# Sound Off 985 - AEW WrestleDream REVIEW, WWE And Montez Ford "LAP DANCE" LAWSUIT

An episode of [Solomonster Sounds Off](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/313139609), 18 Oct 2026, 2 h 11 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/35/clrtpod.com/m/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75850460/solomonster985.mp3

It's been three weeks since AEW star PAC passed away and now that we know the cause of death, it just makes the story even sadder... the latest on Crown Jewel still being planned for Riyadh... WWE and Montez Ford hit with 14 COUNTS in a lawsuit claiming an "unwanted sexualized lap dance" took place on Raw and why the suit does have merit... why Carmelo Hayes joining 946 on Monday was great, and why Smackdown on Friday was NOT great... then it's my full AEW WRESTLEDREAM REVIEW with thoughts on the Clockwork Carnage main event, Ilja Dragunov's debut and thoughts on Adam Copeland announcing his retirement in 2027... plus YOUR questions on The Rock and 946, doing Roman against Oba BEFORE Wrestlemania, someone explains why they didn't like my War Games idea and who had the worse Reign of Terror, Triple H or Jeff Jarrett? *** Follow Solomonster on X (formerly Twitter) for news and opinion: http://x.com/solomonster Subscribe to the Solomonster Sounds Off on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSolomonster?sub_confirmation=1 Become a Solomonster Sounds Off Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9jcg7mk93fGNqWPMfl_Aig/join

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monster
[0:05] Speaker 1: Sounds Off. I love you, Solo! Mama Monster! Concord! My home!
[0:11] Speaker 1: I want your soul. You've got grown-ass wrestlers in the
[0:15] Speaker 1: back going on Twitter. You have legs. I was 99%
[0:23] Speaker 1: positive it was just chest up. I have been begging
[0:27] Speaker 1: him for a job on every platform I can, and
[0:30] Speaker 1: I want to know the reason why he won't hire me.
[0:34] Speaker 1: Welcome to episode 985 of the Solomonster Sounds Off for Sunday,
[0:38] Speaker 1: October 18th, 2026. I am the Solomonster. Three weeks after
[0:44] Speaker 1: Ben Satterly, better known as the Bastard Pack, passed away
[0:48] Speaker 1: at the age of 40, we now have a cause
[0:50] Speaker 1: of death. As reported by the California Post, the Cook
[0:54] Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner's Office has determined that Pack died of
[0:57] Speaker 1: natural causes from bronchial asthma. Which sounds like a horrific
[1:02] Speaker 1: way to go, not being able to breathe. And it's
[1:05] Speaker 1: sadder because it's pretty rare that asthma kills. Not that
[1:08] Speaker 1: it doesn't happen, but it's preventable enough that it doesn't
[1:11] Speaker 1: happen very often. What's even crazier is that there was
[1:14] Speaker 1: an actress who died this summer from something similar. When
[1:18] Speaker 1: she was younger, she appeared on the Nickelodeon show All That.
[1:21] Speaker 1: She was hospitalized after an asthma attack in August and
[1:24] Speaker 1: died of cardiac arrest, but they listed asthma as the
[1:27] Speaker 1: underlying cause. I mean, shit, August is when Athena wrestled
[1:31] Speaker 1: that match at Death Before Dishonor. Remember, I talked about
[1:34] Speaker 1: that where she had to use her inhaler mid-match, then
[1:38] Speaker 1: went back and wrestled another 20 or 25 minutes. With Pac,
[1:42] Speaker 1: I don't know if he was ever diagnosed and had
[1:45] Speaker 1: rescue inhalers or if he was on any kind of
[1:47] Speaker 1: medication for it. I remember the police report when they
[1:50] Speaker 1: found him said they found medication in his car. Now
[1:54] Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it may have been asthma medication. You know,
[1:56] Speaker 1: we just don't know. But it's such a small, infinitesimal
[2:01] Speaker 1: number of people who die of it in this country
[2:03] Speaker 1: each year. Something like less than half a percent. It's
[2:07] Speaker 1: just such a senseless death. I do like what AEW
[2:10] Speaker 1: did with the Full Gear logo this year, though. With
[2:13] Speaker 1: the banner for it, where they incorporated different elements for Pac.
[2:16] Speaker 1: Like the chair with the towel draped over it. And
[2:19] Speaker 1: some signage. The Full Gear pay-per-view got its name because
[2:23] Speaker 1: of Pac. He's the entire reason there even is a
[2:26] Speaker 1: Full Gear logo. Back when he showed up to that
[2:28] Speaker 1: very first AEW press conference in 2019, he was dressed
[2:32] Speaker 1: in full gear. Even though he had no match, he
[2:34] Speaker 1: was the only one. I'm going to be talking about
[2:37] Speaker 1: AEW a little bit later. I got a full WrestleDream recap.
[2:41] Speaker 1: You get the first one here on the podcast this week.
[2:44] Speaker 1: Got some news on a lawsuit against WWE and Montez Ford.
[2:50] Speaker 1: And then we got a shitload of mailbag questions you
[2:52] Speaker 1: guys delivered this week. So we're going to be getting
[2:54] Speaker 1: into that as well. If you want to make a
[2:56] Speaker 1: PayPal donation and support the show, you may do so
[2:58] Speaker 1: on thesolomonster.com. $ 10 or more will get you a nickname
[3:01] Speaker 1: and a shout-out. I want to say thank you to
[3:04] Speaker 1: the Portland pop star, Paul Hamilton. Keep popping away. Big B,
[3:09] Speaker 1: Bryant Becerra. The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soep. Velvet Revolver,
[3:14] Speaker 1: Robert Murray. The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichard. Night Stalker, Nayaf Alsafar.
[3:21] Speaker 1: It's good to hear from you, my friend. Recon Russell Boulware,
[3:24] Speaker 1: thank you for the double drop. I hope you're having
[3:26] Speaker 1: a good weekend. Big time Boris Vainman and Killshot Keith Hart.
[3:32] Speaker 1: And our friends at WrestleRave. They have a big show
[3:36] Speaker 1: coming up this Saturday, October 24th. Ghouls Night Out. I
[3:41] Speaker 1: love it. WrestleRave returns to Tomball, Texas at 4.03 Eats.
[3:47] Speaker 1: which is Tom Ball's food truck park. You can see
[3:49] Speaker 1: WrestleRave champion Epidemius Jr. now in his second reign as champion.
[3:55] Speaker 1: You know, he beat Kenny King for that belt. Here
[3:57] Speaker 1: he defends his title against former AEW star Gravity in
[4:01] Speaker 1: his WrestleRave debut, the brother of Bandito, who had a
[4:05] Speaker 1: hell of a night last night at WrestleDream that we're
[4:08] Speaker 1: going to be talking about. But that's going to be
[4:10] Speaker 1: a must-see lucha fight. Plus, they're hosting their first ever
[4:13] Speaker 1: casket match, a wild trick or street fight and a
[4:17] Speaker 1: Halloween costume contest for fans of all ages. Get your
[4:21] Speaker 1: tickets now at WRaveMerch.com. And if you can't be there
[4:25] Speaker 1: in person, you can catch full events on their YouTube
[4:28] Speaker 1: page with exclusive commentary from Walker Stewart, who we just
[4:32] Speaker 1: heard on AEW Dynamite this week. I love that. Ghouls
[4:36] Speaker 1: Night Out. Maybe Ghoulberg will make an appearance on the show.
[4:39] Speaker 1: You never know. You never know. I don't believe there
[4:43] Speaker 1: have been any more attacks on Riyadh since I talked
[4:45] Speaker 1: about the Crown Jewel stuff on last week's show. Last weekend,
[4:49] Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday, back-to-back days of attacks on the airport there.
[4:53] Speaker 1: All happening just a few weeks before WWE flies over
[4:56] Speaker 1: there for Crown Jewel. But they are still very much
[4:59] Speaker 1: in the danger zone if and when they fly over there.
[5:02] Speaker 1: And TKO has decided so far not to pull out.
[5:06] Speaker 1: It is business as usual. but Saudi officials say the
[5:09] Speaker 1: airport there has been attacked 20 times in the last month.
[5:14] Speaker 1: A spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said
[5:18] Speaker 1: those recent attacks led to the deaths of 17 people
[5:22] Speaker 1: and wounded 333 others. Turkey Al-Ashiq, who's the money man
[5:27] Speaker 1: behind all these different sports events coming to Saudi, including WWE,
[5:31] Speaker 1: he announced that the Six Kings Slam tennis tournament, slated
[5:34] Speaker 1: to begin October 21st, will now begin on December 27th.
[5:38] Speaker 1: The tournament pits six of the top tennis players in
[5:41] Speaker 1: the world against each other. I would be surprised if
[5:43] Speaker 1: it even happens then. Also, FIFA and the Saudi Sports
[5:47] Speaker 1: Federation this week postponed the FIFA e-finals just one day
[5:51] Speaker 1: before it was slated to open due to all the
[5:53] Speaker 1: instability in the region right now. That's in addition to
[5:57] Speaker 1: the eSports Nations Cup, originally scheduled for next month, which
[6:01] Speaker 1: was delayed until November of 2027. And the Soundstorm Music Festival,
[6:06] Speaker 1: which is the biggest EDM music festival in the Middle East,
[6:09] Speaker 1: set for December, that has been postponed until 2027 as well.
[6:15] Speaker 1: But as of now, Crown Jewel will go on. And
[6:19] Speaker 1: it's all just so disgusting. Dave Meltzer says they're not
[6:23] Speaker 1: even going to publicly say or admit that there's any
[6:26] Speaker 1: sort of backup plan, which of course there should be,
[6:30] Speaker 1: because that would be awfully stupid if there wasn't. But
[6:33] Speaker 1: they can't say that publicly for fear of angering Al-Ashiq.
[6:36] Speaker 1: They don't want to upset the golden goose. He also
[6:40] Speaker 1: said that he heard that WWE wasn't thrilled that some
[6:43] Speaker 1: of the employees, not the wrestlers, but the other folks
[6:45] Speaker 1: who would be traveling to Saudi to work the show
[6:48] Speaker 1: and set everything up, that they were apparently talking privately
[6:52] Speaker 1: about not wanting to go. Oh, what a terrible thing. Good.
[6:57] Speaker 1: I wish they would all go public with those feelings,
[6:59] Speaker 1: them and the wrestlers, in a perfect world. They would
[7:02] Speaker 1: all come out and say something about it. The wrestlers,
[7:05] Speaker 1: at least, you know, are independent contractors and all. But
[7:09] Speaker 1: a perfect world is one in which we do not live.
[7:11] Speaker 1: If it was, then rockets and missiles would not be
[7:13] Speaker 1: killing people in the first place. And I talked about
[7:17] Speaker 1: this also. This is part of this story as well.
[7:19] Speaker 1: I talked about this on the Young Crown Wrestling Show
[7:21] Speaker 1: on Tuesday. This Canelo Alvarez situation is only going to
[7:24] Speaker 1: make it more likely that they stay the course on this.
[7:28] Speaker 1: Alvarez is a boxer. He's got a big fight coming
[7:31] Speaker 1: up on Halloween in Riyadh. And according to Alashik, he
[7:35] Speaker 1: tweeted himself, Canelo reached out and told me he'll still
[7:39] Speaker 1: fight in Riyadh this October no matter what happens. He
[7:42] Speaker 1: fears nothing. My country is home to the two holy mosques,
[7:46] Speaker 1: land of peace, safety, rich civilization, deep history, and kind-hearted people.
[7:51] Speaker 1: Thank you to everyone who checked in and showed support.
[7:54] Speaker 1: Hard times reveal true friends. That's a message. That's a
[7:59] Speaker 1: message being sent to Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro and
[8:03] Speaker 1: Nick Khan and all the decision makers involved with TKO
[8:06] Speaker 1: and WWE. If you're with us, you'll run the show.
[8:10] Speaker 1: And if you're not, then you won't. That doesn't sound
[8:13] Speaker 1: like a friendship so much as it does a toxic relationship.
[8:17] Speaker 1: His definition of a friend is different than mine or yours.
[8:21] Speaker 1: With all these other events being postponed or canceled... Maybe
[8:25] Speaker 1: in the end they pull the plug on all of them.
[8:26] Speaker 1: Maybe they delay Riyadh season for another time if these
[8:30] Speaker 1: attacks were to keep up. But even if the attacks
[8:32] Speaker 1: subside for a little bit, WWE should not be running
[8:35] Speaker 1: this show in Riyadh. This situation is not going to
[8:39] Speaker 1: suddenly change and go away in the next three weeks.
[8:42] Speaker 1: Every day that goes by that they don't pull the
[8:44] Speaker 1: plug on this makes them look like fucking cowards. All
[8:48] Speaker 1: to make sure the stock price doesn't tank if they
[8:51] Speaker 1: upset the wrong people. WrestleMania should be really fun next year,
[8:55] Speaker 1: especially if things don't get any better between now and then.
