Grapple City Rewind
Step into the time machine and rewind the glory (and the weirdness) of pro wrestling’s VHS era. Hosted by Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink, Grapple City Rewind dives deep into classic pay-per-views from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s—unpacking everything from five-star classics to glitter botches, fake Diesels, and forgotten squash matches.
Each episode blends play-by-play recaps, backstage trivia, and plenty of sarcastic banter. Sometimes it’s reverence, sometimes it’s ridicule, but it’s always passionate. Whether we’re debating star ratings, laughing at signs, or reliving Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind, we’re here to remind you why you fell in love with wrestling in the first place.
We kick off every show with a look at today’s wrestling headlines, then rewind to the pay-per-views that shaped us as fans. Think of it as a tape-trading party with your loudest friends, only with better audio.
Want to cut a promo on us? Call 626-657-SLAM and tell us what you loved, hated, or want us to cover next.
Grapple City Rewind – part history lesson, part comedy roast, all love for the squared circle.
Grapple City Rewind
Funeral Home Freaks - WWE No Mercy 2002
Katie Vick. We’re sorry. We had to get to it at some point.
This week, Brad and Aaron crack open WWE No Mercy 2002 — a violent, blood-splattered relic from the Ruthless Aggression era featuring the Hell in a Cell blood geyser of Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker, Ric Flair trying to survive peak RVD, and a Cruiserweight title match that ends in a forced make-out session because…that's where WWE was at the time.
But the headlining monstrosity: Triple H accuses Kane of murder, and somehow that’s not the worst part. We relive the most infamous storyline in company history — the Katie Vick “angle” — so you don’t have to bleach your brain.
Also on tap:
• Low blows on sale 2-for-1
• One ring rope says “Nope” and peaces out mid-match
• JR wonders if Lawler is into pregnant women
• The Intercontinental Title gets a funeral video package (!?)
• Tribal wrestling fans argue while wrestlers just pay bills
Is it trash? Yes.
Did we laugh? Way too hard.
Would Vince book it again? I bet ya he would.
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/
Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com
IG: @grapplecitypod
TikTok: @grapplecitypod
Threads: @grapplecitypod
Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.
Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.
00:14.43
grapplecitypod
Should I cue the music?
00:17.04
grapplecitypod
Hello and welcome back to Grapple City Rewind, a podcast, a wrestling podcast.
00:27.31
grapplecitypod
or taking you all the way back to the iconic pay-per-views and television specials that shaped wrestling history. This week, we're going back to the ruthless aggression era, 2002, 2002, WWF, No Mercy.
00:43.38
grapplecitypod
A couple weeks ago,
00:44.26
Aaron
WWE.
00:46.02
grapplecitypod
wwe no mercy 2002 we were at wwf no mercy 2001 not too long ago so maybe that's where i got it confused but this show's cool i mean this show's wild it's got a cane being accused of murder by triple h and brock lesnar dripping blood and with against uh
00:56.13
Aaron
laughs
01:07.71
grapplecitypod
The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match. It's just really fucking violent. And yeah it's got flashy sets, some some great workers, some some big names, some soap opera angles, all kinds of stuff that we're going to get into.
01:22.77
grapplecitypod
I'm Bradley Palermo here as always with Aaron Fink and Aaron. Normally we we do a little bit of current product and talk about what's going on in the current world of wrestling. um But this week, I feel like the current world has had not a whole lot to write home about unless you feel otherwise. I think we can maybe just go ahead and get right into No Mercy.
01:42.14
Aaron
Yeah, honestly, i'll I'll be straight up. I didn't watch a lot of wrestling this week. I was obsessing over my fantasy football team, and today was spent spending hours just nervous all day.
01:53.24
grapplecitypod
You got to watch like all the all the teams play all the games.
01:56.66
Aaron
I do, yeah.
01:56.72
grapplecitypod
yeah I watched AEW Dynamite on Wednesday, and I saw some of NXT's Halloween Havoc, but nothing really super stands out to me. I mean, there was a cool Okada-Bandito match, actually, at the end of Dynamite.
02:09.68
Aaron
Oh, yeah.
02:11.00
grapplecitypod
ah It was just a good match. It's like, wow, I can see a real wrestling match on television that seems kind of like pay-per-view level. That's nice to happen sometimes because you just get so much talking on these shows. But yeah, let's just get into it. This one was your pick.
02:29.09
Aaron
All right. So no mercy, 2002. Uh, this was October 20th, 2002 at the all tell arena in little rock, Arkansas, 10,000 people in attendance.
02:40.87
Aaron
It had a very strange opening. Like we did, we did get the, Very serious conversation guilt poisons the soul.
02:47.12
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Yeah.
02:48.37
Aaron
The mind games are over. But before that, Undertaker was sitting in the locker room and his with his bandaged hand, and then Kane showed up, and he was like, hey, so how was your week?
02:57.65
grapplecitypod
wow
03:00.69
Aaron
was like, what the fuck is this? This is like a strange way to open up a pay-per-view.
03:05.77
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I feel like I've either seen that before, probably just has saw it, but, or they've started things off with Kane and Undertaker just hanging around on other like raws and stuff back then.
03:19.48
grapplecitypod
I'm not sure, but I've definitely like seen that little opening of the two of them, um which is weird because they're supposed to be like these ghostly monsters and they're just kind of like, Hey, we're guy, we're people.
03:24.63
Aaron
huh
03:30.97
grapplecitypod
or They're so humanized at this point, you know?
03:33.28
Aaron
Yeah, that was definitely one of the first things I noticed was like, oh, kain they're letting Cain talk. And he's not like talking with a voice box or a voice.
03:38.17
grapplecitypod
yeah They shouldn't do that.
03:40.69
Aaron
You know, do you remember that?
03:40.82
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
03:42.65
Aaron
Like doing that thing.
03:43.01
grapplecitypod
Yeah, he's supposed to be like this dude that murdered Undertaker's whole family.
03:45.72
Aaron
Got burned alive.
03:47.70
grapplecitypod
He's his brother. and burn He's all burnt up. and Eventually, you know later on in the years, he wrestles without a mask. He's not burnt. He can talk just fine.
03:59.41
Aaron
He's a governor of Tennessee now.
03:59.60
grapplecitypod
He becomes the Republican governor of somewhere in Tennessee. It's like, yeah, okay. The mystery is kind of Gone with that one. They definitely shouldn't have had him talking, though. And The Undertaker shouldn't be fucking talking so much.
04:10.78
grapplecitypod
But anyways.
04:11.23
Aaron
Well, this is like a weird incarnation of The Undertaker 2, but we'll get to it. So yeah, intro, very ominous voiceover, who will show no mercy? And we got a Paul Heyman intro before the pay-per-view on behalf of Brock Lesnar talking about how he's going to destroy The Undertaker in a hell in a cell.
04:30.32
Aaron
Anyway.
04:30.74
grapplecitypod
ah Paul Heyman sounds... A bit different back then.
04:34.08
grapplecitypod
He was it was like, he was yeah, I was like, is this Brock Lesnar giving the promo? Because is the voice is all high. Brock kind of has that Mike Tyson thing going on. Then I was like, no, it's Heyman, but it's he's using a different cadence.
04:44.76
Aaron
Yeah.
04:46.19
grapplecitypod
Yes.
04:46.62
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. So after these various video packages, we began and ah on commentary, we actually had two commentary teams. So this is during the beginning of wwe WWE's brand split.
05:01.59
Aaron
So they had, you know, Raw had its own roster. SmackDown had its own roster. Raw has its own general manager. Eric Bischoff. SmackDown has Stephanie McMahon. So Raw's commentary team was Jim Ross and Jerry the King Lawler.
05:16.47
Aaron
SmackDown was Michael Cole and Taz. And ah first match was a tag team match. It was Chris Jericho and Christian who were the world tag team champions against Booker T and Goldust.
05:28.92
Aaron
our old pal Dustin Rhodes, we've seen a bit of in the recent past. Uh, I guess for this one, Jericho and Booker T had been feuding. They didn't really go into the details, just kind of showed us in video recaps that they had been feuding and it had been intense.
05:46.60
Aaron
um so yeah, you know, fun, fast paced tag match. Um, Jericho and Christian were very clearly the heels in this scenario.
05:56.58
Aaron
i enjoy all four of these guys. They're all fantastic wrestlers. And i I think the standout person to me in the match was probably Booker T. um i mean, all four of them are great, but Booker T was was shining the most in the match, or at least had the crowd the most behind him, you know?
06:14.23
grapplecitypod
i wrote I wrote that down too. I said, burer Booker T is the star here. He's hitting the flashy kicks and he's break dancing, but it's obviously for very elite workers, but this was all about Booker T.
06:25.71
Aaron
Yeah, for sure. And, um you know, not without its comedy moments. Goldust used to do a spot where he would take people into the corner and he'd drape their legs over the middle rope and then he'd kick them right in the nards.
06:38.75
Aaron
He wouldn't really kick them in the nards. He'd kick the ah middle turnbuckle.
06:41.82
grapplecitypod
Oh, right. Kick the...
06:42.73
Aaron
But ah yeah, that got a big reaction.
06:43.20
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
06:45.61
Aaron
And then Jericho tried to rush in after that. And then he got tripped and then hit it his his head into Christian's groin.
06:54.21
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
06:54.22
Aaron
So that was fun.
06:55.13
grapplecitypod
Christian took, I think, two low blows during this thing.
06:58.50
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.
06:59.08
grapplecitypod
He was stacking them up.
06:59.18
Aaron
He did. He did for sure. I also wrote down that.
07:01.26
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Yeah.
07:02.16
Aaron
I felt like these guys all have such great timing. Um, everything was fast, but smooth. I don't think there was a single mistake in this match. Like everything felt real, except there was this weird moment where Jericho was trying to do like a lion salt thing off the second rope and the, and the turnbuckle snapped out of the post.
