Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast
Release Date: January 18, 2018
Guest: Woken Matt Hardy
Recap By: Matthew Wilkinson
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Newsworthy Items
- Woken Matt is happy with how he is presented in WWE.
- Hardy thinks there is a good chance we will see old favorites in WWE.
- Woken Matt says Maxel wanted to delete Bray Wyatt
- Sam was happy to see the Curb Stomp return.
- Sam wants WWE to hire Dixie Carter.
- Sam thinks WWE should continue to use Paige on TV.
Subjects Covered (With Timestamps)
00:00-Sponsor Ads
09:00-Woken Matt Hardy Interview/Woken Character In WWE
15:03-Theme Music
18:20-Jeff Hardy
21:40-Old Favorites Returning
23:30-WWE 2K18
25:40-King Maxel
42:40-State of Wrestling- Mixed Match Challenge
47:50-Banned Returns On Raw
59:00-Roman Reigns/Jey Uso Trouble
1:10:15-Goldberg: WWE HOF
1:13:15-New WWE Signees
1:20:30-Paige’s Injury
Woken Matt Hardy Interview – Woken Character In WWE
Sam Roberts welcomed back Matt to the podcast and mentioned that they have met at many places in his career, as Matt Hardy, Broken Matt Hardy, then once again Matt Hardy and now Woken Matt Hardy, and wondered if this is the supreme version of himself.
Woken Matt Hardy said of course it is and claimed that he and Sam have known each other for thousands of years and their souls used to be neighbours.
Sam asked what life is like in the environment that he is in right now, as WWE hasn’t seen anything like him before.
Matt said people who know the backstory about his condition, know everything that was involved in that universe and he thinks that universe will still come to be.
But there are so many WWE fans and younger vessels, so by knowing Woken Matt is a great thing, and as time goes on we will be able to understand. He is very happy with the way that my Woken vessel is being presented right now.
Sam asked if he is surprised by the response, especially because of how many younger fans here are that won’t know about his past as Broken Matt. Matt is very happy with the number of fans that know his backstory and those that don’t he is equally ecstatic with how they are slowly coming around and learning and embracing the new version of him.
Sam asked if he found it insulting that at first people thought he had lost it and gone crazy when in actuality you view this as evolution.
Matt said of course, it’s also difficult because they have these really little portions of their mind that they only use 7 or 8% so he can’t expect them to comprehend things no this vast level that he can.
The great war is the biggest war that has ever existed and it has raged on for eternity, and it is light vs dark. There are all these people that stand in front of his way and right now you know who it is, the grotesque, horrendous, vile Sister Abigail and Bray Wyatt.
Theme Music
Sam noticed on Raw that Matt’s new theme music debuted, it was the piano, and asked who was the performer behind the entrance music?
Hardy could tell people that information, but he has been asked to keep it secret, but speaking of that we have some other things we are working on. Piano music often helps him feed off the energy of the crowd.
Jeff Hardy
Sam then spoke about his return at WrestleMania and asked how Jeff was doing and what he thought about the transformation.
Currently, it’s sad to see he has an injury, but Matt says they have had that taken care of, he has been soaking it in water from the lake of reincarnation so it is healing at a very rapid pace.
It will be very interesting when he returns, it will be beneficial to everyone in the WWE Universe if he does return as Brother Nero if that’s what he chooses to do.
But Matt released him after he deleted Jeff, he allowed him to choose his own destiny so if he returns as the Charismatic Enigma, or Brother Nero, or Willow, he will support him in any way shape or form.
It would be much more difficult to delete him again, it almost brings him to the whole process with the current great war with Bray Wyatt, he contains this terrible Sister Abigail.
That is what he has to focus on, that is the driving force that fuels him, she is the true root of evil, Bray contains some sort of light inside of him.
Matt has dealt with Sister Abigail thousands of years ago when she was dwelling within other vessels. She is the one that has been marked for deletion and if Bray doesn’t come along with this then he has been marked for deletion as well.
Old Favorites Returning
Sam then moved the topic on to wonder if there is any potential for old favorites rearing their heads again?
