A War Is Coming In WWE & Does WWE's New 5.75-Star Record Deserve the Hype? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #852 – 6/11/26

0:00 It's still really a big damage to me! [Music] What up, you! [Music] Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's This and This and This No Relish show. Episode 852 for June 11, 2026. Welcome to this week's edition of S.R.T.U. I am one after the show. I am Jeff Packley. Join every single week of my course, lonely Dr. Tret Franklin. Dr. Tret, I am riding the wave of the New York mix right now, my friend.

0:40 [Music] Uh, so you are on cursed! I am. That's a very good Danhausen. Thank you. I've gotten really good at a couple of these impressions. But yeah, like, I mean, I don't know how you feel about my visbic man, but I think my Danhausen's not too bad. That's pretty spot on Danhausen. Yeah, but I will say like, as a person who used to be a giant NBA fan and now, I would say, could care less. It just doesn't really get my attention like it used to. Um, yeah, I mean, this is the NBA and I have had a rocky relationship.

1:22 In the last 25 to 30 years, a lot of that has to do with the next not being a good team for nearly 27 years, certainly, but I obviously, you know, this is in a basketball podcast, put the back NBA. Maybe you feel this way. I mean, I was talking about talking to this with people the same age as me with this renewed interest, at least in the state of New York, for the NBA as of late, with the next success. Is I am enjoying the NBA. I watch the NBA. I watch the next. I support the next. But I still yearn for 90s basketball. That to me was like the greatest era of basketball. And it's sometimes I feel the same way when it comes to professional wrestling to tie it back into the wrestling podcast world here, Dr. Trey.

2:07 But I don't know if you feel any differently, but to me, it's like, I still yearn for that 90s style of basketball. When it comes to the NBA, like, I'm a little bit older. I grew up on Magic Johnson, Larry Burr. So like the late 80s into the 90s, you know, the nicks and bowls, nicks and pacers, those rivalries, the bowls and the pistons, those were great rivalries. And it was physical basketball. Like, you know, guys like us were like, we're never going to be the NBA. We get our ass kicked. You know, so, um, yeah, like, and then I lived in North Carolina for a long time. So like when the Hornets were an expansion team and we had Larry Johnson, the Lonzo Morning, Kendall Gill, Rex Chapman, Mugsie Bugs.

2:51 Mugsie Bugs, like those were some great, that was a great era of basketball. I, the Kobe era, I've always been a big Kobe fan. So like, that was great. Just, you know, as a Laker guy, I never got into LeBron being on the Lakers. I never got into Shaq being on the Lakers. But yeah, right now I watch it. I'm like, guys are flopping left and right. Everybody's shooting threes from half court. I'm like, now like drive the lane and get, you know, get punched in the face by Rick Mahort. That's what I miss. Yeah, yeah. I miss the physicality of it. And the same thing with wrestling and the tie back in like 90s wrestling, even 80s wrestling felt to me more physical.

3:34 It felt more like an actual fight. I was just watching a video the day of like a match with, I was like four women fighting in Mexico and they did the top of rope, moonsault to the floor spot. But it took them like 15 seconds to do the spot. And I was like, what other world would like, would like four people stand around for 15 seconds and wait for somebody to jump on them, that they are clearly staring at. Like stuff like that still bothers me. Yeah, it feels like to me always 90s wrestling was revolutionary, it transcended the times. The like back in the day when you would see a TLC match or tag team ladder match, you were like amazed by it.

4:19 Like it was special viewing, hell in a cell. And then things just got watered down over the years. And the spots became very, very similar. I guess the older I get some of the spots that they do, I'm just like, this is stupid. Like what are we doing here? Nonetheless, you've got two old guys, one yearning for 80s, early 90s basketball, the other yearning for 90s basketball. And encapsulated right now myself with all that is going on in the New York Knicks. Every time the next win or lose, I'm sure you see it on the news where you are, Dr. Trey, it becomes a war zone here. And to tie it all back, one Solosikoa mentioning on Smackdown this past Friday, that a war is coming to WWE.

5:00 In regards to the bloodline, the bloodline, 2.0, the bloodline, rebirth, whatever you want to call this storyline of Roman Reigns' World-of-Wheel Champion, the Usos realigning with him. Adam Jacob-Fa too on there to acknowledge Roman Reigns' OTC. There is some intertwining here with the MFTs as we saw with the Closet Clash in Italy. Not a lot of crazy follow-up in the Insuming Weeks, just very subtle foreshadowing stuff, which I kind of dig rather than going full bore into it. Solosikoa talking backstage with Royce Keys, mentioning that it's time for him to align with the MFTs because a war is coming with the bloodline. And I felt like that segment, Dr. Trey, was not a throwaway line. I continue to feel like we are watching a volcano ready to erupt in professional wrestling and have a potentially major or obviously top storyline in professional wrestling come out of this with the bloodline and whoever else it takes down. I mean we saw Roman Reigns go backstage and be eye-to-eye with Cody Rhodes. They don't do those things for no reason. You're here in LA night, call out the bloodline. You hear the MFTs talking about stuff. It's carrying over on the Smackdown. People are discussing it, but no action, no crazy action yet from the bloodline.

