2001: A Wrestling Odyssey - WWF No Mercy 2001

Brad and Aaron return to St. Louis for WWF No Mercy 2001, which took place live at Savvis Center—the same arena where Brad saw his very first wrestling show. The duo relive the Attitude Era’s turning point as WWF began its transformation into WWE, dissecting the struggle for power between Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, and Rob Van Dam. Along the way, they rewind through the entire card—Hardys vs. Hurricane, Edge vs. Christian, Kane vs. Test, and more—mixing in current product talk about Crown Jewel 2025, nostalgia for 90s house shows, and the ongoing Bloodline fatigue. Expect humor, deep cuts, and plenty of hot takes as Grapple City Rewind heads back to the Invasion Era.

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

• 6:59 Current Product
• 25:02 The Rewind
• 1:01:48 Grapple Gang

Transcript

00:00:00.25
Aaron
Okay. Check, check, check. Volume looks good. All right. Hey, everyone. This is Aaron Fink from Grapple City Rewind. If you like what you hear on this episode, we've got an entire back catalog of 20 hours of material available.

00:00:12.14
Aaron
We talk about old pay-per-views, so you're not going to be missing out on anything timely. Check it out. You just might have a great time. Hit that music.

00:00:20.05
Bradley Palermo
Hello la la la la la la la la low and welcome to Grapple City Rewind, taking you all the way back to the iconic pay-per-views and television specials that defined wrestling history.

00:00:35.43
Bradley Palermo
This week, we are going back to my original hometown, my origin of St. Louis, Missouri, to October 21st, 2001 at the Sabbath Center, the very first building that I ever saw professional wrestling in.

00:00:51.25
Bradley Palermo
Personally, that holds something... let's hold something So I guess I have something at stake in this episode. It's the same building where the Blues play.

00:01:01.02
Bradley Palermo
And we're going to talk about this particular packed evening where there was more than 15,000 fans watching the WWF on the verge of massive change, on the verge of becoming WWE.

00:01:13.13
Bradley Palermo
uh right after the the dissolution of wcw and ecw and the theme is going to be a struggle for power we're going to have a desperate man vengeful man a confident man i'm talking about stone cold steve austin kurt angle and rob van dam in a three um what is it called three triple threat match um it's a few months before the rebrand and uh

00:01:33.06
Aaron
No. Okay.

00:01:38.84
Bradley Palermo
you know I guess we'll we'll get into all that uh we'll get into that in the rewind today um but first before we talk about the fun that was did I say even what the name of the fucking pay-per-view is all right let me start over on that whole intro

00:01:51.76
Aaron
no

00:01:55.47
Aaron
okay

00:01:56.49
Bradley Palermo
this we This week we're going back to WWF No Mercy 2001. And I'm excited about this one because it takes place at the Savas Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

00:02:07.13
Bradley Palermo
St. Louis being my hometown and the Savas Center being very first place that I ever saw professional wrestling. It's the building where the Blues play. This particular night was pretty exciting because it's when the WWF was at the end of its run, about to become the WWE season.

00:02:22.78
Bradley Palermo
And WCW had just been bought up and so had ECW. So there's a lot of a lot of changing of a lot of change going on in professional wrestling at this time. We've got a lot of like big names to talk about. Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Rob Van Damme, all that cool shit. Attitude Era shit.

00:02:40.92
Bradley Palermo
But before we rewind to WWF No Mercy 2001... two thousand and one I think that Aaron, we should talk about a little current product. This past weekend was Crown Jewel Perth, and I got to watch most of it.

00:02:54.56
Aaron
hu

00:02:57.06
Bradley Palermo
I've kind of been on the road a little bit, but I think we should just go through it match by match. ah There was some cool shit here and some whatever shit too, but um let's break it down.

00:03:03.87
Aaron
Yeah.

00:03:06.57
Aaron
I got it. I got something for you actually before this.

00:03:08.37
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:03:09.21
Aaron
Do you remember what the first ah wrestling show you saw at the Sabbath center was like who was in it and stuff? Cause I'm curious. Yeah.

00:03:18.53
Bradley Palermo
I have a screenshot of the the the um card. I just have to, it's a house show. I have to find it really quick.

00:03:23.33
Aaron
ah Okay, cool. Yeah. Now take your time.

00:03:25.51
Aaron
This is good material.

00:03:29.03
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

00:03:31.16
Bradley Palermo
So my first show was November 10th, 1994 1994 at the Kiel center, which was called, uh, which is what the Sabbath center was called, you know, before Sabbaths put their name on it, uh, for an attendance of 4,500 people.

00:03:44.39
Bradley Palermo
Um, first match was Bushwhackers, uh, defeated. Well done. Stephen Dunn and Timothy. Well, the second match was Adam bomb.

00:03:50.37
Aaron
Well done.

00:03:53.49
Bradley Palermo
Do you remember him? Yeah.

00:03:54.39
Aaron
Yeah, dude.

00:03:55.68
Bradley Palermo
Defeated bam, bam, Bigelow.

00:03:57.29
Aaron
Wow.

00:03:57.67
Bradley Palermo
um The third match was Jerry the King Lawler defeating Doink, which may explain some things. why I have so much of of an affinity for both Doink and Jerry Lawler.

00:04:07.52
Aaron
Yep.

00:04:07.70
Bradley Palermo
And I think hopefully that was but was still OG Doink back then. I don't know. They had a lot of guys playing. ah um Lex Luger defeated... No, Lex Luger versus Tatanka.

00:04:20.40
Bradley Palermo
ended in a double countout this was the heart attack tour by the way bret hart was not there but owen was um alondra blaze and heidi lee morgan um defeated bull nanko nakano bull in the cano and luna luna vishan

00:04:25.78
Aaron
Oh.

00:04:33.38
Aaron
Well, Nakano, yeah.

00:04:36.74
Aaron
Oh, wow. That's why you like Luna, too.

00:04:38.80
Bradley Palermo
uh yeah luna's kind of peak time um then um there was a ww wwf intercontinental title razor ramon the champion defeated owen hart and i remember even as an 12 year old at the time i remember being like there's no cameras here there's no way razor ramon is going to drop that belt you know like like i knew even back then like this is this is kind of a bullshit match like like

00:04:59.57
Aaron
still logical.

00:05:03.01
Bradley Palermo
Like Owen Hart's not fucking changing, not getting that fucking intercontinental title right now. And then there was a casket match, which is kind of cool.

00:05:10.47
Aaron
Oh, really?

00:05:11.14
Bradley Palermo
I didn't realize that I'd seen a casket match live and in the flesh.

00:05:11.43
Aaron
That's awesome.

00:05:16.74
Bradley Palermo
It was Undertaker defeating Yokozuna and,

00:05:20.38
Aaron
Oh, shit.

00:05:21.55
Bradley Palermo
they you know I was on and this podcast um that my friends run called How to Talk to Your Friend About Wrestling. And I was on as a guest, just as like a musician dude who likes wrestling. And they they have you bring a match, and they talk to you about that match. And I brought Yokozuna...

00:05:37.14
Bradley Palermo
um casket match versus the undertaker and they were kind of like making fun of me like because it's corny as fuck you know it's like yokazuna is like scared to death of the undertaker you know just like deathly scared and you know it's just it's just a bunch shenanigans there's not a whole lot of moves it's just kind of like and then eventually you know they his like fat ass gets thrown in there and

00:05:47.44
Aaron
Of course.

00:05:57.66
Bradley Palermo
um And they were like, why do you like why did you bring this one? And I'm like this is just like, this represents my childhood, like my era.

00:06:04.98
Aaron
Yeah.

00:06:06.08
Bradley Palermo
you know I just loved The Undertaker. And Yokozuna was the like epitome villain of the time. And I didn't realize, like because I'd fucking seen this match in a house show before, you know like it took me like a lot of digging to come up with this match card.

00:06:16.10
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:06:20.96
Bradley Palermo
You can find the Heart Attack Tour and some flyers, but... um I had to get like with AI and stuff and like go through like weird. they I had to let it search like more and more.

00:06:31.16
Bradley Palermo
It wasn't just like a who was on this bill.

00:06:31.32
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:06:32.67
Bradley Palermo
It was like, I don't think that happened. And I'm like, okay, well, here's this flyer.

00:06:36.50
Aaron
I don't think that happened.

00:06:36.51
Bradley Palermo
Here's that flyer. It must have been the date between the two.

00:06:39.72
Aaron
Right.

00:06:39.85
Bradley Palermo
and they were like, and then eventually somehow in some archives or magazines, it kind it came up with like this card and i'm like holy shit it's bringing everything back for me and uh i feel like i was so close but i know i wasn't like in in the first few rows or anything but i guess when there's only like 4 500 people that's pretty much just the floor in section one you know like forre for like the keel center so don't know

00:06:48.88
Aaron
That's awesome. Yeah.

00:07:01.26
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:07:04.82
Aaron
For sure. Yeah, that's great, dude. Yeah, i I mean, I think the first show I ever went to was one of the Clash of Champions WCW in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, but I don't remember which one. I'd have to look it up.

00:07:16.26
Aaron
But that's cool, man. Yeah, i love I always love hearing about people's first shows, seeing when they fell in love.

00:07:21.02
Bradley Palermo
it's funny that you asked that because if you ask me maybe maybe because of this i looked it up but if you'd asked me this like two weeks ago it it was just it's according to my phone it was last tuesday that i spent the time to find all that so don't know

00:07:33.41
Aaron
Good timing. Good timing. Well, let's, let's indeed move on to the current product discussion. As you said, crown jewel 2025 in Perth, Australia was this past weekend.

00:07:43.88
Aaron
Well, let's just talk about the matches in order. First match was Bronson Reed versus Roman Reigns in on an Australian street fight. What'd you think of this one?

00:07:52.62
Bradley Palermo
Let's see. um So it started off kind of fun because just watching Bronson get his ass beat by Roman.

00:07:58.88
Aaron
Yeah.

00:07:59.50
Bradley Palermo
um You know, yeah, and Roman just confidently twirling around that kendo stick.

00:07:59.72
Aaron
Crowd loves Roman.

00:08:03.97
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, I mean, I...

00:08:05.24
Aaron
You hit him with a cricket bat. That was pretty funny. Crowd liked that.

00:08:07.62
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, dude. I mean, it's fun to see him get his ass just just kind of handed to him. Bronson Reed is a good heel, man. I don't like him. He comes off as kind of like the fake Samoan, sort of.

