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Longtime Wrestling Commentator Peter Klein gets ready for John Cena's Last Week in WWE.
🤼 SMACKDOWN RECAP:
Gunther defeats Cody Rhodes to earn John Cena's last match - PERFECT choiceWhy Gunther is the right opponent for Cena's retirement matchSolo Sikoa's promo shows the character we need to see more ofUS Title Open Challenge continues to deliver - setting up Carmelo HayesTama Tonga storyline progressingWomen's Tag Division building momentum with cross-brand rivalriesWar Games fallout creating new feuds for the championsRhea Ripley adds star power to Damian Priest's storylineBrand split concerns - is it falling apart again?
🎭 JOHN CENA'S LAST MATCH - SATURDAY LOOK AHEAD:
Gunther was the PERFECT choice - here's whyCan Cena win his final match? Losing to Dom makes it possibleNo "young" wrestlers were ready for this momentOba Femi vs Cody Rhodes - NXT call-up opportunitySol Ruca vs Bayley - can Sol prove she's main roster ready?Sol Ruca has STAR written all over herTesting Sol against a different wrestling styleNXT talent ready for the main roster: Oba Femi, Ricky Starks, Sol Ruca
🔴 MONDAY NIGHT RAW PREVIEW:
Setting up John Cena's Last Match storylinesJudgment Day progression - Liv Morgan vs Stephanie Vaquer teasedRaquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez going for tag goldWorld Tag Team Championship: AJ Styles & Dragon Lee vs War RaidersThree things I'm watching for tonight
John Cena's retirement tour continues as we build toward his final match. Gunther earned the honor in a fantastic match with Cody Rhodes on Smackdown. Plus, NXT stars get their chance to shine on Saturday's special event.
Subscribe to Living Room Lariats for weekly WWE coverage, recaps, and preview shows!

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Transcript
00:00The WWE is getting ready for a really big week in their company's history, really.
00:07It's John Cena's retirement, and we're going to look ahead to that in just a little bit.
00:12We're going to get ready for Monday Night Raw, but don't get to talk about SmackDown a lot.
00:15It's on Fridays, and so we kind of, you know, venture away from that.
00:20Sue Taren, WWE, okay, you're here on your own.
00:23Appreciate it, Sue Taren.
00:24Check my YouTube channel out.
00:26I got a bunch of, I mean, boxing, I've kind of fallen off on a little bit, but got a lot of boxing, a lot of other non-WWE on there.
00:33You can get caught up on a lot of content from Couch Potato Diary.
00:36But I appreciate you coming in, talking about the face-punching here with us today.
00:40But the WWE, don't get to talk about SmackDown a lot.
00:43It's on Fridays. By the time we're here on Monday, there's been a lot that's happened over the weekend.
00:46But I just thought there was a couple of things on SmackDown that really deserved our attention.
00:49So let's take a look at what was a pretty noteworthy edition of SmackDown from Friday.
01:07We are on the road to John Cena's last match.
01:11And SmackDown, we figured out who was going to be the challenger.
01:15We all kind of knew where that was going, but I think we set up some pretty interesting stuff along the way as well.
01:19Obviously, the big thing is Gunther.
01:21He is going to challenge John Cena for John Cena's last match.
01:27I thought the match with LA Knight was really good.
01:29I thought they made LA Knight come across like the underdog, but also very effective as well.
01:36And I thought that they, I thought they did a very good job of kind of protecting him
01:41and making him feel like he was deserving of that spot while still giving Gunther a dominant performance.
01:46And then sending the message to John Cena with a move that's kind of like the STF you.
01:52I just, I thought a very strong showing altogether.
01:55The thing that impressed me the most on this show was Solo's promo against the Wyatt Six and saying,
02:03I'm going to make it so you know, so that the world knows you don't deserve the name Wyatt.
02:08And like that, I believe. I thought that was excellent from Solo.
02:14And kind of the thing I've been waiting for from this guy.
02:16Like he's, he was the silent muscle of the bloodline.
02:20And then when he gets in charge, it was probably too much too soon for him.
