No Gimmicks Podcast

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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

my usual upbeat self kind

of under the weather today

but we're gonna get through

the show uh we have had a

freaking monumental day

today so the tonight's show

is going to be it's going

to be a good one so before

we get into the show let's

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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.

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.

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.

It is.

We already know he left.

But you say that because you

can't acknowledge the other place.

Exactly.

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.

Yeah.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is what it is.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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