WrestlePalooza Recap, All Out Fallout & AJ Styles’ Big Announcement | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #815 – 09/25/25

0:00 It's still real to me, damn it, damn it! [Music] Welcome everybody, welcome to this week's Innocentist over the show, episode of our 815 for September 25th, 2025. This is your WWE wrestler, Blueza, AW all out, recap and review, and NXT No Mercy Preview edition of SRTU. I am one after the show, I am Jeff Peck, join every single week of my course along with our great friend, Lin, Dr. Tre.

0:42 Is it a good side when the person that you're partnered with, great you as a C, my friend? Is that what you gave me on the Spotify podcast review platform? Did I get it see, am I only average? Now you have me all worried and concerned. More on that in a bit, Dr. Tre, big weekend, we are coming off for professional wrestling, we are coming off for WrestleMania, we are coming off AW all out. We are headed towards NXT No Mercy, there was a casually massive retirement announcement that took place about 2 hours before we started this show. There is the potential return from one of the most infamous pay-per-views of all time, and PWI released their Men's Top 500 list, all that and more here on this week's edition of SRTU.

1:33 But let's get to it, Dr. Tre. Let's get to WrestlePolusa, which took place this past Saturday, on ESPN. I didn't know if it was on ESPN, but it came from the Game Bridge, at Fieldhouse, and Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Tre, were you able to upload or watch, I should say, the WrestlePolusa on ESPN this week, am I friend? So, we got all the stuff switched over, but did not watch it live because I had Rockets City, so I had to watch it on Replay Sunday. So, I did not get to jump on and see how it streamed, how everything worked out, because my wrestling took place in Silver WrestlePolusa, by the way, so.

2:17 So, I'm forced, I didn't get to see it live, but yeah, it's all set up. I got that part figured out, that was the hard part for me because I'm old. Yeah, I had to love on Friday's edition of SmackDown that they finally started like airing multiple vignettes on how to watch on ESPN. Like, they chose 24 hours before the pay-per-view to address this, so clearly fans are having a tough time. I must say, Dr. Tre, cleaner, smoother app than P-Cock by far. I like you watched it on Replay. I actually watched a little bit of it delayed while it was airing live, and I love the resume, or start from the beginning feature, which P-Cock doesn't have.

2:57 You could blow right through the three and three minutes and 30 seconds of commercial breaks, which is the weirdest. Like, it's just, WrestlePolusa is in a commercial break for three minutes and 30 seconds, I guess they need to sell some ads, which was odd. At least that's how it looked on my screen, but it was a much cleaner, smoother app than P-Cock, so thumbs up all around for me, Dr. Tre. Yeah, I enjoyed it. Once I got everything set up, now mind you, the difficult part was, and I didn't know this, it was that we actually had a Hulu account. So we had to go, and you can't just upgrade straight from Hulu to the new one, so we had to cancel the Hulu, and then switch over to Disney+ to then sign up for everything.

3:45 So that, wife was not thrilled with that, because she was in charge of switching everything over, but yeah, the app itself, it's cleaner, it's neater, like it has some of the features that you talk like, you know, I love play from beginning. That's always been one of my favorite things, because like you said, we have things going on, we can't, you know, make sure we're home at that set time, but we can jump on 30 minutes later and hour later, and go right through it, and then speed through the commercials. Like, Roku has that, I watched a lot of stuff through, like, just my Roku app, and, you know, you'd be watching like a dedicated channel, but they haven't sold commercial space for yet. And it just says like show resume in like three minutes and 10 seconds, and there's a countdown, and you're like crap, I kind of wish we had a commercial right here.

4:32 I'm just staring at a blank screen. It's a little weird, but at least with the SPM one, you know, if you're starting from the beginning and you're like an hour delay, you can kind of almost catch up live by the end, just kind of forwarding through those breaks and catch right back up. So it is a really cool, nice neat app. I'm waiting to see where, when they announce where the rest of the content is going to go. I'll be a little more interested to see if ESPN gets it or if it's just going to be on the YouTube catalog library. But so far, so good. I'm much better ESPN debut than probably the Netflix debut. Ooh, interesting, interesting thoughts there doctor. I didn't think it was a much cleaner app than anything that they've been on so far. Real quick for our listeners and for you as well, Dr. Tray going about the continue watching for WWE PLEs.

5:21 I don't know if anybody else had this issue with peacock, but anytime I've watched the WWE PL in the last year, it's very rare that I watch it live nowadays, especially with a one year old. And if I'm watching it in piecemeal and I watch like the first hour, I'm like, all right, this is a good spot to pause. I'll turn it off, go do some errands and I'll come back a couple hours later watch. If I go to continue watching and hit resume, it immediately starts from the beginning of the show. I don't know if that's just a Jeff issue or if that's across the board. Are you experienced then as well? It happened to me a few times recently, and then you're like, and then I had it because I don't know how your direct TV app or remote works, but on the Roku app, because I have the Roku Smart TV, it's tricky to hit the fast forward button to get to a certain spot.

6:12 Like you have to press it and then make sure you don't press it too much, you make sure you don't hold it because it will start skipping around. So yeah, it's kind of a, but it does that peacock does that with other TV shows that I stream on there as well, not just the WWE stuff. I was watching scrubs and then I'd jump into like season three episode 16 and kick it all the way back to the beginning and I'm like, I already saw this. I don't need this part just take me back to where I left off or just go back 30 seconds from where I left off just to refresh the memory. So yeah, it's it's I am kind of glad that the WWE is finally fully getting off the cock. Yes, yes, it's a one last time, fuck you, peacock. But I guess it'll be NXT No Mercy will be on at this Saturday.

7:01 So it still has a couple more months for the time being to screw us over. All right, let's get to wrestle, Palozo recap review started off here with the first match, the match that kicked off the ESPN, airdoctratry. It was Brock Lesnar defeating John Cena, you and I had both had John Cena this one fast heart hitting opener, Cena landed three attitude adjustments, but it could have keep Lesnar down. Lesnar absorbed the offense counter with multiple F5s and scored the decisive pin post match chaos with Lesnar attacking both Cena and then I've recapped a brutal statement when Dr. Trey, the ebbs in flosam on relationship with Brock Lesnar matches is something else. I did not like this match at all. It was a standard stereotypical Brock Lesnar match, did not enjoy it, your thoughts, Lesnar defeat Cena in a squash match.

