Royal Rumble Fallout and the Road to WrestleMania 42 Has Begun | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #834 – 2/5/26

0:00 It's still real to be damaged! What now be the- Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of the Cell Roll the Show. Episode for 834 for February 5th, 2026. This is your WWE Releo Wild Let's Do It one more time. In 3, 2, 1. Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of the Cell Roll the Show.

0:40 Episode number 834 for February 5th, 2026. This is your WWE Royal Rumble Recap and Review Edition of SRTU. I am 1/2 the show. I am Jeff Peck. joined every single week my coach to win only Dr. Trey Franklin. Dr. Trey, the road to WrestleMania 42 begins now my friend. Yeah, excitement building. Woohoo! I don't know. The road is not- it's a well-traveled road based on some of the things we saw at the Rumble. So it's a road we've kind of seen before. It's just maybe the destination is a little bit different but yeah, I mean we're a full bore.

1:27 I mean you get certain people in main event spots, you know it's WrestleMania season. Yes, no, this is it folks. We are point to signs, matches are official, winners have been declared. A lot has gone on since we last spoke with you as the road to WrestleMania 42. It's starting to get a little bit clearer and now let's recap and review the WWE Royal Rumble from this past Saturday at King Abu Dhala Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Trey, before I get into the matches, I feel like we need to discuss this off the jump. I noticed it on SmackDown, noticed it during the Rumble. WWE, which they really even had this problem from what I've noticed in the past.

2:10 WWE has a lot of work in front of them to make WrestleMania 43 look better on television because I know the show ended at like 2am in Saudi Arabia, why they started to show at 10 o'clock a night. I don't know, maybe because it's just better serving for the US fans. There was obviously returns and debuts that the fans in Saudi Arabia could not care about. That did not come off well on television, Dr. Trey. I feel like we need to say this beforehand, but that crowd was not great. And I think it's because of what, you know, they'd be timing, what they were able to watch over in Saudi Arabia.

2:57 That just was not good, my friend. So, I'm curious about this because I know early on there was saying there's Lionty Seats and then somebody was saying, "No, they put LED lights in the seat, so it has like these little white lights everywhere." But I couldn't tell if that was like to help people find their seat and once they sat down they went away. So, it wasn't a good look. It just made it look very, very empty. The crowd was very, like outside of a couple of moments. Like obviously, you know, Drew and Sammy, that was the crowd was in the Sammy, the crowd was in the AJ. But for a lot of stuff, I hate saying this because I know people in Florida will get mad at me.

3:39 It felt like a Miami crowd. It just felt very, very flat. Like they were ready to, they almost felt like they were there at gunpoint for lack of a better analogy. Like they were just trying to get through the night and get home. And I don't know if the camel service runs at 2 am. So, I don't know how they get home. Yeah, it was a weird show because of that. And I got to admit, like it's not something I've noticed with Saudi Arabia lately. I think they do a pretty good job of being an engaged crowd in carrying. I mean, I saw the pre-show stuff before Smackdown and the Rumble on Friday and Saturday. They had that kickoff show on Friday. And there were some amazing crowd reactions that were going on.

4:21 And they were into it. It was enjoyable. And then this shows itself on Smackdown and on the Rumble, it was like, what happened here? The LED lights? Yeah, go ahead. Oh, sorry. Did they do Smackdown in the same place? Same place. Yes. And that was very noticeable that there were empty seats there. Because they, and it may be also that when you're in those open air stadiums, if it's not packed, that sound just goes straight up. So you don't get the loudness of a crowd inside of an actual arena. But it may have also been, I mean, that also was a stadium they slapped together in 45 days. So it may have just been poor acoustical designing on their part as well. But if you don't have a stadium at capacity, it just sounds kind of dead.

5:07 Yeah. And the reason why they had a slapped together, a makeshift stadium is one that I don't understand. I don't know the answer to that. If anybody has an answer as to why that needed to happen, because I've seen them in arenas and stadiums before that were like meant for that type of stuff, that would be helpful. Not not sure why that happened. Maybe it was a location thing or like given WWE the money to do this and see if they could. If that's the direction they do with the rest of the way in 43, we're in deep trouble. And I know they're getting a lot of money to do these shows. So at the end of the day, maybe they don't care. But you got to have a better presence than that. That was odd.

5:49 That was odd. That was bizarre. It was not good. And it's unfortunate because from a crowd standpoint, again, the string of Saudi Arabia shows for like the last three to four years have been on par with normal crowd reactions. There was a beginning stretch till like after 2020 where these shows were throwaway shows, there were wrestlers on there that were not actually WWE stars. Like when they reportedly wanted Yokezuna to perform in Yokezuna, God rest of the soul has been dead for like 17 years. Prior to that and they got some random sumo wrestler to perform, those shows used to be weird. Now they're on, you know, they're in normal WWE PLE, Paper View event, normal Smackdown, normal RAW whenever they're running the shows.

6:31 Which has brought a much better feel to it. This was just like, if this is a test run for for for WrestleMania like this is bad. So definitely a lot of eyes on that. Not not great at all. And I guess they're already according reports that are going to not do the LED lights for every seat in the house. Which is I think something they grabbed from the Clippers new arena when they did the raw debut over at I can't remember what the the arena's name is there but with the LA Clippers play and the raw net for this debut took place which did look great on television. But that's because you could see the crowd when there's clearly empty seats in each one of those lights is like, wait a minute, what is going on here? So odd, very, very odd.