00:08:18.20
Bradley Palermo
but Like, whatever he is. um And, you know, he's always stealing Roman shoes and stuff. I'm like, alright, I'm ready always to hate these guys. But, like... i didn't like where it ended up i think i think you know the i think the usos interfering in the all the fucking other brawn breaker interfering of just it's like a little too obvious and the the usos and roman reigns their struggle to you know for the spotlight and and for roman to control the usos and the usos to get along with each other i mean we're just looking at

00:08:28.15
Aaron
Yeah.

00:08:51.63
Bradley Palermo
just at least since I've been back the last however many six, seven, whatever years, it's just this over and over again. I feel like it's, it's a tired dynamic with the Usos and in Roman.

00:09:03.49
Aaron
I mean, I get that. You know, if I'm being honest, the match to me was just OK. There was there's nothing wrong with it. But, it you know, to to have a street fight in wwe WWE, first of all, they're just not really what I picture street fights to be because there's no blood and they only use like pre-approved weapons that aren't very, ah you know, dangerous.

00:09:18.64
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:09:24.62
Aaron
um If I'm being honest, the thing I like the most was the very end of the match after Roman was pinned. by Bronson Reed and the conversation that he had in the ring with Jay and Jimmy, because you're right.

00:09:38.22
Aaron
We, so we have seen a lot of the dysfunction between Roman and his family, Roman and the Usos. But I, I really thought that the conversation that they had was interesting because what Roman was saying was different than what he normally says. He was showing vulnerability and saying like,

00:09:56.92
Aaron
I love you guys, but people think I can't do this on my own.

00:10:01.14
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:10:01.23
Aaron
You know, like I think that I can't do this without you. And that that is very much like what a baby face would say. I mean, he's still being himself and he still is kind of heelish.

00:10:08.74
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:10:09.97
Aaron
But I thought that that showed a little bit of a glimpse into something different. And I'm not. I don't love, i think Jay sort of going to the dark side, which I think is what they're probably going to end up doing, is is kind of not, it's not really working for me. But this little moment at least was like, oh, okay, this is kind of intriguing.

00:10:32.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:10:32.46
Aaron
We'll see where this goes.

00:10:32.49
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:10:33.50
Aaron
You know, I'm not super, I feel like, the Usos and Bronson Reed and Bron Breaker have been feuding for it feels like two months. And I don't know if it's actually that long, but they just keep running into each other.

00:10:43.32
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:10:46.90
Aaron
And i I'm a little tired of it. But at least this part at the end, I was like, oh, this is just a little bit different. It wasn't what I was expecting to happen. I was expecting him to just like be pissed off at them.

00:10:57.49
Aaron
And he was pissed off at them, but in a in a different way. You know what i mean?

00:11:00.51
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, that's fair.

00:11:00.64
Aaron
and

00:11:01.87
Bradley Palermo
I see what you're saying. But I think, I guess I don't care about the new nuance personally because I've just seen this family feud every single possible crisscrossy way.

00:11:12.99
Aaron
Yeah, for like five years.

00:11:13.56
Bradley Palermo
first so but Yeah, and so I'm just, like, I i would say keep Roman. i don't I have no use for the Usos anymore. Like, I'm just, I've seen them, you know, blow up and fight each other and then get back together but then get back apart and all the bloodline and stuff like i don't know i think i give this one a d for dumb

00:11:32.38
Aaron
Oof, okay. i I guess maybe I'd give it like a C+. plus

00:11:36.34
Bradley Palermo
okay

00:11:36.49
Aaron
But second match was Stephanie Vaqueira versus Tiffany Stratton for the crown jewel the Women's Crown Jewel Championship. um It was only 10 minutes long.

00:11:46.28
Aaron
i I thought it was good. i Tiffany, I thought, looked a bit better than I... than I usually feel like she looks. um It was just a little quick for me.

00:11:56.53
Aaron
i It had the right outcome, the outcome that you and I both predicted and said was the right one, you know, for Stephanie to continue climbing the ladder of success.

00:12:02.24
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:12:06.56
Aaron
um I do like that Stephanie has a new finisher. This, I don't know what you call it, but like a corkscrew backflip kind of thing off the top rope.

00:12:13.59
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:12:15.85
Aaron
It's definitely a lot flashier than her previous finisher.

00:12:16.75
Bradley Palermo
Like... I like that move, yeah.

00:12:21.16
Aaron
Yeah, I thought it was a good match. just Just good. Like, not spectacular. Not like Stephanie versus Io, which I think we all thought was amazing.

00:12:28.22
Bradley Palermo
No... This was not a banger. I mean, first of all, not that it really fucking matters, but does it seem like Tiffany looks thin now? Like, less muscly?

00:12:39.44
Aaron
I noticed that too, actually.

00:12:40.94
Bradley Palermo
Like, she has a different physique now, which, i mean...

00:12:41.36
Aaron
i don't know...

00:12:44.40
Aaron
Yeah, but it like it happened in like a week or two. like Maybe she just lost a bunch of water weight or something. I don't know.

00:12:50.36
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, she, it's fine either way. It doesn't really matter to me, but it seemed like she had ah more of a bony.

00:12:56.40
Aaron
She looked a little frail.

00:12:58.17
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. And so she I thought she was kind of a little bit more a muscle head before, but that's interesting. I don't know how it happens so fast. Um, Stephanie has the fucking moves. I mean, I guess that's kind of what you were saying.

00:13:08.59
Bradley Palermo
But yeah, the corkscrew thing off it's off the top, the devil's kiss.

00:13:09.43
Aaron
Yeah.

00:13:11.75
Bradley Palermo
Obviously, everyone loves it for one reason or another. And the match was all right.

00:13:15.58
Aaron
Because they're all a bunch of pervs.

00:13:16.94
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, right. Very bootylicious. The match was all right. I give it I give this if I give the other one a D, I would put a C plus on this one.

00:13:26.02
Aaron
OK, yeah.

00:13:26.04
Bradley Palermo
Just just because it's it's solid, but it's it's really not the best you could see of either of these two.

00:13:30.74
Aaron
Yeah, I'd say I give it like a B, B minus. Yeah.

00:13:33.21
Bradley Palermo
Okay, so I'm hanging out like a letter grade below you so far.

00:13:36.37
Aaron
yeah

00:13:36.48
Bradley Palermo
But that's because you're the upbeat one and I'm the the negative Nancy.

00:13:39.62
Aaron
You're the grumpy Gus. Yeah.

00:13:41.22
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:13:41.26
Aaron
Well, I don't think you can be grumpy about the third match, which I mean, the internet certainly went crazy for. i i watched it live and as it was happening, I loved it. um Maybe that just makes me a mark, but I thought this was in contention for a match of the year. John Cena versus AJ Styles. 27 minutes.

00:14:00.54
Aaron
First thing I want to say is I really loved that John wrote an intro for AJ. I thought that was very sweet.

00:14:08.36
Bradley Palermo
Oh, cool.

00:14:08.74
Aaron
And, yeah, I don't know if you caught that or or not.

00:14:12.28
Bradley Palermo
I watched the matches. I didn't watch like introductions and stuff.

00:14:14.70
Aaron
Okay. So, you know, John had Alicia Taylor do his normal...

00:14:15.56
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:14:19.38
Aaron
The never seen 17 blah, blah, blah, all that shit.

00:14:21.74
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:14:22.42
Aaron
But then she, he handed her a piece of paper and it was something that he wrote for AJ.

00:14:25.05
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:14:28.10
Aaron
And apparently after the fact, um, it was confirmed that he wrote it and that people didn't know about it. AJ didn't know about it. It basically, um, you know said like he was the ace of TNA, the one true leader of Bullet Club, the face that runs the place, blah, blah, blah.

00:14:39.97
Bradley Palermo
wow. Right.

00:14:44.17
Bradley Palermo
oh

00:14:45.74
Aaron
So it was it was really awesome. um Just an excellent show of respect. And yeah, I mean, what can you say about the match that hasn't already been said online? It was...

00:14:55.69
Aaron
it was They basically spent the majority of the time trading finishers of their previous famous opponents. But I do have to say the crowd was super into it.

00:15:03.33
Bradley Palermo
right

00:15:06.90
Aaron
I was super into it. I thought it was great. I laughed out loud like three times while watching the match.

00:15:12.69
Bradley Palermo
It's interesting that you say the internet like broke over or whatever, because I, I guess I just been in such my own world of like travel and like I watch, you know, I haven't been on the internet unless I posted something just didn't, didn't, I haven't consumed.

00:15:26.16
Bradley Palermo
So I haven't seen a goddamn thing that anyone else, like I'm going in without any influence like at all.

00:15:31.03
Aaron
Yeah.

00:15:31.40
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah.

00:15:31.81
Aaron
Well, that's good. I mean, I, yeah I'm, I'm unfortunately addicted to wrestling Twitter. So that, that wrestling Twitter was excited.

00:15:38.19
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:15:40.15
Aaron
ah Reddit subreddits for wrestling. We're also excited. People are saying they feel like it could be a match of the year contender. And I agree, like just the way it made you made me feel ah nostalgic and just like proud to be a fan and remembering all of these great opponents that they've had and, you

00:15:50.99
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:15:59.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:15:59.46
Aaron
And I think the crowd certainly helped too.

00:16:01.95
Bradley Palermo
i felt like I felt like it was an exhibition and people really liked it and I didn't feel... it seemed like something that should go in like the Smithsonian or something. It didn't feel like a wrestling match. Like, oh my God, telling a story like a wrestling match.

00:16:15.37
Bradley Palermo
Because it really is just a display of all the finishers. And like, you know, at first, so yeah, I mean, you know, John hit like...

00:16:18.86
Aaron
Yeah.

00:16:22.89
Bradley Palermo
fucking sister abigail walls of jericho like all kinds of shit rkos were happening i mean yeah i mean i don't know i mean this isn't like the kind of match that i would pin like a match of the year on i suppose but i understand why if it hit those nostalgic points for you like um why it would be so i mean you i guess you'd give this like an a plus and i would go like i would go like b plus on it

00:16:28.88
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:16:47.18
Aaron
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't it and it wasn't just like WWE wwe finishers to like you had Chris.

00:16:53.25
Bradley Palermo
Christopher Daniels.

00:16:54.28
Aaron
Yeah, Christopher Daniels Angels Wings.

