Sami Zayn wins WWE Title + Ilja Dragunov reportedly AEW-bound | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #866 – 9/17/26

0:00 It's still really a big damage to me! [Music] Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's Innocentist Go Rodo Show episode of 866 for September 17th, 2046. Welcome to this week's edition of S.R.T.U. I am one half to show I am Jeff Pecky. Join every single week for my car's Lord Only Dr. Treck. Breaker, Dr. Tre, Sammy Zane is a two-time WWE Champion, my friend.

0:42 Crazy. Like, you know, three years ago if you had said that, I would have been like, "You're out of your mind. They're never going to pull the trigger on it." If he didn't, they didn't pull the trigger elimination chamber in Montreal against Roman Reigns, they're never going to pull the trigger. And now he's a two-time WWE World Champion and a Grand Slam Champion at that. And one of the only three that have multiple World title reigns in that Grand Slam run. Dr. Treck, off topic, but kind of on topic here. I'm just going to get right into it because it popped in my head. How crazy is it the amount of title victories that have changed hands on television this year? I think it's Drew and Cody, right? Drew defeated Cody.

1:25 Cody defeated Drew. Punk defeated Zane. Zane's defeated Punk. All on TV in 2026. Meanwhile, you're paying a bunch of money for Netflix, paying potentially a bunch of money for ESPN on limited. And those title changes aren't taking place most of the time, at least for the undisputed WWE Championship on those paid subscription services right now. Throwing a house show title change. Well, yeah, of course. That one too. Throwing it is weird because for a while, Jeff, we weren't even getting World title match. We weren't even in title matches on the UnRaw and SmackDown.

2:08 And now we're getting not only title matches, but title changes. And it's a weird world now because back in the attitude era and the Nitro era, all those times, we saw the World title on both shows, religiously defended multiple times a year. And then we went to that law where it was like nine years, eight years without a World title match. And then all of a sudden, not only were we getting those title matches, but were getting multiple title changes, it does make stuff must see TV. So that was always my thing was like, if I didn't have to worry about a historic thing happening on SmackDown or Raw, I could afford to miss a show or two. And now, multiple title changes like, damn, now I gotta actually make sure I watch every single episode.

2:51 So let's get to the title change itself. Last week we asked whether Sami Zayn should actually beat CM Punk for the WWE Championship in Mexico City. He did. Johnny Argado, Candace Lorregan involved. Kevin Owens tried to stop Sami from using the title, accidentally hit Punk instead. And Sami followed with a hulu of a kick to becoming a two time WWE Champion. Why this matters? Title change gets even more interesting because PWM's entire report to WWE is eyeing Sami Zayn versus Roman Reigns for Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia in early November. The rest of them is ever also reported that someone in WWE disagreed with putting the title on Sami, but were told the story will make sense when it plays out. So is this finally Sami's run as a true top guy or the bridge to WWE's next major Roman Reigns story after he gets out of LA night?

3:37 Bottom line in this all Dr. Trey is Sami's win is huge, but the real story is whether WWE is building his reign around Sami or around Roman. My question for you, Dr. Trey, was taking the WWE Championship off of CM Punk right now the right move? >> Yeah, because we got survivors who are around the corner. And you and I had talked about this, who's in this match? Who's going to be in war games? And we're talking about like, we got the Usos, we got Roman, we got Jacob, we got the guys. And now, potentially could you get Sami and CM Punk tied up into this war games match by involving them in this angle as well?

4:21 I don't expect Sami to have like a 662 day run, but hey, if he gets two or three months out of it, anything longer than nine days, I think I'll be happy with. >> So you were about to say something before I kept talking there. What did you want to say in that moment? I want to go back to that. >> No, I think a lot of it is tying into what we're doing in a survivor series. We talked about last week, all these different title contenders now. I mean, you got Owens, you got Punk who's back in the title chase as they're chasing Sami. You got Ball or Gunther, where does Johnny Gargano fit into this? Sami's obvious connection to the OG bloodline.

