Speaker 1: And nine Cognition six five.
Speaker 2: Four three two one zero, All engine running.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday. You know what that means. It's time for
Ignition with the aw fat On podcast team. This is
the first episode in our fourth year of of of
shows and uh, well let's kick it off with a
really good show. We've got a lot to talk about tonight.
Howdy there to U two ep W show. Great to
see you, Conrad. Be sure to check out Conrad and
the ep W show Everything Pro Wrestling podcast right after
Dynamite tomorrow on YouTube. That's at EPW show. Uh, they're
always really fun, funny, good guys, give them a listen.
Let's get going with our show. And the first thing
we're going to talk about is uh kind of a
very relevant topic and that's we just saw Grand Slam.
Let me just back up right now, what did you
guys think of Grand Slam? Were you happy with it?
And let's even go beyond that, let's look at a
dynamite before Grand Slam? What did you guys think of
last week's shows?
Speaker 3: Shows were fantastic, You had great matches throughout, you had
multiple title changes, I mean, really good story building for Revolution.
You know what I'm really things about both Dynamite and
Grand Slang. I love both shows, and I mean Willer.
Speaker 1: Shave right spoiler alert.
Speaker 3: Yeah it's been it's been more than seventy well yeah,
I just want to do more than seventy two hours.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Let me just break in real quick and say
lo to Matt Lopez. Uh he joined the chat. Good
to see you, Matt, always good to see you. Rawlins.
What about you? What did you think of last week's
Dynamite and then Grand Slam on Saturday?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, that chromo battle between John or
Not John Moxley, You excuse me, I was jumping ahead
between Kenny o'meaga and Swerve Strickland was unbelievable. The fact
that Swerve even made reference to the suspension and everything
would brawl out. I was just like, damn, he really
went there. Uh So that was great. And then we
got two title changes, one of which I really wasn't
expecting with Tecla and Chris Scatlander, though I kind of
got it because if you remember with Hangman and Samoa Joe,
they had their regular match at I believe it was
Russell dreaming if I'm not mistaked, And then when they
did the rematch at full gear that had a stipulation
attached to it, that being a steel cage, and Samoa
Joe won. So yes, it surprised me that Tecla won,
But at the same time it didn't. I know a
lot of people are gonna say, why are they going
back to Young Bucks FTR. They could do that match
one hundred tons and I will watch every single time.
Those four guys together just make magic. And Yeah, in
terms of Grand Slam, I certainly wasn't expecting John Moxley
and Takesha to go to a time lamb a draw,
and the other thing I will say about that match specifically,
I thought Okada was going to come out and not
necessarily come down your ringside because I know all the
Continental rules, But I thought like his towards the end
of the match, his his music would play and he
would just come out onto the onto the entrance and
distract to excuse me, distract to Kesha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you guys? Did you guys catch that? Uh,
the end of the match kind of between I'm talking
about Moxley and Takesha kind of fell flat. Uh, it
didn't get a really good reaction out of the crowd
and you could clearly see Moxley go to the referee
tell him that he wanted to catch it to hit
the raging fire. The referee then went to Takeshta, passed
along the information and then they did it. That was
really good communication and I think it really did save
the match, because without that that would have been kind
of a bummer ending. I mean it did. It kind
of fell flat. Did you guys catch that?
Speaker 3: I did? And it worked really well because you could say,
like in AFA terms, Moxley's like, we need five more minutes,
we need to finish this, and you know, the referees
kind of communicating, and then he gets word, no, we can't.
That's the TV time. So you get that and then
you get to build on the end and you get
for a future match, which I'm hoping they do it
revolution and Moxley's like, through the time limit, there's got
to be a winner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did. I did want to break in because
Matt Lopez did chime in in the chat saying that
I thought Grand Slam was damn good. As a matter
of fact, let me put it back up again. He said,
I thought Grand Slam was damn good. Ladder match incredible,
Brody step up as a main event player. Guy, Hey, look,
we talked about this on Ignition last week. Aw's got
to take advantage of Brody King's newsworthiness. I guess it's
the best way of putting it. I'm sorry, Roll, let's
go ahead. What were your thoughts there?
Speaker 4: So with the time limit, I actually forgot that the
Continental rules are different on Dynamite Collision versus pay per View.
With Dynamite and Collision, Continental rules are that it's only
a twenty minute match, whereas I'm pay per View it's
a sixty minute match. So once they went to a
time limit draw, I'm like, well, obviously they're gonna do
the rematch at Revolution And I was like.
Speaker 3: Well, what about it?
Speaker 4: Two out of three fold match, until later on I
got reminded, Yeah, there's a toime difference between the two.
Speaker 3: So, right, what, I'm pretty sure matches are always twenty minutes?
Speaker 1: No, not the pay per views different they.
Speaker 3: Do go to pay view. Was the tournament, well.
Speaker 1: The finals, the championship matches are different, you know in
the tournament? Yeah, yeah, but pay per view. I do
think that unless they changed the specifically change the stipulation,
I do think that the normal stipulation is exactly what
we saw in the takeshta Moxley match is twenty minutes,
you know, and no outside I guess you can't even
call it interference, no outside nothing.
