Author: Craig Norris

Craig All right, welcome to. Media mothership here on Edge radio. 99.3 FM. Speaker Seth. Craig Seth Rollins, that. The through, you know, I’m just gonna mash up and put wrestling ends in. Marcus I’m OK with that. I mean, Seth Rollins is a good person. Craig To start with, it is unfortunately he’s not in the studio as always, I’m host Craig joined by Co host Taylor. Hey, special guest. So and we’re breaking down Summer Slam 2025 and various major events recently in the. World of WWE as well. Right. We’ll get around to Hulk Hogan, maybe and. The rest will be a surprise as Mark’s mind wanders. Taylor John Cena. Craig Cena. Marcus We can’t see him. Craig Let’s start with overall thoughts of what you thought of summer in 25. What what is it is it? Is it a really key moment in the wrestling calendar? Marcus Summer Slam is considered the second most important. Premium live event of the year by WWE after Wrestle Mania Mania. Some people actually call it hot wrestle Mania because WrestleMania is on during early spring and summer. Slam is on during late summer. Speaker Yes. Marcus Over there. Obviously not over here. It’s called the biggest part of the summer. And when, when my friends and I watched it, we were all rugged. Up in hoodies and puffer. Jackets. It was pretty good. It was the first ever two night summer slam because usually a premium live event only goes for one night, but because the roster the WWE has right now is really stacked. Craig Right, Yep. Marcus And Triple H she does the booking. Doesn’t like doing 5 minute throw away matches. They have to cause most of the matches will go for around at least 10 minutes. The main event of night two this year went for well over 35 minutes so. Craig And is that long? Is that is it was the main event was considered? Kind of like a a great match. 35 minutes. Marcus Ohh, people thought this was great, so the main event of summer Slam 2025 was John Cena versus Cody Rhodes 2. Their first matches at WrestleMania and it wasn’t very good because it’s John Cena’s retirement year and his final year as a wrestler. He turned heel, which means he became a villain at the start of the year because that’s something he hasn’t done in over 20 years. And he wanted to do that before he retired, and it was just a very odd. Ron and had some very mediocre matches. Craig Yes, right, right. Because it’s so as you’re saying, it’s come to an end now, right, that he’ll run. Marcus Yeah. And there was no, there was no great moment where he did a really heroic action. He just came out and smacked down one day, said he didn’t want to be a bad guy anymore. And literally that was it. And yeah, it it’s a really awkward promo because Cody’s in the ring. Craig Really. Speaker That’s the reason. Marcus Who is the the main guy right now? He lost the championship to senior and he got at WrestleMania, got it back at summer. Plan, but seeing it comes out has this long and rambling monologue about how someone pressured me into turning evil because he thought it would be good TV. The rock, the rock, Dwayne Johnson who influenced a lot of the storylines up until sort of March of this year and then just vanished. Without a trace. Craig Is there a reason why he’s vanished? Is there much speculation as to what went down there? Marcus Two things. One is that Dwayne Johnson obviously has a really loaded schedule because not only is he an actor, but he also runs multiple businesses and he runs his own product. Company and as Marco Pierre White once said, you cannot criticise a man for going to work. Taylor But it’s a good quote. It is a good. Marcus Quote but also so the the chief content Officer, Triple H who does the booking of WWE right now. He and the rock and don’t get along. They haven’t gotten along for the 30 years they’ve known each other. They’re not friends. They don’t enjoy working together. And now that Triple H is and the main guy in head of Creative and Dwayne Johnson’s the on the board of directors, they clash. And I think the rock just took his ball and. Craig Went home. Yeah, right. So. So the sense is that part of John Cena’s heel turn heel. Babyface, move. Now is, is that this is an indication that the rocks influences gone gone. Speaker Yeah. Marcus Thank goodness, because it was. Everyone keeps waiting for him to turn up and he there’s no word from him. They haven’t even. Him, but the rematch was really good and it was it. It actually starts out with a really brilliant and subtle bit of storytelling, because the basis of seeing his heel turn was that he was going to ruin wrestling. And so instead of the regular like red, white and blue lights in the caricature of him saluting the comes up on the big screen when he does his entrance for the real run, it was just black text. Craig Right. Marcus Very black screen white text John Cena to indicate he’s not messy. Going around, but when he made his interest summer slam, it starts with the black, the black background, the white text and then boom, the lights come up. It’s red, white and blue. There’s the character of him saluting, and the crowd absolutely exploded. They were so happy to have him as. Craig A good guy again caught everyone. Marcus By surprise, it didn’t catch any everyone by surprise. I think that that decision. Because people were sort of umming and arring after Smackdown going. Is this real or is he actually gonna be a good guy again? But no, no, he’s back as a good guy. And so and the rematch with Cody was excellent. It was a street fight. So notice qualifications, no countouts only win by pinfall or sub. Mission and it went with well over 35 minutes. They actually destroyed part of the ring trying to do damage to each other. There was no blood, which I thought was surprising. They had a really good brawl all throughout the the audience that went through the backstage area. There’s this brilliant part where there’s there’s an elevator that lifts Cody up as part of his entrance. Seeing a pounds on coat, he hoists him over his shoulders for his finishing move. The attitude adjustment and then goes backstage and comes out of the elevator with Cody still over his shoulders and this demonic grin and. Space. There’s just a lot of really good camera movements and just a lot of really good character work as well. The body language of the guys was excellent, seen as body language, as a wrestler is one of his greatest assets because for, for, for years and years and years when he was doing his full time run, the audience would chant at him. You can’t wrestle. You can’t wrestle, but the way that he carries himself in his body language and his facial expressions are really good at communicating character and telling a story. And that was really on display in. Craig The straight fight, it still surprises me. The return to baby face happening