7:13 Let's get to the matches though, Dr. Trey and the match that kicked off the Royal Rumble was the women's Royal Rumble match which was won by Liv Morgan as she gets a World Championship match at WrestleMania 42. Dr. Trey and I both had Bianca Belair who did not even show up in the Rumble. So great job by us. I felt like that was a good prime opportunity for a return for Bianca Belair. Maybe she'll be back on Friday Smackdown. That sounds typically roles. I felt this was a great Rumble match. The finishing sequence was incredible. I thought the women brought it. I thought some MVP's and breakout performers included Soul Ruka, Keana James and Lash Legend. Charlotte Eliminating Nia and accidentally Eliminating Alexa was a great moment as well. Nadi Eliminating Becky Lynch was fun.

7:57 Bri Belair's return was very unexpected and fun. Kyrie accidentally eliminated Asuka and then Liv stabbing Raquel in the back where some of my favorite moments as well. Unfortunately, the Kyrie and Asuka stuff did not get a follow up on Raw this past Monday. And the Liv Raquel stuff, like they ran a video of all three members of Jubit and Day, like doing an excited FaceTime with Dominic, which included Raquel and Liv. And I was like, man, they shouldn't have posted this because this is killing Kay Fabe because Raquel was like, why the hell did you eliminate me? So I thought that there were some interesting little seeds being planted there. A little bit of follow up on Monday's Raw with the Valkora Raquel match as well.

8:40 But then the last Dr. Tray, this was a favorite of a lot of people. You and I did not selector. However, Liv Morgan is your Royal Rumble winner and gets an opportunity, a World Championship match at WrestleMania 42. So your thoughts to the women's Royal Rumble match, my friend. I guess I didn't like it as much as you and a lot of it was missed because the in-ring work was kind of sloppy at times. Like you could tell people were kind of missing their punches or missing their kicks or even a couple of the double teams. Like it felt often spots which is expected, but it really didn't get good for me until we got down like the final six. And then the final six kind of saved it for me.

9:20 There were some interesting storylines like you mentioned. I also like, you know, I thought Kalani Jordan did really well in the match as well. I like that they featured a lot of the NAC girls got some actual feature time in that I laughed to myself. I don't know if you noticed this, but we got down to the final three. It was three blondes. And I was like, is Vince booking the Rumble? Like this is kind of right up Vince Alley. Like we got three blonde hit of girls in the final three. But I was super excited for Liv Morgan. Like she's she's been one of my favorites. Her former for the past like four or five years, even going back to the Sarah Logan Ruby riot time that that group like going back to them.

10:06 I even live in NXT. I like live. So super happy for her. I really did not like the fall of Monday night because not only did they do that weird FaceTime thing with the judgment day girls, but even the ring. Kal didn't seem mad. Like it was almost like passive like, hey, uh, can I add like, like, why did you like it didn't like I'd be upset she was kind of like just like, uh, and I'm like, no, you're a big giant badass. Liv is like five one like you can kind of be aggressive with that like and kind of plant a little bit more tension there. But overall, I thought I thought the women's Rumble was okay. I just I wasn't a big fan of it as I think everybody else was.

10:52 Well, talk more about the Liv Morgan decision that she will have when it comes to her WrestleMania 42 World Championship match in a little bit here when the WrestleMania 42 roundup makes its debut for this WrestleMania season. Let's get to the next match here, Dr. Trey Gunther defeats AJ Styles in a career threatening match. So AJ Styles lost it has forced to retire from entering competition dot dot dot. I think question mark. Uh, you and I both had gone through in this one. I thought this was a great match. Lots of unanswered questions as AJ did not put his gloves in the ring when he left and ended up putting them back on. So I assumed when I wrote this doctor Trey that his WWE career is over, but not his in ring career. So that's how I was going to the show and about like an hour into before you and I recorded this podcast this week.

11:37 What's your story with Stephanie with her guess AJ Styles came out and he basically addressed everything that was going on and said that he didn't put his gloves in the ring because you know everybody's allowed to come out of retirement at some point what if his son wants to get an arrest lane he could tag with him. He really didn't have any thought behind it per se is what he said but basically confirm which triple H did talk about after the post show because there was a lot of people going wait a minute is AJ going to TNA is AJ going to AW what's going on here and triple H try to put those rumors to rest and from what I've seen in the quotes from AJ Styles is he basically put those rumors to rest like that was that's it for him.

12:22 He's not jumping AW is not jumping to TNA this was it for him that's why he didn't put the gloves in the ring is is just in case help Shawn Michaels unfortunately in parentheses came back to wrestle a match after wrestle many 26 and this is professional wrestling we never say never the only person that said he will never wrestle a match again basically is John Cena. Dr. Trey your thoughts though on the match and the aftermath here as Gunther defeats AJ Styles in a career threatening match. As much as you go into the match kind of expecting and result and I think we talk about last week show like you know our brains are all picking Gunther but our hearts are hoping for AJ so we didn't want to see retire. I really enjoyed the match because there were moments in there were like yeah my brain's going no Gunther's winning you got that disbelief suspended like it was they has some really good moments where you're like oh man they are could AJ win this thing.

13:14 I actually like this match better than Gunther John Cena like I thought it was a really really well done match really well put together and if this is AJ's WWE swan swan song like it was a damn good match to go out on because you can watch that match 10 years from now be like man he he still had gas in the tank. He's not he's not running off fumes right now so I was he I thought it was a fantastic match. It did it did make me wonder like when he took the gloves off and then put them back on and came back to the room I will damn your Jeff I'm not going to lie I thought he was going to point the WrestleMania.

13:54 He got to the corner I thought the finger was going up to wrestle man or something but yeah it's a weird thing like when you when you say you're done but then you know like hey if one of my kids wants to get into wrestling or. You know one of the guys I helped train or bring up like you and I thought for years that we were going to Shawn Michaels and Daniel Bryant and we never did but we thought that you know something like that could lure guy back out of retirement so. The fact that he's kind of you know made it known that he's not going somewhere else is good but at least you know he's he's kind of staying where he fills his home right now. Yeah and I prefer to be that way honestly again I think we beat this into the ground last week where we wish we got more and this was like very much like a blind side for a lot of wrestling fans I think that there's some shock behind the entire thing like I can't believe it's over I felt like we were going to get more especially coming off of the scene of retirement or.

