Ding ding Dinging the bell, everybody, it's time for the Power Bomb cast.

That's right, ringing the bell, walking down to the ring first, it's me.

I'm announcing myself to the ring.

Jan Oh Choa coming in.

It's bloodline rules for this podcast, so any and everyone can walk in.

Don't worry coming in the big.

Dog himself, Jeff grub let's go.

That's right.

He's wearing nothing but purple bandana's all around his body.

Don't question what's underneath there again?

Right, I could pull that off.

Am I the dominic of No, I'm not the dominic of Giant Bomb?

Definitely not.

Yeah.

Yeah, because he's a bad boy of games media and that extends to the bad boy of wrestling podcasts.

Mike Minati, that's a fine speech.

Hello everybody, how's it going?

Boys?

It's wrestling is back on the menu.

I feel like it's been back on the menu this whole year.

Feels like, yep, so much so that you three went to SummerSlam.

Yeah, they came to town here in Cleveland, and then we're like, hey, we should go to that because that's not far away, and Dan Caymen stayed and we went to the show.

Did a few other things.

It was a really good time.

It was a fun show to be at, for sure.

I really enjoyed myself.

Oh hot crowd the whole time.

It's one of those things where I had to wonder, like how the crowd came through on television, because man, it really felt like the whole stadium was right there.

And we watched some of this stuff again the next day.

We watched Rhea and Live, we watched I think La Night and Logan and and of course Roman's return and yeah, well but the crowd came through.

Even though it was open air stadium, sometimes it loses the sound.

But yeah, it was loud.

No, Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

I didn't expect the set to be as big and just looked like it was mania.

But watching from home, the pops were loud and consistent all.

Night, it felt kind of like a mania.

I mean, I've been to probably dead ten summer slams, and you know, probably seven of those were at Crypto dot Com and then a couple at Barclays, and you know, they felt like big shows and stuff like that.

But you know, it was, first of all, it was during an era when people typically didn't go home happy.

So like seeing a big stadium show like this, even if it wasn't you know, full you know, sell out to you know, to the Bram or whatever, and then everyone.

Leaves very happy.

It was like, goddamn, this feels like this feels better than any of those old Summer slams I went to, and much bigger.

Yeah, before we get to Summer Slam proper, you boys, I see on this doc here you also went to Samy Zain's comedy show.

We did, we did.

We had the night before Sammy Sin and France.

That's the BombCast doc.

Yeah, Sammy's An and friends.

We were kind of like, okay, that's it's It's like it was a later show.

They it started eleven, doors opened to ten.

But but it was like I think my Curt was at the Agora Theater and he's like, it's a nice theater.

I been there a bunch of time.

You guys should go check it out for that reason.

And we were going to be down in that area anyhow, hanging out, so it's like, yeah, we should try to go to that thing.

And we hung out all day and then into the night.

I can go into that and it was a pretty good time.

They did the thing where like when you walk in with your phone, they put it in a little pouch and nfused.

I didn't know what was happening.

You guys don't do a lot of comedy shows.

I can tell you no.

No.

I was like, okay.

Then they like locked it and gave it back to me.

I realized what was happening, but I was still like, oh, okay, and it was kind of weird.

I was like, I don't even know what time it is anymore.

Because it was starting late, and we're like, how it is it, and like they don't have I don't have my watch, I don't have my phone.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was disorienting, but you know, that was really good actually, based on my expectations being a little bit low.

I'm like, you know, you know, even Sammy Zane himself was started the show by saying, you know, I'm not comedian, I haven't really done this, and I think he kind of explained what he was going to do where he's like, I have one joke and I'm going to do it, and he went back to that joke a bunch bunch of times and it worked for the most part.

He kind of went back to the well maybe a few too many times, but but I think he nailed it.

He was He's a good charismatic on stage performer, and I thought that the bits that he did with you know, the Sammy Zan and friends, the and friends actually all came through pretty well as well, Ellie Knight being especially good.

I think Ella Knight was great.

He had Kathy Kelly, he had road Dog, he had Kevin Owens at the end who I'm missing Shampa Andy Hartwell did the John Cena rap perfectly.

I also was able to do with Mike was doing it at the same time karaoke intro things.

Yeah, you ever go to a wrestling show and you got someone sitting in your section that's really trying to get themselves over?

That's Nati.

You smiled when I yelled things I do.

It's funny and likable and like most people that do that.

Stuff, Mike has a certain panache when he does it.

He does he's so pleased to himself.

I think that's what it is.

There were wrestling people, Yeah.

There were definitely some wrestling people in the crowd that like the types that will like, you know, yell, there's.

There was like fifty people that wouldn't shut up the whole show.

How the show?

There's fifty people were like yelling all the time, like how big of an.

Oh, it's like a mid level concert venue type thing, you.

Know, like there was at least like three hundreds.

You do a pack panel and a thing like this.

But it's like one guy that thought he was hilarious that every time Sammy, like there's a break, somebody just.

Go usy oh you feeling usy.

Eight months ago?

All right, you're not adding anything to this, you know.

Yeah, it's it's like you ever go you used to go to a wrestling SHOWVA with a little guy who would like insist on screaming the wrestler's real names.

You have Wikipedia?

Yeah that that said.

I will once again I bury myself here and say there was at least one show I went to during the Attitude era as a little fifteen year old smark with a sign that said the word marks on it with arrows pointing all around me.

There it is.

Yep, they recover.

We should make that shirt like it.

Yeah, okay, all right, fast forward to to Summer Slam.

It's a it's a big it's a big stadium boys, Yeah it was you know people were there, Yeah, yeah, just as a Cleveland guy.

It was so interesting because I haven't been to a Browns game hot seconds.

I haven't been inside First Energy Stadium in a moment, So it's like fund going back there and then being there for this, right, Like, I haven't been I've been to one wrestling stadium show my entire life.

It was in Detroit for WrestleMania twenty three, So having that similar experience in Cleveland for SummerSlam, and this was my first WWE Life show in a long time, it'd be like ten years.

So the energy was just so different than I was used to and it is so impressive to me that they can do a show of this magnitude in a smaller kind of area like Cleveland, in a massive stadium like this and just have it failed to the brim.

