WWE Royal Rumble Preview, WWE Creative Flaws & Triple H’s Hall of Fame Moment! | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #781 – 01/30/25

0:00 It's still real to me, damn it! [music] What up, you! [music] Welcome, everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of the Snow Realtows Show, episode number 781, for January 30th, 2025. This is your Royal Rumble preview and predictions edition of #ASRTU. I am one after the show. I am Jeff Peck, joined every single week of my course, Lonely Dr. Trey Franklin.

0:40 Dr. Trey, are you ready for the road to WrestleMania 41, my friend? I mean, I had to hiccup in the road yesterday, but right now, actually, you say that I'm actually sitting in my car. So I don't know if there's anybody more ready for a road to WrestleMania than somebody doing a podcast about the road to WrestleMania while they're sitting in their car. The only thing that would be left is probably maybe, maybe like an acoustic guitar and riding a country song about being on the road. I mean, I could get either Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson to play softly in the background everywhere.

1:24 I could throw some background music on and make this just a full shindig for a road to WrestleMania podcast. Yeah, yeah. Maybe something to think about as we get to the road to WrestleMania 41. Welcome one and all. Welcome to your Royal Rumble preview and predictions edition #ASRTU, the official road to WrestleMania 41 kicks off. Now here on the program, I'm excited. I'm stoked. We talk about it every year, Dr. Trey. This is obviously one of our favorite pay-per-views to watch. The men's and women's Royal Rumble matches is probably the most fun match to watch because it's like non-stop.

2:04 Who's going to be the surprise entrance? Any surprise, eliminations? For a shadowing from WrestleMania 41 takes place in the match. You get to see some like dream matchups all in the span of those two matches. I'm very, very, very excited for this weekend, Dr. Trey. Yeah, I was excited, Evan. I was kind of playing with my WWE super card game. I don't know if you're familiar with this game, but it's going to be the interesting twist because I have no idea where you're going with this. Yeah, no. So this game, on there, it actually has a section for Royal Rumble predictions. And I'm like, okay, I'm picking my winner for the Rumble, picking my... And then I went, I only know two more matches on the card.

2:46 I'm like, is there only two more matches on the card other than the Rumble because I think I'm forgetting something, but I'm like, I know the men's Rumble, the women's Rumble, the World title match with Cody and Kevin Nollins and the tag title match from SmackDown. I'm like, am I missing something because I feel like the Rumble used to have a lot more stuff going on in this year right now in top of my head. I can only think of four things. Yeah, I mean, this is the new age of WWE PLE's under the Triple H Air. It's the old takeover time stamp. And I want to say, Dr. Trey, that I think the last two Rumbles ran like this as well. There is only four announced matches, two of those being the men's and the women's Royal Rumble.

3:31 You got to figure each one of those matches take probably like grand total start to finish. Maybe an hour and twenty minutes. Is that a safe estimate for each one of those? So they catch you to what, two hours and forty minutes? So yeah, I guess that makes sense because we're doing two out of three falls in the tag match. That's at least going to be at least twenty minutes. And you can get a lot of money. Cody and KO probably go about at least twenty to thirty minutes. So yeah, I mean, I guess in that scheme, that scope of things, it makes sense. But as much as I love the machine, it doesn't DIY, you could have just had a singles match and then add it in your US champion or your Intercontinental champion. Add one of the other mid card guys into this as well.

4:13 But look, I can't argue with the success they've had. The last few pay per views, PLE's have been fantastic. So it does kind of put the focus more on the Rumble matches and less on the World title matches that we might have had in the past. So I was just looking here real quick, Rumble 2024 had four matches. The women's match itself went an hour and five minutes. That's not counting like the initial beginning and the beginning of it, the entrances. The men's went an hour, eight minutes and twenty five seconds. In 2023 they had five matches.

4:54 Men's match went one hour, eleven minutes, forty seconds. Women's match went one hour, one minute, eight seconds. In 2022, which I think was the last of the Vince era per se, the Rumble had six matches and both Rumbles were under an hour. And if you remember correctly, Dr. Tray, that men's Rumble, which was won by Brock Lesnar, we absolutely cropped all over. Figure tibly, not literally. So it seems so we've gone six to five to four, four seems to be the sweet spot. But I'm fine with them having a good, I'm fine with the four matches because this will probably be a three hour, three and a half hour PLA, maybe close to four because those commercial breaks they run through during the live show is extremely long.

5:42 So I'm fine with the Rumble matches getting a lot of time. I'm fine with the latter match getting a lot of time and I'm fine with the two out of three falls match getting a lot of time. Yeah, no, I am too. I just know like what you just had, shinsuke come back. Shinsuke's in the Rumble. He now sees in the Rumble. Yeah, I would have liked to see him get at least a little bit more one on one time to kind of sell the character a little more. But then again, I can't, I don't want people to say like for one, this DIY match versus the most of machine guns, two or three balls, like if it's anything like DIY and FTR was back in the days or you know, those Matt, those great tag matches from NXT, I'm going to end up loving it in which they could have been you know, five out of seven balls instead.

6:29 No, I hear you. I like it. I think I've been a big proponent of like three hours is enough time for arresting pay preview nowadays. I'm fine with the big shows to get close to the four hour marks, the big four on the WWE side. I've absolutely crapped all over the AW pay previews being four hours every single time and the pre show being an hour and a half of matches as well. So we'll see how it plays out, but I am excited for the rumble here. Four matches on the card, we'll preview and predict each one of those matches later on the show. But I think what's the most important thing on this out of this all Dr. Tre, you got the men's rumble, women's rumble. Both matches to me, they are wide open and that is a good thing because you and I have sat here and we've correctly predicted at least one of the rumble matches each year, but it wasn't something where we felt totally confident in.

