411’s WWE Bring It To The Table Report: Graves Interviews Angle, JBL Takes Shot at Current Roster, More

411’s WWE Bring it to The Table Report: Episode 2

-Another new show for me to recap and for those who didn’t see the first episode, this is basically WWE’s version of Pardon The Interruption.

-Peter Rosenberg is your host and besides being a moderator, his role is to be the voice of the fans. He is joined by JBL and Corey Graves (replacing Paul Heyman from the first episode).

-JBL immediately calls Rosenberg out for stealing from Bobby Heenan. Graves jokes that he doesn’t have the resume of JBL but he is 33.3% of RAW announce team while JBL is 25% of SmackDown announce team and I am waiting for Scott Steiner to do the math for me. Graves mentions he has an exclusive interview on this show with 2017 Hall of Fame Inductee, Kurt Angle.

-Hot Start is the first segment and they run through Fastlane beginning with Charlotte’s PPV winning streak ending. Graves says he is her biggest fan and was shocked and heartbroken. He calls the streak organic and compares it to Taker in that nobody planned for it to get to that point.

-Rosenberg asks if it is too much too soon for Bayley and JBL says possibly and that it is similar to Daniel Bryan. He went from people thinking he was being held down while still having 5 segments a week and being in the Mania Main Event to becoming the champ and marrying a super model. With Bayley he argues what is there to cheer when the underdog is already the champion.

-Next they jump to Roman Reigns and his match with Braun Strowman. Rosenberg says the match was like a WrestleMania Main Event. Graves says that when you pay your money you are allowed to do whatever you want and it is the hip thing to boo Reigns. They will cheer him when he wins the match and then realize they need to boo. JBL says he hopes this is another Cena situation and that Roman is cut from the same cloth: a rock star. No matter the reaction people are paying to see Reigns even if it is just to see him get beat up. I hate that reasoning!

-Goldberg squashing Owens next and Paul mentions that it sounds shocking, but the fans may be booing Goldberg come Mania. He asks them what they expect to see from Goldberg at Mania. JBL says that there was a moment when they came to get Goldberg and he thought it was his entrance so he smashed his head and had to be told it wasn’t time yet. Goldberg was pissed and wanted to kill the guy and it is that intensity JBL expects at Mania. He then takes a shot at the current roster when talking about a 50 year old man being Champion. He says that wasn’t needed in the Attitude Era because they had superstars like Austin and Rock. Today they have stars, but Goldberg still draws. For as good as JBL is on Legends, he is horrible spewing some of this stuff on this show. He doesn’t mention why nobody is allowed to get over like the part timers.

-Rosenberg asks Seth if he is worried we will get the crowd turning on the match like they did at Mania XX. He doesn’t as the crowd knew they were both leaving, and this time the crowd is going to be sucked into the fact that they don’t know what is going to happen.

-We take a commercial break as they hype Graves’ interview with Angle.

-They cut back to an ongoing conversation as Rosenberg is still amazed Taker was in JBL’s wedding. Graves says that the invitation was sent to Death Valley.

-Commercial for Mania and then we are back to the show.

-Internet Rumor times as Rosenberg mentions that for week rumors have been flying about Shane vs AJ and now they look legit. JBL loves the idea of the match and calls Shane one of the greatest characters of all time and calls AJ the modern day Shawn Michaels. He is the guy that can have a great match with anyone.

-Graves is excited about anything and everything AJ Styles does, but this match does nothing for him. Wasn’t expecting that answer at all, so kudos to Graves. He respects everything Shane has done, but all he does is create moments. AJ is an artist and can give you a full bell to bell experience. He doesn’t think Shane can keep up with AJ Styles and JBL says there are only 2-3 guys in the world that can.

-Before that conversation can get anymore interesting Rosenberg switches to the next segment called Dig It (complete with Randy Savage voice over). They talk about The Kardasians and how they have been shown wearing clothes similar to WWE stars. We see one dressed like Braun and then Kim dressed like Bret Hart. Next is Kendall rocking a nWo WolfPack shirt on a runway at fashion week. We left the Shane/AJ conversation for that?