It was overflowing just trying to get to our seats.

It was like, oh, this gang, this really wide thruway is filled with people wall to wall, Like we had to like kind of walk through like where people were ordering framed because there's more.

People there than would be at a football game because there's all these extra seats like you know normally where the field is, right, yep.

So the capacity was just outrageous.

They said it was over fifty thousand somewhere.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm very curious.

I wonder if, first of all, I want or if that's Gonnaut draw all in.

And second of all, they're doing two nights in Minneapolis next year in the Viking Stadium, which is I think a newer, bigger stadium.

So now that we're going into two nights Summerslams, I'm very curious because like Minneapolis, i'd say, would probably a litle bit bigger in Cleveland probably.

Yeah you did there, Yeah, pretty comparable, but I mean, you know, maybe a little bit bigger.

Yeah, for two night That'll be very telling, like how much they can sell out US Bank Stadium.

But I'm just looking forward to that.

I think Cleveland will have a little bit of advantage of like it's close to you know, Detroit and Pittsburgh and Columbus and in Indianapolis and Chicago and stuff like that.

So yeah, Dan, do you think you and I went to Mania together along with Chris Hayner shouts out to Chris.

I kind of felt like the energy wane and die down near the end of night one.

Do you think that it might be a problem going into like a two night Summer Slam.

It's gonna be.

Hard because they need to do a crazy card for that, because I mean, even two nights for WrestleMania, it's kind of hard to fill up two nights of that.

And then SummerSlam has typically had some like fun rematches is or kind of gimmick matches and stuff like that.

And uh, I think they did an admirable job this year of stacking the card.

Uh, the two nights when you presumably just put together a super duper card, you know, five six months earlier.

It's it's gonna be very telling.

But business wise, you can absolutely see the reason.

I mean, you're selling twice as many tickets.

It's a it's a huge benefit business wise.

Yeah, I get that.

And like they've mostly made the two night resumanders work.

I'm still not the biggest fan in the world of it.

I do just like having that one show because like this show, right, I remember being worried it was gonna be like really long and cumbersome.

It was very well paced.

And it felt well edited.

Yeah, Yeah, definitely went by very quickly.

But I guess maybe they have two nights, then they're able to put some black wrestlers on this card finally, right, yeah.

Them, Yeah absolutely, they'd even have tag teams, let alone people of color come.

On, right, Yeah yeah, no, no tag teams at all.

Huh, it was all singles matches.

Yeah, that feels crazy as well.

Yeah, that was talking about what happens you really that person cluster fuck ladder match, No tag titles, no anything like, no triple threats.

Ye crazy?

Yeah, No, for the most part, no gimmick matches other than like a bloodline bloodline rules match.

Yeah, that's you know, it's it's not like a big ladder hell and a cell type thing.

It's a pretty straightforward.

Yeah, some title matches, some grudge matches, a special referee match.

That's about it.

Yeah.

Before we get into the cart itself, y'all think maybe we could sacrifice like a Hell in the Cell pay per view or a money in the bank pay per view and move that to one of the two nights of Summer Slam.

Well, they don't do Hell in a Cell anymore, And I think what we're probably heading towards is bad blood they brought back, and I think that's going to be replacing that and Bad Blood.

The first one, the only one, No, no, no, the first one was the first Hell in a Cell with Sean and the Undertaker.

So I'm assuming that's probably where we blow off the Punk McIntire feud and a Hell and a Cell at Bad Blood.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

I always like the name Halloween Havoc more great one.

Good name.

It's a good name.

It's a good name.

Okay, let's get into the card.

We can take as much time as we want on the matches themselves or the in between the stuff.

First up, I have here Live Morgan.

Don't skip over jelly Roll and post Malone as posted.

Post Malone got like the Joker venom from the end of Arkham Asylum.

Yeah, that's very good.

Jelly Roll actually did a pretty good job.

He's a good singer.

So the first time I heard of jelly Roll was when we did the Dump Truck with Jeff Jarrett.

Yeah, brought that up.

Yeah, Jared's like, you guys know jelly Roll like, no, no, no, I never seen.

Well And Jeff Jarrett was ahead of the curve.

See this about jelly Roll, right, I was kind of just like I seen him just on other divis.

Before you go to this, Mike, did you start listening to jelly roll since?

Did you read jelly Roll's wiki and get sad?

No and no, but uh okay, I thought about doing the former.

I just kind of forgot no, Like you know, I.

Like, I bet Mike's gonna start listening to Jolly roll after this, when I.

Thought to myself, well, we were good.

Our seats were in the sun.

Just at the very beginning of the show, it was clear it was going to like disappear behind the rest of the stadium soon.

So it was like, I don't want to sit down yet, I don't want to miss the beginning the show.

Then I saw it was jelly rolls like work.

I'm gonna walk around for a bit first, But even then we did.

We sat down basically while he was still playing, and now I was listeningly.

I was like, this guy has a nice voice.

That's kind of pretty, and that's why I was saying that Mike Manati needs to become a.

Face tattoo guy.

Yeah, there you got.

It'd just be a bunch of Disney stuff.

You're yeah, thing.

Like like have like a try force instead of like the tear drive.

Yeah, try force.

So we want to get a heartless symbol too?

Am I just gonna get the most generic gamer tattoos ever?

So I get a one up mushroom well, mattic heartless as stupid questions?

I know video games?

You know, damn video games, king of hearts?

Oh what is the I'm just saying.

The first thing I got was a Koojie the Heartless for PlayStation one.

Okay, yeah that's what I was talking about for sure.

Yeah, totally.

Well this is an obvious thing.

Why do I get no image search results for this?

Did you do it as one word?

I did heartless video Games?

And it's nothing but a cooogie the heartless.

That seems weird to me that I mean, maybe I've got like an anti Kingdom Hearts algorithm.

Yeah, that's kind of I mean, the first images are things I don't know.

That's kind of a weird search heartless video games.

You search for a heartless kingdom marks.

Nobody ever searches for heartless the video game.

Except for when you're looking for a Koojie the Heartless.

Something I didn't mean to skip over jelly roll I apologize general, thank you.

I'll give jelly Roll his props.

