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If you want a wrestling podcast that keeps it 100% real on all the topics you love, you’ve com to the right place. No Gimmicks is dedicated to bringing you commentary from the worlds of pro wrestling, entertainment and when the moment calls for it, social events. Be warned, don’t come with a closed mind. This isn’t a gimmick show.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to a bonus episode of no gimmicks podcast here on the DFPN. We are live outside the confines of Patreon tonight, and we are fresh off the hills of Monday Night Raw. If you haven't watched it, allow me to reiterate or recap for you guys what happened. So fresh off the hills of last week, The Rock beat the absolute dog shit out of Cody Rhodes, and tonight was really no different. He and Roman beat the living shit out of Seth and Cody tonight.
Blak Makk:Setting us up. This was the go home show for Monday night raw. Very good show. We opened up with the final boss who I had the pleasure of meeting this past weekend. And thank you to you guys who tapped in and looked at the content and determined to give me some views.
Blak Makk:It was the pleasure of a lifetime meeting him. I will tell you now. It swayed me. I am swayed. I am firmly in the bloodline's grips right now.
Blak Makk:Not to say that I wasn't before because I was, but this just solidified it. Like, the dude is just cool, man. He is just he is an absolute boss, which he allowed me to call him the final boss, and I asked him a question that was great. And here we are 2 days later. He's beating the shit out of Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins with his cousin.
Blak Makk:He's inducting his grandmother into the hall of fame, which if you didn't watch Young Rock, you missed out on the absolute treat. I think it's still on Peacock. Go watch it. But great Monday night Raw to send us into the WrestleMania series. And, yeah, man, we got a lot to cover, but welcome to the show.
Blak Makk:This is the no gimmicks podcast here on the DFPN, and it starts right now. We are here live on the DFPN. Welcome everybody to the bonus episode of the no gimmicks podcast, and we kicked off WrestleMania week today with all the shits. So we got a good show for you guys tonight. Let's jump right into it, man.
Blak Makk:If you guys didn't see it, Ariel Helwani interviewed, both Centimeters Punk and Rhea Ripley, which you got a run-in from Becky Lynch during the Rhea Ripley interview. That was great, to hype up their match. Kinda unpredictable. Happened earlier in the day right before Raw. We got a little bit of that carryover into Raw tonight.
Blak Makk:Good, good storytelling. Making it seem like it's unpredictable, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave me a little more interest to this match going into WrestleMania, and it needed it. It absolutely needed it. They kicked it up a notch because I think they were listening.
Blak Makk:And kudos to WWE, man. I think they're I think WWE is actually starting to listen more to fans and give the fans what they want. This is one of the matches that I personally wanted to see a lot more of, out of its terms in in terms of story building and making this match interesting. It was one of the I I think it has a potential to be a show stealer on the card, but I wanted it built up just a little bit more. I felt like it was being overshadowed by some of the other matches because look.
Blak Makk:Let's face it. You have Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair, and Trinity Fatou all on the team going up against damage control. That's just black girl magic, man. You can't you can't scratch that. That automatically put them, like, it put them here.
Blak Makk:They were here, and now they're here. You know? So I think Becky and Rhea really needed to get something going, and they absolutely tried to do that. And I think they accomplished that. If they didn't, they at least tried to get more interest into this match.
Blak Makk:Based off of what they did yesterday, Everything building up to the interview, they were showing the clips of Becky and talking about how Rio is in a positive influence for the younger ladies and going up against everything that she had been fighting against. It was very well done. Very well done. And it seemed like she was talking crap. And, you know, that whole run-in with Ariel, it was it was very well done.
Blak Makk:So kudos to the ladies. I'm actually excited for that match at WrestleMania. I wanna see how that ends because I don't know. And this is the theme going into WrestleMania. A lot of it, I don't know, and that's good.
Blak Makk:I love that I do not know what's going on. Even with the main event, we don't know. Now we've seen a little bit of the bloodline rules, and if this plays out like that at WrestleMania, I'm probably not gonna be as happy, on night 1. Although I again, them bringing out Bloodline Rules tonight just kinda just it kinda wrote me into it. Like, I don't know what's gonna happen at WrestleMania.
Blak Makk:And I actually like that I don't know what's gonna happen at WrestleMania. I love that. So please keep the hits coming. Yes. Thank you.
Blak Makk:Give me more of that, but let let's dive into Centimeters Punk's interview. He went in today. If you don't follow the story, if you if you're not a fan of AW, you probably won't get it. Right? If you don't watch AW TV and if you don't follow the product, you probably you probably don't get what he's talking about.
Blak Makk:But if you follow the product and you know Centimeters Punk and if you're a Centimeters Punk fan, today was a it was it was all live rounds. These were all live. And he was chomping them right at AEW, right at Tony Khan. He was the he was the focus of of the interview. Now what he alluded to, he didn't allude to all out because I think they actually can't talk about that one.
