It was a breakneck weekend of wrestling (and more wrestling) for us at Sportskeeda; beginning with NXT Takeover: Toronto on Saturday night, and culminating with NXT television on Wednesday night. Of course, the hot topic of discussion all week has been Goldberg squashing Brock Lesnar in 1 minute, 26 seconds.
The podcast world had many insights about this encounter between the leviathans, and we bring you highlights from three podcasts that we intently followed.
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TALK IS JERICHO
While we can post a recap of the conversation between Chris Jericho and his old tag team partner, Christian, it would be impossible to capture the chemistry that both men share. Former tag team champions, the two men met in front of a live crowd and exchanged hilarious stories.
They spoke about the old days when a wrestler was supposed to have a soft handshake, because if you shook hands ‘like a man’, you were considered to be a bad worker. They spoke about JBL being the locker room bully and how he used to call Y2J- ‘Why So Short?’ (we don’t get it either).
Christian spoke about debuting as a member of the vampire outfit- The Brood, and going from an independent show with 200 people to his WWE debut (which had 15,000 people). Even TNA did not match up, because when Christian would walk through airports during his TNA run, he would be asked if he was retired.
Without spoiling these stories for you, we would like to mention the high points of the interview- Christian meeting Vince McMahon in a place called Insane Championship Wrestling, McMahon wanting Jericho and Christian to strip naked on Raw for a segment; and Christian mentioning his amazing chemistry with Randy Orton, whom he called his favourite opponent.
Jericho and Christian relived moments from their past too, especially spots from their epic Wrestlemania 20 encounter. Christian also spoke about recreating the magic of Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon in a tag team format, with The Hardy Boys. Overall, a must listen interview.
Wrestling Observer Radio
One of the more compelling things that Dave Meltzer said in this edition of Wrestling Observer Radio was that it was a good thing that Goldberg wasn’t booked as a comedy figure, or he would die a thousand deaths. But there were many other aspects of WWE he touched upon, through the episode.
According to him, Raw did the second best ratings this fall because of Goldberg, despite the fact that there was a third-hour drop. While Rollins and Owens did not keep the crowd hooked, SmackDown did fine, despite the fact that Ellsworth was in the main event.
While Meltzer was entertained by SmackDown, he felt it was too suited for laughs. He wants Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt to become tag team champions because the titles don’t feel important with Slater and Rhyno. He added that the American Alpha – Uso feud cooled any momentum that the former had.
Jordan and Gable, as serious competitors feel out of place in the comedy tag team division.
Perhaps the most interesting thing that Meltzer touched upon in this episode was the Network vs. Pay-per-view model. While at first glance, it seems that Pay-Per-Views and the WWE Network both yield as much revenue; in reality, one tends to forget Internet Pay-Per-Views and Home Videos.
And there’s a significant loss that WWE suffers when this is taken into account. He also maintained that it’s much more expensive to maintain the WWE Network, because of the many shows on it. The part that should worry the WWE Network is that they lost subscribers when they went to 2 Pay-Per-Views a month.
However, profits are not badly affected, as WWE earns a lot of money from TV broadcast.
Meltzer also spoke about house show numbers, and how they’re solid once more, after a disappointing October. He attributed John Cena’s absence to an overall drop of 1,000 people per show. But because of the European tour, house show numbers have gone up again.
SAM ROBERTS PODCAST
Sam Roberts, much like the rest of the wrestling world, was shocked by the outcome of Survivor Series and hence, had an emergency ‘State Of Wrestling’ Podcast go up, minutes after the Pay-Per-View.
While most of the world was reeling from the Lesnar- Goldberg encounter, he started off by saying that when Sam calls for an emergency ‘State of Wrestling’ Podcast 15 minutes after a pay-per-view, it's definitely not the worst thing in the world.
Sam Roberts feels that as a moment in history, people won’t be complaining about the outcome of this short encounter in the long run. While reactions are similar to The Undertaker’s streak ending at the hands of Brock Lesnar, it is a good thing because it’s a shocking event.
He reiterated that some people love the outcome while others hate it... but the ‘real answer’ is that one doesn't know what to think.
Roberts urged people to use their common sense and said that Goldberg wouldn't come back for one Survivor Series match. It’s the ‘funnest’ thing to come back for one run, and stroke the ego that every Superstar has. Not only will Goldberg’s kid be proud, but he can make a lot of money in the process as well.
Plus, the politics that kept Goldberg out won’t be a factor anymore, this time.
As a youngster, Sam Roberts was a WWE guy and wanted to continuously say that Goldberg sucked. But even at his prime, Goldberg had six moves and still sold a lot of Pay-Per-Views as well as tickets!
He addressed the people who felt that Lesnar was being punished for steroid use, by saying that if he was... he would not have been booked for this major event, and lost a pay day.
Moreover, Roberts feels that Lesnar losing this match will not kill his momentum. Lesnar lost to Alistair Overeem in a real fight in the UFC, and still his comeback did great numbers. Roberts added that Lesnar took the pin because him squashing his opponents in every match was getting boring.
Roberts also said that The Survivor Series match between Raw and Smackdown was one of the best traditional Survivor Series matches of all time. He was impressed by Shane McMahon giving it his all, at his age.
Honestly, the main takeaway from this podcast was that nobody’s legacy had been tarnished, despite the outcome of the Goldberg-Lesnar encounter. Now, Goldberg is an important player on the chessboard of WWE.
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