NXT Superstar Kelani Jordan, reactions to WWE Raw, and T.J. selects the top matches he'd like to see

30:04O'Shea:Very excited to talk to her. Excited to, you know, let her know our appreciation of Carmelo and his success and get her point of view on that. Kalani has been a star on the rise at NXT, And you know, NCW is the hub for NXT. And yeah, it's going to be really cool to talk to her. She's got a great personality. I'm sure she'll have great chemistry with us. And yeah, super dope to be able to talk to Kalani. NXT is getting revamped. We have to man. Cause you know, the graduation has come, right? A lot of people getting called up. Yeah, man. So you gotta, you gotta, you got to refill the tank. And you know, the big news from yesterday is we had Oba two times, because he's been on the show two times.

30:51He had a title match against Leon Slater at TNA, the ruler won, and we were left with a shot of Oba standing in the ring, like we've seen before, hitting this pose, holding the title up high, and immediately NXT cut to the back. Ava has the LFG kids, some of the Evolve kids, some of the NXT kids.

31:11O'Shea:Graduation. Basically letting them know, now's the time your chance is coming and then Mr. Stone comes in and he's like Ava did you see what happened to Oba and she's like no I'm in here and the camera cuts to the ring and it's a dark ring with a spotlight and sitting there is the NXT championship which means Oba Femi has effectively got that call up got the call and said I've beaten everyone here two times and he relinquishes the NXT Which is how it should be. NXT championship without losing it. I know Asuka did that. I can't think of anyone else off the top of my dome who did it. I can't think of anyone.

31:51But Asuka for sure didn't lose the championship. And so now Oba's on his way. Presumably the SmackDown, I would assume. They need it. Well, Raw might need it after last week.

32:02O'Shea:Yeah, I mean, if they just switch up the ads, I'll feel so much better. Because I remember watching the John Cena last, you know, the last one, Ralph and John Cena thinking, like, this is unwatchable. Like, every time I look down, I'm on a commercial, you know? And it's, I get it, billion-dollar company. You want to be a multi-billion-dollar company. The TKO purchase, you're making money back. But think about the lifers. Think about, you know, the fans that are on time getting punished as opposed to watching it the next day, which I don't know if those numbers count for you. I know they don't count for me in streaming, but we'll probably go on another strike about that.

32:41O'Shea:I don't want to bring that up. But yeah, man. So big ups to Trick, Javon, Jordan Grace. Yeah. Got up there. And Oba. And if it's just those four, there might be some others. But you got some real talent there. And I think things are about to change now, right? The landscape. Some might say it's a new era. I keep hearing that every day. I'm going to turn on the AC. Yeah, man. And I got to say this. I'm going to just pound the nail with this. Obafemi, Trick Williams, Javon Evans, Jordan Grace. Yeah.

33:25You can't F this up. This can't be F'd up. You've got stars there, man. You've got quality athletes, quality wrestlers, people who are right now, they're as bad as they're ever going to be. Think about that. For as good as we think they are right now, this is the worst you're ever going to see them. Javon Evans right now is as bad of a wrestler, just a weird way to look at it, but you know what I'm saying? He's only going up. Yeah, that's usually what he's good at. Trick Williams. He's only going up. Only going up. Oba family, Jordan Grace, they're only going to go up. So the future is bright.

34:04And I'm telling you, you've got four potential world champions right there. Please look at me when I tell you this. Who's ever running things? Who's ever writing this? Don't mess this up. You cannot. This can't be messed up.

34:16O'Shea:You just can't. You start looking at the roster. It's looking like another murderer's rogue, bro. It's stacked. Stacked. So there's a lot of decisions to be made. talent there and a lot of talent that's not really being used a lot too so but those three in particular and I'll leave Jordan out because she's already been kind of up in terms of she's been a world champion you know and even though Trick has been as well but he hasn't been up on that main roster. How about Mello and Trick both on SmackDown? Right? I think eventually I'd like to see them do something together again for the people who don't know Trick Mello gang from NXT.

34:53I think their paths will cross either as friend or foe sooner than later, and it's going to be money. Money, man. But Don Buoy's in my ear right now. I think our guest is ready.

35:04O'Shea:Hey, we hear a knocker. It's time to let her in. O 'Reilly Auto Parts can help take the guesswork out of your check engine, ABS, or maintenance light with O 'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. O 'Reilly Veriscan can identify the most likely problem with just one scan. If you need help, O 'Reilly Auto Parts can recommend a shop for you. Don't ignore a check engine, ABS, or maintenance light. Ask for O 'Reilly Veriscan today. A free service exclusively at O 'Reilly Auto Parts. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy.

35:42But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by.

36:10O'Shea:Another rising star out of NXT, which is what we do here at the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. Shine that spotlight. Exactly. She is the former first, first women's North American champion. Factual. And she's former TNA knockouts champion while being a part of WWE. That sounds historical to me. Yeah, both of those is historical right there. But the most historic thing and what we can't leave out, she's the former Palm Beach County Athlete of the Year. Ladies and gentlemen, Kalani Jordan, welcome. Yes, indeed. Welcome to the No Contest Podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I love the intro. Yeah, of course.

36:47O'Shea:We always got to make sure we take care of you guys. So how's everything? Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Everything is great. And I heard you say Palm Beach Athlete of the Year. And I would like to say, the year before me, you want to know who won that? Oh. Lamar Jackson. Oh, okay. So that's some real good company right there. Mm-hmm. Same school? Yeah, we went to the same high school, but he was two years above me. Okay. Nice. That's why, bro, I had to put it in, man. I saw an interview where she brought it up, and I was like, oh, yeah, we got to add this to the intro. So that's funny because she went to the same high school as Lamar.

37:20Bron Breaker played with the Ravens with Lamar. And she told us about when he appeared on the podcast. Lamar Jackson got to get here. So I guess we got to get Lamar on here.

37:30O'Shea:It's only right. So, you know, growing up in Florida, being a Floridian, proud Floridian, you went up to Michigan State. That seemed a little nippy. Yeah, a little cold, man. So I know you ain't have a winter coat. So talk about that journey of, you know, being a kid from Florida, making that move and your journey into gymnastics. Yes. So I started gymnastics when I was five years old. I did dance first when I was four. But honestly, I started gymnastics because I saw these girls slipping at the pool. And I told my mom, I want to do that. I really want to do that because I was in like T-ball doing basketball.

38:12But it just wasn't for me. So that's how I got into gymnastics. and I actually grew up so I did gymnastics in Georgia up until eighth grade and then I moved to Florida because the opportunities were just better in Florida for gymnastics my parents I'm so thankful for them because they made the move for me but yes so I got a scholarship to Michigan State and yes it was freezing and that's when I that's when I learned the cold is not for me I'm not built I'm not built for the cold and I did not have a winter jacket and no Florida jacket is good enough for Michigan. Yeah, I hear

38:46O'Shea:Michigan is rough. I've been there. It is cold. It can get cold. Yeah, man. But Michigan State is one of those universities that I've always had respect for because usually with a university, the sports program is like, you're either good at football or you're good at basketball. Michigan State is good at both. Like, they usually, in my lifetime, they've had a solid team in both, whether it was Tom Izzo and his boys or the football team. Yeah, Izzo's still there. Yeah, so Spartan's will is a real thing. Matter of fact, Izzo, I think yesterday, kicked someone out of the stands who I'm pretty sure was a former player.

39:24I got to look that up. I got to see that. Yeah.

39:29O'Shea:I mean, Michigan State, they give you the spectrum of Magic Johnson, Super Chill, or Draymond Green. That is true. You know, Kalani, I want to get in with the interview, but I noticed something on your wall there I got to just ask about. What's up with that pop thing? That's Mellows. That's Mellows. That's Mellows. Yep. I dig that. And congrats to the new U.S. champion. We're going to say that later since you brought him up. I know that must have made you really proud. But we're not here to talk about him. No, no. But I do got a question. I do that later on. Later on. Later on. I do got a question about that.