6:27 Where do you think this line falls into everything? Is it a throwaway line? Is it just a line that will forget about in three months time and lead us to nowhere? Or are you like me where you think this is leading to something more? No, I think and you and I have talked about it several times, or the last couple years, just your voice to go, or is that there really isn't throwaway line in WWE anymore? I guess like a nine month hiccup last year where maybe the storyline's weren't as intricately written as they had been. This trip was came up, but you see people in the background of a promo segment that's using Easter egg for something else. You hear a line here and there and it's like oh, is that a foreshadowing? And they usually do a really good job of following up.

7:20 To me, when you have two Samoan factions, one's a heel group and one's a quasi baby face group, at some point they're going to have to do battle. You know, we see that in AEW like you have all these heel factions and okay, we got to make somebody a baby face out of this. Hey, let's have the Deathriar's R-Fu with Shane Taylor promotions, because when you have factions, you have to capitalize on the investment of talent. So to me at some point, this is, and I think I referenced this a few weeks ago, it's kind of reminiscent of NW O'Hollywood and NW O Wolfpack. Like they're technically kind of, they're in, they're all in the same family. They're just on opposite sides of the tree, which means either they're going to have a civil war or you're going to get a giant Samoan army. So and I think there's a possibility that you get both out of this.

8:15 See that's what I was going to ask you is like, where do you think this is all leading? I, I think that we get a giant army. I think that this eventually plays out with Solo and the MFTs, realigning with the bloodlines, maybe into similar vein as to the way Jacob Fattu has joined the bloodline rebirth 2.0. That's my vibe. And I think that to me makes the most sense, because we've gone down the avenue of a civil war of the bloodline versus the OG bloodline versus the new bloodline. Like we've done that, been there, done that. I don't want to see that rehashed again. And I do think that there's something to the conversation we had last week where is WWE just basically going back to the well with the bloodline because they know people are into it like myself.

9:01 And you know, recapture the hearts and minds of people creatively for the storyline aspect. Something that's been missing really the last movie two years, which around the same time, the bloodline wasn't around. There's just something that is appealing to that storyline. It's a great storyline. I think it's in the vein of where you could discuss it similar to a McMahon versus Stone Cold Steve Austin storyline. I think it's Star Wars, it's the Avengers. We've often compared it to that here on this podcast. And I think it's a storyline that you could always go back to as long as you're doing things different. And that's the most important part, Dr. Trey, is the different part.

9:44 I think the layers that we've seen as Roman was kind of humbled the last couple of years, not being a world champion and trying to regain trust in he was on his own. The Usos, the other layer here was Big Jim was doing his own thing. Jusos was doing his own thing. Granted, Jusos was a lot more popular and successful for it, even though Big Jim is a great fantastic wrestler. Jacob Fattu was in the new bloodline. It leaves the new bloodline running on his own. He starts challenges in the OTC and he falls in line after tribal combat, similar to the way Jusos did following Helen Assell back in 2020. If they did this new bloodline versus the MFTs, it's basically a rehash of war games from like what two years ago and don't want to go there. But if it's, I'm fine with it if it's a stepping stone that leads to a gigantic faction where solo relines, Talatanga, Talatanga are all part of it and that makes things a little bit more different and special and we've got this super group of the Samoans on the bloodline. That to me is the added part that's really good, is that there's layers to this that are different and new from what we've seen. Maybe separation from the original storyline is what we needed to go back to because it's worth it and I don't think that this is a viewership or attendance play by WWE because I don't really think that they maybe look at those numbers as much as they used to anymore. But yeah, I don't know how it plays out right now, Dr. Trey.

11:13 I would assume it leads to some sort of match again between both factions, something. But I don't think that these are throwaway lines. I think there's a lot of room for them to do something very creative and fun here and I'm excited to see where things go these like next four to six months I would hope. Yeah, I just had this really crazy thought where they do island combat. It's like from the video game. Well, I'm just thinking like, yeah, but basically they go out, they find an island and then you have to have this Samoan battle on the island, kind of like stadium stampede. And they, W, where's like, you know, all these guys just fighting it out and like some kind of like Lord of the Flies meets tribal combat style match, but that's not really WWE style. But I mean, I do think it's leading to something.