[8:58] Speaker 1: You think this crown jewel crap is a big headache.
[9:01] Speaker 1: Imagine if those missiles are still flying in April. On
[9:05] Speaker 1: a nicer note, to give them their flowers when they
[9:08] Speaker 1: deserve them, we learned this week that WWE, through a
[9:11] Speaker 1: decision made by one Nick Khan, paid for former WWE, WCW,
[9:16] Speaker 1: and ECW star Psychosis, the OG Psychosis, to undergo a
[9:20] Speaker 1: hip replacement. He's under a Legends deal with the company.
[9:24] Speaker 1: Rey Mysterio is said to be the one who really
[9:26] Speaker 1: pushed for this. And Nick Khan approved it. That's about
[9:29] Speaker 1: a $ 50, 000 surgery. You know, Sekosis was a regular opponent
[9:34] Speaker 1: of Mysterio's. He gave him some of the best matches
[9:37] Speaker 1: of his career, which really helped get Rey noticed and
[9:39] Speaker 1: ultimately signed by all the major companies. So he owes
[9:42] Speaker 1: a lot to that man. So good on them. This
[9:46] Speaker 1: is not so good, though. Post Wrestling broke the news
[9:50] Speaker 1: on Thursday that WWE and Montez Ford of the Street
[9:54] Speaker 1: Profits are being sued by a security guard over an
[9:58] Speaker 1: unwanted sexual assault. lap dance on Monday Night Raw back
[10:02] Speaker 1: in July. Ford and Angelo Dawkins, they've both been off television.
[10:06] Speaker 1: Their wives gave birth. They have not wrestled a match
[10:10] Speaker 1: since The Vision took the tag team titles from them
[10:12] Speaker 1: in July, which happens to also be the same night
[10:15] Speaker 1: that this incident took place. And by the way, Bron
[10:18] Speaker 1: Breaker and Austin Theory are They have exactly zero title
[10:22] Speaker 1: defenses since winning the belts that night. And here the
[10:26] Speaker 1: internet tried to tell me that WWE was getting serious
[10:29] Speaker 1: about wanting to revamp the tag team division. Fuck off
[10:32] Speaker 1: with that nonsense. A Cook County Sheriff's officer who was
[10:36] Speaker 1: working off-duty security at a July episode of WWE Monday
[10:40] Speaker 1: Night Raw has sued WWE and Montez Ford, whose legal
[10:44] Speaker 1: name is Kenneth Crawford, alleging that Crawford performed an unwanted
[10:48] Speaker 1: sexualized lap dance on him during a live Netflix broadcast
[10:52] Speaker 1: and that WWE then promoted the footage on social media.
[10:55] Speaker 1: The moment was part of the Street Profits entrance as
[10:58] Speaker 1: Crawford and tag team partner Angelo Dawkins made their way
[11:02] Speaker 1: to the ring for a match that night at the
[11:04] Speaker 1: Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Now,
[11:08] Speaker 1: I don't believe, let me stop here for a second,
[11:10] Speaker 1: I don't believe This aired for everyone during the live show.
[11:15] Speaker 1: I think it aired during the commercial break, because I
[11:17] Speaker 1: remember talking about it during my Raw review that night.
[11:21] Speaker 1: But they came through the crowd, and the security guard
[11:24] Speaker 1: was sitting with his back up against the barricade, looking
[11:28] Speaker 1: at the fans at ringside. And Montez just starts giving
[11:32] Speaker 1: him a show. An uncomfortably close show, right up in
[11:37] Speaker 1: his face. and he's gyrating, and he's moving around, and
[11:40] Speaker 1: he just keeps going and going and going, and then
[11:43] Speaker 1: he starts gyrating and thrusting himself right in the guy's face.
[11:48] Speaker 1: The guy tried to laugh it off at one... I mean,
[11:49] Speaker 1: he didn't seem amused by this at all. It's not
[11:52] Speaker 1: like he was playing around, or playing along, rather. But
[11:56] Speaker 1: at one point, he tried to laugh it off. You
[11:58] Speaker 1: could tell, though, again, he was not amused. And Angelo
[12:01] Speaker 1: Dawkins even tried to pull his partner away. I don't
[12:03] Speaker 1: know what was in that red Solo cup that night,
[12:06] Speaker 1: but Ford, he was... Feel in a certain kind of way.
[12:10] Speaker 1: The security guard, Noel Lucas, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday
[12:13] Speaker 1: in the Circuit Court of Cook County alleging 14 counts.
[12:18] Speaker 1: I guess one for each thrust. Including assault, battery, intentional
[12:23] Speaker 1: infliction of emotional distress, and violations of the Illinois Gender
[12:26] Speaker 1: Violence Act. The named defendants are WWE, Crawford, and the
[12:31] Speaker 1: company's subsidiary, Event Services, LLC. As of Thursday evening, the
[12:36] Speaker 1: current version of the July 6th Raw on Netflix does
[12:39] Speaker 1: not include the interaction between Crawford and Lucas. The video
[12:42] Speaker 1: appears to go to a break early in the Street
[12:44] Speaker 1: Profits entrance. Which, again, it would if they went to
[12:48] Speaker 1: a break. I don't think, at least not on the U.S. broadcast,
[12:51] Speaker 1: that the replay would include the stuff that happens during
[12:54] Speaker 1: the ad breaks. Lucas says Crawford danced toward him without
[12:59] Speaker 1: warning and without his consent. The video got hundreds of
[13:03] Speaker 1: thousands of views, Lucas says, including on WWE and Crawford's
[13:06] Speaker 1: own social media accounts. As a result of the attention
[13:09] Speaker 1: the clip got, the plaintiff says that he became publicly recognizable.
[13:13] Speaker 1: The next day, when he reported to work at his
[13:15] Speaker 1: full-time job working at a courthouse, he alleges that members
[13:19] Speaker 1: of the public recognized him from the videos of the
[13:21] Speaker 1: encounter that had circulated on social media and mocked him,
[13:25] Speaker 1: thrusting their hips in his direction, imitating the sexual movements
[13:29] Speaker 1: of that Crawford had performed on Raw the previous night.
[13:33] Speaker 1: Lucas adds that his children have also been mocked and
[13:35] Speaker 1: ridiculed at school because of the video. Because of that,
[13:38] Speaker 1: Lucas' lawsuit says he suffered humiliation, embarrassment, and emotional distress,
[13:44] Speaker 1: and that he continues to suffer because the video has
[13:46] Speaker 1: been widely shared and remains publicly available online. Lucas' face
[13:51] Speaker 1: is readily visible in the clip, so he also complains
[13:53] Speaker 1: that WWE and Crawford used his image for commercial purposes,
[13:56] Speaker 1: which he alleges violates the Illinois Right of Publicity Act.
[14:00] Speaker 1: Like so many law enforcement officers, Mr. Lucas works a
[14:03] Speaker 1: second job in order to better provide for his children,
[14:07] Speaker 1: said Whitney Barr, an attorney for Lucas, in a press release.
[14:11] Speaker 1: In addition to his job for the Cook County Sheriff's Department,
[14:14] Speaker 1: Lucas also supervises a team of security guards for the
[14:17] Speaker 1: private security firm Monterey Security. which is how he ended
[14:20] Speaker 1: up working security at Raw. According to the legal complaint,
[14:24] Speaker 1: Lucas was instructed by a WWE employee to take his
[14:27] Speaker 1: position near ringside. His suit describes the moment that Crawford
[14:30] Speaker 1: approached him during the live broadcast. Defendant Crawford began performing
[14:36] Speaker 1: a sexually provocative dance immediately in front of an over plaintiff,
[14:41] Speaker 1: repeatedly thrusting and gyrating his hips and pelvis towards the
[14:44] Speaker 1: plaintiff performing a sexualized lap dance. The filing says Crawford, quote,
[14:49] Speaker 1: moved his body increasingly closer to Lucas, continued the lap dance.
[14:55] Speaker 1: The suit adds that Crawford's left inner thigh repeatedly rubbed
[14:59] Speaker 1: against plaintiff's leg. Lucas is asking the court to award
[15:02] Speaker 1: him unspecified monetary damages, punitive damages, his legal costs, and
[15:07] Speaker 1: to order that WWE and Crawford cannot use his identity.
[15:11] Speaker 1: A case management hearing is set for December 10th. I
[15:15] Speaker 1: know some people are going to hear this and they're
[15:16] Speaker 1: going to think, oh, this is just another frivolous lawsuit.
[15:20] Speaker 1: This guy is the softest man alive, right? And all
[15:23] Speaker 1: that stuff. I already saw it in the comments under
[15:25] Speaker 1: the short that I posted on YouTube the other day.
[15:28] Speaker 1: But if you watch the clip, I think the guy's
[15:31] Speaker 1: got a case. And I don't see this going to
[15:34] Speaker 1: trial or anything, assuming it doesn't get thrown out straight away.
[15:37] Speaker 1: I think this man is going to get paid and
[15:40] Speaker 1: probably should be paid something. And they're going to make
[15:44] Speaker 1: this go away. That's what's going to end up happening here.
[15:47] Speaker 1: Because again, I think it has merit. It went on
[15:49] Speaker 1: for a long period of time. Too long. And they
[15:54] Speaker 1: even had Michael Cole and Corey Graves doing commentary during
[15:57] Speaker 1: the whole thing. Corey said, oh, the man hates fun.
[16:01] Speaker 1: Keep it going, Tez. You'll get him to crack. Like
[16:04] Speaker 1: he's one of the boys. And that would be fine
[16:08] Speaker 1: if they clued him in in advance about this. Obviously,
[16:11] Speaker 1: they did not. It was probably just a rib. But
[16:14] Speaker 1: I would have thought they would have clued the guy in,
[16:17] Speaker 1: especially if they were going to linger on him for
[16:18] Speaker 1: that long and put him on camera. And evidently, that
[16:21] Speaker 1: was not the case here. So now it's going to
[16:23] Speaker 1: cost them. And yeah, I mean, look, the idea of
[16:26] Speaker 1: him committing assault and battery, like when you say that
[16:28] Speaker 1: out loud, this is not the sort of thing that
[16:30] Speaker 1: you think of, right? It sounds ridiculous on its face.
[16:33] Speaker 1: But in the state of Illinois, battery is defined as
[16:36] Speaker 1: either causing bodily harm or making physical contact of an
[16:39] Speaker 1: insulting nature. which is what the man claims. He claims
[16:43] Speaker 1: Ford rubbed up against his leg. And look, I'm all
[16:46] Speaker 1: for having fun, but I don't know what he was
[16:49] Speaker 1: thinking when he kept the gag going like that. It's
[16:52] Speaker 1: the length of time for me. That's what gets me
[16:55] Speaker 1: watching that clip back. This man is going to get paid,
[16:59] Speaker 1: and then this will all be forgotten about. But you've
[17:00] Speaker 1: got to be smarter about this stuff. Especially if the
[17:04] Speaker 1: other person is not in on the joke. You can't
[17:06] Speaker 1: assume that they're going to be okay with something like that. Like,
[17:10] Speaker 1: these security guys, now imagine if he was armed. And
[17:13] Speaker 1: maybe he was. He probably was armed. I don't know
[17:15] Speaker 1: if he had a gun or some other weapon on him. But, like,
[17:17] Speaker 1: if he was really armed, right? I think it depends
[17:21] Speaker 1: on where they're stationed, whether or not they are. But,
[17:24] Speaker 1: I mean, like, imagine if he pulled out a taser
[17:26] Speaker 1: and zapped him in the balls with it. You know, like,
[17:28] Speaker 1: it wouldn't be so funny then, would it? Right? Then
[17:31] Speaker 1: Romeo would be Bianca and Tez's only child. But you
[17:35] Speaker 1: never know, right, how someone might feel provoked. Especially if
[17:40] Speaker 1: they've got a lot of bravado and now they have
[17:42] Speaker 1: another man flashing his junk in their face. Montez is
[17:45] Speaker 1: lucky the guy didn't react in a different way. Don't
[17:48] Speaker 1: do that. Don't flash your junk in another man's face
[17:52] Speaker 1: on live television. That's the moral of the story. Do
[17:56] Speaker 1: I think it's going to cost him his job or
[17:58] Speaker 1: it should? Of course not. But this guy is going
[18:01] Speaker 1: to get something out of it. And if you're going
[18:03] Speaker 1: to do stuff like this in the future, you got
[18:05] Speaker 1: to clear it with the person in advance. You want
[18:06] Speaker 1: to have a little fun on the television show. At
[18:08] Speaker 1: the end of the day, it is a television show, right?
