The Future Is NOW: Jacob Fatu’s Breakout, Asuka’s Goodbye & WWE’s New Era | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #848 – 5/14/26

0:00 It's still really a big damage to me! [Music] Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's "The Vista Vista Rola Show" Episode 848 from May 14th, 2026. This is your WWE backlash, recap, and reveal edition of "ASR-T". I am one after the show. I am Jeff Peck, joined every single week in my post, little Dr. Frank Linn, Dr. Trey. Are you ready for Oscar?

0:40 My friend? I don't want to be mean nobody's ready for Oscar. Nobody's ever been ready for Oscar. But I will say this, yesterday we went out to eat and I was so ready for a Chinese buffet. I will demolish it. I'm all ready for a Chinese buffet. So if you know a good one, what I mean is your area, let me know. But yeah, other than that, no. Nobody is ever ready for Oscar. See, I wish I knew that because the last time Dr. Trey was in my area, we went to a pizza joint, which I think may have been the last time I saw you in person. Yeah. Outside of these... Oh! Outside of Tampa Bay? I see, I don't know which one was the last one. I don't know if it was the Tropicana, or if it was...

1:24 If it was when we had pizza... No, the pizza... You know, that you're right, the pizza place was after Tropicana. That's right. It was... Because I think we've only met face to face four times in 15 years? Yeah, it was a studio podcast with Bauer, which is the only time you and I have ever done a podcast together in the same place. You came up to a radio event that we had around... We thought the 40-man rumble when it was in Boston. I think that maybe in 11 or 12. The Raisin Yankees game, and then you were in my neck of the woods, I mean, it was way before the pandemic now, and we grabbed pizza.

2:04 And now it's as if you don't travel anymore. Yeah, I don't get to see it. Unless I go down to Birmingham, Alabama for, I don't know, WWE RAW, taping that's going to cost me like $350. Which is actually coming in a few months. We're actually getting RAW in Birmingham in a few months. I saw that. You want to make a road trip. You want to make a road trip? I got a five bedroom house now, so I got room for you. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Yeah, or, hey, you never know. I may get a job where I'm back on the road traveling. This is true. This is true. That's when I, the last time I saw that train was when he was on the road again. First dog foremost, happy birthday to our very own doctor tray who celebrated yesterday. 28 years old. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, I will say, I actually, I don't know if it got on my regular Facebook page.

2:50 My brother posted a picture of me from when I was in my early 20s. One of my friends said outside of the gray in your beard, you actually look younger now than you did in this picture. So I took that as a compliment. I was like, he's like, you look like you're in better shape. You're healthy or other than the gray in your beard, man. You go, you look like you're way better shaped. So I was like, oh, cool. That just means at this age, I don't look like I'm dying. So that's always a win. Yes. Another year around the sun and people complimenting me. And I don't look like I'm dead. So that's great. Yeah, happy birthday is all around the doctor tray. How'd you celebrate? Did you end up going to that Chinese buffet that you have craving for now?

3:33 No, actually, so I was a little bit. So actually, and yeah, I actually kind of did. I started out my day really sad. I woke up. Nobody in the house said, happy birthday before I left to take Sammy to school and go to work. So I thought people kind of forgot. Then my wife texted me and she's like, hey, what do you want for dinner? I don't really care. I mean, I'm in a kind of a funk. By the time I got home, she went and got Sammy early from school. They went down the store, bought me. She already had gotten me my birthday presents, but she took Sammy birthday shopping for dad. Came home. There's balloons. There's presents. And then we went out and had a Japanese abochie for dinner.

4:15 Yeah. So which is always fun because as Luke gets a little bit older, the look on kids' faces when they light the grill up and the big fire shoots up everywhere. Kids love that. So Sammy had a great time. It ended up being actually a really good birthday. So I will say that. I think-- so I've taken my son to a abochie in Disney. I think he's gone twice now. And he loved it. I mean, where else could you see fire, chew, chew, trains, and then they're doing Mickey Mouse on the metal platform that they cook on? Abochie's one of my favorites. But I guess we'll save that for Abochie cast. When Dr. Try and I do that. We've met-- by the way, that's a first.

4:57 And in all the years of us in the show, we have never mentioned Abochie cast. No, I think that's-- yeah, it's usually weather casts. Get off my grass cast. Get off my cloud cast. But here we are 848 episodes. And if you had on your bingo card, us talking about Abochie. Congratulations, you have won. See us after the show. Dr. Try, let's get into it. WWE Backlash recapped a review of this past Saturday from the benchmark international arena in Tampa, Florida. We'll start with the opener here that aired on ESPN2. It was Braun Breaker defeating Seth Rollins. You and I both had Braun Breaker in this one. Arguably, one of Braun Breaker's biggest wins of his career. While that was a big deal, it wasn't the story in this one.

5:40 But that Braun proved that he can hang with Rollins on the ring. It was a great in-ring performance from Breaker. It feels like that there are a couple folks that are breaking away from the pack, where if a year or two years from now, if 3, 4, 5 on the male side, our world champions are in the world title picture, it would not surprise me. And Braun Breaker is one of them. We'll talk about this group that I think is kind of percolating. It reminds me of that WrestleMania 21 season when we saw Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton all break out. We'll talk about that later on in the show and who we think may be falling into that category.

6:22 But overall, arguably the biggest win of his career. But to me, the biggest takeaway, Dr. Trey, was that Braun Breaker proved he could hang in the ring with Seth Rollins. Your thoughts as Braun Breaker defeats the visionary, Seth Rollins. And I kind of felt like that was the point of this match. We kind of knew there would be distractions, there would be shenanigans because you have the vision of all sets on his own. So you kind of felt like that stuff would happen. So if it wasn't a clean victory, it made sense. But I thought they really want to showcase that Braun could actually wrestle and hang with Seth Rollins who arguably maybe up and maybe until this match was qualified as one of the top five in-ring performers in the world.