07:22.60
Aaron
I'm pretty sure that was not supposed to happen. So that was kind of jarring.
07:25.11
grapplecitypod
aye
07:26.47
Aaron
Um, But yeah, i I enjoyed the match. um it It was not super long. um I think it was only even like 10 minutes.
07:37.46
grapplecitypod
um there's eight minutes and 47 seconds
07:37.98
Aaron
yeah Eight minutes. Yeah. So pretty short, but exciting. um
07:44.08
grapplecitypod
so the ring rope falling off was just that was just really just it fucked up right it wasn't that wasn't because it wasn't like a real angle there but
07:44.28
Aaron
It ended. Oh, go ahead.
07:49.09
Aaron
Yeah, I think so. yeah because otherwise ah
07:52.97
grapplecitypod
But it kind of changed everything having that rope being down.
07:53.11
Aaron
No. Yeah.
07:55.77
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
07:56.18
Aaron
Yeah, they definitely had to improvise after that. um But it felt like the way that it ended was kind of still what it was supposed to be. i think Christian had brought one of the belts into the ring and it didn't work. He he lost it and the ref got distracted. Jericho hit Goldust with a bulldog on the title.
08:14.26
Aaron
And then he hit him with a moonsault of all things as as his as his finish and then got the pin. So the the heels retain.
08:21.90
grapplecitypod
And Meltzer, I have to get out my reading glasses because the site I found with the Meltzer readings is so tiny. um Gave it... What do you think?
08:30.14
Aaron
I'm going to say a three.
08:30.19
grapplecitypod
Guess for me.
08:32.48
grapplecitypod
Close, yeah. Two and three quarters of a star. But you know what? I thought it had a good out-of-the-gate fast action element to it.
08:40.36
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
08:41.58
grapplecitypod
like It's a good opener. and
08:43.01
Aaron
Yeah.
08:43.69
grapplecitypod
fucking i don't know, man. I love to see Goldust. It's always... It's always like ah somewhat someone that doesn't really know wrestling that's seen it like once over the last 20 years. That's what they always remember. like
08:54.66
Aaron
His gold dust.
08:54.75
grapplecitypod
There's this guy
08:56.12
Aaron
Yeah.
08:56.43
grapplecitypod
He's like wearing all this sparkly and he's really sexual. yeah i'm like, okay gold dust, dude. Yeah. Memorable.
09:04.58
Aaron
Yeah. He was memorable guy. And I did notice that, you know, that, that punch that Cody does where he, he falls on his back to the mat and then punch it like sort of uppercuts.
09:14.73
grapplecitypod
well um
09:16.26
Aaron
Yeah.
09:16.41
grapplecitypod
Yeah, that's a Goldust move, huh?
09:16.54
Aaron
That's a gold dust move. So yeah.
09:18.89
grapplecitypod
And he probably started doing that when he did the Stardust.
09:21.54
Aaron
Oh yeah.
09:21.64
grapplecitypod
He probably had to do Goldust moves. But I don't know. It's interesting how the two brothers and the dad share some of it, right? I feel like an AEW...
09:29.63
Aaron
Yeah, he does that from his brother. He does the elbows from his dad.
09:34.24
grapplecitypod
Yeah, and I mean, Dustin definitely does bionic elbows. Cody has like his own version of it, right? With the pelvic thrust. But he didn't really do that in AEW.
09:42.75
Aaron
Yeah.
09:43.85
grapplecitypod
He kind of...
09:44.92
Aaron
No, he started doing the dusty stuff when he got to WWE, yeah.
09:47.63
grapplecitypod
Yeah, so it's kind of fun. and And some other just like the ways that they they walk and hold their their heads and the way that they sort of interact with the crowd. Mannerisms are similar between the three too.
09:57.31
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
09:58.56
grapplecitypod
Should Should we get into this backstage Funaki interview with Al Wilson?
10:03.67
Aaron
Yes, this was weird.
10:04.01
grapplecitypod
um
10:05.94
grapplecitypod
So I guess this Al Wilson guy is the father of Tori Wilson, who's going to wrestle, but he's, Tori's going to wrestle Don.
10:10.74
Aaron
Tori. Yeah.
10:16.65
Aaron
Dawn Marie.
10:16.67
grapplecitypod
So his daughter, Don Marie, so his daughter's opponent, Don is hitting on him, like basically trying to like fuck her dad. Uh,
10:24.64
Aaron
Like in the weeks leading up to the to this match.
10:26.12
grapplecitypod
Yeah. And it's like, he's like in the shower with this woman and he's just like, he's, he's getting flashed by this woman.
10:26.72
Aaron
Yeah.
10:30.92
Aaron
With his clothes on.
10:33.32
grapplecitypod
And then Funaki, this, this interviewer, he like asked him, he's like, well, i just have one question. Why were you in the shower with your clothes on? Cause in the video, it's like, she's not wearing clothes.
10:43.08
grapplecitypod
that He's fully in his like button down.
10:43.87
Aaron
Yeah.
10:45.46
grapplecitypod
And then um for like, this is way after I'm pretty sure. yeah Way after the whole, Bill Clinton, I did not have sex with that woman thing.
10:52.97
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
10:53.37
grapplecitypod
But they they quote it. They reference it. He says, I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
10:56.01
Aaron
Yeah.
10:58.73
grapplecitypod
So they're making Bill Clinton jokes still in
11:00.94
Aaron
pretty Pretty trashy segment all around. Definitely more of like a soap opera thing. And
11:06.52
grapplecitypod
a lot of trash TV in this pay-per-view. But yes, go ahead
11:10.05
Aaron
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, obviously leading us to the Tori Wilson versus Dawn Marie match. and Dawn Marie, I recognize because she was in ECW. And um the one thing I wrote down about this one is like, oh, nice. This is a normal wrestling match between two women. They're like fully clothed.
11:28.09
Aaron
It was kind of funny that they were talking about the lead up to this normal match was they had like a lingerie match and a bikini match or something stupid.
11:35.65
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I was.
11:36.72
Aaron
But then they ended it with a normal match. That was nice.
11:38.64
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I was going to say, like, it was still like sexual overtones because literally right before they came out, it was one was trying to have sex with the other one's dad. I mean, and Yeah, and then the pet video package was all like sexual and stuff.
11:52.41
grapplecitypod
um Oh, and the referee molests the women. like
11:56.31
Aaron
Yeah.
11:56.70
grapplecitypod
Straight up like like sexual assault. they're they're They're pinning each other. he gets on the back of one of them. So we're...
12:03.34
Aaron
And then they roll on top of him.
12:04.71
grapplecitypod
and And then he rolls them both together around the ring and won't let him go. And then like gets up and like laughs and cheers and puts his hand up, his hands up in the air. Like, look at me, like, like a frat boy who just fucking, you know, groped someone.
12:15.77
Aaron
it wasn't me. Yeah.
12:23.99
Aaron
Yeah.
12:28.91
grapplecitypod
They, I mean, now, you know,
12:31.00
Aaron
Can't hold a candle to now, of course, yes.
12:32.51
grapplecitypod
Yeah, yeah.
12:32.96
Aaron
But certainly a huge improvement from the things that we watched in the year 2000 and 2001.
12:39.94
grapplecitypod
Right.
12:40.44
Aaron
You can see there's actual progression happening on a yearly basis, which is nice to see. um This is not... One of the best matches of the night. I would say it was okay, but it was also very short. I believe it was less than five minutes.
12:54.62
Aaron
Uh, Tori Wilson won with a swinging neck breaker. And I suspect good old Dave probably gave this, uh, three quarters of a star.
13:02.93
grapplecitypod
We will find out here in one second.
13:06.80
grapplecitypod
closed it.
13:07.73
grapplecitypod
No mercy. Melted ratings.
13:10.81
grapplecitypod
Negative half a star. So worse than a dud.
13:14.53
Aaron
Negative half a star.
13:16.76
grapplecitypod
Negative half a star.
13:18.31
Aaron
Oh, boy. Oh, Oh, boy.
13:19.46
grapplecitypod
All right.
13:19.85
Aaron
Well, after this, we had another backstage segment. It was ah our old pal Coach, Jonathan Coachman, in the back talking with RVD about his upcoming match with Ric Flair.
13:30.06
Aaron
And RVD was doing his typical stoner-type discussion, like, Oh, Ric Flair, you say you're a profiling, styling, whatever. He does rick Flair's whole thing, and then ah RVD kind of flips that on his head and does it for himself, but then makes makes jokes.
13:46.31
grapplecitypod
I don't style, I don't profile. i
13:48.12
Aaron
I sit and coach.
13:51.69
Aaron
and No offense to Coach. but I actually thought that was kind of funny.
13:55.91
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
13:55.96
Aaron
So, you know, so silly little backstage promo. ah After it's over, coach sees Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar walk by, tries to talk to them. They don't want to talk to him. And ah yeah, so then we get the third match of the night. Ric Flair versus RVD.
14:10.03
Aaron
Weird Ric Flair music, right? Like...
14:13.01
grapplecitypod
yeah.
14:13.49
Aaron
I don't know what that was about, but it's not not what we normally hear. He was still doing his normal coming out with the flashy robe thing.
14:17.48
grapplecitypod
Probably.
14:20.29
Aaron
But, um you know, as Flair was walking up, the commentators gave us some context about how Flair had been messing with RVD. He cost him a world title in a match against Triple H using a sledgehammer, I think, to interfere.
14:33.80
Aaron
ah wonder if this is... close to the beginning of evolution, that faction that Triple H, Ric Flair, or Batista, and Randy Orton were a part of maybe?
14:39.10
grapplecitypod
i
14:42.49
grapplecitypod
probably
14:43.20
Aaron
But, um you know, RVD still super popular. I think we saw him in No Mercy 2001. um RVD comes in hot and they're fighting outside the ring. RVD in the first like three minutes has already done a bunch of crazy high flying shit because that's that's what Van Damme does. You know, it was really weird juxtaposition of styles ah because Flair doesn't do anything like RVD does.
