Steve Carrier on June 14, 2018
X-Pac comments on the Okada/Omega match from NJPW’s recent Dominion show. Running almost 70 minutes in length, X-Pac thought this match featured some “next-level stuff”. He calls bullshit on people who claim there’s no psychology in these kind of matches, noting that these two men told a great story during this match. He also thought it was smart of NJPW to have Okada hold the Title as long as he did.
He thought Jericho and Naito had a terrific match as well. He points out that Jericho is so good at reinventing himself; possibly the best all time in that sense. He thought these two men laid out a great plot for this match and told an excellent story. He thinks Jericho has better in-ring chemistry wth Naito than Omega, and he thinks Omega has better chemistry with Okada than Jericho.
X-Pac agrees with Dana White’s opinions of the CM Punk/Mike Jackson fight at UFC 225. White was critical of Jackson, feeling that Jackson could have and probably should have finished that fight before the 3-round limit. X-Pac feels that Punks court case against WWE’s doctor, Dr. Amann certainly affected Punk’s ability to focus on training.
Corey Graves lashed out at Punk on Twitter after this fight, and X-Pac thought these tweets were a bad look on Graves at first. However, after reading it more and giving it some time he began to see Graves’ point of view a bit more. Emotions were clearly running high and Graves said what he felt, so X-Pac doesn’t have a problem with that.
X-Pac welcomes Eli Drake to the show.
X-Pac opens the discussion by saying he feels that Drake is misunderstood by a lot of people. Drake admits that some people tend to dislike him until they met him. He recalls one guy saying, “I thought you were a douchebag but after getting to know you, you’re not so bad.”
Drake notes that his time in NXT didn’t necessarily work out so well. He admits that he did not get along with Bill DeMott and he’s not good at hiding his feelings, so those two things led to his departure from WWE. He points out that he didn’t really get to do anything during his time in NXT, other than distracting the referee on the 200th episode of NXT, allowing Bo Dallas to win the NXT Title.
Drake thinks his promo work is the strongest aspect of his game, but X-Pac thinks his in-ring work is great as well. Drake notes that it’s tough to get booed as a heel if you’re doing great stuff in the ring and out-talking your opponents on the mic as well.
Drake informs that he’s trying to decide his future at this point. Impact has been great to him and they’re paying him good money. He’s living comfortably and also has some freedom which is nice, so he’s decided to sign a short-term extension that will keep him in Impact for the next couple of months. He has some other options that he needs to weigh moving forward.
Drake says he sort of hates what wrestling has become these last few years. He considers today’s business to be giant spotfests where all the performers have to kill themselves in order to impress the fans. His bread and butter is the old-school, character driven programming where storylines were king. He thinks today’s fans are very jaded, and although indie wrestling is huge right now, he doesn’t think the business as a whole is in a great spot.
X-Pac thinks we’re at the beginning of the upswing in professional wrestling popularity, and in five years time the business is going to be even more popular in his opinion.
Drake discusses what he thinks Impact needs to do in order to draw in new viewers. He thinks the promotion needs to keep doing what they’re doing at the moment. If they continue to put out a consistently good product, he thinks people will tune in. However, he thinks being able to get their product on a larger platform is important. POP TV is a subsidiary of CBS, so he’s been pitching the idea of getting Impact a one-hour time slot on CBS. This might be tough, but he wants to reach for the stars.
Drake informs that he became very close with Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer) over the years. He says Pringle was an extremely funny guy, and he even left Drake something in his will which really touched him. X-Pac points out that some people weren’t happy with Paul Heyman dressing up as Paul Bearer after his death during the Underaker/CM Punk feud, but he feels Pringle would have been more than okay with that. Nonetheless, he could understand if he family had an issue with it.
That sums up today’s episode of X-Pac 1, 2, 360. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
June 14, 2018 6:21 pm
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