12:05 But the question is, is like, if this was the game plan, then why do you release JC Mateo? Why do you release Tonga Loa? Like you kind of need the numbers to back up this because right now it's four against three. You know, now Jacobs kind of playing like we saw it last week on Raw where like Jimmy and Jay are telling him to get Seth and he just walks away. There's still a little bit of ascension there. But like, where does this, you know, when it all plays out, like do you get a heel Roman Reigns again leading this giant faction or do the MFTs go babyface and they end up feeling with like a much larger version of the vision. Like it is kind of like when you get a supergroup together, it's kind of like the old NWA when you had the horsemen. And then you had the dudes with attitude or some you had to have some kind of opposite faction to fight it out. I mean, you mentioned Star Wars, you mentioned the Avengers.

13:04 Yeah, you can have the Jedi's, but you need the Empire. You know, you can have the Avengers, but you need Thanos and his army. You got to make sure that when you're coming up your storyline, the scales are kind of even because that's how you get the viewership. That was, if you remember like two years ago, we used to joke about how AEW everybody's in a faction, but they were almost all heel factions. And they've adjusted that to where now it's okay, all the babyfaces are in a faction or they're at least friendly. And then the heels have their collection and that's how you can get these big tribal warfare is going on. WWE, outside of when they had the DOA, Loose for Week was, and the nation, they've never really done gang warfare very well.

13:54 No, they haven't. They've definitely struggled with that. I think maybe DX and the nation and domination was pretty interesting at one time. But that was like, that was the, that was kind of the fallout from the nation. I mean, that was still in that same window area. You know, it was definitely the fallout of that. Yeah. But when you had the corporation versus what was at the, what was the one with Big Show and the babyface, the union, that was like a month long thing. Yeah. It is mankind, Big Show, Ken Shamrock and Tess with Vince all holding two by fours.

14:35 Two by fours. And how they never involved Hacksaw, Jim Duggan. He should have been at least selling them the two by fours. You know, a little cameos for something. But they've, every time we get a big stable though over the last 15 years in WWE, it's always been like a loose affiliation of baby faces against them or just one baby face taking on the entire group. So I mean, I guess WCW versus WWE a little bit with the invasion and what Austin was in part of the WCW Alliance. Maybe that was okay, but for the most part, they've just never had success with faction against faction warfare and maybe having triple H involved in this storyline writing, if this is the direction they go, will help make it work because he does seem to like factions.

15:27 So maybe that'll help when they write this whole thing out. I think the reason with a lot of the faction stuff, at least for my viewpoint as a fan watching at home, is that it just never fits what you hope it to be. I mean, you can make that case for the OG versus the new bloodline from a year and a half, two years ago. I was very, very excited for that to play out and I thought it felt rushed as we got closer to war games. Like it could have been playing out of all the reunions that needed to take place. I think like maybe Sammy joined it up, like maybe like a week or two before the actual match. It was some odd. Then they had it at CM Punk and then it went away because Roman went away for a little bit heading into, you know, Manian rumble season. So I think that plays a part of it.

16:09 I mean, there's things in the AW side of things where the death writers run like baby faces for a little bit, then they're back to heels and then run like baby faces for a little bit, then they run like heels. They don't like shantaylor promotions. They don't like the Don Callis family. Even though they're all heels, all of the factions. It's very difficult. I have always felt like to run the faction versus faction stuff. The closest one I will say, Dr. Trey, that I felt like was pretty nice and perfect and wasn't like this crazy creative storyline was the shield versus the Wyatt family. I felt like it was a very short window. Those two teams feuded. Fans wanted to see it. The reactions they got from the crowd were insane and popular. Then great matches and it came and went and it was gone and they moved on. Of course, we would have liked to see a little bit more, but sometimes maybe the short shelf life is what you need to see. So, Solo says, "A war is coming on Smackdown. I don't think that's a throwaway line. Dr. Trey does think that's a throwaway line.

17:18 We shall see where things go because we could be on the verge of a major storyline starting to swarm here in WWE." Part of that major storyline, Dr. Trey may affect at least the King of the Ring tournament. As we look at the King and Queen of the Ring updates, we have the semi-finals of Oba family versus Dominic Mysterio taking place soon. Jaffan Evans advances to the semi after defeating Seth wrong, Talatonga and Ricky St. on Raw. He will face the winner of J.U. so LA Night Royce keys and Finn Balor that takes place on Friday Smackdown to give us the final four for the semi-finals. You and I spent a long time last week discussing that we felt like maybe Seth wrongs was being in line to win the King of the Ring, Oba would be sent off on the side, set up Seth versus Roman at Summer's Lame. Well, Seth's out, Oba still in, Jaffan Evans is now in, Dominic Mysterio. We have no idea who the fourth person would be. Where do you think this thing is going? Who is the favorite to win the King of the Ring and what is your predictions for that Summer's Lame title match? Because I felt like this entire time, at least for me, I'm lining it up that the winner is going to be taking on Roman, Roman, Roman. I feel like now maybe Cody's in play if they don't go the Oba route. What are your thoughts so far on King of the Ring?

