PCC Multiverse #430- State Of Pro Wrestling After Wrestlemania 41!
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It's time for the State of Pro Wrestling, scheduled for one fall with a 60-minute time limit. And now, from hearts unknown, your tag team champions of the world, John Orlando from the PVD cast and Gerald Glassford from the Pop Culture Cosmos.

Ding, ding, ding. What is the state of pro wrestling? It is Gerald Glassford from the Pop Culture Cosmos and the Lakers Fast Break, along with my good friend, Mr. John Orlando from the PVD cast and...

Not talking wrestling. They talk Matlock on Mat Talk. So go ahead and check out all of our shows. Like and subscribe. It is truly appreciated. This is also going on the PBDCast Facebook page right now. So please enjoy our talk as we recap our time with WrestleMania and where the WWE goes from here. John, been a busy weekend. I know for me with WrestleMania here in town.

I know I got to experience some of that with WWE World and the WWE Superstore, which I'll describe here in a moment. But how are you doing, my friend? And how was your weekend watching WrestleMania? Well, I'm doing well. And I just got to say that WrestleMania 41 was something all right. It was something. I'll agree with you on that. It was something. Yeah.

I feel, and we're going to talk about it in depth on this episode, but I feel like it was a little uneven. That night one was kind of a little boring.

Night two was a little bit better, was overall better, just point blank. And so a little uneven, but overall, I'm excited to talk about it. I couldn't wait today. When I woke up this morning, I started counting down the hours so we could sit down and chat about our thoughts, our opinions, our insights on WrestleMania 41. Overall, I can tell you for Vegas, it was a great success. It was reported earlier today that WrestleMania 41

as far as monetary, as far as social media, as far as all the barometers, all the metrics. It was a huge success. Whether or not it was a huge success around the world on Netflix, it remains your choice out there. But I can tell you here in Vegas and for Peacock as well, because in the U.S., this will probably be the final year I think it's going to be shown on Peacock, but around the world it was shown on Netflix. But I can tell you as far as money goes,

as far as the clicks as far as everything being all eyes on vegas uh it was a huge success a purported before or excuse me just after steve austin ran into uh the barricade uh we'll talk about that too we must talk about that because i don't know everything is like eh you're not entirely seen to be believed in some people's eyes but

It was over 120,000 people, 60,000 plus each and every night at the Allegiant Stadium for both Saturday and Sunday nights. Not to mention all the things that went on, WWE World Convention, the Hall of Fame, the fact that they had SmackDown at the T-Mobile Center, Raw at the T-Mobile Center, NXT Stand and Deliver on Saturday morning, plus NXT tonight.

a great success for the wwe here in vegas i could tell you firsthand my friend uh when i went down to visit wwe world and the wwe superstore no one can fault them for what they put out there they did not skip i've been on some conventions where they skimp uh and they don't give you much for your return on investment that is not the case here if you were willing to dish out the money

they were willing to give you something to experience, whether it was at the WWE world, WrestleMania, the NXT, the, all the other stuff, the Tony Hinchcliffe, uh, roast of WrestleMania. Well, all this other stuff, if you're willing to spend the money, they gave you something for return on your investment. But,

When you go through it, for instance, I did tell you I didn't get comps for WrestleMania, so I didn't get to go see it live. But I did get this as far as a comp for this. This poster right here of WrestleMania. John Cena versus Cody Rhodes. This exact poster was being sold at WWE store for $35? $35? Well, to a tax, $40 for that. Wow.

And that was the cheapest of the posters that they had there. The other posters were about $10 to $15. Holy cow. And that doesn't even tell you because if you're there, the Superstore itself, the world, you know, that was a great presentation and a great convention or space experience that they did. I give my kudos to the WWE for what you paid for. It was definitely something that I think a lot of people should have experienced. But

the superstore was absolutely huge the amount of space they did every conceivable black wwe shirt and i emphasized black wwe shirt was there on display um but the prices were just outrageous man so and they were getting it there was a huge crowd i figured i'd go on monday

i figured i'd go and then you know because they were closing early threes the last day you figure with most conventions it's going to be a lot cheaper discounted clearance most conventions they do that because they want to don't want to take the stuff with them oh no my friend full price they had a full crowd they had lines everywhere waiting to go ahead and pay for them uh they had shirts as far as the eye can see

um you know 50 shirts 40 shirt 90 90 hoodies you know everything's football if you go to the online for those same things they're all on sale for 10 to 20 dollars less

It's $10 to $20. I mean, I looked at it. I was on the phone looking at it as I'm looking at it. For instance, Cactus Jack Chelsea green shirt because she's ripping off Cactus Jack with a wanted dead or alive. I know she probably got permission. But anyways, again, I was just using that as an example. It's $15 cheaper if you go and buy it online for the same exact thing that what you see online.

There are $20. I know it's these shirts were closing in on $50.

$40. But they still had a line, right? You said it. Still had a line. They still had a line. People walking around with the merchandise, getting ready to walk to the cash registers. As far as there's a memorabilia section in and of itself, and there was a line just to get into that. That's where I told you about the poster. I was comparatively speaking on that. Yeah. So again,

Dollars-wise, they made an absolute fortune, an absolute mint. I know something I texted to you over the weekend. Is WWE pricing itself out of its success? We'll talk about if it's booking itself out of success here in a little bit. But I would love to tell you that they are.

