The Rock takes Cody Rhodes' spot at WrestleMania 40 | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #730 – 2/8/24

0:00 It's still welcome, everybody. Welcome to this week's edition is Surreal That show episode number seven hundred and thirty for February eighth, twenty twenty four. This year, NFC vengis a recap and review editions of as R Gee You. I am one half of the show. I am Jeff Peck, joined every single week on looking at by my co host One Way, Doctor Tray Franklin, Doctor Trey. They're telling us to play the long game here, my friend, trust the process, play the long game, believe in the higher you know, all those all those great analogies that we used to hear from, like you know, you're rebuilding sports Ranisis, we're hearing from bro Wrestling.

0:59 So yeah, Jeff, I'm gonna trust the process and keep getting high draft picks and maybe one of the whole fan out That's what I'm going with. So let's get right into it here. I don't really have to recap everything that's been going on for the most part because it's been nearly a week later. This episode is dropping Thursday morning, well ahead of the press conference that is set to air Thursday night on Peacock, which is tuning into Like Mussy television now, so props at we for a press event turning into mussy television. But we are in a very strange time period in professional wrestling right now, where on Friday Night, it's funny because go back a month ago, Day one of twenty twenty four, extremely excited Rock and Roman reigns.

1:49 Months prior, Rock is on College Game Day or he's on ESPN and Pat McAfee show. He's talking about how he was supposed to face Roman Rains the restume of thirty nine, and then he makes a surprise appearance with Pat McAfee on SmackDown that night. Everybody it's like, oh, this is exciting. Rock and Roman reigns. Rock and Roman reigns well, it appears we finally get it, and fans are pissed. Why because the Royal rumble happened. Cody Rhodes won. Cody Rhodes pointed at Roman reigns. The whole thing we've been behind is to finish your story, Cody, and the story is to go through Roman reigns. Well. On Friday Night SmackDown, we perceive that he stepped out of the way, paused his story, said the plan was still to go after Roman reigns. At some point the plan was still to go after the WA Championship, but stepped aside to give that shot at WrestleMania to the Rock, and then the Internet blew up, Doctor Trey. Leave it to a guy from AW to say something that blows up the internet now, just kidding. Yeah, uh, I still have not completely wrapped my head around Friday Night because it makes the way they set it up makes zero sense, which is so why I totally understood the internet being upset. But

3:20 yeah, at the same time, you and I sat here a couple of weeks ago and said, what is the bigger money making match, the biggest draw, what would get people to buy into Peacock? And the answer is Rock versus Roman ratings. So I totally get why the hardcore fan base is upset because you work your ass off to win the royld Rumble, to get a match to Maine event WrestleMania, and you just let it go and don't really explain why. So I, for the first time, probably in the Triple h tenure, we have something booked that does it make sense that doesn't have tie ins, like if Cody Roads had come out and said I'm giving my shot to Randy Orton, I would have been like, okay, cool, they're friends legacy like Randy helped bring Cody up. There's really not a Rock Cody Rock Dusty tight connection really, So it's it's confusing. But on paper, if you just said, hey, at WrestleMania, what match would draw more people to to Peacock Rock versus Roman would win? That would win that hands down. Yeah. And and what's funny about this entire thing is I am a huge fan of the Rock. The Rock is probably my favorite wrestler of all time. Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on.

4:47 How many of the Rocks product lines have you bought into because of the Rock, like the under armour and all that stuff, the under armour, the VODK or the tequila like nony Funny enough, I have not. I've not ever bought into any of that stuff. I don't need more under armor clothes, and I've got more tequila up above my eyebrows that I still have to get to. Not as big of a drinker as I used to be. Plenty of patrons sitting here in my casa. As one may say, but I do really want to try chamana, I must say. But I'm a huge fan of the Rock. Things that I have invested in is a ton of merchandise WWE related merchandise of the Rock. I own the T shirt stuff like that. The real last time I went to wrestling shows that I really wanted to, like go to was Survivor Series two thousand and eleven, two thousand and twelve. I think it was the one in MSG where Cmpunk won the title and started as Ran. I think those twenty eleven and we're retaged with scene against the Awesome Truth, which is now since reunited, So maybe Rock is actually teaming with Sina for another rematch there against Awesome Truth, who's reunited at wrestmting. That's what this is all leading to. And then Wrestlemaning twenty nine, which I've talked about at great length, Like my goal was to always go to a Wrestleman in my life bucket list item I did it, loved it. Rock was in the main event of that match against John Cena, lost and was basically his last full time wrestling match, unless

6:23 you're counting the match that he had with Eric Rowan at Wrestleman thirty one that was impromptu, but nonetheless like a huge fan of the rock, like my favorite of all time promos in ring stuff, loved the Rock. So when I knew he was coming back, I was like super excited, super stoked. Going back to September October the Day one episodes, like if you go back and listen to those podcasts, there is legit ex signment for me and Doctor Trey when it comes to Cody Rhodes. I'm not the biggest Cody Rhodes fanom all time. His character to me is the next you know, path of Sina rains to Cody, like it appears Cody is going to become the face of w w W, and I like Cody a lot. He's really won me over. You go back to those episodes when aw was launching, I did not have nice things to say about Cody Rhodes because the amount of times that he was like poking at w w W when awhid not launched, had a single show yet I think I use the words of like he came off like a used car salesman, which I've heard people say in the past about him. But he has really won me over as time has gone on, So you would think when this moment happened on SmackDown, I would be all for the Rock coming out challenging Roman Reigns, and when he came out, I was, and then the realization hit me, like holy crap, Like this does not make any sense at all. And a week ago when we did the podcast, we even discussed if they went down to the Rock