18:32 That's a good question because I didn't even think about the Cody route in a sense. So, I'll tell you this much, I really want Dom to win. I don't know why. I think it's because if you call him King Dom, that sounds kind of funny. It's the King Dom. I don't know where we go with this, because even on paper, let's say you got Oba and Dom, Oba wins, you got Jaffan Evans and anyone of the other four guys. I don't see Jaffan winning and getting to the finals so they're looking at Oba and then one of the four. And what if you get a Dominic Finn Balor final? That would be almost awful in a sense. I feel like it's getting set up as Oba still. Unless Brock comes out and costs Oba the match, you cannot have Oba lose to any one of those people left this tournament.

19:30 The way you have booked it. So, I just don't see any way out other than putting Oba in the spot and I just don't see Oba challenging Cody. I think Oba would challenge Roman. So, let's, like I said, let's Brock cost Oba the match. I just don't see anybody else winning this thing because Oba's in it. And the biggest threats to him, Ron Breaker, Seth Rollins, have been eliminated from the tournament. So, I just don't see where else you go with that. I always feel like these tournaments and will cover Owen Hart Cup as well. It should be used as a springboard for somebody. Young talent, established talent, who's number one title, the talent that wants to get back up to the top of the charts, whatever, like it does not need to be made men or women like we've seen with WWE naming Cody Rhodes, the King of the Ring a couple years ago, and Mercedes-Bonaise winning the Owen Hart Cup over in the AW side last year. So, to that point, Dr. Trey, Oba Femi is a rising star and it's one of those shooting stars that you see this time of year. Long time fans like you and I, King of the Ring is a great tournament to to catapult him and I'm in agreement with you. But the one thing that I think my wrestling fan mine is being blocked on all this is the fact that I don't, I do think to our first topic, there's a major storyline playing out of the bloodline. I don't know if you do Oba vs Roman Reigns in my mind. I'm like, well then this is, you know, it's parallel to the Brock Lesnar run

21:05 in 2002 where Brock, you know, is tearing up at that time he was an unknown while we've seen Open NXT. He's tearing up the main roster and then, when's the King of the Ring tournament, takes on an established star like the Rock, Wins, becomes WWE Champion and we're off to the races in a new era. I'm beginning to think because I was like looking at it and I look at the next match on SmackDown where we don't have the results yet. You've got J.U. So LA Night Royce Keys fanballer. I could see a world where Royce Keys wins. I could see a world where Oba Femi loses to Dom because of Brock Lesnar, Dom advances. Royce Keys defeats Chavon Evans and we've got Royce Keys versus Cody Rhodes at Summerslam. I could also now see a scenario where we move forward with what I've always been thinking Oba Femi wins the King of the Ring tournament, takes on Roman Reigns at Summerslam.

21:59 And now if we think that there's going to be this super bloodline group that reforms takes place, Summerslam could be the Catapult where the new bloodline, larger bloodline, MFTs join in the bloodline, bands together and prevents Oba Femi from winning the WWE World of the Way Championship at Summerslam over Roman Reigns. Those to me I think are like the two scenarios. I think that Oba is obviously a guy that can win. I don't think we get Dom Cody Rhodes at Summerslam. I know there's a lot of people that are in the Dom camp for him to Catapult. I don't think that's happening. I don't think Chavon Evans is winning. I don't think J.U. So's winning though there could be a world where J.U. So does win and he takes on Cody Rhodes at Summerslam because that's been a little bit of a storyline and I would not be a huge fan of that. LA Knight, he would have his eyes set on Roman Reigns for Summerslam. I don't think that's happening though. I think there's a case for him. I don't think there's a case for Finn Bauer to win unfortunately. Royce Keys is like one of the next guys that I could see winning basically is the guy that could take on Cody Rhodes. So I think those are the scenarios. I think Royce Keys, Cody Rhodes could be a scenario. Dom, Cody could be a scenario. I'll throw it out there. But maybe Oba and Roman at Summerslam leads to the big bloodline returning doctor, right? Yeah.