[18:10] Speaker 1: This guy's face and likeness is being beamed out to
[18:14] Speaker 1: millions of people. And if you're going to do something
[18:16] Speaker 1: like that, either clear it with them first or don't
[18:20] Speaker 1: do it. It's just a stupid thing to do. Congrats
[18:24] Speaker 1: are in order for Carmelo Hayes. This was a big
[18:27] Speaker 1: week for Melo. Not only did he return to WWE television,
[18:30] Speaker 1: but he got married yesterday to Kalani Jordan. So congrats
[18:34] Speaker 1: to the happy couple. But yes, Carmelo Hayes, who had
[18:37] Speaker 1: been missing for at least a couple of months on TV.
[18:40] Speaker 1: The last time we saw him was on SmackDown. I
[18:42] Speaker 1: want to say it was early in August, losing to
[18:45] Speaker 1: Baron Corbin. We hadn't seen him since, he hadn't spoken,
[18:49] Speaker 1: his social media got blacked out at one point, and
[18:52] Speaker 1: everybody freaked out and assumed, oh, he's leaving, he's going
[18:55] Speaker 1: to AEW, because that's the first thing people think of.
[18:58] Speaker 1: But all of a sudden, on Monday night, we had
[19:00] Speaker 1: a main event with 946, Royce Keyes, OTM, taking on
[19:04] Speaker 1: Solo Sakoa and The Usos. And as we barrel towards
[19:09] Speaker 1: Survivor Series next month, in a very likely War Games
[19:11] Speaker 1: match involving 946 and The Bloodline, It was very clear
[19:15] Speaker 1: that 946 is going to need at least one new member,
[19:19] Speaker 1: if not two. Because they can't field a full War
[19:22] Speaker 1: Games team of five, which is three guys. So we're
[19:25] Speaker 1: going to get a new member. Maybe it happens on Monday,
[19:27] Speaker 1: and if so, who's it going to be? LA Knight
[19:29] Speaker 1: had a bad night of money in the bank. Great
[19:31] Speaker 1: match with Roman Reigns, but he failed. Failed to win
[19:34] Speaker 1: the World Heavyweight Championship. This is his depression arc now,
[19:38] Speaker 1: I guess. Maybe LA Knight's going to go heel and
[19:41] Speaker 1: link up with 9-4-6, even though on the surface it
[19:44] Speaker 1: doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, or it
[19:46] Speaker 1: would have made more sense if he won the world
[19:47] Speaker 1: title and had them help him do it, but that
[19:49] Speaker 1: didn't happen. so I don't know. Maybe it's LA Knight.
[19:52] Speaker 1: Maybe Solo Sokoa turns on the bloodline. Jacob Fatu got
[19:57] Speaker 1: ran over by a car, so it probably wasn't going
[19:59] Speaker 1: to be him. But we see at the end of
[20:01] Speaker 1: the show that it is Carmelo Hayes showing up in
[20:06] Speaker 1: the ring right when Solo Sokoa looked like he was
[20:08] Speaker 1: about to Deliver a spike to Royce Keyes and win
[20:12] Speaker 1: it for the family. And this person gets in the
[20:15] Speaker 1: ring and a bandana is obscuring their face. We can't
[20:17] Speaker 1: really see who it is. But within within three seconds,
[20:21] Speaker 1: if you just look at the guy, it was pretty
[20:22] Speaker 1: clear who it was. And he hits solo in the
[20:25] Speaker 1: knee with a crowbar, pulls down the bandana, and it
[20:28] Speaker 1: is the former United States champion. Carmelo Hayes back again.
[20:35] Speaker 1: And we never got a finish. There was no official
[20:37] Speaker 1: winner of the match. That really wasn't the point of
[20:39] Speaker 1: all this. It was more of an angle just to
[20:42] Speaker 1: build on the heat between these two groups and to
[20:45] Speaker 1: add this new member and give us the big surprise
[20:48] Speaker 1: return for Melo after everybody was talking about him possibly leaving.
[20:52] Speaker 1: All of a sudden, not only is he staying, which
[20:54] Speaker 1: he was never leaving. That was stupid that people even
[20:56] Speaker 1: would have suggested that. All because his social media got
[21:00] Speaker 1: blacked out. Not only is he back... He's back at
[21:03] Speaker 1: a better position than he was the last time we
[21:05] Speaker 1: saw him. The last time we saw him, he was
[21:08] Speaker 1: jobbing to Baron Corbin and wrestling for the U.S. title
[21:12] Speaker 1: on SmackDown. Now, all of a sudden, he switches to
[21:15] Speaker 1: Monday Night Raw and he is in the top heel
[21:18] Speaker 1: faction in this company and he is automatically thrust into
[21:22] Speaker 1: the main event mix. He is thrust into a storyline
[21:24] Speaker 1: and a program where he is going to be working
[21:26] Speaker 1: with people like Roman Reigns and very likely going to
[21:30] Speaker 1: be in the main event of Survivor Series. And I
[21:33] Speaker 1: think this is fantastic, not only because he's back. I'm
[21:36] Speaker 1: just happy to see him back on TV and hopefully
[21:38] Speaker 1: wrestling again very soon. But I love that this is
[21:43] Speaker 1: the role that they came up with for him. And
[21:45] Speaker 1: when I say they, I should probably give the credit
[21:47] Speaker 1: to Royce Keys, because by all accounts, this was Royce
[21:50] Speaker 1: Keys going to management and saying, hey, I want this
[21:52] Speaker 1: guy in 9-4-6. But I think it's the perfect role
[21:56] Speaker 1: for him. Guarantees him a prominent spot on the show.
[22:01] Speaker 1: And also lets him be not only in the top mix,
[22:04] Speaker 1: but he can be the workhorse of this group. He
[22:06] Speaker 1: is automatically, on day one of him joining this faction
[22:09] Speaker 1: on Monday, he is the best wrestler. All due respect
[22:11] Speaker 1: to Royce Key, he is the best wrestler in that group.
[22:15] Speaker 1: He's the workhorse of 9-4-6. And now things are set up. Seemingly,
[22:21] Speaker 1: you look ahead to war games and what that might
[22:23] Speaker 1: look like. Roman Reigns is going to be back on
[22:25] Speaker 1: the show this Monday. Sami Zayn has already said he's
[22:28] Speaker 1: going to be there to confront him because that's the
[22:29] Speaker 1: crown jewel match at this point. But a Survivor Series
[22:33] Speaker 1: team of Roman Reigns, Jacob Fatu, who will be back
[22:35] Speaker 1: very soon, Solo, Sokoa, and The Usos. There's your five.
[22:40] Speaker 1: And on the other side, you've got Royce Keyes, you've
[22:42] Speaker 1: got Carmelo Hayes, and you've got Bronco Nima and Lucian
[22:45] Speaker 1: Price of OTM. That still leaves one spot open. By
[22:48] Speaker 1: all accounts, they're sticking with the five-on-five format. And since
[22:53] Speaker 1: the five on the men's side seem pretty clear, I
[22:56] Speaker 1: assume they're not going to involve any of the women
[22:57] Speaker 1: in this. If, let's say, Naomi was to come back
[23:00] Speaker 1: and be part of this at some point, Five guys
[23:02] Speaker 1: on one side, five guys on the other, which means
[23:04] Speaker 1: that 9-4-6, they're still going to need at least one
[23:07] Speaker 1: more person. And I still feel like L.A. Knight is
[23:10] Speaker 1: going to end up fitting into that spot. We saw
[23:13] Speaker 1: him backstage on Monday. Solo Sokoa confronted him, and Knight
[23:16] Speaker 1: was like, really? The bloodline? And Solo tried to explain, no, no, no,
[23:21] Speaker 1: I'm not back with them. And Knight's like, you know what?
[23:23] Speaker 1: It's fine. Even though it's very clear that to him
[23:26] Speaker 1: it's very much not fine. So something is going on there.
[23:30] Speaker 1: And I think Knight turning heel on Solo is a
[23:33] Speaker 1: lot more likely at this point. I'm not even saying
[23:36] Speaker 1: that LA Knight has to quote-unquote join 946. But they're
[23:41] Speaker 1: going to need a partner that night. And to me,
[23:44] Speaker 1: LA Knight would make a lot of sense, given what
[23:46] Speaker 1: has happened to him, and given this friendship he's had
[23:49] Speaker 1: with Solo, where now all of a sudden he probably
[23:51] Speaker 1: feels it was all for nothing, and he feels betrayed.
[23:56] Speaker 1: That this guy who said he absolutely was never going
[23:59] Speaker 1: to go back to the bloodline is now doing business
[24:01] Speaker 1: with the bloodline. So I think, you ask me right now,
[24:05] Speaker 1: on this spot, who do I think gets that fifth
[24:07] Speaker 1: spot in a War Games match? I think it's LA Knight.
[24:11] Speaker 1: Could it be a returning Drew McIntyre? Could it be
[24:13] Speaker 1: just another new member that they add to the group? Sure.
[24:16] Speaker 1: You know, another young guy. Or an NXT call-up. It
[24:20] Speaker 1: could be, but I'll tell you why I'm not a
[24:22] Speaker 1: big fan of that. I think you've got to pump
[24:25] Speaker 1: the brakes on the new members for now. I feel
[24:28] Speaker 1: like the more people you add to the group, you're
[24:30] Speaker 1: going to water it down, number one. And number two,
[24:32] Speaker 1: it's going to take away now from the addition of
[24:34] Speaker 1: Carmelo Hayes. So I'm not a fan of them, like,
[24:38] Speaker 1: two weeks from now. Oh, we've got another new member
[24:40] Speaker 1: that's joined 946. So then you have Royce, Mello, another
[24:44] Speaker 1: singles guy, a tag team, an OTM, and then you
[24:48] Speaker 1: have Jada. And now you're going down the NWO road, which...
[24:52] Speaker 1: You don't want to do that, okay? You're still way
[24:54] Speaker 1: too early in the process to be doing that. But
[24:56] Speaker 1: I just think it kind of weakens this great angle
[25:00] Speaker 1: you shot this week in the addition of Carmelo Hayes.
[25:04] Speaker 1: So I would pump the brakes on adding any official
[25:06] Speaker 1: new members. But someone linking up with them for one night,
[25:09] Speaker 1: I've compared it to last year when we saw that
[25:11] Speaker 1: with Brock Lesnar in The Vision. It's not like Brock
[25:14] Speaker 1: joined The Vision. He did for one night. But that's
[25:17] Speaker 1: all it was. It was a one-night arrangement just to
[25:19] Speaker 1: get somebody to fill a spot on that side. Same
[25:23] Speaker 1: thing this year with 9-4-6. But I loved the move.
[25:27] Speaker 1: It was a great angle, too. There wasn't a lot
[25:30] Speaker 1: to get excited about in the first two hours plus
[25:32] Speaker 1: of that show on Monday. I thought the show was
[25:33] Speaker 1: largely a fucking bore. Until Chad Gable and Ray Phoenix
[25:37] Speaker 1: went out there and they had a killer match for
[25:40] Speaker 1: the Intercontinental Championship. Got a lot of time, too. Went
[25:43] Speaker 1: almost 20 minutes in. And then that led into the
[25:45] Speaker 1: big main event angle, and so they ended strong on
[25:48] Speaker 1: Monday night. Phoenix, by the way, since I mentioned him,
[25:51] Speaker 1: Phoenix had a match on SmackDown with Ricky Saints for
[25:54] Speaker 1: the AAA Cruiserweight title that was not nearly as good
[25:57] Speaker 1: as the match he had with Gable for the IC
[25:59] Speaker 1: title on Monday, but was still the best thing in-ring
[26:02] Speaker 1: on that entire putrid show on Friday. SmackDown is just
[26:08] Speaker 1: a shit show right now, even with all of the
[26:10] Speaker 1: competition on top for the WWE Championship. Just an absolutely lifeless,
[26:16] Speaker 1: boring slog of a television show on most weeks. And
[26:20] Speaker 1: the thought of them going back to three hours in January,
[26:24] Speaker 1: it is scarier than anything I saw in that other
[26:27] Speaker 1: Mommy movie. And of course, there were a few people
[26:30] Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments who had to bring AEW into
[26:33] Speaker 1: it after I talked about it on Friday. Yeah, well,
[26:35] Speaker 1: I don't hear you bringing these things up about Dynamite.
[26:39] Speaker 1: First of all, Dynamite has its boring shows too, okay?
[26:41] Speaker 1: And if you don't think I talk about this, then
[26:43] Speaker 1: you clearly either ears don't fucking work or you don't
[26:46] Speaker 1: listen to the fucking shows. But I even said on Wednesday,
[26:48] Speaker 1: absolutely nothing memorable about that show. because they had five
[26:52] Speaker 1: qualifying matches to squeeze in for a title match last
[26:55] Speaker 1: night that was rushed together faster than Vince McMahon on
[26:58] Speaker 1: the Merritt Parkway. But at least we got some good wrestling, right?
[27:02] Speaker 1: There was something. It wasn't a total loss cause, right?
[27:05] Speaker 1: It might not have been a great show, and it wasn't.
