From My Perspective
From my perspective is the latest sports podcast from Mixed Vibez Media. Deion and Mr. Bell gives you the honest and raw sports takes from the everyday fan. We say what everyone is thinking in a entertaining form. We will have guest and other members of the Mixed Vibez team. Also reporters who are associated with the teams you love. Welcome to the Team.
From My Perspective
ESPN Wrestling Debut: WrestlePalooza Preview and Predictions
We dive into WWE's first event on ESPN, WrestlePalooza, breaking down match predictions and discussing the surprising announcement of WrestleMania heading to Saudi Arabia.
• WrestlePalooza on ESPN marks WWE's first premium live event on the network, priced at $30
• The event features only five matches despite the "Palooza" name suggesting a more extensive card
• John Cena continues his retirement tour against Brock Lesnar in the opening match
• CM Punk and AJ Lee return as a team to face Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch in what could be the main event
• We predict the Women's World Championship match between Stephanie Vakiria and Io Sky will be match of the night
• Saudi Arabia reportedly paid $350-400 million to host a future WrestleMania
• We discuss the evolution of WWE's relationship with Saudi Arabia, including the progression of women's wrestling there
Please like, subscribe, and leave a comment telling us who you think will be John Cena's final opponent on his retirement tour.
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welcome, welcome, welcome back to another episode of. From my perspective, I'm your boy, dion, coming back to you with another episode. Thank you for joining us again, please like, please subscribe, leave a comment if you will. But you know, I am joined by the man, the master legend himself, captain hater q. How you doing, man?
Speaker 2:what to what it do, what it is. You're right. Another bastard Boy, mr Bill aka aka. Say your name up on this pod. Might have to the mob what's up?
Speaker 1:Dio, hey, nothing much, man. I'm excited I got a busy weekend, but there's also a busy weekend of sports, especially with ESPN. The first PLE on ESPN, russell Palooza, is here this Saturday. Kind of a little bit surprised that they're having it on Saturday, but I guess they don't want to compete with the NFL. But this Saturday at 7 pm WrestlePalooza is here. Now, before we get into it, I got a question to ask you. You know I usually always ask you are you going to watch it live? I'm going to ask you that too. But I got a question to ask you. You know I usually always ask you are you going to watch it live? I'm going to ask you that too. But my first question how do you feel about the name Russell Palooza? We obviously know that it's coming from the Lollapalooza, the music festival, and Russell Palooza was a name in, I think, ecw or ECW preview back in the past. But how do you?
Speaker 2:feel about Russell Palooza Actually. So I like it. I like the name and I like the premise. I want to see what the execution is going to be, because they WWE is not about making it a yearly event, and that's fine, but as I'm pretty sure we're going to talk about, if it's WrestlePalooza, I'm expecting a day worth of wrestling.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Not five matches. Yeah, I want to build around it. I want to. If you're going to call it a wrestling for losers, it needs to be something special. Hell, it needs to be a steel cage match or something on this model. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like I agree, like personally, I actually love the name. I know the name is going to get some hate. I guess WWE had a pay-per-view called Great Balls of Fire. It don't get no worse than that, I'm sorry. Russell Belusin, from my perspective, is a great name. I agree we should get more than five matches. I was assuming, since they're moving to ESPN, they're charging these people more that you get more than five matches. We can get maybe six or seven, but they're sticking with the five match thing.
Speaker 2:Whoa, you said five or six, man, it should be seven or eight. If you're going to call it Russell Palooza, that gives the thought of it's going to be an all-day event. It's not. It's more than just your typical PLE With that title, with that name. If WrestlePalooza, you feel like you're going to get a substantial amount of matches, you know, not five or six, you think it's seven or eight because it's going to be an all-day situation, it's going to be a celebration, kind of like you said, like Lollapalooza and stuff like that, that stuff run all day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean we'll see, but again, it's on ESPN. First one on ESPN, $30. If you don't have, you know, some type of cable, subscribe to YouTube Sling TV. Are you watching it live? Q?
Speaker 2:Ooh, more than likely, yes, more Ooh. Uh, more than likely, yes, more than likely. I say that because you know it's college football 30 as well, so I'm kind of going to be Louisville, come on at 12. So you know that'd be out of the way. But it's some other interesting games that I kind of want to watch.