23:27 You know, it was a couple, it was this past week or last week when the MFTs were beating up Damien Braze, our truth ran in, got cornered and then Royce Keys came out and they backed him off. Like, I almost felt like based on Damien Prius comments about like, look, I don't know if he's a maybe he's a friend or what, I don't trust the guy. Then it kind of made me go, yeah, I could see a Keys heel turn, but then like you can't have Royce Keys beat Cody because of Solo's help, because by default you would almost have to make Keys the leader of the new MFTs. So I can see them doing that and putting Royce Keys in this spot because he just had that match with Gunther, and he looks really, really strong at it. And you want to kind of capitalize on that momentum of a Sotispe. It is weird though with just who's not who's out of this tournament where you go, man, I just don't see anybody being Oba's the only one right now on paper when you look at maybe Jay Hussot. Oba and Jay are probably the only two people that can go, hey, these guys are legitimately on Roman and Cody's level. You could factor in LA Knight to a degree, but he's never won the big one.

24:41 But just the way that everybody's been presented in LA Knight, typically they always have in fall short in big matches. So it's like, well, you only really have Oba and Jay, and if this is going to be a Summerslam main event level match, it's going to be for the world championship or the WWE Championship. You kind of want a guy that can kind of at least present themselves to be on the level of Roman and Cody. And right now that's really only Jay and Oba. Yeah, it's limited. It's certainly as limited with Seth going and not advancing. And I love Javan Evans. I think he's great. I think he's a future top star. I would have had him advance on Monday night. I don't think I would have pushed the vision storyline in that match, Dr. Trey. And maybe I would have saved that for the semi-finals.

25:33 Yeah, I can see that. I mean, you also got to figure out what's going to, you know, the vision's down to two people. And the fact that you're still trying to portray this storyline out without anybody else joining the group right now is a little hard to take them serious. It's like it's just brought in Austin right now. So it's kind of like it's hard to keep advancing this narrative of, you know, Seth or anybody else kind of being the underdog against the vision. When right now, Seth's got the street profits in his corner. They kind of outnumber the vision. So until you get somebody to kind of join up with them, it doesn't make sense to kind of beat this up right now, like they're still doing. So the injury bug once again striking a good storyline is just one of those things in wrestling that always kind of hits you just out right at the wrong time. And that's kind of where we're at with the whole Seth envisioned thing right now. Yeah, it makes me think that eliminating Seth now means that day someone who's had issues with the vision in the past like an LA night, maybe advances on Smackdown on Friday. Because it would make sense that the LA night advances and they help him win over Seth Rollins or intersecting even Jay Uso in there. So maybe that's why Seth was removed. Looking at the queen of the ring size doctor, doctor side doctor, you've got Eosky versus for Cal Rodriguez in the semi's, live Morgan advances to the semi's after defeating Becky Lynch,

27:04 Alexa Bliss and Chelsea Green on Raw. She will face the winner of Soul Rook, a live rival, Kerry, Charlotte Flare and Jade Carcill on Smackdown in the semi's. Who's your favorite right now to win the queen of the ring and the predictions for that match? I still feel like this is Eosky's to lose. See, there's part of me that really wants it to get to live in Raquel because I think they're also teasing Roxanne stepping away from the group and maybe going back to being a baby face, but I still think Raquel would be maybe just a different version, like maybe more the blue collar version of Rhea Ripley for those folks, you know, especially with all the love Triple A's getting in their advancement of the Hispanic community in WWE, you know, Penta, the others of the Triple A.

27:49 It's like Eos and Rhea is compelling. Jade and Rhea three is compelling because at some point, you have to like Jade's got to get her revenge on Rhea otherwise. If Rhea beats Jade three times in a row, you're kind of killing off the Jade Misti at that point. So I might go back to citing with Jade in this tournament though, just so we get Jade, Rhea three at Summer Slammer, Jade can finally get to win. What do you think about the Charlotte Flair stuff? Because she's cutting promos in the ring saying that, you know, she has a guy set on Rhea Ripley. They've kind of held her off at bay for like the last year plus for her getting back in the world title picture.

28:32 Is there a world that we live in where Charlotte Flair is the one that wins here? And that would fall in the category of like regaining right or reestablishing as a top star. Yes. I mean, it's kind of like when Charlotte came back and won the rumble. You just work, although she's in a, I guess she's in a different view of the fans now with this tag team with Alexa and her friendship with Rhea, then maybe she was back in, was it 2023? When she won the rumble? 25. 25. Last year. Yeah, and everybody hated, yeah, and everybody hated it. So it's, but we still got to get to Charlotte Rhea three on a big scale.

29:13 Also, I just think that Charlotte turns on Alexa before she gets to Rhea. But then if that's the path they go, but I also can see them doing Charlotte and Jade and Rhea getting sidetracked by the JCJ group, you know, or whatever to kind of reestablish Jake is you still got, you know, even the undercarstead with Tiffany and Chelsea and the Nye and Lash and all those folks, you've got a really solid women's division from top to bottom. So maybe you get to the second dream match of Jade and Charlotte at Summer's Lamboit or not some not Summer's Lamboit. You get to that next dream match of Jade and Charlotte if Jade wins the tournament and Charlotte becomes the person to challenge her first.

