Who Is Leading Our Award Categories At The 1st Half? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #753 – 7/18/24

0:00 It's still welcome everybody. Welcome to this week's edition The s Real Does Show, episode number seven hundred and fifty three for July eighteen, two bout twenty four. Welcome to this week's edition of s RT You because I am one after the show, I am Jeff Attack. Joined every single week on the Colors Stormly Doctor Trey Franklin, Doctor Trey. For the first time in a long time, we don't have a pl or pay per view to worry about my friend. I know. Now. The fun part this week is you and I were talking off air. We both have crazy schedules this week.

0:49 We both have a million things to do. So I am recording the podcast old School Style in my car in a parking lot. But Sammy Franklin hostage in the vehicle, so you may hear him chime in as he's reading a blue book behind me. Oh good. I mean, at any point we could pause and and take a passage from the blue Book. I'm down with that. The the the Good Book, the Holy Book, the Big Book of Bluey, you know as the kids call it. But uh yeah, like he's literally like sitting here reading his book, playing with his pillows, and uh trying not to get out of his car seat. All right, good man. So at any point he does try to get out of the car seat, just give us a little uh hoad tailt and we'll well, we'll make deal. We'll make deal. So hopefully he's not trapped in there or anything like that. Pretty pretty tight. You didn't use like bungee cords or anything, did you. I mean, just because as the vice president, not elect, but the the guy who's running front, Like, just because I'm from Appalachia does not mean I'm gonna bungee cord my kid into a vehicle to keep him safe. So uh you know, uh, I like, we're good. We have we have real car seats that actually have expiration dates on them. Fair enough, fair enough, I've been there. I know what. I Hey, if you need a guy to know about car seats lately, I am your man, because I'm like reading a bunch trying to make sure everything's level. Anybody who is a parent can relate. I'm like trying to make things a level on the car seat and then having the tunnel vision at times where I'm on a hill and I'm putting my son in

2:20 the car and I'm like oh crap, it's not level. What did I do wrong? And then, hey, knucklehead, because you don't have enough sleep, you're kind of on a hill trying to put him in the car seat. So uh oh, wait till the day comes when he's a little bit older, like Sammy's in a booster seat. And the other day it was me, Sammy and my seventeen year old running around town doing a whole bunch of stuff. We had to get he's my seventeen year old's going to do homeschool this year, so we had to get a transcript, and Sammy had speech therapy, and we had all these different things going on. We literally put him in the booster seat. He tipped over because we were on a hill and you can't re level boozer seats as well as car seats. And we also realized that we drove about twenty five miles and nobody had buckled him in, So hey, been there already. I realized, I hope she doesn't listen to the show that I'm throwing runner the bus. But my my sister in law had strapped in my son over the weekend on the in the car seat, and you know, she puts him in and all that stuff. We get home and I take him out and I look, and the way that his legs are supposed to be buckled in incorrect. I was like, okay, well, this is good to know because you don't want to run in that like weird thing where then all of a sudden you're telling a family member, Hey, just so you're aware, you put this in incorrectly, because the likelihood that they take that feedback constructively is got to be very slim to none in all honesty. Yeah, especially especially now. This

3:51 is not sexist. This is just no you could say just say it. You could say it, especially when you try to correct a woman on a car seat. Yeah, when it comes to babies, Yeah, hundred percent. Yes. Oh, like she'll be like you should know, that's how you're supposed to do. Like, No, there's literally a picture with directions on it. This kid is not supposed to be pretzeled in the way you prenzeled them. No, No, that's how it's supposed to be. Yep, no way. Hey listen, man, almost four weeks of being a dad, and I've been there. I have been there in the type of stuff that you are saying right now. So I have I know what you mean and I can relate to it. So a little bit of parenting here to open up the show on this week's edition of SRT, and I said at the jump, no pl no pay per view, to preview, predict anything along those lines, which I'm kind of excited for. It goes back to the old days of SRT. We do this next week as well, and then we headed in the Summer Slam, and then you've got All In and All Out and Bash of Berlin and it becomes very hectic again. I missed the days of the podcast where we just had like free flowing conversations about things that are going on professional wrestling, and we're not held or mandated to preview and predict a pay per view or a PLA or recap and review it, because those take up a lot of times. And I always feel like this has been the parts where the show has always flourished, and it's always makes me wonder about to try at times, if you know, having a production meeting on air, if we should go back to that a little bit more and almost have like the pre and post shows for these pay per views

5:25 be differently, but at the same time like you and I were saying off air and kind of bled a little bit onto the podcast itself. You and I are just trying to find windows of time right now to actually sit down and do this sting thing. Oh yeah, it's it's fun trying to adventure course through this whole thing where it's like, Okay, you got this window. I got this window. The upside for me is I'm injured. Like, my schedule is usually pretty free right now. It just so happened that today it was like, your schedule is crazy. I'm dealing with the carby and vandalize, trying to coordinate between the companies and the rental car companies. Having Sammy with me is speech therapy class got moved to today I got.

6:06 I'm like, okay, yeah, we got a window of time, so let's let's focus, let's dive into it. And uh, this is a little bit old school in a way because that's what we used to do it. Like when we do you know, these these shows at three in the morning, we weren't going to play around. We were trying to get it done so we can either get back to sleep or get back to work. Yeah, it's uh, it's refreshing. It certainly is. It's refreshing to do this. And I remember two weeks ago when we were we usually do like fourth of July weekend, we would do the first half award candidates right now, like we don't give out first half awards, but kind of semi is we give our like candidates right now for the awards that we did give out in the last show of the year and had to delay that for two weeks because of the pay per views and the pl is going on at that point, which just kind of begs the question sometimes like is there too many pls and pay per views? But I also feel like the model has changed where it makes sense for both w W and a W to do the pls and pay per views to the amount that they typically are doing them now.