15:07.07
Aaron
But, you know, like Flair.
15:07.32
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
15:09.35
Aaron
I think he went after um RVD's leg and then it just kind of slowed down the match. And like, I really, i enjoyed this one.
15:15.77
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Flair does the old school, old school psychology, which is great for, know, just stalling, hiding in the ropes, um, pulling off a low blow when the ref's not looking, that kind of thing.
15:26.44
grapplecitypod
ah the crowd, know, he does the chops and the crowd at this point, they've, they've caught on to, to the woos, you know, and they're,
15:30.28
Aaron
They are wooing. Yeah. Yeah.
15:33.44
grapplecitypod
They're fucking wooing along to every chop. And yeah, it's, I guess you could do that kind of, that kind of difference in style works.
15:42.28
grapplecitypod
Cause one guy's just going to fly around and knock you over. And then other dude's going to be like, Oh, stop. You know, Ric Flair is just kind of running half the time.
15:48.51
Aaron
Yeah. yeah
15:49.56
grapplecitypod
Always acts like he's going to leave the match. But when I was watching this, was like, Ric Flair does look old. He's starting to look old at this point. And he's like well into his fifties.
15:56.28
Aaron
Yeah. He's 53. They said it on commentary, which is insane.
15:57.80
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
16:00.78
Aaron
Cause like, he doesn't look that old, but like, just, just to think about a 53 year old man taking bumps, like he was taking us like, man, flares wrestling for a long time.
16:00.92
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
16:08.43
grapplecitypod
Yeah. And you know, it's, it's crazy. I mean, you that guy was in a plane, plane accident when, before we ever saw him on any of this stuff and still taking weird, you know, still taking bumps with all that damage to his body, but he's still going. He does. I mean, i i wouldn't say like, he don't look a day.
16:24.79
grapplecitypod
over 50 anything like dude looks old right and it's like but he's still he's still rick flair it's it's a big draw it's it's always fun to see him but um i don't really understand why jr randomly asked lawler during this match if he finds pregnant woman attractive it was weird
16:27.82
Aaron
Yeah.
16:41.40
Aaron
I missed that somehow. JR had some weird fucking comments in this pay-per-view. I'll get to one later.
16:47.26
grapplecitypod
yeah do you find he's like lawler do you find pregnant woman attractive and I don't even think he even knew what to say. i was like, this is a weird ass thing to throw in there.
16:57.49
Aaron
ah Well, you know, I did hear in the news that JR might've gotten himself in some hot water with Devon.
16:58.89
grapplecitypod
And, and, uh,
17:05.18
Aaron
did you Did you hear about that?
17:06.79
grapplecitypod
Devon has said now, uh, to my understanding, this is an exact quote that J R treated him poorly because of the color of the skin.
17:16.01
Aaron
Yeah, he said he was racist. Yeah.
17:19.28
grapplecitypod
And he told him, I think the the line was, he straight up told me he doesn't like black people.
17:19.59
Aaron
And...
17:25.03
Aaron
Yeah.
17:25.58
grapplecitypod
So
17:25.75
Aaron
i think Yeah, I think that's what he said. he died that That JR told him he doesn't like him because of the color of his skin.
17:31.04
grapplecitypod
right.
17:31.10
Aaron
Which is insane. Although, i did some deep diving after seeing this interview where Devon said that. And apparently, JR was friends with a bunch of, like, Klan members and shit.
17:42.38
Aaron
I mean, he's from, like,
17:43.21
grapplecitypod
Whoa. Yeah.
17:44.16
Aaron
Oklahoma or something and ah or Alabama or something. i don't know where he's from, but yeah.
17:47.60
grapplecitypod
yeah
17:49.70
Aaron
So
17:49.82
grapplecitypod
but So JR is... That's very disappointing. and And the society will never cease to disappoint you when you learn about your heroes, right?
17:56.78
Aaron
Yeah.
17:58.34
grapplecitypod
But JR, it sucks. He seems like such a nice old man. And he is the best commentator. And we have enough of these guys that we have to sort of like pretend like we don't know certain things about them in wrestling.
18:10.76
Aaron
yeah
18:11.03
grapplecitypod
And if JR is a racist, which... I mean, why the fuck would D-Von just make that up? You know, I mean...
18:15.37
Aaron
No, you wouldn't. and and
18:16.18
grapplecitypod
tend to believe that yeah
18:17.48
Aaron
And Bubba even said once Devon explained that story, he was like, oh yeah, I do remember. So I don't think both of them would lie.
18:25.13
grapplecitypod
yeah right that's uh it's disappointing i i feel like i don't know it's easy to like kind of pretend like you don't notice some things like that but
18:28.78
Aaron
Disappointing.
18:35.77
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
18:36.26
grapplecitypod
ah You just got to show up to work the next day. But there's a lot of that shit around. I don't even some of the corporations I've worked in and stuff I've heard. I'm like, yeah, pretend like I didn't hear that one, you know?
18:44.09
Aaron
Yeah.
18:47.19
Aaron
Yeah, anyway.
18:47.62
grapplecitypod
Fucking J.R., man. We lost another good one.
18:51.25
Aaron
Let's ah back to Flair and Van Damme. So ah it was... Thank you. Thank you, Rick. ah It was an eight-minute match. I enjoyed it. I thought it was super solid.
19:03.56
Aaron
ah Van Damme got the win. He hit his five-star frog splash and got the pin despite all of the damage done to his legs. So yeah, was I enjoyed this one. I assume Meltzer didn't like it.
19:15.30
grapplecitypod
hu um Let's see. Dave Meltzer gave it a two.
19:18.89
Aaron
A two?
19:18.91
grapplecitypod
Two out of five.
19:19.23
Aaron
Okay.
19:19.51
grapplecitypod
Two stars out of five.
19:19.99
Aaron
Yeah. That's, that's, I would have given it more, maybe like a three, but I'm a nice guy.
19:25.03
grapplecitypod
I would go three on it. Easy.
19:26.66
Aaron
Yeah.
19:26.98
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I mean, RVD is awesome, man.
19:27.50
Aaron
Yeah.
19:30.05
grapplecitypod
And Ric Flair did what he's supposed to do. So what do you really want?
19:32.24
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
19:33.01
grapplecitypod
I mean, I would give it at least like a standard rating, not like a lower end, right?
19:38.29
Aaron
Yeah, what are what is what are his criteria? like that That's the thing I really want to know.
19:41.59
grapplecitypod
don't know.
19:42.80
Aaron
is like where do what What part of your asshole do you pull these stars out of, Dave Meltzer?
19:47.36
grapplecitypod
I think so. I've heard Jim Cornette do a whole thing. We talked about before about the original star rating wrestling guy, uh, weasel Dooley or weasel Dooley or whatever.
19:53.83
Aaron
the
19:55.71
grapplecitypod
And i think ah originally five was supposed to be, it's really like a rating, like one out of three. Like I think five is, is kind of supposed to be like breaking your rating and that's supposed to be like, you absolutely brought down the house.
20:02.24
Aaron
Like unattainable?
20:09.71
grapplecitypod
Right. So, um, And four is supposed to be kind of hard to get also.
20:14.26
Aaron
Okay, well, I guess if you look at it like that, then if he's thinking like a two is middle of the road.
20:19.33
grapplecitypod
I think so.
20:20.20
Aaron
Okay.
20:20.21
grapplecitypod
I mean, I'm not, but the way that it was explained, it was supposed to be like very stingy, right?
20:20.56
Aaron
Yeah.
20:24.66
grapplecitypod
Like a five is like, what the fuck?
20:24.93
Aaron
Yeah.
20:26.10
grapplecitypod
Like no one saw this coming. They brought down the house. Everything was great.
20:29.29
Aaron
I guess it's just knowing now that in the last 10 years he's given out like six and a half and seven star matches. I'm like, dude, what the fuck? are Like this, this doesn't even make sense. You're not adhering to your own rating system.
20:42.25
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I mean, think our brains start to go wrong direction after starts to happen, you know, somewhere in middle age.
20:47.04
Aaron
Once we get old.
20:49.14
grapplecitypod
And by the time you get to old Meltzer's age, it's just, you know, it's gotten little senile, I think, what I'm trying to say.
20:55.24
Aaron
I suspect you are correct. Yeah. um So, so yeah, that match was over. Then we got another backstage segment with Big Show and Stephanie McMahon.
21:05.25
Aaron
Big Show was trying to complain to Stephanie about something because I guess he's a SmackDown superstar. She's the GM of SmackDown.
21:12.27
grapplecitypod
He's been left off to pe the P the pay-per-views since July.
21:12.36
Aaron
Then the pay-per-views. Yeah. Right. So then Eric Bischoff shows up. Oh, no, that's what it was. He was a raw superstar.
21:22.82
Aaron
And he was talking to Stephanie, who's the SmackDown general manager. And then Bischoff shows up. He's like, you can't talk to her. And then show gets in his face and throws him up against some clangy.
21:33.100
Aaron
catering carts. I love how they just conveniently put very loud, clangy stuff around when there's backstage segments.
21:38.37
grapplecitypod
Yeah, yeah. yeah
21:42.03
Aaron
Anyway, he's mad. Yeah, that was and that was an it.
21:43.22
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I mean, they're teasing they're teasing a brand switch, right? with
21:47.52
Aaron
Probably, yeah.
21:48.03
grapplecitypod
But I think the thing that WWF, WWE, I guess, really, because it's more than that era, never really understood and maybe still doesn't understand is we don't really give a fuck about Team SmackDown versus Team Raw and, like, what side you're on and who's going to the draft and who...
22:01.21
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
22:05.41
grapplecitypod
Like, no. I mean, i don't remember who the fuck is on which show. I don't even know if they... They do a draft. i don't even know if they stick to it. Hardly ever. like
22:13.38
Aaron
They haven't been this year very much. I mean, the, ever since the Netflix deal started, like I honestly can't remember if they even had a draft this year and if, and if they did, they're not adhering to it at all because, and they shouldn't like people need to be flexible.
