A Bloodline War Inches Even Closer & Sami Zayn Holds the Fate of the WWE Championship | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #853 – 6/18/26

0:00 It's still really a big damage to me! What now? Oh! Oh! Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's edition of the Sto Realta Show. Eps number 8503 for June 18th, 2026. Welcome to this week's edition of S.R.T.U. I am one after the show, I am Jeff Peck. I joined every single week for my host, the one who had done straight. Franklin, Dr. Trey, is there anything in the world of professional wrestling that could have been a little bit to what just happened in the NBA with my New York Knicks becoming NBA champions, my friend?

0:47 Oh, bestie. We were talking about Mexican food and traveling and then you hit me with an NBA question to jump it off. Anything in the history of this David Arquette winning the WCW Championship? What are we longing for that? Well, you were longing for your Knicks to win a championship. You know, when it comes to the NBA, I am almost by default a Lakers fan. So the Knicks are not at the top of my wish list to win an NBA championship. But I was pulling for them because for some reason I am not a Wemba Yamma. I'm not a big fan of his yet.

1:31 For some reason, when I see the Knicks, I see all those Villanova guys on the Knicks, like Brunson, Ellis guys, I was pulling for the Knicks. So maybe it's also because growing up, the Spike Lee, Michael Jordan commercials and Jordan basically just torching Spike Lee for a decade, maybe a Knicks fan in this series. So congratulations for your Knicks winning a championship. Once again, something that maybe we didn't think would happen in our lifetimes. But I just don't know, is there maybe Daniel Bryan winning the, is that something with the Miracle on Bourbon Street? I think the closest is maybe Kofi. Kofi won the championship 35. Russell Wayne in 35 because in the WWE for 10 plus years, never thought it would happen.

2:16 The Knicks in the NBA for a long time, they did win a championship. Or like a cornerstone of the NBA for a long time, just because of where they're located. But like a laughing stock for nearly 15 years, win the championship. Never thought I'd see the day. To me, I think the closest thing maybe like Kofi? I'm just trying to compare in a sense of like, you know, you just said yourself, the Knicks, James Dolen kind of a laughing stock of the NBA throughout the early 2000s. For the last at least 20 years. Fair enough, I say. I don't know if there's something that we can look and go, he was kind of a laughing stock and then got on a hosier because Kofi, I don't think we ever considered him a laughing stock because the new day had such a great run.

2:58 I just don't know if there's somebody that you can go look and go, man, I never thought this guy based on, it's all siglar based on where he started to cashing in at money in the bank. Maybe I just don't know if you can go from laughing stock to champion comparison type thing. Yeah, I shouldn't have said laughing. I mean, Knicks are laughing stock. Kofi by far is not. To me, it's just like something I never thought I'd say is kind of the comparison. Like I did feel like Daniel Bryan holding a champion chip at some point, a world championship and WWE seemed inevitable at one point, but even when Kofi was going through Kofi Mania, it never really felt like it could happen. And that's how it like, and Kofi was like on the rise. There was momentum.

3:39 He was dominant. And that's what it's like. And I could equivalent to the Knicks run there. The Knicks were dominant in the NBA playoffs. I never thought I'd see the day that the Knicks would win a championship. I think Kofi Kingston was one of those guys where it's like you go through the list. It's like Kofi Kingston, do you think he'll get it? And well, he's been in the WWE for 10 plus years. If he had an opportunity, it's probably passed at this point. So I think that's the closest, but I really had to rack my brain. I usually really like comparing sports analogies to wrestling to tie it back all in so we don't bore the wrestling fans that listen to this podcast on art sports fans.

4:20 But this one was pretty difficult, Dr. Trey, because it had been 53 years since the Knicks won an NBA championship. There's certainly nobody on the WWE AEW, D&A roster that hasn't won a championship in 53 years. Hell, they'd be wrestling in the middle of the 70s. So it's like, I guess the closest comparison would be Kofi, I guess. >> Did you go Diamond Dows pay, starting off as a manager, then running through his iterations of the Diamond dolls and all that stuff, and then kind of being like a lower mid card guy for it. >> Yeah. >> It wasn't until he came up with a Diamond Cutter that he became a dominant person. And maybe that's a good comparison where you look at like, yeah, they were kind of laughing stocks.

5:02 They bring in Jalen Bronson, they get on this streak and they dominate. So maybe Diamond Dows pay, starting to use the Diamond Cutter, elevating his career up to becoming a main event, level town, and then winning a World title. Again. >> But that might be the other option. >> I like that comparison. I think another comparison can be literally what will segue into our first topic here for this week's edition of the podcast is, and this person has not won a World Championship yet, but that is Sami Zayn. I think you can say, if the day comes, and I'm like 50/50 on this, I think Sami Zayn should get a run with a World Championship. But I don't know if it'll ever happen. He may be that Karl Malone, that Ken Griffey Jr., those guys that played sports that dominated the sport, Mike Trout, that never got an opportunity to win the big one, could be like Sami Zayn.