00:16:54.64
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:16:56.88
Aaron
You had Frankie Kazarian's Fade to Black, Samoa Joe's Coquina Clutch. and There was just so much in there that like if if you're a smart wrestling fan, you're like, oh, shit, I know that move.

00:17:04.34
Bradley Palermo
It's just like,

00:17:07.67
Bradley Palermo
I was going to say, yeah, it's like, like you said, it's very Marky.

00:17:07.86
Aaron
Oh, shit, I know that move.

00:17:11.52
Bradley Palermo
Like it's like maybe, and and because, because I have such a huge gap where a lot of this stuff is referencing, like I see this stuff, but I wasn't like watching at the, in real time.

00:17:11.94
Aaron
Yeah, for sure.

00:17:22.36
Bradley Palermo
So, um, But yeah, I mean, it's interesting because some of these moves and stuff, I'm like looking up like, oh, when when when was that happening? And, you know, it was interesting.

00:17:29.30
Aaron
who

00:17:31.24
Bradley Palermo
but But I don't really, I don't know, just view.

00:17:32.97
Aaron
You don't have an emotional attachment to it.

00:17:34.78
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it didn't make me feel like that much. I was like, because they do them they do the finisher and then it's like both men are down for like the next like 45 seconds.

00:17:42.59
Aaron
Yeah, or like one, two, oh, and they kick out. there were a lot it was This moot match was basically nothing but kicking out of finishers, which, you know, sometimes is good, sometimes it's not. I would say in general, people tend to kick out of finishers too much in modern day wrestling, but, you know, that's just me.

00:17:52.39
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:17:57.35
Bradley Palermo
I, I didn't get to see, um, whichever match came after this. I, I, my plane was, uh, they were trying to get me on the plane at that point.

00:18:02.49
Aaron
Oh, okay. So that, yeah. Yeah.

00:18:06.70
Bradley Palermo
And then I figured I only had time before this, before we met up to, for one match and I picked the main event.

00:18:11.74
Aaron
Watch the main event.

00:18:13.55
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. So tell me a little bit about the next one.

00:18:13.98
Aaron
Okay, well, so... Yeah, it was IoSky and Rhea Ripley against the Kabuki Warriors, Asuka and Kairi Sane. ah This was another 20-minute match. um Obviously, Crowd is super into Rhea because she's in her home country.

00:18:28.99
Aaron
ah It was fine, again. like i I personally didn't think... So Io and Rhea won. ah and And to be honest, I kind of wanted them not to because i felt like now there's nowhere there for the story to go.

00:18:45.02
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:18:45.06
Aaron
You know, like they already beat the heels. They're family now. i It was it was good again.

00:18:50.52
Bradley Palermo
Kabuki is a fucking you said Asuka yeah yeah okay weird

00:18:54.15
Aaron
Asuka and Kairi Sane. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, on TV for the past few weeks, I really like maybe even a month, month and a half. Asuka and Kairi have been trying to get EO back on their side, but they've been treating Rhea like shit.

00:19:10.09
Aaron
And eventually there came a point where Kairi and Oscar betrayed EO and i gave her the poison mist and beat her up.

00:19:16.80
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:19:17.15
Aaron
And, you know, the the story that they're trying to tell is that Oscar brought Kairi Sane and EO Sky into wwe WWE. She's sort of like their mentor. And, um,

00:19:27.42
Aaron
You know, the story itself has been fine. The match, of course, they're all really good. and like You can't say anything negative about the in-ring work. I just felt like it was a pretty typical tag match. You know, Io's in there for a really long time getting the shit beat out of her. They do the hot tag to Rhea.

00:19:44.02
Aaron
And then it all just kind of... gets messy and then eventually i think Rhea hits Kyrie with the Riptide, Io hits Kyrie with the over the moonsault and then matches over.

00:19:56.60
Aaron
So it was fine. I probably give it like a B, maybe a C plus.

00:19:59.90
Bradley Palermo
this next This next match, Cody versus Seth, I thought was excellent. And I know there wasn't a lot of build to it, but I thought that

00:20:05.40
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:08.84
Bradley Palermo
there was something even though it seems like kind of no stakes to have a champion versus champion who gives a shit about the fucking crown jewel championship but they really made it seem like you know seth has something to prove that he's lost to cody so many times and he comes in super frustrated and the crowd's chanting everything and they're singing they're singing cm punk and um he seems like he's coming unglued you know and he's getting his ass beat by cody for a while and then

00:20:16.03
Aaron
The crown jewel championship.

00:20:22.84
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:20:27.57
Aaron
Calling him a wanker.

00:20:36.92
Aaron
Yep.

00:20:37.98
Bradley Palermo
um I was thinking, you know it's a little like he Seth gets back, you know, he gets a little bit of heat back and he starts um doing a little star bus, stardust mockery. And he tries to pull a bionic elbow, you know, like kind of stealing Cody's own moves from him.

00:20:48.23
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:52.90
Bradley Palermo
And I was thinking this match should, end in cody getting his ass beat but i wanted it to be by disqualification just i wanted seth because i was like i was thinking that the whole vision and all these fools are going to come in i knew it wasn't going to be a clean finish and i knew that it probably was going to be seth winning and that it kind of had to be but um

00:21:08.61
Aaron
yeah

00:21:12.93
Bradley Palermo
But it just went back and forth the way that I like a wrestling match to go back and forth.

00:21:17.88
Aaron
Yeah.

00:21:17.88
Bradley Palermo
And the near falls and the finishers and the doing each other's moves on each other, doing they're their signature moves and their finishers off the fucking top ropes when it's usually done on the mat.

00:21:51.13
Aaron
Yeah.

00:21:53.48
Bradley Palermo
you know, I kind of needed some a reason to like hate this guy again, because, know, it's something besides just CM Punk and Seth over and over again or or whatever.

00:22:01.16
Aaron
Yeah.

00:22:02.02
Bradley Palermo
So I dug it. I mean, I go a on this one.

00:22:04.88
Aaron
Yeah, I think I agree. I mean, I, you know, I have small minor gripes like. hitting Seth with a crossroads off the top rope and Seth kicking out feels a little ridiculous, but, but you know, it, it's a, it's a really good match.

00:22:15.76
Bradley Palermo
That's crazy. Yeah.

00:22:21.03
Aaron
It had, as you said, a lot of back and forth. I think that even though there was a minimal amount of buildup leading up to the match, that the match itself was, amplified all of those little breadcrumbs that they had already laid out, you know, like the crowd helped too.

00:22:36.42
Aaron
um

00:22:37.37
Bradley Palermo
What about that?

00:22:37.61
Aaron
I knew, oh go ahead.

00:22:38.77
Bradley Palermo
Oh, sorry. Go ahead What about that coast to coast move?

00:22:39.87
Aaron
I was just, yeah, I was just going to say that Seth's coast to coast was, was pretty wild. And it looked like he really did hurt himself. Like he was really selling his left arm afterwards.

00:22:51.88
Aaron
I was like, Oh my God.

00:22:51.90
Bradley Palermo
You don't normally do that one. Yeah.

00:22:53.90
Aaron
Yeah. I was like, i hope he didn't tear his tricep, but, um, the, uh, Thank the The way that the match was steadily, you know, the stakes were getting higher. And i actually feel like i was I was pretty positive that there wasn't going to be any outside interference because of, think, what had happened on SmackDown or Raw this past week.

00:23:15.33
Aaron
Plus, I think there was a little thing you might have missed during this pay-per-view where I think it was after the Bronson-Reed match, they had a little backstage-y thing with Bronson, Braun, and...

00:23:26.83
Aaron
Heyman and Heyman was basically like, you know, when Seth goes out for his match, you're not, you're going to stay right here.

00:23:27.64
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:23:33.77
Aaron
You're not going to do anything. Um, so yeah, it, it definitely, I assumed that it would end. I mean, when Cody hit him with that frigging crossroads off the top rope, I was like, Oh yeah, Seth's going to lose.

00:23:45.44
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:23:47.54
Aaron
So they got me, they definitely got me, but he kicked out and, and you know, it ended how we assumed that it should, which is Seth needed the victory to not be Owen for against Cody.

00:23:57.100
Aaron
And he did it like a heel. He used to watch the refs attention was turned away. So he cheated he won. I think it was the right call.

00:24:04.79
Bradley Palermo
Oh, i I liked when Seth, towards the beginning, had Cody in a figure four leg lock.

00:24:12.05
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:24:12.27
Bradley Palermo
And he was like, just like how Ric Flair beat your daddy's ass.

00:24:13.12
Aaron
Which Cody likes to do.

00:24:19.42
Aaron
Yeah, I like that, too.

00:24:19.70
Bradley Palermo
And I was like, like the shit talk. But you know and he's but they're also referencing shit from 40 years ago. So I love that.

00:24:24.99
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. No, i was ah it was a super solid match. And honestly, you know, none of the matches were bad. They were just... good you know there were only a couple that were like great to me but but i had fun watching it and uh i think after we are done recording here i probably got to watch bound for glory and see what's going on there because i was excited about that and i totally forgot about it until just now

00:24:35.72
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:24:49.97
Aaron
ah

00:24:50.28
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah, I would, I would watch that. I have more time for TNA now. Cause I'm, uh, sadly, we don't have to leave this on the episode or we don't, if you, if you don't want to get into it, but, um, joining the boycott of AEW until they get the ice commercials off of my TV.

00:25:06.58
Bradley Palermo
Even though I don't see them because I watch on fight TV, I don't need fascist commercials in my wrestling. So I'm really sad to not be able to watch AEW.

00:25:17.17
Bradley Palermo
But i am, some things in life are more important than men, sweaty men in underwear, you know? so So I'll watch TNA instead.

00:25:24.12
Aaron
That is true. That is true.

00:25:27.12
Bradley Palermo
um Should we get into the rewind?

00:25:29.12
Aaron
Yeah, let's do it.

00:25:35.09
Aaron
Alrighty, so we're here to talk about No Mercy 2001. This took place on October 20th, 2001 from the Savas Center in St. Louis. 15,000 plus people in attendance.

00:25:46.79
Aaron
We had Jim Ross, JR, and Paul Heyman on commentary.

00:25:50.70
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:26:03.84
Aaron
An angry man. And I thought it was pretty funny. I also laughed out loud when I heard the song for this pay-per-view, which was Click Click Boom by Saliva.

