JJ and his amazing friends Jason and Matt Lees are here to break down WrestleMania 33. If that isn’t your thing no problem, we will be back to our usual shenanigans next week. That will probably only have some wrestling. Spam spam spam, eggs, cheese wrestling and spam. Yep that’s the way it goes. Thanks to Matt Lees for joining us, as this is the first time he and Jason have ever been recorded together…HISTORIC!

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JJ and his amazing friend Matt Lees reunite to tell tales of wonder…or wrestling…and maybe a story or two about questionable plants. The two old friends have much to catch up on and you lucky devils get to listen in…
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JJ and his amazing friend Jason did not feel like they had an exciting week. It started when JJ finally saw Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Super Duper Extended Version That You Never Saw In Theaters And We Really Mean It When We Say If This Was The Version You Saw The First Time You Would Have Loved It, Fanboy Scum or BVSDOJSDEVTYNSITAWRMIWWSITWTVYSTFTYWHLIFS for short. Then the pair share stories about how work has been less than exciting lately. At least Jason saw a cool concert and got to meet a legendary wrestler!

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The show is a complete departure from everything WWE has done up to this point. Everything is different. From the presentation to the product it feels genuinely fresh in comparison to even NXT, which has been leaving the rest of WWE in the shade when it comes to having its finger on the pulse of what wrestling fans are looking for.

It’s wrestling with the look and feel of a real sports event. The commentators Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo talk about each competitor and their skills. They talk about the wrestlers’ background in different martial arts and fighting styles. They talk about experience. They don’t talk about storylines. They don’t talk about Twitter. You don’t realise how much you miss good commentary until it slaps you in the face.

And what I think I like the most is that nothing about this feels like a self-serving move on WWE’s part. In fact, it actually feels like them giving back to the world wrestling community. Giving indie wrestlers from 16 different countries a chance to shine on a bigger stage. Sure, it’s probably going to boost WWE Network subscriptions for a while, but if that’s the price we have to pay to see some great matches from people you’d rarely get to see in HD, I’m good with the trade-off.

I mean, look at this match up above. Kota Ibushi beat Finn Balor in a title match back in Japan. He’s not exactly green. He’s in the ring with Sean Maluta from the, now infamous, Samoan wrestling family. That’s a pretty interesting match up. Then look at below. I had never heard of either Petiot nor Alexander before this and they put on possibly the best match of the night. I’ll be keeping an eye out for both in the future.

But what about the wrestling itself? Well, as they often say in the UFC, styles make matches and the differing styles of this diverse group of wrestlers made for a fascinating spectacle. Sure, with cruiserweights you’re going to get some high-flying action but there was more than that on show. On the whole, the quality of wrestlers was very high, although I was slightly disappointed that Ho Ho Lun made it through after a sloppy performance against an impressive Daivari.

What I really liked as an addition to the in-ring presentation also was how the referees interacted with the participants. They would explain the rules in the middle at the start before a handshake and would raise the hand of the winner at the end just like a boxing or UFC match. Again, adding layers of subconscious respectability to the tournament. Giving it that real-sport feel.

And there are the feel good stories too. A lot of these guys are very young wrestlers. This is great exposure for them at the start of their careers. But then there are the older competitors like Alejandro Saez who has essentially been a leader of wrestling in Chile where it does not have much of a history at all. He taught himself to wrestle using videos online and is now the first ever Chilean to wrestle within the WWE. After ten years in the business, his appearance here must be incredibly satisfying.

I’m hooked. I’m excited. I can’t wait until next week. I just thought I’d be feeling this way about the big brand split, not a one hour show about a bunch of indie wrestlers. Go figure.

JJ and his amazing friend Jason are not here to talk about guns or Brexit. No, we decide to avoid the negativity and shoot the poop about wrestling, vacations, fortune teller machines, and tattoos. You know, the things we are truly qualified to discuss…

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To figure out how to fix such a problem you have to look at why it’s happening and there are a few obvious reasons and a couple more subtle ones which might be harder to fix.

First of all, changes need to be made to his image.

Whether he likes it or not, Roman Reigns has resting smug face. It’s just how his features are built. He may not be thinking he’s better than everyone and everything but unfortunately when he cracks that smirk of his, it’s what comes across. People react to that, sometimes only subconsciously, but they do.

