Weekly podcast recap: 13th November
This week, Smackdown clocked its lowest ratings ever because of the US Presidential Elections. What did the podcasts have to think about this, and America’s new president? Who were the special guests on these entertaining shows who regaled us with their stories? Read on to find out more!
WRESTLING OBSERVER RADIO
In the beginning of the episode, Alvarez joked about how Meltzer’s childhood dream of writing about politics from the age of 8 has come true, with a WWE Hall of Famer as the President of the United States. Meltzer said he was more interested in the stock market at the age of 8, but kept saying how weird it was that Trump is the new President of the United States.
He went on to say that Trump winning made for entertaining television but the climax was ‘depressing as hell’. It was embarrassing how USA was portrayed on the world stage. Meltzer was critical of the mudslinging that happened and the pot-shots at the minority groups.
He went on to say that we saw all the worst aspects of an election this year, and he’s never experienced anything more damaging to the country than this year’s election. While both candidates were bad choices, Trump won because Hillary felt desperate towards the end. Meltzer said it’s all about timing.
In fact, 3 weeks removed, the outcome would have been different. Right now, he feels for a lot of people in the country, because the country slapped these people in the face.
Alvarez segued from the ‘slap’ comment to Rhyno getting slapped down in his election to be Michigan’s state representative. Meltzer commented on how there was a fake story about how Rhyno had won.
Alvarez said he read the article Meltzer sent him about Rhyno losing, and after searching on Google, found the fake article first! But Rhyno lost terribly, winning just 30% of the votes. According to Meltzer, Republicans did not stand a chance in Rhyno’s district.
The two of them spoke about how Dwayne Johnson wants to be President of the United States. Meltzer added how he’s been toying with the idea for a really long time. Who knows what the case is. He’s a great speaker and a charming guy!
He really hopes that whatever happens, happens for the best though. Because the 60s were bad! So bad that blacks wouldn’t be served in restaurants at times.
Alvarez feels that Daniel Bryan looked stupid on Smackdown, by picking Shane McMahon over a whole list of stars. He could have picked Cena! Meltzer disagreed and said that the pop would have been smaller for Cena. Alvarez argued about why Kane was part of the 6-man tag, and not this lineup.
He asked why the Undertaker wasn’t picked. Meltzer feels that The Undertaker is just a special attraction these days. Alvarez also wondered why Kalisto was now facing Kendrick, because that would make the whole Rich Swann program worthless.
Meltzer added how having the IC and US title on the same brand made absolutely no sense. And he was equally shocked with 4 announcers, especially when Tom Phillips and Mauro Ranallo were doing the same job.
When Nikki Bella and AJ Styles joined the booth, there were five announcers at one time. He said most announcers agree that 2 is the magic number.
Both podcasters had interesting observations about Smackdown. Meltzer felt that nobody believes Orton is a heel, and neither did he like the Becky-Alexa match. It was okay but dragged. He enjoyed the fashion police gimmick, but felt that the Baron Corbin injury wasn’t believable.
Both were shocked at the high Smackdown numbers on the day of the elections and feel that next week, the numbers will pick up again for both brands.