Speaker 2:And this is the thing I hate about streaming apps. Just give me one second to get this off my chest, captain Hater Mode. So with all these streaming apps, I can't. With YouTube TV, I can do the multi-view. Well, I can't do the multi-view and include you know what I'm saying the stuff I want to watch. If I got to go to the app Now supposedly ESPN app you can have multi-view. So if I can, then I'll be like, all right, cool, I can get my college football game on, I can get my wrestling on one side, but I got to log into the ESPN because I do have YouTube TV. But with all these stream apps like right now I was watching U of L versus UK I was watching the FIBA game, the WNBA I couldn't watch the game on Amazon Prime because I would have to log out of YouTube TV to log into Amazon Prime. I don't, I want to. What was wrong with cable? Everybody wait. What was wrong with cable? Why would y'all have 15 different streaming apps?
Speaker 1:It's ridiculous. That's why when I watch TV, I got my TV here and I got my computer here. Usually, I mean I only got two screens, so I'm usually two sporting events at the time at the most, but sometimes there be a third that I'm trying to take a peek at.
Speaker 2:I don't understand what was wrong with K. What was wrong People be like? You got to be able to watch all this stuff on the go. I don't you know If I'm out most of it, I'm just checking the score. I'm like you know. Alright, man, let me because I can it sounds like old man get off my line and I'm okay sounding like that, but I ain't gonna wait a five day on talking about this. But it's annoying.
Speaker 1:I feel you. It is annoying, but let's go ahead and get into these pick'ems. If you don't know me and Q, we do confidence points predictions. There's five matches. The match you have the most confidence in you give five. The match you have the least confidence in you give one. I beat Q last time, so I know I just had to put that out there. But we do have some props at the end, like, was it necessary? It was a little necessary, but let's go ahead and get into it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go ahead and start out with what I think and what I will put my next paycheck on is going to be the match of the. Actually, I ain't going to put my whole paycheck on it. I'll put half of my paycheck on it. But what paycheck on it? I put half of my paycheck on it, but what I think will be the match of the night and that's Lyra Vakiria versus not Lyra Vakiria. I'm tripping Stephanie Vakiria versus Io Sky for the Women's World Heavyweight title. The vacant Women's World title was vacant by Naomi. I know you're a big Io Sky fan, but if we rewind a couple months ago not even a couple months ago, like a couple weeks ago, before Naomi even relinquished the title. You said Stephanie got that in the bag. The next PLE she fights for. You still agree with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going. Stephanie Wood 5. Hey look, I love Mizumio, like you said, but I ain't. You know Stephanie Wood. Hey look, I love Mizumio, like you said, but I ain't. We already know where this is headed. We know where this is going Also because Io is going to be in a storyline away from the title, probably with the Kabuki Warriors and Rhea Ripley. So, okay, we're going to put the title on Stephanie right here. So I think that's what I'm asking. You said half your paycheck man matching tonight.
Speaker 2:I think I would put 75, 85% of my paycheck on this being the match of the night Because, looking at the rest of the card looking at the rest of the card, like it'd be different if, even though I hated the storyline shame it for Rusell but you knew they was going to put on a match.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They don't have that on this card. They got some good workers, but they ain't. They got some good talkers, but they ain't. You know that's the cream of the crop workers from my perspective, but that's the two young ladies that's going to be in the title match.
Speaker 1:But I'm just going to go different with you. I wasn't convinced that Stephanie was going to get it with Naomi as a champion. I feel like they might feel like it's too soon to get Stephanie in the title. It might be I can see them giving to her, but I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to go with Io Sky and I'm going to go with Io Sky with two.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay, I respect it, I respect it.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. So let's go ahead and slide to the next match. A decent build. I guess they wanted to bring back the Usos because it's WrestlePalooza big tag team, but it's the Usos vs Braun and Braun. I'll go first. Braun and Braun needs a win. Usos can take a loss, specifically Jimmy Uso, and that's who I got taking a pin. But I got Braun and Braun winning this with three and Jimmy taking a pin for my prop oh okay, I'm gonna take the Usos with one.
