Rocky IV (Episode 7) - Creed 2 Trailer Full Analysis | Rocky, Drago & Creed Legacy

Special Creed II Trailer Breakdown episode! Ryan is joined by frequent guest Kyle for an emergency hot-take on the brand-new Creed II trailer.

We go scene-by-scene through the entire trailer — training montages in the desert and Philly, the two fights, Drago Jr.’s intense training in Russia, Rocky’s tough love conversation with Adonis, Bianca’s pregnancy, the weigh-in stare-down, and that epic ring entrance with the fireball.

We speculate on fight locations, who’s in whose corner, whether Adonis loses the first fight, Rocky’s guilt over Apollo, and why this trailer feels completely different (and way better) than the first one. Plus tons of Rocky series deep lore and brotherly banter.

If you love Creed, Rocky IV callbacks, and nerdy trailer breakdowns, this one’s for you.

0:00 – Intro & Kyle’s Rocky Series guest history
2:27 – Why we’re doing this emergency trailer breakdown
4:22 – First reactions to the new Creed II trailer
7:08 – Desert training montage & Rocky IV parallels
10:26 – Outdoor sparring ring & medicine ball scene
12:09 – “It’s time, kid” & Rocky’s advice
14:17 – Bianca & Mrs. Creed conversation
17:09 – Baby reveal & timeline speculation
19:17 – Drago Jr. training in Russia
21:45 – Rocky vs. Drago Sr. stare-down & weigh-in
24:45 – Ring entrance with fireball & Russian symbology
27:00 – Second fight predictions & body shot theory
32:50 – Final thoughts & “Ding ding” sign-off

Creators and Guests

Host

Ryan Rebalkin

Guest

Kyle Pederson

What is Going The Distance: The Rocky Series Podcast?

Step into the ring with *Going The Distance: The Rocky Series Podcast*, the ultimate celebration of Sylvester Stallone's iconic underdog saga. Hosted by passionate Rocky superfan Ryan Rebalkin, this dedicated feed dives deep into every punch, montage, and heartfelt moment of the *Rocky* franchise—one film at a time, in glorious chronological order.

Whether you're reliving the gritty streets of Philadelphia in the original *Rocky* or breaking down the epic family legacy in *Rocky Balboa*, Ryan brings the energy of a champion. Joined by his brother Ruban, fellow superfans, amateur boxers and even musicians behind the films' anthems (shoutout to Robert Tepper's "No Easy Way Out"), each episode unpacks scenes with infectious enthusiasm, behind-the-scenes trivia, and personal stories that capture why *Rocky* still inspires millions to "go the distance."

From dissecting the legendary training montages and rematches, this podcast isn't just analysis—it's a knockout conversation that honors the heart, humor, and hustle of the Italian Stallion. It's perfect for die-hard fans, casual viewers, and anyone chasing their own eye-of-the-tiger moment.

Tune in for laughs, insights, and motivation that hits harder than Apollo Creed's left hook. Lace up your boots—it's time to go the distance!

