Bloody Dudes & Grandma's Boobs - WWF Royal Rumble 2000

Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink rewind to Royal Rumble 2000, live from Madison Square Garden. This Attitude Era classic features Taz’s WWF debut, the first-ever Hardy Boyz vs. Dudley Boyz tag team tables match, and the bloody, unforgettable street fight between Triple H and Cactus Jack. Plus, the guys break down the infamous Miss Rumble contest (and Mae Young’s unforgettable moment), Chris Jericho vs. Chyna, and the 30-man Rumble that set the stage for WrestleMania 2000.

Along the way, they dive into today’s wrestling landscape — from WWE’s Wrestlepalooza flop to AEW’s shocking Kris Statlander win — and share hot takes on Jim Cornette, Bret Hart’s shade at Triple H, and why women’s wrestling deserves its flowers in 2025.

It’s nostalgia, it’s chaos, and it’s Grapple City’s 20th episode.

Live in Los Angeles: Bradley Palermo's 4th annual Holiday Hoedown featuring Palermo doing a set of holiday originals alongside Hans Maestro and Sim Williams. Super limited seating,  claim your ticket now

This episode brought to you by Weber4Law - your tag team partner when life body-slams you out of nowhere. Call (818) 502-9200 or visit https://weber4law.com/

(626) 657-SLAM

Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com

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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.

Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.

Chapters

• 2:00 Current Product
• 18:04 The Rewind
• 1:08:38 Grapple Gang

Transcript

00:00:00.25
Aaron
Okay.

00:00:00.39
Bradley Palermo
right. Take it from the top.

00:00:02.07
Aaron
Yeah.

00:00:03.05
Aaron
Hey everyone, this is Aaron Fink from Grapple City Rewind. If you like what you hear on this episode, give us a follow, leave us a review, cut a promo on us by calling 626-657-SLAM.

00:00:14.25
Aaron
Anything goes. It'll go a long way in helping us to be discovered by more wrestling fans like you. All right, cue that music.

00:00:21.95
Bradley Palermo
Hey, hello, and welcome to Grapple City Rewind, a wrestling nostalgia podcast taking you all the way back to the iconic pay-per-views and television specials that shaped the sport. Today, in our 20th episode, we are taking you all the way back to January 2000, the year 2000 for Rumble 2000.

00:00:45.26
Bradley Palermo
thousand the year two thousand for royal rumbles two thousand ah Madison Square Garden but before we get into all the thumbtacks barbed wire and bare-breasted 77 year old women I'm Bradley Palermo as always with Aaron Fink and Aaron there's been a lot of fucking wrestling going on since you and I have last spoke maybe we should touch on a little bit of current product I don't even know where to begin though um what say you

00:01:12.72
Aaron
Yeah, ah man, so much. Let's see. We had Wrestlepalooza, WWE's annual, or sorry, first ever ah premium live event. I guess it's not even a PLE anymore.

00:01:24.46
Aaron
It's like a pay-per-view on yeah ESPN.

00:01:25.87
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:01:26.73
Aaron
We had All Out the same night. ah Yesterday, we had NXT No Mercy. it's Yeah, there's been a lot lot of stuff going on. um i guess we could start with Wrestlepalooza. And the headline for me is, it was a stinker for the most part.

00:01:43.64
Bradley Palermo
It was indeed. I know we were talking before the show. I was pretty disappointed in it myself. um I feel like it was just, I feel like WWE w is kind of, and need they need to like correct a little bit.

00:01:56.06
Bradley Palermo
They need to they need to like rein it in.

00:01:56.55
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:01:58.76
Bradley Palermo
It's, I know it's it didn't suck just because of these things, but for me, it's like Triple H has me in a board meeting talking about all the money and all the all the power he's getting and there's just

00:02:10.22
Aaron
how groundbreaking everything is and...

00:02:10.74
Bradley Palermo
low everything's so ground yeah and there's the logos on every inch of everything and the the video package before it started they were talking about like we're fake they're real we're so fucking not real and that's still cool i mean the effect was like you know beyond breaking kayfabe it was just kind of like they're always talking about how their shit is scripted like

00:02:38.41
Aaron
Sports has always been entertainment. I'm like, okay, yeah, thank you, Captain Obvious.

00:02:43.67
Bradley Palermo
ah Dude, it's so like, I don't know. They're they're kind of bumming me out. I feel like constant ads, even on these things you pay for, are obnoxious.

00:02:53.70
Bradley Palermo
And a lot of them are for ads for like so Saudi Arabia and shit.

00:02:54.31
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:02:57.94
Bradley Palermo
and

00:02:58.63
Aaron
Yeah, oh yeah, I really want to go to Riyadh for Riyadh season. That sounds like a great idea.

00:03:03.99
Bradley Palermo
you know, what the fuck is that? And I don't care. um So I was way more into... I mean, hold on. Stephanie Vacker becker and... um What's her name?

00:03:13.67
Aaron
Eoskye.

00:03:14.45
Bradley Palermo
Neo Sky, of course. Put on a great match. But the rest of it, I couldn't give a shit.

00:03:16.61
Aaron
Yes.

00:03:18.63
Bradley Palermo
Even the world champion versus Drew McIntyre. Who gives a fuck? I don't i heard guys calling in to bust it open from the show. And they were like, ah you know, it was cool.

00:03:28.26
Bradley Palermo
But like there was that... Cody Rhodes came on after it was all over. basic like What are you talking about? You should be excited. And the guy's like, Oh, I was just, you know, I'm tired whatever.

00:03:34.87
Aaron
Don't tell me how to be.

00:03:39.44
Aaron
Yeah, don't tell me what to do, Cody.

00:03:39.62
Bradley Palermo
So I watched every, yeah. was like, no, I mean, there's the WWE thing. Wasn't, wasn't that good, but I thought that, um, uh,

00:03:48.27
Bradley Palermo
a aw's all out was was good if you had a fast if you had the benefit of watching it after it occurred so you could fast forward through the things you didn't want to see which is what i did and i saw all the things i did want to see and it was great i didn't didn't have to watch the hurt business do anything and i didn't have to watch right yeah i mean ah i don't know

00:03:58.72
Aaron
Yeah.

00:04:01.54
Aaron
Same.

00:04:05.09
Aaron
But they hurt people, Brad. They hurt people. They hurt people. I don't know. yeah and Yeah. I mean, Cena versus Brock was, was okay.

00:04:15.67
Aaron
Uh, I'd probably give it like a C, you know, like I had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be the squash match that it was, but the internet certainly didn't like it.

00:04:22.17
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:04:24.30
Aaron
Uh, funny thing, yeah ESPN reviewed Russell Palooza, ESPN, the company that is putting out WWE pay-per-views and they gave it a C. i thought that was really funny.

00:04:35.56
Aaron
It's like, damn, y'all are cold as fuck.

00:04:37.100
Bradley Palermo
At least they're fair and honest, yeah.

00:04:38.47
Aaron
Uh, Yes, yes, that's true. And yeah, like you said, Stephanie Vicarra versus EO Sky for the Women's World Championship was terrific. I enjoyed Punk and AJ versus Seth and Becky, but I think that's just because I enjoyed the buildup to it. The match itself was fine, like ah like a B maybe, you know, nothing out of the ordinary. um

00:05:00.77
Bradley Palermo
i would have been better it'll be better when it's not a mixed tag which to me i personally miss tags are never great in wwe but you know at least we can set that up for something in future yeah they just have the confidence of like oh everything we do it's just it's just all a's we always win it's always going to be

00:05:00.87
Aaron
Yeah, but...

00:05:04.99
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:05:15.75
Aaron
It's going be great. Yeah. Didn't even sell out the place. I don't know if you noticed, but when they don't sell out the place, they're like, you are looking at a jam packed blah, blah, blah, arena, as opposed to a sold out arena.

00:05:26.74
Bradley Palermo
They don't say capacity.

00:05:28.74
Aaron
Yeah.

00:05:28.94
Bradley Palermo
a Capacity crowd.

00:05:30.64
Aaron
ah And yeah, you're right.

00:05:31.30
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:05:31.96
Aaron
All Out was just the more exciting show. I mean, granted, it was like four and a half hours. So the chances of it being better, like having enough stuff that you could say made it better than Russell Palooza is, is pretty high, but um yeah, I mean, Copeland and Christian versus FTR, I thought was pretty good.

00:05:49.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, that's cool.

00:05:49.63
Aaron
um The, the main event, ah Kyle Fletcher versus hangman Adam page was pretty good. There, you know, there, there were a a lot of good, Oh, the women's four way match with the surprise Chris Statlander win dethroning Tony storm.

00:06:04.33
Aaron
That was pretty great.

00:06:05.50
Bradley Palermo
Dude, I when they posted that that was the lineup, I thought there was no way in hell Chris would win.

00:06:05.69
Aaron
Pretty shocking.

00:06:11.07
Bradley Palermo
And I commented, which I now realize that a lot of people commented the same thing, but I just commented on their Instagram post like put it on Chris.

00:06:11.24
Aaron
Yeah.

00:06:19.93
Bradley Palermo
And over anything else I posted like that week, three weeks ago, that thing was just showing up my feed over and over.

00:06:20.71
Aaron
Hmm.

00:06:26.73
Bradley Palermo
I was like, holy shit, a lot of people are with me on this.

00:06:28.45
Aaron
Yeah.

00:06:29.26
Bradley Palermo
And then I looked at the comments and it's just like, Chris deserves it. Chris deserves it. It's Chris's time.

00:06:35.28
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:06:35.50
Bradley Palermo
The fans were like, not just me, all the all of us fans were like, probably if we were doing it there everywhere else too, all for Chris. And I never thought it would happen because they have like, you know, that spider chick and she's got, she's, you know, double jointed and then they have Tony.

00:06:52.41
Bradley Palermo
And of course, you know, everyone loves to hate her

00:06:53.67
Aaron
Jamie Hayter. Yeah.

00:06:55.52
Bradley Palermo
And I was like, oh, well, so so there's there's probably something else. Like Chris has always been kind of, well, has been kind of ah a relic of, you know, a few years ago for a while, I feel like now.

00:07:06.23
Aaron
Yeah. She was one of the originals almost. Maybe not original, original, but she was there really early. I mean, even the crowd when it happened was like, what?

00:07:12.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:07:15.88
Aaron
In a good way.

00:07:16.03
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, they know they I have to thank AEW because they don't always do it, but they did it this time. They gave us fans what we wanted. And I was like, holy shit, we wanted this.

00:07:25.39
Aaron
Yeah.