7:55 Roman Reigns, you know, going to Cody and Seth Rollins, like how they got to get there, because it's not going to make sense, and so far in less than a week's time pre media event on Thursday night in Las Vegas, it doesn't make sense. And I think that's the biggest problem in this all, where if Cody didn't lose to Rome in the way he did last year, if Cody didn't win the Rumble like he did this year and point to Roman Reigns, then Rock interjecting himself into this storyline would make sense. But they went the way that they went, even with planting seeds throughout this last month and people being excited and completely have I don't want to say they've fucked it up because we don't know how this fully plays out yet and WWE seems to think like telling their fan base, I mean Cody Road is literally twitting it out. Trust me, I don't know how this is going to play out, but from what I know in less than a week's time, the way that it has played out is not good booking. Fans want to see Cody cash in. They want to see him finish his story.

9:13 I'm a fan who's invested. I want to see him finish his story. It makes a ton of sense. The Rock and Roman Reigns doesn't need a title. The Rock and Roman Reigns can take place at another time. You've already gotten us this far to believe that we were going to get Cody Roman too, and the likelihood of him finally overcoming that and winning the WE Championship seems very very possible. And then they did what they did on Friday, Doctor Trey And for the biggest rock fan that there is, for someone who wants to see him wrestle and be a regular participant in w when he's available and can do it, boy, oh boy, I don't want to see him play out like this like it has so far. Yeah, Like part of it is the storyline, and art of it is the real life stuff for me, Like the storyline. You know you you watch these two rumbles, and you watch and for us like you and I watching, you know, and you know, watching Bailey win and what a moment it was for her. And even though she's a heel quote unquote heel character at the time, you're like, oh, this would be really good. Plus it's great for her career because it's like the one thing on her list she hadn't done yet, and all these other things like that we talked about and we've spent the last fifteen twenty years, twenty five years, we see going back to Sean Michaels, you know, really when they started doing the whole like the winner of the Rumble, you know, gets the shot at WrestleMania.

10:37 Like we've been trained that winning the Rumble is so very important, how life changing it is, and what an opportunity is. And you and I, like, you know, for some of us, you know, one of the best memories we have is the night that you know, Eddie Guerrero and Chris bin Wall won their championships, but that was tied into what happened at the Rumble, Like all these things we have watched happen to have somebody step aside and give that opportunity to somebody else is mind blowing, and you can look at it one of two ways. It's almost like Cody would did it, you know, character wise, Cody did it because you know The Rock asked him? Or is Cody scared or is Cody so cocky that he just knows he's gonna get another shot at it, So none of those things really tie in to make that character look good. And then you get all this stuff from you know, The Rock joining TKO's board of directors and getting the rights to use the name The Rock. You know that he's had to pay for license for years from WWE, and you know the the thirty million dollars stock options he got, and then all of a sudden, now he's thrust into the main event of wrestling. Me Like, all those things come together for those diehard wrestling fans, and it's understandable why everybody's so upset. You know, if I was here a fancy booking in my head and like, okay, you know what they you know they could have done. Has had Cody win the Rumble, but have Randy win the title, and you could have done Cody and Randy and we would all be like, oh, that

12:09 would be really good. You still could have done Rock and Rollman and Seth and Gunther and had a really good WrestleMania car of that, or Seth and Drew back or whatever you want to do and still have a really great WrestleMania car to not have everybody beat this upset. So it's confusing. I I think Triple H and creative WB I have earned my uh faith so to speak, that it will all play out and work well between now and WrestleMania. But yeah, the initial reaction is just like WTF, Like what the what?

12:50 What they have? Guys, like this makes zero sense at all based on what the Cody character has had. You and I. When Cody lost to WrestleMania, we all said it's good for his aracter because now he has to overcome obstacles to get back to the rematch. He overcame all these obstacles and they gave the rematch up or right now. It just doesn't make sense for the Cody character right now. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. It doesn't make sense. What would have made sense if you wanted Rock Roman for the title would have been Rock making an appearance at the Rumble, winning the Rumble and going from there for their match, and would people have been up in arms still, probably not as bad. I think they would have saved face, and I think fans would have been excited. I'm kind of jaded right now based on all the reactions that fans are having, But let us not forget that the live crowd in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday night was like super excited. I think that's because they were caught off guard, probably didn't think that they would see the Rock live. The fans day one, that reaction was phenomenal and what they were looking for. The execut cusian here of all of this just does not make sense. And doctor Trey made mention of like how we got there, And there is a lot of conflicting reports right now. There are reports out there that once Punk went down with injury, once Lesner went out because of all the allegations that are taking place with John Lennon and I sits like man and and Brock Lesler's name allegedly you know,

14:24 being alluded to in the lawsuit, that Rock came in and felt that he needed to save WrestleMania. There was also reports out there that Rock threw his political power TKO Board of directors or figureheads basically super ceded what creative wanted to do and supplemented Rock into the storyline and moved Cody out of it and Cody was replaced. There are reports out there that people are starting to think that this is all one big storyline and this is what w wanted to have happened there. You know, you've got Brian Gerertz, who is a former w WE creat writer, a right hand man for the Rock, who is now going to be involved with the creative process now that Rock is involved until WrestleMania, that is saying like basically playing the long game. Rock came out with a video on Instagram on Wednesday night, landing in Las Vegas, mentioning the long game. Like I said before, Cody Road saying trust me, it's Monday Night's Raw. They did not come out and say Cody did not come out and say he is picking Seth Rollins. He made you believe it he would be picking Seth Rollins on Monday's Raw. But maybe something changing creative.

