Pro Grapplers

It's fitting that possibly the final episode of Pro Grapplers is packed to the brim with wrestling to talk about while also being on the cusp of live wrestling on TV getting absolutely bonkers. The women of WWE/NXT were rightfully given the spotlight recently, so why aren't we getting another Evolution this year? And how amazing was The Fiend's debut at SummerSlam? Both Steve and Jason are stoked for the potential a new King of the Ring tournament brings and they're also bracing for impact (no, not that one) as AEW prepares to take over (again, not that one). Enjoy all the wrastlin' and we'll see you in the cheap seats! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Just the highlights from here on out, folks! The 24/7 title has a new look, face, and feel, but is it enough to keep it at the top of the pile of WWE championships? Are The OC (don't call them that) truly now a threat? Is Bryan's career-altering announcement that he now has his fork lift driver's license? Is Lesnar still F5-ing Seth on everything from here to Toronto? Are we ready to see Goldberg again? All that, plus both NXT brands barrel towards their respective TakeOver dates and Steve bids a fair adieu to Defiant Wrestling. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Our focus on WWE Network (freshly redesigned, to varying degrees of success!) this week nets a bounty of highlights, like Oney Lorcan's quest for House of Mouse money, a great Swerve/Gulak 205 main event, WALTER and IMPERIUM completing their DOMINANCE of British Strong Style, Kay Lee Ray mind games, another amazing Breakout Tournament match, Io Shirai's smoldering new ... thing, and a Keith Lee we can all get behind. The main roster featured a lot of old people, but some fun 24/7 madness and Owens continues to do great things in his quest to stun Shane as many times as Stone Cole stunned his dad. Only 1,247 left to go, you can do it, KO! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Two more weeks away gives the guys too much to talk about! Aleister's out of his room! New Day's bumpin' titles! Buddy Murphy ... spoke! Kevin Owens is now a top guy! Truth is ... still 24/7 champ! Drake still hasn't consummated his marriage! The Fiend is here! Natalya and Ember have title shots! Brock is champ ... again! Nothing has changed, but listen to Steve and Jason talk about why that's okay! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Before we see what new chicanery Heyman and Bischoff can get up to pre-Extreme Rules, take a listen as the guys run down the most important questions of the past couple of weeks. Will Sarah Logan go full viking? Will Aleister finally come out of his room? Does R-Truth have a ceiling vis a vis the 24/7 title silliness? Can the main roster do a good cage match anymore? Why aren't you watching the NXT Breakout Tournament? Can we stop with the unprotected chair shots already? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

It's time to kick ass! It's time to take names! It's time to remember those names in case you kick too much ass and need to identify someone later. It's STOMPING GROUNDS! Will Bray creep everyone out as the special ref? Will Brock grace us with his presence? Will Lacey begin her preordained reign? Will Sami and Kevin get misused ... again? Will Heavy Machinery win their first PPV on the main roster? Will Bayley and Alexa keep doing this until SummerSlam? Will the cruiserweight title match be great? Will we be surprised? WILL SOMEONE PLEASE WRESTLE ALEISTER BLACK?!? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Shane McMahon is ruining both main roster shows, and we go in depth on the who, what, where, and why of fixing this whole mess. Mad that they're ruining things like Sami and Kevin's renewed on-air friendship or even ROMAN REIGNS? Us too! Non-main roster WWE is still poppin' though, as NXT UK works their way towards a massive collision, 205 Live welcomes Chad Gable to the brand as we also attempt to get a #1 contender for Nese's title at Ass Kicking Grounds, and NXT Colonial gives us another very good Gulak/Kushida match. Also, AEW looms large, with a Fyter Fest for all and Moxley going everything he can to do all he can. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

When you start the (wrestling) week with a TakeOver, it's never a bad week! And Cole's new championship, Shirai remembering her badassness, and a Riddle/Strong rad throwdown are enough to help us forget all about the blood money-equivalent mess across the pond. Steve's got some lowlights from that waste of time (and talent!) while Jason talks about an important fatal-4-way in NXT UK and some surprising developments on 205 Live. Put on your bands and tighten your Zubaz pants, join us in doing the Devil Vince Muscle Man Dance! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

AEW showed us their hand and what a hand it was! Hear the guy's thoughts on why indie battle royals shouldn't be missed, why Jericho and Omega both looked like old dudes, and how Jason wants a throne of minions of his own. NXT TakeOver is going down in a few hours, and the fellas are stoked to see Roddy become the top Era dawg, Breeze win gold and remain home where he belongs, and Shirai rise to the top of the women's NXT food chain. Also, they had to give their thoughts on the news that Brock will cash-in on Monday and that a certain bro is intent on ruining his day. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

WWE is spinning it's wheels after Money in the Bank, looking forward to the blood money show, so what can fill the void? How about a brand new(-ish) product in AEW? The guys talk a bit about Double or Nothing, including the Reynolds vs. Reynolds match The Shinkicker can't wait to see and whether or not the Amazin' One can expect the production values to go up soon so they can truly Be the Elite. Also touched upon: Sonya's Samwise moment, Bayley getting her best main roster moment to date (sorry, Sasha), Big E's olfactory proclivities, WALTER doing a new thing (to Jason, at least), and a brief look at why NXT TakeOver 25 will rule.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

