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yo yo yo what's up everybody
welcome back to the no
gimmicks podcast here on
the dfpn pardon me I'm not
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of under the weather today
but we're gonna get through
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My co-hosts, Frank D, the chosen one.
What is up, my friend?
Nothing much, man.
I'm sorry to hear that
you're under the weather,
but it's that time of the season, bro.
So things happen.
Exactly.
You'll get over it.
You'll be fine as long as
you embrace the dark side of the force.
Never.
But yeah, man, we got a packed show, man.
Let's jump right into the shit, man.
I woke up this morning and immediately
I'm seeing notifications,
ESPN is sending out notifications.
First thing I see was Dwayne
The Rock Johnson is now on
the board of operations for TKO.
Our board of directors, sorry.
He's on the board of directors for TKO.
Huge monumental news coming
up first thing early this morning.
Let's talk about it, man.
So
This is a big deal.
First and foremost,
the biggest part of that is
that he gets The Rock.
Out of that deal,
he owns the rights to The Rock.
So how huge is that?
That's big because that's
something that's never happened before.
Anybody who's ever come to the WWF,
now WWE...
you know,
they've never actually either
never got to use their name
or they had their name
before they got there.
So The Rock was something
that was created for Dwayne
while he was in the WWF.
And to see him actually have
the name The Rock,
it's a name that people know him for.
He's synonymous with that name.
Just like when you think of Hitman,
you either think of Thomas
Hitman Hearns or you think
of Bret the Hitman Hart.
Those are the two that come to mind.
Hulk Hogan, I mean, come on.
You know, the Macho Man, Stone Cold,
these are names that are synonymous,
and I'm glad to see that
The Rock gets to be The Rock.
And he's on the board of directors now.
This is a monumental day for
not only the WWE,
but sports entertainment in general,
because...
of what happened after that,
because not only did The
Rock join TKO Board of Directors,
but we also found out where
Monday Night Raw is heading in 2025,
which is going to be streamed on Netflix,
which is a big deal because
Netflix has wanted to get
into the live genre of
sports entertainment style programming.
I think that it's going to bring
over to Netflix who want to
see WWE programming.
But also,
this actually helps out the
entire wrestling industry
because it makes it more profitable.
People can see wrestling as
if Netflix can make a deal
here with WWE for $5
billion over 10 years.
But the terms of the details
of the agreement are
Netflix after five years
can opt out or they can extend the deal.
If they extend it, it goes to 20 years.
So,
This is a crazy situation.
But like I said before,
now that we know where WWE is going,
I think all of their stuff is in check.
They're going to be on a CW for NXT.
They have SmackDown coming to USA Network.
You have Raw going to Netflix.
I'm safe to say,
AEW is going to remain on
the Turner Networks.
This void on Monday nights
with the USA Network,
as you and I were talking
about a minute ago.
Yep.
Opens up the possibility of
TNA filling that void.
Yeah, it does.
Impact show to USA Network.
And I think because they are
doing business with Endeavor,
they're on the Endeavor umbrella,
quote-unquote,
with the streaming situation.
I think in the fact that
they are calling their
pay-per-views now PLEs.
Take that into consideration.
They're calling them PLEs now.
I think that it's a very
good chance that we can see
TKO coming in and doing
some favors for TNA and
getting them that spot on Monday nights.
And you've got wrestling.
It's just big.
Different wrestling every night.
Exactly.
And like I said before,
it helps the entire wrestling industry.
It does.
In the immediate, it opens things up.
And that was the biggest
news coming out of that.
The Raw deal is that, yes, on one side,
they go to streaming, but it opens up
everybody because they're
the biggest company they
went to streaming first so
it's going to open that up
that relationship gets
great now other streaming
platforms are going to look
to bring wrestling into the
fold which is it's good
it's good for everybody
right and then on the flip
side of that the void that
it left leaving network
television has to be filled
and the perfect company to
do it is tna and so it's like
The tide rises for everybody right now.
That's the situation that we're in.
So it was definitely cool to see.
Also,
the effect that it had on the stock
market,
both TKO and Netflix saw a
significant increase this morning.
And TKO is actually still
rising off of that.
Netflix also announced today
that they gained, in their fourth quarter,
they gained 13 million new subscribers,
bringing their total to 260 million.
So they're probably going to
see more come in off of this deal.
And the biggest thing that
was coming out was like, well,
what is the average wrestling fan doing?
Or the older wrestling fan, right?
The higher end of the key demo.
Like,
do these guys want to cut cable and
go to the streaming services?
And I'm like, why the fuck not?
I already have Netflix, right?
The average person is
already cutting cable, right?
So this deal is actually
catering to that crowd.
So the majority of the
people that I interacted with was like,
I haven't watched network
television in a long time.
I've been cut the cord to cable.
So it's actually playing
into the hands of a lot of people.
So it's going to be very
interesting to see how this
unfolds and what this is
actually going to look like
in the long run.
I think it's going to be
very good for the industry as a whole.
I couldn't agree more.
It's a very positive situation.
And the fact that streaming
is where it's at and WWE is
now approving that because it's
I mean, they're taking a big gamble here.
We're going to Netflix.
Oh, yeah.
Somewhere where it's never been before.
Yeah.
So that's a very big deal.
And then on top of that,
this also opens a door for
Warner Brothers Discovery to come and say,
OK, hey, listen,
we're going to take the AEW
program that you have and
we're going to finally put it on the max.
We're trying to compete here with Netflix.
And also,
you have a situation where Amazon
Prime is out there looking
for content as well.