02:23The promos weren't as good.
02:25The second he opened his mouth, he became much less intimidating, honestly.
02:29And then he tries to play the funny thing, which at least gave him some personality.
02:34But this, this is what I want to see more of.
02:36And I get, like, I call for this kind of thing a lot.
02:38I'm, I, I like my wrestling serious.
02:40I'm not a funny ain't money all the way guy.
02:43But if we want, if we want some characters to be taken seriously, they have to be serious.
02:48And Solo, um, like he, he had the look, he had the, the brawler type thing going on.
02:54It wasn't really working.
02:55But now getting back to this sort of a thing,
02:56I thought this was fantastic to reestablish the Solo character in the way that I would see it.
03:02So I, I thought it was great.
03:03I also really like how they are using this U.S. open challenge thing.
03:07The, the lame thing with calling Ciampa a jackass and all of that.
03:11Like, it's, it's not the most in-depth storytelling.
03:14But they have now made me interested in Ciampa vs. Carmelo,
03:19in Carmelo vs. Dragunov Part 2, in Dragunov vs. Ciampa,
03:23and then teeing things up with Tamatanga, who was always right there when Dragunov is in the back.
03:28And then something with, uh, Fraxium and DIY.
03:31Like, they have used this open challenge in a way that has elevated quite a few performers
03:37and a few matches and a few stories now very, very effectively.
03:41So I, I think they have done a great job with this.
03:43And I think with Carmelo, there's a way, and I know this is,
03:47I had a joke a couple of years ago before, like, it was out a few years ago now, actually.
03:53Um, but they would have, when they have the two championships, but no real brand, uh, bland, brand split,
03:59everything in my mind was always towards how can we unify these championships.
04:04And eventually we did with Randy Orton, John Cena, and then Daniel Bryan and all that.
04:08But, um, my, so much of everything that Carmelo is in is tied towards bringing Trick in with him
04:16and, and all of that.
04:17And I think you can kind of start to see that play out now where the numbers game hurts him
04:22with, um, Tommaso Ciampa coming in and costing him the U.S. title against Ilya Dragunov.
04:27Well, now I need some backup as well.
04:29And my, also, the other thought I had was because Trick and Kalani Jordan
04:34seemed like they were starting some on-screen chemistry a little bit.
04:38Well, they have Candice LeRae, so I should have Kalani come in and kind of help me out as well.
04:42I think you can kind of start to see where some of those building blocks are.
04:45But again, that is where my tunnel vision is with it.
04:47So maybe I'm just seeing something that isn't there.
04:49Um, I do also like continuing to build up the women's tag team division and the rivalries in it.
04:55I, I think using war games, while we all had our criticisms of war games, um, using that
05:01in a way to spin off a number of different tag team rivalries, plus furthering AJ and, and Becky Lynch.
05:08I think when you look at AEW and Blood and Guts, which was obviously like a superior product
05:13to, to, to war games, but the follow-up where that mother's milk submission that obviously
05:19with the whipping too, that made Tony Storm have to submit on Mina Shirakawa's behalf.
05:24Um, that has now been broken out of a couple of times.
05:27And now the two teams that lost in war games are wrestling for the championship.
05:32So I don't know if the follow-up has necessarily been there, but then you look at the follow
05:35from WWE and we now have spun this off into Rhea and Io, uh, continuing on as a team, having
05:42an issue with the Kabuki Warriors, talk about Rhea more in a second.
05:45Um, Lash Legend and Nia also going for the tag team championships, the Kabuki Warriors in
05:50there as well.
05:51You have kind of spun this out into a multi-brand tag team title battle on a group of championships
05:59that can go from brand to brand.
06:01So I think they've done a really good job of kind of following it up on the women's
06:04side with that really, really well.
06:06I don't love adding Rhea to the Damien Priest thing.
06:10It does like, it helps the story.
06:12Um, it helps Priest.
06:13It helps the intrigue of it because the story has been dead.
06:16Um, it adds arguably the biggest star in the company to a story that helps.
06:21Um, it brings her to SmackDown for a show.