5:57 If Sami Zayn is someone that finally wins the big one, wins a WWE Championship, a World Heavyweight Championship, I think that would be a guy that you and I have resonated with, that we've watched Russell back. He resembled this wrestler called El Generico in Ring of Honor and on the independency. And that could be maybe the closest comparison if Sami ever gets a doctor shirt. I feel like Sami could be the New York Knicks of wrestling right now. Yeah, it's curious in a sense of, we talked about the Daniel Bryan run briefly and you remember Stephanie and Triple H saying he's a B+ guy.

6:38 And Sami, for all intents and purposes in a lot of ways, does fall into that B+ guy. If they do pull the trigger on it, fantastic, we love it because we love Sami Zayn. But he's that Kurt Henning of this generation that guy that you look at and you go, this guy should be a world champion at some point and then just never got it. I always think of like being a football guy, I always think of the Dan Marinos of the world. The guy's just dominates a sport but never has the whole team around him. Sami's guy who's like, and a little bit like I heard JBL mention this about Dolph Siggler. Just those guys that you can put in the ring with anybody to give people over and doesn't always need the wins and losses because he's just so organically good that you can just change his role and he'll make it work.

7:30 Maybe Sami's in that Roddy Piper category. I don't, for all intents but I don't really count Roddy Piper winning the WCW championship in that time. But like Piper's running WWE, just super like always around the top of the car just never seems to have that breakthrough moment where he becomes a guy much like Kofi that you just mentioned. Like, super talented guy but it's going to take something to kind of catch fire for the office to kind of go, hey, that's our guy even in the short term. That's our guy. I just don't know. I don't know if this, I like the new gimmick but I don't know if he's, if it's enough to really catapult him over the top yet. So let's get into here because there's a lot going on with Sami's in right now.

8:13 It's very, it's an intriguing and interesting storyline that's taking place on SmackDown right now where tomorrow, this Friday, whenever you're listening to this podcast, we will have Cody Rhodes versus Gunther for the Undisputed WWE Championship on SmackDown commercial free. And Sami Zayn is going to be the special guest referee. That was the special stipulation that Gunther selected for his match. We all know the history and background between Sami Zayn and Gunther. Zayn was the one that dethroned Gunther at WrestleMania to win the Intercontinental Championship after ending that historic reign. Sami has been this tweener character for several months where he's definitely leading a lot more into the healish persona.

8:55 I love this whole like last real good guy thing that he's running right now. That's like really funny, entertaining, creative, which reminds me a lot of Sami. And Sami is one of those wrestlers that can be a baby face and be so beloved and enjoyable and entertaining and he could be a heal and he could be so beloved, enjoyable and entertaining all for the wrong reasons as he's doing like these healish tactics. I'm a huge fan of Sami Zayn obviously and I have loved this rise that he's had in WWE and I'm so happy that he's really been able to be the type of character that he's been in Roller's Entertainment.

9:42 And this is like an old school storyline to me, Dr. Trey. It could be Bret Hart versus Undertaker at Summerslam 97 with Sean Michaels as a special guest referee. It could be similar to a triple threat where you've got Steve Austin, Triple H and Mankind. I think it's Summerslam 99 with Jesse Ventura as a special guest referee where Mick Foley walks out of Summerslam with the WWE Championship and Sami has been like that Mick Foley type character. Him being a special guest referee on Friday night is playing a huge role. I don't know. I feel like Cody is going to go to Summerslam as the Undisputed Championship which kind of blends a little bit into the King of the Ring discussion later on.

10:33 I really think that Sami Zayn affects this match and I think we have a title change. I mean there's no way that Sami's in this match for no major storyline reason. So I'm really intrigued with this. What do you think his involvement is in this Undisputed Championship match and how do you think he impacts the outcome? By the way, you just remind Mick Foley winning the Championship is comparable to the next winning the title. Good one. Yep. Yep. It's a good problem to have right now if your WWE in a sense because you do have this newer version of Sami which is compelling which is very, in some ways the Summers have drew McIntyre a couple years ago.