So they also could open the
door for a possible TNA.
Or it could open the door for an NWA.
Or it could open the door for, let's say,
a Ring of Honor on Amazon.
But the thing about this is that Tony,
I think, wants to stay with Netflix.
Warner Brothers,
because they have such a
working relationship.
I think Warner Brothers, for the most part,
is happy.
I think the big conundrum
right now is the fact,
I think it might be financial,
is why they're not meeting head-to-head.
Nothing's been signed yet is
what's going on here,
because WWE just announced
this deal today.
Right.
This deal might swing things
in AEW's favor, right?
I don't think – I never for
once really thought –
that they were going to go
anywhere to begin with.
Right.
Because, I mean, you already have,
the brands are already
established on the Turner Networks.
Correct.
So there's no point of
switching networks at this point.
I know Tony wanted to stream
Ring of Honor on the Max,
and he may get the
opportunity to do that now
because you can look at
what's going on at WWE and say, okay, hey,
listen,
We're going to do this,
and we're going to do it the right way.
And on top of that, too,
we also found out that the
Peacock deal actually
expires in March of 2026 for WWE Network.
So this will be very
interesting to see if
they're going to renew that
come that time,
or is that also going to
migrate over to Netflix,
or will it become a
standalone service again?
Right.
Well, that's interesting, too,
because the UFC deal also expires.
Their rights deal also expires, I think,
in 2025.
So it's like back to back to back.
But this was is I'm thinking
this is a setup for all of it.
Right.
So you already got you.
And after five years,
they can revisit that deal, which in turn,
if they if they already
have UFC under that umbrella as well,
then they can UFC and
network under that umbrella.
Then they can just pull that
back under the fold after five years.
And then it all runs kind of uniform.
Right.
So, yeah,
it's this was this was it's
interesting on a lot of
levels what this will do.
Because we haven't seen
anything like this before.
We haven't seen anything like this ever.
So it's going to be very
interesting to see how this plays out.
Yeah, I mean,
WWE were the first ones to
actually take it to
streaming with the original...
incarnation of the network,
which was WWE 24-7.
They were the first ones to
go with the over-the-top
kind of broadcast,
which was showing the
classic archived footage from WWF, WCW,
whatever.
So fast forward that into
where we are now with the Netflix deal,
with the Peacock deal.
And like I said before,
I believe that eventually
They're probably if they
can't continue to lease out
this content to Peacock,
they're most likely just going to say, OK,
we can do two things.
We can migrate this whole thing to Netflix,
which I mean,
Netflix would love to get
their hands on the WWE
Network because that's more
content for them to stream.
Oh,
the docu-series is actually a part of
that deal, too.
They're bringing the
documentary series over to Netflix now.
Yeah, so it works even better.
So you have that, plus you have, okay,
they're still in other parts of the world,
but WWE Network is still its own entity.
So you can actually take it
back to being its own entity,
which you actually could
combine the UFC streaming
service and the WWE Network together.
Right.
There's still a lot of
content that's in the
library that WWE has digitized.
They just haven't released it yet.
Like people, you know,
a lot of people that, you know,
when I'm on Reddit and I'm
looking at the posts and shit,
a lot of people are
complaining about the lack
of the classic content
uploads for the WWE Network.
Because not a lot of people
watch the current stuff.
They like to go back and watch the past.
And majority of the time,
the only place you can get
the classic content is
going to be on YouTube.
Because WWE only has so much.
And I remember talking to
someone who used to work on the network,
and he told me that when he
basically got released, he got let go,
they were kind of phasing
out the video-on-demand
part of the company.
And I believe that's what
happened with the uploads
here and why there's a lack of uploads,
because they have nobody to
work on the show.
When COVID happened and they
cut a lot of shit.
There's a lot of stuff that
goes into producing this
stuff for the network.
You have to go in there.
You literally have to go
clean up the footage.
You got to
Dub music that needs to be dubbed,
bury it.
So much stuff goes into this shit,
and I don't think they just have,
they don't have anybody
dedicated to doing it right now.
I think that's going to
change because Ari Emanuel knows,
TKO knows, we have this vast majority,
this huge library that we have.
We have the biggest library
in sports entertainment of
all the territories, everything we have.
Let's put it out for the people.
Because we know we can make
money with this shit.
So I think, like I said,
this Netflix deal is going
to lead to a lot more bigger things.
And it's just kind of like a
wait-and-see deal.
But that wasn't the only thing.
Because before this deal happened,
yesterday,
we got the official trailer for WWE 2K24.
And I have to tell you,
I marked that big time.
Like 40 years of WrestleMania mode.
I'm looking forward to playing that.
There was some interesting
stuff that came out of that.
Some very interesting stuff
that came out of that.
Yeah.
Which, if you... Yeah.
Yeah, that.
Like, yesterday,
and then the focus on Cody
that they put on that trailer, I was like,
huh...
But that was yesterday.
I didn't know I was going to
wake up this morning to see
The Rock had joined the board.
It's a big week,
and we're heading to where
right now we're literally
on the road to WrestleMania
at this point.
I mean, and as we were talking, I'm like,
you know,
the way I would do this thing on Sunday,
and people can agree with
me or disagree with me,
This Royal Rumble right here is important.
It's giving me 1992 vibes right here.
Very, very.
Of the star power that they
got in this match.
And you got so many guys out there.
You literally,
and this is what makes this fun,
you literally don't know
who's going to win this thing.
That's the truth.
That is the absolute truth.
If you'd have told me a week ago,
I would have had two answers for you.
Now I got like four.
Mm-hmm.
