- 2 days ago
In this episode, we discuss WWE Smackdown Fallout, Evil to WWE update, Dustin Rhodes News, Tama Tonga in hot water, and the passing of a founding member of the Midnight Express!
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02:54Hello everybody.
02:54Welcome to this episode of the Forresting Podcast.
02:57If you've got questions, comments.
02:58Something you want me to touch on in a future episode.
03:01The only way for me to know that is for you to give me a call.
03:03I need to hear from you at the Forresting Sound Offline.
03:06267-642-1160.
03:08And I will get to those questions, comments, or whatever the topic is in a future episode.
03:12Tonight, starting off with former New Japan pro wrestling star Evil, who is, you know,
03:17there is no confirmation on a contract being signed, but the word is, is he is due to arrive
03:22in WWE imminently, and he wants to begin his career in NXT.
03:26The WWE brass apparently want him going straight to the main roster, but he himself, according
03:32to the Super J Cast Podcast, he wants to start in NXT, as opposed to the main roster, basically
03:38being that he wants to be able to adapt to the WWE style before moving up and being showcased
03:43in front of a bigger audience.
03:44I actually think it's a very selfless and very gracious thing for him to consider, but
03:50it is definitely something where the WWE higher ups are really pushing for him to be a main
03:54roster go.
03:56And, um, the only thing for me is, is if you look at the main roster right now, they
03:59are flooded.
04:00They have a ton of talent, even with all the injuries, and you don't want him to turn into
04:05just another guy on the roster.
04:06We want him, you know, all new signings, we want it to be made to feel special, made
04:10to feel like they have a purpose, they have an intent, and I hope the NXT thing is a great
04:14way to introduce him to the WWE fan base.
04:17If you are a diehard, if you're listening to this show, you must be, you probably have seen
04:20Evil in his New Japan pro wrestling career.
04:22He's been doing this evil character for like a decade now, and it is something he wants
04:27to hang on to when he comes to WWE, but we wanted his debut to be successful.
04:31We don't want him to get buried under the card and, and not make the impact that he has the
04:36ability to do.
04:37Um, it was also rumored that, you know, AEW had no interest in signing him, something
04:41with him and Tony Khan.
04:42Tony Khan just not impressed with evil.
04:44So, uh, WWE was his best suitor, and he is apparently on his way here.
04:48Um, and it'll be great for Kairi Sane, his real life wife, uh, cause they're
04:52they'll be able to hopefully be on the road together a little bit more than they are
04:55currently.
04:56We're going around the SmackDown tapings.
04:59Yesterday was that Tama Tonga has been signed, uh, find a significant amount of money for
05:04releasing a video on his social media of the rehearsals that were doing going on last
05:10week, um, at SmackDown.
05:12It was apparently a, the, the report from Andrew Zarian is that it was a significant fine.
05:17They have like an unwritten rule about not recording or posting rehearsals.
05:22And look, I understand if that's all this was.
05:25However, in a, in a time period where we have WWE unreal, where they get to pick and choose
05:30when they turn a camera off and on and then show all the tricks of the trade to the world.
05:35I have a tough time with this guy losing money for him doing essentially the same thing.
05:38And unless it's content that they were going to specifically use for an unreal episode,
05:43shut up.
05:44You're the ones who let the cat out of the bag.
05:45Like, you know, this is a guy who's just simply posting a video of his own, which by
05:49the way, in a weird way, if, if he was like ready to wrap up his wrestling career, if I
05:54were him, I'd sue them for this because that that's his freedom of expression.
05:57That's his right to put things out there, taking his money.
06:00Now I'm sure there's some clauses in the contract about doing all these things, but it said in
06:03that report that it was an unwritten thing.
06:05If it's unwritten, then give it justification for taking his cash at the end of the day, get
06:10rid of unreal or get off the fact that sometimes these people are going to leak things.
06:14Now, of course he put out on social media, put like a, like a big cringe looking emoji
06:18in response to it.
06:19But, um, hopefully he doesn't do that again.
06:22Cause I actually love his character right now.
06:24I think he's doing some great work and perhaps that ties into something we're going to talk
06:28about a little bit when we get to the SmackDown conversation.
06:31Uh, before we get to that in AEW, we have an injured star who's been working a backstage
06:35role as a producer during the dynamite and collision tapings this past week.
06:39And that star is Dustin Rhodes, who is backstage at the March 18th episode of dynamite and the
06:45taping for the March 21st, 22nd episodes of collision, um, working as a producer.