00:07:27.97
Bradley Palermo
Like, what are you going to do now? Because like... um i didn't really think it would happen like now i'm excited about a chris statlender run and um that was my favorite moment i mean it was all about chris in aw for me it is all about stephanie in wwe that week for me so a great week and for women's wrestling even though it' was a lot of bullshit in between

00:07:33.37
Aaron
but know

00:07:45.41
Aaron
Yeah.

00:07:51.38
Aaron
For sure. I will say i also enjoyed the MJF Mark Briscoe ah thumbtack tables and thumbtacks match. That shit was insane. That was the most thumbtacks I've ever seen in a ring.

00:08:02.07
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think it was cool to see MJF, who's obviously a really talented worker, as we say, in Mark speak, do something that was different, right?

00:08:13.28
Bradley Palermo
Because his thing is like, I don't have to get messy.

00:08:13.51
Aaron
Yeah.

00:08:15.28
Bradley Palermo
I don't have to get dirty. i Yeah, I can do some crazy flippity-dippity flippity-dippity shit, but... You know, I'm going to that few and far between when I'm champion. You know, I'm going to do my talking.

00:08:25.26
Aaron
Yeah.

00:08:25.42
Bradley Palermo
I'm really good at talking. you You don't really see him as like a deathmatch guy. And at first, you know, he's dancing around like, I don't want to do this. I'm not going to do that. But then he got fucking dirty, man.

00:08:34.78
Aaron
Yeah. He has a lot of versatility and he doesn't show it often, but when he does, it's always impressive.

00:08:35.35
Bradley Palermo
Like.

00:08:40.90
Aaron
You know, I think back to his, um, ah dog collar match with Punk. That was great.

00:08:45.67
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah.

00:08:46.34
Aaron
His Iron Man match with Danielson.

00:08:46.65
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:08:48.26
Aaron
That was great. like He can do it all. and i'm I'm happy for him. i think he's one of the best out there. and yeah Super impressed. Never seen that many thumbtacks before.

00:08:59.20
Aaron
Shit was crazy.

00:08:59.71
Bradley Palermo
You know, i I listened to Jim Cornette this week and it's, it's interesting because, um, I mean, I know that guy's like an old crabby, like traditionalists and, you know, I love them and everything, but like, well, he hated that match.

00:09:08.96
Aaron
He probably hated that match, didn't he?

00:09:11.35
Bradley Palermo
He thought that that match was trash. And, that MJF doesn't need to be doing this indie garbage shit, which I totally disagree with. I think that I put this more on the level of like Mick Foley, like you're using psychology, you're using, you're using those scary things to like, be like, Oh my God, is it going to happen?

00:09:21.58
Aaron
Yeah.

00:09:27.19
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:09:27.53
Bradley Palermo
Holy shit. It happened. Not just like, Hey, look, you know, like sweaty fat guy bleeds.

00:09:31.33
Aaron
Yeah.

00:09:32.96
Bradley Palermo
It's like there was,

00:09:33.13
Aaron
That match had psychology for sure.

00:09:34.71
Bradley Palermo
that it did and then so he was like poo-pooing that and then he also didn't even watch the stephanie eoskai match which was like the best match arguably of the weekend because why would i watch two girls who don't have a feud you know who don't even hold a title ah he he skipped it like he protested it i was like dude

00:09:44.52
Aaron
Whatever. Yeah, he's stupid sometimes.

00:09:55.32
Bradley Palermo
Jim Cornette is becoming, even though I'm a big fan, you know, I'm i'm part of his, you know, podcast following the cult of Cornette.

00:10:01.01
Aaron
The cult of Cornet. Yeah.

00:10:03.90
Bradley Palermo
But man, he's he's kind of a bitch like he's becoming.

00:10:06.51
Aaron
he He is. No, he, look, he is very smart.

00:10:07.70
Bradley Palermo
Maybe he always was.

00:10:11.20
Aaron
Very, very smart. Knows a ton about wrestling history and no one can take that away from him.

00:10:15.30
Bradley Palermo
Of course. Yeah. Right.

00:10:16.71
Aaron
He's got good ideas too, but he's too close-minded about certain things like women's matches.

00:10:21.05
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:10:22.90
Aaron
He thinks that women's matches shouldn't have equal time to the men, which honestly, I think is pretty sexist, even if they're not as good, it doesn't really matter. They should, there shouldn't be a distinction between the two. As we've said before, everyone should get a seat at the wrestling table.

00:10:38.04
Bradley Palermo
right

00:10:38.04
Aaron
So, you know, I listened to him too, from time to time, I used to be a more avid listener. And then I just got tired of him bitching. And, you know, He doesn't know me from Adam and i'm I'm a skinny white Mark.

00:10:51.58
Aaron
So what does he care what I think? But, you know, you you got got to give people a chance. It's fine to have opinions. We have opinions. But to just poo poo something but without even watching it, I think is not cool.

00:11:01.89
Bradley Palermo
he He said that Stephanie and Io shouldn't even have been on the card because there was already women in a match that was a main event that everyone was there for. so because there was a mixed tag match featuring, you know, big stars like AJ and...

00:11:18.90
Bradley Palermo
um Becky, that ah Stephanie and Io shouldn't even been on there. I was like, dude, you're fucking nuts because these girls now are not like he calls them girls matches.

00:11:29.47
Bradley Palermo
But these women now, they are just as good as the dudes like we'll talk later.

00:11:34.32
Aaron
Those two in particular, my God.

00:11:36.01
Bradley Palermo
In our Rewind, we'll talk about how they treated women you know in Jim Cornette's day where they don't do anything and they just literally bend over and walk away like without fighting.

00:11:40.28
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:11:46.24
Bradley Palermo
And these girls, they're totally sexy. Sure, fine. You get just as much of that if that's what you want. Hell, you get more of it because there's more time on screen. But you actually get ah competitive ah competitiveness that you see in the men...

00:12:00.78
Bradley Palermo
at least at least better or on par with the men.

00:12:04.56
Aaron
Yeah.

00:12:05.37
Bradley Palermo
And it's just, it's fucking blows my mind that anyone would be like, I don't want to see this because they're women. Because I mean, yeah, there's, there's some, there's some bad wrestlers about, you

00:12:10.43
Aaron
Yeah. Just close-minded, close-minded 60-plus-year-old man nonsense, but, you know, whatever.

00:12:16.54
Bradley Palermo
Dude, speaking of other, I know we're going long on the on the on the preface here, but um speaking of crabby old men, i i love i love Brett the Hitman Hart.

00:12:19.76
Aaron
That's fine.

00:12:27.66
Bradley Palermo
The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. And you know he's obviously, rightfully so, bitter because his career ended early and some of the booking didn't go in his favor.

00:12:38.56
Bradley Palermo
But did you hear what he had to say about Triple H this week?

00:12:41.69
Aaron
Yeah, you're talking about how somebody was like, oh, we saw, you know, at the at WrestleMania, you looked like you were rolling your eyes at Triple H when he shook your hand. And didn't you say like, oh, you guys saw that or something?

00:12:52.95
Bradley Palermo
yeah dude so on um let me see here oh yeah this is from inside the ropes in mid-september his interview he sat down

00:12:53.92
Aaron
That shit was great.

00:12:56.32
Aaron
Inside the ropes. Is that what it was?

00:13:04.65
Bradley Palermo
With inside the rope somewhere. he It was between September 15th and 17th. It was like, it was a few days. so I'm not sure which day this was, but I have, I have their clip. Hold on.

00:13:40.76
Bradley Palermo
Damn.

00:13:41.44
Aaron
Damn. Woo!

00:13:49.02
Aaron
Jeez.

00:14:12.05
Bradley Palermo
doesn't stop.

00:14:23.80
Aaron
Hmm.

00:14:24.35
Bradley Palermo
You know, it's funny because he starts off like, you know, I never had anything against Triple H and I ever rated him. He's a piece of shit. It's got no talent.

00:14:30.50
Aaron
I think it goes to eviscerate him.

00:14:31.13
Bradley Palermo
ah the dog I was like, I think you did.

00:14:34.18
Aaron
ah

00:14:36.53
Bradley Palermo
ah think you did rate him.

00:14:36.92
Aaron
That's funny. You know, I, I, I kind of disagree. I mean, well, we'll, we'll talk about it in the rewind. Like the match he had in, at this pay-per-view, thought was pretty good.

00:14:46.67
Aaron
Not that it was like a technical spectacle or anything, but he, he had his, he had his, his good qualities.

00:14:50.55
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:14:54.80
Bradley Palermo
I don't.

00:14:55.50
Aaron
Pretty funny though.

00:14:56.43
Bradley Palermo
I, yeah, I know it's hilarious. I mean, I don't like the modern triple H because like I said, he, he makes me feel like I'm in a board meeting or something. He doesn't make me like pumped for the show. It makes me feel like he's just, yeah, he seems like he's real proud of himself and like, you're up there during the show, bro.

00:15:05.64
Aaron
Yeah, he's an executive now.

00:15:12.32
Bradley Palermo
So give me a show. And I don't know. He seems like a, ah like a suit. Yeah. like just kind of a bitch. Like, I don't know. I'm i'm a blue collar guy. Like i'm I've, I've, I've, I've been raised to be like, I don't want to talk to the suits.

00:15:23.71
Bradley Palermo
You know, I don't, I'm not a corporate person.

00:15:24.98
Aaron
You're a man of the people, yeah.

00:15:25.35
Bradley Palermo
I don't, I don't have bosses, you know, no one tells me what to do, you know? So fuck the fucking, you know, fuck the man. In this case, Triple H kind of comes out like a heel.

00:15:33.52
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:15:35.60
Bradley Palermo
And I heard earlier, um Back to Cornette, I he was talking about how back in the day, you you never come out and say like, I've, I've, I've brought you the biggest houses.

00:15:45.61
Bradley Palermo
I've done this. I've done that. Unless you're a heel, like, because people don't want to think about how much they pay.

00:15:47.63
Aaron
her

00:15:50.74
Bradley Palermo
And I don't want to think about how how much I paid when I paid way too much money. And Triple H comes out and brags about it right in front of me. That's a heel move. So to me, Triple H is a heel in modern times.

00:16:00.35
Aaron
I mean, he always was a heal, pretty much, so it makes sense.

00:16:02.78
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but he's, he doesn't know he is right now. i don't think, but, but, um, should we get into the rewind?

00:16:08.73
Aaron
Yeah, let's do it.

00:16:09.67
Bradley Palermo
right. This one is your show, so I will let you bring us in.

00:16:11.73
Aaron
Cool. Sure. Okay, so we're here to talk about the Royal Rumble 2000, over 19,000 people in attendance at Madison Square Garden.

00:16:22.78
Aaron
We had good old JR Jim Ross and Jerry the King Lawler on commentary. ah Just for a little bit of historical context, WCW is still around. They are still the competition.