Because I legitimately don't know.
Because CM Punk is hot.
Cody is hot.
Drew McIntyre has been
basically replenished.
He's hot again.
Yep.
You got the Damian Priest situation.
Yep.
Now you got Gunther out here
with Seth Rollins.
You got so many.
You got Jimmy Uso, J Uso solo.
Yep.
All these different cats.
There's so many people with
the potential to win this thing.
Exactly.
So many people.
And I think, like we were talking about,
if I'm booking this match,
I am going to do the finish
they did in 94.
And that is Luger and Bret
Hart over the top at the same time.
That's what I would do.
Cody and CM Punk over the
top at the same time.
Because you don't know.
There is no definitive winner.
Yep.
That's what I would do.
Plus that interaction.
That interaction they had on
Monday Night Raw.
Fire.
So one thing about that
interaction that I didn't
really like very much.
What's that?
The crowd wasn't really into
it all that much.
The crowd was kind of flat.
And they really need to turn
the Thunderdome down, bro.
Yeah.
To me,
it was more they were split because
it was just like,
I don't know who the fuck
to root for right now.
Because that's how I felt.
I was like, okay.
They weren't really popping to anything,
though.
They were popping to some things,
but when CM Punk says, well,
I'm the biggest superstar
that's going to come back,
nobody reacted to that.
That is true.
They more so reacted to the, uh,
I'm more of the American
dream than you are.
Yeah.
And then when you say I'm more CM Punk,
they reacted to those things.
Yeah.
You know, so, but it's kind of getting,
you know, I don't know.
It's kind of getting tired
now to hold when you left the company and,
Kind of getting tired now, bro.
It is.
We already know he left.
But you say that because you
can't acknowledge the other place.
Exactly.
That and it came from Cody.
So I was like, okay, that's a stinger.
That's a stinger.
I would have loved if he would have said,
I came here.
Because I chose to.
You came here because you
didn't have a choice.
Something along that line.
Yeah.
I came here because I chose to.
You came here because you had to.
Yeah.
Something like that.
Right.
But in reality,
it's where Punk wanted to be all along.
All along.
And this brings me back to a
promo that Cody cut before he left AEW.
Because that's what that
encounter reminded me of.
And he started the promo saying,
someone told me to wait.
to make this promo.
But basically,
he cut the promo that he cut on CM Punk.
But he called himself the
Forbidden Door in AEW.
But he basically told Punk to his face,
he was like, the things you talked about,
I actually did.
But he cut that promo in AEW
where he was like, someone sat up.
Because I think they were in
Vegas when he cut it.
He was like,
someone sat up there and they
did the pipe bomb.
He talked about the pipe bomb.
And then he talked about
what he intended to do.
And he said, I actually did it.
He's like, in that sense,
I became the Forbidden Door.
And then right after that, he was in WWE.
Yeah.
So that kind of leads me to
think here that at some point,
Cody and punk may have been, you know,
talking about it.
Yeah.
Talking about it.
So that's what told you.
Cody, Cody is all business.
Oh, yeah.
Cody is business.
Cody already said we can do something.
Yeah, most definitely.
Now,
I would have wanted that to happen
after mania.
Oh, check this out.
I'm reading this right now.
Go ahead.
So, William Regal was on NXT tonight,
and he made Ava Reign the
new general manager of NXT,
The Rock's daughter.
Ooh.
The hits keep coming.
Right.
It's basically AEW.
This is where AEW should have been.
Right.
It's crazy, man.
It's crazy.
Yep.
So William Riegel can now appear.
I guess that time is up that
he couldn't appear on TV.
He can now appear on TV.
Yep.
So good shit.
Look,
Jeff said he was and he was already
pulling strings for family.
Why not?
Bill wants you to do it.
Bill wants you to put this
kid in the world
championship back in the day.
Hell yeah.
Speaking of which,
I think The Rock might have
actually spoiled the main
event for Mania.
Oh, I saw that.
I mean,
he basically said there's no bigger
match they have except for
him and Roman Reigns.
Rock is telling you that.
Rock is pretty much telling
you what the main event is going to be.
That's the main event.
You can't be on the board of
directors and be like,
that's the biggest match possible.
Yeah,
that leads me to believe that Punk...
So here's a scenario that
I'm thinking in my head, right?
So what I'm thinking is CM
Punk versus Cody.
Seth Rollins,
he relinquishes the Royal Championship.
Seth Rollins versus Cody.
Oh, no, sorry.
CM Punk versus Cody for the
World Heavyweight Championship.
Cody beats Punk.
He gets it.
He finishes the story.
And then Damian Priest
cashes in on him and
becomes world champion.
But, yeah, I can see that happening.
That sets up a whole new
feud now with Damian Priest
and Cody over the world title.
I can see that.
That's what I would do.
Look at this comment.
I can attest that back in January 2023,
no gimmicks crew has been
putting this match up in the universe.
We have.
It's the biggest match possible.
It's the biggest match since
Hollywood Hogan and The Rock.
I agree with that.
And I was saying before this even happened,
I didn't even know about the Seth injury,
but
If you want to make a big WrestleMania,
night one has to be Cody versus CM Punk.
At this point,
night two has to be Roman
versus The Rock.
It has to be.
Yep.
And I'm still angling for
Randy Orton versus Solo.
I think that's a good matchup there.
Yeah.
And so at this point, too, it's like, okay,
so in doing this,
what do you then do with Drew McIntyre?
Because he's hot.
But also here's the problem with Drew.
Drew has not resigned.
This is true, too.
