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For the second semi-final bout in this Fantasy Booking Warfare competition Laurie takes on Steve and Larson at rebooking the end of the Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania. Who advances to the final? You decide!
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https://www.youtube.com/post/UgzLk3KkKG9o53M0wKZ4AaABCQ
For the second semi-final bout in this Fantasy Booking Warfare competition Laurie takes on Steve and Larson at rebooking the end of the Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania. Who advances to the final? You decide!
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Hello I'm Adam Haling from PartsFunknown and welcome to Fantasy Booking Warfare!
00:08 It is time for our second semi-final match to determine who will be heading to the final
00:15 to crown the FBW Champion.
00:19 Will it be Laurie Blake who killed poor Sullivan Bo Brown with his John Cena heel turn booking,
00:27 or will it be Steve & Larson who dispatched Los Intangibles de WrestleTalk by booking
00:34 the New Day triple threat?
00:36 Let's find out in this 2-on-1 handicap match where I ask both teams to book the ending
00:43 of the streak.
00:51 Joining me for this very prestigious semi-final matchup I am joined by Laurie, hello.
00:57 Hello, how's it going?
00:59 I'm very good, thank you.
01:01 And I'm joined by Steve & Larson.
01:03 Yes, hello, hey friendos what's going on?
01:07 So this is widely regarded by fans of the tournament as the prestigious half of the
01:12 semi-final.
01:13 You two coasting by on actual booking talent rather than name value.
01:20 So I think everyone is very much looking forward to this one.
01:24 Just before we kick into it, how did you both find it starting with you Laurie?
01:28 I just booked Brock Lesnar's retirement but changed it to be about the Undertaker.
01:33 Smart, smart.
01:34 The Luke Owen strategy of not actually making it specific to the character.
01:38 Did wonders for him if I remember rightly.
01:40 Yes of course this will be deciding which of you will be meeting Oli Davis in the final
01:46 who thwomped Luke Owen.
01:48 I think it was 80-20 last count.
01:52 Steve & Larson how did you find booking the end of the streak?
01:54 It's quite a daunting task.
01:57 It was, I think both, I don't know, we didn't really talk about what ideas we started with
02:02 but I had a ton of ideas because the Undertaker has so much history to mine and so many different
02:08 aspects of his character that you could go to.
02:12 And so I think it was cool because I sort of sent Larson an outline with some basic
02:21 stuff in and he was like "ok that's sort of what I was going to".
02:25 In several instances it seems like Steve and I kind of share a brain and so a lot of the
02:29 ideas that I had thematically were in his notes.
02:33 I was like "ok there's gaps here, I know exactly what to put in" and it kind of came together
02:37 pretty quickly once we knew what direction we were going to take.
02:40 It's one of the few ones in the tournament that I myself have booked in the past and
02:44 I think it's just one of those things that when it happened and the years following it
02:47 everyone's kind of got their own version but it's like one of the big kind of what-ifs
02:52 in wrestling so I was super interested to put it into the tournament.
02:56 So before we kick into it let's work out who we're looking at first.
03:00 Laurie you have a coin to hand.
03:02 I do.
03:03 We're going to call it in the air.
03:06 Alright well call it now then.
03:08 Call it Laurie.
03:09 Shall I call it?
03:10 Yes.
03:11 Alright.
03:12 It's tails.
03:13 It's tails.
03:14 Steven Larson would you like to go first or second?
03:15 I'd like to just get it out of the way.
03:17 Can we just go first?
03:18 Sure.
03:19 You absolutely can.
03:21 The band-aid approach for sure.
03:23 Yes exactly.
03:24 Then sit back, relax as we look at Steven Larson rebooking the end of the Undertaker
03:31 streak.
03:32 Alright friendos here we go.
03:33 We're going to go back to WrestleMania 30.
03:36 We're going to rewrite history but three things have to happen at that pay-per-view to kick
03:40 off our story.
03:41 Number one Bray Wyatt versus John Cena still happens.
03:44 However during this match Bray Wyatt is able to convince John Cena to violate his own principles
03:50 and Cena whacks Bray Wyatt with a chair to secure the victory for himself.
03:54 Something he's never done before.
03:55 He cheated.
03:56 Number two Undertaker versus Brock Lesnar.
