Dodgers Throw A Skubal, MLB Trade Deadline, & WWE SummerSlam Recap

[00:00:04] Speaker A: What's up, everybody? This is sources from the sofa. This is Rome. We got Jason Aaron. Per usual, today was the MLB trade deadline earlier today. Dodgers making the most noise over the weekend as they get a number one bonafide ace from the Detroit Tigers. Some people are upset. Some people are just like, hey, Dodgers are just better at everything in every facet of the game with the way the rules are laid out. But we're definitely pricing a lockout next year. We have Pochettino signing with the United States men's national team. Really good news for men's soccer so they can build on what they had this last World Cup. I'm really digging that. Unfortunately, Kelsey Plum gets traded from the Sparks to Mercury. That made no sense at all as the Mercury out of playoff positioning and Sparks are trying to get into it. Whatever. It's not like I'm a big fan of Plum. Just a little bit. Yeah. A slight crush on her. Maybe. I'm a little sad. But we have SummerSlam this past weekend. I'm not sure if you guys watched it. You know what? I know Jason definitely watched it because he had a stone cold IPA that I helped bring the market with the importing company that I was working with back in the day, El Sagina Brewing Company. I saw that on IG that you're drinking a nice ice cold one watching SummerSlam. And then what other news? [00:01:33] Speaker B: Wasn't the IPA Rome? [00:01:34] Speaker A: No, it wasn't. It was a pale. [00:01:36] Speaker B: It was the American ale. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the American ale. There you go. [00:01:40] Speaker C: Two night, two nights. SummerSlam Rome, two nights. [00:01:43] Speaker A: You know, I didn't watch it, but I've been watching a lot of like, old school WWE Eclipse from like our generation. Like back in the day. Like the rocks don't cold. Steve Austin. Like, I just miss it so badly. Like that, like that was a lot of people on social media was. Were like talking about like that. [00:02:02] Speaker C: The golden age. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah. They had a name for it and I. I never heard. Wasn't like Renaissance. They had a name for that era. That's what it is. That's what it is. So maybe you guys can break it down for me a little bit. But let's talk about baseball, because that's fresh, that's hot, that's heavy. Lots of teams making moves to try to make a big, deep postseason run. Who won at the trade deadline? Who lost? I don't know which one of you guys want to start off first? What was the most shocking trade and what are some of the bigger disappointments of who didn't make any moves based on where they're at right now, playoff contention or not. Dodgers, Gary, you know, get. Getting school ball, at least for me was kind of shocking. I heard the rumors, but I, I didn't actually think it was actually going to go through. And the fact that they only gave up a couple prospects, good prospects, but not like the top, top ones in the dodder farm system and it's just basically what a rental because no one knows what next year is going to be happening and what the cap allegedly if there is one, a harder cap, what that might look like. So this is just one last shot at the 3 Pete 4th championship and whatever. How many years, like how do you guys feel about that one? What were you guys shocked about that one or not? Let's start there. I guess [00:03:29] Speaker B: that one didn't surprise me. I think it's been long rumored that's where Scuba would go. I think it's more even likely he resigns with them and they're making this move not just for this year, but beyond this year. You're right. Rome, like. Well, we don't even know if we're gonna have baseball in 2027. You know, we could be talking about that, you know, throughout the, throughout the offseason after the World Series, but more and more likely that we're gonna have, you know, lockout by the owners. Salary cap is the number one thing being talked about right now on both sides. Players associations, no salary cap. Owners are hard for a salary cap. This trade. If you're going to be a conspiracy theorist, I will on this. I think all of MLB and the ownerships groups want the Dodgers to have this because this is exhibit A on a team that has an overwhelming financial advantage versus the rest of baseball and able to exercise it. Huh? [00:04:30] Speaker A: That's their problem. [00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, you say that if you, if you want this the way the sport to be ran. But you, you, the, there's, there's a great report. We talked about this pod before on how the bankrupt LA Dodgers were basically allowed a loophole to have, you know, a competitive advantage in their cable deal versus the rest of baseball. So you say it's a problem but it was an unprecedented thing that they didn't talk about it. Now the Dodgers are a well run organization. When you talk about the minor league depth that they have and able to, to trade, you know, there's, there's no doubt that they have developed and made the right moves. But they can afford to buy their mistakes as well at the same time too. And you know, it's consecutive years where they're able to buy anyone in the pitching market. And this is another example of that. They didn't really give up much, even from their prize prospects to get Skubal in this trade. So I don't think it's a surprise, but I also think it's what the league wants because now this is going to be like, hey, we were able to get the best pitcher in the game for giving up nothing right now. And you know, the low league, you know, Pirates and Rays and Reds and all these other teams have no shot. And it's what's going to be used as the collective bargaining. [00:05:38] Speaker A: Someone had a really good graph online that broke down the percentage of revenue that teams spend on reinvesting on rosters. Dodgers are tops in that, in that marketing. I think they were at like 70% of the revenue. They put it back into the roster. Whereas when you have like some of the lower revenue teams, yeah, they're spending less, but they're also only putting in 30% of their revenue back into the team. So it's kind of like who wants to put in the money where their mouth, you know, or the money where. Dude, I can't think of it. What's the phrase? [00:06:11] Speaker B: Money where their mouth is? [00:06:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. So I really found that fascinating and a few other, you know, MLB guys post that up too. But at the end of the day, yeah, we know about the contract deal, we talked about that here a bunch of times. But I think for them to get him with just three prospects and I think it was like what another second, third or whatever it is round pick, nobody else had anything else. Like it just seemed like the, you're right, the whole league just said let's just give it to the Dodgers and let's just get over with so we can have the lockout and have like some type of negotiations next year round. [00:06:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean I agree with what Jason said. Look, Scuba was going to the Dodgers. Not a shock there. The reason why other players to owner teams didn't give up more because like Jason mentioned, Scuba's gonna sign the Dodgers in the off season because they can pay him the most. So why would you give it the best prospects for 2 month rental when he's just going to jump ship to a team and you're not going to have those prospects to compete against those guys later. So it made no sense for those teams to go after them. So Scuba going to the Dodgers for me was easy. Not that was easily predictable. I mean Jason's Been calling that for two years. I agreed with that as well. I mean it's, it's not a secret. I mean, his agent basically has been saying he's from California. Dodgers make the most sense. But look, the Dodgers really needed them. I mean, the Dodgers right now are not playing very well. They got swept by Boston, they just got beat here by Chicago. Their pitching's a mess. Ohtani's got a knee issue. Who knows if he's going to pitch again this season because hey, look, you've got knee issues. As we know, pitchers, lower extremities is very important. If you got an injury there can lead to upper arm injuries. Ohtani already had two Tommy Johns. I don't think Ohtani pitches again this year personally, but we'll see. Blake Snell, a guy who has not, he's been hurt all year. I know Blake Snell followed his career. He's a guy that takes a long time to get revved up, to get going. I don't think there's enough time for him to be effective come to the playoffs. So really you're looking at a two man rotation with Yamamoto School. And who's that third guy for them? Is it Suzuki or is it, is it going to be Glass now who's coming back? They really needed to make this trade if you're the Dodgers. So not a