11:17 I'm actually the good guy in this situation and you guys just don't see it yet. It's a similar twist on that kind of character but it's a good problem to have because right now you and I, a few months ago, were saying where's Cody's Challengers coming from? All of a sudden now you got a great character in Sami Zayn, you got the Gunther issue, you have the King of the Ring stuff. It's a good problem to have. It is weird to go like I don't see them. Kind of like you like on one hand I don't see them going to Summerslam with Gunther as the champion unless somehow we get to Gunther Brock and that's the retirement match but it's a really good question to have that.

11:59 And that's possibly what you do the title change and you Gunther Brock that's you know, Hamins cashing in the, you know, the favor is between Gunther from, you know, earlier this year is a match with Brock and then you do Cody and Sami as Summerslam but yeah it's, it's one of those things where like I try, like I'm almost dumbfounded, trying to figure out where the story goes with this because obviously you need a good Sami Cody feud out this because Cody's the reason why all these people have been turning against him. It's not like, it's one of those things where like if you break up with nine girls in a row, it's not you found nine crazy girlfriends. You are actually the problem and it's a good storyline to have where it's like hey, maybe it's not Cody, maybe or maybe it's not all these guys turning against Cody, it's who Cody is causing all these people to turn against him and then you can do Gunther with somebody else.

12:54 So I still feel like Cody's going to Summerslam with the title. I just think that there's going to be something else that happens in this match that kind of lean into Sami blaming Cody for everything that's going on in his life right now and then Gunther ends up being kind of the victim by all this other stuff going on. So a lot of the next couple of topics here kind of intertwined with what's going on with both the World Avaluate Championship and the Indus BWE Championship, which is a good thing. Like I really feel like as I've said over the last several weeks that WWE is kind of finding it really good groove right now creatively that's making it very hard to predict what's going to happen at Summerslam and that's ultimately what we want as fans. We don't want to be sitting here on this podcast like laying out the groundwork for what is going to happen at Summerslam.

13:37 We go lay out the groundwork that we think is going to happen with Summerslam and I want all these different types of roads and storylines, not you know, no pun intended literally here, to really drive the direction of where we think things are going. And one of those storylines along with this Sami Zayn, Cody, Gunther stuff right now that could be intertwined and at some point is the stuff with the bloodline. So you've got on SmackDown, Jacob Fattu delivers a message from Roman Reigns to Solosiko and we talked about this Civil War brewing. We've talked about it here over the last couple of weeks where it just feels like it's starting to bubble up and it's being executed really well done. It's not like these long interview or promo segments that are taking place on Raw on SmackDown.

14:22 It's these vignettes backstage on SmackDown that are going for like three to five minutes and it's just like a seed drop here, a seed there. And then eventually it could expand and grow and it's getting fans like myself to go, what are the hell are they going with this thing? So Fattu confronts Solos on SmackDown, telling him that the OTC Roman Reigns wads him back in the fold. It's time to come home. Solos refuses and challenges Roman to come get him. And then on Raw, Roman Reigns officially anoints a line Jacob Fattu as part of the family and part of the bloodline on Raw by putting an ulefala on his neck and then Jacob Fattu beats a shit out of comedian actor Eric Andre in a segment that I guess is doing really nothing storyline wise.

15:07 I guess it was a way to promote his show with Cena, which is odd because Cena is not going to come out and make the say. So what does this mean for Solos to go? What does this mean for the bloodline? What does this all mean for Fattu? Because Fattu was like this fan favorite, really felt like it if they wanted to pull the trigger and put the title on them, they certainly could. But what they're doing right now is they're basically like shifting his character where he was this lovable great catchphrase dominant Samoan werewolf into this killer Samoan werewolf. I thought Roman Reigns coming up to the apron, putting the arm out to say like he's a Kylo ran or Darth Vader and telling Jacob Fattu don't do this and then pausing a little bit and then just doing the execution, you know slice of the throat, symbol to him.

15:58 I mean I've always compared this storyline to Star Wars Avengers, whatever your fandom is. It's like this classic empire type storyline that is very reminiscent of Star Wars ish and then Fattu lays it down. I mean it feels like Roman is molding Fattu into the type of person he wants him to be or finding that killer instinct meanwhile you've got this whole hey solo you need to come back here, we're thinking maybe potentially bloodline civil war or the eventual expansion of the bloodline even more. What is this what do you think of this message here of from Reigns to solo dr. Tre because they put it in forward with another gear and then the other part of this as Fattu offence officially aligning himself with the bloodline and being part of the family on raw.

16:48 So you know we always talk about like there's nothing original and wrestling it's all kind of spins off of other things like it's once again as a kid growing up watching NWA watching the four horsemen it's reminiscent of when Lex Luger burst on the scene in the NWA and he was catching fire and then all of a sudden he turns and joins the horsemen. You know it's kind of like taking your biggest threat and pulling him back in the great thing with the bloodline story is that it is family it is blood and you're taking a guy like Jacob Fattu who just had two really great matches with Roman Reigns. Me look like a you know credible threat to the thrown in Roman and then he brings him into the fold to kind of mold him into you know kind of the soldier that they wanted to be but it also leads to a future breakout when Jacob breaks away so there's a little bit storyline in there.