7:04 It does, I mean, if you're not spending sixty bucks like we used to do, and thank God for better part of a you know, better part of a decade. Now we've had you know, subscription based pl s for WWE. You know, AW is kind of changing up their format. So back in the good old days, when you had to drop sixty bucks in a pay per view, they were spaced out a little bit more so you could build into it. Well, right now, if I'm only if everything's on my ten dollars a month subscription, it's fine. You want to run three pls in a month on my network, I'm fine with it because I only pay ten bucks for it. So the model has changed. But you know, maybe you could say the overall quality of pls has declined as well because they're doing so many you're not getting the long term story build up to a lot of these B and C level shows. Yeah, like you used to. That's a really good point. So let's get into it here.

7:59 So so first half halfway point of the year. Here we are. We're past it now in twenty twenty four, which is insane to think about. We will have our award show on December twenty sixth, which will be here before you know it at this point because the rest of the year is flying by, and we'll go through each of our award categories and write down some of the candidates right now and who we feel like maybe leaders in the clubhouse, people that are vying for the position for some of our awards that we give out on the final show of the year. On that first one is New Story of the Year which used to be our n Ring and Out of the Rings Story of the Year, Doctor Trey. A couple of candidates I have right now vincik Mann's sexual assault and trafficking allegations, Hiroshi Tanahashi becoming the new Japan Pro Wrestling President, Scott Deamore out as TNA president, and I also have Stings retirement right now some of my leading candidates. I would also throw in Raw announced moving to Netflix. Great point. Yeah, that's a pretty big one. And then also the WWET and a crossover like something that you know would have never happened in years past, like seeing ww actually work with other promotions instead of ignoring them. Yeah. No, it is really cool, and you're seeing it play out on NXC television in a really unique and fun way and I love that. So Raw and outing to move to Netflix, NXCT and a crossover being added to New Story of the Year as well. Breakouts are the Year. I have Trick Williams and NXT, liv Morgan on Raw, Damian Priest on Raw, Solis CooA SmackDown, Tiffany

9:33 Stratton SmackDown jay Uso Raw. I think this is going to be a category that is going to have a lot of candidates this year. Yeah, it seems like the depth is more. I really can't think of anybody else to add to that right now. I think that's pretty spot on for what my list look like as well. So I was thinking about this actually last night was I was watching aw Dynamite during the MJF will Osprey match, which we'll get to here later on, I was like, in my mind, thinking like, would I put will Osprey as a Breakout Star of the Year. He's he is definitely going to show up as a candidate in other categories spoiler alert, But I was like, man, could a guy who could theoretically be the Wrestler of the Year be someone as a breakout Star of the Year as well? Because he's this is his first time in the US. I mean, I don't have a problem with it because in theory to mainstream fans he was kind of unknown. I mean to to diehard to I was a diehard wrestling fan, but to most wrestling fans, he's a known commodity.

10:33 But he was never the IWGP heavyweight champion. He was he was then when they when they did the new title that combined with the Intercontinental Championship. Yes, okay, so, but once again the big point is to most mainstream fans, he is relatively unknown. It was kind of like, if you remember when we when Sammy Zain first got to NXT, he was a nominee for Breakthrough Star of the Year because he kind of broke through from the independence onto a bigger stage. So I think I think Osbury will kind of fall into that category. Yeah, it's just really weird to say because I don't think we've ever had a time and maybe you and I differ on this and we'll get to that a little bit where I would have somebody that I consider as an early candidate for Wrestler of the Year in the Breakouts are of the Year category as well. Yeah, I'm I'm trying to think. I don't think we've had anybody make that big of a jump, but it's probably I think we have people kind of on the edge of it, but there was just somebody else who was a bigger Wrestler of the Year that kind of pushed them into the breakthrough category. I feel like this is going to be this is gonna be a tough one. I like the comparisons of Sammy's Zay.

11:41 I think this is going to be a tough category this year of like, okay, who's the breakouts are of the year, because I feel like there is so many and that's exciting for professional wrestling. I mean, I think, really there's like two people in this category that you could put up for Wrestler of the Year as well. So it's at least it adds some depth to Wrestler the Year, which has kind of been dominant to buy you know, Roman Rains the last couple of years. Let's get to Moment of the year, Uh, Doctor Trey. Any candidates on your list so far for a moment of the year. Uh, Sting's final match? Nice? Nice? Cody Rose winning at WrestleMania. I don't know if I want to put the match from Dynamite this past week up there, but MJF will Aspray sixty you know, sixty some minutes with MJF winning the international title. That's pretty big. So those are a couple of mine off top of my head, those are some good ones. I have Stings retirement on there. I have Cody finishing the story. I have Rock returning on the Day one episode of Raw and Calling out Roman reigns. I have Rock slapping Cody Road at the WrestleMania forty kickoff event, and I have Jordan Grace making a shocking appearance on NXC to challenge Roxane Perez. I really like that one. I mean that goes back to the TNA NXT cross over stuff, So I really do like that one as well. Can you can you do rock this many times?