I still I saw jelly Roll coming up to perform, and I just changed Peacock for a second and just waited five minutes and came back.

To see I was disrespecting him too, And I'm like, I think, I you know, I may have judged you too harshly, mister jelly Roll, Dan, what what genre.

Of music is jelly Roll?

Like?

It's because I don't know, I'm genuinely asking.

I'm sure there's a lot of country fans that.

Like him good country singer.

Yeah.

I probably think though that like, oh, he's also like hip hop or something like.

I know he's like technically and like I haven't heard his whole Like the stuff he was singing that SummerSlam seemed more in the like kind of modern old country.

Ye, but I feel like he's done country.

I don't even know he's pop country or old country or what you'd call it.

But I don't know.

I mean, he'll be played on pop country radio.

Yes, Jeff Jarret knows of him.

It's probably pop.

Yeah, former country superstar himself, Jeff Jared, Right, I.

Mean when Jeff Jared knows of us.

Are we a country podcast?

Now we can be okay, Okay, good to know I'll be the Joe Diffy of the Power BombCast.

Cool, I've all Chris Gaines.

I've always been a sad millennial cowboy.

So here right?

Wait?

Who am I Jackson?

Yeah?

Alan Jackson?

You your faith?

Hill would.

Faith seems like the most like Disney of the old country singers.

I want, I want, I want to be Mike.

You're the Dixie Chicks.

I'm gonna get canceled in the two thousand and four elections, like or what something?

Yeah?

You want and then you're gonna post naked on Rolling Stone with a bunch of words all over you.

Yeah.

Cool, Okay, someone get on the I don't remember Nickey Mouse, damn it?

Uh quick death is going to be covered and genitals.

Okay, So what you'll think of a little more kid versus Ria Ripley.

To start the show?

Yeah, there's definitely more angle than match and that was completely fine for this, right.

Yeah, what we're expecting.

If I had to be critical of something, it's that they really went to that shoulder thing a lot, you know, after rewatching it grabs places.

It's like, oh man, Okay, we get it.

We're gonna the shoulders the story of Ria's weakness there.

But they really did to like, oh, I popped it in and now I'm holding up type thing several times.

But yeah, it did it too many times because I thought it was really effective the first time, and then she popped it back in and it should have just stayed back in at that point, like they didn't need to go back to it.

I get you do need to do something to make Ria seem believably weak, because like when you look at Ria next to Live, it's like, Okay, she is gonna like Moratl combat fatality this woman.

So okay, well there's a you know, chink in the armor or whatever.

So I get it why they did it story wise, But frankly, Riha is as a performer and a presence and everything like she is like Lee or not Live has improved significantly.

I'd say, you know, she's been around for a long time, she has improved in this latest run, this latest feud.

But Riha is just like top of her game, like she has a presence unlike anyone in the industry right now.

And you saw the reactions un raw the next night and everything.

She is going to be a continue to be a big fucking deal and for good reason.

How did you make her?

Because their shoulder looked like it was legitimately fucked up to me, and I think she was just.

Kind of doing like a double jointed thing.

Yeah.

They were probably just like looking at it and she was like, wait, are you okay?

And she's like yeah, I'm fine.

Why and then someone's like it looks fucked up and then they go, oh that's fun.

Is that sort of thing?

Yeah, that once with like her her elbow or wrist or something like, yeah, it's yeah, gotta work.

The gimmick working exactly.

Oh yeah, Mike, Mike did buy it for a second.

I was like, when they didn't immediately start like freaking out, I'm like, I think we're started attacking her.

I was like, oh yeah, yeah, right right, yes, that's when you turned to me and you were like I got worked.

Yeah, And then we had to turn at the end.

Grub go ahead, Sorry, yeah, I was.

I was just gonna say, like, the way the whole story played out though, and the way that they're setting it up, I think Live is a perfect heel for Babyface Rhea and uh kind of like playing all that stuff up and kind of hitting all the right beats.

I think they did it exactly right.

I was very happy with the way that the angle played out.

And sometimes the obvious thing is the right thing, because you know, I saw some people being like, oh, it's too obvious that Dom is gonna turn on Ria and stuff.

Like, well, yeah, but think about it.

Everybody that watches wrestling wants to cheer the ship out of Rhea, and everybody loves booing the shit out of Dom.

It's the most natural, obvious thing in the world to do.

Let's not swerve just to swerve, you know, like that's right.

That is not obvious.

That is character progression.

That is just storytelling.

That is those characters going to the place that they were headed because that's who they are, and that's what makes it good.

Like you like, you're not always supposed to be like wondering what's gonna happen next, because sometimes it's like, well, no, these characters would do these things, and that's.

Better Game of Thrones, where you know, we decide it's good because somebody died who we didn't think was gonna die.

Uh yeah, I don't know why.

I had to drag Game of Thrones in here.

Wow, dom was the biggest heel in wrestling, and he did a heel turn.

Yep, that's fucking crazy.

Yes, the new level.

It's crazy seeing that sentiment heel three.

I know.

I want him to go even a step further, and I don't know what that would be.

This is what it is to go beyond.

Three.

Picture of him playing PSP and then the split screen was Ray Mysterio and war Zone bleeding out on the grif fucking dead.

It's dead, incredible.

The dumb is so fucking good because I saw like that seemed to be the most common complaint about the show, and I don't think people have too many complaints like, oh, it's predictable.

That's always been one of my least favorite criticisms of a resolution show.

The thing that made the most sense then usually.

Yeah, it's predictable that Luked blow up the death Star, you know whatever.

Exactly the thing that we've been alluding to the whole time, right, something is that predictable, because like you know, sometimes the stupid, the wrong or the weird thing does happen all the time, or the disappointing thing happens right.

I think there's they're so used to I honestly, this feels like a little bit like, hey, I'm just used to being abused by w W for so long, right, that they are going to do something that doesn't make any sense, come out of nowhere just to get the cheap pop.

And really what we're getting is story payoff, and that is they're like not sure how to accept that.

But in the long run, they're going to remember this and so much more fondly than they would otherwise.

So even their points now feel like they will fade very quick.

Would you prefer?