17:37 So the solo stuff is interesting because you know we look at this run of Roman Reigns and he's like okay he's kind of a baby face and then but you know with the beat down of a comedian like Eric Andre the stuff that they're doing is kind of steel heelish and then if you're trying to bring a heel faction back into the fold well then that's kind of a heel thing but then when solos rebelling and he's a heel but by nature rebelling it's kind of baby face it does make an ishring and you and I sat here. God it's probably been a year you're in a half ago and solo kind of took on this role in the NFTs and we're like solo is super entertaining like he's so likable and he's so funny like maybe this is the way that the solo kind of goes baby face at some point and we kind of see what a solo seco a baby face run might look like because it's interesting because you don't only that but you know I'm a tiny little bit of the king of ring stuff in this well the j auso stuff where j comes out and says he's going to the king of ring and he's going after Cody well if he goes after Cody that's on Smackdown so it is kind of like hey are we going to have the super bloodline at some point where they're dominating both shows much like I said last week like how the NWO did with you know nitro and thunder back in the day.

18:56 Yeah it's it's really cool what's what's being parlayed on television right now with the bloodline stuff because it's like all these different areas and character developments that is getting WWE back to that creative fold that made it so interesting in 2022 to 2024 when triple H first got the books was making things very intriguing and interesting it's like the bloodline was reborn while everybody else was napping and the people that were responsible for killing it Cody Rhodes Seth wrongs LA night were doing their own thing and it's slowly getting stronger than it ever was and I think you know if you look back to that original bloodline you would never think that it could get any stronger but I mean there's a real possibility here in the next four to eight weeks that this is they're adding solosikoa tallatanga and tamatanga to to the bloodline to make it this super group and to the point that you just made there you know in regard to the king of the ring and we'll touch upon that in a second and again I think this is all very intertwined with what is going on because the way this storyline is going makes me really think about the execution and pulling the trigger of oboe femy as well I mean he's on the rise is this and that's always like the downside to when Romans around a lot that and even Cody I mean obviously Cody's there's all the time I mean this they're known to suppress stars that are on the rise like LA night is an example of that Kevin Owens is a clear example of that went during the Roman first

20:30 run there at the bloodline when you have a historic world championship run while I love that historic championship run it was like oh man this did a little bit of a disservice to some other guys because this was their opportunity to really shine and break through and now that's like kind of a what if going back to like who are the New York nicks of professional wrestling maybe make a case that LA night is one of those guys that's like a New York nick where beloved could be on the rise but may never ever we may never think that he ever wins the big one the Jacob Fattu character development is really really interesting because the vibe I get and it's not going to happen immediately is that everything is being planted for Fattu to overtake Roman at some point as the tribal chief and and being the one that potentially gets that torch passed and I think at one time we thought that was so was a coa they didn't executed that because Roman was sell around and solo kind of found a character that was really entertaining and fun and and him more importantly solo was playing that like Jacob Fattu type role of this you know quiet badass but now he's extremely entertaining as like this mob boss for the MFTs shifting to the king of the ring here doctor try oba femy defeats Dominic mystery on raw and will now face the winner of javon Evans and j.u. so in the term final at night of champions I love javon Evans I don't think there's any way right now with everything going on that he defeats j.u. so on smackdown so

22:04 I would believe that we see oba femy versus j.u. so at night of champions when we preview predicted on next week show for the king of the ring finals but maybe you feel differently how do you see at least heading into the finals on the men's side playing out before we talk about the men's final itself yeah I agree I think this is kind of like you know when javon was in the elimination chamber you're you're getting him a taste of the big time seeing how well he does but this is still you're you're setting up for summer slamming as much as we like javon Evans he's still not maybe on that level where you know he's not on the level like j.u. so against I mean see me javon Evans against Roman Ranger javon Evans against Cody Rhodes on paper does not scream summer slam match yet you can make the case that j and Cody or even j and Roman or oba and cova Cody and oba and Roman those both sound like summer slam type made of that matches so I'm with you I think it's going to set up for j and oba in the finals but I think javon gets a really strong showing and once again that can lead into some of the other stuff we've seen with you know people trying to recruit javon to join with their groups you know based on how this all plays out where it's like hey javon loss because j has family the javon has nobody you can always tie that into something else down the line as well so I'm fully expecting j and oba in the finals now the way this has been set up.

