That's Freakin' Wrestling Podcast
Aug 26, 2026 · 2 hr 13 min · 15 segments
On this jam packed episode of the TFW podcast, we deep dive the potential of a Cody Rhodes heel turn involving Paul Heyman before getting into CM Punk vs Kevin Owens from ‘SmackDown’, Ilya Dragunov…
I'm like, man, we having a great family moment.
This is great.
And then all of a sudden, the newest freak says, "And that's not a prediction, that's a spoiler." [upbeat music] Six years ago this week, Rhodesia, we had the tagline of Summer Slam, which was, "You'll never see it coming." And indeed, nobody saw it coming that year.
That was the night we got the return of Roman Reigns, which set off the beginning of the Tribal Chief character.
And of course, as we know, the rest is absolute history.
My question to you is, it's been six years now since we've had OTC, Roman Reigns being this character, no more Big Dog, no more Shield.
For you and your personal fandom, where do you put this run of Roman in regards to importance and impact?
It's gonna have to be top tier for both of them.
As far as when I was watching wrestling and my fandom and my personal fandom, the only other person that would even rival it would be a John Cena.
And I even knew then that John Cena wasn't over or probably impactful to anybody other than children, and maybe some of the, the girls or the young ladies, um, fan base.
But I, with the OTC, and from just the original evolving of his character and everybody that he brought up, so you talk about even impact, most people will say that The Bloodline storyline is the greatest, if not one of the greatest storylines in pro wrestling history.
Now, of course, some people could be tired of it now and today, but just overall, it's argued that it's one of the best storylines.
So impactful-
Mm-hmm
... absolutely.
And then, like I said, as far as my own personal fandom, it's at the top.
It's probably very hard for anybody or any story to actually trump that when it's all said and done.
Yeah, I was thinking about it, and for me, I got it up there with the advent of AEW.
Yeah.
It's, it's that high.
I mean, if we think about back in 2019, and we were still going to WrestleManias, and I went back and just looked at, like, the cards back then, and the cards weren't horrendous, but man, they weren't what we're getting now.
I mean, that's why AEW became a thing, was because there was a fan base that was not getting their thirst quenched by WWE.
And this is when New Japan was getting some legs in the States.
I'm like, man, we having a great family moment.
This is great.
And then all of a sudden, the newest freak says, "And that's not a prediction, that's a spoiler." [upbeat music] Six years ago this week, Rhodesia, we had the tagline of Summer Slam, which was, "You'll never see it coming." And indeed, nobody saw it coming that year.
That was the night we got the return of Roman Reigns, which set off the beginning of the Tribal Chief character.
And of course, as we know, the rest is absolute history.
My question to you is, it's been six years now since we've had OTC, Roman Reigns being this character, no more Big Dog, no more Shield.
For you and your personal fandom, where do you put this run of Roman in regards to importance and impact?
It's gonna have to be top tier for both of them.
As far as when I was watching wrestling and my fandom and my personal fandom, the only other person that would even rival it would be a John Cena.
And I even knew then that John Cena wasn't over or probably impactful to anybody other than children, and maybe some of the, the girls or the young ladies, um, fan base.
But I, with the OTC, and from just the original evolving of his character and everybody that he brought up, so you talk about even impact, most people will say that The Bloodline storyline is the greatest, if not one of the greatest storylines in pro wrestling history.
Now, of course, some people could be tired of it now and today, but just overall, it's argued that it's one of the best storylines.
So impactful-
Mm-hmm
... absolutely.
And then, like I said, as far as my own personal fandom, it's at the top.
It's probably very hard for anybody or any story to actually trump that when it's all said and done.
Yeah, I was thinking about it, and for me, I got it up there with the advent of AEW.
Yeah.
It's, it's that high.
I mean, if we think about back in 2019, and we were still going to WrestleManias, and I went back and just looked at, like, the cards back then, and the cards weren't horrendous, but man, they weren't what we're getting now.
I mean, that's why AEW became a thing, was because there was a fan base that was not getting their thirst quenched by WWE.
And this is when New Japan was getting some legs in the States.
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