7:20 It was something that over the, during the triple H reign, it's like I could see this person doing it, I could see this person also winning. I love, and it's been more on the men's side this year than the women's side. I love that there's an absolute crapshoot on who could potentially win this match. You've got CM Punk, you've got Seth Rollins, Logan Paul, John Cena, Roman Reigns. There is what at least maybe 10 people, less than 10 people that could at least win the rumble match? Yeah, I mean, here's the crazy thing. We're naming off the big name guys, but then y'all throw in like a Damien Priest, former heavyweight champion in this match.

8:03 There's other guys that literally could be main eventing any other PLE. You're putting Jey Uso in in this match and he just had a main event, match, or serious main event. So, you got, this might be the deepest rumble we've had, the most star-studded rumble we've had. In a lot of ways, it is wide open. I don't know, I'm not going to spell my predictions yet, but for me, I kind of feel like, what does it say, do you want to do like a quick little game here? Because we got 15 men announced for the rumble. If I go through the names real quick, will you say, say yes or no, if they have a shot of winning the rumble, all right?

8:47 So here we go. Yeah, we can do that. L.A. Night. No. John Cena. Yes. CM Punk. I'll say yes. Jey Uso. No. Roman Reigns. Yes. Seth Freakin' Rollins. Yes. Drew McIntyre. Alleen Yes. Ray Mysterio. No. Sammy Zane. No. Shinsuke Nakamura. No. Logan Paul. I'm in my heart.

9:28 My brain says no, my heart says, yes, so I will lean no. Okay. Wow. Penta Chad Gable-Bron Breaker Carmelo Hayes would all be nose for me in any of those B.E.S.? I agree with you on all those as well. So you had five, the only ones I disagreed with you on, I think Jey Uso is a chance and I think Logan Paul is a chance. And that's seven out of the 15. Five out of 15 for you. I only reason. Which is good. Those are good numbers though. Yeah. My only, my only arguments for Jey Uso and Logan Paul is those are B.E.S. I would say like Jey Uso is a B plus main event guy and we're talking about WrestleMania. So that's why I have a little bit of a downgrade on J for this one.

10:10 Logan's that weird one. We've heard them talk about Push Unitop. He has the social media following. I just, I don't see a good match up for him for the world title where it goes, oh my God, I have to see that match. So like I don't, yeah, Logan versus Cody or Logan versus Gunther does not scream WrestleMania and made a match up to me yet. So let's talk about it because I thought, I thought there was some foreshadowing on Mondays Raw. So you had CM Punk confronting Cody Rhodes to close Raw up until that point. I never thought that I would see that I was even considering Cody Rhodes or CM Punk, but I'm like, man, this promo is really good.

10:53 Could there be a chance that they run with this for the next three months? And if they did, if it's anything like this, sign me up. The other one foreshadowing wise, Logan Paul confronting Gunther and Seth Rollins. I was like, man, we've heard some rumblings that they're thinking about Logan Paul versus Gunther at WrestleMania 41. That is not something I would be a fan of. I think most wrestling fans wouldn't be a fan of that. That would be something that would grab headlines from a pop culture standpoint, which WWE is obviously always chasing. But from the wrestling fan standpoint, I think all wrestling fans would love to see Gunther, you know, slap the crap out of Logan Paul literally. And then on the outskirts of this, you've got the Sami Zayn and Jey Uso quest to become a world champion stuff going on.

11:33 I think Sami, he's fallen to that carrying cross storyline where it's like borderline dabbling into the evilness a little bit. And could they run with Sami winning the rumble and Kevin Owens shockingly defeats Cody Rhodes in the latter match? And those two guys go at it in a WrestleMania absolute wet dream match for Dr. Trey and I. And then, hey, we talked about it last week, show, would they pull a no way out 2004 Eddie Guerrero style with Jey Uso at the Saturday night's main event? It was a great match. It had those moments. They went with Gunther to retain Jey Uso falls in the outside. That's still on the fringe. He cut a promo with Quavo, which I know Dr. Trey is a big fan of and he was saying that he could beat Gunther and I think fans could get behind that.

12:15 So I thought for the first time at any point in the WrestleMania 41 build, Royal Rumble build, we may have gotten some foreshadow in this past Monday night, Dr. Trey. Yeah, my favorite part of Logan Paul thing is when Seth and Gunther are face to face and Logan Paul's music hits and Seth goes, who is that? He didn't know Logan's music apparently. So, I mean, yeah, I think they like to kind of test the audience a little bit to kind of see how the audience feels about some of these teasers, just like dropping Easter eggs. Like, oh yeah, it's a little bit of foreshadowing. It's a little bit of like down the road stuff.

12:55 It's also like, hey, let's test the waters with this to see how the fans respond on social media, on the interwebs, you know, on the message boards, you know, all of those things. But I think like when it comes to WrestleMania as much as you and I, like we try, like a lot of times we try to smart book these things and try to go, ooh, this would be a great match, this would be a great match. WrestleMania is still about the casual fans. It's the Super Bowl. I'm getting people to get your eyes on the product and typically don't watch the product. So, like as much as people love to see Gunther and Logan Paul, like Logan, or Gunther slapped the hell out of Logan Paul, it's still bad guy versus bad guy.

13:36 And I think WrestleMania, they still try to stay more traditional. And hey, let's put Logan Paul in a good match with somebody who's a really big fan favorite. Like I'd be okay with Jay Luson Logan Paul or Sami Zayn in Logan Paul. Somebody that crowd really loves to beat the crap out of Logan Paul and vice versa. But when they tease in these baby face, baby face, heel versus heel matchups, they typically don't do them unless it's generational matchups like John Cena and the Rock. >> It's interesting. It's a really interesting rumble walking into here. It's a hard one to predict and that's exciting, but the men's rumble match has definitely got a better build than the women's.

14:20 I feel like the women's rumble match is, I don't think the winner of the women's rumble match may have been on television in the square circle this past week, Dr. Trey. There's a couple folks coming back from injury or time away that I think could be knocking on that door. >> Yeah, I think it's for me the women's rumble is like two people and one hasn't been on TV in a year and one hasn't been on TV since Summer's slam. >> If you're thinking about a person with red hair, I think may time. >> May, yes, so somewhere in that window. Whenever, yeah, whenever she went away.

