Speaker 1: It's Tuesday. You know what that means. It's time for
Speaker 1: ignition with the aw fan Hub podcast team. This is
Speaker 1: Kelson and I've got Barry, Shane and Sutton here with
Speaker 1: us tonight, and guys, I'm gonna ask you a couple
Speaker 1: of questions. Let's see what your opinion is on this.
Speaker 1: The first question is in the men's division right now, like,
Speaker 1: based on what's been going on maybe in the last
Speaker 1: month or two, named three men who are over right now,
Speaker 1: I mean just over in AW. Shane, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to you first.
Speaker 2: Well, not John Moxley, I mean, I mean, like the
Speaker 2: real question is how over? I mean, Michael, we are
Speaker 2: we talking like to the moon? Are we talking like hockey?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm talking about let's just say, when they come out,
Speaker 1: the fans respond to them. You feel like they're you
Speaker 1: personally feel like the fans are responding to them. You
Speaker 1: personally feel like when they come out, they're a benefit
Speaker 1: for TV for example. Okay, No, it's something you feel
Speaker 1: like other people are gonna want to see them.
Speaker 2: Well, there are guys in AW that are permanently over
Speaker 2: no matter whether they're well, that's fine too, Okay, I'll
Speaker 2: entertain this all right. First of all, Darby Allen, Darby
Speaker 2: Allen is permanently over, no matter what happens. He's permanently over,
Speaker 2: not just because this thing. But that's just the reception
Speaker 2: that I mean, like the dude. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: talk about conspiracy or his past, but the dude dodged
Speaker 2: some very hefty bullets in terms of things outside of
Speaker 2: wrestling to make him relevant in wrestling. So Darby Allen
Speaker 2: won Kenny Omega. That's a that's a go to. He's
Speaker 2: always going to be over. He's always going to be
Speaker 2: over for aw audiences. One yeah, and we're struggling. I've
Speaker 2: been to several a W shows last year. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter who is performed a W doesn't matter who's performing
Speaker 2: at any given period of time. It could be women
Speaker 2: in the ring and someone's gonna go lose House and
Speaker 2: everyone's gonna stop and go Swerve's House.
Speaker 1: Perfect. I'm gonna go to Barry, Arry, what are your three?
Speaker 1: And you agree with you even you know what what's
Speaker 1: out and agree with Shane if you want.
Speaker 3: So we're gonna say over, just over, not baby faces,
Speaker 3: like just.
Speaker 1: Not at all, not babyfaces.
Speaker 3: Just over for me. It would be Swerve, MJF and Osprey.
Speaker 3: Those three they're always they're over every well Will especially
Speaker 3: But to Shane's point, Swerves rise last year just cemented
Speaker 3: him as a top guy. The reactions he gets every
Speaker 3: time I hear somebody was at a basketball game and
Speaker 3: somebody has randomly yelled at and people responded, So like,
Speaker 3: that's how I know the guy's over Will just because
Speaker 3: he's well Osprey, everybody like his music hits elevation or
Speaker 3: elevated hits, people go lose their mind. And then MJFF
Speaker 3: same thing. His music hits, everybody knows what's coming and
Speaker 3: that's uh, that's that's kind of the qualifiers for top
Speaker 3: top top people for me.
Speaker 4: Fair enough, Sutton, let's go to you, Osprey, Omega and
Speaker 4: at Darby.
Speaker 1: Okay, great, all right, now, I'm not gonna get my
Speaker 1: opinion on this. I'm going to wooz out, but I
Speaker 1: want to ask the same question. But now this is
Speaker 1: to be a little bit more difficult, I think. But
Speaker 1: let's talk about the women's division. Three women that are
Speaker 1: over right now, Shane will go to you.
Speaker 2: Uh Christad obvious reasons, Mercedes Monet, and I'll save the
Speaker 2: best I'll save the best for last Tony Storm. Tony
Speaker 2: Storm doesn't even have to be on television to be over.
Speaker 2: She could be giving some fai contrivable bullshit article to
Speaker 2: some dirt sheet and people are going to treat it
Speaker 2: like it. She's crapping gold, which.
Speaker 1: Is fantastic, Like the visual, one of the.
Speaker 2: Most interesting things that's happening in professional wrestling today. That's
Speaker 2: spanning all promotions.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean even w w E fans love
Speaker 1: Tony Storm.
Speaker 2: Yeah they should have. They should have loved her more
Speaker 2: when she was on n x T.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but hey, you know, sometimes you need changed to
Speaker 1: really do better.
Speaker 3: Opportunity and environment, Yeah right.
Speaker 1: Who are your three women?
Speaker 3: Willow our music hits, everybody go, everybody pops, right. I
Speaker 3: would put Tony on there too. Different, It's it's hard
Speaker 3: to explain how she's over. It's more different than any
Speaker 3: other performer that's been over, because every everybody is more
Speaker 3: interested in seeing what her next character work is going
Speaker 3: to be than necessarily she's going to come out and
Speaker 3: put a banger of a match. She's just she's taken
Speaker 3: the performance of being a p wrestler in just a
Speaker 3: different era that are a different way that very few,
Speaker 3: if anybody, has ever ever touched on before, which is
Speaker 3: why she's so fascinating. And then I think after the
Speaker 3: two of them, there's a layer of a bunch of
Speaker 3: other folks. But I might put Mercedes. I might put
Speaker 3: Mercedes in there as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair enough. Let's go to you and then
Speaker 1: we'll get to a point. I have a point to
Speaker 1: all this. Let's get the sun and get his.
Speaker 4: Three Julie Hart, Chris Dat Lennar and uh chetam that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Every time, no matter what, those three come out, they're
Speaker 4: always over.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair enough. Let me get to my point here,
Speaker 1: and I have a few points here. The first one,
Speaker 1: the first point is of all the men that were
Speaker 1: mentioned as being over by you guys, how many of
Speaker 1: them have championships right now? Answer? None? Zero. Keep that
Speaker 1: in mind. Of all the men that people mentioned, you
Speaker 1: guys mentioned just right now, how many of them are
Speaker 1: over thirty five? I don't think any of them are.
Speaker 1: You see where I'm going here. Kenny, I'm sorry, Kenny, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Kenny is Yeah, but Kenny's a little bit and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just say it. When you're talking, think
Speaker 1: about it. Now, look at the women that you mentioned.
Speaker 1: A couple of you mentioned Mercedes Monet. She's the only
Speaker 1: one that was mentioned that has a belt right now.
Speaker 1: And again there's none of those women that were mentioned
Speaker 1: or over the age of thirty five. They're all young.
Speaker 1: Some of them are not are under by Julia Harts
Speaker 1: under twenty five going here.
Speaker 4: She does.
Speaker 1: No, I think you're right. I think Cheetah's thirty six.
Speaker 2: Cheetahs thirty six. This is why we have Tonic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it blew my mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, but you can add me to sheer
Speaker 1: account to that. Harley Harley Cameron is also over you know,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Uh again, none of these people have
Speaker 1: belts except for Mercedes Monette and both the meds and
Speaker 1: the women's division. And my point here is when you
Speaker 1: look at Aw's booking, do you think that the fact
Speaker 1: that the people Because I'm gonna be honest with you,
Speaker 1: when I listened to the people that you named, I
Speaker 1: really thought that those were great names that I think
Speaker 1: would be representative of what other people would probably say
Speaker 1: is to say as well, none of them have belts
Speaker 1: except for Mercedes Monet, Kenny Omegas, where Strickland none. These
Speaker 1: guys don't have belts. They're hardly a main event mode
Speaker 1: right now. Do you think that the fact that so
Speaker 1: many of these people that are over with the fans
Speaker 1: are simply not being used as they should be. I mean,
Speaker 1: is that a weakness in Tony Kahin's booking or is
Speaker 1: it a strength? I don't know what do you guys think.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's a weakness at all. It just
Speaker 4: shows that you can put your best people and they
Speaker 4: don't have to be involved in titles with titles to
Speaker 4: be over. You don't have to have your most your
Speaker 4: top talent always have a title, because if you do that,
Speaker 4: what's the point then you have nobody else that everybody's
Speaker 4: got to.
Speaker 1: Stride.
Speaker 4: Ex are hard to try to get to a point
Speaker 4: where they can compete with them, and right now they're not.
Speaker 4: I mean, Kenny's just coming back from a long time off,
Speaker 4: Julie's coming back from a long time I mean a
Speaker 4: lot of the people we mentioned are either involved in
Speaker 4: other things, like she's already ever around because I think
Speaker 4: she's involved overseas. You know, most of them are either
Speaker 4: involved in something else or have come back from a
Speaker 4: long time gone. But they've come back and still in
Speaker 4: the same place they were when they left.
Speaker 3: I see where you're going Kelson, and I don't think
Speaker 3: necessarily what you're getting at is wrong. I think part
Speaker 3: of the challenge is nearly everybody we mentioned either has
Speaker 3: been a title holder, and most of them have had
Speaker 3: a major title. Recently. Tony Storm and Willa both had titles.
Speaker 3: Tony had one of the longest runs ever. On the
Speaker 3: men's side, everybody we mentioned had titles, one of them,
Speaker 3: like from Jaff, the longest ever. The challenge that I see,
Speaker 3: which is I think in line with your argument, is
Speaker 3: there is no white hot babyface champion, either in the
Speaker 3: women's or the men's division. And you look at what
Speaker 3: WWE did with Cody. They built to that they've got
Speaker 3: their white hot babyface champion, just like they did with Sina.
Speaker 3: There's a real strength to have that hot babyface and
Speaker 3: if they are not the champ, then they should be
Speaker 3: pursuing the championship. So even though Cody took a year,
Speaker 3: he was still the guy. And one of the challenges
Speaker 3: with aw is there is no top babyface. The closest
Speaker 3: I would say is well Osprey, but Tony has a habit.
Speaker 3: Coming back to your also point Kelson of swinging his
Speaker 3: booking from all babyfaces having to all heels having. And
Speaker 3: so one of the weaknesses with AW has been once
Speaker 3: Tony gives these guys their run as a babyface, the
Speaker 3: what's next is very weak. We see it with Sanna
Speaker 3: Garcia right now, we saw it with Private Party. Those
Speaker 3: are the two most recent examples that the US sure
Speaker 3: why he falls back to putting him back on the heels.
Speaker 3: Not everybody can be over, but at some point they're
Speaker 3: going to need to fix that because Swerve elevated himself
Speaker 3: as a baby face, and I still don't think that
Speaker 3: what's next for him was a strong enough program. And
Speaker 3: he's a fascinating character as well.