But the problem is for WrestleMania, from what I've seen at WrestleMania, they're still not pricing themselves out a success because if they're able to get it, you got to commend them for it, even though I don't want to pay it.

Once again, it is the state of pro wrestling. It is, of course, Gerald Glassford, along with John Orlando, my tag team partner. We're reviewing WrestleMania 41 here in a second, but the major news happened just before. I don't know about the timing of it. I wish they had said it on Friday or Thursday leading into this whole weekend. It would have been just probably a little bit better if they...

kind of just gave it its own platform. They kind of did and they kind of didn't because they were still right there in the middle of WrestleMania when they did it just as far as the pregame show. But WWE has acquired AAA and

And going forward, we'll be running joint shows, including a return of The Worlds Collide, which is one of the best pay-per-views of all time from the early 90s. Absolutely fantastic pay-per-view if you get a chance to watch it. They'll be bringing it back for the Los Angeles Forum.

a place I know so well, in June, early June. So looking forward to seeing what's going to develop into that and the relationship between AAA and how that's going to be incorporated going forward with the WWE. So, John, bringing you back in now, my friend. Quick question to ask you on this. AAA, WWE, we have seen these acquisitions happen.

Not always go so well, a part of it because of whatever, you know, talent or whatever way they were pushed. Or just the fact is Vince McMahon didn't put his whole energy into it, just did half-ass efforts. Let's just be honest. Your thoughts on the WWE purchasing AAA? First question, and I have not found this answer in any of my research today. Was AAA having economic issues?

My guess is that it's financial issues. You don't negotiate this kind of deal without saying, you know what, we need something more and we need someone to help us get there. And I'm assuming that that's the case.

but that also means for everybody out there that wwe if they have acquired the aaa in full they've acquired their rights they've acquired as far as the name going forward but most importantly for people down the road in the future as we see how they're utilizing it now that also means the aaa tape library which they could utilize that as well to their great advantage so your thoughts again

I think it's a good move for the WWE, but again, it might be the death knell, not right away, but it might be the death knell for AAA based on what we saw with WCW and ECW. I'm going to go and say that Triple H...

and those in charge nick khan etc have learned from the mistakes of ecw wcw i think that i think i i have faith that they will keep triple a for the most part there's going to be things that they change of course i mean understandable i think when any corporation buys out other corporations there's things that get changed and this is no different um

I think that their AAA product is going to be pretty much very, very similar to what the fans of AAA are already interested in or already a fan of, excuse me. And I think it'll be just enough of something different to pull in a lot of new fans and casual fans to AAA. I really do feel that Triple H and Nick Khan, they have an idea

have how to work with other wrestling companies much, much differently than in the past. But that was the major news coming up before WrestleMania itself.

All these shows, I don't mind all these shows that they're putting on. I don't mind it. The Undertaker, Deadman show as well. I don't mind that, John. I just wish they would space it out a little bit better so that these fans can experience these things all in good time if they're devoted WWE fans. Yeah, because as you're trying to get from one place to the other,

and you're dealing with millions of people in Las Vegas, it definitely would make me be very, very anxious that I was missing stuff. I paid money to see The Undertaker's show, and I'm now going to be 10 minutes late because of this, that, and the other. I don't totally see where you're coming from, that spacing them out, organizing the shows a little bit

better would help the fans. But again, we go back to what we were talking about. Plus there's WrestleCon at the Westgate. There's, like I said, those 30 independent shows. WWE should not, I don't think it's going to concern itself with that. But again, spacing this out over the entire week would have been so much more advisable. Exactly. But again, they have your money. So...

Not to be Mr. Negativity, but they have your money already. So if you are late to the Undertaker show or you are late to the Hall of Fame or you are late to Mania Night One, stinks to be you. Sorry, but we already got the cash. So that's on you to figure out how to get from point A to point B.

And it's so funny because the NHL, the Golden Knights were going on the same time as WrestleMania night two, right on the other side of the freeway, literally half a mile away from each other. So yeah, that, that made for a lot of fun. Plus you do usual Sunday night stuff that goes on at the strip, but yeah,

It is, of course, WrestleMania 41. I want to bring it to you now. We're going to get into it here. It is, of course, John Orlando from the PBE cast, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks again for watching this. We're still here for a little over half hour, so cannot thank you enough for supporting us. Like and subscribe to all of our shows. It would be truly appreciated. WrestleMania 41, again, overall, a financial success. Booking-wise,

uh you know triple h uh we have lauded on this show several times as far as the direction of his company uh this might be a bump in the road my friend overall when you look at it from afar and you see the decisions that were made uh i don't agree with a lot of the decisions that were made uh and and i'll just say that going forward and the main event

I've already told you off air, I think it's one of the worst, if not the worst, in WrestleMania history. And I'll explain why here, but we'll go ahead and leave that one for last. You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos. We'll get started with day one. Day one kicked off with a World Heavyweight Championship match on Saturday with Jey Uso defeating Gunther Jey.

Jey Uso is a very much a dividing lightning rod because he connects so well with the crowd, with the Yeats and the Yeats shirts and all that stuff. And obviously they see the metrics of that as far as what sells, who gets over.

