FE| F1 Saudi GP & Wrestlemania | 4.21.25

[00:00:01] Speaker A: We're recording Monday night. 8:30 Pacific time. And Aaron is already feisty, ready to go. Like a little Chihuahua. Ruff ruff ruff. This guy came in flaming hot. We got a lot to talk about. [00:00:13] Speaker B: I'm lucky I made the show, man. I was honestly sleeping right when your text came in. So that might have something to do with it. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Jesus Christ. 8:00, dude. [00:00:22] Speaker B: I went. I went to the bar. Had a 16 ounce steak, ribeye, couple beers, some Mac and cheese, some rice peel off. And I was just feeling relaxed on the couch honestly watching some sports. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Guys 50 years old already. [00:00:35] Speaker C: Yeah. What time was this dinner? [00:00:37] Speaker A: 4. [00:00:37] Speaker C: 4:00 or something like that. [00:00:39] Speaker B: I think about 6, maybe 5:30. [00:00:41] Speaker A: I was. [00:00:42] Speaker B: I was hungry. I hadn't eaten all day. I was hungry. [00:00:44] Speaker A: Oh man. [00:00:46] Speaker B: All the lights off in the house, the recliner up. Watching some basketball and hockey. I was just dozing off. [00:00:52] Speaker C: I flew from Vegas. Put in a full day's work and everything. This morning, you know, I mean, you. [00:00:56] Speaker A: Know Aaron does not allow lights on in his house. It's like pitch dark 24 7. It's like of course you're gonna get sleepy. Like what the hell is wrong with you, dude? Throw some lights. [00:01:07] Speaker C: Maybe it's a secret just for like living a long life or something like that for Aaron, you know. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Might be. Might be. [00:01:14] Speaker A: Get 10 hours of sleep every day. No lights on. Have milk a gallon every single week. [00:01:21] Speaker B: About seven to ten days. Yeah, about a gallon every seven days. [00:01:23] Speaker A: Aaron's gonna release the. I don't know, a fitness book about it. That'll be epic. Well, we got a lot to talk about though. It was a fun filled weekend. NBA playoff started. Lots of interesting results from that. We had F1 with the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. And also we'll let Jason spiel about some WrestleMania stuff. I had a few friends go to it. Personality. You know what? Like I'm kind of like for the first time I kind of had like a little fomo, you know, from not going. Especially since I knew people that went that. That I didn't think watched wrestling. And it's just becoming to like this big production. It's like. I don't know. Like for me it's like going to the opera, I guess. Yes. Sounds kind of weird. [00:02:06] Speaker B: WrestleMania is the big. It's the big time. It's the big show. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. It's nuts. [00:02:11] Speaker C: It's the showcase of the immortals. [00:02:14] Speaker A: I. I loved watching your highlights dude. On. On the IG man on IG. Pumped up. [00:02:20] Speaker C: Oh 100. We'll get to it later. But absolutely, you can't. You can't. You can't get in the building. I don't want to steal the Rock's gimmick right now, but when the Rock comes out now, he always goes down, down his arm and he'll, like, smack his, like, forearm because he gets goosebumps every time when you get into that arena. You just feel the goosebumps from the energy in the building, you know, 60. [00:02:38] Speaker B: 000 strong both nights. [00:02:40] Speaker A: Like, how close were you or how. How not close were you? I couldn't tell. [00:02:45] Speaker C: I was. I was in the. I was in the 200 levels, right opposite the stage in the second row. So not far, but like, I wouldn't say, like you could see everything, right? But. But yeah, I mean, I was closer, I'll say, at WrestleMania 39 at SoFi, but I mean, depending on the stadium and the way that kind of is built and stuff. I mean, but it was. It was good seats. I mean, I liked the 200 levels. Kind of, you know, get a little bit elevation. Kind of see from the top down on the floor is not as good. I've been on the floor. It's kind of hard on the floor. So you want some elevation. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Awesome. We'll get into that, though. [00:03:19] Speaker B: You go to WrestleMania every year, Jason, or it's just kind of like if It's a local WrestleMania, not every year. [00:03:24] Speaker C: This is my fifth WrestleMania, though. [00:03:26] Speaker A: But I just like Bill Simmons. [00:03:27] Speaker C: Yeah, just like Bill Simmons. I've gone to a different, you know, of course he knows how many Bill Simmons goes to. [00:03:32] Speaker B: He. [00:03:32] Speaker C: He saw his. He saw his IG post. [00:03:34] Speaker B: He knows what Bill Simmons ate and what time he took his. And then how. Everything. He's got all. [00:03:39] Speaker C: His answer is yes. But, yeah, it was my. It was my fifth, not an every year occurrence. I mean, I would love to go every year, but. Yeah, but the. We'll probably won't go next year. Maybe the year after. [00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was epic. It was on at 10am on Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny delivered because it was a pretty fun race. I missed the beginning. I'm gonna be honest. I missed the beginning. Me. Me and the daughter were walking the doggy and he took some pretty nasty big poops. And it took a little bit longer to circle the block. But when we got back, though, it was lap 10. It was fast. It was lap 10 and we finished watching the rest of it. She was going for the pink car, and I couldn't remember who drives the pink Car. [00:04:23] Speaker C: Well, it probably been one of the Alpines, so it would have been Jack doing or Pierre Gasly probably for who it was doing because Gasly crashed in the first lap. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Okay. It was, it was doing then. Yeah. I was like, I don't know who that is. I tried looking it up, but she loved that car. So she was like cheering every time it came on. So now we got her watching F1. She's not watching women's basketball, but she's watching F1 with Daddy now. So congrats, Jason. [00:04:47] Speaker C: It's all right, man. Just making new fans. I mean I made you guys fans this year. Your daughter, I mean we're, we're, we're just making some new racing fans around the U.S. yeah. [00:04:56] Speaker A: Now I have to get her a jersey because she wants like that pink and blue combo. [00:05:00] Speaker C: So to check the Fanatic site and see what the Alpine merch they got might be on sale. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Most definitely. It should be out sale. Right. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Stock, let's put it that way. It's guaranteed in stock. [00:05:11] Speaker C: I'll tell you, that's the secret to a form. If you're not, if you're not interested in just having the most up to date stuff all the time late in the season is when you can get a lot of good like 50 off deals on like a bunch of like the team shirts late in the season. Like that late in the season. I mean they may have stuff now from last season, I'll tell you, like Mercedes and stuff like that. Like they got stuff from last season still kicking around. That would have been there too. [00:05:32] Speaker A: So guy's doing his own undertaker intro into the podcast. Love it. [00:05:36] Speaker C: Yeah, well, the light, lights went out, man. You know, the gong, the gong hit. [00:05:41] Speaker A: All right, so Piastri pulls out the big victory. His second one is right back to back victories for him. Now he leads the driver's championship. Lando Norris, man, I thought killed it. Made up some serious ground. Almost got to third but finished with fourth. And Verstappen ends up with second, Leclerc in third. And then you got George Russell. He was having some issues I think with like the tire towards the end, settles for fifth. And then you got Antonelli Hamilton signs Albon and then Hajar finishing the top 10. What was your guys's first of all? How did Piastri pull off the victory? Because yeah, there's a lot of things going on. [00:06:24] Speaker C: Well, you missed the first 10 laps and so the first turn of the race is really where Piastri won because Verstappen didn't Get a great start. Hasn't really been talked about that much. But Piastri beat him off the lights and beat him to turn one. And that's where the kind of controversy of the race and really where the race was kind of decided. Where Piastri had the inside track out, Verstappen was outside of him. And then basically Piastri was going through the line. But Verstappen wanted the room. Didn't get the room. So for Zappa went off the track, basically cut the corner and went through. Didn't give the lead back because Piastri was going into going it was in first. Going into the turn, Verstappen felt like he got pushed off. But based off of the rules was not he needed to give way to Piastri. And since Verstappen didn't get the place back, they issued him a five second penalty. And at that point, basically once this pit stop happened, Verstappen was given the lead to Piastri because even in the clean air, Verstappen wasn't able to get more than like a couple second lead on Piastri, you know, going into that pit stop. So that's Rupiastre. He took the lead and really never looked back. Because once he got the clean air, the McLaren was the faster car. Didn't really. I was gonna say even though he had the clean air. I'm talking about Piastri here. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:37] Speaker C: Only beating Verstappen by 2.8 seconds. So he didn't really get to go away. So it showed how much the Red Bull actually does got some pace in it. Particularly what it appears to be. They got a lot of pace in some of these tracks with a lot of long stretches. They have the top hind speed when the McLarens are faster kind of in the turns is kind of where the discrepancy is. So when you compare this track where I was telling you guys that some big long stretches, that's where the Red Bull appeared to be good. But the whole race basically neither probably was going to be able to pass. And it all went up to that first turn and that basically decided the race. [00:08:10] Speaker B: So, you know, you agree with the five second penalty. You thought Piastri beat him to the inside there. I mean there's been a lot of con. There's been a lot of controversy on. [00:08:18] Speaker C: It based on the rules. And if you talk to the racing guys in Piastri had it and and Versappenina to give way to the turn, you don't just get to claim that Spot. And what I was, funny to me, in all the commentary, it was nothing about how bad a start for Stapping had. Like, generally it's not something Verstappen does very poorly, is like getting off the line. He usually gets really great starts. Like, it's always usually a Lando issue, not getting a great start. That was his whole reputation last year. [00:08:42] Speaker B: But I think, yeah, I think they mentioned at the start of the race being at the second position for Piastri, having that inside corner going in that tournament was actually benefit to him not being the lead position. They didn't mention that. [00:08:53] Speaker C: Yeah, and it was definitely there too because he had the better reaction time off the line, which put them equal going into it. And, you know, but he was, he was ahead of Verstappen kind of go into the turn, into the apex, and Verstappen kind of needed to give way there. So it was interesting in the choice for Verstappen not to give the place back right away, but part of it is like you only get the five second penalty at this point. Do you kind of consider, hey, I'm, I'll. If they give me a penalty, they give it. Can I get enough lead where it's just going to, I'm going to give the five seconds back in the pit stop. And then, and then, and then it won't, it won't matter regardless, you give me the position, you give me the free air. But neither of those two cars when they had the leads were able to get significant enough leads that were like, oh, hey, I'm going to cover something if I get kind of a penalty. But I agree with the penalty. Verstappen, I know, pushes this stuff. He was pushing tons of dude off the track last season. It kind of got unruly, which led to like late in the season where he was really racking up the penalties where he's super aggressive and. But Piastri's the guy. Like, he's going to be aggressive right back at him. He's not going to be passive like some of the other drivers out there with Verstappen where, you know, Verstappen gets aggressive and they kind of just back off. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Quick question, Solana Norris. He kind of pitted a little bit late in the race and then they put the sauce, they want him to be more competitive at the end and try to gain some ground. Do you think like they might have pitted just like maybe like a lap or two a little too late? Because it seemed like he was just missing like another lap to Kind of make another position or two on ground. [00:10:16] Speaker C: They put the hards on Lando. I'm pretty sure that, yeah, in the beginning, yeah, they had the hards. [00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, he raced with the hard. Yeah, for the first 30 laps, 31, whatever it was, they were, they were. [00:10:26] Speaker C: Hoping to get some stretch out of him where they were putting some laps in and he was going to get that. The long, the better pace, longer in the first run. Probably hoping for a caution flag if he could be on the track and gain the track position. I mean, generally if you're trying to look up, make places, you want to have a long first run and you'll put the hards on. And so that's what they did. I don't know if it was about pitting too late, honestly. I mean, you're kind of praising Lando for getting up to force. Lando effed up this weekend and that went back to the qualifying effort where he crashed and like had to start where he was starting because he's basically handing it over to Piastri and we time. You know, Roman, you kind of gave me the side last week. He's like, oh, you're on Lando every week. But like I'm telling you right now, like he is. And Aaron agree with me, he's not looking like the number one driver for this McLaren team. And you know, you kind of scoffed at me last week when I said this is, this is his best chance and maybe only chance to win the championship. The Ashley just ripped it away from him. So he's no longer going to be considered getting any benefit of the doubt. And this would have been something in the first two qualifying, you know, sessions on Saturday he was fastest. You gotta win these ones when you're there. And the type of mistakes he's made in several of these races, it's not just a one off weekend. Who cares? It's been consistent, you know, where Piastri's already picked up multiple wins. His finishing went better than Lando in a few of the races. If it wasn't for Piastri's mistake in the first race, you know, this would have been even kind of a bigger lead where he was able to come back. So, you know, to your point, kudos to Lando for getting where he's at, but you can't have the fastest car in the field and continue to have to make up all these laps and then you're just trying to push for, you know, a pull a podium or right outside the podium. So it's kind of disappointing. Kind of where Lando's at right now because he should have been the favorite winning the championship this year, but. But he's not. And Piastri is going to take it from him at this point because now he's got the inside track and it's going to come down to who's better on Saturdays. And Lando's proven he can't not go into the weekend and make the mistake. [00:12:16] Speaker A: What do you think of how Ferrari did this weekend? Leclerc finally got podium this weekend. I think that's the first for Ferrari this season. Hamilton seemed like he was doing good in the middle and then kind of teetered off towards the end. Got over, taken a few positions. [00:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, he. Overall, it was best for our best performance of the season. So you can see some positives out of that. Still not where I thought they'd be, considering it was a team that was competing with McLaren for the constructors at the end of the season. So I'm not really, really sure kind of what they're doing. Well, Hamilton still seems to be getting used to the car a little bit, but it's just. Just hasn't been as competitive in certain spots of the track. And I know Hamilton was having some pretty good success up against Lando when he was kind of coming through traffic, but he was playing a lot of games with Lando, too. Like, Lando should have passed Hamilton fairly easy, but he was passing him potentially at the wrong moments, where he was basically, Hamilton was almost letting him pass prior to the DRS zone and then taking the position right back when they were getting DRS down the stretch and he was like, holding up Lando a little bit. So what Hamilton did probably secured LeClaire's podium because Orlando spent a bunch of time trying to get around Hamilton kind of earlier in that race. That probably took away some valuable time away from Lando. So they were better Rome, but I mean, at this point they're the third best team, obviously from the. With the points tell you, and probably, you know, maybe not much better than that if they don't get much more out of these guys for the rest of the season. McLaren's definitely just running away with the championship at this point. So the constructors maybe not as competitive and now you're trying to see, like, okay, is there anyone that's going to make a challenge to the drivers? [00:13:55] Speaker A: Aaron, what were your. Some of your takes from this last race or maybe like a favorite thing or two? [00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you guys both touched on at Lando struggling, obviously, starting out in 10th, moving up and finishing fourth was, you know, a good run for him. I know McLaren had hoped that he could get on the podium, got close, but like Jason said, I mean, Hamilton was kind of playing. Playing games there for a few laps, letting them pass and then get Drs and then re pass them. So that kind of took around about two or three laps before Lando finally kind of figured out, okay, I'm gonna stay behind, then get Drs and pass him, and then take the lead on him for good. Piastri, you know, we talked about it. [00:14:36] Speaker A: I. [00:14:36] Speaker B: You know, I've said it. I think he's the number one driver there at McLaren. I think he's. He's showing that. He's proven that. You talked about it last time, Roman. We were on, like, Lando just. He's just not mentally right now focused. He was running good, and then qualifying, he crashes. That cost him a chance to win and a podium. So, I mean, going forward, you know, Verstappen, Piastri, they're there. Russell, you know, he's kind of third guy, fourth guy there in the mix. Ferrari finally got on the podium. Good race for them. But, you know, Hamilton continues to struggle. He's always fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth, top 10 all the time, but not really making a threat towards the top three. So we'll. We'll see how it gets going going forward. But, yeah, I