5:02 Like, instead of trying to do three on three on three, do you start trying to mix and mash and make it almost like an all-star war games and have the original bloodline along with Jacob in there against 946 Kevin Owens and CM Punk. There's ways of doing this throwing the LA night as well. There's ways of combining these story lines up to get a really great war games match out of it. Or take a couple of odd pieces, mesh them all together, and you still get some title matches. I really like the chaos at the top of the card. It is kind of attitude era when you have Mick Foley, Stone Cold, Rock, Triple H, Undertaker, all kind of bouncing the title around the five of them.

5:53 It is the same situation on SmackDown now. >> So to me, I think the reason why it was so successful in the attitude era is that you had so many talented wrestlers back then. It's very comparable to now where there is a chance that somebody isn't going to be held back. You've got like this potentially a brand new SmackDown. I'm trying to count out loud here if it's six. I guess it's like five because you've got what? Punk Owens, Zane, Gunther, Baller. Am I missing someone? >> If you throw Gargano in the mix, that gives you six. >> Okay. Gargano in there. And then you've got Wharton and you've got Roads in there. So you've got eight guys that could all be at least seven of the eight I would say could be WWE Champion.

6:36 And I think Baller's if he, Gargano is probably in no right now, given how he's been built up. But nonetheless, you could throw him in there. >> And you didn't even count a former WWE Champion who's on SmackDown and Damien Priest who just did the Eel Turf. >> True. >> So you take Gargano out of the mix and throw Priest in there. >> True. >> You have a solid eight. >> Well, nine, right? We had got it to nine. Yeah. >> Yeah, no, there is some serious depth on the SmackDown brand and not a lot of titles. So maybe WWE should purchase like MLW or something and do what AW does with ROH, but that's another day for another story. So is the hot potato with the WWE Championship a successful business model?

7:16 Because we used to be on the like on this show where we wanted to see long title reigns. We glorified long title reigns. And now we get long title reigns all the time. And now here we are, the hypocrites or the fickle hypocrites that we are saying, or at least I'm saying, is it possible we should play hot potato a little bit more with that championship? >> I think when you're trying to establish guys as being viable top guys. And I'm not discrediting any of those guys we mentioned earlier. But, Sammy came up short how many times before getting the world title. Kevin Owens, how many times did he lose the Roman reigns? Baller hasn't had a world title reign in 10 years.

7:57 You had Gunther who tapped out to Jey Uzo wrestle me. And so you have a lot of top guys who have flaws in their character. So by hoppitating it around, you can kind of reestablish this like, I don't know if you want to say NFL model where there's parity among the top guys. And on any given night one of the top guys can be one of the other top guys. So it does kind of make it must see television. And the fact that you have two titles, you have the world title and then you have the heavyweight title. You can have a long title run with the one on raw and hoppitating the one around on smack down a little bit and still get a good mix of both things that fans like us love.

8:38 >> So the interesting part about this right was the addition of Roman reigns. Crown Jewel they're talking about Saudi Arabia as one of the driving forces. Again, Sammy Zayn, championships are being driven around there. He's like the new man's sword but he could actually wrestle. And they're looking ahead here with Crown Jewel. So we're thinking we're going to get like a two month, three month potentially title reign at least with Sammy Zayn as WWE Champion. So if Roman is next doctor trade does Sammy get a real championship run? Or is he ultimately keeping the title warm for someone else? I still think he's keeping the title warm for somebody else because if the message is we are going to move the title around a little bit.

9:21 I don't think anybody's going to have more than a 90 day run with it, maybe 120 between now and. I mean, he'll wrestle Mania, you look at the card right now, wrestle mania is only six months out. So if Sammy gets it for three months, you put somebody else on top for a little bit heading into wrestle mania season great. And then coming out you can still kind of do that model where hey, we're going to have four different heavyweight champions in a year. That's our goal, maybe five. Anything more than that, I think you start losing a little bit of value in it. But I mean, it's also the same thing WCW did back in their run. I mean, you'd have Goldberg get on top, you'd have Paige get on top, you'd have Sting be on top. And then Hogan was the common denominator kind of between all those guys or Jeff Jarrett tells the end.