so soon, because part of the excitement I guess for John scenes departure was this drama. Attic shift into a bad guy and that this was going to potentially. I mean there were a lot of speculation as how big this could become. You know, could it mean that all the wrestling titles are going to get taken by Cena and he’ll he’ll have to reset them or something? Marcus Or it would have been an interesting story that to follow, he could have unified. Onto the belts, but ultimately, you know, he’s been a heel for five months. There’s been a lot of discourse online about whether or not it’s worked. If anyone’s unfamiliar, wrestling is all. It’s all scripted entertainment that presents itself. Being it it ohh, it’s basically it. It’s acknowledged as but as as as as a work of fiction outside of the outside of the premium live events and the TV shows with the TV shows and the premium live events still aren’t operate under that mask grade, which is called kayfabe. And ultimately people are not buying it out of universe. They’re not buying in and doing, they’re still cheering him. He’s been a hill. He was a hill for five months and he’s only got about 5 months left. Craig Yeah. Before he’s gone forever. So because you had a couple of memes that were getting generated by the Sinner, he’ll turn the little boy. Who was crestfallen but loved being what was the story about the little boy right? He was like one of the events early on with seen as he’ll turn. Marcus He was a kid in Brussels at the very front row, wearing in John Cena T shirt and John Cena hat, and it’s just after the heel turn and seen it calls him out as part of because he comes out and goes. I’ve been in an abusive relationship with all of you. People and he singles the kid out and then they just shot at the kid with his mouth hanging open and just staring like a deer in the headlights. And they actually found the kid in interview afterwards. He was like, look, I’m aware that this is. Craig That’s right. Marcus All scripted. I thought it was really cool that he involved me in the story. Craig And again, yeah, so it was the sense of really generating it. It’s a huge impact. And again if if you’re listening out there, feel free to send us a message on 0488811707. We’re talking with our special guest Marcus about the Summer Slam 2025. We have a message in. On. Steam no one. What is? What is the chat? Marcus Steam steam Chat, my favourite messaging service. Craig What is that an image of I think. Taylor Isn’t that YouTube? Yeah. Craig That’s. OK YouTube. Chat. Are we playing a game by Big Boy Natty? Thanks, Big Boy needy listening in, he says. Good evening, doctor Craig TT. Taylor Yeah, that’s maybe. Craig OK, that’s you and special guest Marcus. Listening was playing cyberpunk. Well, I I think this will help. There’s no wrestling in Cyberpunk 2070. Speaker Wow. Taylor 7 There’s straight fights. Craig In fight. Oh, that’s. Right, yes you can. You can do street fighting. Yeah. So we’re breaking down WrestleMania 2025. Have jumped in, I guess at one of the surprise favourite moment. Elements of night 2, but which is the Cody Rhodes and John Cena? They’re both baby faces now. So what’s the inward explanation of two baby faces fighting each other? Marcus They were fighting over the undisputed belt, which is seen as the most prestigious belt in the company, because Cody is still a full timer and he wants the belt back because he went through so much to get it in universe and out of universe as well and it was orange case if he wanted it back. And there’s a brilliant moment and it it’s made clear throughout the throughout the fight that it’s not. Speaker Used to be. Marcus It’s not personal it they just. It’s just who’s gonna be the real top dog. And there’s a brilliant moment near the end where a big part of Cody’s story in universe is he has to learn to be less soft and less forgiving. And there’s a brilliant bit where he and I’ve never seen this done before. He undoes Part 1 of the one of the ring. I don’t even know. Like, like he full on takes a turn. Buckle off the ring and still attached to the ropes, and he starts bludgeoning. Tina with it, really. And the audience was actually booing him for cause. That’s such a heel tactic, but it was very much a case. So I have to do whatever it takes to win. But there’s a brilliant moment where he hits a bunch of his signature moves on scene and realises that he’s about to pin scene her and put him down for good and. Craig What are the names of the signature moves? Marcus So for Cody, it’s one of them is the Cody Carter where he jumps off, he runs towards and jumps off the second rope. And as he’s as he’s falling, he sort of grabs the other guys head and drops them to the mat. Craig The Cody cutter. Marcus Yeah, which is similar to the diamond cutter, which is DDP’s signature. And the RKO, which is Randy Orton signature. Yeah, he also does the crossroads where he sort of hooks the other guys head underneath his armpit. So they’re bent backwards at the knees and sort of flips around. So they slam the head on the mat. There’s also the flip flop and fly, which is one of his dad’s moves. Craig Flip flop and fly. Marcus Why? It’s basically a bunch of a bunch of close range punches and then starts with him sort of spinning his hands like he’s doing a disco dance from his knees as he bends over to the knees. Does that stands up, adjusts his head and then box them with an elbow? Oh gosh, flip the flip flop and fly. Taylor Flip flop and fly. Yeah, I knew it was slip, slop and slap. Craig Whoops. Slap, slap. See. Marcus Both really good marketing campaigns. Speaker Yeah. Marcus Those are those are the three big ones that you see in every Cody Rhodes. Craig And so you’re describing a scene in the the match with Scener and Rhodes, where he is roads is doing his signature moves. Marcus Yeah. So he the to the, the, the climax of the match. He’s he’s hit them all scene is. Clearly staggered. Craig And I guess the crowds reacting to that as they’re seeing these signature moves, each one of those is kind of narratively placed to to create heat or audience engagement. And so Sinner is. Is kind of receiving these moves, and the audiences, the audience. Marcus Cody is an interesting one because usually because the the the WWE audience is interesting in that the people, usually the they always dislike the current guy. They almost always dislike the current guy ever since. Yeah, ever since John Cena became the guy in the early 2000’s, The people who were going to see him. Craig Everything’s like the belt holder. Marcus Who had the disposable income to pay to go and see senior matches had grown up watching Brett Hart Stone cold and the rock, and they were the three guys. They loved and Sena was not like any of them. And so they would Boo him because they didn’t like the