Blak Makk:But he definitely he definitely talked about all in. The all in and and the situation that happened at all in and how he was trying to protect Jack Perry, but Jack Perry wasn't actually gonna listen to him. And then the infamous cry me a river line, like, that just set him over the edge. And for what it's worth, man, I'm I'm gonna say this for Centimeters Punk. What it's worth, it's his truth.
Blak Makk:It it it's it's his story. It's his story to tell. He told it, and kudos to you for telling it telling it your your way. You know? I I definitely definitely applaud that because the story kinda needed to be told.
Blak Makk:Not that he needed to clear his name because he didn't. He acts he absolutely didn't. But the the the clearance that it provided was was major, and it did some damage to AEW. And that that's gonna lead me into this. I we talk a lot on this show about Tony Khan needing to be stronger in appearance.
Blak Makk:We do. Centimeters Punk base not basically. Centimeters Punk did say that Tony's just too much of a nice guy, And this is the this is the perception of him. He's too much of a nice guy. Now we're gonna go into it we're gonna go into it later on what's happening.
Blak Makk:Right? But Sam Punk is he came out on on on this show and said this that Tony Khan is not a boss. He's not the boss. Basically, if you'd own the company and you're not the boss, then who is? Is it the talent?
Blak Makk:Who's running the show? And that that was worrying to me. It it really was worrying to me. In a business where you absolutely and we said this last week too. In a business that you absolutely have to have thick skin, he didn't have it.
Blak Makk:He he does not have it, and he needs to develop it. He needs to bring people around him that aren't just yes men and happy to be there. You need combative you need combativeness. Right? You need somebody like a bully ray there with you to it's checks and balances.
Blak Makk:I get that you're an ambitious person, but you need the checks and balances. And everything that Centimeters Punk was talking about, as a fan, it kinda brought me, and I hate I hate admitting it like this, as a fan, it kinda brought me my fandom now for AEW. Because when AEW started, it was everything everything I wanted it to be. It it was everything I wanted wrestling to be. It was.
Blak Makk:Then you get all of negative comments, the negative attention. It just draws you away from it. And then you get somebody like a Centimeters Punk who went in your company. Not only that, you lose your vice president. He goes to WWE.
Blak Makk:He's a bigger star there. You get Centimeters Punk. He's a big star. He's your biggest star. Why are we not protecting this guy?
Blak Makk:Like, what what am what are we missing here? And the the story he told about Shivani and Shivani and Jack Perry I don't know, man. Jack Perry's in New Japan right now saying he's a scapegoat, but I don't know. That story just was it was wild. It was wild.
Blak Makk:The approach of it was wild, and I don't I don't know I don't know if if if Centimeters Punk's story is true, then everybody's wrong in the situation. Jack for how how he handled the situation. Centimeters Punk for how he handled the situation. Tony Khan for how he handled the situation. Like, there was no there was no structure there, bro.
Blak Makk:There was none. There was none. And and I'm not even I'm gonna bring it on a businesses, not even a wrestling sense, on a business sense. If I own the company and my subordinates are trying to tell me how to handle a situation. The fuck you mean?
Blak Makk:Like, what do you mean? This is my company. Why are you try why are you telling me what to do? And that's the issue that Centimeters Punk wasn't fired a long time ago. And in the interview, Centimeters Punk was like, I tried to go.
Blak Makk:I tried to I tried I asked for my release, and he said no. And it created a bigger problem. It's it's not a situation that that bodes well. It really isn't. It really isn't.
Blak Makk:And it's it's sad to me. It really is because I I like AEW. I want AEW to succeed. But stuff like this, it's like every time AEW gets to this place where they're doing good, their television right now is, I would say, some of the best television they put out. But here we go.
Blak Makk:Once you get to a place where you're okay, we're we're we're good. We're good right now. Every time you get to that place, something like this comes along to remind you that there's negativity there. And we don't know if they've addressed it every single time. This interview and I I I wish Frank d was here because me and Frank d talked about it.
Blak Makk:Every time they get to this place, something bad happens. And what I wish was the case was that Centimeters Punk was healthy saying this. Because a healthy Centimeters Punk saying this and then getting into a wrestling ring to main event WrestleMania would have made this like an eye opener. It's already an eye opener, but it's like we have to do something. We have to correct the shit.
Blak Makk:Because here this guy is perfectly healthy, left our company, and is going to main event WrestleMania. And that was the situation. This was the situation, and it could all have been avoided. And I would love to see Tony surround himself with people who have the company's best interest, not just not just his. You don't need friends, Tony.
Blak Makk:You don't. You really don't need friends right now. You need a group of assholes that will tell you the truth and steer you right. It it works, bro. Like, you're gonna hate it.