7:47 Is this the first bad match of the John Cena retirement toward it? It's not even his fault. This is just standard Brock versus big guy match. I like Brock when he wrestles the little guys, the little guys seem to have a little more, get a little bit more out of Brock, but these big, you know, Brock versus any big guy, it's usually like, we're just gonna throw bombs and hey, he makes us until one guy doesn't get up. And, you know, it was just weird because, and in part of his also, we didn't know what the future plan for Brock was. If this is a one off thing or if Brock's gonna be back around for a while, so I guess it's the rebuild of the beast, but yeah, I didn't enjoy the match. I will say, how the hell does Brock get bigger every time I see him?

8:34 It just looks more massive every time he shows back up and it's because we kind of forget how big he really is, but I mean, Cena is not a small guy, but Brock dwarfs him in the ring. Yeah, he, I think it was a Corey Draves, maybe Wade Barrett said it before Corey Draves got laid out on Friday, SmackDown. No, I think it was Wade Barrett. Wade said the same thing. He's like, he somehow looks bigger than I've seen him look in recent memory. And, yeah, and he's getting older too. Yeah, the crazy thing is even like before Cena made his entrance, you see Brock running the ropes and all the pictures like, okay, we talk about how fast Braun Breaker is.

9:15 That was Brock kind of like three-quarter running and he looked almost as fast as Braun Breaker does. Like he was, I mean, that's why I think the line, McAfee says, like, look at that ape in the ring. Like he is the closest thing, like, to an orangutan, like, I've ever said, like, you know, they had to think, oh, a few months back, like, a thousand people versus one gorilla who would win. I, I, I almost want to say like a thousand girls versus Brock. Like, he's just, he's just massive and he shows no sign of really slowing down or getting punchy. I mean, he's what is mid 40. I know he's the same age as John Cena, which only makes him about four months. I thought he's two months younger than Cena.

9:56 I thought Lesnar is 48. Yeah, him and Cena are the same age, but two months apart. Funny, I just say this quick, because we obviously have a lot of ground to cover, but when we were younger, Dr. Train, WCW was beating a shit out of WWE. WWE did those like, they were old vignettes. That WCW was filled with old people. And Hogan, Flair and Savage were like 45 years old. Yeah. Yeah, they're all young, they're all younger. They were, I mean, even LA, I mean, LA nights in his 40s, punks in his 40s, sets getting close to 40. Cena, Lesnar, like all those guys, they're all in the AJ. They're all in their mid 40s now.

10:37 So it's just a testament to how far nutrition is advanced in 30 years, but also like some of these athletes are just freaks of, I don't know if we'll ever see. Maybe, maybe, maybe Oba, Femi, like, might be the only person I can see right now that might still look like he looks at Brock's age. Very true, very true. So there you go. Brock Liza defeats John Cena at WrestlePelosa. Next match here is Bronson Reed and Bronn Breaker defeating the Usos. I had the Usos, Dr. Train, I had the Bronn Breons match broke down quickly into a weapons having Brawl. A suicide dive accidentally wiped out LA night. He was a special guest for a free trade in more chaos. Breakers speared both the Usos through a table, read followed with a crushing tsunami to seal the victory.

11:17 The vision's dominant win signals a major new force in WWE's tag team division. Dr. Train your thoughts as the Bronn runs the Feet the Usos. Yeah, it was a weird match because at first nobody want nobody could cheat because LA night, you know, told, I think it was Bronson Reed not don't get the chair, but then he left the Usos using the chair. And what letting us a table and then we could use the tables. J. Usos splitting open his own head. Like I had Cody Rhodes running into the wall flashbacks. But yeah, it's it's this is kind of why I thought it was going to be like this is a way for to really get the the Bronn Breons over as a legitimate tag team threat by taking down the Usos.

11:57 Because they've been kind of the fall guys for this whole division like they would do the beat downs, but then lose the match. At least now they have a really strong credible win over the Usos that kind of have that home that benchmark point in their tag team run here. Dr. Train, I don't know when we'll be able to talk about this, but there's been a lot of stuff with the character development with J. Usos. That's really intriguing right now. Do you think he is slowly turning heal? I think they're testing the waters. Like I mean, we saw that I mean how I mean how long do we have the new day teasing turning heal before they finally did almost two years or they tease the break up never did. We see with the profits they'll test the waters every now and then just to see how the how the crowd reacts to it.

12:42 But I mean, I mean the guy still sells more merch than just anybody else. I just don't see why you would hold it. I am more likely to see them turn LA night heal before they turn J. Usos. Yeah, it's a really intriguing stuff like who is he on the phone with if you go back and you watch the second with him and Cody from raw this past Monday. He's staring at the title. The entire time or back and forth. He's he's boss around his brother Jimmy. It's it's interesting which the direction is of the J. Usos character. So something to keep an eye on here in the final couple months of 2025 next match here is Stephanie Valkour defeating EO Sky to win the vacant women's world championship. We both had 70 Vaacour in this one. It was a high energy back and forth chip about Sky looked poised to win after a late rallying the Mune Salt attempt.

13:26 Valkour Dodge the Mune Salt and immediately hit the spiral tap which was absolutely perfect for the three count. Yeah, Valkour captures the vacant women's world title marking a breakout moment in a WWE career. Dr. Trey she debuted at the end of 2024 this year alone. She's won the NXT women's championship the NXT North American championship. She's now won the women's world championship. If you go back to her signing and Julia signing I would have pegged Julia to have a more successful career early on in WWE than she has is she like the breakout star professional wrestling in 2025. Is she the women's wrestler of the year for 2025? Your thoughts on this match and the past year for Stephanie Valkour.