[27:07] Speaker 1: But at least we got some good wrestling. I'd like
[27:09] Speaker 1: there to be more than that. But it was a
[27:12] Speaker 1: go-home show for the pay-per-view, and again, they had five
[27:14] Speaker 1: matches to fit in there as qualifiers. But at least
[27:17] Speaker 1: we got some good wrestling in those two hours. It
[27:19] Speaker 1: was actually three hours with collision, but I didn't bother
[27:22] Speaker 1: with that. 77 minutes of wrestling to SmackDown's 37 minutes,
[27:28] Speaker 1: of which included Paige against Nikki Bella and Cody Rhodes
[27:31] Speaker 1: against Baron Corbin as the main event. And you know what?
[27:36] Speaker 1: I would be okay with those 37 minutes if any
[27:39] Speaker 1: of the matches were really good or if the non-wrestling
[27:42] Speaker 1: segments were funny or entertaining or interesting in some way.
[27:48] Speaker 1: We got nothing. On that show on Friday. Boring slop
[27:53] Speaker 1: is what we got. At least in the Damien Priest
[27:56] Speaker 1: and R-Truth match, Truth got hurt and the match got
[27:58] Speaker 1: cut short three minutes in. So you throw that away
[28:01] Speaker 1: because injuries happen. There's nothing you can do about that.
[28:04] Speaker 1: Hopefully Truth is okay. He landed a missile dropkick and
[28:08] Speaker 1: he didn't get up. The referee had to call the
[28:10] Speaker 1: match off. But SmackDown, for every one good episode that
[28:13] Speaker 1: we get, it's not like there are never any good
[28:15] Speaker 1: episodes of SmackDown. For every one good episode that we get,
[28:19] Speaker 1: they follow it up with five terrible ones. It's like
[28:22] Speaker 1: Road Dogg left and somehow the show got worse. This
[28:26] Speaker 1: company needs an enema. And they need to stick the
[28:29] Speaker 1: hose in SmackDown. Just clean it out. Everyone responsible for
[28:34] Speaker 1: creative there. Clean it out and start over again. And
[28:37] Speaker 1: it starts at the top. I just can't believe that
[28:40] Speaker 1: they charge the prices they do for those tickets and
[28:42] Speaker 1: then they deliver shows like this. Thinking they're giving people
[28:46] Speaker 1: their money's worth. I mean, I'm sure some families go
[28:49] Speaker 1: and the little kids, they just like seeing the stars
[28:51] Speaker 1: and that's cool. But for everyone else who isn't six
[28:53] Speaker 1: years old, it's insulting. You charge premium prices. You better
[28:58] Speaker 1: put out a premium product. And they're not doing that
[29:02] Speaker 1: right now. Not on Fridays anyway. That's what pisses me off.
[29:08] Speaker 1: Last night, AEW hosted its WrestleDream pay-per-view from Orlando and
[29:14] Speaker 1: a very uneven build for this show. They lost a
[29:18] Speaker 1: week for the packed tribute show, which didn't help, but
[29:21] Speaker 1: that was unavoidable. And Tony Khan actually said they had
[29:24] Speaker 1: a seven-year anniversary show planned, which ended up being the
[29:28] Speaker 1: packed tribute show. But again, that was unavoidable, and they
[29:32] Speaker 1: did the best they could. They put together what was
[29:35] Speaker 1: a great television show given the circumstances, but had absolutely
[29:38] Speaker 1: nothing to do with storyline, so they lost. that week.
[29:41] Speaker 1: And then they went right into the Grand Slam France show,
[29:43] Speaker 1: which was like its own mini pay-per-view. So it came
[29:47] Speaker 1: down to this past week and overstuffing Dynamite and Collision
[29:51] Speaker 1: with five qualifying matches to decide on who was going
[29:54] Speaker 1: to be in this clockwork carnage main event. And you
[29:58] Speaker 1: look at the rest of the card, you know, the
[30:00] Speaker 1: Mercedes and Tecla build was okay. Moxley and Davis, that
[30:04] Speaker 1: came together last minute. Fletcher and Knight challenging the Bucks
[30:08] Speaker 1: for the belts, that came together after all out. But
[30:11] Speaker 1: then we had Fletcher going after Darby and the TNT title,
[30:14] Speaker 1: which had nothing to do with any of this. Andrade
[30:17] Speaker 1: and Ciampa, which ended up being awesome, came together last
[30:21] Speaker 1: minute with no real explanation. And the Trios title match
[30:24] Speaker 1: was a rematch from the last pay-per-view. So again, just
[30:27] Speaker 1: a very uneven build coming into this. But the talent
[30:31] Speaker 1: went out there and they did what they always do.
[30:33] Speaker 1: They went out there and they put together a bunch
[30:35] Speaker 1: of really good wrestling matches. Some of them landed, some
[30:38] Speaker 1: of them, you know, not as much. This was not
[30:41] Speaker 1: my favorite AEW show of the year, but on the whole,
[30:44] Speaker 1: I enjoyed WrestleDream. Mercedes and Tekla, I thought they had
[30:47] Speaker 1: a really good women's championship match. Jon Moxley and Mark Davis,
[30:52] Speaker 1: which was the match that I was looking at maybe
[30:54] Speaker 1: more than any other, coming into this card and I said,
[30:57] Speaker 1: Do we really need this on this pay-per-view? Once it
[31:01] Speaker 1: was over, the answer was no. We didn't really need
[31:03] Speaker 1: this on the pay-per-view, but I was actually glad that
[31:06] Speaker 1: we got it. It did not need to go as
[31:09] Speaker 1: long as it did, and again, we'll talk about all this.
[31:12] Speaker 1: But the story and the emotion, and again, the story
[31:15] Speaker 1: they were trying to convey, I thought was a very
[31:18] Speaker 1: effective one. So that ended up being really good stuff.
[31:21] Speaker 1: The Trios title match, which I loved the last one
[31:25] Speaker 1: at All Out. This one turned out to be really
[31:27] Speaker 1: good as well. The tag team title match, I think,
[31:30] Speaker 1: was the match of the night. The national title match
[31:33] Speaker 1: was excellent. And we had the first of five, potentially,
[31:37] Speaker 1: in a best of five series between FTR and the
[31:39] Speaker 1: Motor City Machine Guns. And that doesn't even include the
[31:43] Speaker 1: big debut that we're going to be talking about here.
[31:45] Speaker 1: So there was a lot of really good stuff on
[31:46] Speaker 1: this show. But then there was also the debut of
[31:49] Speaker 1: the Clockwork Carnage match, which was the brainchild of Will Ospreay.
[31:54] Speaker 1: who had just debuted in the Pro Wrestling Eve all-women's
[31:57] Speaker 1: promotion recently, and apparently that one was very well-received, and
[32:01] Speaker 1: so he pitched it to Tony Khan, and Tony Khan
[32:04] Speaker 1: was like, yeah, let's do that. So we got it
[32:06] Speaker 1: here on this show. First of all, Will Ospreay is
[32:09] Speaker 1: an idiot in storyline for even pitching a match like this.
[32:13] Speaker 1: It would be the equivalent of someone in the Saw
[32:15] Speaker 1: movies creating their own death trap and then locking themselves
[32:19] Speaker 1: in it. Like, even Jigsaw would look at them like,
[32:22] Speaker 1: what the fuck? This guy's got problems. The match itself,
[32:27] Speaker 1: it came off more as an instrument to set up
[32:30] Speaker 1: future matches, which in and of itself is not a
[32:32] Speaker 1: bad thing, but it made the match itself, as a
[32:35] Speaker 1: pay-per-view main event, feel less special than most of their
[32:38] Speaker 1: pay-per-view main events, which are usually very, very strong. My
[32:42] Speaker 1: biggest takeaway, though, from watching it, now that I have
[32:45] Speaker 1: watched it, and I said, last week, what did I say?
[32:47] Speaker 1: I said, I'm not going to be judge and jury
[32:49] Speaker 1: until I see it play out and I actually watch
[32:51] Speaker 1: the match. My biggest takeaway is that I would have
[32:54] Speaker 1: enjoyed this more if it was contested for the vacant championship,
[32:59] Speaker 1: if the title were vacant. And I think this is
[33:02] Speaker 1: a fine gimmick to use in those situations where a title,
[33:06] Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be the world title, but where
[33:08] Speaker 1: a title happens to be vacant and you're trying to
[33:12] Speaker 1: crown a new champion. Because that would add an air
[33:14] Speaker 1: of unpredictability to this that was missing from last night.
[33:18] Speaker 1: If we didn't already know that Will Ospreay was keeping
[33:21] Speaker 1: this belt because he just won it in Wembley not
[33:23] Speaker 1: two months ago, that would have added an excitement to
[33:27] Speaker 1: things that just wasn't there with this. And it didn't
[33:30] Speaker 1: help how slapped together this whole thing felt. I think
[33:33] Speaker 1: they could keep it. I wouldn't junk it and, you know,
[33:36] Speaker 1: bury it and say never do it again. I think
[33:38] Speaker 1: they can keep the gimmick, but I would use it
[33:40] Speaker 1: as a TV gimmick for an episode of Dynamite like
[33:43] Speaker 1: they do with Blood and Guts. But if they're going
[33:45] Speaker 1: to keep it as an annual thing, and at the
[33:47] Speaker 1: scrum after the show, Will Ospreay said he would love
[33:49] Speaker 1: it if it was an annual thing, right? Well, of
[33:51] Speaker 1: course he would. It was his idea. But Tony Khan
[33:54] Speaker 1: seemed very receptive to it and said, oh, I would
[33:56] Speaker 1: love it too. So very likely the concept is going
[33:59] Speaker 1: to stay. If it does, there are some tweaks that
[34:03] Speaker 1: need to be made. The biggest one being, this one
[34:07] Speaker 1: could have benefited from cutting one or two matches earlier
[34:10] Speaker 1: on the card and adding an extra 10 minutes or
[34:13] Speaker 1: so to the second half. So yes, I'm actually advocating
[34:16] Speaker 1: that this match should have been longer than it was.
[34:20] Speaker 1: But you have to cut, because what I don't want
[34:22] Speaker 1: to see is these shows go any longer than they
[34:24] Speaker 1: already do. This one already went well beyond midnight again.
[34:28] Speaker 1: So you trim one or two matches. You still have
[34:31] Speaker 1: a full-ass card, even if you trim one or two matches.
[34:34] Speaker 1: But you allow things to breathe a little bit better
[34:36] Speaker 1: in the main event. And I would hold up the
[34:39] Speaker 1: Iron Survivor challenge in NXT as a great example of this.
[34:42] Speaker 1: I actually like the penalty box concept that NXT uses,
[34:47] Speaker 1: but I get why AEW wouldn't want to do that.
[34:50] Speaker 1: They don't want it to be a total copy of that.
[34:52] Speaker 1: But I bring that up because that match, the Iron Survivor,
[34:56] Speaker 1: lasts for 25 minutes. And I think that would be
[35:00] Speaker 1: much better for the second half of it. At least 20.
[35:02] Speaker 1: This one went 15 in the second stage. At least
[35:06] Speaker 1: 20 Preferably 25 minutes for phase two. So yes, a
[35:11] Speaker 1: rare occasion where a Will Ospreay match did not feel
[35:14] Speaker 1: long enough. I also thought that there were way too
[35:17] Speaker 1: many people laying around outside the ring in that second
[35:21] Speaker 1: half where there were only like at any given moment,
[35:24] Speaker 1: two people, three people maybe who were fighting at a time.
[35:26] Speaker 1: That sense of urgency wasn't there really until I would
[35:30] Speaker 1: say the last minute or two with what they were
[35:32] Speaker 1: doing with Adam Copeland. But I thought that hurt it too.
[35:36] Speaker 1: You know, maybe having multiple referees and then adding a
[35:38] Speaker 1: false count anywhere stipulation to it. That would have made
[35:41] Speaker 1: it more exciting. We see so many of those types
[35:43] Speaker 1: of matches in AEW that when we don't get it
[35:45] Speaker 1: and you have all of these men involved, it comes
[35:48] Speaker 1: off a little lackluster. There's one aspect to the match
[35:51] Speaker 1: that was very noticeable. It hurt the match for me anyway,
[35:55] Speaker 1: and I'll mention that later when I talk about it.
[35:57] Speaker 1: And specifically this being an AEW show, it was very noticeable.
[36:02] Speaker 1: So the point is there is room for improvement. I
[36:05] Speaker 1: don't think it's a one and done. But do I
[36:07] Speaker 1: want to see it become an annual world title main
[36:09] Speaker 1: event on pay-per-view? No, I don't. And I do have
[36:13] Speaker 1: to say this for Ospreay's title run so far. Hasn't
[36:17] Speaker 1: been very long. He just won the championship in August.
[36:19] Speaker 1: And it was this great climactic moment. And it was
[36:22] Speaker 1: the right move to make. To have him win in
[36:25] Speaker 1: the UK, in Wembley. Absolutely 100% the right move to make.