40:06O'Shea:But, all right, so you're on to gymnastics. gymnastics going to Michigan State when did you get bit by the wrestling bug when did you what clicked in you where you thought like this is the new path for me and you're not gonna let nothing stop you from succeeding yeah well for me it was a god-given blessing because I never would have known how to get into wrestling where to even start and or even think that I could do it so I was doing my fifth year at Michigan State because the COVID canceled my senior year so I took my fifth year and then I got an Instagram DM from WWE recruit and had a blue check so I was like okay I don't know about this this could be a scam I don't know I don't know about this but I was like I did some research and I told my mom and my mom was like no they're doing tryouts for collegiate athletes it's legit so then she was like just tell me what you're being I'm like well they said it's in Nashville SummerSlam these are the days and she's like okay I got your location you'll be fine go for it and so um my mom my mom told me she was like you have all your life to work a nine to five or do other stuff but you're only this age once this opportunity doesn't come around often and I know now being in wrestling like so many people kill for an opportunity for an opportunity just to be seen by WWE so I'm so thankful so God gave me this blessing I literally like I said I wouldn't have even known where to start how to start where to go so that's kind of how I got into it.

41:28So I went to SummerSlam in Nashville 2022 and then that's where they offered me with Triple H there at the time and to come to Orlando. Were you a wrestling fan growing up? Were you ever into it? Yeah, so I have four older brothers. I'm the youngest of seven. A little fun fact. But they... Seven? Yeah. Man. Alright, well that explains the toughness right there then. Where do you fall in line in terms of... The youngest. I'm the youngest. You're the youngest and you got four older brothers. Life was, I mean, I don't want to get off. She's a survivor. How hard was that for you? Could you have boyfriends?

42:04Could you have like. No, there was no such thing. It was, okay, it was good. I definitely, yes, I'm a survivor. I felt like they definitely toughened me up. But at the same time, I also was very spoiled. So I got kind of like both. But my brothers love wrestling. And so then I would watch it with them. But I will say like kind of like when I was like in eighth grade to high school, I was so like laser focused on gymnastics and getting recruited. I didn't watch it as much, but I definitely like was aware. And like, I watched wrestling with my brothers.

42:33O'Shea:Okay. Absolutely. Now the gymnastics is no joke. You know, there's a lot of my, I got a little girl, her name's Jordan. Um, and she, you know, she's looking at soccer. She's always been looking at gymnastics and I've just been looking at like her ankle support and like things like that. It makes me, you know, makes me nervous seeing her jump off stuff and things, things of that nature. So what do you what is the was there was it a difficult transition for you to go from, you know, flipping in gymnastics to flipping in the ring? Yes, just because, well, I'm gonna say yes and no, because wrestling is in a league of its own and there's nothing like it.

43:14And it's completely foreign. And some of it is just it's just different. So I would say the things that came easy for me and natural is like body control, attention to detail, the movements, anything revolving like my body or like learning, coachability, discipline, all those things that came very naturally and easily. But I would say the hard things are like talking because you don't got to talk when you're a gymnast. It's just you out there. You don't have to work with anyone else. Like, yes, you're on a team, but you're on the event alone. And then another thing is in gymnastics, you tune everyone out where in wrestling, I have to be able to still do what I do.

43:48but acknowledge the fans and are they cheering? Are they booing? Do they like this? So I'm not able to just tune everyone out like I did in gymnastics, which is a big difference just like mentally.

43:57O'Shea:I feel that. Do you have a, we like to ask, you know, anybody who remembers the beginning of their journey and, you know, the beginning of your journey is still so fresh. Do you have a welcome to wrestling moment, a moment that either, you know, knocked you on your ass, made you question your decision. Do you have a welcome to wrestling moment? Based on a move or just an experience? Just either a bump that you took that might have been like, oh, okay, that one got me. Hitting the ropes and you're like, oh, there's a medal in there. Yeah, my first day in Coach Smiley's class, learning how to hit the ropes, they were so bad.

44:37I had the biggest welt on my back. But what's even worse than hitting the ropes is hitting the buckles, learning how to take a buckle. That was my welcome to wrestling.

44:45O'Shea:No one said that yet. Yeah, right. It hurts so bad. Those things are not squishy.

44:53So you said Norman, and that brings up Coach Norman Smiley, who, you know, you've got to be an old school wrestling fan to remember Norman Smiley back in WCW. But he was just like a master technician. You know, he wasn't a guy who was like a huge personality so much. But, man, you watch Norman Smiley wrestle, and you're like, this is a wrestler. By the book. and then the personality start to come later for Norman when he brought out the big wiggle he would do this big wiggle move and he just captivated everybody just simply by doing this little shimmy has he ever broken that out during practice hey sometimes sometimes I'll tell him I'm doing he's like no no stop it that's the old me I'm like come on do it the old me I'm like just do it

45:38O'Shea:shout out to Norman Smiley okay so if you you know you were watching you know kind of third party through your older brothers and now you're on this journey and you know you've got the training and everything behind you what have you done to kind of you know have you have you been looking at tape have you been you know looking at at storylines or anything like what is the process of really grasping the wrestling world for you mentally yeah like definitely being a student of the game watching film learning making up for the lost time that I wasn't able to watch or I didn't watch so I definitely would like to call myself a student of the game you may have heard me say that before because I love studying because wrestling there's just so much to learn like you I always hear the great say oh I've been doing this for 30 years and I'm still learning every single day so I like to study people like of course like HBK RVD Ray Mysterio Eddie Guerrero and now that I am a heel I'm not a baby face I've been like okay now I gotta switch switch gears so film has definitely helped me be able to evolve myself learn from people who've literally done it all and I'm working on a Shawn Michaels has been like the best right right man Shawn is the man I mean yeah when you have that goat conversation of professional wrestling you're gonna get a lot of names thrown out there but if you were to take just like the just the collective answers there's very few people who are going to be listed above Shawn Michaels when you look at the big picture of who's the goat.

47:13Heartbreak kid, dude. She's an RVD fan, right?

47:18O'Shea:Yeah, right. RVD, that's your go-to. I love RVD. What was it about Rob Van Dam that kind of attracted you to him as a wrestler? I just love that he's just unapologetically himself. Like, he literally does not care what anyone thinks about him. He just goes out there, puts on a banger match, does him. His style is unique. no one does his like moveset he's original and I think but like the biggest thing was honestly just him being him and authentic you can relate to him one of a kind that's such a banger song oh my god one of a kind goes so hard dude respect but that was my like the fact that he's got two banging things like just you know what a guy what a guy oh man what else so I I was going to save this for later, but you brought it up.

48:09So let me just jump into it now. We're versatile here, Kalani. You know, we think we know how the interview is going to go. Then we swap it up. You talked about being a hill now. When you started to turn hill, I'll just be honest, respectfully, I had some, I won't say doubts, but I was like, she seems so nice. It's okay. I know a lot of people. So I was like, can she be mean? And then I got my answer. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She's really good at this heel thing. So how was it? Can you take us through the point where they told you you're going to be making that switch? And what did you tap into to kind of bring that meanness out?

48:48Yes. Well, you know, I don't know if you guys know the saying. I may have just made it up. But I did hear someone tell me this. The nicest people make the best heels. Because you never get a chance to be mean in the real world. So I feel like I'm able to tap into an alter ego and be what I really feel that I just hold in, you know? Right. I mean, we'll just tap into the other side. Yeah, it's all built up because I never can be mean.

49:11O'Shea:Right. But it does, I do, obviously, being mean isn't, like, natural, I would hope, for any, most human beings. So I definitely, like, I would hope. I would hope. But I would definitely just, like, tap in, too. And like I said, it's just like an alter ego. I feel like it's just, like I said, the nicest people make the best heels. And I do feel like Kalani, me, as my truth, I'm justified. I feel like I'm justified in my actions. Because as a loyal viewer of NXT, I watched my NXT for a long time. And me and my sister, we watch NXT together. What the hell did you pick TNA for? That drove us so...

49:58You want to know what's the most frustrating part? People who are watching it, let me just say. I was chosen by a captain. As captain, Santino chose me. So I was like, you picked Team TNA, you could have said no. Well, I was chosen.

50:16O'Shea:See, that's that nice stuff. So I was chosen, and I was a champion, so I was trying to do it the right way, but then they turned on me. Yeah, she was the champion TNA. she had to be on team tna exactly listen see this is what happens when you try to do stuff the right way the nice way people don't like it yeah because we did not like it we was like no you're supposed to you know what you're doing like no you're not supposed to go over there you over there hugging she's she's the knockouts world champion she had to be on that yes yeah she's the knockout world champion of NXT though. No, no. I was a TNA knockout champion.

