Wrestling’s Mid-Year Checkpoint & Night of Champions Fallout! | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #803 – 07/03/25

0:00 It's still real to me, damn it! What up, you! Welcome, everybody! Welcome! So this week's the "Sto Real" show, Episode 803 for July 3rd, 2025. This is your WWE Night of Champions, Recap and Review Edition of S-R-T-U. I am one after the show "I Am Jeff Macken" joined every single week, but I was the one with Dr. Trey Franklin. Dr. Trey, you and I were reminiscing about the days where you had to buy a CD just to listen to one song, my friend.

0:44 Oh my god, and me, well I'm laughing because I'm like, I was waiting for you to call this the SATU podcast. He's still allergic to us podcast. Tell me about it. But yeah, we were talking off air, like, because my Spotify came on as we started recording the show and started playing some bad current rock songs in the background. And I was telling Jeff that, really, all I ever listened to is old WWE music, like Creed and Limp Biscuit, and those guys that he mentioned Kid Rock. And I said, "Yeah, I said we were in my car there, and I remember my wife's car, and it was playing her Spotify list."

1:25 And cocky by Kid Rock came on, and I looked around and went, "I bought this album because I heard that song." And I'm like, "Oh, it's a good album, this should be a good album." One song. There was only one decent song on that entire album, and I was like, "Thank God, I don't have to buy CDs to hear one song anymore." Now, I remember they played cocky by Kid Rock for I think a Royal Rumble. Yeah. Now, I'm going to guess to make it here. Let's see. Oh, one, I would say, "Oh, three, probably." I'm just guessing. It was released November 20th, 2001, according to Wikipedia. Now, the track listing here.

2:07 Now, there's another song on here. Actually, there's two other songs on here that I like. One that was also included in wrestling, and then another one that I don't work all was in wrestling. Oh, American bad ass, like American bad ass? No one on that? Nope. Nope. So the one that wasn't in wrestling was picture featuring Cheryl Crow. I like that song. I know that was a good song. The other one? Okay. I'll give you one more hint. It was featured in a WWE Desire video. Was that what they were calling them? Desire? I feel it was like the one where they did my sacrifice, and they used to do it with a bunch of wrestlers.

2:49 Yeah. And I think they did call it Desire. I think Desire is the right term for that. I think it was too. And the reason why they played this song, and did this WWE Desire, is because Vince McMahon was going to inject the NWO into the WWE. Wow. I don't know the songs on my head. Lonely Road of Faith. Man, I barely remember that song. Oh, man. And honestly, honestly, honestly, honestly. I literally just played that video recently in that WWE Desire for some reason. The only reason I remember cocky is because I was living in North Carolina. And I think I had just started dating my ex-wife at the time.

3:32 And I was feeling kind of proud of myself. And so that song came on. I was like, yeah. So, yeah, that's why I remember that song. Lonely Road of Faith. It's not a bad song. I just haven't thought of it in 20 years. Can you hear it, okay? Yeah. So it has a long intro. It's about a five minute song. Let me go right into it here. Does it ring a bell yet?

4:15 Yeah, I remember it. But I remember when I listened to that album, and you and I have talked about this at nauseam about, like, when it comes to our favorite rock bands and finding them when they're in the small venues and before they make it big. That album is when I knew Kid Rock had made it big. Because every song got kind of mellow. It was kind of like a little more on the sappy side. I went, oh, crap. Kid Rock is not angry anymore. And that's rock music is the best when the people are pissed off. And when they make their money, they get kind of sappy and a little reminiscent of the good old days and all those things. It's like, man, I don't care about your childhood. I don't care about this stuff.

4:55 By the way, picture, surprisingly enough, I'm always amazed. Picture is the lesser known of the songs about photos because Nickelback's photograph is way more well known. Oh, that's not the original though. Yeah, but picture is a better song. than Nickelback's photograph. Not even close. Not even close. I totally agree with you. So picture is a great song. So, yeah, I was right there with you. To this day, I still have a bunch of... If a song is played on WWE television than I like, it really goes on my Apple Music. I still do that. I definitely have WWE songs on my playlist.

5:35 But, yeah, reminiscent about the days where you'd have to go to, oh, God, where I lived. It was the Wiz, Circuit City, later Best Buy, to buy one album for like $13.99. That was the expensive ones. Some of the Deluxe Out CDs would be $17.99. Rareities? You could get a CD for like $9.99. It was always in that range. You would download an entire album to listen to one song. But I would say... If I was looking at the times where I was like, "Oh, man, I did not enjoy that album versus I did." I would say like 70% of the time did not enjoy the album, Dr. Trey. 30% of the time I did like the album because I know we were joking off air, but there was a limp biscuit albums that I've listened to front to back, speaking to WWE type stuff, plenty of different albums that I've listened to front to back, that these obscure songs are some of my favorites.