03:58 Brock Lesnar is able to get two F5s on the Undertaker but on the third attempt Undertaker
04:04 counters into a choke slam, hits a tombstone on Brock Lesnar securing the win for the Undertaker.
04:10 The streak is alive but by the end of that match it's kind of obvious that the beatdown
04:14 that the Undertaker took at the hands of Brock Lesnar really took a toll on the Undertaker.
04:18 The end is probably near for the dead man.
04:21 Number three Daniel Bryan still goes on and wins the undisputed championship at WrestleMania.
04:24 It's an awesome moment.
04:25 You'd never take that away in any reality.
04:27 Opening the night on the Raw after Mania Daniel Bryan comes to the ring to celebrate.
04:31 Yes, yes, yes, but instead of Kane Bray Wyatt interrupts his victory speech.
04:37 Says he accomplished his goal last night.
04:39 He forever changed WWE's face.
04:41 Now he wants to end the movement.
04:42 The Yes Movement.
04:43 So the Wyatt family lay out Daniel Bryan.
04:47 Bray hovers over him letting him know he didn't forget about Bryan turning on the family five
04:51 months earlier.
04:52 He's coming after Daniel Bryan and the title to complete his mission.
04:56 Bray wants to root out the hypocrisy of this dark business to expose it for what it really
05:00 is but now is not quite the time.
05:04 In the main event segment of that particular Raw Undertaker announces his retirement.
05:08 John Cena interrupts that retirement speech though and everybody thinks he's coming out
05:12 to cheer Taker.
05:13 Yay, but no.
05:14 He hits Undertaker with an AA.
05:16 Cena's mad with heel energy now man.
05:19 He wants to retire Undertaker and break the streak at WrestleMania a year later.
05:24 Undertaker isn't seen for a while after that moment.
05:27 Yeah, but extreme rules.
05:28 Daniel Bryan defends the WWE title against Kane.
05:31 Bryan wins the bout but afterwards he is brutally attacked by Bray Wyatt.
05:36 John Cena makes his way out to the ring but not to save Daniel Bryan but to join in on
05:41 the beatdown.
05:42 Heel John Cena is in full effect.
05:44 Ooh, at payback Cena wins a tournament final against Kane to obtain his whatever number
05:49 WWE title is after Bryan had to vacate it due to injuries.
05:52 That always happened.
05:53 The match is designed to showcase Cena's turn to brutality but a strange spooky child distracts
05:59 Kane enough to allow heel Cena to get the win.
06:03 You guys remember that spooky kid?
06:04 A new theme song, a new look.
06:06 Bad Cena is bad and now Bad Cena is WWE champion.
06:10 Yeah, and at Money in the Bank Cena gets a rematch over Kane in an Inferno match where
06:16 he uses a Sister Abigail.
06:19 Ooh, Bray Wyatt looks on and approves of what Cena has become.
06:23 Alright, so Undertaker returns the Raw after Money in the Bank, lays out Cena and challenges
06:29 him to a match at Summerslam for the WWE title.
06:33 I want one last run.
06:34 At Summerslam, Taker wins his final WWE title off of John Cena whose heel persona has obviously
06:42 broken him.
06:43 We're talking about 5 o'clock shadow, maybe a shaved head.
06:45 He's like Superman 3.
06:46 But it's obvious that Taker is not what he used to be physically.
06:50 He's getting by on veteran savvy rather than overwhelming his opponents physically.
06:55 Yeah, that Survivor Series Undertaker defends against Randy Orton who's trying one last
07:00 time to kill the legend of the dead man but Randy comes up short.
07:03 Okay, so Bray wins the Royal Rumble to earn a title shot at WrestleMania while heel Cena
07:08 gets one more shot against The Undertaker in the main event.
07:10 But he's basically dipping into complete madness at this point and can barely hold
07:14 it together.
07:15 The match smells, he looks weird, the match is brutal with Cena showing a level of violence
07:20 we haven't seen from him ever.
07:22 In the end, he sets up for an AA off the second rope.
07:26 Undertaker is able to reverse that into a super choke slam, then a tombstone and he
07:30 retains.
07:31 Immediately, the lights go down, they come back up, Bray is standing in the ring opposite
07:36 Taker while John Cena has simply disappeared.