15:33 The whole thing is completely cloudy right now, and if the execution of this solves itself soon, maybe they can save face. But I would say that while they've created a buzz. I don't think it's the buzz that you tend to want. I don't think Rock came back to wrestling to wrestle Roman Reigns to get booed, to be called a hypocrite for his for him to be like using alleged political power, for his daughter who works in NXT, to have to shut down her ex account because people are giving her death threats, which is just absurd for a wrestling storyline where Rocky sucks Chance are being said on WE television for the first time in like twenty five years, and according to Wrussell votes on X that threw off people behind the scenes that they did not expect Rocky sucks chance. I don't think Rock stopped his busy schedule came back to WW to cash in on some alleged stock bonus that's maybe like thirty million dollars if he performs for WW and wrestles to have all this bad publicity.

16:52 And I know that there's a figure speech out there to doctor Trey that you know, any publicity is good publicity. And I believe it's Eric Bishop who always has said controversy creates cash. But I don't know sitting here today February eighth, twenty twenty four, that this is all the right controversy and publicity that you want for the company heading into their biggest show of the year. We've made up so much ground in recent years and re one faith that was lost for a very long time in your wrestling product, regained it and have had some of the best business in years potentially. Ever recently, I don't think that they wanted to all come crashing down in like six days time.

17:33 Yeah, sometimes I think they forget how passionate wrestling fans are. It's like, you know, I was thinking as you were talking about, like, you know, maybe they should have had the Rock win the Rumble and didn't that be I was like that if they thought of when Batista won the Rumble, But the fans wanted Daniel Bryant and it changed wrestle media plans and everything else. And you know, I've heard the different things like, hey, this is a setup to actually you know, get Cody on that Daniel Bryant level, a fan fervor just you know, you know, anticipating the eventual rematch even more. You know, all these different things, and You're right, like, to me, if if you had set this up right, you know, if let's say Cody wins the Rumble and then Solo and Jimmy just come out annihilate him, and the Rock makes the same and then you're like, ooh, Rock, Roman, there you go. And then Cody has to kind of rehab for a little bit and Rock gets his match because you don't know if they don't know if Cody's gonna be released in time, and Cody ends up in something else, like we could have we could have worked with that, you know, or something. You know, there are ways of doing it that would have made it work where you're not getting those chants. And the crazy thing enough was you know, SmackDown's in Birmingham.

18:44 I'm in Memphis, and I'm hearing all these reports, like I have friends of my taking pictures with the Rock outside the area, and I'm like, oh my god, this is gonna be interesting to see how this goes. And it's been one of the craziest weeks storyline wise, behind the scenes wise, everything else, in quite a long time. And it all leads to Philadelphia, where Rock and Roman stood in the ring together at the Royal Rumble a few years back, and got booed out of the building, and unless they changed, unless they fix something here and get the fans back on their side, that match might get equal amount of booze for both guys in Philadelphia, because we know what a Philadelphia crowd is like if they're not happy with the storyline for those matches. I mean, I saw people saying that this could be like like John Cena walking into One night Stand, and I'm like, I don't think it'll be that level, but I mean it could be one of those things where people just like, you know, like Rock Roman at the WrestleMania I was at New or Rock and Brock Roman and Brock at the Wrestleman of New Orleans I was at where half the arena laughed before the main events. So it's really really imperative on them for this press conference in this episode of Frederick's SmackDown to go really well for them to hopefully alter this this avalanche of negative emotion coming down upon them when they've had so much positive press for the last two years. As far as the in ring product,

20:14 in the storyline, product goes, you know, Vince John Laurin and is everybody else aside? So Doctor Trey. One of the things that we've we've talked about here, right like, obviously we're trying to think of long game, trust, the process, blah blah blah, right, and we want to think about solutions. One of the things that we've heard in reports and one of the things that we've talked about here as a potential here on the show is that Roman would defend the title against both Cody Roads and The Rock in both nights at WrestleMania. I think that that's a very possible destination in this all is that say, night one it's Rock and Roman, and Night two Cody Roads face is the winner. Do you think that that is a very real possibility right now? Was the plan all along? I just have this feeling that maybe by next week you and I know what the solution is. And I think the plan of which we've discussed. I don't remember if it was like for last year's wrestuming or this upcoming one, but we've talked about in the show we could see a scenario where Roman is facing Cody one night, Roman's facing Rock the next night. Yeah, it was last year, and I talked about last year leading the last year's because that Rock with Roman match had been rumored for so long. My only issue with it now is, here's a scenario. Let's say Rock and Roman go at it on Night one and Roman wins, but it's a twenty minute match, twenty

21:45 five minute match, and then Cody wins Night two. Now there's a cloud over it. If you're a wrestling fan, say, well, the only reason Cody won is because Roman head with then the belt back to back nights. So are you really getting that clan when of Cody fishing story or is there always gonna be like an asterisk next to it? In some people's eyes, I think if, when, when, and if they pull the trigger on Cody beating Roman, you want it to be clean. You wanted to be no doubt, because that shit, that's almost like the passing of the torch, so to speak, from the face of the current generation to the face of the next generation. So I don't know if I'm not born with it like to me right now, they've almost put themselves into a weird position where you can't really pull the trigger on Cody and Roman until SummerSlam, and even then, is it really finishing the story if it's at Summer Slam I'm not at a WrestleMania, so I don't know what they can do to really appease everybody right now, because every scenario right now is still a yeah but types of situation, because the whole point of the Rubble is to face the champion that you want to face at WrestleMania. And I mean, hell, the the new two K twenty four games coming out here right in a couple of weeks actually, I think it comes out like late March, right before wrestlemedia. The whole point of that is the whole thing is finish your story.