7:05 But I thought that was the, and I think you brought it up from WrestleMania, that last spear that Seth kind of o'laid a little bit. Braun wanted to make sure that when he hit the spear in this match, he hit the spear in this match. So overall, really, really good performance for Braun Breaker, kind of setting the table for what's going forward. But yeah, overall, I thought it was a solid match. I thought that the hiccups were actually on sets parts and not Braun's. But overall, like really, really outstanding kind of breakout performance. And like you said, arguably the biggest win of Breaker's career. Next match here is Trick Williams defeating Sammy Zane to retain the WWE United States Championship.

7:47 We both had Trick Williams in this one. Again, Trick Williams' in-ring work has really come a long way since his NXT days. We often would complain about Trick Williams. I was someone that always was like, he's great entertainer, great on the mic, great character, amazing charisma. It's just the in-ring stuff. And it's slowly fading away where I'm not really picking up on. And then, you know, you could tell he's lagging a little bit behind, not a smooth of his in-ring performer, like he's in there. And he's in there with one of the best in Sammy Zane. As he held his own once again, the Trick and Sammy Feud has been really good at entertaining. And I've also thought that Little Yachty, who has done a really good job as Trick's manager, has been extremely entertaining as well.

8:30 Like, he, out of all the celebrities I've seen in recent months, he's one that I feel like can legitimately be a manager in WWE, and professional wrestling as a whole for a long time. I can't tell you one Little Yachty song, but as a character, really enjoying it. Trick Williams defeats Sammy Zane to retain the WWE United States Championship. >> So good Little Yachty, if Fred Oppen came back as tugboats with Little Yachty and tugboat being natural. Cuz this isn't just a little Yacht, a tugboat. I don't know boats. >> Yeah, I guess he could fall into Natural Disasters. Like, it could be an offshoot of Natural Disasters. You've got to tell the boat earthquake Typhoon and Little Yachty.

9:12 >> But I just, like, I enjoyed the match. It was a little bit shorter than I was hoping for, but I will say, Trick, even though I know this is a kind of, they're still in the midst of this double turn, I guess is a way of kind of putting it. Like, Trick is actually with the trick shot as his finisher. He's better positioned as a baby face than as a heel. Because as a baby face, you can kind of take the ass kicking and then come out of nowhere with the trick shot. And it's a little more believable. It's kind of like having a knockout punch in a sense. But as a heel and you got control of tempo, so then hit a trick shot out of nowhere I don't like.

9:53 So, and I think WWE's been very smart also. Like, they're putting him in the ring with guys they know can work. You know, he's not in there with the big lumbering giants who, the internet fans kind of knock for poor work right. Like, he's in there with, you know, some top notch in ring performers that can kind of carry him a little bit if needed. But he has come a long way. He is arguably the most entertaining person in WWE right now. Maybe him and Dan Housen can go back and forth with who's the, who do I like seeing on my TV the most. But yeah, it's overall really fun. And then maybe is little Yachty their answer to Prince Nana.

10:34 Maybe, maybe I guess. Yeah, instead of coffee, it's hip hop. It's actually hip hop career. Yeah. There you go. And then a little Yachty can like a little Yachty dances and he throws, apparently throws legitimate money into the crowd. I saw I saw they were long. I saw some picture. Yeah. But I saw Chris Van Vleek got one of them is like, this is a real dollar bill. And I'm like, so he just treats the audience like they're all strippers and just gives them all one. Something out. I don't know. It's a nice take home is an actual dollar bill. I mean, you spend $600 or $6,000 to send the first couple rows and you leave with the $1 bill. There's certainly a joke in there somewhere. I mean, at least it's not Young Box money.

11:15 True, true. It's just fake paper with their faces on it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's the formula here right now. And we saw with Braun Breaker who's a little bit more season than Trek, right former NXT champion. Prior to Trick Williams holding, having the run with the title. He's in the ring with Seth Rollins. Trick Williams, former NXT champion. He's in the ring with Sami Zayn. I think even later in the night, you have then Jacob Fatu in the ring with Roman Reigns. So there's this formula of putting some of the young guns or folks that could be carrying the torch of the WWE in the next five to 10 years. For the next five to 10 years with some of the guys who have been really holding it down for some time in Reigns, Rollins and Sami Zayn. And testing them on these pay per views coming out of WrestleMania like we saw here back last. So Trick Williams retained against Sami Zayn in a very solid match and a solid performance from the current United States champion.

12:02 Next match here is Dan Housen and Mini Housen defeating the Miz and Kit Wilson. Dr. Trey and I both had a team Dan Housen in this one. This was just an entertaining comedy match. This is what you expect from match with Dan Housen in it. We've said it forever, but Miz is an all star. And if you're somebody who is in love with AW matches, which I have an appetite for that as well, you probably absolutely hated this match. But it was what it was. It was entertaining. It helped kind of break up the show in a good kind of way because we had really two good solid openers. And then the rest of the show, which we'll cover here momentarily, was really good as well. I thought this was a good breakup to kind of get people out of that stretch of really good in-ring performances on the WWE side and putting something entertaining like this.

12:49 So it passed the time in a good way and I enjoyed it, Dr. Trey, for what it was. I could tell, I don't know if your son is watching these shows with you. Obviously mine is not. He's in bed by the time this match happened. But this is something that in two, three years, I think he would sit down and would absolutely love Dan Housen. Like this match would be all about it. And that's okay folks. It's okay to have a family-friendly match on a card, especially on a show that was pretty damn solid. Your thoughts is Dan Housen and Minnie Housen won. >> Yeah, it was fun. And we look for, I mean, you look for, I mean, Kit Wilson, fun character. Dan Housen, fun character, Miz, like you said, all star, all time grades, super soldier, whatever you want to phrase it.