22:21.89
grapplecitypod
It's been a while, but the draft is bad.
22:28.40
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
22:28.96
Aaron
You should change what shows people are on to benefit the show, not to like create rivalries that don't matter, you know?
22:36.89
grapplecitypod
Right, they shouldn't really talk to us about who's going where. like You can keep that in the office. Just show me, okay, out this week on Monday Night Raw, you got AJ Styles versus Luchador X or whatever.
22:48.84
grapplecitypod
And cool, if I either want to watch that or I don't. I don't need to be like, you know, why is he on this one?
22:53.15
Aaron
oh
22:53.79
grapplecitypod
Not not a Monday.
22:54.07
Aaron
Oh, Roman's on Raw now? What does this mean?
22:56.08
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
22:56.71
Aaron
Who's going to SmackDown? care who's going to SmackDown.
22:59.35
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
22:59.47
Aaron
just want to be excited that Roman's there, you know?
23:01.39
grapplecitypod
Right, exactly. So I think they clearly thought that that was cool drama back then, teasing the brand switch. Like, oh, I like teasing a heel turn always works. Teasing a brand switch? Nah.
23:13.08
Aaron
Yeah.
23:13.61
grapplecitypod
And then we get a Intercontinental title ah history montage because this pay-per-view decided that they want to kill the Intercontinental title. They want to merge it with the heavyweight title.
23:25.67
grapplecitypod
um So they kind of do like a ah little...
23:28.45
Aaron
retrospective.
23:29.91
grapplecitypod
Yeah, like make a little funeral for the IC title. It's sad. Granted, it will come back in less than a year like everything else that ever gets merged. But it's it's a cool title with a cool lineage.
23:40.99
grapplecitypod
don't know...
23:41.14
Aaron
Yeah.
23:41.87
grapplecitypod
i don't know I guess Gortz was writing a lot of this stuff now. And I feel like he's kind of a, he's kind of a weirdo like the rest of them in his own way, you know, like some of this wild shit, but, um, yeah.
23:46.57
Aaron
Oh.
23:52.20
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
23:53.55
grapplecitypod
So it's like Disney style orchestral music and, uh, commentary note, like commentary notes of the title will be retired tonight. And, um,
24:03.30
grapplecitypod
I mean, there was it was actually kind of beautifully cut together. you know
24:05.93
Aaron
Yeah, I liked it.
24:06.45
grapplecitypod
Tito Santana and Macho Man and Bret Hart and Chyna and all the champions that have had the IC belt over the years. and Oh, and then the next match had nothing to do with that.
24:17.27
grapplecitypod
and was It was a Cruiserweight Championship. Jamie Noble. Jamie Noble, the champion versus...
24:25.08
Aaron
Tajiri.
24:26.04
grapplecitypod
Oh, he was with Nydia and he was versus Tajiri. So this one was like a fast paced martial arts lucha hybrid type match.
24:35.44
Aaron
Mm-hmm. huh
24:36.12
grapplecitypod
um
24:36.100
Aaron
I liked it. You know, I, I, yeah, I'm, I'm, ah I've always been a fan of cruiserweight stuff.
24:37.68
grapplecitypod
Solid, you know.
24:41.40
Aaron
Obviously when we watched a Halloween havoc last week, we saw an amazing cruiserweight match with Ray Mysterio jr. And Eddie Guerrero. And, you know, I wish the crowd was more invested in this one, but I enjoyed it.
24:49.21
grapplecitypod
Oh, yeah.
24:53.62
Aaron
um There was a tornado DDT that Tajiri hit noble with that looked really good. And eventually the crowd did get into it. um But they're just, you know,
25:04.22
Aaron
they They never, WWE never really gave the Cruiserweight title any serious attention, even when they made their own show just for Cruiserweights 205 Live.
25:10.90
grapplecitypod
Right.
25:14.86
Aaron
Like, nobody watched.
25:15.46
grapplecitypod
Oh, yeah. I remember that on the WWE Network.
25:18.04
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. So, um you know, I think the crowd got the most excited when Tajiri locked in the, chart the tarantula, um, which was like that submission where he hangs you up on the ropes and he like, you know, grabs you and goes over the the back of the ropes.
25:25.62
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
25:32.94
Aaron
And, um, obviously you can't win with that because the ref always counts to five, but they all seem to love that.
25:39.48
grapplecitypod
Yeah, you know, this was also sort of awkward, like sort of more weird rape culture bro-y stuff because...
25:48.47
Aaron
Yeah.
25:48.79
grapplecitypod
um Noble retains after interference from Nydia. And then ah Tajiri goes to Nydia and just sticks his tongue down her throat, like forcibly kisses her.
26:00.14
grapplecitypod
And then the other guy, Jamie, to show him how it's done, he goes and does the same thing. They're like passing her back and forth, these two opponents and this woman.
26:10.23
Aaron
Yeah, and Tajiri kicks Noble in the back of the head while he's kissing his girlfriend.
26:10.29
grapplecitypod
Um...
26:14.19
Aaron
Kind of weird.
26:14.56
grapplecitypod
ah Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's some trash TV presentation, all throughout this thing, but I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm unfamiliar with sort of early two thousands WWE and like, it's kind of interesting to see this all like, where were they at the end of the attitude era?
26:25.52
Aaron
Uh-huh.
26:29.98
grapplecitypod
Well, they were kind of like as trashy as fucking ever, you know?
26:32.82
Aaron
Yeah, no, for sure. And, you know, I wrote down after this match that one of the things I've noticed about this pay-per-view that certainly made it stand out from Halloween Havoc 97 is how clearly defined the baby faces and heels are.
26:48.80
Aaron
Like, there's no doubt...
26:48.99
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
26:50.52
Aaron
and In every single match, who is the good guy? Who is the bad guy? Like so clear. It's so obvious.
26:56.21
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
26:57.10
Aaron
And honestly, I like that.
26:57.51
grapplecitypod
That's true.
26:59.22
Aaron
It just makes it really easy to get invested in the match.
26:59.54
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
27:02.74
Aaron
um So, yeah, you know, like I appreciate that. and It's funny because it almost doesn't happen as often anymore. It kind of does in current day WWE. But then there's always those in-betweeners.
27:14.13
Aaron
where like half the crowd likes them, half the crowd doesn't, or the crowd likes you when you have your entrance, but then they don't like you once the bell rings.
27:14.30
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
27:21.59
grapplecitypod
yeah i like it to be defined it's nice cut and dry yeah heroes and villains
27:21.72
Aaron
This was just like, yeah, this was just consistent. You know, like when Christian and Jericho came out, booze, you know, when Booker T and Goldust came out, cheers.
27:29.51
grapplecitypod
yeah and then we had some backstage uh chris benoit screaming for eddie guerrero and then uh
27:39.76
Aaron
yeah Yeah, because Angle was beating up Eddie's cousin Chavo.
27:44.42
grapplecitypod
Yeah, it was kind of confusing, but meant to build tension for the tag match finals later on. um I don't have a lot to say about the the little in between thing, but yeah, was whatever.
27:55.39
Aaron
Yeah, it was whatever.
27:56.87
grapplecitypod
Um, then you get a video package with Kane versus triple H.
28:01.26
Aaron
Yes, and this is where we get the the the infamous Katie Vick story.
28:01.41
grapplecitypod
Um,
28:05.14
Aaron
Do Do you want to explain this for people who don't know?
28:05.35
grapplecitypod
yeah.
28:08.100
grapplecitypod
Well, i know you can explain the Katie Vick thing. I was just going to say Kane's voice like kills the mystique and the freaks are cool line that he said.
28:11.62
Aaron
okay
28:19.12
grapplecitypod
Freaks were cool or was really just cringe.
28:19.32
Aaron
Oh, boy. so dumb. Yeah.
28:22.37
grapplecitypod
um But anyways, yeah talk about the Katie Vick thing.
28:23.38
Aaron
So, okay. Yeah.
28:25.14
grapplecitypod
Sure.
28:25.78
Aaron
So this, yeah. So this storyline is pretty infamous. A lot of people remember one particular part of this storyline in particular, which I'll talk about in a second, but essentially this whole shtick was,
28:38.84
Aaron
that triple H was coming after Kane in calling him a murderer because when he was in high school, he went to a party but this girl named Katie Vick and they were driving after the party. Kane had had too much to drink and so did Katie.
28:54.91
Aaron
And then he got in a car accident and Katie died instantly.
28:58.94
grapplecitypod
And
29:00.43
Aaron
And so they called Kane a murderer.
29:02.56
grapplecitypod
and they just picked this name out of thin fucking air.
29:02.57
Aaron
ah
29:04.78
grapplecitypod
Mm-hmm.
29:04.100
Aaron
Yeah. And, and so I don't know if you know this part, uh, Brad, but the, the most absurd part of this whole feud, there was a segment that they did on a raw or a SmackDown.
29:15.67
grapplecitypod
The next, the very next night.
29:17.41
Aaron
Oh, is it the next night? okay.
29:18.78
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Yeah.
29:19.09
Aaron
I thought it was before this, but so, uh, triple uh,
29:25.96
Aaron
but my god
29:32.06
grapplecitypod
Ha, ha, ha.
29:34.57
Aaron
so
29:59.88
Aaron
Jesus.
30:02.01
grapplecitypod
This is Triple H pretending to be Cain molesting supposed corpse.
30:05.59
Aaron
Molesting a dead body. Yeah.
30:09.66
Aaron
Oh my god.
30:16.07
grapplecitypod
It's the most ridiculous.
30:16.45
Aaron
Oh god.
30:27.11
Aaron
What is this music?
30:29.34
grapplecitypod
They play like Disney music while he's like having sex with the corpse.
30:32.84
Aaron
Dear God, that is horrible.