[36:30] Speaker 1: But now we're about two months in. Some great matches happening.
[36:34] Speaker 1: But it's lacking anything interesting. It's been, oh, I want
[36:36] Speaker 1: to defend my title against you, Jon Moxley. I went
[36:39] Speaker 1: to Tony Khan and I asked for that match. I
[36:41] Speaker 1: want to wrestle you, Okada. You were my mentor. Hey,
[36:45] Speaker 1: I got an idea. Why don't I defend my belt
[36:47] Speaker 1: against seven guys at once? Maybe he'll ask Tony to
[36:51] Speaker 1: defend his belt at full gear in a 20-man battle
[36:53] Speaker 1: royal and he'll enter at number one. You know, again,
[36:57] Speaker 1: even after the show, they shot something in the back
[36:59] Speaker 1: where he confronts Adam Copeland and he tells Copeland, so
[37:02] Speaker 1: you're really done. in 2027 save a spot for me
[37:08] Speaker 1: already booking more matches we need someone to pick osprey
[37:12] Speaker 1: we need the pendulum to swing the other way he's
[37:14] Speaker 1: playing be the booker way too much he's booking his
[37:17] Speaker 1: own matches he's booking his own match concepts and it
[37:21] Speaker 1: has led to a very dull start to this reign
[37:23] Speaker 1: even if he does go out there and have these
[37:25] Speaker 1: great matches he always does that but that alone is
[37:28] Speaker 1: not going to make this title run interesting That alone
[37:31] Speaker 1: is not going to make this title run a success.
[37:33] Speaker 1: There needs to be more than that, and we're lacking
[37:35] Speaker 1: that so far. And the other thing we had on
[37:37] Speaker 1: this show was the arrival of the Mad Dragon. Ilya
[37:41] Speaker 1: Dragunov is all elite, which I think we all knew.
[37:45] Speaker 1: That seemed to be where things were headed, and then
[37:47] Speaker 1: of course we saw the teaser video that dropped on
[37:49] Speaker 1: TV this week. I wasn't sure it was going to
[37:52] Speaker 1: be at WrestleDream, but there he was last night. He
[37:54] Speaker 1: came out, and I just thought the The presentation and
[37:57] Speaker 1: the introduction for him and the music and everything was
[38:00] Speaker 1: just on point. He came out there. He came off
[38:03] Speaker 1: as a star. Tony Khan addressed Dragunov's arrival. Actually, he
[38:07] Speaker 1: had Dragunov come in to answer some questions after. But
[38:13] Speaker 1: Tony Khan addressed the visa situation. They were basically waiting
[38:16] Speaker 1: on his visa issues to be resolved. And it was
[38:19] Speaker 1: during Dynamite. It was during the live show on Wednesday night.
[38:22] Speaker 1: He got a text message from Dragunov, and wherever Dragunov was,
[38:25] Speaker 1: I guess it was 2 o'clock in the morning locally
[38:27] Speaker 1: where he was. But he texted Tony and said, you know, basically,
[38:31] Speaker 1: it came through, we're good to go. And then they
[38:34] Speaker 1: aired the vignette during Collision. So they weren't even going
[38:38] Speaker 1: to air that, most likely, because they didn't know when
[38:40] Speaker 1: he was going to be, you know, ready to rock.
[38:42] Speaker 1: And as soon as he got the text message, it's like, okay,
[38:45] Speaker 1: we're off to the races. And they aired the teaser
[38:47] Speaker 1: and then he popped up on the show last night.
[38:50] Speaker 1: Which does make me wonder that maybe if the Visa
[38:53] Speaker 1: stuff was resolved sooner, maybe he would have made his
[38:56] Speaker 1: debut on that Grand Slam France show. Because there was
[38:59] Speaker 1: one report going around or some rumors leading up to
[39:02] Speaker 1: that France show that maybe he was going to debut
[39:04] Speaker 1: there and then he didn't. And so maybe that's why.
[39:08] Speaker 1: Because I don't know that he was always planned to
[39:10] Speaker 1: be making that debut at WrestleDream. But in any event,
[39:14] Speaker 1: he is here. This company is getting just an absolute
[39:18] Speaker 1: stud in this guy. Look at the level. Look at
[39:20] Speaker 1: the competition they have. Look at the talent they have
[39:22] Speaker 1: on this roster for him to work with. Are you
[39:24] Speaker 1: fucking kidding me? So we'll talk about his debut and
[39:27] Speaker 1: everything else here. We'll go step by step. But again, WrestleDream,
[39:31] Speaker 1: it was a good show. But again, it was one
[39:32] Speaker 1: of those shows where when it was over, it didn't
[39:34] Speaker 1: really feel terribly important. It did not feel to me
[39:37] Speaker 1: like one of the better AW pay-per-views of the year,
[39:40] Speaker 1: like in that top tier, which doesn't make it bad.
[39:43] Speaker 1: It just means we've had a lot of really great
[39:44] Speaker 1: pay-per-views from this company this year. And this one just felt,
[39:47] Speaker 1: you know, largely... very slapped together at the last minute.
[39:52] Speaker 1: We have a wrestle dream coming up, and we don't
[39:54] Speaker 1: have any obvious challenger for our champion, so we'll come
[39:57] Speaker 1: up with this concept, and we'll put eight guys in there,
[39:59] Speaker 1: and that's how it felt coming into this. Very slapdash.
[40:04] Speaker 1: On the tailgate brawl pre-show, Switchblade Jay White made a
[40:08] Speaker 1: surprise return ahead of schedule. He had been out with
[40:11] Speaker 1: another injury since the last tailgate brawl at All Out
[40:14] Speaker 1: last month. We were told that he would be out
[40:16] Speaker 1: for at least a month, maybe two. But he made
[40:19] Speaker 1: it back in three weeks, which was great to see.
[40:22] Speaker 1: He was tagging with the Guns and the Conglomeration in
[40:24] Speaker 1: a loss to the Death Riders. Apparently, Jay White was
[40:28] Speaker 1: originally planned to be in the Clockwork Carnage match, and
[40:32] Speaker 1: Adam Copeland got his spot instead. So that's quite the
[40:37] Speaker 1: downgrade from the pay-per-view main event to the pay-per-view pre-show.
[40:41] Speaker 1: But at least he's back, and now the question is,
[40:43] Speaker 1: can he stay healthy? He's had a terrible time doing
[40:46] Speaker 1: so in this company so far. It's also crazy to think, like,
[40:49] Speaker 1: if Copeland was not originally, and I don't know, I
[40:52] Speaker 1: find it hard to believe, but if Copeland was not
[40:53] Speaker 1: originally supposed to be in that match last night, he
[40:56] Speaker 1: ended up being a really big part, especially in the
[40:59] Speaker 1: closing sequence of that match, and a big match that
[41:02] Speaker 1: they teased coming out of it. So were he not
[41:05] Speaker 1: in that clockwork carnage main event, I think it would
[41:08] Speaker 1: have lost even more, you know, not having him in
[41:11] Speaker 1: there because he was one of the big stories coming
[41:13] Speaker 1: out of it. But the first match in the Best
[41:16] Speaker 1: of Five series between FTR and the Motor City Machine
[41:19] Speaker 1: Guns went to the ring during the pre-show. They went
[41:22] Speaker 1: a good 10 minutes or so, too, before the pre-show
[41:24] Speaker 1: ended and they did the gimmick where it bled over
[41:26] Speaker 1: into the pay-per-view. Now, the first half of this, because
[41:29] Speaker 1: of that, felt like they were just stalling for time,
[41:32] Speaker 1: which is the only reason I dislike when they do
[41:34] Speaker 1: this gimmick. It's fine to do it here and there,
[41:37] Speaker 1: but when it leads to this feeling like, okay, they're
[41:39] Speaker 1: just trying to kill time, I think that sucks. Once
[41:42] Speaker 1: the pay-per-view started, though, It's not like they didn't have
[41:45] Speaker 1: plenty of time to do their thing. Things picked up,
[41:48] Speaker 1: and what we got was really good. They actually ended
[41:50] Speaker 1: up going 25 minutes. Paul White was on commentary for
[41:55] Speaker 1: the pre-show in the first, I don't know, maybe half
[41:58] Speaker 1: or so before Nigel took his spot. And Paul White,
[42:01] Speaker 1: I think he actually does a very good job. When
[42:03] Speaker 1: I hear him on commentary, which isn't very often, but
[42:05] Speaker 1: when I hear him, I think he does a really
[42:07] Speaker 1: good job. But he called Dax Harwood Dax Shepard. which
[42:13] Speaker 1: I thought was hilarious because I have no idea where
[42:15] Speaker 1: he got that from. Look, just call them bald and hair.
[42:19] Speaker 1: It'll be a lot easier to follow that way. So
[42:22] Speaker 1: the guns hit their skull and bones, frog splash, neck
[42:25] Speaker 1: breaker combo. Wheeler, though, placed Shepard's foot on the ropes.
[42:30] Speaker 1: Wheeler then posted Shelly and FTR planted Saban with a
[42:34] Speaker 1: spike pile driver for a super close near fall. FTR
[42:38] Speaker 1: called for the shatter machine. Saban, though, was able to
[42:40] Speaker 1: avoid it, and Shelly returned for them to connect on
[42:43] Speaker 1: a double-package powerbomb to win match number one in the series.
[42:48] Speaker 1: Excellent tag team wrestling here, and it's too bad this
[42:51] Speaker 1: is only a best-of-five. I'd love to see a best-of-seven
[42:55] Speaker 1: between these two teams. Mercedes Monet against Tekla for the
[43:00] Speaker 1: AEW Women's World Championship. I love the Tekla entrance on
[43:04] Speaker 1: the giant spider. Tecla got a curb stomp, wasted too
[43:08] Speaker 1: much time, though, before hooking the leg. And by then,
[43:10] Speaker 1: Mercedes had gotten the rope break to save the belt.
[43:13] Speaker 1: So Mercedes ends up sitting on the apron. Tecla is
[43:16] Speaker 1: over foxing around with the referee about something or other
[43:19] Speaker 1: on the other side of the ring. And Mercedes, as
[43:22] Speaker 1: she's sitting there, she pulls off her protective face mask.
[43:25] Speaker 1: So when Tecla walks back over, Monet whacks her in
[43:27] Speaker 1: the face with the mask. Then she tried for the
[43:29] Speaker 1: Monet maker. Tecla spun out of it into an O'Connor roll.
[43:33] Speaker 1: Bridge back, great near fall. Fans really, I thought they'd
[43:36] Speaker 1: bet on that one. Tecla missed a follow-up curb stomp,
[43:39] Speaker 1: and this time she could not avoid the Monet Maker,
[43:42] Speaker 1: and Mercedes gets the pin to retain her title. Very
[43:46] Speaker 1: good first match between these two. The key word there
[43:48] Speaker 1: being first, because even though Mercedes pinned her, they gave
[43:51] Speaker 1: Tecla an out, with Mercedes hitting her in the face
[43:54] Speaker 1: with the mask. I'd like to see them run it
[43:57] Speaker 1: back again, even though it means another Tecla loss. I'd
[44:00] Speaker 1: still like to see it. Tecla is very good. And Mercedes,
[44:04] Speaker 1: you know, she don't miss when it comes to these
[44:06] Speaker 1: pay-per-view matches. The match with Maya World. The Wembley match
[44:09] Speaker 1: with Willow. Now this one. She's only had three pay-per-view
[44:12] Speaker 1: matches this year, which surprised me when I checked. I
[44:16] Speaker 1: had forgotten that she missed the entire first half of
[44:18] Speaker 1: the year working outside of AEW. And even then, her
[44:22] Speaker 1: only other matches anywhere came in March. And they were
[44:26] Speaker 1: all indie dates. And then the match in CMLL where
[44:28] Speaker 1: she lost her title to Persephone. Chris Jericho. Again, to
[44:33] Speaker 1: the 21-year-old prodigy, Nick Wayne. Paul White said on commentary
[44:38] Speaker 1: that he has leather jackets at home in his closet,
[44:41] Speaker 1: older than Nick Wayne. Think about this. The man that
[44:45] Speaker 1: Wayne was sharing a ring with last night created the
[44:48] Speaker 1: concept of money in the bank and wrestled in the
[44:50] Speaker 1: very first one, the same year that Nick Wayne was born.
[44:55] Speaker 1: So he's young. Jericho is not. But they had the
[44:59] Speaker 1: best match in their series so far. Wayne spat water
[45:02] Speaker 1: in Jericho's face late in the match. Hit a standing
[45:04] Speaker 1: sliced bread onto the apron. Back inside, Jericho avoided Wayne's world.
[45:09] Speaker 1: Ate a springing cutter, though, off the second rope. Jericho, though,
[45:12] Speaker 1: kicked out at one. And that got a big pop
[45:15] Speaker 1: from the fans. He fired up. Wayne grabbed the referee
[45:18] Speaker 1: at that point. He grabbed Bryce Remsburg's belt. Spun him around.