13:32 And then not only getting a Minnie downhousen, but the former El Torito. And we saw him in AAA a few months ago, an actual legitimate Minnie wrestler out there performing. It was used to working with bigger guys, was actually a really good call. So it was fun, it was entertaining. You got all the Dan Housen coming out later. Not gonna lie, when the cloning thing first came out, I was kind of hoping for jelly roll in Dan Housen paint. And having me jelly Housen, but we didn't get that, we got Minnie Housen. So overall, it was just fun and silly. And we all have these guys throughout the course of wrestling history where you're like, can I take him seriously as a world champion contender?

14:16 Probably not. But is he fun? Go back to like the boogie man. I never thought boogie man would be a world champion, but the warm stuff, all that stuff was fun. Disco in Ferno was fun. Was he a fat? No, but the character was so over the top corny and goofy, it was just fun. We even see it now with Johnny Swinger doing that throwback gimmick in TNA at times. I guess it's just fun. And it does break up the seriousness of wrestling. Our truth has been a national treasure for 20 years because he's fun. Like we need those people to kind of lighten the seriousness of what we're watching.

14:57 And you see it in movies. It's a serious action movie. They throw some jokes in there to lighten the loot a little bit. So anybody who knocks what they're doing, he just don't get what the performance art of professional wrestling is. Yeah, again, I mean, you hit the nail on the head there. I just find Dan Howes in very entertaining. I love the segment. The segment he's been having. I'm so happy for the guy. I think he's someone who has worked really hard. He's been very kind of open about his struggles of success and money and when he was on the rise up, he had a terrible injury in our OH. And it was just so great to see him following that elimination chamber debut where he was getting boot in Chicago.

15:39 Really turning around. I think there was a lot of people, a lot of pundits that are higher audiences than Dr. Trin ideal on this podcast. Like basically saying that he was a failure and comparing him to the Galbley Googler and what was Fred Othman in WCW. Oh, shock master. I'm like, come on. Really? Like this isn't somebody that came out of nowhere. I mean, Dan Howes and was a character on all the rest of the night. I've heard people saying that shit. So I'm really happy for him. I thought his segment on SmackDown leading into this was extremely funny. Yeah, I mean, it's very rare that you watch him on TV and you don't have a smile on your face. Like when he when he dropped the S bomb, when he was trying to put together that like that whole thing in the background of the box and eventually leading me in his house and they bleeped out like him saying, shit.

16:27 I thought that was just really good. So it was good. It was a good way to break up the show. Next match here is EO Sky defeating Oscar Dr. Trin. I both had EO Sky in this one. Phenomenal match. EO and Oscar put on a clinic in this one. I love that it was just to settle an end of a feud with no title involved. It was probably better for them, not to be on the WrestleMania card after all as they would have had a match that was like less than 10 minutes long. Because that was the theme of WrestleMania for whatever reason. This match was great. I think this is a match that is memorable for this year. At the end of the year when people talk about some of their favorite matches of the year, I think this is in the running for the conversation.

17:07 And again, just basically kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, the feud was okay. It wasn't anything that I was like, I can't wait to see this payoff. There's been some stuff that we'll talk about later on once we recap back last year that has come out in regards to Oscar and her future in professional wrestling. But man, Dr. Trin, I mean, you expect that they're going to put on this type of match, but it also caught me by surprise. Because maybe it was in the confines of WWE, especially coming off of WrestleMania with some of the matches being let downs. This was great. This was a phenomenal match. One of the top WWE matches I've seen this year, Eosukei defeat Asuka. >> Yeah, just a fantastic match. And it also goes back to something you and I have talked about for the long journey of the show. And you have two people in the ring that are best friends or truly trust each other or whatever.

17:51 They bring out the best in each other because they know they can go all out and the other person is going to take care of them. And Eo and Asuka, they're not sisters, but I mean, they're super close. And we've seen that all throughout this whole run of Asuka and Eo being on the main roster together along with or without Kyrie. And you're right, thank God this match was on this show and not WrestleMania. This show apparently also had more in ring time than either night of WrestleMania, which is kind of sad to say. But yeah, they got to actually really go through and you felt the emotion, you felt everything in this match. So just amazing match.

18:32 Now I will say immediately at the end of the match when they did the hug, I was like, I really ate when that happens, but finding out what was going on afterwards makes a ton of sense as to why we got that hug. >> Yeah, we'll talk about Asuka here in just a few minutes while we wrap up backlash. But lots and news about her coming out of backlash and also immediately after this match took place. Before the main event, John Cena came out and he announced the John Cena classic where stars from today will face the stars. So tomorrow and a John Cena classic champion will be voted by the fans. Basically taking a page out of his Saturday night's main event, final event when he lost to Gunther in his retirement match.

19:13 Where stars from NXT were taken on the stars of the main roster, which I love that this concept is coming back. If there's one thing that I and it's a huge thing that I am kind of groaning about is the fact that the John Cena classic champion could be decided and it could be someone who loses a match. Like it's just a matter of they perform really well, which I think is very lame. So if Tony DiAngelo loses to Cody Rhodes, what he puts on a great performance, he could be crowned the John Cena classic champion. Always when they announce there's going to be a new champion, I think people are like, okay, it's just something that's defended on a weekly basis, monthly basis, whatever. This to me screams more similar to the crown jewel championship that they give out currently where it's champion versus champion and Ron smack down more than something that's defended each week.