13:05 I know, but I mean that's me being the rock fan, right I guess, so, yeah, that makes sense. I'm trying to think of there's anything else that really jumps out as from like a like I said, the mjf ospray match. I know it's knee jerk because it's literally twenty as we record this twenty four hours ago. It's pretty damn impressive. Hey, doctor Trube, what about the Hayman power Bomb in MSG ham in power Bomb, Yeah, MSG, that's that's that. I can't ever forgot that, but that'd be high on my list as well. Yeah, I had that one off on there, and I'm just trying to like think of other things where I was like, holy crap, I can't believe this took place. Yeah, Like I said, I'm trying to think of I know we I know there is something recently in aw where we're like, I can't believe they did that because oh Mariah May turning on Tony Storm. Oh gad point, that's a good one. Yeah. I got to add that one as well.

13:58 I like that call. Yeah, I was trying to think of something. You know, I'm trying to be fair, fair and balance. I'm the Fox News of this podcast apparently, just trying to be fair and balanced. There you go, there you go. All right, event of the Year. What are some of your candidates for Event of the year, Doctor Trey and I could go through some of the rankings if you want, because if that helps you out, I think yeah, because for me, I would have to kind of look at my list, and I don't have my listen from you, but I know WrestleMania Night two definitely is up there. That was pretty high on our list. What was the like, I'd have to look at the list. I guess that's the one. I macas wrestle has always been hard to beat the last three years. Yeah. I have Wrestlemating forty on there, I have AW Revolution, and I have w w E Backlash in France, as some of my candidates, I would agree with those. Yeah, it would be probably my top three as well. I'm looking at your ranking, So you gave four point two's to Elimination Chamber and AW Dynasty. You gave a four point one to NX heat Wave and AW Double or Nothing recently as well. I don't know if we would consider any of those no event of the years. I think the three you listed off are probably because the France show is phenomenal. WrestleMania was great. I don't know if like from I mean, I don't know if any crowdsman top France this year, which I never thought I would say that in my life.

15:31 And then you said Double or Nothing was the other one I had, So those are probably my top Yeah, that'll land on those. Yeah, And I would just throw in if there was like an unexpected fun event of the year, I would have put NXC heat Wave, like the match, like a breakout event of the year, I would have said NXC heat Wave. Honestly, that heat Wave show is probably nxy's best poe in the last six months, if not twelve months. Oh by far. Yeah, I mean maybe out of this whole, like out of the Black and Gold era or and back into it, I would say, yeah, I mean it was. I mean because it was like, at this point, our expectations were nxtpl's have been down quite a bit, and that was the most like fun surprising, like, oh my gosh, this show's been really really entertaining from top to bottom. So like that in the old days when Black and Gold are expectations were so high, like we'd be let down that they weren't met.

16:27 This now our expectators are really low, so when they surprised us, it's like, oh, that was really really fun and fantastic and I loved it. Yeah. No, this that was a show that really really caught us off guards, like a really fun show. Few to the Year. Some of my candidates, I've got Cody Rhodes, seth Ron's Roman Reigns in the Rock as One, Drew McIntyre, Cmpunk Live, Morgan Rhea Ripley, and I'm only going to throw this out there because it's starting to bubble up over the last three or four weeks. I think Hangman, Adam Page, and Swart of Strictly, which was last year's Few to the Year for me, maybe bubbling back up as a candid right now, but I'm gonna leave it off the list for the time being. Yeah, and once again, like you like the MJF. Garcia thing was really well done, but we don't know how that's gonna play out. We're only two weeks into the Mariah May Tony Storm things, so maybe by you know, in three months, that'll be in the list. The ones you have listened kind of where I'm at, Like the Punk Mac entire thing is gonna drag out for a while and be good. The Live Rhea set's surprisingly been good, and I think it was more of the injury and Ria being off TV and live taking advantage of it that made it so good. And I I can you put in the Elite versus ae W cam because it's kind of like them against everybody.

17:51 It's a little bit of like nWo W CW not to the coolness level, but from a fun factory. You got the bucks now caught in Jack Perry kind a few with everybody, So I mean, I guess that would kind of be up there. I was trying to think of one from TNA, but it really hasn't been one that's kind of captivated the audience so far. Like I literally did go down to Joe Hendry rabbit hole yesterday watching Joe Henry AJ Francis feud, just because of the Joe Henry parody songs that he was doing to make fun of AJ Francis. Yeah. No, I'm not up on impact or TNA wrestling, I should say an as much as I should be now, But yeah, it's always fun to put them in there. So I think, so we just narrowed it down to the four then, right, is that what we got to Yeah? And then just the bad thing is we're all expecting a solo Roman feud or a bloodline bloodline feud and it hasn't started yet, and that may wipe everything out by the time we get to December and just be well above everything else. Yeah, I think Hangman Swerve, depending on how far they go with that, could come back in here. Like I said before, I could see MJF willas Pray if that is a long time feud, which I would love to see it being, could come in here. And I agree with you that bloodline bloodline could be certainly in there. I think this is the most rocky candidacy so far out of all the first half awards for SRTU. Yeah, yeah, because because feuds like you and I, like we've we've been in the show for