[45:22] Speaker 1: And then Mule kicked Jericho, who no-sold it. So Wayne
[45:26] Speaker 1: shoved the referee away again. kick Jericho low for a
[45:30] Speaker 1: second time, and for a second time, Jericho no-sold it.
[45:34] Speaker 1: And then Jericho pulls a cup out from his crotch. Finally!
[45:39] Speaker 1: It only took a few decades, but finally a wrestler
[45:42] Speaker 1: smart enough to wear one of those things. You'd have
[45:45] Speaker 1: thought Brock Lesnar would have figured that out when The
[45:48] Speaker 1: Undertaker was kicking him in the dick all those times,
[45:51] Speaker 1: or when Nakamura kept kicking AJ Styles in the balls.
[45:55] Speaker 1: It took Jericho in 2026... So Jericho starts hitting Wayne
[45:59] Speaker 1: with the cup. Bryce takes it away. He went to
[46:02] Speaker 1: go get rid of it. Jericho hit a low punt
[46:03] Speaker 1: of his own. Then he tried for a Judas effect.
[46:07] Speaker 1: But instead of hitting it, Wayne collapsed. Jericho went to
[46:10] Speaker 1: go pick him up. Wayne, though, got a cradle. He
[46:13] Speaker 1: suckered him in for the flash pin to win the match.
[46:17] Speaker 1: When the match was over, he took the microphone. He
[46:19] Speaker 1: reminded us that Nick Wayne beat Chris Jericho. And then
[46:22] Speaker 1: they set off a bunch of pyro. The story is
[46:25] Speaker 1: the veteran got outfoxed. That's basically it. Jericho even had
[46:28] Speaker 1: a smirk on his face at the end when they
[46:30] Speaker 1: showed his face. And look, Jericho is not going to
[46:34] Speaker 1: give you what he did even two or three years ago.
[46:37] Speaker 1: He's noticeably slower, but he can still give you a
[46:40] Speaker 1: good match with the right person. In this case, it
[46:42] Speaker 1: was a 21-year-old kid who was able to bump all
[46:45] Speaker 1: over the place for him and who hardly is a
[46:47] Speaker 1: rookie himself. He calls himself the prodigy, and he is.
[46:51] Speaker 1: There were people talking about the potential that Nick Wayne
[46:54] Speaker 1: had even before his 18th birthday. But he's been wrestling
[46:57] Speaker 1: for eight years already. So it's not like he's brand
[47:00] Speaker 1: new to this. And, yeah, I've talked about the Jericho
[47:03] Speaker 1: vortex and how it hasn't helped a lot of guys before.
[47:06] Speaker 1: The jury is out on Nick Wayne, but so far
[47:08] Speaker 1: that's two wins over Jericho. I would rather not see
[47:11] Speaker 1: Jericho now get his win back and prevail at the
[47:14] Speaker 1: end of all this. You know, if you want to
[47:17] Speaker 1: get a guy over, the best way to do that
[47:19] Speaker 1: still is to win. Win in the end. That's what
[47:22] Speaker 1: Nick Wayne should do. And then Tony should have another
[47:25] Speaker 1: veteran ready for him to work. If Jericho just wins
[47:28] Speaker 1: at the end of all this and has somebody else
[47:30] Speaker 1: lined up for his next feud and Wayne doesn't, then
[47:32] Speaker 1: this will have all been a waste of everybody's time.
[47:36] Speaker 1: The Young Bucks against Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight for
[47:39] Speaker 1: the AEW Tag Team titles. This was the best match
[47:43] Speaker 1: on the entire show. This was insanity. That's the only
[47:47] Speaker 1: word that really comes to mind. And spot fest. It
[47:50] Speaker 1: was a spot fest. But as spot fests go, you
[47:53] Speaker 1: will not find one better than this. At one point,
[47:56] Speaker 1: we got a doomsday device from the heels, with Kevin
[47:59] Speaker 1: Knight not coming off the top, but nailing a dropkick
[48:02] Speaker 1: to Matt Jackson from a standing position, off of Kyle
[48:06] Speaker 1: Fletcher's shoulders. Kyle Fletcher took a sickening number of bumps
[48:11] Speaker 1: on his neck. Later in the match, the Bucks hit
[48:13] Speaker 1: a BTE trigger to Fletcher, but he kicked out. And
[48:16] Speaker 1: then Fletcher avoided more bang for your buck, crotch Matt
[48:20] Speaker 1: in the corner, he... Lawn darted Nick into his brother.
[48:24] Speaker 1: Knight flew in with a coast-to-coast. So then comes the
[48:27] Speaker 1: sheer drop brainbuster by Fletcher that spiked Matt Jackson, but
[48:30] Speaker 1: only for two. So they were just kicking out of
[48:33] Speaker 1: each other's finishes left and right here. Fletcher hit the
[48:36] Speaker 1: top rope brainbuster, dropped him right down on his head,
[48:39] Speaker 1: and Knight followed with a UFO splash, but Nick tackled
[48:42] Speaker 1: Knight onto the pile to break the count. So Knight
[48:46] Speaker 1: missed another coast-to-coast after getting superkicked out of midair. Fletcher...
[48:51] Speaker 1: takes down both Bucks, and they come back with a
[48:54] Speaker 1: bunch of super kicks. They wanted another BTE trigger. Knight, though,
[48:57] Speaker 1: flew in with a springboard lariat, but he caught Fletcher
[49:00] Speaker 1: by accident. And finally, the Bucks hit the BTE trigger
[49:04] Speaker 1: on Knight to retain the titles. So not only was
[49:06] Speaker 1: there friendly fire there at the end between the heels
[49:09] Speaker 1: on the Callis family's side, but prior to that, Knight
[49:12] Speaker 1: had tagged himself in when it looked like Fletcher had
[49:14] Speaker 1: things well in hand. So maybe telegraphing a fallout between
[49:18] Speaker 1: them on TV this week, or at least the end
[49:20] Speaker 1: of them as a tag team and they go back
[49:22] Speaker 1: to working single I mean there's no literally now no
[49:25] Speaker 1: reason for them to remain a tag team they're not
[49:26] Speaker 1: a tag team to begin with they wanted to give
[49:28] Speaker 1: them a title match fine they had the match it
[49:31] Speaker 1: was a great match and they lost Kyle Fletcher and
[49:34] Speaker 1: Kevin Knight now go back to singles action no need
[49:38] Speaker 1: for them to be tag team partners anymore I thought
[49:41] Speaker 1: this was the match of the night up to this point.
[49:42] Speaker 1: Now that I look back on this pay-per-view, I still
[49:44] Speaker 1: think it was the match of the night. But we
[49:46] Speaker 1: were only four matches into the main card. And these
[49:49] Speaker 1: guys had already... And when I say these guys, I
[49:51] Speaker 1: don't just mean these four. But everything up until this point.
[49:55] Speaker 1: These guys and girls, they had kicked out of so
[49:58] Speaker 1: many things. And especially in this match. I'm thinking we're
[50:01] Speaker 1: fucking four matches in. What's left for everyone else to do?
[50:08] Speaker 1: And this is probably one of the reasons why that
[50:11] Speaker 1: main event, there's one thing in particular that I'm going
[50:14] Speaker 1: to talk about later that really kind of annoyed me.
[50:17] Speaker 1: This did not help. What we saw here with all
[50:19] Speaker 1: the kickouts did not help. We had Persephone defending her
[50:23] Speaker 1: TBS championship in a four-way against Queen Aminata, Haiyan, and
[50:27] Speaker 1: Danny Luna. The fans were drained from the previous match,
[50:31] Speaker 1: so it was tough for these four, but they had
[50:32] Speaker 1: a good match. It just couldn't match the others that
[50:35] Speaker 1: came before it. Haiyan had Luna pinned towards the end
[50:39] Speaker 1: when Persephone landed a moonsault to break things up, but
[50:41] Speaker 1: she landed on the feet of both women. She basically missed,
[50:45] Speaker 1: so that didn't look good. Then she powered up Haiyan,
[50:48] Speaker 1: dumped her heart on the mat, followed with a proper,
[50:51] Speaker 1: much better moonsault off the top, and pinned Haiyan to
[50:55] Speaker 1: retain the title. Kind of an abrupt finish, but they
[50:58] Speaker 1: went 14 minutes. They did not need to go longer
[51:00] Speaker 1: than that. It just felt abrupt at the end there.
[51:04] Speaker 1: There were a few moments that were not pretty. And again,
[51:06] Speaker 1: it lacked the heat of a lot of the other matches.
[51:08] Speaker 1: But Aminata did not get pinned. And I'm just saying,
[51:11] Speaker 1: maybe it keeps her in the hunt for a single
[51:12] Speaker 1: shot sometime down the line. Andrade El Idolo against Tommaso
[51:19] Speaker 1: Ciampa for the AEW National Championship. This was a lot
[51:22] Speaker 1: of fun. And if I wasn't going to go with
[51:25] Speaker 1: the tag team match as the best match on the show,
[51:28] Speaker 1: and probably the most exciting match on the show, this
[51:31] Speaker 1: one is right behind it as my favorite of the night.
[51:35] Speaker 1: Andrade took a selfie at one point with a lovely
[51:37] Speaker 1: chica at ringside. So then later on, Ciampa walked over
[51:41] Speaker 1: to his wife and daughter in the front row. Willow
[51:43] Speaker 1: was back for the second straight pay-per-view. And Ciampa snapped
[51:47] Speaker 1: a selfie with his daughter. And then later during the match, Ciampa,
[51:52] Speaker 1: usually it's Andrade, Ciampa de-pantsed himself. That's Andrade's gimmick. Underneath,
[51:58] Speaker 1: he was wearing trunks that said, I just know. He's
[52:01] Speaker 1: always saying, how you know? I just know. Andrade took
[52:07] Speaker 1: the pants off, too. I just realized, what the hell
[52:10] Speaker 1: am I even reviewing here? One man took his pants off,
[52:14] Speaker 1: then the other man took his pants off. All with
[52:18] Speaker 1: the man's eight-year-old daughter watching from the front row. What
[52:21] Speaker 1: would a non-wrestling fan think of this? They would be
[52:24] Speaker 1: even more bewildered when a few moments later, Ciampa noticed
[52:27] Speaker 1: Andrade's pants were laying in the ring. And he decided
[52:30] Speaker 1: to put the boots to them. Then he hit a
[52:33] Speaker 1: Project Ciampa to the pants. But then he covered the
[52:36] Speaker 1: pants and he ordered Aubrey Edwards to count. And so
[52:40] Speaker 1: she did. And the pants kicked out at two. Even
[52:45] Speaker 1: the fucking inanimate objects on this show are kicking out
[52:48] Speaker 1: of finishes. We have false finishes with inanimate objects. I mean,
[52:53] Speaker 1: if that is an AEW, I don't know what is.
[52:57] Speaker 1: Andrade connected with the Dia de los Muertos, but Ciampa
[53:00] Speaker 1: rolled outside. So Andrade tried to moonsault off the middle
[53:04] Speaker 1: rope to the floor. He rolls through. Ciampa then shoved
[53:07] Speaker 1: him backwards into a member of the production crew and
[53:10] Speaker 1: a cameraman. Then he threw Andrade back inside. He hit
[53:14] Speaker 1: the running knee strike, only got two. Ciampa went to
[53:17] Speaker 1: bring the national title into the ring. He got into
[53:19] Speaker 1: an argument with Aubrey before throwing it down. Ciampa decided
[53:23] Speaker 1: to switch to a chair instead, and he got caught.
[53:26] Speaker 1: So as Aubrey went to dispose of the chair, Ciampa
[53:29] Speaker 1: tried the same finish he did on Dynamite. This time, though,
[53:32] Speaker 1: Andrade hit him with Willow's bell onto the belt. as
[53:35] Speaker 1: the belt was still laying in the ring. Andrade covered him,
[53:38] Speaker 1: but Ciampa still kicked out, only to then fall to
[53:41] Speaker 1: the DM, as Andrade covers again, gets the three, and
[53:45] Speaker 1: retains the national title. That last false finish there was
[53:48] Speaker 1: completely unnecessary. But that aside, I had a lot of
[53:52] Speaker 1: fun with this one. This was a great match. Sometimes
[53:54] Speaker 1: the silliness doesn't work. Sometimes the silliness does. I had
[53:59] Speaker 1: fun with it here. And so did the crowd. I
[54:01] Speaker 1: do wish they would have saved Ciampa for the Clockwork
[54:04] Speaker 1: Carnage match, though. And built to him against Will Ospreay
[54:06] Speaker 1: next month. Instead of having him do that. As great
[54:08] Speaker 1: as this was. I still. And I said it coming in.