50:56J.C. was NXT champion.

50:58O'Shea:Y 'all know what I'm talking about and I feel like I'm being gaslit and I don't like it. I'm on Kalani's side here. No kidding, tag team partner. I'm just saying, if I'm the world champion I'm going heel. I swear this is it. You're the world champion. Knockouts, TNA, Impact, everyone to say it. The title that Jordan Grace held. The title that Madison Rain and Angelina Love held. That's who she's rocking with. Thank you. My pleasure. Y 'all pals, that's cool. Can I get a dap? No, no. None of that. Power activate. But you are a, like we said during the intro, you've made history twice. So it's going to be a two-parter.

51:43O'Shea:What did it feel to be the first one to hold the women's North American title. Let us know the feeling of that. And then once NXT and TNA made the partnership, you and Trick, we spoke about it on our show. Trick, another friend of the show here. Yeah, getting those belts from TNA was shocking over here. It was like, no way. But by the way, we dug it the most. Yeah, right? But so what does it feel like, you know, way out both of those situations? Number one, for the WWE to trust you to be the first ever North American champion and going home with that title, what that felt like. And then for you to be in WWE as a TNA champion, what did that feel like?

52:38Yes. So I'm going to start with the first one. So being the first ever women's North American champion, one, I will say it was a very surreal moment. And honestly, it was a confidence boost because it showed that HBK believed in me to be able to carry a championship. But also it did become a lot of pressure because I was very new. Like I probably hadn't even been wrestling like on TV, maybe like a year at that time. So I was very green. I mean, I'm still green, but like I was super green. So I think it was just a huge confidence boost. Like, hey, they trust me with this title. now I have to start believing in myself and I would say at that title reign I was more just trying to make sure I set the bar for that title because I was the first ever I knew there was a lot of eyes on it it was the first mid-card title in WWE so I knew oh shoot like this is a big deal and I felt like also myself then was like oh yay I'm so happy to be here I'm so happy to be champion whereas like now I feel like my confidence has grown so much and when I won a TNA title like yes I still had pressure to carry across brand like cross brands but this time I felt like my mindset was like I'm good like I earned it like I work hard I go the extra mile I earned it but I'm not it's no longer the Kalani Jordan that's like oh yay woo I'm happy to be here it's like hey I earned this like I make the title the title doesn't make me and I think that's where my mindset switched between each title reign I feel that I feel that that's definitely a balance

54:02O'Shea:that, you know, even in my job of acting, you know, I'll get a project like Star Wars and like, yeah, I'm really happy to be here. And like, I would let everybody know how happy I am to be here, but don't just treat me like I'm just some happy to be here ass dude. You gotta respect it, bro. You pick me. So yeah, I'm absolutely, absolutely behind that, 100%. That's true. uh you know when you came up i i found this interesting and it was a nice little throwback when you got that tna title you came up in nxt and you were kind of like the little sister or the protege of dana brooke and then unfortunately she got let go she moves on to tna becomes ash by elegance and then she becomes the world champion there and then for you know i'm not really sure the reason hopefully everything's okay she had to you know give up that belt and then so that was actually like a cool moment because you succeeded her as champion for those who kind of remember your your start so was that something you and her talked about was that like did that make the moment even like just a little bit more cool because you guys kind of have the same similar gymnastics background and we were thinking all right this this is going to be a nice little team here we thought and then of course you know like i said sadly she she was let go yeah so when i went to tna i remember we were in canada uh i remember seeing her and i hadn't seen her in a long time so it was like a bittersweet moment and i didn't know that she was even vacating the title i just knew i was going to tna i was going to canada so when i won the title and she met me on the ramp i didn't know that she was going to meet me on the ramp that I was like completely like I had no clue.

55:54I just remember turning her hand on my shoulder and I turned around. And in that moment, I remember she had tears in her eyes and I had tears in my eyes. And it just felt like a full circle moment because she was there from the moment when I was in the breakout tournament. Super, super duper new. She was there when I was like just learning the business, learning the ins and the outs. And she I always like want to give her a lot of respect and praise and love because she helped me navigate not only the in-ring stuff, but behind the scenes. She really was like a big sister. she was like a mentor in real life not just for a show if that makes sense and so when it when i did win the title then knowing that she was going to vacate it and that full circle moment happened it was just really emotional and honestly just such a cool moment by the way it was data brooke

56:38O'Shea:had a such a hard flex appeal oh that's money right you come out and get it like the flex appeal It was hard, bro. Absolutely. Now, first of all, you mentioned your brothers. You're bringing home hardware. You're making history. How do they feel about the baby sister going into wrestling that they watched? And what has been their reaction to your success so far? Oh, they're super supportive and they love it. A lot of times they can't believe it. Even for Christmas, I gave my nephews and my nieces my action figure. And they're like, this is just so crazy. Like, I can't believe it. And one of my brothers, his favorite is HBK.

57:20So when I had the picture when I won the title with Shawn Michaels, he was like, this cannot be real. There's no way. And then also it's funny because, like, out of all my siblings, like, oh, my brother wants to go pro in NFL or NBA or MLB or whatever sports they play. And it's like, oh, actually, no, the baby sister is the one that went pro. Yeah, man. That's a full circle moment right there. So my sisters would answer this question with a lot of times. So the question is, how many times did your brothers put you in wrestling moves? Absolutely. A lot of times.

57:58Cause my sisters know what it feels like to be on the wrong side of a Boston crab. I could tell you that. Oh my God. A submission move. What? You went straight for the submission. You're crazy. Boston crab figure four. What else? Yeah, the bigger four hurts. Oh, my God. I mean, I kind of didn't hurt. I didn't break their legs or anything like that. You know? Big tuna. The sleeper hold, there was a lot of that. Dang. Goonty, relax. So I'm just saying there was just one of me. I can't imagine if there were four of them. Yeah, right. But again, that helped make her tough.

58:38O'Shea:Yeah. Definitely. You know, those who are successful, you know, they'll tell you that you just it's something impossible to do it alone. You know, whether that be the people who had to open the door for you, you know, that to give you an opportunity, people that have had your back in situations and conversations that you might not have been a part of. It's just success is not a road that you take by yourself completely. So in your world, in your life, whether that be family or the mentors that you've met down this road, who are the people that without them, we wouldn't have the Kalani Jordan before us that we have now?

59:23Well, first and foremost, I always put my faith first because without God, I wouldn't be where I am today or even have the ability to do what I do. So faith is something that I'm really passionate about. It's, again, why I'm here today. but I would say my mom and my dad they're my rocks they push me and my dad is I would say both my parents are hard on me but in a good way like they push me they always push education they always push gymnastics not like force me to do it but they just help me get the best opportunities that I could even making such a big move from Georgia to Florida after eighth grade for me to have the chance the opportunity to live my dream so I would say definitely my appearance and then as far as like wrestling goes, Shawn Michaels, because he believes in me, giving me the opportunity.

1:00:08And then Coach Smiley, he was my first wrestling coach. And I remember he's the one who told me in the very beginning, always keep my foot on the gas, no brakes. And he said, I'm really talented. All I got to do is just believe in myself.

1:00:21O'Shea:Silent. Who's the – we asked this a few times. Every NXT person. Yeah. At the Performance Center, there's got to be some coaches that, like, when you hear that such and such wants to see you you're like you're in trouble so like i we want to know who's the principal up there yeah who's who's the one you don't want to hear from coach blooms are a head coach but if coach bloom called me in his office even if it was for something good i'd probably be like oh no what did i do we get we've heard that one a few times yeah no text no text from bloom man and yes you know something else i guess i i'll share with you that i tell everyone that we talked to from nxt i'm from pittsburgh matt bloom is from pittsburgh i remember well i went to college from pitt in pitt i remember when he played college football at pitt he worked uh security at a bar with my roommate's girlfriend so i knew him from back in the day like he wouldn't remember me but like i and so i can remember the first time prince albert's on tv I'm like, why does this dude look so familiar to me?