19:22 so long. You and I grew up on old school feuds that would take nine months, you know, to a year, and we've had a couple of those in years past. Right now, everything's either on a slow burn or it was fast tracked, and they're just kind of waiting for a payoff. So it's got some some legs to it, it just hasn't developed yet. Well, you know what's funny about on the w W side, while some of their feuds, why some of their feuds have gone long, is because the injuries like Punk Drew McIntyre has been going on since the Rumble. Yeah, I mean because in all honesty, if like if this had started the Rumble, it would have been done by now, and we've removed on to Punk and Rollins or mcintie, you know, somebody else. So it is good that's giving us some death because we're seeing depth of you know, the cm hunk stuff is really funny. The stuff with the bracelet's been really good. But that's all because of Punk's injury and them capitalizing on the fact that like, hey, he might not be able to be in the ring, but we can do other stuff to keep this feud going until we get that entering showdown. What do you think of that approach where like with the injured stars and see them Punk and Rhea Ripley, they're still involved with feuds and storylines despite being off a television and not wrestling for you know, in Punk's case seven months, eight months and in Rhea's case three months. I think it's smart because it keeps the character in people's minds. They don't forget about it. And then here's the thing, like, if you want the person to come back as a heel, you keep them around and the crowd never really misses them. You know, We've seen that years past where a

20:56 heel goes away for injury for six months and they come back back of the crowds so happy to see him, they start cheering the guy right away. This is a way to, hey, keep the character fresh in your mind and beat You're also maximizing on your investment, because if you're paying these people a lot of money to draw eyes to your product and they get hurt and they're away for six months, well you're not really making any money off of them during the time. I mean, think of all the merchandise that Punk and Rhea have sold while they've been injured because they've still been relevant on TV or in the storyline. That's just a good way of keeping you know, keeping your investment, you know, moving forward and making some money off of it as well. Let's get to Match of the Year candidates. Who are some of the candidates that are sticking out to you, Doctor Trey, And once again, I'm happy to go through like Match of the Night if that helps you out for some of yours. I was gonna say, you go first. Okay, throws them out there out and if there's anything that pops in my mind that we may have forgotten, I get there. I mean, because right now we don't have the mjf Osprey match in there. That's gonna be an early candidate for me as well. Okay, let's add that one to the list. MGF versus Will Ospray. I have Cody Rhodes versus Roman Reigns from WrestleMania forty. I have Will Ospray versus Kenoski Takashka from aw Revolution. I love that match, and swer Strickland versus Will Ospray from AW Forbidden Door as my candidates right now for Match of the Year. Yeah, it's hard to argue against those. Has AW pretty much like like dominated this category for his the last few years, because it feels like that's what we

22:26 always say, like WW has better storylines, AW has better in ring stuff. Yeah, I mean Swerv and Osprey was really good too. Last year I went with Rhea and Charlotte from Wrestlemanti thirty nine. You went with Swerve and Hangman from AW Full Gear. The year before that, you and I both went with Austin versus Owens from Wrestlemany thirty eight. The year before that, twenty twenty one, I had Bianca and Sasha from Wrestlemanty thirty seven. You had Page versus Danielson from AW Winners Coming. I would say in twenty twenty four, AW has dominated the category, and that's the thing that we always say about them as a pay per view, Like the television leading up to some of the pay per views earlier this year was not good, but the pay per views themselves delivered, and I still think that that tracks well.

23:12 I mean, I am really enjoying and fine entertaining. We but if there is one part of that. I'm like, this is lacking. I never walk away and go like that's a match of the Year candidate. And I think only Cody and Roman is in there because it was such a fun match and it was like the Avengers for professional wrestling. I don't think if that happened and Cody Rhodes wins the title, that we're sitting here and going like that's a match of the Year candidate. I think that's in there because of the entertainment and excitement that came from that match, rather than like the match. It's you know, the play by player, the story that they told from you know, a one on one wristlock encounter. Yeah. I mean, really, looking back this year so far, I mean AW kind of has dominated the d ring stuff from just showed a show. I mean you're absolutely right, like there really hasn't been a WW match outside of Cody and Roman where you're like, oh, that's it, that's match of the Year. I mean, we've had some solid matches, but like, I don't think we've had anything on the level of those AW matches you mentioned outside of Cody and Roman. And you're right, it was because of the nostalgia in getting in all the fields of seeing all these guys come rushing into the match to try and close it out. So yeah, Aw's kind of dominated during this year. I like Cody Rhoads. I'm not like this huge Cody roads Stan and I felt like his matches in AW were more Match of the Year worthy than anything I've seen in w w W. Where do you stand on like Cody the entering worker and like throwing his name in there as a

24:45 potential Match of the Year candidate. His matches specifically, I don't think he's had a bad match. Agreed with that one hundred percent. You're right, Like his match with AJ in France was really really good. But once again, when you go, oh, it's Cody Rose ag styles, they should tear the roof up this place and you get a really good match, you're kind of let down a little bit. I don't think he's I wasn't. But again, remember, like going back to the news, if I was the guy that was always criticizing Cody for doing too much in his matches, like going overboard to try and get the matches over, I just think he's been very, very solid. He's been in a lot of ways, and people make criticize this. He's been very Roman Reigns esque in his matches.