But to a large percent of the wrestling purists, per se, like us, he has never really gotten over with us on a singles basis. He does not excite me. His matches do not move me. His connection or his charisma or anything, his interviews don't get me excited. His charisma with just the thing doesn't get me excited.

any type of interest in him at all. And this match, I think, in my opinion, only served to hurt Gunther. You made him tap out. You told him you got to go out there and you got to tap out.

to a guy that I'm not sure can bring you a quality match time and time again. We saw him at last year's WrestleMania totally stink up the joint with his brother. This year, it was because of him and Gunther, they worked an okay match. It wasn't anything truly memorable. The only thing memorable is that Gunther taps out and now on Monday on the Raw has to go ahead and choke out Michael Cole,

and Pat McAfee to trying to gain some semblance of its heat back. Your thoughts, John Orlando, on Gunther versus Jey Uso. Well, I've said it once and I'll say it again. Gunther versus Jey Uso was a raw match. It was not a WrestleMania match. I feel like they went way too long. I feel like this match could have been a little bit better if they just cut some of the time. I mean, it went 1630.

So I think we'll say that over and over again, as far as if it could have been better if they cut the time. Yeah. Agreed. And we're going to get to a match that people are probably going to lamb blast me for my comments on it, but, and the time, but I'll, I'll get to that when we get to it. But, but,

Yeah, overall, I don't agree with the direction that they have Gunther going now, especially after last night, because I do not, under any circumstances, want to see Pat McAfee take on Gunther. That would be the stupidest storyline that they've had in quite some time. Well, Pat McAfee is a great athlete, and he had some...

decent matches. No, no, no, no. He's a punter. Let's, let's, let's not even put the great out. He's an NFL punter. Let's not even go there as far as a great athlete's concerned. Okay. Okay. So we'll just say that I don't want to see that. I don't think the fans want to see that. Nobody wants to see the commentary team wrestle. No one. I mean, uh, so I, I just hope that they figure out another person who,

That could come to the aid of Pat McAfee and then be an actual wrestler. Now, who that is, I don't know. But they could bring somebody up maybe from NXT or something that they could be the substitute for Pat McAfee in the ring, but still have McAfee attached to the storyline. But I have a feeling they're not going to go that way. I think they're going...

Pat versus Gunther. And that's, again, that does nothing to reestablish the villainous character of Gunther by having him beat up Michael Colm and Pat McAfee. So I agree with you on that. That was stupid. Yeah, just to leave, you'll be seeing this more and more is how these matches left a bad taste in our mouth.

We'll go ahead into the next match. The New Day defeated the War Raiders, became new champion. I will say for the New Day, they have a record number of title wins in the WWE. Congratulations to them. I kind of like their heel turn. It's nice. I don't think they're like the superimposing villainous heels that I really care about. In fact, that whole tag division.

I don't think anyone out there really just hold high hopes for them as far as the entire tag division. There are no tag teams that really anybody gets behind, but the New Day, with their Villains' turn, seem to be the freshest after all these years of anyone out there, and I don't know if that speaks better of them or ill of the rest of the division, but that's probably the best choice is to have them the champions for now. Yeah, I just...

Like, there's no build to this as far as I'm concerned. I know that they had some interactions on Raw or SmackDown, but the build, there's nothing for me in this match. I could care less. I was very bored with it. Again, another match that could have been on one of their regular shows. But I do like the New Day's heels. I think that that's something a little bit refreshing. It's something that they could do differently.

I enjoyed a few weeks, months ago when their family was involved in the storyline. I thought that was a good comic twist. But yeah, overall, this match was a snooze fest.

After that, Jade Cargill defeated Naomi. I don't think there was any doubt on that. The only thing is, when I say this, the Jade Cargill versus Naomi match, you talk about matches that should have been a Raw or SmackDown. I think this match should have been on a Raw or SmackDown headline, a main event, one of those shows, and led to what should have been Jade Cargill versus Bianca Belair. I really think that they had an idea,

They liked the idea. We liked the idea of where it was going as far as the eventual breakup of Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair. But it was supposed to lead... If you're trying to span this out or time this out best, the best way to say it is that, yes, it should have timed itself out with Jade Cargill facing off against Bianca Belair. But that didn't happen. So...

This, to me, was pretty much an afterthought. How they lengthened it out to nine minutes or so, maybe that was probably not the best. But I know a lot of people are talking about Naomi's heel turn being pretty good and the fact that she was crying up a storm. That was very effective. I get that. I understand and appreciate that. But all that should have been portrayed on the regular shows. The match itself should have been on regular show. We should have seen Jane Cargill versus Bianca Belair.

uh agreed uh on all those points except for Naomi's heel turn has not been good whoever said whoever is saying that they I don't know they they must be uh they must be high or drunk or something because this heel turn has been awful it's the worst heel turn I've seen in a while and

Naomi is just not believable as this vindictive evil heel. I'm sorry. She's just not. It just doesn't work for me. Yeah. So how come they didn't go the route of Bianca Belair versus Jade Cargill, which is what everybody wanted to see, is beyond me. I don't understand the thinking behind that whole storyline.

Then you had Jacob Fatu defeating LA Knight. He is the new US champion. We've talked about this before. I think they blew LA Knight as far as his opportunity to be at a level when he had huge popularity two years ago. I really think they should have cashed in on it then with a world title run. I also think they should have cashed in on Sami Zayn's huge popularity.

lightning in a bottle fan reaction with a title win over Roman Reigns back in the day, but they didn't listen to me either. Again, I just don't think that there's much else for LA Knight to go to do because I don't see him ever getting to the point where he becomes at a top level because the company didn't put everything behind him.