Matt said of course, he almost wishes he had used Vanguard One to connect this phone call, Vanguard One is still looming, it is everywhere, he is still best friends with Senor Benjamin, he is very well prepared to prepare the battlefield for massacre.
The whole point was he had broken down the barriers of his mind and he had become more. Once he came back to WWE the reception of returning home at WrestleMania 33 made his condition lay dormant.
As time went on it kept manifesting and manifesting and when he finally touched Bray Wyatt, he felt the magic and although it was black magic, it triggered his white magic and he became woken and now that has happened things are rapidly happening and he is garnering more magic as time goes on.
WWE 2K18
Sam mentioned that for the first time in many years, as of this week Matt Hardy is going to be available in WWE 2K18 as a downloadable character. He imagines this must be a thrill for him in the sense that so many Woken warriors are going to be able to live out their Woken Matt Hardy fantasies with the help of 2K18.
Matt said this is absolutely correct Brother Sam, he is very busy so doesn’t play as many games as he would like but he is going to make an exception for this special occasion and indulge in this game some more.
King Maxel
Matt is sure King Maxel will find it exhilarating. King Maxel is quite the handful, on New Year’s Day when we he was at Monday Night Raw he and Queen Rebecca were sitting and watching and Bray was there.
Matt showed up on the screen and Maxel wanted to hit the ring. Rebecca had to restrain him because he wanted to delete Bray Wyatt.
Sam noted that Maxel is ready to go to war now. As his vessel grows, Sam asked if this life that he has led is something that he would encourage if he wants to do it?
Of course, he is actually quite advanced already in the professional wrestling game as he has had some televised wins over the Rockstar Spud and the Disco Inferno.
He has very much mastered the Leg Drop and the Splash, but he has to really work on him because he wants to be a Spot Monkey which runs in their family so he has to stay on him to go back to basics.
State of Wrestling –Mixed Match Challenge
Before we start the top five stories, Sam wants to sound off a little bit about Mixed Match Challenge before we get into the official list, 1.2 million views is huge and it has a lot of potential on Facebook.
1.2 million views isn’t even close to what Raw or SmackDown do, but he bets it is close to what 205 Live does to be honest. The show needs to be a little bit more Facebook friendly.
Sam loved the positioning of Byron Saxton and Renee Young at ringside, that they just start the thing with Finn Balor’s entrance and then the commentators are there, in the beginning it felt quick and alive.
The match was good and it was a showcase of all the talents; you get to see Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor in the ring together, you see the female talent in a position of prominence, you see the promo for next week with Asuka and The Miz working together as a team of equals so on that level it is good.
The issue was that the match itself was shot and displayed the same way a WWE match would be shown on every show or PPV; once it started there was nothing that made it special.
WWE has to figure out a way to make it a little snappier, it’s only a twenty-minute show, it’s quick, it has to feel like there’s more stuff happening whilst the match is going on.
Return Of Banned Things- Raw
This week’s top five stories begin with number five, which is all the banned things that were on Raw and when he says banned things he is talking about the first thing, The Revival promo. They said wrestling over and over again, which everybody knows is a big no, no in the world of WWE.
Sam loves when there is an acknowledgement of a WWE policy that the fans are aware of, the fans know that the word is never said and anybody who has the internet is aware that is deliberate.
Calling out that policy does wonders for not insulting our intelligence and number two, it really gives an identity to The Revival. It’s one thing to say that they are old school, we are aware that old school means wrestling.
We look at them, what is it a revival of, it’s a revival of wrestling. Hopefully it will help them, they are one of Sam’s favorite tag teams but they have entered a tag team scene which is the best it has been in a long time.
You’ve got The Usos, you have New Day, you’ve got Gable and Benjamin, Rusev Day, over on Raw you have The Bar, Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan, plus on NXT you have Sanity and the Authors of Pain, The Undisputed Era and another team coming. If you are going to enter the tag team division you need to have an identity.
The other banned thing you had on Raw, was the Curb Stomp, who saw that coming? If you rewind back to August, you can see or hear Seth Rollins at his live show talk about the Curb Stomp and how every time he does an interview, somebody asks about it and he specifically said it is not coming back.
Not happily, he is saying the Curb Stomp wasn’t coming back the way Daniel Bryan says WWE won’t let him wrestle.