25:26 Like Roman typically did not have Match of the Year matches, but they were all very very solid and entertaining. I think Cody's doing the same thing. His matches have all been really solid, really entertaining. I mean, even the six man tag from last month was a fun match. It's just not Match in the Year, but it wasn't horrible either. It's just very very solid but not earth shattering. Let me throw out this match, see and see if you think it's in the discussion for Match of the Year, because I think it's comparable to Cody Rhodes versus Roman Reigns from Wrestlemining forty. Where do you stand on Sting Darby Youngbuck's aw Revolution. It's a little bit of Austin Owens in a sense where like it's we all know what's the same For us, it was Austin returning. This was Sting going away, so you have a little bit more of emotional attachment to it. I thought the match was good, but I mean I still think the other match that we mentioned for AW were better matches for entertaining overall, It's just the sting retiring factor kind of pulls it up because I mean, it's not a sixty you know, it's not a sting Rick Flair sixty minute Iron Man match. This isn't a match that you know you're just like going gaga over for all the inn ring stuff. I mean, could I say the women's ladder match from Money in the Bank was more surprisingly entertaining than Sting and Darby? Yeah, but

27:00 the nostalgia part of staying retiring pulls at your heartstrings more agreed? Okay, Yeah, I just want to throw that out there because I thought if there was a match that was comparable to Cody Roman, it would be that aw match. Like I said it to me, it's more just the emotional attachment to it than anything else. I just I mean good. I mean that women's My the Bank match was our match of the match of the I for My of the Bank, and it was surprisingly good and has some crazy spots in it. But I don't think we put that one up there with Cody and Roman yet. No, I agree with you. I agree with you. Next category here is tag Team of the Year, and I struggled this with this one. Doctor Trey I really did, because there's really no tag team that's pulling away. I have Down as candidates. I have Young Bucks, DIY, Awesome Truth, and I don't feel confident in any of those.

27:52 There is no like slam Dunk Pick in my opinion on this one. Do you throw Nathan Frazier an Axiom into that mix? I think you do? Why not? I mean it's comparable to Awesome Truth Dy right for me? On the w E side of things, Yeah, I mean there really hasn't been anybody to break out and run away with it. I mean, do you want I mean, could you throw Bullet Club Gold because they're trios into the mix, Because I mean technically Matt Ben or Mike Bennett and Matt Tabaman rate that have been the longest rainning tag team champions of all the shows because they're the Ring of Honor tag team champions. But I don't think you want to. I don't think they're on the level of the other teams you mentioned, but they've been the longest raining tag team champions. Yeah. And I think the last time I saw them wrestles like on Collision a couple of weeks ago. Maybe if it was Rampage and I don't watch roah. I mean, this is probably the toughest category I've had because I don't think that there's a slam dunk decision here. Yeah. I think right now it's been a very very lackluster tag team yere at best be nice. I guess like nobody's really taken the bull by the horn. I mean, we don't have a breakout team like Getclaimed was last year where they got really hot for four months. You know, we don't have you know, our stalwarts. You know you mentioned FDR, but FDR has been injured a lot this year, and the Bucks have been doing more stuff with their storyline than they have been in rings. So it's kind of a crazy toss up. It's gonna be interesting how long, like d I, how long does DIY keep the belts?

29:25 How long do Finn and JD keep their belts? Belts? Do they break up? Fraser and Axiom? I think that those are the kind of compelling storylines because if any of those team get gets hot and they run the next six months as tag champs and they have some good matches, we're gonna be like, yeah, that's Tag Team of the Year. But right now, I mean, for aw, don't really only have a couple of tag teams listed. I mean, does the House of Black get hot with Brodie King and Malachi Black? Does the Wyatt Six start? Do we start seeing a tag team come out of that group? Like it's this is the most wide open I think of all the category because there just hasn't been anything that's been really noteworthy this year in tag team wrestling. Yeah, yeah, it's it's been a tough one. It's been a tough year for tag team wrestling.

30:10 I think that's a theme where it's like, make the tag team shine w W n a W because I don't know what why they are taking a back seat. Female Wrestler of the Year. Who are some of your candidates had to try? I got liv I got Tony Storm, Willow Nightingale just because of everything else she's done. And then I'm trying to think Mercedes Monette. Yeah, I was having a struggle saying that one out loud. I don't. I don't think she's in that category right now. If you Bailey's had a Rumble win, a wrestle Mania win, but just the run hasn't been great. But I mean, you get a Rumble win and a Mania win. It's hard to say she she's not on the list, Like those are big things, So I think you get throw a Bailey in the mix as well. I have Lived Bailey, Timeless, Tony Storm on my list.

31:04 I could easily see Ria, Doctor, Britt Baker, and Mercedes make the list for the second half of this year as well. What about Roxanne Perez, I need to see a little bit more from her. I think the one criticism I have of Roxanne Perez is she's doing the Chora Jade character while Kora Jaide's out injured. That was my knock on as well. But I mean the Jordan Grace match is really good. Yeah, I think you put her in there. Yeah, I mean she's not in the top two or three, but I just want to give her some of the shout out because she's had a pretty solid year so far. I could also see Tiffany Stratton and Nijacks making a play here in the second half of twenty twenty four as well. Yeah, the Tiffy thing's gonna be one of those things where the character is gonna lead a lot. I don't think you can say Tiffy's gonna have the best matches of the Year, but I think the character and the matches might make it work. This whole thing with her and I Am Bailey might turn out to be really, really entertaining post SummerSlam and and kind of carry the SmackDown division for a while. Male rest of the Year candidates, I think it's a three dog race. Doctor Trey, I've got Cody, Swerve, will Ospray, those are my three guys. Cody, Swerve, will Ospray, Yeah, those but that probably my top three as well.

32:22 Priest, I do like Damian Priest, It's just I don't know if I want to put him up there. For like wrestler the year, I think Drew McIntyre still been the most entertaining wrestler this year. Character development and his matches have been good. He's just been screwed so many times. He doesn't have a big win I would actually put I would say Drew, Damien, and Gunther are three people that I could see entering this race in the second half of the year as well. Yeah, but right now, for the first six months, it's it's Swerve. I mean that it was for me. It was Swerve, Ospray and Cody were my top three and then those other three were like a notch below Agreed wrestling promotion in the year, which is almost like our favorite wrestling show at this point, not know aw sys Standalade promotion. For me, I think the two best promotions in professional wrestling right now for me are Raw on n NXC. Yeah, I had Raw number one, I had excuse I had NXT and SmackDown kind of because SmackDown with the new bloodline stuff has been entertaining. It has it's the problem was is post WrestleMania, there was a dip for about a month and a half and then AAW for the first three months was not good. But in the last three months they've really picked it up and they're going, so this thing might this thing might end up. Raw has just been really really consistent, and then adding the Wyatt six to it gives it even more compelling storylines.