14:10 Yeah, the match itself I love the match. It started off kind of wonky and maybe it's a little bit of a language barrier and I really hate those weird Japanese uppercut that Kyrie and EO like to throw. But then the match really got going fantastic match. One of the best spiral taps I've seen since AJ really made it popular and definitely the best one I've ever seen a woman throw. That was spot on. Breakthrough star. Yeah, I think she's right now. I don't know how close it is. We heard anybody else. She's definitely the breakout star and she's in the running for top two, top three for women or female wrestler of the year.

14:53 Like she's just had an incredibly I think the other is in Julia's got hell back was that injury and it kind of when somebody gets hurt early on in the WWE career they kind of throw some flags up on it and they kind of slow the push down. Stephanie's been drove not to mention she wrestled what Mercedes Monet like a month before she signed with WWE. So like I don't know anybody most had a better year or a better what 14 or 14 months in Stephanie Valkour. Yeah, it's been amazing. I think she's still chasing Tony Storm right now in my opinion for women's wrestler of the year, but wow, what a year she's had. I mean three different championships across two brands and a breakout year. I mean she has been phenomenal. There was a rookie of the year for WWE. I think she would be the rookie of the year. So unless they bring the slammonds back she would be that choice there.

15:40 Next match here is CM Punk and AJ Lee. Well, I guess we should before we get to that doctorate real quick, Asuka and Kyrie saying turning on EO Sky at the close of raw on Monday, not a surprise here. This is why we went with Stephanie Valkour in this match. Yeah, we will. I thought they'd get interfere in the match but instead the post the post match, which I'm not surprised. We kind of saw it was this Oscar return that it was going to try it was trending this way. Plus there wasn't a lot of after Naomi's injury. There wasn't a lot of depth on the heel side on the women's division on raw. So it made a lot of sense. Plus EO's obviously I think EO's just everybody loves Asuka. It's almost like that. Miz fan respect thing, but everybody loves EO and nobody I might be the minor I love heel EO, but everybody else loves baby face EO because she's crazy and she's fun. So it made a lot of sense and makes good sense for the long term booking of the show as well.

16:38 All right. Now let's get to the next next match here as CM Punk and AJ Lee defeat Seth wrongs and Becky Lynch in a mixed acting match. I had Seth wrongs and Becky Lynch doctor. I had CM Punk and AJ Lee. You could tell AJ Lee was a bit rusty in this and rightfully so after being away for 10 years. It did felt like Becky Lynch and Seth really helped her out a lot in this one. There were some slow moving strikes and moves from AJ Lee that felt a little off, but she's been away for 10 years. Give her break. All four competitors delivered a lively story driven contest with plenty of your falls and counters finished came when AJ trapped Becky in the black widow submission for the tap out giving her and punk a traffic return win. Dr. Trae your thoughts here on the mixed tag team match victory for CM Punk and AJ Lee.

17:23 Maybe it's my punk AJ fandom kicking in here, but this is one of the best mixed tag matches I've seen, especially from WWE because they were always very, very much like the women don't touch the men, the men don't touch the women and seeing them all interact with each other. I made it really enjoyable. I really enjoyed the match. I thought it was smart to me. It was a smart move to let AJ and punk get the win. AJ gets her return flowers. But yeah, overall I actually really enjoyed this match. I don't know if other people didn't, but I thought it was really, really fun. Yeah, it was a very fun match and yeah, I mean, it's just a bit rusty for AJ Lee, which is completely understandable when you're gone for 10 years.

18:08 Next match here is Cody Rhodes defeating Drew McIntyre in the main event to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship. We both had Cody Rhodes in this one. It was a physical physical dramatic main event with several momentum swings. McIntyre hit heavy offense, including white noise and multiple Claymore attempts. A Miss Claymore on the outstable injured McIntyre's leg and shifted momentum. And then, the Rhodes capitalized with a Cody cutter and a crossroads for retaining Undisputed WWE Championship and closed the show standing tall. It was a very standard match, Dr. Trey, your thoughts as Cody Rhodes retained in one. Yeah, hello, I mean, we mentioned earlier, like the Brock scene matches a typical Brock match. This continues like a typical Cody match.

18:48 Like, you know, sell, sell, sell, get some offense, getting danger, a couple false finishes, then go the dramatic weird thing to cause the finish. So, yeah, it was kind of, not, it wasn't a bad match. It was just kind of your typical Cody match. My question, I brought up in last week's show, like with Drew losing this match, can you still take him serious as a world title challenger? Like, is he now what Kevin Owens was for four years where he's a top main event guy, but you just don't expect him to get the title anytime soon? Yeah, that's kind of where I see Drew at now. Yeah, I think that's a great question. I mean, I would not have put Drew in this spot.

19:29 I know that there were some reports circulating afterwards that I think there were pitches from Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre for Drew to win and have Randy Orton cause the loss by accident. And that would lead to an eventual heel turn for Randy Orton and set up a match between Randy and Cody Rhodes, which tells me if they're talking about that now, that may be something that they're executing on towards the end of this year, early next year, which makes a ton of sense because they've been teasing it for what feels like 18 months since Randy Orton came back from the back injury that signed on for about two years or so. I would not have put Drew in that spot. If this was a Smackdown television match, I'd be like, alright, that was a good match. That's a really good television match.

20:12 But for a PLE when you expect something, especially with Triple H going to this where he's like, this is going to be a big show, expect surprises. And the only surprise was like Stephanie McMahon being announced for the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame, which we could talk about briefly here, which was a nice surprise. It just kind of, it was a good solid match that ended up, ended up a plan show to me, Dr. Trey. I just, I wouldn't have done it the way that WWE did ultimately. It was just a safe show. Yeah, I mean, they hyped it up like it was going to be really crazy. WrestleMania rising. They were comparing it to a WrestleMania-like event. And being your typical B level pay-per-view. I would even say worse than that because I'd go back to the intro when I said, would you rate me or USC, ESPN.com rated the show as C.

