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-Welcome to your weekly live coverage of WWE Backstage. The show is packed with the return of CM Punk and appearances by Hall of Famer, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and your 2020 Money in the Bank Winner, Otis. The shows kicks off in 23 minutes and if you don’t already have FS1 on, switch over as they have been showing WrestleMania III and Hogan/Andre is just starting.

-Renee Young welcomes us as we are obviously still under social distancing rules. Before getting to the show she talks about how awesome it was to see WrestleMania III. She introduces her co-host Booker T and on the panel this week we have Christian and CM Punk. Punk makes a jokes about being the SmackDown hacker and Christian brings up the internet saying it couldn’t be Punk because the hacker didn’t have tattoos on his hands. Ha!

-They start with WrestleMania III and Renee brings up the 93,000 fans so send any hate mail to her. She asks about how Mania III changed the business. Booker T talks about Savage/Steamboat making him want to become a wrestler and how he wanted to emulate that match and could never do those deep arm drags. Punk remembers seeing on the news in Chicago that Hogan beat Andre and he was at a point as a kid where you didn’t know if wrestling was real or not, but it blew him away that it was reported on the news. He then calls Steamboat/Savage the greatest match of all time on possibly the biggest stage of all time. He calls the match the bar everyone tries to reach. Christian was at Kizarny’s parent’s gym (Sinn Bodhi) and they let him and Edge come watch the show on satellite. It was the first Mania to have a Super Bowl feel. Renee talks about all the stars from other genres and she fawns over the shots of the crowd that are shown. For Booker he urges all young guys to watch Savage/Steamboat as he still gets goosebumps watching it.

-We will get back to Mania, but next it is Rewind Time: At MITB Drew retains over Rollins, Bayley knocks off Tamina, Strowman beats Wyatt, and Otis and Asuka win the Corporate MITB Ladder matches. On RAW they tease Edge/Orton again and the bombshell was dropped as Becky announced she is pregnant. Amazing stuff!

-Christian offers his congratulations and feels the WWE handled the situation well. He loves promos that are real and you could feel her emotion through the screen. Renee talks about juggling career vs personal as a woman and how that can be tough. She is inspired by what Becky has been able to do. Booker jokes that Becky is finished, but then congratulates her. He then congratulates Asuka for being the New Champion, though he is sad she won’t get the unique experience of cashing in her MITB contract. He then jokes that if he had ever won he would have cashed in on Christian. Punk talks about their being a void and it needs filled. He thinks they missed out by not having Asuka spray mist in Becky’s face as that would have filled the void with her as this monster heel.

-Commercials!

-Savage/Steamboat video package with HBK and Sting talking about how awesome it was. Shawn thinks it is a great tool for teaching and they go back to watch to see if it still stands the test of time. It sure as hell does! Sting and Michaels put over the timing and storytelling and call it a match ahead of it’s time.

-Steamboat is here as he joins Renee and CM Punk to discuss the Mania III match. Steamboat talks about doing appearances for the WWE and everywhere he goes that match is always brought up. What amazes him is that kids ask him about the match and their fathers do the same. Punk calls it the perfect match and he isn’t shocked people constantly bring it up. He mentions that he and Jericho wanted to be the Savage/Steamboat of their Mania. They wanted to steal the show from Rock/Cena like Savage/Steamboat did from Hogan/Andre. He jokes that they probably pissed a lot of people off with how great the match was. Steamboat talks about the build and how the match was a one off where they didn’t touch each other until WrestleMania III. They had heard about the numbers of people buying tickets for the show and they wanted to have the match of the night. He credits Hogan and Andre for bringing all the people into the building and watching at home and they wanted to take advantage of all the eyes being on them.

-Steamboat talks about the false finishes in the match and how it was crazy for him to try to remember all of them. Punk brings up how there are different schools of thought on planning things out vs working things out and learning. He mentions that Savage and Steamboat didn’t have the luxury of working around the horn like Flair/Steamboat so they had to plan things out in advance. He calls the match flawless and thanks The Dragon for that match. Punk then wants to know what it was like for Ricky to wrestle a young CM Punk in Ring of Honor. Punk cracks up at the question and they show a photo of Steamboat as the ref for Punk/Bryan. Nice! Steamboat talks about the hour long match Punk had with Joe and how he knew he had it. They discuss hour long matches and Steamboat said he has had over 100 of them and his first was with Harley Race. Punk mentions he would like to see that. Steamboat told the booker he never did an hour and he was told to just listen to Harley. Punk brings up you don’t know you are ready until you try to do it. Punk has a great story as Harley told him it’s basically working four 15 minute matches. Fantastic!