surprise. The prospects, I mean, they gave up a 27 year old guy who's coming off what, Tommy John surgery, I believe too, or some shoulder injury. They did give up a prospect that's pretty good in the outfield and another young pitcher. But I think if you're Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia, again, not worth the rental for two months for this guy just to jump ship and go sign a five year, $150 million plus deal with the Dodgers in the off season. [00:08:47] Speaker A: All right, so School Ball is now a Dodger. Great points. They are, I think they're barely 500 teams since June 1st or this is All Star break at least whenever that was. So they've been really teetering on that. What trades do you guys like? [00:09:12] Speaker B: I mean, besides liking, I think Rome. You asked. Surprising. I think the Red Sox and the Adley Rushman trade was, was surprising. I, I know Rushman's name had been out there for the Orioles looking to potentially like make a move given that they're, you know, 12 games out of first right now and you know, four games under.500. But, you know, Baltimore's had a heck of a young core and this is one of your, you know, core players. Of this kind of youth movement you had. And he's a, you know, he's a multi time all star, right, Aaron and the Red Sox, like, I mean they are, they did go on a heck of a street recently. I think they're 15 straight. Yeah. Their last 10, you know, they put themselves in a position five and a half games out of first. But this was a team you were thinking like about three, four weeks ago, potentially being sellers at a deadline. And now you're making, you know, a big move, you know, for a catcher. And I think it was a little bit of a shock in how much they were kind of in on this and they were going for it. And then I think on the flip side didn't see a ton, you know, from the Yankees. I think their biggest thing was bringing Luis Garcia from the Nationals. But I mean that really wasn't the move compared to, you know, Ali Rushman going to the Red Sox or the Rays get Liam Hicks, you know, so there was, I think there was just some interesting stuff going on. The AL east, which proven to be like the most competitive division. I mean that was the one that kind of wowed me the most. I say the other one was Roman. Think you mentioned off the air was Mize to the Padres because the Padres didn't really give up a heck of a lot and you're getting a frontline starter from Detroit out of that. And you know, I would say the Padres, you know, Aaron was talking about the Dodgers, you know, being hurting. The Padres been hurting pretty bad, you know, to a degree. They're 11 games behind the Dodgers in the division, but hey, we're still going to make a run. So I mean the Padres able to really add some really great pitching decks. We were talking about them getting rid of basically the best closer in the game and potentially trade in that like a couple weeks ago, which was scaring me from a fantasy side. But I was able to stave zap and keep the best closer in the game on the fantasy. We'll have you update on that room a little later. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Nice. No, I'm excited. [00:11:37] Speaker B: I, I think the other surprising, you know, we talked about school, I just mentioned mice. I mean the Tigers just white flag in the season. They're only five and a half games out of first in the AL Central behind my White Sox. And then, you know, in the wild card, you know, they're only two and a half games out of a wild card spot right now and you're just waving the white flag to the season with two months to Go. And I mean, there's still a little bit, you know, a little bit to play for and you're just saying, hey, we're done, you know, we, we're not winning the World Series, I guess, and we're going to get what we can for the pitch pitches they have. But I think you're waving more than just these this season. You're waving, you know, next season, in the seasons beyond that. At this point it felt like from, from the Tigers. So that was a little bit surprising considering, I mean, I'm a White Sox fan through and through and we're first in the division, but the AL Central is always very winnable and you're not very far back. You're about two, two a two week hot winning streak to be in the contention and you're just in a full, basically fire sale mode in Detroit. [00:12:37] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that goes back to our talk about a salary cap. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:41] Speaker C: I mean, you know, you're not going to build a science Google, but if we had a salary cap, maybe you could offer him the most money and you could keep them whatever, you know, like in the NBA they call it bird rights and whatnot. So you could keep them since he's been a Tiger, since he's made his debut there. But yeah, I think the Padres, interesting, they picked up Robbie Ray as well, so they added some starting pitching, which is good for them. We know their bullpen's been really, really deep. Hitting's always been kind of a question for them. But as a team, if they can get into the playoffs, we know they're one of the few teams that wants to play the Dodgers. Right. Everybody wants to avoid the Dodgers. The Padres are like the opposite. They actually want to play the Dodgers. That fan base on both sides. The games are packed, the Series are tough. They got really, you know, division rivals. So they're used to each other. I mean, I agree. Boston in the American League where they won 15 straight, like, and now they've won. Jason, would you say eight out of the last 10? So yeah, I mean, Boston looked like a team that was done early in the year. We talked about it, you know, firing the manager, kind of hitting the reset. Looked like they were done. Win 15 straight. Then everyone's like, hey, you guys got to be buyers, not sellers. They make this trade here for Rutman. I like it. Boston's kind of one of those teams Rome we talked about off the air. They're kind of like Atlanta where they come out of nowhere and then they seem to be winning World Series. Here over the last decade. So keep an eye on them. The American League is wide open. Agree, too, that the Yankees didn't do a lot here. I mean, Garcia Jr. I like, but there was talks about them maybe getting Goodman from the Rockies, adding a catcher. They did not judge. Is he even going to come back and play? I'm, I'm thinking he's not based off what I'm hearing. So the American League right now is wide open. Seattle went out, they added a bat that the AL west is open right now. Texas, Houston made a trade with Toronto. [00:14:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:36] Speaker C: So it's open right now on the American League. And like you guys said, Detroit just like it. Hey, look, we're not here to compete. We're not going to win a World Series. Not gonna be able to sign these guys. Let's get some prospects back in return. Tampa Bay went out, got Peralta. What? From the Mets. He's been a disaster, but maybe going to a team that's winning can turn things around for him. Other contenders like Philly, Atlanta added a lot of, like, bullpen depth, number four or five starters, you know, the utility player and the outfielder here, just little pieces that can come in. In a series where you need a guy or two in situations, I think could help those teams in the playoffs and to make the playoffs as well. [00:15:16] Speaker A: A lot of people not liking the brewers making a bigger move, especially for school ball. They have a pretty good performance as well. They've kind of just came alive, you know, just everybody realized like, what a good system they got going on over the last couple years. They didn't have any luck against the Dodgers in the playoffs last year, but they're going to probably maybe face off or maybe that's the favorite to face off in the championship round to go to the World Series. Do you think they should have made a more aggressive approach? What's happening? How do you think they should be feeling right now? [00:15:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I, I get the, yeah, we could have done more, but I mean, at this point in time, it's, it's tricky with, I would say Rome, you talked about in the intro, our childhood, when it came to, to wrestling in the Attitude era, I think the trade deadline isn't the thing. It was in our childhood too, right now because these guys, from a prospect perspective, they're the guys that they have that are probably in the top 10 of their system or whatever. It be like a lot of these guys are impactful potentially like next year. And so I think you get less of, you know, a want from A lot of these organizations, when you're asking for a prize prospect and to Aaron, you know, talking through like the financial implications, like you want great players on cheap contracts if you're one