10:07 But you always had a heel in that mix to kind of be the bad guy to take the belt off the good guy, cycle up the next good guy. So maybe Sammy can be that constant thorn in the side of all the baby faces. And Sammy gets the belt and he's got Gargano as his sidekick back up to help him retain. And then you know, you know, cycles out, Owen cycles out, baller cycles out. And then you can kind of keep doing that until eventually you know they're going to come back to Cody at some point. All right, Dr. Tray. So, so then when it comes to Sammy's vein, what to you, what time frame to you constitutes a successful title run? Is it until Royal Rumble? Is it until elimination chambers?

10:47 It until WrestleMania? What's what will constitute a successful title run during the second reign of Sammy's vein? I'm going to go elimination chambers. That's December, right? Or is that February? February. So, yeah, I don't know if he'll make it to February. I think if he gets past the Reviver series and I don't think we have a PLE in December, do we? Not typically. I've got actually what they're doing. They're doing Rese Paloza in Perth, Australia this year. Okay, so I don't see him dropping the belt in Perth. So yeah, if he makes it to Rumble, I guess I'll consider that successful because that would give him about a three and a half four month title reign. And I think that's a good solid run.

11:34 Yeah, because Royal Rumble, we're going to start getting ready for the card for WrestleMania. I just don't see Sammy going into WrestleMania as the champion. So I would say, yeah, if he can make it to Rumble, I think that'd be a solid run for him. What do you think give me a percent chance that it gets to, let's say, WrestleMania? Yeah, I just, I mean, 25% that he makes it 75% not, just because I mean, that's still three quarters now. To me, with this character of being the conspiracy theorist, the whole, everybody's against me. I mean, that character only has so many, so many, so much legroom to run with.

12:22 If you're a conspiracy theorist by nature, somehow you either a get your conspiracy theory prove right, or you completely give up on it. So it just kind of depends on where this character goes, because I think there's also this weird, like big support that Sammy can lean into. If they go that direction, we saw what he won the title. The crowd was nuts. And when he lost the belt, the crowd was super pissed. So I think there's a lot of love for Sammy out there. And if that, if that character eventually goes back to babyface, he can have a much longer run. The only way he gets a long run out of this is if he actually develops a faction to put around him to kind of insulate him and protect him, you know, going forward.

13:04 All right, let's switch gears to the raw brand, red brand. You had Roman Reigns defeating Penta and the main event on raw in Mexico City. Great main event, great crowd throughout the entire show. LA Night comes out after the show is off the air and makes a challenge for Roman Reigns. So we have Roman Reigns retaining the World Heavyweight Championship against Penta. But Penta looked like he belonged in the main event, which is good. He pushed Roman. He survived major offense. And he came close before Roman finally finished him with the spirit to get the one, two, three. LA Night attacking Reigns after Raw goes off the air. WWE officially announces night as Roman's money in the bank challenger.

13:45 This is exactly what Penta needed. He lost but came out feeling more important. He looks like he's a top star now. This was like a good test for him and he I think he flew with flying colors. Now WWE moves directly to LA Night who already has years of history around Roman and the bloodline. Penta was elevated into feet. Now the challenge is making LA Night feel like more than Roman's next stop. So Dr. Shreya, I ask you this first. Did Penta leave Mexico City feeling like a legitimate main event player? Despite losing? Yeah, I mean Penta came out looking like a huge star. I mean big massive extravagant entrance, crowd super hyper for him. Roman I felt like was kind of going through the motions and dominating early on in that match.

14:28 But then Penta got high, got the big comeback. Roman had a kick out of two Mexican destroyers to get the win. So yeah, you made Penta look like a huge star. It was reminiscent of Rey Mysterio and his younger days in WWE when they would give him these high profile matches and really try to make him look like a main event level talent. At least Penta has more size. The big question is then what do you do with Penta after this? You know, does he go back into the inner corner picture? Does he stay up around the main event picture? Because the main event picture is kind of crowded with Oba and Braun and Seth and Roman and LA and Solo and Jacob.

15:14 Like that top of the car is kind of crowded. Where does Penta slot in there and can you make him keep or can you keep that momentum going for him coming out of this big match? So what do you think? How would you predict this goes? I feel like this is the beginning of him being a main event player. I feel like. I'm going to lean that yeah, I think they need a guy of his family. I mean, going back to when Rey came into the company through Alberto Del Rio. Like they've always had a Hispanic superstar towards the top of the card.