30:41.84
grapplecitypod
That plop you heard was he would through like a gelatinous material at the camera.
30:46.21
Aaron
Oh my God.
30:46.56
grapplecitypod
it's supposed to be like he, it was her brains or whatever.
30:50.53
Aaron
Wow, that was horrible.
30:50.62
grapplecitypod
so I didn't mean to cut you off, but I was like, why explain it when i actually made a clip here?
30:52.38
Aaron
That was worse than I remember.
30:58.70
Aaron
my God, that was disgusting. And i i thank God that that ah has not somehow or that has managed to, you know, slip between the cracks and never be referenced again, because dear God, that is so bad.
31:28.34
grapplecitypod
Vince McMahon was way, way, way, way into it, though. And Triple H didn't want to do it.
31:32.39
Aaron
Of course he was.
31:33.21
grapplecitypod
And he was uncomfortable with it. And I think people try to pretend like it never happened. But but yeah, that's where the Katie Vick story culminated to the next night, the very next night after this pay-per-view on Monday Night Raw.
31:44.56
Aaron
Wow.
31:44.71
grapplecitypod
um And it's pretty, it's, I mean, it's probably one of the most, like, offensive things that, yeah, that WWF-E...
31:50.84
Aaron
Offensive, yeah.
31:53.65
grapplecitypod
f e and all the above have, uh, have done ever one of their, one of their most weird angles.
32:00.88
Aaron
Yeah. Wow. Okay. Well, let's talk about this match now. Triple H versus Kane. Winner takes all. World Heavyweight Championship and Intercontinental Championship. um Didn't like Kane's entrance music like with lyrics and stuff.
32:17.86
Aaron
I think it said Freaks are Cool on the Titantron 2.
32:18.09
grapplecitypod
Yeah. It's so embarrassing. The pyro is cool though. He is lot of pyro.
32:24.25
Aaron
Yeah, his his fire in the ring is always cool. We did ah get the Triple H the Game Motorhead song, which was great because that's that's what I remember most about Triple H is that entrance.
32:35.61
Aaron
um
32:36.68
grapplecitypod
Yes.
32:36.94
Aaron
There's nothing wrong with this match. They're two very big stars of the time, but it just felt very standard. Nothing spectacular. nothing nothing spectacular Ric Flair came out and started interfering. The sledgehammer came out.
32:51.32
Aaron
Your old pal Hurricane, yeah, showed up to try to stop Flair.
32:51.40
grapplecitypod
hurricane yeah
32:54.94
Aaron
Got a pedigree for his troubles.
32:56.81
grapplecitypod
yeah it was uh i guess kind of overbooked there's too many people out there and yeah i mean kane dominated early and triple h was kind of leaning on his sort of like underhanded heel tactics but don't know was just thinking maybe just like
33:00.15
Aaron
Yeah, it was messy by the end of it.
33:12.83
grapplecitypod
two big dudes. Like, what are they really going to do? You kind of need someone. It's a little quicker jump off of something or some shit. don't know.
33:19.58
Aaron
Yeah.
33:19.75
grapplecitypod
Two big guys just kind of, kind of swinging on each other brawl. But, uh,
33:23.63
Aaron
Yeah, i guess I guess I see what Bret Hart was talking about with Triple H matches never doing anything for him because this was just like, eh.
33:30.65
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I can't remember. Maybe I'm influenced by Bret Hart, but I don't remember anything really so far that what Triple H did that was like, holy shit. I mean, but he looks great in the ring.
33:39.10
Aaron
I feel like he had good matches with Rock and Austin and stuff, but again, they're probably all similar.
33:41.76
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Yeah.
33:45.99
Aaron
um Yeah, this was a messy one for sure.
33:46.13
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
33:49.06
Aaron
ah You know, downed referees, sledgehammers. I guess it just kind of felt like a trip a typical Triple H match because he is a heel. um Triple H wins with a pedigree after all kinds of interference. So goodbye to the Intercontinental Championship for now.
34:04.94
Aaron
He is still the world heavyweight champion.
34:07.15
grapplecitypod
Yeah, so Dave Meltzer gave that a two and three quarters star. if we i don't know if we mentioned the cruiserweight title star rating, but that was a three.
34:13.92
Aaron
Oh, okay.
34:14.17
grapplecitypod
So um that was the best rating so far was the cruiser ta title.
34:16.98
Aaron
So far, yeah.
34:18.90
grapplecitypod
And then this one was two and three quarters. But um yeah, it was fine, you know.
34:23.36
Aaron
We've got another segment after this. Stephanie McMahon was in her office talking to this woman named Tracy. ah guess the storyline here is that she claims that she had an affair with the Undertaker ah while the Undertaker's wife was pregnant.
34:39.44
Aaron
But I guess it turns out that she was a liar or something because Undertaker was like back behind the door and he's like, oh, you lying bitch or whatever.
34:40.26
grapplecitypod
This is... Yeah.
34:47.47
grapplecitypod
Stephanie... tree Yeah, he called her a lying bitch, which is, again, just it's just the trashiness of this time.
34:51.10
Aaron
So trashy, yeah.
34:53.30
grapplecitypod
But, like, this this woman, Tracy, speaking to Stephanie McMahon as, like like, woman to woman. So Stephanie thinks she can let get Tracy to tell the truth because she's a woman.
35:03.06
grapplecitypod
And so she lets her guard, and i was like, okay, i really wasn't banging the Undertaker, but and i'm gonna get them and then the undertaker's around the corner what was crazy to me was like the style at this time first of all this is just pure soap opera energy like just really bad acting and like a bad set like got everything but but yeah the one the woman i guess it is 2002 but her tracy her genes are so low like it looks like there's something wrong with them like they're
35:16.99
Aaron
Reality TV.
35:31.31
grapplecitypod
you know what i mean it's like they're like below the pubic bone you know it's like yeah it's like what the fuck you gotta like i mean i don't wear my yeah i'm like this is this looks very odd like how much you know past your torso is like are you gonna show with jeans which i guess it was the style at the time but now women wear jeans like you know up above their belly button so it's
35:33.51
Aaron
She got the apple bottom jeans. but Below the
35:54.50
Aaron
And like their bell bottoms again are back now.
35:57.08
grapplecitypod
yeah so i don't know but he's definitely a sign of the times um terrible acting but uh so it's it's funny um
35:58.12
Aaron
Big flares. Yeah.
36:07.51
grapplecitypod
Some of my notes. I put my notes into ChatGPT to clean up my spelling, but it's like there's certain things it won't say. Like, I put in my notes, Undertaker calls her a lying bitch, but it's been changed to Undertaker calls her a liar.
36:20.74
grapplecitypod
I'm like, dude, don't fucking change my what I wrote.
36:23.36
Aaron
You just need to tell ChatGPT to leave in all your expletives or maybe add some.
36:23.38
grapplecitypod
Just fucking change my spelling.
36:29.02
grapplecitypod
Oh God. Yeah. I just won't go through It's just, I just like it to be, like names and stuff clean. Sometimes I have little typos, but, uh, the sixth match was the WWE tag team championship tournament final because there was other tag belts and they were over on raw and this is a tag belts for SmackDown or is it vice versa?
36:49.80
Aaron
No, yeah, you're right that these belts had had never existed up until this point. There was only one tag team championship in WWF. And so this is the WWE tag team championship.
37:01.47
grapplecitypod
Do we still have it that way now? I mean, I know there used to be the SmackDown championships and then the Raw Tag Team Championships and then they were unified by the Usos had all of them for, you know, damn near a year, probably.
37:12.32
Aaron
Yeah. Now it's, now I think it's the wwe WWE tag team championship and the world tag team champions.
37:20.25
grapplecitypod
Like how they do with the belt. Okay, yeah.
37:21.65
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.
37:22.62
grapplecitypod
but that With that singles belt, yeah.
37:24.89
Aaron
Yeah. And the same kind of design too, where the raw belts sort of like the big gold belt ish, you know, the world heavyweight championship.
37:31.49
grapplecitypod
I see. Right. Yeah. You can tell I skipped most of the WWE tag division stuff.
37:37.25
Aaron
Well, that's cause it's not very good at the moment.
37:39.74
grapplecitypod
It's certainly, yeah.
37:40.05
Aaron
But this was good.
37:41.61
grapplecitypod
um Yeah. Kurt Angle and Chris Van Waugh versus Edge and Rey Mysterio. a lot of good workers in one place.
37:46.42
Aaron
ah yeah
37:48.73
Aaron
Yeah. And ah we're finally at the, at the period of time in history where Kurt angle gets you suck chance as he walks out, which I always love because they start out real.
37:56.69
grapplecitypod
no Yeah.
37:59.07
Aaron
Yeah.
37:59.68
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
37:59.92
Aaron
you so They start out real and then eventually they become a term of endearment or like ah a reverence of sorts, you know?
38:06.36
grapplecitypod
Yeah, this, I don't know.
38:07.40
Aaron
So
38:07.84
grapplecitypod
This might've been maybe match of the night.
38:09.59
Aaron
matt match of the night, you think?
38:12.77
grapplecitypod
Um,
38:13.20
Aaron
i I think you might be right. I mean, as you said, all four of these guys are fantastic. I, ah you know, we've talked about Benoit before. He's very scary. And ah whenever I hear his entrance music now, it makes me pretty unnerved.
38:28.90
Aaron
it It is definitely still hard to watch him um knowing what he did, looking at his face. And, you know, like he he's he's scary and you can kind of see it, you know.
38:36.94
grapplecitypod
Yeah, I mean, if anyone's, for sure, I mean, i if anyone's unaware about Chris Benoit, which I would assume if you're listening to this, probably know the story, but it's a family annihilator, killed his kid and his wife and himself one one day. So you look at him and he just seems, I mean, we know that he's about to become a murderer for real, not like Kane and Katie Vick.