Speaker 2: Arry, I want to expand on that thought. This is
Speaker 2: an observational statement, but like in a lot of instances,
Speaker 2: when these guys are dropping their titles, they're disappearing. It
Speaker 2: feels like in a lot of cases, like Tony is
Speaker 2: dropping belts to allow these guys going to go on vacation,
Speaker 2: take R and R you know, or you know, get
Speaker 2: surgeries that they have so desperately needed for for months
Speaker 2: and months and months. That's not very that's not very
Speaker 2: you know, Calcu. I mean in terms of storytelling, you're
Speaker 2: planning six months out, and it seems that that seems
Speaker 2: to be the case for TK. I've always said that
Speaker 2: Tony's greatest strength and weakness is his long term storytelling
Speaker 2: because he has a tendency to drag things into the
Speaker 2: into the mud, you know, yeah, he can't pull the trigger.
Speaker 2: I think Adam Page and CM Punk is a great
Speaker 2: example of this. You know that seem they had their
Speaker 2: match Adam Page dropped and then they were dropping the
Speaker 2: belt onto mocks in Cleveland, like what the two weeks later?
Speaker 2: Three weeks later, So because punk Punk was injured, I mean, like,
Speaker 2: could we be a little more creative, intuitive, or or
Speaker 2: at least a little more call better audibles in terms
Speaker 2: of how we're managing these these stories. I don't think
Speaker 2: in terms of his booking. You know, right now he's
Speaker 2: on the upswing, but how for how much longer? You know?
Speaker 2: That's definitely yeah.
Speaker 4: I also.
Speaker 1: Let me break in here, Barry just real quick, because
Speaker 1: I want to change. Just said something that kind of
Speaker 1: took me off guard. I'm startering over myself, I'm falling
Speaker 1: over my tong like Mercedes Money on a Wednesday. Look,
Speaker 1: you think that Tony Kahn's booking is on an upswing
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: In a manner of speaking, Yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 2: the Death Death Riders thing is contrive I think that, Uh,
Speaker 2: I don't. I think that in terms of like the
Speaker 2: mid card, the mid card belts look more important than
Speaker 2: the World Championships right now. I think that's the biggest issue.
Speaker 2: I think if he wanted to be you know, I
Speaker 2: think that he needs to redirect the Death Riders story
Speaker 2: and put optics on the tag titles. Uh. He has
Speaker 2: to put some trios together because now we hit like
Speaker 2: I don't think, but I don't think it's in a
Speaker 2: place that it was three months ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you, Shane. I've always I think
Speaker 3: this trend started last year too. The Continental Classic really
Speaker 3: lays out so much of how their TV has to
Speaker 3: work that Tony kind of falls into really really good programming.
Speaker 3: And I think actually the last three months have been
Speaker 3: some of the most solid dynamites and collisions. There's been
Speaker 3: some problem and they're not everything's a home run, But
Speaker 3: you look at the first three quarters of the year
Speaker 3: compared to the last quarter, and it was far more
Speaker 3: consistent and more in line with the types of stuff
Speaker 3: we want to see. But I want to hit back
Speaker 3: on something that I think Shane said too and sudden
Speaker 3: you got on when people disappear. How many times have
Speaker 3: we seen somebody want a title ballut and they're not
Speaker 3: on TV?
Speaker 4: Well, something I got a disagree with on that though,
Speaker 4: with the injury thing, that's not in your control. Like,
Speaker 4: for example, the only time that they did that and
Speaker 4: they shouldn't have was with Brian Danielson. Everybody knew he
Speaker 4: was hurt when he won the title. He didn't win
Speaker 4: the title and the didnt get hurt. He was hurt
Speaker 4: when he got the title put on him. And I
Speaker 4: get why they wanted to do that, but that was
Speaker 4: a mistake. You can't do that. But when you have
Speaker 4: somebody get hurt when they're holding the title, dropping that
Speaker 4: title and then moving on instead of doing what they
Speaker 4: did with like thunder Rose, that happened to to set
Speaker 4: it aside and they just kind of gave it to
Speaker 4: Tony Storm. You can't you can't play for that. You
Speaker 4: can't have a backup for that at all times. So
Speaker 4: you know, if somebody like for for example, if tomorrow night,
Speaker 4: Hobbes comes out and drops John on his head and
Speaker 4: they have to give the title of Hobbes and it's
Speaker 4: a it's a called audible. That's understandable. But you know,
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know that you can really say
Speaker 4: that's an issue that Tony has, because for the most
Speaker 4: part he's done a halfway decent job with that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to kind of disagree with you there
Speaker 1: and then I'll give you a case some point. One
Speaker 1: of your favorite wrestlers is Chris stat Lander. G I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna look, Tony kept that belt on Jade Cargill
Speaker 1: are longer than she he needed to in order to,
Speaker 1: you know, getting ready.
Speaker 4: To say the same thing, and that's that that was
Speaker 4: the one thing I was just getting ready to point
Speaker 4: that that was the one example of when it was
Speaker 4: the worst thing that could have been done. But I
Speaker 4: think since then Tony has learned a little bit about
Speaker 4: doesn't do a great job of us still, but he's
Speaker 4: getting around to the point where he's like, for example,
Speaker 4: with Julia Hart when she got hurt, he dropped the title.
Speaker 4: He didn't wait for what he wanted to have happen
Speaker 4: happen he put the title on Willow and now he
Speaker 4: might come back to that, but he hasn't. But he's
Speaker 4: starting to learn that a little bit better. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I agree with you, Kelse, And I was just getting
Speaker 4: ready to say the exact same thing as an example
Speaker 4: when he did it so badly.
Speaker 1: Look, here's the thing, No, here's the thing. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to point this out. Looking at just the TBS Championship.
Speaker 1: We've had Chris Statlander, Julia Hart, We've had Mercedes Monet,
Speaker 1: We've had Jade Cargill, we've had Willow Nightingale as TBS champions.
Speaker 1: The longest reigning TBS champion was Jade Cargill. The worst
Speaker 1: TBS champion in my opinion, was Jade Cargill. It was
Speaker 1: super arguing that want the way that they're handling it
Speaker 1: now that it's very it's you know, Mercedes Monet has
Speaker 1: held on to it. It doesn't look like she's going
Speaker 1: to lose it anytime soon. But at least she's out
Speaker 1: there having banger matches, not you know, she's traveling around
Speaker 1: the world having matches, and she's having competitive matches instead
Speaker 1: of glorified or not even glorified, just flat out squashes
Speaker 1: like Jade Cargill was. I mean, it was a bad
Speaker 1: championship when Jake Cargill had it. And it's nothing to
Speaker 1: do with Jade Cargill as a wrestler. It's he has
Speaker 1: to do everything to do with the booking.
Speaker 3: I think some things too, is we're able to look
Speaker 3: at stuff in hindsight in a way that really wasn't
Speaker 3: available at that time. What AW had with Jade is
Speaker 3: what I think everybody saw is this woman's going to
Speaker 3: be a million bucks if they can justigure it out.
Speaker 3: How are they going to make the money off that?
Speaker 3: But you look at her and she is marketing one
Speaker 3: on one for the prototype of just Glamour Incarnate. Like
Speaker 3: she's strong, she's pretty, she's athletic, she's she's not terrible
Speaker 3: on the mic, she's not great, you know. But Tony
Speaker 3: tried the WWE approach of building this and building the
Speaker 3: hype and all that, and that works if you have
Speaker 3: the other machine around it, and that's not what AW
Speaker 3: was at the time, and they don't have that. That
Speaker 3: works for WWE because they're really freaking good at it.
Speaker 3: They've been doing it for decades. They're marketing. They think
Speaker 3: the way they approach stuff is just it's not from
Speaker 3: a pro wrestling standpoint, it's from a media marketing standpoint,
Speaker 3: and that's something people like overlook like WWE is almost
Speaker 3: unique to pro wrestling the way they operate now, and
Speaker 3: you almost shouldn't compare them to anybody else. But that's
Speaker 3: why I had it for too long, you know, And
Speaker 3: it was a mistake in retrospect, But at the time,
Speaker 3: understand what they were trying to do with her, and
Speaker 3: it's what I think anybody in that position would have
Speaker 3: tried to do with her. But I think people who
Speaker 3: get hurt with the belts is pretty rare in an outlier,
Speaker 3: and it's a real tricky situation and book out of
Speaker 3: But I think all of you guys are right as Tony.
Speaker 3: When somebody gets hurt in an angle, they just kind
Speaker 3: of sets that person aside who's not hurt, and they flounder,
Speaker 3: and then when the person comes back, they pick it
Speaker 3: up again. And he needs to get better at pivoting
Speaker 3: away from that. When there's an injury, you just you
Speaker 3: need to go in a different direction. You can't come
Speaker 3: back to that booking. It hurts too many performers, and
Speaker 3: it hurts the storytelling.
Speaker 1: Should want to bring this home for us, Buddy.
Speaker 2: I mean, by definition, WWE is a soap opera with athletes.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, I'm sorry, since twenty sixteen, the only
Speaker 2: wrestling program running out of ww media that by definition
Speaker 2: is a wrestling promotion is NXT And I hate to
Speaker 2: be that guy. It is what it is. That And
Speaker 2: again you made the comment that they built the machine
Speaker 2: around it. They figured they had they had decades to
Speaker 2: test the waters. Yeah, they know exactly what they're selling
Speaker 2: and who they're selling it to, which is why it's
Speaker 2: kind of a revolving door. I mean, like, uh, what
Speaker 2: what happened to the mystery and professional wrestling? That's why
Speaker 2: we flocked to AW to kind of encapsulize that nostalgia,
Speaker 2: that nostalgia drug from the wrestling that we grew up with.
Speaker 2: And we said, hey, you know, it was the mystique
Speaker 2: and and the surprise and the and the mystery that
Speaker 2: that sucked us into it. You know, we're not getting
Speaker 2: a lot of that from w w E.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: It stagnates with AW. That's the problem. And I and
Speaker 2: Barry I agree with you completely, Like Tony Kahn needs
Speaker 2: to he needs to put a put put his foot
Speaker 2: down on himself. Hey man, I need to stop this.
Speaker 2: I need to hop on the next bandwagon and and
Speaker 2: revisit this, you know, in a manner that's you know,
Speaker 2: respectful to the people that are working in the back,
Speaker 2: instead of front running someone that's been sitting for seven
Speaker 2: months in spite of the fact that they're some of
Speaker 2: the best wrestlers on earth. That's not how it's ever
Speaker 2: worked anywhere else. So I mean praying Boston prayers for
Speaker 2: t Case.
Speaker 3: I want to see him. Just do a hard push
Speaker 3: for somebody too, Like just pick a guy and book
Speaker 3: him to the moon, and you've got enough people. People
Speaker 3: are ready for that. And I'm not talking like an
Speaker 3: Osprey or anybody like that. But like Fletcher's right there, man,
Speaker 3: you can book him to the moon. Hobbs is right there. Like,
Speaker 3: give them Hobbs more mic time. You can push him
Speaker 3: in the mood takesh It is already doing it. But
Speaker 3: so much of what he's doing is away from aw
Speaker 3: on some of the international tours that we don't get
Speaker 3: to see at firsthand. Clearly he doesn't speak English as much.