20:00 But it appears that there's not too many details about it. There's no details on when this will happen. I just read before we hop down here, Netflix is interested in airing this event, this special, when it is announced. So more on that. But the overall concept of the stars of tomorrow taking on the stars of today, Dr. Try, I really dig and I think it's a cool concept minus the whole, yeah, you could lose and still be named champion of the event. Yeah, the concept of cool, the concept of cool, like NXT guys, he has made roster guys. I mean, you and I have been eating that up since Nexus. I mean, that's how long that this goes back. We love that type of stuff. We love, you know, go back to that starry spend event, that Saul Rooka Bailey match, Oba family, Cody Rose, we love that kind of stuff.

20:44 But when I read, like when John Cena was explaining how this place out, I'm like, this is like American Idol. Like, it's the results don't matter, it's just who the fans like more like you can have Shiloh Hill who has a natural charisma about him that people seem to really respond to, taking on Gunther and fans are like, oh, Gunther on the match, but I really like that Shiloh Hill kit. And Shiloh Hill could become the John Cena classic champion despite getting, you know, chopped into oblivion by Gunther. So I don't know how I feel, I have it's a little bit like Taboo Tuesday, you know, where it's like, hey, maybe they're going to try to hedge people's votes and persuade them by the booking leading in.

21:29 I don't know, but I don't know how I feel about, like you said, like I don't know how the fans just judging is for one, it kind of means no villain is going to win. Because like if you have the Miz against, oh, a EK prosper, is that his name? EK prosper? Yup. Right? Miz against EK prosper. Nobody's pick, like most fans are not picking the Miz because they dislike the Miz. An EK prosper could be your first John Cena content or John Cena classic champion despite losing the match. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to do it that way, but I get it.

22:11 It's also way to kind of gauge how fans feel about certain performers. You can kind of know it's, it's, it's literally kind of like a litmus test of like, hey, how organically can fans get behind somebody that we put on a main roster spot is that charisma translating immediately over to the main roster audience. If not, we may have to send him back to NXT and tweak the character a little bit. So there are good and bad things about it. And then I literally said this. I was like, I was so hoping for a tournament. So Jeff could get excited. And it's not actually even really a tournament. No, it's just an event and then we vote on it. So it's like cyber, cyber Sunday, taboo Tuesday.

22:52 Yeah, I guess we'll have to vote online over at WWE.com. So there we go. John Cena classic. Hey, how's it going? Hey, how's it going? Or you have to vote on club WWE, but you got to pay the subscription fee for it. Yeah, still waiting on that. That's what we predicted. I really side predicted that we were joking around about what the subscription price will be. But John Cena classic coming to a television near you. And then finally the main event here, Roman Reigns defeats Jacob Fattu to retain the World of the WIH Championship. Dr. Shrinner both had Roman Reigns in this one. A really great storytelling match that helped elevate Jacob Fattu in a loss. Love the ending where Roman has to pull out all of his tricks to defeat Vattu and the ending image after the match was Jacob standing tall where how Roman Reigns was gasping for air despite the win before Fattu snapped.

23:36 This is an excellent match. We'll cover what they did on Monday as well. This has been really fun to watch. Fattu gets some shine the last three or four weeks coming on to WrestleMania. And again, I just love the image. Reigns wins. He's laying on the mat, spit coming out of his mouth. And Fattu is slowly getting up being like, what the hell? I lost. And it's just being the crap out of Roman. I mean, it's rare that we get to see someone look so good in a loss. I love when it happens, despite the fact that we're just rebashing the John Cena classic. I don't think we should have given Fattu the title in a loss. But this was great for Jacob Fattu's career as he defeats, loses to Roman Reigns in an effort where he looks very, very good. Dr. Treyer, your thoughts on this one?

24:17 Yeah, so on the matches of, I love the match. I really, really, really enjoyed it. And it did make Jacob Fattu just seem like a beast even though he lost. I love that part. I will say, and I think Bully Ray said the same thing on his show. What I don't know is the direction of Jacob Fattu as a character. Like he's like coming off of a somany where he was wildly cheered in that match with Drew McIntyre. Now you're getting these weird mixed responses where the fans do love Roman Reigns, but they like Jacob, but then during the match, like, who are you cheering for? And I wonder, I don't know, I want to say diminishing anything that Jacob is doing because I like what he's actually doing, but I do question like, where is this character going?

25:06 Is he just going to be unhinged and maybe the new anti-hero of WWE where he's a good guy, but he does kind of healish stuff, like a little bit like Austin S in a way. You know, like is that the direction we're going here? We're making a new anti-hero or is this going back even longer where WWE at one time said we don't do good guys and bad guys. We show shades of gray. Is this the shades of gray we're getting of all these characters we're starting to see? You know, whether it's Trent, Sammy, Jacob, there's a lot of gray area in these characters now. Is that the new direction of the company? Like that's just not so much the match itself was great. The ending was great.

25:46 It is kind of where are we going with characters in WWE with this shades of gray for lack of a better term with all these characters? Yeah, I think you've put out something really interesting here because Seth Rollins falls in that void, the trick where he's in the match falls in that void, the range, Fat 2 match that we're talking about here, it's definitely falls into that void where it's very difficult to see who is the heal and the baby face right now. I can't figure out with reigns, I mean, Fat 2 is getting boot sometimes, he's getting cheered sometimes. People are booing what he's doing, loving what he's doing. Same thing with Roman as well. Roman had to pull out every trick. He had to take the turnbuckle pad off and slam Fat 2's ad.

26:27 He had to mess with the referee and then hit the spear to get the victory. That's not something an ultra baby face does. That's something what a heal does. I guess the only delineations, even though the fan's soul cheer from, it's like when you're tied up with Paul Heyman, I guess you're considered basically a heal. Maybe the only heal right now in WWE is Logan Paul. That seems to be someone that everybody loves and dislikes. It's interesting because the fans are the ones that are driving who they want as the baby face and heal and create, it's just kind of like putting out a good storyline out there. Really good storytelling match. I think this is a match for folks that want to see a little bit of everything.