23:11 So I don't really know how they properly finish the story to make everybody happy right now, considering what they've done since Royal Roambo. Yeah, it's all very strange, very all convoluted. We'll obviously, I would imagine this picture is a little bit more clear a week from around when we sit down and do the podcast than it is presently. Maybe it's a little bit more clearer tonight d during the media event, depending on when folks who are listening to this Thursday night. Maybe at this point you know what's happened at the media event, and knowing what happened on SmackDown by the time you listen to this podcast and you listen to us as we try to figure this all out pre all of those situations taking place. But it's a very interesting situation.

23:56 I know there's been scenarios out there that it would be Rock and Roman, Seth and Cody. Cody wins he faces Roman at Summerslamp for a unification match, and when I heard that, I was, I like threw up in my mouth, like, we don't need we don't need another unification match. Been there, done it. I hate it as it is. I hate that the WE Championship is not the Sometimes it's referred to the W Championship. Sometimes it's referred to the Universal Championship. Sometimes it's the undisputed W Universal Championship. It's just like, I'm just tired of it. It just it stopped doing titled unification matches unless you're permanently retiring a championship. Other than that doesn't make sense. So I just I have no idea where things are going right now. So I think just to tie this all up, Doctor Trey, because I know a lot of people wanted to hear our thoughts on this.

24:47 I saw emails I got I got stuff on Twitter that I saw that people wanted to hear what we had to say about it. So what is the best outcome in this all? Is the best outcome Rock Roman? Just excuse me? Cody versus Roman takes place. Rock doesn't wrestle at wrestlming he forty, Maybe he serves as the guest host. Maybe he serves as the special guest referee for that match. What is what is the solution that you want to see play out that you think makes fans happy? Because I can't believe it here we are five weeks later, because five weeks ago you and I were and we are saying this in our responses, like Rock and Roman is a dream match, but the way that they have executed so far is extremely poor, and we would rather see a Cody Roman match. So what what makes the fans happy? Because that's what WW has to do, is they have to serve their fan base, especially for the biggest show of the year.

25:41 So as a Restlue fan, what I would do is I would have, you know, do the press conference and how's the match? Then either on SmackDown this like either this Friar the one of the one of the SmackDown's coming up, and now it's which match I'm getting? Okay, Okay, I got you. I'm sorry. And as Roman and Rock is the match for WrestleMania, and Cody hasn't made a choice, you do SmackDown or you do a SmackDown either this Friday or next Friday where the Bloodline jumps Rock beats him down. John Cena makes the safe right Cody, They say Rock can't wrestle or Rocks you know what Rock and Sina wants Solo and Jimmy says they're the ones attack. Then Cody gets the shot at Roman, and so you get Rock Sena against Solo and Jimmy Cody versus Roman, and then you can do Seth versus Drew versus Sammy on the Rock side. So but you don't do Jimmy versus Jay and Mania. Now, unfortunately, I think you have to You have to pass on, are you? Or you do Rock and Solo? I don't like to me, the path has got to be you got to get back to Cody and Roman if you want to make the fans happy, unless you do something so out of left field that you and I who have been watching wrestling for forty is almost seventy years combined. If you're on watching wrestling, that something so left fielding you and I don't see it coming because right now you and I have literally probably fancy booked every angle we could think of in the last twenty minutes trying to figure out the way to

27:11 get to this. But unless you do something so dramatically that makes the fans want this match so bad, and maybe it's we go back to the old Jeff Peck idea of you know, a couple of years ago where Roman starts insulting Rock's mom, you know, there was something like that, like I don't I don't really know. I always thought that that would hit I thought that would be a really good segment if they did that, or Roman spears Ava, you know, or something so like heinous that we want Rock to get revenge on the Roman for because right now it's just this is just a sorry for my language, it's a dick measuring contest between Rock and Roman. Yeah, that's what's boiling down to who's the head of the table. Mine's bigger than yours. Like there, you go back and forth, like it's all ego. You have to somehow make this personal for us to really care, because right now we have no events been in this story other than just dreammatch on paper. You go back to see it Rock, they've made it personal. They may they You go back to some of those promos and see it was cut on the Rock and you go back to one about I don't have to wear my promo on my wrist, and you can see Rock getting pissed off in the ring, and we were like, oh, that looks real right now. There's no intensity, there's nothing, there's no there's no personal animosity until your Rock and almost for us the care. You have to make something personal for us, the care. Otherwise the fans are gonna be they're gonna treat this like they did that when they announced Batista to Orton for wrestled Bania after Rumble, and the fans forced Daniel Bryant into that spot and he had the rustall twice to make it to make it worthwhile for everybody, like it took a lot for the fans to give they wanted right now,

28:44 like you got to make people care that the Rock is in dispatching right now, nobody gives a crack. Yeah, and that's shocking because this is something I think, at least me as a wrestling man, I could speak on my own behalf I've been wanting to see for two three years now would be this match ever since Roman went heel and it's been on this bloodline run. I always felt like that this was part of the endgame for the entire thing was this. You're not saying I'm the head of the table. I put food on my family's table. I'm the tribal chief of my family, knowing that the Rock is part of the family. So we've been waiting for this basically ever since he turned heel nearly four years ago now and in the very very very short term of where they started to hit into fourth gear to make this a reality. It has been executed very poorly. There's just like so many things. It's like, why didn't you just have Rock performing the Rumble as a surprise entrant if you're going to do that, And that was my thing the entire time, ever since they teased it on that day. One edition is how do we get there? Because you have the Rumble coming up?