way that he was portrayed as a, as a, as a as a hero. They didn’t like his style, so they would just he’d walk in and they would just absolutely Boo him out of the building. But now, because seeing was always be with kids watching at home. So now the people who are going to the stadiums to see the matches. People who were kids when they watched John Cena 10/15/20 years ago and so now they Boo whoever seen her as fighting cause they he’s their childhood hero. Craig It’s like the attack of the clones movie, you know? Ohh maybe Phantom menace, right? Absolutely horrible movies from ******** Star Wars. And but that was the movie The kids grew up with, and now it’s a cherished part of Star Wars, which gets re released. Marcus Yeah. Speaker Really. Taylor I. Even though I thought everyone hated it matter who they were. Craig Not not young kids. I mean, I think that was aimed at. Marcus 8 year olds I I loved phantom menace when I saw it in this and it. Was a nine year old I. Craig Saw it twice, right, see and and it’s in this nice, warm nostalgic place. Now, if it’s at the movies as a. Marcus Relaunch or I will say I’ve never liked to tackle the clones though. I’ve. Always found that. Boring start now, yeah. Taylor Me too. Craig Come to the converted here. Marcus But something that’s something to note is that is that Cody is the first guy who’s actually like being an organic baby face, who the crowd actually likes because he usually gets the really big cheers like everyone sings, sings his theme song. They get behind everything that he does. They’re always cheering for like. Nuts for him. Because from sort of 2002 to him coming back in 2022. The main guys were people who Vince McMahon, the former owner, would just push. He just didn’t care what the audience thought cause he was a strange and odd dude, and we have something to say about him in a little bit. A strange and odd dude who just hated his audience for some reason I thought they. Craig Were all idiots, but Vince McMahon is the is is the godfather of. Taylor The son of the Godfather. Craig The space, the sound of it, yeah. Marcus Really. No. He McMahon like McMahon. Senior ran a successful run, a successful territory. Craig Because we’re talking here about the managers and bosses, yeah. Marcus Junior. Craig Of wrestling, WWF, WWE. Marcus Yeah. Insane. You run a run a successful territory, Vince Junior. Who was that? That guy ran a successful global takeover. Taylor Fair. Marcus Vincent Vincent. Major is human scum. He’s an atrocious human being, personally. But he did succeed in making the. Craig Bought out. Marcus Ohh yeah. Ohh yeah, the one where he’s like in tears when he’s being asked about what? His what his friendship with. The undertaking. Means he’s. Yeah. Because because, well, because. Because he was horribly abused as a kid. He hates any involuntary bodily function. So he hates crying because he can’t control it. He’s fired people for sneezing in front of him. He hates anything you can’t control. Craig Gosh, seems like an episode of succession or something. Marcus Pretty much is, but there was a really controversial moment from the end of the end of the match, or just after the. Craig Match rather. Yep, this is Day 2, the Cody versus. Seen a match. Marcus Yes. So it ends with Cody gets the pin. After saluting scene. It looks really sad. He salutes him cause like they’re they’re friends in real life. They’re friends in the fictional. Craig Saluting Cena. That’s. Speaker Yeah. Marcus Universe and it’s like he wants his belt back. He doesn’t want his friend, so he pins him. He gets the belt back. There’s tears. They hug scene. It gives him the belt. Seen her motions to Cody for the audience to applaud for him. Cody gets out of the ring and let’s see now have his moment. The audience is chanting. Thank you, Cena. But then. A wrestler who was one of seen his big rivals throughout his career, his music hits and he comes out and it’s Brock Lesnar who? OK. So Vince Junior, who we just talked about who ran WWE for about 4045 years, had to resign because he’s being investigated by the feds for running a sex trafficking. Yes, and Brock Lesnar was 100% complicit in that. And there are text messages confirming this and he he’s mysteriously disappeared after Mania after summer Slam 2023 with we’d never seen him again. And Brock Lesnar comes out and he’s here to have one last match against Cena later in the year, and that has inspired opinions online. Craig Wow. Yeah. I mean, that’s a really. The toxic move to bring. Marcus That’s someone you do not want, especially considering how many women are in the WWE right now like they’re women’s roster is the biggest it’s ever been. You do not want someone who is involved in a human trafficking organisation. It’s difficult to be a wrestling fan at the moment because of stuff like that. Craig So who’s the who’s the target audience for this? I mean, this would have to have gone through some marketing to decide. Alright, well, let’s bring. Back he’s got the right wing neo-Nazi audience. Marcus My my understanding is my understanding is that it was done as a favour to John Cena because Cena Cassina enjoyed working with Brock Lesnar throughout his career and so my understanding is that he’s actually requested that Lesnar come back so he can have. Speaker Really. Marcus One last last match again. Craig Even with the bad PR optics I. Marcus Could be very wrong. I could be very wrong but. That that’s my understanding. Craig No. So these, they’re they’re. Yeah. So there’s there’s juicy behind the scenes. Debates and conspiracy. Taylor And and for people at home who haven’t seen Brock Lesnar, he looks kind of like if he had fantastic fours. The thing as just a human, that’s him. Marcus If you were to cover if you were to cover a tree like an oak tree trunk in shaved ham, that’s Brock Lesnar. Craig Wow. Wow. So yeah, look, I mean, it is. It’s surprising then that that this, this, I mean polarising figure or this. Marcus Seems polarising cause people who grew up watching him are like, yeah, Brock Lesnar’s back. And then people who are aware that he is involved in an ongoing human trafficking. Craig Just like. Marcus It’s like, why would you bring him back? That’s a really bad. That’s bad. Pay off. And they’ve they’ve gotten bad PR as a result. It’s really upsetting. Craig Well this I. Mean. I mean, I mean, there’s there’s been some discussion of the the overlap between the Trump administration and WWE. Maybe this is just part of being on the the bandwagon of trying to dig yourself out of implications with sex. Marcus Trafficking. Well, I mean, Trump is a WWE Hall of Famer, so I mean, obviously the standards are low. Craig By being a Hall of Fame, what does that mean? He’s there’s a photo of him in a museum. The wrestling museum, yeah. Marcus No, he’s