Bonus Episode: WrestleMania 41 (Night 2) – Cena Steals Vegas

WrestleMania Night 2 brought the chaos, and Grapple City Rewind is here for all of it. Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink break down the big surprises, sloppy spots, and historic heel turns — including John Cena’s 17th World Title win and the unexpected crowd support for him. We talk Bianca Belair vs Io Sky vs Rhea Ripley stealing the show, Drew McIntyre putting Damian Priest through a table, and Joe Hendry making the most of his squash against Randy Orton. Plus: Logan Paul wins clean, Becky Lynch returns (again), and Braun Breaker’s lifts.

From commentary fatigue to Cena’s press scrum poker face — it’s all here in this bonus GCR ep. Slam that play button.

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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.

Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.

Transcript

00:00.22
Bradley Palermo
Hello and welcome to Grapple City Rewind bonus edition for WrestleMania Night 2 April 20th at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

00:12.37
Bradley Palermo
I'm Bradley Palermo here as always with Aaron the Finking Man. Fink and Aaron, what do you think about WrestleMania Night 2?

00:23.71
Bradley Palermo
We should start with like

00:24.76
Aaron
What?

00:25.52
Bradley Palermo
No, no. Actually, let's let's let's start with the grade. Give me the grade, because yesterday was a B+. plus

00:32.25
Aaron
ah and A minus, I think.

00:35.00
Bradley Palermo
You liked it better than yesterday.

00:36.60
Aaron
I think I did.

00:38.29
Bradley Palermo
Damn.

00:38.42
Aaron
I think I

00:39.01
Bradley Palermo
This will be an interesting episode.

00:40.64
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:51.05
Bradley Palermo
Cool.

00:51.89
Aaron
Why? What's your Mm-hmm.

00:53.89
Bradley Palermo
if If yesterday was a B+, plus which I don't disagree with, I would say probably I'd go more like average on unlike a C on this one. there was it's The first match was really good. I feel like even the drama that was good in some of the other matches and the results sometimes that were fun, necessarily like i didn't I wasn't like in it, like in the ring. like But I could be fatigued. I've been watching wrestling a lot, and...

01:21.10
Bradley Palermo
You know, I was like, God, I was so tired of just hearing pat McAfee and Wade Barrett. Like, these guys are just not good on commentary to me, to my ears.

01:32.65
Bradley Palermo
And I think, like, after hours of it, I'm just like, tonight, I was just kind of like, fuck.

01:33.12
Aaron
Well,

01:38.09
Bradley Palermo
Like, yesterday was so good, and you guys are not holding up, you know, like... And I'm tired of these voices in my head. They talk to me. My name is Brad. They talk to me.

01:51.10
Aaron
i I don't mind Wade, and I generally don't mind Pat either, but I think... Pat was just, he's working all week, so busy.

02:01.82
Aaron
you know He's probably just a little worn out. you know I think if you watch him on a weekly basis on Raw, he has some fun moments.

02:04.49
Bradley Palermo
i

02:10.51
Aaron
and and i don't think, you know, it's not it's certainly not the type of commentary like the things that we normally watch for this podcast, that's for sure.

02:18.45
Bradley Palermo
I honestly like that way better. But I think Pat, I don't know what he's talking about. I mean, I'm from the Midwest and stuff too, but I feel like he's kind of just, and I'm marbly mouthed too, but my ears don't he really understand what he's saying.

02:32.42
Bradley Palermo
and And Wade is, he's fine. I mean, he has some funny quips, you know, but Pat never makes me laugh. He's just kind of like, just kind of like, you know, really?

02:41.07
Aaron
Oh, he makes me laugh.

02:43.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

02:43.67
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, I enjoy him. I enjoy him.

02:45.49
Bradley Palermo
but Cole can stay.

02:45.74
Aaron
But, oh yeah, yeah.

02:46.31
Bradley Palermo
I think we can both agree on that. Cole's, Cole's legit, you know, so he hangs me in there, but, let's get into the matches on this little bonuses.

02:56.05
Bradley Palermo
Should we have here? EO sky versus Rhea Ripley versus Bianca Belair to me was the match of the night. WWE confirmed in all their after show stuff that they believed it was the match of the night.

03:04.80
Aaron
Yeah.

03:10.28
Aaron
Yeah, it was.

03:11.12
Aaron
Mm hmm.

03:11.71
Bradley Palermo
These are three of the best stars in WWE. I don't give a shit what your gender is. Like Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, incredible. Eoskye too, it's a different style, which is why I kind of didn't like, I wasn't super excited about the fact that it was a three-way, but like,

03:30.76
Bradley Palermo
The result was what we wanted, Io to retain and for Rhea and Bianca to escalate their fuse so later on we can get this incredible match that we know is going to happen and just make give it a little more fire, right?

03:46.24
Bradley Palermo
so So I'm down.

03:46.84
Aaron
Yeah.

03:49.96
Aaron
I agree. It was match of the night for sure. Rhea and Bianca did more of the physicality than Io did. Like Io, Io is taking a lot of moves. Like she took a lot of punishment.

04:05.19
Aaron
i I mean, I love the match.

04:05.06
Bradley Palermo
Right.

04:06.51
Aaron
I'm not, this is not me putting the match down in any way, just some things that I noticed.

04:09.19
Bradley Palermo
No, not at all.

04:11.10
Aaron
And yeah, Yeah, I enjoyed the finish. It was a really fun one. It did get copied like 30 30 minutes later, sort of, you know, in the in the Intercontinental match.

04:22.36
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

04:25.17
Aaron
and Dom basically did the same thing to Finn and Braun, I think.