00:26:14.40
Aaron
Could not be any more two thousands than that.

00:26:17.52
Bradley Palermo
Jeez, I was working in a record store in 2001. I remember that fucking record.

00:26:23.09
Aaron
Yeah. Oh, boy. That saliva, they were like a one-hit wonder, maybe like a two-hit wonder.

00:26:28.40
Bradley Palermo
Come on, Dale.

00:26:28.51
Aaron
So...

00:26:29.36
Bradley Palermo
Go on.

00:26:31.03
Bradley Palermo
Sorry, Dale's crying.

00:26:31.29
Aaron
So the now you're good. Poor So the first match of the evening starting out hot, it was the Hardy Boys accompanied by Lita with her. Sorry, versus Lance Storm and the Hurricane, who were accompanied by Ivory and Mighty Molly.

00:26:45.93
Aaron
And this was for the W's.

00:26:46.37
Bradley Palermo
That's Mighty Molly.

00:26:48.51
Aaron
This is for the WCW Tag Team Championship. I guess really quick, I'll just say, as you mentioned, WCW and ECW were now defunct by this point. um They had been purchased by WWF outside of storyline and then in storyline also had been purchased by WWF, except ah Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon's son,

00:27:10.88
Aaron
was the person who quote unquote purchased them. And so WCW and ECW wrestlers had formed a group that they called the Alliance. And actually some WWF wrestlers had come over to the Alliance as well. So it was, a I wouldn't say it was like the best invasion angles that's ever been done in wrestling, but they were certainly trying their best.

00:27:32.60
Bradley Palermo
Can I mention, there's there's a kind of a problem with this WCW purchase, is that they bought the back catalog and the IP,

00:27:32.99
Aaron
And yeah.

00:27:42.17
Bradley Palermo
but they didn't have contracts to the wrestlers, because the wrestlers were... under contract to AOL Time Warner. So most of the wrestlers had the option to continue their contracts from the luxury of their house for years to just get paid to stay home.

00:27:55.90
Aaron
Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah.

00:27:57.43
Bradley Palermo
And some to their detriment, right? Because like Lex Luger and Elizabeth, like just sat around and did drugs until Liz died, right?

00:28:00.77
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:28:03.41
Aaron
Yeah.

00:28:03.80
Bradley Palermo
but um there were so at this point goldberg sting nash hall hogan flair steiner stereo jr luger and savage were all taking paychecks to not work for w wwe and booker t and ddp were like fuck that i'd rather be on tv working i'll take a new contract um

00:28:04.59
Aaron
She's.

00:28:17.00
Aaron
Wow.

00:28:22.50
Aaron
Yeah.

00:28:24.57
Aaron
Probably for less money, much less money, I assume.

00:28:27.40
Bradley Palermo
Yes, I think it's just probably a career decision where you want to work or or you or you kind of just chill with the money. But like um some of these guys, like Sting never showed up until 2014, so I don't know how long he was getting paid, but probably that whole fucking time.

00:28:39.82
Aaron
Yeah.

00:28:41.39
Bradley Palermo
And Luger and Savage never actually ever wrestled again. And then um I think the rest of the guys I mentioned, Flair, Steiner, Mysterio, obviously, they showed up at some point, but like it was it was when their contracts...

00:28:45.86
Aaron
Right.

00:28:52.25
Aaron
Yeah.

00:28:53.87
Bradley Palermo
So so like they had this invasion, but they didn't actually really have the wrestlers to represent WCW.

00:28:58.17
Aaron
Yeah, it was, like I said, it was kind of force-fed down the audience's throats. It wasn't genuine. the The crowd was still excited and enjoyed, you know, seeing what they saw. And um this first match, as I mentioned, was for the WCW Tag Team Championships.

00:29:15.31
Aaron
ah The Hardy Boys were the champions, and ah Lance Storm and Hurricane were representing the Alliance. Hardy Boys still representing WWF. um very fast paced and exciting opening match the crowd is super excited the Hardy Boys by this point I believe had had a bunch of tables matches, TLC matches.

00:29:36.49
Aaron
Um, so, you know, they were over crowd loved them and my God, the crowd loves Lita. Holy shit.

00:29:43.52
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah, for sure.

00:29:44.93
Aaron
Um, it was, ah you know, ah again, like a very standard tag team match from the two thousands, lots of tag team moves, um, ah from the challengers tagging frequently, double teaming Jeff, you know, taking every opportunity to keep Jeff in the corner.

00:30:01.04
Aaron
um i i just was marveling at how great the Hardys were at their peak. And of course, they're still wrestling today. Literally tonight, they are wrestling the Dudleys and they are the TNA and the NXT tag team champions.

00:30:14.94
Aaron
And, you know, as you can imagine, 24 years later, they're not moving as quickly as they used to. They don't do as many of the high flying moves that they used to, but they're still very impressive today. So a testament to them to be lasting 25 years plus. Yeah.

00:30:29.16
Bradley Palermo
I felt like this, yeah, this was a treat to see the Hardy boys in their prime. I think it feels, so they fly around to the air so much and you see that a lot still with it like luchadors and stuff, but it doesn't feel usually when guys do that shit, it just doesn't feel as spontaneous.

00:30:42.17
Aaron
yeah

00:30:47.43
Bradley Palermo
It's like for them, it's like they, it's like they're just in the middle of battle and they pull this crazy high flying shit out of their ass and it,

00:30:53.71
Aaron
It feels very natural to them.

00:30:55.82
Bradley Palermo
that's what i mean yeah that's what i'm trying to say it's just i when i watch this i'm like i don't i don't think i really understood like they might be they might be the best tag team that ever was right and i'm sure a lot of people say that and in in at least in like the high-flying kind of way um

00:30:57.01
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:31:10.19
Aaron
Absolutely.

00:31:14.03
Aaron
Absolutely.

00:31:15.04
Bradley Palermo
Obviously, like the wrestling that we watched from the 90s is just a totally different style. And there's some cool like brawler types. But this was for their style. I don't i mean i don't know if it's anyone's like come close since.

00:31:26.89
Bradley Palermo
And I know they probably influenced everyone else.

00:31:27.44
Aaron
yeah

00:31:28.89
Bradley Palermo
So it was cool to see it that superhero gimmicks are always dumb for me. like the Whatever this guy's name was, the the ah Hurricane and Mighty Molly.

00:31:35.06
Aaron
Hurricane. There's a hurricane coming.

00:31:37.94
Bradley Palermo
But I know Mighty Molly's music from... the video game and uh i was excited to hear that and and she has a very like cartoony intro like this is mighty molly or whatever and

00:31:47.69
Aaron
Yeah. You know, Hurricane's backstage in WWE now. That's Shane Helms.

00:31:52.60
Bradley Palermo
okay yeah

00:31:53.25
Aaron
He's an agent and producer. He does... I think he might even... can't remember. think on wwe WWE Unreal, they said that maybe he times he's the one that times the show out or something. But...

00:32:02.98
Bradley Palermo
Dude, great. I mean, he was great in this match too. I just don't like the the fact that he looks like the Green Lantern or whatever.

00:32:06.01
Aaron
Yeah.

00:32:08.47
Aaron
No, it was a terrible gimmick, for sure.

00:32:09.78
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:32:10.49
Aaron
But, yeah, so...

00:32:10.52
Bradley Palermo
Okay. So but should we move on into the second match?

00:32:13.79
Aaron
Yeah, I would just say the Hardys win with a twist of fate and a swanton bomb to retain. And then, yeah

00:32:18.60
Bradley Palermo
Oh, and someone asked me today, actually, they said, I listened to your podcast. Who the fuck is Meltzer? So Dave Meltzer, which I would think most people listening, unless you're just like listening because you're my friend and you don't really watch a lot of wrestling or whatever, is ah the guy that writes the Wrestling Observer newsletter. So he's been judging and rating every single wrestling match since before Aaron and I were even born.

00:32:40.89
Bradley Palermo
And... um you know back then he was kind of like the authority on if your match was good or not now he's kind of sort of questionable play plays a little plays favorites kind of with some companies like aw maybe more than like wwe and like favors like more japanese stuff than american style so

00:32:48.67
Aaron
A little past his prime, yeah.

00:33:00.27
Bradley Palermo
you know, if Will Osprey farts, it's a five. If, you know, if if if Cody Rhodes like hits a crossroads off the top rope, you know, it's like, well, yeah.

00:33:09.04
Aaron
It's a three.

00:33:10.20
Bradley Palermo
So that, yeah, that's that's how that is.

00:33:11.77
Aaron
to To Dave's credit, you know, he he yeah, he's maybe gotten a little biased in his old age, but Dave is pretty much like a savant when it comes to wrestling, matches, events, and history.

00:33:24.95
Aaron
Yeah.

00:33:25.23
Bradley Palermo
As a historian, for sure. Yeah.

00:33:26.69
Aaron
Yeah, he knows a lot. he He's probably, i assume, the type of guy who you could be like, you know, what were the finishes of the house show on October 17th, 1985?

00:33:38.07
Aaron
And he'd be like, oh, but this, this, and this, and this.

00:33:39.88
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:33:40.23
Aaron
You know, like, he just got so much knowledge.

00:33:40.88
Bradley Palermo
and whenever there's a And whenever there's a wrestling documentary, it'll be a lot of let it'll be a lot of legends and it'll be a lot of people that you've seen on TV.

00:33:45.37
Aaron
He's always there.

00:33:49.99
Bradley Palermo
And the one guy that isn't a person a wrestling personality that's always on there is going to be Dave. So he is a wrestling authority and it's more ah more so than anyone else that's ever not been in the ring and done this.

00:33:55.08
Aaron
Yeah.

00:34:02.16
Aaron
true

00:34:02.50
Bradley Palermo
but um And he also has a... kind of a maybe not as much as russo but he's kind of a legendary beef with jim cornett who's a big wrestling podcaster former manager and all that stuff so i don't know there's a lot there's a lot there but smash to oh wait melter's rating was a always have you guess

00:34:14.50
Aaron
yeah

00:34:24.28
Bradley Palermo
ah Two and three quarters. It's so specific. Let me just be a three. um Match two, finally. was a singles match.

00:34:34.69
Bradley Palermo
Test versus Kane. I didn't know a whole lot about Test.

00:34:39.65
Aaron
Oh, really? i knew I test with so that this is like primetime Aaron watching. I was 12 when this came out.