well, he’s been stunned by Stone Cold Steve Austin so that he’s technically been he’s been part of wrestling manoeuvres. But yeah, so the Hall of Fame happens every year at WrestleMania. Basically. They induct people, they get updated with speech. There’s a video package celebrating their life and accomplishments. And yeah, Trump’s. A Hall of Famer, he got inducted a few years. Craig Ago and that would be like a university giving an honorary degree to Shane Warne or something, right? Like it’s it’s a it’s a way of. Marcus Absolutely. Craig Of of ensuring political links as well as. You know real. Wrestlers being recognised, but it also has a heavy political. Space. It’s wrestling, right wing, conservative. Marcus It would be it’s that’s a that’s a. That’s a question there have been periods where it’s been extremely conservative. So during the war. Craig Or. Marcus Terror. They had a character played by an Italian American called Mohammed Hassan. One who wears extremely stereotypical Middle Eastern clothing and his he was he. He was a bad guy. No, not not the Sheikh, it’s he’s the farmer from the Sheikh. He was playing a character who was he was a villain cause he was upset at how much anti Islamic sentiment there was following the War on Terror. And that’s why he was a bad guy. And so a lot of people these days pretend that that never happened. There have been a lot of really questionable depictions of LGBTQIA plus people. The character gold dust was basically created to tap into gay panic in the mid to late 1990. Craig Wow. So at the height of the AIDS crisis, height, but certainly within that. Marcus Yeah, well. They have this very androgynous character in a body suit who licks his lips and lusts openly, lusts after the other men on the roster, and it’s just. Craig Well, your decade was. Marcus That nine this was like 969798, it’s. Craig Right, right, right. Taylor Has Joe Biden in the Hall of Fame? Has he ever had an attitude adjustment? Craig Are there any? Yeah, left wing progressive. Marcus Ohh look though, I mean Mohammed Mohammed Ali is in the the Hall of Fame. Craig The wrestling. Yeah, right. Marcus Because he’s he was the I think he was a guest enforcer, the guest ring announcer? No, the I think it was a referee for the for main event. Marissa Mania 1. He was involved in that. Speaker See. Taylor Yeah, it’s good referee. Yeah. Craig Because Hulk Hogan. Of course, notoriously at the end of his life, promoted and campaigned for Trump. Yep, and a lot of that came up in his obituaries as a some people head scratching kind of identity shift. So within these, did you? Marcus Just just on the note of that, after Hulk Hogan passed away, the Wrestling Observer newsletter, which is seen as being sort of the foremost weekly publication wrestling in the world, the the the week he passed away, they did a Life and Times issue and the following week they actually reported on some of the responses his death had gotten online. Because Hulk Hogan was, he was recorded saying some extremely racist things that got leaked, and he’s also, you know, a Trump supporter, A notorious backstage politicker. Obviously, he helped make wrestling really big in the 80s, but also. Speaker So. Marcus Generally speaking, bit of a sketchy guy, scrappy, strange, strange history with his family and basically anyone who said any public figure who said anything about Hulk Hogan would get criticised by someone in the weeks after he passed away. If you were progressive and you said that he had a complicated legacy because of his racism and the way he treated his family, you’d get flamed by his fans saying you don’t know your wrestling history, there wouldn’t be a WrestleMania. Taylor Yeah, here’s a moustache. Marcus If it wasn’t for him, whereas if he was lauded by people who are mega fans and appreciated things that he done done for the the the industry, then you’d have progressives saying he was a racist. Then he was a political and he was terrible to his family. You you. You shouldn’t be celebrating his accomplishments. And I’m. I’m not saying that either of those are correct or incorrect statements, but he just the amount of vitriol that was directed towards anyone who said anything about him in the weeks following his death was astounding. Speaker Hmm. Taylor That he’s just Twitter as well. Marcus Twitter. Some some people actually got some people got bullied off social media like Joey Swoll, who’s thing is he’s on Instagram and he basically tries to have really positive messages to people and tried to dispel, like any toxic beliefs said that he was a huge fan of Hulk Hogan and people flamed him with within an inch of his life. And he actually quit Instagram for a few days. Taylor Yeah. Speaker Next. Marcus Like I can’t take it. Gun. Craig Because he said he was a. Marcus Fan because he said he was a fan of Hulk Hogan growing up. Craig And the backlash to that? Marcus Was from, from, from, from progressives who were like he was a racist. He was a terrible human. You can’t say stuff like this. Craig Because I guess one of the other aspects of Hulk Hogan’s past I’d forgotten about was his involvement in the Gorka. The scandal with the sex tape and how that complete I’ve forgotten about the media systems that basically dismantled the payout was huge. Yeah, I forget how. Marcus Ohh yeah. Many it was 115,000,000 that the courts ordered to him. He I think he I believe he settled for 32,000,000. Craig Millions, but. And I’m 15 really well. Because it was a defamation case, I imagine, and it was because they’d. Speaker Yeah. Craig Used the sex footage that had leaked, OK. Marcus I believe it was the footage of him saying how much he hates African Americans that. Craig Got leaked? Ohh right it was. That. And anyway, that that that resulted in the collapse of that media platform and that rippled throughout a lot of other platforms. Even Kotaku, you know that there was not a, Kotaku told the journalist, was just saying, you know. He was there, involved not in Gawker but adjacent media publishing company, and was shocked at the ripples that created. So OK. That’s Hulk Hogan, so storyline. So we’ve we’ve gone through a little bit of the storylines in terms of. Sena. What are some of the ongoing storylines which are are kind of becoming compelling at the moment or which we’re seeing emerge now or or getting wrapped? Marcus Up one story that’s had a a a curveball that was really well done is so the whole. The the Seth Rollins CM Punk feud, which has been going off and on since CM Punk came back in late 2023. For reference, CM Punk is someone who was he? He left WWE in 2014 under a cloud of controversy, spent the next nine years saying very negative things about them and then was welcomed back with open arms. Seth Rollins, basically. That the ball from him is being one of