04:25.45
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

04:31.90
Aaron
with the frog splash that EO did with the moonsault. and While people were being pinned, you know they hit him and then pinned someone themselves and then won. But I enjoyed it.

04:42.07
Aaron
First match opened the the card really well. The crowd was very excited, and I was too. My buddy who watches wrestling texted me, and he was like, that was the best women's match I've ever seen.

04:57.46
Aaron
I said, yeah, it was very, very good for sure.

05:01.16
Bradley Palermo
I saw a... I believe, was it Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, and Nikki, almost a superhero,

05:09.65
Aaron
Okay.

05:10.21
Bradley Palermo
at SummerSlam? 2000.

05:12.37
Aaron
Oh, when you went in Vegas.

05:14.11
Bradley Palermo
That one, I know. And and I remember being like like, generally that was considered like a trash SummerSlam, but that was like the best show there. And you were like, Nikki didn't really need to be there, but this is kind of like the same thing. It was like,

05:26.73
Aaron
Yeah.

05:27.27
Bradley Palermo
It was like you guys kind of have a a match style and then you have someone that flies in the air in the middle of it It works.

05:34.82
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

05:35.05
Bradley Palermo
But it was like, you know, it it was and then it was like the first, it was like an early match too. So I remember the ones I was at more than the ones I don't. So sorry if I i repeat myself. but But like, yeah, I think that, I just can't wait to see those two together. I'm going to be crazy, actually.

05:50.82
Bradley Palermo
maybe else Maybe I will edit this one because I think Now I'm second guessing who was even in that match.

05:57.24
Aaron
You're crazy. You can't think right. No, great, great match to open the show.

06:00.43
Bradley Palermo
bi youngcas and Bianca's entrance was pretty cool with the girls skip roping the jump ropes over multiple ropes.

06:10.82
Bradley Palermo
like Whatever the fuck they were doing is like more impressing to me than anything else at that moment. I was like, wait, how the fuck is she or her feet like to the beat skipping over multiple ropes at the same time?

06:20.95
Aaron
Yeah.

06:23.12
Aaron
Double Dutch jump rope is no joke. i tried to learn it once, like back in my camp days when was a teenager. It's hard, very hard. and

06:31.61
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and it's gotta to be something legit with like where she comes from or like her like culture, like hood or whatever the fuck

06:38.17
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I don't think she just like, it's like, yeah, let's put double Dutch people. Like she must know these people somehow, right? Like it was cool.

06:44.34
Aaron
I would assume so if she didn't know them before she probably met them, you know, today or yesterday.

06:52.76
Aaron
Yeah.

06:53.79
Bradley Palermo
Drew McIntyre versus Damian Priest in the Sin City Street fight. I felt like I'm glad this had a gimmick because and didn't feel like much was on the line to me. i didn't really, I wasn't invested in this, in this feud.

07:07.18
Bradley Palermo
I love Drew.

07:07.45
Aaron
Not in the normal way.

07:09.06
Bradley Palermo
What?

07:10.08
Aaron
I wasn't invested in it in like in a normal way. Yeah, I mean, this this whole feud has been sort of plagued from the start a little bit.

07:14.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

07:20.23
Aaron
I don't know if you ever read about the thing that happened at the Royal Rumble. i I think Priest was supposed to... Priest eliminated McIntyre, if I'm not mistaken.

07:32.06
Aaron
But it was supposed to be a bigger moment than it was.

07:35.12
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

07:35.72
Aaron
And I can't remember why it wasn't. I think it was either Logan Paul or l LA Knight were playing whatever they were doing. They were playing it up to the hard camera, the camera that you generally see when you're watching from, you know, home.

07:49.94
Bradley Palermo
yeah

07:51.54
Aaron
And i guess that meant that we as the audience missed the whole Drew and Damien stuff.

07:59.58
Bradley Palermo
yeah

07:59.70
Aaron
And so it was sort of like off to a rocky start. And then, know, They didn't get as much time on TV as they really needed. it you know it it it was one of those ones that we talked about last week where we were like, yeah, i just they didn't build it up as well as they built some other ones up.

08:17.90
Bradley Palermo
right

08:19.18
Aaron
so but But all that being said, I actually thought this was a good match. The crowd was into it. Like you said, I think... hat that Having a gimmick match like this was good. And actually, now that I think about it that was the only one besides the the triple threat at the end of last night. That was really the only match match that had tables and chairs and all kinds of stuff like that. So, yeah, I enjoyed this one. And and this was one that we didn't.

08:50.78
Aaron
I think we guessed incorrectly. We we thought maybe Damien Priest would win this one, didn't we?

08:53.18
Bradley Palermo
No, we...

08:55.85
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I definitely said, like, Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest is the kind of guy that, like, sits down when she counts to three and forgets to kick out, and I would never let him win anything, and I have faith that...

08:56.25
Aaron
Because he.

09:07.60
Aaron
That's true. You did say that, but I did also say like, I felt like priest needed it more than drew did.

09:08.60
Bradley Palermo
so

09:12.87
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

09:13.76
Aaron
Like Drew's kind of.

09:13.82
Bradley Palermo
maybe Maybe we weren't like, I realized like we didn't really have like a definitive, like who said what we were just kind of like, oh yeah, sure.

09:19.61
Aaron
Yeah.

09:21.90
Bradley Palermo
What you said sounds good. So, but no, I was, I was like in my mind when I was watching that, i was like, am I getting it?

09:27.33
Aaron
You thought Drew.

09:28.31
Bradley Palermo
It's Drew. I like Drew and

09:30.45
Aaron
I kind of thought Priest. I mean, I like Drew too. I just thought that like Priest has kind of been stagnating in terms of what he's been doing since the Rumble.