00:34:44.52
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:34:45.92
Aaron
So yeah, I remember test for sure.

00:34:47.47
Bradley Palermo
You got two heavyweight brawlers. Obviously, Kane is fucking huge.

00:34:50.27
Aaron
Two big meaty men slapping meats, this biggie likes to say.

00:34:52.23
Bradley Palermo
Yes. Yeah. Kane even manages the hurl test over the top rope. I mean, showing crazy strength. Test gets a little bit of blood on his mouth.

00:35:02.42
Bradley Palermo
um

00:35:03.43
Aaron
Did you see my old pal Nick Patrick who managed...

00:35:05.24
Bradley Palermo
Nick Patrick is back in this shit.

00:35:06.82
Aaron
Did he miss...

00:35:07.82
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:35:08.27
Aaron
He missed... and Well, he missed. I don't know. Test smacks Kane in the face with a ring bell two feet in front of Nick Patrick and and he just doesn't do anything.

00:35:18.04
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:35:20.55
Bradley Palermo
It's supposed to be like the body of, I was like, is it supposed to be that because he hit him in the back of the head and the and the ref's on the other side facing him that he didn't see that he's running from behind?

00:35:26.59
Aaron
I don't know. I don't know.

00:35:30.10
Bradley Palermo
And then i was like, no, he's just a shady ref, dude.

00:35:30.74
Aaron
just... I just assumed it was because test was in the Alliance and Nick Patrick, if you noticed, is wearing a WCW referee shirt.

00:35:32.86
Bradley Palermo
That's his gimmick.

00:35:40.30
Aaron
So maybe it was like the same shtick where he's like favoring his own wrestlers, quote unquote.

00:35:41.55
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.

00:35:45.74
Bradley Palermo
Dude, the ref outfits are are so bad in this. They're like little gray like like t-shirts, like ringer t-shirts with like red rings around the side.

00:35:52.60
Aaron
Yeah, I would like hints of red or blue or whatever.

00:35:55.02
Bradley Palermo
I'm like, this is like a bad... like softball league t-shirt this ain't a fucking ref shirt i have complaints about a lot of ref shirts in in different eras like i have my favorite red i like the blue shirt with the black tie yeah i like yeah i like that but i don't like um i don't like the modern one with like sort of like the racer stripe on one side like anyways um

00:36:08.24
Aaron
With the bow tie. Yeah. The Saturday night's main event outfits. Yeah.

00:36:17.95
Bradley Palermo
But yeah, Kane manages, i thought you would like this, Aaron, to chokeslam Nick Patrick after the match ah twice, right?

00:36:25.35
Aaron
I did like it. I liked it a lot.

00:36:27.48
Bradley Palermo
So that was well deserved. But but yeah, Tess wins from from using the ring bell and then Kane gets his his fucking revenge.

00:36:28.83
Aaron
And a power bomb.

00:36:36.22
Aaron
I will say before we move on that, um, test was unfortunately one of the WWF wrestlers who died very young.

00:36:36.37
Bradley Palermo
And...

00:36:45.50
Aaron
He was the age of 33 and died eight years after this pay-per-view.

00:36:47.75
Bradley Palermo
geez

00:36:50.64
Aaron
Um, I don't remember why I think maybe it was an overdose or something. i don't want to,

00:36:55.09
Bradley Palermo
oh wait he he died he was 33 at this time or he died at 33 oh shit god that's just yeah that's barely starting man

00:36:58.42
Aaron
No, he was 33 when he passed away. Yeah. ah Let's see. How did he pass away? I don't want to get it wrong. So, yeah, he died of an overdose, painkillers, and steroids, unfortunately.

00:37:11.86
Bradley Palermo
Yes.

00:37:12.71
Aaron
um But...

00:37:12.73
Bradley Palermo
lot of wrestlers died of um alcohol and painkillers. It's only when I watch these documentaries and I don't know, man, I guess they've changed something because it seems to happen less now than when you look at these old, old days wrestlers.

00:37:17.57
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:37:26.26
Bradley Palermo
If they make it to 50, it's like ah miracle.

00:37:26.41
Aaron
Well, they're...

00:37:29.66
Aaron
it's It's just, you know, they they take better care of them now. There's a lot of protocols in place that I don't think really allow that type of behavior anymore.

00:37:38.19
Bradley Palermo
Right. Who...

00:37:38.62
Aaron
um and it's a good thing. um As you said, Test won the match.

00:37:40.82
Bradley Palermo
who tell

00:37:43.10
Aaron
Test actually got a chair. ah It backfired. Kane picked up the chair. Nick Patrick grabbed the chair from Kane. Kane chokes Nick Patrick and throws him. Test hits him with a low blow, the big boot, and then gets the pin.

00:37:57.65
Bradley Palermo
Speaking of um drugs and tests, did you read that Andrade tested dirty three times and in that three-strike rule got fired from WWE?

00:38:07.55
Bradley Palermo
wwe That's why he's in

00:38:07.78
Aaron
No. Oh my God. Do we know what he tested for?

00:38:11.22
Bradley Palermo
No. Because, I mean, testing dirty could be anything from performance-enhancing drugs to, like, narcotics, right? So we have...

00:38:17.99
Aaron
i mean, probably marijuana too, if they.

00:38:20.16
Bradley Palermo
No, no, no. Well, I looked it up. They w WWE allows alcohol and the wrestlers to alcohol and weed.

00:38:22.16
Aaron
Oh, you did. Okay.

00:38:27.61
Bradley Palermo
um

00:38:27.65
Aaron
Oh, wow. Okay.

00:38:29.19
Bradley Palermo
So it's a it could be coke, um but we have no way to know if it was just it could be also just performance enhancing stuff, you know.

00:38:29.96
Aaron
Too much cocaine. Yeah.

00:38:37.60
Aaron
Yeah, he is a pretty beefy looking dude.

00:38:40.10
Bradley Palermo
Kind of, but like, I mean, he's not the big, I mean, the like next to, you're like, i also heard that Brock Lesnar doesn't have to test, that he has like a no, like he's outside of the wellness policy, which I don't, I don't have that like concrete proof, but you could personally.

00:38:40.33
Aaron
Who knows? He's not huge, but like he's... ah Oh, yeah.

00:38:51.37
Aaron
i connected I could tell you some stories, but I won't.

00:38:55.87
Aaron
Yeah.

00:38:55.91
Bradley Palermo
Interesting.

00:38:56.97
Aaron
Yeah.

00:38:57.60
Bradley Palermo
Interesting.

00:38:57.100
Aaron
We'll just leave it at that. ah Third match, the the worst match on the card, Stacey Keebler versus Tori Wilson in a lingerie match. I will say, though, for the time, this is actually like not a horrible women's match. like There were real wrestling moves in here.

00:39:13.18
Aaron
There was no reason why they needed to be in lingerie except to be objectified. and

00:39:17.55
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah.

00:39:18.49
Aaron
But also, on the other hand, It wasn't like it was like the bikini contest, right? Like, i feel like there are some wrestlers nowadays who wear probably about the same amount of clothing as this, but they just don't call it lingerie and they have like real matches.

00:39:31.83
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:39:42.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I don't really have anything to say on this one. I guess there was there was like a Matt Hardy thing.

00:39:45.70
Aaron
There's not much to say.

00:39:47.54
Bradley Palermo
where Well, it was kind of funny having JR try to call this like a real match because he was actually trying to be like, okay, buckles under, back to the runes, into the fire.

00:39:52.97
Aaron
Yeah. And not, and, and not having Jerry, the King Lawler just go like,

00:39:56.62
Bradley Palermo
It's like, here we go. Yeah.

00:40:00.26
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but, um yeah, I mean, this is, I agree with Meltzer on this one. It was a dud. Last one was a 2.25 actually, also. two and a quarter actually

00:40:08.82
Aaron
okay.

00:40:08.86
Bradley Palermo
also

00:40:09.18
Aaron
Yeah. I mean, that's fine. It was, yeah. Test versus Kane was just okay. Uh, Then we had Christian versus edge brother versus brother in storyline because they're not actually brothers.

00:40:19.88
Bradley Palermo
yeah that was really that was really distracting telling me that these guys were brothers and and saying it the entire match when we know they're not and the storyline has shifted not not too long after this to where they were childhood best friends but so it's like if you're gonna you kind of you kind of got to decide those things and stick to them yeah

00:40:27.44
Aaron
Yeah, they look nothing alike.

00:40:39.22
Aaron
Stick to your guns. Yeah. Yeah. So this was a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. um Pretty fun. ah The ladders came into play pretty early. They were fighting in the crowd.

00:40:51.05
Aaron
ah Christian took a ladder to the Nards, which, you know, I think they made a funny comment about. And, oh, I guess Edge wasn't going to be an uncle anytime soon or whatever they said.

00:41:00.39
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah.

00:41:01.96
Aaron
um Nothing earth shattering. It was like a solid match. These guys are definitely giving it everything they got. um the match The moves in the match were increasing in intensity and danger as the match went on. you know Eventually they start...

00:41:16.32
Aaron
climbing ladders and doing moves off of the ladders onto the mat. Um, edge splashed Christian laid out on a ladder held up by two chairs, which I think for the time had probably not been done before. Cause that's the thing with these matches is they always tried to like,

00:41:32.57
Aaron
amp it up and do things that hadn't been done before. And of course, when you see something like this now, nothing looks new because it's 24 years ago and everyone's done this shit to hell and back.

00:41:42.63
Aaron
But I enjoyed it. It was a pretty long match for the card. I think the the second longest match on the card at 22 minutes.

00:41:50.02
Bradley Palermo
I thought it was pretty brutal. I mean, ladders, spears, blood, like, edged edged spears Christian off the top of the ladder. That was pretty cool.

00:41:59.43
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:42:00.75
Bradley Palermo
He ended it with a... Wait, was the concerto on the top on two ladders?

00:42:05.16
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, he, yeah.

00:42:05.92
Bradley Palermo
It was finisher with the chair. Like, I mean, there were some pretty, like, kind of groundbreaking things here. Actually...

00:42:11.32
Aaron
Yeah, for the time, absolutely.

00:42:13.04
Bradley Palermo
I dug it. a Christian came out and took a shot at the St. Louis Cardinals before the bell. Like, like I think I mentioned in another episode, like, you know, you can get some real heat where I'm originally from if you wanted to talk shit on the Cardinals.