Going The Distance - Rocky IV - Episode 7.mp3
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I did a Creed 2 trailer breakdown, but I haven't listened to any of them because I think you and I will give the definitive breakdown. I think we're the only ones who have that authority.
We have that authority. It's been passed down, and it's the only true authority.
Kyle, why don't you say who you are to the listeners? What episodes have you been on? Can you name them all?
Well, no, not all of them. I was in the final fight for the first movie, and then I can't remember which one I was in for the second movie. And then I did final fight, third movie. And then I did the scene in the fourth movie where Apollo's pitching the idea to Rocky. And then I also did an episode where I talked about seeing the first Rocky in the movie theater.
Yeah, I think that was your first episode. And then I think there's been some other ones. Yeah, I don't know which one was the first, but that was one of the early ones for sure. I'm guest host Kyle. I randomly show up for episodes. I'm very noncommittal.
He's my guy I can call on short notice. In fact, today was like the first day where he gave me a hard no, and I still twisted his nipple a little bit to get him out here, so thank you very much.
My pleasure. You know I can't say no.
You can't say no to the Creed 2 trailer breakdown.
I couldn't give that to Ruben. That'd be an abomination. No offense to Ruben.
Yeah, so Ruben and I will be recording an episode later today, the next sequence of events in the Rocky IV movie, which I believe is the press conference.
But this is like an emergency recording. This is like a hot take, and Ruben was going to be here for this recording, but unfortunately work got in the way.
And so tonight's recording had to be sparse down from its original timing, so I'm like, we've got to get this hot take out there.
Even though the trailer's going to be out for about a week by the time this episode comes out, I still think it's worth to talk and break down the Creed 2 trailer.
There's a lot in this trailer. To be honest, that first Creed 2 trailer that came out a while back did not get me too excited about seeing Creed 2.
I didn't think Creed 2 would be bad, but it's just the trailer was just...
Yeah, this one really got me excited. And I was nervous about a second trailer, because sometimes trailers, when they come out, like one or two or even three trailers come out for a movie, they kind of show the same things.
Maybe they'll throw in a different scene or something like that. This trailer almost feels like it's coming from a different movie than the first trailer.
Totally. And speaking of trailers, actually, I looked up the trailer, this was a while ago, for the first Rocky.
It was the most bizarre trailer I've ever seen. It was a complete synopsis of the movie. It literally spoiled everything.
I don't know if maybe someone made that and made it look like a trailer, but yeah, it was really weird.
For the first movie?
Yeah, it was like the trailer from like the 70s.
Oh, yeah. Oh, he's talking about the Rocky movie trailer. The original Rocky.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've seen that trailer. I've seen that trailer.
The greatest fight of his life was not going the distance with Apollo Creed. Spoiler alert. No, just kidding. Not spoiler alert. He just wanted to get the girl.
Imagine if they had that trailer for The Empire Strikes Back. And then you find out Darth Vader is Luke's father.
No kidding. This trailer is getting a lot of good responses. I have yet, without digging, I have yet to see a response that is negative.
Other than some of those people who don't like Rocky or didn't like the idea of Creed in the first place.
I'm just talking about those especially who saw Creed Part 1. This one seems to have more hype than Creed Part 1, wouldn't you say?
Yeah, absolutely. I don't know. I think a lot of people were skeptical about Creed because it's kind of a spin-off. And that's fine.
My wife, for example, who, she's not anti-Rocky, but is not into it. It's not her thing.
I was showing her parts of the Creed 2 trailer and she was like, oh, that's really cool.
So even her, she was like cool with the trailer. Probably because there's like these ripped dudes in it or whatever.
Yeah, there's not really any beautiful girls in this trailer. A lot of beautiful men.
Yeah, yeah. Pretty good shape.
Oh, they're in incredible shape. What's his name? Michael B. Jordan. Looks fantastic.
I think his star has risen just that much further with his portrayal in the Black Panther movie.
Yeah, he's getting, he's just pretty getting established now.
Is he an A-list actor now?
No, I wouldn't say he's an A-list actor, but he is certainly known now.
Yeah, for sure.
The name obviously helps. Think of like an A-list, like no Brad Pitt or George Clusey or...
No Sylvester Stallone.
No Sylvester Stallone, right.
But he's getting there.
I don't know if Sly was not in this movie, if it would work though.
We're going to talk about that because we're going to break down the trailer.
And let me just say right now for our listeners, it can't be a spoiler episode because I haven't seen the movie.
But let me make it clear, and I think Kyle's on board as well with this.
We are going to break down scene by scene as the trailer is being shown to us.
So we'll describe what's happening.
You can either follow along on YouTube as we talk about it, or you can just envision the trailer in your mind as everyone listening has probably already seen the trailer.
So we are going to break down the trailer.
So if you don't want a trailer spoiler, don't listen.
Like if you don't want to know anything about Kree 2.
Because we're going to break down this trailer per sequence of events of the trailer.
And we're going to speculate when it's happening in the film and why.
Yeah, I know.
I remember seeing a comment on the Facebook or something on one of your pages where someone took offense to you spoiling something.