the top guys and has never had a nice thing to say about punk in real life or in kayfabe. And essentially, there’s a story been going on between them for a while now. They had they had a triple threat match at WrestleMania, which ended with Seth Rollins turning heel. Even the audience loves him, became a bad guy, and he started his own faction called The Vision. And this is brilliant. So they so LA night, who was another guy who people. Really like him. And it’s really it’s basically do or die time either because he’s 42, he’s not getting any younger either they. No, he’s 40. Sorry. Either they strap the rocket to him and make him one of the top guys or he’s gonna flounder in the mid kite for forever cause even though. Speaker Right. Marcus Wrestling is premeditated. People only have so much time that they can be in the main event, and it’s got you’ve gotta capitalise because it’s it’s week to week. There is no offseason for wrestling and he’s he challenged Seth Rollins to a match at Saturday night’s main event and during the match Seth has a history of knee injuries. He did WrestleMania last year on a torn meniscus. He was working on one leg and he had two matches across the weekend, plus a run in and then he had several months off for surgery during the match at Saturday night’s main event. Craig Ouch. Marcus Broadcast live on NBC because normally wrestling’s done either on a streaming service or cable, he does his knee and he very and this is brilliant. He he he injured his knee. He looks terrified and he very clearly motions over to the referee and you can clearly see him telling her go and tell Ellie night to pin me. Done my knee. I can’t keep doing the match. So he’s called. He’s called an audible. That’s what that’s called. Because if you can’t continue with the match, you’ve got to communicate to the other person and say, here’s what we have to do. And so Seth Rollins is then on crutches. There’s word he’s gonna be out for six or seven months. And here’s the thing. Seth Rollins won money in the bank, which basically means that if you have the money, the bank briefcase whenever you want, you can open it and you can, if you pin the tile, you can. You can get an immediate title match no matter where you are or where you are. And it’s always done on TV, even though there’s so many other hours in the week because it’s WWE and. Their their universe is interesting, but essentially so. There was talk about how how they’re going to do this when he’s going to be out until next year. Yeah. And then there’s much the night 1 main event is CM Punk, his rival versus Gunther dead in general, whose thing is that? He’s Hitler. And he Gunther has the World Heavyweight Championship, which is the main belt on Roy. It’s the secondary world title of the promotion. And it’s it’s an exhausting. Speaker MHM. Marcus Match Punk is on his knees, gassed for most of it, and it’s clearly done in storyline that he’s really exhausted fighting Gunther and he basically, Gunther’s only been pinned 3 times in the since he’s gone to W. Anyway, and he punk basically makes him bleed for the first time he sends him over the announcers desk. Good. That comes back with his face covered in blood, cause he’s done a. Really impressive blade. Job play Joe Punk gets him back in the ring, pins him clean as a whistle. He’s got the World Heavyweight championship. It’s his moment and then Seth theme music hits Seth. Craig ‘S right. Marcus Comes out on crutches, throws the crutches away, undoes his leg brace, prances around, pulls out his briefcase, sprints to the ring, pins punk for the 123 and now says the. Heavyweight champion. And the following Rd. The first person to come out and start mouthing off during during a word battle and challenge for a title fight is Ella. Knight. That guy who he injured his knee again to quote unquote. And they have a match later that night that ends in his qualification cause CM Punk gets involved. So this whole punk and LA night are both going after Seth and they are going to feud with each other at. Some point soon. Craig Right. Wow. Marcus And this storyline is juicy. This has been probably the second best storyline of the year in my estimate, because it’s been going for so long through so many permutations. There are so many people involved. The faction that that’s built is brilliant the other. Speaker Yeah, yeah, yeah. Marcus Man, sorry. So that’s that. And that’s really cool. This other thing, which is really funny, is that one of the other top guys, Roman Reigns, he he’s he’s often out for months at a time. 1 of Seth henchman. Bronson Reed hits this, he he he speared Roman Reigns so hard in an episode of RAW that Roman Reigns his. Shoes came off. Craig That means I think. You’ve. Marcus Died. And then what he does is Bronson Reed, who’s a villain. Roman Reigns is a good guy. Bronson Reed steals these really nice Air Jordans, ties the laces together, and he starts wearing them around his neck. And because Roman Reigns, he’s Samoan. He was. His role was the try, his his character with the tribal chief who’s got this really nice red shell necklace called the ULA Fala. And so now Bronson Reed with these stolen shoes wears them around his neck, and they’re the Shula Fala and the audience chants at him and everything. And it’s brilliant. Craig Crazy. Marcus And so just just the fact that a pair of air. Ordnance has become this massive symbol of disrespect is. Craig Brilliant. And that would be a real. Surprise movement shoes flying off. Speaker Yes. Craig And then the wrestler being able to improvise a total amount of that. Marcus I don’t know if it was improvised or not because people, but I mean people have been actually knocked out of their shoes before, so it wouldn’t surprise me, but they had A tag match. Bronson Reed, sorry. Bronson Reed and Roman Reigns had a match against each other with other people involved at at summer slam. It was also really good. Lot of comedy in that match. There’s a lot of really good comedy in WWE. Craig Right. Marcus Right now, but the yeah, the the punk night, Rollins conflicts coming out of me is one of the best ones. That that was a really enjoyable moment, and especially because they had played this fake injury, cause they’re usually very clear. They’re usually very clear about what is fake and what is real. It’s. Craig Yeah, right. Someone was playing as. Marcus Just. Real they were playing it as real because people have been injured and they’ve had to just stop batches this year and some, like there’s one where I think it’s Zoe Stark comes off a rope. The person she’s called out to has noticed and she lands, finding her knees pointing a different angle. Uh. That was against. Craig Again and again the the wrestler would get the referee to help communicate. Marcus Yes, thankfully that was a triple threat