29:52 How do we get there? And how we're getting there right now is very discombobulated and confusing, and I hope that the WWE Creative Team and the parts involved untwine this entire ball of yarn so that it makes sense for wrestling fans a week from now, because if it doesn't, this could be bad. I don't want to get to a situation right now where it's Rock Roman in Philadelphia Wrestlemanting forty one of the main events and it's just a boofest, because that is not fun as a fan at home, that's not fun for people in the stadium, and it makes for a memorable moment in WrestleMania for all the bad things. If it wasn't for the seth ROMs cash in at Wrestlemanta thirty one, I think a lot of people would look back at that Brock Lesnar Roman reigns match as something they did not want to have happened, and happened. Doctor Trey brings up Roman versus Brock at Wrestlemanta thirty four because he was there. That is a main event that is quickly forgotten and forgettable, and for all the right reasons, because it was something fans did not want to see at that time and was being pushed down our throats by w Creative and that's what this feels like again, and it's just sad because five weeks ago, I think you had every nearly every other wrestling fan in on this. It's I think the easiest thing would have been that Rocks that have Shed should have said yes to Restumting thirty nine and prevented this entire thing from

31:26 the get go. You would have never had this story of the follow up story of Cody versus Roman, or if they knew that Roman was available to do this show, then you should have ran with Cody and Roman rematch at SummerSlam or something, because this is just not not good, not a good scenario. But again, I'm very intrigued to see what happens at the media event Thursday night. So we've spent well over a half hour on this, but it is, without a doubt the biggest story in professional wrestling right now. The direction of this Rock Roman Reigns, Cody road Stuff for Restumting forty because a revolt has ensued and it's a very few times Refreshion and wrestling that we see this happen. Everybody's pointing to Daniel Bryan in the S movement. This is eerily reminiscent to it, and We'll see. We'll see where this goes from here. Switching gears but keeping withe. The latest in regards to the allegations against vincick Man and John Lennoniitis, John Larniitis has come out and said that he is a victim in its entire thing, basically confirming that the allegations against vincik Man is true, turning on vincick Man in the process, and also came out earlier to On Wednesday, there was a report out there from Vice News that confirmed so. Back in twenty sixteen, former WE superstar and unfortunately no longer with US, Ashley Masso, winner of the Devissearch contest.

32:55 In twenty sixteen, she alleged that she was drugged and assaulted by members of the US Armed Forces Journey W tour Kuwait, as well as abuse at the hands of former W chairman vincic Man. WW denied any knowledge of her claims. Fallen Masorrow's suicide in twenty nineteen, Vice reported that it was looked into by a naval internal investigations group. John Laronitis, attorney, commented on the story and said that WW executives in most upper level management knew about Ashley Massero's claim despite company denials of said knowledge. So this is starting to unravel.

33:37 Either have been reports out there late as we go into recording this week's edition in the show, saying that the internal reaction to the publication of Vice Ashley Massaro story is armageddon. So you've got Larenidis turning on Vince saying he's a victim. You've got Larenidis confirming that W Upper management knew that one of their employee is one of their superstars, was allegedly sexually assaulted by members of the US Armed Forces. I think what it was said is that she was being treated for dehydration and a doctor came in, injected her with a paralyzing drug and sexually assaulted her while someone was at the door guarding it. I mean, just reprehensible and disgusting stuff that's being discussed here until I believe a W employee like knocked on the door, came in and like carried Ashton Massaro out of the room, is what I had read. I mean, this entire story continues to be just really really bad, and you hope it's not true, and if it is true, then everybody involved needs to pay for this entire thing, Doctor Trey. But the latest chapter in this all is that Laroniitis is turning his back on Vince or however you want to say this turning the tables on Vince. I guess I should say, because who cares if there's any type of loyalty really when it comes to these types of alleytions, and he is claiming a victim of this entire thing and confirming the allegations to be true. This is going to rock threat the WWE world, the

35:07 professional wrestling world in twenty twenty four, Doctor Trey. Yeah, it's I mean, it wasn't shortly thereafter that they kind of stopped doing the in person visits for the troops also, they started doing the taped shows as well, So that was kind of when I heard this story, I was like, oh, that kind of all makes sense now, and it's heartbreaking. On some of that was because Ashley Massara was one of my favorite defense from that timeline, and you know, her whole world just kind of fell apart after that because it wasn't there much longer after that before she was released, and then everything else piled up, and it is it's utterly reprehensible, Like this is one of those things where like, you know, when you cover up stuff like this, that just shows that money and greed is more important than somebody's well being, in somebody's mental health, and that's not what anybody in any kind of corporate setting wants out there. This is what I didn't get a chance to bring this up last week. But one of the side stories of all this stuff with Vince is that, you know, there's a lot of people in w W there hoping that this allows Stephanie to come back, because she was really good for the company when Vince you know, stepped away and retired. That she was you know, her and Hunter are together brought a lot of good to w W, and it was it was ironic that right after Vince made his power play, Stephanie left again. So it's just, you know, and we've always heard these other stories, like you know, the the Eve Torres rumors, things like that that were all tied into

36:39 all stuff. On one level, I'm hoping the damn breaks and everything comes out. And you know, if if even one of these stories about Vince is true and his legacy is ruined, God, I hope it's true. I mean, for if any of these things are true, that the man needs to be just completely just you know, erased from history books, so to speak, because they're just just evil, evil things. And for a lot of wrestling fans, and it's also true in like anything, like if you're a fan of the company or you're a fan of somebody, you kind of you almost don't want to know. But at this point, especially with ashabsorrow and knowing that this kind of what led to her, you know her her suicide is just something that you can't come back from and nor should you ever come back from it. So at this point, I just want like let all the dirty laundry out, just let it all out and then you know, try to rebuild from that. Yeah, the entire thing is just disgusting. And yeah, that's the latest update on the allegations. I mean, it is what it is at this point. And if they're all deemed to be true, hopefully every pays for all of their sins in this entire thing. Yes, I have to try. I don't know if you heard, did is John lordize a hymn and nick and bring his mom still together?