Sam doesn’t know why the Curb Stomp is back, he hasn’t read on any of the forums that he is in trouble so Sam would imagine that it was approved.
It surprised a lot of people. It’s huge for Seth and it really is, all of a sudden, your eyes are locked on Seth Rollins again, maybe they thought Seth needs a shot in the arm and gave him it back.
Finn Balor made it look like a million bucks. Sam is not in the camp of people saying he shouldn’t be doing it, if Seth shouldn’t be doing that move then he wouldn’t be.
Let’s talk about Braun Strowman’s showing on Raw, he was amazing. The issue of Kurt Angle not having any actual power on the show, in terms of his character has to be addressed and hopefully it will be and it leads to something at WrestleMania. He looked really weak by re-hiring Braun.
The segment was great, you don’t need to put in all the truck screeching sound effects, but one thing Sam would have loved to see happen.
When Braun goes into the production truck and everybody is screaming, it’s chaos, then he leaves and takes it off the truck itself and flips the truck part that a guy drives.
It would have been amazing if Strowman had flipped the production parts. You can have a dummy truck on the outside.
But imagine you are watching Raw and you see him tipping it and the commentators are selling it like you can’t do this, it’s a 12-million-dollar truck and he tips it over, Raw goes off the air and static goes up.
Give it 5-7 seconds and go to commercial break and before you come back have a technical difficulty graphic, have some balls and throw the graphic and have 15 seconds, you will get more viewers during that than the whole show.
Then come back and finish Raw and say we are using a backup truck and then he already has Michael Cole and we are just joining in live, it would make the show feel alive.
It’s a cool little thing that goes from a cool segment to a classic moment that is on your top Raw moments countdown and has never been done before.
Roman Reigns/Jey Uso Trouble
Number four this week is the trouble that the Anoa’i family found themselves in. First, Jey Uso gets busted for a DUI, driving under the influence. It is no joking matter, Sam doesn’t understand how people drive drunk, it is a ridiculous thing to do, Uber, Lift, it is all so easy.
If you are a professional wrestler, there is no driver who is going to take you out, there is never a problem. In 2018 that anybody drives drunk is insane.
When you are one half of a team that is on a roll right now, working for a company that is family friendly, the last thing you want is a DUI charge, no good things can happen. Especially when success is going on around them.
When you get that, you have to be out of your mind to mess it up, no shots at him, maybe this is a guy who just works to be good at what he does, everyone makes mistakes but some are really ones you don’t have to make.
Sam hopes that this is a wakeup call and doesn’t set his career back too much, just enjoy your life, you don’t have to do this stuff.
He says the Anoa’i family as he was watching SmackDown and got sent a link saying that Roman Reigns has been linked to a steroid case. A year ago, a guy went down for his involvement in a company that was dealing out steroids, which is illegal.
A video came out where he was naming names, which Sam doesn’t understand the purpose of it, you are trying to get other people in trouble but he mentioned Josh Duhamel, but he called him Du Hamill, Mark Wahlberg, and Roman Reigns.
The issue here is that WWE has a well-documented and strict policy about anything steroid related after what has happened to professional wrestling in the past.
WWE has made more steps to make that company a healthy place than any other company in sports, they have done a much better job than the NFL and there isn’t even an argument there.
They have suspended big names for it, stopped doing things in the ring that will get attention and ratings, that is what all organisations should be doing if that’s the image they want to have.
Sam really, really hopes that this is a mistake and somebody trying to get some attention and it is not what he is accused of doing.
He would hope that when someone is given the keys to the castle, as much pressure as that is to be able to do this day in day out, he is not throwing it all away for steroids.
He does have a wellness policy violation, but we are outsiders so who knows what that is. This will get investigated as it’s on every website, we are really close to WrestleMania but if this was a mistake that he made then he really shouldn’t have.
Goldberg: WWE HOF
The number three topic is that Goldberg is going into the WWE Hall of Fame, something that Sam is not surprised about, but it is a little controversial in the sense that his WWE career was not huge, but it is asinine to say that he doesn’t belong.