-Montreal Revisited as they touch on the Montreal Screwjob being turned into a porno. Amazing! JBL is dead silent and Graves wants an advanced copy.

-Moving on to 205 Live as Rosenberg mentions some fans aren’t happy with the amount of in ring action. No, fans wants what we got from the CWC and that’s not happening. Graves brings that up and says that the CWC was all about the in ring action and the expectations were high. He feels 205 Live has a little bit too much talking and JBL agrees completely. He says they are doing carnival, hokey stuff, and they need to focus on them being world class athletes. Damn straight!

-Another commercial break as JBL complains about his show being canceled. A shame indeed as it was awesome!

-We are back and go to Graves as he talks about being able to sit down with Kurt Angle. We get the interview and they start 11 years ago when Angle left. He says he was going through a tough time and got bitter. He was spinning his wheels and he did what he felt he needed to. He was elated when he got the call to be in the Hall of Fame. He is not ready to retire, but this is something he wanted and he is looking forward to this more than being able to wrestle. He didn’t want to be the guy that Vince would say “he could have been the greatest ever if he hadn’t gotten in trouble.”

-They discuss that first meeting with Vince after coming back and he wasn’t sure if Vince was going to punch him. The cameras were rolling and they show a brief clip of Vince giving Kurt a huge hug. Kurt is just focused on the Hall of Fame right now, but says he will be with the WWE for years to come. That ends the interview and we head back to the desk.

-JBL wants to see the entire interview. He loves Kurt as a human being and a performer. Kurt knew nothing of the business and learned faster than anyone. He puts over Kurt being an Olympic Gold Medalist as that means you are the best in the a world full of 8 billion or so people. Graves is from Pittsburgh (wooo), much like Angle, and was a fan as a kid because of the Olympics and then when he went to the WWE. He can’t wait for the rest of the world to see the interview which will be posted on the Network was we get closer to Mania.

-Don’t Get Hot: Chance for JBL and Graves to spout off and JBL starts on Mauro. He goes off on how much Mauro tweets and rails against his announcing style. Graves is upset about Legends with JBL being canceled. He feels JBL’s pain as he had his own show that was canceled. JBL is pissed as he was replaced with cartoon and road trip shows.

-Rosenberg brings up fans trying to get pictures and bothering WWE stars outside the arena. Graves says when stars aren’t working they need to be respectful. That leads to the issue of a fan taking a picture of Orton when he was working out without his permission. They all agree that you need to be respectful and ask.

-Greatest WrestleMania Moment: JBL says Hogan slamming Andre as Corey nods in agreement. Savage/Steamboat was great, but 93,000 people were put in the building by Hogan and Andre. Corey says that moment was bigger than WrestleMania and was pop culture.

-Corey’s moment was Shawn winning the WWE Title and that was the moment when he personally thought it was something he wanted to do. JBL says that was the first Mania he got to go to as part of the roster and watching the match it made him think he didn’t belong there.

-Rosenberg picks Hogan/Rock at Mania X-8 and the insane crowd reaction. That match still gives me chills and the reaction to the Hulk-up is other worldly. JBL puts over how both guys reacted to the crowd and changed on the fly.

-Big Finish: They recap the greatness of last week’s Talking Smack and The Miz going off in a tremendous promo on Cena and Nikki. JBL says he has become a big fan of The Miz. Graves says that Dusty told them in NXT that the best thing you can do in a promo is make the crowd uncomfortable and that is what Miz has done.

-Rosenberg brings up how Talking Smack has been an amazing show the last year and announces the next episode of Bring it to the Table will be March 30 from The Citrus Bowl.

-That ends things for episode two.

-This was better than the last one if only because they didn’t spend the entire show railing against hardcore fans and telling them they were stupid. There was some of that early, but things got better. I did want to hear more from JBL and Corey as they argued about Shane/AJ, but sadly that was cut off. Everything else is about what you would expect to hear and it was a fine show that I will continue to watch. So expect me to cover the Mania version later this month.

-Check back tomorrow night for my weekly Talking Smack report and thanks for reading.