15:01 But yeah, basically right when the other one got hurt or when, no, Priya got hurt. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you're talking about Rhea, okay, I thought you were talking about. If you were mentioning the Queen Charlotte Flair, she got injured back in December 2023. >> Yeah, so it's been a year for her. The other one with the red hair hasn't been seen since the match after Rhea got hurt back in April and May. >> Well, she became champion, the one with the red hair and then wrestled, was it crown jewel, dropped the title to live? And then wrestled like the next night on Raw in a steel cage match? >> Yeah. >> And then that's the last time we saw the person with red hair.

15:41 >> Is it basically the two of the three last OG horse women in the company left? Or am I basically the two strongest pigs I have for this thing? >> I don't know when we'll get back to this. So let's talk about it here with the women's because I think you and I are on the same wavelength here where things could be headed. If you go back about a month ago when you and I gave our WrestleMania card predictions for, excuse me earlier this month for the first show of the year, I was making a case for Tiffany Stratton to try to cash in the money of the bank briefcase, fail, then enter the rumble and win that match. Tiffany had like, is been positioned in a really good spot where the fans want to see her shine.

16:28 And I think, and we'll get to some, you know, strange WWE creative decisions lately and we often praise them. I think WWE kind of messed up because if there was anybody, even anybody holding a championship right now because obviously Tiffany is one. If there was anybody that I would be like, this is who should win the 2025 Royal Rumble, I would say Tiffany Stratton right now. I would have said Liv Morgan, but I think Liv is getting out of the spotlight and heading towards the women's tag division. So I would have said Tiffany Stratton would be perfect for this one. Yeah, Tiffany, if the Bianca Jade stuff, if the Jade injury hadn't happened, I would have put Bianca in that list because she's been out of the World title picture for 18 months, roughly.

17:16 And there's rumors about Bianca and Rio Ripley being a WrestleMania match right now. Yes, which I don't know how we get there. I mean, unless you say that, Rhea's the one who took out Jade and then be, I don't know, yeah, it's confusing. But like for me, really on paper because the women's division has had so much interaction between people like we've seen Rhea and Naya, you know, a couple times this year. We've seen Liv and Naya live in Rhea. Like the top of the card has interacted so much over this year that it doesn't feel like any of those people are strong enough to win because whoever, if you have one of the people that's been around for the entire year, win this match, we've already seen that match where if you have one of the two people who have been on TV in a while when this match, okay, we haven't seen something's matches in either quite a while or in different incarnations of themselves.

18:12 Like it still, it feels fresher. So that's kind of why I'm leaning that way instead of going with something who's been very active on the roster the last 12 months. Yeah, I feel like the 2023 Cody Rhodes booking blueprint in the men's rumble is what we may see with the women's match. So we'll get to our preview predictions here later on, but again, Dr. Traa, the rumble match is to me. I think they're wide open and I think that's a really good thing. I want it to be unpredictable. I don't want it to be easily predictable. So I'm digging what's going on with the rumble matches headed into Saturday. Yeah, no, the men's side definitely feels more fresh and more wide open to the women's side.

18:58 My only thing with the women's side is once again, it's going to be like who are the surprise entrance? You know, you saw Jordan Gray, who apparently has officially signed her WWE contract, but she's putting out that she won't be in town for it. And you know, you have a Mickey James possibility because Nick Aldis is already there. So you have some stuff where they really haven't played with it much. They're kind of keeping that side more, a little more secretive with the men's side. With all the possibilities that they're talking about with, you know, whether it's Roman or Cena, like all these interactions that can take place, it's hard for me to even pick out who's the final four for the men, let alone who's actually winning this match. Yeah, it's fun.

19:38 I'm stoked for Saturday's PLA. Speaking of WWE Creative, Dr. Traa, like I said before here a couple of minutes ago, we often sit here as of late and we praise WWE Creative, which if you are strictly an AW fan on WWE Hater and you listen to the spot catch, you're like, man, when did they get a trash to do a creative? Well, I think we may be doing that right now because I think it is time to point out some of the flaws of WWE Creative. Some things that stand out to me, Dr. Traa, and just as it's in top of mind right now because they mentioned it on, I believe, Monday's Raw. This transfer portal window, I haven't understood it whatsoever.

20:20 I wish they had some rules behind it. There's been finally some movement eight-town-down under, have gone from SmackDown to Raw, Ms. Raw to SmackDown, why it's six, Raw to SmackDown, Damien Raw to SmackDown, Bayley SmackDown to Raw, Nia Jax hasn't been officially moved but she's been performing on Raw. There have been some movements as of late for some people in this transfer portal window and now it's closing at the rumble. And it's like, what was the point of all this? How long was it supposed to be open for? Why do they do this? Is this something that we're going to see more often? Is there going to be no more draft? I thought that was a major flaw.

21:01 One else that I'll point out, the booking of Gunther and Damien Priests is World Heavyweight Champions. I think has been very poor. I don't think that they've done a good job getting those two guys over as world champions. And this may just be the case of the first title reign because a lot of people in their first world title reign aren't necessarily booked extremely well. And then their second one comes around and you're like, man, why don't they do this for X, Y, Z person? Why didn't they do this before during the first run? That has been me to me. And then the Raw Tag Team Division. It's compared to SmackDown which is starting to evolve as a tag team division. It's like, why haven't we done this on the Raw side?

21:42 Four Raiders and Damien, Adaminec Mysterio and JD McDonough who had a gnarly injury during that match, had a great match on Raw and hopefully they build off of it. But the Raw Tag Team Division has basically been dormant and they would always bash Finn and JD on television for never defending the titles. And it's like, well, the reason for that is because creative isn't booking anything. So hey, we need to improve that. I think WWE is actually focusing on something like because they've got some talented tag teams on the red brand. Pretty brothers come immediately to mine. So there's some flaws that I see with the WWE creative right now. I would say it runs at like 95% happiness for me as a wrestling fan doctor, and 5% still that bitchiness that we'll see on social media.