Plus, he is back in WWE’s good graces, he was wrestling last year, it makes perfect sense and Sam thinks he is a good addition and he needs to be in it. You need a showcase, big name that are still able to give their speech and be the guys that we remember them as.
The thing we need to talk about is how great for diplomacy in WWE is how good this 2K partnership has been. You can extend the olive branch and ask about being in the game, it doesn’t have to be anything else, Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Kurt Angle, Goldberg, video game!
Just a game, no big deal, they all said they didn’t know if they were doing anything after the game, yet they did. It’s amazing.
Sam doesn’t know who Bill Goldberg’s fans are in the world of wrestling to induct, we saw DDP induct Jake Roberts and then we saw him go in, that seems like a lot of DDP.
Maybe Eric Bischoff, it would be really funny to see Triple H induct him but Sam doesn’t see that happening, Bischoff would be a good choice because Goldberg is probably the one creation of Bischoff’s that is strictly his that really clicked.
New WWE Signees
Let’s talk about number two for this week, it is new signees for 2018 with WWE. Big names too. Of course, you have War Machine, which Sam thinks will be interesting, Ricochet, is officially finally signed, and Candice LeRae.
Sam would put War Machine in NXT, it’s time for the Authors of Pain to move to the main roster and War Machine could come in and have a really fun thing with Sanity.
Seeing War Machine head to head with Sanity would be an interesting battle, then have them go after the tag titles, they could have a great run.
You replace AOP with War Machine, you have them and Sanity then put Sanity on the main roster and have War Machine go after the titles and by then you are probably a year into this whole thing.
Candice LeRae, Sam thinks the first time we see her will be in the Royal Rumble and wouldn’t be surprised to see her on the main roster, that said NXT could use the star power.
Ricochet needs to go straight to 205 Live, Sam would also put him in the Rumble and then straight to 205 Live and start letting people have matches that are like Ricochet’s matches.
There are a couple of other names that are being thrown about, EC3. He takes his curtain call with Impact Wrestling, he was on an independent show the night of the Royal Rumble and EC3 is not going to be on that show anymore, historically that would lead us to believe a Rumble surprise is coming.
Will he come in as EC3? Sam doesn’t think so as number one, that’s a TNA name, number two, Ethan Carter- Dixie Carter, unless you bring in Dixie.
How amazing would that be, Sam would do that. Honestly, EC3 is not A.J. Styles, if he comes out it will be a surprise but he won’t get what Styles did.
He may not be a surprise entrant, but if Sam was WWE, he is going to sign him as he is great, and not bring him in as Derrick Bateman ,which is what he was before.
He would keep him as EC3 and bring in Dixie Carter, how much better can you get, the buzzer goes off and she comes out to introduce him, that’s a moment.
Nobody is going to see that coming, she did do the thing for the Kurt Angle 24, so there is communication.
Sam would make her the GM of Raw, it isn’t working with Kurt Angle, the former superstar thing doesn’t work, if Dixie is the GM, then you are in Bischoff territory.
Paige’s Injury
Finally, story number one, not a fun story, it’s Paige. Obviously, WWE is not ready to commit to her career being over as many websites have reported.
She is 25-years-old, she gets injured on a house show in a match with Sasha Banks, fresh off her comeback to WWE, she gets a neck injury that people are describing it as being similar to Edge and Daniel Bryan.
People are saying her career is done, which would be a huge shame as we are just hitting this second wave and there is a movie coming out about her.
The only silver lining is that she is in a role right now where you can still have her on TV as the manager of Absolution, she is one of, if not the, best promo in WWE right now.
People like Paige, she was accepted back immediately, there is a lot of stuff to do with her and hopefully they keep her as a member of Absolution as the spokesperson.
Rating 7.5/10
This was a unique episode in the sense that Matt Hardy did the entire interview in the Woken character which provided the interview with plenty of comedy and a different twist. The State of Wrestling was a good listen again, though, it was a shame the biggest story, about Paige, got the shortest amount of time.
About the Writer
Matthew Wilkinson is from Bradford, England. He’s been a fan since the late 90’s with the Attitude Era and was then heavily invested again through the rise of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. He can be found on Twitter at @MC_Wilkinson1
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