6:33 And you don't get that nowadays by having Spotify or Apple Music. No, and even then, they have the algorithms and all that stuff. They're like, "Oh, if you like this song, you might like this song in or nowhere close." And you're just like, "What?" I think my Spotify or Apple Music, I think it's on drugs. I think it's crazy, but I have a very serious question for you now because you said something that made me really concerned. You said, "If you hear a song on WWE and immediately goes on to your Spotify or Apple Music, how many Travis Scott and Sexy Red, what's the name, Sexy Red? What's the girl that was shaking her butt on the tour? Yeah, it was Sexy Red.

7:13 Yeah, how many of their songs have made it onto your playlist now? So, do I have any Travis Scott on my, I do not have Sexy Red. I could tell you that. There is nothing recent of Travis Scott. I want to say, I want to say, I do have a Travis Scott song on one of my, I have Sikha mode on one of my playlist, but that was way before WWE days. There's not many of recent music, and I think that just kind of shows how old I'm getting. But there's definitely been some times. I remember they did a song where it was, someone to do with the WWE network. And remember they did a video where all the wrestlers were pretending they were singing in an album in a studio?

7:57 I forget what the song was, but you can't get any more Apple Music, but that's a song that I added to my playlist. I remember adding the Miz and Morrison back in 2020 when they did "Hey, Yeah!" That was added. I think I still have Bayley's theme song on here. I had Sasha Banks' theme song on my "Sammy Zayn's Still There, The Usos." I don't know if that's still available on Apple Music anymore since they don't play it. Sometimes a pay-per-view or PLA has made it on there. It's been a while since that's happened, Dr. Trey. I got to give credit. So, rear-ripply is who got me into motionless and white.

8:38 I had never really heard of them before. Pertality came out, and I'm like, "Oh, they have about four or five songs I really like." Christian and CM Punker who got me into Kill Switch Engage. So, I found those guys out from that. I'll find stuff from other wrestlers' music tastes, but then there's other times, especially on the "Independency." For those of you guys who go to love "Independence" shows, the theme song kind of makes the wrestler. If you don't know them, you need that cool intro song, and then you'll see a guy come out and you're like, "This song does not match this person at all."

9:20 That's not even close. We've had some of those times in WWE where you hear a theme song, and you're like, "This doesn't really fit that guy." And then it'll change it up a little bit down the road. The great story of Glorious was for Shinsuke Nakamura, the AJ song was for "Gimme For James" to all of them. Some of those ones were like, "Yeah, I don't know if that would have worked, but it ended up working in the right direction down the road." Yeah, there's plenty of songs out there from WWE. I don't know if you'd have that open door. I mean, even living color, I saw a living color play in Disney World. I just so happened to be down there at the same time that they were performing in Epcot and Disney World for those who were Disney fans.

10:03 And I was super stoked, and I just wanted to hear "Colta Personality." And I did. And I was like, "Well, they have a couple others on that I enjoy." But that is certainly one, and there were people, there was less than five people sitting around in CM Punk T-shirts. And this is when he was with AEW. So it was a couple of years ago, which I thought was pretty rad. So yeah, going down memory lane when it comes to music here on SRTU, we have a lot to cover here. We'll recap and review night of champions. It's the halfway point of 2025, believe it or not. So we'll be looking at some of our nominees as we historically do, heading into the 4th of July weekend. But first, Dr. Trey, I have some huge news for us.

10:44 And this is something that you don't even know about, my friend. Yay! I'd like to shout out our very first Patreon member. Yay! Someone has-- Nope, it's not me, it's not you. Someone has dipped into their own personal finances to be part of our main event roll call here on patreon patreon.com/SRTUpodcast We cannot thank you enough for being part, being the very first member. Dr. Trey, do you want to take a guess at who this could possibly be? Um, there's like two people pop to mind. One, we haven't really talked about it on this show in quite a long time, and one is a person who used to message us quite a bit.

11:28 So it's either dars-- I'm going darsy or letharno. Like, those are my top two picks. Dr. Trey, you are correct. The very first Patreon member is dirty dog, Eric Darcy. We get them to come back-- Oh no, we Jeff, we have to do an entire-- We have to do a special Patreon of him singing "Boyfriend Again Now." We are definitely going to do something in the month of July here for the exclusives or start-- or definitely got to roll out for the Patreon members. So the more people who sign up, the more exclusives we can do. I saw that come in on, like, Sunday night, I want to say the email, and I just had the biggest smile on my face.

12:09 I was like, "Darsy is still out there." I cannot believe it. Huge props to Eric Darcy. If you are a long-time listener of the show, you know who exactly Eric Darcy is. We challenged him to sing "Boyfriend" by Justin Bieber. I actually think it's still on YouTube. And his prize was to do a show with us once he did it. I'm trying to see here. And I don't remember exactly what we covered because this was like 2013, I feel like. But, um, yeah, I don't-- God, where is it? I will say, while you're looking that up, like, if you guys have not checked out Eric's podcast, Eric does a really strong podcast, like recapping old pay-per-views, PLEs, timelines, things like that.

12:57 He really gets into, like, the history of wrestling. So, I know we don't go back in our podcast very much as far as, like, recapping old stuff, but if you're a fan, or you're just a youngster wanting to learn a little bit more about the history of professional wrestling, check out Darcy's podcast. It's really good for that type of stuff. I don't see it. I felt like I found it not too long ago. Where he uploaded it, so now-- Did you have a sad night and you started trying to find the song just to make yourself feel good? Like, was the wife and kid gone for the weekend and you're just sitting at home with the dog and you're like, "You know what?" That's not a happy rotation.