06:23That's going to help a rating.
06:24And like I said, it just, it makes it interesting.
06:27So there is that.
06:28I just hate that again, the brand split thing is falling apart.
06:31And I know that people that falling, fall in apart, but like there is a way to do the
06:37brand split well.
06:38And I know people criticized it at the beginning, but I thought the, the, the start of the brand
06:43split when they did it after WCW goes down and they, you have the draft raw is raw, SmackDown
06:51and if you wanted someone to kind of bounce back and forth, you had to make a trade or it
06:56was Eric Bischoff stole this contract from raw, uh, or sorry, from SmackDown.
07:00Stephanie McMahon poached this star over to, to SmackDown and brought it that way.
07:05Um, that there was storyline for it.
07:07And WWE has tried to do a storyline thing sometimes, but it has always been, oh, it's a wild card.
07:12This person can come in and do that, but ignore the other three others that are doing
07:15it or whatever.
07:15And now they're just not even trying with this.
07:18So I wish there was like a loan system or a something, but just some kind of a story
07:23to kind of keep the integrity of the brand split up a little bit.
07:26Cause I do think having a brand split is valuable.
07:28Having multiple champions, valuable, all of those sorts of things, but you have to keep
07:33the rest of it solid for the good parts to mean anything.
07:37And this is just the latest in a long line of chipping away at the foundation of all of that.
07:42But overall, very, very good SmackDown leading up to a big week in the WWE.
07:49Um, for those of you who are looking for just the wrestling stuff, um, the opposite of Sue
07:55Tern, who left the chat after we were talking about, um, started talking about WWE.
07:59If you just want the wrestling, I have a wrestling podcast.
08:01It is called Living Room Lariat.
08:03It is available on Spotify.
08:06Um, again, just search Living Room Lariat.
08:08That honestly would be my preferred destination for you, uh, for it is Spotify.
08:13Uh, there's just a few more bells and whistles over there, video wise and all of that too.
08:16Um, but you can also get it on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
08:20But, um, yeah, if you're sitting through two hours of sports talk wasn't necessarily
08:25your jam to get to the wrestling, we got the wrestling stuff for you over there.
08:29And some things that are unique to, uh, Living Room Lariat.
08:34For example, our look ahead to John Cena's last match.
08:39Um, it's wild.
08:41This is his last week as a full-time performer in WWE.
08:44Now he's wrestling once.
08:44It's on Saturday.
08:45But still, this is, this is it.
08:47This is what we've all been building toward is this last moment, John Cena in the WWE
08:52as a performer.
08:53So, let's look ahead and get ready for, um, what should be an emotional weekend in the
09:00WWE.
09:12So, WWE pushes toward John Cena's last match.
09:18And, honestly, the, the, the main part of every debate with this is what do you do with
09:24John Cena?
09:26I think having him lose the IC title to Dominic Mysterio, um, it adds a little bit of the drama
09:32to this of will he win or won't he?
09:34I think if this was for the IC title, obviously he's not retiring with it.
09:37So, you have a little bit of that.
09:39And then you have the discussion of, like, are they really gonna make him lose his last
09:42two matches?
09:42How are we going to do this here?
09:44So, I think you at least have the possibility of John Cena winning this match in everyone's
09:50minds a little bit.
09:51I think that'd be the wrong move.
09:52I think you have to win it with Gunther here.
09:54Um, but you at least keep that possibility.
09:58I've also seen a lot of criticism of Gunther getting this chance.
10:02And, like, yes, I, I get wanting to have a young wrestler do this.
10:07But, and this is where you kind of always miss out on the, I think some other people
10:13miss out on the, well, it needs to be a young wrestler thing.
10:15And this is where I think some wrestling fans not being sports fans, um, comes in.
10:20Obviously, there is a lot of crossover between the two, but there are a lot of wrestling fans
10:24who are just wrestling fans.
10:25And that, that is fine.
10:25Like, you do you, homie.
10:26I, whatever.
10:27Um, like, no criticism here at all.
10:30But, it is not just as simple as, oh, well, this kid's 23.