If I'm really wanting to do that,
then my night one would
have Drew versus Gunther.
Problem with that is,
is Drew a heel now or is he a tweener?
I think he's more of a tweener,
which it'll work either way.
I don't know.
That's kind of tricky.
Do I heel versus heel or
heel versus tweener?
It is.
It really is.
I mean, I go back to back in the day.
I mean,
that's the reason why Warrior
versus Hogan at
WrestleMania 6 wasn't
really a success that they
thought it was going to be.
Because it was two babyfaces going at it.
And Vince didn't want that.
He's like, we can't do that again.
You know?
True.
It's like with the NWO days,
you had Hall and Nash would
go up against the Faces of Fear, right?
Right.
And in that match, on paper,
you would be like, oh,
that's two heel tag teams.
But Hall and Nash would be
the ones getting cheered.
Because who are you going to cheer?
Are you going to cheer the
Outsiders or are you going
to cheer the Faces of Fear?
Right.
So that's kind of like with
this situation with Gunther
and Drew McIntyre for the
Intercontinental Championship,
which I believe that's kind of,
wasn't that a triple threat
match last year at Mania?
It was.
With Sheamus.
So it's kind of like,
do we want to repeat the
same match again?
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Yeah.
So it's not like there can
only be one winner.
That was a banger, though.
Probably.
Yeah, it was a banger,
but there can only be one
winner for the Rumble.
Everybody can't win the Rumble.
And I know for damn sure, CM Punk is like,
I'm probably going to get
my WrestleMania main event.
Yeah.
But then also, you got to be like, okay,
finish the story.
So much.
And it's like, bro,
Punk just got back at Cody and said, yeah,
you know,
you're on the cover for WWE 2K24.
I was on the cover for WWE 14.
Yep.
So, yeah.
People seem to forget that.
Yeah.
There's so many ways you can go with that.
So many.
Right.
So, all good shit, though.
But what about this comment?
Bubba was in the No Gimmicks
group and said,
Rollins versus Gunther
would be dope at Mania.
I would agree with that.
It would be dope,
but the problem is that you
risk exposing Gunther
because they're not going
to have Robbins drop the belt to him.
So he would have to take the fall.
And right now, he's been a strong,
dominant Intercontinental Champion.
So it's not, for me, business-wise,
it's not the best decision to do that.
You keep those two guys apart.
Especially right now,
you don't know Seth Robbins,
if he's even going to be
able to compete at WrestleMania.
You don't know if he's going
to be able to drop the belt.
Nobody knows yet.
So that's kind of like where
they got a lot of plans changed.
CM Punk coming back, changed plans.
Randy Orton coming back, changed plans.
AJ coming back, changed plans.
The roster is stacked.
It's stacked, bro.
And then Seth gets hurt.
Then Seth gets hurt in a match with Jinder,
which some people said the
match with Hook and Samoa Joe was better.
than Jinder and Seth.
That's what... That's crazy.
That's why I've read.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And I'm like,
why... And I understand that
Seth is the working man champion,
pretty much.
The fighting champion.
But why would you be risking
that so close to WrestleMania?
That's... Yeah, that.
And it's like... That's why
Hogan never... They never
had Hogan out there doing
any big matches before
WrestleMania or some shit like that.
Why would you risk your guy getting hurt?
Yeah, run the angle.
Right.
Him showing up is more
valuable than him wrestling
at this point.
Right, right.
Which is, that's crazy.
Because, yeah, that one,
and you've seen it when he landed.
When he landed, he looked concerned.
It was like, uh-oh,
there goes a whole lot of shit.
Because him, I would guarantee you,
if Seth doesn't get hurt,
CM Punk probably wins the Rumble.
CM Punk probably challenges Seth.
That's probably the plan.
Now, everything's topsy-turvy.
What if Seth is cleared to go?
The only thing I can see
happening is if Seth can't go,
they basically say, here's the deal.
This guy's going to be out
of commission forever.
At the Elimination Chamber,
we're going to put these
guys in the match.
This is going to be the
fallout from the Rumble.
We'll put these guys in the match.
The winner of this match at
the Elimination Chamber
will become the World
Heavyweight Champion.
So have an Elimination
Chamber for the belt.
Correct.
And if they did that,
that gives Seth an out that
he gets beat right there
and drops the belt.
Right.
Or he don't even make it to the match.
They can effectively strip
him of the title.
They could.
Or we could do another angle.
They could do that.
And we can have a situation, storyline,
where Seth Rollins is
refusing to give up the
World Heavyweight Championship.
Therefore,
we are making a new World
Heavyweight Championship.
And
We will crown a new champion.
Seth Rollins comes back from injury saying,
I am the real world
champion because I never
got beat for the title.
Whoever the champion is.
Like what CM Punk did.
Exactly.
Okay.
I like that.
And it can be Punk doing the
same angle all over again.
The real world champion.
Taking the spray paint and
putting the X over the belt.
Yep.
Doing it in WWE now.
Yep.
I like it.
I ain't mad at it.
Realistically,
what I would have done is I
would have had Seth come out Monday,
announce that he was actually hurt.
Cue Damien Priest.
Cash that shit in.
Cash it in.
Absolutely.
But, you know,
it plays out how it's going to play out.
I think they're foolishly
banking on Seth being available.
I think so.
Well,
it's really depending on what the
injury is because nobody knows.
Well, he said he had a grade two tear.
Yeah, but sometimes it's kayfabe shit.
Like I said,
It comes down to we won't
know anything until
Saturday when the Rumble's over,
the direction they're going to go in.
And even then,
that direction is not
concrete because we still
got the Elimination Chamber.