33:49 I think it's gound be hard for any of those other shows to catch Raw. But the number two could be any show out there that we mentioned. Yeah, no, I'm with you. I am with you on that as well. So I mean, I think this is gonna be one that'll be very telling for the rest of the year as well. And then that takes us to Wrestler of the Year, and that's basically all the candidates that we mentioned early on Live Bailey, Thomas Stoney, Storm, Willow Nightingale, Rox Sanperez, Cody Swerve, will Osprey, Drew McIntyre. I guess I'll kind of spoil it on this one, DoD Try. I think that this category three dog race again, Cody Swerve or Will Ospray, I think those are the leaders in the clubhouse for me. I think right now, I think the real injury slower down because she would still be up in the upper echeline if she has she not got hurt, if she has a really good six months with wrestling, and then this whole dominant Judgment Day storyline, I think she could catch up to the three we mentioned. And then once you Live has been on fire this year, So it kind of depends on this whole storyline tight end as well. I mean, if you split Judgment Day and she goes with you know, like say that the whole Big Swerve as finn Balor that was the one behind all this and Live Live in finn Balor put all this together because if you remember when the Judgment Day was first formed.

35:08 One of the first groups they went after was it was aj Finn and Live that fought the judgment day. So this could be like a long term storyline if they tied it back in that way. But yeah, like it's it's Cody Will and Swerve and then Rhea and Live and then whoever comes out of this Damien Gunther see him Punk Drew a quartet the last six months might be able to catch up a little bit if if we'll go free slow down. I feel like it's a wide open race, doctor Trey, I really do. I mean, would you, like two months ago, would you would you have said, hey, I think Will Osprey will have two losses before we get to uh, you know, we get to the end of the summer. No. I had him going and all in either as the challenger for the AW World Champion or the AW World Champion. Quite frankly, yeah, So it's been a crazy couple of weeks from will Ospray Mjf's back and God knows that dude can catch fire at any time. So to me, it's kind of swerving Cody because of storylines and consistency Aspray's right there with them, and then kind of depending on what they do with MJF and then what happens with the four guys I mentioned, you know, you know, in addition to that, it's it's kind of like you got one A, one B, one C and then level two, but level two depending on six months. If something gets hot, they could jump up and over take the rest of them. Yeah, yeah, it's it's been fun right now.

36:30 I think this has been a fun first half and I'm looking forward to see what the second half of twenty twenty four does in professional wrestling once again, we'll have that award show on December twenty six, so it'll be here before you know it. A couple of news and notes before we close up shop on this week's edition of SRTU. There have been some reports out there about some new titles coming to we. This comes to us from Wrestling, Inc. It has been rumored that the WWE's women's division is set to receive its own w United States and Intercontinental Championships in the near future. Speaking on The Rest and Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed this to be true, saying, quote, someone texted me and just goes it's being reported out there that they're going to create w wui's women's US and Air Continental titles. Meltzer said, I was basically told that this that is in fact what is being talked about. So there you go, two more championships coming, one on each brand. I love this art to try. We talked about this when the NX North American Championship was revealed for the women's division, that this could open the door to these two titles. Haven't heard much more about this since then, but I love the idea of having a women's United States in Air Cottinenttle Championship. I do, and I don't like on You know, one of my chrises of aw is you know, not every match has to be a title match, and it feels that way sometimes, and if you add two more singles titles into the mix, it does feel a little bit at this point. You remember, years and years ago when the network was first launched, there was rumors of them just doing an all women's, an all female wrestling show on the network. I feel like at some point that might be

38:02 the way to go, is hey, maybe we just take the women. They'll still be on Raw and SmackDown, but just have a show dedicated to just women's wrestling as well. It's just I'm still not sold on the women's North American title because as we've seen, the women are still a little raw, they're still a little green. It's a nice stepping stone. I just don't know if you need to have a US and Intercontinental championship, you could have one or the other, maybe not both. Yeah, I don't know. I mean I think the AW stuff definitely dilutes things, but I think there's way too many men men's championships. I mean, that's where I think the women they're a little bit better structured, where it's a top title, a secondary title, and WWE has tag titles. AW doesn't. It's the men's divisions in AW that I think screw things up for like too many titles.