00:16:34.50
Aaron
But by this point, WWF has retaken the top spot in the ratings. Stone Cold Steve Austin is out with a broken neck that he's recovering from, I believe from a pile driver gone wrong given to him by Owen Hart.

00:16:48.93
Aaron
So this is the era of Dwayne The Rock Johnson. And first match of the evening was Kurt Angle coming out, getting booed.

00:16:59.51
Aaron
And doing his normal Kurt Angle thing, you know, I'm the best. I'm, I'm at the pinnacle of excellence or whatever he says. And whoever my mystery opponent is, you know, just come out here and do your best. And,

00:17:13.73
Aaron
and Before the mystery opponent reveals themselves, it's already kind of clear if you listen to the crowd who they wanted to be. Everyone's chanting for Taz because they are, as we said, in Madison Square Garden. They're in Brooklyn.

00:17:28.65
Aaron
Taz is from New York. ECW is deon basically defunct at this point. So after a few seconds, we get the ah the heart monitor beeping. Taz's signature beginning to his entrance music. and And there he is. And the crowd went wild for Taz.

00:17:46.38
Aaron
And this is also, I don't know if you noticed this, Brad, but this is where ah Wrestle, what is it? Botchamania. They always do their like, funny Taz, you know, commentary thing.

00:17:55.13
Bradley Palermo
huh yeah

00:17:57.46
Aaron
And they always play this little clip where JR is like, it's Taz. and And it's like the little Oompa Loompa walking out on on the Botchamania video.

00:18:02.60
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:18:07.53
Aaron
Anyway.

00:18:07.99
Bradley Palermo
uh that's funny i i um i saw this taz's wwf debut yeah right yeah

00:18:14.32
Aaron
It is, yeah, yeah. and And I love this match, particularly because of the crowd and how excited they are for Taz's debut. um It's obviously very short and sweet. I think it was like five, seven minutes, but I consider it to be one of the best opening matches for a Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

00:18:33.44
Aaron
um There is one large screw-up right in the middle of the match where Taz has Kurt Angle ah and he's trying to give him a German suplex. And I guess maybe they timed it wrong and Kurt kind of like jumps up for the suplex, but Taz wasn't ready. So it just looks like he's like, you know, doing a weird like twitch thing.

00:18:52.62
Aaron
And then they stop, they stop, they regain their composure. And then the suplex goes off without a hitch. And Kurt Angle actually does a full flip and lands on his stomach. Um, but yeah, it's really fun. Taz chokes out angle.

00:19:05.94
Aaron
It's angles first loss in the WWF. And, after the match, they kind of play up that like angle was choked out with a choke hold. It was an illegal move and he's passed out in the ring. They bring out a stretcher, i guess to make Taz seem dangerous, but yeah, fun opening match. What did you think?

00:19:24.57
Bradley Palermo
Do you see a lot of um parallels between the way that they present and not just the Olympian gold medal, but the way they present Chad Gable and Kurt Angle? It seems like they're kind of the way that they do Kurt, Chad Gable these days.

00:19:39.17
Bradley Palermo
It's so similar to how they presented Kurt Angle. It's like, yeah, you're an Olympian, but kind of a jackass and we don't like you, you know?

00:19:45.67
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah, they they they definitely sort of fell back on that. I mean, Chad Gable's been through a lot of different incarnations. When he was in NXT, he had a ta he was in a tag team called American Alpha, and there really wasn't any like Kurt Angle in that.

00:19:57.88
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:20:00.16
Aaron
But once he moved over to the main roster, they definitely toyed with the idea. Then they had that awful period of time where they called him Shorty G. I don't know if you were watching at that point.

00:20:09.84
Bradley Palermo
Uh, no, I remember some of that.

00:20:10.62
Aaron
That shit was ah show was terrible.

00:20:11.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Right.

00:20:12.61
Aaron
But Yeah, they they they have tended to do that, especially with ah his new stable American Maid, I think is what they're called.

00:20:13.42
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:20:21.82
Aaron
Their music is even similar to Kurt Angle's in a way where the crowd can chant, you suck, like they did for Angle.

00:20:22.09
Bradley Palermo
right

00:20:28.05
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

00:20:29.12
Aaron
So that's probably why.

00:20:29.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:20:30.12
Aaron
They definitely draw parallels, for sure.

00:20:32.100
Bradley Palermo
So that was a three minute and 16 second squash match.

00:20:35.31
Aaron
Wow, it was three minutes? Okay, I thought it was longer than that.

00:20:37.10
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I mean, it was basically all like,

00:20:39.66
Aaron
Taz destroying him, yeah.

00:20:39.81
Bradley Palermo
you know, suplexes.

00:20:41.02
Aaron
yeah

00:20:42.20
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, of course.

00:20:42.33
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:43.43
Bradley Palermo
Taz. um But for three minutes, you know, I mean, I liked it too. I thought it was a hot way to start it off, you know, fast and energetic.

00:20:49.40
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:51.49
Bradley Palermo
Taz looked fucking great. You know, I wasn't thinking of him as like the commentator.

00:20:53.08
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:20:54.78
Bradley Palermo
Like he did look scary. um The Meltzer rating, which I have decided to just include on these now as part of the match, like anything else was, do you want to guess?

00:21:07.42
Bradley Palermo
You got it.

00:21:08.74
Aaron
Nice.

00:21:08.85
Bradley Palermo
It was a three. You and the Wrestling Observer have a future maybe together.

00:21:10.47
Aaron
Nice. We are you're in tune. ah No, I liked it more than that. it was To me, I'd probably give it like a four, you know, as far as squash matches go.

00:21:19.29
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

00:21:20.78
Aaron
But, yeah.

00:21:21.14
Bradley Palermo
but But you got it right. um So for this the second match, we get into the very first, this is, okay, so first match, first Taz match, WWF, second match,

00:21:32.67
Bradley Palermo
first tag tables match of the ww wwf which is the hardy boys versus the dudley boys fitting for a table tag match in this match you have to put both guys through a table at some point during the match so consecutively right that's how they

00:21:36.15
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:21:46.25
Aaron
Yeah, consecutively is what they said. Yeah, I actually liked that they explained that. if The rules felt very clear. ah

00:21:52.91
Bradley Palermo
yes

00:21:53.61
Aaron
the I did enjoy Bubba coming out and doing his normal heel thing where he just insults the crowd. Did you catch like who he was talking about? he he was like, my my favorite person is John Rocker.

00:22:05.93
Aaron
So John Rocker was, I think, a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, and the 1999 World Series was the Yankees versus the Braves.

00:22:10.68
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.

00:22:16.38
Aaron
Yankees shut out the Braves four games to nothing, so he definitely knew the right buttons to push there.

00:22:18.96
Bradley Palermo
Oh, shit. I noticed they still do this, too. Now, today, they did it back then.

00:22:24.61
Aaron
Yeah.

00:22:25.64
Bradley Palermo
If you want to piss off a team, like Becky Lynch comes out and it's like she's in Chicago. She's going to talk about how the Blackhawks suck or whatever.

00:22:33.40
Aaron
The Bulls suck, yeah.

00:22:33.75
Bradley Palermo
Whatever team, you know, sucks. You know, he talks...

00:22:37.06
Aaron
auspiciously did not mention the bears because her husband likes the Chicago bears. I thought that was pretty funny.

00:22:41.53
Bradley Palermo
Oh, really?

00:22:42.46
Aaron
Yeah.

00:22:42.57
Bradley Palermo
That's funny.

00:22:42.87
Aaron
Yeah. yeah So

00:22:44.95
Bradley Palermo
But yeah, you want to piss off. I mean, you you know, I never hear it. I guess they're not in St. Louis enough, but if you showed up for a Monday Night Raw in St. Louis and started talking shit about the St. Louis Cardinals, you could still get enough heat probably to get yourself killed.

00:23:00.87
Bradley Palermo
I'm pretty sure. Like, maybe not the Blues, but, like, you could you could get hurt.

00:23:06.02
Aaron
Yeah, the going for the sports teams is ah is an a time-honored classic tradition.

00:23:06.06
Bradley Palermo
so i So it's good heat.

00:23:24.93
Bradley Palermo
I don't, I could take it or leave it. When I was young, it wasn't really a thing. Like every once in a while, someone gets thrown on the Spanish announce table or something.

00:23:33.44
Aaron
Yeah.

00:23:33.54
Bradley Palermo
If it breaks, it's like a huge spot. Just watching people go through tables for 10 minutes is, it doesn't bother me, but it's not that like, I don't know. It just it doesn't give me that spark that apparently the the other people in the crowd feel.

00:23:47.68
Aaron
Yeah, well, this was when I was young, so this is kind of my bread and butter, like the TLC matches I was a big fan of as a kid. So to see this and like its place in history i thought was cool.

00:23:59.82
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:23:59.86
Aaron
um You know, it had a hot start. The tables came in really quick, which... I think it's kind of funny, but ah get given how, you know, Bubba or a Bully on Busted Open tends to get annoyed with all the furniture. But I will say that there was psychology in this match. Like the stakes were being raised. You know, there was a flow.

00:24:19.16
Aaron
It was getting more and more intense. Um, something that I liked about this match, it was like a small thing was they set up the tables pretty quickly and, you know, one team would try to drive someone else on the other team through a table and the, uh, the teammate, the tag team partner would like move the table out of the way.

00:24:37.63
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:24:37.72
Aaron
ah thought that was kind of cool. You don't, you know, you don't see a lot of tables matches where the point of the match is to drive people through tables. So to see that I was like, Oh, that that's like, it's logically sound given what the objective of the match is you know

00:24:52.84
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and I thought that that was like good. um Even last weekend when when we were watching like MJF, you know, on a table, you know, you see like Mark Briscoe climb up and you're like, why doesn't he just fucking get off the table?

00:25:07.39
Bradley Palermo
Why are you acting like you're dead? And then he does. He just fucking moves.

00:25:09.97
Aaron
yeah

00:25:11.03
Bradley Palermo
And it's like, you got to get people to like get off, that especially early in the match.

00:25:11.36
Aaron
yeah

00:25:15.12
Bradley Palermo
like Get off the fucking table because you wouldn't just sit there and like kind of wiggle and position yourself sort of like they do under the turnbuckle sometimes.

00:25:20.12
Aaron
Right.

00:25:22.66
Aaron
Yeah.

00:25:22.77
Bradley Palermo
I like anything that seems like more real, but like but they were doing a lot of that. I mean, i thought it was...

00:25:26.81
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:25:28.30
Bradley Palermo
It was interesting. So this this match ends with the Swanton bomb off the balcony or the top of the ramp onto Devon, which you know it was um Jeff doing the Swanton onto Devon, which we kind of all knew.

00:25:36.80
Aaron
Yeah.