Yeah, the swerve with the Sega swerve like attitude era Russo writing type stuff where it's like, oh I didn't see that coming and it's fucking stupid, Like no, you don't want that.

That's all makes sense and it's good you can the rock who put him up to it, remember, Yeah, of course that makes sense.

Yeah, but that wasn't the case, it was actually it turns out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Next up on the card we have bron Breaker defeating sammy' zain for the icy title.

Bron Breaker Uh a very scary man when he's running the ropes.

Yeah, like all the all the Reichsteiners.

Yes, yes see, I'm marked too.

But then you watch video him talking about like playing his Kirby and Smash Brothers and six, It's like, Okay, this is just a nerd guy, but who could just tear us all apart?

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, chase for yourself.

I the Intercontinental title was never going to stay on Sammy for a long right, They did the long run with Gunter with Gunter, and it's like, they don't they probably want to like mix some things in there for a little while, let like churn some other people into that spot.

They kind of need to.

Across the board because like between Guter and Roman, you know, you had two of the top titles being held up for a very long time.

Yeah, and so I don't think we have potato it around like it's the attitude era again.

No, but you do have to have some shorter rains.

It makes me worry about things like, you know, Guter's got the world heavyweight right now, which, hey, that title looks great on him.

It makes a lot of sense, but uh yeah, but he's a heel, so he can keep it for a while.

Sammy was not a heel, so he was not going to be able to keep it for me, right.

We just can't be doing a bunch of like multi year title reigns again.

Like, you know, I think Cody's got to lose it at some point, you know, I think Guther can't have a two year reign with this one.

But you got to make sure it's the right time.

I think you can have like a plucky underdog face win it and like steal the victory from both either bron Breaker or Gunter moving forward, you know, just they get that lucky shot moving forward.

But like man, bron.

Breaker scary, scary individual.

Yeah, gonna be around for a long time.

He's gonna be a big deal.

He's fucking good.

You know.

I don't think it was the best match on the card, but it's just like not every man's gonna be the best match on the card.

That was good.

It was good to get got on.

He looked good.

I liked that Scott Steiner was there watching, so I like that I was in the same building as Scott Steiner.

I'm amusing.

His stuff looks really good in person too.

It's like we have bron Breaker looks great on TV, but his stuff looked very impactful.

In person.

I was it was awesome to see those moves and the the spear.

It just looks so devastating when he does it.

It's a good spear, total powerhouse.

Do you think this is partially to free Sammy up for Bloodline O G Bloodline reunion type of thing.

They war games.

Let's say it's five on five, so you get Roman.

I don't know if both use those are I don't know.

Jimmy is healthy, so you'd have Roman, the USOS, Sammy and Cody against it.

Went with Hayman in the corner against blood Line two point.

Zero and because that's sorry, I guess you could just do four.

You could just do yeah, the original blood Line, Roman, USO's and Sammy against blood Line two point Oh.

I think you do that, do you?

I was thinking of like a Bloodline two point zero and maybe them kind of doing a a legacy type of deal where they just team up with other wrestlers like third second, third Generation Superstars and maybe like a Bronz Breaker joins them temporarily as like a soft ally of sorts.

Tend to be as junior out of jail or whatever.

You can stay there, guys, Jimmy Snooker's kid.

I don't know.

Hell yeah, what's Tamina doing?

I think no longer works there?

Related?

Oh yeah, n I is related.

Yeah, we'll get to her soon.

Uh.

The right call of the night I think is l A.

Knight defeating Logan Paul to win the US title.

Crowd was into that, Yeah, Logan's home down.

Crowd is all about.

Cland Brown's colors.

It's like, what are you doing?

Yeah you were a heeld Yeah what you do?

No dumb mass.

L A.

Knight's great and he's like what he's like the ideal form of a two thousand and six wrestler.

Yes, if somebody with that like energy and kind of body was also like better in the ring.

So he just had some ruthless aggression.

Yeah yeah, yeah exactly all right.

And and and you know the old criticism of him just being the rock and Steve Austin and stuff's like everyone's trying to do that.

I like that he can pull it off.

It feels like a tough thing to be like to try to evoke that and be able to actually nail it, and he does.

And I just enjoy watching him.

Great.

He set up a fucking superw super plex where he just folded Logan and half like an accordion dropped him on like safely.

It appeared like on his look good as hell.

Yeah, I'm in that match.

I'm all for uh it being a very very long time until we see Logan Paul on my television screen again see Ideas online.

Yeah, but I mean Triple A just still rising him up like crazy and everybody else.

He's like, Oh, he's gonna take it seriously.

He wants to be here for the long haul.

And it's like, oh, he's not going anywhere like him and Sadi.

You'll see him a Wrestlemingia.

It's gonna happen.

So I'm curious to what you'll think.

Uh, just non Japan.

Yeah, uh, who's next for l A.

Knight?

If l A.

Knight is like playing like kind of like a tweener face, Who's who's who's going.

Up against him?

Do we?

Uh?

He's on SmackDown?

Right?

Yes?

What is the SmackDown roster looking like?

Here?

Okay, I'll put on my booking hat here.

Yeah, the US Champion.

You can have some easy wins over like An Andrede if you want to keep on him for a little bit.

Oh aj styles.

Oh, that would be a good that'd be a good few.

To the Battle of the two letter names.

I've actually been enjoying Baron Corbyn all over again and his weird friendship with Apollo Cruise.

Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, maybe l A.

Knight goes against the Wyatt six perhaps or White six is on.

The They're they're messing with Gable for how long?

Yeah, I don't know.

You'd be surprised.

That's true.

That's true, Oki Doki.

Yeah, I'm happy that Lle Knight finally has a singles title.

It looks good with that title too.

Yeah, that's a good fit for him.

Yep, he can just run with that for a little bit and that'd be good.

Yeah.

Next on the card we have Naya Jack's defeating Bailey for the w W Women's title.

I remember feeling kind of almost bad when it's match start because it seems like this is one a lot of people are kind of getting up from.

Right.

That wasn't a whole lot of like Keaer excitement when either of them were coming out.

Bailey's been great, well.

It hasn't been an amazing like storyline championship run, especially when you're competing with what's going on with Rhea and Live, which is like storyline wise, very intriguing, right, But I will say, like, you know, they got people into this match, you know, just by the end of it.