15:55 They've been you know, we talked about they've been searching for that person for the last 10 years to replace Rey. I think they finally have that guy who can kind of take the mantle from Rey in Penta. So I think you kind of have to put them at the top of the card and does that mean him getting involved in the stuff with Oba in the vision? Because at some point Oba will need some help and maybe you know, Penta gets some Oba rub. If that sounds really dirty, you never mind. But yeah, it's like Ben Gay and Oba Rub side by side in the in the pharmacy aisles. But I'm an air tourist. I think they will because he is one of the better English speakers of the Hispanic guys on the on the roster.

16:41 Totally marketable has a catch phrase. Great entrance. The whole nine yards. He's got everything you really need to kind of elevate that. You know, Mexican star to the top of the card. It's just a question of whether they're going to have the follow through to do it. Let's look at this other side of it here. Someone in the same place almost as Penta right now, LA night. Dr. Trayk, in WWE make LA night feel like a real threat to Roman or does he feel like the next stop before the bigger story comes next? I mean, once it's kind of like what we talked about a little bit earlier with you know, how they had booked Sammy, K.O. You know, Finn Balor like like this is not LA's nights first shot at the top of the card. He's he's been lingering for a while.

17:25 And every time we think he's getting that big breakthrough moment, they push him back down. So right now I feel like he's just a stop on the Roman roller coaster. But it just kind of it's just there hasn't been enough credibility built up behind the booking of LA night over the last three years for me to really buy into him as a credible. Correct. It's going to be interesting, Dr. Trayk. We've got money in the bank here coming up now LA night versus Roman Reigns. We're coming off of Mexico City Penta versus Roman in about four to five weeks time middle of October. You and I are sitting here where we cap in both of those matches. Do you think they're both on equal playing field where two of these guys Penta and LA night came out looking good and strong for the future?

18:09 Or did where do we look at and go LA night blew Penta out of the water Penta blew LA night out of the water? Or do we go? Yeah, these guys are probably never going to be main event players in this current WWE format. I'm going to lean towards and this has a lot to do with the crowd as well. I think Penta blows LA night out of the water in perception coming out of this. I just don't trust WWE really elevating either of these guys into constant main event guys. So I think on paper it looked like Penta was the big winner but six months from now I don't think either guy has a world title run under their belt at that point. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying I think WWE should go buy another brand and just give push arts and titles.

18:52 They did. It's called triple. They did. It's called triple. You're right. Yeah, I could. Hey, we just had we have a guy who is a French. He is he's German. Austria now, Austria, German impersonating a Hispanic character who is an American, the great American holding their top brass with a mega championship and is incredibly over. You had a German guy impersonating an American who was impersonating a Hispanic. So there's three levels to that. It was a guy impersonating guy. It was kind of like a Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder like. Yeah, she's all right. Change the channel. Anyway, and then you got two brits that are alongside him going.

19:37 We are Hispanic characters as well. So yeah, there you go. Feel free to chime in patreon.com/srtupodcast. Switching over to AEW. We have all out coming up here. Dr. Shrain finally has some heat. But we've lost a major player along the way this week's. I finally gave Will Osprey versus John Moxley, the physical edge it needed. Moxley beat Francesco Akira from New Japan, from United Empire. He kept attacking him after the bell and Osprey responded with hidden blades to stand tall heading towards all out. Hangman Page and Brodito along with yeah, Hangman Page and Brodito earned a WWE World Trio's championship opportunity. Demonstrate Champion made it clear he wants to go to Akata and the AEW International Championship. That is official.

20:21 But the biggest loss is Mercedes Monae who's not medically clear now for all out without broken nose. They said she'll be back for a wrestle dream in October. Will Knight and Gail versus Teclo won't step determined who gets Mercedes at wrestle dream. Osprey Moxley has the heat it needed but Mercedes apps and certainly takes star power off all out next weekend. Dr. Trade did Dynamite finally make all out feel like a major show coming up. It helped. To me this is kind of like backlash. Remember we had WrestleMania and then WrestleMania backlash. This to me feels like the backlash card. Explain to me also how a broken nose is worse than a broken hand. I haven't figured that one out yet.