29:59 Interesting stuff with the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments right now. It's kind of like a real downtime in professional wrestling for the weekend where it's like 18 different PLE's taking place at the end of the month. But these tournaments that are taking place in WWE right now and AW are really intriguing and exciting. And I don't think there's any real clear cut winners, which makes it a good thing and unpredictable unless you look at maybe one of the finals of the AW Owen Hart Cup on the men's side and maybe even the women's side, which we shall discuss right now, Dr. Trey, as it is official. The men's final at Forbidden Door, the winner gets an AW World title match at All-In. It will be Will Ospreay taking on Swerve, Strickland. This just feels like to me that this is time for Ospreay to get his London, All-In, World title match, the Death Rider storyline, reestablishing him as this ultimate weapon. It just feels like all things, it's inevitable and all things are pointing towards Will Ospreay. Ospreay, Swerve, who should headline an AW All-In?

31:05 Is there a world where Swerve upsets or shocks us, I should say, because him winning is not an upset by any means. He shocks us by winning the match. Ospreay goes in different directions. Swerve takes on MJF, presumably at All-In, in London, and we get the rebirth of Swerve here. What are your thoughts of the direction of the finals of the men's side of the Owen Hart Cup? I mean, right now on paper, it's Ospreay to MJF in London. I mean, that's just, but, you know, because the one thing by AW I love is that you start getting these matches, but then they'll jump in another match or two before the advertised main match at the Bay Riverview. You know, we got this match coming up at Forbidden Door, the 6 on 6, Cage match with Team Briscoe versus Team MJF, and at Briscoe wins, he gets a title shot.

31:54 And it's like, what if Briscoe wins, and then Briscoe wins the World title? Do you then headline all in with Swerve versus Mark Briscoe? It seems a little odd that that's even a sub-story, you know, pretzels. But yeah, if I'm booking AW, that's my Hogan and Piper, his Ospreay and MJF, and they win, but he's stating it all in, in London, that's absolutely the direction you go, because you know it's going to be a sellout because everybody's going to want to come see the hometown boy, win the title, but then that would be the best part of being the Swerve where Moxley costs Ospreay the match and MJF retains. That could be something there, or even the match with Swerve, that he has, could lead to something, and then we get Swerve and MJF. These two guys are very great.

32:42 So, yeah, I just don't see Swerve and MJF with both guys kind of being heels. I think AEW started to realize, like, yeah, when we do the big matches, we kind of got to do more babyface heel than two baby faces or two heels, because we've seen that reaction at their big shows when they do the babyface, two baby faces, the crowd split and they're just not into it. You want that reaction of Will Ospreay making his entrance in Wimbley Stadium heading into the main event against MJF, like you want that. Like, if you have Swerve and MJF, the crowd's probably going to, like, start emotionally checking out before the main event. Whatever Ospreay is doing is going to be the focal point for that crowd in Wimbley. So, you want to hang him to the main event, and you put him in there with an MJF, who everybody despises. I'm everybody you can't see it, but it's the ultimate good guy in that area against the ultimate villain. Now, whatever you decide if you want to do the dusty finish or Swerve the audience at the end, that's completely up to the booking team, but that entrance of Will Ospreay in Wimbley going into the main event, like, that is the visual that you want to have on all your social media showing how hyped the crowd is. Hey, this establishes us, we're not a, we're not number two, we're a 1B. Like that for those casual fans, that would really kind of cement it like, oh crap, look at this crowd, look at this reaction for this guy. I

34:14 guys are checking the show out more because that would be everywhere on social media with that, if you set it up that way. Yeah, no, I love to play devil's advocate here, no pun intended with MJF, being involved in the conversation and see is there a world where Swerve does win and we get Swerve MJF or maybe they do like Swerve, Mark Brisco, even, since Brisco's involved in the World title picture, at least with MJF right now, it would be a really bad business if Will Ospreay is not in that World title match based on everything that's taking place with the neck injury, the rebirth, the re-strategizing, re-characterization of him with the deathwriters, that would be not a good move for AW and an all momentum feels like very similar to Swerve several years ago when he was coming up.