00:25:39.58
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:25:43.67
Aaron
Yep.

00:25:44.80
Bradley Palermo
I mean, having watched these all these guys enough times, I was like, yeah it's going to end with Jeff doing the Swanton. But like JR, like it wasn't like named yet. JR kept calling it like...

00:25:55.18
Aaron
A senton?

00:25:55.45
Bradley Palermo
ah ah ah a flying senton flip of maneuver.

00:25:59.54
Aaron
Yeah.

00:26:00.62
Bradley Palermo
Like he doesn't know what it is.

00:26:01.10
Aaron
Yeah.

00:26:02.85
Bradley Palermo
And I was like, is this that early on that you don't know what the, because I'm not like a guy that knows the names of everything, but I know like what Jeff Hardy does, you know?

00:26:05.78
Aaron
Yeah. it

00:26:10.98
Aaron
No, for sure. Yeah. And that came after Bubba taking a big fall. I think he got hit with a chair in the head and he took a fall and landed through four tables off that same place where Jeff jumped.

00:26:20.80
Bradley Palermo
Right. Right.

00:26:22.51
Aaron
I mean, Short and sweet match, very fun, and obviously not as intense as like all of the forthcoming tables, ladders, and chairs matches that will come later in history, but this has its place in history.

00:26:35.82
Aaron
This was the first time that a tag team match had this stipulation, and it definitely ushered in an era of insanity for tag matches, so I enjoyed it.

00:26:46.84
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it has this relevance. And, you know, I appreciate that here we are, you know, at the beginning of the Royal Rumble. um We got a three minute match and we got a 10 minute match like they are just flying through this shit. It's not boring.

00:26:59.93
Bradley Palermo
It's like it is all killer, no filler so far.

00:27:03.11
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:27:03.19
Bradley Palermo
So I like that. Oh, we didn't mention the video package at the beginning. The big the big like Triple H, um triple H cactus Jack, I think is what make fully is going by this point match, um, is kind of what we're getting besides the rumble.

00:27:11.92
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:27:17.54
Bradley Palermo
That's like the main event. And, and the whole like preface of that is, you know, um, triple H is, is the heel. He's been sort of a, the bully, the, the dude that married the, the Mick.

00:27:26.85
Aaron
Mm-hmm. The McMahon Helmsley era.

00:27:30.30
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. He's McMurray.

00:27:31.07
Aaron
Yeah.

00:27:31.50
Bradley Palermo
He's, he's with the McMahon and he's, He actually tried to get rid of Cactus Jack and there was a boycott where all the other wrestlers were refusing to come to work if they didn't let Foley back in. So that's what we'rere we're waiting for later in the night. But in the meantime, we have all these really short, like quick kind of fun matches.

00:27:49.71
Bradley Palermo
um

00:27:50.42
Aaron
What did Papa Meltzer give this one?

00:27:52.53
Bradley Palermo
Papa Meltzer gave it four.

00:27:55.16
Aaron
Oh, that's surprising.

00:27:56.09
Bradley Palermo
Which I would be surprised if I didn't already know. i think also because it's it's a relevant match being the first of its kind.

00:28:05.43
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:28:05.92
Bradley Palermo
um

00:28:06.66
Aaron
Doesn't strike me as a match he would like because it's not for not like a New Japan 45-minute strong style thing.

00:28:06.92
Bradley Palermo
You know.

00:28:12.88
Bradley Palermo
yeah i wonder if because it hearkened back to like an indie thing that was happening a few years prior ecw if he if he'd like to see that indie shit because i know he don't know it seems like he's not real into the disney side he's more into like the underground shit um what he really likes is work rate and all that stuff but i don't know i mean it's hard for me to it's hard for me to decipher what goes on and

00:28:21.43
Aaron
Yeah.

00:28:30.07
Aaron
Yeah. The grittier stuff. Mm hmm.

00:28:38.03
Aaron
in Dave's mind.

00:28:38.41
Bradley Palermo
That man's brain, especially over the decades. Right. Cause it's yeah.

00:28:41.21
Aaron
Well, it's, he's been degrading over time.

00:28:43.99
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:28:44.15
Aaron
All right. So the next, uh, segment of this pay-per-view, probably the worst. Uh, it was the Miss Rumble 2000 contest,

00:28:51.23
Bradley Palermo
Boo.

00:28:55.36
Aaron
We had a judge's panel of Sergeant Slaughter, Tony Garea, the fabulous Moolah, Johnny V, and Freddie Blassie to judge this contest. Also, Andy Richter is a special judge, which I thought was hilarious. Like, what what are you doing here, Andy?

00:29:12.10
Aaron
ah

00:29:12.22
Bradley Palermo
What is he doing on the show he was on at the time? was just kind of hanging out.

00:29:15.21
Aaron
He was on the Conan O'Brien show, so he was, you know, just...

00:29:17.11
Bradley Palermo
I know, what was he really doing on Conan? Now what is he doing on this?

00:29:19.53
Aaron
Just sitting in the couch and cracking jokes. Yeah, I don't know.

00:29:21.93
Bradley Palermo
Right, exactly.

00:29:22.37
Aaron
but So the contestants for this were Ivory, Terry, also known as Terry Runnels, Dustin Rhodes or Dustin Runnels' ex-wife now, Jacqueline, Bebe, Luna Vachon, and The Cat.

00:29:40.76
Bradley Palermo
I like Luna.

00:29:40.89
Aaron
um Luna was i' pretty mad. I think most of the women were pretty mad.

00:29:44.73
Bradley Palermo
Luna deserved. Yeah, Luna deserved better for sure. I'm sure all the women did, but Luna definitely. She's a worker.

00:29:51.80
Aaron
Yeah, so the the the contest was a swimsuit contest. ah Each of the women showed off their swimsuits one at a time. it was ah not great and pretty degrading.

00:30:04.55
Aaron
And then it got pretty weird slash hilarious because Mae Young at 77 years old, is what you said she was?

00:30:13.54
Bradley Palermo
77 at the time. Yeah.

00:30:14.94
Aaron
77 years old comes out and takes her tits out ah for the crowd. it got

00:30:19.57
Bradley Palermo
Or yeah, her puppies, as they referred to them about 15 times.

00:30:20.28
Aaron
it got censored.

00:30:23.42
Aaron
Her puppies. ah Oh my God. Yeah. So she takes those out and the crowd is horrified. The women are horrified and Mark Henry comes in to cover her up. I guess this was when Mark Henry was doing that thing where may, uh, he was like dating may young and impregnated her and she gave birth to a hand. Did you ever see that? That was.

00:30:43.50
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, i I mean, I know that Mark Henry ah impregnated Mae Young in story at in her late 70s.

00:30:48.95
Aaron
In storylines.

00:30:52.65
Aaron
Yeah.

00:30:52.86
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, she...

00:30:54.77
Aaron
Good on him, I guess.

00:30:55.20
Bradley Palermo
was... Yeah,

00:30:55.57
Aaron
I mean, quite frankly, the whole segment was pretty shameful and embarrassing.

00:30:59.71
Bradley Palermo
it was...

00:30:59.86
Aaron
And somehow Mae Young won.

00:31:01.68
Bradley Palermo
yeah it was ah You know, just just another reminder to me that wrestling has come a long way with women and women the women's division.

00:31:12.12
Bradley Palermo
Like I said, now it's it's just as good and don't... don't hell like even boxing like you don't i don't watch a match and be like watched this girls match or whatever it's like just in all these sports you just see like the best of the best like amazing people doing amazing shit and i'm sure a lot of these athletes were really great um i think luna you know certainly had more to offer it's just because i remember seeing her wrestle before but

00:31:29.36
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:31:36.13
Aaron
Yeah.

00:31:38.51
Bradley Palermo
um, dude. Yeah. Like bringing up these athletes and it's literally having them all like bend over. Like there was one girl in saran wrap, you know, there was one girl just like in a ah nude colored thong and then you have an old lady topless and they're all, they all just kind of bend over and take off the robe and then that's it. And it's just like, dude, you, you know, you really wasted like the time of like 10, 10,

00:32:02.61
Bradley Palermo
athletes and if you didn't then you wasted the spot of 10 athletes that should have fucking been in there you you didn't have a royal rumble you just had a women's royal rumble right right

00:32:07.31
Aaron
Yeah. It was the Attitude Era. It was raunchy stuff. You know, this was when Girls Gone Wild video ah videos were being sold on television.

00:32:19.67
Aaron
And it was just a different time. Not that I'm ah condoning it, because in hindsight, it's terrible. I'm sure 12-year-old me was like, oh, boobs, yeah.

00:32:26.38
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:32:28.80
Aaron
But...

00:32:29.08
Bradley Palermo
Yo, I mean, it's... Dude, I was watching this um on my iPad in the at the restaurant at Fat Sal's waiting to have me and Impossible Burger.

00:32:39.31
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, I got my headphones on, of course, because I'm not one of those assholes that, you know, plays their phone full volume.

00:32:43.62
Aaron
Talks on speakerphone, yeah.

00:32:44.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah. But like people are like walking all around me and I have this big-ass iPad. like And it's like what's on the screen is like fucking like a 77-year-old woman walking around topless while Jerry the King Lawler is like you know bumbling around next to all these like girls in thongs.

00:32:58.20
Aaron
Woohoo!

00:33:00.18
Bradley Palermo
And I'm like, I feel like a total fucking creep.

00:33:03.17
Aaron
Yeah.

00:33:03.25
Bradley Palermo
And then... You know, I play it in my barbershop because I like to have, you know, today I like to have the show on so I can kind of just soak it in before the podcast. And, you know, of course, like some woman walks in with her kid and like what's on again is Mae Young.

00:33:17.26
Aaron
The same thing, yeah.

00:33:18.38
Bradley Palermo
The top. Yeah, the same thing. And I'm just like, dude, you guys like you guys are making me like embarrassed to be watching this shit. But um yeah, do you you want to guess what Meltzer gave this one?

00:33:29.49
Bradley Palermo
I'm just kidding. Meltzer didn't didn't rate this one.

00:33:31.32
Aaron
Yeah, that this this would be probably be a dud if he did, i would assume.

00:33:31.46
Bradley Palermo
But if you.

00:33:34.82
Bradley Palermo
ah du

00:33:34.92
Aaron
Or maybe, I don't know, maybe he's a perf.

00:33:37.36
Bradley Palermo
and so for the third match we got an intercontinental championship which was jericho versus china versus hardcore holly yes we actually have a woman in the men's match this time so we got something interesting happening we don't see yeah

00:33:51.58
Aaron
interesting juxtaposition to what we were just talking about like you'll have women just get naked for no reason but then you'll have china wrestle men yeah

00:33:54.84
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:34:00.02
Bradley Palermo
China was like the one, you know, enigma. You know, China's music, it's so bad and like on the nose and it's like a fake pink song.