06:49He's, you know, he's always held a coaching position, um, as well as his in-ring position,
06:54but, um, with him being out of the ring with these, this dual dude, the dual knee procedures
07:00that he had done and him getting very close to it, returning to the ring himself.
07:04Um, it sounds like, you know, he's, he's getting himself into the groove.
07:08He got about two, three weeks out from when he posted something at the beginning of March
07:11that he was getting ready to come back to the ring.
07:13But at least in the meantime, he is contributing in a huge way to AEW in the creative role and
07:18being a producer and great for him.
07:20He's a young man who I say young man, he's older than I am, but he's somebody who I think
07:23really could contribute going down the, down the, down the line for AEW and be a vital
07:28piece of their creative process.
07:30Should Tony Khan be big enough to allow him to really have input and help direct the
07:34product?
07:35Cause I think that's something we really could use moving into WWE.
07:38We got SmackDown.
07:39I think the show opening with Drew McIntyre, you know, crashing his car into Jacob Fatu and,
07:44and pummeling him and coming to the ring and shooting his mouth off and then having like
07:47a back and forth with Aldis, which I'm sorry.
07:50I really would love to see the McIntyre Aldis match almost more than anything that they're
07:54doing with Drew McIntyre right now, but it did lead to Jacob Fatu coming through
07:58the crowd, fighting his way back and, and, um, having a whole melee with McIntyre leading
08:04to where he was, you know, escorted out of the, the, the ringside area for only for him
08:08to rush back and dive off a, uh, look like a chair onto the barricade through the table
08:13and laying out McIntyre.
08:14I love this.
08:15It's setting up that match for WrestleMania one that I think is going to be labeled as
08:19one of the premier matches of the show.
08:21And let's be honest right now with so few matches announced for the show, we need everything
08:24we can get to make this WrestleMania mean something after that, we get JC Mateo and
08:28Tama Tonga, um, with the rest of the MFTs taking on Damian Priest and R-Truth for the
08:33world tag team championship.
08:34Um, I don't know.
08:36There are people speculating about this.
08:38I have a funny feeling.
08:39If you watch the final sequence where R-Truth catches JC Mateo with a kick, Priest runs over
08:46Tama Tonga with a clothesline and then Truth gets an attitude adjustment on Mateo and the
08:51referee counts to one, two, three, and when you see the look on, uh, Damian Priest's face,
08:56I actually wonder, and people are questioning online whether or not they told him that they
09:01were going to win the tag team championship.
09:02I wonder if they told R-Truth.
09:04Maybe, I, hopefully they told both of them.
09:05This is just a really, this is really great acting and character work, but otherwise how
09:10cool would it have been for them not to have told them because this, it, Damian Priest
09:13really looked shocked with the, with the championship win.
09:16Good for him.
09:17Cool.
09:17Even cooler thing in, in terms of R-Truth, the first person to hold both of the new versions
09:23of the WWE tag team championship, having the world tag team championship with Miz and now
09:27the SmackDown or WWE tag team championship with, uh, Damian Priest, very cool stuff.
09:32After that, we saw, uh, an interaction with Candlestar Ray giving Dan Housen $20 to fix Johnny
09:38Gargano.
09:39Um, we, we had a break where we saw Sammy Zane in the back with Kathy Kelly having a segment
09:44with Trick Williams, um, I didn't necessarily love the Trick Williams talking trash on Jacob
09:49Fatou.
09:50I thought that was kind of pointless right now with everything Fatou is doing.
09:53And that led into a tag team match between Nathan Frazier and Axiom, Fraxium, better known
09:57as Fraxium, versus the Motor City Machine Guns, Alex Shelley and, and Chris Saban.
10:02And at the end of the match, the interesting thing here was Candice LeRae coming out and actually
10:07assisting the Machine Guns in picking up the win, which Alex Shelley looked to be frustrated
10:12with, but Chris Saban, they played it in a way that made it look like he didn't see it
10:16happen.
10:17And I think he's going to be in terms of character development, he's going to be happier with
10:20the win than worrying about how it happened.
10:22And I don't disagree with that.
10:23I think the Guns could actually do very well as a heel tag team.
10:26I don't want to see them split up.
10:28Let me be very clear about that.
10:29I think that would be a terrible idea.
10:31Um, after that, we saw Randy Orton come out and he did his speech and I actually didn't
10:35have much trouble with anything he said in the speech.
10:37Um, I didn't think he needed to like speak the lyrics to his song or anything like that.
10:43Um, but it is what it is.