34:59 All feels like that this is pointing the direction of Will Ospreay to win the Owen Hart Cup. And then in similar vein on the women side, Dr. Trey, we've got the semi-finals with Huzuki taking on Mercedes-Bonae, Athena taking on Maya World. To me, Dr. Trey, this just feels like the women's tournament is being set up from Mercedes-Bonae to win again. And I think that's a little bit of a drag. As I said before, I'm a believer in like using this as a catapult or re-establishing stars that are on the come-up ends. I don't think Mercedes-Bonae, hey, is needs a catapult. I don't think she's a re-emerging star that needs to come up ends. So, I don't know, it just doesn't feel like the women's tournament is as exciting as the men's tournament and the men's and women's tournaments on the WWE side have been.

35:45 So, who did you say Mercedes is wrestling in the semi-finals? Uh, Huzuki. Who's from Stardom? I'm sorry. Bless you. By the Huzuki. Yeah. I have seen, to me, this sets up for like an Athena Mercedes-Bonae finals and then you're like but Theclis, your women's champion, Theclis the heel, Athena and Mercedes typically are heels. Why would you set it up that way? Like that, what I saw is I'm like that doesn't make a lot of sense to me because once again, like Theclis not and she's not from London. So it's not like she has a hometown advantage, neither is Mercedes or Athena. So, I don't understand the booking now unless you're gonna make Mercedes go back to Morpher babyface Sasha Banks character. But once again, you've had a Athena be your ring of honor women world champion for almost three years now.

36:41 Like at some point don't you gotta kind of move her up the food chain? Like I just don't get the set-up when you're like this is, just go by what I'm saying. Two people that the crowd typically booze in a match. What does the crowd do? Just boo louder? I don't really know what the upside is when you set up a scenario like this. So, if we're trying to get to Mercedes and Theclis great, but I just don't understand why and that's the biggest issue I have with that side of the turn. Yeah, no, it's um, I don't know the Surrey injury may have something to play with this because she's out with injury Surrey who was in WWE for a period of time. I'm the NXT brand with a horrible gimmick at one point. My world had to fill in for her which just tells me that Sky Blue wasn't supposed to advance anyway and Surrey was because that wouldn't make sense because you would have, you wouldn't have Mercedes-Benz and Athena in the finals as you said, heel versus heel.

37:44 I don't know. Monay versus Tecla at all in. Again, heel versus heel. I don't know if I've any interest in that. They've been playing for around for a very long time of of catapulting Athena because she's been the R.O.H. Women's Champion for like 1100 days now. I mean, I would have pulled that trigger years ago. I think a year or two ago, the all in Texas one. I would have last year. I would have done that and they didn't. So, that is that's a little bit cloudy right now and where things go from here. It just feels like with the vignettes and everything that's been going on that this has been used to reintroduce and welcome back one Mercedes-Benz. He was not acting like a baby face and is acting like a heel all over again. So, intriguing stuff in storylines with both the King Queen and Owen Hart Cup tournaments in WWE and AEW right now which is really helping progress things in the world professional wrestling over the last month or at least in the last week I should say unless you're looking at some random stupid CM Punk rumor that he's leaving WWE that was proven to be not be true whatsoever. Last thing here Dr. Trey, another banner for El Grande Americano versus OG El Grande Americano as they are now the highest rated match ever under the WWE umbrella for wrestling observer by Dave Meltzer. He graded them a 5.75s for passing the 5.5 from Johnny Gargano versus Adam Cole at NXC Takeover New York. Actually a match that

39:17 you and I watched here on one of the very few episodes of SRTU watch that we have put out many many years ago during the pandemic. The 5 matches under the WWE umbrella to ever surpass 5 stars from Meltzer which is a very hard thing to do because it's Dave Meltzer. Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano as I just mentioned Adam Cole versus Johnny Gargano NXC Takeover 25 was 5.25 Walter versus Tyler Bait in NXC UK Takeover card if was 5.25 Walter versus Ely Dragon off at NXC Takeover 36 was 5.25 El Grande Americano OG El Grande Americano with Triple A No. J. DeLos Grande is the 5.75 marking the highest under the WWE banner. Dr. Trey, is this all warranted because I watched the match you watched the match or is the hype a little bit too much looking back at this match now? I so by the way as you're reading those off I know is that none of those are actually on the main roster. I thought it's all either NXC, NXC Europe or Triple A so Meltzer does love his foreign or subculture matches so speak.