13:38 You don't do that? I just-- I wish I needed to find a way to get the audio off that and I will probably end up turning around at some point making that my ringtone or, you know, something like that. The upside of Android is I can just clip stuff and make it into a ringtone. You got an Apple guy's can do that. No, no, no, no, that's pirating. So, at least I won't get arrested, like, Dr. Traywell. But yeah, Eric Darcy, shout out to our main event roll call here, our first Patreon member. Thank you, Eric Darcy. Stay tuned for some more exclusive content on the Patreon page. And if you're a listener of this podcast, please, all we do is actually to support the show Patreon.com/SRTUPodcast and we'll roll out as much exclusive material as we can here in the month of July.

14:26 With that said, Dr. Tray, let's recap and review WWE Night of Champions at Air this past Saturday from the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We'll start with the first match here. Cody Rose defeats Randy Orton to win the King of the Ring tournament final and now receives a title shot at Summer Slamming and I both had Cody Rhodes in this one. Great match between two of the best. I wonder if we got some foreshadowing as Cody needed to cheat to win and defeat Randy Orton and Night of Champions with the exposed turnbuckle. Cody refused to cheat a couple months ago at WrestleMania but it did it at Night of Champions whether it was knowingly or unknowingly. I have a feeling we could be in line for a big angle at Summer Slam but the finish felt like a teaser for how this story plays out.

15:09 Dr. Tray, your thoughts on this one as Cody Rhodes is our new King of the Ring? Yeah, it was a really solid match. You know this, I'm not a huge fan of Babyface versus Babyface matches. Like I felt like if somebody kind of played the heel a little bit more, the crowd got a little more. I felt like the crowd was, they were excited about the match but they just didn't know who to cheer for. But it was weird like you alluded to Cody kind of cheating there but then I also had flashbacks to Bash of Berlin last year when KO couldn't pull the trigger to put his friend Cody Rhodes away and we got a little bit of that in the match as well with Randy deciding not to punt Cody to put him away.

15:53 Post match, you saw Randy a little irritated either with himself or with Cody so it's clever story right because you're branching out and leaving yourself open to possibilities out of Summer Slam. So I know I've seen all the conspiracy theories about potential Summer Slam stuff and I'm really excited to see what they end up doing at Summer Slam. Really well done and we'll talk about some stuff that was really well done here later on the show as well. Next match here is Rhea Ripley defeating Raquel Rodriguez in a Rhea Boulevard Street fight. I've always wanted to see one of those. We both had Rhea in this one.

16:34 Fun physical match. I agreed with the commentary on this one that Raquel Rodriguez broke out some during this match is we were reminded how good she could be after a couple years where her career had kind of been start stopped due to some medical ailments despite the loss for Kelle's a future role champion on raw or smack down my opinion as for the victory makes sense as she could be in line for the women's world title picture sooner rather than later and we saw that play out on Monday's raw Dr. Trace she live a world women's championship match against EO sky at evolution now. Dr. Tray your thoughts on this one is Rhea Ripley defeated Raquel Rodriguez. Yeah I liked it. Okay like you know it's a it's a it's a women's Street fight they did some good things you're right Raquel broke out again like I don't even want say she broke out she reminded us how good she was because I to me she broke out in NXT like she was you know the next evolution of Rhea Ripley after Rhea left NXT so it was just that good reminder the funny thing to me is watching Roxanne and Rhea interact because I thought Liv and Rhea was a dynamic of size and proportion that was almost suspending disbelief Roxanne smaller than Liv.

17:45 She jumped on her back and it looked like she just flipped her off like a backpack so over I would say it was a solid match and just a good setting point for for Rhea to challenge the women's title and then also for Rhea to get kind of back on everybody's radar. Next match here is Sammy Zayn defeating carrying cross I had carrying cross Dr. Trayn Sammy Zayn this was an oddly booked match from the standpoint that I thought we were no longer doing the three arm raises on a submission move anymore. So I thought carrying cross won the match after Sammy's arm dropped the first time I'm in favor of carrying cross gaining some momentum and felt that a win over Sammy and Saudi Rhea would get that ball moving but they decided not to go in that direction gave Sammy the victory.

18:25 So I think that it will remain that way for a while because I feel like he is my early favorite now Dr. Trayn to win the 2026 Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia where he finally climbs the mountain and become World Champion for the first time in his WWE career. I just have a feeling I saw the promo run during Saturday's PL and I'm like I'm looking for someone to win the Rumble my early favorite right now is Sammy Zayn and hopefully is in line for big 2026. Your thoughts here as you predicted Sammy Zayn to win and defeat carrying cross at night of Champions. Yeah I think Sammy might be the new man's sore like if he's booked in Saudi Arabia he's winning like I don't know what it is but I thought it was a good match I thought I really liked the performance of both guys.