Speaker 2:My prop is, I say Bronson Reed's gonna take the fifth. So they're doing this angle where Jay's basically turning in to Roman the head of the table situation. It's basically going to turn Jay Hill. Is it really the time to be turning Jay Uso Hill?
Speaker 1:I feel like he just became a top tier babyface yeah.
Speaker 2:So why would you? Why at this time? Why would you turn him Hill? I don't feel like it's would you at this time. Why would you turn him heel? I don't feel like it's beneficial for him at this time. Now you could tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't feel like it's beneficial at this time to turn Jey Uso heel. But as far as this, as far as this match, you right, the bronze need a win. I don't think they gonna get this win because it's the first match of the Usos getting back together.
Speaker 1:So you think they gotta give it to the Usos just because of that first match back?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the Bronze can't keep losing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they gotta look strong somehow they gotta feel like a force.
Speaker 2:These two big dudes, these two muscular you know what I'm saying behemoths of men, they gonna keep losing matches. I don't think they should, but I think they will we'll see.
Speaker 1:So we are going against each other on two matches. We usually don't go against each other on two matches, we usually don't go against each other that many times, but we are now Next up. The WWE Championship is on the line and, honestly, you look at this car this is probably the third most talked about match or most looked forward match that most people are looking forward to. Like it is taking a back seat to. We'll get to the other two matches, but it's taking a back seat. Drew and Cody. Like how you think people really even care about this feud? I mean, cody's been gone. I think that's probably the reason.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. That's the reason Cody's gone. Drew, I heard, battled with Randy Orton on SmackDown. It's better the person he's about to go up against Hell. We didn't talk about it, but the women's match. It just basically was announced that that's who it was going to be. It ain't really been no build between them two until this past week, but it's Drew I mean Ronald Drew's carrying it the best he can, but it happens. It's kind of hard to carry a few with yourself and the other person I need to hear doing video vignettes or whatnot he doing it all himself, or him and Randy Orton. Hell, it should be a triple threat at this point.
Speaker 1:It should, but I'm going with Cody with one. I mean I kind of don't care about this match. I am going to ask you because we know what match is going to start out the show. I think this match, and the other match where Guray talked about, has the chance to main event For your prop bet. Do you think this will be the match that main event?
Speaker 2:or do you think it'll be the other one? I think this would be the one that'll make the main.
Speaker 1:Okay, even though this is like third fiddle to people.
Speaker 2:You gotta put some respect on your world title and Cody's still Cody, Okay.
Speaker 1:So yeah, because I mean, if he obviously is not going on first, you really don't put your world title in the middle of the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not just because some storyline is better Like the next match, like you're talking about, their storyline is better, but actually I think those people's here every week, yeah, so it also helps that their storyline is better because those people's here every week I'm going to go Cody Rhodes with a three, all right, just because I don't see them taking the title off Cody, even though I do think at some point. I think I don't think this is going to be like a one match feud, so I think at some point Drew's going to take it off Cody At some point in this feud. I think it should be them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm cool on the Cody World title run right now. We got a year plus of it. It's time for some other people to get it, but who knows?
Speaker 2:And even not some other people. I think it should be Drew. And it should be Drew now because, to be fair, how long y'all gonna keep pushing off Drew being a world champion?
Speaker 1:again. Yeah, last time we had that man there was no fans in the stands.
Speaker 2:No, Drew, Drew's got it. We all been waiting on Drew to get his next world title. I think it should go ahead and be now because, like you said, Cody's our feminine move. You need a fighting champion. Put that belt on Drew and let Drew and Randy go back and forth for a little bit while Cody's away. Then Cody come back. I ain't get my rematch. Boom Food, go from there. Yeah, I'm going to go. Cody with a three. Cody with a three should win.
Speaker 1:Next match we're going to talk about. I'm going to go ahead and call it. I think this is going to be the main event because, simple fact, they've gave this match the bulk of the story. This is what they've been focused on. The story focus has been on this match. You got a big comeback. You got the superstars having their first match back in over 10 years. We got Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch going against CM Punk and AJ Lee Two married couples going at it, they fighting, but I got Punk and AJ Lee Two married couples going at it, they fighting, but I got Punk and AJ Lee winning. I got four. Aj Lee is not going to lose her first match back and I think she's going to actually get the pin against Becky Lynch so I'm going to go the same way, but I'm only going with a two, even though I think it should be four.