07:40 The show ends with a stare down between Wyatt and The Undertaker.
07:44 But the next night on Raw, Bray cuts to promo and says he's not just coming for The Undertaker's
07:49 championship, he's coming for "Powers of the Darkness".
07:53 Bray claims that Undertaker's body is starting to betray him.
07:56 The powers of the darkness are starting to decimate Undertaker's physical being and
08:01 he points to what happened over the summer to John Cena as evidence that evil can destroy
08:05 a man's body.
08:07 Bray says that after he beats Undertaker, he will be the new vessel for the dead man's
08:11 powers and then he can rule the WWE with impunity.
08:16 He will have the whole WWE world in his hands.
08:21 Bray says his sister Abigail has prepared him for this moment.
08:23 It's his destiny to assume the dead man's throne, to become the new phenom and to send
08:28 The Undertaker down the river sticks.
08:30 Down the river sticks.
08:31 Throughout the build, Undertaker wants to take the fight to Bray, yet his body constantly
08:35 fails him.
08:36 He tries somewhat gimmicky stuff to shake Bray, including taking Bray's famous fedora
08:41 off his head.
08:42 Then we come to the match itself at Wrestlemania.
08:44 Bray Wyatt vs WWE Champion The Undertaker.
08:48 And early on it seems that this Bray has an answer for all of Undertaker's signature
08:52 moves.
08:53 Reversing an old school into an uranagi, ducking the dead man boot and hitting a running crossbody.
08:58 Bray is dominating The Undertaker in a way no one else has, seemingly getting stronger
09:03 as the match goes on.
09:05 Mid-match, the WWE roster starts to walk out to the stage to witness what's happening.
09:09 Bray starts hitting The Undertaker with The Undertaker's own moves.
09:13 Old school.
09:14 Last ride.
09:15 Tombstone.
09:16 And right when he does that, he'll see who we haven't seen since the Rumble.
09:19 It's the last superstar to come to the stage, but does he stop there?
09:22 No.
09:23 He keeps running down.
09:24 But what is he going to do?
09:25 Is he going to get revenge on The Undertaker for beating him for the WWE title?
09:29 No.
09:30 He elects to try and redeem himself and takes advantage of a ref bump to hit Bray Wyatt
09:34 with an AA.
09:36 Which Bray no-sells and responds with a Sister Abigail to send John Cena out.
09:40 Then turns his attention back to Taker, gets him in position for a Sister Abigail, kisses
09:45 his forehead, but Taker reverses that into a chokeslam, falls with a tombstone, does
09:50 the typical Undertaker cover, only for Bray to kick out at one right up into that weird
09:54 spider walk of his.
09:56 And then Wyatt starts digging back in Undertaker's past and hitting him with moves that nearly
10:01 got the job done in previous WrestleMania bouts, but never going for the pin.
10:05 So we're talking a super kick that bounces Undertaker off the ropes right into a pedigree
10:09 to reference End of an Era, a GTS to reference the Punk match.
10:13 Finally, Bray hits Undertaker with an F5, the move Brock almost took him out with the
10:18 previous year.
10:19 And as he starts to pick up Undertaker's lifeless body, the camera zooms in.
10:23 You can barely make out Undertaker's last words.
10:26 "I'll see you in hell."
10:29 Bray looks at the WWE roster, back down to Undertaker and whispers, "Run."
10:34 His sister Abigail pins him.
10:36 Ref counts 1, 2, delays for a moment.
10:40 Alright, this is it.
10:43 3.
10:44 Bray wins the match, the title, and is the new face of the WWE.
10:49 He pauses during a celebration and dons Undertaker's famous hat, a replacement for the fedora Taker
10:55 took off him.
10:56 And the lights go dark, they come back up, and he's gone.
11:00 But a chorus of voices sing, "He's got the whole world in his hands."
11:05 And the entire stadium, 105,000 kayfabe attendants strong, start singing in unison for the single
11:12 weirdest and eeriest Wrestlemania ever.
11:16 The end.
11:17 The end.
11:18 The end.
11:19 In case you didn't catch it.
11:20 The end.
11:21 You stole my hat, I'll steal your hat.
11:25 So yeah, I've got some questions.
11:27 First of all, the funniest image to me is the idea that it's the Wrestlemania main event.