of these guys in a market. And so if you're asking For a top 10 player in your farm system, I think there's a lot of evaluation of like do I really want to give this guy up because he could be a contributor here, you know, in the next few years. And scrubal is the definition of you're going to get maybe 10 starts out of this guy. And so that's all, all you're getting is 10 starts. And I'm giving away a player that may be a seven year contributor on the roster for like this time and this now. And when you're, when you're, when you're in, when you're like Milwaukee or some of these other teams that are in kind of the mid markets, like hey, do I want this sustained success? And you mentioned like where, where Milwaukee is, they don't do anything crazy and they're going to have really great players behind it. But I see the flip side is like hey, you got the Miz. And if you had Scubal in a best of three series in the opening round, man, that's, that's, that's a tough team to beat right there in that round in a round of three. And so I think there's an argument for it. But I think a lot of these general managers are playing more of the long game. And in this market with the extended wild card, the Tigers were the surprising portion. There's more teams involved from to make the playoffs, less teams to trade with. The price goes up with less sellers kind of in the market for some of these players and for the buyers it's like yeah, I'm gonna get it right. Like from a personal standpoint. Switching this to the White Sox. The White Sox weren't going to give away any prospects. They traded for a below average performing player in Luis Castillo from the Mariners, but basically gave him a bunch of crap prospects. But they just took on his 24 million dollar salary this year and next. They weren't giving away any of the top 15 prospects. Like we'll just take on salary and that's what they, I mean they didn't. And the white sucks. Didn't get anyone crazy. But it's like, hey, we need to start a reliever and we need to put potentially a catcher. Okay, we're giving low tier prospects and we'll take on money that I Mean, that's basically was their kind of stance on it. And I think that's where you're looking from a prospect haul at the deadline. What are you willing to give up for this is going to be the short term answer as well. [00:18:36] Speaker A: I think the reason why I wasn't really buying so much with the Tiger stuffs, because there's, they aren't, they're not too far off from the wild card still. They're pretty close. Like, why sell so much? Like do the. [00:18:50] Speaker C: What's obviously School Ball is a free agent. What about the other guy? Is he under team control [00:18:58] Speaker B: on Mice. [00:18:59] Speaker C: Mice, yeah. Because I mean we've, we've seen this. I mean it goes back to Ohtani with the Angels, right? I mean the Angels probably could have traded Ohtani for a ton of prospects. [00:19:10] Speaker A: Oh, so many. Yeah. [00:19:11] Speaker C: But the idea was, hey, we're gonna resign them, we're gonna keep them and maybe they were one of the final two or three teams, who knows? But I think it goes back to that where Detroit was like, look, we don't have the money to keep School bowl, which they don't. And it goes back to what we talked about, prospects. We don't know what Milwaukee gave up. I mean every team has their own scouts and everything. So I agree. Milwaukee and the Dodgers, we all buy all accountabilities, have the number one two farm systems in the National League and they have one of the top two, top five probably in all of baseball. So who knows what the brewers were giving up? Who knows what Detroit was demanding for them. That could be one of those things. I mean, look, they took one of The Dodgers have three or four really good outfield prospects. I know one of them, DePaula, which I have on my team in the minor leagues for our National League, is their number one guy. They weren't going to part ways with him, but they have another two or three guys that are really good, they have some pitching arms. I mean, why take a 27 year old prospect from the Dodgers that has arm issues? I mean they could have probably gotten another outfielder infill utility guy, I don't know. So. And again, it goes back to this point too, which I don't really see it being done in baseball. But if you're, if you're Milwaukee, you go, hey, we'll make the trade for School bowl, give you prospects. But we go to school's agent, say here's an offer, we need him to sign this extension now that he's going to stay for four years or we're not going to make this deal. You know, you always see that in the NBA where a guy gets traded and boom, he immediately signs an extension for three years, four years, 200 mil, whatever it is. Don't really see that a lot in baseball. So like, to Jason's point, yeah, we get maybe eight, 10 starts. Yeah, we get past the best of five, but do we have enough? And look, I don't know if school is going to be any good in the playoffs. He's never faced the pressure moments too. I mean, he did make a start last year with Detroit against Seattle, pitched well. But what happens when it revs up into a divisional series? World Series is a different moment. You just don't know. And some prospects that are now we see with guys coming up in the majors at 20, 21, 22 prospects are getting better and contributing a lot earlier now versus guys that are waiting till 25, 26. So to Jason's point, prospects, especially for a team like walking low market teams that don't have a lot of money are way more valuable than say, the Dodgers that have a rich farm system that can go out and just buy whoever they want at the trade deadline. [00:21:36] Speaker A: Fair enough. Boston like what they did. [00:21:42] Speaker B: I do. I, I think it's a bold move for Boston. It's always tough under this current. [00:21:49] Speaker A: By the way, it's really weird that, like, everyone's talking on the Boston Red Sox having airplanes flying over Fenway, telling John Henry to sell the team that he's a piece of. He's focusing more on Liverpool or whatever, and then all of a sudden they go on this epic run, you know, all while we're watching the World cup, you know, so, like, it's kind of like not mainstream, but if, if you know any Boston Red Sox fan, they're super excited and you know, Roman still has been playing all that much, like a weird finger injury that he hasn't been able to recover from. They've had a few other injuries, but then they kind of make, make some moves today at the deadline and are they for real? Are they. They're just trying to make an upset, go a couple rounds deep in the playoffs. What's the deal here? [00:22:37] Speaker B: I think the Red Sox could be real. I, I mean, the comment, the commentary around John Henry is less about. I don't. It's. I think there's just always a question of the direction of the franchise because you pay certain things that don't pay other things like them. I mean, starting with the Mookie Bets trade, which you got almost like nothing for. Because you didn't want to pay him. But then they'll sign like, you know. Was it Trevor Story? [00:23:02] Speaker A: Right? [00:23:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Trevor Story to like some awful contract or whatever it like might be like. And so it's like rhyme or reason to some of their moves. And I think they got even to more, you know, they talk about, you know, the John Henry ownership group there. There's some good pieces as far as like the level in which, you know, this is like a venture capitalist type thing and how they're maximizing profits and like, like, I think less even about just like attention in Liverpool. But it's more of just like how this thing is operating. Like less like the baseball team and more just like another one of their venture capitalist assets. I think that's like the bigger part of how the overall Fenway Sports Group operates. But I mean, baseball, I mean the thing about baseball is you can do weird stuff in this because you, you look at these records, like Aaron said, this team goes on of a bit of a run here and all of a sudden you're in contention. And I think the margins are just very, you know, small between a bunch of these teams because everyone's, you know, pretty flawed to a degree. And everyone's got, you know, these ups and downs and, and like a good hot streak all of a sudden puts you in contention. And that's like, that's where they're at right now. And so I mean even, even a team out west, like, I mean, we haven't talked, I don't even know the last time we talked about the Astros. Aaron, like the Astros were like bad to start this season or you know, not their first place in the AL west now after, you know, a couple of good weeks on their front and so like margin for error for like the middle part of like baseball and even to win some of these divisions is small. You can make a run and you know the. With the Blue Jays having a pretty down year after going to the World Series last year and almost winning it, the Orioles, not great in that division. They're, you know, waving the white flag. Why not? If you're trying to make a move for Boston and set you up with the, you know, basically a catcher of the future, I think the question is, you trade for this guy, what's going to be the long term contract to sign in? Because the Red Sox have proven that they haven't paid a lot of these big stars some money recently. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Funny thing about the Houston Astros, I don't know if you've seen A Jason on X. But somebody did a meme where they're like, who would have thought that the 2017 Astros were actually being heroes from stealing a Dodgers World Series away before they won? More like the way they phrased it is really funny. You haven't seen it? [00:25:16] Speaker B: I haven't seen it, no. [00:25:17] Speaker A: All right. [00:25:18] Speaker B: It already sounds funny because it makes fun of your Dodgers, but. [00:25:20] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, anybody that can take a World Series from the Dodgers is a fan of my book and the team I root for, so. [00:25:27] Speaker A: Well, you root for the. Yeah, the Braves. [00:25:30] Speaker C: So. Yeah, I mean, look at Houston. Like Jason said, they're back in the mix. I like to trade Rome like you touched on. I think Boston go for it, right? Why not? Look at teams get hot at the end, they win. I mean, just what, three years ago, the Diamondbacks finished two games over.500. They get to the World Series, got beat by Texas in what, 20, 23. So look, you can get hot at the right time. Boston has here, go for it. You know, they added Eric Miller, a closer from the Giants to that bullpen depth. They've got a pretty good young squad already. They're feeling pretty good about themselves coming off that sweep of the Dodgers we talked about to start this program. Houston's an interesting team because they battled a lot of injuries. They've kind of gotten healthy. I think the big question is Seattle. Can Seattle get healthy? [00:26:16] Speaker A: Right. [00:26:16] Speaker C: I mean, they have really, really struggled all year coming off what it's losing seven games to Toronto. Blue Jays aren't even going to get in. Blue Jay's kind of weird, too. They got rid of a pitcher, then traded for Soriano from the Angels. So I don't know, like, they were basically swapping players to get players almost equal value from other teams. Interesting what they did. White Sox, you know, like Jason said, they're not going to give up any prospects. Castillo, he's had a rough year. Salary dump by Seattle. But, yeah, I'm looking at the American League. The American League's open, so I think Boston would not surprise me in the least bit if they're able to take the American League and get to the World Series. [00:26:56] Speaker A: Wow. [00:26:56] Speaker C: Big. [00:26:58] Speaker A: It's a big claim there. [00:27:00] Speaker B: No, I think Aaron's absolutely right. [00:27:02] Speaker A: There's. [00:27:02] Speaker B: It's wide open. You look at the. The Rays, best team in the American League. They just lost two or three of the White Sox over the weekend. You know, but they're. But then you got, you know, a muddle division in the Central, a model division out west, and then you know, the Yankees and Red Sox right behind the Rays. Like there isn't a clear favorite where out in the National League. Hey, we're talking about the Dodgers and Brewers and then the Braves all on top of their division. Significant, you know, leads all around. They all have like the three best run differentials in the game right now. I mean, so we're looking like, hey, it's a three way race. And then maybe Phillies can kind of sneak in. They got some, they got some chance potentially. The Cubs keep kind of knocking on the central door but not be able to close it. But like, yeah, when it comes to the al, it's wide open. There is. I don't think there is a favorite out of this even right now. [00:27:55] Speaker A: Nice. [00:27:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I think if you were to take the six teams in the eight right now, coin flip at any one of those coming out and then like you guys touched on the top three teams right now in the National League, I think are the. To the big favorites. I think the wild card team there, Cubs, Cubs have been sneaky. Pretty good. They made some nice moves at the deadline. So we'll see, we'll see what happens there. [00:28:23] Speaker A: I was gonna ask what the Cubs, because they've had a bounce back here. It looks like just Chicago's having a really good year this past year. Jason's White Sox having a really good year. [00:28:33] Speaker B: Listen, Rome, ever since we got Pope Leo, man, we're just blessed. We're blessed in every sport. Bulls had a good draft. Blackhawks got Patrick Kane back. The Bears, you know, massive season last year. We're going to even be better this year. Although little, little, little concern today. Kobe Bryant got hurt today. That's wasn't a great start to that. But regardless, yeah, baseball, both teams are in first place. I mean, Chicago is just really the sports capital of the world right now, [00:29:01] Speaker A: Rob, you know, somebody was taking credit for Chicago turning around. It's a certain Colin. [00:29:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I was about to mention because Colin. [00:29:12] Speaker B: Because Colin moved to Chicago. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah, he, he was boasting how every time he moves, there's a resurgence in the local sports teams. And he started listing it off and I'm like, oh, it's kind of lighting up really conveniently for him. [00:29:27] Speaker C: What is he. The Yukon Huskies in both men and women's basketball? [00:29:30] Speaker A: That's exactly what he said. Yeah. [00:29:31] Speaker C: Was he part of that? Even though they've been good for. Way before he got there, he said [00:29:35] Speaker B: that it was his UNLV basketball. When he was out in Nevada, [00:29:44] Speaker C: like Washington, didn't he start like In Washington. Was he talking about the old Huskies back in new Heisel era or something or what? [00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah, anytime of the Lakers, Chip. And then the Clippers is coming back to relevance and the daughters, you know, one in a few. So yeah, it's pretty funny. [00:29:58] Speaker B: I mean it's good, I guess it's a good take by Colin, but at the end of the day you're like your last two moves are going to LA and Chicago. I don't know if you're taking credit for the resurgency, but hey, I, if that's what it took to get it done, I'm glad Colin moved to the Windy City and were able to get a resurgence in Chicago sports. I, I have enjoyed as a fan of Colin, you know, for my high school days through college and everything. His entire time at ESPN were to me was like the golden era of sports talk radio during that time when Aaron and I were just, you know, listening to the, her going to Cal State Fullerton every day and then, you know, in the car in our post college time too listen to the Herd. But yeah, I don't know if him taking the credit for the Chicago sports right now is, is exactly where it's at, but I'll take it. I'll take it. Big fan of the Herd. [00:30:47] Speaker A: Back in the day, I, I could only handle calling like in spurts. I really couldn't stand him. But I really think he's done like a complete 180. Like, I don't know, [00:30:57] Speaker B: I don't know. I, I've enjoyed just. He's talking way more about Chicago sports than in any time the last 20 years. And so if he moved there, I mean, I, it made it good. Okay, cool. I'll take it. [00:31:09] Speaker C: Well, isn't the only reason why Colin moved there because his wife wanted to. [00:31:12] Speaker A: His wife's family's from there. [00:31:14] Speaker B: His wife, his wife is from Chicago. [00:31:16] Speaker C: I don't think he wanted to leave Manhattan Beach. [00:31:19] Speaker A: I think they still live here part time. [00:31:21] Speaker C: He probably does have a place. I think Rome, I think we should touch on it. The, the biggest no trade I should say of the day really was, you know, me and Jason still being part of the show. There were rumors that, hey, the B team could get traded off, but we [00:31:35] Speaker B: were on the market. [00:31:37] Speaker C: On the market. That's what I learned from sources. But the return was not great. So Rome, he stuck with, he stuck with us for at least another football season. [00:31:46] Speaker A: You know, rumor has that we were just not ready to cover the Canadian Football League 24 7. So, you know, Sticking to the major [00:31:56] Speaker B: food groups for sports, man, I don't know, I thought, I think I got