21:07 You can be medically clear with a broken hand because you actually need to grab people in wrestling but a broken nose can't get medically clear for I guess because breathing is important I guess. It feels like a strong card but like it's so clumbling all in was just a couple weeks ago. I feel like it's almost like I need time to breathe to really get into all out and it's right now. At least they're giving it more space than they did two years ago because two years ago what was two weeks. Yep. At least they're giving it like three and a half weeks or four weeks to get into it but maybe it's my fault Jeff maybe because I heaps someone's praise on Mercedes Monet. That's why she's taking this show off. I don't know but like I'm excited for Moxley in Osprey because I believe that this is the beginning of the Osprey era.

21:59 I'm really excited for Champa and Okada. I'm interested to see how they do this whole thing with Swarve and the new level and Paige and Brodito and then don't forget Ricochet and his group, the demand. Like I'm interested to see how that goes. The tag team title division looks interesting. I mean they got a lot of really good moving parts. I just wish that this show had a little bit more time to breathe coming on the heels of ballin. When would be a good time for a do you think they should have skipped it and then do just go straight in a wrestle dream. Yeah I mean do we really need all out. Well I mean it's like a ten pull for them right. Yeah. That's where they come from. But wrestle dream was supposed to be like you know forbidden doorish and neither of those things are forbidden or dreamish so like maybe you just do away with the wrestle dream and put all out in October.

22:52 Interesting yeah I mean because I think they're doing all out next weekend right and then I think wrestle dreams like October 7th which I think with my math would be like two weeks in between. Which I never like that I think that's a waste. Yes it's just two it's too fast it's just boom boom boom boom boom boom is like man like you're not the great thing about all is we had you know five six weeks to build up a lot of that show. Even though they did kind of cram a lot into the last two weeks but to do to do it a paper plus you're you're kind of exhausting your audience because if I got dropped by just drop 60 bucks on all in. To turn around drop another 60 bucks on all out and then two weeks later does 60 bucks on wrestle dream.

23:33 I mean that's a 180 bucks in about a seven week period that's a lot of money for your average consumer. Doctor trade how much do you think losing Mercedes Monet hurts the card because this would have been probably her first eight women's world championship defense she's out now with an injury that happened at all in. Is her not being there taking some steam out of the card. Um. Yeah not really I mean a little bit because she is. You know a big star but I mean to jump from if she it looked like they were jumping from you know into her in fecla. And ignoring willow so at least they're actually having a little bit of of conclusion to get to fecla in Mercedes if that's the route they go.

24:20 So it hurts on star power but I mean fecla and willow can go and we talked about it can we go everybody loves willow so the fact that we're getting willow on the show I think is. Doesn't quite make up for it but still it's a good look. So there is some good news coming along the way for a w dr. Trey as a fight full sublect is reporting that the current plan. Is for former WWE United States champion former NXT champion former NXT UK champion. Ilya dragon off to join a w with final details on the contract still being worked out. Nothing has been officially announced yet. Dragon off immediately creates fresh matches will with willos bridge on marksly because it's got a conesca to cash us for strict lid hangman page.

25:04 Enter anybody that is a hard hitter in a w and this is a dream match. A w already has one of the deepest rosters in wrestling. The question isn't whether dragon off can have great matches there. It's whether a w has enough television time and creative space to make Ilya feel special because I feel like he is a special wrestler in WWE. Dragon off fits a w in the ring. The bigger question is whether a w has room to make him matter again. So I ask you this dr. Trey is a w the right landing spot for a w dragon off. I mean if your options are TNA, AW or WWE and w w say hey we don't want to pay you that money then yeah. AW is the best landing spot for him. He can have some great matches.

25:45 A lot of people that you just ran through of those fans has to matches and you know me I'm a big chump of fans on chump and dragon off would be great. Like I'm all for all these matches. My question for dragon off is he just has to figure out how to connect with the average person who views a w. I think your die hard you know wrestling pierce love Ilya. I think the people that you know like promos and like talking and like things like that. That's where he struggles. I think that's why w he kind of didn't want to pay him the money because he had made that connection with it. So AW is a great spot to land in. Is this a question of can AW make him a bigger star like they did with swerve and not cast him to the side kind of like they did with you know some other w.