11:34 It's Bray Wyatt versus The Undertaker, the streak and the championship on the line, which
11:39 is so titillating for the backstage that Heath Slater just wanders out onto the stage.
11:46 And he just waves to the back and Titus O'Neil comes down.
11:51 That's such a funny image.
11:53 Slater Gator wants a piece of that action.
11:55 Guys, are you getting this?
11:57 Carmelo's just like, "Oh wow, this is an interesting match.
12:00 Oh my goodness."
12:01 Somebody got popcorn.
12:02 So, what's the heel Cena like?
12:07 So the payoff is that he tries to redeem himself in the main event of Wrestlemania, tries to
12:12 do a run in, but it doesn't work?
12:15 And that's the redemption?
12:16 Yeah, pretty much.
12:17 No, there is no redemption there.
12:18 He tries.
12:19 I mean, you could say that I guess it's in the attempt, but you think that the idea is
12:23 to build it up for the audience, like, "Oh, Cena's going to save him.
12:26 Wow, that's cool.
12:28 Oh crap."
12:29 Because we really wanted to establish that this is something that WWE's never really
12:34 been able to do, and that established Bray is a real threat.
12:37 There's been times when it's like, "Oh wow, The Fiend, he just broke Finn Balor's neck."
12:42 Or even earlier in early Bray Wyatt stuff.
12:45 But we really needed the crowd to know, "We're not messing around."
12:50 And you can keep on telling a story with Cena after this, but this is a moment where it's
12:55 like, you can't just come back from a year of being a bad guy, and with one act try to
13:01 redeem yourself.
13:02 That doesn't really work.
13:03 It's a process.
13:04 It's a process, yeah.
13:05 It's a process.
13:06 So he'll have his own story.
13:07 Yeah, exactly as Steve said.
13:10 I think the idea was the story would carry on with Cena.
13:13 When we did that with the New Day booking, people were like, "Well, this is supposed
13:18 to be a New Day Triple Threat.
13:19 We just try to tell the whole story."
13:20 But anyways, for this one, we stopped and we were supposed to stop.
13:24 That was the finish line.
13:25 Like you say, Bray Wyatt not normally able to actually brainwash anyone.
13:32 The Daniel Bryan thing was just a long con, so it's his gimmick.
13:35 He never has to do it.
13:37 My last question is, before I pop over to Laurie to get his thoughts, was just how bad
13:41 and how smelly is heel John Cena?
13:45 How Baron Corbin does he get?
13:49 In my mind, it's sort of like he's got a shaved head and a five o'clock shadow.
13:54 He probably wears darker stuff.
13:56 I don't think we'd necessarily go down the mustard stains, but maybe to keep on the Baron
14:06 Corbin thing, maybe slightly reminiscent of early Baron Corbin, a little post-apocalyptic
14:12 thrown in for good measure.
14:14 Maybe he's borrowing a sweat-stained tank top from one of the other members of the Wyatt
14:20 family.
14:21 Maybe.
14:22 Yeah, that could be.
14:23 I'd love to see John Cena try to grow a beard.
14:26 Can he grow a beard?
14:27 Has anyone ever seen him try and grow a beard?
14:30 Yeah, probably.
14:31 He's got my scene.
14:32 It's the same hairline as the top of his head.
14:34 So Laurie, obviously you've heard all that.
14:37 How do you feel?
14:39 You guys threw the kitchen sink at it, didn't you?
14:41 Bad Cena.
14:42 Bray Wyatt becomes the new host for the Undertaker's powers, but he's still just Bray Wyatt, but
14:48 he's got a new hat.
14:49 He's got a new hat.
14:50 Maybe he'll start talking like the Undertaker.
14:51 Yeah, that's the most important thing.
14:52 Powers of darkness.
14:53 It's a very elaborate story about an outfit change, lads.
14:54 I really liked it.
14:55 That's what we were going for.
14:56 I avoided Bray for that very reason.
14:57 Oh, interesting.
14:58 Thinking that Bray would come up.
14:59 Well, I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:00 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:01 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:02 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:03 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:04 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:05 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:06 I'm hoping you went with Heath Slater.
15:12 Yes, finally, to redeem himself.
15:17 Let's find out then.