-Ricky gives a tour of the room he is broadcasting from in his house. He has a bunch of plaques and photos on the wall. Punk and Renee geek out over the collection and I don’t blame them. I was there in Houston for that Hall of Fame ceremony. There is a photo of Steamboat in the match with Harley that was mentioned and again this is all fantastic. He also shows off his body building trophies and jokes that Ric Flair carried him in all those matches. He then shows off a seat from the Silver Dome that has been signed. Again, incredible!

-Commercials!

-Otis is here and in the room with Renee Young as they are in Orlando together at the PC. Booker and Punk are also along for this segment. Man, Otis gets to hang out with Mandy all day and now gets Renee. Otis brings up that he is a Packer’s fan and Punk (as a Bear’s fan) jokes he isn’t as excited about meeting him now. He is sorry to hear that! Otis says that he had only been at WWE HQ once and his strategy was to get near any exit he could find. He isn’t sure why the ladder broke and Renee agrees as that should have been reinforced. Booker wants to know if this will be a singles run for Otis and he says he isn’t sure. Tucker keeps him in check and he knows he has the support of him and Mandy.

-He then talks about his mom and how she worked 3 jobs to raise the family. It was a great Mother’s Day gift to give her the MITB briefcase. Renee asks about his amateur wrestling days and he says even back then he had no real technique. Punk tells Otis to not trust anyone and he should kick Mandy and Tucker to the curb. Booker tells Punk to take another look at Mandy and Punk fires back “dime a dozen.” Punk is great on this show! He tells Otis that as Mr MITB he can go get a dozen Mandys. Renee and Otis scoff at that line. Otis says that he isn’t a man of patience and he is likely to cash his shot in sooner than later.

-Renee asks about Otis signing his WWE contract. He mentions Chad Gable was one of his training partners and when he saw him sign with WWE he thought it was possible. He became a tag guy and has been in a team with Tucker for nearly 4 years. Renee brings up that the last 2 guests on Backstage (Rey and Aleister) were thrown off the roof at MITB. Otis jokes that Corbin should be arrested and Booker squashes that by saying that’s what kings do. Renee thanks Otis for joining the show.

-Commercials!

-WrestleMania Moment: Hogan vs Andre at Mania III. Amazing still and I have told this story countless times but I was 6 years old watching at my grandma’s house and didn’t watch the Main Event because I was scared what Andre would do to my hero.

-Hulk Hogan recaps the night and tells the story of not knowing the finish until Andre told him in the ring. He puts over Andre for knowing exactly what he was doing and setting this match up for greatness. As they got near the end, Andre yelled to him “slam” and that was a moment that changed the business. He puts over Andre for passing the torch and calls him gracious.

-Back to the full panel as they discuss Hogan/Andre. Christian brings up the epic build on Piper’s Pit and that Hogan was his favorite. This was the first true moment at Mania and as he got into the business he learned that Andre did only what he wanted. Andre showed why he was one of the best of all time.

-Breaking news: Sami Zayn has been stripped of his IC Title and a tournament will be held starting on Friday.

-Commercials!

-Asuka and Otis win at MITB and the panel discuss the uniqueness of the match. Punk talks about the world being in strange times and this was a good way to be creative. He loved the boneyard match for Mania and felt this was a good. He felt Dana Brooke stole the show and gave him a true laugh out loud moment. He loved seeing Vince in jeans and all he cameos. He didn’t hate it like some would think and he feels the right people won. He mentions that there is a time and place to be silly and this was a good spot.

-Booker says a few didn’t thinks didn’t fly with him and he felt things might be a little different. He was thinking it would be more serious and wanted to see more of an edge in the match. Christian jokes “what does Booker know about ladder matches anyway?” Awesome! Christian mentions we had a ladder match at Mania and liked this was different. He just wanted the winners coming out better than when they went into the match.

-Edge crashes Renee Young’s spot and Christian wants to know if he can just get the spotlight for once. Edge tells him no and that he will always be around. That legit cracked Punk up as we head to another commercial break.

-Back with Punk asking Vince for the return of the Ice Cream Bars and that segues to Punk showing off the new version of the ice cream bars. He jokes that the check should be in the mail. He mentions there are only 3 people on them and one is blank because he can’t see them. I get that reference! He breaks out the Becky Lynch one and gives it a 4 out of 10 because it’s not the same as the previous version. In honor of Becky Lynch though he eats one of them witch pickles. Renee is kind of grossed out, but I will say I put pickles on nearly everything so it doesn’t seem so strange to me.

-We are out with that and thanks as always for following along!