mean, I agree with Jason, like, McLaren right now is just running away with it. [00:15:23] Speaker A: Awesome. Next race. When's that coming up? Two weeks. [00:15:29] Speaker C: We got Miami coming up May 2nd through the 5th. So. So, yeah, two weeks from now. Ten days away. [00:15:39] Speaker A: I'm digging it. Then it's Italy after that. That's awesome. Cool. Let's take a quick break. We get back, suck a little basketball before we talk a little wrestling with Jason. Just like the episode for Jason, we gotta. We're gonna, like, start and end it with Jason here. But let's talk a little. [00:16:06] Speaker C: Listen, you saw what my Sunday was like. It started with Formula One and it ended with WrestleMania. [00:16:11] Speaker A: It did. I saw your post where it's like, you know, explain to my family, what, why I can't make it on Easter 100. That was funny. That was really good. So playoff started with the bang. Pacers took to the bucks in Game 1. Nuggets in a thriller. Russell Westbrook had a hell of a game. They steal one against the Clippers. They're actually playing right now as we speak. They were up, but Clippers are making a little run in the third quarter. Pistons let one get away against the Knicks in Game 1, but they did win today, so it's even 1 to 1. Pistons looked really nice. I really like the Pistons and that's kind of that, that, that was my upset special before the playoffs started. Timberwolves, Lakers, man, Lakers looked kind of sleepy in game one. Timberwolves looked really good. Ant one of my favorite players. He looked really good. A lot of the role players, they played balls out. I doubt they play play like that again in the series. But at least, you know, they put a smacking on the Lakers for game one. We'll come back to that in a little bit. Thunder destroyed the Grizz by 51 points. Playoff record for, for game one in NBA history. That's just straight up embarrassing, man. It's like watching the women's college basketball tournament where every game was like 30, 40, 50 points. Funny thing, John Morant made a comment saying like, you know, they're gonna come back from this. They're not gonna play that bad. Well, they might lose by 20. [00:17:40] Speaker B: They're not gonna. They're not gonna play that bad. They can't play any worse. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah, Magic Celtics. It was a pretty close game. And then, and then the Celtics kind of ran away with it. I think the final score, 103 to 86. Actually, maybe it wasn't that close. Did they separate pretty early in the second quarter or was that the third quarter? [00:17:59] Speaker B: I want us, I want to say late third, early fourth. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:18:03] Speaker B: I want to say it was like an eight, nine point game, like kind of midway through the third quarter. Like Orlando was in it. [00:18:08] Speaker A: But yeah, they fought back. It is what it is. Heat and calves. I gotta be honest with you. I did not catch one minute of this. I just don't want to see the Heat play. But Capsicare business won by 21 points. Maybe Aaron, you can give some feedback on that one. [00:18:25] Speaker B: Cavs ended up winning by 21. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:27] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah, that, that game's. I was watching it while watching Wrestlemania, which we'll get into, but yeah, I thought Miami played pretty well. [00:18:35] Speaker A: Actually, this guy didn't watch it either. I was just playing this. Warriors stole one from the Rockets. I think the Rockets should have won that one. But veteran leadership. I think Butler played 40 something minutes. Curry played 40 something minutes. I don't see those old guys, how they can keep on playing that long for this long of a series. But big victory, definitely. Rockets got to answer in game two. And then we started game two for today. As I mentioned, Pistons took that one. Clippers are up right now. And then we resume the rest of it. But initial reactions from the first game or two from the NBA playoffs, maybe surprise reactions and then what you expected, Aaron, go ahead. [00:19:28] Speaker B: Well, you touched on at Rome, the Pistons, they should be up 20 in this series right now. You know, they had an eight point fourth quarter lead. Knicks went on a 210 run, stole game one from them. Detroit just kind of showing their youth, weren't ready for the moment. Yeah, almost gave the game away today, too. They were up close to. They were up double digits about nine minutes ago. New York tied at 94. 94. And then the Pistons closed it out and got the win. So I'm glad they won. I think if you're a Knicks fan, you got to be really, really worried because, yeah, Detroit should be up 2 0. They're looking good. They're looking strong. Kate Cunningham's looking like the best player in the series. [00:20:08] Speaker A: He's looking nice. He had 20 points in the first half today. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So right now, initial reaction, Knicks, they're in trouble in the series. I think going forward, we'll see if Detroit can hold them off. But as long as they don't choke down the stretch, they've. They've played better for seven of the eight quarters to start this series. [00:20:27] Speaker A: I agree 100%. Jason, you were busy at WrestleMania, so it's okay if you don't have any takes yet. [00:20:36] Speaker C: Well, you know, I was busy at WrestleMania room, but while I was at WrestleMania on Saturday, you know, my phone's blowing up from my tech on my text group because my friends that are Laker fans, you know, we're just freaking out because the Lakers get it handed to them. Although I. I should have sent this to you, Rome. There was a guy leaving WrestleMania that had a sign that said Lakers and 5. So I don't know what he knew since he was at WrestleMania too. But I will say, just given how much I hear from you and my fellow Southern Californians that are Laker fans, how great this Laker team is supposed to be. It wasn't that they lost. They lost. It sounded like pretty bad based on, based on the reactions of the game. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Well, yeah, let's talk about then. You know, one, it's game one in the playoffs. There's a lot of these where, like, you know, game one's a stinker then. And then the better team response. So that could have been that the Lakers did look like Laxaday's goal. Luca had a pretty good game. Everyone else did not show up. Austin Reeves didn't really have like any rhythm. LeBron was like, oh, we'll get our, you know, feet underneath us eventually. So for how. Well, Reddick has been coaching this team kind of a, a what do you call it, Big diet, I guess. Pretty big dud for his first playoff game. I do like the Lakers, but like the Lakers in five. That's like the big old like Shannon thing right from like first take. All those quirky sayings. I think me and Aaron, we said this might go six or seven games. I still believe that. I had a bunch of people text me like, oh, do you still think Lakers in five? Like I never said Lakers in five. I still think Lakers in six or seven, but this is, they got punched in the mouth. So I hope this wakes them up because Anthony Edwards, Randall was a beast. The guys off the bench, they, they were lights out. They had so many open threes. They broke a franchise record. I think it was 21 threes and just demolished them. They, they just out hustled them in every aspect. I think the game, when the game started, Lakers are up by like almost double digits. That was the first quarter. Then after that, after the Timber was kind of muscled them out for like, you know, offense, rebounds and stuff like that. It just wasn't even close, man. They were just hungrier, better. And then Anthony Edwards, he just looked like Jordan sometimes. He had some beautiful, you know, fade away jumpers. It was just gorgeous. And I'm not gonna hate on that, but Lakers better wake up because if they don't watch out, the Timberwolves could knock him out. And that's not even like a joke. No, man, serious matchup. [00:23:07] Speaker B: I, I, we touched on it, I believe a week ago when I told you Rome, I mean, everyone loves this Laker team. I said this was the worst matchup for them to get in the first round against the T ws. No one's respecting this team that got to the Western Conference finals. [00:23:21] Speaker A: Now they're tested. [00:23:22] Speaker B: They're better than the team last year. They got to the Western Conference finals. They are, but everybody's hyped up on the Lakers. The Lakers still can win the series, but you know, Lakers and five was a joke. That was never going to happen. That was, that was easy peasy, man, I could have told you that from a mile away. 21 three pointers. They hit. They dominated quarters two, three and four. Lakers came out strong. T was weathered the storm and then from there just took off. [00:23:47] Speaker A: They look good. [00:23:49] Speaker B: And we talked about, I know Jason brought up, hey, what is what about Rudy Gobert? They don't need him on the court. Right. If Jackson Hayes isn't on the court, even if the T Wolves go small, they're still bigger than the Lakers. They still got more size than the Lakers. And you touched on Julius Randall. I mean, say what you want, this guy's the same size as LeBron with about 20 more pounds of muscle. This dude is big, he's strong, he's physical. He's going to clear bodies out. Yeah, Edwards is falling. [00:24:13] Speaker A: He had two or three guys on him and Edwards like this body. LeBron in the middle of the game, it was just. [00:24:20] Speaker B: How about the T Wolves? [00:24:22] Speaker A: I have a lot of respect for them. [00:24:23] Speaker B: An interesting stat. You know, they had a lot of injuries throughout the year with Randall missing a lot of games, Devon Chiso missing a lot of games. They went 17 and four down the stretch in their final 21 games. A lot of those victories against the Rockets, good Thunder, playoffs, good teams. They're not afraid of the Lakers. It's going to be a battle. We'll see how Luke and LeBron and them respond. But this is going to be a dog fight of the series. It's not going to be easy. And Minnesota's confident. You can see the look in their eyes. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. [00:24:53] Speaker A: I still think Luke and LeBron might be like the best deal in the playoffs. Just a tad above Brown and Tatum. And I'll admit that's a little bit of homerism on my side. I just think Luke is that good. But they're. This is early in like the Luca experiment. Like they're getting a lot of leeway and you know, he didn't play a lot of defense. He had no assists. I think in the first half it was just all him scoring and it was nothing else. It wasn't like a lot of ball movement going on. [00:25:22] Speaker B: Well, no one could score. I mean, Austin Reeves was what, one for seven in the first half? He was bad. [00:25:26] Speaker A: It was a bad shooting day. [00:25:27] Speaker B: But it takes time to get used to Minnesota's length and physicality. Yeah, their guards are long, they're physical, and they're one of these teams in playoff basketball we're seeing right now. Rome, Jason and I have talked about this all year. All these games are low 90s, low hundreds, old school basketball, physicality. It's a different game. You got to adapt to it takes a little bit of time. The Lakers are kind of a finesse team, not a physical team and a kind of an Older to a degree, Finesse team. You know, they got their work cut out. They're going to be the Minnesota T. [00:26:00] Speaker C: Wolves, I'll tell you. And I was walking back from the end of WrestleMania down the Strip last night and happened to catch, happen to catch the end of the Warriors Rocket games and man, a 95, 85 score. Just like. Is this the end of the third quarter? No, this is the end of the game. [00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:17] Speaker C: Okay, that's. That's a score. That's the score. That's. That's some real basketball right there. [00:26:21] Speaker A: You know, that was a tough game. Rockets are not a great shooting team and that kind of showed again in this game. But I think it was just a little bit too little experience against a very experienced team. I think Rockets will respond in the next game. I could be wrong. [00:26:41] Speaker B: They need to respond. I, I think the Warriors. Warriors got a perfect setup. The one Tuesday night they get five days rest and they looked rested. They played Butler 40 plus minutes. You mentioned Rome Curry hurt every big three point shot. Rockets. I know we haven't talked about it. They haven't played a meaningful game in two weeks. They've locked up the two seed for two weeks. They basically been paying off bench. [00:27:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:06] Speaker B: And now a week. You don't play against a team like the warriors that's been in playoff mode for the last month. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Yeah, Warriors. [00:27:12] Speaker B: The Rockets. The Rockets weren't ready for that game. If you look at every stat outside of physical percentage, rockets dominate 18 off of three bounds. Turnover battle. They won the physicality. They can match the warriors, but can they score points? Can they hit from the perimeter? That would be the key. I think the Rockets get back in the series. If not, they'll be going home and the warriors will be going on. [00:27:33] Speaker A: To be fair, like they were pretty cold from beyond the arc, like colder than usual. [00:27:37] Speaker B: So 85 points. Jason said 85. 95. This was 1995 NBA playoffs right there. [00:27:43] Speaker A: It was a good game. It was a good game. I, I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't. Me and my daughter were watching it and she's like, who are you going for? I'm going for the Rockets. I'm like, who are you going for? She's like, I'm going for San Francisco, you know. So she was like, shout face that the team was winning. I was like. The first time she went against me, I was like, oh man. Hope you don't become a Warriors fan. Kind of hurt me a little bit. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Is she a Giants baseball fan too or. I'm actually, you don't really know. You don't really know, huh? [00:28:07] Speaker A: She knows it's Dodgers and Lakers, but I don't know though, man. We'll see. Anything? [00:28:12] Speaker B: I think after she watched the Lakers game, she jumped off that bandwagon. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Sounds like she saw the score and she's like, the game's over, dad. So it was over. So that's the initial reactions. Anything you expect in the next round of games. You think the Bucks respond to the Pacers? [00:28:36] Speaker B: I did not watch any of game one because I'm not interested in that series. But I did see, I think Damian Lillard comes back for sure, maybe game two. So we'll see. We'll see. I, I said I like the Pacers to win that series. I'll stick with that. [00:28:50] Speaker A: Nobody has ever returned from, from blood clots this fast. This is like the first time in history. So this kind of shaky stuff, they must have tried something new. [00:29:01] Speaker C: I know there was some commentary on some that Shams put out, but generally it kind of details them where, where it's at. I don't know if it's the first time in history. I guess for the first time in probably pro sports, the way they're talking through blood clots, because when you think about like Chris Bosh, it was a career ender that they basically didn't want to put the guy out there ever again. So. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Yeah, they didn't even dress him up, even when he tried to. [00:29:23] Speaker B: Yep. Well, yeah, I mean I, I don't know, I'm not a doctor, so I don't know what the issue fully is, but obviously you saw Wimby have his blood clot and he was out for the year. He's out for the year. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Like they have what different names, Deep vein, kind of whatever it is, but we'll see. Obviously they're not going to pin him on the court if he's not cleared by medical personnel. It's not worth the risk of a dude having some kind of long term issue. So. [00:29:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I, I guess out of everything that's playing around Knicks and Pistons, that's going to be a really good series. Paces are really good and I'm a big Giannis fan, but he, he might not have the ammunition to go against the Pacers, Clippers and Nuggets. We'll see how game two pans out. It's pretty close. Where we got 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. That might be a seven game series. Knicks and Pistons definitely a seven game series, Magic, Celtics, maybe five games if they're lucky. But a tough, a good competitive five games at least. Lakers and Timberwolves, six and seven. So we at least got like some three or four really good playoff series in the first round. Which is nice. [00:30:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I think really nice. Because if you look at the history of the NBA playoffs recently it's been. The first round has been almost irrelevant to a degree. So I think we get some good series like this Clippers, Nuggets series like you were talking about could be really good. Pistons, Knicks, you know, I think more competitive in kind of these playoffs instead of a bunch of these teams that could be blowouts. I, I guess you're saying only that Grizzlies Thunder series is the only one that we're really not going to pay attention to. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that might be the only one. But like, yeah, like, like the west all, you know, like seeds two through seven. That's basically like they're like a game or two apart. So it's not, these are, these things. [00:31:08] Speaker B: Are pretty close to each other, they're interchangeable. I mean I, I think we talked about this Rome off air on the phone, but I missed the old days of first round being five game series. Yeah, you had a five game series right now. Nick's Pistons, man, like it's, it's really, really intense because you really don't have a game to really kind of slip away now. It's just like you gotta win, you gotta get a win mode now. The best series looks like it's going to be Denver Clippers. Game one was an overtime thriller. This one's tight right now, fourth quarter as you said. Yeah, so there's gonna be some good first round series here. [00:31:46] Speaker A: Remember last time on the pod though saying like man, the playoffs are for two months, that's way too long. And, and I must say I wasn't the only one complaining about it because I've heard other people on the media saying like it's, it's just, it's just too long. It should be a month max. [00:32:04] Speaker B: I don't know about month, but yeah, I agree with you. I mean two months, you get three days in between a lot of these games. I don't think they go really back to every other day until like you get to the Western and even Eastern Conference finals. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Maybe I'm tripping out, maybe this is like another sport, but I could have sworn it was two games in between every game. You know, it depends. One and two, you get a three day rest when you have to travel one, two, or you got a day off in between game three and four, another three days off when you travel again, then band bam. [00:32:34] Speaker C: I think there's a loose formula to it because it really depends on TV too. Because you think about like with TNT and stuff, they want to game like every night for like 100 straight days type stuff. So there's, I think there's some stuff they do with the sketch TV schedule. So you can get one or two days, you know, but if you look at overall, the playoffs has been like this for like 30 years. So I don't, you know, the basketball seasons always ended kind of around Father's Day. And it's playoffs start like second, third week of April. So the only expansion we've really had was the first round used to be a five game series instead of the seven game series. And they expanded that like 20, 25, 30 years ago. So like, I mean the playoffs for both NBA and NHL have really been this time frame for, you know, a very long time. [00:33:18] Speaker A: It's long. That's all I'm saying. It's really long. Maybe we'll talk hockey next time. Yeah, yeah, catch up a little bit. There's some pretty good matchups there. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, Jason's time in the city of Sin, Las Vegas. All right, we're back for the last segment. Jason in Las Vegas with his homeboys for wrestlemania for two nights. You were there for three nights? Four nights. [00:33:55] Speaker C: I was there for three nights. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Three nights. Any special dances? [00:34:03] Speaker C: No special dances. Very busy wrestlemania itinerary from top to bottom as soon as you get there. I mean, WWE for the most part, Rome just takes over a city when they go in and sense the kind of merger with TKO and the different licensing and where the company is at. Fanatics, particularly in charge of kind of like the, you know, merchandise and event stuff. There's just so much to do with the given event. So I mean, starting with Friday, I headed over immediately to WWE World, which is at the Las Vegas Vegas Convention Center. Whole setup there, they got a stage inside, they got different exhibits. They got the massive wwe store. Pat McAfee was doing his show there Friday. I was in the crowd for that. So. So McAfee and the crew were putting the show on. Had a bunch of guys on the show there. They had Stone Cold, they had Roman Reigns there on the Friday and then some just awesome stuff. If, if you were so inclined Rome to come out. They have an awesome thing there where you can do your Own wrestler entrance. You pick your favorite wrestler's entrance music, and they have a whole big old Titan Tron set up and the music drops and, you know, that's kind of the crowd there. And so you can. You can do your own thing. So did you just do that, Jason? [00:35:20] Speaker B: Did you do it? [00:35:21] Speaker C: I did not do that. I just sit there and watch. I just wanted to experience other parts of the events, but that was out there. So spent a good portion of that Friday and then headed over to the WrestleMania kickoff party, which was at the F1 paddock. They call it Grand Grand Prix Plaza. I was going to send you guys a photo. I was on the starting grid for F1. We can tie this back to the F1 segment. So they had the kickoff party there for a few hours as part of my priority pass that I had for the weekend. So had an appearance from Cody Rhodes for the priority pass thing. He did a little kind of spiel and stuff with the host and DJ they had there. Then they had a bunch of other WWE Superstars come and kind of do like photo meet and greets and stuff with people who are there. So that was a pretty cool event. I loved it for the, you know, seeing the F1 paddock was pretty cool. They have the new F1 go go kart thing they're doing there. So if you were so inclined to make a Vegas trip, this thing's supposed to launch, I think in early May, so we can go do some F1 go karting. [00:36:14] Speaker A: Oh, I'm so down kind of in. [00:36:16] Speaker C: That area, but it was very cool. So that was Friday. And then we get into Saturday, had a late ad. I'll say Rome to the agenda. One of. One of the guys I was with said, hey, there is the NXT show Rome. I don't know if you familiar with nxt. So NXT is kind of the third brand, a little bit of a AAA of wwe, if you will. Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid, he runs that. And so they had a show in the morning, 9:30am Start time at T Mobile Arena. And we found $60 floor seats. And so, hey, let's go. So we woke up early and we sat on the. On the floor seats right next to the stage entrance. And so we saw NXT see, stand and deliver with us the future of wwe. A bunch of these guys will probably be on the WrestleMania card soon, potentially main eventing. So that was a cool show. We went to that and then we walked right over to Allegiant after that for a kickoff of night one of WrestleMania. [00:37:11] Speaker B: So that's a lot of wrestling right there. [00:37:13] Speaker A: That's a lot of wrestling. [00:37:14] Speaker B: I mean that's a lot of wrestling. [00:37:15] Speaker C: A lot of wrestling. [00:37:16] Speaker A: I'm burnt out just hearing you talk about it. [00:37:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean we were only at the start of Saturday room. So you kick off. Aaron mentioned the kickoff of Saturday, the World Heavyweight Championship match. Former now World Heavyweight Champion Gunther, who has held the title since well SummerSlam of last year, then one of the storied champions since his arrival has he's been a champion for about 70% of his time in WWE the past like five years. He just has insanely long title reigns. Tremendous like old school wrestler, just serious. He's Austrian. He's got just a great gimmick overall against Jay uso, which a guy at work actually told me this. He compared Jay uso's rise to Jeff Hardy. He's just kind of got this energy about him. He's got the crowd, kids like him, the entrance. We knew he'd kick off the show because it's just fire, you know, he's got his own, you know, catchphrase with yeet and everything. And so just building, kicking off the show. Tons of energy going in and it was a great way to kind of start the show. Him winning the World Heavyweight Championship and really get the WrestleMania festivities cup for the two days. So Aaron overall I think I agree with Aaron's assessment. There's some great stuff in night one and I know there was some other matches. Night one, it started with that World Heavyweight title match. I liked it. The energy was there. Yeah. The tag team, World Tag Team title match. After that, Rome. Are you familiar with the New Day? [00:38:44] Speaker A: No, I'm not. [00:38:45] Speaker C: Okay. New day been around for 10 plus years. Kofi Kingston, big veteran. Xavier woods, they kind of, they turned heel earlier this year so they, they turned their back on their third member. A lot of heels, a lot of heel turns. This one was was thing because this was a story trio that was out there and they were had an incredible, incredible gimmick. And one of the members, Big E a couple years ago got a serious neck injury and he's been not declared to come back. And so they really did this whole an angle where these two or Xavier woods and Kofi Kingston basically said you left us, go back to your TV job. And basically they've been getting booed out of every building every which way because them being fan favorites and basically telling their friend, their best friend, hey, you left us. Go take your broken neck and put your tuxedo on and go do their. Your TV job. So world out there and. But they took that new heel Persona and they won the world tag team title. So was a good tag team match there. But you know, it wasn't the greatest, I'll say from a WrestleMania perspective, but it was a good spot. Then you had Jade Cargill, Naomi put on a good, a pretty good women's match. That had a big, a lot of heat to that one. That was an injury angle. You had a US Title match. Aaron, I know was watching La Knight. I was the US Champion. Tons of like, you know, charisma. This guy has great talker, got a whole gimmick at the crowd. Going up was going against Jacob Fatu, who is part of the legendary Samoan dynasty. This guy's going to be a star. This was kind of his first. This was his first WrestleMania match. Jacob Fatu won the United States title, was kind of his coming out. He's, he's incredible athlete. Part of that. [00:40:21] Speaker B: Fatu is a beast, dude. He's a beast. [00:40:23] Speaker C: Yeah, he's a 300 pounder doing moonsaults on people in every which way. And he can talk and he's. He's got a. The Samoan werewolf, man. He's got a great gimmick. You're gonna see that guy be in the main event at WrestleMania probably someday and be a pretty big star. You had probably the longest story gimmick thing going on right now. You have El Grande Americano, who may or may not be WWE wrestler Chad Gable under a mask. [00:40:50] Speaker B: According, according to McAfee and others, they've both been seen together in the hallway. So I mean, okay, that's, that's what I heard on the broadcast, that they've both been seen together at the same time. So it is not who some people claim he is. [00:41:02] Speaker C: Okay, so. But El Grande Americano was supposed to fight Rey Mysterio. Rey Mysterio got hurt on the Smackdown show Friday before Mania, which not. This is for real. He really got hurt. So needed a sub in Ray Phoenix, who was a new WWE signee from the a couple just a month ago, really made his debut, got the bump, got the call up, got a huge Mania moment. It was a