Speaker 1: But like the.
Speaker 3: Fans love him, push him to the moon, Like you
Speaker 3: have the people pick one this year and just make
Speaker 3: him the guy like you did with Swerve last year.
Speaker 3: You know how to do it. You did it with
Speaker 3: swer Who's next, Just pick the guy and push him.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Jane.
Speaker 2: They did it with m Jeff as well. They figured
Speaker 2: out they figured out that humanizing connection to Mjab's persona,
Speaker 2: and he milked the crap out of it. And he
Speaker 2: even pivoted well when Adam Cole injured himself, but then
Speaker 2: to rip the belt off of him the way they
Speaker 2: did it with Samoa Drow and just drop the predictable
Speaker 2: thing on us. That was very bloodline esque. You might
Speaker 2: as well have You might as well have had Paul
Speaker 2: Heman out there with him. I mean, it wasn't that
Speaker 2: much different in terms of like the turn. So sorry,
Speaker 2: I just want to.
Speaker 1: Make mention two things along this line. Member where it
Speaker 1: started by saying who is over and a couple of
Speaker 1: people were mentioned, and I want to revisit this and
Speaker 1: just give you my opinion on it. One of the
Speaker 1: most over women that is in aw right now is
Speaker 1: Mina Shirakala. I mean just her. She was like a
Speaker 1: force of nature when you come right, can you imagine
Speaker 1: if Mina Shira Kala had beat Mariah May, the reaction
Speaker 1: that the fans would have had. And it's not only
Speaker 1: the reaction to the fans, it's the fans now knowing that, hey,
Speaker 1: anything can happen. And it goes to I want to
Speaker 1: bring up because we're having this match tonight on Dynamite,
Speaker 1: Will Hobbs versus John Moxley. Can you imagine Will Hobbs
Speaker 1: getting a clean win on John Moxley what that would
Speaker 1: do to the product. I think a lot of what's
Speaker 1: going on with the product and how people are perceiving
Speaker 1: it in an unpopular light is that Tony Kahan is
Speaker 1: going to book the people that he wants, and I
Speaker 1: don't think he really looks at what the fans want,
Speaker 1: you know, and I except for he's I honestly feel
Speaker 1: sometimes that Tony Kahan books to squash the fans enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that makes any sense with this
Speaker 1: match tomorrow night, Will Hobbs is going to be over
Speaker 1: John Moxley, isn't. John Moxley is going to win, win
Speaker 1: this match and squash fans.
Speaker 2: Helson I have to disagree with that statement. Kenny Omega
Speaker 2: is a shining example as to why. I mean, I
Speaker 2: agree to some degree that he is not providing fans service.
Speaker 2: I also believe that he's providing fan service to a
Speaker 2: very small fraction of pro wrestling fans. The people that
Speaker 2: would have understood why it was important for Kenny Omega
Speaker 2: to hand the C two off to Okada. But like
Speaker 2: that that that's people that followed them back in during
Speaker 2: Kenny's New Japan DA's twenty fifteen twenty sixteen Battle the
Speaker 2: Super Juniors, even you know, pre and post Pool Club Kenny.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, like what not A lot of casual
Speaker 2: aw fans are gonna know what's up with that.
Speaker 3: I have the same thing. The friend of mine at
Speaker 3: work and my buddy you flew down to go to
Speaker 3: go to the world's done with me and we were
Speaker 3: saying the same thing. Is Tony books for what Tony
Speaker 3: thinks is cool?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And I don't think he trolls fans or anything like that.
Speaker 3: I don't think he books against fans, but it's not
Speaker 3: what fans want because he's booking for Tony Khan. That's
Speaker 3: how I feel a lot, and I think he the
Speaker 3: creative team. He can book like a story, but the
Speaker 3: creative team in general needs to broaden how they're approaching
Speaker 3: stuff because a lot of it is kind of what
Speaker 3: you're saying. It's too inside baseball to really get the granularity.
Speaker 3: You have to know so many layers to appreciate everything
Speaker 3: that it's just going over. It's going over too many
Speaker 3: people's head for it to be worthwhile.
Speaker 2: You know you made the baseball reference. It's from as
Speaker 2: a Cleveland guy. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I am i
Speaker 2: gonna put a lid on this. It's like run in
Speaker 2: the nineteen ninety five Cleveland Indians for all of eternity,
Speaker 2: Like you're you're replaying the same players over and over
Speaker 2: and over. You could only capture that moment so many
Speaker 2: times before the league evolves around around you and learns
Speaker 2: how to squash you out, which is why the nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety seven Cleveland Indians happened. So I'm just saying, like.
Speaker 1: The nineteen ninety five Cleveland Indians were a great team,
Speaker 1: Jim better but better, No, they weren't.
Speaker 4: This is the resting show. We're not talking baseball past.
Speaker 1: What Let's go ahead and move on because what Barry
Speaker 1: just said kind of leads into this next segment, and
Speaker 1: it's that if if Tony Kahan isn't trolling the fans,
Speaker 1: why in the world did Last week Tony Khan himself
Speaker 1: announced the twelve man main event that's taking place the
Speaker 1: twelve man tag team or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: six on six, And as soon as he announced it,
Speaker 1: the internet lost their minds. No, it's almost to the
Speaker 1: point where I kind of look at it and go,
Speaker 1: my god, nobody wants to see this match. And these
Speaker 1: are the biggest stars in a w supposedly, you're aw
Speaker 1: World Championship champion, You've got you know FTR, longtime tag champions,
Speaker 1: you know Adam Copeland, the outrunners who nobody mentioned, but
Speaker 1: they're quite over with the fans. But then you got
Speaker 1: Chris Jericho.
Speaker 4: And there's a reason that there's a reason please please
Speaker 4: enlighten us because Max said they want these next two matches,
Speaker 4: these next two shows to be the best shows that
Speaker 4: they can be. This is what Tony thinks is going
Speaker 4: to bring the get more fans involved and be a
Speaker 4: bigger ending to the show than anything he can have
Speaker 4: go otherwise. Because they are demanding the Max pretty much said,
Speaker 4: we want these to be the biggest shows you put on.
Speaker 1: Yet, right, and he doesn't want He.
Speaker 4: Didn't have another chance, he didn't have another idea, he
Speaker 4: didn't have another way to go on. As a matter
Speaker 4: of fact, I short notice if it's within the week.
Speaker 4: He had a week to come up with two fantastic
Speaker 4: shows the maximccarter engine. Wednesday is tomorrow night or tonight
Speaker 4: is going to be what it is. It was already set,
Speaker 4: but he didn't have anything for Collision. So in order
Speaker 4: to make Collision as big as he can make it,
Speaker 4: you put the twelve best people that you have in
Speaker 4: your company in one match.
Speaker 1: I have no words for what you just said.
Speaker 3: I just I want to make sure are people really
Speaker 3: upset about this? Is that a real thing?
Speaker 4: Okay? And that's the other thing. God, everybody, everybody on
Speaker 4: the subreddit might be upset, and everybody in the discord
Speaker 4: might be upset, But that is a fraction of the
Speaker 4: people who are watching these ships and who go to
Speaker 4: these shows. I don't think are's many people are said about.
Speaker 1: This because I agree with you. But when Tony Kahan
Speaker 1: made that announcement Barry on Twitter, he announced the match
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Yeah, it got lit up on Twitter. I
Speaker 1: mean it was like, what the hell are you doing?
Speaker 3: I just I don't understand, Like, who, who freaking cares
Speaker 3: it's a twelve man tech match? Like what is the
Speaker 3: problem here? Like why is this a thing?
Speaker 4: Because people have it in their head that if they
Speaker 4: don't care for something, that they're the only one that matters.
Speaker 4: That's the problem with the Internet with people who reply
Speaker 4: to these they think, oh, well, it's a twelve man match.
Speaker 4: I don't want to see it because I don't like
Speaker 4: twelve That's what you can turn the damn channel.
Speaker 1: That's what's going to happen.
Speaker 4: Like, and you know what, they don't care.
Speaker 3: There are matches every week on every show that I
Speaker 3: don't care about, all right, that's the nature of pro wrestling.
Speaker 3: You turn on any pay per viewer, there's like two matches.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't care about these people. Whatever. Some
Speaker 3: people might not for me, whatever. Like if I'm if
Speaker 3: the implication is if every match isn't up my you know,
Speaker 3: right up my alley, then I'm going to change the channel.
Speaker 3: That is the most cynical view to being a pro
Speaker 3: wrestling fan. If you don't like these guys in the
Speaker 3: sixth man, wait the twenty minutes for the match to
Speaker 3: be over or whatever, like who cares. It's pro wrestling,
Speaker 3: Just like who cares? This is not a thing. This
Speaker 3: is not something people need to be upset or worked
Speaker 3: up about.
Speaker 4: And the people that are if you watch the match,
Speaker 4: the people that are in Cincinnati who are going to
Speaker 4: be paying to watch the match, are going to love
Speaker 4: it because it's going to be.
Speaker 1: Care everything they went there to see. Let me address that.
Speaker 1: Let me address that. You said Sudden that the people
Speaker 1: on Twitter, the people on Discord, and the people on
Speaker 1: Reddit are a very very very small sampling size of
Speaker 1: AW fans, And I agree with that. You know what's
Speaker 1: a smaller sampling size of AW fans. The nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: people they're gonna be there're eighteen hundred or seventeen. I
Speaker 1: think it's seventeen hundred, to be honest with you, because
Speaker 1: that's what the capacity of that that arena is. The
Speaker 1: seventeen hundred people they're gonna be in the stands for
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati to watch that twelve man match. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: gonna make you probably will make those seventeen hundred people happy,
Speaker 1: at least I hope it will be. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: not a good argument. That's not a good argument, buddy.
Speaker 4: There are going to be so many more people that
Speaker 4: watch it, because that guarantee more people watch The last
Speaker 4: two weeks, there's been more people that watch aw on
Speaker 4: on Max or on TNT than can ever reply on
Speaker 4: the on the internet. Because these people don't care about
Speaker 4: the Internet. They don't care what they say on on Twitter.
Speaker 1: They don't care.
Speaker 2: Well, wait a minute, are they at the icon?
Speaker 3: I don't know, now it's a music center or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's yeah, that's the icons that Andrew J. Brady
Speaker 2: music Center.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's Its capacity is forty five hundred indoor in eight
Speaker 2: thousand outdoor.
Speaker 1: It the setup is seventeen hundred or something like that.
Speaker 1: For all right, Yeah, that's the second.
Speaker 3: What is the thief? People like, what is the actual
Speaker 3: problem with this match? That it's it's twelve people, It's
Speaker 3: that there's certain people in that they don't want or
Speaker 3: there was some decision at some point that anything over
Speaker 3: a six man tag is not allowed, or like, what
Speaker 3: what is the actual thing?
Speaker 1: Well, I think a lot of it has to do.