15:18 Let's find out exactly how different Laurie's is as we watch Laurie rebook the end of Taker's
15:25 streak.
15:26 It's 2014, WrestleMania 30, and Undertaker and Brock Lesnar are having their match.
15:31 Undertaker goes for the big tombstone power driver, but Brock Lesnar powers him up into
15:35 the F5, the third of the match, and hits it.
15:40 But just before he goes for the pin, Undertaker sits up, grabs Lesnar, locks him in the hell's
15:45 gate, and Brock passes out in the hold.
15:49 The streak survives.
15:51 Just about.
15:52 Fast forward to the Royal Rumble 2015, and that absolute disaster of a match goes pretty
15:57 much the same way it did before.
15:59 Daniel Bryan is eliminated really early.
16:02 Big Show and Kane dominate all of the younger talent, and Roman Reigns wins with the help
16:08 and endorsement of The Rock.
16:10 The crowd boo big time, and Roman heads to the back, leaving The Rock in the ring to
16:16 try and salvage some sort of positive response from this end of a show, when he is rushed
16:21 by three men - Buddy Murphy, Hideo Itami and Samoa Joe.
16:27 The show closes with the three men standing over The Rock's prone body, all dressed
16:32 in sharp black suits, with a little pin in the lapel of one angry, glaring eye.
16:39 Over the next month, leading into Fastlane, the gang appear across Raw and SmackDown,
16:44 launching attacks against the older talent who are still dominating WWE's programming
16:49 at this time period.
16:50 They sneak attack Cena, they topple the Big Show with kendo sticks and bust all of the
16:54 muscles on Triple H.
16:56 Joe cuts promo saying that they have arrived here in WWE with the honourable purpose of
17:02 clearing away all of those who would stand in the way of progress, and that destruction
17:08 awaits all those who fall under the gaze of the evil eye.
17:14 We also see glimpses in their backstage promo packages of a mysterious fourth figure, wearing
17:19 a mask that looks like a Japanese Oni mask, with horns, fangs, tusks, and in the centre
17:26 of the forehead, one glaring evil eye.
17:32 This culminates on the Raw before Fastlane, with the gang clearing out the authority so
17:35 they can launch a beatdown on Kane.
17:37 As the goons swarm, the mysterious fourth figure steps through the ropes.
17:42 Itami and Murphy hold Kane in place as the figure reaches up above its head, points its
17:47 fingers, fires, and a shotgun dropkick follows.
17:52 Climbing the turnbuckle, the figure rips off the mask to reveal Finn Balor and hits a coup
17:57 de grace.
17:58 Corporate Kane lies in a crumpled heap as Balor and his cronies celebrate in the centre
18:04 of the ring.
18:05 On Smackdown the following night, Balor cuts a promo saying that he did what he did to
18:08 Kane along with the Big Show, Triple H, Cena and The Rock, because these guys represent
18:15 everything that is wrong with this company.
18:20 The guys stopping the younger talent from coming through, interfering and inserting
18:24 themselves into all of the main event matches, walking back through the door whenever they
18:29 want but being unable to perform to the level they used to be, so that the company is just
18:33 a ghost of its former self.
18:36 A nostalgia trip for a time that is long dead.
18:40 He's used to being an outsider, he's used to being lower down the pecking order in places,
18:45 but Finn Balor has always had the ability to club together with other like-minded individuals
18:51 and change the business.
18:53 And that is just what he's here to do.
18:55 He says that "While I was over in Japan, I heard the history of a great leader called
18:59 Oda Nobunaga, a man who had a vision for what Japan should be and fought with everything
19:05 he had to make that a reality.
19:08 For that ruthless ambition, they dubbed him the Demon King."
19:13 And Finn Balor will now be the Demon King of WWE.
19:17 As he's finishing up, Pyro goes off and out walks a newly reborn Demon Kane.
19:22 He chokeslams Atami, he chokeslams Murphy, Joe and Balor clean out the ring and Kane
19:27 does the Undertaker throat slit signal while pointing at Balor.
19:31 It's kind of a little bit of foreshadowing but also kind of his way of saying "I would
19:35 like a match at Fastlane, please."
19:37 Balor's debut match in WWE, his debut pay-per-view match, is a showcase of everything he learned
19:42 over in Japan.
19:43 It is pure Balor through and through.