27:09 There was a little bit of everything in here. It in-ring stuff from Braun and Seth, Sammy and Trick, entertaining match from Danhausen, Miz, Kit Wilson, manyhausen, and a phenomenal storytelling and in-ring performance from EO Sky and Oscar. Then you capped off the night with just a great storytelling match between Roman Reigns and Jacob Fat 2. That gets you to a very solid backlash PLE, which we will give our rating and review here in just a few moments. Our PLE, Pay Per View, prediction record, this one, Dr. Trey, you and I both went 5 and O. So now we're coming out of this one, 17 and 9 on the year. Match of the night and event rating. I gave backlash, a 4.2 and my match of the night was EO Sky and Oscar.

27:53 What say you, my friend? We've been together too long. I had a 4.2 also and I also had Oscar and EO Sky. So yeah, this is one of those ones that were like, me and Jeff are on the same wavelength and yeah, we're reading each other's thoughts, probably as the show is going on. Yeah, I mean, I just was thinking about as this show is going on as well was like, I was making a case that they need to make PLE's like 5 matches max long and that seems to be their sweet spot right now because you get a lot done and WrestleMania could be 5 and 5 and still make a ton of money. So yeah, this was just a good all-around show and kind of made up for at least WrestleMania Saturday that we saw a couple weeks prior.

28:35 The big news out of WWE backlash, Dr. Trey was the report that Oscar was either fully retired, semi retired, following her match with EO Sky at backlash. The reports are circulating that she is semi retired. She has gone back to Japan for a personal matter. Nothing has been disclosed as you and I record this and what's going on and quite frankly, it shouldn't be if it's a personal matter, like just leave that closed up. I don't need a report on that or need to know that as a fan. She's got something going on in her life. She needs to take care of it. But I was extremely selfishly disappointed at first when we heard this is it. She's retiring because Oscar has been phenomenal in WWE. Just an absolute great mainstay.

29:16 Really changed the game when it came to female wrestling in WWE and has been a great character. You can make a case over the last like maybe three years or so, the dominance and intimidation factor of the Oscar character may have been lost. But then you see a performance like she had a backlash against EO Sky and you're like, "Ah, yes, this is the Oscar that we know and love." Thoughts here as, who knows, I doubt we have seen the last match for Oscar in WWE, but it may be some time before we see one of the greatest, the Empress of Tomorrow, Oscar, and Roller's Entertainment. Yeah, I mean it's selfish like you said, like I don't want to see her go. I love Oscar. I think out of all the action figures that we have in our house, we have more Oscar action figures than anybody else because she crosses like for us in the house, like my son loves Japanese anime, inflows my wife loves strong female characters.

30:08 I love great wrestling. We all have Oscar figures because of our different, you know, affinities for her. It is, like if this was her last match, I mean she went out maybe as well as you can possibly go out, just match the night, great match with your best friend that just kind of a perfect swan song if that is her swan song for a while. And you know, she had stuff, we saw this, you know, when she was recovering from her injury prior to her last return, was that she was having issues with fans, she was having personal life stuff going on. And if this is her chance to kind of go home and clean everything up, get everything back whole, yeah, absolutely go home.

30:49 You know, I was in the building when the streak ended, you know, against her and Charlotte Flair and how disappointing that was for most of the people in Super Dome when that happened, but she changed the nature of humans wrestling in WWE. Had the divas era into the horsewoman era, but nobody hits like Oscar. Nobody had the strong style in the women's division. And she opened the door not just for other computers of that ill foot. You know, the Shayna Pisa, they can, that crossover appeal were like, hey, not only can they be beautiful, not only can they be great technically, but they can beat the living hell out of you.

31:30 And she brought that element to WWE like nobody else had and opened the door for those kind of performers. So just if this is the end of her career, like tell, you know, tell to the hat, thank you Oscar, if it's not like we just can't wait to see you back again. That's right, two questions for you here. So you and I have been doing the show since 2010, right? 16 years of S R T U, 848 episodes. Where would you rank Oscar? I live like the top, you know, female wrestlers that we've ever covered, one, and then two, how many times do you think Oscar is one, the female wrestler of the year from you and I?

32:12 I don't think she's ever won female wrestler of the year from us. She won once, 2000, the NXT run, 2020, you selected her as the female wrestler of the year. Okay, well then, okay, one, we tend to try to forget 2020, that's why. Yeah, end of the, like in where I would place her in the women's rankings at the top in the last 15 years, maybe like top five, I would say probably the third or fourth. I typically, if I go over like the history of our show, it usually goes in my head, Becky Charlotte, and then either Oscar or Bailey, like right in there is where I would put her.

32:58 So I would probably, I would always have her in the top five, but it would probably be like depending on what we're talking about, either Oscar, Bailey, and then probably Sasha Banks at number five. Yeah, I'm in agreement with you. I think she's top three. I think it's like Becky Charlotte, her, you could switch her and Bailey as well, but I think it's definitely top three or four. I mean, the impact the Oscar had. I mean, that run in NXT is one of my all time favorites. I mean, she held the title for what over like 500 days. She defeated the Goldberg undefeated streak and all that stuff and it was really cool. And then she made her way onto the main roster, wins the rumble. And then unfortunately, it ends up losing at the WrestleMania. You were at out of tray, WrestleMania 34 against Charlotte Flair.

33:38 So there you go, all the best to Oscar whenever she's dealing with and hope it gets resolved positively and we get to see her back in a wrestling ring sooner rather than later. Sticking with far out from backlash, Dr. Trey, one of the biggest pieces of Fallout was the clothes of Monday Night Raw. It was set up with an acknowledgement ceremony that Roman Reigns was going to make Jacob Fattu acknowledge him. There was, you know, Rumlins earlier in the night that they wanted a fire. Jacob Fattu based on his attacks on these officials and referees, went backlash closed out. And they said one through the acknowledgement ceremony and Fattu comes out and he beats the crap out of the bloodline basically. He beats the crap out of Jeyusso coming out to the ring.