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
That's a crazy outlook.
Right.
That's a crazy outlook.
Do we want to go over to Rumble?
You want to go over to Rumble?
Nah.
I mean, it's early enough to go over.
I mean, you already know Roman's winning.
What if he doesn't?
No, he's winning.
You know damn well he's not
dropping that belt.
His title matches at this
point are pointless.
Because you know damn well
he ain't dropping the belt.
But what if he does, though?
He's not dropping it.
None of those three guys
he's wrestling right now
should be world champion.
Sorry.
Oh, that's sad.
But it's not knocking him.
It's just Roman has been on
this trajectory to become
the man beating all these
people's records.
So all of a sudden now we're
going to sacrifice him to
Randy Orton or AJ Styles or LA Knight?
No, I wouldn't do it.
That's bad business.
It's bad booking.
I'll check Cage Match later and see.
Seth getting hurt changed that match too.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Because if you would have told me,
if Seth is healthy,
CM Punk wins the Royal Rumble.
Actually,
you probably don't need Punk to
win the Royal Rumble.
If Seth is healthy, Cody wins the Rumble.
And later on that night,
Randy Orton wins the title.
You can still have Seth and Punk at Mania.
You can have that for the
main event for that title.
You don't need the main
event for night two to be
Cody versus Randy.
Cody just needs to finish the story.
You can have that as the co-main.
And that'll still be a good match.
It'll draw.
It'll be for the title.
Cody finishes the story.
Everybody's happy.
You end that night with, obviously,
Roman versus The Rock.
And that would have been night two.
That would have been my guess.
But since Seth is hurt, I don't know.
I really don't know.
I had a prediction, and now I don't.
Yeah.
But then, shit,
I just thought about something else, too.
Because then,
when you look at the Rumble
participants...
You still got Bobby Lashley.
You got Street Profits, Karrion Kross.
This is where they should
have did that 40-man battle royal again.
Yeah,
this would have been a perfect
opportunity.
Yep.
This would have been a
perfect opportunity.
Max said,
you don't think a women's match
could headline night one?
No.
No offense, but no.
No.
Because if you look at the stories,
even though they are having
a women's Rumble,
that's almost like the men's.
So if you have a men's winner,
that story means more
coming out of Rumble.
And you'll probably have
them both on the same night.
Honestly, honestly speaking,
because who's coming out of there?
Oh, wait a minute.
Who's coming out of the rumble?
Who's coming out of the women's rumble?
That can be a challenger for the title.
And you'd be like,
I'm there for that shit.
Right now?
Right now.
They're going to probably
have to – honestly,
they're going to – there's
only two people.
Who's that?
So they would probably run
it back to Becky, okay?
Yep.
Or they bring in Mercedes.
Or – High, high possibility.
Or J Cargo.
That's what – that was a
question just popped up.
You know what I mean?
I think –
Jay could debut at the Rumble.
I think that's perfect timing.
Yeah.
Making an immediate impact on the Rumble.
Right.
She comes into the Raw Rumble match.
We're going to see what
she's learned since she's left AEW.
The Raw Rumble match will be
a very good test for her
because it's very
competitive with the women.
And...
We'll see if she has a
dominant performance.
Let me tell you who had a
dominant performance in his
first Rumble match.
And went in there and just
started throwing people out
left and right.
And then made a name for
himself and he was over by
the time it was done.
It was Kevin Nash as Diesel.
Yeah, you're right.
1994 Rumble.
You're right about that.
He entered the match,
threw all the people out,
didn't give a damn if they were heels,
faces.
He was dominant.
They bring Jay Cargill in there.
She could be dominant, too.
Have a dominant performance.
She don't have to win,
but she can have a dominant performance.
She can just start throwing
people out left and right.
She could be eliminated,
but people remember Jay Cargill.
Everyone will remember her, yeah.
And let's also think about the possibility,
too,
of TNA talent appearing at the Rumble.
That, too.
So we can see Trinity come in.
She's just finishing up with TNA.
We can see Trinity coming in.
I like Trinity coming back, honestly.
As a heel.
As a heel, yeah.
With her husband.
Finally a part of the bloodline.
I like it.
Stack the numbers.
What was the comment there?
I didn't get a chance to read all of it.
Max said, if I keep hanging around, yeah,
I'm going to end up coming
with some storylines from WWE.
Bro, join the club, my friend.
You might as well.
Join the club.
It's good.
It's cool to play Monday
morning quarterback and shit.
It's cool to go back and do that.
It is.
Unless you're a Dallas Cowboys fan.
There ain't no hope for them.
I said it.
I said it on this podcast.
I said it.
It was funny as hell, man.
They were pissed.
Hey, man, I knew.
I knew.
They were mad as hell.
One dude was on there.
Damn sons of bitches.
Goddamn church fashion.
Hold up.
Man, you better put that flag down.
What's wrong with you, boy?
Shit.
You just throwing the flag in the bush?
What's wrong with you?
Out there just tripping over
a football game.
Dang it.
That's like me tripping over
some wrestlers.
I could be like, oh, my God.
I can't believe The Rock
just came out there and won.
He hasn't been there forever.
Give it to somebody who's there.
They just screwed over R-Truth.
I'm just mad the possibility.
That's funny.
The possibility was there last year,
and we were in the building,
and all these jabrons get
to witness it this year.
It is what it is.
I hope y'all happy.
We shall be watching.
Yeah, most definitely.
I just thought about something.
What's that?
So,
isn't Collision going head-to-head with
the Rumble?
Oh, that is correct.