38:01 I believe so? Yes, So they're they're working through all this stuff. So, like the I guess the quote unquote playing the victim card is working for John Laura and I, which I just I don't get all that stuff. Like it to me is like, I know, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes with his marriage honestly, right, yes, I know they released a statement the Belotwins, you know, not condoning its entire situation, So I can only imagine that behind the scenes, their personalizes is not in a good spot right now. Yeah, okay, I just I thought of that there day when I saw they put out a comment, but it was neither positive or negative towards their stepfather. So I was kind of curious as to if there had been a report coming out about that, because it's one of those weird situations where like, if your mom's staying with him, you have to love your mom and support him, but you also want to distance yourself from the company and also him. So it's it's a tight rope for them to walk as well, because right now they don't really have you know, they're they're back to using their real names. They're no longer the Bellotwins. They're not they're not able to use that branding. So for people like that for them, they have to kind of walk that weird line where they can support their mom but then distance themselves from their step on the Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those situations where you know, when people that you love do discussing things, it's a very hard

39:32 thing to wrap your head around. So I can only imagine what they're dealing with in their personal lives handling this. And we don't know what's going on with John Larniis and his wife who is the mother of Nicky and Bribella, and how they're all handling that. I can't imagine it's very happy times depending on how it's being discussed or what they what they say is the truth or what have you. So I I don't really want to like dig into what may be going on behind the scenes on stuff like that. Keeping with the same story here, Doctor Trey, it would appear that as of now, brock Lester's w W career may be over. And I think it's safe to say if all these allegations are true, it should be. But as it stands right now, do you think we have seen brock Lessner wrestle his last professional wrestling match period now? I still think this is one of these where they're hoping. I still think with the brock leasers, I mean, because the allegation is basically that you know, he had sex with somebody. Well, they're not saying that, they're saying that Vince had tried to Yes, it would be the way that it would be presented, would be trafficked to Brock lessener. But for me is that this is one of the things with with Brock's allegation is not as bad as the Vince stuff or even the Lord Knight of stuff two degrees. So it's like, all right, let's see how long this can before it blows over. Because I don't think there I

41:04 don't I don't think the backlash against Brock is as severe as against the other one. So I would say, you know, especially with with I mean, I don't I've seen I'm sure you've seen the pictures of Brock's daughter, the high school wrestler and powerlifter or whatever like. I could see a scenario where Brock gets back in the ring to kind of set the stage if she goes down the wrestling path as well. I would say by next year's wrestle media will start hair rumors that Brock might be coming in for WrestleMania forty one. Interesting times when it comes to his career. I guess it's all kind of a backseat driver when it comes to all the allegations. But it would appear him wrestling at Wrestling If forty at least in the short term is not happening, which was supposed to be according to reports he and Gunther, which is something that both Doctor tran I predicted and definitely wanted to see in the wy ring. But if his involvement is is deemed true in this these allegations, and of course he should not return to the World entertainment. Shocking news on Wednesday, doctor Trey Scott de Moore is out of TNA Wrestling. He has been fired as the president of TNA Wrestling. They're gonna go with Anthony Sacone, who has no previous wrestling experience. This is such a and I guess this call was made by whoever runs Anthem Sports Entertainment. I mean, TNA has had so much good fortune in the last couple of years, and especially in the last month, people have been very high on TNA for the first time in a very long time, and that is due to the passion and drive and direction by Scott Demore. What an awful decision this is,

42:35 I mean, like, what a morale killer, terrible decision by Anthem to fire Scott dea Moore as the president of TNA, guy who clearly loved those three letters and now an aw orwe should hopefully sign him right up, because Scott de Moore, from what I've seen everything that you read, is a fantastic wrestling executive in this lane escape that we cover. But what a shocking and dumb move today. Doctor Trey, Yeah, I saw that report and like literally I was like, this is the most puzzling thing I've seen happen. But I guess quote unquote behind the scenes in wrestling in quite a while, because I actually met Scott Tomore a couple of years ago at a show that I worked, and just a super nice guy, down to earth, like didn't matter if you were top of the car or on the car, just talk to everybody. But I mean he has reinvigorated TNA. I mean like for most folks, I don't think people new TENA Impact have even still been around a couple of years ago. It was just so I mean fourth tier like wrestling like glorified independent type stuff in a way, and you know, just you know, the word of mouth and people get over there talking about it, and the signings of Nick Nemo and you know those guys in Dana Brook and the Mustaphologies of the world like those were those are not easy signings to pull off. And you know it was a good you know, he was just had kind of things rolling a little bit so and to take out a guy who's reindiggering your product and who has not just a love for

44:08 your company, but a love for professional wrestling and replacing it with a guy who was the head of some media stuff to run a wrestling company is just kind of mind boggling. And you know there are rumors like the stuff with Jordan Grace at the Rumble that was a triple Ah just gott the more deal and TNA had to deal with Peacock to started putting some T and A plus stuff on Peacock as well. So it is kind of puzzling. Maybe this Anthony Sacone is the one who maybe negotiated the Peacock thing, and that's where Anton wants to go and get more eyes on their product. They think he might be a better fit for meteor ites, But it's just always mind puzzling or mind boggling when you take a guy who's running your company that's a wrestling guy and you put somebody in charge who's not a wrestling guy. We go back and listening Eric Bishaw talking about the times that they put non wrestling guys in terms of w CW and see how well that worked out for them.