14:52 And then him not putting the gloves of the ring it's like wait a minute you know it's a going a W as you get a pop up in TNA is this is really his last match I you know he was very honest it sounds like he doesn't know I think one things for certain him being a full time performer even a part time performer is never going to happen again it's it's going to be one or two things when they make sense and it's in his blood and you know he's going out on and in his prime and on top. I would have loved to see an end at WrestleMania I would have loved to see one more match in TNA it's yeah I think fans are just kind of shocked and sad a little bit and it was a good match a great match and you know I just also want to give like a shout out to.

15:38 I wanted to say Rudy Charles that was the old TNA referee right that was now Dan Eglor in WWE Dr. Try so Rudy Charles is it was it is a Rudy Charles or do I have that is WCW I think that was WC I think was. I have two a referee names on my brain right now because I just watch a couple of videos and they were referencing all referees I want maybe was Rudy Charles I don't think it was I think it a different name. It was okay just checked Dan Eglor in WWE Rudy Charles in TNA. Okay so I can't want to say Mickey J but Mickey J was WCW referee. Yes Mickey J was Rudy Charles Dan Eglor from WWE was an alt you know early TNA referee and he rest he had this match once I saw him in there I'm like oh God this is this is it I knew that at home I was like oh this is definitely it and he was great in that match you.

16:37 I know that you know you don't want to take away from the reformers and that's how they operate as well but him saying like come on AJ come on AJ like that was that was pretty awesome and I thought that added to the moment and it adds to the career killer career and that is come through right now I think we should try at least some point here to do an episode where we talk about AJ Styles career but there's just so much to discuss this week that you know we'll have to discuss it fully at another time but AJ Styles in ring career is sadly over and great way to go out great match with him and got their at the Royal Rumble next match here Dr. Trays Drew McIntyre feeling Sammie's a into retain the end of the WWE championship UNI both had Drew McIntyre on this one.

17:21 I thought it was good story telling in this match where the back injury was the deciding factor and it allowed Drew to be dominant while allowing Sammie to get to be gutsy. Drew retaining makes sense but the most compelling thing post matches the direction of Sammie's in and his character coming out of this loss where he cannot win the big one yet again while going 0 through 0 and 12 now against Drew McIntyre. I've compared Sammie's in a lot to like Mick Foley to Sean Michaels this match to me was like on the side of the Sean Michaels side of his of his character I mean he he he made you feel it at home and he gave it is all I know there's a lot of rumblings right now of big Drew Jacob and Cody Rhodes for WrestleMania I would love to see a fatal for with with Sammie's in in this one and Sammie get involved in this one because I I hope they follow up on Friday nights Macdown with the character you know development coming out of this one for Sammie's aim and it's not forgotten because there's like two ways you could go here where he could squeeze himself into this world title feud as I just pointed out or be he basically turns he'll which I don't want to see I think Sammie is beloved and there's no need for him to be a heal right now.

18:37 So I thought the match was good I thought it was good from a storyline standpoint as Drew McIntyre retained against Sammie's aim doctor try. Yeah this was if if you're a new to the wrestling business and you're trying to understand like just basic good storytelling you have a big physical dominant heal the plucky undersized baby face like this is how you structure a match like you have the baby face because as I off the eels and control you get those you know we come to this is hope spots where you like oh he could do it now he could do it now we saw a little bit in the in the previous match with gun through an A.J. like just big physical dominant heal undersized baby face fighting from underneath getting the crowd on his side and then ultimately the end you know in this case the bad guys one but this is what was weird to me and I like the two singles matches was what the crowd was really into it wasn't the best.

19:35 So I was really into it wasn't the rumble so much but yeah like this has been Sammie's been chasing I think it was almost two years ago when he came out on raw and said he wants to be a world champion we've been following this path on and off now for two years and I mean how many guys can say they're against a certain wrestler like that's that's a big thing and it's going to lead into it when he finally overcomes Drew is going to be massive. I'm excited to see we're I know you said you don't want to see heal Sammy but I mean he'll conspiracy theory Sammy was really fun that was very entertaining and fun.

20:16 Yeah so yeah we all love baby face Sammy but conspiracy theory Sammy was good but we've also seen this tease with J also when he you know kind of crashed out after losing the L.A. night and the my time is now tournament where the kind of tease they might go down one path and then they go another way but they can always circle back so I would like to see Sammy get a little desperate in this chase and maybe kind of blur that line a little bit and then when he finally overcomes Drew he gets the big baby face reaction everybody loves it. Yeah I mean the way that he's cutting promos I mean obviously he's not going out there without a creative net that's saying like hey this is what we need you to say so it's like why is he saying this stuff if you're not executing on it so I'm I hope we don't much Smackdown on Friday and like there's zero follow from Sammy's and which would be disappointing and a creative time missed unless they're like giving it time to breathe for you know if they say something like you know Sammy's a night here tonight but he's going to talk next week on Smackdown like that would be okay with me just to completely not do anything about it would would not be great so.