written off for talking too much. Formula 1 and WWE, man, he was looking to trade me in for, you know, a property. [00:32:08] Speaker C: He was trying to pass the torch after two years of us, I guess, [00:32:11] Speaker B: man, you know, we just, the prospects, [00:32:14] Speaker C: I guess in return weren't good enough. [00:32:15] Speaker B: We brought him back to relevancy and then he was like, man, we'll ship him off and you know, get on, you know, moving on from us to get to fame with all his connects in Vegas he's got now. [00:32:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I'll have to reconnect with them here in a few weeks. [00:32:28] Speaker A: We will, we will. All right. Pretty funny, Aaron. God damn. [00:32:33] Speaker B: I don't know. Do we hit the, do we hit the, the August waiver wire does he got us on waiver still just waiting for anyone to pick us up in August. [00:32:39] Speaker C: I don't think anybody's gonna pick up our contract. I don't think so. [00:32:44] Speaker A: You know, I tried getting Eli to come on board to talk sports. I think, I think so. Like I've, people know we have a sports podcast and I've been inviting people to come on. I think they're intimidated to come on the pod and talk sports. [00:32:57] Speaker B: I mean our most consistent guess is really we, you know, we get Andrew for F1. I mean that's just like where it's at. [00:33:03] Speaker C: So, yeah, this is a talented panel room and it is a talented panel. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Any other highlights from the trade deadline? Bunch of Dame Scott trade on at the end. Nothing's really sticking out for me besides what we already talked about. [00:33:23] Speaker B: No, I mean, I, I school is going to dominate it, but I think that's just beyond the implications of this. It's going to go back to the top of what's going to be the offseason. I think the fear right now, baseball, bit of a resurgence. I, I think baseball's. [00:33:39] Speaker A: Oh, it's great. [00:33:40] Speaker B: As hot now as it, you know, has been in the last 20 something years or something like that since Barry [00:33:47] Speaker A: Bonds and Sosa hitting home runs and look what they did to them. [00:33:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I just think there is, there's renewed markets where baseball's hot. You talk about Milwaukee, you know, Pittsburgh's got a young, exciting group. You have big cities that are good right now, you know, when it comes to LA and New York, as always. But Philadelphia and atl, Atlanta and both Chicago teams. Yeah, yeah. So you just, there's, there's a lot of excitement. I mean, I, you Know, again, this is a home review. I'm always thinking, but I'm like, I'm watching White Sox games now that are selling out, like, weekdays right now during the summer. Crowd. Crowds are hot. You know, you're getting, you know, massive attendance because you know where these teams are at. And I think that's crowds all over. Like, Milwaukee's no slouch when it comes to it. You know, you go to a Padres game now, you know, it's. That's hot as well, too. So, I mean, there's a lot of local buzz to all these teams. I think baseball's in. That we talked about before. It's always. It's interesting how baseball was a national pastime, but it's really like the great, like, local pastime now, because you. It may not get the cachet of having the great, like, national media broadcast, but in the market, like, baseball's, like, hot. Like, we're gonna go to baseball games. You're watching your local. Your local team. And I think that's what it has right now. And I think everyone's fear is, man, what is. They lock this thing out, and everyone's saying the owners are prepared to miss a season. You know, what does it do to the game? You know, I saw. I saw what it did to hockey twice in the last 20 something years. Obviously, the 94 strike, where they missed the World Series for baseball, like, did tremendous harm until you had McGuire Sosa and Griffey and Bonds hitting homers in the late 90s, early 2000s to kind of bring it back into social relevancy. But there's a lot of great changes to the game of baseball that they've done recently with, you know, the expanded, you know, second base, the pitch clock, and some other things to make the game, you know, more exciting for a younger generation, but also just make the game a little bit better. And now, man, financially, to do this and stall the momentum of the game, you. You put the game in peril. Because where. Where does the attention go if you actually do miss an off season of baseball? Does this. Does this open up the door for mls? Does this basketball get it. Get a little bit more out of this with some new, you know, generation of blood coming? Does hockey kind of get. I mean, just baseball's in that weird position. I don't know where it goes, but, like, it's. It's dangerous thinking for them on this front. And I think that's what looms over a little bit of this trade deadline for me. [00:36:13] Speaker C: Let me ask you, this room before you guys go, do you think baseball, do you think the average baseball fan or even just fan in general baseball game would be fine with a one year strike and a salary cap? Or do you think fans just want to keep everything going and have The Dodgers win seven of the next 10 World Series and we'd be okay with that? What do you think the average baseball fan really wants? If we can get a more competitive salary cap to where your team, White Sox, Indians, Marlins maybe is in the mix to actually win a World Series because you got to spend money. [00:36:50] Speaker B: Are. [00:36:51] Speaker C: Do we just continue to let the Dodgers with these, you know, Money contracts win 5 out of 7? 7 World Series? [00:37:01] Speaker A: This is all speculative but the daughters [00:37:02] Speaker C: team is it does is that ruin the game more than say missing a year for strike and bringing in a salary cap? I think it does. I'd rather have a strike for a year and have a salary cap and get this thing going right in that direction versus a team win seven in the next. [00:37:15] Speaker A: There's a reason why Star wars is popular. You got to have an even empire. People like dynasties because even the good guy becomes the bad guy at the end. Even if the Dodgers rip off a few, everything's going to catch up and someone's going to catch him. Hell, they show. You know the Toronto had every chance to win this past year so it's not guaranteed but to lose a full year of baseball when baseball like yeah, it's really popular but they don't really have a big margin against the other sports. Like nobody's gonna come close to football but they're really clinging on as it is to like local media rights. So I think it's a very dangerous line of pass for me. Baseball is like maybe it's not as popular, maybe it is, I, I don't know but it's like a good whiskey, like it's just always going to be at the shelf. You know you can always depend on michters or whatever your stuff is. Maybe it's bullet any bar you go to, it's reliable, it's good, it's fun, you're gonna have a great time. That's what baseball is to me. It's hard to get rid of once that one, once you get rid of that whiskey then you're giving, you know like you're allowing other people to try new things and you know, I don't know. It's going to take a while to recover. I, I think a whole year lost will be detrimental to the sport. I think we'll miss some games. I think we talked about it. We had some predictions. I think we'll probably miss about 20 or 30, maybe 40 games max. But baseball has a pretty big powerful players union and they're going to fight back against a very hard cap of what the owners already proposed. So I think we're going to see some negotiations. We're definitely going to see some season missing, but a full year gone. Just impose a, a salary cap because one team's actually following the rules better than everybody else. Sounds kind of bullshit to me. [00:39:03] Speaker C: I don't agree with the rules. Rome. [00:39:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think there's anything about rules. I think, I think the rules were broken for the Dodgers initially. I think you talked about that. Where they get their, their local media rights. You don't spl everything with the NFL. And if you look at the contracts, I mean the players haven't made the case. I, I think in any, in any which way about. You can talk about the greed of ownership and that is generally where they, hey, you know us, the average fan who's, you know, the average just worker. We're not in the billionaire class that most ownership groups, you know, we're going to fight for the workers. But I'll be honest with you, when it comes from a baseball perspective, it is, it is the older player that benefits from the current structure because I want the 13 year contract that's going to be $500 million when I'm 30 years