00:34:09.79
Aaron
don't treat me like a man or something like that right

00:34:09.94
Bradley Palermo
It's like, yeah, don't treat me like a woman. Don't treat me like a man. Don't treat me you know me. Just treat me for who and what I am.

00:34:23.60
Bradley Palermo
It's just like so like someone's like, hey, look, she's like a woman that like, you know, fights the men. She's not like either. And she's both. And pink is on the radio.

00:34:33.24
Aaron
Not one of Jim Johnston's best themes, we can say that much.

00:34:36.35
Bradley Palermo
No, so bad. But, um, I guess her and Jericho at the time were like kind of homies. Right. But, but the, but the inner kind of no one knew who won.

00:34:43.88
Aaron
Yeah, they were co-holders of the belt somehow, I'm not sure how

00:34:48.73
Bradley Palermo
They probably both, um, fucking.

00:34:50.67
Aaron
Both pinned somebody at the same time or something?

00:34:52.12
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I was going to say, yeah. So, so they had to to bust out another relatively short match.

00:34:53.52
Aaron
Yeah.

00:34:58.36
Bradley Palermo
Um, uh i was rooting for china uh the match wasn't like the best match of the night but um jericho hit a lion salt and china scored the pin it's cool to see old jericho he's he was at but some point in time he was a pretty uh uh spry an amazing wrestler um yeah

00:35:00.100
Aaron
As was I.

00:35:04.65
Aaron
It was not.

00:35:17.51
Aaron
Charismatic. He was super over. the The crowd loved him. This, I think, was probably pretty soon after he had... come back to WWF or maybe this was his first time being there because you know he was doing that whole Y2J thing the Jericho-holics that's what I saw some of those signs in the crowd he has

00:35:31.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, Y2J. yeah it

00:35:38.22
Bradley Palermo
He's reinvented himself quite a few times, and he's done some cool shit. and like you know I think even today, he's good at just being... an obnoxious, you you know, out of shape heel that you want to go away.

00:35:49.14
Bradley Palermo
But it's like, he's good at doing that.

00:35:49.46
Aaron
but

00:35:51.09
Bradley Palermo
So he's, he's even good at being like, I guess that's just heat, but like, he's good at getting the right kind of heat that's realistic enough.

00:35:51.61
Aaron
yeah

00:35:56.56
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:35:58.74
Bradley Palermo
um Cool.

00:35:59.37
Aaron
Yeah. Short match. And, ah you know, the next match was for the tag team championships. It was the new age outlaws versus the acolytes. And on paper, I was stoked for this one. i like ah road dog and Billy gun.

00:36:15.23
Aaron
i like, ah Brad Shaw and Farouk. um It had some hard hitting moments, but honestly, this was kind of a letdown for me. the it It again was like sub 10 minutes.

00:36:26.58
Aaron
I think the referee got knocked out for a little while. And then X-Pac came to help his fellow DX cohorts, the the new age outlaws. Billy Gunn hit Farouk with the famouser and then one, two, three outlaws retain. I was like, that's it

00:36:42.06
Bradley Palermo
I mean, this was a two-minute match. This thing didn't even hit three. So it was it was gone before it was in.

00:36:45.60
Aaron
Was it really?

00:36:47.87
Bradley Palermo
It was Meltzer at the one-star rating.

00:36:50.97
Aaron
Yeah.

00:36:51.09
Bradley Palermo
I don't have that much to say about it. We'll see more from the New Age Outlaws in the Rumble that's coming up that same evening.

00:36:55.93
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:36:57.53
Bradley Palermo
um The best part I wrote down, which was longer than the match, is you know the Road Dog DX entrance, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, et cetera, et cetera.

00:37:05.45
Aaron
Yep.

00:37:08.96
Bradley Palermo
Then we get into match five, the ww WWF championship. It's a street fight between Triple H and Cactus Jack. I've already kind of gave you some of like the early video package that, you know, we're looking at Cactus Jack, McFully, um,

00:37:23.79
Bradley Palermo
as as our as our baby face and Triple H as the the asshole who's with the McMahons and he he's tried everything to get rid of him.

00:37:34.94
Bradley Palermo
triple ah Cactus Jack had said previously, like, you think you're the game? I say I've played this game before and won, you know? So he's, he's kind of all his characters at all one time.

00:37:46.17
Bradley Palermo
and He's fucking great. And this is his, this is his turf, man. This is, he's the king of the death match, Mick Foley, the cactus Jack and and, and, and Triple H is entering into his realm.

00:37:52.58
Aaron
yeah

00:37:57.09
Bradley Palermo
So we're getting, a we're getting some fucking gnarly shit in this one. i don't know what you want to, you want to set it up for us here?

00:38:04.56
Aaron
Yeah, I mean, i enjoyed the the hype video, the recap package, recounting the feud definitely got me stoked for the match. And um you were very right. this This was, you know, almost felt like all the matches before this were just like quick to get to this one so that it could be as long as it was. I think it was almost a half hour. And yeah.

00:38:27.100
Aaron
they got down to the weapons and the, and the foreign objects quite quickly. um I cactus took a pretty gnarly chair shot to the head. A few, honestly, ah very early on they were fighting in the crowd. Um, it was pretty violent, all things considered, but you know, this was the period of time where this, this style of, of wrestling became more and more prevalent in the WWF.

00:38:55.53
Aaron
Um,

00:38:56.41
Bradley Palermo
I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of the bloodiest WWF matches that I've seen.

00:38:58.41
Aaron
Yeah.

00:39:02.87
Bradley Palermo
There might be more lurking, but that thing, this thing is crazy.

00:39:05.30
Aaron
yeah Yeah, it didn't take long before the barbed wire wrapped 2x4 came out, which is a Mick Foley or Cactus Jack special. um Foley got hit with it a couple of times, like in the chest and in the back.

00:39:20.05
Aaron
And then the ref took it away. And I'm not sure if you noticed this. He gave it to the Spanish announce table. And then, well, yeah, you know I'll tell you why.

00:39:26.66
Bradley Palermo
And he hit it.

00:39:29.72
Aaron
I think they swapped it out. for one that was not real barbed wire because right after that Foley hits Triple H in the head like several times with it.

00:39:40.92
Aaron
And obviously if it's real barbed wire, like there's a chance you could poke somebody's eye.

00:39:40.96
Bradley Palermo
Oh, I see. Yeah.

00:39:45.32
Aaron
So I would have to imagine they did a little switcheroo. um

00:39:49.49
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:39:50.40
Aaron
Triple h did start bleeding, but obviously he bladed himself. He didn't, didn't do it the hard way with the barbed wire.

00:39:56.72
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:39:56.89
Aaron
um But yeah, this was this was a violent spectacle for sure. It was on par with the types of matches that we see in AEW nowadays in terms of the blood and the crazy spots. and um Triple H got some handcuffs. he He handcuffed Cactus Jack's arm or hands behind his back.

00:40:16.10
Aaron
And ah There was a pretty funny moment where Cactus still handcuffed. Triple H grabs the steel steps and he's getting ready to hit Foley and Foley does a drop toe hold.

00:40:29.04
Aaron
So Triple H like drops the steps and then smacks his head into the steps.

00:40:33.20
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Dude, Foley was fighting back pretty hard with the handcuffs on behind his back.

00:40:37.85
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:40:40.25
Bradley Palermo
I just... I hate handcuff spots because i feel like... how do they get out? They always get out somewhere in this scenario. They, they managed to like have a cop come out at least, which was, I thought, is I think it a good out.

00:40:52.72
Aaron
Sure.

00:40:53.19
Bradley Palermo
Usually, usually in AEW, WWE nowadays, somehow they managed to get out on their own.

00:40:56.50
Aaron
They like break it or whatever.

00:40:58.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. And it's like, well, if that was true, then all kinds of criminals would just flip out and get out in the back of the cop car.

00:40:59.20
Aaron
Yeah.

00:41:03.09
Aaron
Right. If it was that easy, everyone would do it.

00:41:05.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. and But even when the cop had it, I was like, is that the same key? Because I think you got to have a key unique to the handcuffs that you have. So i was i was like, i don't... I just never like the process of how they get away.

00:41:17.55
Bradley Palermo
Like my brain, it takes me...

00:41:17.87
Aaron
Yeah. It's a little...

00:41:19.19
Bradley Palermo
ah Yeah.

00:41:20.42
Aaron
know exactly what you're going to say.

00:41:20.56
Bradley Palermo
but But they did. They got them out. and and And the ramp, by the way, on this Royal Rumble pay-per-view short. And it was kind of a ah nod to New York City where they were. It was like very like

00:41:33.67
Aaron
Had bricks on the side and trash.

00:41:35.46
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, there was there was even crumbled bricks on the edges where they were walking in.

00:41:38.90
Aaron
Yeah.

00:41:38.94
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was like kind of that Ninja Turtles, like, you know, from the gutters of of New York City, the spray paint, graffiti, bricks, trash can lids type of thing.

00:41:47.44
Aaron
Yeah.

00:41:49.02
Bradley Palermo
um

00:41:50.02
Aaron
This, ah that I also noticed, you probably saw it as well. they did They did some moves on the announce tables and neither of the announce tables broke.

00:42:00.27
Aaron
Like Foley did a pile driver to Triple H on the Spanish announce table. That thing didn't move at all. I was like, oh God.

00:42:06.40
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:42:06.66
Aaron
Oh, like painful. And how how else can you ah ratchet up the intensity of a street fight with Cactus Jack without the thumbtacks? And this, I actually looked it up because I was like, when's the first time they did thumbtacks?

00:42:15.55
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:42:20.44
Aaron
I think maybe one of the first times was the Hell in a Cell match that we watched with Mankind and Undertaker. But this this match is remembered by most as being

00:42:26.22
Bradley Palermo
Ah.

00:42:30.90
Aaron
one of the most like disturbing uses of thumbtacks because of the finish which is triple h pedigreeing hitting cactus jack with his finisher pedigreeing him into the thumbtacks face first and you can actually see there are thumbtacks in cactus jack's forehead that have lodged themselves in there when he's getting pinned crazy man

00:42:49.80
Bradley Palermo
yeah he doesn't do it once though he does it twice

00:42:54.61
Aaron
Yeah, no, well, he he gave him a back body drop, I think, first. and And the first pedigree was off the tax. The second one was directly onto the tax.

00:43:03.08
Bradley Palermo
right it's crazy shit um but yes uh

00:43:07.60
Bradley Palermo
Triple H retains. Foley does manage to come back and attack Triple H post-match, which is kind of what he's known for. Like, you got to kill this guy. Like, he's going to get back up over and over again.