10:35Javon Evans should beat John Cena in his last match.
10:37Why?
10:37Because the kid can not even rent a car.
10:40And because of that, you are going to give him this win, and it is going to elevate him.
10:44And it's going to carry him for the next 20 years of his career.
10:49Or you're going to give it to Gunther, who's already 40?
10:53How could you possibly, what is he going to get out of it?
10:55But, you need to have someone ready for that.
10:59It is not just as simple as they win, and thus they are now John Cena.
11:04And they are ready for this and everything like that.
11:06Um, you look at, like, a few different times where they've tried something along those lines.
11:11Um, Fandango beating Jericho at WrestleMania.
11:15In theory, it makes all the sense in the world.
11:19Younger performer, comes in, beats Chris Jericho, made man.
11:22The problem is, they didn't build the character up well.
11:26It was okay.
11:27Um, didn't build the character up well, and didn't follow it after.
11:31You didn't have this character ready for this.
11:34And so instead of, well, he's young, so now he gets this big win, and off he goes.
11:40Instead of that, it was, he was young, he wasn't ready for it, the crowd wasn't ready for him to have it,
11:46and thus, we have now wasted this big opportunity.
11:49And I'm not saying, if you had Javon Evans win this tournament, and beat John Cena,
11:53and, like, that he wouldn't be ready for it.
11:56But, you need to have someone who the audience believes in, and who you know is going to be ready.
12:03This, this shouldn't be a first step for someone.
12:06This should be the last step for some people.
12:08And, like, I am one of the few who thinks the Brock Lesnar win over The Undertaker was an okay thing for them to do.
12:15Now, stick with me for a second on this.
12:19I can, like, the other one, like, the other two that would have made sense would have been Randy Orton,
12:24uh, winning it at WrestleMania 21.
12:26Maybe a little bit too early, in the whole scheme of things.
12:28But, Randy was obviously going to be a star, he was obviously ready for it.
12:31And then CM Punk, winning it.
12:33Um, now, obviously, a year later he's gone, so that wouldn't have worked all that well.
12:37But, at the time, that felt like, if you want to really make this guy, this is the one that you give him for that.
12:42But, for Brock Lesnar, like, at the time, it's kind of weird to say this now,
12:48but at the time, we were all a little kind of over it with Brock.
12:52They hadn't booked it very well, um, in, like, that whole kind of, like, pre-Undertaker thing.
12:58He'd come in, wrestle John Cena, but he lost to John Cena.
13:01And we did all these things, and it wasn't all that big and all that.
13:04Like, it wasn't, it wasn't as big as Brock Lesnar would become.
13:08But, what they did with Brock is, like, he goes in, he beats The Undertaker.
13:14He has beaten, he has ended this streak.
13:18Brock's still wrestling.
13:19So, if you want, like, I get there was a, pause there for obvious reasons,
13:23and far be it for me to say nice things about Brock Lesnar.
13:24But, Brock is still wrestling, and has, was in the main event picture for the WWE for a long time after that, right?
13:32Like, he was in the main event of WrestleMania 31.
13:35He was in the title picture for forever, right?
13:38Like, we are, that was WrestleMania 30.
13:39We're coming up on WrestleMania 42.
13:41It was 12 WrestleManias ago.
13:44And, again, he's missed a couple for obvious reasons.
13:47But, this was someone who stayed as a main event level wrestler for a decade after it,
13:54holding this dominant win over The Undertaker as one of the things that they did.
13:58So, yes, would it have been better on Randy?
13:59Probably.
14:00Would it have been better on Punk?
14:01Absolutely.
14:02But, because you had someone who maybe didn't necessarily fit the age demographic of what you were looking for,
14:07but he was ready for it, and honestly needed a bit of a jumpstart, that was what you gave him.
14:12Gunther seems like a better dude.
14:14But, in somewhat of a similar situation, where he, dominant title reign, but he's lost it.
14:20And, the guy who he lost it to, maybe wasn't ready for the opportunity, right?
14:25Like, I had the thing, I thought Jey Uso was a good call for the Royal Rumble, but he has fallen off quite a bit.
