WrestleMania 42 Review & Reactions: Did It Feel Like WrestleMania? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #845 – 4/23/26

0:00 It's still really a big damage to me! Why not me? Oh! Welcome everybody! Welcome to this week's "To This To This To This To Row" show. Episode number 845 from April 23rd, 2026. Welcome to your WrestleMania 42 recap and review edition of S. R. T. U. I am on app and show I am Jeff Pek, joined every single week for my close-in-only Dr. Craig Franklin. Dr. Trey, it has been quite the journey for you and I both to watch WrestleMania, my friend.

0:43 Oh, nothing comes easy in this life that we live when you're older, you're a parent, you have family. Like, sometimes the road seems pretty straightforward and you're like, "Okay, I can make this work and then life just throws you a bunch of curveballs." And you're like, "Oh, let's see how we can put this together." So, yeah, one person on vacation, one person dealing with wrestling and sickness and all the other fun things to go along with us. So it's been a very, very fun, what, 72, 96 hours for you and I? Yeah, it's been quite interesting. So we're obviously, we're going to be recording a couple days before it actually released.

1:26 So we're doing it Tuesday night. So just to get it out there for all of you. But for me, Dr. Trey, I flew out for vacation on Saturday afternoon and thankfully the airline I flew out on had television. But it was literally, WrestleMania was beginning on ESPN 2 right when I was like legitimately getting off the plane. So I did not watch WrestleMania live until I got back to my hotel room and got settled in and I mean, you know this because you have kids, right? So traveling with children for someone who is so small and hopefully anybody else that's a parent can relate to this as well, they have so much stuff like so much stuff.

2:08 I'm a stroller, luggage, snacks, food, whatever, right? And with normal people and air quotations, like you don't have to worry about that because they'll carry their own stuff. Well, I'm legitimately dealing with someone who will be turning two years old in two months that can't carry a damn thing other than his toys. So yeah, by the time we got settled in, it was about like 9.30 in our hotel room and where I'm on vacation is considered to be one of the most magical places on earth. And I found out, like within the last Friday night that I could watch WrestleMania on Disney Plus through my ESPN unlimited subscription.

2:51 Did you know that at all? Was that that? No, that. See, I'm so old. Yeah, they bundle it all. It's a big bundle. Like if you have the Disney Plus thing in the US, it all, it's like progressive. It's like flow from a girl. You just bundle everything. So everything is bundled together, but it did cause. So I had Disney Plus. If you go back to this past summer when this whole thing came up, I can't bring this up. I'm like, I have Disney Plus. I should have made more money. No, it's actually like 15 bucks more for the unlimited package. But you get all of Disney, all of Hulu and all of ESPN. Yep, yep. And I was watching the ESPN, limited on my ESPN. Did not know I could watch it on Disney Plus.

3:32 So thankfully where I'm staying on Disney Plus, I don't have to watch on my computer. It's on my television at this location, which is very, very good. And I did not get done watching WrestleMania night one until 1.30 in the morning. Sunday morning. And then had to be up very early. My son woke me up very early, about five hours later to kick off the day out and about enjoying family time. And then got back again, not too bad. Like I would say eight in the morning. Then I think, or next to me eight at night, we got back and then I turned on WrestleMania night two was watching it from behind. And I think I ended up going to bed at like 12.30 in the morning, like going through the commercials and all that stuff.

4:18 And I was watching it so far late from when the show actually the live feed ended that the live feed would stop working like a halfway through on night two and like maybe like a quarter the way at night one where it was basically like, okay, you can't fast forward anymore. You need to get back out of the app and now watch the replay that we've put up for you. So that kind of delayed me a little bit. But I was able to watch both shows in their entirety by Monday morning. And then legitimately finished watching Monday night Raw today, Tuesday afternoon at the pool. Well, sitting there watching Netflix like a loser. Well, first off, I'm a ginger and I burn.

4:58 Anyway, just headphones in, computer on my lap, watching the end of the Netflix episode. I think I watched like the first hour Monday night when we got back. But it's been a whirlwind and then pre-show talking to you, you've had the flu. So I mean, wow, what a run here for you and I both. Yeah, so Saturday night, I didn't get to watch any WrestleMania live because we were running Rocket City. And it's our go home show before wrestling con nine. So I got to be out there. Luckily, I had missed the previous two Rocket City shows. So they had to kind of find a fill in ring announcer. And the girl they brought in, she was, she's a Rocket City trainee.

5:38 Her name is Ruby Red Slapper, which I really hate the name. But your god knows Mary Cole off does not pick out the best name sometimes. Okay, interesting. Yeah, because I, I mean, I went red snapper that that's what we're going with. No slapper like that's, that's horrible. We're going to change that at some point. But she's really good ex rugby or ex a roller derby girl. So she's tough. She, and she did a really good job and she was also keen on asking for advice. So when I get to the building, they're like, hey, we're going to split the ring announcing duties between you and Ruby. And I'm like, oh no, just let her do all the ring announcing. I'll just work commentary and then do my GM duties if, if needed.

6:21 So that worked out really well. So me and Sammy Franklin didn't get back from Rocket City until about midnight Saturday. And then Sunday, which is the one day my wife and I usually have off together. We're like, hey, let's run into town, pick up some stuff for the house. And, you know, also, well, about three in the afternoon, I'm like, I don't feel right. I don't feel good. So we got back to the house and I just felt drained and I'm like, I'm just going to lay down and take a nap. And next thing I know, it just hit me like a wave. I was up running the bathroom every hour. I told Jeff like it was actually the best sleep. Other than having to jump up and run to the bathroom, it was the best sleep I probably had like five years.

7:03 Like, it was like, and on the pillow, I'm out. Like you ever had those sleeves where it was so deep you wake up and you're like, man, is that like four hours? You look at the clock and you're like, it was 90 minutes. That was it. Yes. Like just really deep sleep right away. And you're just like, all right, this is weird. I missed all of WrestleMania because this, I was telling Jeff off air. I did not really wake up from all of this until 630 Monday morning because I had to think Sam didn't school. I took Sam into school. I canceled all my work appointments, came back to the house, went back to sleep, didn't wake up until 2 o'clock when it was time to go get him from school, and then have been struggling to catch up on everything that's happened in the last like legitimately 24 hours.

7:57 I'm trying to catch up on everything. So as we review the show, I am going to, I've watched all of night one and watched Monday and I have not watched all of night two. So I will lean on Jeff for some of the reviews of the matches on this. I'm going to base some of myself just off common sense knowledge of the wrestling business. But if anybody wants my actual in-depth analysis of night two, give me a day. It just hit me up on the Twitter, the X, the Facebook, whatever, and I'll give you my in-depth analysis. I don't think anybody will though. Yeah, no, this is, it's been fun. This is a wild WrestleMania. We're on it typically, you know, Dr. Trey, you'd have a couple more days to get caught up, but since things are going to be wild for me on my vacation here pretty soon, I appreciate you taking the time out to recap everything.

8:46 I'm going to say, I am very impressed that you took a family vacation down to Florida, just so you take a look to a strip club. I don't know where else in Florida, the magical place to visit, other than, oh, there was a famous strip club that Bubba the Love Sponge used to go to in Tampa, actually. But I mean, Hogan's Beach Shop, I mean, that might be another place you could take him to, that be magical, but I don't know which one you wish, which route you took. I mean, Atlanta, you know, the magic, what was the thing they just like canceled? Magic City, there's this thing. Magic City, yeah. This is called Magic City, yeah. That's right, the Atlanta Hawks wanted to do like a Magic City night and they like canceled it on the NBA.