00:43:15.72
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:43:18.11
Bradley Palermo
He's nuts. um For a 26-minute, 26-minute, 51-second long match, um I thought it was pretty incredible.

00:43:27.00
Bradley Palermo
i was happy to see.

00:43:27.80
Aaron
Yeah.

00:43:28.78
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I know Mick Foley has a lot of great matches under his belt, but... This is fucking cool.

00:43:33.63
Aaron
And again, not to talk shit about Bret Hart, but like Triple H did exactly what he needed to do in that match. Sure, it wasn't like a technical spectacle like Bret Hart matches are, but I thought Triple H was was perfect, flawless.

00:43:46.73
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, he's he looks great. He's the bad guy. he he He takes all the damage. He bled buckets, you know, and um yeah, there there was no, I mean, I don't know.

00:43:53.82
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:43:57.65
Bradley Palermo
As far as like a death match goes, I'd say was perfect. um

00:44:01.23
Aaron
Yeah, it was great. What did Dave think?

00:44:02.75
Bradley Palermo
Do what you want to guess on this one? I'm curious what you think, what you would guess.

00:44:07.64
Aaron
Maybe like a three and a half.

00:44:09.87
Bradley Palermo
surprisingly he went four and three quarters he just he just couldn't fucking help himself to not make it five i mean you know

00:44:12.47
Aaron
Oh, good for him. i Yeah, I couldn't give it five. It was good. I agree with that rating. I mean, it was it was very good.

00:44:23.03
Bradley Palermo
yeah i think if you go back and you look at like for wwe w and the style of match and who's in it and stuff like um

00:44:30.99
Aaron
There weren't too many of those back then.

00:44:32.82
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, I would i guess again on this pay-per-view, I kind of give Meltzer credit for having the foresight because you don't really know like what kind of legends you're dealing with and like what kind of iconic moments, like which which ones will ripple through time and space to like influence things.

00:44:49.24
Bradley Palermo
20 years later, 30 years later. And, and like, it seems like he does know the important matches when they happened, at least back then.

00:44:51.51
Aaron
he kind of did.

00:44:54.94
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:44:55.46
Bradley Palermo
I don't think he knows anymore, but um so, so our sixth event of the evening and final event of the evening is um the 30 man Royal Rumble match for a rumble,

00:44:56.02
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

00:45:06.13
Bradley Palermo
Of course, I'm sure anyone listening to this already knows, but all the and enter all the wrestlers enter in intervals of a couple minutes until all 30 of them have entered the match.

00:45:19.72
Bradley Palermo
In the meantime, you can be tossed you can be eliminated by being tossed over the front ah top rope, both feet hitting the ground. um it's uh usually only got like five or six guys in the ring at a time and uh you kind of get like everyone's like little move little hot moment insurance uh it's it's a nice way to get all the nostalgia of all these guys in the in the era i mean it sucks that stone cold steve austin was injured at this time because that's like a glaring uh

00:45:44.21
Aaron
Yeah.

00:45:51.16
Bradley Palermo
sort of void in this pay-per-view but um we haven't covered a royal rumble before i mean how do we go through 30 fucking entries and everything that's happened i don't know where it even started

00:45:52.84
Aaron
Yeah.

00:46:02.98
Aaron
I don't think we should. i mean, yeah, there's too many people to list. I could, I guess we could just talk about the things that stood out. Um, the, the first thing that i laughed about was, uh,

00:46:13.96
Aaron
Grandmaster Sexay, Brian Christopher, who is Jerry the King Lawler's son, he was one of the early entrants.

00:46:19.86
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:46:21.82
Aaron
ah entrance And

00:46:23.17
Bradley Palermo
The Burger Prince, I guess that makes them.

00:46:25.61
Aaron
i i could not stop laughing at how JR was saying Grandmaster Sexay.

00:46:32.27
Bradley Palermo
Yes, and I was like, okay, it's sex A. Yeah, i was like, is that... have to spell it like that? I guess, was he spelling it like that? With like an A-Y?

00:46:38.64
Aaron
Yeah, S-E-X-A-Y.

00:46:39.34
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:46:40.64
Aaron
Yeah, that's exactly how they spelled it.

00:46:41.06
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, so...

00:46:42.47
Aaron
So that made me laugh. I thought it was really random that our old pals Kayentai, Funaki, and Takamishinoku just kept showing up throughout the match randomly, even though they weren't in the match, to like attack people and then would proceed to get thrown over the top rope like within 10 seconds of getting into the ring.

00:47:01.03
Aaron
And they did like three times.

00:47:02.53
Bradley Palermo
yeah they they were like a thread which i appreciate i i love how they set up like this rail rumble like i like that there was like a weird little thread with tai and kai but um jerry the king lawler was uh super fucking i love jerry but like man some of this stuff doesn't age well bro like it was his joke was that he was like the chinese are back he kept saying it over and over again and then

00:47:25.81
Aaron
said they're Japanese.

00:47:27.21
Bradley Palermo
And then, yeah, and then the other announcer, who who was on this again?

00:47:30.62
Aaron
Jim Ross, JR.

00:47:31.42
Bradley Palermo
Jim Ross would be like, they're Japanese. And he's like, oh, the Chinese are back. Japanese. And it was just like, dude, like, that's weird. but But I mean, it's funny that it was stupid, but it was, you wouldn't do that now.

00:47:42.89
Aaron
Yeah, I mean that's what Jerry did.

00:47:44.95
Bradley Palermo
bere Like, oh, you know, the joke is, ha, they're all the same.

00:47:45.26
Aaron
No.

00:47:48.18
Bradley Palermo
Like, fuck off, dude. dude. But yeah, it was, it was, ah it was, ah thing of the time how things have changed i'm always interested in seeing all that um it the the rick the too cool too sexy routine with rikishi they so they stop in the middle i think rikishi might have been in cahoots with those two at some point like

00:47:55.74
Aaron
Yeah, absolutely.

00:48:02.70
Aaron
With Rikishi? Oh my god, yeah

00:48:09.23
Aaron
yeah. the Yeah, the 2 Cool was the was the group of the three of them.

00:48:13.34
Bradley Palermo
okay

00:48:13.69
Aaron
it was it was Grandmaster Sekse, Scotty 2 Hottie, and Rikishi.

00:48:17.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:48:17.93
Aaron
Yeah.

00:48:18.28
Bradley Palermo
Okay. So when they were all three in there and they eliminated everyone else up to that point, um you've got Scotty and, and sex a on both sides of Rikishi, who's, you know, a very large Samoan in a thong and his huge dimply ass is just, you know, booty dancing with these like two like buff white boys

00:48:23.84
Aaron
At a little dance party.

00:48:34.36
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:48:38.99
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:48:41.28
Aaron
Crowd loved it.

00:48:41.46
Bradley Palermo
And um it was, there i mean, actually I think that it's good in a Royal Rumble when you have these these moments because a lot of ah a Royal Rumble is just kind of like guys in each corner sort of stomping and, you know, doing the punches and it gets like boring.

00:48:53.97
Aaron
Yeah.

00:48:56.21
Bradley Palermo
But when you can actually have everyone present some bullshit, whether it's like, you know, years prior to that, it's like the honky tonk man to come out and do a whole fucking song or, you know, someone bushes.

00:49:04.71
Aaron
who Hit somebody with his guitar.

00:49:07.24
Bradley Palermo
yeah and then he's tossed over like like that's that's yeah yeah it was cool it was one of the moments we also had a surprise entry by ah former wwf champion bob backland who was you know back in the 70s like the all-star you know baby face

00:49:09.28
Aaron
Yeah, you got to break it up a little bit, create some levity.

00:49:24.22
Aaron
And he didn't get shit on like the last time we saw him. I remember i don't remember what it was. I think it in the 93 WrestleMania maybe that we watched where he just like got absolutely destroyed by a razor or something.

00:49:34.77
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:49:35.92
Aaron
But he actually was around in this for a few minutes.

00:49:37.05
Bradley Palermo
oh didn't he we watched that that really terrible wrestlemania uh wrestlemania nine or something from las vegas yeah where they just squashed his ass and he's like he's like a lunatic old man but he was like 40 but he was like really washed up um but in this yeah he had a moment he's got no muscles anymore he's just kind of showing up and

00:49:38.66
Aaron
He helped eliminate Rikishi.

00:49:45.72
Aaron
Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, that was him. Yeah.

00:49:52.75
Aaron
yeah

00:49:59.12
Aaron
no think they said he was running for governor or something of Connecticut I don't know if that was real yeah

00:50:03.72
Bradley Palermo
He probably was, dude. I don't know if it was real not, but um but it was good to see Bob in there. ah You know, you get Jericho, you get Edge, you get Bossman, Bulldog, China, Kane, Big Show, The Rock.

00:50:17.71
Bradley Palermo
They're all there. I mean, and i don't I don't know what to say about it all.

00:50:19.14
Aaron
Outlaws and Acolytes also came back. So like the one interesting thing, yeah, like you said, is they did have threads from earlier in the show. So like Jericho came out, then China came out and China went after Jericho and eliminated Jericho because she was pissed off at him.

00:50:34.77
Bradley Palermo
She did. Yeah.

00:50:35.82
Aaron
Um, and new age outlaws came out and acolytes came out and they obviously went after one another. So that was kind of interesting. Like you said, just, you just need a little something extra in a Royal rumble to make it more than just a bunch of guys punching each other in the corner.

00:50:52.30
Aaron
Uh, and, and I felt like on the, on the whole, this did that.

00:50:52.76
Bradley Palermo
right

00:50:56.11
Aaron
And, um, it, you know, Not my favorite Royal Rumble, certainly, but it was fun. And and obviously, once the biggest babyface in the company, The Rock, comes out, biggest pop of the night, he's the star of the moment. There's no denying that.

00:51:11.29
Aaron
um And yeah, then it was like, okay, is Rock going to win? Is Rock going to survive?

00:51:16.57
Bradley Palermo
he guaranteed he would, you know,

00:51:18.39
Aaron
He did, yeah, earlier in the in the evening with a promo in the back.

00:51:21.72
Bradley Palermo
did you, did you notice that at one point the new age outlaws and a member of DX who we'd all seen previously in the night, we're in there together, right? We got road dog. We got Mr. Ass or Mr. Billy, whatever Billy gun, um, daddy ass.

00:51:35.27
Aaron
Mr. Ass, yeah.

00:51:36.42
Bradley Palermo
I don't know which one, but we so we got, yeah okay.

00:51:37.93
Aaron
He's Mr. Ass, yeah.

00:51:39.34
Bradley Palermo
So we got ass, we got road dog and we got X-Pac and, uh,

00:51:39.73
Aaron
and X-Pac.