Which, no offense to that person, but I pretty strongly disagree with them.
It cannot be a spoiler unless you have inside information that's not publicly available.
Trailers are, you know, they're meant to hold back.
So unless it's that one Rocky trailer, of course.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like if your podcast is just about the trailer, then be forewarned.
If for some reason you want to be so pure that you don't want to even look at a trailer, then just stay away.
Okay.
So let's do it.
We've given our warnings.
And we should also warn you that we're probably not giving the best breakdown that other podcasts have given.
But this is what you get.
Sorry.
But other than that, this is what you're going to hear.
This is what you're going to listen to.
How dare you, Ryan.
I know.
How dare you say that.
I'm just kidding.
So let's start off, Kyle, right away.
We've got Adonis running in what looks like a Midwestern state, I would say.
There's some shrubbery.
I think he's in, he could be like in like Death Valley area in California.
From looking at this trailer in general, it seems to be switching between L.A. and Philly pretty constantly.
Okay, are we going to talk about that right now or do you want to talk about the scenes first?
Or should we talk about the fact in this trailer we see, okay, I know this is already going crazy.
In this trailer we see training that occurs with Rocky and Adonis in the desert, a la the mountains of Rocky IV.
He's training natural elements in the outdoors in this like scrappy looking ring with like sparring partners.
No palatial gym like his dad.
This is like Rocky IV before his fight with Drago.
Now Rocky only had one fight with Drago, of course.
But this is him training out in the wilderness in Russia.
We now have Adonis trained out in the wilderness of some Midwestern state or some desert state.
Maybe like Southwestern state.
Southwestern.
Midwest would be like Iowa or something.
Sure, my bad.
Yeah, Arizona.
It looks hot.
It looks hot and desert-like.
I'm going to put my money on Southern California.
Oh, sure.
Fair enough.
Yeah, fair enough.
It's kind of near LA where he lives.
Right away I'm going to ask this question.
We'll talk about the scenes as they come up.
There's two training sequences that we see Adonis do.
One, he's in the pool.
He seems to be like in indoor type training scenarios.
And then two, outdoor type training.
Which one occurs before the second fight?
Which one occurs before the first fight?
Okay, I have my opinion on this.
So I do too.
Go ahead with yours.
I believe the desert is the second fight.
Yeah.
For a couple of reasons.
One, you know, usually.
Because it's obvious he's going to lose the first fight.
You're not going to have a fight where he's winning twice.
No.
Especially if it's against Drago.
When he's trying to talk Rocky into doing the fight, it's in Philly.
Yeah.
And that's where he was training before.
I'm guessing he stayed out there to train for the first fight.
Because he's kind of established there anyways.
Then after things go badly in the first fight.
I honestly get a lot of Rocky III vibes from this movie.
It's a three and four combined, I think.
I wouldn't say he's getting soft like Rocky was in three.
Right.
Where he's letting the championship lifestyle get to him.
But I think he's going to kind of go out west for the second fight just like Rocky did.
And he's going to train in harsh conditions like Rocky did in four.
So you're right.
It is kind of a combination between three and four.
So that's what I put my movie on.
Okay.
So let's start.
We'll keep that desert slash whatever indoor training sequences as we talk about it.
We'll talk about it as the trailer shows us these things out of order, of course.
So he's running down the street right now with some sort of car behind him.
I don't know what that car is.
It looks like maybe a Camaro type car or something.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know cars.
Okay.
I didn't know if he did.
I don't know cars either.
So we're both lame men.
Yeah.
That being said, I would assume it's Rocky driving the car.
Yeah.
I wonder if Rocky's there for both training and both fights.
I don't think he's there for the first fight.
And I have my reasons.
We'll get there.
Or unless you want to talk about it now.
No, I'm all right.
Which one?
No, like we can keep going.
Okay.
So there's that sequence right here where he's sparring with somebody in an outdoor ring.
Yeah.
They're just like taking body shots on each other.
Rocky's in the ring calling the shots.
So we know that Rocky's definitely in the training.
sequences for Adonis' most likely rematch.
Yeah.
And then there's an incredible scene where Adonis is hanging, like doing a scene from Roots.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This harkens back to a scene from the first film, actually.
Oh, yeah.
Where Michael, the short guy, he takes the medicine ball to Rocky's stomach.
And Sly Stallone commented on that, that like that was extremely painful and like hurt his body seriously.
So Sly's doing some payback to the man.
This is also my guess.
My guess is Drago goes to the body hard in the first fight.
Right.
Because you see later in the trailer him doing these body shots, practicing, and they're very powerful.
Yep.
And then you see Creed trading here and they're really like he's working on the body with the sparring partner.
Rocky's trying to toughen his body up with whatever.
I don't know if that's a medicine ball or what that means.
I think it is.
It looks like a medicine ball.
Yeah.
That's a good call, Kyle.
It's a brutal body shot in the first fight is my prediction.
Okay, good.
I like that.
We'll stick with that.
And then we have a sequence really quick of Adonis shadowboxing over a fire barrel.
The fire barrel has made a return to the Rocky series.
The same barrel is in the first film.
I think it is.
I think it's officially the same barrel that Frank Stallone sang.
Take it back.
Do do do do.
Take it back.
That was his pay for the first movie.