Blak Makk:It's gonna be uncomfortable, but you will come out on the other side way better for it. This is coming from somebody who had to surround themselves with people who would tell me no and tell me differently. You would see things a lot more clear. And I know, but that that Tony's a nice guy, and he's not a boss. Like, that's a that's a shot to the soul, bro.
Blak Makk:That is a shot to the soul. And no, please, for the love of God, don't respond. Don't respond to them. Not not publicly. Don't get on Twitter.
Blak Makk:Stay. I've seen he got on, but he did. By the way, rest in peace to, Vontae. He got on there, and he said rest in peace. And for the fans that got on that post and was talking about the interview, you are pieces of shit.
Blak Makk:I just wanna I just wanna clarify that. Put that out in the universe. Like, that that's not supposed to come at Tony on. It really hit. It's not.
Blak Makk:The man's trying to give, condolences to someone's family and you on here talking about the interview. Fuck you. Get off Twitter. But, Tony Khan, please, bro. Don't don't respond to this.
Blak Makk:Don't don't respond to this. Let it go. Let it go because nothing good is gonna come from you responding. Nothing good is gonna come from you responding. Let that go.
Blak Makk:And with that, let's go to the second topic, and that is Roman's documentary. Now we've seen Roman on on Raw tonight. He talked about the documentary. And the first thing I'm gonna say about this documentary is it's hard for me. It is hard for me not to root for Roman Reigns after watching that.
Blak Makk:It's very hard, which shout out to the hurricane too. I wanna shout out to hurricane Shane Helms. Shout out to you, hurricane, because I interviewed him in, 1 years ago. I I interviewed him, and he spoke very highly of Roman Reigns' brother, Rosie. He he spoke very highly of him in which that documentary did a very good job of highlighting his brother and how much of an influence his brother was.
Blak Makk:It also, bro, I don't want Roman Reigns to lose that mania. I don't. They did too good of a job. They did too good of a job portraying the guy that he is. It was well done.
Blak Makk:That documentary was well done. I don't wanna see him lose. I I I love you, Cody. I I wish you success. I know you're gonna be the guy.
Blak Makk:You have it in you. But after watching that documentary, I can't. I can't root for you. I'm sorry. And I watched your documentary, and it made me wanna root for you.
Blak Makk:But them doing this shit a week before WrestleMania, knowing knowing that you're gonna be facing him, bad move bad move if they want you to be the man. Now I I'm just saying. As a fan, me watching this shit, 10 minutes into the documentary, I was like, I'm sold. I am sold. I'm I'm done.
Blak Makk:I can't I can't root for I can't root for nobody else, bro. The man takes cancer medication to this day. To this day, he takes cancer medication. And for everybody that's saying, like, well, how come Roman don't wrestle? How come Roman ain't ain't around?
Blak Makk:Because the man is still at risk, which is why we're home during the pandemic. We're not really completely out of it. COVID is still a problem. We just aren't in a pandemic anymore. But COVID is still very much a problem, which is why you don't see Roman Reigns a lot.
Blak Makk:The man has a form of leukemia. His immune system is compromised. I can understand this. Unfortunately, I can because that is a very deadly disease. So the fact that he even wrestles never mind that.
Blak Makk:The fact that this motherfucker actually keeps his physique, the way it looks, and he's still moving the way he moves and carrying the company the way he is, fuck you. I'm rooting for Roman Reigns. It's just that simple, bro. The man walked through fire and is still on top of the game. Not to mention not to mention, the fans didn't want them.
Blak Makk:He reinvented himself and became the tribal chief, which is what this documentary covered. I'm sorry. I I I am sorry, but I I can't root for anybody else. I can't root for you, Cody. This is gonna hey.
Blak Makk:Listen. I want the man to win. I might actually be sad if he loses. I now want him to break Hulk Hogan shit. I don't care if the lineage is tied to the belt or not at this point.
Blak Makk:It's the WWE Universal Championship. Fuck the lineage. The man still wrestles at a high level with his immune system like that. You can't tell like, listen. You can't tell me that ain't that ain't hard as fuck, bro.
Blak Makk:You can't tell me that. The man puts on. And listen. You can talk about the title defenses. You can talk about all that.
Blak Makk:I don't give a fuck about none of that shit no more. I don't. I don't. I don't give a fuck about none of it. 55 defenses, I don't fucking care since he's had this title.
Blak Makk:He's had the disease. And every time he's walked into a ring with this fucking disease, he's had a banger. None of these other motherfuckers did that shit. None of them. So until somebody else does what he what he did I'm sorry, bro.
Blak Makk:I can't root for him. I can't root for him. He has my utmost respect to the nth degree to the nth degree. I'm sorry. And if you're listening to this podcast, feel free Feel free to leave a comment.