09:37.05
Bradley Palermo
yeah.

09:40.74
Aaron
And so I thought maybe this win would be good for him. And I also feel like McIntyre could do anything. McIntyre is like one of those people that they could just lose every night and you'd forget because he's just so talented.

09:54.96
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and and after he lost the belt in 2020 2021 or twenty twenty one order to Roman, like he

09:55.11
Aaron
and people realize it now.

10:01.24
Bradley Palermo
jobbed for everyone for years and you still took him seriously you know like he there was a point where if you wanted to predict something you well you at least have it in the bag that drew was gonna lose and lately it's not been that way like he he lost for years every fucking match of every pay-per-view after he dropped that belt so it's good that he's kind of like coming back around but

10:14.18
Aaron
yeah

10:24.33
Bradley Palermo
I'm not not like a huge Damien Priest fan.

10:24.50
Aaron
Yeah.

10:26.13
Bradley Palermo
I feel like I was kind of watching, like trying to keep an open mind. I was like, I'm going watch what he does. But it's like a lot of like, it is kind of like power move stuff, but it's like a lot with kicks.

10:35.17
Bradley Palermo
And it's like a lot of like, kick and slap my leg, kick and slap my leg, you know throw you into something, kick and slap my leg.

10:39.63
Aaron
Well, you know, Something that was cool about this match, the story that they were telling inside of this match, is Damian Priest likes to do the old-school Undertaker move where he walks the rope.

10:55.64
Aaron
And I have always thought, as a fan...

10:55.59
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

10:59.37
Aaron
that that move is a little silly because all the opponent has to do is just get them off balance a little bit and that move and it falls to shit.

11:07.54
Bradley Palermo
Move a little bit and they finally paid that off.

11:10.52
Aaron
Right, exactly. So I really appreciated that there there were tables set outside for this exact moment when Priest was doing this old school tightrope walking move and Drew pushed him off balance and he fell through the tables.

11:11.88
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

11:27.13
Aaron
It was really fun.

11:28.04
Bradley Palermo
I 100% agree. like when it's It's almost like some of these these spouts of these little bouts of disbelief in our heads. like like I don't talk about the fact that like that moves bullshit, but it is. It's like you you could be...

11:42.02
Bradley Palermo
on death's door and barely wiggle. And the guy's got you up for the quote unquote old school where he's walking the ropes and he's holding your hand basically.

11:45.17
Aaron
Yeah. i mean

11:50.100
Bradley Palermo
There was a clip of Ricky Starks doing an NXT that was all over the place and so bad.

11:53.90
Aaron
Yeah.

11:56.16
Bradley Palermo
And it's like, I'm going to hold your hand until then i jump off the rope. and It's like, yeah, like that's really easy to counter. And he finally, like someone finally countered it. Like it was bullshit.

12:06.22
Bradley Palermo
And I did appreciate that as well. So it was cool too, because I think Drew was the one that set up the tables.

12:10.84
Aaron
Another fun match.

12:13.06
Bradley Palermo
And usually it's like a wrestling rule.

12:14.32
Aaron
who

12:15.41
Bradley Palermo
The guy who sets up the tables is the one who goes through it.

12:18.30
Aaron
Right.

12:18.26
Bradley Palermo
And Drew was not the one who went through it, which i I was like, all right, anytime you can catch me off my guard and do something that I don't expect,

12:19.26
Aaron
Not today.

12:26.47
Bradley Palermo
but but Damien Priest that's also part of the reason I don't like him like his moves are all like kind of mark moves like like the razor's edge on the old school and I'm just like I like that shit but like who are I don't know who are you you're just like a mirror of of a fan to me sometimes and i I don't know I just don't like that guy but and you know hopefully you can go to uh

12:26.10
Aaron
Yeah.

12:49.17
Bradley Palermo
AEW or something that I watch a little bit less, but then we move it on to Randy Orton versus.

12:55.40
Aaron
No, you missed you missed the Intercontinental Championship.

12:58.02
Bradley Palermo
Oh shit. Oh yes.

13:00.14
Aaron
Third match of the night was Braun Breaker, the Intercontinental Champion, against Penta, Finn Balor, and Dominik Mysterio in a fatal four-way match.

13:00.12
Bradley Palermo
I just wanted to make

13:10.33
Bradley Palermo
And holy shit.

13:10.83
Aaron
And...

13:11.75
Bradley Palermo
You predicted the result on this.

13:14.29
Aaron
I did, but again, i will say that I saw this on Twitter and I was like, I like this. I'm going to steal it but not steal it.

13:21.41
Bradley Palermo
I mean,

13:22.35
Aaron
I'm giving credit to I don't know who it was, but it wasn't me. And so...

13:25.25
Bradley Palermo
i heard you say it and I listened to that and I was like, you know, I'm not going to disagree that that is a that is a result that is good. That is a result that I like. And that is the result that apparently someone in creative liked as well.

13:39.89
Aaron
Well, and the crowd liked, too. See, this was the reason why I liked this night was because the crowd was still super excited the whole time, and they also had reactions that normal crowds don't really have.

13:56.89
Aaron
Like, Dominic Mysterio is a bad guy.

13:57.70
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

14:00.47
Aaron
he gets booed all the time, and everyone has grown accustomed to that. And even up until... tonight, like on SmackDown and Raw the last couple of weeks, I don't think he's been getting cheered very much, maybe a little bit.

14:17.97
Bradley Palermo
They fucking booed Cody the other night tonight.

14:18.20
Aaron
But tonight.

