestleMania season or they have Randy operatized like the special guest referee for the match match. Logan Paul is out there. I tell you what, you watch raw. You're thinking it's Logan Barber's CM Punk and God, I don't want that at all. So the Logan Paul stuff, I have no idea where that's going. We had Bianca Belair Naomi taking on Livin Raquel. I still think that is a possibility. Livin Raquel, they took the L but they had a great match with damage control.

30:48 I honestly wouldn't mind seeing this be like a triple threat match and adding damage control to this one because that was a ton of fun on raw. And then I feel like Ray Mysterio and a mystery partner, let's just say Big E right now, we'll be taking on the new day. I don't think you run that angle to leave the cliffhanger on raw and have the exclusive on the YouTube channel if you don't plan Ray Mysterio in the new day to be taking one another on at WrestleMania. So I really feel like we could be looking at Ray Mysterio tagging with a mystery partner. My hope is that's Big E because I think that'd be great. And Big E came back and I think that would be great putting them in a tag team out to protect them a little bit. I want some good news for Big E's career.

31:35 So I think that's pretty much it on the rumored side of things as we look at how things are coming together for the WrestleMania card right now. Only one could for match again, got the versus J.U. So I would believe that a week from today we have another one heading to elimination chamber and obviously that Charlotte Flair. I think she ends up choosing Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's World Championship. That just makes sense from a storyline standpoint and we'll figure out how to into elimination chamber who will be taking on Cody and who will be taking on Rhea. And then we should have at least all four title matches in early March and then all the other meet and potatoes for the rest of the card will play out. We'll figure about 14 to 16 matches, either 7-1 night, 7 the other night or I think they did 7-8 the most recent WrestleMania. I think that was because of an injury.

32:23 So yeah, it's starting to see it's coming together a little bit. It's still a lot of predicting, still a lot of trying to figure it out and see where WWE is going right now, but it's exciting times. I don't have every time to look at it and really try to pick a part and see where WWE is going when it comes to the WrestleMania card. Speaking of things that are coming together here, we've got NXT Vengeance Day preview and predictions that comes to us this Saturday from the Care First Arena in Washington, DC. We've got six matches on the card, so let's get through it here. And I actually have Dr. Tray's predictions as well. So we'll give you Dr. Tray's predictions as we go through the card. This one here is Javion Evans taking on Ethan Page. Both Dr. Tray and I have Ethan Page in this one. I think it makes the most sense for his character, a lot of sympathy for Javion Evans who I think is poised of a big year in NXT.

33:15 So I think this this point in time right now, this result makes sense in helping Ethan Page continue to get over in this heel roll. Now next match is Trick Williams taking on Eddie Thorpe in a Strat match. Dr. Tray and I both have Trick Williams in this one. I feel like Trick's booking right now is setting him up the more aggressive side. They're getting you ready for a standing deliver match against Opa Femi during WrestleMania weekend. To me that seems like the right choice for standing deliver is Trick versus Opa. I like seeing the aggressive nature out of Trick Williams right now. It's been really cool, but the sidebar on this entire thing is I'm enjoying Eddie Thorpe. He has been a really good heel. And I thought he was a good baby face for a period of time as well. And you're starting to see him really break through on the NXT brand.

34:00 And this is a guy that by the end of this year could be vying for a NXT championship on the brand. So I've been very happy with this progress so far, very happy for him to see him get this opportunity and he's really knocking out of the park as a heel like a really good chicken, shit heel on the NXT brand, which is something that we need to see more often in professional wrestling. Next match here is Valen, Fallen, Henley defending the NXT Women's North American Championship against Stephanie Valkour. I have Stephanie Valkour, Dr. Tray has Fallen, Henley in this one. I expect the way things are going right now for Stephanie Valkour and Julia to be the match at Standing the Liver. And I want to be surprised if it's title versus title.