1:01:26Because he had hair back then. You know, he wasn't bald. I didn't know he was all hairy. So I just, every time I'd see Prince Albert, I'd be like, I have a feeling. I know this dude. And then randomly one day I saw an old training video and he had a Panther tattoo on his thigh. And I was like, yo, that's Matt Bloom. There was no way. Yeah. He was. And I used to, I would also tell people like the college bars there, you know, everyone in there all the guys think they're tough guys right and then i specifically recall there are days when matt would walk in with a guy named reuben brown who went on to become an all pro for like the buffalo bills i think he also played for the the bears and when those guys walked in the bar all the tough guys were no longer tough anymore like i see these cats wilt just like looking at these dudes so it's just i don't blame them i do not blame them it's wild to be able to

1:02:15O'Shea:see where he's at now now tj i got a question for you when you think about florida you think about the wildlife of florida yes what do you think about you know like like you're thinking what gators well i'm a seminal fan so i don't like the gators oh my god here you go like the hurricanes all right i think of the beaches i think of crockett and tubs you know miami vice do you Do you think bears? Bears? And no, I can't say that I do. All right. So there's a, if I'm not mistaken, you caught a bear or you didn't catch a bear, but I caught a bear on camera down in Florida. What was that? That was the craziest thing because so in Orlando, so I'm from South Florida, William Beach, about two and a half hours south of Orlando.

1:03:00I've never seen a bear, but there was trash. So it was trash day. There was trash all over our driveway. like literally everywhere. And I'm like, okay, maybe a raccoon got into the trash. So I'm like, but dang, that raccoon went ham because there's stuff everywhere. So then we checked the cameras and it was literally a black bear.

1:03:22O'Shea:I've never heard of this. How long ago was this? This was literally, what, maybe six months ago? Oh, dang, this is recent. Yes, it was like all the time. And then every time it was trash, we would have trash over. So he was like coming back. And then one time, me and Mello, we wanted to drive around the block to see if we could, like, see him. All we saw was everyone's trash knocked over, but we didn't see the actual bear. But everyone's trash everywhere. Imagine just going spinning the block looking for a bear in Florida. Yes. And I guess, yeah, I guess the neighborhood on the Rheem cameras, like, you know, I could see, like, the notifications.

1:03:56They named him Teddy. So I was looking for Teddy. Standard. I mean, either that or Fozzie. Yeah. Smokey. Smokey the bear. Yeah. Smokey the bear. a Florida bear I've never I would have believed more if you would have said she found an alligator or something they got panthers too

1:04:16O'Shea:a bear I've never heard of that me neither so you take this journey from gymnastics to wrestling you're in it you're highly successful quickly too everything seems to be going all good so I want to know about when it go all bad. What are some moves that you hate taking? Hate taking? Okay, I would say one of the most painful moves is a choke slam. Choke slam gets brought up a lot. That doesn't hurt.

1:04:54I would say choke slam. Yeah, I feel like honestly, chokeslam some powerbombs. I guess it depends how much force people put down on it. But yeah, I don't know what it is. A chokeslam. Yeah, that hurts the worst. Just getting dunked into the floor. That's a standard issue answer right there. Normally, it's people like the Tejana bomb that Raquel does. We've gotten that a few times. I don't think you guys have had a chance to get it on yet. But that day is coming. I haven't heard about that one. Yeah. Unfortunately, that's in your future at some point. all the best

1:05:32O'Shea:Roxanne Perez brought up that that was the move that she hates taking the most and then like two months later their tag team party we feel like that's the reason she pushed for it so she didn't have it that's smart honestly Roxy's a genius for that exactly go ahead we do a lot of lists here on the show we're going to ask you different dream matches blah blah blah but now that this popped into my head you being in the gymnastics i'm gonna ask you give me a five woman or five you know mad women whatever whatever gymnastics dream team oh okay dream team definitely simone biles okay number one go yeah number one yeah i would say sean johnson okay i don't know if you guys know you guys know who they are yes i'm not gonna lie I would say let's see let's see of course me Kalani Jordan you know and then let's see

1:06:39probably Gabby Douglas

1:06:40O'Shea:I was gonna say I was like man Gabby Douglas really was like was that a fever dream like well she was a thing but then Simone came up kind of right after her and it was just like oh wait a second you're really good but look at this this is different Simone in a league of her own, like literally in a league of her own. So you, Gabby, Simone, Sean, and Natasha, Luke. Nastia. Nastia. Yeah. All right. Now TJ is about to get serious. Okay. Here he goes with, he just broke these out before. Oh no, you got the glasses out. Oh, it's not, not, not yet. There you go. Okay. So Kalani, I have a very serious question and you know, I will take whatever answer, you know but i just need it for my own peace of mind these glasses scream serious don't they listen my man carmelo hayes okay so a while back he came out and like the you know the the titantron or whatever his logo was the laker logo and it said his name in the laker logo but sources tell mean it's really from boston so like and then for like the netflix on when raw went to netflix for the first time you had the laker 2020 jacket on out there so i need to know is there a laker fandom over there or am i being gaslit you're being gaslit oh my god oh my god i am not a Lakers fan, but I like LeBron James, I will say.

1:08:16And the jacket was, I borrowed it from Jeff Hamilton. So it wasn't even my jacket.

1:08:21O'Shea:It was a Jeff Hamilton jacket? Yes, it was a Jeff Hamilton jacket. He makes all the Lakers championship jackets. The jacket right here, that's Melo's Jeff Hamilton jacket, but he was making that jacket for him at the time. And so we had the red carpet thing, and I was like, I'm a jacket. So then, you know, Jeff being so nice, he gave me that, or borrowed that jacket. that is like the most heartbreaking thing in the world because when we saw heat fan oh i mean that makes sense that makes sense oh yeah you i don't know why you wore that 2020 jacket then but so so when uh because we saw them at uh we were we were all at the gronk party for wrestlemania in vegas and uh i had said i was being threatened uh by jada parker Yeah, that's my favorite part.

1:09:09Yeah, she started to take her hoops off because I guess I said something out of the pot and she was like, you know, she goes, we're friends, but I'll slap you. And I was like, I believe you. So I'm not. Oh, I believe that.

1:09:22O'Shea:But I saw Melo and like, I didn't go like say what's up, but I said go Lakers. And he looked at me crazy. And I was like, why would he look at me like that? What do you mean? Why did you have the Laker logo? What's your name? So we need to interview him. I need to know why he did that. What was that? I can't answer about the Laker logo, but I can answer you're being gaslighted because he's not a Lakers fan. Bro, this is insane. I love it. This is crazy. He's a Clipper fan, so like... I got my own set of problems, Kalani. You know what I mean? I got my own set of problems. Clippers, yeah. Oh, see, we were getting You know damn well it ain't nothing to celebrate Listen, honestly The teams have changed so much I literally have no clue who's on whose team anymore Like, I don't even know But I will say I do love LeBron James and I missed when he was on the Heat Because, you know, we were three-time champions Listen, man You gotta go to the Lakers, baby You know, Hollywood, baby What, you know what?

1:10:26O'Shea:Come on, dawg You know where you work at you're a Dolphins fan either I don't want to hear it from you yeah I don't want to talk about it but I am a Dolphins fan

1:10:37O'Shea:okay now I think it's time for our number one question why not you know the number one question that we ask everybody I want to make sure that we have time for it here there is a situation it's a situation based question you are out with your girlfriends getting mimosas living it up on the beach somewhere everything is all good until you realize that you are in a party and there's 50 ladies in that party who are hating on Kalani Jordan I need you to pick a team of you and four other female superstars to make sure you are getting to the car and they can be of any era you can dig you can go in the way back and pull whoever you need we gotta make sure you get back to the crib okay any era China of course I'll definitely get back to the car I would say I'm going to pick someone from this era I would say Naya Naya will only get back to the car so China Naya let's see I'm going to pick someone from NXT let's see I would pick who on NXT would help me get back to the car?

1:11:55I feel like even though me and Lola are beefing, she has an MMA background, so she could definitely take someone down for me. Okay. I mean, you threw a shoe at her the other day, though. I don't know. She's really going to be down to help you. She may not help me, but at least she could, you know, she could like... She's with the shit. Do an arm bar or something on someone. And then I would say the last one I would pick, I just love Lita, so I would pick Lita.