22:27 If I was given a letter grade, I'd give it a very solid A. But there are some flaws that we are starting to see bubble up more often than not when it comes to WWE creative as of late. Yeah, I feel like on one hand, the Raw brand is a little top heavy. Like there's a lot of big name stars and that's why we've had this conversation several times over the last year. Like when you're looking at Gunther or Damien Priest as your world champion on a brand that has CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Sammy Zane, Jey O'Sou. Like where does Gunther in at the time, Damien Priest fall in that pecking order of who's your most bankable star?

23:10 Usually your champion is your top guy on that show. And I don't think that they've done Damien Priest or Gunther any favors over the last year by positioning him almost as a B+ type player on that show. You look at SmackDown and it's like Cody's the top guy. Now that Roman's back, it's a little bit 1A and 1B, but it's Cody the top guy. We've had an issue filling in the gap for guys for Cody to challenge where that's why I thought with this roster or with the transfer portal window, you'd see a couple guys moving to kind of even that out a little bit. And we saw Damien Priest make the move, but he's on the same side as Cody.

23:53 Like he's a maybe face for all intents and purposes. Like who's the next challenger on that brand after you move away from KO? So I feel like there's some depth issues. The tag team division on SmackDown since the most of machine gun, the show has gotten better. The raw side, when you have the war raiders and you have the judgment day, but then you're using those guys. But the creepers have it really been used. We really never saw any of the why it's six get used in tag team. But new day finally have something to do, but now they're looking like a little bit of like the bumbling idiot type gimmick going with them. I was kind of bummed out when they moved A town down or A town down under so raw because I thought the A town down under pairing with the Miz would have been great.

24:42 But to then suddenly shift them to raw makes you feel a little bit weak. So yeah, there's there's something. And then to me, even the women's division, like it's felt monopolized by Rhea and Liv. And luckily we have the intercontinental title to kind of start building some depth, but it feels like there's such a dramatic drop off from Liv and Rhea to everybody else on that show. You know, it's like, man, like who are you building up to really be the next challenger for those guys? And maybe moving Naya and Bailey over is what their bandaid solution for it is, but now you have the same problem on SmackDown with all right. You got Tiffany. Who else you got?

25:23 Yes, everybody else has been kind of shifted around or stuck in tag teams and you really have them built up anybody else to be that next breakout star. So there are some chinks in the armor. I'd give WWE booking over the last, you know, five months, like an A minus just because like we're focusing on the cool kids club and we're not focusing on the band kids who can turn into the cool kids later on. Yeah, it's a very interesting time because I think from a roster standpoint, this is one of the most talented WWE rosters I've seen in nearly 25, 30 years top to bottom. It's like, man, this is, I really feel like that the way that this roster is set right now and who's on the roster and how they're performing and where they could be going.

26:04 This is one of those deals where 20 years from now fans that are like, we're our age with an attitude error as teenagers in our early 20s and join professional wrestling. It's like, you don't realize it at the time and then you look back and it's like, man, I think in 2009, 2000, Edging Christian and the Hardies were on the bottom of the card. Kurt Angles in the middle of the card and Rock and Austin Triple H were running at the top. It's like, can you imagine that today? And I think that they've got that right now. I think this is a roster where you look back and you're talking about 20 years from now, how does this compare to that attitude error of 96 to 2001-ish WWE programming? And I think they're there, but there are things that need to improve and I'm with you.

26:47 I think the biggest thing and we talked about this at the initial launch of the Netflix era of Monday Night Raw. Raw has definitely lost its identity since going to Netflix because it's become so top-heavy and they're focusing on a lot more of the top stars rather than all the build that you saw over the last four months when it was on the USA Network, which as a long time fan of WWE as a fan who watches WWE 52 weeks of the year is disappointing. But I get why you're trying to grab those new folks that are probably tuning into Netflix for the first time and hoping that they stick around there through WrestleMania season. So there are some things that WWE Creative needs to work on. We obviously are pointing those out and we'd love to hear what you have to say.

27:30 Hit us up on Twitter @srtupodcast. Speaking of Creative Teams, Dr. Troy, one creative team that we definitely take shots at here more often than not is the AW Creative Team. And there are reports out there as of late that Tony Khan is quote more in the weeds when it comes to AW Creative. I don't know exactly what that means but some of the things that they're pointing out there is the last weeks of programming. The opening segment from not the most recent edition of Dynamite but the week prior of Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay working together was really good. I thought it ran a little bit too long for my liking but I thought it was really good. I thought it was a step in the right direction.

28:12 Another segment that everybody's talking about and I heard about this before I ever watched it. I did not watch Collision Live. I watched it on DVR was the return of Timelstone Storm and I clearly enceded on social meeting. And everybody was raving about it. I watched the segment happen and I wasn't the biggest fan of it. I got in it. I did not like that Mariah May beat the crap out of Tony Storm and that's how we got the return of Timelstone Storm coming back. I would have liked to see something where Mariah May is acknowledging this Tony Storm that was out there with Mneeja shakes her hand, laughs and walks away and then that's when Timelstone Storm goes, "Oh one last thing Mariah in that Timelstone Storm voice, the best role I've ever played or the most challenging one is one playing yourself rather than the beat down that was in the middle of all that all."

29:05 With that said, it's like there's been some good high buzz talked about segments and then the report comes out that like Tony Wheat Khan is back in the weeds of AW Creative. What do you make of this Dr. Trey? What did you think of the last 10 days of AW Creative? What do you think about this report about Tony Khan being in there? Because quite honestly, I think it's a load of BS because it's not like he was away from the company for a period of time. These things were still happening. He was still pushing the wrong people in the main event picture when people were clamoring for Will Osprey, Darby Allen or Swarov Strickland to be in that role against the death writers. He's still pushing those buttons so I don't exactly know what this means that Tony Khan is back in the weeds or more in the weeds of AW Creative.