Speaker 1: First of all, if you give me the opportunity to
Speaker 1: make a couple of points, Yeah, one of the things
Speaker 1: that's that one of the things that that's bad about
Speaker 1: this match that people don't really like about it is
Speaker 1: that the Death Writers, which is so damn awful. I mean,
Speaker 1: the people it's it's not over and consistently shoving the
Speaker 1: Death Writers down your throat is not going to make
Speaker 1: them better. You know, in my opinion, anything less than
Speaker 1: somebody getting a hand severed with a saw during this
Speaker 1: match is going to make this match of failure. You know,
Speaker 1: it's as simple as that. I mean, it's like something
Speaker 1: I'd say that in that that isn't over the top
Speaker 1: kind of thing. They need something over at the top.
Speaker 1: So much happened at the end of this match or
Speaker 1: during this match, because if it's just another match, people
Speaker 1: are getting bored. The second thing is all right, you
Speaker 1: have the Death Writers teaming with the Learning Tree, John
Speaker 1: Moxley teaming with Chris Jericho, which makes no sense at all.
Speaker 1: These two are the bitterest of rivals in a w
Speaker 1: They've gone to war, they've bled buckets going against each other.
Speaker 1: They and now just for a match, they're putting them together.
Speaker 3: The Death Riders and the Learning Tree of Bled Buckets
Speaker 3: fighting each other.
Speaker 1: Was there that said, I said John Moxley and Chris
Speaker 1: Jericho buckets.
Speaker 3: Having as the leader of the Learning Tree.
Speaker 4: It's based off of the last week's Collision. What happened
Speaker 4: at the end. You had the Death Writers and Jericho
Speaker 4: going up against f rated r FTR. That's what it
Speaker 4: came down to. Yeah, there were some intermingling, but it's
Speaker 4: because they're having the FTR team on one side and
Speaker 4: the two people that are get some as a group
Speaker 4: on the other side. It'll probably break down afterwards and
Speaker 4: it'll be every man for himself and Death Writers will
Speaker 4: destroy the Learning Tree. But that's the point. How do
Speaker 4: you know what the hell is going to happen? Did
Speaker 4: somebody see the taping on Thursday already or see the
Speaker 4: notes on what's going to happen? Because everybody's making your
Speaker 4: decision based on what they think is gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Here's Sutton. Here's the thing. If you go by and
Speaker 1: again the small fraction of the fans, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of fans who simply tuned out for that match
Speaker 1: on Collision last week because they have no interest in
Speaker 1: this whole story. I'm one of these.
Speaker 4: I didn't see it.
Speaker 1: I didn't see it. I didn't care time, but I
Speaker 1: made a joke saying, I hope that this six man
Speaker 1: or this twelve man tag match, is that the is
Speaker 1: the main event on Collision because I've got something I've
Speaker 1: got to do early Sunday morning, and I'd like to
Speaker 1: go to bed early. And that's not what you want
Speaker 1: your fans saying and thinking, I have zero interest in
Speaker 1: this match, less than if I can have less than zero,
Speaker 1: was physically possible to have less than zero interest in
Speaker 1: this match. I would have less than zero interest in
Speaker 1: this match. The only thing to get pirk my interest
Speaker 1: is that when I read about it or watch, you know,
Speaker 1: highlights on Twitter or YouTube or whatever, is the proverbial,
Speaker 1: you know, figuringly speaking, somebody getting their hand hacked, the
Speaker 1: hacks out off. Because other than that, nothing, nothing makes,
Speaker 1: nothing matters. I'm sorry, it just doesn't.
Speaker 4: I can't wait to see that match. I think it'll
Speaker 4: be a great met just like if you chance at
Speaker 4: Marx might not be champion come Saturday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really, I really hope that Hobbs wins. You
Speaker 1: remember when you remember the moment in WCW when Goldberg
Speaker 1: beat Hulk Hogan, Sure, or you know that was a
Speaker 1: turning point in WCW for me because it showed me
Speaker 1: that anything can happen. And you know, everybody wanted Goldberg
Speaker 1: to win that match. Not many people thought he was
Speaker 1: and when it happened, it just made everybody feel good.
Speaker 1: It revitalized the fandom. That's what AW needs to do,
Speaker 1: is they need to revitalize the fandom. And you don't
Speaker 1: really revitalize the fandom by putting out the same shit
Speaker 1: every single week.
Speaker 3: I read different. I read something that somebody tweeted. I
Speaker 3: think it was it was either on Twitter Blue Sky
Speaker 3: probably Blue Sky that I think is really apt here
Speaker 3: and it gets into I think part of the problem
Speaker 3: that Kelso's or Kelson's experiencing and anything other fans are
Speaker 3: so The thing I saw was that people aren't frustrated
Speaker 3: with AAW. They missed when it was new, and I
Speaker 3: think that is part of the problem with AAW now
Speaker 3: as well. When we fell in love with it early
Speaker 3: on it was new. Everything was exciting because we didn't
Speaker 3: know what was going to happen. We didn't know the hierarchy.
Speaker 3: We didn't have to worry about certain stars being protected
Speaker 3: because the stars hadn't been defined yet. It was new,
Speaker 3: it was the alternative, and it was delivering on the
Speaker 3: promise of what we all wanted pro wrestling to be.
Speaker 3: It is now a five year old promotion. It is
Speaker 3: not new anymore. And because it is not new now
Speaker 3: is there is a pecking order in a hierarchy of stars.
Speaker 3: I don't mean this in a political sense. Backstage, I
Speaker 3: mean from a storytelling sense. There's concern about making certain
Speaker 3: people look too weak and keeping people elevated. And when
Speaker 3: you have an immature creative team, and I mean that
Speaker 3: in the experience and talent standpoint, not from immature people
Speaker 3: get you get stuck. You get stuck in that rules
Speaker 3: and that overprocess, and you get paralyzed of making new stars.
Speaker 3: And that's why I was hitting they have to make
Speaker 3: new stars. If they continued to do that instead of
Speaker 3: only doing one a year, I think it would address
Speaker 3: a lot of the problems we have, and a lot
Speaker 3: of the problems Kelson's feeling is that that newness is gone.
Speaker 3: You always have to be elevating somebody, You always got
Speaker 3: to be making something new, making something exciting.
Speaker 2: And.
Speaker 3: Geographers feeling we miss quote unquote well.
Speaker 4: And the thing that comes in there is when when
Speaker 4: you get something. You know, everybody for the longest time
Speaker 4: complaining because a w didn't have long term match storylines.
Speaker 4: All they ever did was a match. At the time,
Speaker 4: they didn't do very many long term things. Now they're
Speaker 4: doing long term things, and everybody's going, oh, this is
Speaker 4: taking too long. Oh we can't You can't please everybody
Speaker 4: because they either wanted one way or they wanted another way,
Speaker 4: and instead of rolling with it and seeing where things go.
Speaker 4: For example, I have a feeling that with it on
Speaker 4: Thursday to stiff or laughing up the death Rider's storyline,
Speaker 4: which it will not kill if the if Hobbes does
Speaker 4: beat Moxley, it will just make it even more intense.
Speaker 4: And there's a very good chance, with the way they've
Speaker 4: been treating Hobbes, that Moxley gets beat on Wednesday, And it'd.
Speaker 2: Be fantastic to see Tony actually take some liberties and
Speaker 2: storytelling on a dynamite, you know, like and Dynamite has
Speaker 2: been dynamite. It has been exceptional. But I mean like, well,
Speaker 2: but we all because of how storytelling has been so
Speaker 2: driven into us in the past two years. Like you
Speaker 2: made a very strong point in that, you know, the
Speaker 2: at the you know, Inception of aw everything was so
Speaker 2: fresh and new. It was like rediscovering professional wrestling for
Speaker 2: some of us. So like, yeah, I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: the idea is a beautiful thing that that Hobbs drops
Speaker 2: this belt off of Mox. I just don't see it happening,
Speaker 2: you know, I I think, and I think that's something
Speaker 2: that you know, the fandom is actually you know that
Speaker 2: that's another thing that's buying into its stagnating. You know,
Speaker 2: like we are so disposed to believe that these things
Speaker 2: are going to happen, then to see them happen and
Speaker 2: then we'll see you next week. We know what's going
Speaker 2: to happen. So I just I don't think that I
Speaker 2: honestly don't think that Hobbs is going to drop this
Speaker 2: belt off the box. I think this is good.
Speaker 3: Can't lose this match. He needs to, he can't. He
Speaker 3: doesn't have to win. But Hobbs can't lose this match.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's gonna be another no.
Speaker 3: No, it doesn't have to you can do it. So
Speaker 3: there is a no winner, a double out in a
Speaker 3: way that is biable. The men are just exhausted, you
Speaker 3: can establish. Hobbs went toe to toe with mocks. But
Speaker 3: you got to beat the chap and they both fell.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the way you can. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean that's it's a he didn't beat him. He didn't
Speaker 3: beat him. So now because Hobb was in the twelve man,
Speaker 3: you keep that going. That rematch is going to be
Speaker 3: something because he went toe to toe. Nobody want this
Speaker 3: is going to you know, So there you've got something
Speaker 3: you can continue to build and push that guy with.
Speaker 3: I don't Shane, you're shaking your heads. You may not disagree,
Speaker 3: may not agree with the direction, but I'm just trying
Speaker 3: to come up, you know, ideas on how you can
Speaker 3: keep a guy hot without beating him, but also not
Speaker 3: dropping the title off the guy. You're not ready to
Speaker 3: take it off of yet.
Speaker 2: Man, your perspective is fresh. My only objection to that
Speaker 2: would be, you have nine other guys that are going
Speaker 2: after this title. They're trying to build stories on top
Speaker 2: of right now, and they're all involved in this six
Speaker 2: man tag, this ted tag match. Almost all of them
Speaker 2: are involved in it. It's it's it's a hard thing
Speaker 2: to have to swallow and then digest on top of it.
Speaker 2: Do I think that match?
Speaker 4: Here's the thing about that, Shane, you still have another
Speaker 4: month and a half, two months on most of them
Speaker 4: before the next pay per view, so no decision has
Speaker 4: to be made between now and then, and they have
Speaker 4: that two months to wait. We out who's going to
Speaker 4: be the next one to get this title, because if
Speaker 4: you look at it and everything's been being said, Cope's
Speaker 4: the one who thinks he's getting the next title shot. Okay,
Speaker 4: he's not even thinking about the Hobbs match. Cope is like,
Speaker 4: I'm couldn't take that title off a hob off off
Speaker 4: of him. I'm not even he didn't even act like
Speaker 4: he knows that that Hobbes match is happening tomorrow. So
Speaker 4: you know, you have a two month period because it's
Speaker 4: not till March to eight, so you have a little
Speaker 4: over a month and a half. I mean, this is.