23:35 It's an interesting layer with the javon stuff because we saw the vision try to recruit him on on raw this past money and he turned it down so oba family j.u. so we presume is going to be the night of champions king the ring final. This may drive fans crazy but I think that there's a 50% chance at oba wins and a 50% chance that j.u. so wins the j.u. so element I think and and correctly if you think differently here I think it's a very easy process here bloodline gets involved maybe brackets involved the night of champions cost oba family the match j.u. so becomes the king of the ring he challenges Cody Rhodes we presume Cody to have the championship at summer slam is that the clear cut easiest where do you see something creatively that could be done differently should j.u. so when no that to me is the easiest route because you can like you said you can get the bloodline involved and it keeps oba if j.u. so wins because Jimmy or j.u. or somebody gets involved that keeps it very simple because oba then still looks strong and you know you're still getting the results you want plus it if you get j.u. evolved it sets up for a j.u. up match which I think you and I would just gush over if we got an oba j.u. up match down the line as well.

24:46 So then let's look at the oba side of things right so oba winning I've been saying this I think that this tournament should be used to catapult him but in recent weeks with this whole bloodline storyline like I think the only way if oba wins it the only way that is done right I mean oba has to challenge Roman reigns at summer slam and if he's challenging Roman reigns at summer slam I think the case could be made over the next five to six weeks is that plays out that this is a potential torch passing where oba becomes champion and Roman goes away for a little bit we go back to those those comments he made after rousal made it he was going to be around for the summer well summer slam would be the end of it and it would be the round for like four straight five straight months basically on a pretty consistent basis and then goes away for the fall we returns for summer or survivor series and the bloodline storyline kind of throttles up then but is there a world doctor tray where let's just say gone through wins on friday and oba wins the tournament and challenges gone through for the will have a way championship and to me I hope that doesn't happen because I think that would make oba look extremely weak but I could see wwe doing this going oh shit this whole bloodline thing is really going extremely well we want to put the title on oba oba versus gone through would be pretty interesting because I think fans want to see gone through get his ass kicked and that also gives us time to continue to let this bloodline storyline breathe where we don't have to do oba versus Roman right now yeah I don't want

26:21 to see that by the way no yeah I mean can I see it happening yeah but I do think unless here's the only issue I have with that is if roman is going away for the summer I mean after summer for a couple months like how do you stretch this burgeoning bloodline storyline out to get all the way to survivor series if roman's not at least in some in some ways involved in the storyline I mean we've seen the past I mean you know roman can be champion and be off TV for a couple months and it's still decent TV I oba gunther I don't know right now like on paper like it would also make oba's character look weak in a sense like when you want to go after the tribal chief like if you're wanting to be that guy and you win king of the reign don't you want to go after the perceived top guy the like as much as we all know you know much as Cody's characters been perceived as top guy I think to a lot of fans he's still a notch Romans legacy is better than Cody's legacy so if I'm up and coming guy and I win king of the ring and I'm on the same show as roman reigns I want Roman reigns you know and not jump over to take on a gunther or even to degree even a Cody we've already seen you know oba and Cody at Saturday's made events so it's an interesting dynamic but I like once again I go I kind of go back to it's was it a Occam's razor sometimes the easiest

27:54 answer is the correct answer where's like all right if the bloodline costs over the match and you get J and Cody or J even J and Gunther again at summer slam and revisit that story to kind of help flesh out this bloodline story kind of crossing both brands it does kind of make the most sense yeah I didn't consider the J Gunther stuff as a possibility as well so I mean it's it's great I mean there's gonna be a lot that comes out of the fall out from tomorrow night smack down with counter versus Cody there's a lot that's kind of riding on with this whole king the ring tournament and where things are going to summer slam what I love about it is there's a lot of different layers and there's probably things that were not even touching upon Dr. Terry we could do potentially an entire episode of like so what if this happens that happens because you know it could be oba versus Cody I mean maybe oba's like I want to revenge that loss or that match you know we didn't find out who the true winner was at that Saturday night's main event for John Cena's last match a several months ago like I want to avenge that loss and that's the way I go you know I think for me I've always felt that oba versus Roman at summer slam is on the card and I feel like Brock versus Gunther's on the card but I do feel like oba versus Brock is happening one more time and maybe that happens again the closest thing I could think of it was it got to be night of champions maybe it happens at Saturday nights main event in Madison Square Garden where Brock gets one last match in MSG like I think Lesnar's in ring career is coming coming