21:06 And you've aired on ESPN. What the freak is that about? >> It's journalist being too honest, man. You gotta tell this is a copy of mine, brother, you gotta give him a B minus. But I mean, it was a great balls of fire pay-per-view. I mean, to me, that's the level it's on. I mean, they did it in the funny part, I don't know if you thought about this. They didn't even acknowledge that they stole the name from ECW. This was an ECW pay-per-view on and off back in the 90s. And I was like, all right, you're giving it a 90 sounding name. And it's on ESPN, but there's really nothing on, like outside of AJ Lee's return, there was really nothing that I was like, man, I have to see this.

21:49 >> Lesnar Cena didn't have to see it. Like, I was just like- >> Fair, but I think if the result was different, I think people would be happier with the show. >> Yeah, I mean, I've seen it in one, we got Stephanie's win, but when you have Lesnar and the Braun bronze win, like, you know, it's gonna put people are gonna be a little upset about that because everybody loves the Usos and everybody loves Cena. It's your two big, it's arguably two of your three biggest baby faces losing on a pay-per-view out of five matches. >> Do you know what this show was to me, Dr. Trey? This was a table-setter show, like top to bottom. There was no closure.

22:30 This was just a table-setter for something down the line. Like, Lesnar Cena, I think people are making a case that that could be the retirement match in December. And Cena finally gets his come-up, it's like, that's what it felt like. Like, they can't end it like this, right? Braun-Bron versus the Usos, it was like a table-setter for what's going on with Jusso? Is he turning heal? What's, is he just getting an edge? What's the deal there? What's Jimmy and his relationship like because it's a little bit rocky? Vakor and Eo was probably the only match that was, this is the closure because they're gonna go in separate directions, but there was no like strong build-up leading into it. CM Punk, AJ Lee, defeating Rollins and Becky Lynch, that's a table-setter for what I've presumed to be AJ Lee versus Becky Lynch down the line, and a CM Punk versus Seth Rollins match down the line.

23:19 And then lastly, the main event match, I think that's a table-setter for a future like Triple Threat match with Raine New Ordn and Walt. It just felt like the most ultimate table-setter pay-per-view or PLI have seen in some time from any wrestling promotion. It felt like an aired-up, it felt like Saturday to main event inflatable. Yeah. They put all the pop and circumstances behind it, but there wasn't much really, there wasn't much depth to it. Like once you've bloomed a hole in it, the air went out. Yeah, now totally agree. And then before we get to ratings and reviews here of our matches, favorite match of the 90th event and rating, thought on Stephanie McMahon's announcement going into the Hall of Fame. I mean, first off, extremely well-deserved. She's a classic of an amazing air-up professional wrestling, a great heel character.

24:08 I thought it was very deserving, Dr. Trey. I like how they did, too. Like they've been doing these little sneaky inductions like we saw with Michelle McCool, we saw with Triple H, and now we're seeing Stephanie. I think it's really cool. Totally caught her off guard. You could tell like a lot of that reaction was sincere. So yeah, she's really, really deserving of it. Univerously beloved by everybody who works in WWE. I haven't heard anybody who's worked for WWE, saying bad about Steph. I've heard about every other McMahon Helmsly person in there, but never about Steph. So, crazy thing is, if you go back to 1997, 1998, and 20-year-old me is talking to 12-year-old you, and I'm like out of all the big man's, who's going in the Hall of Fame first?

25:01 I don't think either one was with said Steph. Yeah, that is true. It's certainly one that had been and who knows when Vince or Shane ever will be at any point. So, congratulations, Stephanie McMahon, it was a very nice moment and you could tell it was very genuine and I guess the word on the straight-up birthday is coming up or has already happened. She thought it was going to be a birthday segment, like undertakers coming out there saying happy birthday to her, and then it led to her being an out of the Hall of Fame. So, that was the one and only surprise I thought from Russell Police. Hey, smart move by Triple H because now he doesn't have to buy big expensive pieces of jewelry. True, very, very expensive. It's like your birthday present. I got you in the Hall of Fame, Steph. G's, what else do you want from me?

25:41 In our anniversary as well, so. All right, event rating match of the night. I'll go first here, Dr. Trey. I gave it a 3.6. I think it's the worst WWE PLEI have seen this year. My match of the night was Stephanie Vaughl, versus the O Sky. Man, I can't, I was actually at 3.5. I had it a little bit lower than you and I actually liked two of the matches. But, yeah, there was nothing to remember, nothing to write. Other than AJ's return, Stephanie waiting the title. Like, there really wasn't a whole lot to remember about it. My match night also, that was EO and Stephanie Vaughl. I like after that match, I'm like, it's going to be hard for anybody to top this. They killed it. That was one of the best wins matches I've seen all year.

26:21 I went two and three on the show, Dr. Trey went four and one, Dr. Trey is leading the 2025 Pay-Porture Prediction right now, 53 and 16. I am 51 and 18. Let's get next to AW All Out recap, which was this past Saturday from Scotia Baker Arena in Toronto, Ontario. Canada, Dr. Trey. I'll go quickly through the card here, and then we'll kind of recap our thoughts on the show. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage defeated FTR. Eddie Kinks and returned to defeated Big Bill. Mark Bursk had defeated MJF in a tables and tax match. The demand ricocheting gates of agony defeated the Hertz Syndicate. Mercedes won a defeated Rio to retain the AW TVS championship. Cosicco, Coddafeed, the Conewski, Tikeshka, and Masquerade, D'Aurada to retain the AW unified championship in a three-way match.

27:06 John Mochley defeated Darby, Alan McAuffin match. Chris Stattlander defeated Thomas Storm, Jamie Haider and Tecla in a four-way to become the new AW Women's World Champion. Brodyta defeated the Young Box Jet Speed in Hetch and Sarah on Josh Alexander in a four-way ladder match to retain the AW World Tag Team Championship. Then we saw the return of one of my favorite tag teams of all time in dethrasic express. And then lastly, Hangman and a page defeated Kyle Fletcher to retain the AW World Championship. Dr. Trey, your thoughts on AW All Out 2025? Yeah, I mean, I thought it was better than Russell Balluza. I'll give him that. There are still some things in there that I didn't like, some major misses, some things like that.