Speaker 2: If we're going to talk about pro wrestling psychology in
Speaker 2: terms of like the fans, you're hanging on the end
Speaker 2: of two different spectrums. I mean, is this going to
Speaker 2: be great or is this going to be awful? And
Speaker 2: there's nothing in between, like like like if I were
Speaker 2: Tony Khan, this is just me fantasy booking this, I
Speaker 2: would drop this belt off a box on Wednesday. I
Speaker 2: would shake up the death writer story. I'd give them
Speaker 2: a reason to be a little more extreme and not
Speaker 2: continue to doever the same guys. I wouldn't let Will
Speaker 2: Hobbs carry this until you know the pay per view
Speaker 2: and then drop it off onto someone else. There's nothing
Speaker 2: wrong with pingponging a championship around at all. I mean, like,
Speaker 2: think about how awesome it was for WWF in the
Speaker 2: mid nineties when they did this shit like on a
Speaker 2: regular basis, or WCW that never even hesitated to do
Speaker 2: things like this on normal standard television programming.
Speaker 3: You should barely had the belt at all during that era.
Speaker 3: He barely held the belt.
Speaker 4: I think, I think what it comes down to, and
Speaker 4: I think I mentioned just a couple of shows ago.
Speaker 4: I think Tony's problem when it comes to that kind
Speaker 4: of thing is he doesn't want to be considered the same,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. He thinks that if he's
Speaker 4: been hung in the titles around that people are going
Speaker 4: to compare him to the other company, and he doesn't
Speaker 4: want that, So that's why he doesn't do it as much.
Speaker 2: Who gives a fun who gives a bunch?
Speaker 3: Who cares I didn't agree.
Speaker 4: I agree with you one hundred percent, but that's not
Speaker 4: you know, it doesn't matter what we think, it's how
Speaker 4: Tony looks at it. And that's so like.
Speaker 3: The key here is when I'm asked to describe professional wrestling,
Speaker 3: I describe it as a fictional television show about a
Speaker 3: combat sports league where all of the actors do their
Speaker 3: own stunts. That's professional wrestling. And it doesn't matter if
Speaker 3: it's Law and Order. It doesn't matter if it's Severance,
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter if it's aw Dynamite. We tune in
Speaker 3: for the drama. You have to make it compelling. You
Speaker 3: have to give us a reason to care that this
Speaker 3: stuff's going on. It's okay you can have a squash
Speaker 3: match because you're trying to get a new character introduced
Speaker 3: or whatever. But that's why we tune in. It's the
Speaker 3: same as any other TV. So if you don't have
Speaker 3: compelling characters and storylines right now, and that's a problem
Speaker 3: at the top, everybody's saying it. Nobody really cares about
Speaker 3: the death writers because it feels like a storyline they
Speaker 3: started with then they screwed something up and they don't
Speaker 3: know what to do. With it, and they're floundering like
Speaker 3: they plan to do something else different. It's going nowhere.
Speaker 3: But you have to keep this stuff compelling. You have
Speaker 3: to keep those stories in there. And one way to
Speaker 3: make compelling television is making a lot of new stars
Speaker 3: and making stuff exciting. If it's compelling, and you can
Speaker 3: think of a way to drop the belt after six
Speaker 3: weeks or after three months or nine weeks or whatever,
Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter. Just make it compelling. Nobody is
Speaker 3: going to care other than the nerdiest of the nerds.
Speaker 3: Oh he only held it for six weeks. Since nobody cares,
Speaker 3: it's fake. Make it compelling. You do that, we're going
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 1: Happy, exactly. I agree with that.
Speaker 3: All right, I'll get off. I rambled too long. They're
Speaker 3: my apologies.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about something fun, honestly, let's talk about
Speaker 1: something fun. Because to night on Dynamite we've got the
Speaker 1: Women's Casino Gauntlet, which was urban who is going to
Speaker 1: be the number one contender and face Mariah May at
Speaker 1: Grand Slam in Australia. Now I think it's fun to
Speaker 1: look at because I thought the men's Casino Gauntlet simply
Speaker 1: by how many people they brought out, and not only
Speaker 1: by how many people they brought out, but they were viable.
Speaker 1: They were viable. I thought that was really good and
Speaker 1: I really hope that they do the same kind of
Speaker 1: thing with the women's Gauntlet. Now, we could go ahead
Speaker 1: and say that most people, and this is just my opinion,
Speaker 1: I believe most people believe two things. One is that
Speaker 1: Tony Storm is going to win this Women's Casado Gauntlet tonight.
Speaker 1: Two is that she's probably going to win the Women's
Speaker 1: World Championship at Grand Slam in Australia. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: that would be a mistake. What I'd like to see
Speaker 1: is for somebody else with the Casaando Gauntlet tonight for
Speaker 1: the women and maybe when that match at at Grand Slam. Okay,
Speaker 1: but then the question would be, all right, what do
Speaker 1: you do with Tony Storm? Tony Storm versus Mercedes Monet
Speaker 1: is like, right there, it's right there, that's what you do.
Speaker 1: That's my opedia. I wanted to ask you guys, who's
Speaker 1: gone first.
Speaker 4: Here's the reason why Tony Storm and Mercedes anytime soon.
Speaker 4: Because Tony is in rookie mode. She's not even close
Speaker 4: to thinking about going after any title. She's just happy
Speaker 4: to be there. She's happy to be facing these people
Speaker 4: who he looks up to. So going and getting a
Speaker 4: title shot for her in the next couple of months
Speaker 4: makes no sense. I think she's gonna come out. I
Speaker 4: think she's gonna do well in the She's gonna last
Speaker 4: for a while. She might come out third or fourth.
Speaker 4: I think that I personally think that Statlander's gonna win it,
Speaker 4: but I hope she doesn't because if she wins it
Speaker 4: and doesn't beat Mariah for the title, there's no sense
Speaker 4: in being Statlander anymore because that will be the third
Speaker 4: time or the third championship in a row that she
Speaker 4: will have lost when she should have had a title
Speaker 4: by now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And of all the women
Speaker 4: in the company that deserves a title for the things
Speaker 4: that they've done for the company since they've come back
Speaker 4: from injury, it's Statlander. She's put up and done the
Speaker 4: most for the company until until me uh Tony got
Speaker 4: started on her thing, and before Mercedes came along, she
Speaker 4: was to go to and they pretty much ain't been giving.
Speaker 1: Her any props for that at all.
Speaker 4: But I think, I don't know, it's just it kind
Speaker 4: of worries me that this is the first time they're
Speaker 4: doing a women's gauntlet mass like this, But it could
Speaker 4: be really, really, really good. But I just have a
Speaker 4: feeling and it's gonna be really short.
Speaker 2: I have I'm lovey man, I really do. Fellow. Uh,
Speaker 2: we're in We're in leagues in terms of being like
Speaker 2: Chris Stat fans like, she's probably my probably my favorite
Speaker 2: a W women's wrestler. Do you think that Stat has
Speaker 2: done more work than Willow?
Speaker 4: Oh, definitely, because.
Speaker 2: Longer I love Sad.
Speaker 4: That's been a lot more around longer will doing it
Speaker 4: for two years before Willow came in.
Speaker 2: Willow has been taken l's for a e W consistently
Speaker 2: back to back to back to bad. The only reason
Speaker 2: that stats in the conversation right now is because she
Speaker 2: came back from injury into Tony decided to put rocket
Speaker 2: straps on her, and which is also like to be fair,
Speaker 2: like it's not really putting. It's not really strapping rockets
Speaker 2: to a person. If you're gonna have them lose the
Speaker 2: same title three times in a row on pay per views,
Speaker 2: I mean, like, dude, like, I'm sorry, it's Stat. I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna say status cooked, I'm not, but I mean
Speaker 2: like it's time for her to step aside at or
Speaker 2: at least pursue things that are more relative to the
Speaker 2: story that they put her in. Willow is the inaugural
Speaker 2: New Japan's Strong Women's World Champion. She had in spite
Speaker 2: of the fact that she got that belton of fluke,
Speaker 2: she carried it with pride and honor, defended it like
Speaker 2: a champion. And and again I in terms of I'll
Speaker 2: look at I'll look it up right now, I Willow
Speaker 2: is taking way more l's than stat way more way
Speaker 2: more like.
Speaker 4: But the point the problem with that is it's not
Speaker 4: it's not an a W title. That title has absolutely
Speaker 4: none to do with her career in a title.
Speaker 2: Then then well then let's talk about the TBS because
Speaker 2: it's not that hard of a pivot. No Blue dude,
Speaker 2: like I I believe, I believe that in terms of
Speaker 2: this uh, this battle royale, that if Tony really wanted
Speaker 2: to shake up the women's locker room, he'd put that
Speaker 2: belt right back on Tony Storm. He'd have her get
Speaker 2: knocked into her next personality and let that person be
Speaker 2: a tyrant in the locker room and have it pitched
Speaker 2: that way, and anyone that tried to come after her
Speaker 2: would just get slapped down. Treat Tony Storm like a
Speaker 2: w's women's roman reigns like that would be smart. That
Speaker 2: would be a smart angle to run, because it would,
Speaker 2: it would the title. It gives relevance to the title.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, shamee. But so you're saying that you think
Speaker 1: that Tony Storm should win the Gauntlet tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Grand Slam. Yeah, oh yes, it's dable. I mean that
Speaker 1: would be the most the most predictab.
Speaker 2: Rome is split right now. You just literally had something
Speaker 2: less than five minutes say hey man, you can't have
Speaker 2: Tony take that belt off because she is in rookie
Speaker 2: mode right now. The whole entire argument is that that
Speaker 2: wrestler is still in Tony Storm, and that it's one
Speaker 2: of her many personalities. Yeah, I mean, like that's.
Speaker 4: It's not a personality. It's not a personality. It's a
Speaker 4: complete mental break. She doesn't know. She's not switching between personalities.
Speaker 4: She's completely broke. She's gone from beating the old Tony
Speaker 4: Storm to being someone who existed from the She's worse
Speaker 4: than broking. Matt Hardy. She's completely she had a complete
Speaker 4: mental break. She has no clue about any of the
Speaker 4: other stuff. She is rookie.
Speaker 2: She's conversation we've ever had on this podcast.
Speaker 3: She is going to be in the locker room cheering
Speaker 3: herself up, and the camera is going to turn around
Speaker 3: and there's going to be a double me and she's
Speaker 3: going to see your reflection and it's going to be
Speaker 3: timeless in the mirror, and she's going to say, chin up,
Speaker 3: tits out and watch for the shoe, and Tony is
Speaker 3: going to march out there and then we'll see, we'll
Speaker 3: get the truth of what that is. But that's not
Speaker 3: my point here. Tony Storm is winning the Battle Royal
Speaker 3: and she's she's winning the title in Australia. That has
Speaker 3: been and that is fine. It is fine, It is
Speaker 3: perfectly fine. Pro wrestling is about making moments. It is
Speaker 3: something WWE excels at, coming back to my earlier point,
Speaker 3: because they are a media company that puts on professional wrestling.