40:31 I still I love this match I went back every watch and I'm like to me this is what professional wrestling was when I grew up. Now maybe a couple too many high spots you know but it's storytelling there's violence there's friendships there's a love angle it's two guys looking physical like they beat the hell out of each other in that match. I absolutely love this match so I don't have Meltzer hyping it up that much because I right now like as we as we we're probably what one show two or just a couple shows out from our halfway point it's my early favorite from match of the year like to me it really was that good I really really thoroughly enjoyed it. You know matches are different strokes for different folks right like I think when I look at the history of this podcast matches that stick out to me Bailey versus Sasha Banks NXC takeover Brooklyn there was a Pete Don Tyler bait match and an NXC takeover that was amazing Adam Colin Jatigargano and NXC takeover New York was amazing. Kofi Kingston versus Daniel Bryan was phenomenal and this is all just on the WWE side of things since we're just talking to the least we're passing five stars. CM Punk versus John Cena on a Monday night Raw and like 2012 I want to say was amazing. I loved this match I loved El Grande

42:01 Americana versus OG I think the biggest thing that left me not fully appreciating and this is entirely my fault Dr. Trey is I didn't understand the build up because I don't watch AAA on a consistent basis it's not part of my regular viewing it's I don't watch it at all. So it's it's it's um it's disappointing for me because I think if I was able to see that added layer I could appreciate the storyline a little bit more rather than just jumping into the match so I think it's a leading candidate for a match of the year on this podcast on the WWE side of things without a doubt but I just think for me I don't put it in the same vein as some of the other matches um that I just discussed there in the history of this podcast. Yeah no and I guess like for me when I'm growing up like you grew up in an era where there weren't nearly as many masked wrestlers as there was when I was growing up like when I was a kid I mean five six years old like every show that I watched had you know the mass superstar or uh what was the one guy uh I mean just the dusty roads as the midnight rider like there's all these guys that were in mass and it became a big thing when that guy got on mass even going into WCW in the Cruiserway division and they made a big thing about who be getting on mass or Rey Mysterio getting on mass and how that was an important part of the

43:35 luchaleebrae Mexican culture so it was a little bit funny to me on the sense of you like you have an American pretending to be a Mexican you have a German pretending to be an American pretending to be a Mexican and they're fighting over who loses their mask but like I said the other layers involved also helped me along there when you had you know the bravo and reo come out and then there's loads of medicanos her or her monos and they're out there and then you got the girlfriend of El Grande Americano and like you have all these different aspects of what soap opera television is as well plus two guys fighting over honor that to me is really what made me love professional wrestling even as a kid and watching that and seeing all those elements in there I was like now this is actually really really good even if you didn't know night I tell you at your point like if you didn't know the entire backstory it can limit your view and you're just watching it on the sheer wrestling side of it yeah it's the wrestling inside of it it's on par with gargano and adam col it's on par with gargano champa some of these are matches that you mentioned that we love so much the wrestling is on par with that but there was that backstory involved that kind of did amp it up from you a little more that reminded me of that nostalgia from when I first saw love with the professional wrestling yeah it's amazing stuff that match I hope it really leads to some great things for

45:06 Ludwig Kaiser Chad Gable we saw it on this past week's editions of Smackdown and Raw where Chad Gable was a decent focal point regaining the trust of the fellow lucha doors and world wrestling entertainment on the Elgrande Americana stuff nothing that played out on the main roster which I think is a little bit disappointing so what I'd like to see in that carryover and either on Raw or Smackdown but yeah here we are it's it's a match that will be talked about for some time and it falls under the WWE banner despite it being triple A Elgrande Americana versus OG Elgrande Americana still getting a lot of praise and love from wrestling pundits all in the world of professional wrestling uh Dr. Trey with that said let's get a couple plugs and sponsors out of the way you can download the show at patreon.com/srtupodcast and then still with those feed on apple spotify wherever you download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe you could fall individually on x for myself at srtu Jeff and for Dr. Trey Franklin at the Dr. Trey and of course don't forget the fall show on x at srtupodcast with that being said what is going on in the wonderful world of Dr. Trey Franklin this week well like Jeff said you can follow me on x at the Dr. Trey you can find me on instagram and facebook Dr. Trey Franklin when you're on facebook you know they're checking out Rocketsy Championship Wrestling they just had a really big show this past Saturday I was not there as I was celebrating my dad 70th birthday happy birthday dad but get out there

46:38 watch check out the show go to youtube.com/rocketsy Championship Wrestling check out all the past episodes another big show coming up on the 20th as we get closer and closer to our summer season but most importantly get out there and check out your own lovely independent wrestling show I mean you might have super destroyer number 37 versus ballon 074 in their own mask versus mask match and you can watch a 50 year old retired cop get on mass in front of a live audience of 300 people it's a there you go support all the great things that support the still real though show anything that we discussed here on this week's edition of srt you feel free to chime in comment over at patreon.com/srtupodcast it's free to join you get the show immediately when it's done it's ad free all up at our patreon page and that is how we kind of see who is supporting srtu each and every week so go out there support the show and spread the good word of srtu until next week enjoy the weekend thank you for making this part of your week thank you for downloading for dr. franklin i am Jeff pack this has been the still real us show