Speaker 4: But what I'm saying is, from what I understand, if
they do the rematch at Revolution, the no outside interferings
and all that will stay the same, but the time
limit would change from twenty minutes to sixty minutes.
Speaker 1: That could very well be I'm sure. I'm sure that
I hope that AW will make that clear to everybody
before Revolution. I think one of the weaknesses that AW
has had throughout literally the last couple of years especially
has been noticeable because the shows have been so damn good,
is that a lot of times you have people that
I've seen posting on our discord and on our subreddit, which,
by the way, if you're watching this, the links are
right there on the screen for you to to join us.
But one of the things that I've seen people saying
is that they don't really understand the rules, you know.
So Matt Lopez did chime in it says seems it
seems my called for a rematch with no time limit
on a W A W Socials. I did not see that,
but hey, look, Matt is one of those guys that
he's he's a news sound and if he says it,
it is absolutely true. I absolutely take his word for it.
Speaker 4: I question, sure, did you think it was the right
call for NJF. Brody to be the main event instead
of the Ladder Man?
Speaker 3: You know, that's one of those things. I was kind
of like it would make sense to put the Ladder
Match as the main event because Ladder Match is a
big deal and it's Kyle Fletcher. I don't know if
he's from Sydney, but it is his home country for sure.
I forget where they say he's you know from. There's
also the you know, the world title minion events unless
they're say special stipulation like the lights Out Match or
when they've done an RT and the Arena or the
stadium stampede. So it's one of those.
Speaker 1: At wrong or right, you know what for I'm going
to give a weird answer here. For TV it was right.
For the arena itself, it was wrong. Look, Kyle Fletcher
is from Australia, and in my opinion, Kyle Fletcher coming
home should have been coming Home as the TNT champion
should have been the main event. The reason why it
wasn't right for TV is this is that traditionally the
last quarter hour of AW dynam and AW Collision struggle
to get the ratings and get the viewership. Also, keep
in mind, on Collision, it was an extra half hour,
so instead of a two hour show was a two
and a half hour show, So that added to that,
it exacerbated that. So, yeah, it kind of made sense
to me that you would put the Kyle Fletcher and
uh and uh oh my god, Mark Mark Brisco. I
could see his teeth or lack thereof, but I couldn't
remember his name. Yeah, it kind of made sense to
me that for TV purposes that they will put that
match as the non main event.
Speaker 4: So I get why they put MJF. Brody at the
main event. That way Boy or Hangman could come out
and they could set that match up for Revolution.
Speaker 2: So I did understand that what the ladder match.
Speaker 4: It wasn't just the fact that it was a ladder match.
Speaker 2: It was the fact that it was Game seven in.
Speaker 4: The series between Mark Risco and Kyle Fletcher, and AW
never came out and called it a best of seven series,
which I thought was great. You don't need to call
it a best of seven. We know, like we quickly
figured out, okay, this is going to be a best
of seven. But it's not like they kept going back
to it over and over and over again, like you
know what I mean. Like, so because of all that,
I'm like, yeah, should have been the main event.
Speaker 3: It definitely makes It's like a difference were it comes
from and it being you know, the show being on
TNT and it being a tn T title. MAT's it
definitely Touto's main event. I also get what Kelson is saying,
like you want that you want that big bat to
happen and hopefully retain some of the viewers you lose,
but also if you do lose, you had that big
match happen, you know before you lost. It's one of
those I don't I don't disagree with either of you.
You both did a really good points. It could have
gone either way. You know, I was happy with the
show overall. So I guess this is one of those
things that kind of feels like maybe a little nitpicky.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, let me ask you guys a question here,
because we had another match that was maybe not like
the greatest match in the world, but it was a
very big talking point. Of course, that was the the
hair I guess, the hair versus Hair match, And I've
heard a lot of people say that it really didn't matter.
They weren't talking about the latter match and the World
Championship match as far as the placement. They just thought
it was odd that they were back to back. It
didn't matter which one went first and which one went
as the main event. It was simply the fact that, uh,
they were back to back. Would do you guys think
it may have been a better idea for them to put, say,
the ladder Match, then the hair versus Hair match, and
then the main event World Championship Match.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think that would have worked well because
you get the crazy Ladder match with all the spots
in it. Obviously the Hair verse hair match had some
crazy moments and spots in it, but not as not
as insanely violent and like oh my god, please don't
freaking die, you guys movements like.
Speaker 1: Right, well, okay, well let's let's let's get rawlins and
you don't let him share his thoughts.
Speaker 4: So, just to touch on the last conversation Teober quick
and then I will answer your question, Kelson. I think
part of it is like I'm a sports junkie, so
when it's Game seven that like the Penn ultimate game,
it's win or go home. So like that's the other
reason I wish the Ladder match had been the main event.
That's just my sports brain. But to answer your last question, Kelson,
it kind of reminds me of Revolution from last year,
where I think they went right from the steel cage
match between Kyle Fletcher and Will Ostrey. I think it
went correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it
went steel cage, Hollywood ending, and then the main event
or no, I'm sorry, I have that completely wrong. I
think it went steel cage match, Omega ta keshta, and
then the main event. Do I have that right?