And just comes down to that. So Jacob Fatu, they seemed to be very high on. He is of the Samoans that were in that Solo Sacoa entourage.

I think the bloodline per se, the bloodline 2.0, I think he has the most promise. So they're putting this title and I don't know if they're going to what level because he's been protected. So I don't know at what level do they see him at? Do they see him getting to another level even more than what he is? Or do they just see him where he's at? That I think is the biggest question coming off that.

But for LA Knight, I just see him drifting down a little bit lower and lower on the card. And I just see it as a missed opportunity by the WWE to really maximize, like they're doing now with Jey Uso. Despite our thoughts on Jey Uso, they are maximizing his popularity.

per se and something they should have done with sammy zane and la night did do so they're doing now what they didn't do with those two guys but for la night right now the loss i just don't see him achieving any kind of real high level success from here on out well i hope i'm wrong i am hope i'm wrong on that one i'll just say that well i was gonna say i think the thing is for me that was surprising was like jacob fought two doesn't need that title

He is over. He has that character down pat, and he's done so well with that particular characterization that he didn't need this title. They could have let L.A. Knight hold on to it. In fact, if you wanted to, I don't understand why they wouldn't have disqualified Fatu.

For doing something vicious. And then, you know, that feeds into this man's insane. He's the werewolf. He's crazy. He will run through a brick wall and then still kept the title on LA Knight. I think LA Knight probably is unfortunately going to be stuck forever.

in the mid card and be one of these WWE superstars that have four or five us title whole, uh, reins or three or four us title reins and two intercontinental reins, you know, kind of like the Ms treatment, if you will. Um, I think that's where he's destined to be, which is sad because the guy is super talented. He's got himself an aura about him. He knows who he is. Um,

he really does deserve better. El Grande Americano, a.k.a. Chad Gable, defeated Ray Phoenix, and they did this on the day that WWE purchased AAA. So what a way to celebrate Lucha by having a Luchador lose to an American putting a steel plate in his mask.

uh so yes especially ray phoenix who was a late replacement for ray mysterio who i believe tore his groin uh was the report uh on the previous night smackdown uh so he was out which is sad because he lives i believe in the las vegas area so uh you know it's always good to see that the

wrestlers that are here locally be able to perform, but he wasn't able to. Ray Phoenix was a replacement. Ray Phoenix just came in and already he's losing, so that doesn't speak well for him. He's going to have to team up with his brother over here shortly and they're going to have that. If the Lucha Brothers reform, that could maybe spice things up for the tag division. But for now, having him lose so cleanly to El Grande Americano, I just see this as a match I could have seen on Raw.

I really like, though, the character of El Grande Americano. Like, it's dumb, it's silly, but it works for me. And I like putting the piece of metal in the mask, too. I didn't have as big of a problem of putting...

Chad Gable will say over Phoenix because again, he used the foreign object. So there's that out that Ray Phoenix logically can say, well, wait, wait, wait, wait. You just brought Ray Phoenix in and already you're defeating him. We'll talk about that in a sec. I have issues with that. That's very much AEW. AEW loves to bring in name wrestlers and then just have them lose the first time out.

uh, see Josh Alexander. But, uh, you know, that this was something where I was kind of disappointed, but again, we'll see that here in a second, because I'll have another issue with bringing in a wrestler for the first time. And really just, even though this wasn't the first time for Ray Phoenix, it was something where I thought you were going to give him a push similar to what his brother was going to get. And obviously that's not going to be the case. Yeah.

But I did think this match was pretty good. Other than the finish. But I thought it was very good. They managed to keep it going back and forth. And Chad Gable held his own in that ring, wrestling that Lucha style. So I thought it was very good.

Check out what's been going on with the Pop Culture Cosmo Show and the PCC Multiverse. The better that these Marvel films do, the higher the standards are going to be for not just other films in general, but other Marvel films also. I think it's really hard to end a show with this many fans in a satisfying way. That's the Pop Culture Cosmo Show and the PCC Multiverse playing worldwide on radio seven days a week and wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, as for what's not very good, I know what you're going to say next. Okay. Well, I think I could just start with the word cluster, and I'll just say that. It is Tiffy Stratton defeating Charlotte Flair, and after their off-the-script conversation that they had live in the ring. Oh, yeah. What did I say? Kaiser's in my DMs. Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. Watch out. I think Kaiser might be in your DMs too there, John.

But be that as it may, they did have a match. It looked like going in, they were not going to be working on the best of interest with each other. But then again, they have the match. And instead of bringing all this heat and anger and, you know, all this to what could have been maybe a very anger-filled match, similar to what I think Charlotte Flair could have did previously with Ronda Rousey.

as far as that anger because Ronda Rousey's only good matches were with Charlotte Flair and they were only in the street fight matches, those type of matches where there was really a lot of anger that you could express on that. But yeah, no, they just cooperated through a 19 minute snooze fest. And unfortunately, you know, we had to suffer through it, but I do think that Tiffany going over was probably the best move because Charlotte was

People just start, you know, she came back. She was brought back with those vignettes. Nobody likes her now. Yeah, people are just like, I mean, what she has to do now is rebuild her character, not to make herself a fan favorite by any stretch. Just say, you know what? I'm going to embrace it. I'm going to embrace your hatred and I'm going to run with it. And I'll become the biggest heel in the women's division. That's what she needs to do.