Yeah, people really were reacting strongly to it stuff, and you know, maybe I wasn't falling closely enough, but this was a result that surprised me at least a little bit.

Maybe not with you know, they were obviously building up Neo having her you know when Queen of the Ring and all this other stuff, but still I was pretty surprised by the win here.

They like her there, I mean, she's got a unique look for the women's division, and they've always been big on her obviously, the family thing, the size thing, they like a lot.

She has improved a bit, so you know, it's not the best.

I'd say it might have been the weakest match on the card, and not.

Bad by anything.

It was not a bad match, no, Yeah.

I thought Bailly did a good job like keeping me engaged.

Yeah, I was into this match as much as I more than I thought I would be, So yeah, good result.

I love Bailey, but I just I don't like the rose plant finish.

It's a terrible finish ye at all.

Yeah, Like when we saw it in Mania Dan, I thought someone botched and fucked up the ending.

But it's like, oh, oh okay, you did it.

Okay, cool, Yeah it doesn't look great all right.

Next st up, we have Drew McIntyre defeating Sea him Punk with special guest referee seth Rawlins.

This is one where it's like, it's it's interesting seeing the difference when you watch a match in person versus on TV.

Oh okay, because it's like maybe it was just because like the arena was like really like just kind of hot all night, and you know, it was just a fun time and I'm with these guys and we're just you know, chatting and stuff.

I had a good time during the match.

I wasn't like, you know, ever in near fall freaking out or I wasn't thinking it was like brilliant storytelling, Like I kind of think the bracelet things dumb, you know, in general.

But like I remember thinking it was like good and then you know, seeing the reactions afterwards, everyone's like, oh, it was fucking terrible.

It was awful.

It's like maybe I just, you know, maybe I was just watching a show in person with my friends and having a good time, and I was able to kind of like maybe.

That was rose colored glasses a little bit, but I know it was definitely another like more angle than match in a lot of waste thing.

And again you could see why that makes sense, especially you know Punk has been getting hurt a lot, he's older.

It makes sense, you know, to not have him do some twenty minute sprint to have something that has kind of a lot of pauses in dramatic moments, you know, like the bracelet thing, like pardon mes, like that's pretty stupid.

Yeah, our partonies like I can go along with it.

I get whatever.

It's so important to see him punk blah blah blah.

It's a storyline thing.

It kind of works, and it is like these you know, fun moments like oh now several Owlins is wearing it and now Punk's mad.

That was weird.

Yeah, I don't know.

I I kind of like got on him.

Yeah, like he picked like he was like, I'm the ref and this is an object in the ring.

I'm just gonna put it on here to get it out of the way.

That's what they're trying to say, Like what's happening there?

And then seeing Punk got confused and I just don't like For me, I'm like always like, okay, he's supposed to be the face here, right essentially he's gonna get like so mad at someone for doing his job.

I just it just doesn't feel really well executed or whatever.

But when I was done with the match, I'm like, I don't know, I had a like like Dan said, I had a good time.

Yeah.

A big part of that is I really am enjoying Drew McIntyre right now.

I think he's great, and he's just you know, Hams goes in there, Hams it up, and I enjoyed myself.

Yeah, And RACIST think it is worth it just for to see Drew like take it off of a you know, unconscious see it bright.

When he took it back, I was kind of back.

On board, kind of struggle to see, Like I don't know, maybe it's just because you know, Punk being punk for his entire career, but like I found it hard to see him as the baby face and this whole thing.

You know.

Yeah, Like I wanted to root for Drew, but he's being booked as the heel and it's like, okay, it's and embrace the thing got a little muddy, But like that, I didn't hate the match itself, you.

Know, Yeah, And you know, to be fair, you know, the crowd was very much kind of seemed like see him Punk's side enough to be like, okay, they're pulling it off as a face, but I just didn't feel it much personally.

Yeah, I think I'm in a similar boat as y'all tell me if I'm the I'm alone in thinking this, but I couldn't help the whole match watching it, just dreading and waiting for Punk to get injured again.

I was wondering if it was gonna happen.

Yeah, like the man is made out of glass.

I've come to turn around and enjoy the guy as a performer again.

It's just that I can't shake that in the back of my mind.

And I think it's similar Dan, where it's like I can't quite see him as a face because he's I know, he's a jerk at this point.

It's like, remember when Moxley I was talking about after Punk got hurt, he did that promenat like frag of mine, fragile body, fragile egos.

He meant that shit.

He said that with his chest because it was one hundred percent yes, yes, yeah, I enjoyed yep, And I thought Seth did his job really well.

I thought he was He got in there and if he's supposed if you were going to have the special guest referee, the special guest guest referee should not be in the background.

He should be kind of trying to steal the spotlight, and he was, and the crowd was young, singing a song like the whole time, like they do, and I enjoyed that.

I thought that that was right.

He should be kind of shitty, and then you should also like not get so in the way that the match unless that's the that's the angle, and that's what they're trying to do.

So I think they balanced that really well and I enjoyed his presence in the match.

I'm curious as to how this will eventually pay off, whether or not Seth gets like formally thrown into this feud and it becomes like a three way type of delio or I mean, the way I would guess is that Seth maybe takes a little bit of time off after the Bronson read attack on Monday.

He lays low for a little bit, maybe has a one on one at the rumble with Bronson and then you move on to Punk and rawlins for Mania, since that was the plan originally before Punk.

I hurt.

Yeah, it's the ways a way though the rumble.

Yeah, maybe one on one Survivor series or something like that.

I don't know, Like he's got to blow off the Bronson read thing at some point, but then it's got to be focused on Punk, I think.

Yeah, yeah, that feels right.

Okay.

Second to last match on the card for Summer Slam, we have Goonther defeating Damian Priest for the World Heavyweight title.

This is one that over delivered, I thought, you know, I think the improvement on Damian Priest has been evident in the last few years.

I think ever since he's like, you know, he worked with Bad Bunny in that main and he killed it there.

He's just become a very reliable hand there.

And uh, this is a match that didn't really stand out super strongly to be going in and over delivered.