Ain't nobody watching that shit, bro.
Look at you.
Look at you now.
Talking shit.
I'm not talking shit.
I'm being realistic.
That's a realistic thing.
Oh, everything's great.
The show is good.
Nobody's watching it, though.
Ain't nobody watching it.
It was.
CM Punk was on it.
CM Punk is going to be on the show.
The Rumble competing against
the show that used to be his show.
Isn't that funny how shit works out?
Yes.
Wow.
Yep.
Collision is getting the DVR treatment.
Now, I will say this.
I will say this for Collision.
Collision...
has done a way better job of
pacing the show.
And again,
I don't know what it is with
these AEW shows, man.
They dynamite dynamite is
starting to get there,
but the shows that aren't on Wednesday,
they all do better than the
Wednesday show.
It's weird.
Yeah, I guess I haven't watched it.
I don't know how long and I
don't plan on watching it.
It's super weird.
They all do better.
Collision's actually a good show.
And I'll tell you right now,
I'm going to say it now on
this show so there's no confusion.
If you do not, AEW,
if you do not strap the
rocket to Queen Aminata in a year,
she'll be going just like Jade Cargill.
Queen Aminata is the one.
She is the one.
If you don't strap the
rocket and firmly establish
Swerve Strickland,
he will be going back to the WWE.
You have to start to listen.
Queen Aminata went out the
first time I saw her and I
forgot about her because
she's been out of action for a while.
But the first time I saw her, I was like,
I don't know who this is,
but they need to do more with her.
And then when she came back, I was like,
oh, yeah, I remember her.
And now I'm saying that again.
She's had five matches so far.
All bangers.
All bangers since she's been back.
They've all been good.
And they've all been against
some of the top women in AEW.
She's put on great matches.
And the way she looks,
the way she carries herself, star.
It's written all over her.
And I'm like,
if they don't do anything with this,
she will get noticed and
she will be gone.
Well,
there's also another pre-agent out
there that we should talk about.
And that's a possibility
that she could show up at
the Rumble as well.
And that is former NWA
World's Women's Champion, Camille.
Her too.
So I know she's been making her rounds.
She's been going around with,
she's been at AW.
She's been backstage in WWE.
So I know that she's making her rounds.
So her and there's another one, Julia.
So where does Camille end up?
If you want me to be honest, I, oh man.
I would say that Camille
would probably end up in WWE.
I tend to agree.
If I'm looking at the
situation and I know that
she's assessing it,
I know that she's
experienced both locker rooms.
And of the two, the more professional,
by opinion of the wrestlers,
What gets thrown out,
the more professional of the two is WWE.
Well, of course.
But she would be making more money in AEW.
She would.
Just like the situation here.
And there's also another guy
that we need to talk about
that could possibly enter
the Rumble match.
I don't necessarily know if
it's going to happen or not,
but it's a possibility.
And I'm talking about Okada.
You know what?
I'll say it too.
I think Okada's going to WWE.
I think WWE would need to snatch him up.
So I would say Okada,
if Okada doesn't show up at
the Royal Rumble,
he shows up at WrestleMania
doing the same thing Cody did.
I can see that.
Now, if he doesn't show up in WWE at all,
then there's AEW.
And if he shows up in AEW,
he shows up at Revolution
to sign a contract.
Yeah.
But in both ways.
I'll tell you a segment I
saw on Collision.
Actually, I thought it was kind of cool.
It was the formation of the
Bang Bang Scissor Gang.
I like that.
I do, too.
That was a good segment.
I liked it a lot.
Yeah.
Plus,
I think all of them are entertaining.
Right.
And it will work for them.
Jeff says he thinks Okada
already has a deal in place for WWE.
That may be true.
He very well could be.
He basically, from what I understand,
is he made the decision very recently.
To leave New Japan.
I think what it comes down to is,
I think he realizes if I'm
going to do something,
the time is now to do it.
You know what?
One place I'm not going to
rule out is TNA.
Because he was recently at TNA.
Unless TNA is going to throw
some major money at him,
I don't see that happening.
I say, I honestly think at this point,
because...
Will Ospreay is at AEW.
I think it's a very good
possibility that Okada's
going to end up there.
That could be that, too.
There's a lot of history.
It's 50-50 right now.
It's 50-50.
There's also another guy
that basically just also left New Japan,
and that's Tama Tonga.
I would love to see Tama Tonga in WWE.
Absolutely.
I would love to see him in WWE.
Yeah.
I agree.
Although, if he shows up in AEW,
shit's going to get real interesting.
I'm already thinking Bullet Club.
Something Bullet Club.
It's not Bullet Club unless
you have Tongan in it.
That's right.
So, I think if he shows up in AEW,
shit's going to get very interesting.
And I will give them the benefit to watch.
I don't think it's going to
be nearly as good as what they did before,
but we'll see.
We shall see.
Yeah, man.
So much so, do we do this?
Any more surprises you got for the Rumble?
No,
I don't have any more surprises for the
Rumble.
I think it's going to play
out exactly kind of the way
we're saying it right now.
Because they already left
you with the cliffhanger on
Monday with Cody and CM
Punk face to face.
They're telling you, this Saturday night,
watch the rumble to find
out what's going to happen.
Between these two.
Between these two guys.
They will be the last two in the ring.
Exactly.
The ultimate challenge.
It's the ultimate challenge.
The son of a plumber versus
the blue collar worker.
The straight edge versus.
It's the elite.
It's the elite versus the punk.
I heard a very interesting
thing on Busted Open.
And someone compared Cody
Rhodes to Anakin Skywalker.