9:29 By the way, that is actually the nickname of Birmingham is the Magic City. Wow, hey, you know what? Run with it, brother. Right? Run with it. Just saying, like what I first moved down here, I heard that was like, do they not know what Magic City's link to? Like, okay, cool. Let's roll with that. That's fine. I'm in a place where I pretty sure I've told the store on the show before where WrestleMania was in town. And we came in. Like, I said on the show, I think on last week, I can't always tell if sometimes what's on air off air. But anyway, I used to always plan my vacation. I did say this on air around like right after a couple of weeks after WrestleMania, I would never ever come in like around WrestleMania weekend because just wanted to watch WrestleMania and we'll go to fake, it's just funny how it always worked out.

10:18 So we flew in like the day after WrestleMania one year and it was in town and I just saw the wrestling fans leaving when I was coming to the airport and we were walking around this huge theme park in the United States. And I just said to my wife, I was like, I just feel like we're going to run into a wrestler and like no shit, like 10 seconds later, Kevin Owens walks by me. And he's in like an old T-shirt and like, definitely shorts on. I'm like, holy fuck, it's Kevin Owens. And my wife's like, how the hell would you know he was here? Would you see it online or something? I was like, no, I just said that out loud. And here it was and people were like, following around us with his family and I told the story before I was like, I'm not going to bother this guy.

11:02 And this seems like something that you may have missed this Dr. Trayv. But this is sounds like something that wrestling fans should have been doing in Las Vegas. To begin with, have you seen the CM Punk photo yet with the fan? Slapping the phone out? Okay, yeah. And then I think the fan thinks he's like in a storyline because he's like, I want an apology from CM Punk and it's like, you know, so like these people are human beings. Like if the roles were reversed and you're like hugging a friend or a family member, would you want like someone to be put in a camera in your face? And there's a lot of stories coming out right now after the punk situation about how like fans were, you know, really bothering the wrestlers and stuff like that. I saw a video of like Randy Orton being mobbed and I think he took like one picture with a little kid and everybody was forming him with signing the funcos and autographs and take a picture and stuff like that.

11:46 And the wrestlers came out. I think Dr. McAter had a tweet before we were going on air that I saw where he was like thanking everybody who paid their hard earned money for WWE World and did the photo ops in the autograph sessions and I know not for everyone that that is like an easy thing to pay for and I've seen the prices for a lot of the events and it's like absurd how much photos and autographs are right now and it's like that for a lot of these conventions. And if you could legitimately can't afford it and stuff like that, I totally understand. You know, and you're using that money towards the very expensive tickets. Totally get that. The thing is like this is something I've always noticed or always felt even you know as long as I guess you know people are saying like decent human beings and stuff like that but whenever I've seen wrestlers or famous people athletes out I don't bother them because they are their human beings like Kevin Owens this time I'm talking about where I ran into him at a major theme park in the United States like he was with his family and he doesn't get a lot of time like that and it was funny because stupid me like I tweeted him like hey I just saw you know Kevin Owens didn't want to say "Pothermer" and stuff like that and he legitimately responded back and he's like if you see me please stop and say hi and I was like wow I can't believe that that he would do that.

12:58 So I thought that was pretty cool but like the whole Las Vegas thing Dr. Trey like really irks me like I know there's things that there was not a lot of security and it's just odd really really odd stuff but I mean WWE should have learned their lesson it's not like they just didn't have freaking WrestleMania or the pre-ear prior. Yeah I mean and I've always been like I remember that day that you saw Kevin Owens because I think you texted me like I within like one of your 30 minutes of that happening you're like oh my god I just ran into Kevin Owens at this magical kingdom. Not don't want to give your location away but yeah like I remember texting me and you and I have always kind of been the same way like if we see somebody famous out and about and maybe it's because you and I both grew up on the like the you know on M&M and it's like there are songs you know M&M put out there but like you know if you see me out with me and my daughter don't bother me and like that's how I've always felt like if I was a celebrity and I'm trying to maintain a semblance of normal life and I take my kid out somewhere in public I don't want to be mobbed by the crowd and in the stuff in Las Vegas like if people are in their hotel that's basically their house and for people who live on the road like I did for so many years like that is your home away from work and then you don't want to be bothered with a lot of stuff like you know Jeff might be the best financial analyst in the world but when he goes to take his kids out to to eat he doesn't need 35 people coming up to masking him for stock tips you know it's like no like leave it leave

14:32 work at work and leave like leave your fandom in the confines of where your fandom resides I mean Jeff's when the if Jeff saw Jordan or what's that guy's name the love the quarterback the Packers. Yeah. Yeah. If Jeff saw Jordan love out and about he won't be like oh my god can I get a picture can you sign this please Jeff you like hey man big fan thanks for all you need for the Packers right that's all you got to do you don't need not everything needs to be mon of you know quantified and money by getting an autograph or something sometimes just the experience alone I've told the story on air years and years ago like I grew up for probably 30 minutes from Matt and Jeff Hardy we we had friends in the same circles this is before I got into the wrestling biz I was the dumbass that actually one night at a Walmart when I was 23 years old ran into Matt Hardy and Lita and I saw them in same thing I was like man I don't want a bother I don't want a bother I'm I saw a couple people walk up to mask and for an autograph and this is like a team extreme had just started right and I just like hey big fan hope to see in the ring one day and that was because I was actually playing and going to Shawn Michaels wrestling school and that was it and then I ran into him this was like eight years later I ran into him in airport the wife and I were flying through Baltimore head of summer him and Shannon Moore were flying in other direction and I saw them and my wife was like why don't you go say hi to them you've met them before you've met them a few times I'm like we're in airport I'm not bothering some dude in airport he's just hoping his luggage

16:07 gets to where he's going I don't need me to add to his stress about like hey man remember me from eight years ago running into you in that Walmart in fabled North Carolina I don't I don't want to put that on somebody's plate so you know just usually the best approach is just no approach is how I've always taken it like if if it's meant to happen your time will happen to actually form a relationship with them if it's not meant to happen it's not meant to happen yeah it's it's just the whole thing is crazy the stuff that went on in Vegas the stories that you're hearing right now and it's just pretty awful but anyway I think it's time Dr. Tray let's get into it let's recap or review WrestleMania 42 this past Saturday and Sunday from a Legion stadium in Las Vegas Nevada let's start with night one Dr. Tray the Usos and LA night to feed in Logan Paul Austin Thierry and I show speed I had team vision and I show speed you had the Usos and LA night decent match I show speed should a lot of athleticism I did I'm not surprised that I didn't that we didn't see I show speed like basically getting the ass hand his assing at to him from the vision at some point like I'm kind of upset that I missed that as a possibility because I do think they probably want I show speed to look more like a a baby face than a heel the Logan Paul punch to speed was was pretty bad as was the one D to Logan Paul though the splash line show speed was good this to me screamed like WrestleMania celebrity match I did not have any good vibes bad vibes is just like this

17:41 is like a typical let's get a celebrity in their WrestleMania match for me I will say and I don't know this also goes into like the pre-Russell Mania speech by the guy that did the little verbal run up I'm like I don't know who this guy is and then I show speed I did not know he was Sammy knows who I show speed is he was excited to see I show smooth in the WWE ring so that was one match I had to sit down with him and watch and he's a much more likable person than Logan Paul if you remember Logan Paul came on the scene he wanted to be a baby face they're like new people are going to hate you I show speeds in different kind of guy people want to like him so I kind of like where the storyline went with that we're like hey let's make him a bit let's align with Logan Paul and get some some notoriety if you turn to baby face we can use them down the line and maybe a Logan Paul I show speed match that will draw viewerships so I didn't hate it it was very very black luster of a match to say the least I mean that that might have been the worst one D slash 3d I have ever seen anybody ever throw like Jimmy Uso completely missed his catch on that one it was it was okay for a starter match it was exactly what I thought it was let's just get the crowd excited let's get him amped up let's give him something they can cheer about and make sure it gets out without getting hurt yeah I think a lot of these guys with the exception of

19:12 I show speed is there better for WrestleMania match but it is what it was and there you go Usos and LA Knight win on WrestleMania Saturday kick off the show Jacob fought two defeats through McAterna on Sanctuary match you and I both had Jacob fought two in this one I thought was an enjoyable match hard hitting I'm all for giving thought to the ball and let him run with it after WrestleMania which is something we saw at the end of Monday Night Raw this was enjoyable it's it was a good build good feud I felt like both guys got got the wrong end of the stick basically when it came to the WrestleMania build I would have been fine with them being involved in the World Heavyweight Championship match with Randy Orton or just don't have them like intertwined with that storyline for the last like three months but I was happy for both guys getting this opportunity to join the match I just tried as Jacob fought two defeats through McAterna.