21:23 Sammy's a take C L in false to O and 12 against your McIntyre who retains the United spew to WWE championship and now I would appear full steam ahead for him as champion heading into WrestleMania 42 barring some title match that takes place at elimination chamber next match here it's the final match that traits the main event as Roman Reigns wins the mens Royal Rumble match and gets a World Championship match at WrestleMania 42 he has picked his opponent we'll talk about that in the next segment here I had Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fattu Dr. Shreya Brock Lesnar I thought this was an okay Rumble match I would have liked to see Oba if I'm in Lesnar B towards the end with Reigns in the match as well rather than spaced out I was disappointed we didn't see more surprises outside of Royce Key slash powerhouse Hobbs who got like little to no reaction and that's because folks in Saudi Arabia can't watch AW I guess the only way they would be able to do that is if they watch online through other means so they don't follow AW according to what I'm seeing on the internet so that powerhouse Hobbs means nothing to them Reigns winning was absolutely a surprise given how the stories that had come out here in the last few weeks ones that we had covered here on the show that he was a lot of men out safe to say those reports came out to get us off the obvious of Reigns winning there's a lot to discuss about this doctor tray and we will certainly break it all down here I know there's people that are very upset about Roman Reigns winning this match and that they should have gone to somebody who is trying to break through a little bit whether

22:57 or not to whether PLA night or Braun breaker create new stars that's what we love about the rumble what I will say I'm not upset about the reins winning the match at all like when you think about it especially with what happened on Monday's raw like this makes a ton of sense and is like a really good direction for WrestleMania because that is a WrestleMania type one-on-one dream match however we can have things both ways folks because last year we got a Jusso who won the match it was a surprise nobody saw it coming it was to build a new star and the internet revolted and here we are Roman Reigns established star and the internet's revolting so who do you want to win at this point folks I don't get it you know with professional wrestling it's like let's let it play out and thankfully you and I did not do a show on Sunday night or Monday morning and we're doing a show on Thursday afternoon because for me different feel but it doesn't take away that the match itself from a booked storyline standpoint was just okay to me Dr. Trey your thoughts as Roman Reigns wins the mens Royal Rumble match so this is like once again I I liked it probably a little better than you did and part of it was a few of the things I've talked about over the last few months kind of played out where like I had said all along with we talked about where's Oba Femi going and I was like you do not want to put Oba Femi on raw because you want to keep Oba and Braun breaker apart

24:27 and then we get one and two Oba and Braun and then we get Braun taken out by the masked man I'm air quoting there because there's a lot of masked people in this match but it kept Oba and Braun apart but later on we saw Oba and Brock Lesnar face to face and the one thing I I disliked about it was Oba was like really dominant but as soon as Brock saw an opening to I don't want to say shoot on him but he got that waist lock through into the German suplex you went there's Brock being Brock what I did like about it was why did we have so many triple A guys show up like my wife had never seen Mr. Guana so she enjoyed that but you got no reaction for La Parca you got no reaction for the other guy from triple A who came into match like Mr. Guana and Mr. Guana La Parca I thought there was one other one that came in a little bit maybe not okay but no reaction for them I popped for them calling Chad Gable El Grande Americano OG that kind of made me chuckle a little bit Javon Evans had a breakout like had a great performance I thought trick did okay in the match but seeing those three guys kind of get a featured spot in there I thought was really good for them as well and I liked the clothes of the match I like Gunther being the runner up again might lead to at some point Gunther and Roman in a career match if Gunther keeps the career killer thing going that might be an option to run down

26:02 and I'm fine with Roman winning what I didn't like was Roman choosing somebody already when Drew has kind of been calling him out for a while I would have at least teased Roman going after Drew and then circling back to punk but you know if they're trying to get this whole thing started and Roman is going to be part time between now in Mania you might as well go and get this thing kicked up now so that way if Roman dips out for a few weeks that seeds already there so I think that's what I'm going to do. I like the match maybe like I said maybe a little bit more than you and I'm fine with Roman going out on or winning or going out on top or winning the match every one of crazy.

26:42 All right we'll talk about Romans WrestleMania 42 match which is now official and just a moment but pay-per-view prediction record both Dr. Trey and I went two and two which means we are two and two on the year since it's the first show match of the night and event rating Dr. Trey I will go first I was not a huge fan of the Royal Rumble I gave it a 3.7 out of five and my match tonight went to the women's Royal Rumble match what say you my friend. I had it 3.7 yeah I'll go 3 points and I'll agree with you on that one that's about where I had it my match tonight that was AJ and gone through mostly for nostalgia I guess. Yeah no it's understandable that's that's very fair it was it was a weird show it was certainly weird show which we we've talked about here at length now on the entire program it's just because it's like the Rumble and it's like yeah did I did I like that I don't know I don't know if I like that.

27:36 All right WrestleMania 42 card roundup I love doing this throughout the year Dr. Trey I love doing this turn WrestleMania season as you and I talk about the official rumored matches and what we're seeing out there so the official stuff very easy to talk about here. Let's talk about this this is official now at the close of Monday night Raw which was a great segment great promo some great guys of both guys which I thought was a great way to set this up. See I'm punk right now defense the world of the way championship against the mens Royal Rumble winner Roman reigns. I love that this happened I love that we came out of the rumble with this match honestly I and I you brought great points about Drew McIntyre being you know calling out Roman reigns and all that stuff and I think they could address that somewhere down the line certainly but to me this is this is a dream match and those two guys cut a promo or on each other that made this match and sold it even more for me.

28:30 This was not something I had on the radar at the moment did not think it was going to happen based off of things that we had seen in the reports things that we saw last year with the triple threat match but here we are see Roman reigns it is official for WrestleMania barring any changes which could always happen were title changes people being added to the matches God forbid injuries I don't wish that at all your thoughts punk reigns WrestleMania 42. Yeah I think we talked about briefly this is one of the matches I kind of thought may happen but it wasn't since I think I want to see Roman and Braun Breaker more but the history of these two guys and not so like you know going back to the fact that punk didn't want Roman in the shield he wanted Chris hero.