34:40 I think that's the way WWE wants to go right now and give you a dream match during a dream wrestling weekend or wrestling dream weekend in WrestleMania weekend. So I think the way that you do that and they've been foreshadowing, they've been teasing a little bit where Stephanie Valkour is like this is the title I'm getting now and then I'm going to have I set on you. I think that's exciting. So I would love to see Stephanie Valkour versus Julia at Standing the Liver. But then again you could also see a world where Jordan Grace appears to vengeance day and then she starts feuding with either Stephanie Valkour or Julia. So I like Stephanie Valkour in this one and put a championship route around her waist heading into WrestleMania season. Next match year is for the NXT TIE team championship as Nathan Frazier and Axiom defending against Josh Braiggs in Yamura. Braiggs in Yamura have been a lot of fun, very entertaining with their vignettes and backstage stuff on NXT over the last couple months here.

35:31 I really want to pick them but I don't doubt Frazier at all. They were our TIE team of the year last year. I don't know if they're poised for a main roster run anytime soon in 2025. But I think you let this end NXT run continue. I would want to put the title on Braiggs in on Amura again. But I think Nathan Frazier and Axiom walk out of this one as champions because I think it sets something in pick a wrap for Standing the Liver. I would not be shocked if you got all these tie teams in a ladder match buying the WrestleMania weekend morning there, Saturday morning for Standing the Liver. Next match year is Julia defending the NXT Women's Championship and now a fatal four-way match against Bayley, Roxanne Perez and Cord Jade. We both have Julia in this one.

36:19 I think that's really cool. Roxanne Perez is a qualifying match for the Illuminati Shimmer against Raquel Rodriguez on this Monday's Raw. Her performance in the Royal Rumble reminds me a lot of Carmelo Hayes a year ago where she is on the verge of going to the main roster. And I think the way that this plays out for me is Roxanne Perez versus Cord Jade. It's going to be the match that are in Standing the Liver where it's like loser leaves NXT or whatever.

37:03 And that is the Patan or the Torch Passy match that we've seen in the past, whether it be Carmelo to trick or to Maso Champa to the Don Tony D'Angelo like that we've seen that happen in Standing the Liver weekend. And I think that's the direction that they go when it comes to Roxanne Perez and Cord Jade. So once again both of us have Julia in this one to retain. And then next one here is the triple third match for the NXT Championship as Oba Femi defense against Austin Theory and Grace and Waller. I got to admit the build for this one is not my favorite but I feel like they obviously have to do something figured out with Oba. As Oba pointed out this is basically a handicap match but you've always had this like weird issues and tensions between Austin Theory and Grace and Waller that they've kind of played on for the last several months when they're on Smackdown now on Raw.

37:51 Now we're seeing it play out in NXT as well. This is one of those areas where you could see Austin Theory or Grace and Waller like have this upset victory and like Dolph Saylor did have about a year or two ago. But I like Oba Femi retaining. I think they keep the title on him having to stand in the Liver weekend. And that's where both Dr. Tray and I are going with this one. So both of us have Oba Femi to retain in a match that hasn't been well built and kind of came out of nowhere. And I don't know, I would like to see maybe a rematch between Trick and any Thorpe with Oba Femi in there. So that is our preview predictions for NXT Vengeance Day.

38:31 We will recap and review it for a little bit for you during the next week's edition of the show. Current Pay-Pervue Prediction Records. I'm at 3-1.Tray is at 2-2. And don't forget that next week's edition of SRT you talking about recap review and Vengeance Day. We will be celebrating 15 years of the Stau Realta Show Podcast which is just like wild and absurd. That we've been doing the show every single week since 2010. It literally lands on the very first date debut episode date. So that's like really super exciting. It'll be on February 20th. We debuted on February 20th, 2010.