1:12:19O'Shea:Yeah, Lita's so dope. So you've got to find Lita. Chyna, Naya, Lola, Lita, Kalani. Yes. You'll be all right. Get into the car. I'd like your chance. I'm getting to the car. It's not a bad Florida tribute. It might apologize if you hear a puppy in the background. We just got a puppy. We call him our engagement puppy. And I'm sorry if you hear him in the background. No, actually, I saw him. We like that. Like Roxanne showed us. Every time Roxanne's been on twice, she shows us her dog Wyatt. So is your dog around? Can we meet? Well, so I have two dogs. My one dog, Damien, is right here. He was the big dog.

1:12:56So you can't just pick him up.

1:12:57O'Shea:That's the one that would be in the tour jersey? No, this one. Damien, what up? He's our old boy, our 10-year-old. But my puppy is in his crate right now because he's in the stage where he's a menace. Yes. And he chews everything. Chews. I would be trying to do this. He'd probably be tugging on my arm, my pant leg. like what's his what what breed and name so damien is a lap pit bull mix and then by the way i did not name him damien that was mellow's doing and then and then um yogi is a chocolate lab seven months old another bear yogi right yeah but we got him we got him right after we got back from hawaii we call him our engagement puppy because we got really the day we got back from Hawaii.

1:13:46The world moves fast. Your work day, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use. Helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize. So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash N365 Copilot.

1:14:41Great brands, great prices That's why you rack Nice And congrats on the engagement too

1:14:48O'Shea:Thank you Now we are you know Huge supporters of Mellow Pretty much Huge supporters of a lot of black superstars But we're huge supporters of Mellow We don't want to like You know offend anyone But Let me tell you So you know to see to see his you know uh the grind that he has has put on to hear the crowd getting behind him the way that they did against bronson reed during the the john cena uh the last times now uh tournament to him become a united states champion i'm throwing you out of you here how proud of him are you oh I'm so proud of him not only because um of course you know I don't want to say like I'm biased but really honestly like he's such a great person he works really hard I've never seen someone more passionate about this business and what he does he studies all the time he works hard he's in the gym he does he sometimes even does extra ring with me not only to help me but just to make sure he's in shape for his matches when he doesn't really need to be like he's in great shape so I'm just super proud of him because i want to say he never like it wasn't handed to him he definitely like earned it and i feel like he definitely paid his dues and of course his talent speaks for himself but he has a genuine heart and so i'm super proud of him i kind of like the fact that like he had to go on this journey right because yeah nxt mellow was the man he got the titles boom boom it was like he was he was you know had the the rocket ship strapped to his back as they say but he had to grind a little bit on the main roster right he took some a lot of people were what's going on, they ain't understand it.

1:16:33But I appreciated that because Kalani, you know this, wrestling fans are fickle. They are fickle as bleep. And if they feel you got something too soon, it would be a whole... Like if Melo came out when he first got there and it was hot and he had the Cody Rhodes match and all of a sudden you throw a title on him, now these mouth-breathing neck-beard fans are going to turn... They say or no, they're going to turn on Melo. Like we know this. We've been watching wrestling for long enough to know how this story goes. So with every time he like, you know, maybe lose a match or be unsuccessful, I was like, boom, good.

1:17:11Because it's going to make that eventual climb, that eventual big win even bigger. And there was a point a couple weeks ago, and I know it was so, it's so stupid. We know this and it's so small. But that time he did the 6-7 thing. On main event. On main event. I said, I went on Instagram immediately, and I said, it's something that little that just like so dumb. Six, seven is dumb, but we all kind of like it, right? It's kind of funny. To me, I was like, something so little is enough to kind of like give him that final. Yeah. Connect. Because he's already there. You connected. He's right there.

1:17:51And it's just, you know, Mick Foley pulling out a sock.

1:17:55O'Shea:Yeah, right. You know, who would have thought? Right. You know, so when that happened. The People's Elbow was a joke. I was like, all right, it's time. I'm like, it's coming now. And then, you know, he and Dragunov just had that banger of a match. And, you know, the crowd went wild. And, you know, it happened. It was pre-taped, right? So we kind of randomly on Twitter. I almost scrolled by. I did. I scrolled by. And I was like, what did I just? And I went back. And I was like, I text you immediately. I was like, yo. it's AI I'm like is this real so yeah so that was it was dope to see it was dope to see that he he went on the path he had to grind a little bit because like I said the fans will turn on you in a heartbeat if they feel like you got something too easy and that can't be said for him and you know the show is title thing is great yeah absolutely I agree I agree I'm happy that I know sometimes in the moment it can be like man like what's going on what's going on but I'm happy that he got to go through like this like with adversity not even like really adversity just like not getting a title yet because he was able to like just do great matches just like obviously get used to the main roster and like all that stuff and then go through a journey he was able to take the fans whether they were fans of him or not on this story and i feel like anyone can get behind a baby face or someone who's like going through a journey and when they finally get the final like the the prize you can be like oh yeah like he went through it like he earned it and i feel like it takes people on a ride.

1:19:28O'Shea:Yeah, his, his, you know, the series that he put on with Andrade, you know. And I saw Andrade tweet him after that and it was so dope. Yeah. I think Mello said, I got better with you every time because Andrade is true. Yeah, Andrade is phenomenal. Yeah. And also, let me just say this. My, my conspiracy theory, so. Oh, here he is. Because Mello, Mello was rocking the chain, all right? He rocking the chain. Miz, give him a chain. Like, The chain is Mello's thing. All of a sudden, Seth Rollins got a chain. All of a sudden, Jake Cargill got a chain. And I was like, hold on, man. Wait a minute. This is Mello's thing.

1:20:07O'Shea:I was hot about that, bro. You mentioned that chain. It bothered me, man. I had to point out. Seth Rollins, no, we're no chain. What was that, Kalani? He could be a trim setter, you know? Right, exactly. I had to calm him down once. I was like, well, you know Stone Cold wore a chain once. Yeah, but not the name piece. He had the hem. The whole him thing, right, is just amazing, too, just the way you capture that. Wait, the lights hit it now, too? Stop. Yeah, that is a nice change. Oh, and another thing, you know, he's got this, you know, look, I'm not trying to put anybody's business out there, but he's got a little bit of a Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae problem.

1:20:44And he did say that, yo, we can do this mano y mano, or if you want to bring your lady, I can make a call. So I'm just asking, has your phone rang? you know he did tell me you know he told me I saw also on Twitter I was like oh okay you know I see what's going on I saw when Candice you know tried to interrupt or like cause him a distraction in the match so I was like you know if you need me I'm here I'm only I mean you don't have to call me we live together I'm here tell me well in K-Faber I guess Mello and Kalani they you know live in separate edifices We all got social media, man. Yeah. Yeah, Kalani and Mello have never interacted.

1:21:29Yeah, we never interacted on TV. Right.

1:21:31O'Shea:It's all right. LA Knight don't call his sister Maxine after she won a... That's true, man. I didn't see one congratulations. Not one. Thanksgiving must have been weird and Christmas. We're in that household, man. We do pre-house. Exactly. So what's up, man? You got something for her? Oh, yeah. So you know what? Kalani, here's another one of our staple questions, right? You're family now here at No Contest Wrestling. You're now one of us. When you're in El Segundo, I'll let you know where we keep that extra house key. Come on in, help yourself to whatever's in the fridge. I appreciate that. Put your feet up on the couch if you want.

1:22:07We don't care because you're family. What we have, it's in the garage. It's under a tarp. Don't everybody know about this, all right? But we got a little time machine, a little DeLorean, if you saw it, Back to the Future, right? We got a time machine. So what we like to let our family do is to borrow the time machine every now and then. So I'm going to hand you the keys. It's not push to start. You'll have to put it in there. But we're going to give you this time machine, Kalani Jordan. And we're going to allow you to take this five different places. Okay. You get to travel in time and have five main event WrestleMania matches with any performer of any time.