00:51:44.97
Bradley Palermo
They could have, you know, there's only a couple like monsters in there with them, like Kane and whoever.

00:51:48.78
Aaron
Yeah, they could have teamed up and done something.

00:51:50.66
Bradley Palermo
But instead they start throwing each other out. They all fuck each other over.

00:51:52.77
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:51:53.54
Bradley Palermo
and I was like, dude, you guys.

00:51:55.01
Aaron
Dissension in the ranks, man.

00:51:56.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, you guys could have done it.

00:51:56.53
Aaron
I think Triple H had left by that point. I left DX. This was the second incarnation of DX. I don't even really. it's kind of hard to tell earlier in the night if DX were the heels or not.

00:52:08.16
Aaron
It kind of seemed like they weren't. But yeah.

00:52:11.00
Bradley Palermo
seemed like they were pretty cherished by the audience god i know it's we always say this about the attitude era but the amount of signs in that fucking audience crazy everyone has a sign yeah

00:52:14.11
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:52:19.66
Aaron
Yeah. Insane. Insane.

00:52:24.54
Aaron
and let's see the Big Show that was ah you know a pivotal moment in the Rumble because Big Show is a very large man and he starts eliminating a bunch of people asserting his dominance and the The field starts to ah you know come down a little bit.

00:52:42.68
Aaron
I think it was Kane and Big Show and Rock and somebody else. I can't remember. it starts whittling down, and eventually we get to the final two, Big Show and Rock, and get a little David versus Goliath action going on.

00:52:55.67
Bradley Palermo
la

00:52:56.44
Aaron
And ultimately, the Rock manages to get Big Show over the top rope, and Rock wins the Rumble.

00:52:56.64
Bradley Palermo
you

00:53:03.01
Bradley Palermo
he does um did you uh In other notes during all this, there was WWF New York bar club promoted.

00:53:12.06
Aaron
I did did notice that, yeah.

00:53:13.07
Bradley Palermo
They had Linda McMahon being interviewed about the Royal Rumble. it She fell flat. Like, she's just not a very charismatic person. But I was like, holy shit, like... It's hard to find a bar where you can go.

00:53:24.53
Bradley Palermo
I know it's in a touristy part of New York and stuff, but it's hard to find a bar where you can go like get down with the fans and like watch pay-per-views.

00:53:26.38
Aaron
Sure.

00:53:31.22
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:32.22
Bradley Palermo
And they had one that was like devoted with, with merch and interviews.

00:53:35.49
Aaron
Right? That's a cool idea. hmm.

00:53:37.22
Bradley Palermo
And it was like during that like ah TRL era where MTV had a spot in Times Square and they would, you know, show, so they would show like rock stars and VJs in front of Times Square like,

00:53:49.41
Bradley Palermo
WWE, w like I guess you could probably go hang out there and watch the ball drop and go hang out there before and after these main events and see interviews and stuff.

00:53:54.06
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:53:57.64
Bradley Palermo
That's so cool. it I guess it was only there from two the year 2000 to the year 2002. WWE WWF turned into WWE. They stopped calling it um wwf world they started calling it the world and like sort of made it just like a nightclub and then um the hard rock cafe quickly bought it and turned it into hard rock cafe time square um i have no idea if that's still there but but i was really interesting um you know in that and uh

00:54:26.44
Aaron
Yeah. I wish that something like that existed nowadays for sure. it'd be a fun place to go.

00:54:31.60
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and then also regarding The Rock's win, so The Rock, that was supposed to give him a shot at the world ah title for WrestleMania that year. um But it was disputed that The Rock actually touched,

00:54:47.96
Bradley Palermo
the that he actually won. um

00:54:49.55
Aaron
Oh. Oh.

00:54:50.29
Bradley Palermo
They're saying that Big Show, So Big Show draw eliminates The Rock, right? But he kind of like they kind of both fall out and The Rock comes back in but Big Show doesn't like all in a second.

00:55:03.01
Bradley Palermo
And there's they they went back to the replay on the TV shows after this and and showed that technically The Rock, while he's holding onto the ropes, his feet both hit and then Big Show's feet both hit and The Rock pulled himself back in.

00:55:13.04
Aaron
oh

00:55:16.75
Bradley Palermo
So there was a... four-way match at WrestleMania instead of the rock getting his shot against triple H he had to do ah a uh elimination four-way which i guess is not the same as a fatal four-way you have to pin people out of the match so it was triple h the rock big show and foley for some reason at wrestlemania so which i think is kind of a cheap kind of cheap you know the but the royal rumble guy should be the one that has the big match i like i like singles matches so uh it's interesting to me that he uh you know his win was disputed later

00:55:31.07
Aaron
Uh-huh. Yeah.

00:55:37.94
Aaron
Hmm.

00:55:43.56
Aaron
Yeah.

00:55:50.62
Aaron
Yeah, I didn't know that or didn't remember that. i WrestleMania 2000 escapes my brain because it was WrestleMania 16. Yeah. I don't know why I don't remember that one, but I remember 17 18. Those were bangers

00:56:05.32
Bradley Palermo
all right so the grapple grade fast forward play rewind fast forward being boo play being yay rewind being double yay uh uh this is your show your pick aaron i think i want to hear your take on it first if you don't mind

00:56:23.13
Aaron
Sure. I will give this a play. i know it's kind of the coward's way out to just give it the mid-grade, but I thought it was fun. um As you said, most of the matches leading up to the World Championship match and the Rumble were very short, so it's kind of hard to get invested in them.

00:56:41.90
Aaron
But there were some fun ones. I enjoyed seeing people that I remembered from when I watched the most when I was in my early teens. Um, so yeah, I, I, I thought it was worth watching.

00:56:55.29
Aaron
i don't feel like it's destination viewing that you have to watch this Royal rumble over any other one first, but I would say, check it out if you, if you want to, what about, what say you?

00:57:06.42
Bradley Palermo
Cool. I'm going to get i'm gonna get a little crazy here. I'm going to go rewind on it. I feel like its historical significance plays into this rating for me. I think having the first you know big like tables thing for WWF, I think having the um the introduction to Taz, I think making all those preliminary things fast and not boring,

00:57:30.25
Bradley Palermo
I think um the Mick Foley match was great. I think the Royal Rumble was, it was like clean and quick and interesting. I mean, it was an hour, but it didn't feel like it um so a lot of it is just that like i was entertained and not irritated which is rare in wrestling

00:57:46.94
Aaron
Cool. Cool. yeah

00:57:49.91
Bradley Palermo
so so yeah i'm gonna gonna go with the rewind on this i'm gonna you know it's it's always a gamble you're like well how will i feel later but but yeah i learned a lot and i had i thought had thought lot of fun i my biggest thing I can say is for this time, it's really disappointing to not get like stone cold, but like he's injured and that happens in wrestling.

00:58:09.66
Bradley Palermo
So what can you do?

00:58:10.36
Aaron
Yeah.

00:58:12.48
Bradley Palermo
Should we get into some, um, listener correspondence? I think, hold on.

00:58:15.93
Aaron
Let's do it.

00:58:16.71
Bradley Palermo
I need to play a couple little, um, clips that I can bring in later. So it's just on my, um, timeline.

00:58:43.90
Bradley Palermo
All right. As always, we love to hear from you out there. If you are listening and there is anything you agree or disagree with about us and you want to voice your opinions on the air, you can call

00:58:58.47
Bradley Palermo
lamb

00:59:01.47
Bradley Palermo
and you'll get our Google voice line. You'll be able to say whatever it is you want to say, we'll play it here on the air as long as it's, ah you know, as long as we can get to it.

00:59:12.06
Bradley Palermo
Also, you want to cut a promo on us, um good or bad, go ahead, feel free. to uh call that number you can also email us grapplecitypod at gmail.com find us on x tiktok twitter we're at grapple city pod on all that shit too um this week let's see i got a message here on one of the platforms

00:59:36.16
Bradley Palermo
from Amy Lee in Evansville. She said, Her husband was wanting to send a question into Jim Cornette to get his opinion. She figured she could write in to get ours.

00:59:46.65
Bradley Palermo
So Sunday night before Raw in Evansville, she saw the Usos and Bron Breaker and a ref eating dinner together out in public.

00:59:56.70
Aaron
Okay.

00:59:57.08
Bradley Palermo
Do you have any opinion on breaking kayfabe during active feuds? She says that she's a new fan and was told at one time they used to maintain the illusion behind the show.

01:00:07.77
Bradley Palermo
And back in the day, it was not allowed. i wrote her back already just because I thought it was an interesting conversation.

01:00:11.94
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:00:14.84
Bradley Palermo
But I told her we talked about it on the air. How do you feel about that one?

01:00:16.76
Aaron
Cool. Yeah. um Well, thank you for writing in. Always great to hear from the peeps. um She's absolutely right that, you know, prior to ah the curtain call, which I believe was in 1995 1996, the

01:00:33.54
Aaron
The famous moment where at a house show, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley all embraced because ah Scott Hall, aka Razor Ramon, and Kevin Nash, aka Diesel, were leaving WWF to go to WCW.

01:00:48.84
Aaron
that That before that time, it's exactly what she said. You were not supposed to be out in public as a babyface with a heel or vice versa.

01:00:58.72
Bradley Palermo
Thank you.

01:00:59.18
Aaron
They wanted to maintain the illusion that what was happening on their shows and at their events was real, that the animosity was real, and I think it's probably safe to say that most people, even back then and and before then, didn't necessarily think that it was real, but reminding the audience of the fact that it wasn't real would, you know, suspend, make it more difficult to suspend one's disbelief.

01:01:29.02
Aaron
So that is the way it used to be.

01:01:29.27
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

01:01:31.53
Aaron
it's Not really the way that it is now. Certainly with shows like WWE wwe Unreal, that you know shows you that everything is not real.

01:01:39.04
Bradley Palermo
yeah

01:01:41.52
Aaron
um As for my opinion, I think it's okay. you know Maybe if I was the person that saw them, I would think differently, but they're human beings just like we are.

01:01:54.54
Aaron
It's silly to think that people who work this closely together this often would not be friends. Like... you know, take Punk and Seth, for example. I don't think that Punk and Seth actually hate each other. In fact, I'm pretty sure that there are married couples hanging out and having a great time with each other, and that's great.

01:02:12.71
Aaron
I also think that I don't need to be reminded of that because it does make it, you know, I don't i certainly don't need to see it on TV that they're friends, um but if they if I were to see them in public and they were hanging out

01:02:12.87
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Right.

01:02:15.88
Bradley Palermo
right

01:02:24.70
Aaron
I would be okay with that just because to me, the product, what we see on television, what we see on social media, what they tweet at each other, what they post about each other, that is different than them just living their lives. So for me, it's fine.