14:21.47
Aaron
They were cheering the shit out of him today.

14:21.48
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. during yeah

14:23.50
Aaron
He was getting the most cheers in this match, and when he won, the pop was insane. The crowd was super excited Yeah.

14:31.07
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Did you see after WrestleMania, like, when they had him come up to the booth, when the crowd was just cheering the shit out of him, and John Cena and everybody else, like, they were cheering all the heels, but...

14:37.06
Aaron
yeah

14:44.73
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, it was the the fatal four way was again. maybe Maybe this one was a little sloppy, but I thought it was enjoyable. It went pretty quickly.

14:56.57
Aaron
Actually, it was really quick. Wow, it was a 10 minute match. Dang.

15:00.18
Bradley Palermo
It was fast and we were ordering food and I was watching, but my my bandmate wasn't. He was just ordering food. He was like, damn, i what the fuck? It just ended. you know like So it was it was fast. But you know with my pissiness tonight, I'm done with Braun Breaker. like That guy, he supposed to be marketed as like some big badass. He is...

15:23.55
Bradley Palermo
shorter than everyone else in this match and he's wearing like two inch lifts so i don't mind if you're like a short i don't yeah i don't mind if you're like a short dude and you're wrestling and stuff but you're trying to you're so insecure that you're wearing like a couple inches of lifts to not be like shorter than the luchadores and stuff who does yeah okay well

15:29.09
Aaron
Dude, I saw the lifts too.

15:41.06
Aaron
MJF wears wheres big ol' lifts too. have you seen his? MJF?

15:48.98
Aaron
They're like two inches. He's a little short Jew like me.

15:52.15
Bradley Palermo
The lifts the lists are off playing.

15:52.31
Aaron
Ha ha ha ha.

15:54.19
Bradley Palermo
Just be your size. like Don't.

15:56.32
Aaron
Dude, that's crazy. You know, it's so funny. I was watching this match and Braun Breaker was doing so many moves that make him look like a badass that I just thought like, like like almost like Fatou that I thought you're going like, man, I love Braun Breaker tonight.

16:12.43
Aaron
But you're actually like, Braun Breaker is a tool.

16:12.96
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

16:14.35
Aaron
But that's crazy.

16:15.29
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. He's kind of a douche.

16:16.34
Aaron
i

16:16.97
Bradley Palermo
like I don't know.

16:17.67
Aaron
He's not.

16:17.85
Bradley Palermo
He's...

16:18.27
Aaron
He's he's great, dude. that The spear across the tables was awesome. he i i think he needs to be in more singles matches is the problem.

16:25.44
Bradley Palermo
I'm not saying he has no athletic ability.

16:29.33
Aaron
He's been in a lot of multi-person matches, a lot of tag matches. I feel like Maybe they're protecting him because he is still new-ish, you know? Like, he's only been doing it a few years, but I don't know.

16:38.24
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

16:41.35
Aaron
I just want to see more, like... want to see, like, a 10-minute singles match from him, not a 10-minute Fatal 4-Way. I still enjoyed the match, but...

16:50.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think... And we could save it for another day, but I think like his Frankensteiner is kind of weak a lot the times that I see it. like I don't think he's necessarily... I think maybe as like a tag team guy, and there is another... think there's a cousin that could come in that's still in you know amateur wrestling. but But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the guy is just...

17:11.11
Bradley Palermo
He's not doing it. I want him to. he's got his squeaky voice and his lips. And I'm just like, dude, you you are not your dad. And.

17:19.31
Aaron
You didn't like his Steiner math promo but before night one on Friday, I think it was. It's pretty funny, actually.

17:26.65
Bradley Palermo
It's funny. i watched it. It just seems like.

17:29.88
Aaron
He's working the kinks out.

17:30.53
Bradley Palermo
You're.

17:31.16
Aaron
He's young, dude. Give give give him a break. He'll be fine.

17:33.94
Bradley Palermo
I mean, your gimmick is kind of that you're a Steiner. You don't even have the Steiner name.

17:39.72
Aaron
He's figuring it out.

17:39.91
Bradley Palermo
You know, you're Breaker.

17:41.03
Aaron
It's like we said, people get thrust into positions where they're maybe not perfectly ready for it.

17:44.12
Bradley Palermo
Right. wwe WWE is not young. You know, they've been around a long time, and they they can they can manage these things.

17:49.31
Aaron
Yeah.

17:51.65
Bradley Palermo
They choose the name.

17:52.12
Aaron
that Well, they're they're patient.

17:52.57
Bradley Palermo
They choose who they push.

17:53.98
Aaron
they know They know that eventually it's going to work out. And no there's no bigger proof of that than the next match, which was Randy Orton coming out to an open challenge after Kevin Owens had i let everyone know a couple weeks ago that he needed to take time away for neck surgery for reals.

18:14.39
Aaron
And this was another really, really fun surprise.

18:15.74
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

18:18.44
Aaron
Randy Orton's opponent was none other than the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Joe Hendry. And the crowd loved it.

18:23.24
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and I thought open challenge meant any of us could just do it, no one wrote me back and Joe Hendry got it.

18:27.84
Aaron
Any wrestler.

18:30.35
Bradley Palermo
No, it's fucking cool to see him up there. fucking We're going to see him next weekend.

18:32.63
Aaron
Yeah, was awesome.

18:35.04
Bradley Palermo
you know You and I are going to a TNA match and TNA and WWE are so intertwined now.

18:35.50
Aaron
I know. Yeah, it's great.

18:41.20
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. Is WWE going to buy this shit? Is that like a rumor or not?