26:33 You guys who have came over. All right Dr. Trey you're in the ear of Tony Khan. You need to tell him the major feud the first major feud that Ilya dragon off needs in a w. Who do you sign him up for against? You know my if I'm trying to make him a star I go. Oh cotta probably if I'm trying to build a guy who's going to be a strong piece for the next five years I stick him in the Don Calis family and have him go after Darby. Wow. Because I that way that way Don Calis can be his mouthpiece. He can do for Ilya what he's done for Kyle Fletcher way different to Keshda.

27:14 You know what he's done for Mark Davis like a lot of those guys that are in that group. Hallis has made them feel like bigger pieces so that's my long term plan would be originally just stick him with Don Calis until he gets better with Calis turn him against Calis and then he's off to the races. So my first major feud would be John Moxley I think that would be great I think it'd be fun I think it'd be hard hitting I think it's a dream match for their styles of wrestling. But then the other part of me Dr. Trey is I think dragon off would be great for the death writers like that persona fits him. But I can't see them introducing him as a death writer I think he gets the introduction that is very similar to this presentation from WWE in previous places he was at.

27:56 Well you know Osprey did say he was building a new United Empire in AEW and Dragon off being you know from Russia having that kind of. I don't want I try to think of a good comparison without saying United Nations from WWE. But you know it's kind of a Nash it's an international group is what the United Empire always seems to be so if if Ilya comes to Osprey's defense against the death writers he gets the Osprey rub and immediately is upper upper mid card lower made event status. Do you think you debuts it all out?

28:37 Like he could come to the aid of of will Osprey. Like post like post match if the death writers and the dogs are beating down Osprey then Ilya makes a save that make a lot of sense. His presentation and the way they the United Empire in New Japan carry themselves would be very perfect for an AEW version of the United Empire with will Osprey. Yeah and I think and I think his style also crosses over with New Japan so getting in with AEW also opens up opportunities for him in New Japan as well. Yeah I agree with you I agree with you so yeah that is I think that's a really really really big signing and I'm looking forward to seeing how Ilya Dragonov performs in all elite wrestling. Dr. Trey with that said let's close up shop on this week's edition of SRT let's get a couple plugs and sponsors out of the way.

29:22 You can download the show at patreon.com/srtupodcast and this don't really show feed on Apple Spotify. Or wherever you download this podcast don't forget to rate and review and subscribe. You can follow us individually on X for myself at SRT U. Jeff and for Dr. Trey Franklin at the Dr. Trey. And of course don't forget to follow show on X at SRT U podcast 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 be sure to go check out Rock City Championship Wrestling. We made a huge switch this couple weeks ago. We're actually going to one show a month for the next couple months just to get through football season because we know Alabama fans don't like to make choices between wrestling and football.

30:07 So October 3rds our next show and then we're going to be co-sponsoring a couple shows out of the Rock City arena to help out local independent wrestling. So get out there check out your own local independent wrestling and then also go check out YouTube dot com slash Rock City Championship Wrestling for all the old past episodes of Rock City. So you can see some of your favorite stars in AEW and NXT that have come through the Rock City arena including Nathan Frazier Lexus King, Adam Priest those guys have all been Rock City Alums. So be sure to check out the Rock City YouTube page for all the history of Rock City. I got to admit once I heard you say that we're canceling it. We're doing one show a month for football season. I wanted to respond real tide for you right there.

30:52 I mean people when you tell people that they're like real tide real tide. So no it's literally I literally retail stores and stuff like that right here literally changed their hours of operation around Alabama football games this day. It's a religion there folks. It's a special place. It's a truly special place to live when it comes to college football. All right so that'll do it for this week's edition of SRT you thank you for downloading the show thank you for supporting us spread the word about patreon.com/SRTU Podcasts and help us keep climbing the charts in the world of professional wrestling podcasts out there until next week for Dr. Tray Franklin. I am Jeff Peck. This has been the Stoelor Show.