29:27 to an end and a lot of that has been kind of reported on in the last year that and he's kind of alluded to it in a couple of interviews the rare interviews that he does it like this was this was kind of the swan song of it all so lots of cool things peeling out there when it comes to the king of the ring the Sammy Zane involvement with Cody Rhodes and Gunther because I think you could make a case that Cody versus Gunther versus Sammy would be a great triple threat main event match at an upcoming Saturday and it's main event or a summer slam as well the bloodline civil war with Fatu telling solo to come back home like that's only got to pick up some more I would imagine that there's another segment on Smackdown to keep that boat going then you've got everything with how this plays out with King the ring and WWE has some really good stuff boiling up right now and it's a lot of good stuff that's up in the air it's just a matter of execution and WWE delivering on some entertainment here for the fans watching at home the Queen of the Rings side doctor tree we had Eos guy defeating Raquel Rodriguez on raw she will face the winner of live Morgan and Charle Flare in the tournament final at night of champions live in Charlotte battling and out I believe on Smackdown this Friday I've always felt that this is Eos guys tournament to lose I think that there's a report out there that Charlotte versus Rhea was not on the card for for summer slam excuse me Rhea Ripley is dealing with a legitimate knee injury that she suffered either at Clash in Italy or like one of

30:58 those shows either Smackdown a Raw around the Italy shows hopefully she is fine and can get back to wrestling how do you see the Queen of the Ring playing out doctor I I stay true that I think that this is Eos guys to win this she makes the most sense to me yeah I'm kind of with you like we talked about coming from like I you brought that up and I was like man it's gonna be interesting to see how we get to that you know especially if Charlotte has that knee injury I can see Jade actually costing Charlotte the match with live Morgan to set up Eo and live in the finals to then have Eo beat live in the finals to then set up you know her challenging live for the championship so that's kind of like my thousand foot view on it because I was like I was telling some of their days like I kind of feel like either Roxanne or Raquel is going to cost live a match at some point to then set up one of the girls leaving the judgment day as well and I just it's weird because I can see both Roxanne and Raquel being kind of breakout baby faces especially Roxanne with her just being so undersized and looking like an underdog but it could be very reminiscent of hey Sean Michaels and diesel breaking up if Raquel becomes the baby face and breaks away from live but I'm I'm kind of like with you now where I'm like yeah I'm definitely leaning Eo just with somebody costing Charlotte her match and then setting up Eo and live in the finals let's switch gears switch promotions here to AW Savegout the Owen Hart Foundation tournament taking place some

32:29 updates on the women's side Mercedes-Bone Davided Hazzuki in a great match on Wednesdays dynamite she will face the winner of Athena and Maya World in the tournament final for Ben and Door I believe Athena Maya World will be taking taking on one another this Saturday on collision Mercedes-Bone Athena seems to be the tournament final for me Dr. Trey again I see this as being like a redemption arc a rebuilding arc from Mercedes-Bone to win it and I find that result to be a little lame and not something that I want to see but I don't know with only three women left in the tournament legitimately it really doesn't seem to be unless they want to go the Athena route somebody that I'm like really dying to see the women's side of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament yeah I'm kind of with you I it feels like it's in you earlier you made a comment like J.O. it was like 50/50 it feels like 80/20 for me that like Mercedes is going to win the tournament like like on this you know back from the abyss or back from her vacation or have you want to phrase it to win the tournament but I also look at just kind of like not that there's a lack of talent in the women's division a w but there's been a kind of a lack of top people with you know Mercedes being off Tony Storm being off you know statlanders kind of on her thing willows out right now there's no Brit Baker you know it's it's kind of like maybe moving

34:04 Athena to in there who we've seen grow so much over the last couple of years in a w with her run in ring of honor we're like hey she's a great interview she's a great character maybe we should feature her more in a w and that can kind of even though she's been there for like three or four years it's like it's kind of a new fresh face face on the horizon if they went that route but like I said it to me it does feel like 80% that Mercedes Monae is going to win this tournament to set up her in Thackla at some point but it would be really nice to kind of go hey Athena's been a great soldier worker employee for us for the last four years maybe we should shine a light on her coming out of this well I think the thing that kind of pigeonholed a w with the creative booking of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament is they had a lot of female stars that were from different promotions like a zuki from stardom uh peress percissopie from cml like you didn't need that many in there quite honestly like there are plenty of women that are a w stars that could have just been as equally as important like on the men's side it was all a w guys on the female side you had a couple of the from the outside companies for forbidden door it sprinkled in there and it's like why would a w want to promote you know any of those stars they should be using this as a catapult for their company and yeah I feel like the women's tournament was not booked creatively very well while the men's tournament has so obviously we know the final we talked about it length on last week show will