00:42:23.93
Aaron
talk shit about the Cardinals.

00:42:24.61
Bradley Palermo
So he did that. um Yeah, I dug it. I mean, I was just distracted mostly by the fact that, Christian was Edge's brother and I just stopped shut up quit saying that dude like um Meltzer really liked it he gave it a four and a quarter which is super generous but

00:42:32.42
Aaron
They're not brothers.

00:42:39.06
Aaron
Yeah.

00:42:42.87
Aaron
Nice. Yeah. I mean, again, you think about it like in its time. Insane. You know, we've seen crazy ass ladder matches before and after this, but this was yeah, this was a good one for sure.

00:42:56.05
Bradley Palermo
And then we get into the fifth match, which the WWF Tag Team Championship. The Dudley Boys versus Big Show and Tajari. that you say it

00:43:06.01
Aaron
To Jerry.

00:43:07.04
Bradley Palermo
Tajiri?

00:43:08.08
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:43:08.41
Bradley Palermo
And Tajiri. Um... Yeah, I mean, you know, Tajiri seems to be the worker of this match. He's doing all the, he's like literally doing all the all the work.

00:43:16.06
Aaron
Mm hmm.

00:43:18.85
Aaron
Taking all the bumps.

00:43:18.90
Bradley Palermo
um Yeah, Big Show's fucking, he's a giant, and he's huge. um What did I say? Why did I say he eats a gore? What does that mean?

00:43:28.30
Aaron
Oh, ah well, that was towards the end of the match. Rhino.

00:43:30.68
Bradley Palermo
Oh.

00:43:31.37
Aaron
Rhino from ECW came out and hit Big Show with his spear, which they call a gore.

00:43:33.93
Bradley Palermo
Oh, right. Yeah.

00:43:37.83
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

00:43:38.57
Aaron
um But, you know, I enjoyed this one, too. i always enjoy the Dudleys in a match that doesn't have any tables because you get to see them be like a standard tag team where...

00:43:49.60
Aaron
Again, similar to the first tag match, there's a lot of tag team moves, you know, where they're like constantly tagging one another in and out, doing double teams, keeping Tajiri grounded. The big show was the hot tag this time.

00:44:14.18
Aaron
Yeah.

00:44:15.87
Aaron
Bubba's punches always kind of look a little phony to me, but he does some hard hitting shit. They talk a bunch of shit. I enjoy the match.

00:44:23.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I don't know how I feel about Bubba. I like him as a as a commentator and as a shit talker. In the ring, I never really remember that much. I remember tables usually, but on this match, I was just kind of like, it kind of came and went, you know?

00:44:34.08
Aaron
Yeah.

00:44:38.08
Aaron
Yeah, Tajiri almost got the win, but the Dudleys hit the 3D and it's over because, ah and I didn't realize this until recently, there was a very long period of time, years in fact, where if you got hit with the 3D by the Dudleys, you were not kicking out.

00:44:55.41
Aaron
And I can't remember who kicked out of the 3D for the first time, but it was a big deal when it happened because it had been like 10 plus years.

00:45:00.25
Bradley Palermo
Oh, wow.

00:45:02.64
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it's it's always disappointing to me still when someone kicks out of a tombstone piledriver. I'm like, no, that happens, you're fucking dead.

00:45:10.54
Aaron
Yeah.

00:45:10.90
Bradley Palermo
You know, because I guess in my era, like, he just come out, do that, and it's over.

00:45:13.85
Aaron
That was what it was for so long.

00:45:15.72
Bradley Palermo
There's no kick out of that.

00:45:15.92
Aaron
Yeah.

00:45:16.76
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:45:17.33
Aaron
Well, I think now that you bring that up, I'm pretty sure that the first time that anyone kicked out of a tombstone in a big match for years was Undertaker versus Shawn Michaels in WrestleMania 25. Yeah.

00:45:32.25
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

00:45:33.02
Aaron
which is like considered to be one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time.

00:45:36.75
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:45:36.92
Aaron
I think that was like the first time on a big, big show that somebody had kicked out of it. And you can even see it on Undertaker's face.

00:45:41.92
Bradley Palermo
Interesting.

00:45:44.46
Aaron
He's like shocked, you know?

00:45:44.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah. Cause if you're lucky and you're, you're a big star with, and you're over, they're going to protect that finisher for, at least in the old days.

00:45:53.54
Bradley Palermo
Now, now it's like everyone's finishers get kicked out of. Right.

00:45:56.55
Aaron
Yeah, which is what I was saying earlier.

00:45:57.34
Bradley Palermo
But in the old days, yeah.

00:45:58.34
Aaron
It gets kind of annoying.

00:46:00.25
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:46:00.42
Aaron
they They just don't, the moves don't hold as much value as they used to anymore, I think.

00:46:04.77
Bradley Palermo
Right. um What haven't we said here? Do we, do we,

00:46:08.69
Aaron
We got the finish. We got the interference. I think we can move on to the next match, which was Booker T versus The Undertaker.

00:46:15.11
Bradley Palermo
do you want the Meltzer rating?

00:46:16.54
Aaron
Oh, wait. Yeah. Tell me the Meltzer rating.

00:46:19.20
Bradley Palermo
Two and a half.

00:46:20.91
Aaron
Ooh, ouchies.

00:46:21.98
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Ouch. Okay.

00:46:22.98
Aaron
All right.

00:46:23.79
Bradley Palermo
Go ahead.

00:46:24.59
Aaron
go ahead and yeah Go ahead and play your Undertaker sound when I say Undertaker.

00:46:28.49
Bradley Palermo
It

00:46:30.02
Aaron
So the next match on the card was Booker T versus the American Badass Undertaker.

00:46:37.47
Bradley Palermo
sure was.

00:46:37.80
Aaron
And i will say American Badass Undertaker is pretty fucking stupid in hindsight, but you know, it's still over with the crowd.

00:46:43.28
Bradley Palermo
It's dumb. Yeah. He comes out to, he comes out to like, Limp Bizkit.

00:46:47.74
Aaron
Rollin' by Limp Bizkit, yep.

00:46:48.99
Bradley Palermo
Keep rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling. What?

00:46:51.74
Aaron
what

00:46:52.85
Bradley Palermo
That's... I don't know. Fuck that shit.

00:46:59.02
Aaron
yeah that's about how that song goes he's coming out it comes out on his ah motorcycle it's pretty funny you know he just like yeah let's think about coming out of my motorcycle they're like yeah sure whatever you say mark

00:47:00.34
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Fuck this fuck up, or I'll fuck this guy up. Fuck this.

00:47:13.06
Bradley Palermo
It's like, yeah, it's like, this is what I really wish my gimmick was, was the biker. So now that I'm, you know, a veteran and everything, we're going to roll this way. And he's he's still that gimmick when he comes back.

00:47:24.77
Bradley Palermo
He's kind of just on his motorcycle.

00:47:26.02
Aaron
Well, yeah, he well he retired the the original Undertaker gimmick, so you'll never see him as that anymore. You'll only see him as the American badass now. um Short match, only about 12 minutes, but I really liked Booker T in this.

00:47:41.50
Aaron
You know, he attacked Undertaker outside the ring before the bell even rings. Another, like, hard-hitting match. i enjoyed this one particularly because, as you know,

00:47:54.22
Aaron
I watch LFG, um the reality competition show that WWE wwe has on A&E. And both of these guys are coaches and have been coaches the last two seasons.

00:48:04.35
Bradley Palermo
Mm-hmm.

00:48:05.25
Aaron
So it was nice to be reminded of their skills and in particular to see them face off against one another. um Like I said, there's really nothing wrong with the match. Like it's pretty much perfect.

00:48:17.74
Aaron
um The crowd is reacting. Pretty well, but like they're they kind of like both guys, you know, that Booker T is definitely the heel, obviously. But once Booker T does his spin a Rooney, you know, they they love that um Undertaker should just being himself.

00:48:30.80
Bradley Palermo
j r called it JR called it pathetic.

00:48:32.26
Aaron
But.

00:48:34.63
Bradley Palermo
The spinaroonie is pathetic.

00:48:36.45
Aaron
but Yeah, I think.

00:48:37.12
Bradley Palermo
Which I was like, dude, that's a little harsh.

00:48:39.28
Aaron
I think it's because some, I don't know if it was Heyman that would, that was saying it, but somebody was calling it the most electrifying, you know move in sports entertainment, which obviously is the rocks people, people's elbow.

00:48:48.22
Bradley Palermo
Heyman was saying that. Is the rock.

00:48:53.70
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:54.08
Aaron
um So yeah, this one, like I said, it was pretty back and forth. ah Booker T was giving undertaker the typical punches in the corner, you know, standing on the middle rope.

00:49:04.41
Aaron
And I think he got to the 10th punch, but Undertaker grabbed him and gave him the last ride, a big old power bomb. And that was the end of that.

00:49:14.37
Bradley Palermo
And Meltzer gave it a two and three quarter stars, which i don't know.

00:49:19.02
Aaron
That's a little low.

00:49:19.100
Bradley Palermo
I thought it was a pretty physical match. The guys hit hard and seemed like a tough match. I i mean, i was I was into it, but...

00:49:26.07
Aaron
Yeah. You know, when I was watching it, I started thinking of like the most random question and probably not a question that I would ever ask a real wrestler. But I wonder, like when you're wrestling somebody and you hit them stiff, like what, where is the line between like a stiff hit and like a hit that's so stiff that it deserves a receipt?

00:49:50.27
Aaron
You know what I mean?

00:49:51.35
Bradley Palermo
i wouldn't know yeah yeah yeah

00:49:51.56
Aaron
Like, I wonder what that is. Because like there were some where I was like, ooh, that was pretty hard hit. I wonder, you know like what what qualifies as being something that deserves a receipt?

00:50:02.08
Bradley Palermo
i wonder too because like when we were kids we had boxing gloves and you're not supposed to like try and kill each other but like at certain point you get hit the wrong

00:50:11.85
Aaron
You always take it one punch too hard.

00:50:14.01
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, you take that one and it fucking sets something off. you so You see Red. Or the other the guy you're fighting sees Red.

00:50:20.69
Aaron
Yeah, you start crying.

00:50:20.77
Bradley Palermo
And all of a sudden, he's, like, jumping on your shoulders, like, throwing off his gloves, trying to punch you in the fucking face, like, full force. And in a wrestling ring, I would imagine, you know, these fucking, like, roided up dudes, they get pissed off and you don't...