34:21 He beats the crap out of Jimmy Usso going to the ring. He beats the crap out of Roman Reigns in the ring and then closes the night by laying out all three members. And when he laid out all three members like he did it individually, then laid out all three members. And we saw what happened, you know, 48 hours prior on backlash. Like if this was two, three years ago when the bloodline was on top, the core of the bloodline, these three guys, you would be like, this is a huge deal. And in the moment, I didn't recognize it because it's been such a time since they've been reunited as a unit like they are right now. Even though we don't know if they're formally back as the bloodline or not, typical WWE creative. But with that said, I was like, this is the push we've been waiting for. Like when they did that close, I was like, holy shit.

35:02 He laid out like three of the most on screen dominant characters of the last six years going back to 2020 with the bloodline storyline. Like that was a massive deal for Jacob Vatu to just continuously beat the crap out of the bloodline. This is the push that I've been waiting for for Jacob Vatu because I do believe him as a belief in him as a long term character for WWE. But was this the push that you were waiting for as we've seen Jacob Vatu really dominate these last three or four weeks and then more importantly over the last week or so at back lash and then to close out Monday night Raw? And if you throw in Smackdown, he took out the NFTs.

35:42 Like he took out everybody that he's literally taken out. Everybody of some moan descent in the company right now. So this is a super huge push. And yeah, like we've been waiting for, can you alluded to earlier with the young guys and the old guys on the car and the way they're just going to lay it out? Like we've been waiting to see the elevation of younger talent to start assuming those mantle spots in the roster of WWE. And for Jacob to literally take out solo in the NFTs, come back, have that match with with Roman at back lash where he's the one standing in the ring when we close in the show to come back and do what he did on Monday night Raw.

36:28 That's an amazing push and you don't get that unless that company buys into you. I mean, you'd think of every big badass kind of guy who's come through the line against the blood line or through NXT or whatever. Nobody's gotten that kind of push over like a two week period like this. So yeah, it's an amazing kind of thing to see. Right now like with what you're looking at between the Oba Femi push and the Jacob Faw two push, like nobody's seen this kind of stuff in decades. So it's really, really amazing to see. >> Yeah, it's a hell of a push. It's a push that can make someone a top star in the company for some time and it's exciting.

37:13 I mean, to me, the biggest thing that's playing out right now is the end goal here. I think the way things are going, we would be like, well, you got to put the title on Jacob at some point and maybe you do it at Clash in Italy. If they end up doing night of champions over in Saudi Arabia in late June, you do it then. It would feel like to me in normal circumstances that the title reign of Roman Reigns presently is not going to be that long and that they're going to put the championship on Jacob Faw two. But the way things have gone or what we lead to believe on reports and what I think we're thinking come out of WrestleMania was that all roads were going to lead to Roman Reigns versus Oba Femme at Summer's thing. That's my thought. Obviously things can always change. Maybe we get a triple threat at this.

37:54 Faw two has a championship. It's Reigns and Oba. I wouldn't like that for the Oba Femme character. But they're kind of putting themselves in a corner right now, Dr. Tre where I think they, like a huge angle plays out here where the bloodlines fully in. They're back to healish mode at, let's say, Clash in Italy with Faw two Roman Reigns rematch or maybe they do something where it's like, maybe they could be sent up the Reigns and the Usos taking on Jacob Faw two and two people who knows that could be one way around it. But it just feels inevitable that the way things are going that you need to put the championship on Jacob Faw two here at some point. And if you don't, that will be very disappointing.

38:35 And we've seen that play out with other people that were on the rise like an LA night while he didn't have something as dominant as what we're seeing right now with Jacob Faw two. So it's exciting to see Dr. Tre, but they're kind of booking themselves into a corner a little bit. How do you think this gets all executed now over the next, let's say four to six weeks? I mean, I can see, I can see the booking themselves into an angle. And when we've talked about this with Roman on top, I mean, hell for the last basically five years that like at some point you got to pull the trigger and take the belt off and they never did until Cody. And you get that mantle past that you are the ones that put down Roman and took a title off them. That's a big thing.

39:16 With what they're doing with the character, I don't know if you absolutely have to put the title on Jacob. He can just be so unhinged and so uncontrollable that no matter which direction he goes, like you can have a Jimmy or a J screw him over. And then he gets distracted into chasing down that person and not have the title. In a lot of ways he does remind me of the Maga character. Maga never was world champion. But because his character was so unhinged and all over the place, he could get shuffled in and out of stuff pretty easily. And he never really lost credibility until the end of his run.

40:00 But what they have with Jacob's ability to talk is a different level above what the Maga character was. So I don't think you have to put the belts on him. As long as you have him for like a return, gold-burging people and just destroying people and just being completely wild and crazy in all over the place and you never know what you're going to get from him, I think that could hang fans interest for a very, very long time until you I do think though within a year you have to remember. And reward him with something to kind of lend an extra layer of credibility. That's kind of where we're at with LA Knight. We all love LA Knight. He's been one of the hottest characters for three years and yet he really hasn't won anything other than what two small little US title runs.

40:44 Please never one the big one. So you don't want Jacob falling into that line. But as hot as he is right now, I mean you could have him get distracted, go back to Oba and Roman and then build to Oba Jacob match at WrestleMania and have that be one of your featured matches. Yeah, it's really kind of booking themselves in New Encourner. I'm sure they have some sort of plan and idea that's playing out here, but I think just normal wrestling 101 what we've seen is dominance like this leads to gold at some point relatively soon. And when you have Roman reigns involved and you see longer term plans or shorter term plan depending on how you look at it with this reigns run, it leads you to believe that that's not going to happen because as you pointed out, Dr. Trey, we saw that throughout the entire reigns championship run.