18:46.18
Aaron
I haven't heard anything about it. I think, I don't know that they want to just buy everything, but I do think that they're starting to recognize the value in collaborating with other companies and doing things that are beneficial for both of them.

18:51.69
Bradley Palermo
Right.

19:00.74
Aaron
You know, I think being, They are. They are tribal. And so are the AEW fans or AEW in general.

19:09.39
Aaron
I mean, both companies can be tribal at times, but I think at the end of the day, it's better if everyone gets along and works together respectfully, or it just at least holds the other one in some level of respect because all the fighting and stuff I think is really dumb and everyone should just enjoy being a wrestling fan.

19:27.25
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.

19:29.19
Aaron
There's so much wrestling to enjoy.

19:29.12
Bradley Palermo
Fuck tribalism.

19:30.59
Aaron
Why fight about it?

19:31.80
Bradley Palermo
Right. For the record, I watch all this shit.

19:32.94
Aaron
So yeah, you know, short match.

19:34.93
Aaron
You watch everything.

19:35.01
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, John Hendry got in all of his character work and he was on the hard cam with his little twisty, turny point and smile and guy is charismatic as fuck.

19:35.57
Aaron
Yeah, you watch you watch all the indie stuff.

19:47.11
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, it was the perfect time for him to get hit with the fucking RKO and get his hand.

19:53.16
Aaron
Yeah, it was fun, you know. little squashy squash for Randy, but it was more about making a moment for Joe Hendry. And I think, uh, that's great for him. You know, he's, uh,

20:02.46
Bradley Palermo
It was like my second favorite match in the night, I think. yeah know i was if it was I love Randy Orton, and I love Joe Hendry, and I just love how they played it. And I don't and don't care that it was a squash. It was, okay, it was the best squash of the year.

20:17.27
Bradley Palermo
We can say that, probably.

20:17.73
Aaron
yeah, sure.

20:18.51
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

20:19.13
Aaron
No, I agree.

20:20.25
Bradley Palermo
And then we go on to Logan Paul versus AJ Styles.

20:23.59
Bradley Palermo
I don't know where this really came from, honestly. honestly. honestly like

20:27.90
Aaron
You hadn't been watching SmackDown, and you're giving yourself away.

20:30.94
Bradley Palermo
I watched like the first hour or so, and then I fast forward to whatever matches I'm interested in.

20:37.73
Aaron
Yeah.

20:37.73
Bradley Palermo
So I usually skip like tag teams and like mid cards and stuff. And,

20:42.59
Aaron
They've been feuding back and forth with nothing super serious other than, you know, AJ's looking to make a comeback and Logan's looking to continue being a douchebag and prove that he's the best and that he deserves to be there.

20:57.91
Aaron
And they decided to wrestle each other. And this was kind of long. I'm not going to say that I disliked it, but...

21:07.39
Aaron
I, again, felt like the feud buildup was a little... It left a little something to be desired. So even though the match was technically well put together, you know everything looked really good, i just wasn't super into it. And the finish was something that we assumed would happen. Yeah.

21:27.01
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, we predicted this one. Logan wins clean. He doesn't even use the brac brass knuckles. Pat McAfee, I thought he was kind of like a kind of like a face commentary, but he was really into Logan Paul.

21:40.62
Bradley Palermo
I think it's just like when it comes to like, you know, Ohio and their are political beliefs, like he's just like, you know,

21:49.08
Bradley Palermo
fucking horny for someone that's like him and they're very similar as far as all of that stuff like they're from the same state and they think the same way so he's just kind of like

21:58.02
Aaron
Yeah, don't know. Whatever.

22:00.52
Bradley Palermo
i usually like the baby faces you know he doesn't say that but he's just like very into logan paul like like defensive in the commentary about him the entire time which was like gushing gushing um

22:08.18
Aaron
Hmm.

22:11.72
Bradley Palermo
Are these guys fucking roommates? I don't know what's going on. But then we go on to the women's tag title match. Liv Morgan Raquel Rodriguez versus Yeah,

22:23.64
Aaron
Against, you know, supposed to be Bailey, and we thought Raquel and Liv were going to easily win this one, but we were wrong.

22:30.84
Bradley Palermo
but like we're not so wrong because we didn't get the full like card at that point, right?

22:37.02
Aaron
Well, we thought we did, but Card is always subject to change, right?

22:37.22
Bradley Palermo
You're right.

22:40.27
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, right.

22:41.26
Aaron
That's the thing they always tell us. So, yeah, Bailey was...

22:43.74
Bradley Palermo
We're pretty good at predicting... Yeah, go ahead.

22:46.10
Aaron
Attacked in the back. So what's interesting, i don't know if you saw, but there's a dirt sheet reporting that Bailey is not injured. The attack in the back and the injury that came from it is completely storyline.

23:01.36
Aaron
And this was just all to make space for the surprise return of Becky Lynch.

23:01.56
Bradley Palermo
Hmm.

23:08.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, which...

23:08.92
Aaron
I feel bad for Bailey, man.

23:10.100
Bradley Palermo
i

23:12.12
Aaron
She's a pro and I'm sure she's fine with it, but you know,

23:15.38
Bradley Palermo
I feel like I feel like Becky does this thing where she does a few matches and then she's like on a like

23:15.82
Aaron
Bailey. I like Bailey.

23:24.34
Bradley Palermo
nondescript leave like we don't really indefinite hiatus and then she kind of oh my god the man is back and i feel like to me it's old like i felt kind of meant about becky returning because i oh becky's back i'm like she's always back like that's her whole like gimmick you know it's just kind of charlotte's back becky's back and

23:37.50
Aaron
Underwhelmed.