19:45 There's no face paint, no demon gimmick, no nothing.
19:48 Just a pure wrestling showcase.
19:51 Unlike when he was over in Japan in Bullet Club using all of the Western wrestling tropes
19:54 to become a heel and weirdly sort of get over here, it's going to be more about that Japanese
20:00 strong style and the independent spirit.
20:03 The kind of anti-WWE style that is going to get him over.
20:06 For the match against Kane, Atami, Joe and Murphy stay outside, setting up this idea
20:11 that Finn Balor is the boss of this group and doesn't need help or to cheat to win.
20:17 It's a great match.
20:18 Coup de Grace for the victory, 1-2-3, cleaning the centre of the ring and afterwards the
20:22 gang get in and start to beat down Kane.
20:25 They rip the mask from his face to reveal that the Devil's favourite demon is just
20:31 a man.
20:32 A man in quite a serious amount of pain.
20:35 BONG.
20:36 The lights go down, lightning, the whole shebang.
20:39 Balor appears in the centre of the ring and nails Joe with a clothesline, chokeslams Murphy
20:44 and Atami and Balor clears out, but not before he presses something into Kane's hand.
20:51 Taker having saved his brother checks on him and looks into the palm of his hand and inside
20:55 he sees a bullet with the word TAKER scratched into it.
21:01 Balor knew all along that this would get the Undertaker's attention.
21:04 He wanted it.
21:06 On Raw the next night the Undertaker cuts the primary saying that Finn Balor and his
21:09 crew have made a powerful enemy.
21:13 From the moment they walked in the doors at WWE, their souls were marked.
21:17 And now at WrestleMania, the Undertaker is coming to collect.
21:22 It doesn't matter if you're a demon king.
21:26 It doesn't matter if there's a bullet with my name on it.
21:30 You can't kill what's already dead.
21:34 This won't just be a loss.
21:36 This won't just be humiliating.
21:39 This will be a burial.
21:45 Balor cuts a promo on Smackdown saying he always knew the Undertaker would turn up.
21:48 We've all heard the stories of him running a clown court backstage, doling out justice
21:54 to the younger talent.
21:56 We always knew that he'd walk in at WrestleMania season and insert himself into a big money
22:02 match.
22:03 But that's ok, because at WrestleMania I'm going to show you that legends belong
22:08 in the past.
22:09 You're the last vestige of a time that we need to leave behind.
22:13 The grizzled old gunslinger hanging on, holding us all back.
22:18 You said there's going to be a burial.
22:19 Well you're right, because I'm going to put you in the ground.
22:22 Then it's announced that Finn Balor and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31 will be
22:27 having a buried alive match.
22:30 For Taker vs Balor, Finn comes out in full demon regalia.
22:35 It's put over that this isn't another character or another entity.
22:39 This is war paint, this is intimidation like warriors from history used to use.
22:45 But I think it's also a bit like Yakuza tattoos, which is kind of the vibe I was trying
22:48 to give off for this group.
22:49 Or the Turks from Final Fantasy 7.
22:51 Taker and Balor put on an absolute show stealer of a match.
22:54 Taker manages to sit up out of the coup de grace before the pair battle over to the gravesite.
22:59 Taker goes for a tombstone, Balor manages to counter out, he hits a pelé kick, Taker
23:04 wobbles, Balor points the finger guns, fires, shotgun dropkick as Taker flies into the grave.
23:12 Balor walks over to the digger with a big scoop of dirt in it, and rather than pulling
23:16 the lever, he climbs up and nails a coup de grace from the top of the digger into the
23:21 grave.
23:22 He claws his way back out, Undertaker put down once and for all, and pulls the lever.
23:28 Balor has beaten the Undertaker, he's beaten the streak, and he's buried him in the ground.
23:33 Marking the start of a fresh new era in WWE where they focus on newer, younger talent.
23:40 Wouldn't that be nice?
23:43 Well look at Laurie, I read a book about Japan once Blake.
23:47 One time, I played a lot of Onimusha, I've been playing a lot of Ghost of Tsushima this
23:52 week.
23:53 Big on Japan.
23:54 Ooh, interesting.
23:56 Very interesting.
23:57 Very much kind of the opposite way of Steven Larson's as well.