20:05 Yeah this match actually I was like okay this is actually pretty good and this is how we're going to run WrestleMania I got high expectations for it I love the call back to the toolbox from McAterna and Ponkin Hell himself I love that they basically alluded to that guitar having PTSD from that toolbox I thought it was really hard hitting really it was one of those matches where like I'm watching this match going man these guys are going really really hard for this to be kind of the pre-show match which makes me also think that hey maybe Drew is taking some time off to finish filming the Highlander and we won't see him for a while maybe that's why he went so hard in this match but it was a really really damn good hard hitting enjoyable match with some you know kind of cool spots or the double jump moonsault through a table is pretty cool claymores like just overall I mean Jacob how to pop and drew up for that Samoan drop is pretty impressive like overall like I was really really impressed by how hard these guys went for being the match to kind of kick off WrestleMania.

21:10 Next match here is Paige and Bri Bella to feed me irresistible forces shortflitter and likes to bless and Bailey and Lyra Valkyrie to win the WWE women's tag team. Championship I had Bailey and Lyra Dr. Trey trailflitter and Alexa Bliss. First off the page news was like leaks two three days before WrestleMania I actually like accidentally stumbled upon it to one of like the main sources I go to was like this is like they put out a tweet and it was like spoiler alert for WrestleMania don't like read if you don't want to see further and like right at the end of the freaking tweet was a photo of Paige and then like a tweet from like Mike Johnson or something that was like Paige is expected to be back with the WWE will be forming this week and I'm like that's not a spoiler like you warned me and then you literally put it in the tweet so it ruined it for me I saw something something today where Bri Bella was like upset on their podcasts that that news was leaked out as well and rightfully so that everybody I beat a lot of people knew that was coming and if it was if it was secretive and held back from actually being released I think you would have a similar reaction to when the hearties returned was at WrestleMania 34 which was or 33 WrestleMania 33 that was such a great organic reaction when the hearties returned to WWE and I think it would have been a very similar reaction there with that said Paige did not miss a beat and Dr. Trey I don't know about you but I actually think she looked better in the ring this past Saturday then most of the times that I can remember

22:40 her in AEW recently like I'm so happy for her she seems very very happy to be back in WWE despite the run in AEW where she returned in ring she feels at home she got medically clear she looked incredible in the ring I hope that her in-ring career is a little bit longer than it was in AEW you didn't really utilize her all that much or that was like very sporadic and when she would wrestle so I don't know if there was still issues lingering with her neck maybe tag team wrestling can certainly prevent that but I'd love to see Paige have another good couple singles runs if she's healthy enough to do so but I thought for me like the biggest takeaway Dr. Trey was that Paige looked so much better in the ring than I remember her being pretty recently when she was back in AEW I think it's also telling that a she's younger than half the women in that match like she's only I think I saw her before she's only 33 like that's crazy that's crazy to me like I mean she's it seems like she's been around forever like I remember you and I talking about that NXT Championship match with her and Emma and I'm like that just seems like forever ago and she's still only 33 like she's I mean she's in Jeff's age range to you know for somebody to date but yeah she looked fantastic in the ring and once again they put her in a match outside of last legend she's had run-ins with everybody in them maybe maybe maybe not but she knows Charlotte she knows Alexa she knows Bailey like these are all people that she kind of knows and can kind

24:14 of feed off of any you can kind of see that and how they put the match together like she didn't have a lot of interactions with last legend she didn't have a lot of interactions with Lyra it was mostly Charlotte Alexa and Bailey in that match so I really liked the way they put that together she looked fantastic and then also makes me like she looked here's the creative thing Jeff she once again looked it was presented like a bigger star coming back to WWE then she outside maybe her debut in AEW that she ever did in AEW like she just looked the part she sound like she moved like the park like they just know how to present people a little bit better in WWE than AEW at times so hey super happy for I wish I had read that sport because if you go back to last week I said if the bellas weren't in the match I was picking Alexa and Charlotte and they weren't the match I was picking the bellas damn it if I had known pages in the match I would have picked Paige and Bri yeah I think I saw that spoiler after we recorded last week so it was very late when it came out and it was disappointing but I was still very happy and she looked fantastic in the ranks so Paige and Bri Bella are your new WWE women's tie team champions next matchers Becky Lynch defeated in AJ Lee to win the WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship we both had Becky Lynch in this one it's funny I just look at my notes put like immediately after the match and I was watching the match I was like man that felt really quick and then I look online and now this is going to be a theme for me Dr. Dre and it was it was eight minutes and 15 seconds it was

25:49 shorter than the women's tag team match that was the match prior the men's six men match was seven minutes but this I was like man that felt really quick like is AJ Lee injured as Becky Lynch injured the finish to me had opened the door for round three if WWE wants to go that route I did like their elimination chamber match a lot more I'm getting the vibe that AJ Lee will not be on television for a little bit of time I don't think that there's some sort of follow up at backlash in a couple weeks but how I could be wrong but yet to me the biggest takeaway Dr. Dre was that this match just felt quick and the elimination chamber match was above and beyond better than what I saw WrestleMania Saturday and that is absolutely no knock on Becky Lynch and AJ Lee if they had more time it would have been in the same avenue for me they were just put on a good match and I was like oh damn I want more what the hell is this all about so Becky Lynch once again you're three time WWE women's intercom little champion yeah I for the short as the match was I enjoyed the match now was it is good some of the other matches no and I saw this come up online today when I was catching up and people complaining about the match times and things like this and in my response is so you're setting up a show and you have time allotments for each match think about how big these entrances were how long some of these entrances took and it's like that does cut into the amount of ring time you guess if you want a big entrance you're going to lose some time from the in ring stuff and you know Becky had a live band AJ had a bunch of little AJ's which I think that's a thing by the way do not get many versions

27:24 of yourself at WrestleMania it never goes well I think almost every time I see somebody get multiple versions of themselves out there they always end up losing but yeah like it I think when you're sitting as show up you're going okay we got 15 minutes for this match but seven minutes is tied up in entrances you're going to get eight matches for your in ring stuff so this is kind of goes along with that whole they they're shifting sometimes WrestleMania from being an athletic endeavor to being a spectacle and the entrances and I saw this the entire show the entrances were just way too much and put into the quality of the ring time like I said for seven or for eight minutes they got the job done I mean you still told the story of Becky and AJ you still told the story of Becky tapping out the black widow you still got in the Becky Jessica car stuff you got everything crammed into it it just didn't feel as stretched out as most of what like just to have for probably the blow off match to a feud yeah this is going to be something that pops up again here in just a match or then not this match but the following match for sure is something and it was it was an odd theme and a little bit of profits here I mean I had some vibes while I was watching both these shows that I was like man do I feel this like is my other one notice this and I'm not as much online anymore but then I saw and heard aerial halani almost say nearly something identical to me we'll talk about here in just just a few minutes or so once we get through the recap with that said next match here is Gunther defeating Seth wrongs we both had Gunther in this one to me this match slipped up to the hype I love