23:38.70
Aaron
Yeah.

23:48.42
Bradley Palermo
They're fine. I don't think she's, she's, I don't think she's on like the level of like Charlotte with athleticism and stuff, but, But yeah, I'm like kind of tired of Becky's like shit. And I thought it was kind of cool when she did like big time Bex, something different. But this whole like the man thing, it's like I'm sort of getting done with it. And i when I see her interviews, it's kind of like tired. And when I see her on the press scrum with bringing a kid to answer the questions, it was super...

24:16.12
Bradley Palermo
like self-indulgent like on not not really self-aware like she was very like we don't you don't realize that no one thinks this fucking Seth Rollins kid is cute except for you like you're fucking dumb dude like I'm so tired of this shit but it was cute that Lyra

24:27.56
Aaron
Jeez, dude.

24:36.18
Bradley Palermo
you know, got to tag with her hero and she seemed genuinely like, holy shit, I'm in the bright lights. This is cool.

24:45.76
Aaron
yeah.

24:45.38
Bradley Palermo
um um You know, too bad too bad, like, Becky's not going to let her get that many words in, probably, but fuck Becky Lynch.

24:53.04
Aaron
Why do you hate Becky Lynch?

24:53.09
Bradley Palermo
Fuck Hulk Hogan.

24:54.24
Aaron
so you Yeah, you just hate all the fucking greatness. You're a greatness hater.

25:00.65
Bradley Palermo
I love, I love the greats, you know,

25:02.47
Aaron
I mean, Hogan deserves to be hated now because of the type of person he is, but I don't think Becky is a bad person. i just think that, look, all of these wrestlers, when you get to be this big and this important, they're always going to come around and try to swing their weight around and, you know, create opportunities for themselves.

25:21.73
Aaron
You kind of have to, yeah I mean, people say all the time, you have to be selfish in this, in this business. And I don't pretend to know that anything about it, cause I'm not part of it, but, but it makes sense.

25:26.48
Bradley Palermo
I believe it, yeah. But I do like...

25:32.00
Bradley Palermo
No, and and I love a lot of the stars, and I just think that certain people's attitudes rub me the wrong way. But but yeah, certainly...

25:40.13
Aaron
Yeah, but but you don't know. i mean, we don't know anything, right? We don't know why she came back. We don't know if it was her idea to replace Bailey or if it was someone else's. If, you know, maybe it was Hunter's idea and he called her and said, hey, I was thinking about replacing Bailey with somebody.

25:52.28
Bradley Palermo
Right.

25:54.88
Aaron
who Do you want to come back? You know, like we we don't know.

25:56.76
Bradley Palermo
But I'm just talking about a character that's presented on a television show, not like someone that lives like the street.

26:00.78
Aaron
Yeah, I don't like her character either. I think that that's a fair point.

26:04.00
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. So I'll respond.

26:05.28
Aaron
Becky Lynch's character right now is stale and boring.

26:07.54
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I'll respond just to like the character that I see. And and if you're kayfabing or not, I have no idea. I'm just going to go with it. Like, like Logan Paul, like he's a friend of a couple of my friends.

26:15.91
Aaron
go to say

26:19.87
Bradley Palermo
And that guy is a real piece of shit. And I can talk about how shitty that guy is like,

26:23.16
Aaron
Oh, yeah.

26:25.89
Bradley Palermo
for real and I could give you some like examples or some haircuts you didn't pay for or whatever

26:29.78
Aaron
I don't need them because I i i already know. i don't need examples to know. It's like.

26:35.05
Bradley Palermo
well like I don't know Becky Lynch I'm just saying like this character the way they're presented to me is like a heel that I want to talk shit about like that's I don't hate their greatness I just feel like their shit is not winning me over at this point like whether it's their character work or not but we

26:41.37
Aaron
It's not working. Yeah.

26:52.38
Aaron
Well, there was one heel this evening that that sure didn't get the hate that I thought they were going to get, and that was in our main event.

27:02.84
Bradley Palermo
Is that where we're going right now?

27:03.05
Aaron
John Cena.

27:03.88
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, we can leave Stone Cold out of this.

27:04.66
Aaron
Yeah.

27:06.34
Bradley Palermo
he He drank a beer.

27:06.79
Aaron
Oh, fuck that shit. Whatever.

27:08.15
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yes, and I was into this. i was into John Cena, right? So look at me.

27:14.29
Aaron
Yeah, this was a good match. I mean, another match where the crowd was... Well, so this is the thing, right? There's always a chance with big, hostile, passionate crowds that that like they'll do things that you don't really expect them to.

27:32.16
Aaron
And I think this was one of them. I mean, John Cena had been getting booed pretty much the entire time that WWE wwe was out in Europe. doing their pre-WrestleMania tour.

27:44.45
Aaron
And then i think it was in Vegas at SmackDown, or maybe it was in Raw in Chicago. I don't know. They came back to the States and there was there was an episode with Cena and Cody where Cena wasn't getting booed as much.

27:58.20
Aaron
And then here tonight, after all the pomp and circumstance of Cody's entrance, John Cena's stark, just nothing on the screens except his name in white.

28:09.84
Bradley Palermo
spotlight in the dark.

28:11.13
Aaron
It was actually pretty fucking hilarious.

28:11.26
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

28:13.72
Bradley Palermo
was hilarious.

28:15.06
Aaron
He got the crowd behind him. It was it was it reminded me of Rock and Hogan from WrestleMania 18. You know, you've got the baby face that you're supposed to love that everyone does love, but kind of hard to root against somebody who's been around for 25 years and is about to make history with a 17th world championship win.