It’s hard to like a guy who is that big, athletic, and good looking if it appears that he has an attitude. Especially when he’s being as pushed as hard as he is. The average wrestling fan is a working class schlub. They want to either root for an underdog or identify with a protagonist. It’s hard to believe that a specimen like Reigns could ever be conceived as an underdog when he clearly won the genetic lottery.

Secondly, they need to progress his character’s style.

Letting Roman keep both The Shield’s entrance music and crowd-walk-through was a designed effort by WWE to transpose the popularity for The Shield on to him. Unfortunately it has backfired. Instead of us thinking “I love The Shield and I love Roman Reigns” it has more of an effect of ” I miss The Shield”.

You may think I’m crazy with that but think about all the times that the music hits, the crowd cheers only to slowly turn in to boos. It’s not because the people who dislike Roman are slower to make noise. It’s because The Shield’s music elicits a pavlovian response of excitement. That group was more over than anything the WWE purposefully pushed in the last 10 years. People remember and instinctively cheer for that. But then they remember that it’s not The Shield and it’s Roman instead and that happiness turns to disappointment which then turns to resentment.

His gear is almost exactly the same too. It’s all reminding people of something they can’t have. Rollins kept his garment style but wore different colours like the sweet white and gold ensemble, changed his attitude and music. Ambrose now wrestles in street gear, changed his entrance and enhanced his in-ring persona. People got behind both those performers after The Shield split because they progressed. Roman has remained stale.

Roman’s place at the big show remains a problem because WWE make such a big deal of it.

Because WWE treats Wrestlemania unlike any other PPV and claims that it’s the “Super Bowl of wrestling” it’s making a statement every time they book their card for it. They’re making a league table almost and positioning their superstars accordingly to how they value them. Knowing that their biggest stars, or at least who they think their biggest stars are, will be the main event means it’s a time when both WWE and the audience have a chance to evaluate who that might be. For the past number of years the WWE and the audience have disagreed on Roman’s placement.

This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem normally. There have been plenty of pay-per-views headlined by odd or underwhelming matches but again, “this is Wrestlemania season”. The importance is placed so highly that the viewer’s feelings increase too. And if they’re unhappy with the main-event for the biggest show of the year that feeling will carry throughout the rest of it.

It’s a resentment thing. I’ll reiterate my point from earlier because I honestly think it’s the crux of the issue. The vast majority of grown-up wrestling fans are working class people who haven’t caught a break in life and watch wrestling to forget their troubles. If our main protagonist is a man who has everything it’s hard to root for him.

Kids are different. They want larger-than-life figures, they want indestructible heroes, they want someone who can seemingly do anything. They, understandably, love Roman. But they’re not as loud in an arena as the grown men. And after a while it gets embarrassing to have the face of the company be consistently booed when he wins matches.

If they just changed things up a little, even make him a heel for a while, I think things could change significantly but WWE are a stubborn bunch and the “Roman Empire” is their agenda for now.

I encourage you to seek out the full unedited moment. Very rarely does a wrestler talk with such honesty and vulnerability in the ring. As you can imagine, we’re all pretty devastated around her in DOOM Towers. D-Bry was a hero to many of us. He was an underdog for so many reasons in WWE and he became both the representation of the crowd’s frustrations and desires but also a champion that people could identify with. His career has too many highlights to list but I’m going to go over a couple key moments outside of his matches that I won’t soon forget. The following are some of the many reasons I’m grateful for Daniel Bryan.

– RAW after Wrestlemania 28

This is when the Yes Movement officially started. This is when crowds really started to derail most of Vince McMahon’s plans. I encourage you to watch the whole episode because it’s just one whole show of an audience dragging RAW to a halt. Nobody could deal with them. The night before, Daniel Bryan lost the title in an under a minute. He didn’t even have a match or appearance on this RAW. That sh** just wasn’t going to fly. In a dark match after RAW’s airing Daniel Bryan got a chance to address the rabid crowd.

He could barely get a t-shirt in the WWE shop at this point. It’s amazing the turn around he had.

-Team Friendship

It would still be a while before the company would trust him with a big singles push and so they landed him in a gimmick that should never, ever have worked but somehow it was the best thing on their TV for nearly a year. The New Day of their time, Team Hell No.

On paper, none of that should have worked. But somehow it really, really did.