Speaker 1: I don't remember. I do remember that the Hollywood ending
was not you know, wasn't up there basically that that
should have been the main event, but I don't know
why it wasn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right on that. It sounds correct
like they went it was like three to insane matches
back to back, and you know, I think that's kind
of one of the complaints some people have with AW
It's like, man, we don't have a second to breathe, Like,
you know, it's not like I won't you know, a
match and then a twenty minute BS segment. Man after
some of these matches, like a little three minute break
just you know whatever would sometimes be helpful. And it
almost kind of felt like that with some of these
super shows, like we're getting all these great matches, but
it's almost like a marathon session where like by by
the time by the last match, you're almost earned doubt
and it's like I just needntes, I just need.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let me let me break in real quick.
Because Matt Lopez did chime in in the chat, cant
didn't mean it should have been in the middle of
the show. But there's a debate, uh debate ladder match
should have main evented. Yeah, you know, basically reiterating, you know,
the thoughts that I've seen a lot of people you know,
in the community share. I'm sorry, Rollins go ahead, but the.
Speaker 4: Point I was trying to make, whatever the order was
with Revolution, like those were three great matches. The Steel
Cage Okay, maybe not Moxley co Cope one, but like
the Steel Cage and then Omega Taksha.
Speaker 2: And it's like I didn't get up even like three minutes.
Speaker 4: To really just react to what I just saw it
because I'm going into another crazy match, right.
Speaker 1: Give me like a cool down match, you know, so right, yeah, absolutely,
I mean you do need a breather. I mean, you
don't hate to say it, but you know you need
a bathroom break too, or to go get go you know,
put more dips in your in your uh in your
cup so you can dip your chips and stuff like that.
You know, yeah, take the take the dogs out, you know.
Speaker 3: So honestly, I would kind of like maybe cut down,
cut out one match and instead give us, you know,
like three to five minutes between these match where you
can you can set something up for Dynamite, you can
you know, hype up a future pay per view, Like
we don't need the twenty minute ad breaks you know
some shows, but ball breaks in between these insane matches
would be really helpful. So I kind of feel like
I'm saying my stake two juicy my lobster to buttery fight.
Speaker 1: Right, No, I get it. You know, There's one other
thing that I wanted to bring up. Just you know,
I just think it's something that's worth mentioning. We once
again we saw a title change last week in the
TNT Championship. I may be wrong here, maybe off by one,
so anybody in the community can go and check. But
since about this time in twenty twenty five, the TNT
Championship has changed hands I believe eight or nine times.
I actually believe it's nine times, and that's pretty hopitatoing
that championship, which I don't mind at all. Then you
look at the other championship, it's sister championship, the TBS Championship,
and then the same amount of time it's only changed
hands twice, went from Willow Nightingale to Mercedes Monet and
then from Mercedes Monet to Willow Nightingale. The other thing
I'll mention here is in those eight or nine title
changes in the T and T Championship, we've had quite
a bit of different T and T champions in that
time span, whereas the TBS Championship has only been you know,
and I don't even think it's I think this is
from twenty twenty four, not twenty twenty five. With the
TBS Championship, we've only had two women holding the TBS championship,
and I personally, and I've mentioned this before, I think
it's a it's kind of a waste to have Willow Nightingale.
As much as I like her, I think it's kind
of a waste to have Willow Nightingale with two aw
titles strapped around her waist or held over her shoulders.
I don't know what you guys think about that.
Speaker 3: I mean, hey, look, I've always said I want to
TNT and TBS titles to be like TV titles. I
want to see him defended regularly. I want to see
him changing hands on a decent basis. And you could
use it as kind of that floating title where like, okay,
you really want to get a guy over, put that
TNT title on him, have him go on a crazy
run of defenses, and boom, he is immediately established. Same token.
You got a you know, upper mid card guy who
you're kind of like, man, I want to keep him
on TV, but we don't really have, you know, a
story for him. Slap the TNT title on him, let
him have a nice little run of defenses, and then
drop it to a kid. You want to say, a kid,
but a person you want to give the rub two
like that titles. I mean, the name of the network
is on the title. T and T title defended every
or at least every other defend.
Speaker 2: They've done it.
Speaker 1: Really, They've done a really good job with the TNT
title as far as defending in open challenges and whatnot.
I think the weakness year is the TBS title. Uh.
I understand that. The reason why it's been only changed
hands what twice is because Mercedes mon Ad had it.
And I thought Mercedes mon A run with the TBS
title was absolutely terrific. I'm not taking anything away from that,
but now that Mercedes does not have the title, it
needs it needs to be hot Potato. I really do
think that it needs to come off of Willow Nightingale
a S A P. I would have much preferred. I
would have much preferred Techla taking the TBS title to
the world title. Put it that way. Although I have
no problem with tech one.
Speaker 2: It's interesting you say that tells in because since Willa
won it from Mercedes, her one title defense thus far
was against Julia Hart on Collision.
Speaker 4: I don't think that was just a one off. I
think now that has the.
Speaker 2: Women's World Championship.
Speaker 4: I think Julia Hart's gonna be like, well, well, I
want another crack at the TVs Championship.
Speaker 1: I would personally like to see, uh see sky Blue
get it rawlins. To be honest with you, I think
sky Blue deserves with all the work that she's done.