28:39.15
Aaron
So the crowd was firmly behind Cena. They were booing Cody for heard the most part.

28:45.24
Bradley Palermo
Dude.

28:46.82
Aaron
And every time something heelish happened that made it look like Cena was going to win, the crowd was behind him. They wanted it

28:54.16
Bradley Palermo
It was, yeah, to me, it John Cena in this match, in my heart, for, like, the first time in my life, was a total babyface. Cody, like I said, cried when he fucking won the second second time around versus Roman.

29:09.30
Bradley Palermo
I'm just thinking about, like, the negative. I'm just like, oh, this guy needs all this bullshit. He needs his, like, full nutcracker soldier getup with his, like, plastic skull like motorcycle helmet it's like so like to me like cody came off as like cheesy and john cena seemed like the fucking man i don't need shit i'm gonna whoop your fucking ass and it was slow and it was like like john cena was playing that ring psychology it's gonna be on my pace you know like

29:41.56
Aaron
He was also doing moves that he didn't normally do before.

29:44.70
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, like he'll rock the ropes while you're standing up there to make you rack your balls on it and stuff. And like, yeah.

29:51.02
Aaron
he was just being a heel. like he you know He got attacked in the beginning and he he went outside and took took took time and you know composed himself.

29:52.35
Bradley Palermo
yeah

30:00.11
Aaron
He was just doing heel stuff and it was great. The crowd was loving it.

30:03.09
Bradley Palermo
I feel, dude, it was awesome. And I did, I did love this match. I, i know wwe WWE themselves were like, oh, it wasn't a great match. It was just John Cena's in there to win. But I was like, no, the the ring psychology stuff is great.

30:16.42
Bradley Palermo
I don't love the ref bumps that happened. I mean, I know they're necessary in wrestling or else how would a bad guy cheat? Right. And so, and

30:24.66
Aaron
Yeah. It was the only ref bump of the entire weekend, though.

30:29.53
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, and I appreciate that. Like, you can do it here and there. You just can't do it. i mean, we've seen some matches already or some pay-per-views, right, when we've gone back in history where they just bumped a ref every match or every other match.

30:42.70
Aaron
Yeah, I think WrestleMania nine had so many of those.

30:44.83
Bradley Palermo
Mm-hmm. So many.

30:46.66
Aaron
That's why it was such a dumb pay-per-view.

30:47.31
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I think if you're going to do it, maybe there's something to that. Do it at the end. But...

30:51.54
Aaron
Yeah, they did it once the whole weekend.

30:53.26
Aaron
this was the This was the match to do it, right? Because you knew there was going to be some tomfoolery. It was either this or the main event of last night with the triple threat.

31:03.43
Bradley Palermo
Right. So, yeah. what it'

31:05.01
Aaron
But it was a triple threat, right? So there's no rules. It doesn't matter, actually.

31:08.11
Bradley Palermo
True.

31:08.23
Aaron
So no ref bump needed.

31:10.27
Bradley Palermo
But we, you know, with some ref bumps and some maybe some moments where Cena could have been disqualified by the ref when Travis Scott pulled the ref by the feet, you know, stopping Cody's pin and stuff. There could have been some moments where he could have played it that way, but like...

31:24.38
Bradley Palermo
however we do it john cena is now 17 17 time world champion something that's never been done in the history of the wwe the wwf the wwf however you want to say it that this organization has been around for much longer than you and i have been alive and he's threatening now to walk out with the belt forever and ruined wrestling for all of us forever which i think is hilarious and

31:41.29
Aaron
huh

31:50.78
Aaron
We'll have to see what happens tomorrow.

31:50.77
Bradley Palermo
i you What I have to say is John Cena's, I know we're running out of time, but like are John Cena's biggest feat of the night on the press scrum. First question, the dude's like, we haven't seen you smile since you've turned heel or whatever.

32:05.94
Bradley Palermo
Could we see you smile? Do you know how fucking hard it is? To not smile when someone says, can I see you smile? I can't even talk about smiling without fucking smiling this whole time i was saying it

32:14.75
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah, stone face.

32:17.61
Bradley Palermo
And this fucking dude, you know...

32:18.06
Aaron
He got

32:20.39
Bradley Palermo
Nothing like nothing like amazing amazing actor amazing kayfaber like You know I am you fucking I'm gonna go around with some merch and waving my hand in front of my face like I am John Cena sold man This guy's fucking killing it.

32:22.14
Aaron
you.

32:38.56
Bradley Palermo
So I can't I can't wait to see what happens I

32:39.11
Aaron
he got you

32:42.21
Bradley Palermo
i

32:43.52
Bradley Palermo
I guess the only other thing in this very bitchy episode that I have to say is that Travis Scott... I don't really know who he is. Turns out he's the reason that that theme, that really, really bad theme song for WrestleMania.

32:58.28
Bradley Palermo
That's all it does. That guy is apparently a musician, not just a very scrawny, bad wrestler or whatever.

33:07.15
Aaron
He's a rapper, yeah.

33:09.44
Bradley Palermo
And his music, he is very untalented. This is a very seriously... uncapable man at the art of music

33:18.43
Aaron
But he is incredibly popular and has sold tons and tons and tons of tickets and shoes and

33:24.45
Bradley Palermo
and I love to I love that you bring that up because when people say that I like to think about McDonald's and how they've sold more food than any other restaurant And are they good?

33:34.67
Bradley Palermo
Is it the best food?

33:36.37
Aaron
It's not the best food.

33:36.30
Bradley Palermo
Is it the worst food, maybe?

33:38.03
Aaron
It's not the worst food.