01:02:43.56
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think, um first of all, back you know when we watched Dark Side of the Ring, TV shows like that that are you know more documentary about...

01:02:53.14
Bradley Palermo
the old days they traveled in separate cars like you you have to get like four guys and a you know in station wagon or whatever like four like 300 pound dudes and like it doesn't if you're in a he if you're a heel you got to be in a heel car if you're a baby face you got to be in the baby face car i'm pretty sure there were two locker rooms the heel locker room the baby face locker room it sounds like nowadays you know

01:02:56.57
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:03:16.07
Bradley Palermo
either you're on the Indies and there's no locker rooms you're in an alley or there's like maybe the guys in the girls locker room, but it's like, yeah, it was very like separate and it kind of harkens back or takes the holds the tradition of like the carny days of, um,

01:03:31.40
Bradley Palermo
of trying to fool people and make them believe this is real and suspend disbelief. And, you know, I love all that shit. And I wish, I wish even with everything that's already happened, that they would still just have dudes that will not fucking admit it.

01:03:45.41
Bradley Palermo
I think... you know, that sort of like Andy Kaufman type of humor where you just, yeah, maybe it's a fucking joke, dude, but you're not gonna catch me laughing.

01:03:50.02
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:03:53.65
Bradley Palermo
Like, and I'm just gonna get more and more weird. The weird the more do you try to break me on this, like, I wish that they would hold strong. I wish that they wouldn't talk about Unreal during their TV shows.

01:04:05.10
Bradley Palermo
It's fine if you have a documentary style thing afterwards, preferably about way before, not about like current stuff, but like, That is not what's happening. Like, it I wish it was because I'll, I'll, I want to play make-believe. Like, this is, this is, you know, escapism for me.

01:04:22.13
Bradley Palermo
You know, this is my comic book.

01:04:23.07
Aaron
Yeah.

01:04:23.88
Bradley Palermo
This is my, you know, whatever, like cosplay, Comic-Con, whatever the fuck. Like, I want to believe it. so much I love that it's not like other entertainment I love that it's weird that it's quirky that it's rooted in like some old American traditions like bullshitty stuff like I love that but like they're not trying to do that shit at all they're they're trying to be like look this is a TV show these are characters these are actors so um I mean I'd love I mean that's really cool though Amy that you saw um the Usos and um

01:04:44.08
Aaron
Yeah.

01:04:49.96
Aaron
Performers. Yeah.

01:04:56.20
Bradley Palermo
And those folks, who else was there? Braun Breaker?

01:04:59.26
Aaron
Yeah.

01:04:59.79
Bradley Palermo
um you know In public, that's awesome. i ah you know it's always It's always cool to see these people in the wild. I don't go bother them personally if I do see someone, but it's exciting to to run into people.

01:05:12.17
Bradley Palermo
and like I don't know, man.

01:05:13.31
Aaron
Yeah.

01:05:13.64
Bradley Palermo
i wish I feel you. I wish it would be like that, way but it's like way long gone. like There's no fucking way that we're going to get any...

01:05:20.29
Aaron
yeah

01:05:21.58
Bradley Palermo
body kayfabing you know dusty roads back in the day you know if he broke his leg in the ring you know he's he'd go to the fucking drugstore with a fucking you know cane and a cast like he would breakfast his own kids you know shit like that

01:05:31.36
Aaron
huh Yeah, I mean, that stuff that stuff makes sense. And like you know raw Seth Rollins did that with his fake knee injury a few months ago, and I thought that that was perfect and spectacular.

01:05:47.40
Bradley Palermo
yeah

01:05:47.44
Aaron
So I think that there's a time and a place for it. um It's definitely... a lot less common nowadays. And for me, I just kind of accept the fact that I'm, I'm watching a show.

01:05:59.33
Aaron
ah it is you know, athlete, athletic entertainment. It is a physical soap opera to me.

01:06:04.97
Bradley Palermo
Thank you.

01:06:05.22
Aaron
So like when I'm watching it, I'm in it. i can separate myself from the extra shit, but I totally understand. There's ah time and a place for kayfabe to still be in use.

01:06:21.53
Bradley Palermo
If I was a wrestler, i the podcast interviews and that shit, they would not be shoot interviews. Like, I would be as real and down to earth as I can.

01:06:27.56
Aaron
Mm hmm.

01:06:30.20
Bradley Palermo
But like, anytime someone says something about being fake, it would be like, I wouldn't address it directly, but I would very much stay in the character anytime I was public, you know.

01:06:31.21
Aaron
Still be your character.

01:06:41.56
Aaron
Yeah.

01:06:41.57
Bradley Palermo
But I don't know. Somebody will come around and do that shit again. Like, I mean, fuck it, dude.

01:06:45.46
Aaron
MJF kind of does it. He doesn't do it as much anymore, but he he he's pretty good at it.

01:06:47.97
Bradley Palermo
he's He's pretty good at it. Yeah. But like, it's like method acting, right?

01:06:49.99
Aaron
Yeah.

01:06:51.57
Bradley Palermo
Like, I mean, i some of those guys are, it's fucking weird, but I appreciate it.

01:06:51.95
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:06:55.71
Aaron
Yeah, commit to the bid, man. Yeah.

01:06:57.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. um Oh, wait, we got a voicemail here. Somebody did call 626-657-SLAM. We'll see who it was and what they had to say.

01:07:18.06
Bradley Palermo
We're going to start that over real quick.

01:07:44.14
Aaron
Nice.

01:07:46.81
Bradley Palermo
Weird.

01:08:13.99
Bradley Palermo
weird

01:08:18.76
Bradley Palermo
Huh. Huh.

01:08:47.27
Bradley Palermo
Yes.

01:09:07.90
Bradley Palermo
Thanks, Brian. You know, I went to review the world.com, his website.

01:09:09.80
Aaron
Nice.

01:09:13.30
Bradley Palermo
It's pretty funny. He reviews novelty junk food, like guacamole flavored Doritos and she ah ah weird shit like that.

01:09:21.02
Aaron
Okay, yeah. nice

01:09:23.70
Bradley Palermo
You know, like I'm a big fan of um ah sort of like random novelty stuff.

01:09:24.06
Aaron
okay yeah

01:09:28.20
Bradley Palermo
Like I'm personally, I'm really into Oreos and, you know, like Post Malone had some of the best Oreos I've ever had where they put like one white cookie, one black cookie and like a caramel swirl. And then that goes away. And then, you know, like, um, you know, I like the birthday cake Oreos with the sprinkles that have it right now in my kitchen.

01:09:47.64
Bradley Palermo
So I think that's like some, the kind of vein of things he's, he's talking about, but, um, but King of the ring 2002, I've, I have a list of things people have recommended to us.

01:09:57.80
Bradley Palermo
That sounds awesome. Minus the main event, like you said, um Even Eddie Guerrero versus Ric Flair. I'm like sold at that, you know?

01:10:04.01
Aaron
Yeah, that's, that's interesting. Never don't remember that at all.

01:10:08.35
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. And like Hulk Hogan winning or losing clean, interested in that. Um, I, yeah. Right. I put, so I put this on, on the list. I have a little list of things that people recommend.

01:10:18.76
Aaron
Cool.

01:10:20.10
Bradley Palermo
And I think, but like, I know like if, for those of you who don't know, like Aaron and I trade off on, whose call it is for what, uh what we're watching in the next episode and aaron's a little more like goes with the feeling of the week or whatever he's feeling at the moment i i tend to try real hard to like go to like this day in history you know like go back to like the same month like timely shit so if aaron doesn't pick it before i do um you know i'll i'll do it in june but if he if he wants to do it sooner ah i'm totally down but it's on my list for june if aaron doesn't go for it faster let's see so next week

01:11:00.86
Bradley Palermo
Good question. Okay, so by the time this airs, we will be in October. It's It's the most wonderful time of the year. Halloween time. ah really need a Halloween Havoc. I don't think we've done a Halloween Havoc yet, right?

01:11:15.06
Aaron
did, no, we did. We did the one that I went to as a kid.

01:11:18.32
Bradley Palermo
Oh, shit. We did that one. All right.

01:11:19.84
Aaron
Yeah, but we let's do another one for sure.

01:11:20.07
Bradley Palermo
Well, we're going to do Halloween Havoc again. um I am going for... I don't think it's going to be the greatest one we've ever watched, but I want it to be like one. I want it to be the weirdest one we've watched.

01:11:33.20
Bradley Palermo
So Halloween Havoc 1991. Have you seen it? No.

01:11:37.09
Aaron
have not seen it, no.

01:11:37.93
Bradley Palermo
Halloween Havoc 1991 WCW Chamber of Horrors. And it opens with, of all gimmick matches, something I've never seen, an electric chair match.

01:11:50.83
Bradley Palermo
where abdullah the butcher gets executed via electric chair live on pay-per-view obviously in story that is so stupid that i have to watch it um i i love early wcws so you know i'm sure this is like a stain on that era for me but i really still want to see it um

01:12:01.08
Aaron
Yeah.

01:12:10.85
Aaron
All

01:12:11.66
Bradley Palermo
I hear that the crowd is confused and like cactus Jack is flipping the switches of the electric chair and that the contraption doesn't really work.

01:12:21.27
Bradley Palermo
And then i do, I just want to see it. So for how in celebration of Halloween, we're going weird WCW, uh, Halloween havoc, 1991 chamber of horrors.

01:12:27.79
Aaron
right.

01:12:31.61
Aaron
Love it.

01:12:32.17
Bradley Palermo
Cool. Well, that is all the time we have left for today. Thank you all for listening. Don't forget to like, rate, review, write in tell us what's up. Call that hotline, ah call that hotline, 626-657-SLAM.

01:12:46.96
Bradley Palermo
Oh, hey, and if you are in or around the Chicago area, I will be performing live at the Sleeping Village with Type Setter on October 10th.

01:12:57.99
Bradley Palermo
Coming up really quick, come see me in Chicago. We can hang out at the merch table and talk about wrestling after I perform. I might even sing my song about Ric Flair if I am getting you know the vibes, the right vibes.

01:13:11.98
Aaron
The wrestling vibes.

01:13:12.39
Bradley Palermo
something

01:13:12.94
Aaron
Yeah.

01:13:13.27
Bradley Palermo
Sometimes I throw people off when I start of singing about um you know wrestlers at an indie rock show.

01:13:14.98
Aaron
the

01:13:19.28
Bradley Palermo
But... We will see we will see you all soon. We might even start doing this a little more often if time um if if you know if everything goes as planned.

01:13:30.54
Bradley Palermo
um Thank you all so much. We will we talk to you soon.

01:13:34.65
Aaron
Catch in the cheap seats.