10:46Um, I thought that it was an okay promo.
10:48It wasn't his best work, but certainly served the purpose it was meant for when they got
10:52back from the break.
10:53They were backstage.
10:53You see Orton getting into a verbal confrontation with Matt Cardona and, uh, Orton shoved Cardona.
10:59So, you know, there was some tension brewing there.
11:01Alistair Black and Zelina make their way to the ring.
11:03Very cool entrance.
11:04Um, they're going to have a match with Sami Zayn.
11:07And of course, we're also going to have, um, the opportunity to see trick Williams get
11:12involved when he spits his drink on Sami Zayn.
11:16It's I, for me, that's like always been a trigger for me.
11:19That would be, that would be incensed with that.
11:21Um, but he spits the drink and, and there's a whole stare down situation, um, with the
11:26distraction and things going on outside the ring, an attempt at a 10 count and things like
11:31that.
11:31When Zayn goes, uh, after trick Williams and then slides back into the ring at the last
11:36second, it was what Alistair Black needed to lay in Black Mass and pin Sami Zayn.
11:41I love that Alistair Black is getting some wins.
11:43I don't like that.
11:44They all seem to be coming through like shady, uh, means.
11:48I don't think Alistair Black needs that.
11:50Um, I did love that.
11:51We got Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley meeting in the ring once again.
11:54I don't know that I needed to see the heel turn by Meechan and B-Fab.
11:59I think that's kind of overkill heading into this.
12:01I mean, if you were going to bring somebody to be in the corner or be, to be backup for
12:08Rhea Ripley, it might be one thing, but if you're going to do that, you better do it
12:11soon.
12:12So you can get a six-man tag team match before we get to WrestleMania.
12:15Um, it appears as though Meechan and B-Fab have now, um, joined Cargill in some sort of
12:21faction.
12:22Um, not really thrilled with that angle.
12:24I just, I don't see how that benefits the storyline between her and Rhea Ripley at all.
12:28We go to the back and we got Solo, Sakoa, and Tama Tonga arguing, um, and J.C.
12:34Mateo over the loss of the tag titles.
12:36We see Tama Tonga tell Solo that it's starting to sound like he's Roman Reigns.
12:40And before everything gets too heated, Jacob Fatou and Drew McIntyre come crashing through.
12:45Um, still brawling with each other, which I think is absolutely ludicrous to be fighting
12:48this long.
12:49Um, but again, security prying them apart, keeping the excitement going, which leads into
12:54the Carmelo Hayes-Ilya Dragunov match for the United States Championship.
12:58The Open Challenge continuing.
12:59And look, this was a, this was a great match.
13:03Lots of back and forth, tons of high spots leading to, at the end of the match, um, uh,
13:10Carmelo Hayes, uh, there's a, towards, there's a torpedo Masaku to Hayes, but, and inevitably
13:17we get a sunset flip to Dragunov and a pin for Carmelo Hayes and a retention.
13:22Great stuff.
13:23Uh, we see backstage Randy Orton Jelly Roll makeup, you know, after the events that transpired
13:27last week.
13:28Um, and in the ring, we get Jelly Roll and Kit Wilson coming face to face once again, which
13:33is going to obviously be something that leads into WrestleMania.
13:36More importantly, it does get physical, leading to an elbow drop from Wilson onto Jelly Roll,
13:41which is obviously going to set something up for Mania.
13:43After that, we get the Tag Team Championship match, the Bellas versus the Irresistible Forces.
13:48And I, look, I didn't expect there to be a title change here.
13:51I, I, I understand we, you know, we get Alexa, we get Charlotte out there.
13:54We have other things going on that really need to be in place to have a multi-team match
13:59at Mania.
14:00That way everybody gets a chance to be on the card.
14:02And that's exactly what happens.
14:04We get interference and we go to a double disqualification due to outside interference.
14:09Um, we, we, and Nikki Bella's in Flair's face for interfering.
14:13Alexa Bliss gets in Nikki's face, but Brie fires off strikes on, on Charlotte.
14:17Nikki sends her crashing into the corner.
14:19You know, it's just, it's a melee.
14:22And obviously they're probably going to have another Tag Team match next week with the Charlotte
14:27and, and, uh, Alexa versus the Bellas.
14:31Maybe they'll do another one with the Irresistible Forces versus Charlotte and Alexa.
14:35And then we'll head to WrestleMania where we'll see all three of them.
14:37I don't know.
14:38We'll have to wait and see how that all plays out.