I mean, again, goother, every fucking Guther matches.

Great, Every Guther matches great.

Yeah, yes, but Damien also held up his end for sure, and Damien's over I mean, you see that the next night, Like it makes sense to have Damien be a baby face coming out of the judgment day breakup stuff.

Uh, you know, it's very natural for Ben to be the one to turn on, and Ben's a great heel.

Yeah, I wound up being way more into this than I expect it to.

Both both came out of this as like made men.

I mean, Gunther was already had like cemented himself as like longest running current or modern icy champion, but like.

The longest running period icy champion, h period.

Sure, yeah, apologies talk man.

Yeah good, thank god someone finally did that.

But yeah, I think, uh, I don't think it was too soon to put the title on him.

I think now is like the right time to do it.

I think Damien had a pretty good short run and I don't mind short title runs like I like him, you know.

I you know, not too many of them.

I think.

I think right now is the right time for ww to have a handful of short title runs.

Absolutely, and he can see you should still be in the mix, I think, and and oh yeah, and I think, but the title on goother makes a lot of sense.

That's fun.

It's he was great with the IC.

He'll be even better.

With this one, and it was fun.

It was fun, like seeing somebody win their first world title, right yeah, even though like in that moment is not overshadow, but it is like Guther is supposed to be a dominant force, right, But he did win that match because somebody else got involved.

But you almost kind of you don't really care because that was obviously a big story advancement there, and it was you know, that's other big But everybody freaked out when Finn but you know, finally did that turn that was teased earlier in the show too by like when stuff like that happens where we have a kind of storyline thread Gollings throughout the nights, and in this case, it is kind of the the implosion of the judgment day.

So yeah, yeah, I think I was steel the same as Dan, where this wasn't really a match.

I was thinking a lot of going into it, but it ended up being one one of the ones I enjoyed the most.

I like the character work that Gunther has been doing as well, and it kind of like resets like everyone he's faced for the Icy title and defended against to like now it is a different ballgame entirely of who he's going.

Against, and I'm just excited for the possibilities and putting them up against Randy right away is great because you know, you don't get more legitimate name than Randy Orton, and you know Gout will get a strong win over him.

At I think it's in Berlin, so that's it.

And then they had a great match last time.

They had that weird kind of batch ending that they are like using in the story smartly.

So yeah, I like where this is going so far.

Yep, same, all right, And finally we have the main event, Cody Rhodes defeating Solo Socoa in a Bloodline rules match.

These I wonder how many more in history Bloodline rules matches we see because the two they've had have been bare very successful.

But they laid out a very clear format, which is like, all right, when does the bullshit start?

You know, like we're all waiting, like okay, yep, here.

Comes the circus.

It makes all its funny that we just have a name now for people are allowed to interfere.

Also no DQ or a street fight or whatever.

It's like, I mean, that could happen to any of those, but it's it does do something to the early parts of a match where you're just like, okay, yeah, these moves look nice and everything, but you know, like there's no tension whatsoever in the early parts of a match, because if you say bloodline roles, now, you were expecting ninety people to run in the ring, and that is what happened in both of them, and both times it was very fun and it made sense.

I don't know why Undertaker was there, but anyway, but yeah, this worked really well.

And oh my god, the fucking moment when Roman's music started and they add it was already like the most like epic you know, Roman music, and then it's just like giant drums and chanting and it was loud as fuck in the arena and everyone's losing their minds, everyone's putting up the ones.

It was such a moment, like you knew it was gonna be a moment you knew it was gonna be like this nuclear pop.

Yeah, we were kind of talking about it all night, like kind of wait, like when it happens, it's gonna be great.

And it paid off.

Higher stadium, that's what all people were talking about, kind of walking into it, just walking around the stats.

Everybody was murmuring about you think Roman's gonna come back?

That's what everybody wanted to see.

So when you had that payoff and you knew it was coming, but again, like sometimes you're like God, oh, things oddly don't happen that you expect to happen.

So it was an amazing moment.

I even like the way they did it where it's like I was wondering ahead of time, like, Okay, they canna have Hayman come out and be like ladies and that's gonna be the announcement.

Is it gonna be the whole like you know, old bloodline coming out him and the USO's.

I love that it was just him walking out, just looking kind of conflicted and just coming out in a T shirt and just like, oh man, he's here, what's he about to do?

It was I thought that was a really cool way to go about it.

Man.

I just like thinking about Roman Reigns even two years ago.

It's just radically different person.

The aura emanating off of this guy.

Every time I see him.

I think I would look great if I grew my hair out and had to.

WrestleMania.

I remember you turn it on?

Yeah, God, how do I be more like this guy I want to be like Roman Reigns, Like he's the coolest guy ever.

Yeah, he's too.

I started doing like thirty push ups a day in the morning, just like I'm just gonna be like Roman one day.

If I ever, like, uh, if I ever get a new job, I'm just going to start that job as like the tribal chief persona and just kind of be a little bit of an asshole to reset.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's like a gimmick reset.

He has always had this in him, Like, and from everything I've heard from people that like trained in NXT with him and everything, what he is now is closer to actual Joe than the Roman Reigns we got for all those years that Vince was trying so hard to turn him into the next Scena, give him contacts, you know, trying to be you know, super baby face whatever.

No, Like, what you're getting now is it's that classic oh turn your real personnel they have to eleven thing.

That's the Roman we're getting now, who's really fucking good and knows how fucking.

Good he is.

Uh and maybe a little bit of cockiness about it, but ultimately total professional, total badass, like and it's it's working.

It took a long time to get here, but we fucking got here.

Yeah, he's he's really cemented himself in my mind as like, okay, holy shit, you you would become a pillar of like this era.

Yes, not just because of the title reign, but because of like the character and story work you put into at this point.

Well, and also when you look at like that stare down afterwards, it's like Roman and Cody, it really felt like, you know, they talked for so long about how they you know, we'll never get another like Austin Rock again because it was like two guys at the top of their game, perfect you know, foils for each other and that's why, you know, like Sena, Sena is arguably the greatest of all time, but you know, and he had a orton you say it, guys, he worked with a lot, but it was never quite the same.

