Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Busted Open Podcast. This is Dave LaGreca. On today's episode, myself and Bully talk Friday Night Smackdown. Oh, baby, you're going to want to hear what we have to say about that show.
Chapter 2: What are the initial thoughts on SmackDown's impact on WrestleMania?
And we got to get into AEW Dynasty and what I thought might be match of the year between MJF and Kenny Omega. A lot to do right here on the Busted Open Podcast. This is the Busted Open Podcast. Can we go back to SmackDown on Friday?
We will only talk about SmackDown from Friday if you are prepared to unleash hell and fury and say everything that comes to mind.
But here's the thing, and Bully, you and I may have different emotions on this, okay? Like, my emotion coming out of Friday isn't anger. It's depression. Like, I'm depressed after what I saw on Friday. Like, I'm not angry. You know, like when The Rock tried to take Cody's spot, I was fucking angry. Ah! You know, with everything with John Cena and the other guy. What's the guy's name?
Haysex Calhoun. No, the guy that... What is the guy's name that messed up WrestleMania last year? Bastion Booger. No, what the fuck? Travis Scott. Travis Scott, thank you. Like, I was angry. I was close. I was so... I was like... But now it's like... Let me see your war face.
That's not a war face. This is a war face.
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Chapter 3: How do Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton's storylines affect fan expectations?
Tommy Dreamer's the private pile of Busted Open.
Oh. My. God.
What is that? What the hell is that? A jelly donut, sir. A jelly donut.
And why are you not allowed to eat jelly donuts, Private Dreamer? Sir, because I'm too heavy, sir.
Because you are a disgusting fat body, Private Dreamer. They're paying for it. You eat it.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm never going to get that image out of my head now. Oh, God. Thank you, Bully. Thank you for bringing joy and laughter into my life today.
You know it's only a matter of time until one of the nation, probably Tony Justice, is going to have an AI-generated image with Dreamer's face on Private Pyle's body in about five minutes.
Oh, my God. You are a disgusting fat body.
Because you are a disgusting fat body, Private Dreamer.
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Chapter 4: What are the emotions surrounding Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton's upcoming match?
You could have Pat McAfee, I don't know, a special guest referee, or he's in Seth Rollins' corner, or he's a special commentator for that match. Why do you have to have him involved in Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton? It makes no sense. It makes no sense.
It was so, and I say used car salesman, like watching him, we're slashing prices 25%. I called my friends at Ford and we slashed prices. Oh my God.
Talk about fucking desperate. But why do that? Like if you, all right, Bully, if you're a business, And you got tickets for WrestleMania.
Fans? I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Fans would have so much more respect for the WWE or whoever made these fucking decisions if they would come out and go... You know what? We went back to Vegas. We thought it would be a good idea. Tickets are a little light. We want people to be able to come to the show. So here's what we're doing. We thought we'd slash tickets by 25% until Monday afternoon.
Hope that inspires you guys to buy some tickets. Thank you for your support and being a great part of the WWE universe. If I'm a fan, I'm going, oh, that's nice of them.
Yeah. Or Michael Cole could say Michael Cole could be like, like, like, listen, we know times are a little tough right now. So what we want to do as a gift from the WWE to the WWE universe, 25% off all tickets between now. and Monday night and leave it at that. Have the scan code in the corner of the screen. There you go.
All TKO cares about is that people are talking and he's going to talk about it on ESPN because the only fucking thing that matters to TKO is the relationship with ESPN and the WWE right now because neither one of them are fucking happy.
Well, you know what? You're having non-wrestling people make wrestling decisions. Leave it to the wrestling people to make the wrestling decisions. You have people in marketing. You have people in promotions. Have those people figure out a way to get more people in the building and more eyes on the ESPN app. That's their job. And let the wrestlers do what they do. Let creative do what they do.
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Chapter 5: Why is Pat McAfee's involvement criticized in the WrestleMania storyline?
Let the talent be talented.