19:13 I love carrying cross talking smack the entire match even if it's storylines smack he's talking all that stuff I thought the finish is good but I'm with you on the choke outline because on one hand they're talking about like she's checking his arm to make sure he's not choking him out. Which I think half the moves in WWE they call it a choke out and then sometimes we just do the whole one arm he's out and then another time we do the three arm raises there's no definitive line anymore when it comes to like choke out submission type stuff. I was so confused by that doctor. His straight jacket is a sleeper but when Gunther locks on they're like oh he's choking him out and I'm like you can't choking but if you put your hands on directly on the guy's throat they'll count to five but that part is so confusing now and professional wrestling like what is actually illegal but yeah it threw me off and I know Daphne and I thought we weren't doing the three drops anymore I thought it was just one because when J.B Gunther J got a tap out on his sleep.

20:19 Somebody else will get the one arm like when Gunther does it oh he's out and then carrying across it has to be three so I'm confused as to what the rule is on those types of moves now. Yeah I don't get it that's the thing it's I don't think the straight jacket is any different than Gunther's submission the cocaine a clutch from Samoa Joe so I saw the arm go down I'm like oh wow he just won and then there was no reaction and then they did the second one. I'm like we're back to doing that because that is what I grew up on the one I think at the free arm raises I immediately think of razor or moan the amount of times he would be look like he's going out the arm would drop two times and then it would just about stop and he would come back up and elbow elbow elbow into the gut and you know throw them off the ropes shoulder tackle the clothes line whenever you want to do and that was 1990s air of wrestling so they kind of got away from that but then they did it again I was confused by that doctor try. Yeah I like we run into them in the independence teams because I've seen guys go oh no just raises our once I'm like that's not how we do it that's not how I was raised it was always it's like getting a three count you know and that's how we've always alluded to because that's always turns into that's like you mentioned it turns into a hope spot whether it was you know you you mentioned razor moan I remember the guys that would wrestle D. V. O. C. and he do the million dollar dream and if it was you know your big time baby face that third arm it was coming up and he was firing up out of it so I don't like the one arm drop and he's out because I was raised on three and I don't like tap outs on sleepers because that's not really a tap out it's a choke hold that you can get out of so I wish these these journalists that we have in the post in the post show media thing would bring you

22:09 that up the triple like hey what is the rule on a sleeper so that way fans can know which one we're going with because it does get confusing. Yeah it was it was certainly was next match here so it's a code to feed in Jacob two to win the W. United States championship we both in solos a co in this one it's been a long time coming for solo to finally have a single have singles gold on the main roster and he certainly deserves it tongue below and make his return and Hicklele making his long way to debut was nice the storyline is getting good as solo adds to his army while for two is battling alone or sometimes side by side with big Jim I'm happy for solos to co a doctor tray this is a long time coming as he's the new United States champion and the first person to pin Jacob hot to in WWE Sony are she is sorry my son just walked in the house and so I trust a solo and said son at the same time so no which basically means you put you to sleep right back into the last conversation solo is my guilty pleasure to watch in WWE because you and I talked about it last year when the bloodline broke up how good solo got the mic and he's gotten kind of almost comically cheesy at times with stuff but it's it's it's fun to watch because once again you can tell he's having fun with it I thought the match was good I thought both guys really stood out it kind of helped elevate solo back up because I think people forgot how good he is in the rain because he has been just kind of like the mouthpiece from a

23:41 teo or Jacob earlier this year or whatever my only nitpick Jeff and this is something that's happened a couple times why don't they have a name for the day viewing superstar that they can tell Mac if he and call and bear it and graves about so you know who that is that's what's this name is it's it's it's the brother of so like we should know if it's the brother you should know the guy's name like it's just like they did that with JC Mateo they did it with a Leo now it's like guys can we figure out the name so that way it's not like a weird thing and we can just say the guy's name the fans get used to it like that was my only nitpick on on that I guess I think a Leo is going by Talatonga now go I'm sorry what Talatonga I'm probably announcing pronouncing this incorrectly but Talatonga is what Wikipedia saying right now I thought you said Kamala longa yeah my hope is eventually a bad luck follow makes this way to don't really but yeah I'm with you it's like here we are Jeff they actually called Jeff cut JC Mateo Jeff Cobb when he debuted that name disappeared which I thought was BS well I mean JC there's a Zra Jeff Cobb or Jesus Christ one of the true true I'm I'm completely against changing these guys names whether be Ricky Saints JC Mateo Mariah Mariah May being Blake Monroe even Ethan pay Ethan page got to be Ethan page is that weird and Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley so have their names it's it really makes no sense Tomatonga and Tungalala I mean it makes no sense I guess it comes down to who owns the name rights like