28:58 the energy I love the hard hitting that both men brought I would love to see these two guys battle out again but that's not happening got there's going in a different direction clearly it looks like LA night and Seth wrongs is back with Braun Breaker here because Braun Breaker which we predicted here on last week's show made his return took out Seth wrongs during the match and then took it out after the match as well which was such a very cool visual but unfortunately I can't believe I'm saying this because Seth Freakin wrongs legitimately slight little botch because Seth I guess I mean rightfully so did not want to get completely destroyed by Braun Breaker and took that spear just a little bit more lighter than I would be used to but anyway I mean Gunther and Seth wrongs they when they plan this match they must have just been like we have got to bring it we're going to be hard hitting and we're going to be physical and that's out fell and the energy was there and it was a lot of fun if the if the build to this prior to had some juice behind it I would love that a lot more again my biggest thing was like god damn they're not going to wrestle again immediately it's certainly not a backlash in Tampa and potentially anytime soon following this and I just wanted to see more of it because it was so much fun I really enjoyed this match Dr. Trace got through to feed Seth wrongs yeah I mean when you look at this match the one thing that you know is okay yes this match was fantastic but what they didn't have is big extravagant entrances it was the normal Gunther entrance a pretty normal Seth wrongs interest and they got much more match times and tell the match like I is a little

30:29 supporting that this is kind of a one-off match because they're obviously going in different directions but man from from Bell to Bell from the start of that match with that T-Rex drop kick into the power bomb boom and then just the entire match itself is almost a hundred miles an hour even interchanging sleeper holds and countering that stuff like they kind of knew they had to bring it and they completely brought it and you know you mentioned the the Bronburgers for that that first one he took up against the the security railing there that one was pretty solid the second one when bronze coming down the ramp and you know he almost went you know like he did a few months ago with I came or I came or with that was but he came down full speed you got to remember when you're it's 23 miles an hour in the ring it's probably faster when you're running downhill down the ramp so he might be approaching 25 26 miles an hour so I don't mind it Seth kind of O'Ladym being the first match back in the ring six months like you don't want to take that full-on impact but yeah it's it's I think Michael Cole said it that was the first time in they've only wrestled once in seven years and I don't remember that match from seven years ago but yeah like I want to see more of this because I didn't know I knew these both these guys are really good I didn't know how good this match would be but yeah this is very similar like those Brock Lesnar Daniel Bryan matches Brock Lesnar AJ Styles matches where the opposites really do mesh well together so sign me

32:04 up for more Seth Rons and Gunther when we circle back to this for next year's WrestleMania yeah I mean Gunther and Seth Rons are some of the best so it's like it's no shock at all that these guys could pick it up with one another and put on a show with very little build whatsoever and the match that you're that they kept bringing up I actually like during the show like when they held these two guys wrestle and I looked online and it was an episode before the pandemic they were doing Ron London and Gunther showed up as the NXT UK champion and took on Seth Rons and the match that ended up being like a DQ and I was like I I vaguely remember this now but yeah it was great it was phenomenal match and obviously one of the best of the night so Gunther defeating Seth Rons and now Paul him and owes him some sort of big favor which I have some theories about that which we'll get to here in just a little bit the next match was Liv Morgan defeating Seth Valkyrie to win the women's world championship you and I both had Liv Morgan in this one talk to try insanely another insanely quick women's match at WrestleMania felt like it was old school women's matches at WrestleMania it felt like something and this is like another common theme for me I wrote down this felt like something I would see on raw rather than WrestleMania went back on Wikipedia and the number that they have down is that this was a six minute and 51 second match all I could think of some order to AJ Lee and Becky Lynch which we've heard no reports about this post-Russellmania we actually have had reports about this post-Russellmania it just felt to me that like Liv

33:35 Morgan and Seth Valkyrie were hurt that something was off of our court has barely wrestled since December like that last raw where she like rolled her ankle I think it's like Rock Hellrod Regus was one of the last times that I remember her wrestling and that's what the reports were that was that both women were banged up they did not want them to go long and that's why the match was so damn short and it was like it's just it sucked because I love watching Liv Morgan the ring I love watching Seth Valkyrie on the ring and I just felt like these two styles which were going to be a lot of fun to watch and it did not happen as we had hoped hopefully they could continue to you feel that it feels like they are going to be continuing that feud because they left things going on raw this past Monday yeah just really quick doctor try six minutes and 51 seconds for a women's world championship match at WrestleMania and during the Triple H creative error it was it was a big let down I got to be honest and I felt like a Vince match but then again like how long how long was Liv's dance number just like that damn song got caught in my head dude so you're running around talking about trouble trouble bad advice or whatever that yeah trouble trouble I mean it's just in my head and now we'll be again and the crazy thing about that whole thing was I thought because of that Stephanie would have a bigger entrance and and she didn't get one it was kind of the same normal entrance I'm like damn kind of thought Stephanie would either like right out on a dragon or something I don't know like Ellie and I got a truck Dan housing got the Dan housing mobile on raw like you that's definitely might get a dragon or something who knows but the match was really sure I kind of felt like and

35:09 you probably could point Stephanie's barely wrestled since December the only other match I can really think of was that was it like a street fight with Raquel that she had back in like February I think it was to start setting all this stuff up when we thought that you know live and Raquel might be having issues but yeah she's barely wrestled so I feel like they're just like hey let's get through WrestleMania and then we'll give you some time off type situations but a very very short match for two of your bigger I mean they literally called like Michael calls that these are two of the biggest stars of men's division and they get six minutes but then again if you add in lens lens dancer and by the way that was the ugliest dude dancing with her I have ever seen in the backup dancer I just kept looking like he looks like the guy who be giving my transmission a tune up and he's out here grinding on live Morgan like life is so unfair at times but with her entrance I mean that was probably 12 minutes if you give the full entrance time for that because that was a very long dance number the only I love that you just keep calling a dance number like that is just showing our age it's like no there's chairs involved Jeff I mean this is not like this is a choreographed dance routine like more than anything else it was actually the same dance number that's in the video which means she only knows three moves she's like the the John scene of dance I gotta admit I do love that you're pointing out because this was not like one of my takeaways like the entrances for a lot of these things were so damn long and it's like am I paying a watch for its wrestling entrance like just imagine a promotion that just was wrestling

36:40 entrances and that's it and like over as the best entrance like that's who wins the match that's kind of what it felt like a WrestleMania um this past weekend I I had like a bunch of of negatives down and I did not put down like the wrestling entrance is because my mind was like so blown on WrestleMania Saturday that like AJ Lee and Becky Lynch had a less than 10 minute match uh live Morgan and Stephanie Valkour almost at like a five minute match at tops I'm like what the hell is going on here and I definitely have some theories on this entire thing and if you think about that like the the the run time of the show was about normal so so so you have to kind of feel I even figured out the time had to go somewhere so from everything I saw it was like under three hours and 30 minutes um was like the actual runtime on the replays that are being put up on on ESPN limited right now it's like three hours and like 60 minutes that so they've cut out the all the 18 minutes of commercials that they put in there for whatever reason and like legitimately we'll say like WrestleMania 42 is on a commercial break like why is this taking up three minutes now uh four minutes actually and that's for WrestleMania that's pretty short to me like I felt like WrestleMania was about a four hour show each time and I'm not counting commercials in this well I just know from from my and you can test this like from our personal WrestleMania experiences the the show is usually about seven to eight hours long Dr. Troy WrestleMania 35 in MetLife