Blak Makk:Will I care? No. Because he don't. He goes out there. He wrecks shit.
Blak Makk:He leaves, and then he fucking takes care of his body. Bro, that's hard as fuck. I don't give a fuck who you are. I don't care. I don't care who you are.
Blak Makk:That's hard. That's hard. Roman has my respect, bro. He has my utmost respect. So that documentary, it and tonight, I'm like, man, Roman's gotta win.
Blak Makk:He's gotta win. I know they made him look like a ultra hill tonight. That's fine. And I hope they lose night 1. If they lose night 1, I'm a be happy because night 2 is about to be, always gonna be heartbreak.
Blak Makk:Oh, it's gonna be heartbreak. Now we've been talking we've been talking, me and Frank d, for a while about what Cody is gonna do. We think he's gonna turn. I might actually be heartbroken behind it now if he does. I might actually be heartbroken if he does turn because I do want Roman to win, And that is all because of this documentary.
Blak Makk:It's all because of like, if you haven't watched the documentary, please watch it. I I know I'm gonna come on here tomorrow, and I'm gonna talk about the gray one because I haven't watched it yet. It's been suggested. I just I haven't gotten to it yet. But I promise once I once I settle in and, get get my work done, I will watch the documentary, and then I'll talk about it tomorrow.
Blak Makk:But tonight, do yourselves a favor. If you haven't watched the Roman doc, watch the Roman doc, please. Please. And with that, we're gonna go into our final one. Man, listen.
Blak Makk:It's not because of Centimeters pop, but it just so just so happened to to coincide with the interview. There have been multiple cuts on multiple levels on AW. Let me see if I can bring up the, the full the full list. So with this, we have Slim j, Parker Boudreaux, Stu Grayson, Gravity, Anthony Harry, JoraJo, Jose the assistant, Dasha, and the boys. Now this is mostly ROH.
Blak Makk:ROH, these were mostly ROH's talents. The boys were very popular with Dalton Castle. That kinda hurt me to see see them go. Stu Grayson is another one that kinda hurt me to see go because he came back, and I don't think they really did much with Stu, with the dark order, and he's gone again. Parker Boudreaux was one of those with, with Swerve once he did the mogul affiliates.
Blak Makk:And I think he got injured, and he's was in AAA, but now he is released from AW. But sad to see him go. This was coming from Sean Ross Sapp. So, he reported that he hadn't heard any other releases, but he's pretty consistent with these. Shout out to Kimmy because she was saying these, she was confirming some of these.
Blak Makk:But yeah, man. It looks like it looks like Tony is is starting to cut a little bit of weight from from the ship, which listen. There there's no good good thing to do, no good time to do these things, but getting it done is, like, almost necessary if if you really want to, if you want more money in the in the pocket. You know what I mean, to spend in other places. It sucks because these are people that are losing their jobs.
Blak Makk:And, you know, the wrestling business right now is it's it's a unique period. So, hopefully, these guys find the spot to land. I know some of them are already working in indies. I know Parker was working CMLL, I believe. No.
Blak Makk:He's working triple a. Sorry. He's working triple a. But, hopefully, these guys can, you know, land on their feet and and correct it and get back to a place where they build up their profile and and get them get them back. You know?
Blak Makk:That sucks. It sucks. Dasha was one of the ones that she was almost an original, I believe, and she's been there for a while. So to see her go, she was really good at what she did. It it it's it sucks, man.
Blak Makk:So my heart goes out to everybody that got released. I hope I hope there's not many more. But if if I'm being honest, man, there there's gonna come a time where where there's gonna be more of these. You know? AW likes to keep people around, and it's it's noble, but it goes back to what Centimeters Punk said, bro.
Blak Makk:Like, sometimes you have to be a businessman. Like, sometimes you do. You gotta make the hard choices. It's gonna suck, man. It making a tough choice sucks.
Blak Makk:It does. There is no right way to do it. But the tough what the tough choices are often the the ones that you need to make. It it really is. I I can tell you that from experience, but my heart goes out to him.
Blak Makk:And with that, man, my final thoughts, I do wanna thank you, all for tuning into the show tonight. Thank you for lending me your attention. And if you're listening, leave a comment what you think of the show. We'll be back. This is WrestleMania week.
Blak Makk:Listen. I wanted to cover so much other stuff. Like, I I have stuff planned, but today started with the shits, and I think that we're gonna just keep with the shits until Sunday. So I'm gonna I'm gonna play these all by ear now. You know?
Blak Makk:If there's something not happening, then I'll bring up I'll bring up a list that I made, and and we'll do a show on that. But right now, buckle up. We're in WrestleMania week. Shit is going down, and I'm gonna be here to talk about it. So until next time.
Blak Makk:Thank you guys for tuning in to the no gimmicks podcast.