Taking nothing away from Julia Hart, I think sky Blue
is absolutely next in line for a title, whether it's
the tag team title, the TBS title. I don't think
she's you know, world title material, but I do think
that that sky Blue is is up there. I will
I'm sure we'll talk about this, you know, another week,
but I do want to move on because as we're
trying to keep these shows to an hour, and we've
already been going twenty five minutes, so we've already got
three quarters two quarters of an hour left basically, so
let's move on. I want to talk briefly about the
signings that AAW has done. We saw Leana Cross debut
this week. We've seen and we saw The Inspiration also
debut this week. Of course, the Inspiration debuted at a
house show, which is kind of interesting. But I'm sure
they'll get a big coming out party maybe on maybe
on dynamite, but absolutely by collision. They'll get a coming
out party, they'll get their graphic, they'll get put on
the aw roster page. But it's clearly that they have
been signed. But we've also seen we've also seen men,
you know, the previous weeks, we see quite a few
men come in here. So what I wanted to know was,
let's throw some names out there and let's decide whether
we think that a w or R o H A
a w R o h H should sign these people.
I'll start by saying, Dakota Kai, what do you guys think?
Speaker 3: I think she'd be a solid addition to the roster.
And you know, we were I remember you mentioned him
last week. But there's a lot of inactive women on
the roster, and the number of active women is actually
relatively so, and most of those who are inactive are
for reason injury, some with THEES. Yeah of course, yeah, yeah,
I think let's.
Speaker 1: Let's let's just keep let's just keep it. You know,
the answer short if we can, because are you know
and if you guys, matter of fact, since you went first,
you answered first, why don't you some we don't have
to talk about the same people over and over again.
So why don't you throw it out out a name
if you have one. If not, we'll go to Rawlins.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's David Finley.
Speaker 1: Said a name. I guess, yeah. But when you talk
about David Finley and Gay Kid, I guess they're kind
of a packaged deal. What do you think about David
Finley and Gabe Kid Rawlins?
Speaker 4: Well, from everything I've read, it sounds like David Finley
is on his way at WWE. Like everything I've read
is like they're already coming up with creative for him, right.
I am surprised Gabe Kid hasn't gotten like the All
Elite graphic yet because like he's involved with Clark Connors
in a matt or a few'd rather with Darby Allen
at the moment, and he had that pay per view
matched with Darby. So I'm like, how is he not
gotten the All Elite graphic yet?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: I again, A lot a lot of that probably has
to do with I think it's got to be contractual thing.
I personally think when it comes to somebody like Gabe
Kid uh and Clark Connors, I'll throw Clark Connors in there.
I think that they're working toward double contracts or dual
contracts with with these particular people, because let's face it,
you know, and Chris knows more about it than I do.
But if you look at New Japan Throw Wrestling four
years ago compared to today, I don't even know how
why they would even think doing a forbidden door this year,
because there's nobody there that I want to see. Just
being honest with you, you know.
Speaker 2: I will say it.
Speaker 4: I know she's currently under contract with WWE, but I
would love to see Bailey come over to a w Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, Bailey's contract from what I've heard, runs out
at the end of this year, so she's going to
be there until the end of the year, and uh,
she's gonna come probably. I really do expect Bailey to
come to aw to be with her buddy Mercedes Monette.
I really do. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people are open she comes
over when the contract is up. I know, I am.
Speaker 1: There was a discussion on the aw fan hub subreddit
today actually started by me. Actually wasn't on the aw
fan hubsubreddit, was on the Women's Pro Wrestling subreddit, but
I had an idea again with dual contracts, but also
goes to the women's division. Start of course and CML
are part of the partnership with AW. AW has already
signed Persephone to a dual contract. I really really do
believe that as far as the women's division goes, they
are very highly likely to try to sign lach Catalina
to a dual contract. On the men's side, obviously, mystica
would be one would a templario. You know, there's different
men and women in CML. But I also but I
thought about stardom. I thought it would be a cool idea.
There are a couple of women in Stardom, young women
eighteen year old a Zuza Naba and I think twenty
two year old Keick you for SAWA have stated that
they wanted to wrestle overseas. Why not get some of
these stardom women taken and get some of the free
up some of that money in Boushi Road, because Bushy
Road owns New Japan and Stardom free up some money
so they can make their own big signings. Put some
of these wrestlers on New Japan and on Startum under
dual contracts with AW and CMLL even you know, And
and my idea was to make a faction because stardom
is very very very much faction oriented. Why not get
a revolving door of AW wrestlers going over into a
faction with Azuza Naba at Kikyo Versaala have then come
over to AW as well and wrestle you know, in
the faction and just have a like an international faction
from AW and startum partnership and you could even throw
you know, somebody from them. Olympia has been over in
CML wrestling or tailoff and doing really well. Dark Silhuetta,
until she was injured, had gotten there. Now she's back
from what I understand, so she may be willing to
go back there too. So you can have a big
faction in stardom that CML and AW are participating in
paying for. And there's no reason why you couldn't do
the same thing. Why not have you know, I know
it's a dead deal now, but what could what could
have been Bull Club war Dogs as an a w
n JPW faction.