He got to keep the barrel.
Yeah.
It's a portable heating system.
Yeah.
Already this is a classic scene coming up here.
The 15 second mark.
Rocky telling Adonis that it's time, kid.
What fight do you think that's in?
That's the rematch.
Good.
This is a little disagree here.
I actually think it's the first one.
I'll tell you why it's not.
I'll tell you why it's not before you start.
Rocky's dress is the same outfit he wears in the second fight.
He's wearing it right now.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sorry.
That's right.
When you face it.
Yeah, yeah.
You're right.
Okay.
Same for like 40 years.
It's true, but there's two things here.
Two things are going on here, Kyle.
We'll see some shots and sequences of Adonis staring down Drago Jr.
Yeah.
Twice.
One, we definitely know is the rematch because that's the stare down that Rocky and Drago will have.
There's a first one where Rocky is not in the screen or in the shot, which indicates that Rocky wasn't at the first trailer.
That's right.
So he's not there for the first fight.
Yeah, okay.
You're right.
You're right.
I'm wrong.
So we'll get to the reasons why later.
Again, this is all speculations.
I don't have, I wish, I like to think people like to think that I have some sort of like inside scoop.
I have nothing.
This is just nerd talk.
That's all this is.
Pure logic, right?
Rocky says, kid, it's time.
And that's exactly what Mickey said to Rocky, I believe.
Was it part two?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Part one.
He might have said it in part two.
In part one, he's like praying and he's like his, he's like on the sink.
That's right.
He's kneeling down and he's using like the sink to rest.
Yeah.
And then like Mickey kind of interrupts him by saying time.
It's a great shot of Sylvester Stallone being blurred out.
And then Adonis looks at him and Rocky comes into focus.
Cool shot.
And Adonis does his thing where before a fight he hits his gloves together twice.
Yeah.
Kind of like a quirk of his.
I've come a long way with Tessa Thompson.
I didn't really like her in the first Creed.
I thought she was the weakest part of the movie, quite frankly.
I'm hoping I don't find her as annoying in this film as I did in the first one.
I hate to say it.
I thought it was maybe her acting, but I think it might have been the way she was written.
And the way she acted.
Because she was good in the Marvel movies.
And I know she's a good actress because I've seen her in other things.
I am hopeful because the sequence she has here with Mrs. Bill Cosby looks pretty good.
You know, how she's talking about how Adonis is really focused on the fight right now.
And I think this sequence right here, I think, takes place before the first fight.
It is clearly before the first fight.
Because we'll see in the trailer him talking to her about there being a team.
There's going to be a story arc about how Adonis' priorities change throughout the fight.
I think Adonis right now, it seems, he's really following in the footsteps of his father by being really headstrong.
Being self-centered, really.
Bianca, I think, is the character name.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When she's talking to Mrs. Creed, I'm sure Mrs. Creed knows exactly what she's talking about.
And so I'm sure there'll be a good scene there when she probably relate how Apollo is the exact same way.
And of course, that's kind of what killed Apollo, among other things.
I really hope we have a scene with Stallone and Rashida, what's her name?
Mrs. Creed Crosby.
I should know her name, but I don't.
Priscilla?
Yeah.
Priscilla Rashard or something like that?
I'm terrible.
We all know she played Dr. Huxbowl's wife.
May he rest in peace in jail.
Yeah.
So we have a sequence here now of Adonis looking a little forlorn, introspective as he's standing in the pool.
We saw in the first trailer of him doing some training in the water.
So this, again, is by himself.
There's no Rocky to be seen here on screen, but we assume he's not in the pool.
It harkens back to Rocky 3 a little bit because that's Rocky's only pool training that was in that movie.
Right.
Part of that pool training was really struggling.
Adonis doesn't swim.
He just boxes underwater.
Oh, okay.
I'm sure that that's used by more than just him, but that was a big Muhammad Ali thing was boxing underwater.
Oh, wow.
Cool.
Yeah.
The next scene, they have a baby, which you kind of saw in the first trailer, so it's no real surprise.
I don't think they're married.
I don't know why, but I don't know if they're married.
They could be.
Yeah.
They might as well be now that they have a kid.
Yeah.
You're connected to that person now because you have a child with them.
Or at least you ought to be.
Yeah, I agree.
They're probably married.
They're probably married.
We're skipping a little bit ahead here, but this baby, I believe, was born between the loss of the first fight and then before the second fight.
I think she was pregnant during the first fight.
There's probably some time has passed between the first and second fight.
Maybe.
It doesn't really matter, but that's my guess.
The baby was born after the first fight.
I'm curious if we're going to see, by the way, or I know we're rewinding a bit, but I'm curious if we're going to see how Adonis became champ.
Even if they just show some clips or something like that.
Or like, beginning of Rocky III, you see him breeze through the ten title defenses.
I wonder if they'll have something kind of like that.
On the head.
That's exactly what I think happens.
I think the movie opens with him winning the belt.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'd put money on that.
It's a good little fight.
In the first trailer, if everyone goes back and watches the first trailer, there's a sequence where he's all like, yeah, kind of all jacked.
Yeah.
To kind of like lording over his fallen opponent.
And I don't see him doing that over.
I don't see him doing that over Drago.
You're right.
I think that's probably from him becoming champ.