25:28 AEW owns the name rights we got change your name but if you own your name rights we can keep it but that's the only that's only logic I can come up with I brought this up on last a couple of weeks ago the show we're like I felt like maybe because AW slipping WWE had kind of tight in the rains a little bit and it's like that be part of it maybe like conspiracy theorist in me is like could they just be telling people like Ricky starts comes in is like I want to be Ricky starts like no any kind of like S.O.L. at that point because where's he's it can't go back to AW so it's like okay because I thought Mariah May should have came in as Mariah May I don't know it's is I will say as a fan of key and appeal I cannot say Blake Monroe without calling her block A yeah I mean those are the things and I guess there's some other stuff that is concerning with that name as well that I you can take some time out to Google but nonetheless congrats to solos Akawa and winning the United States championship and and Hickaleo having a new name next match here is Jade Cargo defeating Oscar to win the Queen of the ring tournament final and now she receives a title shot at Summer slam you and I both had Jade cargill in this one doctor try I didn't love nor did I hate this match the match was too short and the finish was sloppy unfortunately it also got zero reaction from the Saudi Arabian crowd and that was a crowd that was pretty locked in throughout the entire show ever since Jade began her career has been difficult to tell if she's a sound wrestler in the ring or not she's had moments where it feels like her in-ring career had improved in this match and then there were moments it felt like it

27:02 hadn't like the finish nonetheless she has the potential to be a household name with her career in W. E. soon should the in-ring stuff catch up to the looks of persona that she has interested to see how she fairs heading into the title match at some slam that to me this is a match that has basically summed up Jade cargill's career doctor tray for as long as you and I've been covering her on this podcast when her career started it's like we all can see the vision we could all see Jade cargill is like could be a household name and be a bonafide star has the look has the charisma has everything about her like if if she's in movie star in three to five years of when not surprised me and an all started no do we however you watch the matches and like oh she's getting better and then a couple things happening like oh god she's not this match summed up Jade cargill's career to me doctor tray.

27:53 Yeah I was worried about this match anyway as we were as you're talking about like Jade still struggling as much as I love Oscar there are times in her matches it looks like stuff's off and I think it's still her language has gotten better over the years but there have been times the past where. I feel like the language barrier kind of got in the way a little bit and I think what they did on this one is when. Let's just really over produce this match and make it as easy for these two as possible and I think that's where people like you and me are like man like these are two potential stars I mean how many times did also an Oscar get mentioned as a hall of famer in that match out of nowhere in a lot of ways and it was like oh we're selling it to ask is if you're all a famer Jade just beater gives her that credibility but was only a 10 minute match like it was not a great match it was really over produced you can see that they knew when stuff was coming so yeah it just it just felt like the I could not suspend my disbelief in this match because you just tell how over produced it was to make sure everybody came out looking okay and there were still a couple of issues in the match yeah it's it's a shame because I really think she has.

29:05 She has almost everything you need except the most important thing and that's the in-ring ability which hurts her and then finally the main event here John seen it if you see I'm punk to retain the undisputed WWE championship you and I both had John seen in this one my response of this an overview of the match are tracing and to do justice how much I enjoyed it this was an awesome match that had it all a scene in punk turn back the clocks good in-ring work great compelling storytelling just the right amount of interfere. And then the first appearance teases and foreshadowing for future character development and ending it all with John seen a rating to prove improving he is the goat by out smarting everyone this is an early favorite for me doctor trade in a match of the year candidate I loved this match doctor trade your thoughts as John seen a retains or see him punk.

29:56 What do you think of a see him punk on Smackdown doing punk and I loved it I think they did a really good job hyping this up and listen I am I'm a schlep from nostalgia you know seen and and punk or all time favorites of mine and that feud back in you know 15 years ago was amazing. I wish they had more time to build towards this one and that's kind of been the theme for the entire John seen retirement or so far as like man I wish we had more time to build to this match because two weeks in a row the the pipe on response or a bottle and then the word lie or punk life rap it was very good stuff and then this match was icing on the cake your thoughts on this one doctor try.

30:40 Yeah by the way the for me I was like I seven years I mean I would have never thought even five years ago I see see him punk dressing up as John Cena and wrapping but that's also can tell punk is having fun and that's a version of punk we haven't seen in a decade you know maybe longer but this match you're right like they turn back the clock this was everything you kind of wanted in a John Cena. C. I'm punk match up they played the greatest hits they had the right amount of interference like we got to see John Cena pick up Bronson Reed and F you I mean that's you know that's maybe chase John Cena stuff so like that hard to me was just really really cool and awesome to see.

31:24 And really kind of set that once again a little bit of foreshadowing maybe maybe not the stuff with Rollins wise man like the whole thing was just really well done and to coming out by the way you got to love Penta doing his walk on a run in. That's Jeff Hardy stuff I loved it and then Sammy Zane so you got a lot of foreshadowing you got a lot of the right amount of use of the right amount of your interference some great spots and still seen it does the hug and tries to chief but in the. That does cheating the wind so I guess to keep a little bit of the heel eat you know going forward as well there's a lot of foreshadowing this one doctor try you're starting to see these little bits and pieces of Cena going back to his old ways and stuff like that and then he kind of switches back and this was the closest it got and the fans were eating it up and I just found an interesting then earlier in the night Cody needed to cheat to win and and.