27:46 But overall, I would say probably what he lists it all like nine matches. I thought six, seven of them were really good matches. So just a really, really strong card for All Out. Kyle Fletcher, he's on the level. He surprised me. He performed really, really well on the main event. Carried the weight of that. The FTR spike pile driver on Beth was crazy. A poor Beth. Seriously, maybe the amount of abuse she's taken over the last four years in ring for being married to Edge. That might be grounds for divorce. I mean, between the concerto from Judgment Day and now a spike pile driver from FTR.

28:29 I would literally just consider like an in-a-verse. That's just too much. But yeah, I go for it. I thought it was a really, really enjoyable show. But yeah, I mean, if I was grading, I'd say 3.9, 4.0. So I thought it was better than Balluza. Yeah, totally great. I thought it was much better than Russell Balluza as well. I think the biggest shock of the night, Dr. Trey, was Chris Talley and her become the AW Women's World Champion. I think it's long overdue, but I just was surprised it finally happened because I thought they were going to keep that title on time with Tony Storm for like a full year plus. But if you remember, if you go back to last week's show, I said it's a full way match to get the belt off Tony Storm. That's a great point. Yep.

29:09 Because Tony can now chase the belt or Tony can get cycled off into the fecla, Julia Hart, Sky Blue Stuff. Let's standland or have a little run and then circle back to get Tony. Or you make Tony go crazy and be a heal again, but there's things to do with that. So I also, I did not think that she would lose the belt before Mercedes-Monae lost the TBS belt. That was like the fact that Monet is still the TBS champion. Like that's how you build something, but that's also how I think that you get the belt off Mercedes and have Mercedes go out for statling. Dr. Sherry, one of those controversial figures in the history of this podcast just because we kind of shed on them all the time is one jungle boy Jack Perry.

29:51 He returned. He returned as a baby face and he returned aligned with luchasaurus to bring back the Jurassic Express. I like the move. I'm surprised he came back as a baby face. I actually felt like that fans want to cheer on the young bucks and this current character change for them. And surprise that Jurassic Express got to back together. So overall thoughts here was the single run for Jack Perry a failure. Are you surprised he's back as a baby face because despite me not believing in him. I actually thought he was much better as a heal. Yeah, he was much better as a heal. I thought if you brought him back like I don't it's hard to bring back the character of luchasaurus as an actual heal character because people wanted cheer him off.

30:39 Like nobody else is out there wrestling in a freaking dinosaur mask, especially his seven foot tall and his agile is he is so I think he's kind of a natural baby face but you're right like I think everybody wants to hate Jack Perry and Blue Jack Perry so it's kind of hard to make him a baby face. Especially with all the his like the smart fans know the shit that sorry the stuff that went on between C. M. Punk and Jack Perry is not a piece show it's fine doctor. Everybody loves C. M. Punk so it's hard to also love Jack Perry and the thing with the bucks now I feel like they're almost at homeless baron carbon level where now you're like, all right, we're like, hey guys the jokes go like now we kind of want to cheer for them and see them overcome all this crap.

31:27 It's just a question of how they pull it off but it is weird like I don't hate the bucks but I do dislike Jack Perry's character but I like luchasaurus more than all three of them. So it's like I don't know who to really cheer on and all this I did like taking the kill switch name off of him and just going back to luchasaurus. That was the highlight of is just getting back to the straight luchasaurus. Yeah, I thought it was an interesting move that they went that direction just kind of feels like that maybe they felt like you know you're seeing this a little bit more lately with like the acclaimed and now you're seeing with the Jurassic Express reunited that AW maybe you know acknowledging that splitting up some of those popular teams was not the right move ultimately for the company.

32:13 Yeah, but then you get a team like brodito. Yeah, it's like wait, huh? We just took two random guys paired him up and people like him but yeah and I said this you know when they did all split some like why are you breaking up teams unless you have a plan for one of those guys who get even bigger than they are in the title and I think that's what they had in mind when they split up Jack Perry and luchasaurus they were going to make one of those two guys even bigger star. Oh, I know. The bowenscaster thing with the acclaimed was like I never saw either guy as like a main event talent like that like but in they were so popular as a tag team that it didn't make sense to break them up.

32:58 You know, it's kind of like it's not in the comparable to when they broke up bubble ray and D. Vana made D. Vana reverent like these guys were the most popular act in AW and then they're like yeah we didn't really book him that well. We didn't book him that strong and now we're going to break him up and it made zero sense and then to have Jerry Lynn be the reason why they got back together and not Billy gun. I'm like okay, like so what do you do with Billy gun now? You're taking back the Austin and Colton. They come back. I don't know what they do. Well, the booking of like the acclaim was just a very, very odd. I mean, yeah, that was just very odd. What they did with those two guys, especially like Max Castor being like this ultimate heel. That or excuse me, this ultimate job or like that just made no sense to me at all.

33:42 Max Castor's the modern the Gen Z Barry Horowitz. That was a great idea. Yeah. But it's also like but we've seen them do that like some like a tie team starts doing really well and then they don't pull the trigger at the right time. We've seen it with the acclaim. We just saw it like in the last year with the outrunners. You know, it's like we're not pulling the trigger when it's hot and they will pull it three or four months later when it's cooled off and then it doesn't make sense. You pull a trigger like out of nowhere like I like Brodito. I think they're good, but I didn't expect them to be like I would have I think the popularity of the outrunners from like a summer ago compared to Brodito.

34:24 You would have said, Oh my God, the outrunners are going to be tight team champions with Brodito. It's like probably the it was kind of the opinion was kind of out on them still like could they be something is this a long term act. What type of act is it? So it's just odd and that's still some of the flaws of the creative booking of AW still there as you pointed out with some of the stuff that you just said there is well doctor try. Definitely got a lot better, but yeah, there's still some holes there. So AW all out 2025 in the books a very, very strong show and I would agree with Dr. Dre saying that it was a better show than Russell Pelluza this past Saturday night. Let's get to PWI men's top 500 list Dr. Dre. This is something that we annually do is look at the top 10 list that was released.