match. So she left the other two kept on brawling and then and that was that was Kyrie saying who was involved in that. And then a couple weeks later, Kyrie saying having a match against Liv Morgan does a perfectly safe headlock. Take down and live. Morgan dislocates her shoulder. And so poor old Kyrie saying has now injured two people in the space of a fortnight and she. So they’re both out of the rest of the year. So and because Seth’s knee problems, his real life knee problems are so well documented that everyone thought it was real, I thought it was real. I got sucker. We got worked, brother. And so the fact that they were able to, he actually talked about in interviews about how he had to, because he was obviously he was fine at home. He’s got a four year old daughter and he said to his daughter, we have to pretend that daddy’s got a Boo Boo on his knee. Every I gotta make believe people need to believe this. So of course she immediately went to play school and told her teacher. About it. Craig And my dad said we have to make out. My dad’s going to. What did you mean by you got worked? Is that a wrestling parlance for effectively being? Marcus As in. In, in wrestling work is, it’s part of the script. Shoot is. It’s real, right? Craig So by saying you’re worked it was. A scripted moment. Marcus And we believed it. Craig That it it played as real and it was designed to play as real effectively, but it was actually setting up key fabe, yes. Lane story building. Because yes, that that would be fantastic. I’m on the other storylines. How’s the Australian talent? Marcus Ohh Ria bloody Ripley. Craig Because she was on night 1. Speaker Some. Marcus She was she opened night two night and and ah, because you know that triple threat match from the side of night 2 of WrestleMania earlier in the year. Yes. Similar thing where. She had an absolute bond burner at evolution, which was the second all women’s premium life. And against the then world champion EO Sky that ends in Naomi, who had money, the bank major villain comes out, cashes in, gets CEO’s title because they’re doing this whole bit about how Rio Ripley’s Rio Ripley has never beaten Neo Sky, and she still hasn’t. Craig Right. Sky right. That’s the Japanese wrestler. Marcus Yes, considered one of the great and. Man ohh sorry I have to have a little rant here. I understand that the the last 40 minutes has not been nothing but me ranting, but Triple H is really bad at booking champions to defend their titles. So there was a brilliant story just before Mania where here sky Beats Rear Ripley for the belt on raw. Very rare to see. A well titled Change Hands on an episode of TV. Usually it’s a premium live. Based on in Kayfabe, a match that Ria suggested, she then defends it the following week and then she successfully everyone thought because there was a triple threat. Osmania with RIA and iOS Sky and another wrestler, Bianca Bel Air, everyone thought EO Sky was going to lose it cause she was the 3rd wheel on the feud. Everyone was disrespecting her. She pulls out this incredible win five Star match from the Wrestling Observer newsletter. Brilliant. Feel good. Brilliant. Feel good moment. She then does not defend the belt once. Craig Well, it’s like. Marcus Between late April and when she loses it in mid July. Craig Really so just wasted storyline. Marcus Completely all there are so many women on that roster who she could have had really good title defences against, even if it’s only on TV and not on Premier Live event, but they just didn’t do it. She had non title matches, she was in tag team matches but they just didn’t. Craig I know you’ve mentioned in the past that you know Vince McMahon never knew what to do with someone who didn’t speak English effectively as a wrestler. Is that partially to do with it still, sadly. Marcus Yeah. Or I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t say so. Because she’s had incredible. She’s had she, her previous world title run, which was a last year. It went for the best part of eight months. That was actually really good. And she had a number of feuds, feuds rather, and another of the new, one of the there are a couple of talent at the moment who aren’t native English speakers, but one of the biggest wrestlers right now, Stephanie Vaquer. She was on NXT, which is the developmental brand, she’s Chilean. She doesn’t speak much English, but she had a really good run. Speaker Hmm. Marcus On as champion, actually a double champion, she had the world title and the North American title, so that’s it’s definitely. Craig Because it is. Changed. Yeah, it is exciting with the kind of lucha Libre style from Mexico and then the Japanese wrestling style. So, so definitely giving those global wrestling identities. Coverage in WWE can’t help but benefit it, but yeah, it is. Unfortunate that. So anyway, in summer slam there was the match with rear and ear. And was that a good match was. Marcus That good? Yes, it was. Rear versus euro versus Naomi, who’s sort of the main villain of the women’s division at the moment. It was a good triple threat match. Naomi retained because she has a match against Stephanie. Speaker It was. Marcus Occur at the care at Clash in Paris later. This month and. If Stephanie occurs A babyface, people really like her. If you were to have her go against Rhea Ripley, people would start to Boo her, so she has to go against a mega heel so that people still like her. It’s an interesting I actually got to thinking though, because they’re gonna have crown jewel, one of the major premium live events in Australia this year. And so I. Craig Really, it’s coming to Australia, it’s. Wrestling. Marcus Yeah, it’s normally in Saudi Arabia, but it’s gonna be in. WA this year. Craig Wow, what’s stray? Taylor Is there? There was already one in WA at some point. Marcus Wasn’t there? That was elimination chamber last year. Craig Wow, OK, so this is happening in Australia. What’s the hype for it? Are you excited? Are. Taylor Chamber, yeah. Craig You got your tickets, are you? Marcus Tickets are like 5000 bucks. Man, I’m. Taylor Yeah. Craig Not going and it’s just five audience for this. Speaker Easy. Craig It’s not the legal or it’s the rich local. Marcus Wrestling at the moment is it’s in its third major boom period. Third major global boom period after the after the rock and wrestling era in the 80s and the Attitude era in the late late 90s, early 2000s. And there are a lot of people who were huge fans in Australia and there would be a market to fill up a a 100,000 person stadium there, not before they did it for. Nation chamber because it’s what, 22? Craig Million people, certainly a market, but it’s. Marcus Expensive. Ohh, it’s. And that’s the reason why they one of the reasons why they post that every every single show they do is they’re most