Let creative be creative. We got ourselves into it. We'll get ourselves out of it. Not jump dropping somebody, anybody. Nobody belongs in this story. Nobody. It's not like we're saying Pat McAfee should be taken out and somebody should be dropped in. We would feel this way about anybody.
Nobody, Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes deserve a lot more fucking respect than to have anybody dropped into their WrestleMania main event match.
This is a spit in their fucking faces. They may not say it now. One day they'll say it. And Cody Rhodes, if you listen to him in the ring, he's kind of... His tone, his tone tells you everything you need to know.
Cody's tone tells you this sucks. But we're being told to go out there and do this by the higher ups. So we have to do it because if we don't do it, we're in breach of contract.
And Bully, this is now the third WrestleMania in a row. This is the third WrestleMania under the TKO umbrella. I think this is the third WrestleMania under the TKO umbrella. WrestleMania 40, it worked out. Why? Because they listened to the fans. The fans were in an uproar. But they wanted to take Cody out of that main event and put in The Rock.
The 11th hour, right before WrestleMania where it made absolutely no sense. Let's take out the guy that everybody's been following for the last two years. Take him out of the story and then the 11th hour, throw in The Rock. It didn't happen, but they tried it. Last year, Travis Scott.
The whole fiasco with Cody Rhodes and because of light ticket sales for Elimination Chamber, they brought back The Rock, The Throat Slash, The Heel Turn that went absolutely nowhere. And three months later, they went back on it and they righted the ship. And now we're here for the third one and they bring in Pat McAfee in the 11th hour of
To muddy what should be a classic main event between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. Three WrestleManias in a row. They have muddied the water for us, the wrestling fan. For no reason. For no reason. Because they don't get it. They don't get it. They think, ah, it's wrestling. It's make-believe. It's not real. This is like taking out your starting quarterback.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of ticket sales on WrestleMania's success?
Yes, Kenny can do all the crazy dives and the spots and the things that we all love Kenny for. But if I can't find it within myself to do those things anymore... I just got to fight because if I don't fight, I got to tap or I got to give up. And Kenny's not going to give up. So I love the fact also that Kenny had to rely on his fists. Much like you, I enjoyed the main event.
I am enjoying the stuff that Max is doing because Max is getting smarter. And getting smarter and becoming more mature and learning the nuance and having to tighten your own screws and working a more psychologically sound match, it's what it's all about. People fucking scream at the top of the lungs about, oh, MJF is so great, he's so great, he's so great.
MJF is truly not going to be great, exceptional, hit his stride. For a while. He's still got a while left before he's only, what, 30? He just turned 30. He just turned 30, and he's only been in the ring with a Jericho? I don't know other than Jericho. I throw Brian Danielson in it. Yes, thank you, Danielson. Yes, I agree. Jericho Danielson.
Guys that he's actually had to mentally work up to and learn from. Otherwise, Max has had to do this on his own. Last night was a good match against Kenny. I've enjoyed what Max is doing. I like watching Max grow, get smarter. become more polished, the in-between stuff, change up the way he speaks. Change up his style? Last week I talked about the in-ring with Max.
Listen, folks, Kenny Omega can't talk to save his life. End of story. You don't like it? I don't care. It's not one of his strong suits. Kenny Omega cannot talk somebody into a building. Kenny Omega cannot make you want to buy a ticket with the words that come out of his mouth. Kenny's strengths are his wrestling ability and everything that has gotten him to this version of the dance so far.
That's just the truth. But as far as what Kenny... Kenny does what he does very, very well. And last night, we got to see Max work... In a way to Kenny's level.
Yeah, but I also saw Kenny Omega in a way that I have never seen Kenny Omega wrestle before. And that's giving him the ultimate credit. Because at the end of that match, when I'm seeing him with his fist, and when he was actually backing away from Max at one point, I was like, this is what you need from Kenny Omega, especially at this stage in his career. And I thought he did it brilliantly.
And the way they built up the match, Dave, did you think Max was going to have to cheat to win?
No, the way they were building it up was like, he's going to take him out. But he had to cheat to win, which was genius too.
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