Yeah.
So he wins the belt.
Now here's what's crazy.
There's two fights that we'll see between the two fight arenas.
And we're going to get to where I believe the second one's held.
And I'll talk to you why I think I know this.
Both fights though, Creed's entourage, Kyle, walks in with the belt.
Oh, I think I can explain this.
Please do.
Okay.
I was talking about this in the Facebook comments a bit.
So any listeners, this may be repetitive.
But I do not think this is for the title at all.
And the reason is, is because I don't think they're in the same weight division.
Right.
Adonis Creed or Michael B. Jordan, he's probably about $1.75, $1.80.
Like 175 pounds is the max weight for the light heavyweight division.
That's where he was fighting before.
And then after that, you go up to, I believe it.
I always screw this up.
I think it was cruiserweight.
And that's the 180 to 200.
And then after 200, it's just unlimited heavyweight.
His opponent in real life is like 235 to 245.
And you can see in the trailer, he's significantly larger.
In real life, they're significantly larger too, right?
Yeah.
You can do camera angles or whatever.
But I looked it up for Michael B.
He is about that weight.
He's not 200 pounds.
He's about six feet.
But he's definitely not in the heavyweight.
Now, the reason there was such a huge mismatch between Rocky and Drago is they're both in the heavyweight.
But there's no ceiling on the heavyweight.
Right.
So you can have that big size mismatch.
But in this case, you can't.
They do have what's called a catchweight fight.
And that's where people of two different divisions can fight each other.
But you can't take someone's title if you're in a different division than them.
That was my thinking too.
Because I don't think Drago Jr., as we will find out later in the trailer, we'll just talk about it now.
He issues a call over social media calling out Creed Jr. saying, I want to fight you, man.
Sun against Sun.
Let's do this.
And no one would probably fault him if he said no, right?
Who's going to take a fight two divisions up from them?
Like, that's insane.
Yeah.
Right?
This guy probably has nothing to lose.
Like, you hear Rocky say he has nothing to lose.
Part of it's probably because he's in a way better position.
You're not guaranteed to win.
But it's like, you have a huge advantage.
All right.
So now we have Adonis talking to Rocky outside of Philadelphia.
Asking him, hey, let's, you know, come with me.
Be in the corner.
Train me to fight this guy.
And Rocky's like, no, you don't need this.
I don't support this.
I'm not going to back you on this.
Your father had the same arrogance.
The same bullheaded type behavior.
And he died in my arms.
Like, can I spell this out for you, Adonis?
I don't want to be the guy who doesn't throw in the damn towel.
Yeah, I have some pretty strong opinions about whether Rocky should have thrown in the towel in the first fight or not.
But notwithstanding, I think Rocky carries a lot of personal guilt for that.
Oh, yeah.
I think that's probably the way that bothers him.
He talks about that in the first, like, in the first Creed movie.
How would he feel if he did it again?
Of course.
Like, Michael B was, like, killed.
And he has, like, a little baby that won't know his dad.
Just like Creed was.
Two dead fathers because Rocky wouldn't throw the damn towel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Although, to be fair, Lou Filippo was the ref for that match.
And he doesn't stop fights even if someone's head is, like, hanging by a string.
Like, he doesn't give a damn.
So blame Lou.
Yeah.
So your fault, buddy.
So now we have Rocky describing Drago Jr.
And I'm not too sure how we know how much Rocky or why he knows as much as he does about Drago Jr.
But he knows one thing for sure.
That Drago Jr. is the son of Drago Sr.
And he says that Drago Jr. was raised in hate.
He's dangerous.
Yeah.
What does that mean?
I do not understand.
Because you don't know anything.
You never hear about Ivan Drago in Rocky V.
You don't hear about him in Rocky V.
Boa or in Creed.
For all intents and purposes, this guy disappears.
Did he go on to have a career in boxing?
He probably was a disgrace with his people.
That's right.
So he raised his son, you know.
And he raised his son saying, hey, I was someone really special in this country until this guy named the Italian Stallion turned my own country on me.
And I was hoping that in a weird way, maybe in a Cinderella story way, that there'd be some sort of story arc on Ivan Drago that he may have changed too.
But I don't think he has.
Those stare downs.
And the way he looks, as we'll see later in the trailer, we'll just talk about it right now.
When Drago was looking at his son training, like you said, training on those body shots with a sparring partner, you see this look of evil pride that Drago has on the killing machine that his son is.
Yeah.
It's great acting by Dolph.
Incredible acting.
And I even said that in the Rocky IV, Dolph was incredible as Drago with his eyes and his face.
His acting, without saying anything, was actually, it's still acting.
You don't have to talk to act.
Yeah, I agree.
I'm just saying, Drago Sr., in this trailer, the look he gives his son in that little moment in that trailer, bravo, man.
Dolph brings, I think he's going to bring it to this movie.
I'm assuming we're going to hear him actually speak in this movie, right?
I guess so.
We'd have to.
Which is something.
But I love how the trailer isn't giving you anything.
I think you're going to have to watch this movie to hear whatever this guy has to say.
Part of me also wanted him to change.
I didn't actually despise Drago that much in Rocky IV.
The only thing bad he did, I think, is being callous about killing Apollo Crew.
Saying if he dies, he dies.
That's the only thing that, like, even the steroids, it's like, that probably wasn't even his choice.
He was doing what he's told.
He had one villainous thing and that's it.
But it's not really enough for you to really hate him.