38:10 I sat down on my couch at 4445 in the afternoon I did not get up until 12 30 am Monday morning and that was the last single day WrestleMania ever um yeah so I think it was the process we got to 30 what I'm trying to do I'm at there what WrestleMania we are now 42 42 42 42 we're on 42 so 34 was the one I went to we got to our seats at roughly four o'clock for 30-ish and then we walked out uh at 11 30 and I don't know how long Brock and around the winter night so I have listen we're gonna jump on to this right now we'll we'll cover Cody and Randy just second but just as we're talking about it and then we're shorter matches as well and there's the theme of this where I wrote down a lot of matches were like this would be something I would say on Ron smack down and people are like well of course it's you're getting the WWE superstars but hopefully the other fans that and and you yourself Dr. Troy like understand the perspective is is that this is fucking WrestleMania like these matches need to be pretty decently long telegood story and this is the time where you want to see all the superstars men and women tag teams really bring it and I and I hate to do that when it comes to the superstars because they put it so much time and effort and so great whether and ring is but it just felt like they were cut a lot of time and usually WWE when they do their PLE is like back lash will probably be about a 4 or 5 match PLE and those matches will probably get a good 15 to 25 minutes depending on the you know what they want

39:42 to you know put across there so you had seven matches 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 matches on Saturday 6 on Sunday and it just felt rushed like that they had not done that in a long time and you look at these match numbers 7 minutes for the first match 8 minutes for the tag women's tag match 8 15 for the inner count of match 6 51 for the women's match it's like what the hell like if you're going to give me 7 or 6 matches for WrestleMania I have no problem if you're going to exceed over 4 hours and I get it's 2 nights and if you're like no that's going to tire out the fans then guess what you got to have the less of these cards you're going to have to give me 5 matches on Saturday 5 matches on Sunday and make a count and you can make WrestleMania Sunday and and we're off to WrestleMania just as special and you're putting free matches on there listen if you're going to do this 6 to 7 PM and I know you keep referring it to the pre show but it's actually the live show it's like WrestleMania it's airing live on ESPN and ESPN 2 for free this weekend if you're going to put those matches for free if you're going to put 4 WrestleMania matches 4 of the 15 matches are going to air for free on ESPN and ESPN 2 to give people to go to unlimited then then you're going to have to put some matches on Friday on Smackdown or the Raw after WrestleMania because one of my biggest gripes about Smackdown leading into WrestleMania is there's a ton of promos there's a ton of vignettes and I get why they're doing it but you know what start making that card loaded up with some matches that barely missed WrestleMania and that would be a lot better to me because I don't want to see

41:14 a WrestleMania again where it's like a seven minutes women's championship match that's ridiculous you know it's either that or you let the show go for over four hours of in-ring time total because that was bullshit yeah no and I agree like some of these matches and some of it especially like I mean the intensity that live in Stephanie had leading into it like I know we talked about the buildup was kind of hit and missed but when they were at it they were violent I mean you talk about some of these other matches it's like no that that women's tears that that for a match was announced that all every single team would have a competitor in the match I was like this match is going short because you got four people at a time in the ring it's going to go short there's no reason for it to stretch out like it's a double as sore where you get people like me that are older it's like we watch an a w show and it runs eight hours we're like fuck I'm exhausted but then you split a show like this you're like man that's only three and a half hours I'm good to go another hour and a half like I think if you're the whole purpose of splitting Russell Manie was not to tire the crowd out so you can go four and a half five hours and if you're given away two of the matches for free that means your die hard fans are the ones tuning in to watch the rest of the show because we're the ones spending the money so give us a little more in-ring action I mean that that was my biggest complaint at the night was like man somebody's matches are so short but dear god the ring entrances were almost as long as the damn matches were so like it's a weird era we're living in right now where I

42:49 think tko is trying to find the balance between what the die hard fans want and what the casual fans want and I think most people once they get down to learning about the product just once he you know give me a story and give me some good in-ring action I don't need all the fiat tricks to go into it I don't want to realize why I stopped watching UFC was I started getting too theatrical and their entrances I'm like no I just want you to grow man go the ring and beat the hell out of each other wrestling I know what I'm getting I just want a little bit of a story give me a reason why these guys are fighting other than just a shiny gold prize and then let them go do what they do best like I don't think anybody out here thinks that wrestlers are the best thespians in the world so I don't need a choreographed dance number I don't need you know somebody driving out on a truck I don't need all the theatrics sometimes just give me what I paid for I spent all year waiting for the biggest wrestling show of the year give me a little more wrestling I'll be fine with that and we'll just get into this now since we're like rolling on the entire thing because I saw ariho aani break it down and he said and I had this feeling and then I was like alright so I feel a little bit valid saying this now or I was the only person he's like it just didn't feel like WrestleMania to me I'm sitting there on the couch into Saturday and Sunday and Sunday and Monday in the hotel room where I'm staying right now doing the show and I was just like man WrestleMania it did not feel like WrestleMania the grade that I'll give Saturday is is way less than what I'll give Sunday I thought Sunday was a better show we'll break that all down here obviously shortly but it just did not feel like

44:22 WrestleMania to me just felt like another PLA felt like another show and I was let down by that especially for the fact that 38 39 40 were really good 41 last year was was good as well I think it was a sort of show of the year I'd be surprised if if WrestleMania 42 hits a show of the event of the year when we do the end of the year at this point because it just it did not feel like WrestleMania and now I'm concerned about next year in Saudi Arabia where we just came off the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia and that was a huge let down I mean WWE has not been putting out really good PLAs right now and I don't know what's going on like creative team is just not firing like they used to and I know there's a lot of about TKO and creative and they're inf you know they're influenced on it and putting these celebrities and all that stuff it just it didn't feel like WrestleMania to me at the end of the weekend after I when both shows were over I was like man that did not feel like a WrestleMania WrestleMania should be matches that have a lot of personal personal then dead as the set oh like you're building all year to have these big payoff matches at WrestleMania and so night one seven matches three of them were like three of them maybe four if you know two women's matches fought two of McIntyre, Codian and Randy four of the seven matches felt like they could have a personal issue to get resolved at WrestleMania those matches should have had the most time two of them had a decent amount of time two of them had none like that like that makes no sense to

45:54 me like that should be what you're building towards is hey these big payoff mama's he's big oh my god we've been investing all this time in the storyline boom here's the big payoff and instead we're getting like hey here's a big storyline you get five minutes yeah here's a big storyline you've had three matches leading up to the one here you get six minutes like it just didn't it didn't feel wrestle maniac quality to me it felt like it felt like crown jewel Saudi Arabia quality to me yeah it was it was a show that just was not both nights just it felt weird it really did so let's get into the next match here because I think this will just kind of carry on throughout you had Cody Rhodes defeating Randy or to retain the Undisputed WWE championship doctor trainer both had Randy or in this one it did feel like that the McAfee angle appears to be scrapped they removed him from ringside at the start I felt that was the right move and then you had Randy or hitting the RKO on Pat McAfee when he came out to be the referee where this storyline goes from here will be really intriguing Cody wants again capitalizing on a mistake to win a match that's a weird way for your type top baby face to get a victory like it's a very healish thing to do and he always seems to capitalize on on when the heels like mess up which has been his calling card it appears I don't know if it was the people are saying it was a punch and they're saying that was the punt like Cody Rhodes's eye injury which you saw on Monday's Raw was was after the fact was really gnarly if you haven't seen the video yet Dr. Trey of like him with the eye after the match like it is insane and then