39:01.34
grapplecitypod
And, and it's like, it is, this is disturbing. You're like, I mean, you're looking at someone who will very soon do some really fucked up shit and he don't look right. He looks
39:11.71
Aaron
Yeah, well, and that was that was his character, right? So all the all these people say, oh I did. I never saw that with him. And it's like, well, when I watch it, maybe it's just I mean, clearly I have the benefit of hindsight, but his character was intense and he looked crazy and he had a horrible, horrible case of CTE.
39:29.73
Aaron
So, you know.
39:30.45
grapplecitypod
Yeah. So you put it all together. I mean, I never, you know, it's hard to ever know what's acting and what's real and this stuff. But, uh, like you said, looking back, it's just eerie every time, but you know, it's, uh, it's that time of year for watching weird shit, creepy shit, spooky shit.
39:36.34
Aaron
True.
39:40.88
Aaron
Yeah.
39:46.04
Aaron
Spooky season. Yeah. You know, I will say, despite Mysterio and Edge being sort of an odd couple, I do remember them as a tag team.
39:52.88
grapplecitypod
Mm-hmm.
39:54.86
Aaron
And I do remember that they were very popular together. Of course, popular on their own as well.
39:58.74
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Yeah.
40:00.32
Aaron
Yeah. I thought this was a great match. As we said, it had a really good start. Uh, the beginning was angle and Mysterio and it reminded me of a match that I've watched recently, which I thought was fantastic that I sent to you the other day.
40:14.11
Aaron
um
40:14.48
grapplecitypod
yeah ah yeah
40:15.08
Aaron
Summer Slam 2002 opening match between those two guys. So yeah, I, these are, what can you say? i mean, obviously, Benoit is Benoit, but these are four elite level wrestlers doing some of their best work, you know, and the crowd love this match too.
40:30.82
grapplecitypod
Yeah, Mysterio's hot tags were awesome. He just came out looking superhuman.
40:36.89
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.
40:37.20
grapplecitypod
um Good storytelling. Yeah, best match of the night. I'm going to say best match of the night. I mean, I i did say best match of the night, so I'll stick to that.
40:43.24
Aaron
Yeah, no, it was, especially the end too. So many big moves and moments and the false finishes like hit really hard. Crowd was super, super into it and really thought that that was going to be the move that ended the match. um And ah yeah, it was also by far the longest match of the night up up to this point at 20 plus minutes.
41:04.49
Aaron
um And a surprising kind of surprising ending. I thought maybe Edge and Mysterio would have won, but Angle got the ankle lock on Edge and Edge tapped out. So Benoit and Angle win.
41:14.93
grapplecitypod
Yeah, it was kind of a clean finish for a guy to win.
41:17.20
Aaron
Yeah.
41:18.04
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
41:19.12
Aaron
Yeah. It was a very interesting way to end the match.
41:20.04
grapplecitypod
yeah
41:21.78
Aaron
i I agree. I think it was the best match for sure.
41:24.83
grapplecitypod
Yeah. Yeah. Now that I'm looking back at it, I'm like, I was kind of just praising every moment of it. So I guess I must have, yeah, I must have loved it the most. The seventh match was the WWE Women's Championship, which was champion Trish Stratus versus Victoria, who JR called perpetually premenstrual.
41:42.88
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Another actual match.
41:47.22
Aaron
He sure did. i don't think he knew what that meant.
41:51.12
grapplecitypod
I...
41:51.84
Aaron
My wife was watching this with me and she was like, did he just call her premenstrual? And I was like, yeah. And she was like, what does he think that means? I said, I don't know. She's always in a bad mood. And she was like, okay, that's not what that means, but sure.
42:05.98
grapplecitypod
Yeah. um
42:07.22
grapplecitypod
I think he meant she was always like having like PMS.
42:12.20
Aaron
Yeah, she was always grumpy.
42:13.32
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
42:14.35
Aaron
But stupid.
42:14.50
grapplecitypod
But,
42:15.21
Aaron
what What a derogatory thing to say. And probably probably you could hear Vince like, to say say she's premenstrual.
42:17.53
grapplecitypod
but it's so direct. I was,
42:21.94
Aaron
Ha ha ha ha.
42:23.08
grapplecitypod
ah Yeah, I think, again, it goes into that weird rape culture, like, just weird shit that makes makes me feel uncomfortable when, like, dudes start acting like that because I feel like they're up to no good.
42:33.24
Aaron
Yeah, well...
42:35.53
grapplecitypod
And they were up to no good, we find out, for the most part, right?
42:37.73
Aaron
They were, especially when you think about who was in charge and what he is alleged to have done.
42:42.82
grapplecitypod
I watched something the other day. um oh something came on the other day that was, like, 50 most shocking WWE moments on the WWE Peacock channel.
42:52.56
Aaron
Okay.
42:52.93
grapplecitypod
And there was one that was like, you know, they're they're doing like the the Mr. mc McMahon character, but they were like, Vince, you know, he's for a long time. He, he's got a lot of power. He likes to abuse people with it.
43:05.17
grapplecitypod
And they were saying stuff that like in real life is probably true, you know?
43:05.31
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
43:08.81
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
43:09.24
grapplecitypod
And then they were like showing him with a William Regal on his knees, telling him like, Why don't you go ahead and kiss my ass? It's a nice ass. Go ahead and kiss it. And then he pulls his ass out of his pants.
43:20.45
grapplecitypod
And he's like, it even does a trick for you. And he starts like bouncing his like, you know, butt muscles and his glutes.
43:26.27
Aaron
Jesus.
43:27.57
grapplecitypod
And then eventually Regal like kisses his bare ass on like, you know, Monday Night Raw whatever.
43:34.01
Aaron
Yeah. He did that a couple of times.
43:34.73
grapplecitypod
and I was like, that's not that far from the kind of stuff he really did, which was worse, but
43:40.85
Aaron
Or yeah, or it's being alleged of doing, I guess we should still say.
43:44.45
grapplecitypod
allegedly. Yeah. Okay.
43:45.60
Aaron
Yeah.
43:45.69
grapplecitypod
Sure.
43:46.08
Aaron
alleged Allegedly.
43:47.45
grapplecitypod
But um yes. ah
43:50.39
Aaron
Trish and Victoria, another, another decent match. I didn't like the way that they were talking about the women derogatorily, as we said. um
43:58.03
grapplecitypod
Lawler even called out JR for talking derogatory.
44:00.27
Aaron
Yeah, which made me laugh so hard.
44:01.67
grapplecitypod
That's crazy. Yeah.
44:02.64
Aaron
Like when Jerry Lawler calls you out, then you know something's off because he was the one that was always like screaming and yelling about women's puppies and stuff.
44:12.32
grapplecitypod
yep yep yep
44:13.54
Aaron
And Trish won this one with a roll up. um Victoria kicked her in the mouth real good after the win. That looked very real. i don't know if you remember that, but i was like, oh, God.
44:22.49
grapplecitypod
yes yeah the match was decent I think it was a little it looked a little choreographed you know just from a little not totally natural but
44:30.66
Aaron
Yeah, but again, like real two real women's matches.
44:31.43
grapplecitypod
but
44:34.18
Aaron
So thank God time is progressing.
44:34.75
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
44:37.90
Aaron
Things are getting better.
44:38.11
grapplecitypod
Post-match... I guess the post-match fight was setting up their Survivor Series feud.
44:44.17
Aaron
Oh, okay.
44:45.50
grapplecitypod
I guess that's what was next.
44:45.64
Aaron
Got it.
44:47.21
grapplecitypod
Survivor Series.
44:48.15
Aaron
Yeah.
44:48.23
grapplecitypod
um
44:48.46
Aaron
Yeah.
44:49.02
grapplecitypod
And then we get the main event. The WWE Championship. Hell in a Cell, Brock Lesnar, who's the champion, with Paul Heyman, of course, versus The Undertaker. And I'm sure we've covered some other Hell in a Cell matches, but it's a it's just a really big cage that stretches beyond the edge of the ring.
45:06.02
grapplecitypod
And you can't just walk out of it. And you can't climb out of it. And it was kind of...
45:10.05
Aaron
There is no escape.
45:11.52
grapplecitypod
Right. Jim Cornette invented this. And he...
45:14.41
Aaron
Oh, shit, did he
45:15.50
grapplecitypod
Yeah, he had a... um an issue with WWE cage matches. Cause you could just walk out of the fucking door. Like what's the point of a cage that you can get out of.
45:22.49
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
45:24.77
grapplecitypod
So he made cage that you can't escape. And, uh, and then he didn't name it. I believe, um, Russo came up with the name, but it was Jim Cornette's cage concept.
45:34.92
Aaron
Okay, nice.
45:35.44
grapplecitypod
So that those two, uh, had, um, had a thing that they made together, arch enemies. um But yeah, this is super bloody match. You would never see this on WWE w nowadays.
45:44.31
Aaron
Dude, holy shit.
45:46.65
grapplecitypod
It's, you know,
45:46.89
Aaron
Yeah, not and not just the participants too Heyman popped a gusher as well.
45:52.54
grapplecitypod
Yeah, Heyman, there's yeah there's you're not supposed to really be able to get into the match, but Heyman had his little glory hole cut out so he could stick his arm into the cage, which of course you know didn't work out too well for him.
46:04.70
grapplecitypod
there's
46:04.90
Aaron
No.
46:05.58
grapplecitypod
Like every glory hole, there was there is something ominous on the other side. In this case, it was Brock Lesnar.
46:11.59
Aaron
The Undertaker.
46:12.62
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
46:12.95
Aaron
Oh, yeah. No, Blesner Hidden. That's right. Yeah.
46:16.03
grapplecitypod
and And all kinds of, yeah, I would grab his arm and pull him to the cage and like knock him into the cage.
46:16.05
Aaron
Oh, man.
46:21.61
grapplecitypod
mean, Paul Heyman was a big part of this match. Like he, he got, you know, he got bloody too.
46:25.83
Aaron
He was yelling. Yeah.
46:27.39
grapplecitypod
Right.