29:17 You know them coming to WWE to be the shield for CM Punk and you know the Paul Ham in fact or all these things hanging together gives it that little extra layer to it and then that promo back and forth like it was so good because you're just like man like you feel real life tension whether it's there or not they presented it as real life tension so for even like guys like us who are so in depth into the world. In depth into the wrestling business you kind of get lost in that moment you're like oh these guys might really fight holy shit like you that those kind of moments are so far in few between in pro wrestling that when we get one like that we latch on to so was it.

30:04 How I would have structured WrestleMania probably not but once again you got a big time headlining match with two nationally known stars that is going to drop people to WrestleMania and I think that's going to be your most bankable match at WrestleMania so not only does punk you know get his main event match last year. He's probably going to headline night to so he gets back to back WrestleMania headlines yeah punk is doing media right now for Super Bowl week and I am from what I'm seeing in some interviews he said is that he did confirm that this would be the night to main event which obviously things can change but that makes it in the sense given.

30:46 How are you going to this is this screams like night to main event close out WrestleMania so punk reigns is official and then it's official quasi here doctor trade but. To be determined world champion whether that be Jade car girl right now or seventy four core will be taking on live Morgan in a women's world the women's Royal Rumble winner for either the WWE women's or slash the women's world of the way championship part of me felt that maybe Rockhead could have won this match on Monday's Raw and then we would get Rockhead versus. Live which would be very intriguing. Stephanie versus live is intriguing I don't know if Jade and live is intriguing given their both heels. What is what do you feel is the direction right now because I think we're headed towards Stephanie versus live but it wouldn't surprise me if at some point Raquel turns baby face maybe wins the championship and does face live at WrestleMania.

31:42 That's literally exactly what's the like I know live and says she was going to smack down this week and I'm like yeah I want to see. Five foot one ninety seven pound live Morgan from Jake Cargill but when we saw it to agree with live in and Ria but to me live in Stephanie Valkor is is the match they go with. Not only does it give live a highlight or you know showcase their WrestleMania but it also. Elevate Stephanie to another level as well so I think that might be the right you know if they break Raquel away from the judgment day and have her kind of go on a. Diesel S. Baby face run all like nineteen ninety five when you separate from Shawn Michaels I'm fine that's you because I thought that match they had on raw Monday night was really well done and like we knew Stephanie could wrestle we knew Raquel could do shorter matches but to get like a twenty minute match on your own to showcase those skills I thought was really well done so.

32:42 If it's just live in Stephanie cool sign me up for that if you throw Raquel the mix I'm fine with that as well. And then let's look here at the rumored matches this is the things that I'm seeing out on websites that are being reported and things that were seen on Raw or Smackdown so obviously we've been seeing Smackdown yet or things that we think maybe happening right now so I've three rumored matches Dr. Trey. I have Brock Lesnar versus Oba Femme which is being reported by Mike Johnson PW Insider he says that there's about like a little over a 50% chance and that's why they did the stuff with the at the rumble as happening on raw we saw the BellatWinds who return they have their eyes set for the women's world tag team championship which would then to me place Rio Ripley versus Eo Sky to defend those titles against the BellatWinds I don't think Rio and Eo will be involved in singles title matches or singles specialty matches at this point and then the third one Dr. Trey that I have is Bronn Breaker taking on whoever the masked man was there's a lot of feelings out there it could be Seth Rollins making his return people are saying that they feel like it maybe Jake Paul based on the way that this person looked and things that Jake Paul is said in interviews there's also a feeling that the vision may have maybe turning on Bronn Breaker and how that could be spun so those are three matches I have Bronn and Oba Rio vs the Bellas and Bronn Breaker versus whoever the masked man is your thoughts on those three

34:13 rumored matches that I have down and do you think that there's anything that is missing based off what we've seen in reports or seen on television over the last you know five days or so so I mean do you really feel they're going to brought in Oba I do I do yeah yes I don't know what else you do with Brock right now other than maybe like Gunther yeah I'm trying to figure that also because Brock see Eo Oba like Oba gets a pop like they have people love Oba I just don't know like does Brock go yeah I'll put the kid over I think I think Brock is is reportedly on his way out and would do that yeah yeah I would hope so like if that's the case because Oba to me is going to be an attraction level star I mean Michael Michael Cole was gushing like like I mean like like a schoolgirl crush on Oba Femme during that match like that was crazy but if if if that's the direction they go that's fine I just you know I don't know like I to me you really got to trust that Brock's going to do excuse me do the business the Bella twins and Ria and Eo is interesting because I also think you might be an attraction Bailey and Lyra into it as some boys and maybe Kyri and Oscar because it seems like all those folks are intertwined and then brawn breaker of the mask man I think as we said I thought that was Logan Paul in the max I don't know who you thought it was I thought it was Logan I to me when that always happens I feel like it's it's the you know obviously it was a wide guy but I think it was like a grace

35:47 and a waller or a Montez Ford like they did with the last mask man when it was an awesome there just to get people off the bean path I just the way the face just and then shot a little bit of beard I was like yeah to me it kind of looked like Logan Paul's build not that he would end up being the mask man that it be revealed somebody else down the road but just in that instance like hey we need somebody to get in the mask and do this Logan didn't come out to like 22 or 23 like he came out much later in the match I don't see them doing brawn breaker and Jake Paul like to me like I know we like our little celebrity matchups every so often but that just doesn't fit at all like you're trying to build brawn breaker up to be a main event attraction and putting him in there with you know a celebrity and and probably honestly like a sea list celebrity doesn't do anything for the brawn breaker career so I don't I don't I I leaned more towards brawn and Seth I think Seth's gonna figure out some way some Seth does not is not going to like that guy is not going to miss Russell made he's missed a couple in the past because of injuries I just don't see him missing this one I also think we're I still think we're gonna get Becky and AJ that's AJ Lee good I think we're gonna get that one I think we're gonna get Charlotte and Alexa I think they'll I think they're I they'll split somebody will turn on the other one at elimination chamber I mean you can't keep start teasing you know the enemy side of the frenemies coming back without one of them eventually turning so I I lean that one of them will turn and we'll get Charlotte and because otherwise you got to throw them into the tag team mix