old and just makes no sense to the economics of the game. And this is stuff that Scott Boris and whatever agents that are in there are putting this stuff where to be in the baseball perspective. There is a, in the. And the math has proven this out. There is a very thin margin about like you look at stats, the wins above replacement for a player like that age. Like I was looking at stats this afternoon from a fantasy perspective of like Juan Stto stats right now versus Corbin Carroll. And the difference is like Juan Soto's got five more home runs. They're about the same RBIs and his batting average is like, you know, about 10 points higher. But Corbin Carroll's got like 20 more stolen bases. Okay, is it worth $500 million to have Juan Soto right now versus Corbin Carroll? I don't know. Because you, you only get a few of these guys in free agency and only a few teams can pay for that. And why is this player kind of demanding that contract in this market when it's like it's not LeBron James, it's not, you know, a quarterback in the NFL that, you know, plays one meaningful position that, you know, makes the whole part of the game. We're talking, think of the players, we're talking beyond school that are being traded right now that are making the impact. And I think just the current economics of the sport, you know, doesn't lend itself very well when a team like the Dodgers or even the Yankees to a degree, hey, we can pay a couple hundred million extra to pay for any mistake and not developing your team where the other teams are playing a thinner margin. [00:41:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I mean teams can [00:41:14] Speaker A: still spend more of their revenue, you know, and that would equalize a lot of things. That's what the whole rules are going to be coming down to. [00:41:20] Speaker B: So they, they can. And that's part of the cap is salary cap and salary floor. And so when this comes down to the negotiation, again, to me, I would love the players to make the right case and why we don't have a cap. But when you have teams like the Pirates or maybe the Reds or you know, the White Sox for that matter, the past couple years, when we're not going to spend any money at all, I mean, you are putting less money out there and you know, not looking at all the parts of the negotiation. From my recollection, Errol, we always talk about collective bargaining agreements between a players union and ownership. It always starts with the split of revenue. So regardless of how I'm allocating the funds to the different players, there's always like, hey, it's a 50, 50 split between ownership and players. So you have to pay the players association a minimum of 50% of the revenue. Now we're just haggling over as like, hey, how do I have that 50%? Go to your union in different places and you have older players in it that are making a thing. It's like, no, this is our time to get paid. I don't care about the guys that just got drafted and, and what it may be work. And I think there's always that split in the union that the owners are hoping for. It's like the young players versus the old players. [00:42:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think you're starting to see now too with teams like the Brewers, Rockies, all these young teams too, they get a prospect that comes up at like 21, 22, they're automatically signing them to like 8 year deal, 120 mil, right before he even gets on the market because you can have team control for like three, four years, arbitration, all that, and you don't have to pay him that much or if he does certain numbers, you got to pay him in the top 20% of everything that he makes. But yeah, I mean, look at Juan Soto, what he get, 760 million over 15 years. I mean, look at Kyle Tucker's making four years. What is he making? $60 million a year. Right now he's sucking for the Dodgers. If the Dodgers, if it was the NFL, the Dodgers would cut Kyle Tucker at the end of this year. The contract's ridiculous. [00:43:12] Speaker A: 100. [00:43:12] Speaker C: But, but we can outpay him so we can't play for our competitors. So we'll just bid on him so he doesn't go to our competitors and hurt us. Who cares if he plays mediocre? Because we have so much other good talent that we bought from everybody else that can't hurt us. That's what the Dodgers have done and that's why they basically put a monopoly on baseball without the salary cap. And oh, by the way, hey, we'll pay you 60 million, but we're only paying you 5 million on the books because we're just going to pay you the other 55 million per year. Twenty years ago, when you're in a wheelchair and you can just give it to your grandkids. It's ridiculous, dude. It's ridiculous. [00:43:46] Speaker A: Hey, Aaron, can you tell me where the daughters touched you? Where they turn, where they hurt you? [00:43:54] Speaker C: Just a smog in the air hurts me. Rome breathing that in from LA every day. [00:44:00] Speaker A: All right, all right. [00:44:02] Speaker B: I mean, Rome's right. They do like the evil empire because I think a, like I, I, I, I will say Rome, I appreciate the Dodgers not paying people, but their development and everything in the minor, they Dodgers [00:44:13] Speaker C: would be great regardless because of their farm system. [00:44:16] Speaker B: Unbelievable. [00:44:17] Speaker C: That's what makes it, that's what makes it like, I really want to see what they would be without it. They've had a great farm system for 30 years. I mean, more National League rookie of the years in the last 30 years, but never could win the big one until they started spending money. [00:44:29] Speaker B: Just saying the, the tough part for me, Rome, and this isn't, this isn't you personally. There's a, there's a lot of new Dodger fans out there. The, the overwhelming part of social media on, like, how stressful it is to be a Dodgers fan watching these playoff games. These people have no idea. And that will just strike me to the core. When you're talking about stressful watching these Dodgers when they're taking it to game seven last year, it's like, yeah, you don't get to talk about the stress of postseason with the Dodgers. [00:44:56] Speaker C: Ro, let me tell you. I mean, Jason's a White Sox fan, you're a Dodger fan. Nobody being a Braves fan has had the stress of 30 years of postseason disappointment that I've had. That's the bottom line, dude. That is the bottom line. That is the bottom line, dude. The sadness, man. We should have at least another two or three World Series. It hurts. At least. [00:45:15] Speaker A: At least. At least. Well, that's how it's been. Some pretty good teams over the years and just nothing. Maybe flop out. Flop out of the playoffs. I was gonna say something funny too. Just slipped out my mind until Aaron did his yell little eulogy. All right, I'm excited for the second half for like, what's left. What we got, like what, two more full months of baseball left and then it's postseason time. I haven't been to a game yet this year. It's like the first time I've waited this long. [00:45:48] Speaker C: Well, I think you're getting the Giants games for free, bro. They basically got a minor league team they're playing out there now. [00:45:56] Speaker A: All right, here we are to talk summer slam, which happened this past week. We got our WWE resident, Jason Zinke. He's gonna break it down for us. What went down at SummerSlam? [00:46:14] Speaker B: Well, Rome, you know, we're in the TKO era of WWE right now, which means one night isn't good enough for any of these premium live events. We gotta jam two nights into this thing every which way. So they were at U S Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for two nights. Not selling the place out. I'll be honest, I. They didn't even announce the attendance, which is the staple of general wrestling events where you would get old Triple h or Stephanie McMahon or some other former WWE legend announcing the attendance. They didn't even announce it. So I'm guessing it was probably in the 30, 35,000 range in what should be like a 70,000 seat arena. It was a scaled down. The camera side looked to be tarped off to a degree. [00:46:59] Speaker C: Pulled the UCLA on us, right? They just covered everything up and then made it look like it was a packed house, right? [00:47:05] Speaker B: 100. It looked packed on one side, which is unfortunate when you think of. I mean, we first relaunched the podcast a couple years ago. We were. We were in a little bit of a, you know, golden era of WWE coming out of WrestleMania 40 and going into WrestleMania 40 coming out of it, when you had the rock involved and you had the Roman Reigns bloodline saga that went over three Years you had Cody winning the WWE title. And I think coming out of that past couple years, there's definitely cooled on the product. As the new owners, tko, which is the parent company that owns both WWE