35:10 Let's start from 10 to one number 10 is Will Osprey number nine Mystico number eight Seth wrong sevens for Strickland six Jusso five Rokey go to four hangman on page three Gunther two John Moxley one is Cody Rhodes. Cody Rhodes is the fourth wrestler in history to place number one in the PWI 500 back to back years joining Bret Hart in 93 94 Steve Austin 98 99 and John Cena in 2006 2007. Dr. Dre your thoughts down the top 10 list for the men's top 500 list from PWI. Yeah, I mean there are arguments to be made about it, you know, good and bad, but overall I don't have maybe as big an issue with it this year as I've had in past like go to be number four.

35:55 I don't know much about a Rokey go to for me. They really judge that. Mystico in my head. I can't separate Mystico now for Mystico and WWE and the matches I've seen them in. This year haven't always been great, but if you're going off win loss record, he's way up there. Good as he Jusso in the top 10 like I think he had a really big year. Gunther number three. I don't have a problem with so overall like top 10 wise I'm pretty solid with it. I might have had Osprey up ahead of Mystico like maybe around seven. You know banged up every now and then but overall top 10 I don't have as big an issue as maybe it's had in years past.

36:37 I wouldn't have had moxley number two. I feel like hangman on page for Strickland and will Osprey from the A to B side of the top 10 had better years than moxley. Well, I think I think moxley gets graded down because of how boring the death writers angles. But if you look at like win loss record the guy had a phenomenal year he already lost the entire year. So it's kind of it's one of these like are you grading on win loss? Are you grading on appeal? And that's why like you get subjective at times like Swurve and hangman all had great you know overall years but then moxley had the belt for what nine of the 12 months. So it's kind of hard to fall to guy who was the UW world champion for nine months at least of the year to not be number two.

37:24 So I it's yeah I think the death writer's side of it is what makes people go moxley should have been lower because a lot of it was kind of the Roman reign stuff where it's like okay there's going to be interference and then he's going to win. And it's a lot of the same knock that Roman had during the bloodline run that fans were giving that the matches were kind of boring and repetitive. But I mean the guy did like you know all these crazy ass death match versions of world title matches and bleed all the place and then hold the title for nine months. Why I get why they put it kind of high but yeah like from crowd appeal and mass appeal would I probably put Swurve and hangman above them. Yeah but the guy held the belt for nine months.

38:06 So you got the P.W.I. men's top 500 list has been released going over the top 10 like we typically do each and every year on SRTU. There was some big news that was announced just a couple hours ago Dr. Trey when AJ Styles casually announced that he will be retiring in 2026 during an interview with Tokyo sports AJ Styles said he will retire in 2026 and will likely be working in WWE afterwards saying quote I'll probably be at WrestleMania next April Las Vegas but that's not locked in the details aren't decided yet but there's no doubt I'll retire sometime next year. I don't want the fans to see me as anyone other than AJ Styles that's the biggest reason before my body stops working I've decided to retire.

38:47 I haven't figured it out yet what he'll do after wrestling but most likely I'll be working in WWE maybe help develop young or talent into main roster stars but I don't know for sure yet. Just random massive retirement announcement Dr. Trey from AJ Styles in an interview with Tokyo sports earlier this week confirmed crown jewel in Perth Australia it'll be John Cena versus AJ Styles in a match which is going to be amazing which is going to be phenomenal but I mean this is a guy that for the last 25 26 years has been one of the best wrestlers on the planet and just casually announces this retirement. I've had a feeling this is going to be this way for some time there were rumors before as a kill his injury when he just came back from injury on Smackdown that there was going to be like a retirement or then he was gone for a little bit and then has been kind of intermittent since then that this is going to be the direction at some point in that AJ Styles contract was going to be coming up that he was exploring looking at conventions potentially other wrestling organizations independence what have you but here he is saying next year he is going to retire.

39:52 And he's most likely to continue and stay with WWE working in some sort of capacity your thoughts here Dr. Trey because you are the standard TNA guy on the show and there is no more TNA in my opinion than AJ Styles is. Yeah it's it's you know you're telling I'm finding out about this right now because I didn't I didn't look at anything since I picked up Sammy from school today so I this is brand new information so I'm kind of digesting it and I'm in you know connecting some data. You know connecting some dots but you know AJ said for about a year or two now that like you know he didn't he never want to get to a point where he couldn't do what AJ does and I think he feels like it's getting to that point even though he's still having great matches and and everything else you know he said before like he can't really do the spiral tap anymore there's a few moves in his arsenal body wise he just can't do anymore I think he wants to kind of make sure he ends on a high note I think that this I think that this is going to be a good thing to do.

40:50 I think that this is why I think the the crown jewel Perth match kind of came out of nowhere is that he probably let the upper management know like hey this will probably be my last year because if this match was already on the John Cena tour John sees not doing the style splash and paying homage to AJ the milvo smack down match with Sammy Zane so I think this is kind of like John's way of saying hey if I'm going out and you're going out let's do it one more time and we'll do it you know and crown jewel. At crown jewel but yeah it's I'm looking at like the performance center in 2027 and potentially people can learn from AJ styles and Shawn Michaels at the same time like that's insane to me like to the most athletically gifted pro wrestlers of my lifetime teaching the next generation coming up will be fantastic and that's the way it goes.

41:47 Yeah it sucks on on wrestling is he's one of once again one of the most likeable guys and most humble guys in professional wrestling so I hope they look I'm hoping it gets one more title run in there before before he gets out I don't think it will happen but I I love seeing AJ styles and it'll be a shame that 2027 rolls around we won't see him in the ring. Yeah it's it's amazing that this is just like casually said I know earlier to Tokyo sports yeah like I don't know that was a thing until you mentioned their name like it's not you didn't mention to ESPS not bleach your pores not one of the kind of affiliated.

42:29 You know representations of sporting news when it comes to W of US it's the Tokyo it's like just randomly dropped like I don't know if it was the other like promoted bullet club gear they might still get like 2% off the cut and happened to drop the line I don't know how that plays out. Yeah I mean it's it's massive news I mean out early on the show we said Stephanie man will be inducted in the W Hall of Fame next year doctor I think this is the next name that you put in that group of the class of 2026 and AJ styles. Do you put in man in 26 or do you have me the headliner in 27. I think you put him in 26 I think you do the right stereo treatment even though Ray didn't retire I think you give him like yes he's still active like given that honor I think he.