35:36 us brainstorm stricklin at forbidden door this is a main event level match this is a world championship title match this is like a match that could headline all in london tomorrow between these two guys they had their face to face segment on dynamite to hyper forbid indoor match I thought it was a great segment great back it for a little bit more humanizing for swarves stricklin as they went back and discussed the storyline from the past year were those two guys were working together to take on the young bucks and that they both agreed that it was hangman pages time like there was I wish there was a lot more of that and like vignettes and packages right now to really hyped that up but they did a good job touching upon that during the face to face however dr. tre I just still feel like it's inevitable for will osprey to win this tournament it's london his storyline with the the death riders is really good do you see uh do you see that 50 50 split of an oba feme jayu so that we talked about not too long ago do you see a closer split here than maybe I see because I just I just see this being will us for a honestly yeah I'm with you it's me as much more the mercenaries monea fena thing for me was like 80 20 and in part of it also was the the promo mjf cut where he's with don calis and get the entire don calis family behind them and he even mentioned will osprey he's like everybody feels like it's inevitable that it's going to be you and me when we say when you're going to come out on top and I'm like that it's that that's not so much foreshadowing that's just acknowledging the elephant in the room that it does we I mean but we've talked about for a couple years then like at

37:07 some point osprey has to win the championship in london and for you know in wembley stadium and last year I don't last year we didn't do we did we did Texas for all in which kind of threw a monkey wrench into that plan so hey we're back in wembley stadium it does make a ton of sense on pay able to have at least mjf and osprey be your main event inside wembley stadium so yeah I'm leaning much more the 80 20 split than I am the 50 50 night of champions forbidden door we will preview and predict it on next week's edition of srt you will also take a look at great american bash as next weekend is a fully loaded weekend for professional wrestling with three major soves two from w_e_1 from a_e_w_o_ so we'll cover that all on next week's edition of the podcast last thing I want to bring up here on this week's edition of srt you dr. tre is almost about a year ago around this time you and I were extremely high on total nonstop action wrestling t_n_a wrestling we felt that there was a resurgence there was like this rebirth for bound for glory there was this rebirth with our a_m_c_ tv deal and here we are six to nine months later and it's completely gone 180 and it's going in a really really bad direction that I think is is concerning so in the last several weeks several things have happened here so yesterday Tommy dreamer who was a top name in creative announced that he had departed t_n_a wrestling tessa blanchored steve macklin and my leg race have all departed

38:41 sammy cahillahan who was working as a producer was let go he announced that on wednesday p_w_n_s_ i reported on thursday morning that there were a number of people in the production circles at t_n_a who were cut attendance for the shows when you look at photos when you look at the show itself is considerably low if this was a w dr. tre and i would be like bashing them to no health this was debatably would be bashing them to no hell i mean it is really really considerably low and bad the amount of tendons that they have for the shows the a_m_c_ tv deal has not really helped much i watched the very first episode on a_m_c_ tv to kind of give it a new fresh look and and see i've been very happy with the stuff that they were doing in w_e_ and would like see a lot of the social media clips i watched that episode thought it was god awful we've talked about it here on the podcast kind of damaged them from trying to regain some of that viewership and then more importantly and i was thinking about this this past Tuesday as i was watching n_x_t_ and i had this speed tournament it was filled with a lot of people from n_x_t and evolve and nobody from t_n_a and it's been a long time since we've seen somebody from t_n_a i feel like appear on w_e_ television on n_x_t which makes a question like whatever happened to that w_e_t_n_a partnership because t_n_a could really use some of that help from debuwe right now dr. tre you have been and and always will be on this podcast the forever t_n_a guy i feel like from an outsider looking in that that resurgence that hype that momentum has completely stalled how do you feel as a t_n_a fan do you feel the same way has that resurgence

40:15 stalled for t_n_a in the last six and nine months yeah it totally has it and i haven't watched it as much recently as i did when it first got an amp c_n_ part is also is like it's kind of in the same thing we said about t_n_a for years like you need that guy to kind of break out and kind of become musty television and they had it for a while with joe hendry um... you know they had it when the hardies came back to t_n_a they had it when nick nemith came to t_n_a and you're like okay i gotta check this out you know the hardies are still there that they're feud with the righteous is to me the best thing on t_n_a to kind of check out because i'm a huge fan of both the hardies and the righteous um... but you know right now like you look at the talent level and you're like okay well they have mike santa and i have that everybody's going yet he's leaving for w_t_a_ at the end of the summer uh... leon slater hasn't been on tv since he lost the uh... the exhibition title the cedric Alexander uh... but there's been really nobody to kind of step up and say hey this is my chance to really stand out and make a name for myself even bde that everybody was hyping up has kind of been a little flat lately so it just it to me it screams that there's really is no creative direction for where they want the show to go i mean we're getting uh... nemith and santa at slam aversary i believe it is wish to me this is kind of what a w used to do with john moxley like oh crap uh... our champion is injured or champion is leaving will put mox up there to kind of fill in