29:47 Oh, I thought I missed red of that. I thought that Tony Khan is back smoking weed. Sometimes it feels that way, especially when he hugs his arm. Yeah, to me, I didn't get the report because I was told that Tony Khan has the final say over all creative booking in the book and the buck stops with him. That's when we were all led to believe when this whole, you know, the EVP shake down happen. It was like, no, no, no, Tony Khan is the final voice. And then you hear this is like, wait, does that mean he was away from the booking for a while? And that's why the book he was out of sorts or like it just confused me more than anything else. I thought Creative had gotten better over the last few weeks.

30:28 Like I liked the offspray, Kenny Omega stuff, like even the, the only thing was, but even their interactions were like, you know, even when Kenny is acknowledging, hey, the last time I saw you, you were with Don Callis. Like that's the stuff that you and I guys like you and I love. Whereas like it's not that short term wrestling fan memory booking that Vince used to do, it is going, hey, I know you guys saw this and remember this. I'm going to acknowledge it. I thought that was good. The Don Callis family dinner. I enjoy the Tony storm, Mariah May stuff. Would I have done it a little bit differently? Yeah. I felt like they're kind of shotgunning this. This could have been even bigger reveal.

31:11 You know, you could have had Mariah May befriend Tony storm and have her act as a mentor to, you know, the ups, I'm air quoting here. You can't see it because we don't have our cameras on. The upstart rookie Tony storm have her take Tony under her wing to then later reveal that time was Tony storm is here all along. That would have been good. And that to me would have been that would have been a really good angle to play. Yeah. I felt like they shot gunned it because I thought the rookie Tony storm gimmick was actually pretty, like pretty good. So I felt like they rushed that a little bit, but still I thought that the, the, the promo and the soliloquy that she presented was, was really good in the crowd pop forward and that thing of the day, you want your crowd happy.

31:55 So even, you know, like, but there's still some kinks in the armor, the, you know, the stuff with cope and FTR against the death writers and, you know, some things like that. There's still some chinks in the armor, but I thought overall the presentation and the programming had been better the last two weeks. But to get that report that he's in the weeks, to me in the weeks means like you're behind the scenes, but you're kind of taking a back seat role. I don't know what they meant by that statement because it just, to me, it sounds like he's there, but he's letting other people run the show, but he's just there to have, I guess, final approval or answer any questions that people I have.

32:38 I don't really, like, I'm with you. I don't get with that statement really means because to me, it means he's stepped back and he's letting other people run the show. But what, what it sounded like to me is that people were praising the last recent weeks of programming for a W and Tony commas, taking like credit for it. So I mean, that's how I, I interpreted it to be honest with you. It's, it's had, there have been some really good positives. I just don't, it's in the step in the right direction. I, I wouldn't say like the pendulum is swinging back in AW direction, but it's like, I like what I see. One from a guy that watches AW every single week. There have been some things.

33:19 I like the Osprey, Kenny Omega coming together. I like the dinner at the table there with the Donalds, Don Couls family. I thought collision this past Saturday was a show I, I could have done without with the exception. I like the powerhouse Hobbs, Bill Bill, Big Bill interactions. Big Bill clearly could not get the handcuffs on, on Wil Hobbs, which kind of, made things weird. Do they make, did they make handcuffs in Wil Hobbs size? Like that's a big point. Probably not. I'm going to gas that the purpose of that was him to break them off because the way that the other spots went, especially through the table, I was like they didn't improvise this.

34:00 I was thinking they were probably like, he's handcuffed to everyone else breaks them, like the incredible Hulk. There might was a, was a Mark Henry that had the handcuffs spot with the hell in the cell one point. But they didn't, they, they forgot to Jimmy the handcuffs, like they're supposed to, so he legitimately broke up hair handcuffs. Well I know the story about this, but Mark Hobbs, Mark Hobbs, Mark Henry is, they had him, they did not Jimmy the door on a steel cage one. The door, yeah, that's what it was. That's what I think that was the one you're talking about and he legitimately did that. And that may have been a rib, knowing the way that they treated Mark Henry in time to some stuff, especially when Mark Henry, tell some really funny stories.

34:41 But yeah, you know, there's steps in the right direction and I must say if we're going to be talking about AW, I saw something online with social media, I'm not the biggest fan of the Death Riders angle whatsoever. I see people online calling them the death ratings and I laughed. I know that, I know that was a good name. They should have, I mean if that's the case, you just take what MJF said about Jeff Jarrett and stick Jeff Jarrett with the death writers and it wouldn't be kind of true. Can we just talk about MJF real quick? Is the lustre off of him? Is the lustre off of MJF? Speaking of creative that is confusing. I mean, the glasses, the sunglasses, he's wearing, I don't know if he's doing that as a joke, but I don't find it funny. Like I miss the MJF that I was like, man, this is Roddy Piper back, this is awesome.

35:26 Like there are things about MJF that he does that are so subtle, like wearing like the initial promo with Jeff Jarrett where he's blasting Jeff Jarrett and saying he's riding Owen's coattails. Meanwhile, he's wearing a blue blazer, like little subtle things like that. I do enjoy it. I just don't know what the storyline is. They put him in a lot of times. I don't see what the upside is. Like you should be be positioning your future stars. The guys you're building this company around the guy that you just apparently is, you know, trying to multi-year deal in positions where it accentuates him and moves him up to the next level.

36:10 I don't know where he's with Jeff Jarrett. Jeff Jarrett hasn't won really anything in the last year. So you're putting MJF out there with a guy that's basically beginning his ass kick for a year since he's not in any of his television. How does that help MJF? Like are you trying to elevate Jeff Jarrett at the expense of MJF? Like it doesn't, this is where the creative comes in where I'm like, this doesn't make sense. You know, it's Darby Allen losing to Jack Perry in a coffin match. It's like, okay, that doesn't make a ton of sense in the long term. Now it could be who, like once again, MJF's loss could be lost here because he's due to a Jeff Jarrett, a person that, I mean, really, like he said, how many people are diehard Jeff Jarrett fans?