pretty good match. And can I keep that story with El Grande Americana or Chad Gable, who you're going to be having this feud with all luchadors, which has been an interesting storyline. You had a WWE women's championship match. Charlotte Flair, storied champion like her father, 14 time world champion. She was looking to be a 15 time champion first, Tiffany Stratton, who's kind of like the new Charlotte Flair, if you will. Tiffany Stratton was a former US Olympic, Olympic gymnast or at least was participating in the US Team, has been kind of a huge star, kind of up and coming. Was an interesting match, I'll say. Nonetheless, there was a lot, there was some stiff stuff in this match. I'll tell you. Between the two of them, it's. There's some, no love loss between some of the promos going on. Sometimes they've been blurring the reality of what's real and what's part of the show. But that was a pretty good match, a lot of athleticism. But I think overall the three theme, I'll say of night one at that moment was like there's some pretty good matches, but it really hasn't been great until the main event. And the main event's what it was. Rome Roman Reigns vs CM Punk vs Seth Rollins in a triple threat match. You had Paul Heyman, legendary manager, advocate, wise man, whatever role you call him, he is one of the legendary kind of voices and behind the scenes guys, but also on camera. This man deserves an Emmy. I don't care what anyone says about wrestling. He is an actor's actor and Emmy. Oh, this man deserves an Emmy. I don't give a crap what you say. Paul Heyman deserves an Emmy. [00:42:56] Speaker B: Paul Heyman delivers every time, man. [00:42:58] Speaker C: This man delivers every time. I don't care what actor you put on there. This man delivers his role on TV better than anyone. He famously the past five years has been aligned with Roman Reigns as part of the bloodline saga with all the Samo, the Samoan dynasty we talked through. But Paul Heymon was in manager of Roman Reigns's father and uncle back in the day. So he had a long history with this family tribal chief, right? The tribal chief, the tribal chief, Roman Reigns. He's been the chief as a champion until last year. But now CM Punk, one of my personal favorites from Chicago, made his big comeback a year and a half ago, had Never main evented WrestleMania Rome and he finally, his dream was to main event WrestleMania and this is was he was dream come true and he had a favorite ass. Paul Heymon is his best friend. So Paul Heyman's loyalty, where did it go? And he owed CM Punk a favor and CM Punk cash in the favor. Said Paul, you are escorting me to the ring on Wrestlemania night didn't make the tribal chief very happy room. I'll tell you that didn't make him very happy. Pretty much Betrayed the tribal chief. But the un kind of sung person of this match, why was he in it? Seth Rollins? I'll tell you another one of my favorites. When CM Punk left WWE Rome, Seth Rollins became my guy. He's really carried this company. He's been the workhorse and he's, he's done everything, but he's always been the number two. He's been the Randy Savage to, to Roman Reigns as Hulk Hogan. All right, he's the in ring guy, puts on great matches, is the workhorse of it. He's got a gimmick that's very colorful and flamboyant. Rollins is one of my favorites, but why is he in the kind of this match? And so these guys put on to me a classic, just the storytelling, the move sets what they were doing inside the ring. You can't get much better than that for me. But the swerve room at the end, we're getting down to it all three guys down in the ring. Paul Heyman goes and grabs a chair, but who's he gonna give it to? Rom, who's gonna give the chair to who's. Where does his loyalties lie? Well, he slides that chair over to CM Punk, the guy, he walked to the ring. Paul then gets in the ring, but then sneaks up behind CM Punk and Rome. He gives him the low blow and Punk goes down, grabs the chair, presents the chair to the tribal chief and says, hey, tribal chief, I acknowledge you. All right, I'm sorry. All right. So then Roman Reigns, the tribal chief takes the chair, goes to town and CM Punk. All right, cool. Paul Heyman then points to Roman Reigns and Rome. I don't know the history between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollin. These guys came up together, they're a faction called the Shield. They kind of revolution, you know, they, they were the young guns coming in the Shield. They were coming in in 2014, 2015. They were a group of three, but. [00:45:45] Speaker A: They'Ve missed so much the past 20 years. [00:45:47] Speaker C: You missed so much Rome and there's so much story behind this. But the, there's a thing because Seth Rollins infamously betraying his back on Roman Rage and smashed him in the back with a chair and joined Folso with Triple H at the time. So now we have this moment where Seth Rollins is getting up after being down. He's standing up, back behind him. And Paul Heymon points at Roman Reign, points to Seth Rollins and tells Roman Reigns, you remember the shield due to him hit him with this chair. So Seth, so Robin Reigns pushes Paul Heymon back says I got this. Then what's Paul Heyman do, Aaron? He gives the tribal chief the low blow. Where do Paul Heyman's loyalties lies, Rome? Well where you found out he lies the loyalty's lies as he gives the chair then to Seth Rollins. And Seth Rollins goes to town on Roman Reigns. And Seth Rollins wins the main event. And a new heel potentially faction, but a definitely alliance between Paul Heyman, Seth Rollins has emerged. Incredible cinema. The storytelling in this match was outstanding. The vibes coming out of Mania at that point were just an utter shock. Because the best thing about wrestling Rome, there's no off season. It's today, it's tonight, it's Monday night Raw. The saga continues. And now you got a now bad guy Seth Rollins. You got Paul Heyman being more bad guy than ever as a manager. This is the time where we say where is this going to go? And bro, this is just night one right now. This is Saturday. I still got a whole Sunday to go. [00:47:10] Speaker A: Jesus. [00:47:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean like Jason said, I mean Saturday night did deliver. I mean the twists and turns. Paul Heyman just, I mean when he goes low, I mean he gets all in there. I mean he holds it, he gets in there, he grinds the all forearm in there. I mean you're feeling it. I mean you are feeling it. [00:47:30] Speaker A: All right, so that's night one, what night two. [00:47:34] Speaker C: So we kick it off from the women's world championship match. Triple threat match. Rhea Rippy, Bianca Belair, Iyo, Sky. I will tell you this, Rome. These three women tore the house down. This is how you put on a, you know, a second triple threat match. Really delivering triple threats are hard. But when it comes to women's wrestling, you talked about getting your daughter, you know, interested in women's basketball, interested in F1 women's wrestling. Women are on the forefront of WWE and really has some of the best storylines and characters. And just the amount of it isn't just one women's match. That's like a, you know, 20 woman battle royal or it's, you know, bra and panties match or everything stuff. These are legit athletes that are putting on a show the highest. [00:48:19] Speaker A: That's hilarious. [00:48:20] Speaker C: It's throwing it back. But it's not like that. I'm trying to catch you up, Rome, you said you so much miss. It's not like that. The women are putting on a show at a clinic of, you know, high flying moves, you know, real wrestling that's going on in there. And these three particular women, EO sky walks out with the Women's World Championship beats two kind of story champions with Rhea Ripley, who's held the title over the past couple years. Bianca Belair is a big star over the past couple years as well. So it, it really just delivered early on all counts of what you want in a triple threat match as well too. So that was a fun way to kick it off. We then got a Sin City street fight after that room, which was Damian priest and Drew McIntyre, two former world champions. Last year at WrestleMania 40, Damian Priest cashed in his money in the bank on Drew McIntyre after McIntyre beat Seth Rollins for the world title. So there's just all this history for these guys, the last year of just, you know, Priest beating McIntyre. And in up to moments, they had a street fight. Street fight was really good. Tables, ladders, chairs, all that crap was in there. It was a good second match there. The momentum at that point got even bigger. We had a Fatal four way for the Intercontinental Championship match. [00:49:30] Speaker A: Fatal Four way. [00:49:31] Speaker C: Fatal four way. [00:49:32] Speaker B: That was a good one. That was a good match. That was a good match. [00:49:35] Speaker C: So Rome, I know you said you've been out of a little while and you, you remember Rey Mysterio? I talked about that. Well, his son Dominic Mysterio, one of the biggest heels in the game right now, is in part of this Fatal Four whack. We also have Intercontinental champion Bron Breaker, who is the son of former WWF and WCW tag team champion Rick Steiner, the Dog Face Gremlin. This is his son. Exactly. Braun Breaker, future main eventer himself, coming as Intercontinental champion. And then you had Penta, who you may know Penta a little bit. Rome up in San Francisco, if you know George kittle, San Francisco 49ers tight end, whenever he does the first down, he does the settle miedo. He'll do kind of that little thing he does, the zero there, that's an homage of Penta, who has just signed with wwe. You know, heralded luchador as well. So he's in this match. And then Finn Balor, kind of one of my favorites. He's been kind of just getting people over. But Fatal Four way tremendous match ends with Dominic Mysterio, supposed to be one of the biggest bad guys in the game the past couple years, ends with the crowd erupting that he won't and really took his bow. Really could see something in the future for him. But it was kind of a cool moment. If you remembered Infamous storyline when young Dom was a child on smackdown, there was a little bit of an angle where they said Eddie Guerrero was his real father. And if you look at Dom right now, he rocks the mullet in the stash. Kind of got that Eddie Guerrero vibe. He's living the gimmick, I'll tell you, live on tv. But Dom's been an incredible kind of rising star here recently. Winning the Intercontinental title, huge match. That was. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Wow. [00:51:14] Speaker C: But there's more. [00:51:15] Speaker B: That's not, that's not the end. That's not the end. [00:51:16] Speaker C: We're not done. We're not done. So we're going to the spot I'm waiting for. Because nothing says WrestleMania Rome like a surprise. And the next two matches we were going to have some surprises. So Randy Orton, future hall of famer, 14 time world champion, had a tremendous feud with Kevin Owens for the past couple months that was going to culminate at WrestleMania. Unfortunately, real life gets in the way. Kevin Owens has a legit neck injury that he's going to need surgery on and he's going to be out for over a year. So really that's a crappy thing. Even though, you know, the theater of wrestling is there, real injuries do happen. So Randy Orton is going to get a WrestleMania match and he's been in WrestleMania now, 20 of these. But he needed an opponent. And so what's great about WrestleMania is the surprise. And so he got a mystery opponent, he got an open challenge. And Aaron, are you familiar with who answered the challenge? [00:52:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't. You said his name, right? Jason, you said his name. [00:52:12] Speaker C: I said his name. [00:52:13] Speaker B: Okay. [00:52:14] Speaker C: And then he appeared. [00:52:15] Speaker B: And then he appeared. That's how it goes. [00:52:17] Speaker C: Rome's confused right now. [00:52:19] Speaker A: I'm looking some things up at the same time. [00:52:23] Speaker C: Well, who appeared is TNA World Heavyweight Champion Joe Hendry. And Rome, his big thing is when you say his name, he appears. And he did to a loud pop in Allegiant Stadium. Crowd went nuts when he came out and it was a cool, cool moment for him. A champion from another company who's really gotten over. He's kind of been a viral sensation the past like year and a half and got a moment with Randy Orton. Was a quick match, but it did what it needed to do. Got the crowd pop for the entrance. Randy Orton had an RKO out of nowhere that was awesome. I'm sure it's going to be a viral meme for, for years to come, but that was that. So then we had AJ Styles versus Logan Paul after that. Rome probably most familiar with Logan Paul out of this, out of this bunch. So Logan, big YouTuber and everything. Probably the most Famous person on here because of the out of ring stuff that he is, boxing with his brother and all that type of stuff. [00:53:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:53:25] Speaker C: Logan's been an incredible addition to WWE as probably one of the most natural gifted people on the roster. AJ Styles former champion been around the world. They had a really good match but I'll tell you overall it kind of would kind of just didn't meet kind of where it was at. The car was kind of like at this point not going as well as night one where it's kind of crescendoing. Was a good athletic match. But there really wasn't kind of a lot to this as much as expect from an AJ Styles match or even just Logan Paul what he's done in the main roster. We then got into another surprise. We had a little bit of, a little bit of a backstage situation and one of the participants was taken out room. The women's tag team title match had another surprise in it for Lyra Valkyria needed a new partner and her partner, another surprise. Another returning person was former women's champion Becky lynch who came out big pop, second time Rome. I've been in Allegiance Stadium where Becky lynch has come as a surprise. I went to SummerSlam a few years ago. She came out as a surprise to challenge for the world title at that time, but she came as a surprise and her and Lyra Valkyrie defeated the current champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez to win the title. Big pop to the crowd. But I'm fast forwarding a little over that room because we needed to get to the main event. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:37] Speaker C: And it was what all, all over the billboards, all over Mania, all over Las Vegas, everywhere. It was John Cena. This is his final year in competition. The 16 time world champion going against Cody Rhodes who's basically the new face of wwe. You can say Rome, he's the new John Cena all right. He's been champion for over a year. He's, he's got the suit, he does all the appearances, the make a wish stuff goes on, interviews and talk shows, fives to New York to do the Today show, Good Morning America, all that stuff. He's just on 24 7. He's the ultimate corporate man putting to be in the face of the company for the fans being out there against John Cena who, you know, we recapped I think a month or so ago last year, wrestling man, he's taking a little bit turn to the dark side and comes out Aaron. What'd you think of the John Cena entrance? [00:55:24] Speaker B: I Liked it, man. [00:55:26] Speaker C: So John Cena notoriously Rome, just bright colors, comes to the ring, got a bright orange shirt rocked at a famous promo a while back, you know, what is that 10 plus years ago when the Rock and John Cena refuting, basically saying John Cena comes out looking like a bunch of Fruity Pebbles. He's got a red shirt, a green shirt, yellow shirt. Rome, John Cena comes out. Yeah, he's got, he's got an all black titan drawn stage and his name in white font just says John Cena. All things black, wears black T shirt, black hat, comes to the ring, doesn't run just opposite of everything you would expect from a John Cedar entrance. The match overall, some good back and forth was a slow pace, trying to get the crowd in it. Interesting. Crowd was booing the champion. Cody Rhodes was cheering for Cena which is interesting because he's a heel. He's going for the 17th and record breaking world championship to beat Ric Flair. Aaron, I'll tell you what the entire wrestling community, especially everyone in that crowd expected, you know, a special run in or a special appearance. [00:56:41] Speaker B: We did talk about this. We, we hit that prop bed on that one. [00:56:44] Speaker C: We did well, we got one. It was Travis Scott, he came out. [00:56:52] Speaker A: That's right, you guys are talking about that. [00:56:53] Speaker C: Yeah, so Travis Scott came out. You know, Travis Scott gave Cody, you know, during the beat town a month or a month and a half ago at a limish chamber. Really gave him a, a pretty stiff punch to the face. Did that. So Travis Scott comes out, but we're all expecting a bigger pop at a certain point, waiting for the Rock to come out. Well, Travis Scott came out, did a little bit of a thing. John Cena ends up winning the title unexpectedly basically because it's like 7:40. Feels like there's 20 minutes left in this pay per view. Rock number comes off, show goes off the air. Seen as a 17 time world champion, but it just left the entire finish so not satisfying. You had this show basically end on a dud. People were not happy because where was the Rock? Is the number one question. He inserted himself into this story in late January. Early February was a part of it at the elimination chamber with the Cena heel turn. And it's been nothing. So as great as the the weekend was, we were expecting some more and some popping circumstance. But the most exciting thing for the last hour of that show was Stone Cold Steve Austin coming out. The music hit, the glass shatters, the pop like everywhere. Nothing better than just a surprise glass shatter. And you know The Stone Cold music. Stone Cold comes out with a four wheeler, starts doing his thing around the ring, but, you know, hit the gas a little too hard. Going around turn four, Rome smashed into the wall and knocked the lady off. [00:58:25] Speaker B: You know, that was not to take anything away, but he looked. He looked a little bit like Lando there in qualifying, to be honest, if we're gonna tie in F1, you guys. [00:58:37] Speaker A: Are laying on Lando this year, that's for sure. [00:58:39] Speaker C: We're tying this back. So Stone Cold hits the barrier, knocks the lady over. You had WWE CEO Nick Khan as the. The segment was going in the background to talking to this lady. So the. The Internet took it from there. If you looked on Twitter, everything was about what kind of lawsuit stuff was going to be going from this. [00:58:55] Speaker A: At this moment, she'll be getting a nice little payout, I'm sure. [00:58:58] Speaker C: But she was sitting ringside at a WWE show for a seat that was probably insanely priced. So she either knows someone that works for WWE or. But yes, there'd definitely be some sort of incentive for her, but that was. [00:59:09] Speaker B: Gonna get compensated pretty nicely. [00:59:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Or something for something. Yeah. [00:59:14] Speaker