Speaker 2:But I just feel, like the other people, that I got hired. You know what I'm saying. I think these other people are going to get hired.
Speaker 2:I also believe you as well, that AJ Lee is going to get the pin, because in fact, you're going to set up the AJ Lee and the Becky Lynch team. That being said, if you do that, them is two big names fighting for your women's mid-core title. You need to make sure Stephanie has a credible opponent, so her story, so that your mid-core women's title doesn't outshine your main women's title. You donshine your main women's title. You don't want that to happen to you Because it's already outshining the other, the SmackDown Women's Championship of the United States.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you forget that's even a thing, man.
Speaker 2:Shit. It's outshining both the titles for women on SmackDown. You don't want it to outshine the main on Raw, so make sure Stephanie gets somebody that she can compete with. I don't know who that name is, like I said, because I think Rio and Io got their own situation, so I don't know who that name is. But you better, if it's somebody like hell, roxanne Perez, you better give it ain't. If it's somebody like hell, roxanne Perez, you better give it a storyline to make it work for you.
Speaker 1:Make it work for you and I'll be picking up that phone. Hey, liv, how's that? How's that shoulder you? Good, how's that shoulder?
Speaker 2:we might need you. Hell, you better be calling Bianca. Hey, I know you over on SmackDown, but you know.
Speaker 1:How that finger doing Is it ready?
Speaker 2:You good, you, straight down there. You was at homecoming and it's the homecoming. How was it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I agree 100% Because obviously they was already doing a little thing AJ Lee carrying around the Intercontinental title. It's the craziest thing about when AJ Lee was here. I mean, she was the big star, probably the biggest star women's-wise. At the time. They didn't have a women's Royal Rumble, they didn't have a women's Money in the Bank, they only had one women's world title. The landscape has changed so much since she's been there, so she has the world at her fingertips as a veteran, pretty much a Hall of Fame level superstar coming back, and she has the opportunity to accomplish a bunch of stuff that she didn't even have the opportunity 10 years ago. So we'll see how they book her. I'm interested and obviously she signed. She signed full time, so we'll see how she plays in the new WWE landscape.
Speaker 1:But let's go ahead and get to the last match on this card John Cena versus Brock Lesnar. No story, lesnar just showed up and you know F5 John Cena. I guess he doesn't like him. I guess he wanted to beat him up one more good time before he gets up out of here. But one thing we do know is this match is going to start the show. Who you got? John Cena's last match, his last match in Indianapolis. Who you got so?
Speaker 2:first let me say John Cena with four. Okay, brock Lesnar's gonna be on Smackdown. Unfortunately I seen I ain't gonna be there, but Brock Lesnar's gonna come back on Smackdown, alright, man, I mean that's. That's cool, cause that does give some type of build. But we going through this, oh ain't no real builds. It's cause you got a bunch of people who ain't you know, ain't no real bills. It's because you got a bunch of people who ain't you know, who ain't there, like the Usos and the Brons. They have a bill because they was there. And then the Murray couples. They got a bill, but other than that, them is the only two matches with actual bills.
Speaker 2:John Cena got out there and do his promo but ain't no interaction because Bron Bur I mean not Bron Bur John Cena got out there to do his promo but ain't no interaction because Brock Lesnar wasn't third. But I'm going with John Cena before because in fact I don't think he's going to lose. You can't close out him losing to Brock Lesnar the way he is. John Cena's going to lose on this retirement tour. We know that he's not going to win out. That's not smart business to do. That's also, I don't think, something John Cena would do? John Cena is not going to win out, he's going to lose.
Speaker 1:I just don't think it should be the Brock Lesnar. Oh yeah, I agree he should not lose to Brock Lesnar and I agree 100% with you he's not going to lose. I got John Cena and I got all my confidence points, john Cena with Bob. I can already tell you how the match is going to go. They're probably going to make it similar to that SummerSlam match all those years ago where Brock Lesnar just absolutely dominates him but instead of Brock Lesnar getting the win, john Cena hits the whole never give up motto, hits him with an attitude adjustment and gets it done. So yep, but that is WrestlePalooza.