profitable ever because they just Jack up the prices to diculous levels. They are so expensive it’s $500 to sit in the gods. I’m not sitting at the back of the stadium for 500 bucks. Craig Why is it so? Really. Yeah. Managed meeting. Marcus And travelling to Westminster, no. No, no, no. Wow. Taylor But they but they had the really big stars coming to Australia as well for that one, it wasn’t just. Like randoms or like the lowest ones, it was the highest ones as well. That’s why the price. Marcus Is so big. Yeah. And scene is gonna be at the WA one as. Well. Taylor Yeah. Marcus He’s gonna be at crown. Craig Right, I said. Marcus Jewel. OK. Craig Sorry guys, it’s going to be huge events. It’s going to be enormous, but it’s unlikely to be something that apart from if you enter a competition. You’ll be able to. Marcus Get into it all depends about how and how much you’re doing, I suppose. Yeah. I mean, I. Craig Space. Marcus I could afford it though. I just. Craig Is this? I mean is it gonna have a stream flavour to it? Are we gonna have? Rio Ripley appearing and recruiting for we’re gonna have a little legal talent. Marcus Well, she was the main event at the last one that they had cause normally at the elimination chamber, because that’s a six person match. Normally the men’s elimination chamber would be the main event, the one that goes on last. But no, when when it was in WA last it was her defending her title and she was she went on last so I reckon she’ll get the title. Speaker Yeah. Marcus Back at. At Crown Jewel in WA, because if she gets the title back in her home country, the pop is going to be enormous, people are going to go wild. Craig She’s 8. Well, well, the Australian tourism body be kind of jumping on this and attempting to promote crocodiles or something. Or like like. Taylor So do you mean like bluey and hammer? Craig Bar. Yeah. And someone in a bluey costume. I wonder what those soft power optics will be. Taylor This is going to be some sort of. Craig For and like you know you got Formula One, you got various global sporting events that come to Australia. Australia works hard to secure and then sometimes states compete with each other to get those rights like Formula One was in Adelaide. And then no one wanted. Taylor If we had a stadium, they could do. It here. That’s what I’m. Craig Thinking should we speak? Marcus Ma’am. Craig Local PM about that stadium and wrestling. Marcus I gotta say it’s sad that Jake the snake Roberts is with AW because, like, think of all the all the Australian snakes you could handle if. Speaker Oh. Marcus He was your WA. Craig OK. So the other thing when I was doing homework for the episode was I came across some discussion of some of the things that didn’t go according to plan at at the show. Oh no. I know there was some disappointment. That the what is it? The cable ties didn’t work on one of the. Marcus Events. Yeah, there was a sequence in the Lyra of Alqueria versus Becky Lynch match, where Lynch pulls out a toolbox because it’s notice qualification pulls out zip. Ties cable ties Larry Valkyries hands together. They’re obviously very loosely tied, but you know it’s you. Understand what I’ve done it. And there’s a bit where her hands just come out of the cable ties and she just freaks out and puts them back in. Speaker Hmm. Craig And what would you I mean? To keep the K. 5 Going you want to try to do it off camera? Yeah. But she was on. Marcus Camera, right. She’s Laura. Valkyria is quite is. She’s it. It’s it’s only her first year on the main roster, so she’s not used to. Craig Right. Marcus Revising was what she should have done. She should have just gotten out of them and, you know, called Becky over and they could redo the sport or something along those lines. But basically. Taylor Yeah. Craig She didn’t wanna not follow the script. Yeah. And is that also the kind of anxiety in the fandom around that do is that kind of like, wow, you know, this is the problem with with wrestling. Now it’s all on script or something. Is there a debate? Around what that reflects. Marcus Absolutely. That’s 100% a complaint that a lot of modern, a lot of older fans have that have with that in the modern era. Craig 30 years ago this, or 40 years ago, this would be. Speaker Yeah. Marcus It used to be you’d write out a couple of like major story beats and then you’d just improvise everything in the ring. One of the really famous examples of that happening is Summer Slam 1992, the Intercontinental Championship between Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith, his brother in law, Davey Boy Smith had just come off all week long crack binge and he was on a massive crack cocaine downer and he pulls Bret Hart over in front of 92,000. People and he goes. Brett, I’m fooked. I can’t remember the March and Brett Hart goes. Don’t worry about it. DV. I’ll carry you. Just follow my lead. Hey. And so Brett Hart literally. Has to. There are so many that match is like at like a 9 1/2 out of 10 near perfect match considered the greatest Summer Slam match of all time. But there are so many rest holds because Brett Hart has to keep reminding Davey Boy Smith what he has to do next. And then Davey Boy wins at the end so hard. Craig Right. Marcus Carried that man and. Craig Yeah. Yeah. So any other surprise moments or things in the summer slam? Marcus There was 1 moment. So there’s a wrestler carrying cross and his wife Scarlett Bordeaux. Both of them have been on the roster for a while. They haven’t really had too many matches recently cause Carrie’s basically The thing is, he’s the corrupter. Right. His thing is he shows up and he’s he’ll try to corrupt a baby face and he will have his hair done in their hairstyle. That’s his thing. And it’s been knowledge all year that his contract is coming to an end and he’s good mates with a lot of people on the roster. And so they tried to give him a really big push and give him some major matches on PL E and the fans have responded to this quite nicely and they were actually throughout the his math throughout other matches changing we want. Cross we want cross and in the post show. True, Triple H said. Did you hear those saying we want Brock? We want Brock and carrying cross and skull board. Those contracts expired earlier this week and they’re not being rehired. They’re now in the alumni section on the website. And so Triple H is actually no last week rather so trips is trying to basically convert the narrative of the audience calling out for carrying. Just to get rehired and say, oh, it’s about Brock Lesnar. And so that was. Craig Not quite. All right, hold on the stream. ‘S going weird. Taylor It is I’m. I’m just trying to. I’m just trying to figure out if it’s behind or. Anything that’s cool. Speaker What? Marcus Ohh I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you