24:00 Like, there was, yeah, it was blockbuster names, whereas you guys have come in with,
24:04 because Balor's not even NXT champion in your universe, right?
24:08 No, so Balor only arrives in WWE that year.
24:13 Mm, yeah, no, he arrived I think like February or something like that, and this is, like
24:18 when does the reveal happen in your timeline in 2015?
24:21 Like mid?
24:22 It's happening just before, like sort of just after the Rumble really, so probably
24:28 like February, something like that.
24:30 Oh damn, so like a debut.
24:33 He would have arrived and gone straight into this.
24:36 Very interesting.
24:37 So very much a kind of like a second, almost second generation of the Shield come in and
24:40 lay waste to everyone.
24:42 Oh man, you've really had me for a while.
24:46 Is this the Buried Alive match?
24:50 You got it, you're ending the streak with a little, just like a little crumble of dirt,
24:55 just kind of, it never looks good.
24:58 It would already be rigged up, Adam.
25:00 It's more about the symbology of it than it is about the look of it.
25:04 WWE can work out how to make it look good.
25:06 Mm, yeah, trust them to make a Buried Alive match look good.
25:09 Yeah, that's the, that's my main issue, because otherwise, like they come in with an intention
25:15 and they come in with a plan, the bullet thing, cheeky cheeky.
25:20 It like, there's a cohesiveness to it, which is something that is very strong with you,
25:25 Laurie.
25:26 You're all about themes with your booking, which is a big asset.
25:30 So it's all about kind of the young lions overtaking the old.
25:34 But I will pass over to Steven Larson.
25:35 What did you guys think?
25:36 Hats off for, sorry, go ahead, Steve.
25:39 That was good.
25:40 Oh, I was going to say, I mean, you know, you get the new names coming in.
25:43 Where's the attraction, Laurie?
25:45 We need the attraction here.
25:47 Cena, Bryan, all that.
25:48 No, I honestly, I thought it was great.
25:50 They're all involved in beat down angles with these guys.
25:53 I wish, I wish WWE would do more stuff like this.
25:55 I'd like to watch.
25:56 Exactly, exactly.
25:57 No, I thought it was really good.
25:58 I like that you had Fastlane featured for a prominent match.
26:02 Yeah.
26:03 Because I think Fastlane is an overlooked pay-per-view.
26:04 That's probably also one takeaway.
26:06 So it is their second biggest show of the year.
26:09 It's the pay-per-view before WrestleMania.
26:10 It should be.
26:11 You know, that's what we've been talking about this whole time.
26:14 It's the pay-per-view before WrestleMania, to be fair.
26:18 What's the, I'm interested in like, again, poor Wesley Blake.
26:21 It feels like we've been saying that a lot over the last few years.
26:25 So yeah, like a lot of stuff kind of undone from NXT, which you are, you're courting disaster
26:31 there, Laurie.
26:32 You are messing with the golden year of NXT.
26:36 I've taken two of their premier champions out of NXT at the time that they were the
26:41 champions, but because I would have Samoa Joe then turn on Finn after that.
26:46 Because Finn can still win the Universal Championship that year.
26:49 Once it comes into, once the draft happens and once the brand split comes back, he could
26:53 win that championship.
26:54 He can have a feud with Samoa Joe and then it's just in time for AJ to come and kick
26:58 him out of the group.
26:59 Oh, wow.
27:00 Little tease of AJ at the end.
27:03 Very, very nice.
27:05 Very interesting.
27:06 Two very, very different.
27:08 Both of you decided that Brock's not the guy for it then.
27:13 What fun would that be?
27:15 No, quite right.
27:17 All right.
27:18 So interesting stuff.
27:19 A John Cena heel turn, smelly madness, or a brand new dangerous Yakuza style faction.
27:27 Which do you prefer?
27:29 For you are the authority here.
27:32 Head on over to our community tab on the PFK YouTube channel and cast your vote for who
27:38 will be meeting Oli Davis in the final.
27:42 Will it be Steven Larson?
27:44 Will it be Laurie Blake?
27:46 For they will be booking an AEW versus WWE pay per view.
27:55 We will see you in the final.
27:57 Cast your vote.
27:58 And I almost said get on board.
28:00 Jam that jam.
28:01 [MUSIC]