41:48 the gap until we find the next guy i kind of feel like nemith's that guy for t_n_a_ but right now it's it's just flat across the board you know and then losing you know the people that you mentioned um... you know plus losing you know if you lose for health or all in terms of purposes we all believe leon slater is going to w_w_ in his contracts up like the only person from n_x_y that you see on t n_a_ television regularly is stacks in are on a grace and that's mainly because of the crossover santae no but outside of that there really hasn't been much excitement on the t_n_a_ brand since really making them move to a mc so it is kind of just like i like i only hope that with all these guys and creative leaving that maybe like there's rumors out there that road dog might be one of those guys they bring in if that's the case hey that might be a win for t_n_a_ but right now like they're in there in us there in a dance b swanson slumps are cover up for us he's getting one seventy he's hitting one seventy five on the season for us but like yeah it's just like they're in a slump and they're just swinging at pitches way outside the zone try to see if they can make any kind of contact yeah it sucks um rest in fans even though i don't watch t_n_a_ on the regular um... they should be cheering on for t_n_a right i mean it gives more guys and girls jobs it gives people the opportunity to really showcase their skills and really climb the charts in professional wrestling like i would have never known who leon slater was if it wasn't for w_e

43:18 you know there's a lot of rumblings right now uh... that leon slater is both on the map that he's being targeted by w_e which we all felt like i mean he was on that scene a show and then there's also rumblings that he could be a w bound that's why he's not being featured on t_n_a_ or w_e right now it feels like mike santa and it's going to w_e at some point when he eventually drops the t_n_a world championship um... it's just it's a bummer to see this happening because i felt like they were finally on the upswing and they were in the in the good graces of um... wrestling fans based on the things they had been doing the last several years so they made a lot of moves that were i don't know if it was performance i don't know if it was financial i don't know if they just felt like they needed to hear different voices in there but it's definitely concerning and the resurgence does feel like it's stalled right now and will see how they steer the ships because um... they're falling behind i mean you and i were talking about on the show not too long ago like was t_n_a threatening a w is the number two wrestling promotion united states and we were like yeah i mean they're they're knocking on that door but there is no chance now at that happening this year because a w has had such a consider a w was closer to w_e in the gaps than they are with t_n_a right now like a w has been absolutely phenomenal for i would say the last eight to ten months they've been great um... they've been really fun to watch they found back their footing they found back what the fans enjoyed and they have been so much fun like everything they do has meaning both creatively and in ring wise for the most part

44:51 and now they've basically i feel like them being so good has forced the w_e to be good again because when a w was doing so poorly w we took the foot off the gas um... and that's what we don't want we want all the wrestling promotions to be fantastic because when they're all when they're fan when once really fantastic they're pushing the others to be better we saw this in the late 90s we saw it in them in the early mid 2020s and that's what we want to see again so you should be rooting on t_n_a uh... but it does feel like the research at least for now has stalled and we'll see with all these moves that they've made so far uh... how they turn it around here for the rest of twenty-six uh... with that said dr. trai let's get a couple plugs and sponsors are the way you can download show at patreon dot com slash s_r_t_ you podcast you could sign up and join for free and the store will show feed on apple spotify wherever you download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe you could fall individually on extra myself at s_r_t_ you jeff effort dr. re franklin at the dr. trai and of course don't forget to follow the show on x at s_r_t_ you podcast with that being said what is going on the wonderful world of dr. trai franklin this week well like jiff said you can follow me on x at the dr. trai you can find me on instagram and facebook dr. trai franklin uh... by the way jiff in my travels this week i drove through two towns named franklin wow apparently okay yeah it's my my my uh... my reputation has caused two cities to rename themselves but uh... speaking of that you can get out there check out roca city championship wrestling

46:23 facebook dot com slash rocket state championship wrestling or are you two page youtube dot com slash rocket state championship wrestling to find all the past shows episodes they have a big show coming up this saturday uh... but most importantly get out there and check out your own local independent wrestling shows where you two can find somebody that t_n_a may sign only to be sent to w_w_e uh... when their contracts come up so get out there and check out those guys so there you go support everything that supports s_r_t_u_ enjoy uh... the rest of your week enjoy your weekend again we will be back next week to preview and predict annexi great american bash w_e_ night of champions and a w four bit indoor uh... so thank you once again for downloading thank you for making us part of your week and until next week for dr. trai franklin i am jiff peck this has been the still release show