And I think looking at the Roman and Cody like stare down there, it's like, God damn, these are two characters that in recent years that they have done right by.

They have a natural feud and now this like kind of a grudging respect thing, but they're still rivals and you know, look, I know it's a tired thing.

But the Batman and Superman thing, like they both repeal like massive fucking deals, and they both have this history together.

And I'm not saying it's Austin Rock, but I'm saying it's the closest we've gotten to something of that star magnitude since Austin Rock.

Yeah, And again, it's like, that's what I always thinking about with Cody, is the degree of difficulty of doing that now compared to back when it originally worked with you know, Rock and Austin is so much higher because everyone has these expectations now they know what it can feel like, and then if you do it too close to that, there's the uncanny valley of oh, they're just trying to imitate that or trying to get close.

It's like, so the fact that they are getting near pulling it off and it doesn't feel weird, it just feels exciting is so impressive to me every time.

So I'm just kind of on board for this.

And look at what they tried to do ever since Austin and McMahon back in the two there.

Obviously that was the biggest boom period ever.

They tried to recreate that every time they were trying to make the new Austin, make the new guy.

You know, Sina had times where he was feuding with McMahon.

They had that time where John lauras John Laury Knights.

They had the time where Roman was or when Vince was way too old to be taking bumps and they had Roman like, you know, give him the Superman punch and stuff like that.

They just kept trying to go back to that well of like the formula for getting a super Babyfaces.

He's got to fight the Evil Boss and with Cody.

It is not something you could ever just manufacture or write this.

It took this whole real life situation of him leaving improving, starting a company, coming back, going to like his father's legacy and everything.

But you have a new type of top Babyface, which is also reminiscent of like a classic like Territory Are era Babyface, almost in the mold of his father.

But he's a total white meet Babyface.

There's no anti hero thing going on.

There's no feud with the Evil Boss.

He is just a different type of character that is fucking working and it's working with the.

WWE crowd, which aw was.

A little more smarty a little more, you know, it wants to cheer kind of like the cool bad guys type thing Cody now in wwe could not be a better fit, and it's it's working way better than I think anybody could have expected.

Yeah, and Cody's positioned in such a way that entering a feud with him at this point I think could elevate anyone else on the card.

Uh, if you would just want to make them like a super mega heel, like I could see a decent program with Dominic Mysterio.

I want any program with Our Truth because you know the history there.

Yes, yeah, we're like when he was on the way out of Stardust, like Our Truth beat him like thirty three times in a row or something, and Cody's never beat our Truth.

We got to finish the story and Cody Rhodes has to beat our Truth.

Oh that's fantastic.

I love that.

Yeah.

No, I want Our Truth to make his own promos about finishing the story.

Yeah that's even better.

Yeah that was great to see.

Yeah.

I could not hear him, but he's back.

Couldn't a gun in my pocket?

Yeah yeah yeah.

Shout out shoutouts in in respect to Pharaoh hiring Pops hiring thirteen.

Years old, good good looking pop for three Yep.

Absolutely, I'm I will be happy if if if these guys, Cody and Roman go back and forth, you know, for the next ten years.

It feels like they really could do that, and obviously mixing a bunch of other stuff.

But if it is like every year, every year and a half, every two years, we're kind of back to like something new with these guys, I think they've got they've reached a point where that feels real nice.

It needs to matter every time because, like you know, Sina versus Orton, obviously, the amount of fucking times they did it, it meant nothing by the end.

So how was that the I was at the Royal Rumble in Pittsburgh where it was the one where they did like an Orton sena that the crowd just completely turned on.

He started chanting for anything else, including Michael Cole.

Was shout out to the miners in Pittsburgh.

Shout out to the coal miners in Pittsburgh.

All right, boyos uh general thoughts after Summer Slam.

Wrestling's in a good fucking place.

It's you know, obviously w Doe is firing on all cylinders.

And I have been for a while here, you know, I'm still I still watch AW.

I still watch Dynamite every week.

I order every pay per view.

Going to be it all in, uh taking mikey Mike, gonna be in Wimbley.

Thanks that.

Yeah, shows in one month?

Wow, Yep, yep, we're doing the Summer Slam all in back to back.

But yeah, I I I hope, hope for that's be a great show.

Obviously a lot of eyes on it, being like they don't really have that defined WrestleMania, but I feel like all in with Wimbley, Uh maybe a real big deal out of it last year.

I know they're probably not selling as many tickets this year, but the cards looking pretty solid so far, and I hope it over delivers AW pay per views frequently.

Do they usually do?

Yeah, So I don't know.

I continue to just root for the industry and so like that's it's the thing that's always exhausted me about seeing the internet is like the tribalism stuff.

It's like the wa u vers aw stuff is worse than console fanboy stuff that I've seen.

And look, I just like watching wrestling.

I like all I like the talent on both shows.

I want Boat to succeed.

It's better for the industry.

So yeah, WU is really hitting it right now and they're they're killing it in a lot of ways.

But you know, I don't want to count AW out, so.

No, but somebody was like an AAW diehard, especially its first few years.

You know, it is a little weird this week.

We just had fantastic weekend with Summer Slam and other things, and AWS mostly in the news because of backstage drama again, right, so that's got to get figured out because I mean it shouldn't, I feel like, but it does make me kind of like get less engaged with the product.

Whenever that stuff happens.

It's like, oh, what's going on in that clown factory?

And I do hate it when they're you know, it's like last night, you know, Mercedes came out, you know, like alluding to the Britt Baker suspension, and it's like, this is something that doesn't have anything.

To do with your current feud.

And also the fans that don't follow Reddit in Twitter and shit are gonna be like, what do you wait you got suspended that I don't remember that being talked about like you don't just don't do this late WCW dirt.

Sheat shit, It's like, just do your wrestling show.

The Internet's going to be the internet.

Just yeah, yeah, it uh.

It devalues the product in my mind, uh significantly.

And I have to think it turns off a certain amount of the audience that just wants to watch a goes of wrestling show, you know.

Yeah, yeah, especially like, oh I have to like I only have time to watch so much wrestling on TV.

You're telling me, now I have to be like strangely invested in everyone's personal or fake work lives.