44:59 Oh yeah, it basically killed the company. Every single time we have our first WRESTLEMANI forty card update. These are weekly things that we do heading into Wrestleman forty. So here's the first edition of it, Doctor Trey. We have one confirmed match which took place on Friday SmackDown. Eo Sky will defend the WE Women's Championship against Bailey who It nearly went the way I predicted Doctor Trey, that Bailey would overhear them in the locker room saying something and then would call them out on it. It nearly played the same way the Wrestlemanta twenty one angle happened with Batista turning on Triple H. Yeah, and you know you and I joked about on air and I was like, well, you're gonna go to the Triple eight. You're going to Batista raute, Okay, gotcha. But I did love the fact that she I was waiting for her to say. A friend of mine taught me Japanese and we called be like, oh, Sashia Banks every time in New Japan. Taught Bailey Japanese so she could hear there saying but she didn't throw that one in there.

45:53 But yeah, the fact that Bailey learned Japanese to find out what everybody's saying was great. So uh and and I thought the spot was really well done, you know. And by the end of it, you're like, oh, no, I'm on board with Bailey and EO at WrestleMania, and I'm excited to see these goings. And then you still have the Dakota Kai Tai and does she stay does she stay with you know, damage Control or whatever they're going to call themselves now, or does she side with Bailey and all this? So it'll be interesting see how it plays out, because you always don't walk it the sides, even out between now and WrestleMania. So uh, you know, Kuo said they pulled it off. Bailey's a baby face, which I think She's like she was a fantastic heel, but uh, happy baby, you know, happy baby, non none hugger Bailey, but you know, an edgier Bailey is always good for wrestling as well. I will say that I think they did a good job of making her sympathetic the last couple of months, dating back to SERBS series Wargame, when they started really planning the seeds heading into that show and then really kind of upped it a little bit during that specific war Games match. I would have to see a little bit more growing sympathy for Bailey because she has been such a good heel over the last couple of years that I think it was a bit difficult for fans to get behind her. They quickly did so with the Rumble Win and felt that this wave was coming. And then I guess my question for you, doctor Trey is, which you know you briefly mentioned there, Do you go the hugger route with Bailey now as a babyface? No, I think you homage it. I think it restlmated the wacky waving flayble two bar

47:27 bend come out. You know, because when she turned heel then where she slashed them all the pieces so she tapes them back up. Yeah, they have to say these ain duct tape on them, you know, covering it up to make it look like they got patched up and everything. So I think that'd be good. But you know, I don't think you have to go full Hugger Bailey, but somewhere in that ballpark, all right. And then some of the expected matches. Here, we've got two B determined world champion versus crote Roads for a world title, and then Ria Ripley will defend the WA Women's World Championship against the winner of the elimination chamer match in a couple of weeks in Perth, Australia. She'll also be taken on Naya Jacks and elimination chambers. So those are some of the expected semi confirmed matches, and I think that's basically how the card looks. I guess we could add Roman Reigns versus rock On here. I guess maybe we could be leaning into Gunther. I mean maybe like bron Breaker, Doctor Trey. I don't I don't know what other expected WRESTLEMANI forty matches we may see right now. Well, I mean, if you go off the reports that Braun took Brock's spot in the Rumble that you know could lean into maybe Braun taking Gunther spot at wrestle Mania. And if you want to establish, you know, an up and coming star and kind of put the rocket Ship on somebody, you know, it could be reminiscent of when the Warrior beat Honckey tonk Man for the

48:58 inn Island the rocket Ship Warrior went on. You can kind of pull the same thing here if you put Broun Breaker in Gunther in a match and Braun gets the win, and then you get the rocket Ship strapped to him, much like the Warrior get back in you know, early nineties, ear late eighties, earlyies. And I could see a scenario there where actually bron Breaker dethrones gun Through actually to ride that wave. You know what, I'll throw out one more maybe expected match right now. I could really see Damian Priests and friend Valor defending the tag team titles against the mizz and Our Truth. Yeah, I can see that as well. You want to see both those guys get a win like a big stage way. I mean, MS has had his moments to wrestle me. It got He's been great at telling us about it. But do you want to get some kind of payoff to this because it's been kind of like this weird. I don't want to say it's under the radar because it's scorn the under but it's not a main event level.

49:51 But it's been a very very fun mid card thing with the Truth, with Madonna, with Dom and Nick Mysterio, you know, the whole it's high in there, like if it's been fun, So you gotta get some kind of payoff. And if you happen to go and I kind of mentioned this earlier, maybe you don't do Cody and Seth. Maybe do Cody Seth, Drew and Sammy and then one of the people that's not Seth gets the wain and Damien pashes in on that person. So maybe that's a route you go as well to get the money the bank off, because he's only got two bucks window between now and the next money in the bank. Tis the season looking towards the rest of Maing forty, I mean it's less than what I see the other day, like sixty two days away, so like less than what eight eight weeks away, seven weeks away at this point, so it'll be here before you know it. So it is the very first resuming forty card update here on SRTU, and that's tends to be a weekly thing as we head into Wrestlem. A forty last thing here. Doctor Trey NXT Vengeance Day Recap interviewed this past Sunday from the F and M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tennessee. Uh, kind of change it up here a little bit.