After discussing our excitement at both Bray's big reveal and AEW's TV news, it's all Money in the Bank, baby! We think Nese should retain, Roman should dominate Elias, Shane should jump off the cage (and lose), Natalya should reveal her master plan and win MITB, Becky should go back to one belt, Sami Zayn holds the most MITB potential, Dominick should finally get involved, Kofi should retain (or not), Rollins AND Styles should burn it down, and Bryan should start that tag team revolution he's talked about --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Local talent gave out some big wins, Tozawa killed Kannellis and no one saw it, a hot Glasgow crowd gave NXT UK one of their best shows, Adam Cole can't admit to himself that he might be the problem, the WILD CARD RULE gave us hot new matchups like two WrestleMania rematches, the Revival continued to do the best with they were given, Braun revealed his sentient trash truck powers, and Bray might have lobotomized some kids. Let's do it all again this week, and get a briefcase or two while we're at it! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pro-grapplers/support

Bray kept it weird and creepy, MITB came into focus and it seems like it's months away, the Raw women's roster continues to disappoint, Steve still can't tell which one is Fire and which one is Desire, the Singh Bros made their 205 debut, WALTER chopped Devlin's soul into oblivion, Kushida proved he can only get better from here, and Sonya got a shot against one of NXT's biggest and brightest as Worlds Collided, all in the week that was in WWE.

Last week, we met Robert Roode for the first time ever, welcome Bray Wyatt back to our family living rooms, saw The Viking Raiders, War Raiders, and Viking Warriors all in the same week, witnessed AJ Styles doing his best work in a year, saw SmackDown's women's roster take two steps back, watched as Kevin Owens shocked no one, wished for more Drew Gulak and Montez Ford in our lives, got tired of Albert Hardie Jr. already, and wanted better things for Akira Tozawa and Jordan Devlin.

The Shakeup is complete, and we hope your favorite guy or gal has ended up in a good place! We now know the Miz bleeds red (for Raw, of course); THE VIKING EXPERIENCE has arrived, even though no one has ever heard of them before; the women's roster is on SmackDown (including our precious pirate princess); a Big Dog has taken up residence in the yard of the House That AJ Styles Built, but in his absence, who will move in. All this, plus Steve experiences the goofball new NXT intro for the first time. Experience it with us!

We can finally say, with confidence, that belts ain't just for holdin' up your pants anymore! There's so much to cover in this episode, we're just going to say it covers TakeOver: New York, WrestleMania: Almost New York, Raw and SmackDown Live: Close Enough To New York, the fallout from all of those shows, and a bit of AEW news as well. And today, everything gets shaken up! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH too much wrestling!

We're almost there, and WWE can't stop mucking things up as we prepare for landing! Why are the Riott Squad (like, 1/5 of the women's roster) jobbing out to people they have no business fighting in the first place? Does Dean realize he's reverse-Strowmaning himself (You're not finished with me yet!)? Can Angle go longer than two minutes at Mania without hurting himself? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ASUKA?!? Will Kofi come up short at Mania? Could we love the Usos more? Why is it ScarJo, not ScoJo? Will Black turn on Ricochet and make sense of all this? And WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ASUKA?!?

We predicted one more bad Raw before WrestleMania arrives, and surely that will be the only one, right? After railing against Angle's choice for his final opponent and Ricochet's first-ever match with former WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal, the guys focus on the positives, including Kofi's amazing run through the gauntlet on SmackDown. Some non-main roster stuff comes up, too, including a surprising cruiserweight title contender, where did all the women in NXT UK go, Steve's love for Primate, Gallus' love for Coffey, Dunne and Walter's addition to the TakeOver: New York card, Ciampa's fond farewell, and a baller five-way on NXT for the championship contendership.  If you want more of wrestlers having fun with one another, check out this rendition of Shayna Baszler's theme and this dad joke, masterfully presented by non-dad, Dean Ambrose.

Did you know you needed to see a Mexican standoff on the top rope? Neither did we, and WWE managed to surprise us with other things this week, too! We didn't expect to see a horrible apron finish twice in the same week, or Kofi getting impossibly screwed on his road to KofiMania, or Ali getting the best of a potentially bad situation, or Orton and Styles having the best promo of the week, or a Fastlane Watch Along so scandalous, it was almost instantly taken down, or Shane trading in the baby jabs for face squishing, or the end of DIY ... again. It was a surprising week!

We're so close to WrestleMania we can taste the gold in our mouths already (does that make us Brits?)! Ciampa is injured and all of NXT is being rewritten as a result. Meanwhile, Banks and Devlin are turning out tremendous matches on the UK brand, possibly closing their storied feud. And Fastlane is almost here, so what do we call the heel team facing the Shield? We have some thoughts. Also, is this where we get our Shane/Miz swerve? Do we have another plan for the Raw tag titles that doesn't involve The Revival? Will Asuka get anything worthwhile at the Show of Shows? How will this Bryan/Owens/Kofi situation play out? And why is Jason so optimistic about the faces at The Grandest Show of Them All?