43:14 I mean at this point I mean I think the way that they're doing things I don't know if there's a headliner anymore. Yeah that's true I'm wondering though because I mean you've watched a couple of the triple A you know WWE crosswear shows raised like the unofficial ambassador of WWE Triple A this this this AJ get that role with WWE TNA do we start seeing AJ in 27 as like the on screen general manager of TNA. I'm just kind of fantasy booking like if he doesn't want to go be a trainer if he still wants to kind of be around the life product is that a way to position AJ but yeah if they haven't going into 26 I just Stephanie out shine AJ.

43:58 Probably in a WWE spotlight as much as it paid me to say that is a pure wrestling fan in a WWE spotlight yet. But yeah unless you don't unless unless you're like I don't know how far out they plan the hall of fame but like if you don't have anybody for 27 let AJ retire in 26 and then put him in 27. I got a look at this up real quick here because I actually think AJ styles may have more years in WWE now than he did in TNA. Let's see so he started TNA in oh one yeah so on through what twenty thirteen twenty fourteen I forgot he had that R.O.H. run for a little bit and then I had to stop so 2002 to 2014 so that's 12 years he was in TNA and then what he do 2016.

44:48 So almost ten years of WWE. Yeah which is wild so he'll do twelve years TNA ten years WWE. Which it be is retirement match not to try who should be as a final match. Oh god. Gallows and Anderson. I'll bring them back again. Yeah well if Jericho joins the company when Jericho and AJ be a good like a double retirement match. Who should be as who did you say. Well then we saw like Jericho coming back to WWE in twenty six. Oh I thought you were I was like Jericho's retiring and I was so confused about that. No no I was saying but like if if Jericho comes back in twenty six then by the end of twenty six you do a Jericho AJ.

45:31 Everybody retires match. I don't know. That's something you title it just everybody retires it's just everybody retires battle royal just everybody wants a retire. But that was I mean I'm trying to think of like who is like because you can't do scene in AJ because scene will be retired by them. Try to get like his major rivalries in WWE is like age or Cena, Shinsuke, Jericho. Try to think it who's still around. You could do it because unless you bring some of a Joe back. I think you bring I think it's Cazarian. I think you do Caz. It's gotta be it's gotta be his retirement match. It's gotta be a bound for glory then.

46:14 No they won't do that. They'd be awesome. I don't think they'll do that though. Alright so yeah if it's they WWE fans have no idea who Cazarian like the casual fans have no idea who Cazarian. Maybe AJ Shinsuke wouldn't be bad or AJ and Finn one last time. Ah you see that now the fans that know about Cazarian but they may they may know them. If you they didn't know them they may know them really soon so yeah AJ sells casual in houses he's retired next year. Speaking of Cazarian and WWE fans may you know figure out in new time who he is this past Tuesday. Dr. Try they started teasing and during the homecoming episode and they executed it on Tuesday. TNA wrestling invaded NXT to close the show.

46:58 BodySlam.net is reporting that sources are indicating to them that there have been discussions of a PLE or TV special involving both TNA and NXT which would be a throwback to the 2001 Invasion Paper View that WWE recently filed to trademark the name of. Dr. Try your thoughts on the NXT TNA Invasion Angle this past Tuesday and the potential this BNA PLE titled Invasion. Wasn't that your favorite paper view of all time? The most disappointing paper view of all time. Yes. Yeah. I've never been more excited for a paper view and been more let down than that paper view.

47:39 That is the God honest truth though. That is not something just for a podcast. That was that was I remember that paper that was like the you finally got a date with the prettiest girl you've ever seen and it was just the worst date ever. Yeah I can't believe this is happening and it was like Steve Austin versus Lash LaRue. It's like what? Oh my god. Elyick Skipper versus Undertaker. Like what do we do? We never we never got the rock versus who would do. Oh God. The rock versus the juice. That would be great. Yeah. But the juice is loose versus the do you smell of the rock is cooking? Anyway we're off track here. NXT TNA Invasion Angle. I thought the I thought the angle came off well.

48:22 It's really hard to do these things. They're they're very rarely done in X. Yeah like we just them cheer amount of people involved. I thought one of my favorite lines was I saw somebody say it was like watching. It was like watching FCW invade NXT because you're in the ring you're like hey there's a Matt Cardona and here's like half the guys in TNA were former WWE or NXT or FCW guys. It was kind of like watching you know 2012 and Vade 2026 or 25 so I'm excited for it because I mean seeing Matt Cardona in a WWE ring. That's pretty cool like getting Center Alexander back with stuff all the it's it's kind of a way to kind of in a sense see these guys come full circle.

49:10 And you know it's great for TNA it's more exposure for them. It's great for the young talents of NXT to work with some season some season vets on a big scale like we always get you know we always got excited when we saw like the WWE guys for the main roster come down to NXT. You know and work that worked those shows. This is a chance for these guys to really work with some season vets and on a big scale so I thought it was pretty well done and then the weird stare down it like Ricky says just casually strolling around everybody fighting to get to the NXT championship and then Oba family pops up like he's the undertaker in the Boneyard match in a sense.

49:50 Like I thought the angle at the end was really really well done. I guess my only thing here I love the angle to I think it's really cool I'm happy for TNA to be in this spot but as we've learned with the invasion angle from WWE back in 2001 what we've learned with a W's relationship with new Japan with their forbidden door stuff. It even a WWE's relationship with TNA in that in what 2020 2021 is it typically sides with one promotion organization over another and it's usually the one that is bigger stronger has the more financial power which in this case to be WWE. And I don't recall many invasion promotion war segments gimmicks that have worked out for the underdog and that's what concerns me here doctor try I don't want to see TNA get laid out I want to see them be on a competitive level for NXT it's going to be interesting to see how they execute this but that is a massive concern because this typically doesn't work out well for one promotion over another other when they do stuff like this.