50:59 I'm gonna go quickly through the results and get your thoughts on some of these matches rather than go match by match just on time. Say here for this week's dish of the podcast. So we had Baron Corbyn Brown Breaker defeating Carmela Hayes and Trick Williams in the men's Dusty Roads Tag Team Classic finals. Dijeck defeats Joey Joe Gacy in a notice qualification match. The Family defeats OTM and a six person mixed tag team match. Lyra Valcarie defeats Roxanne Perez and Lolavice, who cashed in her Women's Breakout Tournament contract to retain the NXC Women's Championship. Oprah Femi defeats Dragon Lead to retain the NXC North American Championship. Eliot Dragonoff defeats Trick Williams to retain the NXC Championship. Then, obviously, the big thing at the end of that match was Carmelo Hayes turning on Trick Williams to close the show. Both Doctor Trey and I went four and two on the night, Doctor Trey, what'd you think of NXC Vengeance Day?

51:53 I thought it was a really really solid x T show. I actually had a higher ranked rating wise that I did Royal Rumble. I thought it was a really fun show, got some good storylines out of it. I didn't realize how much how much fun I have watching bron Break and Baron Corman work together. By the way, if Joe Gasey does not come back as Joey Gacy, like you just kind of, you know, accidentally mentioned that's a great name for a guy too, Like, uh see, Joey Gacy joined the family, you know, Joey g Yeah, Joey g how you doing. There's there's some legs with that character, by the way, Joe Gacy, Yeah, it's it's it's odd now that you know, I loved the the diad or how with the whole thing there with those guys and now you have a but the GM Gaysey's on his own, like he does feel like this like lost character is trying to find his way. But it's a really good character to kind of play with, so it's got some legs to do it. Larry Valkyrie the Rock Samperez match, I still don't want. This is The other weird booking thing of the weekend was if you're gonna do a cash in, why do it in the middle of the match unless you're seth rollins. Yeah, that was kind of especially there. Would you make it to the end of the match, you know? And but whatever? And Trick and Dragon Off was a fun, fun match. I did not like the finish with you know, Carmelo getting accidentally involved a couple of times but not squarely leading to the finish. But then I am happy to see Mellow turn on Trick Is. I think Mellow as a heel is better than Mellow

53:23 as a face. Yeah, so it was. It was a It was a pretty decent show for Sunday and Night. I did enjoy it and I thought they did a good job. The NXT brand is is is solid. I think pay review prediction records coming out of the first two pay reviews of the year. I'm seven and three dotch Tray six and four U pay per view event rating and Match of the Night. I gave it a three point six out of five, and I gave Eli Dragonoff and Trick Williams my match of the night. I gave it a three point nine. I enjoy it slightly more than the Rumble, uh, and then I gave it the Trick and ill up, I saw something puzzle Twitter and I think I've been saying this Trick is the next Booker T. Like there's so many similarities to their styles and their builds and everything else like that. I just think I think Trick's more athletic than Booker was at this point, but book right a little more charisma. But that's not a knock on Trick because he's obviously I mean WI that Trick is one of the best chance across wrestling right now. So he just reminds me so much of a really, really young Booker T right now. Yeah, it was a very fun time for NXT. It was.

54:28 I felt at points the show dragged a little bit, but the matches were very solid. I NXT is a very solid show, and I'm happy with the growth that they've done as a brand over the last couple of years, because you do get to see some stars really start to break out, like Joe Gacy, like Oba Feme, like Braun and Baron Corbin naturally getting together in Carmelo, and Trick being one of the hottest feuds in all of w right now, Trick being one of the most breakout stars in all of the right now. So there you go. That is our NXT evenge just a very quick recap interview. Would that say, let's get a couple of plugs and sponsor out of the way. You can down the show every Thursday or Friday at Real Guy Radio dot com, wrestle chat Net on X and still wrote the show iTunes feed, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help us come the charts on iTunes. You get to follow follow us individually on X for myself at sr TU Jeff and for douct Tray frankl the d Doctor Trey and of course don't forget to follow a show on X at SRTU podcast. With that being said, was going on the Wonderful World of doct Tray Franklin this week. Well, like Jeff said, You can follow me on x at the Doctor Tray. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook, Doctor Dray Franklin. When you're on Facebook, check out Rocket h Championship Wrestling and Spartan Championshire Wrestling, the two shows here in Alabama. I work closely with UH. They just had a big show this past Saturday.

55:40 The next one's coming up on the seventeenth, so be sure to be able to look up for those, but more importantly, just go out to your local shows. Check them out. You might wind up in Clarksical, Tennessee and XT taping and not realize it. So there you go, folks. There you go support all the great things that support sr T you and and this is a fun time of the year. I mean, we spent a good half hour trying to figure out what the hell we is doing right now with the rock and Coded Roads. It has people's eyeballs on the product and that is a good thing. Ultimately, I think Raw was one of the highest rated shows. I think it tied a very popular show in the Bachelor. I know my wife loves The Bachelor on Monday night, so it's kind of doing its thing. Now. We'll see with the execution. So it's gonna be very interesting week and I'm very excited to intrigue to see where things go from here this upcoming week and what we talk about on next week's podcast in regard to everything that is WrestleMania forty. So with that said, for doctor Trey Franklin, I'm Jeff pank Thank you for downloading, thank you for being part of the podcast, Thank you for making this part of your week until next week. This is this is still a real US show.