47:27 there's actually a part where like when Randy orn closes that night where he's holding the title up to carry the storyline forward again I guess off camera he's like kneeling down like kind of sell it a little bit but you could see he's talking to Cody Rhodes to see how he's doing. Every hit was just a gnarly gnarly thing this was a great match I enjoyed the match Cody Rhodes a feeling Randy orn to pertain the industry WWE championship and it appears the Pat McAfee angle has completely been scrapped at this point. Yeah and that's well you say that but then we had the jelly roll getting involved earlier so I mean it may not be Pat and Randy I don't know if Pat will ever totally be gone and honestly I don't want Pat McAfee totally gone from WWE because I do enjoy his presence I just don't like where they inserted him in this storyline. If you told me to watch this match not knowing who the good guy was and who the bad guy was I would have loved this match but you're telling me Randy Orons being this maniacal you know psychological killer in Cody's like the white meat baby face champion and Cody controlled the tempo Cody controlled the match Cody was the one going after the injury which is usually what a heel does so the match actually kind of played out in reverse roles in a lot of ways like Randy kind of after that opening sequence Randy kind of felt like the underdog for Moses match and that's typically not what the way you want to put a match together for your heel and baby face on the surface I love the match I didn't like

49:01 how it was structured though so overall I thought it was a really enjoyable match I just didn't like the structure of it I did love the punt at the end what I did like is normally when Randy punt somebody we don't see them for a while and we saw Cody two days later. That's true. So that I'm not really happy with because you're not selling how impactful that puck was because Randy hasn't done that in so long because it ended so many legends careers but Cody can come back in two days and seem somewhat okay other than his eye looking jacked up. Yeah there was a lot of stuff about this injury there that I can see was a concussion protocol there was discussions that he may have to be like relinquish the title he's going to be out for some time if the orbital fracture if there was an orbital fracture so it least seems like he's dodged a bullet but I'm with you usually the punt you sell it for a while and he did not do his meet and greets the next day for WWE world on Sunday and otherwise I didn't see what his eye looked like so I was like oh man they really sell this angle then you saw like after the fact from people at rings I was like holy shit like that's really not only nasty so hopefully Cody's okay I agree they should have kept him off television for a little bit longer even to to plant those seeds with CM Punk on Raw on this past Monday but they got Cody Rhodes defeats Randy or to retain the WWE Undisputed Championship.

50:24 People have a prediction record from WrestleMania Saturday I went 4-3 Doctor Trude went 5 and 2 my event rating I gave it a 3.6 out of 5 and my match of the night was Gunther versus Seth Ron's Doctor Try. You were nice to me I gave it a 3.4 and my match of the night was Gunther and Seth Ron's also. Yeah I think 3.4 is very fair as well I think mine I did a little bit more because I enjoyed Cody and Randy and I really enjoyed Gunther and Seth Ron so there you go WrestleMania 42 Saturday in the books let's jump over to Sunday you at Oba Femme defeating Brock Lesnar to kick off the show we both at Oba Femme in this one very fun entertaining match that delivered hard hitting physical everything that you kind of really hoped for for these two guys and this was less than 5 minutes so if you think we're sounding hypocritical this is what you kind of expect to see from a Brock Lesnar Oba Femme match I did not expect these guys especially on ESPN to be going for 15 minutes long the thing that did shock me was obviously what everybody's talking about Brock Lesnar leaving his gloves and boots in the ring basically shedding the beast character smiling thanking the fans the the humanistic side of Brock Lesnar coming out which I thought was very telling from a character development standpoint obviously a lot of people talking about here as you and I record this such a tray is the beast legitimately done there are folks saying that they expected that he would be done come Summerslam and Minneapolis that would make a ton of sense I felt like he had two matches in him one being the Zobo Femme match the last one being the the

51:57 Gunther match I still feel like the favor that got Paul Heman's gonna oh Gunther will be a match with Brock Lesnar his retirement match in Minneapolis Minnesota at Summerslam I don't think Brock Lesnar is Russell the last match but who knows maybe WWE actually tried covering this up if they're saying that this is someone to the whole Seth Rollins storyline where nobody is really saying anything and I'm glad they're not but really good match fun phenomenal Oba Femme is the next big thing it was a torch passing moment I can't imagine that Oba Femme is not the world giveaway champion might end of this year really enjoy this one not to trade Oba Femme defeating Brock Lesnar. I mean you say that but you and I how many times in the United States Brea why should we the WWE champion and you didn't come to fruition for a very very long time despite the the the wishes of a lot of wrestling fans like no this match is exactly what supposed to be this was your I don't say typical Brock Lesnar match but it was like hey it was we're gonna play the biggest hits we're gonna hit the big high spots and we're gonna hit hard and go home from there I like this match because not just because of the match itself and the in the passing of the torch but also like Brock supposedly from what I'm reading in everything I'm hearing Brock has hand picked Oba and to take over and maybe it may be crazy to say it's it may be because of his love of shot putting because you know Brock's daughter is yeah is a shot putter so he knows what goes into it here's Oba coming up you know from

53:31 from my backyard University of Alabama SEC shot putting champion he knows the physical nature that goes into it he sees how this guy's progressed he's one of the most likable you know well-mannered people in for a young guy in pro wrestling I mean this is kind of the what we heard about Brock coming in from the University of Minnesota so I and if Paul Heyman's telling Brock hey this is the right guy to pass the torch to I don't think that Brock would steer clear of that and then to line up Summerslam being in Minneapolis where the you know right outside where the University of Minnesota is for that to be Brock Swanson if that's the direction they go makes a ton of sense also so like this has set the stage for you know Gunther caching in that favor a few months where he attacks Paul Heyman and Brock has to come make the save for his long time friend and has to come out of semi-retirement to fight this one last fight and then Gunther finally retires him so it makes it's kind of sets the stage for all the things that we're kind of looking forward to yeah I think well plenty of time to really talk about the career of Brock Lesnar soon I'm I'm just not ready to be like yay it's definitely retired because I'm with the doctor I don't think we've seen his last match so Oba Brock ton of fun next match here Penta defeating Dragon League Javon Evans Rusev JD McDonough and Remisterio in a latter match to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship but you and I both had Javon Evans in this one they went with Penta retaining which is something you really see in a latter match nowadays especially one with multi people in it entertaining match that you

55:06 expect from all six men I think Penta is poised for a big 2026 and hopefully he can continue riding this momentum the fans are behind and they really enjoy him and maybe the the Intercontinental Championship is like a really good lane for him right now because I just don't see him on the upper card especially with the likes of Oba family Roman Reigns Gunther LA Knight Seth Rounds Braun Breaker kind of vying that on the raw brand right now fun match Penta retain softer try yeah and and Kermit for wrong you got do we get the old school Ray Mysterio entrance with him actually popping out of the stage if we did yeah yes so who's that jumping out the sky apparently everybody in this match other than Rusev and Rusev took a pretty big fall he did fall from the sky I just don't think he's a jumper but yeah it's kind of I don't want to say passay for you know an intercontinental title latter match but everybody got their big moments in everybody looked like they had a shot and Penta once again like apparently if you're colorful and you have a catchphrase W will push you whether that's Penta Danhausen you know that's why Ray Phoenix is struggling because nobody's clamoring to see Ray Phoenix again on a microphone I in WWE on the main side of it is his promo skills which he is improving at but that's why he goes to triple A he can kind of promo in Spanish and everybody just eats that stuff up so like he's that