41:30 I mean Kevin Owens was, thank God he had a championship run under his belt at that point because I mean he is the one that we always kind of point back to and go. They kind of messed him up a little bit. And I think LA Knight is somewhere, is someone that WWE creative knows what they have and maybe they don't fully believe in him because he hasn't gotten these opportunities. You hear these stories that he's supposed to be in these high profile matches. I think it's like Gunther was one that he was supposed to have and it didn't happen. Then he's working with I show speed at WrestleMania. I tend to think of him and the popularity has and then not really capitalizing on it because either A. creative doesn't believe in him or B. They just give him that creative to continue to capitalize off of it. So meteoroidic rise right now for Jacob Fattu, which is really exciting.

42:13 Something that you tend not to see often in WWE. And overall, Dr. Trey, I think when you look at the T-leaves right now, WWE's future has me excited because when you look at where things are headed for the company, I think there's three stars that are really sticking out to me on the male side and maybe a fourth. Oba Femi, Braun Breaker, Jacob Fattu. And they all presently, I guess, reside on the Raw brand even though Jacob Fattu is on the SmackDown brand. He's been on Raw Lot. Kind of on the periphery here on the fourth, number four side is Trick Williams. I think from an entertainer, Stan Borat, Pointe Karr's Mac, person, it's Trick Williams in there as well.

42:54 But the three dominant guys that could really care the company be your next scene of a T-son orn and we always tend to point to this. Or I guess you could even say your next reigns, Rollins and Ambrose for the next wave of top stars is Oba Braun and Jacob Fattu to me. Do you see those same T-leaves, Dr. Trey? If you do, does this have you excited for the future for the men's division of WWE? What are your thoughts here, or Oba Braun and Fattu being the ones that could care the torch for some time and roll us in entertainment? Yeah. When you were kind of mentioned earlier, I did have Trick in the mix because you always got to have that over Karr's Madagascar. And Trick's not as, and the amazing thing is we talk about Trick almost like he's an afterthought.

43:35 Well, this is a guy who's, you know, 6'4, 250 and chiseled. I mean, any other time of, any other time we be talking about him is like as the top breakout guy, but it's just that he's in there with like three kind of freaks of nature with Jacob Oba and Braun Breaker. So it does give me, when you're mentioning, I was thinking of the shield, thinking of Ambrose, Rollins and, and, and Reigns. And I remember us doing a four way talk about where those three guys were going to be in a decade. And then I even, that time I threw a break wide into the mix. So I thought, break was kind of a very charismatic guy that I didn't know where to go.

44:15 You go back to Sino Orden, Batissa, you got to throw a Brock into the mix because Brock wasn't that far ahead of them really coming out of OVW. So there is these like weird quartets we get every decade or so that the company kind of goes, yep, these are our pillars that we're going to build the next decade off of. And typically when they get classes like this, they don't miss. So I think those four are really the pillars that you can build the next decade out of. Yeah, it's cool. It's exciting. You could kind of see where things are going right now. I think the only thing that will eventually hold this back potentially is the current crop. The Reigns, Rollins, punks of the world, the Cody Rhodes, Gunther's, like they're not ready to kind of give up the mantle right now.

45:03 And these three to four guys really need to take it. But you're seeing a wave where they're developing new talent. Talent that's on the rise here. And what's exciting from the WWE standpoints that Oba Braun and Trick Williams are all WWE products. These are guys that started in the PC. They were signed. Some of them in the NIL stuff. I think maybe all three of the NIL stuff. And then had no wrestling background previously, even though Braun Breaker comes from the Steiner family, they were not professional wrestlers beforehand, developed by WWE and they've been successful. They are one of the small few that are when it comes to the non-restler standpoint that have been successful because there's been plenty of folks who have not made it that did not have wrestling backgrounds previously and came from NIL deals or worked in the WWE PC.

45:51 So I think that's pretty cool from a WWE standpoint to see that they can develop their own homegrown stars and they are able to do it in a relatively short amount of time. Like Braun Breaker, I think maybe five years, Oba Femi, she's two to three years, Trick Williams. He's been like five years, he was on that launch of NXT 2.0. Fought 2 is the only one that's really from the outside, right? I mean, he worked in D's. He was an MLW World Champion and he's just kind of taken to the way that WWE does things. And the crowd loves him, the WWE Creative Loves him and it's exciting. And Oba Braun fought to match today, I think would be kind of a dream match in a way. So the more that these guys continue to positively go in their career, the more likely that we see some of these dream matches come to fruition.

46:39 And it's healthy, it's a healthy thing for WWE to see these guys up on the up and up in roller-sale entertainment. Switching over to the AW side of things after trade, they obviously have a lot of folks that are some homegrown stars or folks that they've brought into their company that have developed very well, like the 8th current AW World Champion, Darby Allen, the current challenger for that championship at Double or Nothing, MJF. One that seems to be on a slow burn right now is the current TNT champion, Kevin Knight, who had a background over in New Japan Pro Wrestling Prior to coming to AEW. Where do you think this slow burn push is going, Dr. Trey? Because I think they're trying really hard. I like Kevin Knight a lot. I think he is a phenomenal in-ring worker.

47:20 I like the tag team he has with Jet Speed. His microphone work, I think needs a little bit of work, but he has a ton of charisma. Character's certainly there. I think he's getting closer and closer to being coming more of like this cocky arrogant heel at some point. I just foresee him turning on speedball here sooner rather than later. But it's been like this slow burn and I'm not necessarily sure if the audience, while they respect and appreciate it and admire his in-ring work, is fully on board with him yet as a potential top star. I think AEW wants to make him top star. There's certainly testing those waters, but I'm not sure if the connection is there quite yet. Similar to what we're seeing in WWE with the likes of Oba Family Braun Breaker, Jacob Fattu, and Trick Williams as we just discuss, what are your thoughts?