14:39But I think obviously it's, it's clear what they're doing with that.
14:42Uh, Randy Orton gets in the ring, calls out Matt Cardona for an apology.
14:46And this look, without going into the details, this does not turn into apology.
14:49It gets very physical.
14:51Um, another attack by Randy Orton on another star, just like he did on Cody last week,
14:55eventually resulting in him putting Cardona's arm in a folding chair and stomping on it.
15:00Um, the horrible selling through this, I actually didn't like the, the, the, the selling in this
15:04in terms of Randy Orton,
15:05I think he wasn't going to do it when he knew darn well he was going to.
15:07I'd rather it was like the previous week where he just did things he was going to do.
15:10Not this like hesitation stuff.
15:12If you're going to do it, do it and get it done.
15:14Um, and then you're outside the arena, Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu on top of a platform.
15:19Nick Aldis and, and the, the WWE officials are trying to get them, but they're, they're
15:22blocked by a fence.
15:24McIntyre and Fatu, then they both go crashing off the platform as the show goes off the air.
15:28And we had just a nonstop action pack smack down top to bottom.
15:33And I thought a lot of it did a great job of keeping the process going as we're on the
15:37road to WrestleMania.
15:37And clearly there were places where they could have improved, but I thought overall, very solid
15:42show.
15:42So that is what we got for tonight.
15:44Now we have one last thing I got to talk about because it's a crazy week this week with the
15:48people we've lost, but the former inaugural member of the midnight express, uh, lover boy,
15:55Dennis Condry, originally tag teaming with Randy Rose.
15:58And eventually he would have, um, moved into his most popular version of the midnight express
16:04with, uh, beautiful Bobby Eaton.
16:06Um, Eaton would then after, uh, Condry left the team would team with Stan Lane.
16:11Uh, Condry would go and find reunite with, uh, Randy Rose and then ended up having a feud
16:16with Eaton and Stan Lane's version of the midnight express, both no matter what version
16:21of the midnight express there is always feuding with the rock and roll express.
16:24Some of the greatest tag team matches in the history of professional wrestling and just
16:29such a great contributor to in-ring wrestling tag team stylization, certainly during the late
16:34seventies, early eighties.
16:35And, um, he just, the midnight express just means so much to the world of professional
16:41wrestling.
16:41And I feel terrible because I was recording an episode yesterday and, um, I made reference
16:47to the loss of Chuck Norris and some of the other people who we've lost recently.
16:51And, um, I happened to have mentioned hall of fame conversation.
16:55And in that I mentioned a midnight express and I am really frustrated that both beautiful
16:59Bobby and lover boy, Dennis have both passed away prior to being inducted into the hall of fame.
17:04I think WWE has dropped the ball on that big time.
17:07Stan Lane even spent some time in WWE as an announcer, Jim Cornette as well.
17:11Their longtime manager who was in the creative team and a manager on screen.
17:15And I just think it was time to really get that done.
17:18I would have loved for him to know that before he passed.
17:20I really think WWE missed the ball in that, but, um, heartfelt well wishes to his family,
17:25our condolences and, uh, rest in peace lover boy, Dennis, just an underappreciated contributor
17:32to the pro wrestling industry and to tag team wrestling as a whole, just an absolute legend.
17:36I saw Ricky Morton posting online about, it's like losing a brother.
17:39It must be for all the time they spent in the ring together, trading the NWA world tag team
17:44championship and things like that.
17:46Just, just poetry in motion.
17:48Every time they got in the ring, even at the reunion shows and such throughout the years
17:51and conventions where he would come back and wrestle sporadically until like 2011.
17:56Um, just great stuff all around.
17:57So great guy, you know, made an appearance for AEW a couple of years back, um, to further
18:02a storyline with FTR and just, and they were actually, Dax Harwood was the one who actually
18:06broke the story online and it was, it's, it's, it's, I'm sure emotional for him because
18:09they pattern a lot of what they do on the Midnight Express.
18:12So, uh, again, rest in peace to, to lover boy, Dennis condolences to the family and, uh,
18:17just, just sad news out of the, uh, Midnight Express, uh, conversation.
18:22That's all the time we have for this episode.
18:23Check back with us next episode when we run down the latest wrestling news and rumors.
18:26Special thanks as always to Suno for creating the music and sound effects we use in our
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18:33night.
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18:55I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.
18:56I want to thank you so much for taking some time with us tonight until next time.
18:59Take care, everybody.
19:00Have a great night.
19:28We'll see you next time.
19:35Bye.
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