46:27.58
Aaron
Well, so the one thing we should talk about before we get into the body of the match is they did have quite a bit of story for this match and a lot of buildup in the video package.
46:27.74
grapplecitypod
Yeah.
46:35.77
Aaron
So, ah you know, like a few weeks ago, the Lesnar quote unquote broke the Undertaker's hand with a propane tank.
46:44.56
grapplecitypod
Huh.
46:46.33
Aaron
And so the whole shtick was Undertaker had his hand in a cast. And there was a package earlier in the in the pay-per-view where he was like, in the, in the medical office and was like, just, just do it doc. Just give me the shot, you know? And like they mimed giving him some sort of painkiller shot in his hand so he could continue, you know, could could fight in the match.
47:06.86
Aaron
So, um, this was supposed to be undertaker's obstacle that he had to overcome. You know, he had this injured hand or whatever. um and so undertaker,
47:16.93
Aaron
that He busts Lesnar open with the cast, quote unquote, is using it as a weapon. And yeah, then eventually it starts getting a little crazier. They're fighting outside.
47:29.52
Aaron
Lesnar accidentally runs into Paul Heyman. Undertaker grabs Heyman's tie and like slams his face into the ring or into the chain link fence.
47:39.92
Aaron
So Heyman's bleeding, Lesnar's bleeding. And then Lesnar, I can't remember exactly what he does, but he gets, he gets the advantage over undertaker and then grabs the steel steps, smacks undertaker in the face.
47:53.11
Aaron
And holy shit. Did undertaker like get a fucking vein in his forehead or what? He was gushing blood.
48:02.50
grapplecitypod
It's a lot of blood. But, you know, it's hard for me to take Undertaker seriously at this point because he's like just kind of a white trash dude with like a goatee and red hair.
48:07.89
Aaron
It's because the gimmick is...
48:12.66
grapplecitypod
But like, dude, he come so he comes out to You're Gonna Pay by Jim Johnston.
48:12.83
Aaron
Yeah, he didn't even come out to Roland anymore, and he didn't have his motorcycle.
48:20.58
grapplecitypod
And this song is so fucking bad. Every time it comes on in the video game, I'm like, there's this one line that I like. It's particularly one of it's almost like, I mean, it's, you would put this in ah in a comedy song, maybe.
48:33.39
grapplecitypod
but okay, they say, um he goes, nice guys. It's said they always finish last, but bad asses always kicking assholes ass.
48:45.67
Aaron
hopefully
48:45.75
grapplecitypod
Dude, that's bad.
48:48.53
Aaron
It's so bad.
48:48.98
grapplecitypod
oh Bad asses always kicking assholes ass as your fucking theme song. Anyways, you still there?
48:56.36
Aaron
I'm still there.
48:57.10
grapplecitypod
Fuck, did I lose you
48:58.67
Aaron
No, you didn't. I'm still here. Hello. Hello. Hello.
49:03.38
Aaron
Papa, can you hear me?
49:05.51
Aaron
I'm here. i never lost you. But you lost me, apparently. Can you hear me?
49:10.12
Aaron
I'm here. I'm here.
49:11.98
Aaron
no boy.
49:14.97
Aaron
You good? Hello? Check, check, check, checkeroo.
49:19.40
Aaron
I'm here.
49:22.62
Aaron
Hello.
49:23.71
grapplecitypod
I can't see you.
49:25.92
grapplecitypod
i think we lost the files.
49:27.71
Aaron
man.
00:00.18
Bradley Palermo
Anyway, so yeah, that song kind of takes away from... Yeah.
00:04.00
Aaron
The vastness of The Undertaker, yeah. Not his best entrance. so We've seen so many different entrances of The Undertaker since we started this podcast, and this is by far the worst one. There's no doubt.
00:15.44
Aaron
So, you know... yeah
00:17.13
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:17.59
Aaron
and and nothing nothing can be perfect all the time. um But, you know, for as bloody an affair as this was, how much like just fist fighting and abuse they were taking, hitting each other with objects in the cage and stuff, it it didn't really do all that much for me. I think the the crowd definitely, particularly at the end, was exciting.
00:42.63
Aaron
But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the the only thing I could really focus on was the amount of blood coming out of the Undertaker's face, which was nuts.
00:49.16
Bradley Palermo
It was quite a spectacle. there was i mean, it was gallons of blood, I would say.
00:52.94
Aaron
Yeah.
00:52.93
Bradley Palermo
And have to imagine it's probably not that many times since that they've probably gone that hardcore with the blood and a paper.
00:59.52
Aaron
Yeah, that was definitely an accident, I think, in terms of just like the sheer amount of it.
00:59.82
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
01:02.08
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
01:14.81
Aaron
Yeah.
01:16.32
Aaron
I liked the finish, actually, the actual finish. Undertaker had Lesnar up for the Tombstone Piledriver. Lesnar counters it, kind of gets Undertaker in sort of a Piledriver position, and then chucks the Undertaker onto his shoulders and then hits him with the F5 for the win. like That was a a physically impressive move, and Lesnar's always been a physically impressive guy.
01:38.38
Aaron
I think I forgot to mention, he's the youngest WWE wwe champion in history.
01:43.37
Bradley Palermo
Right. I thought it was pretty wild when he was holding onto the top of the cage. Like all of his body weight just grabbing onto the top and then using himself to swing into the Undertaker ah while the Undertaker was positioned on the top of the rope.
01:55.70
Aaron
Yeah.
01:56.33
Bradley Palermo
He needs some cage in some cool waves. But yeah, Brock is definitely scary looking dude. And I guess... The Undertaker was probably the scariest looking dude before Brock. So it's kind of a good opponent sort of passing the torch. I guess Brock's the one who eventually broke his mania streak, right?
02:13.06
Aaron
yep
02:13.49
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. So that's cool. while Wild, violent, and gory. And let me see what Meltzer gave that one.
02:17.43
Aaron
Indeed. What did, what did Meltzer think of this one?
02:21.70
Bradley Palermo
What did you give of it, Meltzer?
02:21.75
Aaron
You should give it like a three or a three and a half.
02:24.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, he went four on that one.
02:26.35
Aaron
Okay. Yeah. For the time I could see, cause Lesnar was ah big deal back then. Very young, very impressive.
02:31.76
Bradley Palermo
yeah
02:32.65
Aaron
I don't think he'd even really been in the wwe WWE for more than like two years at that point. So they, they shot him up to the, to the main event really fast.
02:42.35
Aaron
Um,
02:45.98
Aaron
Oh, okay.
02:52.29
Bradley Palermo
ah entrance ramps, like video.
02:54.33
Aaron
Yeah.
02:55.04
Bradley Palermo
don't know it was all like cool, like hip, but it was like they had the technology there. They had a big screen where they walk out and all the logos and
03:01.19
Aaron
Yeah, and they had a bunch of cool barbed wire as like the design elements of the entryway. It was good. certainly better than 90s it's certainly better than like early ninety s w wf um And it was certainly a lot grittier than the kind of stuff that we're seeing now.
03:21.43
Aaron
Still not without its issues, but I and i enjoyed this one. um i guess we can get into the grapple grade. As always, we use a three-tiered rating system.
03:33.16
Aaron
Fast forward, play, rewind. Fast forward means skip it. Play means watch it if you want to. Rewind means definitely watch it. I'll go first since this was my choice. um I'm going go rewind. I think that there are very few disappointments as far as matches go. There's obviously a lot of trashy nonsense, but that's just a sign of the times. um I think just like from start to finish, you know, under three hours,
03:59.94
Aaron
Lots of super solid matches. We're seeing progression in terms of the women. You're seeing big stars from the time and stars that will continue on for many years, you know, at their peak.
04:13.14
Aaron
So, yeah, I thought this was a good one. What about you?
04:15.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I had fun watching it. I give it a solid play. I think it's cool to see, you know, Engel and Benoit versus Edge and Mysterio, of course. The Katie Vick storyline is really bad, but really funny.
04:29.54
Bradley Palermo
Lesnar and the Undertaker is definitely worth watching just for the blood spectacle. Just, whoa, I didn't expect to see this. um um I didn't, i don't have any major gripes. I guess I just wasn't...
04:42.14
Aaron
enthralled.
04:43.03
Bradley Palermo
Not too much. Yeah, like like, I feel like, oh, here's what it is.
04:44.71
Aaron
Yeah.
04:46.39
Bradley Palermo
Like, but when it was over, i was kind of like, oh, I felt like I was still kind of waiting for, like, a main event, sort of. like Like, something about Brock and Undertaker and all that blood, I forgot that that was, like, the thing. I thought that was just kind of like, here's here's a here's something to get you kind of here's something to kind of grab your attention before it's the real like final clean championship match or whatever happened.
05:03.42
Aaron
Yeah.
05:07.05
Bradley Palermo
I was like, Oh wait, that was it. So um I guess it left me kind of wanting something a little bit more, but not, I mean, I don't really have any complaints.
05:09.16
Aaron
Yeah.
05:14.40
Bradley Palermo
It was good. um I guess since you picked this one, Aaron, it'll be my turn next. And um
05:22.42
Bradley Palermo
November, it'll be November when we meet up again. November is the time of the year for Super, no, for Starrcade.
05:33.08
Bradley Palermo
And November is the time of year for SummerSlam. And for Survivor Series.
05:37.80
Aaron
You mean Survivor Series?
05:41.96
Bradley Palermo
And I was thinking also maybe some like AWA territory stuff I could put in there, like go go like real dark deep, which maybe I'll...
05:48.06
Aaron
Okay.
05:51.28
Bradley Palermo
But you know what? I think I'm going to go for... I'm thinking out loud here. I'm going to go for ah Survivor Series 94, 94, which was when I was super into watching WWF.