00:50:33.50
Aaron
There's probably a lot of those.

00:50:36.78
Bradley Palermo
No one's gonna come in and save you because you're supposed to be in there looking like you're getting hurt. Like... that indie match the other day where a couple months ago where somebody jumped in and, um, some UFC fighters kid came in and like beat the fucking living piss out of some indie wrestler.

00:50:50.65
Aaron
Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:50:53.39
Bradley Palermo
And took a minute for anyone to help because at first it just looks like what you're supposed to see. And then you're like, wait, no, that guy's face is actually getting, you know, caved in.

00:51:00.59
Aaron
Yeah, that was a Raja Jackson, I think, who did that. Yeah, he's finally getting charged with ah assault or whatever.

00:51:06.20
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:51:08.09
Aaron
Good.

00:51:08.30
Bradley Palermo
yeah for sure and that's a whole nother story but like i didn't know when i watched it at first i was like well this looks just like of course you'd sit there for a minute while dude's teeth are getting kicked in because you don't oh shit this is real takes a second so i just always imagine it'd be a real nightmare if you got in there and you piss somebody off even if you didn't mean to and they just started really fucking shooting on you you know like like

00:51:18.97
Aaron
Can't really tell. Yeah. Right.

00:51:29.66
Aaron
Right. And then you're like, Oh, well there was the, my receipt for whatever the fuck I did.

00:51:34.41
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and I'm sure, like especially in the early, early days, like there were probably guys that wanted to pull one over on a promoter, take a championship. They weren't scheduled to win.

00:51:45.07
Bradley Palermo
There were probably times where you had to get tough and defend like the outcome,

00:51:45.16
Aaron
Yeah.

00:51:48.93
Bradley Palermo
uh i don't know but i guess i'm glad i don't have to as much as i've considered and felt like i missed out on that part of my life of learning to be a professional wrestler i uh i'm glad i don't have that struggle to worry about getting my um

00:51:49.63
Aaron
Yeah.

00:52:02.70
Aaron
Yeah, it's ah there's a lot a lot of nuance to this type of stuff, but what can you do? um So I guess technically that was considered a main event somehow. I don't really know why, but one of the two real main events in my mind came next, and that was Chris Jericho versus The Rock for the WCW Championship.

00:52:26.34
Aaron
I love Jericho's Y2J entrance. I think it's always been great.

00:52:30.21
Bradley Palermo
That

00:52:30.77
Aaron
ah Personally, I'm very excited to see if we're going to hear that in January ah in Riyadh when they have the Royal Rumble because I have a sneaking suspicion that

00:52:40.25
Bradley Palermo
would be cool. Yeah.

00:52:41.45
Aaron
Jericho is done with ec or sorry ae w um Obviously, the crowd is very much in in love with The Rock. And um this was probably match of the night for me. i don't know about you.

00:52:54.76
Aaron
i think it was the best match on the card.

00:52:56.68
Bradley Palermo
This was amazing, yeah.

00:52:57.13
Aaron
Absolutely.

00:52:57.98
Bradley Palermo
I thought to see Chris in his prime is just a real treat. I think he's he's definitely kind of...

00:53:02.77
Aaron
Absolutely.

00:53:05.62
Bradley Palermo
damaged, I think, his legacy a little bit by like staying in too long.

00:53:09.42
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:09.52
Bradley Palermo
but But, you know, he works that in his own way, in a kind of a heelish way. You know, he gets a lot of please retire chants nowadays and stuff. But he was really fucking good. Just like those spinning kicks in the air, whatever the fuck.

00:53:24.71
Bradley Palermo
It's like crazy karate shit.

00:53:25.02
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:26.15
Bradley Palermo
I mean, and obviously the Lion Salt, I don't know if he does that anymore, but that's that's a cool move.

00:53:31.12
Aaron
He does.

00:53:31.85
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:53:32.02
Aaron
It just doesn't look as good, but he's still, yeah, he's still, I mean, he's still good, but it's just not the same. He's, he's bigger, he's older and he can't move as quickly as he used to.

00:53:40.71
Bradley Palermo
He was, to me, I mean, The Rock has the charisma, right? But Jericho, I felt like Jericho was the treat of this match for me.

00:53:46.27
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:49.98
Bradley Palermo
And it was just, you know, it was just a good back and forth all all around.

00:53:50.35
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:53:53.10
Bradley Palermo
It's not taking anything away from The Rock, but I was like, damn, I really do understand why Jericho, despite, you know, how he comes off now, is still just a fucking name to be reckoned with in wrestling.

00:54:04.35
Aaron
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I really, um one thing i enjoyed that came from the commentary, JR was commenting about how The Rock was pinning Jericho.

00:54:16.72
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:54:16.76
Aaron
And he was like, you know, he's putting more weight on the abdomen than the shoulders and talking about how like the fatigue of the match ah comes into play.

00:54:16.87
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:54:27.27
Aaron
And and i it made me remember that Even when I was younger, I always appreciated that type of stuff in commentary because it was logical. It sort of grounded what we were seeing in reality.

00:54:39.65
Bradley Palermo
right yeah

00:54:40.92
Aaron
um so This was just an example of that that I thought was cool, was worth pointing out. and yeah As you said, Jericho, fantastic. Rock, very charismatic.

00:54:51.57
Aaron
and And honestly, Rock's wrestling, just the in-ring stuff itself, was better than what I remembered. I used to kind of not like him as a wrestler.

00:54:58.06
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I think so.

00:55:00.64
Aaron
When I was younger, like ah like in my late teens, early 20s, I was much more a fan of like a Shawn Michaels or people who really had like a great work rate, an in-ring work rate.

00:55:13.15
Aaron
um but But I think now I can appreciate that Rock was was good at what he did and, you know,

00:55:13.12
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:55:19.61
Aaron
even Even with The Rock being the crowd favorite, like when they walked out, this crowd was kind of split. like They were rooting rooting for Jericho quite a bit.

00:55:29.13
Aaron
Certainly by the end, it was probably sixty forty Jericho.

00:55:32.82
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. um but Stephanie interfered and ended up getting rock-bottomed.

00:55:49.91
Aaron
And while the ref is checking on her, Jericho hits Rock with like a face buster or some kind of like front Russian leg sweep. Rock's face hits the chair.

00:56:00.79
Aaron
Jericho gets the pin and Jericho wins and is the new champ. And I got to say, i didn't see this coming. um And I feel like a lot of what we watch, we don't tend to see world titles change hands.

00:56:15.33
Aaron
Like I just so far in the 20 things that we've watched, not a lot of world championships change hands.

00:56:15.75
Bradley Palermo
right

00:56:21.11
Bradley Palermo
yeah i was surprised i'm starting to get used to that and and this was a historic changing of hands because it was the last time the wcw big gold belt would change hands in its lineage um they would you know

00:56:22.48
Aaron
So that so this was fun. Yeah.

00:56:36.06
Aaron
Oh, really? Because they they stopped calling it the WCW championship and called it the World Heavyweight Championship? Is that why?

00:56:42.99
Bradley Palermo
It would get unified. It would get unified with the WWF title ah in December of that year.

00:56:51.42
Bradley Palermo
It was Jericho. I think it was like a triple threat match. I forget who else was in it. Maybe Stone Cold or someone.

00:56:56.56
Aaron
Okay. Yeah.

00:56:58.08
Bradley Palermo
But... on But I was curious. And then they they brought it back as the world heavyweight, but it was still the same look. But that was that was like a couple years later.

00:57:04.82
Aaron
Right. It was a new, yeah, and it was a new lineage.

00:57:08.34
Bradley Palermo
And it lasted then it lasted like 10 years. but um But yeah, it was like kind of a new lineage.

00:57:10.90
Aaron
who

00:57:12.82
Bradley Palermo
And then it disappeared again. and then sort of now, it's like in spirit, the world heavyweight title is on Seth Rollins.

00:57:16.90
Aaron
Came back, kind of, yeah.

00:57:20.29
Bradley Palermo
And it's like kind of big gold belt looking. but But the WCW championship belt, you know died with this rain that started with Chris Jericho on this night so it's kind of relevant and Meltzer gave it a four and a half stars

00:57:29.16
Aaron
Wow. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's super interesting. It didn't.

00:57:39.30
Aaron
Good for him. This, yeah, this was a terrific match for sure. Um, but we still had one more to go uh, this was stone cold, Steve Austin versus Kurt angle versus Rob Van Dam for the ww WWF championship championship.

00:57:45.05
Bradley Palermo
we did

00:57:53.69
Aaron
I gotta say, i didn't really understand the story here. Like the video package felt kind of confusing. I guess Stone Cold is part of the Alliance. So is Rob Van Dam. Maybe Vince is trying to sway Van Dam to the other side.

00:58:07.12
Aaron
i didn't, I couldn't really tell where Angle's loyalty lie. i guess he's WWF side. Dude,

00:58:12.09
Bradley Palermo
He just likes the suplex, man. He don't care. long as he gets the suplex.

00:58:16.33
Aaron
Fucking Austin's entrance was not the entrance I grew up with. I was like, what is this shit? Like different glass break, different music.

00:58:20.88
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:58:22.69
Aaron
I did not, I did not like it at all.

00:58:23.15
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:58:25.64
Bradley Palermo
I don't usually love triple threat stuff, but like, i don't really love

00:58:31.25
Bradley Palermo
giving me a main event after I just saw a good main event. Like I just saw the rock versus Chris Jericho and it was fucking awesome.

00:58:34.86
Aaron
Yeah. Well, especially this one.

00:58:39.55
Bradley Palermo
And now you're giving me, ah thank you for giving me stone cold Steve Austin.

00:58:39.69
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:58:43.28
Bradley Palermo
Cause it'd be disappointing if he wasn't on the bill and on an attitude era show, like some of the ones where he's injured or whatever. And, um, you know Kurt angle and Rob Van Dam tear it up to in the ring but like I don't I don't care about the convoluted storyline here i don't need more wrestling at this point um Vince and Shane interfering you know

00:59:00.89
Aaron
Yeah, it was you

00:59:05.10
Aaron
it was just like foot on the gas, 100 miles an hour the whole time. um i feel like Rob Van Dam was definitely the crowd favorite of the three.

00:59:21.82
Aaron
Right.