and ufc, they've really corporatized these events. You have a shocker excess sponsorship on every square inch of the broadcast. You have, you know, 15 logos in the middle of the squared circle right now that are just ugly. There was, there was a great shot at the end of the main event of night two where you had Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins just physically exhausted. And these guys are just, you know, There's a long 14, 15 year history of these guys and this was kind of the end of an era. They're laid down in the ring and there's like Gears of War E day right around them and the general car insurance and everything. You're looking at this map, the general [00:48:24] Speaker A: crypto Aviator Radiant season. I can't see the other one. [00:48:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Riyadh season, we're gonna have to explain to everyone forever Riyadh season the sponsorship and I'm sure this video game, the Gears of War that took up the chunk of that ad. Well, you know, we'll forget about. So yeah, it's definitely a different era. And I, I can't wait for 15 years from now where we're doing this podcast and we can look back at some of the, the stuff of this era and I'm just looking at all these damn sponsorships. Like back in my day Rome, we just had Stridex sponsoring summers. Know it was The Stridex presents SummerSlam in 1996. You know, to remember. You remember Stride X from it sounds familiar, Amazon, Acne, things like teenagers used [00:49:03] Speaker C: to rub on there. [00:49:07] Speaker B: Probably not a thing anymore. But there used to be just one sponsor or Snickers or Mountain Dew or something like that. But yeah, now I got Slim Jam, Slim Jim. So it's definitely a different viewing experience on ESPN Unlimited and there's a million commercials going down in the event. So I'm doing a lot of complaining, but is is definitely a hard watch in some these. But I will say on night one, you seemingly had the retirement of Brock lesnar in night one. We talked about that at WrestleMania where he actually did the whole wrestling thing where he put his boots in the middle of the R and thank you the crowd. But that was kind of a fake retirement as wrestling does. And it was basically turned into a trilogy with what is seen to be one of the next big stars. Oba Femi former University of Alabama shot putter From Africa, got into WWE post college and just has incredible look, incredible gimmick. You know, got its trends on social media as far as his entrances and you know, he beats Brock Lesnar and the main event, Hell in the Cell on night one. And Lesnar, who always gets kind of accused of not putting people over at the end of the match. Obafemi wins, Brock kind of has his curtain call moment to a degree, brings Oba back in the ring and said, I'm the past, this guy's the future. And raises Obafemi's hand and kind of puts the guy over, which is cool to see if Lesnar actually is going out. Regardless of that, you know, losing the feud and making a new star. So that's, I think the positives when you look at this night and where things were at. And that was night one of SummerSlam yet a little bit of an underwhelming WWE Championship match between the WWE Champions CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, basically two of the big names of this company. And I think it matched a little bit kind of, I think the fans felt flat. It really wasn't a good bad guy in this match. It was two good guys facing off for the title. And then you had a returning Randy Orton seemingly putting the, you know, the strike in the nail to Cody Rhodes to reignite their feud from WrestleMania that we talked to you a couple months ago and night one, you know, wasn't. That wasn't the overall best Night two, I mentioned the main event. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, these guys were in a faction known as the Shield Rome. I don't know if you remember the [00:51:23] Speaker A: Shield a little bit. [00:51:26] Speaker B: Okay. I mean, mid, you know, mid 2000s, 2014 to be specifically, these guys were part of a three man group with a wrestler called Dean Ambrose who is now in AEW as John Moxley now. But Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose came through. They were kind of the. They were young wrestlers at the time they came in. They were brought in actually in storyline by CM Punk and they kind of just terrorized everything and they were just this young group of upstarts and it turned into basically two of the biggest stars that WWE's had in the last like, you know, 14 years with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. And these guys are Main Eventing Night 2 of SummerSlam for the World Heavyweight Championship. And it's a storied faction breakup with Seth Rollins turning on Roman and Dean at the time, taking a steel chair to the back. It's one of those replayable viral moments of just, you know, basically Just busting your friend in the back of the steel chair and turning on him and turning bad guy. And so the lore of that moment has transcended over the years as these guys have been in and out each other's way. But the main event I thought between them was good. It gave some resolution to this like very long skew that's go over. But yeah, I think overall a pretty solid show from a night two perspective. You had some other moments with the Chad Gable who's been a pretty big star after he did the El Grande Americano gimmick. I think we talked about that a little bit. [00:52:50] Speaker C: Revealed that. Have they revealed that? [00:52:53] Speaker B: They did reveal that. It was actually one of the. One of the biggest nights in wrestling was on the AAA. So WWE's Mexican promotion, they want where they did the mass versus matchmash with, you know, original Grande Americano versus the current El Grande Americano. And they, you know, the Chad Gable El Grande account of the OG1 loss and got demasked and it was one of the. It's basically one of the biggest matches of the year right now is in Mexico for the AAA between those two guys and Chad Gables going on his redemption tour post getting his mask taken off and now won the Intercontinental Championship. [00:53:26] Speaker C: There you go. [00:53:28] Speaker A: Who is this? Chelsea Green. [00:53:32] Speaker B: Chelsea Green, interesting story. She's the new interim WWE Women's Champion. Really a. A great story for her. She has been in and out of WWE several times. She. I think she joked in the post game after winning the interim WWE Women Miss Championship, like I think they fired me three times or something like that. Really she is an entertainer at if you say anything, I think incredible like acting chops on it really brings the entertainment to professional wrestling. She gets five minutes of screen time and just does the best. Absolutely. As a heel and really from a crowd perspective has won over anyone just because how entertaining she is. Got a little traction because in WWE's reality show on Netflix called W Unreal, Michael Hayes, who's a long time WD producer, said in it basically like she's not the type that's your champion. She's the type that like makes your champions look good or something, you know, to that effect. Or she's just kind of just like she's the one that talks a lot of mess but bees entertaining does embarrassing things on TV and then she jobs out to the champion. Well now she is the champion and I think she's really kind of like the face of Company. She's the type of person that has like hey, I want to do acting and stuff in the future and she can play like different characters and, and morph into different ways and, and I think it found itself where it's just really gotten over with a crowd and you know, now they're putting the title on her which is, it's really cool to see because I think out of the Triple H era where he brought a bunch of people back when Vince McMahon was kind of put to the side, Triple H was putting in charge. Triple H re signed a bunch of people that Vince McMahon released in the COVID era and Chelsea Green was one of them and she's turned out to the best. One of the best resignings where some of the people he resigned have been released again. She's turned into one of their biggest stars. [00:55:17] Speaker A: I just saw some clips and I was impressed, that's all. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Yeah, super, super. I think impressed what she's turned into. Her husband also wrestler Matt Cardona who used to be called Zack Ryder pre entertaining himself, made a name for himself or he got released and went on the indie tour and did a whole run. But I think both of them are just a very entertaining part of what brings WWE to life on the entertainment side beyond just wrestling. [00:55:45] Speaker A: Anything else, [00:55:48] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean the biggest thing Rome, I, I haven't finished it. We're recording Monday through Monday Night Raw. I will say wwe as I said, really on the down slope in the past like couple months, maybe year or so as far as like being hot with the brand and like getting relevant and stuff. So this was hopefully to be you know, a little bit of a good second night that WWE find something RAW tonight rumored to be really good. So I don't know if Triple H shaking some things up right now could gets a little more entertaining because I'll be honest man, I've. I've skipped my fair share of Raws and smackdowns over the pat over this summer, probably for the first time in quite a long time. So uh, I, I hope that uh, Triple H and the uh, WWE Creative Machine can find their uh, creative juices to uh, get a little more entertaining in some of this project because it's been pretty stale lately. We're just rebooking the same thing over and over again. [00:56:52] Speaker A: Hey T, you watch it? Got anything to add? [00:56:55] Speaker C: I did not. I did not watch SummerSlam. I did not. I did see it was a two night event. Was thinking about watching it. But yeah, I mean Jason hadn't been talking a lot here about wrestling as of late. So it sounds like it maybe it gets the juices flowing again and by the end of the year we get, we get some good matches. [00:57:16] Speaker B: I'll say two, two things, Rome. I did forget I was reading night one you had a wrestler named Nick Aldis. He, he's actually the general manager in [00:57:25] Speaker C: storyline of Kevin Owens come back too. [00:57:27] Speaker B: Ah, that was. [00:57:28] Speaker C: I did see that. I did see that. [00:57:31] Speaker B: First let me talk about Nick Elvis. Nick Elvis, he's an independent wrestler. He wrestled for TNA Wrestling. He was an nwa, you know, the Billy Corbin promotion. He was the NWA champion, stopped wrestling, came to wwe. I mean it's like five plus years ago. Like, not as a wrestler. He's only like, he's like our age. And so I think he's like literally 40 years old, but basically like stopped wrestling. Just become a producer for wwe and he's been an on screen kind of character as this general manager role, but dude's still in his like physical peak prime. He's like, he's a big dude. Has had never had the WWE moment. And in storyline he faced Gunther, which is Basically one of WWE's like biggest heels. He retired John Cena, retired AJ Styles, retired Bill Goldberg and they kind of built this thing for the general manager. Comes out of quote unquote, his retirement to wrestle Gunther. Night one. And it was cool from a, like a, you know, family emotional standpoint where this guy got his one WWE match and it was a really cool. They paid for Oasis to get one of his like theme song music, which I thought was crazy because WWE notoriously does not pay for entrance music, stuff like that. Yeah, so I mean he's, he's from England, so you know, Oasis is a big thing for, for the English, but. All right, but yeah, so that was cool. Night one, but night two, Aaron brought it up. You had Gunther, as I mentioned, being added to a number one contenders match between Finn Balor and Sami Zayn. And then they didn't stop it there, made it a fatal four way. And you saw Kevin Owens return after basically 17 or 18 months on the shelf with a neck injury where he had like the C6, C7 spinal surgery or something, you know, potential career ending stuff and came to a massive pop. And I think if WWE does this right with Kevin Owens, like this guy's always been like, he could be like a Steve Austin type. He famously wrestled Steve Austin in the main event in night one of WrestleMania 38. He's one, he's an incredible talker. He's got like the everyman kind of look to him. Yeah, I think If WWE catches this, right? And lightning in a bottle. I mean, this guy had a universal championship, was one of the, you know, one of the world title runs, like, early in his WB career. I think there's a time for him right now to really get like the big shot in the arm and get the. Get the big title and they could potentially do a run with him because it's. It's been long overdue. I think that this guy's entertainment value and potentially what could break through. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Hell yeah. Well, thank you for the recap. Matt was really awesome. I really dig it. Thanks for bringing up those two additions, Aaron. I think I. [01:00:00] Speaker B: We can wait until. We can wait until the Royal Rumble for my next WWE introduction to the pod. Generally. [01:00:08] Speaker C: Did you want to, before you knock out, get a little five minutes on Pochettino staying with Team USA Soccer? You wanted to touch on that or save it for another time? [01:00:17] Speaker A: I'll say it for another time, but I thought it was gonna be a little more fanfare. I hate U. S Soccer. Like the way they word everything. Like. Like the press releases and everything is just like, who the are they? Like, I don't know. It's just some weird ego that's going on. But whoever fronted the. The bill to bring him back, dude, he had some really good job offers. Really good job offers. The fact that he came back and he got his team set up, they. And they can build on it. I'm pretty excited. It's actually gonna be a lot of. A lot of fun. [01:00:47] Speaker C: I believe he's got like, kind of more control over the organization too, right? Just from what I heard. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah. I. I think he. Not final say, but pretty close to it. So. That's good. That's good, man. Whip these guys in shape. Love it. You know, the fact that the US Was like talking on our US Soccer team, players, you know, like, talk, you know, like doing whatever. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It means we're ready, this country's ready to watch the team do well. So I like it. [01:01:20] Speaker B: I think we are. I think we are. I think it's. You're. I think. I think you see a renewed interest in where these. Some of these guys are going to be playing internationally. And you know what Pochettino brings to the table as far as like, who's going to make his roster? Because, I mean, you got. He had like 18 months to put this thing together or something like that going into this World Cup. Now you get the whole cycle to kind of build a roster There is some. I think there's some young and exciting talent that's out there. You know that. You know, I think in the deep soccer fringes are talking about from the U.S. i think there's like some like 16, 17 or 18 year olds, they're already starting to make their name for themselves that could be pushing for the roster, you know, what is. You know, Flo Baligan, I mean, he's getting interest from Paris Saint Germain, right? Yeah, that's what I heard. So, I mean, we got some guys in a different level in the international game. And I think, you know, if. If Pochettino really does have the access because that's the. That's the criticism of U.S. soccer. I think a lot. I mean there's a lot of criticism of U.S. soccer, but there is a huge. There's a huge bureaucracy is like everyone wants to be a part of these decisions where it's like, nah, man. Like, will you put this guy in charge? Like let him make the call on like how we're putting this team together. [01:02:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:02:27] Speaker A: Do you got the wake up? I don't know. I'm digging it, but yeah, we'll dive in a little. A little more. I. I did watch Liverpool a little friendly against Wrexham. That game was trash, dude. I. I don't like a lot of these friendly games. It's. It's like watching the. I don't know, the Lakers play. I don't know. What. What's their affiliate? The Long beach. Whatever the scent. The Santa Cruz. [01:02:53] Speaker B: Are they Orlando Beach Lakers or something like that? [01:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah, the Santa Cruz Warriors. You know, I. I don't know. I just. It's just. Just whatever. But we'll talk about NBA next time. Some curious stuff from Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosch. Just some guys need to shut the up once in a while, you know. You're making it worse. [01:03:17] Speaker B: I didn't see that, but look forward to that. [01:03:19] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it explains. Yeah, it explains a lot. [01:03:23] Speaker C: No, I mean, the only thing I saw from Bosch was talking about when Banyama taking his medicine for the blood clots. But I. I don't know if there was something else wrong. I guess we'll touch on it next time. [01:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll touch it next time because I'm at 1% and we. Why we got to close this out before we crash out. [01:03:42] Speaker C: All right. Yeah. Make sure it gets saved. I don't want you Exactly. Another hidden episode that doesn't get another ghost episode archives. [01:03:49] Speaker A: Catch us next time. Guys. We are out.