Also, you see him get turned on by the Politburo and his trainer guy.
Not his trainer, but his PR guy who was with him all the time.
And how he picks him up by the neck and stuff.
And they say he's fighting for him.
And I can see him hating Rocky.
And I can see Drago Jr. hating Rocky.
I don't necessarily see the connection for them hating Creed.
It's more the other way around, right?
It's like, well, you killed Creed.
I got a spoiler.
This might be a real spoiler.
I won't say the source.
People can disbelieve me because I don't want to put this guy, even though he posted it on his Facebook.
And he was there for the filming of a scene that happens in Adrian's Diner.
So this is something that's not in the trailer.
So if you don't want to hear this, mute your ears for about a minute or two.
So there is a sequence where Drago Sr. and Drago Jr. come to Adrian's Diner to talk to Rocky.
In that sequence, I'm not sure.
That would be a cool scene.
It's going to be, well, it's filmed.
It's a fit.
Now, whether or not it makes a cut, I don't know.
But the person I know is somebody I trust.
And he was there for the filming.
He didn't hear the dialogue of what was said between the Dragos and Rocky.
But the one sequence that he did see and did witness was when Drago Jr. was leaving the restaurant.
He turned to look at a picture of Apollo on the wall, looked at it with kind of a smirk smug on his face.
He goes, nice picture.
And it walked out.
Yeah, that is very interesting.
Do have a vendetta.
They are not happy with the Creed and Balboa family.
If you see Creed and Balboa as kind of one entity, yes, you got one up on Creed.
But then Rocky got one up on you and basically destroyed your life.
That you would see Creed and Rocky as kind of one and the same entity.
So, but it looks like they're not separating those two figures.
Not in this situation.
It's not like Drago Jr. has got to be going in the ring against Rocky's son in Vancouver.
Right.
That's right.
So, we have an entrance here, Kyle.
The entrance here is a big fireball blows up behind the Dragos as they're entering the ring.
Both wearing red.
That's the country colors.
The fireball on Drago Jr.'s entrance to the ring in such a glorious looking way tells me that this fight takes place in some sort of Russian part of the world.
So, Russia.
Yes.
In other words.
Better not be on Christmas, though.
Better, if it's on Christmas, I'm going to walk out of the theater.
If it's on Christmas, I'm going to cheer and cry.
Another Rocky Christmas movie.
Yeah, I guess it could be in Russia.
It has to be.
If you look at the trailer and you stop, there's sparkles going on on his entrance.
This is a big fireball.
Now, you could argue maybe the States is just being really excited that they have this big match coming in.
Because, you know, all UFC guys have their own entrance.
I agree.
But this seems very home crowd-ish.
I'm trying to see if there's any Russian writing anywhere in the background.
Somebody on our Facebook group sent us a picture.
Or not on our group.
It might have been another podcast group.
So, I won't say which one.
Because I don't want to bury anybody.
But this individual on the group that I'm a part of showed props when he was an extra in the movie.
In the crowd.
And it was Russian VIP passes.
Oh, nice.
There is an entrance sequence that happens later in the trailer where it shows, again, Drago Jr. coming through the curtain.
And the two females, if you pause it, the two females looking at him are really happy to see him.
Really excited.
Now, again, you could say, well, maybe because he's a good-looking guy.
He's big.
But, again, they kind of have this look on their face like, this is our guy.
This isn't a guy that just destroyed Adonis Creed a few months back.
It seems to me like this entrance and the girls that see him walk in with that swagger and confidence, it seems very home crowd-y.
One fight for sure is in America because there's, like, some advertisement in the background that's in English.
The second one being in Russia makes sense.
Like, that's kind of the natural progression.
So can we talk about Drago Jr. and his little exercise montage?
We have a sequence here of Drago Jr. jogging in some run-down, basically, Russia-looking area.
Broken-down building.
I bet you anything they film that in, like, Detroit or somewhere.
Well, probably.
Probably.
See the license plate on the vehicle following him is in Cyrillic characters, so it's definitely Russia.
There it is, yeah.
Well, it says 9, yeah, it says 9, 4, C, 5, 9, P, I, H.
C is S in Russian, and P is R.
Oh, there you go.
I'm convinced that's Russia, though.
You see what kind of area Drago grows up in?
He's from the tough neighborhood.
Has the eye of the tiger, so to speak.
Right.
Like, he's hard.
So we got him jogging.
We got him doing this weird flip with his body, with the ropes.
It's going to be an incredible sequence.
So we're going to see some of his training.
And I think this sequence here, of him training in his motherland of Russia, is probably happening concurrently with Adonis' train in the desert.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah.
They're both training hard.
I'm glad Adonis is not going to Russia to train, because I'd be...
I think we want these Creed movies to be kind of their own deal.
Like, they'll obviously always be connected to Rocky somehow.
Creed was, like, in a lot of ways, kind of a reboot of Rocky 1.
And I think if they did, like, a reboot totally of Rocky 4 here, it would be really cheesy.
Right.
I'm glad they're kind of splitting off this way and doing their own thing.
So there's a sequence here where Adonis, again, is training with not Rocky.
He's doing the punching bag.
What do you call it?
The gloves.
Someone else is wearing gloves.
It's a person that we've never met before in this series.
And here we go.
So if you go to the trail on YouTube, folks, a minute 1, 2, 3, this is fight number 1.
And this is where his wardrobe is important, fellas.
Drago and his team are wearing blue.
Yeah.