00:59:23.01
Bradley Palermo
He's supposed to be kind of like slipping. He's at the beginning. He was the desperate man.

00:59:27.10
Aaron
Right.

00:59:27.23
Bradley Palermo
Like he'll do anything to maintain relevancy. I Stone Cold is kind of like, I guess he's kind of like the sex pistols of, of wrestling. Like he made like enormous impact, but he wasn't in there very long.

00:59:38.48
Bradley Palermo
Right. I mean, his career ended at 37.

00:59:38.88
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah, I think...

00:59:40.75
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:59:41.77
Aaron
And I think it ends like in the next year or two. um

00:59:45.20
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:59:46.36
Aaron
But yeah, like you said, this had a weird ending. Vince came out, hit Austin with a chair in the head, triple threat match, no disqualifications, bust him open. RVD hits the frog splash on Austin, but Angle breaks up the pin.

00:59:59.40
Aaron
And then Shane comes out and attacks Angle. Vince attacks Shane. Stowed cold hits ah RVD with a stunner and retains.

01:00:07.50
Bradley Palermo
And that's the pay-per-view.

01:00:09.52
Aaron
Yeah, 15 minutes on the on the triple threat, which was again kind of weird.

01:00:09.70
Bradley Palermo
Oh.

01:00:13.60
Aaron
Like we just saw like a 25-minute Jericho rock match and then at a 15-minute triple threat. Like weird.

01:00:19.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Meltzer gave it what do you think Meltzer gave it.

01:00:22.74
Aaron
Probably like a three and a half or a 3.25. Oh,

01:00:24.83
Bradley Palermo
Exactly. Three, three point. Well, 3.75.

01:00:28.87
Aaron
oh oh okay.

01:00:30.32
Bradley Palermo
You're close though.

01:00:30.57
Aaron
Wow.

01:00:31.30
Bradley Palermo
Um, yeah, so

01:00:31.38
Aaron
That extra quarter.

01:00:33.87
Bradley Palermo
Let's go for the grapple grade. um Our rating system for these pay-per-views is pretty straightforward. fast forward play or rewind fast forward being boo play being yay. Rewind being two thumbs up.

01:00:45.74
Bradley Palermo
um Aaron, this one was your selection. So let's start with your rating if you don't mind there.

01:00:51.28
Aaron
Yeah. um Honestly, I'm torn. I'm torn between rewind and play. um It was pretty solid.

01:00:58.98
Aaron
It was not too long. a lot of solid matches. You know, I'll i'll give it a rewind. i'll say I'll say this is pretty great.

01:01:03.12
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

01:01:04.98
Aaron
um Got to see a lot of good people that have endured the test of time. Some are still wrestling today. um some burned out in a blaze of glory but ah it was very much a pay-per-view of my childhood I don't know that I watched it when I was 12 12 but it definitely had all the people that were around when I was watching so I'd say it's worth a watch especially for the Jericho Rock championship match

01:01:32.73
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I agree with you. I'm going to go rewind on it. I thought this was one of the better ones that we've seen in the 22 episodes. um some of the Some of the stuff we watched, we know it's going to be silly. Some of the stuff, it's like, okay, that card looks good. I hope it's actually a good...

01:01:47.25
Bradley Palermo
a good pay-per-view and this one I think held up and it was exciting for me of course that it was in St. Louis at the Sabbath Center Kiel or whatever it was called at this point in time. I loved also I didn't mention earlier but they mentioned some history about wrestling in St. Louis, ah wrestling at the Chase,

01:02:03.62
Bradley Palermo
if you've never stayed at the chase, uh, park Plaza in St. Louis, it's a great like classic hotel. They don't do wrestling anymore are there, but back in like the sixties, um, seventies, like people would fucking put on their suits and like go out to matches, ah wrestling at at the chase park Plaza to see Harley race and buddy Rogers and gorilla monsoon and all these guys tear it up in the, in the ballroom.

01:02:18.50
Aaron
Nice.

01:02:26.85
Bradley Palermo
Um, it was this wasn't there but jr did make references to to the chase into like the classic era i wasn't alive yet back then but i have a book called wrestling at the chase that i love to look at and um I know that doesn't really have a bearing on like, if I should give this a rewind, but there was enough here for me to be excited about enough for me to hear about. We have like some really awesome matches and, and I learned, I learned some things. I learned that edge and Christian were once considered to be blood brothers, you know,

01:02:56.96
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, I saw my first Stacey Keebler match, so those weren't really the highlights, but you know what I mean?

01:03:01.06
Aaron
There you go. Legs for days.

01:03:27.20
Bradley Palermo
And we always love to hear from you out there, the Grapple Gang, as someone referred to it last week. You can always call us at 626-657-SLAM. six five seven lamb

01:03:41.27
Bradley Palermo
626-657-SLAM. You'll get our Google voice line. Don't worry. No one's going to pick up and put you on the spot. You can just leave a message, cut a promo on us. Tell us about your first WWF WCW live show experience.

01:03:55.54
Bradley Palermo
Tell us what we should watch. Really whatever you want to do, anything goes. um You can also email us grapplecitypod at gmail.com or we are at grapplecitypod across social media.

01:04:08.21
Bradley Palermo
Probably most active on TikTok or Instagram, but you can find us on threads. and wherever else they do things like that. Also, all these links are going to be in the episode podcast description.

01:04:20.71
Bradley Palermo
If for you need to get a hold of us, we're real easy to find. This week, I know we're running kind of wild on time, um but I do...

01:04:30.08
Bradley Palermo
I wanted to touch on some, let's see. Aaron gave stunning Steve Austin, the the original um moniker of Stone Cold, of Steve Austin, ah some some high praise on a clip we were posting. And um a lot of people were chiming in to agree with you aaron um they wanted to tell us that he couldn't afford to work that style that we saw him working in wcw because of the broken neck at the end of 97 97 and he was considered a great technical wrestler before the broken neck um

01:05:02.38
Bradley Palermo
And then someone said someone else thought that it was funny that he got over more than ever before with a broken neck, just over mic work and limited wrestling. Let's Let's Let's see, someone else said, they all pretty much say the same thing here. but Let me pull it up.

01:05:18.09
Aaron
So it actually wasn't ah broken neck. I looked this up because I...

01:05:22.90
Bradley Palermo
These three people told us it was a broken. It's funny how someone else on on another platform said that first broken neck changed his work.

01:05:30.52
Aaron
Yeah, so so at i mean i don't I don't disagree that he did get over with doing less.

01:05:30.55
Bradley Palermo
It's funny how we got over doing less.

01:05:37.75
Aaron
It was in a match with Owen Hart in SummerSlam 1997. Owen botched a sit-out pile driver. He did drop Austin on his head. um Austin had a bruised spinal cord and temporary paralysis.

01:05:52.74
Aaron
So obviously not like not a soft ah injury, a very severe injury, but technically his neck was not broken.

01:05:52.76
Bradley Palermo
Jesus Christ.

01:06:01.26
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

01:06:01.37
Aaron
um He did, i think, take a break for several months. um Came back 1990, late right at the beginning of because i remember this austin won the ninety eight royal rumble

01:06:20.49
Bradley Palermo
Had to get Rick in there somewhere.

01:06:23.49
Bradley Palermo
The soundboard is addictive. Once you touch it, it's hard to, it's hard to stop.

01:06:26.08
Aaron
I know. Yeah.

01:06:27.13
Bradley Palermo
You know, it's like,

01:06:27.69
Aaron
I feel mad. I'm sort of sad that I don't have the soundboard too, but it's okay.

01:06:31.16
Bradley Palermo
I know I need to, I need to get you on the soundboard so you can do things like that.

01:06:38.90
Aaron
Thinking, thinking, thinking.

01:06:41.07
Bradley Palermo
All right. you want to lead us into ah the next thing?

01:06:44.73
Aaron
Yeah, let's do it. Um, Well, that about wraps it up for this episode. But before we go, Brad, what are we going to watch next week?

01:06:54.21
Bradley Palermo
Oh, is it my turn already?

01:06:55.96
Aaron
It is your turn.

01:06:56.20
Bradley Palermo
Hmm. All right. So we are still in October. It is still Halloween time. And I don't think I've had enough Halloween havoc just yet. So this one though, however, i have high hopes for WCW.

01:07:10.30
Bradley Palermo
ha Wait, we fucking watched it already. of Seven.

01:07:14.63
Aaron
Wait, which one is that?

01:07:15.19
Bradley Palermo
Wait, Las Vegas.

01:07:16.59
Aaron
Well, there's two in Las Vegas, so it might not be the one that we watched.

01:07:19.03
Bradley Palermo
wait guerrero mysterio we haven't seen that right okay sorry okay i psyched myself out okay we're going to wcw halloween havoc 1997 at the mgm grand in las vegas your hometown um it's got uh let's see it's got hulk hogan

01:07:22.31
Aaron
We did not watch that one. We watched 96. It's okay.

01:07:34.95
Aaron
Yes, sir.

01:07:43.100
Bradley Palermo
Versus Roddy Piper in a steel cage match. But what I'm excited about is the cruiserweight title, which is Eddie Guerrero versus Rey Mysterio.

01:07:53.83
Aaron
Oh yeah.

01:07:54.21
Bradley Palermo
Some people say this is the best wrestling match of all time.

01:07:59.15
Aaron
It's really good. This is, I think this is the one where Ray is in the all purple body suit. If I remember correctly, I've seen this match a few times.

01:08:05.68
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah. With the little um question marks on it. Yeah.

01:08:10.12
Aaron
I think so.

01:08:10.13
Bradley Palermo
um Savage versus DDP. um

01:08:13.13
Aaron
I'm sure that'll be good too.

01:08:14.49
Bradley Palermo
You know, it's the one with that iconic like purple and green Halloween Havoc set.

01:08:21.68
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:08:21.80
Bradley Palermo
um You know, that I guess you play that set on the video game and stuff. And

01:08:26.78
Aaron
Yeah.

01:08:27.28
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I don't know. I just i think that that looks great. And it just sounds like a good old fucking time. I don't know about Hogan and Piper in 97. I like Piper, though. um

01:08:36.23
Aaron
I do too.

01:08:36.95
Bradley Palermo
So that's all the time we got for now. um We've been doing this a little bit more frequently lately. So thank you guys for tuning in We'll see you soon.

01:08:45.26
Aaron
Yes, catch you the cheap seats. Adios.