Speaker 3: I definitely love the ideas like the International Fast and
you know they go, they kind of travel and you
can kind of plug and play wrestlers you know here
and there, like you have two or three from stardom,
you know, one or two from CMLL, a few from
a job. You you can send.
Speaker 1: Them back and forth exactly.
Speaker 3: You can have like say a Maki Eito come over,
you know, because she's team I think she's teamed up
with or she's kind of the mentor of the one
you mentioned.
Speaker 1: She's Yeah, she's been teamed up with Kikio for a
Sawa quite a bit. And you've got you know, and
you've already got wrestlers like Megan Bain has been over
in Japan just as much as he's been in uh
in the United States, you know, in November and December.
Lada Cross has done a lot of time and in
Japan as well with Sundai girls. So yeah, it's not
like we that aw doesn't have women's wrestlers who are
not willing to go to Japan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, and like you can have them kind
of like, Okay, you've send some of us, Wilson, some
of ours. You know, they can team up when they're
over there. They you know, your girls can team up
with ours when they come over here. You know you've
worked that out, and yeah, like a just have it
be kind of an international faction. That's not They're not
always going to be there every week, but some of
them will always be in one of the companies representing
kind of yeah.
Speaker 1: But you know, one of the things that was brought
up too, wh we're talking about factions a W with
the signings that they've done and where they've been placed.
If you've noticed, AW is kind of building a faction
warfare system quite a bit. I mean, think about it.
You've got the Death Writers, You've got the Conglomeration uh STP,
there's just a bunch of different factions, the elite or
even starting to reform. I guess you could say, you know,
so are you four in ae W? Are you for
a faction warfare kind of system.
Speaker 4: I do think it's interesting that like with Death Riders
versus don Kallas Family, for example, they started with a
street fight and now they've gone backwards and done a
series of trios matches. It just feels like they it
should have been the opposite where they did all these
trios matches and then done the big street fight. But
who knows, it could be leading to something bigger. So
I do like that, But it's just like the don
Kallas family has like twenty five thousand people in it,
and the Death Riders only have Claudio, Pack, Wheeler, Moxley
and Marina, right, so don Kallas can just grow all different.
Speaker 1: Right, you know. But my point is is that there
are so many factions now that have you know, at
least two to three men in them, along with women's Skyflight.
You know, I mentioned STP earlier, the crew, they all
have now added a woman to their midst. And of
course they are not all predominantly ae W factions. There
are you know, r o H factions in their far
varsity not varsity athletes, but the athletes with us story
Denali added to their to their ranks. I like the faction,
and I'm interested to hear what you guys think about this.
I like the factions because injuries do happen. And I
don't know which wrestler it was, but in the last
day or two, I think think it was Chris Statlander
that said that with these tag titles, trios titles, they
she would like. I think it was stat Landers, since
you would like the freebird system to be put in.
You know, where somebody goes down, somebody can replace them,
no questions asked, you know, because how many times have
we seen the titles and stories four titles be put
on hold simply because one or more of the wrestlers
that were involved in the story were not available due
to injury.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. We were talking about it in the
discord a few days ago with I was like, I
didn't even realize these More Toast was an ROAH tag
team champion, and it's like, yeah, that whole thing was
kind of weird because you had Sammy and Dustin as
the tag champions. Dustin got injured, so Sammy got to
get a replacement Rush and did the whole thing, and
then Rush got injured, so these more Toast was the replacement.
But every time it was almost like they had to
vacate the titles just to put it on the same
guy with a new with a new partner. If they
would have just had the free bird rule in effect,
it would have just been simple, Okay, there's here's the
guy replacing it. Here's the guy replacing it. Uh yeah,
I can see. And you know, I'm a big New
Japan fan. Factions are a big deal there, so I'm
a big I'm a fan of factions. I love the
fashion Warfair, I love seeing you know, multiple matches, like
you know, a lot of times you'll see you know,
two guys from the same factions facing, You'll see like
three matches with the same factions in it. So yeah,
I'm a big fan of the factions.
Speaker 1: Right, what about you wrong?
Speaker 4: Well, like I said, I'm very much in joining the
Death Riers Don Kallas stuff. It just feels like it
started backwards by doing the street fight first. Playing in general, Yeah,
I like it. It's interesting you're talking about the freebird
rule because if I remember when aw did like that
big spring Breaking show or whatever it was called, Moxley
used the free Birger freebird rule. Excuse me to step
in and defend the trio's titled when they lost to Joe.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, they did that. That was spring Breakthrough. Yes, right,
you know what it's really interestingly we talked about Lenda
Cross earlier being brought in. She's obviously going to Megabad,
you know, so I guess it's Mega Time's too bad
now because Lenda Cross is taller than Meghan Baine, not
quite as bulky, but not not a shadow of Megan
Maine by any chance. I mean, she's she's a she's
a force to be reckoned with the inspiration. Uh. I
don't know if you're familiar with them, but that's an
interesting thing. Where in the world do they go?
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: I do think that there will be in a faction
because frankly speaking, there aren't many women that aren't in
a faction that are active right now, I mean really
active right now.