Speaker 1:Before we switch gears, there was a big announcement that happened. Was it this week or late last week? There was a big announcement WrestleMania is heading to Saudi Arabia. Obviously, this year's WrestleMania is going back to Las Vegas. Las Vegas I guess they just dropped a bag on them to bring it back, but WrestleMania is going back to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia gave them a bag. I'm going to look up how much the bag was, but before I, while I'm looking for that, what is your thoughts on WrestleMania going to Saudi Arabia? First time going overseas? It is not in Europe, it's in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, italy's going to get a PLE next year too, because of the Netflix deal. They announced that too. So at some point they're going to Italy, saudi Arabia like you said, it's all about money. The people of TKO talked about how Vince McMahon set his ticket prices so people could bring their families. Tko talked about how Vince McMahon set his ticket prices so people could bring their families. Tko is out here trying to get to the bed. That's what they're doing. I can't be mad at them for wanting to get to the bed. That's what they're.
Speaker 2:But at some point like in streaming services, just like hell, the way of life right now at some point you're going to price yourself out of your consumer base, so you gonna have to lower your prices. At some point, saudi Arabia said, hey, we gonna give y'all X amount of dollars. We want a Wrestlemania, alright, cool. The thing I do not want to happen, because the rumor is they was gonna do multiple Wrestlemania's. Now do one Wrestlemania and we'll call it just call it a day WrestleMania. Now Do one WrestleMania and we'll call it just call it a day.
Speaker 1:I agree with you 100%. Just looking through some of the number figures that was thrown out, I believe Las Vegas paid like 100 mil or something like that to bring WrestleMania back to Las Vegas. Apparently, Saudi Arabia paid $350 million, which is not confirmed. There's a number that I saw throwing $350 million. I also saw $400 million. In other words, if I saw that, check in my table what time you want me over there? Just what time you want me over there, Plain and simple. What time you want me over there?
Speaker 2:I'm just saying, it's that simple. If we talking $100 million, it does our whole payroll. Yeah, we want us whole payroll, all right. Yeah, we want us over it.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, we got you. We got you. I agree, I just want to win WrestleMania. I am shocked that the first time they're going to do an overseas WrestleMania is at Saudi Arabia. But when you drop that bag, I'm not shocked when you're in the number figures.
Speaker 1:I'm not shocked, because no other country is going to drop that type of money but Saudi Arabia. They got that type of money they just dropped. They must really love themselves from WWE. And I know there was a lot of controversy, especially when they started going over there, especially early on. But you see the improvement the first time they went over there there was no women on the card. More and more women's matches got put on the card.
Speaker 1:Obviously, the women, they had to adjust. I mean, you gotta you go into a different country, you gotta adjust. They have a certain culture. You gotta adjust to their culture. So the women, they adjust to their culture. So they wear body suits instead of their normal wrestling gear, which, hey, you do what got to do. But they got on the card more and more times. They even had a Royal Rumble, a women's battle Royal, I believe, over there, if I'm not mistaken. Well, they're having the Royal Rumble over there this year. So again, more and more. So you see the improvement. Is it the best thing in the world? No, but if you're a businessman you can't turn that amount of money down but if you're a businessman you can't turn that amount of money down.
Speaker 2:No, you gotta go. You gotta like hell, like these lower FCS programs do when they play the bigger FBS, the big FBS program. They go get that check to take care of everything else. Going over to Saudi Arabia to get that big check, that one-time sum or whatnot, for them to host, for Saudi Arabia to host WrestleMania. It's going to pay hell, your cameraman and a lot of your wrestlers, all of them for the rest of the year. And then you, your live shows is taking care of everything else. So I ain't mad at it. Emmy is business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is business, but let's go ahead and shift gears what you get, but let's go ahead and let's go ahead in the pod. But thank you guys for joining us for another episode From our perspective. That was Russell Palooza. I'm your boy, dion. Thank you again. Please like, please subscribe, leave a comment, tell us who you think is going to be the last person John Cena faces, because we have no idea. But give us your thoughts Q, go ahead and take us home.
Speaker 2:Hey, you already know the vibes. It's your boy, mr Ben aka. I can't say your name in front of the pod Might.