Save those storyline for when you're you're off TV for five years and you're you're in a hotel conference room doing a shoot video for YouTube.

You know, we'll hear the stories then we don't need to bring it on to Yes.

Wait, wait until Conrad finally shunts you down and makes you do a podcast with them you're talking about it?

Then Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed that.

That was my first ever WWE show.

Really, yes, I would, Yeah, very good one for my first one.

It's only downhill from here, grub Yeah exactly.

I'm just I like storytelling in anything, and I just to see them kind of really understand where they're at and that they can have these strong payoffs and that that is what people want and they're they're actually good at it.

There's a confidence around WWE in terms of that stuff that has really keeps drawing me in.

And then when I do think about AW, it is what you guys are saying where I could go watch more more of that, but I know that all the stuff that they're going to be doing is going to be uh at the same time less interesting than the backstage drama and I will be and I'm not interested in that at all.

So it's like, Okay, what is here for me right now?

And I'd rather just wait for the pay per view because I know there will be some good wrestling on that as there always has been, so as long as they keep delivering on that side that I think they can skate through this.

And as long as someone does take the reins over there, but that hasn't happened yet and it doesn't it's coming in.

Don't worry, here comes the money I forgot.

My favorite honestly though, my favorite thing coming out of AW is the timeless Tony Storm and Mariah May.

Stuff Tony's storm.

I don't know she took an acting class or something, but like the angle she's doing now, I thought was a little hokey and cheesy, but then the further it's gone with Mariah May is great.

So she just wants to shoot murder her?

Yes exactly?

Yeah did she?

I forget the specific line, but she was like, are you are you afraid to die or something?

Yeah?

Or are you prepared to die for it or you Yeah?

I'm just like, all right, Tony, Okay, you a little weirdo.

She's great.

Great.

Uh, last last little bits before we get out of here.

You know, there's some scuttle butt we talked about the AW heat behind the scenes.

Uh, but what do we think about the possibility of some AW wrestlers, specifically the Lucha Bros And perhaps a Ricky Starks Ricky Starks jumping ship to WWE.

I think, you know, we could beef up the tag division in WE a bit.

And I think if you've got the MotorCity machine Guns coming in, I think if you got the Luca pros coming in, I think that's a pretty good couple of groups of veteran and that can come in and really kind of anyone that's.

Been off the TV for a while and AW should just absolutely be looking at W W E.

I go back and forth kind of like greener pastures that sort of thing.

I think it's a good idea.

And starts it starts as Friends with Jade, starts his friend with Cody, you know Ethan Page like you know, like I feel like a lot of the Cody verses coming over.

You know, we all want let us the chat, says Ricky Usso so there you go.

Well, I think we all expect he starts to make it over there, and it seems like they like were trying to make him happy for a bit there, Like he won the owen Hart Tournament last year, right or something like that.

Yeah, they think me something last year he.

Had a flag belt with Big Bill, Oh yeah, and fell under the Jericho Vortex.

Yeah, and then he just disappeared or whatever it was.

And I was like, yeah, he's going to some point.

Lucher Bros.

Would that makes me a little sad as like somebody again who was really into a W at the start and they were such a big part of that.

One of my favorite matches in AW is still them versus the young Bud in this cage match right where they finally won, Like that was awesome.

So yeah, I've loved Penta for for a good time since I went to the original all In.

Uh he funny Omega there, good stuff.

One of the few men from all that original all In that's still standing.

So congrats to them.

Yeah, I know, right fucking to see Pentagon just do a Sarah Miado in front of like a big w W crowd.

Actually, yeah, I think about entrance for them.

Yeah, George Kittle is his best friend and George Kittle is always at Mania.

Yeah.

Uh.

The last bit of someone reminded me of chat here.

Do we think Becky Lynch is done now?

I think in terms of seeing her week to week howse show loop type stuff, I maybe, But right, she's young, she's healthy, she's very fucking good.

There's money in it, Like, she's got a young kid.

She has had a hell of a run.

I think they've got all the money in the world, you know, between her and Seth.

So yeah, let her raise her young kid and.

Let her ship a pay per view a couple of times a year.

She has a long time of doing that.

I think you'll probably you'll see your Russell of at least a dozen more times.

I bet, yeah, yeah, definitely more.

You know, we've seen trist Stratus come back and be like a regular for like half.

A year, and she wants to go back again.

She was just saying like she's ready for another run, like and she's fifty.

You know, it's it's insane.

I can around well power of yoga, I guess y yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, big big yoga fan.

Before we get out of here, I do want to establish that if anyone does ever stay at Hotel Grub, the cost is just one complete inbox the Nintendo sixty four game, which Dan did send me.

So keep that in mind everybody if you ever end up staying here.

I do love what you said on Twitter about that, where it's like, oh God, you're going to turn me into one of these guys.

I just like started looking up ten eighty.

I'm like chifty box.

That's how I started with me.

I just was at Flee Market and I saw Mario three and I was like, oh, I should get an inbox Mario three, And this is doing some of my brain right now.

I'll put some cash aside for whenever.

That was that Midwest gaming class or whatever.

We go to Mike this.

Next month, I believe sometimes September.

It was a good condition.

I was trying to buy one that was in a really good condition.

It's it's yeah, it's exactly.

I mean, listen, it's the sixty four cardboard.

It's pretty good all things considered.

I'm very I'm no complaints.

Okay, thank you, Dan, Yes, thank you.

It was Mike.

I said that the pay graub.

Now I slept on the couch.

I don't know ship No, no.

I can't believe Mike plugged in your game scent.

That's really right now, rude, rude, rude.

Well boys, that does it for this uh weeks, this edition of the power BombCast.

Once again, we do try and aim to make this a more regular thing.

Part of that.

Hey, I don't know, I'm just going to call out.

Now we need music for the show, are we kind of we can get covered by our our our person, but.

Whom we pay uckets.

And powers.

Oh, come on, let's just get Jeff Jarrett to do it.

Tell him come out of retirement from his country stardom, like to break.

Out the flute.

Yeah, there we go, Mike, take us out of here.

M hm, this is wrastling.

Man, if your mic wasn't so, ship.

Hip Hip hooray, hip hip hooray

Like clear