1:22:53What five opponents dream would you love to have a WrestleMania main event? Oh, wow. That's a great question. That's a great question. I'm going to say Lita because I really do love Lita. Me too. And then I would say from the current roster now, Becky. I think Becky is a great worker. yeah and she's not the only one that says it other people say it no contest wrestling has said that before so Lita Becky oh I would love to wrestle Mickie James I actually was hoping that I was going to be able to wrestle her at TNA like sometime so I would love to wrestle her still hold out and then let's see Bianca Bianca Bianca we miss you I know we miss you Bianca and then one day when mother Naomi comes back I would love to wrestle her out with your baby yes let's go oh my god you know I don't like to see you know sometimes I don't always love to see sisters you know scrapping we all black children in this case I'm for it

1:24:11O'Shea:she was in her bag man thanks Jimmy I don't want to say Big Jim messed it up because bringing a baby into the world is a beautiful thing. Beautiful thing. But timing is everything, Jim. She was on what was promised to be a generational role, which is going to pick up in about probably 12 months from now. Somebody's in trouble. So we got you against Lita, Becky, Mickie James, Bianca, and Naomi. Let's go. go now I'd say I'd buy five tickets because I said that before but I'm kind of hoping you might like give us passes or something but regardless yeah you know I'll spring definitely and maybe maybe it could have been a fatal four way or like you know like then you don't have to buy as many tickets if like one match is like a normal match and a triple threat or one's a fatal four way I like the way you think right he could be you know I like the way you think I mean I feel like we had a good interview well it's not for us to decide right Did you feel like we had a good interview?

1:25:10O'Shea:You had a good time? Yes, you guys are awesome. Thank you. That's all we need. That's all we need. We appreciate your time. It's awesome to watch where you're at right now from where you started. Like I said, I remember the Dana Brooke days. I respectfully have to apologize, like I said, for thinking, ah, she might be too nice to be a heel. I was wrong. I can admit that. Love to admit when I'm wrong about something like that. You see, and I can appreciate, I appreciate the apology or like the accountability. That's what I appreciate. Yeah, we love accountability around here. You've got to be accountable, you know, and from becoming the first North, Women's North America champion to, you know, the, the knockouts belt, like, you know, we speak a lot about, you know, representation here and, you know, there are certain people who are like, well, are you always going to bring that up?

1:25:56Because it, say it till the end of time, it matters because there's girls out there right now that look like you who is going to watch you and be like and you know i do sometimes have a hard time thinking you know when someone goes oh if they did it i can do it because that makes it seem easy right and it's not not everyone can do what she does but you can give them a chance to dream you can give them something to aspire to and to me that's what it's all about right there and that's what you're doing and not just little girls that look like you girls that look like Asuka, girls that look like Roxanne you know Raquel, like all types of little girls right who have these women now who are wrestling and you know I remember the days where you know even before just like the mud wrestling and the bikinis when the divas didn't get any time now you've got this you know this generation of young girls who are going to be able to look up to women like you and everyone else that is doing their thing right now and be like I want to be like them and that's that's pretty dope.

1:26:55O'Shea:Yeah and you You always got supporters in us. Feel free to come back anytime. We'll talk more crap. Just don't drink all the milk. Yeah, that's true. But I was going to say, I love how you said about the impact. Because I feel that's like the main reason why I do what I do. And I'm so thankful that God has given me this platform. Like, yes, it's awesome. I get to do what I love. But also, it means something when you get an Instagram message or you see someone on a show like, hey, I was going through some mental problems. But, like, you helped me through this. And like for us, you may not even realize it because we're just saying, oh, we're just doing it daily.

1:27:28But like the impact that you have on people's lives is just such a beautiful thing. And I also love that wrestling is kind of like a place where people can forget reality. They can come together, boo, cheer, do whatever you want. But as long as you're having fun, you're escaping reality, then for me, it's like it's worth it. And I can't tell you how many times I get a message or a conversation from a mom, a dad, a sister, whoever, or even a little girl saying, I love that you wear your hair natural because I always straighten my hair I relax my hair and I'm like hey I was once you I used to hate my natural hair and now that I'm older and obviously I'm deep in my faith I'm like hey God made me this way for a reason and I can have an impact and like you were saying representation is important and even like in school I did journalism and like being able to see black woman in sports broadcasting I'm like it gave me a chance to like hope to dream because it's like, wow, someone who looks like me who may experience the same trials that I may experience is doing something that I want to pursue.

1:28:27Exactly. So it's just like the biggest thing for me is like, oh, cool, yes, I get to do something that's amazing. But the bigger thing is like you have impact on so many people's lives that you don't even realize. Yeah. You know, one last thing, you know, we talked about your parents earlier, and I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact match. I know it was somewhat recent. your parents were at ringside for one of your matches. Can you tell us like what, in particular, I guess your mom, what was her first thought when she finally saw you? And was she like afraid? Was she stunned? Was she, I mean, obviously she was proud, but like, do you remember what your parents, their thought was when they saw you out there taking bumps and getting slammed?

1:29:08Oh yeah. Terrified. Like terrified. I remember before the match, I was like, even when I first saw him, I was on level up. I remember I was texting my mom, like, okay, like, I'm about to go out, blah, blah, blah, like, whatever. And she always, my parents always wished me, like, good luck or, like, send me, like, a prayer or a message, whatever. And the mom was like, get off your phone. You need to focus. I'm scared. Like, I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, calm down. It's going to be okay. And I was like, it's going to be fine. And she's like, this is worse than gymnastics. This is worse. She's like, I can't.

1:29:36And then they went to stand and deliver this past one in Vegas with the ladder match. And they were freaking out about the ladder match. both my mom and my dad and i remember at one point i locked eyes with my mom like in my entrance and she's like don't look at me don't look at me and i'm like i'm like it's okay like i'm gonna be like it's fine i mean i'll be in pain but like i'll be okay we were there for that match yeah we was there you know we were front row that was one you know you say you know that was like a first for me but yeah that that was a fight and i was just recently just not even two days ago looking at pictures from that just randomly out of nowhere but yeah that was you guys did your thing on that night or that night it was that morning it was like yeah right that morning imagine taking bumps on a ladder at what was it like 90 and then you had the hall of fame before that right so you had to you were probably up all right that long ass hall of fame because we but nxt we didn't have to go to the hall of fame okay because because it was such an early morning the next day so thankful for that but I like try to stay up watching it but I'm like I'm so tired and the time changes like late East Coast time so I'm like it's like three hours difference or two hours I forget three yeah

1:30:55O'Shea:absolutely well like I said Kalani you always got supporters in us you know when we see you and we point we just ask that you point back and yeah much success to you much health to you and Carmelo continue to kick ass and don't take no shit. Thank you. Got you. I won't. I won't. Absolutely. Kalani Jordan, everybody. Man. Yeah. Yeah, man. That was dope. That was dope. That was dope. Super cool, man. She is good at being a heel. She's good at being a heel. It's just now that you know, she's got that pent-up aggression, man. She's a sweetheart at heart. But she'll kick your ass. Like she said, most of them really are.

1:31:38You will pull the curtain back. When we met Becky Lynch at the height of her illness, I'm just going to tell you guys, Becky Lynch might be one of the nicest human beings you've ever met. And I don't want to say that out loud because I don't want her to, you know, slap me or anything. But yeah, she is in a very short amount of time. We got to interact with her. You walk away, even if you didn't like her, you walked away going, wow. Yeah. She's what a gal. She's awesome. But don't tell her we said that.

1:32:08O'Shea:No, we don't. We don't say that. ESPN doesn't say it. Nope. It's supposed to illustrate it either. But yeah, Kalani, she's, you know, earlier we talked about people who were on the rise. Future's big. Like when her time comes, it's going to be the same thing. And whether it's face or a heel, you know, her future's very bright. So looking forward to watching her continue to grow and shine. And same thing with Mello. And again, like if Candice and Johnny don't watch themselves. Yes, sir. I need to see that. I don't think Kalani has a problem smacking the face off of nobody's lips. You know what I'm saying?