36:57 Like it's not really getting the great reaction. We just saw the same thing with Adam Cole in him where they're coming back, but they switched roles and the fans have stopped caring about the feud. Like you're not putting him in places where he can really shine. Now part of it is, yeah, some of his promos, I feel like he's phoning it in. Like he's just going for the cheap heat and that's it. Like it doesn't feel like he has, it doesn't feel like he's having fun. And that's one thing you and I always talk about in this show is when the guys are having fun, we feel it. Look at Drew McIntyre earlier this year, like we're like, this guy's having a blast and he elevates himself up to me when the top guys in the company all over again in a different role.

37:37 It just feels like, you know, guys like MJF or, and even to a degree, the deathwriters, like they're not having fun. They're just going through the motions and you kind of feel that through the television. Yeah, it's, there's definitely some weird aura going on there with AW with certain elements. So yeah, I miss the old MJF stuff, but I will say the last 10 days programming overall for AW. It's definitely set up in the right direction and hope things continue there. But I just thought like Tony Kombi and more on the Weets VW creative. It's like, well, where's he, where's he been? Like, did he not give a crap for the last four months? I mean, it's just a weird story to put out there and you have to figure the way that this story was directed that it came from AW to try. Yeah, I mean, he had soccer going on.

38:19 Yeah, of course. And, you know, him and his dad had to fire coach and then hire a guy who said, do Vall, maybe the creepiest I've ever heard you've all said, do you know what I'm saying? Oh, I know. It's just like, I just pictured Liam Cohen and now as a murder, like a, like the serial killer and a Jacksonville horror movie. We haven't even gotten a chance to talk about this, but as NFL fans, I mean, the, the con family for if you're just strictly arresting fan and you don't follow what's going on in the NFL. The con family is like looked at as joke owners now and I'm like, man, this is kind of bleeding into potentially how people feel on the rest of the things as well.

39:01 Yeah, no, I mean, I mean, I, the Jaguars have always been kind of like my, like my secret favorite team. Like, yeah, I love my honors, but I always, I always wanted to find an AFC team to root for, you know, so that way it's like, I have one on each side. And Mark Bernel brought you in that you were like a, you were a fan of Steve Young lefty, Frower, Kodobak and some of the Cornell. Mark Bernel, Jimmy Smith, Fred Taylor. I like the Tony Bustelli. Tom Cofflin. Oh, yeah, but when they brought in Trent Balky to be their GM, I knew that was going to be a train wreck because I dealt with him on the nighters. So I knew that's a bad, but yes, like, you know, the urban Meyer hiring, the Doug Peterson two years, and it's like, they're not giving these guys any time to actually build anything and then you're sticking them with a crappy GM.

39:54 You're not going to be anything done. So, but yeah, like they are, they're not dance, nighter, Redskins, commanders owner of bad, but they're right there in that weird Jerry Jones level where if you're, if you like the Khan family in that part of the Jacksonville area, then you're great. The rest of the area just despises them and wants them to disappear. I'm a Tony, I'm a, I'm a shotgun fan because it was mustache like if that's, I'll give him the credit, I'll give him credit because he looks like a real life Mario. That's, that's very fair. I think that's very fair. So we've been bouncing around here, WWE creative, AW creative, well, the head of WWE creative is one Paul triple H, LeVec.

40:36 And it was announced yesterday on social media. Dr. Dre threw various reports that there was a town hall meeting at WWE headquarters over in Stanford, Connecticut. And it was announced during all of that that triple H would be the first member of the 2025 WWE Hall of Fame class that the undertaker came out. Sean Michaels came out surprised. They meant it was a whole big thing. Later that evening, WWE released footage of it. If you have not had an opportunity to watch the footage, go out of your way and check it out. But long overdue, so well deserved. I'm happy that he's going in and it's just not on his own and not just with degeneration X. Because I thought it was going to be like a Vince thing where the person running the show with the pencil is never going to get a chance to put himself in.

41:23 Paul triple H, LeVec is headlining the 2025 WWE Hall of Fame class. Dr. Dre, the impact is wrestler. Now the impact is a booker. This is awesome. So very well deserved for the cerebral assassin and get his rightful place at the Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 41 weekend. Yeah, I honestly had not I forgot that he had not been put in as a wrestler. Like I knew he's a Hall of Fame from DX and just didn't dawn on me that he wasn't in for everything he had done as a professional wrestler leading into his new role. He's a marvel to me in so many ways.

42:04 Like he's the perfect blend of coming from the Vince tree, but also the dusty tree, the fly like he's got so many influences in how his mind works and he's able to meld it together pretty seamlessly for the most part. Getting that little acknowledgement from his wife, his best friend and his greatest rival. Like that's pretty cool. And I was thinking about it earlier day. I don't know if there's anybody else in the history of professional wrestling that has got the wrestling community to give him a complete 180 on where they viewed him early on his career to where he is now because at some point around 1999, he was the most reviled person in pro wrestling because people were basically saying he only got his spot because he married staff.

43:04 And you see where he's at now and he's arguably the most beloved person in all of professional wrestling. My only thing that I wish was I wish Ric Flair was on the WWE roster right now and Ric could help be a part of the festivities for his induction. Who's who is it going to be Sean or is it going to be taken that induction? I think it's Sean. I think it's Sean. I think it is too. I mean, take your inducted cane. Anything or take your inducted something recently. So I think it will be Sean's turn. But yeah, like if you could have had Sean Flair and take the three of them to induct him, I don't know if there's any bigger class of influences around him that could be on TV that's not named Vince.

43:51 But yeah, like just well deserving. I was always a triple H guy. I've always like, Marvel was the rub from Sean, but I always like triple H even when he was hated by everybody in the wrestling. I was like, the guy goes out there and he makes people want to watch because you hate him so much, you have to see everybody try kick his ass. That's one of my favorite things. And he was always great in that role and he's transitioned to other things and he's arguably the best mind in the business right now. So the guy's like a living like a marvel to me is how well he's resurrected and changed course and got the entire wrestling community to change their opinion on him without actually even saying a word about it.