Speaker 4: I also think it's interesting just talking about like trios
and factions in general that like Jet Set Rodeo or
whatever they're calling themselves now they I don't think they've
had one title defense of the Trio's titles, taking him
from the op and now you've got Hangman, who's obviously
one third of that trio, going after MJF and on Dynamite,
Speedball and Kevin Knight. We're talking about possibly going after
tag team titles, rand singles titles, and I'm like, you guys,
are the Rio tight champions?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well you know Rolins, I've long been a proponent
of just getting rid of the Trio's championships. I do
think that Jet Speed should be going after the tag titles.
I do think that Jet Speed should be going after
individual titles, or being at the very least in individual feuds.
Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey have proven that they are
very capable of putting on engaging as hell matches.
Speaker 4: I mean, for God's sakes, Like I loved that match
between Kevin Knight and Swerve Strickland. And if you remember
during the C two, Kevin Knight beat Okata.
Speaker 1: Right, look at Mike Bailey and Kyle Fletcher during the
cy too. Both of those matches that you mentioned, Kevin
knighton and Okata, those are really really good matches that
were also so much in doubt that it made it
more interesting to see that they were interesting matches.
Speaker 3: I think the trio titles it's kind of one of
those it was a last minute decision because they weren't
able to resign Hobbs, and I think they're just kind
of like, Okay, you know what, these three guys, they'll
be good champions. We'll give them that. But then it's
kind of like, Okay, I've got to figure out something
to do, but I don't know what to do. So
I think the trios titles are gonna might be in
a weird, little kind of holding pattern for a bit.
I think this I think the best way would be
a trio Trios title mat three on three on three,
and that way you can have you know, whoever you
want to put the titles on, pen someone else. If
we don't want to, you know, have them pinning Hangman
or Yeah.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is that Hangman is kind of
for all intent purposes, he's out of the trios title
loop because he's doing something else right now, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think you just on
a upcoming show, you decide if Tony Kahan, you know,
makes one of his wacky match decisions, you know, like
he's known for. Just like you know what I think,
I think this sounds fun. Let's do it. So you
have them, say, you know, the main event of Solution
on February twenty eighth is a you know, three team
trios title match.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing though with that, Okay, when you look
at the Trios and what you're suggesting, it kind of
seems like an afterthought or a big gimmick. If you're
not going to take the trios title seriously, which frankly,
aw hasn't been taking the trios title seriously at all,
get rid of them. Make it a the trios titles
or to six man titles as Roh calls it. Exclusive
to Roh, there is no reason, no reason, there's no
room for the trios titles in a W. They are
the weakest link goodbye.
Speaker 4: It makes me wonder just in general. I know we're
like supposed to be talking about warfare and factions and
all that, but it just makes me wonder based on
our whole conversation.
Speaker 2: Does AW have too many championships?
Speaker 1: Yes? And no, And let me explain what I'm saying here.
I don't think that AAW has too many championships. I
don't think that AAW has enough meaningful championships. And I'm sorry,
but the big deal for me has always been the
Trios Championship. It's just not a meaningful championship. It's is
the basement. It's no better than the FDW Championship. It
just didn't belong. It had some fun moments, but it
wasn't really part of you know, the conversation. It wasn't.
Let me put it this way, it wasn't bringing in viewers.
I believe it wasn't bringing in viewers, and I believe
it wasn't bringing in pay per view, but buys what's
last time we had a decent feud for the trio's championship.
I would say that the last time we had a
decent feud for the trio's championship was resolved in Webley
all in twenty twenty three. Everything else has just been filler.
That's just the way I look at it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's hard to disagree with you on that.
I think they have one two mini titles. I think
world title. That's easy to say what it is. International
can be your you know, upper mid card, like these
are the next guys up for the world title TNT,
that's your floater. This is hey, we want to make
sure this guy is getting TV times, so he's going
to be the champion. National can be your travelingue, workhorse title,
and the continentals should be gone and the winner of
the tournaments to get a title.
Speaker 1: Mat Yeah you see, I even forgot that the national
title even existed. And that's the problem with oh what.
I want to backtrack because I said that AW doesn't
have too many championships. They have too many meaningless championships.
If a W had twenty championships and they all meant something,
then they don't have too many championships. That's just my opinion.
But really, you know, the Internet, the Internet, not the International,
the Trios Championships, Championship, the National title, they really don't
mean anything to me. Now. I'm willing to give the
National title a little bit of a break because it's
a new title, but the Trios Championship have proven to
be you know, dog water, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: They are, Rickasha, I will say ric ashe has done
a great job since coming to National champion So I
like it a little more than you do. Pelsan, though
I understand what you're saying in terms of that.
Speaker 2: And I know the last one of the last times I.
Speaker 4: Was on this podcast, we had a big discussion about
like is o'conna holding the International Championship hostage? And you know,
I haven't been able to get that question or that
whole conversation off of my mind right. Like Okada had
had like one title defense on Collision. I forget who
it was against off the top of my head, but
it was a good match, and.
Speaker 2: I was like, wait, this guy.
Speaker 4: I don't remember the last time Okada actually defended that
International Championship prior to that episode of Collision, so I
have changed my thought process on that a little bit,
because I remember I was saying, like, no Okada with
the International Championship is fine, But now I'm just like,
has AW forgotten about that?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, AW has a thing where they do. AW
does a lot of tournaments, whether it's a male tournament
or a female tournament, they do a lot of tournaments.