32:17 Cena was kind of anti it and the Rollins Wrinkle was really nice this was a really really fundamentally sound in ring match and great compelling story blinds that I mean it like three different things came off of that match and it was very very well done as John Cena retains off of C M punk with that said Dr. Trail let's take a look at the pay per view itself we will give our match of the night and event ratings our pay per view prediction record I went five and one. Dr. Trail went six and oh I am 37 and 10 on the year Dr. Trail is 36 and 11 for match night event rating I gave night of Champions a solid 4.0 in my match of night no shock here's John Cena and C M punk.

33:02 Yeah I had it at a 3.9 just a slight notch below you and I had Oscar no didn't have Oscar Jay sorry I had I had C M punk and John Cena by match and I and maybe my match last. Three months five months it was just really really well done yeah this is going to be interesting because now you are going to take a look here at the halfway point of 2025. Here we are 4th July weekend and as we historically do on SRT we take a look at our award categories and we look at some of the early favorites and nominees right now for each one of those awards so we will be doing this show later this year the final show of the year on December 25th. So Christmas Day 2025 this show will drop for the award show it will probably drop sooner once that is available up on our Patreon page because once we are done recording these shows we put them up rate away for all of you.

33:53 So let's go through some of these categories here Dr. Trey new story of the year for me not a lot of candidates are kind of or stories that are sticking out right now other than WWE and TNA and now today formal partnership. I really can think of any other new stories. No that's about the main one for me right now as well I mean there's still I mean you still have the events stuff in the background link like John Lauren I was basically agreeing to testify for. And now Grant might get in there a little bit you know like we don't know what the timeline on this trial is going to be if it ever actually happens. Just trying to think of anything else really like yeah like right now it's WWE and TNA having a form I mean did you ever think you would hear two TNA guys promoting slam aversary on an NXT show.

34:44 No that's still blows my mind even and we've been doing this now for a few months so it still just blows me away that's actually happening. I would never think that there'd be a day that there would be a WWE contract and talent holding a TNA Roll title Dr. Trey. No no I mean it's it's we were seeing a lot more of the crossover stuff with you know the triple A stuff I mean triple WB buying triple A depending on what they do with it. I was just going to say that. Yeah I mean but to see WWE open up all these doors into other promotions that would have never happened in the past. I mean we may have to combine this into one news for the years WWE's openness they're open policy they're they're willing this to open these doors that usually were normally closed.

35:33 Yeah I was funny you brought that up because as we were going through I was like WWE purchasing triple A so yeah it's their openness as a company is is definitely a new story out there so that that is something we'll certainly track. Breakout star the year I have three right now I have Joe Henry TNA Stephanie Vaakor and Chelsea Green in WWE those are who immediately came up to mind for me Dr. Trey. Yeah I mean maybe Mr. Aguana. Wow okay. I don't know I mean it depends I mean they did announce like octagon junior signed a contract with WWE I believe Mr. Aguana has I believe there's somebody else so those three I can't really argue with right now I mean Joe Henry got a WrestleMania moments Stephanie Vaakor like her ascent from in it from you know being in AEW as an opponent to Mercedes Monet at for Bid and Door just like a year and a half ago to where she's at now is incredible.

36:29 And Chelsea is my other guilty if it's not if I'm not happy to watch solo and you give me Chelsea Green instead I'm happy with that. Moment of the year some candidates I have John Cena turning heel at WWE elimination chamber trick Williams winning the TNA World Championship at WWE Battleground Dominic Mysterio winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 41 I think the early leader in the clubhouse is seen a turning heel though. Yeah I don't know if we're going to get anything at tops that one this sounds like just like I mean unless we get a crazy thing at Summer Slim Jeff if we get a double turn and we get Superman and Homeland or heading off like heading towards the end of the year where you get Super Cena back and he'll Cody Rose that might be the only thing that can take this away from John Cena right I mean he also did win his 17th World Championship when he did you know at WrestleMania as well.

37:21 That is a good point. Yeah if we see something like that at Summer Slim I think that'll be insane so John Cena winning his 17th World Championship we will add to the list as well. A event of the year I have WrestleMania 41 the Royal Rumble and elimination chamber some of my favorites. Yeah that's about where I'm at right now like there's been a couple of good AEW, AEW, I just don't know if anything's been on that level yet and honestly in ringwise it may have been but hype wise and emotions I don't think we've really hit that mark yet. So those are my top three as well.

38:01 Few to the year I have CM Punk versus Seth Rounds and Roman Reigns versus Seth Rounds you could also make a case of Roman Reigns versus CM Punk versus Seth Rounds in this one too. So anybody's Seth fights? Yeah I mean essentially like what other feud is there maybe Cena versus Cody Rhodes? Yeah but that was still like that was really we never really got we never got the feud we never got the intensity from that heading into Mania. Now once again now that we're on the Rosemar's land that may change. I watching AEW I had no watch the more AEW seeing where they go with this hangman death writers thing has gotten me a little interested as well because a lot of these opponents from Moxley have been one in dunes and we also have the potential return of Darby Allen which is something that we felt like they've been waiting for for awhile so there's a couple things AEW may have cooking up that might jump up towards the end of the year but we just to me I don't feel like we've had that you know like in the six months we haven't had that great feud that's lasted the entire year you know like we just haven't had that long term feud yet for anybody.