44:34 He just accepted the way it was, did his work and people went, oh crap, he's really good at this. I love the guy. Yeah, like from 96 to 99, I think people were a big fan of the degeneration. Actually finally got his opportunity as world champion. And then from 99 till about his injury, the quadricept he was loathed as a heel, legitimately loathed as a heel and there was some rumbly there on the dirt sheets of why he was getting pushed. He goes away, comes back in 2022 returns for the road to WrestleMania 18 wins the rumble, has one of the best reactions of any return in Madison Square Garden in January 2002.

45:22 And he was riding as a baby face for a while. Then shortly thereafter turns heel turns on Sean and then from that point on until about like 2005, it was like triple H was jammed down our throats as a world champion as a heel. And it was not, it was not great times and I am a triple H fan, but that run for triple H with evolution was was not my favorite. He was headlining pay per views there in 19 B Booker T 20 loses to Benoit. That was the match with Sean Michaels, 21 loses to Batista helps put Batista over. And then it things started to pick up more where he had the matches with Cena, he got injured again with the quads and then returned.

46:06 And I want to say it was around that time, Dr. Tray that triple H became a father and I think what anybody who's become a father, me recently, Dr. Tray, it really does change you, changes you for the better. And you started to see a little bit of a change there. There was definitely some politics and triple Hs it was still going on, especially if he listened back to those C on punk interviews on his departure from WWE in 2014. But as time has gone on, he's like really embraced independent wrestling, seeing that as a positive for professional wrestling rather than that was a negative because I think in that 2000 era, he was the type that would crap all over Bringabon or any independent promotions are taking over at that period of time and then really started to transcend professional wrestling with NXT.

46:53 I think NXT led to the popularity of going out there and checking out things like New Japan which then led to the elite being able to do all in which then led to the birth of AW then AW was doing everything that we want in WWE to be. Vince goes away, triple H takes over the books and now WWE has been phenomenal under him. I mean it has been so much fun to watch the program and there's obviously a lot of pros, some cons which we pointed out here but a lot of that is to the credit of triple H and what's really really cool is the locker room loves and respects him. And that is what I think we will see come April when he goes in the night before WrestleMania, assuming it's the night after WrestleMania as the headliner for the Hall of Fame in the last 2025.

47:46 I think that roster is going to show him some love. I think those fans are going to show him some love and it's so just a file we deserved. I think you hit it on the head, Dr. Trey. I mean he has done a complete 180. He was hated by the internet and now he is beloved by the internet. So high is the highs, lows, lows, highs, again nobody more deserving, Dr. Trey. I mean there's very, very, very, very, very people that are deserving of being a Hall of Famer at this point. Triple H is one of those people so I'm very excited to see him go in for WrestleMania 41 weekend. Yeah, like you hit the nail and like there's arguably nobody more deserving currently out there that hasn't been put in for just what they did on the run.

48:33 We've seen some guys go in as part of groups and stables and tag teams and he was one of them. But yeah, I mean for everything he's done, everything he's now contributed the world of wrestling. I think the biggest compliment I can give him right now as the head of creative is his ability to course correct, adjust and change some long held standards in what wrestling has been in WWE. I mean for years like you would have never seen guys go work in Japan while under WWE contracts. You would have never seen crossovers with stuff like TNA like they're currently doing with a McMahon in charge and he can look at the landscape of wrestling and go, hey this would be really beneficial to us if we do it and the crowd will dig it as well.

49:23 He course corrects and adapts better than anybody else I've seen when it comes to running a major wrestling organization. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to congratulations Paul. Paul H. LeVac go into the Hall of Fame once again, WrestleMania 41 weekend. Speaking of WrestleMania 41 weekend, Dr. Trey, it kicks off the bill towards it this Saturday, the Royal Rumble previewing predictions. This Saturday from Lucas Oil, Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Let's get to it, I trade. Let's give our predictions. The first being here, the two out of three falls match for the WWE tag team championship, DIY defend against the Motor City, Motor City machine guns. I'm excited for this one. I'm going to go with DIY.

50:05 Yeah, I'm excited for this one too. I'm looking at on paper, I'm like, okay, so if I pick this team, lose the next challenger, or if I pick this team, lose the next challenger, I'm going to take the Motor City machine guns, getting their revenge in the belts back, because I can see them going out, they're pretty deadly coming on and being the next challenger and have some great match leading in your wrestling. So I'm going to take MCMG to get the win, which is weird for me because I love DIY is the new age version of KO and Sammy. I usually never picking as DIY, but in this case, I'm going to take the machine guns. Next match is the latter match for the Undisputed WWE Championship, Dr. Trey. Who do you like in this one? Cody Rhodes or Kevin Owens?

50:47 Because we are so close to WrestleMania, we are only 60 some odd days out from WrestleMania. I really want to see KO win. Jeff, you have no idea how badly I won KO as match. I just don't see it having. Cody's your biggest star in the company. You want him heading into Mania as your champion, not trying to get the belt back really quickly before Mania. I'm going to take Cody retaining the title and maybe that's the whole thing. He gets to take the wing, the winged Eagle title home and put it on the mantle next to the picture of his death. There are some rumors out there that a new championship is set to debut that will resemble more of the winged Eagle. And that's why this has been involved in it.

51:29 Warriors Cross on that one. I am also taking Cody Rhodes to win and to retain. And now the tough one, Dr. Trey, the women's Royal Rumble match. The winner receives a women's World Championship match at WrestleMania 41. I've been thinking about this one and I think because of the lack of build, I mentioned earlier the 2023 Cody Rhodes return from injury blueprint. I think that is what they're going to be doing this Saturday. I think they're going to be doing that blueprint with Charlotte Flair. Charlotte is my pick to win the Rumble. I think her and Tiffany Stratton have a match at WrestleMania that has been the Rumble And I think this is the way that they get Charlotte in later in the match.