And the problem with doing tournaments is that they take
time away from other championships they really do. It's just
that simple.
Speaker 3: That is one thing I wish they would time to
go with the new Japan design for G one. You know,
I agree with champion. Every champion is in that tournament
and a win over them gets you a future title match.
Like that's how you can the title scene interesting while
you have a month long tournament going on, right, And also,
the winner of the G one or the C two.
Speaker 1: Gets a title shot and that's it. They get they
get it, they get it. They get the belt or
a trophy for the C two. But it's an indefensible
title much like the owen Hart. You know, i'd like
insist exactly.
Speaker 3: I think tottent title design, but it's not like it's
this iconic design or right, but the thing, one of
those I need to see.
Speaker 1: The thing that makes the Continental title special is that
it's a tournament similar to the C two, to the
G one, I mean the G one climax, similar to
Stardom's uh five star, similar to well, a lot of
tournaments throughout you know, wrestling promotions, but.
Speaker 3: The old King of the Ring.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's exactly it. But there's no reason to have
a beltmore. Besides, you know, if you really want to
get technical about it, other than the tournament, what's the
difference between the Continental and the International title? There is none.
So that's just my opinion.
Speaker 3: If you hold both, you get the unified title.
Speaker 1: And I hope the god that nobody in a w
ever holds both of those titles ever again, because that
was stupid. It was dumb, It was confusing. It didn't
make any sense to me then, and it doesn't make
any sense to me now. I just didn't like it.
I just didn't like it.
Speaker 3: It was another reason I would be the title going
the way and being a trophy and the winner getting
a world right, Well.
Speaker 2: What the art where the winner gets a title match? All?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can, Well, we've got a little less than
eight minutes to go in the show, so I think
it's time to move on to Oh God two. It's
It's a kafa It's it's our little part of the
show where we could talk about anything, kind of like
bullet points, rapid fire, not really a long discussion, but
just making a little bit of a statement. And every
week I create a new graphic for It's a Kafabi.
And if you are the unfortunate soul that's watching us
right now, I'm about to reveal one of the absolute
most disturbing graphics I have ever created. Here we go
three two one and.
Speaker 3: What He's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Hey, But I have to say something here for the
people that are listening to this on an audio podcast.
It's basically, well it's not basically. It's it's Eddie Kingston
in it to two. Uh, and you know, do a ballet,
specifically Swan Lake. But in my defense, have you ever
seen Eddie Kingston look that good?
Speaker 3: He's never looked more in shape.
Speaker 1: He looks fantastic. I mean, sim slim, slim, trim, ready
to go with some long ass arms. I shut, He's
got real store legs and really long arms.
Speaker 3: Uh, which is.
Speaker 1: Exactly I don't know. I don't know what possessed me
to do this, but but I did. If you notice,
I did get his necklace right, and I put the
necklace around his neck that is the actual necklace that
he wears. So I spent way too much time again
on On.
Speaker 3: Gave him a snipey witlas musta.
Speaker 1: Yes you shouldn't.
Speaker 2: You could have had him in that T shirt that said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that just didn't go well with the pink.
But anyway, just I'm sure somewhere someway this will make
it out onto the internet. But it's not Swan Lake.
It's sucker fab. Does anybody have a FABI because I
have one, but I'll give somebody else an opportunity to
go first.
Speaker 2: I have a super quick one, go ahead.
Speaker 4: I don't follow TNA wrestler at all. I don't know
the last time I watched an episode of TNA. I
couldn't tell you who the TNA World Champion is or
anything like that. But interestingly, TNA is bringing their pay
per view Rebellion to Cleveland in April, and I just
so happened to live in Cleveland. Yes, so unfortunately it's
not an aw pay per view, but I don't think
I'm gonna pass up the opportunity to go see a
wrestling pay per view even if it's not AW.
Speaker 1: Well, what does it matter? I mean, if you like wrestling,
it doesn't matter which promotion you want that that's in
your town. Support wrestling, Support the wrestlers. They appreciate it.
I have Mike Cafabe is something that I talked about
yesterday on our social media is the aw fan of
social media I've seen and I don't know if you've
noticed this if you guys are on social media other
than discord, but there have been no, no, like, quite
a few posts saying I'm new to a w Where
do I start? You know, I'm just starting to watch
and get into AW What do I need to do
to get caught up? What would you say to people
that are saying that they need to get caught up
other than watch the shows?
Speaker 3: You know? I think I asked them what they've most
liked with what they've seen and kind of be like, Okay,
well I'm going to give you a little history on
them and their most important fuse and then you know,
if you're interested in that, we can talk about more stuff.
Don't just start going you need to watch, find out
what they like, find out what they enjoy from what
they have scene, and build off that. That's how you
make new fans, not telling them what you think they
should watch, asking what they like, and then saying okay,
based on that, this is what I say.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What I usually tell them, Chris is I tell
them watch the show, which is a canned answer. But
look at the shows and if there's wrestlers that you
don't know that you say, hey, those guys are interesting
or that woman is interesting, then go onto the aaw
YouTube channel and look up. You know, for example, if
you've never seen Kenny Omega before and you see him
and you're like, wow, I want to see what this
guy is about, you can go on the YouTube channel.