[54:11] Speaker 1: And I still feel the same way. He should have
[54:12] Speaker 1: had a spot in that match. You take. I don't
[54:15] Speaker 1: care who you take out. Take out anybody you want.
[54:17] Speaker 1: Take out Mike Bailey. And put Ciampa in there. But
[54:20] Speaker 1: he should have been in that main event. Swerve Strickland
[54:23] Speaker 1: and The New Level. Defended their AEW Trios titles. Against
[54:27] Speaker 1: Hangman Adam Page. Brody King. And Bandito. The former champions.
[54:30] Speaker 1: This time it was best two out of three falls.
[54:32] Speaker 1: This was a rematch. From All Out, which was my
[54:35] Speaker 1: favorite match at All Out. I didn't like this as
[54:38] Speaker 1: much as I did that match. This was still very good.
[54:41] Speaker 1: Hangman tagged in pretty early on. He immediately hit a
[54:44] Speaker 1: fallaway slam. Then went to tease a dive. But he
[54:47] Speaker 1: got tripped up by Swerve. And you know what happens
[54:50] Speaker 1: when those two get together. It's an All Out brawl.
[54:52] Speaker 1: And so they had to be separated. Swerve and the
[54:55] Speaker 1: New Level, they picked up the first fall. After New
[54:58] Speaker 1: Level hit the midnight hour to Bandito. So they went
[55:01] Speaker 1: up 1-0. After a while, the match started to break down.
[55:05] Speaker 1: Everybody's hitting big moves. Kofi missed trouble in paradise. He
[55:09] Speaker 1: got planted with a dead eye. Swerve took a buckshot lariat.
[55:13] Speaker 1: And then, of course, we had Brodito with that wacky
[55:16] Speaker 1: monkey flip 450 splash that they do. And Brody sends
[55:20] Speaker 1: Bandito flying. He crashes down onto Creed. And Bandito pins
[55:24] Speaker 1: Creed to win fall number two for the challengers. That
[55:27] Speaker 1: evens things up between the two teams, so we had
[55:29] Speaker 1: a tie ball game. They did a spot where Brody
[55:31] Speaker 1: King wanted to superplex both new level members at the
[55:34] Speaker 1: same time. Swerve, though, made the save. He got Brody
[55:37] Speaker 1: on his back very slowly. Got him on his back.
[55:40] Speaker 1: Dropped him with a vertebraker. Bandito then went up top. And,
[55:45] Speaker 1: I mean, this was the highlight of the match, if
[55:48] Speaker 1: not the highlight of the show here. He goes up top.
[55:50] Speaker 1: He delivers a ridiculous double fallaway slam to both Kofi
[55:55] Speaker 1: and Creed at the same time. Swerve eats an X-knee.
[56:00] Speaker 1: Bandito goes for the 21-plex. Strickland, though, flips out onto
[56:03] Speaker 1: his feet. Gets him up for big pressure. Bandito rolls through, though,
[56:08] Speaker 1: into a flash pin to regain the titles for the good,
[56:12] Speaker 1: the bad, and the guapo. That I did not see coming.
[56:17] Speaker 1: After the match, Strickland and New Level, they rip the
[56:19] Speaker 1: belts away from the referee, and Swerve was telling Kofi
[56:22] Speaker 1: and Creed they don't deserve them. New Level hands Brodito
[56:26] Speaker 1: the belts anyway. Shake hands with them. They embrace. Swerve
[56:31] Speaker 1: is just staring a hole through Hangman. Holds the title
[56:35] Speaker 1: up like he's going to hand it over to him.
[56:36] Speaker 1: And then just as Hangman goes to grab it, Swerve
[56:39] Speaker 1: drops it. And the fans boo. Swerve leaves with Nana.
[56:44] Speaker 1: Nana's calling for Kofi and Creed. Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Now, look,
[56:48] Speaker 1: it's the trio's belts. Okay, so it really doesn't matter
[56:51] Speaker 1: how fast they switch them. In the last three months,
[56:54] Speaker 1: they've changed hands, I think, five times, I believe. But
[56:58] Speaker 1: they surprised me with that title change. I wasn't expecting that.
[57:02] Speaker 1: Not the worst thing if they want to transition new
[57:04] Speaker 1: level to more straight tag team matches and possibly move
[57:07] Speaker 1: them away from Swerve. Based on that ending, it looks
[57:09] Speaker 1: like that pairing may not be long for this world.
[57:12] Speaker 1: And it would be nice to get Hangman and Brodito
[57:14] Speaker 1: in there with other teams. Like get them in there
[57:16] Speaker 1: with the Rascals. Get them in there with other trios.
[57:19] Speaker 1: So I don't mind it. Again, this was another very
[57:22] Speaker 1: good match. I like the all-out match better. But it's
[57:25] Speaker 1: not like this one was bad, I just didn't enjoy
[57:27] Speaker 1: it as much. Now Renee, all of a sudden, was
[57:31] Speaker 1: on the stage. She wanted to introduce the crowd to
[57:36] Speaker 1: AEW's newest acquisition. She reminds us that in AEW, it's
[57:40] Speaker 1: where the best wrestle. And sure enough, once she said that,
[57:44] Speaker 1: you knew who was coming out. They show this giant metronome,
[57:50] Speaker 1: which is suddenly on stage, and it's ticking back and forth,
[57:53] Speaker 1: back and forth. The arena goes black, and we hear
[57:58] Speaker 1: music for the debuting Ilya Dragunov. The mad dragon has arrived.
[58:04] Speaker 1: He is all elite, and there's a red hue that
[58:07] Speaker 1: envelops the arena. Dragunov appears on stage in a suit.
[58:12] Speaker 1: He's like the maestro, and he's making his way down
[58:15] Speaker 1: to the ring. He hits each side of the ring.
[58:17] Speaker 1: He's really taking time to soak it all in. Great
[58:21] Speaker 1: response from the crowd. He debuted in AEW exactly one
[58:25] Speaker 1: year to the day that he returned on SmackDown after
[58:28] Speaker 1: 13 months out with a torn ACL. He showed up
[58:31] Speaker 1: on SmackDown, won the United States Championship. One year later
[58:36] Speaker 1: to the day, he makes his debut in AEW. I
[58:40] Speaker 1: was just happy to see Ilya Dragunov back on TV
[58:43] Speaker 1: because we have not seen him on television since April 15th.
[58:47] Speaker 1: We have not seen him on television since the Andre
[58:49] Speaker 1: the Giant in Memorial Battle Royal. He has been benched
[58:52] Speaker 1: because whatever they offered him, he wasn't interested. They offered
[58:55] Speaker 1: him a pay cut. He said, no, I'm not taking
[58:57] Speaker 1: a pay cut. This is what I think I'm worth.
[59:00] Speaker 1: They couldn't reach an understanding, and so he decided to
[59:03] Speaker 1: take his services elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with that. Good
[59:06] Speaker 1: for him for standing up for what he believes he's worth.
[59:10] Speaker 1: I don't know what Tony Khan is paying him, but obviously,
[59:12] Speaker 1: whatever it is, he's happy with it. I actually think
[59:15] Speaker 1: he's a much better fit for AEW, just stylistically. When
[59:18] Speaker 1: you look at the talent roster and all the different
[59:20] Speaker 1: people that he has to work with here, this feels
[59:23] Speaker 1: to me like it should be a better fit for him.
[59:25] Speaker 1: But I just thought the presentation was on point, that music.
[59:28] Speaker 1: That music is final boss shit. He's using Soviet March
[59:33] Speaker 1: from Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 as his entrance theme,
[59:37] Speaker 1: which he used on the Independence scene before coming to WWE.
[59:40] Speaker 1: So obviously Tony Khan, I don't know who he has
[59:43] Speaker 1: to go through for it, if it's the video game
[59:46] Speaker 1: company or somebody else, but he got the rights to
[59:48] Speaker 1: the music. I'm glad he did. It's a great theme
[59:52] Speaker 1: for him. So on night one, at least, it's too
[59:55] Speaker 1: early to tell how everything is going to work out,
[59:57] Speaker 1: but the presentation I thought was on point. And look,
[1:00:01] Speaker 1: there are people that I'm sure like when Tommaso Ciampa
[1:00:03] Speaker 1: came to AEW earlier this year who were saying, oh, yeah,
[1:00:06] Speaker 1: he might come out of the gate hot, but then
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: he's going to settle in and be lost in the
[1:00:10] Speaker 1: shuffle and you'll never see him on Dynamite. Maybe you'll
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: see him on Collision. Tony's not going to do anything
[1:00:15] Speaker 1: with him. He's going to fall through the cracks. And
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: it's a valid concern to have because it's happened to
[1:00:19] Speaker 1: other guys before. But you look at a guy like
[1:00:21] Speaker 1: Ciampa and I think Ciampa actually has had a hell
[1:00:24] Speaker 1: of a year for himself in AEW. And I would
[1:00:27] Speaker 1: like to see him doing more. But what he has
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: done so far, I think he's one of those guys
[1:00:32] Speaker 1: that has come over that has actually been used a
[1:00:34] Speaker 1: lot better than most. And so I'm hoping that Dragunov
[1:00:37] Speaker 1: can get maybe a similar type of push that Ciampa
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: has gotten so far, where he can be integrated into
[1:00:43] Speaker 1: the show on most weeks and he could appear not
[1:00:44] Speaker 1: only on Collision but on Dynamite and maybe get some
[1:00:47] Speaker 1: pay-per-view matches and really be involved. you know, in some stories.
[1:00:53] Speaker 1: So he is visible and he is active and we
[1:00:55] Speaker 1: get to see him go out there and beat the
[1:00:57] Speaker 1: hell out of people and do what he does best.
[1:00:59] Speaker 1: Hopefully he is not one of these people that fades
[1:01:02] Speaker 1: into the background and we don't get to see him
[1:01:05] Speaker 1: as much as we would like to. And the idea
[1:01:07] Speaker 1: of putting him in the ring with guys like Osprey, Omega, MJF,
[1:01:12] Speaker 1: Samoa Joe, Takeshita, that's what I want. And I want
[1:01:16] Speaker 1: him in the C2 this year. Put him in there
[1:01:18] Speaker 1: with Claudio in the C2. Now, it was already around
[1:01:23] Speaker 1: 11 p.m. or so. Jon Moxley and Mark Davis, they
[1:01:27] Speaker 1: were first going to the ring for their Continental title match.
[1:01:31] Speaker 1: And before the match, Renee is doing her report from ringside.
[1:01:35] Speaker 1: She said the Death Riders have been grieving in real
[1:01:37] Speaker 1: time these last few weeks. And no one has carried
[1:01:40] Speaker 1: the brunt of that load more than Jon Moxley. This
[1:01:43] Speaker 1: is all part of the story they were trying to
[1:01:45] Speaker 1: tell coming into the match. Davis started throwing elbows, and
[1:01:50] Speaker 1: Moxley came up bleeding a gusher. It was either from
[1:01:52] Speaker 1: his temple or right next to his eye, to the
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: point where they had a shot of the white ring
[1:01:57] Speaker 1: ropes stained in Moxley's blood. You could see the blood
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: dripping from the ropes. Davis takes Moxley to the apron,
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: and he hits this very violent, scary pile driver on
[1:02:11] Speaker 1: the edge of the ring. And Moxley just slides off
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: and lands on the back of his neck. Moxley, somehow,
[1:02:18] Speaker 1: he ends up being able to break the count right
[1:02:20] Speaker 1: before 10. But he rolls right into an enziguri that
[1:02:25] Speaker 1: sends Moxley back outside. And Paul Turner is giving Moxley
[1:02:30] Speaker 1: time to recover. Because he went out there, he said, look,
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: I don't want to count you out. You've got to
[1:02:34] Speaker 1: get back in the ring. Excalibur is on commentary, questioning,
[1:02:37] Speaker 1: is Moxley giving up? Marina Shafir and Daniel Garcia, they
[1:02:43] Speaker 1: appear in the front row. They're trying to play hype
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: man or hype woman. Tony Schiavone reminds us it's continental rules,
[1:02:51] Speaker 1: so they're not allowed over the barricade, which is why
[1:02:53] Speaker 1: they're staying in the front row. But they're trying to
[1:02:55] Speaker 1: fire him up. Moxley, he ends up, you know, he's
[1:02:58] Speaker 1: hearing what they're saying, and you can see he's getting
[1:03:00] Speaker 1: all fired up. He gets back in the ring. He
[1:03:03] Speaker 1: takes out Davis with a curb stomp. And the match
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: rolls on, though. Davis ended up bleeding, too. He posted
[1:03:09] Speaker 1: himself in the corner. Davis wanted his pile driver. Moxley
[1:03:13] Speaker 1: briefly got a brutalizer applied to a big reaction. Quickly transitioned, though,
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: into a bulldog choke, then a rear naked choke. But
[1:03:22] Speaker 1: Davis is powering up to his feet. Moxley still has
[1:03:26] Speaker 1: the move, you know, cinched in. It's locked in. Davis
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: ultimately passes out. Falls forward. He's out. Referee calls for
[1:03:34] Speaker 1: the bell. I was thinking that Moxley should have won
[1:03:37] Speaker 1: with the brutalizer, like this one time. When I saw
[1:03:40] Speaker 1: that sell, though, by Davis at the end, I changed
[1:03:43] Speaker 1: my mind. He fell forward like a big redwood being
[1:03:46] Speaker 1: chopped down. I thought that was great. After the match,
[1:03:50] Speaker 1: the Death Riders, they came out to celebrate Moxley. He
[1:03:54] Speaker 1: doesn't look like he's in a very celebratory mood. He
[1:03:56] Speaker 1: takes a chair. He's slamming it against the steps, collapses
[1:04:01] Speaker 1: down to his butt. He's sitting up against the barricade.