56:38 perfect maybe balanced guy to kind of ride that middle ground we're like hey we need a B plus guy to fill in at a at a at a you know middle of the road you know paper you a PLE hey throw Penta in the mix let's see if we can you know jumpstart the Southern California Hispanic culture crowd and like put Penta in a match with Roman Reigns like see how the by-rate handle it he might be one of those guys you kind of do the test runs with like they do with Ray and Eddie years and years ago to kind of see if there is you know an appetite for a Hispanic guy to be on top of the card so he's definitely got a marketable look so I mean I don't see why they couldn't potentially some point move him into that upper card mix but right now he's in the right lane to be in next match year's trick Williams defeating Sammy's aim to win the WWE United States championship I had Sammy Dutt trade trick trick has really come a long way and his end-ring work is catching up to his personality something that I've really talked about since his time on the WWE NXT roster to now you have to give him props I mean his end-ring stuff is catching up this is to me is though the match itself was another it was seven minutes and seven seconds this felt like something I could see on Smackdown actually United States championship matches on Smackdown get longer time I really wanted to see more I truly did and we need to get the like crazy double turn I expected to be fully turned by Friday which I don't want to see Sammy's aim as a heel but I'm still the same guy that doesn't want to see Randall on his heel right now either so anyway it was fine it was fine for

58:12 what it was seven minutes seven seconds trick Williams feet Sammy's aim to win the WWE United States championship I told some of the air night I don't want to see Sammy as a heel I don't really want to get Randy as a heel but if you give me Randy Sammy and Kevin all together I don't care if they're his or baby face I'll eat that up and I think even Sarah now you can hear from the crowd the crowd doesn't want to boo Randy Orton but we just love to see evil Randy Orton I like crazy Sammy I like psych you know Sammy I like I still like conspiracy theory Sammy so if that's a route they go I'm fine with that I do like that you know that was always our knock on trick Williams for years in NXT was like he's got the personality he's got the look his injuries got to catch up it's getting there I'm still not a huge fan of the trick shot as a finisher but it's he's got to they got to learn how to book it in the right way for it to really come off as being effective and for Sammy to go from two years ago I think him and Gunther went almost 30 minutes of WrestleMania and this year he gets seven so there you go that's that kind of shows you the difference between WrestleMania now WrestleMania even just two years ago next match here is the demon Finn Balor defeating down in a Mysterio in a Street Fighter you and I both have the demon win this one the presentation is one of the best and hopefully we get to see more of him looks like Finn Balor's completely gone retro retro even as the way he was performing on on Ron Monday was like old-school Finn Balor out there

59:43 Dom did get more offense and on the demon than I expected but again it wasn't like an insanely crazy match or anything like that this is I don't know just it was fine it was fine for what it was the demon defeats Dom yeah I'm struggling with what the judgment day isn't like I mean it wasn't a squash match and this is one of the things we're like hey if you would give me a three-minute squash match and that could have added a few minutes to Sammy and Trick you know or some other match on the card I've been fine with it I think everybody was kind of expecting a very very quick match it wasn't super quick but like you could have just done the squash and been fine with it just played off as like Dom has no idea how to handle a demon much like Chad Gable had to go learn about luchadors Dom has to go figure out to beat demons you could have done a storyline like that and given you know Trick and Sammy and extra three or four minutes and we would have been a little bit happier but the presentation of the demon and everything goes into that is great I like the way you refer to his Finn Balor going retro like I like that as well I mean because this is a guy who was presented as a former world champion and for the better part of the last six years been mid-car I mean he's had multiple world title shots but they never he never felt like he was a real threat to win and maybe if we go back to that old school Finn Balor we can get him back towards the top of

1:01:13 the car because I think he's still one of the best in-ring performers in the world today and kind of deserves his flowers whenever he can get him I think that's the thing is I just did not have any way that Dom is serious winning this match like the minute they announced the demon would be there it's like okay well Dom's not winning so because almost like a squash match at that point but Dom got a lot got a lot of offense in more than we've probably seen with the demon and sometimes so the demon defeats Dom's Terry on a street fight next match here Rea Ripley defeating Jade Cargill to win the WWE Women's Championship I had Rea Dr. Trae and Jade Cargill I did love the finishing sequence for the reverse of Jade it into Rip Died I thought both women had some pretty good chemistry in the ring and I have a feeling now with Rea officially making the move we were just back down that we get to see more of this on Friday nights which should be really good it was a very enjoyable match I'm interested to hear what Dr. Trae thought about Adam well you haven't seen this yet Adam Weetzman becoming the guest commentator for this match a guy who basically paid to sit ringside next to Wade Barrett and Michael Klaude can't wait to hear those thoughts when you eventually get to see this but Rea Ripley defeating Jade Cargill fun match WWE Women's Champion once again Rea Ripley who is an Adam what or what is an Adam Weetzman so it's um way to you somebody paid on location to sit at the commentary but for the match yeah and his name is Adam random random random person like no no background on this thing at all none at all Adam Adam Weetzman he is um you know he has a

1:02:49 Wikipedia page he does he's an American entrepreneur he's the owner and chief executive officer officer of upstate shredding Weetzman Recycling a scrap metal processing company had headed quarter in Oswigo uh a Wago New York he is also involved in crypto and back in let me see here so he set ringside and he served like a couple months in jail in the early 2000s because why the hell not um yeah I forget the problem in York I mean doesn't everybody you live in Jeff you live out there isn't everybody in New York has been at least a year in federal prison about that yeah we all kind of do our time when you're born you just kind of do it so yeah okay like I'm looking at the news reports on this it's like Central New York's Adam Weetzman makes surprise appearance you're asking me it's a surprise because nobody knows who the f*ck he is there you go that's the surprise I have figured out though that now I can go to Rockets City and be like hey Barry we can just have fans like have a fan give you like 500 bucks that you sit next to me on the commentary table if you want to make some extra money at the shows um I mean that is I'm glad I haven't watched that because I probably would have thrown something at its TV um but for Jade in for for one I'm like I am relying on you for some of the reviews on these matches so for you to say Ria and Jade and Jade didn't look horrible at WrestleMania that's a huge compliment because we've critiqued Jade in

1:04:22 ring ability for a long time and Ria is not the best in ring performer she's good but she's not I mean she's not one of those oh Ria can wrestle a broomstick and make it look good that's not Ria that's Becky that's Bailey that's there's a different level to that so for those two to go out there and have a good enjoyable match and have a sequence towards the finish where Jeff goes that was really good I'm gonna give it to props I do like the fact and we we address this a couple weeks ago that does Ria go to smack down if she wins permanently I do like that they you brought that up they addressed it on Monday night the storyline makes sense I'm also excited because that means Damien and Ria are on the same show and I always like when those two are together for some reason I mean they are like best friends so having those two in the same show you can do stuff with that down the line as well it also kind of takes out the log jam that is Monday night raw because you had so many I mean you look at that roster right now like there's a lot of big name women in this division right now and moving Ria to smack down kind of takes a plug out and kind of lets the talent kind of flow through because we just saw you know Saul Ruka we've seen Roxanne Perez hasn't done anything in like six months there's a lot of talent and moving Ria to smack down where I kind of feel like the talent has been lacking on that side makes a ton of sense so I like the moves here and you've