So they're wearing blue, which tells me this is fight number 1.
Drago Sr. staring down the person to Adonis' left.
And it's not Rocky.
It's a trainer that I've never seen before.
The guy that they met in Philadelphia, like, they took him to that gym in the north side.
Yeah.
Isn't that Creed's son in real life?
The guy we're talking about is the guy in Creed 1 where he goes to Creed's gym.
Adonis goes to Creed's gym.
Oh, yeah.
That guy is Apollo Creed's son, which I have a huge problem with.
If I'm ever on that episode, we need to get there eventually.
So that is Apollo's son.
Totally unbelievable that that would be Apollo's son, but I've watched it several times, and
yeah, it is.
So it looks like he's in this match with Adonis, that he's the guy next to him.
Is that him?
Yeah, it is him.
Are you sure?
Yeah.
I'm 99% sure that's him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's the stare down.
He finally respects him.
Yeah.
Well, sure, he's the champion now.
He's the money train now.
Yeah.
Yeah, Danny Stuntman Wheeler never recovered from that broken jaw.
He just took his payday and went home.
Yeah, if you go to minute 131, this is now match number two.
Because we have...
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Because now we have Rocky in the corner.
You can see here, the belt is still behind Adonis.
I think the belt is just there for show.
Because of the whole weight division thing, I don't think it's a title zone.
There really would be no question of whether he'd fight him or not.
Like, if he's the ranked contender.
So we know that Adonis loses the fight, because we've got a sequence here where he's wearing
the black shorts and he's punching the canvas in anger.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then he has the blue shorts on for the second fight, the traditional.
Creed War, and also the shorts, Rocky War, and he beat Drago.
We get these scenes where he's hitting the thing with a sledgehammer.
He's hitting the desert with a sledgehammer.
Yeah.
And then you see him kissing Bianca's stomach because she's pregnant.
Yeah.
And then you see him just going through stuff here and there.
Like, you see him, he gets in the tub like the ice water.
That's for your muscles after the fight or after a workout.
Knuckles are all beaten up for that first fight, I think.
Or is that from training or something else?
I think that's from training.
Pretty sure it's from training.
Okay.
With those gloves on, your knuckles wouldn't get like that.
Go to minute 155.
I can see the deposit just right.
You can see the white on Adonis' shorts, which tells me he's wearing the trunks again.
But look at the symbology behind him in the turnbuckle.
That's Russian symbology.
Okay.
Now, there's a word here.
It's T-E-G-A-T-E.
That's not Russian.
Okay.
Unless that's the C or the S.
But I'm going to Google that and see what that is.
I got it.
And see if that's like a certain brand.
It's just to jump to navigation.
It's not a real word.
It looks like it's a fake company for the movie.
Even if it's not in Russian writing, it doesn't necessarily mean it's not in Russia.
It looks like a Russian, that Russian eagle type look to it.
You know what I mean?
It looks, those Russian colors.
Yeah.
It's really European looking.
Like it's really common in Europe to have like a bird with both wings stretched out.
Like you see that a lot in Germany and Russia and Poland and all these places.
Yeah, it definitely doesn't look American though.
For sure.
And of course, we should talk about the end of the trailer when you kind of hear the hint
of the Rocky theme being played.
Oh yeah.
At about the two minute mark.
I have it on mute right now.
Oh, I just have this trailer memorized.
I know where it happens.
Okay.
I want to talk about something real quick.
Yeah, of course.
There's a really random scene in this trailer.
It's at about just before the two minute mark.
158.
Yeah.
You see a bunch of kids.
Yeah.
What is with that?
He's running his restaurant and he's just coming to do this for Creed.
Is he like now in full box in training mode?
Or like where does this fit into the story?
Like to me, it's just really odd.
He loves the kids.
These are the kids that jogged with him in Rocky 2.
Time-space continuum is not an issue in the Rocky series.
It looks like a youth group of some sort.
You know, they're all just boxing and Rocky's training them and just working with them.
It's like a youth program probably.
Yeah.
Maybe working with Adonis got Rocky back into fighting.
Because prior to that, he had just totally disassociated from fighting anymore.
Like after his fight with Mason Dixon, it seems like he wasn't training.
He wasn't doing anything like that.
When he went back to the gym, people were commenting how they hadn't seen him there forever.
And Rocky was talking about how much it had changed.
That kind of highlights how much Rocky's changed since training Adonis.
He now likes boxing again.
Right.
So, Kyle.
I'm a little confused here.
Go to minute 205.
Okay.
Of course.
The stare down.
Yeah.
Everyone knows the stare down.
We'll have to talk about it.
Pretty cool moment, of course.
Dolph Lundgren and Stallone in the ring together.
No, Drago and Rocky in the ring together.
Okay.
Where was that other shot of the ring that we're talking about?
At the 143 mark.
The red line is on the bottom.
Okay.
Okay.
143 is when he's mad.
And he's wearing the black.
Okay.
And then there's like, see white?
The ring ropes are white and red.
And you see him in minute 143.
You see this advertisement for Kano Toxia.
And then it shows like euros and dollars.
It's probably some kind of exchange rate place.
Right.
That would totally be a Russian thing.
Because they have a very unstable currency.
And they're always trading for hard currencies.
So, it's like you never see that in an American boxing ring.
At minute 131, then.
That's rematch.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
Oh, but then you see that.
Look at 131.
Look at the ring rope right behind Rocky.
It's the same advertisement as minute 143.