48:04 Where is this slow burn push going for Kevin Knight? It reminds me of the same conversation we had about nine months ago about Kyle Fletcher. Like, he has all the tools. Just needs a little more seasoning. Like I can see Kevin Knight, the way you portrayed him as being like this cocky, and he could be their answer to Trick Williams. Just, he has the in-ring charisma of Javan Evans. He just needs a little bit more seasoning on Mike's skills. But he has what you want. He has all the tools. It's just about putting it all together. And like I said, it's just kind of the conversation we had about Kyle Fletcher last year, where I was like, yeah, in rework, fantastic, persona, fantastic.

48:47 Knees a little work on the mic. Knees a little work on the seasoning there. And maybe that might be the Achilles of AEW is like they don't outside of MJF, and Samoa Joe mocks to a degree. Not a ton of great promo guys in AEW. But the more repetition you get, and then having, you know, having, obviously having Jericho back in the mix while. But that's kind of where I always feel like they're lacking a little bit just on their promo skills. But, no, I think Kevin Knight, you know, he's a little bit smaller than maybe I'd like to build, but that's an AEW thing.

49:27 I mean, hell, our AEW world champion right now, my 19 year old outweighs him. Actually, my 19 year old is bigger than Darby Allen. So, I mean, my son, my 19 year old, six foot one, 185 pounds by nature, that's bigger than Darby Allen. So I think for what AEW does, he's the right fit. I don't know how successful that a Kevin Knight would be in a WWE system, where they still value 6-1 to 20, a little bit more than AEW. I don't think Kevin Knight would be a crazy successful in WWE. I don't think he's a main event level talent in WWE.

50:09 I don't think he's a world champion in WWE. I think he could be someone that could, you know, spend a little bit of time in NXT. I mean, WWE, by the way, was looking to sign him. He was talking to them in AEW. I think he would be, have a run as NXT champion. And then getting him to the main roster, it would be concerning if he would follow the likes of, say, Carmelo Anthony. Or excuse me, Carmelo Hayes, who was one of the best in-ring guys in NXT in the last 10 years. Had high hopes for Carmelo Hayes, was drafted in the first round. It did not play in well. Like, that's where I think I could see him go, Dr. Trey, similar to Carmelo Hayes in WWE. >> Yeah, and not to mention, like a lot of the guys we love, Carmelo Hayes, Ilya Draganov.

50:49 A lot of these guys who are maybe a little bit on the small side, they kind of get lost in the shuffle on the main roster. When you're competing with the OBAs, the Brock, the Romans, the Gunthers. Just the guys who just have sheer size differential. Like, I think the main roster does play to size a little bit more than maybe NXT does or AEW does. So, yeah, like if they had signed him, yeah, he would have been in the same Javon Evans level. We're like, yeah, he could be a top guy in NXT. He could get featured on the main roster. But I don't know, you just have to be super special to be undersized in the World Champion. >> WWE, it's what, punk and Rey Mysterio and Eddie.

51:30 >> Day and a brine. >> Day and a brine, too. >> Yeah, you got to be just next level to overcome those obstacles to actually get a run as champion in WWE. >> Yeah, so there we go, a lot of the young guys both in WWE and AEW that are getting pretty decent pushes right now. We'll see where all of that pans out now in the next six to 12 months for both companies. Exciting month here for professional wrestling next weekend is AEW double or nothing weekend. It's WWE Saturday night's main event in two weeks. It's WWE clash in Paris. So lots of special events, pay per views, PLEs all going on here in the month of May. They really like to load things up during Memorial Day month when it comes here in the United States.

52:15 With that said, let's get a couple plugs and sponsors out of the way before we close up shop here on episode number 848 of the Sto Real Tho. A show you can download the show at patreon.com/srtupodcast. And the Sto Real Tho show feed on Apple's Spotify review download this podcast. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. You can follow us individually on extra myself at SRTU Jeff. And for Dr. Trey Franklin at the Dr. Trey. And of course, don't forget to follow the show on X at SRTU podcast. With that being said, what is going on in the wonderful world of Dr. Ray Franklin this week? >> Well, like Jeff said, you can follow me on X at the Dr. Trey. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook, Dr. Trey Franklin. When you're on Facebook, be sure to check out Rockets Eat, Championship Wrestling.

52:58 Like I mentioned last week, we're on the fallout from WrestlingCon 9. Our first show back is coming up this Saturday. So be sure to go to the YouTube page, youtube.com/rockets Eat, Championship Wrestling, where you can go watch all the highlights, check out other performances. But most importantly, folks, get out there and check out your local independent wrestling shows. Where you two can find a guy who's 5'6'150 pounds, who might be a world champion someday, or might be Kevin Knight, who knows? You just never know. Or could be Speedball Mike Bailey. He'll lose like Scott Steiner with no shoes. I don't know. It's weird. >> And when you say, go ahead, check out your local generation. >> And when you say Scott Steiner, you mean like 1991, Scott Steiner?

53:40 >> Yes, 1991, Mullet Scott Steiner, yes. >> Yes, of course, of course. Yeah, you can never get those two guys in the room and figure out who's who. Scott Steiner, Speedball Mike Bailey. With that said, let's close up shop on this week's edition of SRTU. We will be back next week on May the 21st, right? Episode number 849. We will preview and predict everything that's going on Saturday Night's main event. And of course, AW, Dollar, Nothing. So until next week, thank you for making us part of your week. Thank you for downloading. Spread the word about SRTU. Until then, for Dopschray Franklin, I am Jeff Pek. This has been The Still Relo Show.