37:23 you know unless you do Naya and lash against but they're kind of running that now so I I kind of think that you know they're gonna turn and then if if beyond cuz not back do we get lash legend in Jake Cargill at WrestleMania maybe lash look great in the rumble you know lashes really improved reminds me a lot of her fiancee trick Williams where I think character wise like it's there like there's there's nothing more I mean very charismatic and entertaining and have the potential to be good wrestlers it was just you know sometimes you watch those matches in their they're a little bit green and I think lash has come a long way and I like that she's kind of being protected in these tag teams actually reminds me what they do with Jade Cargill when she came from a W because Jade was not of of polished product when she came from a WWA I mean we we often unfortunately criticized her work in a W because the in-ring stuff just was not there everything else was like you know that she's a total package and if she could get the in-ring stuff down it's like watch out for Jade Cargill that's not feel about lash as well so maybe lash could be in there if that was a case I would love to see lash when the rumble though you know yeah I do like that the computer you said total package you just remind is Jake Cargill the modern day Lex Luger like she looks she looks the part she like she passes the eye test but Lex was never a great in-ring performer and and and Jade as impressive as she is sometimes her personality doesn't translate through her promos

38:53 that's why like that when you said total package up onto my head like she very she isn't a lot of ways very similar to Lex Luger especially in the early days of the Lex Luger when you know everybody is like protecting him but he looked he checked all the boxes as a professional I mean I would say it's it's probably more like China right for me but yeah I mean I get your comparisons there because I was felt like China was was great all around package but the matches themselves we're not great I do want to say that I think Jade has has is becoming a good worker yeah so yeah no I mean there's definitely comparison comparisons there with Lex Luger I think with Lex unfortunately it was like with Lex it was just for me it was just a guy who didn't capitalize on some moments honestly yeah now but Lex has some good matches I mean it kind of is like your dance partner is like once again like I mean they're I mean Jade hasn't wrestled like defended the women's titles to shoot one it so like they are still trying to protect her in for as far as in-ring goes and Lex was very similar like Lex before go 45 days of match or they were putting them in tag teams with you know Barry Wyndham or they're sticking with staying or they're sticking with the horsemen like they there was a lot of protection for Lex for a long time until his in-ring or caught up yeah no no I mean I think it's a fair comparison as well to compare him to compare her to Lex Luger now he came up and yeah because again it was someone that you just like felt if they could just tap into this they're going to be off to the races and that's how

40:28 feel about Jade I do feel like Jade lash trick or all certainly getting there which is really exciting yeah alright there you go that is our first installment of the recipe 42 card roundup we will discuss this on each and every week heading into WrestleMania season WrestleMania itself excuse me as this is part of our WrestleMania season regular segment that we do here each and every week on the still real to show switching gears to NXT Dr. Tray some big news this week for the the black and yellow black and gold black and silver brand whatever they're known as now Ava the Rocks daughter has left WWE Robert Sones the new interim general manager and now Joe Henry wins the latter match and has become the new NXT champion starting with the first part here Dr.

41:11 Ray Ava leaving WWE I know that she was a very polarizing person on the internet because of who her father was I always felt like she did a fine job I didn't think she like knocked it out of the park every week but I thought she was fine in that general manager role I think obviously from what we saw on television she may have left WWE in a bad spot because they they probably believe that she was going to be either returning they didn't write her off of television I don't know that has anything to do with just her father being the head of the board of directors for TKO and WWE right now Robert Sones as the interim general manager I think is a good spot for him he's been somebody whose talents have been wasted and he's been with the company for a long long time it feels like to me that he is somebody that you would imagine would be on the chopping block at some point with the company just because he was being under utilized I know he's been using TNA I think he's like the evolved general manager as well I don't watch evolve so I'm happy for him and then Joe Henry win the NXT championship when you look at everybody that was in that match I felt like two people that are safe bets would have been Ricky Saints or Joe Henry so I'm happy that Joe Henry got the run with the title all the other guys it would have been a shock and a showcase of a completely turn about face of where NXT was going this reminds me of lot a lot of when NXT was rebooted as 2.0 some of Joe was NXT champion he had to drop the title due to injury they did that fatal for way

42:42 match I think on the first episode that had like chop a LA night Ron breaker and get that Robert's own used to used to manage there that was punters with Kyle Riley for a period of time and then eventually got released I can think of his name at the moment anyway they did that fatal for away and they move to muscle champ as like the safe bet to help put over the young guys which I think is the right thing because if Joe Henry is going to the main roster at some point probably sooner rather than later so if he ends up dropping the title at stand and deliver to like Keanu Carver that approach when it surprised me at all I think that's something that NXT does that's a formula they do or if he drops the titles like Jackson Drake or child of Hill whatever to me it seems like it's going to be Keanu Carvers going to be the next Opal family event of NXT or Braun Breaker of NXT so when it surprised me come stand to deliver an April Joe hundred jobs the title he started dabble a little bit on the main roster in Keanu Carver get thrown with the championship for for a good period of time moving forward so lots of changes there in NXT this past week Dr. Dre your thoughts on the new general manager Ava leaving and our new NXT men's champion I might be I don't know if I've been the minority the majority of the really kind of follow up on this but I'm excited for the Robert Stone era of NXT I've always loved Robert Stone Robby he whatever you want to come I've always loved his work I always kind of felt like he was a poor man's Zach Reiter in TNA he's kind of changes look he gives you that slimy car salesman general manager that we really haven't had in quite some time maybe going back to like the air bitch off on raw days