Speaker 3: They know how to do that. They know how to
Speaker 3: build those moments. This moment has been written since they
Speaker 3: announced that show. They're going to do the storyline that
Speaker 3: leads up to it, and I'm with Shane, it's going
Speaker 3: to be great if the next that I said earlier
Speaker 3: that they have a problem with that follow up delivers,
Speaker 3: and you got to deliver with something big. It's got
Speaker 3: to be a whole character change. It's got to be
Speaker 3: some huge deal. Otherwise it's going to be a failure.
Speaker 3: And I'd be with Hugh Calson. It's the right booking,
Speaker 3: But whether or not it's going to be a success
Speaker 3: depends completely on what they do afterwards.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if Tony Storm was not even
Speaker 1: in the Gauntlet tomorrow or on Dynamite. I surprised. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't that way. She did make it sound that way.
Speaker 4: She's like, I'm gonna now, yeah, now, but.
Speaker 3: With what's going to be the last entrance, she's going
Speaker 3: to go ahead.
Speaker 1: Let me finish. As Barry said, I said, when you're
Speaker 1: talking about Tony Storm, which Tony Storm are we talking about?
Speaker 3: Hm?
Speaker 1: You know, so Tony Storm may not be in this,
Speaker 1: but timeless Tony Storm may be in it.
Speaker 2: A royal rumble. I I called this, I did call this, You.
Speaker 1: Did do cack this jack mankind and thing, whoa.
Speaker 3: Wait, she wins in the interviewer the next week back
Speaker 3: in the Tony the Rookie persona, and she's like, what
Speaker 3: do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: I was in the Battle Royal Center shot like this.
Speaker 1: Could be brilliant.
Speaker 2: Who's built?
Speaker 1: Don't do something that's that's They've got something that's unpredictable.
Speaker 2: This is it, this is it.
Speaker 3: She has to have a complete severance between the personalities,
Speaker 3: just like on the TV show Severence, Like they have
Speaker 3: no they have no knowledge any of them exists. But
Speaker 3: what would be the thing that triggers the changes as
Speaker 3: if you get hit on the head or like, what
Speaker 3: what does it?
Speaker 1: I like your idea just staring in the mirror and
Speaker 1: seeing her face?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you never like Moonnight. They can't remember.
Speaker 1: When you have a character that's so batshit crazy, you
Speaker 1: could get away with anything. Oh yeah, but okay, let's
Speaker 1: take to brilliant. Oh my god, that's let's take time
Speaker 1: to Storm and Tony Storm out of the equation here.
Speaker 1: Now Son's already said that he thinks, I if it's
Speaker 1: not Tony Storm that Christatlander is going to win, who
Speaker 1: would be your pick? Not Tony Storm? Then you think
Speaker 1: who would you like to see get that spot? If
Speaker 1: it is a Tony Storm any iteration of Tony Storm.
Speaker 4: Harley came because he's from Australia, Australian. Yeah, who did you?
Speaker 1: Who did you say?
Speaker 4: Sundon?
Speaker 3: That woman amazes me in this whole new way, Like
Speaker 3: he's a character. She shouldn't exist.
Speaker 4: Crazy, She's the crazy. She's the crazy one. She should
Speaker 4: get the title shot because they put on a hell
Speaker 4: of the match last week on the Collision and she's
Speaker 4: from Australia and she would be the one if I
Speaker 4: was going to give it to somebody out of any
Speaker 4: of the women, they could, They could be a good
Speaker 4: story for it. It would be hard. Cameron an a J.
Speaker 1: And a J. Okay, one of the drugs? Did you
Speaker 1: say anybody?
Speaker 3: No? I didn't. I'm really thinking about this, Okay, Well.
Speaker 1: What were you gonna say, Shane.
Speaker 2: One of the best women's matches this year was Mariah
Speaker 2: May and and a J and that death match. My god,
Speaker 2: that match ruled. And Anna J like I get it
Speaker 2: now that post dark order at a J hasn't really
Speaker 2: connected with a lot of audiences, but she's incredibly talented.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have my own pick my picks a little
Speaker 1: bit different, but go ahead. I mean, have you thought
Speaker 1: of anybody bury or you just want the one?
Speaker 3: I'm kind of just going back and fourth on. I'd
Speaker 3: love to see a Tina and just heat it up,
Speaker 3: but I don't think she crosses that that rubicon yet.
Speaker 3: I just uh, yeah, I'd like to see her get
Speaker 3: in there and tear it up for six or for
Speaker 3: a month two and a half months leading up to
Speaker 3: that pay per view.
Speaker 1: I really want to see a moment tomorrow night.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And if it's not timeless Tony Storm or Tony Storm,
Speaker 1: I would like to see something unexpected happen and not
Speaker 1: something unexpected in that Oh that person came out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and wanted that a lot of people probably didn't
Speaker 1: think that she deserved it. I want it to be
Speaker 1: I can't believe this woman showed up and holy crap
Speaker 1: she wanted And yeah, we've got a we got a
Speaker 1: beggar coming up. You got to make it by you, Tani.
Speaker 1: I want to see my you show up tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: and I want to see a couple of apes, wrestlers
Speaker 1: and even a maybe you know, presephone from CMMOU show up.
Speaker 1: But I want to see somebody unexpected and deserving win
Speaker 1: this match. Mayu said she wanted to wrestle in ae W.
Speaker 1: She wanted to do some matches over here. Well, this
Speaker 1: would be a match for her to work in and
Speaker 1: she could win it. And can you imagine Mariah By
Speaker 1: and Mayui Watani in Grand Slam? Uh? I'm there for that.
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 1: This chaos.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd like to see some you know, one or
Speaker 3: two stardom wrestlers and the CMMO performer in there for sure,
Speaker 3: But I don't want any of them to win this.
Speaker 3: I this, this is a this is a this is
Speaker 3: a big show and it needs to be. The women's
Speaker 3: title match needs to be I think like an a
Speaker 3: W s are in my opinion, it shouldn't be a
Speaker 3: third party.
Speaker 1: I don't think that. I don't think the Grand Slam
Speaker 1: is the biggest show as Revolution.
Speaker 3: I mean it's a state I mean it's a stadium show.
Speaker 3: It's a smaller stadium, but it's still a big show.
Speaker 4: But the aview it's not a pay per view.
Speaker 3: It's just it's like it's like Crown Jewel for w W.
Speaker 3: E that one of those big shows.
Speaker 4: It's just like when we went to to the Arthur
Speaker 4: Ash Stadium in New York. I mean, it's just a
Speaker 4: it's a it's a it's no different than Maximum Carnage.
Speaker 4: It's just it is.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a third show and it's five hours long.
Speaker 3: It's it's a it's a big show. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: a pay per view. It may not be streamed as one,
Speaker 3: but they're they're booking it as a as a as
Speaker 3: a pay per view. It's not just like an episode
Speaker 3: of Dynamite or Collision. It's a anyway like seven or
Speaker 3: eight matches on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, the point is is that it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting. That match tonight is one of
Speaker 1: the matches is probably the match the women's Gauntlet matches,
Speaker 1: probably the match that I'm looking forward to the most.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm stoked because it's.
Speaker 1: Got all kinds of possibilities, it's got creative and I
Speaker 1: would love to see. Just last week, I even mentioned
Speaker 1: that this is this could be a catalyst for form
Speaker 1: for forming and tightening up tag teams for women's Tag
Speaker 1: Team Championships that people have been asking for for a
Speaker 1: while now. Not a lot of people are into that,
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of people that are into
Speaker 1: the women's Tag Team Championship and this could really set
Speaker 1: things off.
Speaker 3: Did you see the promo package they put they put
Speaker 3: out for it, and it's.
Speaker 1: Renee I've seen I don't know which.
Speaker 3: It's like a three minute video package they put together.
Speaker 3: I think it was on what I saw on Blue
Speaker 3: Sky It's it's good, especially when you when they clip
Speaker 3: together the clips and they talk a little bit about
Speaker 3: the different performers that could be in it. You forget
Speaker 3: I'll stack the women's roster is and how many good
Speaker 3: performers they have, and I'm with you, like it's uh.
Speaker 3: I mean, this match is always exciting. AW has shown
Speaker 3: that they don't mess around with it, like this is
Speaker 3: their match and they do not take it for granted.
Speaker 3: So they have shown they are going to book it
Speaker 3: really really good, and I'm gonna trust that and say
Speaker 3: I expect this match tomorrow or tonight to be really
Speaker 3: really good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean there's been names like Cabille tossed out there,
Speaker 1: you know, people saying that is would Camille show up
Speaker 1: Sky Blue. I know she's been training. I don't know
Speaker 1: she's cleared or if she's ready yet. I kind of
Speaker 1: doubt it. I would expect her back until around May.
Speaker 1: But hey, she's young, so she they heal faster. You know, Hey,
Speaker 1: maybe even Eddie Kingston will show up, you know, dressed.
Speaker 1: And did you see the pictures of Eddie Kingston training
Speaker 1: this week? He's in training. Yeah, the guy. The guy
Speaker 1: looks like he hasn't showered or shaved since he got injured.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just he's just his beard is just
Speaker 1: it's it's it's impressive because.
Speaker 3: He's got he is he's he has a thick beard too,
Speaker 3: Like so is it just like Grizzly Adams bushy everywhere?
Speaker 1: Oh it's it's literally, you know, and he and you
Speaker 1: kind of tell that he's put on some pounds too, so.
Speaker 4: He's kind of like did you see did you see
Speaker 4: what Ned said in the cat about the women's Gauntlet?
Speaker 4: No made that she predicted Christian Cage catches in it gets.
Speaker 3: I have the greatest women's champion of all time, undisputed. Yea,
Speaker 3: I haven't put over stat there you go.
Speaker 4: That is so funny.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, man, God, I love you. Oh boy.
Speaker 4: I saw that. I had to mention that that just
Speaker 4: that just cracked me.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to bring up something that's been happening,
Speaker 1: and that's the whole Malachi Black House of Black, a
Speaker 1: parent breakup. Now. I've said several times that when it
Speaker 1: comes to Malachi Black, I don't believe anything until Malachi
Speaker 1: Black says something. He's had apple opportunity to say something
Speaker 1: about what's going on, and he frankly hasn't really, So
Speaker 1: I'm kind of along the lines now where either this
Speaker 1: is a huge work or Malachi is gone. And I
Speaker 1: mean we've at all, we've seen the House of Black
Speaker 1: kind of becoming a little bit more. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to put a baby face at all. In they were,
Speaker 1: you know, clapping back, shaking hands, congratulating the winners. They
Speaker 1: continue to do that throughout except for Julia Hart. She's
Speaker 1: still a bitch.
Speaker 2: I only got one thing to say about this. It's it,
Speaker 2: you know, you're waiting for you waiting for me to
Speaker 2: say the thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, if he's going, hey man, see you on NXT.