14:31And so, now, like, that loss, like, he loses there, gets it back, loses to Punk.
14:35The Punk one was fine.
14:36But, I mean, even then, Punk gets cashed in on.
14:38And so, Gunther becomes this afterthought a little bit.
14:41Gunther is a main eventer.
14:42But, does he fit in the title picture right now?
14:44I, probably not.
14:46Given the brawn breaker of it all, what are they doing with Seth at some point?
14:49Is he going over to SmackDown and wrestling Cody?
14:52Probably not.
14:52So, Gunther doesn't really fit into the title picture right now.
14:55But, he is going to be someone who's going to be a main eventer for this company for the next five years.
15:01Giving him this win re-establishes that greatly.
15:04And now you have a guy who you are planning on keeping dominant for a really long time, giving him this big win, this feather in his cap, and just establishing to a grander audience that this guy is for real.
15:17Because this is probably going to be a big audience.
15:19So, yeah, it would be cool to get them familiar with Javon Evans with this win.
15:21But, if you're a wrestling fan, and you've brought up Gunther to non-wrestling fans, the first thing anyone asks is,
15:29Oh my god, they didn't make him A, and you know where they're going, and we're going to cut it off there.
15:33Because you know the type of character that Vince McMahon would have made him ten years ago.
15:36So, people don't know who this guy is for the general public, right?
15:42And I'm not saying that he wins this and all of a sudden Gunther is going to be a peacemaker.
15:45But, this is a chance to show one of the dominant guys who you're going to build around for the next three to five years.
15:53Show this audience that he is that dominant guy.
15:55Get this across to him.
15:56And maybe you get a few more people sticking around next time to watch that asshole get beat by someone else.
16:01So, I think Gunther is actually the right choice.
16:03I had said before, like, I think Penta would have worked there really well.
16:08But he got hurt.
16:10I think Carmelo Hayes.
16:12If there would have been a way to build it, that would have been a pretty effective way, pretty effective guy to do it with.
16:19And you could have built a faction out of it.
16:21I kind of laid that out on another video that we did.
16:24But for the way that everyone is sitting right now, and we can argue about how they haven't built up other guys.
16:29Like, this is why I thought Braun Breaker was the guy to do this.
16:32Because this would have been the last step of him getting over to that level.
16:36Now, in this time, he has gotten over.
16:38Now he's challenging for the title on the first anniversary on Netflix.
16:40And he might just win it.
16:41So, we may have just passed go and collected $200 on that one.
16:45But they don't have anyone else ready in this spot that can take that ball and get to that next step.
16:52For Carmelo, it would be jump-starting a build that they have dropped the ball on for a year and a half.
16:58That's fine, but it's not what you need in this spot.
17:00And I don't think that's the way to get the most out of it.
17:03I think for this one, you want to establish it.
17:06Like, this is the final note on a guy.
17:08And I think it's the final note in getting Gunther right back into that main dominant status.
17:13So, I have no problem with Gunther getting it.
17:16I hope that one thing we see here is that there are some call-ups ready.
17:22And we get these opportunities.
17:23Like, Oba, Oba's ready.
17:27Ricky Saints is ready.
17:28And I wonder now if Ricky kind of gets, like, he gets spun off into a thing with Cody.
17:33And kind of helps Cody with Oba there.
17:35Tough to do that in a heel babyface dynamic that they're going to have on Saturday.
17:39But, like, that match is going to be a lot of fun to see.
17:41I'm also very excited to see Sol Ruka against Bayley.
17:46Sol, I think, has star potential written all over her right now.
17:49The look, the moves, the match, all of that.
17:52Probably could do some work.
17:53But the rest of it, like, she carries herself in a star way and has a star moveset.
17:58All these different things, right?
18:00The one thing I'm very interested in is, like, when you think, okay, what's the way that we can maximize Sol Ruka?
18:07It is probably someone like Lyra Valkyria or Eoskai.
18:12Like, a fast-paced, high-flying type of a match.
18:15I think this is a good test to see.
18:17Like, Bayley, it's not great Kali in there.