1:32:42O'Shea:Especially for her mellow. Yeah. My mellow, my man. Oh, man. You know what? We got to. I need to make a compilation of whenever we mention shit on this show, it gets affected the next week. We went on a rant about DIY. Right. Out of nowhere, by the way. And Ciampa and all of that. And didn't you see what happened? The next week. Chompa gone yo I didn't I was like is this for real that's crazy bro cause you just randomly brought it up I wasn't even prepared to even talk about it so I was digging in my mind real quick about yeah he made Goldie feel like it was the most important thing in the world not like he might be gone oh man that kind of stinks like the Mike Santana thing like we talked to Mike Santana he said his dream match AJ Styles we have AJ Styles the next week and he's like I don't think it can happen and that would mean that TNA is going to be sending the main roster to TNA and vice versa.

1:33:42O'Shea:That door has been opened, and then Matt Cardona is on. The next week. Nick Nemo came up. Do we have powers? Lord knows that you made the vision. So, like, bro, we got to chill, man. I'm just saying. But then, unfortunately, Mike, they took the belt from him. Yeah. Every time we bring up something, something happens. Somebody watching. Somebody watching, bro. You know, a lot of people watched the video, The Real, that our boy Jake put out on Instagram last week about you and your dream matches. And it did very well on social. Still doing very well. But you know me. I read the comments. I'm in there right with you.

1:34:25And the thing that annoys me about, and I love you guys for watching, but this is like, it isn't just on no contest. This seems to be like any type of reel or video that someone puts out a personal opinion about something. This is for me personally. And then you just have a bunch of comments like, well, I can't believe you didn't say blah, blah, blah. First of all, you had six matches. And this was your dream, baby. This wasn't theirs. My God. Right? And you're not saying that these are the six greatest matches. The only matches that could happen. These are just as of right now when we did that bit, you were like, I want to see these six matches.

1:35:06Yeah, I think they'd be cool. And then the thing, though, that you guys got to chill with is like, obviously, we know for general wrestling fans who their favorites are. You're going to see Stone Cold, The Rock, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Randy Orton, Undertaker. We all know that, right?

1:35:23O'Shea:How many times have those matches been said in every conversation? Every conversation. So if he's going to sit here and give you six matches that are Undertaker against Stang, well, damn, man, we all know that. We all know everybody wanted to see. Tell me something. Give me a match I didn't think of. You know what I mean? So I got to be honest with you. I love what you did. Thank you. I have a document on my laptop that I've had going on for about 20 years now of just random dream matches I want to see. So I love what you did. I loved your list because it was yours. and I like every match on the list.

1:35:59Like, people love your Darby Allen against Shane. That's why that's

1:36:02O'Shea:number one, baby. I gotta be honest. I was like, okay. But guess what? This is gonna be a bloody mess. A lot of people loved it and I wasn't mad at it. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do what you did. Okay. But I wanna look at this. I don't know if I wanna look at this as a competition, right? No, no, no. The way I started to do it, I was like, well, I wanna run a show that day in the same city. I know your show's being run at the Staples Center downtown. Absolutely. It will be changed to Staples Center when we're there. My show's obviously going to be at the Intuit Dome in Englewood because we can be there in 13 minutes.

1:36:32So I was thinking, what if I put on the show the same night? How would I combat what you got going? How would I get the wrestling fans 25, 30 bucks in my pocket instead of yours? Then I decided I didn't want to go head ahead with you. So I'm just going to give my own personal. I'm going to give six dream matches that I'd love to see. And I'm not saying these are my six favorite dream matches of all time. I'm not saying these are the greatest. I'm just saying as the time I wrote this list, I thought, man, these matches would be kind of dope. That's all it is. So what I did was I came up with some matches, but I was specific.

1:37:06I gave you the year of the performer. What year I wanted to. Because, you know, we got the DeLorean. Kalani knows that. Everybody's been on this show. The Bleacher Report knows it. Right. Putting a lot of miles on that thing. 1.21 gigawatts of power, bro. It ain't nothing to play with.

1:37:25O'Shea:That was jigging with an A. Not an A. Not with a heart. We don't do that here. But yeah, so I came up with six dream matches that I would love to see. I have them in numerical order, but you know, whatever. Yeah, whatever. It's Wednesday. But like I said, what I want to do is I'm going to give you an actual year that I'm plucking these people out. Hell yeah. So I'm going to start at number six, right? And I'm going to go with a tag team match. And when I was a kid, I saw this tag team wrestle, and I'd never quite seen female wrestlers do some of the things that these women did. And the Survivor Series in 1987, I believe, they teamed with the Fabulous Moolah.

1:38:09Yeah, they teamed with the Fabulous Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, and Rockin' Robin. But I think that was the first time I really got to see them. And that's the Jumping Bomb Angels. Okay. And I'm not sure if you remember them, like I said. But what happened was, I believe it was 1988, yes, in the Royal Rumble, they won the Ladies, and this is a little different, the Ladies Tag Team Championship, it was called. Oh, the Ladies. Two female wrestlers from Japan doing some moves that, quite frankly, I had never seen. It always stuck with me. So I want to bring that 1988 version of the Jumping Bomb Angels, and I want to put them up against the 2019 version of the Kabuki Warriors.

1:38:51Oh, okay. Yeah, now the Kabuki Warriors, you know, they wrestled the Iconics at that time period. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, they beat Becky and Charlotte.

1:39:00O'Shea:Yeah. They took out. Sonya Deville, Mandy Rose. This was, I believe, the first time that the Kabuki Warriors won the women's tag team championship, not the ladies. So I'm going to put the Jumping Bomb Angels up against the Kabuki Warriors, the 2019 version of them. And now at number five, I'm going to go with a little six-man tag team match, if you will. And I'm going to start with... For AEW fans. Well, for AEW fans, but these guys didn't wrestle in AEW. but they were like the first three-man group who went out and made some noise in 1984. We're going way back. I'm talking about Michael P.S. Hayes, Terry Bam Bam Gordy, and Buddy Jack Robertson, the fabulous Freebirds.

1:39:45And then back in the 84, they were tearing up Texas and all in the South against the Vaughn Ericks. I want to bring them to today, right? And I want to have them wrestle another team who's kind of made the three-man group a thing, and that is the New Day. Wow. I want to see the fabulous Freebirds from 1984 go up against 2015 New Day. The height of their power. That's the height of their power. When they went from that change from being heels to all of a sudden, people are like, yo, New Day's funny and dope. So now you got your powerhouses and Terry Gordy and Big E. You kind of got your leaders, your ring generals and Kofi and Michael Hayes, and then you just got your scratch.

1:40:28Well-balanced. Guys who want to fight in Buddy Jack Roberts and Xavier Woods. So, yeah, let me get the Freebirds against the New Day for that one. And then what I got here at four, all right, I'm getting me. Before this is over, I'm getting me a five-star match, brother. I can promise you that. My knee is a five-star match. All right? So I'm going back to 1989.

1:40:51O'Shea:Okay. Okay. 89 is the number. 89 the number. Another summer. Get down. Sound of the funky trouble. I'm going to take 1989. Now, there were two versions I could have taken. I could have taken the WrestleMania III version where he was in the match that for years many considered to be the gold standard. But I instead went with 1989 because that's when this man became the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, beating Ric Flair. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. Monster. 1989 version, right? Yeah. And I'm going to pair him up against a man many people feel is a wrestling god. I told you, I'm getting me a five-star match.

1:41:27The year is 2018. This man became finally, after a few times where he couldn't climb that mountain, he became the IWGP heavyweight champion of the world. Two out of three falls against Kazucho Okada. He defeated Cody Rhodes that year. Naito, Kodo, Tamatanga, Sonata, Zack Sabre Jr., Penta Ray Phoenix. Talking Kenny Omega. I want Ricky the Dragon Steamboat versus Kenny Omega. Someone's giving me five, maybe six stars. That's a wrestling match, okay? Damn! You like that? You like that? Oh! Put it in my vein! Ricky Steamboat is, first of all, the ultimate babyface, right? Yep. He and Randy Savage, WrestleMania III, like I said, for years, that was the greatest match of all time.

1:42:21Now, people seem to kind of forget about it a little bit. But if you haven't seen it, you know what I'm going to tell you. Go to YouTube. That's a match, bro. Kenny Omega. Put any Kenny Omega match on, bro. It don't matter which one it is.