39:11 I totally great and I just want to go back to moment of the year I'm adding our troops returns to WWE after being fired to the list. I think that was a good moment. Our truth and Santa might be few to the year because I mean that I mean that literally changed the course of WWE programming in some ways so I mean I know they kind of sidestepped into truth and and Alistar black but I mean truth is seen as what got us wrong killing so I mean it literally led to an entire character change. Match of the year I have John Cena versus CM Punk from night of champions obviously Seth wrong versus CM Punk versus Roman Reigns from WrestleMania 41 and I have Cody Rhodes versus Kevin Owens from the Royal Rumble.

39:55 Any other matches that you enjoy Dr. Trey? Osprey and hangman from the Owen Cup. I don't I came out which pay for you that was. Double or nothing right? Double or nothing that was a really really fantastic match also. All right so we will add Will Osprey versus Andrew. Look you can't have a match of the year without having Osprey on the on their somewhere he just does look I'm still 95 I'm about 90% in on Osprey being the future of the company but. 100% yeah yeah it's every year he has at least like one milter seven and a half orgasm star match. He's amazing I love Will Osprey he's awesome I love hangman right now too I'm I'm very happy with the character development of hangman.

40:40 Tag team of the year I have Fraxie M Nathan Frazier and Axie M the Street Profits the new day and Finn Balor and JD McDonough on my list. Why do I feel like the AEW homer right now? I feel like I'm the AEW guy because I love I love what they're doing with the hurt the hurt syndicate in AEW like all lashley Shelton saying and then throwing MJF in the mix. I got a throw lashley in shelton on once again is harvory not if I see Shelton Benjamin and tag team I don't care who he's tagging with I'm going to pay attention to it and they've been one of the best things in AEW the last few months so. I got their shelton in the lash in that mix lashley and tag team also yeah lashley and lashley and tag teams and anomaly in the sense but when you pair with argument one of the top five greatest tag team wrestlers.

41:28 It's it's kind of hard not to pay attention to it. Shelton Benjamin is freaking timeless man. I mean what a timeless wrestler he's in. He looks he looks better now than he did like 10 years ago. Like I don't I mean in ring look the whole thing once again it's one of these when you see guys having fun their game gets elevated a little bit. Shelton is one of those guys you talk about the long history of like hitting misses and guys that I really enjoyed watching I thought that could be. There's you go back if you talk to Jeff Pek 2003 for whenever he defeated triple H. And that draft night shocker I was all in on Shelton Benjamin being a future star and he just kind of plateaued in the upper mid card as I see champion great I see champion.

42:12 And I'm very happy for success I'm a big selling Benjamin guy so great choice there for tag team. But female wrestler of the year I guess I'm going to sound like the AW homer now that I try I think it starts and potentially even stops the Tony storm from AW I would also throw in Mercedes Monet from AW. Eo Sky from WWE and Tiffany Stratt from WWE and of course you can have this list without real Ripley as well who else is being missed on this list. I mean you got to have Stephanie on there. I mean first North American NXT champion she's made a pretty solid transition to raw. It just kind of depends I hope she doesn't get lost in the shuffle on raw because right now being slaughtered behind Eo Rhea Becky.

42:55 I mean Ross pretty loaded with female talent but Stephanie had a really strong like four and a half five months there in NXT. So I got I got to throw Stephanie on the list also. Yeah she's been fantastic this year. Male wrestler of the year I got Rollins, Cena, Gunther and Hangman page. Yeah that's about my list also actually because I was waiting to see if we put hangman on the list but hangman's had a great six months so obviously in ring work you want to throw off on the list but it just kind of feels like he's kind of playing sidekick to hangman right now unless he really does something to separate himself. I feel like this is hangman's year so those are the those are the four guys I have on my list.

43:37 I mean do you want to throw Jay on the list Jay did with it WrestleMania be Gunther. Yeah you know you got to put them on there yeah. Merchandise wise he's the one of top three sellers in the company for the first six months so I guess you got through Jay on the list also. We don't even have Jay Uso's a breakout star would you put Jay Uso's a breakout star of the year? Yeah probably because I guess I guess last year be winning the IC title I don't know if that many broke out or what he's done since that I guess you're ending 2024 and what he's done so far in 2025 if you're looking at that as a year like you may have had the best year from Summer slam last year to now it may be Jay Uso's the big breakout star.

44:26 Is there's a kind of feels like since he lost the belt he's lost momentum. Yeah yeah no he's getting lost in some of the book in the WWE is doing right now which is unfortunate what about Fat 2. Jay could Fat 2 is a breakout star. I feel like he's still in the mid card though like we need to see him now if he's challenging for the for the undisputed championship by the end of the year. Yeah absolutely I think you're setting the table and it's the same thing with Braun Breaker like we've had Braun on the we've had Braun those list several times but is is like right now it is there's still mid card guys like do we have somebody who's kind of ascending upwards and Jacobs coming off a loss like he said if he ends up in the mix for the undisputed championship by October then you got look at him being actually being a break out sorry but I feel like he's going to be stuck in this.