Oh, so they're taking our shit?
I don't necessarily say they're taking it,
but the way they compared
him was... Let me say
something before you finish.
Go ahead.
We have been coming on this
fucking show for months.
We can go back to the
archives of this podcast
where we had a whole damn
scenario where we talked
about Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton.
This is true.
Master and apprentice.
We said that he was Anakin Skywalker.
This shows him.
Yep.
We have been saying this for months.
I am literally sitting here
right now doing this fucking show.
With Yoda right here.
Yep, he is.
The Empire behind me,
and I'm wearing my fucking
Darth Vader robe.
We have been doing this.
Okay?
We've been doing it.
So, whatever you say.
We've been talking about this shit.
This is true.
Now,
the comparison that he's... He didn't
walk it down like we did.
But the comparison to Anakin
Skywalker in the moment
that he actually interacted with CM Punk.
I saw it.
I didn't compute the two.
But yeah, you're right.
We have been saying this
shit the whole time.
Well,
let me tell you what I got from that.
I got from watching that segment.
I got the Anakin vibe as well with Cody.
And I'm going to tell you
where it came from.
The vibe I got with him was
from Revenge of the Sith when he says,
I want more, but I know that I shouldn't.
That's Cody.
Yep.
Cody is a power-hungry asshole.
He is.
Yes, he is.
I'm talking Cody Rhodes, the character,
not the man.
This is true.
But as a character of Cody Rhodes,
Cody doesn't know it yet.
But he's a Sith.
He just don't know it yet.
He had the same problem in
AEW where he was tempted by
the dark side.
That's what's going on here.
This guy is tempted by the dark side.
You know who else was
tempted by the dark side?
Before WrestleMania 17,
Stone Cold Steve Austin, he said,
I have to beat you, Rock.
I need to beat you.
And he sold his soul to the Emperor,
Mr. McMahon, to become the WWF Champion.
Cody Rhodes is going to do
anything possible that he
possibly can to finish the story.
At WrestleMania.
He has to.
To hold the championship
that his father never held,
that his brother never held.
This guy is going to turn to
the dark side with the help
of the Emperor.
Who is the Emperor, you say?
Paul Henry.
The wise man.
Which, coincidentally,
they talked about him too
during that interaction.
Telling you, it's going to happen.
Cody is a heel.
He's going to be glorious, bro.
He is a heel.
He is.
He is a heel.
You have somebody like CM Punk come in.
Who is CM Punk in this story, right?
Who is Punk?
No.
No, I think CM Punk is Mace Windu.
That's what I put him as.
He don't like Cody.
So he wants to come in and
take Cody and he's going to
stop him from becoming the
world champion.
Just like Mace Windu says, we, we,
we grant you a seat on this council,
but we would not give you
the rank of master.
Okay.
I am coming back.
I have come back to become
the world champion to finish my story.
I've come back and I am
derailing your story.
So I'm stopping you from going.
I'm stopping you.
Same way they said to Anakin Skywalker.
We do not grant you the rank of master.
And he was like, what?
Same thing with Cody.
You're not going to be the royal champion.
You're not finishing your
story before I finish my story.
What?
Hmm.
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
listening to No Gimmicks
right now here on VDFPN and
Patreon is how you break it
down Star Wars style.
That is correct.
Yes, sir.
By the way, by the way, cheap luck here.
If you want to listen to The
Patio with Kim, Real Food,
The Queens of Nerdum, USDN, Smoke Pit,
Make It Make Sense.
The DFPN Patreon is where it's at.
Three dollars.
All right.
That's like going to
McDonald's and getting
something off a dollar menu
or something like that.
Three dollars gets you all this content.
Commercial free.
You get it first.
And also you help support your boys.
Three dollars a month.
What do you have?
Yep.
Did my man freeze or did I freeze?
I hope it's not me.
I don't know what the hell
just happened here.
I was like,
did you freeze or did I freeze?
It was both of us.
It came back here.
The dark side of the force
is overwhelming.
Speaking of which,
I want to make an
announcement right here
right now on the No Gamers podcast.
Me and Mr. Black here
We are going to be talking
about a new podcast venture
coming up very shortly.
And it is going to be
devoted to Star Wars.
Correct.
We are going to be launching
very shortly in the near future.
We are going to be launching
the Rogue Empire podcast
right here on the DFPN.
And this podcast here is
going to be talking about Star Wars.
And I'm talking about
everything in Star Wars.
We're going to be talking
about Star Wars news happening.
We're talking about the Rey movie.
We're going to be talking
about Mandalorian Grogu.
We're going to be talking
about the Old Republic.
We're going to be talking
about the Skywalker saga.
We're going to be talking
about everything Star Wars.
And we're going to put a no
gimmicks twist on it.
So get ready for that right
here on the DFPN coming shortly.
Your boys will present the Rogue Empire.
Correct.
And with that.
And if I froze, if I froze,
I will tell you this.
It was a force.
I am ice cold right now.
Final shots, man.
What you got?
Final shot is simply this.
Help control the pet population.
Have your pets spayed or neutered.
The last thing you want.
you want to have this
bastard right here coming
to get you with the
lightsaber and telling you
you know something how dare
you take your dog outside
when it's freezing cold the
arctic freeze that we had a
couple weeks ago how dare
you walk your dog on ice
how dare you do that you
son of a help control the
pet population have your
pet spade are neutered or
you will feel the wrath of lord veda
You heard the man.
And parting shots is simply this.
Support your boys here on the DFPN.
Patreon, $3 a month.
Get you everything.