33:37.98
Bradley Palermo
It's maybe the shittiest. And that's what he is. He's McDonald's. He is McDonald's of the music industry. so

33:45.90
Aaron
i don't i don't like his music particularly. There are some songs that are good, but the reason that I dislike him the most is because there have been incidents at his concerts in the past where people have died from like getting crushed by the crowd, and he...

34:01.49
Bradley Palermo
Yes, I heard that. That's all I knew about.

34:03.03
Aaron
and Yeah, and he there's literally video of him just continuing his concert while he can see someone's lifeless body being carried away because, you know, he doesn't care about his fans.

34:14.71
Bradley Palermo
Uh-huh.

34:18.82
Aaron
Like, there're all you have to do is watch a concert where like someone's having a panic attack and the person on stage is like, hey, can you all stop? you know like This person needs some help.

34:29.45
Aaron
And then you see something like what he does and it's like, yeah, he he seems like a shitty person. And I'm sure he's having a fun time with wrestling and that's great.

34:34.26
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I've...

34:38.41
Aaron
I'm glad that he is and that he's bringing a lot of exposure, but we don't need this guy. We really don't.

34:43.90
Bradley Palermo
Right. I've been on stage before performing when sirens and people come in to help someone and you just jump off and you're like, what do we do? You know, and in my case, it was a seizure and they were like, she's going to okay.

34:54.51
Aaron
Yeah, you go help.

34:57.36
Bradley Palermo
We actually don't need a scene to be made to this. Go back up. And I'm like, all right. But it's like, you have to ask, Stone Cold Tonight ran his fucking 4x4 into the wall, and it scared some people in the front row, and they fell over.

35:12.58
Bradley Palermo
And he checked on them at least twice on camera, probably more that we didn't see.

35:15.34
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

35:17.17
Bradley Palermo
I, yeah, so I don't know what was there, what happened to the Travis Scott thing, but, but I just, it just triggered something in me where I'm like, no, like if you, if you see something happen, like you are actually the one that could incite or de-elevate or stop, like you could change the mood of the whole thing.

35:26.42
Aaron
Yeah.

35:30.36
Aaron
Just be a good person.

35:35.78
Bradley Palermo
And, you know,

35:36.37
Aaron
I wasn't there. i don't know. But, you know, it didn't look good, what I saw. Dom.

35:40.78
Bradley Palermo
Right. So yeah, fuck that guy and fuck some people and congratulations to Lyra and maybe some other people.

35:50.26
Aaron
Yeah.

35:51.26
Bradley Palermo
Tom.

35:51.46
Aaron
Yeah.

35:51.74
Bradley Palermo
Tom, yeah, congratulations to John. And congratulations to John Cena and congratulations to, you know...

35:59.08
Aaron
Joe Hendry.

35:59.27
Bradley Palermo
Triple H because he was so he was so happy about, i don't know, getting more money than ever before and his bean counting. He just loves to tell you about how much money he got for the company.

36:11.29
Bradley Palermo
i'm a Company man, you know, congrats. Yeah, it was, I don't know. I liked yesterday more.

36:16.75
Aaron
It was a good weekend. it was a fun weekend. i enjoyed both nights.

36:19.71
Bradley Palermo
It's like my best week of the of the fucking of the year, but I just really thought that I don't know. Yesterday I was pumped. And and then today i was kind of like, you know, a little bit less, but I'm going to tune in tomorrow to Russell or to post mania Monday night raw, see what happens.

36:37.86
Bradley Palermo
And then we'll be back before you fucking know it, talking about some ECW stuff to kind of palate cleanse a little bit.

36:38.56
Aaron
Yeah.

36:44.99
Bradley Palermo
So if you, Want to let us know. And we hope that you do want to let us know about your thoughts on WrestleMania night one and WrestleMania night two.

36:55.92
Bradley Palermo
Go ahead and send us an email. GrappleCityPod at gmail.com or look in the description how to contact us. Otherwise, or you can leave us the voicemail and the phone number.

37:06.20
Bradley Palermo
I don't remember the number. Honestly, guys, it's late.

37:08.85
Aaron
I think I remember it. 626-657-SLAM.

37:12.05
Bradley Palermo
Slam. I remember the slam part. 626-657. Slam. slamb All right. And and also.

37:19.39
Aaron
Where's your little soundboard thing?

37:23.20
Bradley Palermo
that

37:22.42
Aaron
no Call the phone or whatever.

37:24.65
Bradley Palermo
Oh, pick up the phone. Oh, I have it right here.

37:29.37
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, we got it.

37:29.71
Aaron
Yeah, there it is.

37:30.25
Bradley Palermo
Shit. Yeah. I like how the other day I forgot that the the Hulk Hogan thing was just like on a track and I bounced down our audio. It's just, we're talking about the Steiner brothers, like totally chill. And it's just like Hulk Hogan's ass. Hulk Hogan.

37:45.98
Bradley Palermo
Fuck. Hulk Hogan. Dick. was like, what the fuck is that?

37:49.77
Aaron
Yeah.

37:50.72
Bradley Palermo
It was there like five in the morning. I like, I like woke up and I was like, cause I'd heard it like, well, I was following the night before. i was like, I have to fix that before anyone hears it.

37:58.21
Aaron
you have a fever You had a fever dream.

37:58.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

37:59.93
Aaron
Yeah.

38:00.37
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. All right, dude.

38:01.32
Aaron
I appreciate it.

38:02.81
Bradley Palermo
It's been fun. let's Let's roll out. we'll I'll talk to you soon, Aaron. And and thanks, everybody, for listening. This has been Grapple City Rewind. Bonus attention.