38:52 Honestly, Yeah, no, that I don't disagree with. I mean honestly, because they're saying, like which AW women's title is more import the TBS or the women's It's just because of you got Britt Baker and Mercedes Monett feuding for the TBS championship, and those are your two biggest stars in your division. So it's kind of like it like, is that really the secondary title? But in WWE, there's a good women's roster, and I think if you're gonna bring up some women from NXT, whether it's a Roxamperez or Lolo Vice or you know whoever. You know, j C. James been down there forever, Gigi Dolan's been down there forever. You can always bring back Mandy Rose. At this point, if you bring some of one of my main rosters, then you have the depth. But then does that take away from do you have to start featuring more people? And does that lose some really good storylines in some other areas. So it's it's one of those things where like maybe just have one secondary title to help build somebody up, Like I don't know if you need both. Interesting. I'll be interesting if they if they move forward with that, because right now everything's kind of rumored or up in the air. The other story I wanted to bring up here is that recently Paul Triple A c levec Tea's upcoming changes in WWE, and this comes to us from Wrestling In as well. Triple H was speaking at the Money in the Bank twenty twenty four post press conference, and the game went into detail about w planning and head towards making more changes to NXC in the fall. He also explained that over time, the audience will see various differences to Raw and SmackDown as we inch closer to December, saying, quote,

40:24 we're just getting started. I really feel like that we got a whole fall thing coming up with CW for NXT, which, by the way, Sean is just killing it right now, whether that's talent development, recruitment, NXC in general. I can't say enough good stuff about him. I'm in awe of what they're doing down there, when they move to CW, when SmackDown makes the move to the USA, when Raw makes the move to Netflix. We're just getting rolling. We're lining up all this stuff that's going to happen. A lot of changes you see now, we're slow rolling things out when we get to the Fall, when we get to the Winner, there's going to be a lot so interesting. Like he's saying, there's changes, like how do you interpret that doctor trade? Do you think he's saying this? Like the production and the elements of it are going to make it look like it's own separate show and promotion, which we've kind of been clamoring for where it all didn't look the same. What do you think the changes are for Ross SmackDown in NXC that Triple H was very vague about we're bringing back all the purple ropes from two to five live. They've got a warehouse full of purple tape. Yeah, let's go there, you go. So to me, it is going to be like giving each show its own feel.

41:30 I think it's going to be like the production, the lighting, you know, a lot of things like that. I mean, you can't really change the rosters that much. I know, I read a report. I'm sure you just see that Netflix is saying, hey, you either got to have Roman Reigns or Cody Roads on Raw when Netflix when we go to Netflix. So I there might be some tweaks the roster, but to me, really it is going to come down to how the shows feel like. That's one thing about AW is that Collision does not feel like Dynah. It feels like they are separate shows in the sense of how it's you know, put together and shot in camera angles like that. We saw that a lot back when Black eight up, when NXC, Black and Goals going on, like Black and Gold felt like its own separate entity as compared to Raw and SmackDown, and I think that's one of the ways that I want to go. It's like, hey, we want RAW to be its own show, have its own vibe, its own feels smacked Down the same way NXT there it's its own thing as well. And then who knows, they might buy out TNA and make TNA their own show as well. Switching gears to All Lead Wrestling, there have been some reports lately in regards to AW creatively has been really really well. I would say the last thirty four weeks it has been great again. Coming to us from Wrestling Wrestling, Inc. Via the Wrestling Server newsletter, Dave Melterer had some notes about both QT Marshall and oh god, what's her name, Peppermin Jennifer Pepperman. So recently they have been recruited to kind of focus a little bit more on the creative process there, and he

43:05 said how they have settled in their rules for AW. Marshall has been more hands on, Peppermint has been more hands on with the women's division, and I just want to say that, like, it's incredible. It's very noticeable Doctor Trey that the creative team and All Lead wrestling has been more organized, more focused, and it's better execution as of late. And it appears from what Melts are saying here you can say that because of what q T. Marshall and Jennifer Pepperman are doing behind the scenes. What are your thoughts on aw's creative as of late and is it is it playing out as well as I have seen it as of late from your viewpoint? So let me get this right. So, when the inmates are not running the asylum, the asylum runs better. Like that's it's like, hey, we actually have you know, some people in place to do checks and balances to make sure things are coherent and make sense, and we're not stopping in starting things Like the creative has been much better. It's been our biggest knock on AW for the last three years. Four years has been stop and start storyline, stop and start angles. This guy's a heeled next to their babyface. Two heeks later they're back to being a heel. It feels more cohesive over the last couple of months. So if that, if it's because of Pepperman and Marshall, like keep doing it, because it does feel a lot better and feels more like an actual wrestling show other than just you know, the super indie show that we used to knock it for. And then the last thing when it

44:36 comes to AW. We've mentioned it several times when we were talking about the first half of the year so far in twenty twenty four. Last night, MGF defeats will Ospry to win the AW International Championship on AW Donamite two fifty in a fifty nine minute, fifty eight second match for a sixty minute time limit, Doctor Trey, I watched the entire thing. You watch the entire thing. Your thoughts on it? Yeah, twelve sixteen hours later. It was a fantastic match, and you heard it earlier. It's up for Match of the year. Just super well done match. Even some of my knocks on it would be like stuff like, oh, let's let's throw a styles clash in the middle of it. Let's say you know those things is for what it was, It was fantastic. My only knock on it would be why isn't this at like double or nothing or all in or like this should be like a headlining pay per view match, not the opening of Dynamite two fifty, Like it's just once again. Sometimes the placement of things don't make sense. If I want people to buy into a show, wouldn't I want my two biggest headliners facing off for the first time ever headlining a sixty dollars show instead of a free show. That's my only criticism is just save it like you had enough. You had the stuff at the Garcia and I'll spreak up in a save and da da da da. Could have saved it for the next pay per view and made people buy into it and developed some story leading in to it and got more people to buy your pay per views other than putting on because there's the thing after that matches over, Jeff, I

46:07 honestly wanted to go ahead and go okay, cool, I saw the most important thing. I can flip it off now if I wanted to. But we do the podcast and I couldn't do it, but easily if you're a casual fan. I saw MGF and Osbray go sixty minutes over the show. Is there anything else in this episode that's going to top that? Probably not, so need to watch. First off, I thought the match was good. I don't have it in there as a match the year Cannon. I thought it was really good. But I think there's been other ospry matches I've seen in the AW this year that I enjoyed more than the one with MJF. And I felt like that they went sixty minutes to say that they win sixty minutes. Nonetheless, it is a match end of the year you look back at top top ten. In my vantage point, I would say I felt putting it on AW Dynamite. It was a complete two threefold here.