And I'm hoping she'll take from it, but I'm not sure she will. I'm not sure she, because she obviously wants to be liked, but do you see that she still wants to be liked? But I don't, I think she should just embrace who she is as a fan, see her and run with it right now, John. Well, I,

The vignettes that they hyped, I didn't think did what they were supposed to do. They didn't do her any favors. No, they didn't. Why is she not... Why is there not a shot of a Rolls Royce pulling up and she gets out and she talks down to everybody and hypes up her return or her in the gym rebuilding herself so that she can come back and be the queen of the WWE women's division. None of that. They were the most blog

Jose vignettes I've seen a long time. This match didn't seem like those two really were in sync. We had 13 moonsaults, I think. I lost count. Just overall, an absolute disaster of a film or film of a disaster of a match. Exactly.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad that Tiffany won. She deserves it. I think that she is the future of that women's division. She's clearly talented enough. But yeah, overall, this 19-minute car wreck, train wreck, whatever you want to call it, was absolutely abysmal. That's all I can say.

We're going to go ahead and knock this out real quickly as far as the rest of the cars so we can spend plenty of time we can on the final main event. But the main event on Saturday.

was the triple threat match between Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins. It turned out after some tit-for-tat and mind games by Paul Heyman, he eventually sided with Seth Rollins, recreating the shield with the chair and all as far as the shield breakup with the chair and all that, but also CM Punk getting hit with chairs as well.

And Roman Reigns getting defeated by Seth Rollins in this triple threat main event. The only thing I say is it's great that as far as the twist is concerned, and also the pairing with Seth Rollins with Braun Breaker, with Paul Heyman. But what are they going to do with it? Let's see. What are they going to do? Let's run with this. The thing is, you have them now all together. Let's run with this now and see where it goes.

Well, I mean, there's rumors in Scuttlebutt that it's going to be a new type of faction, you know, whether it's the Dangerous Alliance 2.0 or it's Evolution or whatever. I think that would be sweet. I think that would be a really cool thing because we haven't had too many factions that have been, well, good. There's been a few, but I think this has got the potential to be really, really good storytelling. You know, the classic...

super villains versus superheroes. I think that certainly it's something that would be very interesting to watch. Yeah, I agree. I agree with my friend, but we'll see what happens there. Sunday night.

We started off with probably the best match of the entire weekend, in my opinion. Although the Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and CM Punk match was a very close number two for me. That is Io Sky defeating both Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. I thought this was a great back and forth match. You know, the triple threat matches either are very bad or very good. And we had two very good triple threat matches in a row, my friend. Your thoughts on this match?

Within about a minute and a half of this match, I turned to my friend and said, this is better than both the female matches on night one.

And that was only about two minutes into that match. These ladies, fantastic, did a great job. Looking forward to what they do because of Raw having, you know, kind of the whole Stephanie Viqueur and Julia and Roxanne Perez and Rhea Ripley involved. I'm looking to see how that all shakes out because I think that that's got yourself involved.

Some really interesting matchups and some really good storytelling, again, if they do things the right way with those four talented ladies.

i'll just say this eos guy going into this match was uh criticized by some notable wrestling names as far as not not deserving to be in this match and i just think it's absolutely ridiculous uh because they just wanted to see bianca belair versus rhea ripley and i say to that eos guy uh deserved every bit of being this match involved this match and the fact that that she was given the win over these two

really cements the fact that the company believes in her and credit to her that she did. And all three of the ladies deserved a lot of praise for what they did in that match. And Io retains the title going forward. So we'll see what happens there. Since City Street Fight, this was also pretty good as Drew McIntyre defeated Damian Priest. Damian Priest was doing the

moonwalk from the top of the rope and Drew McIntyre pushed him off, went through a couple tables and then shortly after that finished him off. Your thoughts on the Sin City street fight? Again, it was a little bit homogenized when you talk about a Sin City street fight. I wish they would have incorporated some Las Vegas-y things like a poker table or just something more Las Vegas-y-ish in this or maybe have done this from the Boneyard

where they have all the lights from the past as far as where they go to die. There's a place actually, a grave, the Neon Graveyard downtown where you could go ahead and do, you know, check out all the stuff from the past. That would have been great to have it there. Your thoughts on the Sin City Street fight?

I thought it was okay. Yeah, I mean, the Claymore into the chair, that was a pretty unique move. Yeah, these two, they're fine. You know, they had a good feud going. I don't know if they're going to continue it or not. But yeah, it was good. I'd say middle of the road for a match. But, you know, still better than some of the things we saw night one.

True. Very well said indeed. Fatal four-way match. Dominic Mysterio, who was the heavy favorite, is the new champion. He defeated Braun Breaker, Finn Balor, and Penta when he defeated his Judgment Day partner, Finn Balor.

It was okay for what it was, but the thing I'd give advice to Dominic Mysterio, don't ever wear those tights again. You spent half the time trying to pull those side things up on your thing. Every time you tried to do a move, you had to keep on pulling up your pants or your chaps or whatever on that. Don't ever wear that outfit again. I'm glad Dirty Dom is a champion, but yeah, don't ever wear that outfit again.