Speaker 2: Good luck never winning a ww World championship in the
Speaker 2: next five years. Have fun being in a company that
Speaker 2: will never frontrun you because you have tattoos and you're
Speaker 2: not a conventional looking big man. Oh I'm sorry, your
Speaker 2: your wife works there, right, well, have fun with her.
Speaker 2: How she's doing really great things for herself being in
Speaker 2: a stable with a bunch of other latinos that she's
Speaker 2: been doomed in for the past two years. I think
Speaker 2: that's a little I mean, hey, it's very cynical.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like, let me let me temper this a little bit.
Speaker 3: Like this comes just what I was saying earlier, like
Speaker 3: who cares man like Malick? I I don't have a
Speaker 3: problem with them. I don't know why they never put
Speaker 3: him in a singles push. I'm sure there were reasons.
Speaker 3: He was a Triple H guy. They let him go.
Speaker 3: Anybody should have hired him. Tony was smart to hire him.
Speaker 3: I'm fine with what they did. It was pretty clear
Speaker 3: to me when they started letting the guys act more
Speaker 3: like babyfaces. Brody's been over. People want to cheer these guys.
Speaker 3: They started to let him do that. That's when I
Speaker 3: knew Malachi's on his way out. He's probably wanted to
Speaker 3: go back to WWE since Paul got better, Triple God,
Speaker 3: I can't call him. Paul Triple H gets got back
Speaker 3: in charge and his wife works there, and whether he's
Speaker 3: going to be a star or not. That's just where
Speaker 3: he wants to be. So like, I don't see the problem.
Speaker 3: Just just go where you want to be. And part
Speaker 3: of being fans is speculating about this stuff because it means, well,
Speaker 3: how are they going to change booking? What happens to
Speaker 3: these people? I don't understand why people get upset talking
Speaker 3: about that either, Like they're just performers, are going to
Speaker 3: go to where they want to go. Like the Luca Brothers,
Speaker 3: they felt they'd done everything they could in aw they
Speaker 3: wanted to do some new stuff that wasn't going to
Speaker 3: be possible there.
Speaker 1: They went to WWE.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just wrestling, man, That's what happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's just say that Malachi Leeves. What's next
Speaker 1: for the House of Black.
Speaker 4: I don't think it changes. I think I think Brodie
Speaker 4: takes the leading. It's the three of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tag team, let them run like you know, they
Speaker 3: just like they don't all have to be like with
Speaker 3: a figurehead. They can be more of a nu Jaban
Speaker 3: type of stable where it's just a bunch of dudes.
Speaker 3: They got each other's back. They can go as a
Speaker 3: tag team, or Brody can get a singles run or
Speaker 3: Buddy can get a singles run with a belt like
Speaker 3: they're all over, just push them like guys they just
Speaker 3: happen to be in the stable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what is that? What is that that people do that?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: Why does every stable have to be like they are
Speaker 4: always wrestling with each other all the time or in
Speaker 4: that kind of a stable when you can't just have
Speaker 4: guys that are like hanging out and are part of
Speaker 4: a group but are still individuals. I don't get that.
Speaker 3: I always liked how New Japan where the stables come
Speaker 3: out and unless their House of Torture, they're just kind
Speaker 3: of their cheering their bros on. There isn't a lot
Speaker 3: of you know, interference and stuff, but it's just a
Speaker 3: different way of presenting. But you know, I don't know,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Back, one of the things about House of Black that
Speaker 1: is kind of putting people maybe a little bit of
Speaker 1: confusion is the babyface turn almost I guess you could
Speaker 1: say of Buddy Matthews and Brody King. However, it was
Speaker 1: Julia Hart back Dark in the Dark days. She did
Speaker 1: a promo on Dark and I'm going off the top
Speaker 1: of my head here, but basically what she said, she's
Speaker 1: she said, whyired a house of Black so evil? And
Speaker 1: her answer to that was, who said anything about being evil?
Speaker 1: We're just people that enjoy violence. Then she further went
Speaker 1: on to say, good people could do bad things and
Speaker 1: bad people could do good things. It's all perspective. So
Speaker 1: even Julia Hart, even though out of all three the
Speaker 1: remaining members of a House of Black, Julia Hart is
Speaker 1: definitely the most heelish, I guess you could put you
Speaker 1: could say, but even then she's not really a heel.
Speaker 1: She's still more of a tweeter.
Speaker 3: They never did like evil stuff though, Like they didn't
Speaker 3: light anybody on fire. They didn't put you know, I
Speaker 3: mean like they were heels in the sense that they
Speaker 3: wrestled like heels. But they even didn't do cheap heel stuff.
Speaker 3: There weren't a lot of rough bumps things like that.
Speaker 3: Julie would spit people's faces. But they were just bad guys,
Speaker 3: you know. And it was a different approach to a
Speaker 3: heel because they weren't like devilish or evil heels. They
Speaker 3: were just bad guys. They were just the big bruiser
Speaker 3: bad guys you're supposed to boo. And it wasn't really
Speaker 3: much more complicated than that that they did occasional spooky
Speaker 3: stuff that was cool with the lights go ahead, but.
Speaker 2: They were fighting with honor. That was the whole angle.
Speaker 2: You know, like we're doing this not because we want to,
Speaker 2: because we feel that that had a code, you know.
Speaker 2: And uh And I also wanted to point something out,
Speaker 2: like you were talking about Julia Hart and the House
Speaker 2: of Black in a relationship to like heal behavior, and
Speaker 2: then you said something about, you know, Buddy Matthews having
Speaker 2: his call come up andce and having kind of like
Speaker 2: a babyface turn. That's not a new thing. This started
Speaker 2: back in Halloween, like during the Adam Cole match man
Speaker 2: Buddy came out. I was like, hey man, you're better
Speaker 2: than this. We see what you're capable of doing. Like
Speaker 2: like they've been running this angle with Brody and Buddy
Speaker 2: for like the past couple of months, so did did
Speaker 2: It's it's.
Speaker 1: Been running this angle with Cody with Buddy and Rody
Speaker 1: sends all in in August.
Speaker 3: People have wanted to cheer them, and they figured out
Speaker 3: a way to let him start and the that's smart.
Speaker 2: So is is this a work? Is Malachi blackdn is
Speaker 2: the case?
Speaker 4: I think you're still on the second honeymoon.
Speaker 2: No, I think he's gone. I think I on, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's on his way out. Like like again, like do
Speaker 2: you don't find his like like, let's let's let's put
Speaker 2: a let's put a it on the k fabe stuff.
Speaker 2: I believe that every single time he's ever hopped on
Speaker 2: an Instagram live or a Facebook live or had to
Speaker 2: respond to something happening in the dirt sheats, it's been
Speaker 2: a bit, a bit, a bit disingenuous. Like you've had
Speaker 2: the opportunity from day one to say, hey man, I'm
Speaker 2: here and I'm doing this. You shouldn't wait until catastrophe
Speaker 2: to say hey man, no, I'm here, because you know
Speaker 2: you have to be Now, he has options in his contract.
Speaker 2: They could be activated from both angles. He has been injured.
Speaker 2: He could be sitting adult twenty twenty six, you know,
Speaker 2: or he could reactivate and do some more things. None
Speaker 2: of those things have been clear, you know. It's the
Speaker 2: same thing as Ray Phoenix. Like like, I believe that
Speaker 2: Tony will hold on to him with the injury option
Speaker 2: to prevent him from going over there and think about
Speaker 2: like in in his most if we were just talking
Speaker 2: about outside of wrestling, he just renewed his vows to
Speaker 2: Selena Vega two weekends ago. What do you think was
Speaker 2: happening at You'd think him and his wife don't talk
Speaker 2: loog What if I came back over. What if we
Speaker 2: could spend our time together full time? What if we
Speaker 2: could focus on our combat sports Jim or our gym
Speaker 2: or our business training other professional wrestlers, and that's all
Speaker 2: centralized in Florida, around of territory that ww's built out
Speaker 2: of his most his for his future, the most you know,
Speaker 2: the rewarding prospect would be to go back to the FED,
Speaker 2: even if he's never going to hold the belt. Yes,
Speaker 2: I was being cynical making that statement before, but in
Speaker 2: the better interest in the future of his career being
Speaker 2: with being a triple H guy works for him. I
Speaker 2: just like Ethan Page, you know, I know I came
Speaker 2: off as a dick before. I wish him well, same
Speaker 2: as Penta. Dude, Sea have a good time over there.
Speaker 2: Maybe you'll wrap back around. We could do cool things
Speaker 2: with wrestling in the future when these two companies learned
Speaker 2: how to actually work well together, which they could, you know,
Speaker 2: But again that's a topic for another podcast. But I
Speaker 2: think he's gone. I think I think this is bon
Speaker 2: bon bon voyage. I think they had the opportunity to
Speaker 2: put a lid on this gracefully and they didn't do it.
Speaker 2: And now he's just doing what he wants to do
Speaker 2: until he knows that he could start talking about talking
Speaker 2: about what he actually wants to be doing.
Speaker 1: Right. I agree, I agree, I agree with you. I
Speaker 1: do think he's gone. And I've been very much of
Speaker 1: a proponent for stating emphatically wait until we hear from
Speaker 1: Balachie Black before we jumped the conclusions. The fact to
Speaker 1: the batter is we haven't heard from Malachi Black.
Speaker 3: I mean, even if he isn't gone and he takes
Speaker 3: a two year hiatus then comes back or is gone
Speaker 3: for eight months and comes back because of some obligation
Speaker 3: in a contract or whatever, regardless, I mean, it doesn't
Speaker 3: really matter. I think everything Shane articulated is something that
Speaker 3: people forget when they talk about professional wrestling, and that
Speaker 3: these are human beings and they make decisions based on
Speaker 3: the type of life they want to live, not the
Speaker 3: type of people we want to see in these characters
Speaker 3: on this fictional television show we tune into multiple times
Speaker 3: a week, you have to look at them as actors
Speaker 3: and a television show and not as people politicking and
Speaker 3: fighting for a top spot in a real combat league.
Speaker 3: They're going to make decisions that make sense for them
Speaker 3: and for their families. It could be a financial decision,
Speaker 3: it could be a personal goal decision, all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3: And the thing that always bugs me is when I
Speaker 3: hear people like attack stuff people. And I know Shane
Speaker 3: was being cynical earlier, That's why I called it out.
Speaker 3: It's just like, you know, they're just people, man, and
Speaker 3: they're going to go where they want to go, and
Speaker 3: fans shouldn't take this as a personal attack on them
Speaker 3: because they're leaving their favorite promotion to go work somewhere else.
Speaker 3: A lot of these people, it's a very small community
Speaker 3: of professional wrestlers. It may seem like it's a lot,
Speaker 3: but it isn't when you look at it as an industry,
Speaker 3: and everybody knows when you work for a boss you
Speaker 3: like working for sometimes you'll go work for them again,
Speaker 3: even though it's for a less prestigious job or a
Speaker 3: less prestigious position, because you enjoy working for them. And
Speaker 3: that's what a lot of it it is. For when
Speaker 3: people switch and move around too, they just think with
Speaker 3: certain people, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Plus they want to try new things too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean obviously Malachi Black has been in
Speaker 1: that in the WWE before. But look the way I
Speaker 1: look at it is this, if Malachie Black comes back
Speaker 1: to AW or if he never leaves AW, I'm happy.