18:22But Bayley's not going to be running around and doing planchas and doing this, that, and the other thing.
18:25Or a lot of them.
18:26Anyway, Bayley is a bit more of the style of wrestler that Sol is going to have to work well with to get to that championship level on the main roster.
18:38So, yes, it would be cool to see her do a bunch of flippy-dippy shit and have a really, really fun match.
18:44But I'm interested to see, when you don't have as many of those things, and you do have to work a regular wrestling match, for lack of a better term, can you still be entertaining?
18:54Do you still come across as a star?
18:56Because this is probably the style, rightly or wrongly, this is probably the style you're going to have to work when you get to that championship level on the main roster.
19:02So, I think a really interesting test for Sol Ruka coming up on Saturday at Saturday night's main event.
19:09A lot more coverage of this to go throughout the week on Couch Potato Diary and on Living Room Lariat.
19:15We are streaming live right now on a few different platforms, and I've been going for a couple of hours.
19:21I'm going to be on Sportsnet 960 throughout the rest of the week.
19:24But, again, I miss this. I miss you guys.
19:26I want to do these live more often.
19:28So, going to be back live.
19:31I'm saying it right now, so I can't get out of it.
19:32Going to be back live on Wednesday at 4pm for sure doing that.
19:41I was hoping to do a Tuesday one, but I remember I have a thing.
19:43So, we will see about Tuesday.
19:44But Wednesday for sure, 4pm, we're going to be back live here doing the thing on a couple of these platforms.
19:52Anyway, so keep it locked to my social media for all of that.
19:55Um, this stream's been going long, so we're getting closer and closer to Monday Night Raw.
20:00Once again, time to preview Raw.
20:02Each week, I give you three things that I'm watching for on WWE Monday Night Raw.
20:08So, let's get into it on the Go Home Edition before John Cena's last match.
20:14John Cena's last match is obviously going to get a lot of the headlines,
20:29but here are the three things I'm looking for from WWE Raw tonight.
20:33Number one is obviously, how do they tee this thing up?
20:36Gunther is a good enough promo on his own.
20:38We saw it with the Goldberg build and everything like that.
20:41He is someone that can make this even more intriguing aside from just it's John Cena's last match.
20:49And he can kind of build that momentum for himself and kind of carry this with John Cena.
20:54Obviously not set to come out there on Monday.
20:58So, how does Gunther kind of build up a match on his own when it does kind of already feel sold,
21:04but it's also a big moment for him to establish who he is to maybe a bigger audience for this one.
21:09So, I'm interested to see where they go next with the Judgment Day stuff.
21:13Liv Morgan, obviously, with a tease with Stephanie Viqueur,
21:16and then seemed in good spirits with Raquel and Roxy when they were going after the tag gold
21:21at the end of that whole beatdown on Monday Night Raw, closing things out last week.
21:26Does that continue? Do we get a little bit more dissension?
21:29What about the guys' side of everything?
21:31So, I think there's a few different notes that could be hit on Monday that I am looking forward to.
21:35And then I think we get another really fun tag team match out of AJ Styles and Dragon Lee against the War Raiders.
21:41If we do get a run in on this, which it sucks that, hey, this is a match I'm excited about.
21:44Can't wait to see who runs in on it.
21:46But I do hope that we at least either get, we're going to get a great match.
21:51I want to see a little bit more progression in some kind of a challenger on the Raw tag team side at this point.
21:58Maybe we lump in what I was talking about before with Rhea,
22:00and oh, she's going to SmackDown now all of a sudden.
22:03Maybe there's a SmackDown thing, like they have loaned Rhea to SmackDown in exchange for one of the teams coming over to Raw
22:09and being able to establish themselves there, or just something.
22:13But I want to see this tag team division built up because we saw what the potential of it was last week.
22:18So, those are the three things I want to watch on Raw.
22:20What about you? What are you keeping an eye on for Monday Night Raw this week?
22:23Let me know in the comments or in the chat or wherever you are consuming this.
22:28But while you're doing that, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe or follow wherever you are tuning in to this thing.
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