I'm curious to see where they go with this because I think that definitely we are getting a Judgment Day feud with Dom. Dom's probably going to be the baby face that breaks away. And personally, I think it would be awesome. He should stay dirty. You think he should stay dirty? I think he should stay dirty. I think he should stay dirty, personally. I think he's best getting booed.

I could see maybe Survivor Series, Lucha Brothers, Dom, and Rey versus the four other members of the Judgment Day. I mean, I could see it. But we'll wait and see.

We'll wait and see, my friend. But the rest of the card, Randy Orton defeated Joe Henry. A lot of people going back and forth on this. It was great to see Joe Henry, but not great to see him get squashed in three minutes with Randy Orton. I thought this did more harm than good. And I thought this was basically you might have just killed off TNA in doing so. I just...

Yeah, I understand that they're a second-tier or third-tier promotion, but having your TNA World Champion going in there, it tells me that I'm assuming that WWE...

might have some financial interest in TNA or just basically has a lot of sway with TNA at the very least because they do have a cooperation agreement. But yeah, this was a squash. Joe Henry says it was a squash. It was a squash. If you take a look back at what we saw over the years in the 80s and 90s on the shows on the weekend, this was a squash. John, let me ask you, was this a bad representation for TNA and was this a squash? Oh, excuse me.

I was late on that mute button. God bless you. I'm allergic to this match. That's what's happening, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, I like the fact that it was Joe Henry. It's something different. I was looking at it from a different perspective, which we now know on Monday where they're going. But I was like, Randy Orton doesn't have anything to do now. So why not have him feud for the TNA world title?

Like, I think that would make great sense. But I think he feels it's beneath him. So, well, and I was going to say, and then we found out on Monday what what Avenue Randy Orton is going to to pursue, which is fantastic. I think that that will be a great couple months of in-ring action that I'm looking forward to.

well they could have put anyone else in that spot and they chose joe henry and they chose to squash him and uh yeah tna that might have been a death note for them but we'll see uh again randy orton defeated joe henry in a matter of three minutes uh your mileage may vary on that once but now he's going to probably face off against john cena at some point logan paul defeated aj styles

This match was pretty good leading up to the finish. Then the finish involving Karrion Kross, one of Logan Paul's lackeys, and a brass knuckles. That was just horrible. That killed the match for me. Your thoughts on this match, really? I'm not going to spend too much more time on it. Yeah, same thing. I'm not a fan of these do the right thing or be evil. I'm not a big fan of those storylines. Yeah.

Yeah, neither am I, because AJ Styles, last we saw him, he was a heel, but now he's a... Give me a break. All right, just... Yeah, it is what it is. And we'll leave it at that. Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch returning to the WWE to defeat Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. This was great for all of one day, because the next night they actually lose the titles, and Becky Lynch ended up betraying Lyra Valkyria

yeah this was just yeah it is what it is i mean if you're excited for becky to be back hey she's back she's back as a heel uh lyra valkyria i i don't have any interest in i mean she already has hurt herself for their own gimmick why do you come in with the feathers and the wings and all that that's just like that's that's that's

That's the kind of gimmick that you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life. That's like Terry Taylor and the Red Rooster. I'm just going to say that right there. Your thoughts on this match? Again, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, they won the titles back. I actually didn't anticipate Becky Lynch coming. I thought that since we've already had one TNA superstar, we'd have another one. I thought Jordan Grace would be the partner of Lyra.

which probably would have been better, but I don't know. I've, I found it to be ridiculous that they had Becky Lynch, you know, why not just have her be the heel at WrestleMania, like after the match, but the, the booking on that was a little bit suspect.

Stone Cold came out in an ATV to go ahead and announce the crowd. But just before he announced the crowd, he ended up smacking one of the retainer walls, the lighted digital retainer walls. Did you notice that if you saw that in a replay, it took the lady that, okay, first of all, when he hit the retaining wall, there was a guy in front of him directly where he's at. That guy didn't flinch. Somehow the lady next to him

which again i don't maybe again i'm not there so i don't have my hands on the on the railing so i don't know how it is okay uh again i've got to give credit on that but somehow it took an extra second and a half before the lady realized what went on and then fell back in her seat and of course they tried to have to check on her okay if she's okay i'm sure she'll sue for millions later but um

Your thoughts on this? I mean, in NBA terms, I would call this a flop, but I don't know if she flopped. I don't know how legit or not legit, but I mean, if you're viewing it and saw a second half delay, I'd say it was a flop. But, you know, your mileage may vary on that. I'm not going to accuse her of anything. I'm just saying what it looked like. But again, if it was legit, then I hope she's okay. Absolutely. 100%. Your thoughts on Steve Austin announcing the crowd 124,000.

And then before that, killing a customer or a consumer in the front row almost, kind of. And I put that in quotations. I'm going to use another sports analogy. I'm going to say that if this was a hockey game, there might be a penalty for embellishment. You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos. We'll talk about delays here in a second with the main event. But yeah, this was like a full second half. Oh, yeah.

He hit the retainer right near me. Maybe I should fall back. But the guy who actually should be affected by it the most did nothing. So that's the thing I have. It wasn't like there was a whole row that just went back or anything. If you get it out there, just tell me if I'm running wrong. I'm not trying to insinuate or anything. I'm just saying by my eye test, it may look like something was a delayed reaction. And I'll just leave it at that.

Last but not least on the list, my friend, is the world title match or WWE championship or whatever it's called. You know, okay, let me ask you this. Again, I've asked you this on two or three occasions already, but if it's the WWE Undisputed Championship and you've got a world championship you already, you know, showcased this weekend.