39:12 This is back in the day with Eric Ardullo and I. At that point I had been about 11 months in into podcasting, into doing radio and I was working as a producer for the We Hulls Radio Podcast. And they were always encouraging me to branch out and they were like, "You love professional wrestling and why don't you do a wrestling podcast?" We had Eric Ardullo and it was like a regular wrestling guest that we would talk wrestling with and approached Eric to do it. Eric obliged and he and I did that for about two years. Intermittently we would have various different co-hosts and guests joining. Dr. Troy Franklin was a regular contributor in guest hosts on the show.

39:52 And then that show just before WrestleMania 28 was the debut of Dr. Tray is the full-time co-host. And he's been with me now for about 13 and the last 15 years. So it's been exciting. It's been fun. It's wild to think that on next week's edition of the show we will be celebrating 15 years of doing this podcast. It's been important for me to be consistent. It's been important for me to always put out content like this each and every week. And for those of you that have been here along the ride, whether you've been a listener since 2010, whether you randomly found us on X or Facebook or wherever, or somebody told you to check us out and you've been listening to us for six years, six months, six weeks, six days.

40:38 Thank you. I can't think enough. So this is a really fun and exciting time for us and kind of wild to really think of. So there's some things I wanted to bring up on next week's edition of the podcast as well. Some things that we're thinking about when it comes to the future of SRTUs. So stay tuned for that. But join us as we celebrate 15 years of the story of the show all on next week's edition of the podcast. With that said, we're going to close up shop on this week's editions solo edition of SRT. It's got a couple plugs and sponsors out of the way you can download the show every Thursday or Friday at realguyradio.com, Russell Chatnet on X and the store of the show iTunes feed. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help us climb the charts on iTunes.

41:19 You can follow us individually on X for myself at SRTU Jeff and for Dr. Ray Franklin at the Dr. Trey. And of course, don't forget to follow show on X at SRTU podcast. Once again, 15th anniversary special all on next week's edition of SRTU February the 20th will recap review vengeance day. Favorite moments, memories, shows, topics, episodes. What have you about the still real the show hit us up hit us up on Facebook Facebook.com/doretha show or hit us up on XX. .com/srtupodcast and share those thoughts as we celebrate 15 years. I gotta say it multiple times because it's just wild to say that 15 years of the store of the show.

42:00 So thank you for downloading. Thank you for making this part of your week. Thank you for joining me during this solo edition of SRTU. And until next week for Dr. Ray Franklin, I am Jeff. This has been the still real first show. And I promise that I'm gonna keep it coming all night long. I'm looking at your eyes while you won't be coming outside. And nothing will show me I gotta bang for you. Don't leave me on purpose. I gotta get it out of here. I can jump out of where you look and I'm gonna be glad I'm in this club. And they look in this club. And they look in this club.

42:46 And they look in this club. And they look in this club. And they look in this club. And they look in this club. And they look in this club.

43:26 And they look in this club. And they look in this club. And they look in this club. In this line It is going to be long In your zone In this line You can get this one In this condition Go watch the wall, watch the wall, watch it knee Don't watch it knee You got your trap, got your trap Set it free Visically a Muslim Happy like a medicine You take every dose of me It's going downright, not where you're begging Like some ruffles If you live, then you think about it You gon' post a movie But it is a call Make a movie, yeah, practice Go to any clubs So let's get here, get ready Lay low To a tug in the club With a size of A-S-M-G And a fresh midnight zone On the couch On the tape On the bar On the floor And you're gonna be in the fell Gain more, train the girl High this, look at me, I kiss And think you touch her like this I know you scared baby You know what, you do it Spoken and pressed right in You can feel it, feel it, I swear I'm gonna give it to you, no stop And then I don't know Go watch the wall, watch it knee Watch it, watch it knee Hold on, baby, it's fine Hold on, baby Gain more, train the girl

44:56 I wanna be in the club, in the club In the club, in the club In the club, in the club In the club, in the club In the club, in the club In the club, in the club In the club, in the club (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) The still-run-off podcast is still a run-of-me-demon