Kano Toxia.
So, I think 131 and 143 are both the Russia fight.
So, 153.
He's wearing red, though.
What interest is that?
Yeah, those are definitely Russian babes in that one.
Yeah.
153.
Yeah, you see how they're looking at him?
Yeah.
Okay.
That's definitely the ring.
Because I just saw a couple clips.
It's the same advertisements on that ring.
I'm on minute 153.
But if you just look at the few seconds after that.
If you look at like the text on the ring ropes and stuff.
It's all the same stuff.
It looks like most of what it's showing you is the Russia fight.
Oh, Kyle.
You know what?
I stand corrected on something.
People are probably already calling me out on it.
Kyle, I screwed up.
There might just be the one fight.
Have you found two different rings?
Or am I overthinking this?
No, I've not found two different rings.
They all look the same.
Because, Kyle.
I talked about this how Drago and his team were wearing blue.
Yeah.
It's the weigh-in.
At 123 is the weigh-in.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, okay.
I just found it's proven to be in Russia, too.
Minute 217.
Standby.
Okay.
But let me just say for our listeners.
When I mentioned earlier that Drago was wearing blue and that was the first fight.
I'm now going on the record for saying, correction to my last.
That's the weigh-in.
Rocky's still not there because he doesn't support this.
We may not have any footage of Adonis losing that first fight.
Other than him punching the mat.
Maybe.
I don't know.
Yeah.
It just might not be in the trailer because it's not convenient.
However, at 217, Kyle.
Look at him holding his ribs there.
You talked about the body shots that he was taking?
Yeah.
That's in Russia for sure.
217.
You look at 217.
Yeah.
You see in the background where it says Drago versus Creed?
Yeah.
That's Drago in Russian.
Oh, good catch.
And if you look really closely, Kyle, look who's to the right of Adonis there on the floor.
Oh, is that Rocky?
I can't tell.
That's Rocky.
Yeah.
So the question is, Kyle, do we have any footage here in this trailer of the loss or does he even
lose the fight?
Is there two fights?
Now I don't know anymore.
I thought I had this all figured out.
There is two fights.
At the very end of the trailer, Rocky says to him, well, now you know what you're fighting
for.
Right.
That's fair.
And I kind of assumed at least it meant you didn't know before what you were fighting for.
Now he could possibly be just saying how he made a transition during his training for
this one fight.
No, but I think there is two fights because we had in the first trailer when Creed was in
the hospital beaten to crap.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is possible.
Both fights are in Russia.
Unlikely though.
I just think all the ring shots are for the Russia fight.
Or the ring set up is just the same ring in both fights and they thought nobody would notice.
Because there was a sequence I told you at where we could see Adonis' shorts were white
on top.
So who knows?
That's great.
That's the, you know what?
At the end of the, at the end of this discussion, Kyle, we still aren't too sure.
And that's why this trailer doesn't give away too much.
We don't know quite the sequence of events, how it's going to happen, how it's going to
play out.
Why do things happen that we do?
We do know that Rocky's son has a role in this movie because Milo, whatever his name
is, is credited in the film.
So I think it's during the first fight that Adonis loses that Rocky's in Vancouver, British
Columbia, visiting his son and his grandchild.
And they're watching the fight on TV.
And that's where they see Adonis lose.
And then Rocky comes back and visits him in the hospital and says, hey, let's work together
on the rematch.
Yeah.
Obviously, yeah, the trailer's left much to your imagination as the viewer.
I hate seeing movies opening night, but I am almost certainly going to see this one.
I am buying tickets opening night.
Absolutely.
The moment tickets, advance tickets go on sale, I'm buying opening night.
And Ruben and I are going to do a live review, record it live.
Not live, but like right after.
You know what?
While it's fresh in our minds.
You might have to go into some credit card debt for this, but just buy the theater out
and then just record the podcast in the theater while watching the movie.
Yeah, I don't think Becky's going to go for that.
Plan B is you could just record it while people are there and just...
Yeah, can you imagine?
I'll tell everyone in the theater, look, we're doing an important podcast recording here,
guys.
Like, we got to comment about as the movie goes along.
Can you imagine that?
Maybe there's one person in that theater who'd be one of your listeners, though.
Highly unlikely, but they'll possible.
Well, Kyle, at the end of this, I thought I'd have this trailer cracked a little bit more.
I think we got some good nuggets out of it.
I think we got some speculation that may end up being true.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
We're going to see this thing opening night.
It's going to be good.
Anything else you want to close with?
Ding.
Ding.
Thank you.
Good man.
Saving.
Alright.
Well, there you go, Kyle.
That's awesome.
Thanks for the discussion, man.
Oh.
It's well done.
We're good.
You still there?
Okay.
Oh, you still there?
Oh, sorry.
Oh.
Yeah, I'm there.
Alright.
Hey, man.
Thanks for the discussion.
I don't know if we saw any real footage from the loss yet, so we'll see.
We'll see.
That's great, though.
I mean, they left that out.
That's a good idea.
Yeah, I'm thinking that's what happened.
So, yeah.
It's cool that he's fighting in Russia, though.
Yeah, he's definitely fighting in Russia.
How he gets there and why Rocky allows it, we'll never know.
We're going to have to watch the movie, I guess, to find out.
I think people will start to be like,
KLEED!
At the end of the fight.
Yeah.
KLEED!
KLEED!
KLEED!
Maybe.
Alright, cool.
Alright, man.
Have a good night, man.
You too.
We'll talk to you later.
Thanks, Kyle, again.
Alright.