52:14 She's not in the for a long time. She's still coming off of injury. We don't really see her wrestle all that much up until WrestleMania. Keep her fresh. Keep her un-injured like they did with Cody. So I'm going to go with Charlotte Flair to win the women's Royal Rumble match once again. Yeah, to me it came down to Charlotte and Becky. To me, everybody else we talked about on the show. Either has been in the title picture, been at the top of the card. We've already seen all the other matchups you can possibly come up with. Outside of throwing Bianca into the mix by the thing, she's going to get tied up with Jade at some point here or some kind of weird love triangle between her Naomi and Jade.

52:58 So I'm taking Charlotte as well. What I would love to see is Charlotte win and basically do like almost take Tiffany under her wing and protect her to get to WrestleMania then you get that match because it does kind of feel like Tiffany and Charlotte is almost like watching like the old version and the young version of the same person wrestling. So it might be one of a few times I've actually been intrigued to see how a Charlotte match will play out if we do get Charlotte and Tiffany. So I'm taking Charlotte to win the women's Rumble as well. And then finally the men's Royal Rumble match winner receives a men's world champion match of WrestleMania 41. Dr. Trey, who do you have in this one?

53:42 This one's tough. It's almost by process of elimination is how I got to it. Like we mentioned earlier, you got Drew McIntyre Seth Rollins. C.M. Pong, John Cena, Roman Reigns, you got Damien Priest, Sami Zayn, Jay Huso. I almost feel like a lot of those guys are going to help eliminate each other in a lot of ways. And I looked at it and went like who's the person who doesn't have a huge rivalry with anybody else going on that would cause them to lose this match? But John Cena, Cena is not in a rivalry with anybody. Like Roman's got solo, we figure solo is going to get involved or Jay can fight too. We figured the bloodline would be in the match. Jay and Sami got their stuff with Drew. C.M. Pong's got his stuff with Seth.

54:23 I feel like all these guys are going to kind of help eliminate each other. And then you're left with John Cena standing there because I still, to me, the money matching WrestleMania still, one of the big matches would be Cena versus Gunther, Cena going for the record. So I'm taking John Cena to win the Rumble. Yeah, this is a tough call. I've been thinking about this for a long time here and the direction they may be going. There's Rumbleings of Cody Rhodes versus John Cena at WrestleMania. There's Rumbleings of Logan Paul versus Gunther at WrestleMania. John Cena versus Gunther at WrestleMania. Dr. Jay pointed out and all be all I'm going to go with CM Punk to win the men's Royal Rumble match.

55:09 And a lot of momentum, he's never main evented, he's never won the Rumble match. And I think this is something that is missing on the resume of one CM Punk. So I'm very tempted to pick John Cena as well, Dr. Trey. But I'm going to go with CM Punk to win the men's Royal Rumble match. And we will recap and review everything from the Royal Rumble on next week's edition of SRTU, the first episode of the month of February. So stay tuned for that one. We obviously go into this paper view, zero and zero. Coming off of 2024's paper view predictions, which I won Dr. Trey. I win 145 and 43. You win 129 and 59.

55:51 So I think we need to start to parlay some of the stuff with like draft Kings or Fandall. [LAUGH] >> Well, I mean, you have a lot more connections with those guys than I do. I'm in Alabama. I can't even legally go on those sites to play some wager on anything. So you might have a little more pull with those guys. Look, you were kicking my ass the entire year the last month and a half. I literally just started picking an opposite of you to try and catch up. Obviously, I didn't work out. But this year, I have a different mindset. I am trying to, instead of pick with my heart, try to more pick with my logic and kind of how the shows are being put together and booked. So hopefully that will turn things around.

56:33 Not to mention, I'm sure we'll get into this here in a minute. Sammy Franklin still has to pick his stuff. That will be up on the Facebook page either later tonight when this comes out or definitely before the rumble. Sammy Franklin who has never picked a rumble winner correctly and usually picks the first person eliminated. So I'm excited to see who he picks for this year's rumble to see if his streak continues on. Stay tuned. I am looking forward to that. That will be on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/todayrealthosshow. With that said, let's get a couple of plugs and sponsors out of the way you can download the show every Thursday or Friday at realguyradio.com.

57:15 Russell Chatnet on X and the Stoodle Realthos Show iTunes feed. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help us kind of charge on iTunes. You can also individually on X for myself at SRTU. Jeff and for Dr. Franklin at the Dr. Tre. And of course don't forget to follow the show on X at SRTU podcast. Without being sad of what is going on in the wonderful world of Dr. Franklin this week. Well like Jeff said, you can follow me on X at the Dr. Tre. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram Dr. Tre Franklin. When you're on Facebook, be sure to check out Rocket City Championship Wrestling. We actually will be doing a show this Saturday night. So I may not be able to watch the rumble live because we got some Rocket City stuff going on as we are on the road to WrestlingCon 5 May 4th from Lovely Hazel Green Alabama.

58:03 Also be sure to check out Spartan Championship Wrestling, one of my favorite groups to work with here in the Save Alabama. But most importantly, get out there, find your own independent wrestling shows. Dig in. The weather is changing, the sun is coming out, all these great things are happening. So go out there, find your local independent wrestling show and see if there are promoters hiding in the back in the weeds, secretly booking the shows. So there you go, enjoy everything that is out there in the world of professional wrestling. It's going to be a very fun weekend as the road to WrestlingCon 4.1 kicks off. One of my favorite shows to sit down, relax and just enjoy the Royal Rumble PLE Live from Indianapolis, Indiana, Lucas Oil Stadium. So once again, we'll be back next week to recap it and review it for all of you.

58:45 Enjoy the weekend, enjoy the Royal Rumble. Difficult to rate, review and subscribe to SRTU. And until next week for Dodge Strike Franklin, I am Jeff Peck. This has been The Still Rural Show.