C: To say at Rome, as we kind of wrap up here, had an incredible time. You know, I would. I would go to this every year. Yes. If I go every year. I don't, but I would go every year. The spectacle that is WrestleMania, the show, the vibes, the energy, just, you know, everything that goes beyond it is incredible. But I will tell you, I left unsatisfied with the way that show ended to the weekend. And I think that's pretty much the sentiment across wrestling now, what they will tell you, and I say they will be like AAA choosing, you know, the chief creative officer and everything else. You gotta wait for the storyline to play out, which is true. We know there's gonna be more coming tonight, which why we recorded this. You know, stuff happened on Raw, we got more stuff coming in smackdown, you got new guys debuting potentially. But when you leave the biggest show of the year, you expect a little more. And especially coming off of WrestleMania 40 last year, which was like the Avengers end game of Endings, that really just left everything at a High. At WrestleMania 40. This was a downer. We all kind of knew Cena won. He was gonna win. He was the betting favorite. But you expected kind of a little entertainment with how this was gonna end. And it just kind of ended like a thud, unfortunately. [01:00:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I agree, man. Night one main event compared to, you know, the Cena Rhodes. Yeah. No comparison, really. I was disappointed in the main event too. I mean, we called it. Travis Scott would make an appearance. Yeah, you know, Cody Rhodes kind of got some revenge on him. Hit him with his signature move, pinned him down, kicked him out. I thought the Rock would probably show up too, at least kind of like show up, walk around, kind of throw Coyote Rhodes off his game, maybe allow Cena to kind of sneak in there. You know, the whole belt scene where Cody Rhodes, was he gonna be a bad guy, was he gonna do something illegal? And he was like, you could see like, oh, I can't do it. Then he hits the low blow and then the belt to the head and gets, you know, pinned down. 1, 2, 3. John Cena, now the 17 time, 17 time champion, passing the legendary great Ric Flair. So for historic moments last WrestleMania, he gets that. Yeah, I'll have to see how the story plays out. It's gonna go down. These two might meet again towards the end. Maybe a third guy comes in. We'll see, we'll see. But yeah, Cena the champion. Yeah, I was disappointed in that. But overall I think the event for WrestleMania was good. The two nights that the four way, you know, champ fight that was won there by, Was it Mysterio's son there, that, that was a good one. So that was a good fight. I like the Charlotte Flair fight, the women's fight, that was good. So I thought overall it was a pretty good card. [01:02:06] Speaker C: Half hour wrestling room. We could have done so much more, but I know, you know, we gotta, we gotta do our wrestling in spurts. Going to be a big summer for Cena, I'll tell you, is the Cena's last run. Whatever you want to say about the, you know, that booking of this match, I think it lines up as him as champion, as you're gonna have some legendary feuds and rematches. [01:02:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:26] Speaker C: Next month's pay per view is in St. Louis. WWE Backlash, St. Louis, the home of Randy Orton and Randy Orton. John Cena is like a legendary rivalry, you know, through the 2010s, you know, as those guys came up together, you got potential CM Punk out there, which has a, you know, a huge few with Cena. So I think you're gonna get the greatest hits here with Cena having world championship matches. They're gonna be main eventing these shows all summer. But I think as Aaron said, it ends at some point with a rematch with Cody Rhodes. But it, it should be a fun summer. I, I hope that we get kind of the payoff because I think leaving the building yesterday and definitely the Commentary online was like, Triple H, as a booker has done great since he's taken over, but there's going to be. There's some questioning around, you know, is he losing some of the good grace with the fans with some of this stuff? And there's a lot of criticism. No Triple H. Oh. So just the overall, like some of the world time the story. And there's a lot of criticism of the Rock too, because I think the sentiment is the Rock's obviously a busy man. He's got some movies, you know, working on. He's going to be in a Martin Scorsese movie coming out. He's working on a live action Moana movie. He's got all these different business interests. He's on the board of tko, the parent company of WWE and T ufc. And so busy man, you know, just. No, no shade on that. But when he comes in and does these popping moments when he's got time to schedule for wwe, it's great because we're all excited to see him. But when it doesn't lead to the things that we potentially is going to happen, like, hey, this moment at Mania, why weren't you there? Okay, cool. Why introduce the Rock in the first place, like, six weeks ago if he wasn't going to be able to pay off at the biggest show? That's kind of out there, and that's kind of the chief complaint. [01:04:09] Speaker A: Maybe he's filming another terrible Disney movie. [01:04:14] Speaker C: Maybe he's doing the live action Moana. So if you think that's terrible, it's probably going to make like a billion dollars. So who knows? [01:04:20] Speaker B: Are you going. Are you going to the show that they're going to have here at the Intuit Dome? Jason, I saw that was announced. I think that was in June or July, I'm not sure. But yeah, July. [01:04:29] Speaker C: It's money in the bank. Tbd. Aaron, I would love to go, but the, you know, the Mania all weekend experience is, you know, a lot to ask from, you know, the family when you're not there for Easter and then going to Vegas for an entire weekend. [01:04:48] Speaker B: WrestleMania, man. WrestleMania is like its own holiday. It's like a Super Bowl. It's a Super Bowl Wrestling. [01:04:54] Speaker C: It is, it is. I'm not. I'm not, you know, there. So, yeah, we'll have to play it by ear. Would love to go, but, you know, I got a lot of, you know, I got the Indy 5, I got the Indy 500 coming up. Aaron. [01:05:04] Speaker B: So set up a dinner, take them all out, treat them real well, you know, win Them over your charm there, Jason. Come on. This isn't your first rodeo. [01:05:14] Speaker C: That's true. [01:05:15] Speaker A: I will say thank you, Jason, for that. Because it was Easter, I am stocked on Easter candy. My daughter doesn't even like candy. She wanted these Reese's carrots. I love Reese's. Like a carrots. Like, I usually get the eggs. Yeah, but you know, like little girls, they like, want the cute little thing. It doesn't have a lot of peanut butter filling. I don't recommend it. Get the eggs, guys. [01:05:39] Speaker B: I got the egg ones here. [01:05:41] Speaker A: Next one I'm gonna try is the sprinkled Easter cupcake that I have here. [01:05:46] Speaker C: I'll tell you anything Reese's put out. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna get it because I love it. Peanut butter cup, top tier candy. [01:05:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. [01:05:53] Speaker B: I agree. You can't go wrong with Reese's. [01:05:55] Speaker A: I even got the Kit Kats here. Some sour patch Kids bunny edition. I'm gonna get fat next few weeks. [01:06:05] Speaker C: That or a dentist trip. One of the two. But you know, patience overdue. [01:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:10] Speaker B: Make sure. Make sure you floss and brush afterwards. [01:06:13] Speaker A: Always. All right. Did I expect us to sit through a 30 minute rendition of Wrestlemania? But I loved it. That was really good. [01:06:23] Speaker B: Hey, for. For an eight hour plus show of 30 minutes, I think we did pretty good. [01:06:26] Speaker A: That's pretty good. Yeah, that was nice. [01:06:29] Speaker C: Try to try to break it down a little bit, but next time, just cut me off from. Say, hey, give me the. Give me the. The higher lights, you know. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Have you tried cutting yourself off? It's pretty hard. I got, I got. I gotta talk to your wife to see how she does it. [01:06:40] Speaker C: She just walks away pretty much at that point. So I guess the ultimate Elizabeth test is. Are the. Are the listeners of the pod walking away at the point. At. At some point in these last 30 minutes as I was breaking it down. [01:06:52] Speaker A: No, it was. It was all good, dude. [01:06:54] Speaker C: You're. You're my judge on where it's going. Because Aaron's locked in with me as I'm going through this. And if I start losing you. Okay, I've gone way too down the. The nerd, you know, poll at this point, as I'm going, just going, wait. [01:07:05] Speaker B: I couldn't look forward to backlash. I'm looking forward to backlash. [01:07:08] Speaker A: Aaron looked spaced out a few times. I'm just like, Was it like. Is the state getting to you? The rice peel off, bro? [01:07:14] Speaker B: No, I had to check the game real quick. You know, watch that last 15 seconds there. So that's. That was tough for your Nuggets, but. Yeah, tough. [01:07:22] Speaker A: Well, they fired their coach, too, so I don't really give a. Yeah, all right, I'll do it. Pod. Later this week, I think we might. [01:07:34] Speaker C: Need to talk some hockey. There's a hockey playoffs going and we're a little more NBA, so. [01:07:38] Speaker A: Yeah, all right. We'll come back later in the week, talk more NBA playoffs, NHL and anything else. Source from the sofa. Catch us later.