50:54 Yeah and it's one of the things were we've seen it with other promotions doing like GCW versus somebody where they do like I think it was GCW CZW did across over or something like that where recently where it's like yes as long as you keep it balanced and it comes down like hey we're going to have seven matches and ends up being four to three thing of like when NXT came on for survivor series that one year. It was still kind of even across the board that's what you and I got super excited like oh NXT's a legitimate third brand and then Vince squashed it like four months later it to me the hard part is how do you balance us out where are all the fans cheering for the NXT guys because you have TNA baby faces you have NXT heels like how you balance that out and still get everybody in the same page to where like how do you balance that out.

51:45 To where like how do you boot Joe Henry you know how do you if if TNA is being presented as the invaders and they're the bad guys how do you present Mike Santana as a heel and then do TNA programming where he's a baby face like it's it's it's a little bit of a juggling act to kind of pull out we saw that with with the invasion angle because they were guy like there are people coming in from WCW that were always been you know fan favorites and then now you're trying to present them as the EAL and it just it didn't have it felt weird and funky and then you had guys crossing over for one side to the others like and this is just like like where does West lead is West least next year's he jumped to help out TNA is he it's just it's a hard story to kind of navigate but I think this has been in the works for about three to four months so I'm hoping they plan the storyline out to where it comes off way better because you guys remember triple age Shawn Michaels those guys are all kind of around the peripheral of the invasion angle and I'm sure they don't want a repeat of that old debacle yeah triple H was injured Shawn Michaels was not back to full time yet so yeah they were on the outside looking in but part of me is like listen and XC establish I'd love to see TNA if they're trying to make TNA legitimate number two to WWE and help them out then you have TNA get the victory or so something really to keep a close eye on as we see how this is gets played out and I'm sure we will see this storyline carry over to this Saturday as there will be NXT no mercy this Saturday from the FTL warm

53:23 or you'll in Fort Lauderdale Florida former hotbed a professional wrestling in the state of Fort Florida. Dr. Trey lots of good matches on this card you've got JV on Evans versus Josh Josh Briggs Jordan Grace versus Blake by Marona weaponized seal cage match Seoul Rooka versus Laney Reed as she defends her women's speed championship against Laney Reed Ethan Page defends the NXT North American Championship against Tavion Heights JC Jane defeat or excuse me defends the NXT women's championship against Lola vice and Oba Femmy defends the NXT championship for his versus Ricky Saints. Dr. Trey who are you looking forward to which matches are you looking forward to this and is there any bold prediction you have from the show.

54:04 So what's the girls name this wrestling solrooka lacy Laney Reed Laney Reed very very talented mind you. Yeah and I actually think she's gonna get the win. So because to me that's gonna be like the third like you're gonna have the women's title the North American title and the speed title kind of come in third. So it's a way to get the belt like it'll probably like Zarya accidentally cost all the match or something like that so that way it's not a clean finish. But you know somebody like like her like Laney Reed would be a good person to put that belt on help build her up so I'm looking forward to that one because I mean in plus you and I know like I love me some solrooka so go for that one. The Oba Femmy Ricky Saints matches in her to me because Saints got you lost the North American title to Ethan Page kind of lost that feud.

54:51 God is butt kicked by the other big the big muscle bound to from a LFG. Jasper Troy Jasper Troy you know beat his butt and now he's in the ring of Oba Femmy like do you put the NAC title and Ricky Saints because Oba might be moving up or does Ricky Saints become that guy that kind of is just like upper mid car upper level fodder for champions. I mean I'm kind of concerned for what they're doing Ricky Saints. I'm really excited for for JV on Evans and Josh Briggs because I think Briggs has dramatically improved the character the in-ring work in the last eight months like he's one of my favorite people to watch on NXT right now so I'm really looking forward to that one also.

55:34 Yeah people are legitimately disliking them which is hard to get. Yeah. I'm glad it's some serious hill heat reminds me of some of the Baron Corbin stuff there in the mid like 2015 2018 time frame in WWE. Yeah this is a pretty strong card a lot of good builds to this one and this has been one of the better builds for an NXT show in some time so this is going to be in Jovo one NXT no mercy this Saturday on peacock and Dr. Trenna be here next week to look back at the show and complain about the peacock app all here on next week's edition of SRT you with that said let's get a couple plugs and spots is either way you could support us at patreon.com/srtupodcas you get the show add free along with many more coming soon you can download the show every Thursday or Friday at realguymedie.com WrestleChat net on X and the still with a show feed on Apple Spotify review download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe as the algorithm is king for us to keep clean in the chart keep climbing the charts on those podcast platforms you can also individually on X or myself at SRT you Jeff and for Dr. Franklin D Dr. Dre and of course don't forget to follow show on X at SRT podcast with that being said what is going on in the world of Dr. Franklin this week you have me work as I was there were a start cleaning the charts and I'm like look I like I don't mind people subscribing to our Patreon page for money but I'm not cleaning not anything I'm just looking at the room that I'm in from our conversation pre-show where I have to clean up after my one year old once this gets all done well I'll tie in something at the end of the end of the day but like Jeff said you can follow me on X at the Dr. Trenna you can find me on Instagram and

57:08 Facebook Dr. Dre Franklin when you're on Facebook check out Rocketsy Championship Wrestling just had a big show this past Saturday so that videos up on the Facebook page and you also find it on YouTube just search out Rocketsy Championship Wrestling go out and support your local independent wrestling shows in Jeff this one is for you my spot is sponsored by Cinder blocks because I spent 15 minutes before the watching Sammy smash the most Cinder blocks just stray with a sledgehammer just crushing rocks for 15 minutes and my my two thoughts were like that's awesome he's having fun and then be crap now I have to clean these up because they're my yard my lawnmower won't run them over wow yeah you got to love it you got to absolutely love it and we have a future triple H on our hands folks there you go. So there you go thank you for downloading thank you for supporting the podcast thank you for joining us this week go out and support us even more patreon.com/srtupodcast that helps us out greatly for everybody that downloads the show each and every week and until next week for Dr. Dre Franklin I am Jeff Peck enjoy the weekend this has been the stirrula show.