– Meeting Connor

We all know of the tragic story surrounding Connor The Crusher but let’s not forget where it all began, and his first meeting with his hero Daniel Bryan.

– People Power

Throughout his tenure in WWE, Daniel was the people’s choice. Time and time again he was being overlooked by Vince’s favourites but the crowds consistently chanted for D-Bry. It many ways, this overwhelming support was to the detriment of Bryan’s career. Vince doesn’t like it when wrestlers get over on their own, he wants to be responsible for “making” them and can get petty about it (see Zack Ryder’s career). This following segment was set up for a Cena/Orton match. But who did the crowd want?

– Thank You, Daniel

There was a tweet last night that I feel sums a lot of my feelings up today.

If you’re a wrestler & you don’t have the passion that @WWEDanielBryan has, hang up the boots & do something else #ThankYouDanielBryan

— WWE Creative Humor (@WWECreative_ish) February 9, 2016

He was one of the greats. Let’s watch him take his victory lap…

In this episode, DJ attempts to play multiple games that we were assured he had played before but he still manages to be really bad at and all of our good ideas about entertaining game play go out of the window. We discuss the many, many superhero movies coming out in 2016, what we’re excited about and what we’re really worried about. Also covered are video games, Yasiin Bey, the Royal Rumble, and a lot of failed segues. 

 Hail to the King, Baby

And remember, just like Booker’s thoughts, these are in no particular order.

1) Seth Rollins

If you have any faith in a higher power, I hope you’re praying every day for the safe return to the ring of Seth Rollins. His injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. He was the main man on the main roster, delivering great matches every time.
His departure left us with the endlessly mundane and repetitive Sheamus/Reigns feud. That alone should be a sharp reminder of how much Rollins raised the bar in the company. Without him there is nothing on the Heavy Weight Title scene.

2) The New Day

On the tag-team scene however, there is pure gold. I was very tempted to give individual places on this Fave Five to Kofi, Xavier, and Big E each but that would be greedy.
Through the sheer power of positivity they have made television magic all year. From rap references, to #BOOTY, to unicorns they have literally been the only part of RAW that you needed to see every week.
They made a trombone one of the best gimmicks in wrestling, are you kidding me? Never take the belts off them, never.

3) Bayley

If you don’t love Bayley then you are what is wrong with the wrestling business. Bayley is the best. Bayley is life. Bayley is wrestling.
Her work with Sasha Banks was above and beyond the best matches WWE had in 2015. The first match made Seth Rollins cry at ringside. It happened. Google it.
She’s over with the crowd at a level I don’t think any female wrestler has ever been. Her match with Nia Jaxx was compelling and a huge change of pace too so it doesn’t look like she’s going to disappoint in 2016 either.

4) Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens pinned John Cena, clean, in the middle of the ring on his debut match on the main roster. There was a reason the commentary team made such a big deal about this because it is a big deal.
The WWE have faith in Owens and they’re right to. He’s one of the best heels they have right now, both on the mic and in the ring.
I was worried when he lost in his final feud match with Cena that he would be relegated to mid-card obscurity but a nice Intercontinental title reign was just around the corner and in my eyes the only way is up from here.

5) Vacant

I’m pretty sure Vacant is from Dublin, Ireland because both injuries that took out Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins occurred during house shows in the city.
I’m only half joking by including Vacant in my top 5. Vacant has had a bigger impact on the WWE this year than any other wrestler. Vacant literally changes the course of every storyline and has made more appearance in recent memory than anyone would have guessed.
Hopefully we don’t see Vacant again in 2016 but I worry we haven’t seen the last of this most evil of heels.

AND COMPETING FOR A PLACE…

Jordan & Gable: These boys are lighting up NXT with their technical abiltity and gosh darn goofy enthusiasm. When fans chant your name to the tune of Kurt Angle’s theme music, that’s not a bad comparison.

Sasha Banks: She would be on the above list if not for her terrible utilisation on RAW. Sometimes getting called up to the main roster is a curse, not a gift.

Finn Balor: Finn changed the game this year. His entrances are majestic but lets not forget his great in-ring ability too. If he can get his mic-game to match it? There’ll be no stopping him.

Asuka: I’ve never been more impressed, or more scared, with a womens wrestler as I have with Asuka since her debut. Now all I need is to see her in a feud where she could lose, and somehow make me believe she could actually lose!