44:21 just you just kind of feel like he's always looking out for himself I'm kind of glad Ava's gone like she may have been the most boring character in wrestling the last few years like she never really evolved and kind of you kept hoping she would kind of come out and you would see a little bit more of the Dwayne Johnson charisma come out and it just wasn't there it just always felt kind of bland and forced so hard to suddenly to leave and go to different direction for her career I think it's a smart move for her and go for the company Joe Henry being an NXT champion I love your comparison there I also got super excited I wouldn't mind seeing a Joe Henry Ricky Saints few because I think that would be a good bridge to then let Ricky Saints kind of build up the younger roster Joe moving the main roster because he is one of the most marketable characters in WWE right now so I think that's a good move.

45:18 I thought the match the other matter match was really well done really kind of showcased all the talents as well so nobody came out looking out of place in which when you have that many kind of relative unknowns in the match you kind of worry about that sometimes but I thought Shiloh Hill Jackson you all those guys Jackson Drake Sean Legacy I thought all those guys looked the part so it does kind of feel like a fresh reboot of the men's division but these guys have all the potential in the world to kind of ascend to the level they need to get to so and it was what was the third thing I totally blank what's the third thing I think you hit him all Joe Henry able leaving Robert so new GM yeah okay good okay good got it all alright great yeah and the person that Robert's own managed was Von Wagner that was who was in that match. If he was around would be recruited by Lexus King to join the new like little bloodline white boy group and I don't know who stacks his father is but I can't wait to find out so nobody like we're going to find out that actually is Tony D yeah that's where we go let switch gears here to a W Dr. Trae as we wrap up this week's edition show first thing this past week on collision you talked about to me pre show how his theme song is now what you wake up to we have a new a W T and T champion his name is also champion your thoughts as he defeated Mark briscoe in a great match this past Saturday you made that sound super creepy like oh it's his

46:51 theme song that you wake up to like that's okay if I wrong does it did I tell no lies no you told no lies but it's tone it's phrasing my friend don't forget those things like I said you wake up to kid Wilson song well I mean that's just because he's in my dreams Jeff that's why I was another certified back or by the way I actually did send Mikey Ruckney Mikey Ruck is a note that I love that new theme song and and the presentation even going back to dynamite when he debuted that was like okay this is a main event caliber talent we're debuting I mean you got the pyro you got everything for guys like you me who love champa man we would have loved to see that presentation and W W on the main roster but we never got it I'm excited for what he can do for a W one of the best wrestlers there is when you go back to black and gold days to him in gargano that's that's fantastic so super excited to see what they do with chop and hopefully it's not the old approach of shining new toy pushed really hard six months later he's only on collision wrestling my good friend Adam priest yeah it's it's it's fun it's fun to see to muscle champion having a good time so yeah new TNT champion first match on a NAW and he joins mercenaries Monae is the only wrestlers in their debut match the world win a championship Dr. Trey so tomorrow's

48:21 champ is our new AW TNT champion looking towards the world title picture which we saw become a focal point on Wednesday nights edition of dynamite I do have some issues with it just preface by saying but I think they're justified before you go oh here they go again fashion AW I think this is a little justified so on draw day to feed swerve and Kenny Omega and back to back weeks which is massive victories in AW he will now face hangman page at grand slam austrian a number of contenders match for the world title revolution love that but hangman's pages path was just defeating Mark Davis who I fan of I like mark Davis but the comparisons of defeating swerve and Kenny and defeating mark Davis are not the same so we will have hangman versus on draw day at AW grand slam austria where the winner will face MJF at revolution or we assume it will be MJF more than just a second but Dr. Trey that that seemed like an odd way of booking I would have loved to see them do a I don't know like a person tournament or something I don't say person something that they could do that they could rest their hat on and go well this is who hangman defeated this is why he's doing this this is who on dry defeated this is why he's doing this and why they're in this match rather than yeah on dry beat two of the top stars and hangman go beat one half of a tag team which is more than likely on the shelf because according reports unfortunately Jack Doyle has torn his bicep in the match with FTR which is a massive massive

49:59 bummer your thoughts on the approach here for who could be the AW world championship number one contender. If Vincent done that they would have said it was racist on draw day has to go through all these and at and hangman only has to beat mark Davis I mean why don't you just put hangman in there with Kyle Fletcher. You know and have them do that rematch and then he beats Kyle and then you go well hangman beat Kyle Fletcher you know on draw day beat swerve and Kenny it makes sense so yeah I mean I don't know but I'm really excited for on draw day like this is like the first big push. He's had in like since the NXT days like he never really got a main event push you know on the main roster in WWE so like I'm super excited for him because he's look fantastic since he came back but hangman and on draw day man like right now like it's a good thing that matches in Australia because if you had that match in Texas you wouldn't have got the same chance that they had in the Brody King MJF match you would have the opposite chance. Yeah yeah that's true I think the the only thing that I will say about on draw day is on draw days coming out interviews or posting on something where he's saying like he wants retiring a w and does anyone remember on draw day like his last year in a w it sounded a lot like his last year in WWE like the first go around where he was done with a w they were misusing him he wanted to go back to WWE yada yada goes back to WWE and I agree with him he was misused