46:54 One, it was AW died in my two to fifty. So they wanted to have a big show, so they gave us that match. They gave us Swear versus Okada, which is a dream match for me as a wrestling fan, for free. And they also gave Mercedes Monet versus Nila Rose, which is not a dream match, no disrespect, not a dream match, So they gave us all that. That's one. More importantly, there is media rights deals coming up with Warner Brothers, Discovery and AAW, and I think they wanted to put on a show for them and show them the quality that they could put out there. Additionally, I would say that this was done for viewership purposes. That viewership number is going to be very interesting, especially as it goes on in that first hour. If it starts off red hot and they drop off, problem. If it starts red hot and they go up, not a problem. There was a lot of things in play, and I think again, one of the reasons I'll throw this out here and this is just the way that I view professional wrestling. Why I don't consider it a Match of the Year candidate right now is because I like watching the whole match front to back on my screen without any interruptions. When a commercial comes on, I'm not sitting there watching picture and picture. I'm getting up. I'm either scrolling through on the DVR if I'm not watching it live, or if i'm watching it live, I'm grabbing something to eat, grabbing a drink, something like That's that's me. When I'm sitting down i'm watching pl I'm watching a pay per view where there's no commercial interruptions. I'm appreciating the match a lot more. I thought there was too much start and stop from my ADHD mind to enjoy it as a match of your candidate. But

48:25 those are some of my takeaways from that match. Doctor Try Yeah. I mean, I think I'm a bigger MJF Mark than you. Where you're more of the Osprey marks. For me to have Ospray and MJF is kind of like, I'm not an ocada guy, so swerving o'cada. I'm like, yeah, that seems fine, it'll be fun. But you know MJF and Ospray considering their promo battles. For me, I was like, I was all in on that one just begin the show. But like I said earlier, like I get it, you're trying to get meteor rights. But if you're trying to get the negotiations done, you're a television show. You're not a sports show at the end of the day, like we saw last week with the Mariah made Tony storm ending. You're a TV show, So put on the best television show you can and that will help keep viewership. And it's not all over the roller coastering. So to me, I'm like, you could they could have done something and done some kind of screwed up angle and pissed people off, but guess what. Pissed off people typically will tune back in if you if now there's the go away pissed off like WCWTN where people just went away and never came back. But there's screwjob finishes where you're like, oh my god, I can't believe they did that. What's gonna happen next week because of MJF, you know, doing something ridiculous to get out of the match or steal the title or whatever. There are ways to do it to make it a good television show, to then lead up to another match at a pay per view, or stall it to get to the pay per view match down the road, because right now you don't have a

49:57 subscription based content like WWIS, you do depend on pay per view buys to supplement your income because it's still a big part of aw And. I think they missed the boat having two matches that should be headlining pay per views be given away for free. And I don't mean the Nyler Rose and I don't mean the Nyla roseme versus moment A match as one of those two. The finish, I will say, was really well done, and the match itself makes sense for their storyline going forward with will Osprayin and MGFF, which I would imagine carry is over as a title match at aw all In, So that does make sense to me. It was a fun match, but I hate where it's like, all right, picture and picture after this, And there was a couple of times they actually it was not picture and picture and it was just straight up commercial breaks, which I feel like for the viewer at home does take away from it a little bit. But I'm we're sitting here recording for the viewership and the breakdown of the segments comes out. I'm really intrigued to see how that plays out for that specific match. With that said, let's get a couple of plugs in spots of the way as we close up shop on this week's edition of SR You can download the show every Thursday or Friday at Realguardradio dot com, Wressell chatnett on X and the star Rod of the Show iTunes feed, don't fric to rate, review and subscribe top scom charts on iTunes. You can follous individually on X for myself at SRTU Jeff, and for Doctor Trey Franklin at The Doctor Trey and of course don't freath to follow a show on X at SRTU Podcasts. With that being said, what's going on the wonderful world of Doctor Trey Franklin this week?

51:22 Well, like Jeff said, you can follow me on x at the Doctor Trey. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook Doctor Trey Franklin. When you're on Facebook, be sure to check out Rockety Championship Wrestling. We have a big show coming up this Saturday with the Shawn Shocker Evans Memorial Cup Tournament coming up. For those of you who don't know, Sean was one of the original trainers of Kurt Angle. He was really big in the scene in Pittsburgh but helped bring along a lot of the young town that came out of that area in the late nineties early two thousands and headline this year Chase Owens from Bullet Club from New Japan for wrestling. We'll be in the tournament this year as well, so we're really excited about having Chase involved. But more poorly, just gohea and check out your local independent wrestling shows as well. If you can't make it to Alabama to see us, go out and see the you know, the people in your own neck of the woods and heck, those guys might be headlining AW three hundred or AW four hundred or you know, giving away stuff for free. There you are all the great stuff here that supports the sr T you go out there and support all that as well. Thank you for downloading, spread the word about the stile Realta show.

52:23 Don't forget to rate, review and subscriber over you're downloading this podcast, please help spat the word once again and until next week. For doctor Trey Franklin, I'm Jeff Beck. This has been the Surrella Show.