1:05:53 got me really interested to go back and just watch this match to hear what this person says during the match I don't spoil or he says absolutely nothing and he just sits there so it's it's crazy it was very wild thing which is kind of on par with this is a billionaire yeah yeah you know that he's a billionaire I did I run up a lot on this guy more than I ever thought I would have but about Friday of last week and finally the last match year Roman Reigns defeats CM Punk to win the World of Weight Championship Dutre and I both had CM Punk in this one this match was great heck of a match the finish was really good it kind of leaned into the whole CM Punk as old narrative that I that Roman Reigns was pushing where he was basically exhausted and couldn't keep up anymore the build of this match had its ups and downs I think was mostly good and the match itself was very good it was a really good match it's on par with probably I think it may be the best match of the entire weekend so spoiler the load of my match of the night it does feel like Roman versus Oba is coming at some point there's rumblings at Roman versus Gunther's coming at some point what we learned in this past Monday's edition of Raw is that Roman versus Jacob Fattu is coming as early as early May for backlash in Tampa which is a surprise because Jacob Fattu is performing on Smackdown Punk is heading in direction potentially with Cody Rhodes here pretty soon so yeah I just love this match doctor again

1:07:28 I know you haven't seen yet highly recommended can't for wait for you to check it out but Roman Reigns defeating CM Punk integrate match to win the World of Weight Championship you don't want to think I love about wrestling Jeff is its unpredictability so the two main event matches you and I both got wrong yeah we both got the main event matches wrong Jeff we don't know what the F we're talking about so I was like feet again to watch some of the stuff from Monday night and the promo is leading to us I did not doubt this match would deliver because I mean Punk still even you know in his old age which I take that the grain of salt because he's I think a year younger than me and Romans no spring chicken I mean he's a well seasoned chicken at this point I knew they would deliver because there's a level of pride that goes into being a performer WrestleMania and I knew these two would deliver one hell of a match it is surprising in a sense that we're going the direction of Roman on top given his schedule and availability where Punk seems to be more the workhorse but hey AJ lost Punk loses they can take a little bit of a break a little bit of a refresher because Punk has been grinding really really hard the last six months since he had to ascend to the top of the car because of injuries to Seth and everything else so I totally get it I get why they make them move Roman is box office it isn't where that we live in a world now where it's Roman Cody Rhea and live

1:09:00 sometimes no matter how things how much things change some things remain the same and we always kind of go back to the ones we can always count on that is very very true so pay-per-view prediction records for WrestleMania Sunday I went three and three Dr. Tray went three and three we come out of this both of us 12 and nine here in 2026 you said I was one ahead of you on night one yeah I was one ahead of you prior to that oh so overall yeah I might be playing for Russell Maid we tied I'm like I beat you by one on a Russell Maid no no no overall overall for the year okay 12 and nine no no no four and three on Saturday I went you went five and two I went four and three on Saturday and then both of us going three and three on Sunday um Dr. Tray know you haven't seen Sunday yet so do you want to hold off on your rating and match of the night now I mean like I'm leaning into your reviews here okay I'll go first I I I'm from everything I've read everything I've seen night two I'll give it a four I look from the build up everybody every's tell me if it now if I watch it and it's not a four I will come back and recamp my vote and lower it but I'm going to solid 4.0 for night two and uh pumpkin rains will be my match of the night and if it's not I will recant and change my fix next week so it's funny you said it for you gave it a four I went 4.1 and I gave reins and punk my match of the night as well so there you go full WrestleMania recap interview I think the last thing that will bring up here Dr. Tray and when we touched upon a not too long ago is just really

1:10:32 the vibe of WrestleMania 42 overall did not feel like WrestleMania it felt like another PLE and I hope the WWE out TKO takes a step back heading to WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia where I don't know how many like fans are going to travel over there I mean it may just be filled with a lot of folks that are living in Saudi Arabia which is fine what we saw with Royal Rumble not that great at all um I don't know if we're going to get a normal WrestleMania crowd like we typically see here in the United States um a year from now and I think WWE and TKO need to go and do whatever they can to make sure that WrestleMania 43 delivers I think whatever they've done recently creatively whatever they've done with TKO getting involved uh it needs to stop they need to get back to that was it 2022 to 2025-ish run creatively that they were going on because they just it just feels exhausting it's um it was just a very weird WrestleMania weekend and that's because like 38-39-40 was so good 41 was good not in that same like trilogy that I'll call it now and just 42 overall just was not not up to par with other WrestleMania and that's the biggest thing for me is it just was not up to snubbed for what we typically see from WrestleMania and um I think that's my biggest takeaway Dr. Tray as I really hope WWE and TKO kind of learned from this past weekend are listening to what fans are saying and they get back to making WrestleMania feel like WrestleMania that's

1:12:03 that's to me is like the biggest takeaway overall yeah I think WrestleMania from from everything I've watched and read about it it felt shotgun in a sense it felt the matches felt rushed uh the matches that you should feel like you should get a little more time didn't give as much you made event matches got good time but you know live in Stephanie getting a few minutes I mean AJ and Becky only getting a few minutes I mean he's just some of your top people and you're only giving a small window to showcase her talents I will say the one one solid takeaway of having out of this is you got Oba family getting a huge win over Brock Lesnar you got Trick Williams winning the US title you know Braun Breaker had a big moment Gunther who's established but once again Gunther's beating Seth Rollins you are starting to see some of the younger crop of talent matriculate through the system towards the top of the card we also saw him flex a talent coming in you know Monday night we got Joe Henry making his raw debut next Monday night so some of the younger talent or you know people we've seen in XC are kind of moving up to system which also means that we're gonna see some people getting fired here soon that's just the nature of the beast usually post-Restyl Manu we see some cuts and TKO is a non is a it was a profit based business so I wouldn't doubt that we're gonna see some cuts coming up soon but you know some of the people that we're clamoring for are starting to get a light shined on them I mean we saw Saul Rooka getting a big Saul Rooka you and I

1:13:37 have been talking about for two years on the show she's getting in there with with Liv Morgan Monday night I mean we're seeing that crop of talent starts to rise up through the system and it creates some more you know kind of dream match scenarios down the line I mean we oba Femme and Roman raises here we're talking about Jacob and Roman I mean these are some matches that you and I have been wanting to see for a couple years now and these could actually come to light in the very near future and Roman came out I think after the show on the post show stuff saying that he is going to be around full time for the summer so big things coming so maybe this is just kind of a resonating it's more of a launch point than the kudra of the storylines that we've typically seen and hopefully you can carry over to russimane 43 because it's just you know the vibe just did not feel like russimane like we typically see with that being said let's close up shop on this week's edition of SRTU a show that I will always remember recording just based on what I am and what's going on to get here so we'll get a couple plugs and spots by the way you can download the show at patreon.com/srtupodcast and it's the release show feed on apple spot if I were to download this podcast don't forget to rate review and subscribe you can follow us individually on x for myself at SRTU Jeff and for Dr. Franklin at the doctor tray and of course don't forget the follow show on x at SRTU podcast with that being said what is going on in the wonderful world of Dr. Franklin this week well like Jeff said you can follow me on x at the doctor tray you could find me on instagram and facebook dr. tray franklin when you're on facebook be sure to check out rocketsy and chambishy wrestling like I mentioned earlier we just had our go home show leading into wrestling con nine

1:15:11 coming up May 2nd from the beautiful raka city arena in lovely hazel green alabama the mayor of hazel green makes me say that every single week so that way people aren't scared off by coming to alabama but you can check it out go to raka city or go to youtube.com/raka city chambishy wrestling if you can't be in the arena live you can check out the show there but most importantly Jeff not only god check out your local independent wrestling shows but apparently get into scrap metal and bitcoin and you could end up at restlamania i'm serious not joking at all yes they too maybe doctor and i will be there in a couple of years thank you to all of you for making us part of your week making part of your post-reslamania recap and reviews thank you for supporting the show continued sport is over patreon.com/srtu podcast and until next week when i'm not in hotel room on vacation 4.0 Franklin, I am Jeff Peck.

1:16:05 This has been The Still Relish Show.