Isn't that in and of itself disputing the WWE championship if you have a world championship? I don't know. It just kind of doesn't make sense. But it is the WWE championship. It was Cody Rhodes versus John Cena.

And we have seen a lot over the years as far as 50-year-olds, late 40-year-olds still be able to work in the ring and work in the ring effectively. The Rock last year, I thought was pretty darn good in his effort at, you know, coming in cold like that as a 50-year-old Rock. John Cena was pretty good against CM Punk at the Elimination Chamber last year.

Can't say the same thing about this match. This match was kind of put in slow motion. I felt like if I was putting it, watching it on a VCR, I'd be watching it like at one time speed because it was pretty darn slow.

I would say that's the worst STF I've ever seen in the history of STFs I've ever seen. I mean, he had like this, you know, in his usual normal STF stance. And literally Cody Rhodes had to try to keep on putting his head into this because his arms were so loose. Cena's arms were so loose, his head kept on popping out to try, you know, so I'm like,

Whatever. All right. But yes, it seemed like it moved in slow motion. And then it got even slower because Travis Scott came out, took 100 years to get out to the ring. Nobody wanted him there. No Rock there because The Rock said earlier today as we're recording this, they said, well, he didn't want to step on John Cena's spotlight.

Well, guess what? We needed him there to step on John Cena's spotlight because this match was awful. And it got even worse when Travis Scott slowly sauntered in the ring, tried to interfere. It was awkward as far as Cody Rhodes easily handing him. He was trying to push him out of the ring. Travis Scott wasn't rolling his body out of the ring. He gets hit with a belt shot.

There was a ref bump, of course. I have to always say that. We always assume in wrestling there's going to be a ref bump in a championship match. There was a ref bump. And then he gets hit, Cody Rhodes does, with a belt shot from John Cena. And

John Cena covered him and it took like the rest of the weekend before the ref got there. And unfortunately, we have been trained over the course of the past few years that when you have a belt shot like that, but if you take a lot of time before the ref starts counting, you're always going to kick out. This time he didn't kick out.

It was absolutely not very well laid out. Having Travis Scott in there after what happened previously was absolutely an abysmal, abysmal, terrible decision.

This probably goes down to me as one of the three, two, or even worst match I've ever seen as far as main eventing WrestleMania. This is even worse than Roman Reigns really killing Bryan Danielson at Edge. This is worse than the Travis Diaz saw live in Las Vegas for WrestleMania IX. This was just a bad, bad match that got even worse for Travis Scott out there. Yeah, look, I...

I wrote down... And you defended. Can you defend it? I have nothing to defend it other than I feel like the match should have ended after Cena did the super AA because, again, it's his finish that he does and he wins. So if he does it from the second rope, that just logically means it should be that much more devastating. But, alas, that wasn't the case. And then this Joker who... He just looks out of place and...

He's a buck 35 and he's probably like six, two. And he just, I've never seen somebody that thin and skinny before. And he totally screwed everything up the finish. And yes, this, this minus, I, I kind of look at it this way.

I look at the match up to the point of when Travis Scott joins the fray, so to speak. And then that's where the match to me, just like there's two separate things to look at there. The actual match and then the match with that idiot involved. I just say it was a bad match. Then he gets involved and it just got worse. It went from a bad to worse. Let's just say that. To me, it went bad to worse. But I'll just say it with you, my friend.

Well, anyways. Cody Rhodes, you couldn't save this one. I'm sorry, Kevin. No. You couldn't save this one. Where's Cody going to go now? Like, what are they going to do? Obviously, he's going to be gone, not in the title picture if we're going with Randy Orton. So where does Randy? It must be some acting gigs on the way for Cody Rhodes. Maybe.

I would have liked it if they really wanted to go and shock people as I said this while we were watching the main event. You know what I would love right now is for the Young Bucks to interfere and cause Cody the title. Oh my God. You know what? I think Tony Khan was booking this main event because he's done such a bad job of booking main event PLEs as of late, like what you talked about with the Young Bucks.

that yeah this was just absolutely just just terrible so just absolutely terrible i mean i have seen nothing but bad uh main event matches for uh pay-per-views as of late i mean the death riders not getting over to anyone and yet they're still pushing it down our throats it's just at

Don't get me started. AEW, that's our next – we'll talk about that next time on the State of Promotion because that's a trash show in and of itself right now as far as the way they're booking it. But you know what? WWE, coming off this weekend, I have my doubts about their direction. But I can't fault what the cash register says. And the cash register says they're still printing money.

And you have to laud WWE. Despite my misgivings on the booking, despite my misgivings on the expense, I will go ahead and I will praise WWE because they're able to get away with it. They still have a community that's willing to travel thousands of miles, spend thousands of dollars on their product. And if you can get that, my friend, and despite all the bad booking, you still get away with it, more power to you. More power to you, Joe.

You said it better than anything I could say. I'm going with yes, I agree 100%. They got the group of individuals that will come hell or high water, go see WrestleMania or any of their products or buy any of their products or whatever.

Thank God I got mine for free. My frame, I got at Matt Michaels last night for it. Between that, it's still, I saved over half off of what I would have paid if I would have gotten it without a frame at the WWE Superstore. It's just crazy. That just blows my mind that a poster costs that much money. A poster, a poster. This was the, and this was the cheapest one.