1:42:33O'Shea:A cleaner? Yes. Steamboat. Omega. Let's go. That sounds like a steam cleaner. Yeah. Now, this match here, man, this is going to be, I'm going to call this the Big E Invitational Match. Okay. They're good. Sounds like a lot of meat. Big meaty men slapping meat. because Big E loves it. You know, you know, some people want a five-star classic. Not me. Not me because I've given you two, I'm going to give you two potential five-star classics but I'm also going to give you Big Meaty Men Slapping Meat. Yeah. You heard? The year is 1991. Ooh. Hey, here comes a 400-pound mastodon wearing a helmet in Japan that looks like some type of animal that shoots steam up in the air.

1:43:18We're talking big. van vader yes okay he held the iw gp heavyweight championship that year the headgear was formidable it was frightening it was a mechanical system that made smoke pop out and it represented this big van vader persona which is a you know something antonio inoki came up with this character from japanese folklore okay and standing across the ring from him i told you that i'm picking particular years, but this man, I don't care what version. Bring it. 2002? Fine. 2025? Fine. I've always wanted to see Big Van Vader and Brock Lesnar. Oh, yeah. But not only that, I want them in a street fight.

1:44:05Yep. Okay. Street fight gotta happen. Pins Falls count anywhere. Anywhere, bro. Big Van Vader.

1:44:11O'Shea:Yeah. Brock Lesnar. Yeah. Two shouldn't be able to move that quick. Vanilla Gorilla's going right at it. Man. Yes. Don't. I mean, someone's getting hurt. Yeah. A couple people. They lost an eye with somebody. Stan Hansen knocked Van Vader's eyeball out of the socket in Japan. He took off his mask and poked his eyeball back into his head and continued to match. That's a bad man right there. Yeah, man. You know how bad Brock Lesnar is. Right. Just a sicko. man, Vader against Lesnar that's selling tickets and you know what people like to say, feeding families feeding generations number two, you know I love a good grapple you see, because we're going to give you big meaty men slapping meat, I told you I got one five star waiting to happen, I want another one, right?

1:45:03Another one now, one guy that you know, who I feel doesn't get the respect that he ever deserves is Bob Backlund he was my first favorite wrestler I've said that from episode one until now. And I picked 1981 version of Bob Backlund. Now, what did Bob Backlund do in 1981? Defended his title against the likes of Sergeant Slaughter, Greg the Hammer Valentine, Stan Hansen, who knocked Vader's eyeball out, King Kong, Moscow, Bobby Duncombe, the magnificent Morocco, George Animal Steel, and a young guy who hadn't quite reached his peak yet by the name of Hulk Hogan. Bob Backlund took down every monster that there was.

1:45:39And the man was WWE champion for almost six years. Now, when I tell you go look at a Bob Backlund video on YouTube, skip all the promos, I'll admit that. Bob Backlund on the mic wasn't his strong suit. But you put the man in the ring. He was known to be a legit tough guy back in those days where you had to be, just in case somebody wanted to try to pull a fast one on you. They knew Backlund wasn't the one to try it on because he would roll you up like a blunt or I can put you out. So I'm taking the 1981 version of Bob Backlund against this guy. Now, this guy's had a long career where many people have thought he was the greatest wrestler in the world.

1:46:15And I could have picked an earlier version of this man. But I decided to pick the version that everyone could agree because it happened on the biggest stage. And it showed how great he was when he defeated three future Hall of Famers. It's not Bryan Danielson. It's Daniel Bryan. WrestleMania 30 version.

1:46:35O'Shea:Backlund. Okay. When he became unified champion. He held up both of those belts after defeating Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista. To a full caveman. Two out of three falls. Bob Backlund, 1981 version, against WrestleMania 30 from 2014. Daniel Bryan. I might get seven stars on that. Yeah. Like I said, the promos leading up to it, it might not be the greatest. Right. But if you're a fan of wrestling, you're going to love this, man. You got two guys who just, you put them out in that mat. I'm sure magic would happen. Yeah, man. I'm sure Meltzer would look at that. When you look at the back, the Bryant match, it was just eight stars.

1:47:19Like I said, I'm getting at least one five-star from my two. Eight stars. And then coming into number one, two guys we spoke about earlier, right? One guy was always called the this guy of this country. Yeah, okay. They both, within weeks of each other, wrestled their last match. so why not why not have John Cena against Hiroshi Tanahashi now this is a match that a lot of people should have said all along because you know what Hiroshi Tanahashi when you would describe him to people who didn't know he'd be like he's the John Cena of Japan which he was saved the company put the company on his back great feuds against Nakamura Okada, Ibushi you know Ishii the list goes on and on so I want 2012 Tanahashi, right?

1:48:09I think 2018 Tanahashi was amazing. Body was kind of betraying him a little bit. Knees were going. So I like the 2012 version against the 2007 version of John Cena where we saw him in the last man standing match against Umaga. Won the tag team titles with Shawn Michaels. Then had that great WrestleMania 23 match against Shawn which was followed by a Monday Night Raw where Shawn went over John in one of the greatest Monday Night Raw matches ever. You know, he beat the great Khali. He beat King Booker all in that time. So I think my number one dream match right now as of today would be to see John Cena against Hiroshi Tanahashi.

1:48:48O'Shea:I love it. I love it. This is going to be a new thing around here. I say we do this like once a month or something. Once a month, right? I drop one, you drop one. Why not? Why not? It's our show. Their names are great. You see that marquee? See that billing? Absolutely, man. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. Bro, that Omega Steamboat. Come on now. That's nasty, bro. I need to see that. That's nasty. That's how I feel about my Eddie, Eddie, Ilya, and Seth. Yeah. Ugh. Crap. Ugh. Gross. People jumping off the... Ugh. Yeah, bro. It's something, man. Hell yeah. Thank you. Hell yeah. Put it in my veins.

1:49:31O'Shea:Now, do you guys get the game now? You guys understand the game now? Dig in the crates. Yeah. Dig in the crates. Don't just give me Stone Cold against Sting. You can't just play with the top toys, all right? Let's mix it up a little bit. Everybody's going to say the same 12 people if we do it. Ain't nobody say jumping bomb angels. You know, you got it. You got it. By the way, we were talking about Backlund. when Miz gets mad during promos, he look a little like Bob Baxter in the face. And look in his face. It's a little in there. But... Gotta look into that. Either way, TJ. Yes, sir. Do me a favor.

1:50:11I could do that. Tell these people where to find us. Well, folks, if you want to follow all this madness, this guy with his light-up glasses and all the stuff we're talking about, follow us on all of our socials, alright? So, on Twitter, The X Machine, at There's No Contest. On Instagram, No Contest Wrestling Podcast on the TikTok we're No Contest Wrestling Pod for all of our videos from CM Punk episode 1 to Kalani Jordan I believe this is episode 67, 68 I'm not sure this is this is episode 67 we talked about it just now hit me oh my god seven so yeah from episode one to six seven go to youtube look at the rich eyes and show youtube page over one million subscribers or just type in no contest wrestling you'll find all of our stuff and remember to like share subscribe make sure you go to the espn pod you can find us apple music spotify wherever you listen to your podcast wherever you watch your podcast you'll be able to see us, man.

1:51:22Yeah, that's it.

1:51:24O'Shea:Yeah. Like and subscribe. Make sure you like and subscribe. Download those podcasts. And just before we get out of here, we want to say thank you to the great Mark Henry. Mark Henry gave us a heck of a shout out. A heck of a shout out. Some might say the rub, pause. She shouted us out on the Undertaker's podcast. Said that we have a good show. Yeah, he said our show is doing numbers out here. He said it was number two. Yeah, bro. I don't know if we're number two. Mark Henry said it. I ain't going to argue with the man. No. Well, he ripped apart lockers. I seen him rip a phone booth. Yeah, bro.

1:52:06O'Shea:I almost said phone booth, but he probably could do that too. Probably could. He got that strength now. Yeah. Especially older, older black man strength. I don't want none of that. Anyway. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. We love you, man. Well, I love you. He'd be weird about that. But yeah, man, shout out to you. And yeah, hope you guys have a great day, but not too good. Who the hell do you think you are? Bye, Ms. Parker. Bye, Ms. Parker.

1:52:43O'Shea:Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster, Zero Ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian, Sunrise, and Vice Guava. And they all bring the monster energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can, branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe. And every single one is zero sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.