a surprise that I had the Becky versus Valkyria match that we talked about just before the the intercontinent the the, the women’s intercontinental about where the you know the the the zip tie is not working. Yes, I thought because that was their third match and I thought for certain that Laura Valkyrie was going to win that cause she was the hero with the feud. Ohh. Green screen. Craig I’ll put my laptop camera. Marcus As I thought the entire few because she was the inaugural champion, they they had a. Match. She beats Becky. They have a rematch. Becky beats hers. So this is the third match after a triple threat match at evolution, which had Bailey in it as well. Who’s the 3rd member of this story? Essentially. And I thought for certain liars gotta win. Baby face comes out on top now because she’s very new. But he’s been around for a very long time. Surely she’ll come out on top. She’ll be a made woman. And then Becky Lynch won IW. What that I did not expect. So we have we have our we have our bad guy wins ending and Becky is going to continue to terrorise the rest of the women’s division. I thought I did not. Craig Expect that at all. So in terms of what’s happening next in WB, what’s the next big thing that we should start getting ready for? Marcus Clash in Paris, 31st of August. Craig Oh, that’s in. Marcus Paris, yes. Which is really the 1st of September for us. So the confirmed matches thus far are John Cena versus Logan Paul. Craig Really, Logan? Paul. Logan. Paul. Taylor Wow, nice. Craig I mean, he’s he’s he’s fit, right. He’s not there as a joke. Taylor He said, yeah, he’s he’s pretty good at it. Marcus The man is a. The man is a superb performer. He’s. Great athlete. Craig Yeah. And he is, of course, going to play a hero or he is a hero. He’s the bad guy. Marcus He doesn’t. Yeah. Yeah, he doesn’t play a heel. He is heel. Taylor Yeah. Marcus So they they’ve thrown it. Craig Well, that’s a big that’s. You know, reflects on how Big Luke and Paul is. I guess that he’s given this match against Cena in his last year. Speaker OK. Marcus Yeah, it’s like and it’s because one of the criticisms about criticisms about seeing his retirement tour is that he’s mostly fighting guys he fought 1015 years ago. Yeah. So the it’s he’s only had a couple of matches against the new talent and this is the most new talent he’s had a match against because generally speaking, it’s an unwritten rule for wrestlers that you lose your last match. Craig Really. Marcus Against younger talent to make them look. Craig Good. Who do you think that’s gonna get set up? Marcus For this year, I could not tell you. All I know is that scene as last match is gonna be in Boston. It’s gonna be a Saturday night main event, so it will be broadcast on NBC and YouTube. And I think if he loses in Boston, then there’s. Going to be a riot. Craig Alright. Right. So they might have to not go to convention. Marcus Yeah, because there are. There are very few times where a wrestler will win their their final match. I mean there was the match that stone cold had against Kevin Owens a couple of years ago. It was Stone Cold’s first match in 19 years and he won because it was in Texas. And if he had lost, there would have been a riot and. Someone would try to kill Kevin Owens. Sting won his retirement match, but that was mostly because he’d spent 35 years getting messed around by terrible creative. Goldberg lost his retirement match in Atlanta to Gunther earlier in the year, and then it was a terrific match. Then he went online and criticised it because NBC cut off his retirement speech. Like, bro, it’s on YouTube. Just go to the WWE channel. Just be grateful you gotta retire the match. Be grateful you gotta retire the match, unlike. Bret Hart, whose career you ended when you nearly kicked his head. Craig Right. It’s. Marcus But sorry, straying from the point of the matches that are going to be there, that’s going to be fatal four way for the World Heavyweight Championship, which is gonna, which is the main belt on raw, it’s going to be between Seth Rollins, he’s got the belt, CM Punk, LA Night and. Craig This is the big one. You’re just setting. Up the storyline. Marcus And also Jay USO, who had the belt earlier in the year and everyone loves him because of his theme song and they’re setting up Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre. Drew McIntyre is one of the best performers they have is he is a monster heel in the ring. He basically he’s a Scottish warlord, essentially. Taylor True. Marcus And he he’s he’s built like a brick house. He’s got the evil beard, the menacing eyebrows. He just looks like a bad guy. But he’s also, like, extremely funny. So he’ll just like. Speaker But. It’s true. Taylor Well, it’s this. Craig Costume at the moment is it is it? Kind of mediaeval Scottish cute. Marcus Probably. Basically looks like the bad boy love interest in a mediaeval isekai young adult. Novel, yes, true. Taylor Sorry. Marcus Yeah. And he’s just hilarious because he’ll be the savage in the ring, and then he’ll just say ridiculous things. In his problem is there’s there’s, there’s the moment where senior and Cody bury the hatchet and make friends on smack down. He just comes out and goes. No, you hang up. No, you hang up and it’s just. Come on, man. He just he’s just got got a very dry wit. And also 70. Stephanie Baker versus Naomi for the women’s world. Championship, which is the Royal Women’s Belt. So those are the three four matches that we’ve got so far. Yeah. Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre isn’t confirmed, but it’s probable. Craig Right. And that’s in Paris in Paris? Patty. Right. So again, it would be fun to are there any Paris performers at the moment? Marcus Any French performers? Speaker Yeah. Craig I’m imagining someone in a mine costume dresses, right? Taylor Yeah. Marcus Look, most of the performers are. There are a few Irish performers, a few Aussies, a lot of Japanese and South American performers. But I don’t think there are any from France at the moment. They have been in the past, but not right. Now. Craig Alright. Our final thoughts on wrapping up how summer slam and upcoming matches are going to evolve. Taylor In 40 seconds or less. Craig 20 seconds or less so. Marcus I enjoyed summer slam, but there even better pay per views. It wasn’t as good as evolution which. Was. Craig Incredible. All right, we have a message for you that you can answer. Taylor Yeah, yeah, it just is really off topic. But can I put can you put me as a reference on their resume? That’s what they’re asking. And sure they can be put as a reference. Speaker Yeah. Craig Fantastic, helping helping the world out here on media. Taylor I’ll do that. Craig I’ve been your host, Craig, joined by co-host Taylor. Taylor Yep, there’s 5 seconds. Come on, man.