The ones with Triple H as far as this Hall of Fame poster, the ones with EO Sky and several other ladies involved, there was a couple other posters, I think. They were all more expensive.

50 bucks for some of these posters and I'll just leave it at that. But then again, you know, the Sheen shirts, they're making it. There was lines, there were people there, they were buying. I saw that the streets of Vegas, Las Vegas Strip filled with people in brand new WWE t-shirts.

all black of course so yeah imagine that's the one reason why i can't buy a lot of wwe t-shirts is because they're all black and here vegas yeah black t-shirts do not go well in 110 degree heat here in a couple of months so i'll leave it at that but before we head on out john i know we've run over on time but i want to go ahead for our viewing audience make sure we get up to date with what you're talking about with the guys from the pvd cast and then also as well

Not wrestling. I think you're going to have to make a wrestling episode out of it. Just once on once on Mad Talk.

There is a wrestling episode. Like season two, there's a wrestling episode. Oh, well, there you go. There you go. Indeed. With Matt Talk. So tell us what's up to date with Matt Talk and the PVD cast. Well, Matt Talk is, of course, the podcast that myself and my partner Jason work on where we take a look at an episode of the old show Matlock. We kind of dissect it. We analyze it. We poke a little fun at it.

And it's a heck of a lot of good times, especially if you remember Matlock or the Andy Griffith Show, because there's a lot of crossover between the two. We'll be getting a new episode dropping here this Sunday coming up, the 27th.

By the way, if you're talking about the Andy Griffith Show, if you ever want to hear Ron Howard, because Ron Howard may return back to acting. He was acting in the studio on Apple TV+. Watch that episode. It's hilarious. Hearing Ron Howard shout out F-bombs is absolutely hilarious. Because I'm thinking Opie the entire time. I'm thinking Opie, and here he is cursing out Seth Rogen. It's just hilarious. Absolutely. Go ahead, Mark.

Anyways, and for the PVD cast, well, it's the Stanley Cup playoff times, of which we already kind of talked about.

Kind of talked about just a little bit there with the Vegas Golden Knights. My hockey enthusiast, my hockey guru, a good man indeed, Luke Landry, and I sit down and dissect and analyze the playoff matches, and we give our thoughts on who we think might lift Lord Stanley's Cup, and a whole host of other hockey-related content. So check it out at pbdcast.com or wherever you find great podcasts.

I'm just going to say this on the hockey end. I know you guys don't have me on there because I'm not good enough on the hockey end, but I can just tell you on the Vegas Golden Knights, who's someone who monitors them greatly,

I think they're a good team. I don't think they're a team that, unless it gets advantageous for them somehow, they're able to find a pathway that's advantageous for them, they're going to go all the way. I just don't think this team is good enough. That loss 4-0 to Winnipeg at home near the end of the season, I think, has really done it for me. Now, I could be proven wrong, and I want to be proven wrong because I love the Golden Knights.

but I think they're a very good team. I don't think they're a great team, and I'll just leave it at that, John. I think they get out of the first round, and I think that's where the train stops, so to speak. You could be right on that. I would not disagree with you on that. But we'll see. Again, it is John Orlando. Go ahead and see what he's talking about at the PBDcast, and of course at Matt Talk, Talking Matt Locke.

Not really resting time, but Matt talk and DBS go check out the studio. If you want to see Ron Howard in a different light, go ahead and check out the studio on Apple TV. Plus that is a hilarious show. And I'll tell you what, if, if that's anywhere, my time in Hollywood, I never really had a studio head as in that as Seth Rogen is on that show. And because if we did, we would be out of the biz. We would have been out of business the next day and I'll just leave it at that, but it's hilarious. Indeed.

John, always great to have you here. We've got to set up sometime soon for our thoughts on when we need to go ahead and come back for the State of Pro Wrestling for May. We should begin into sometime this year as far as what the Lucha scene is like now that it's totally different with the landscape of

Triple E buying Triple A. We might wait on that to see how this plays out, especially with their first show in June. But also as well, we need to go ahead and discuss what's going on with AEW as it gets closer to its all-in. Will the Texas hold them, pay off for them? We'll have to wait and see and see how that goes. WWE is announcing more shows, more PLE events, more two-day events for SummerSlam. That's a two-day event.

They had just announced for San Diego only one day event was surprising. The first outdoor survivor series, which was very interesting. There's a PLA event coming to Perth. I'm still hoping for more Saturday night's main events.

And yeah, just again, I still love the product. I still love watching pro wrestling. But after a weekend like this, it's just so much harder. So much harder. But I'll still go ahead and stay at it, my friend. Still go ahead and stay at it. But we'll see. John Orlando for the PBD cast and also Matt Talk. It's me, Gerald Glassford. My tag team partner is John.

I'm Gerald. Thanks again for watching this. And please like and subscribe to what we do here at Mad Talk, at All Souls Wild and PVD Cast, Lakers Fast Break, and of course, State of Pro Wrestling right here on the Pop Culture Cosmos and the PVD Cast. Thanks for watching, everyone. Thanks for watching, everyone.

It's time for the State of Pro Wrestling, scheduled for one fall with a 60-minute time limit. And now, from parts unknown, your tag team champions of the world, John Orlando from the PVD cast and Gerald Glassford from the Pop Culture Cosmos.