45:18 I don't I don't know what called solos family now but like I think he's going to be tied in with his bloodline 2.03.0 thing for a little while. Wrestling promotion of the year I have raw or NXT as my choices doctor try. Is it weird I want to see a lot of the list because I don't cross over stuff they've done like I'm really enjoying TNA television I don't watch it every single week but when I jump in and watch it it's really entertaining. But it is a move I don't know if you want to call it TNXT like or something like it's a little bit of the crossover people both shows working together is what's actually elevating both products.

46:00 Yeah no I don't think it's it's wrong to add them to the list so I will certainly add them as a candidate I have not watched them I'm disappointed that it's been like very difficult. Add another wrestling show to the repertoire and I wish I could so yeah I think adding TNA is certainly on the list. Honestly what happened I was saying one last thing it all depends on what happens from this whole thing with hangman death riders Darby returning AEW could jump back up pretty quickly if everything lines up the way they think it's going to line up. It's only can they've got some really good momentum now so I hope so I think it's it's a better world for us in fans when AEW is neck and neck with WWE or at least breathing down the neck of WWE the gap has not been fun.

46:50 And then finally the big award here SRT rest of the year you can take any of the candidates that we've announced for male and female rest of the year. I guess Dr. Tray if we were picking an early horse favorite who would be who would you be selecting to be the SRT rest of the year for the first six months of the year. John John Cena like he's been the most he's been the most captivating character on like I love Tony Stormish he's probably number two for me right now I love all the stuff she does. But the scene of heel run for all the knocks people kind of throw on it at times. Like we're living in a world that we never thought is who happened he's actually getting better and more comfortable in this role.

47:37 And if he if this role plays out for the next six months the way you know the signs are pointing this might be one of the best year long runs anybody's had in a long time just from character arc storyline. You go from the rumble him losing at the rumble him jumping himself into the chamber winning the chamber you know turning heel that night. WrestleMania the match you just have a punk and going into summer slam it's going to be hard for anybody to take this mantle from him right now. Yeah for me it's John Cena as well if I'm looking at the first six months of the year I would say Cena won it but I actually I don't think Seth Rollins is too far behind Dr. Dre.

48:17 If I'm a betting man I would still say John Cena is the favorite but if I'm putting some money down that who could take the mantle from Cena by year and I would say Seth Rollins. If Rollins cashes in at Saturday nights main event like that's going to jump in back up I just don't want to see Seth carry on the briefcase for an entire year like I want to see him strike while the yarns hot and I also think that the tag title change we just saw in raw this past week might foreshadow maybe braunt you know braun braun as somebody called them getting the getting the tag belts and you can end up by summer slam with Rollins is crew having all the gold. Yeah it's very well possible it would be like like an evolution type ending to a show if they did that with WWE so hey listen I think some things there are some big things coming for Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed I would not be surprised if we add them to the tag team mix they just gave them a mashup mashup theme song on Monday's Raw so you don't do that unless there's some at least some sort of plans in place and took the time to go back to how we full circle this year with some music I don't think you mash up to theme songs if if they're just tagging here and there so there you go that is how we look at some of our candidates and nominees early nominees for the SRT award show that will be taking place on Christmas day 2025 and it will be here before you know I'm not sure I say I say that all the time when we kick off the award show to end the year I'm like man remember in July when we went over the nominees and here we are in July and we'll be in December quicker than you know.

49:53 Quicker than you think with that set let's get a couple plugs and spots of the way as we close up shop on this week's edition of SRT you could support us at patreon dot com slash SRT you podcasts like dirty dog Eric Darcy did you get the show ad free along with so many more exclusives coming soon you get the show immediately available for download once doctor trainer literally done downloading or doing this podcast recording for you it'll be up and available a patron you can download the show every Thursday or Friday at real guy media dot com rest of chat net on and still real show feed on Apple Spotify or wherever you download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe help us climb the charts on all those podcasts platforms you could fall individually on X for myself at SRT you Jeff and for Dr. Frick and the Dr. Tray and of course don't forget to follow show on X at SRT you podcasts with that being said what is going on the wonderful world of Dr. Franklin this week well like Jeff said you can follow me on X at the Dr. Tray you can find me on Facebook and Instagram Dr.

50:52 Franklin when you're on Facebook be sure to check out Rockets each of you should wrestling we are back this Saturday night July 5 with our next big show but most importantly get out there support you locally dependent wrestling shows go find those future stars find some crazy music mashups as we get off the show I'm going to go find that old the mashup of Jericho and Big Show that was one of those mashups that I loved so much back that error when they just did mashups of random tag teams the music was actually pretty good so that's what I'm doing we get off the show here today. So to go out there download anything that you enjoy to download for music like a mashup of the Big Show and Chris Jericho together as soon as you get on list of this podcast enjoy the fourth of July weekend for all those here in the United States then celebrate the celebrate the holiday everybody else enjoy your weekend and we will be back next week we will preview and predict WWE evolution we will get you ready for Saturday night's main event and we will get you ready for AEW all in Texas so until next week for Dr. Franklin I am Jeff Peck this has been the still real a show.