Speaker 1: Not that it means anything to him, but I respect him.
Speaker 1: I really do. I mean that sincerely. Again, he probably
Speaker 1: doesn't care if I respect him or not. He's going
Speaker 1: to do what he wants to do, and that's fine.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying is that if he goes to WWE, man,
Speaker 1: I wish him the best of luck, and I want
Speaker 1: him to be what his perception of being successful. I
Speaker 1: want him to get what he wants out of it.
Speaker 1: It's as simple as that. Let's move on to our poet,
Speaker 1: pride to pope. Pre resection is where we can bring
Speaker 1: up anything that we've already talked about, say something else
Speaker 1: or just something new off the top of our head,
Speaker 1: off on top of our heads for anything in pro wrestling. So,
Speaker 1: is there anybody who wants to go first?
Speaker 2: I'll be fun, I'll be quick, go ahead, go ahead,
Speaker 2: I'm scrolling uh pro wrestling news right now, and Penta
Speaker 2: just did just did a photo shoot with George Kittle
Speaker 2: from the Forts, and it's well, they're friends.
Speaker 1: I love their relationship. That's something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they're they're friends in real life and they
Speaker 2: they have a great relationship and they were both injured
Speaker 2: for half a year, so like, uh yeah, no, it's
Speaker 2: fun that that's this is the real world connecting to
Speaker 2: the things that I love and it's great to see
Speaker 2: man have fun. Yeah, good luck, good luck in the
Speaker 2: playoffs forty nine ers.
Speaker 1: Doctor J Man. We just lost all of our San
Speaker 1: Francisco fans. Going with that, I do want to say something.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to piggyback on you. There, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, a W just also lost all their PETSA fans, and.
Speaker 1: We have a very strong uh you know, following an
Speaker 1: a W fan hub, somebody posted a there's been more
Speaker 1: than one post about Peta going to w W and
Speaker 1: a W fans. You know, I got to give them credit.
Speaker 1: A W fans are the type where with Panta you know,
Speaker 1: and others, you know, with anybody that's left, you know,
Speaker 1: J Cargill, Uh uh gosh, who's who else has got
Speaker 1: from a W two Brian Page, Well, seem punk. We're
Speaker 1: not going to talk about punk started that guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But the thing but the thing is is that in
Speaker 1: true form, a W fans have been exclusively I haven't
Speaker 1: seen anybody talk bad about Panta. Yeah. Everybody is luck,
Speaker 1: you know, best of success, and a W fans do that.
Speaker 2: Did you see did you see that Gable match? It
Speaker 2: was great?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think I think I didn't see some of that.
Speaker 3: Some of that is because I've said this before that
Speaker 3: a W fans are professional wrestling fans first, AW fans second,
Speaker 3: just like we so we do have a different perspective.
Speaker 3: In general, there are going to be idiots out there
Speaker 3: that hate because they're just they're mar super marks or
Speaker 3: whatever fandom extremes that are going to be shitty to
Speaker 3: people who leave. But most of us, the vast majority,
Speaker 3: are pro wrestling fans first, and we want to see
Speaker 3: performers we like succeed, and if it means going somewhere
Speaker 3: else for them, great, We're still going to tune in
Speaker 3: and watch them because they're great, and if we don't
Speaker 3: like them, we'll change the channel, you.
Speaker 1: Know, right, Well, does anybody else have a potpourri that
Speaker 1: they want to bring up.
Speaker 4: I got one. What in that? Til? Is everybody making
Speaker 4: such a big damn deal about All in Texas being
Speaker 4: WWE scheduling a Saturday Night's main event on the same night. Hell,
Speaker 4: it's Saturday Night, WWE's worst show they ever do. It's Saturay,
Speaker 4: nice main event.
Speaker 2: Who cares?
Speaker 4: You have anything good on there?
Speaker 3: At least they didn't run a house show the same
Speaker 3: night like they did here in Orlando the Night of World.
Speaker 4: People were going crazy.
Speaker 2: Who cares?
Speaker 1: People? It's just like the people they are going to
Speaker 1: go to a w w W show are the people
Speaker 1: that are generally not going to go to an a
Speaker 1: W show, and vice versa. I see a lot of people,
Speaker 1: I see a lot of w W fans say that
Speaker 1: they're watching all in and they're gonna d v R
Speaker 1: Saturday Nights made an event and then what was.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think I don't think this is a real thing.
Speaker 3: This is this is very online. This is a very
Speaker 3: online thing. It is not something normal people care about exactly.
Speaker 3: I think Someton's right. It's it's just it's not a
Speaker 3: thing you.
Speaker 4: Have one of the congratulations to the van v Erics.
Speaker 4: They are officially a.
Speaker 1: W now, oh good for those Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: They were on a they were on the H part
Speaker 4: time or the per per use contract than they are
Speaker 4: now all elait So that's kind of cool, some young blood.
Speaker 3: If you're going to try the tag should go ahead.
Speaker 1: Kelson, I'm sorry, Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: totally all boared with that. They're great. I enjoyed everything
Speaker 1: that I've seen from them.
Speaker 4: That's just took. They have better luck than the rest
Speaker 4: of the famely.
Speaker 2: Yeah please, yeah, look already wasted.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll wrap up here. So I mentioned the show
Speaker 3: already once before, but I'm super excited. Friday is season
Speaker 3: two's premiere of Severance on Apple TV or Apple Plus
Speaker 3: or whatever it's called. If you like hard science fiction,
Speaker 3: it is a fantastic drama. It's one of those shows
Speaker 3: where you only need to watch the first episode. You'll
Speaker 3: know if you like it or you won't. You don't
Speaker 3: have to go good to get six episod now none
Speaker 3: of that. You like it or you won't, And if
Speaker 3: you like it, you're gonna be really excit about Friday.
Speaker 3: So I can't wait for season two.
Speaker 1: Just who's the number one contender for the belt there
Speaker 1: on that show.
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, there's such a cliffhanger at the end.
Speaker 1: Okay, well I have a potpourri. Uh. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a two parter, but they're basically both the same.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: They were actually doing a free count at the end
Speaker 3: of the show too, like literally they were counting down
Speaker 3: and it ended.
Speaker 1: So so over the weekend, we saw Athena defend her
Speaker 1: Forever Championship against Decla and Stardom.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you saw the match, it
Speaker 1: was it was a really good match. H After the
Speaker 1: match the started, people the started, fans started chanting Athena's name,
Speaker 1: and I mean she was balling her eyes out. I
Speaker 1: mean you could tell how much it meant to her.
Speaker 1: It was just seriously congratulations to Athena. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that happened there. Uh, this is where the
Speaker 1: Pope Mari comes in, is that we had two challenges
Speaker 1: issued over the weekend. The first challenge was made by
Speaker 1: Athena to THEKLA for rematch in the United States. So
Speaker 1: maybe you know we mentioned somebody mentioned I think it
Speaker 1: was Shane mentioned maybe at the Casino Gauntlet that Athena coming.
Speaker 2: No, that was Barry, but I would love to that
Speaker 2: was Barry. That was Barry.
Speaker 1: I would love to see it too.
Speaker 3: And there's book comes in and like Sad earlier, you
Speaker 3: can use that and they can take care of themselves.
Speaker 1: Maybe THEKLA comes in the other one that was I
Speaker 1: don't know how to feel about this. Another challenge was
Speaker 1: issued in the women's division, and over the weekend, the
Speaker 1: challenge was issued to Mercedes Monette by Mina Shirakawa.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I really don't know how to feel
Speaker 1: about that because I love me to Shira Kala, but
Speaker 1: I'm hired to see her lose a big matches so always,
Speaker 1: you know, she deserves better. If they do this match
Speaker 1: and she loses, I'm rioting. I may be the only
Speaker 1: person rioting and I'll probably get killed, but I'm rioting.
Speaker 1: I'm literally gonna go to the bus stop and just riot.
Speaker 3: Mena's not penning Mercedes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's just it's to the point where
Speaker 1: I love me to Shira Kala. I really have grown
Speaker 1: to really, really really appreciate Mercedes Monette. I wasn't a
Speaker 1: big fan when she first came into the into aw
Speaker 1: but she is really growing up. I mean, she's put
Speaker 1: on some of the best women's matches in the women's
Speaker 1: division in the last just over the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: she's really come into her own.
Speaker 2: I have to.
Speaker 1: You know, I made fun of her when she came
Speaker 1: into the aw for horrible promos and frankly subpar matches.
Speaker 1: But she's nail at her promos lately, and she's literally
Speaker 1: having some of the best matches in the women's division
Speaker 1: that you will be, that you will find. And on
Speaker 1: top of that, she's traveling around the world promoting ae W.
Speaker 1: She was on the Cherry Sherry Shepherd Show. You know,
Speaker 1: she's out there. She's doing the work. I think fans
Speaker 1: over whether you like Mercedes Monet or not, I think
Speaker 1: she deserves some flowers. I really do. So, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I wanted to say. Well, that's my potpourri,
Speaker 1: and that's that's the show. We will be back tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: right after Dynamite or tonight right after Dynamite. I keep
Speaker 1: messing that up. I don't know. I don't know my days.
Speaker 1: We've already known that before. You should have heard me
Speaker 1: make some introductions, you know, for for Tuesday night and
Speaker 1: Wednesday night and got Tom messed up. But anyway, we
Speaker 1: will be back tonight after Dynamite to do our Dynamite
Speaker 1: review show. And I'm thinking we're gonna have fun. I
Speaker 1: think that this is gonna be a fun show, especially
Speaker 1: because other women's casino Gotlin match. That's the big one
Speaker 1: for me. And hey, if something unexpected happens with Hobbes
Speaker 1: and Moxley, I have a feeling we're gonna be popping
Speaker 1: some champagne or doing some vodka shots. Eh, Shane.
Speaker 2: Whiskey. I'm not drinking, you guy, I have not drinking weeks.
Speaker 2: But if but if, yeah, swear to god, but if
Speaker 2: Hobbs goes over, I'll drink one of that.
Speaker 1: There you go, We'll pop pop a beer whatever the rest.
Speaker 2: Of us, you know, good luck Hobbs Vodka whiskey, Roca.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I'm going at a set kind of guy myself.
Speaker 1: So that stuff will burn you if you try to
Speaker 1: do a shot of it. But anyway, there comes out
Speaker 1: of your toes if you do a shot of that.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so that is the show for tonight. Guys,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. We'll see you again after Dynamite forty
Speaker 1: a w FANO podcast team. This is Kelson, good night, everybody,
Speaker 1: May you night, Sonton