06:04.98
Bradley Palermo
um And I was about 12 years old. And I remember it's back when it was on Thanksgiving. And at Thanksgiving dinner or with some like banquet hall with a bunch of extended family, I was just like, oh, I can't wait to watch Survivor
06:17.28
Bradley Palermo
survivor series and i bet it wasn't as good as i remember it but um this is like peak undertaker yokozuna uh rivalry um you've got like all the fucking dudes from that era jerry lawler and ted dibiase and razor ramon let's see what was let me see if you had the match card here bob backland's in there another one of my old pals um
06:37.17
Aaron
Doink and Dink, your old pals.
06:43.96
Aaron
Bam Bam Bigelow, Tatanka, your favorite.
06:46.52
Bradley Palermo
Bob Holly versus Quang. Oh yeah. One, two, three kid, British bulldog, Fatou, Razor Ramon versus to diesel, Jeff Derrick.
06:54.22
Aaron
Okay, so we get surviv actual like Survivor Series matches. This is cool, yeah.
06:57.72
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. The Royal family versus the clowns. Bob Backlund versus Bret Hart, which that could be a really cool match. I don't know if they go technical on it.
07:06.17
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
07:07.50
Bradley Palermo
Like that could be kind of interesting.
07:09.43
Aaron
Yeah, I've never seen it.
07:09.61
Bradley Palermo
um I think that's the start of Bret and Owen's feud because, or at least maybe it's in the middle of it or because, because Owen sort of has some interference in that match.
07:22.56
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
07:24.08
Aaron
I asked the casket match.
07:24.10
Bradley Palermo
a bunch of other clothes. We're going to have a lot of characters in this one, so I can't wait to watch that.
07:26.73
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.
07:27.77
Bradley Palermo
So that it's going to be Summer Slam, or I'm sorry, Survivor Series 1994 1994 on the next episode.
07:36.19
Bradley Palermo
But before we go, don't forget, you can always call us, cut a promo on Aaron, cut a promo on me, 626-657-SLAMN. six five seven slam
07:47.16
Bradley Palermo
And I'm doing everything out of order on this episode, but, uh, um,
07:51.89
Aaron
Orders are for squares. We fly by the seat of our pants.
07:59.21
Bradley Palermo
put that where it's supposed to go later.
08:18.66
Bradley Palermo
And as always, you can always reach us by calling 626-657-SLAM.
08:26.04
Bradley Palermo
You'll reach our Google voice message machine. And we won't pick up, so don't worry. You can call, leave a voicemail, tell us what you think we should watch next, or tell us about your favorite pay-per-views from history.
08:39.36
Bradley Palermo
You can also cut a promo on us. You can cut a promo on me. You can cut pro kind a promo on Aaron. good or bad, we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear from the grapple gang. You can also call or you can also email us grapple city pot at gmail.com.
09:03.17
Bradley Palermo
what I just said, or if you're driving, but let's see this week, I'll pull a couple of things. We have a voicemail to sounded familiar. The guy, but he's using a different name now, I think.
09:13.88
Bradley Palermo
But, um, before I play that, uh, I was going to pull up this one dude on Instagram when you were talking about Chris Jericho. you heard that You hoped you saw him at the ah Royal Rumble.
09:25.23
Bradley Palermo
And some like AEW tribalist got real pissed and was like, you fucking nerds.
09:29.18
Aaron
Nice.
09:31.17
Bradley Palermo
You think you're going to see Chris Jericho in WWE when Tony gives him a podcast, gives him a cruise, gives him all that bonus money, lets him play his own band's music?
09:42.66
Bradley Palermo
And he's just like... freaking out you know like and uh i the neckbeard yeah and i responded to him i was like bro check out the match card for that uh jericho cruise how many how many aew wrestlers are on it and he deletes it yeah he he got embarrassed so he deleted it which was which i thought was pretty funny um let me see what else is uh is on there
09:46.20
Aaron
The neckbeards strike again.
09:56.73
Aaron
Zero. a
10:05.37
Aaron
Gotta take a chill pill, man. I like AEW, too.
10:08.26
Bradley Palermo
Well, that's the funny thing is like, I'm not tribal. I don't think you're tribal about wrestling, but there's always people that are so, that are so tribal about it.
10:12.01
Aaron
No, I'm not.
10:15.92
Bradley Palermo
Like there's this guy that knows that I see an acquaintance I see kind of regularly and, uh, in my work life. And he knows that I like, he knows that I watch AEW.
10:25.10
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I think he knows that I go to all the WWE stuff too, but he just sees as he's a WWE mark. And so every time he sees me, he's like, Hey, uh, Brad, uh, How's AEW doing?
10:36.09
Bradley Palermo
And I'm like, I don't know. Yeah, it's cool, man.
10:38.40
Aaron
It's good. Yeah.
10:39.22
Bradley Palermo
um ah there It is or it isn't, right? Like some, some, with any TV, right?
10:41.53
Aaron
Yeah.
10:43.37
Bradley Palermo
And um he's like, I heard, I hear they're going out of business. I heard Tony's trying to, he has no money. He's trying to sell it. I heard, I heard they're getting sued. I'm just like, cool. I don't know. I don't, I don't own the company. i don't work there.
10:56.51
Bradley Palermo
Even if I did work there, I'd probably work at the other place if they offer me more money. i don't give a shit. You know, like, and and then the um the aw people are the same way if you say anything about going to ww i don't watch that whatever you know it's like well when when they're old when their stars leave and come to aw all of a sudden you know all about them but you've never you've never watched wwe sure right buddy
11:10.40
Aaron
Yeah.
11:18.50
Aaron
It's just the the hip thing to take sides and be very ah angry and yell on to the other side of the aisle. We see it in our daily lives with politics all the time. And it's stupid, man. Why can't you just enjoy all the wrestling? Sometimes WWE isn't as good as AEW. Sometimes AEW isn't as good as WWE. doesn't need to be a competition.
11:39.13
Bradley Palermo
Right. I don't, I don't imagine it is for the wrestlers. They're just going to work trying to do the best job they can do.
11:43.78
Aaron
They're just going to work, making money, having fun, doing they doing what they love.
11:47.25
Bradley Palermo
So if you're a fan, you really, i mean, dude, you don't have any skin in that game. You're not being paid to watch one or the other. In fact,
11:55.56
Bradley Palermo
the programming usually doesn't counter program itself so we can kind of watch all of it. Right. I mean, that's why I like, they're not both on Mondays and whatever.
12:00.66
Aaron
Yeah.
12:03.18
Bradley Palermo
You don't have to pick one dude. And if they were both on Mondays, we stream our shit now so you can watch both anyways. But, um,
12:08.97
Aaron
Yep.
12:10.20
Bradley Palermo
Someone drew on TikTok said Bischoff and Conan are not thanked enough for introducing us to Lucha on a mainstream scale in America, which in response to us talking about the cruiserweight match with Eddie and Ray last week.
12:24.70
Bradley Palermo
So I...
12:25.11
Aaron
Yeah, I could see that. No, they definitely, I, one of the things that Bischoff did do right is he brought a lot of Lucha Libre and some Japanese wrestlers in and made them more mainstream for sure.
12:37.78
Aaron
I totally agree with that. Conan helped too. Love Conan.
12:41.03
Bradley Palermo
In regards to that match being um the best of all time, ah this guy JP on TikTok says it's this one and Danielson Ospreay from St. Louis last year.
12:53.57
Bradley Palermo
And i I think Danielson Ospreay is up there. i like Danielson MJF a lot.
13:00.77
Aaron
I like that one a lot. I also like Osprey and Omega at Forbidden Door, I think it was.
13:01.82
Bradley Palermo
A lot.
13:07.75
Aaron
I mean, the Tokyo Dome matches are also really good, but
13:07.96
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
13:10.53
Bradley Palermo
I mean, it's hard when you start saying best. It's like, what's your favorite band?
13:13.42
Aaron
yeah. Yeah.
13:15.10
Bradley Palermo
like, what? Of all the bands? I don't know.
13:16.93
Aaron
Or who is the greatest band of all time? Like you can't be objective about that.
13:19.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
13:21.09
Aaron
Music is subjective.
13:21.59
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
13:22.54
Aaron
Wrestling is subjective.
13:22.73
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. It's, um, I understand if someone wants to have their favorite match, but I also understand how that's going to start an argument on any, you know, any posts.
13:33.54
Bradley Palermo
Cause that's a hard, that's a hard mountain to stay up on top of.
13:34.05
Aaron
Yeah.
13:37.62
Bradley Palermo
Um, And then, yeah, Steven on that same platform said that this was a typical... Regarding regarding Halloween Havoc 97, he said it was a typical WCW pay-per-view, great undercard and crap main events.
13:51.05
Bradley Palermo
I would go as far as to say like it was... it was not a great undercard. It was like, it had a couple great undercard matches.
13:59.24
Aaron
Yes.
13:59.40
Bradley Palermo
It had a lot of just shit up and down on that one. But this, this one we watched this week was switching much better. So, so that was cool. And hopefully next week's selection doesn't let us down. Hopefully it's just as good as when I was a kid.
14:11.55
Bradley Palermo
Um, So that's all the time we've got for today. going to play a promo that, excuse me, I'm going to play a promo that a fella named Static Jack left for us on the on the outro.
14:24.29
Bradley Palermo
And um until then, have a good old time watching as much nostalgic nostalgic wrestling as you can, just like Aaron and I.
14:34.09
Aaron
Yes, we'll catch you in the cheap seats. Adios.
14:52.22
Bradley Palermo
Oh.
15:25.93
Bradley Palermo
On Hintz.
15:33.53
Aaron
Everybody up. Everybody up. Everybody up.
15:56.79
Bradley Palermo
Thank you.
16:20.08
Aaron
Nice
16:20.85
Bradley Palermo
All right. That's our um fake promo for the day.
16:24.75
Aaron
angsty motherfucker.
16:26.56
Bradley Palermo
ah I added the three, three words, 17 letters thing.
16:31.55
Bradley Palermo
I hope we get our recording.
16:33.38
Aaron
Yeah. and
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