51:34 a draw day definitely deserved better in that second row in WWE he gets fired for some sort of reported reason out there regards to drug testing gets picked back up but I by a w has that space where he's serving 90 days he needed to set out a year was resolved through legal matters and he pops back up in new Japan a w and he's on this incredible run and now he's mr. w can I like on draw day lot I find him very entertaining but the stuff that he says online stuff that he says in the in the interviews it's like can you really believe that he is team WWE new Japan a w cml whatever moving forward so I think on draw day versus mgf would be very compelling I think on draw day based on his last two wins should defeat hangman page at a W grand slam Australia in just like 10 days or so nine days or so and face whoever the w world champion is but that's like I don't know it's just hard to invest as a fan of a specific promotion on him based on how he's like acted both publicly and privately according reports over the last like six seven years yeah it's a little bit like I'm mister whoever pays me the most money yeah it's a it's a it's a it's a little bit of a mercenary approach and there's an old saying you know they talk about the you know the grass isn't always greener on the side well sometimes the grass is greener you're just the weed in the mix it's it's not them it really is you it's kind of like having that if you have that friend who can never keep a girl friend

53:10 and he always tell you how horrible they were and you're like bro but the same things happen like six times maybe it's not all these crazy girls you're meeting maybe it's you and that's why I got I kind of feel on draw day is like no no no yeah there are times you've been booked poorly almost every wrestler in the world has been booked poorly at some point or another sometimes it's just you and that's why you are your own worst enemy I think on draw day is a prime example of being his own worst enemy at times and then the second part here you already mentioned a dr. trade Brody King defeats MJF and an eliminator match to earn an AW world championship match at AW Grand Slam Australia there was going to reach a point with these eliminator matches where I was going to get on the show and say like I don't know why they do then the champion always wins but since then like last night's episode we had Megan Bain and Penelope Ford which are now known as Megabad defeated the babes of wrath to win a future tag team women's tag team title match and then you had Brody King defeat MJF which was a very well booked match I was watching live and it's like ten of like 957 on the east coast and I'm like they got three minutes left like how they get this world title match in like was this show extended for half an hour which they've been they've done before and then the way that was booked it was like aw now I get it which I enjoy that so Brody King gets a match at AW Grand Slam Australia dr. Trey your thoughts here as the Brody King MJF eliminator match on Dynamite and the eventual title match in Australia

54:40 don't you don't you love when you get on social media and they use people going aw that was horribly booked they just had a guy crush the world champion that's the like do that storytelling yeah that was story going folks like Vader like in Star Wars Vader takes out everybody and so then when the other guy wins you're like oh my god I can't believe you're in those odds and it's weird they're setting up like this because it's like this it's this crazy baby face just destroying the heal well now MJF knows he's got to cheat his ass off to get the screw in but this is now something on the Brody King resume that he can always go back to they hey he straight up beat MJF in like under five minutes like you kind of built another star out of that so I thought it was really well done and I'm fine also with the right the the eliminator matches have become kind of predictable it was kind of like just a way of kind of getting those weird die hard AW fan dream matches like oh my god we got John Moxley and Tommy Billington holy cow I didn't think we'd ever get that match it was kind of like their way of getting those done by the way I feel bad for shooting on my you know my friends tag team as well but it kind of felt that way like it was just kind of a way to get the veteran in with a young guy get him a little experience with the veterans going to come out on top doing it this way is really well done plus you had to make somebody I don't really understand why they did the the the Bane sky match up a limiter match because we've already seen Megan Bane feuding with the babes of wrath for a little while we could just said they were number one

56:13 consenters and nobody would have said a word about it but it creates an element of doubt that hey maybe this time willow and hardly can't overcome Megan and that's why we we got to do this match to see if they can overcome those odds yeah no it was it was good I was good booking from AW and regards to that I just have my issues and my qualms with the way that they did the world title picture heading into AW currently I felt like it should have been cleaned up a little bit more and I really wondered dr. Trey if a lot of that has to do with the small joe injury I would think it does based on way things that were being booked leading into all the stuff that we saw recently so there you go there is this week's edition of SRT you in the books before we close up shop on episode number 834 let's get a couple plugs and spots out of the way you could download the show each and every week by supporting us a patreon dot com slash SRT you podcast you can get the show ad free and free over at patreon dot com you could also download it every Thursday or Friday at real guy media dot com russet chat on x and this to real show feed on apple spot if I were to download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe on all those podcasts platforms you can fall into visual on extra myself at SRT you Jeff if you're dr. Trey Franklin at the dr. Trey and of course don't forget the fall show on x at SRT you podcast with that being said what is going on the wonderful world of dr. Trey Franklin this week well like Jeff said you can follow me on x at the dr. Trey you can find me on facebook or instagram dr. Trey Franklin when you're on facebook check out rock and see championship wrestling we have a really big

57:50 show coming up this Saturday night because god forbid my wife would leave me if we did one on Valentine's day so be sure to go check them on facebook you can check out all the past episodes on youtube and by the way if you're on my facebook page and this is a little personal aside for people go to my facebook page young Sammy Franklin they're doing a special thing in his class for hearts across America where they're trying to get people from all over the country to send in a small Valentine's day card so if you're anywhere and you have like five minutes left if you go on my facebook page there's a picture of it that has the address that you send the card to I really want Sammy to get a bunch of cards in from people from the northeast midwest and we we have the southeast cover but I'd love to see some cards come in it would make his heart feel good and then also show that uh hey Sammy Franklin's got some reach out there too as well. Yeah see he's big on the internets um you can flash a little bit with his friends and what is it first great first grade yeah yeah let's get hold everybody so there you go god there's support all the great things that support us RT you and support young Sammy Franklin uh as well so until next week thank you for downloading thank you for making this part of your week thank you for making this part of your WrestleMania 42 road to WrestleMania 42 coverage and until next week for dot tray Franklin I am Jeff pack. This has been "The Stereolder Show".