You can go on social media and you can find
all kinds of information and matches and snippets and promos
that Kenny Omega has done. That's what I would do.
I would watch the show, and what you like and
what you enjoy on the show, go back and watch
some of that, and in doing so, then you're then
you're exposed to other wrestlers and other stories.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure, you'd be like, I really like
what I see from Hayman, and it's like, oh, there's
so much good stuff there right exactly, Like and then yeah,
you could like, Okay, see who you like, go watch this,
go watch that stuff, and fine, like, oh I really
like this guy too, I really like this person exactly.
Speaker 1: When you look at the AW were Women's World Champion Tecla,
I mean she's really not been in AW that. I
mean she's been in AW for about a year now,
but she's got a lot more history than just what
she's done at a W. I personally think that what
uh techless feud with starting President Tero o'conta is fascinating
just in and of itself to watch and learned a
lot about what tech is about. Then again, you've got
people like But then again, you've got people you know
that have frankly always been with AW other than stints
in the Indies, They've always been with A to Chris
Statlander is a good example, Britt Baker. You know there's
another one, Darby Allen Hangman out of page. Really you
could argue for that. I mean as far as in America,
Uh exactly, m jf rawlins perfect. So there are different
things to to research anyway, that's mikeah Fabbi. Does anybody
else have a kafabe before we wrap things up for tonight?
Speaker 3: I mean I've got the usual New Chapan rundown. We
had New Beginning in Osaka last week. Really great show
all around. I could not suggested enough. If you like
New Japan Pro Wrestling, you will really enjoy the show.
I know not everyone has all the time. Top three,
David Finley versus Calum Newman, Dave Kidd versus Andrade L
and the Knockout Brothers both versus Shota, Umino and Yubio
or Mura.
Speaker 4: To night in.
Speaker 3: Like a little under seven hours. I think, uh it
will be the kickoff of the Fantasticamania Tour, which is
j in jp W n CMLL. There's a few wrestlers
who have been on AW before, Hetchi Sero, Masca, Derada,
Misty Co a few others as well. It's all it's
always a fun tour, fun show. You see the kind
of styles interacting, kind of an early morning start if
you're in America. For most of us, I think fourth
our on the East Coast, three pot for Central. But
it's always a fun show, it.
Speaker 1: Right, I do want to say something here before we
sign off for tonight. When it comes to wrestling as
a whole, whether you're a TNA fan, WWE fan, AW fan,
New Japan Stardom, t JPW, whatever you like, we do
have the everything Pro wrestling Discord server. The discord link
is on your screen right now and it will also
be in the in the description of our audio podcast.
It's on all of our social media's networks. If you
look up AW fanob on TikTok x, Instagram, threads, YouTube,
you're gonna find our discord server link. So uh literally,
there is a wealth, a wealth of news on the
discord server. We actually have. For example, we have an
AW channel, but we also have an AW spoilers channel,
so the spoilers are very easy to avoid. Just stay
out of the spoilers channels for twenty four hours after
an event. We don't allow any spoilers in anything but
the spoilers channels. Same thing goes for T and A, R,
TJPWWWE you name it, and you know NJPW. We're pretty
good about keeping the spoilers away from people that don't
want to see them, let's put it that way. And
on top of that, our discord server is very active
and it's a hack of a lot of fun and
it's very friendly, so give it a chance, and of course
follow us on the AW fan hub subreddit. That's pretty
much where it has all got started. It's important to
us that you join us and have fun with the community.
Chris Rollins, thank you for joining me tonight for this
episode of Ignition. It was fun seeing us kick off
our fourth year of AW podcast unbelievable and we'll be
back Tuesday night at eight forty five. Easter here practically
every Tuesday night. The only time that we don't do
a Tuesday night podcast is if it's kind of like
Christmas Eve or something like that. Family and personal life
comes first always for us, subut Generally speaking, we're here
every single week. We look forward to seeing everybody and
look leave a comment, like and subscribe to our YouTube channel,
Like and subscribe and follow Wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Join us on the different social network networks. Join us
on Discord. This is your community, not our this podcast team.
We are just ae W fans talking about a w
If you're interested in joining the podcast, just join the podcast,
you know, give us a contact us we'll talk to you.
Was it a big rawlins, Chris, wasn't a hard thing
for you to get onto this podcast? Nope, you know
it's not. Yeah. I mean, if you show an interest
and you can speak without well, if you sound better
than me, which is not hard, you're in, you know,
so yay, So anyway, we will see you, Okay, Yeah,
I'll talk to you, you know, and that's that's just
about it. You know, I'll talk and do a brief
conversation with you just to find out what you're about,
and then you're in. It's as simple as that. And
we have a lot of fun. You know, there's a
reason why people show up here every week to talk
about aw because it's fun. It's fun. It's our hobby,
you know, and you know, we have to do something
in our mother's basements. So this is what we're doing. Anyway,
forty a w found a podcast team. This is Kelson.
Good night everybody, and good night Ed. I'm sorry, Eddie,
I really am.
Speaker 2: Make sure you walk