You listen to the Black Mac, Frankie D,
Mac, your boy, Jeff.
Everybody here at the DFPN.
Everybody at the DFPN.
$3.
Make you holler.
That's correct.
I got nothing else, my friend.
Rogue Empire podcast coming soon.
Like I said,
we're going to take deep dives
into Star Wars.
We're going to talk about everything.
And not just Star Wars.
You may catch me on a good
day one day where I say, hey,
let's talk about the other
failure at Disney called the MCU.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I got numbers to back it up.
Whoa, whoa.
I got numbers to back it up.
Whoa.
That's too far.
No, it's not too far.
We don't want to talk about Hasbro.
We don't want to talk about Hasbro, do we?
We don't want to talk about
how Hasbro bought an
entertainment company for
like $4 billion a few years ago,
cash money,
and they sold it recently for
$374 million because
they're in debt right now
because they're not making
any fucking money.
Just like the biggest flop
in cinematic history was the Marvels.
But I've got numbers to back this up.
Well,
that's what you'll be hearing on the
Rogue Empire podcast
because we're not talking
about it tonight.
Oh,
we're going to talk about this shit
later.
We sure will.
We shall talk about this later.
I have the numbers to back it up.
Hey, let me ask you a question there,
Black.
What?
Perhaps you think you're
being treated unfairly?
No.
Good,
because I would hate that to be for
Garrison there.
Wow.
Brother.
Wow.
Oh, speaking of which, speaking of which,
we forgot to bring it up.
I just did it.
40 years of Hulkamania.
Yep.
40 years of Hulkamania, brother.
Unbelievable.
They got some really cool
merch that they just released for this,
too.
Did they?
Yes.
WBShop.com.
We're not going to get it.
Okay.
Khan does all this stuff
here for everybody, but WBShop.com,
they have all this 40 years
of Hulkamania shit.
I'm actually going to pick some shit up,
man,
because they got some really cool
designs for Hogan.
Okay.
So on this day in 84,
he beat the Iron Sheik for
the WWF championship.
And this was started all.
Now let's get it right here.
Hulkamania was way
established before this and the AWA.
I'm talking about Hulkamania
and the WWF was formed in 1984.
So we're celebrating 40
years of Hulkamania.
And it's just crazy that
it's 40 years of Hulkamania.
But I was never a Hulkamaniac.
I wasn't a Hulkamaniac.
I wasn't either.
Hollywood.
But this shit does look cool, though.
That merch looks... Yeah,
I'm looking at it.
It looks cool.
Oh, hell yeah.
Some cool-looking merch.
Yeah.
Hollywood.
All right.
I might go on there.
That's...
Pretty cool.
So what we're going to do
next week since we're
talking about 40 years of Hulkamania,
brother.
Next week on the No Gimmicks Podcast,
I'm putting it out here right now.
We are going to take a look at Hulk Hogan.
And we're going to bring up
the top 10 Hulk Hogan
matches of all time.
Bring your list.
Bring your list, everybody.
We're going to do it.
We're going to put out the top 10.
Oh, by the way, Mack, your boy,
if you're still in here.
How dare you?
How dare you post in the smoke pit?
How dare you post,
take one of the Michael
Jackson albums off?
You put me in a very,
very precarious situation, my friend.
I mean, I like rock music, man.
It was management.
Yeah, you were wrong for that, dude.
It was management.
You will be hearing from the
emperor for that one.
You're going to blame that on me?
That wasn't me.
Oh, it was.
Oh, you know what?
I can believe that.
I can believe it was you who
did it because you used to
do that shit with New
Edition and Boyz II Men.
So you're an asshole.
That wasn't me.
What the fuck?
Yeah.
Wow.
No.
Right.
I'm innocent this time.
I saw that he had on there.
He had it on there in the smoke pit group.
And I'm like, look, look at this shit.
It has some bangers on it, but it's like,
man, like, damn.
No, no, I was, uh, that was not me.
I was, I was,
I was torn looking at that shit.
I was like, what the fuck?
But I was like, Ooh, looking at it.
I was like, I have to do off the wall.
I have to, I had to do it too,
but I'm like, damn.
And I'm like, and it's like,
this is what I'm talking about.
People.
If you're not listening to the smoke pit,
you got to listen to the smoke pit.
And the shenanigans that
these two do is this crazy shit that will,
at the end of the day will piss you off.
So go listen to it.
The DFPN also, um,
USDN as well.
Jeff, they do a good show over there.
Deep dive into a lot of different stuff.
We have so much talent here on DFPN.
And DFPN in 2024, this is our year.
We're taking over the business.
I guarantee it.
Absolutely.
And that's my parting shot, people.
My parting shot is we got
memes tomorrow on Patreon.
Make it make sense.
And USDN is off outside, though.
and they're going to be
doing their show tomorrow, too, so
Great stuff coming this week, and tune in,
tap in, man.
It's going to be an awesome week.
We will be back this Saturday.
Correct.
This Saturday night live.
After the Royal Rumble, we will be live,
probably outside the confines of Patreon.
We're going to go live with
our review of the Royal Rumble.
So you want to check that
out here on the DFBN and
all the local affiliates.
Correct.
And with that, I got nothing else.
I got nothing else either.
All right, man.
Well, until next time,
thank y'all for tuning in.
Until next time, peace.
And I know it's all finished, all finished,
all finished We give em no gimmicks,
gimmicks And I know it's all finished,
all finished,
all finished We give em no gimmicks,
gimmicks And I know it's all finished,
all finished,
all finished We give em no gimmicks,
gimmicks