[1:04:05] Speaker 1: Maybe he was sitting in a chair, but again, he's
[1:04:07] Speaker 1: just drenched in blood and starts pacing around. It looked
[1:04:11] Speaker 1: like he was in tears or trying to hold back tears.
[1:04:15] Speaker 1: And then he headed back through the crowd. First off,
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: this was one hell of a battle. And this was
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: a match where when, you know, they announced that this
[1:04:24] Speaker 1: was going to be taking place, it was like, all right,
[1:04:26] Speaker 1: they want to get Moxley on the show. And, you know,
[1:04:29] Speaker 1: I like Mark Davis, but the matches, again, it just
[1:04:32] Speaker 1: came out of nowhere. It just felt like, all right,
[1:04:33] Speaker 1: we got to pad the show. We got to give
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: Moxley something to do. So we'll throw this out there
[1:04:38] Speaker 1: as a continental title match. And Moxley has held this
[1:04:40] Speaker 1: championship for the entire year. At this point, he's going
[1:04:44] Speaker 1: to hold it until we get to the C2. And
[1:04:46] Speaker 1: then we'll end up with somebody different holding it, not
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: because somebody beat Moxley, but because he went the entire
[1:04:51] Speaker 1: year without being beaten for it. And then I presume
[1:04:54] Speaker 1: they'll have somebody new win the belt in December. But
[1:04:57] Speaker 1: you knew Mark Davis wasn't going to be the one
[1:04:59] Speaker 1: going in there on short notice, no less. You know,
[1:05:01] Speaker 1: a week's notice or whatever it was. And winning the
[1:05:05] Speaker 1: Continental title and doing what nobody else has been able
[1:05:07] Speaker 1: to do and take that belt from Jon Moxley. So
[1:05:10] Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of drama in what the outcome
[1:05:12] Speaker 1: would be. But what should have been like a throwaway
[1:05:15] Speaker 1: match in many ways... turned into a hell of a battle.
[1:05:19] Speaker 1: And I can appreciate them trying to tell the grief
[1:05:22] Speaker 1: story with Moxley, where he's an emotional wreck and maybe
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: second-guessing himself. Maybe he's facing his own mortality. He just
[1:05:29] Speaker 1: lost two friends in the last month and a half.
[1:05:33] Speaker 1: But it never felt to me like they were exploiting
[1:05:36] Speaker 1: it to the point of, like, this feels gross. Right?
[1:05:39] Speaker 1: This was a very real tragedy that he and other
[1:05:41] Speaker 1: members of that group are going through. And everybody knows it.
[1:05:46] Speaker 1: They built an entire tribute show around it, and it
[1:05:48] Speaker 1: stands to reason that it would still be weighing heavily
[1:05:50] Speaker 1: on their minds. So I thought they did a good
[1:05:53] Speaker 1: job of trying to introduce some vulnerability to Moxley in
[1:05:57] Speaker 1: a way that made you think, maybe, maybe the other
[1:06:00] Speaker 1: guy had a shot, even though he never really did.
[1:06:04] Speaker 1: Such is the plight of Mark Davis most of the time.
[1:06:06] Speaker 1: You never really believe he's going to win any of
[1:06:08] Speaker 1: his big matches, but fuck if that guy doesn't go
[1:06:11] Speaker 1: out there and deliver every single time. But I also
[1:06:14] Speaker 1: think this match went on for too long. And whatever
[1:06:16] Speaker 1: happened to the rule that these continental title matches are
[1:06:19] Speaker 1: capped at a 20-minute time limit? Whatever happened to that?
[1:06:23] Speaker 1: Did they waive it for this and I missed it?
[1:06:25] Speaker 1: I know they waived it for Revolution against Takeshita. And
[1:06:28] Speaker 1: I think for Double or Nothing against Kyle O'Reilly. But
[1:06:31] Speaker 1: I thought this was a regular title match. This fucking
[1:06:33] Speaker 1: thing went 23 minutes. And we still had a 30-minute
[1:06:36] Speaker 1: main event left to go. They could have told the
[1:06:39] Speaker 1: same story and kept the match under 20 minutes to
[1:06:42] Speaker 1: adhere to the time limit that they themselves have established
[1:06:45] Speaker 1: for that belt. And then we had the main event.
[1:06:48] Speaker 1: They closed with the Clockwork Carnage match. First time ever
[1:06:51] Speaker 1: for the AEW World Championship. The match starts out under
[1:06:56] Speaker 1: rules very similar to the casino gauntlet. We already knew
[1:06:58] Speaker 1: who the eight men were going to be in this match.
[1:07:00] Speaker 1: Two men would be selected at random to begin. Every
[1:07:03] Speaker 1: three minutes thereafter, a new member would enter the fray
[1:07:06] Speaker 1: until all eight men have been called. During that first phase,
[1:07:10] Speaker 1: that first period, anybody who gets pinned or submitted is gone.
[1:07:14] Speaker 1: They're eliminated. They do not move on. Once the eighth
[1:07:17] Speaker 1: man is out, phase two begins. It becomes an Ironman match.
[1:07:20] Speaker 1: And the person who racks up the most pins or
[1:07:22] Speaker 1: submissions and you get a point for each one, that
[1:07:24] Speaker 1: person at the end would stand as the AW World Champion.
[1:07:28] Speaker 1: So it's easier to understand when you break it down
[1:07:30] Speaker 1: by casino gauntlet first half, Ironman in the second half.
[1:07:34] Speaker 1: Will Ospreay, the AW World Champion, and Konosuke Takeshita. They
[1:07:38] Speaker 1: were the first two entrants. Apparently no champion's advantage here
[1:07:41] Speaker 1: in this match. So they kick things off. And I
[1:07:44] Speaker 1: hope you enjoy Takeshita. in the opening here, because he
[1:07:48] Speaker 1: didn't survive very long in this match. That was probably
[1:07:51] Speaker 1: the biggest disappointment of the entire match. Speedball Mike Bailey,
[1:07:54] Speaker 1: he came out at number three. Ricochet entered at number four.
[1:07:58] Speaker 1: Darby Allin, the TNT champion, entered at number five. The
[1:08:02] Speaker 1: international champion, Kazuchika Okada, he was in at number six. Takeshita,
[1:08:06] Speaker 1: he caught Bailey with a blue thunderbomb and a raging
[1:08:09] Speaker 1: fire to pin Speedball, which meant Speedball was the first
[1:08:13] Speaker 1: man eliminated. He does not make it to phase two.
[1:08:16] Speaker 1: Adam Copeland entered at number seven. So let me stop
[1:08:20] Speaker 1: here and talk a little bit about Adam Copeland because
[1:08:23] Speaker 1: he made some news this week. After he beat Josh
[1:08:26] Speaker 1: Alexander on Wednesday to qualify for this match, he got
[1:08:29] Speaker 1: on the microphone. He was very tired after this battle
[1:08:33] Speaker 1: that he had just had. And he said that in
[1:08:35] Speaker 1: the tables, ladders, and chairs match at All Out, People
[1:08:39] Speaker 1: may not know that Christian Cage got thrown into a
[1:08:42] Speaker 1: ladder five minutes into the match, and he broke three ribs.
[1:08:45] Speaker 1: One of them he broke in three places, which sounds
[1:08:48] Speaker 1: like it sucks. But he also suffered a collapsed lung,
[1:08:52] Speaker 1: which sucks even more. But yet at the end of
[1:08:55] Speaker 1: that match, Christian was still out there. He was standing
[1:08:58] Speaker 1: on top of the ladder, reaching up, trying to... you know,
[1:09:00] Speaker 1: pull down the AW tag team titles. So Christian is
[1:09:04] Speaker 1: going to be gone for a while. But he said
[1:09:06] Speaker 1: he did that because of his work ethic. He did
[1:09:08] Speaker 1: it for the fans. And given what happened and losing
[1:09:11] Speaker 1: his tag team partner, he did some soul searching. And
[1:09:13] Speaker 1: he realized, you know, my face is not on teenagers'
[1:09:16] Speaker 1: walls anymore. I'm aging out. And that's okay because it
[1:09:20] Speaker 1: happens to everybody, but it also means that 2027 is
[1:09:24] Speaker 1: going to be his final year in pro wrestling. And
[1:09:27] Speaker 1: this is why he must go after the AEW World Championship.
[1:09:31] Speaker 1: So this is going to be the big storyline for
[1:09:33] Speaker 1: Adam Copeland now going into next year. We don't know
[1:09:35] Speaker 1: if he's going to be active the entire year up
[1:09:37] Speaker 1: until December like John Cena was last year, or if
[1:09:41] Speaker 1: there's a specific target date or pay-per-view that they have
[1:09:44] Speaker 1: in mind. But 2027 will be it for him in
[1:09:47] Speaker 1: the ring. And his goal is to win world championship gold,
[1:09:51] Speaker 1: which he has not yet done in AEW. He's been
[1:09:53] Speaker 1: a TNT champion. He's been a tag team champion. He
[1:09:56] Speaker 1: has not been AEW world champion. It seems very likely
[1:09:59] Speaker 1: he probably will be at some point. But this is
[1:10:02] Speaker 1: now the story that they will tell with him going
[1:10:04] Speaker 1: into next year. And it makes sense to me because
[1:10:08] Speaker 1: you watch him and I talk about Jericho and not
[1:10:11] Speaker 1: being the same guy he was even a couple of
[1:10:12] Speaker 1: years ago. It's not like he can't do it anymore,
[1:10:16] Speaker 1: but just not at that level. And there are some
[1:10:18] Speaker 1: guys that don't want people to see them that way.
[1:10:19] Speaker 1: There are some guys that are like, man, if I
[1:10:21] Speaker 1: lose a step, this is what Cena said. You know,
[1:10:24] Speaker 1: Cena said, I had to get out. I don't want people,
[1:10:27] Speaker 1: like the minute I feel like I've lost a step,
[1:10:29] Speaker 1: I'm done. That's it. That's why he retired. So there
[1:10:32] Speaker 1: are guys who feel that way. And then there are
[1:10:34] Speaker 1: other guys who just, they can't let go. This is
[1:10:36] Speaker 1: all they've ever known. They love it. It's in their blood.
[1:10:39] Speaker 1: It's in their veins. They can't get it out. And
[1:10:40] Speaker 1: they'll go until the wheels fall off. where Doctor tells them,
[1:10:44] Speaker 1: you can't do this anymore. And I think Copeland falls
[1:10:47] Speaker 1: into the former category, where he doesn't want to be
[1:10:51] Speaker 1: that guy that hangs on for too long and loses
[1:10:54] Speaker 1: a few steps to where he can't do a lot
[1:10:56] Speaker 1: of the stuff that he's able to do now, and
[1:10:59] Speaker 1: he embarrasses himself. And you can tell just by watching him.
[1:11:02] Speaker 1: I mean, again, he can still go out there and
[1:11:04] Speaker 1: have a really good match with the right person, but
[1:11:07] Speaker 1: it's not the same Adam Copeland that we saw when
[1:11:09] Speaker 1: he first signed with AEW. It's not the Adam Copeland
[1:11:12] Speaker 1: we saw even towards the very end of his run
[1:11:14] Speaker 1: in WWE. So why not go out when the going
[1:11:18] Speaker 1: is still good and you can still go out there
[1:11:19] Speaker 1: and have these good matches? And have matches with people
[1:11:22] Speaker 1: that you've never worked with before. But the other reason
[1:11:25] Speaker 1: it made sense to me, and I've been saying this
[1:11:27] Speaker 1: now for a while, why I thought 2027 was going
[1:11:30] Speaker 1: to be it for him. Because he had this bucket
[1:11:33] Speaker 1: list of venues that he wanted to work and he
[1:11:35] Speaker 1: crossed most of them off. Right? I mean, Wembley Stadium
[1:11:39] Speaker 1: and Maple Leaf Gardens and Arena Mexico. And there was
[1:11:43] Speaker 1: one left on that list. And that's the Tokyo Dome.
[1:11:46] Speaker 1: And there's only one wrestling show per year at the
[1:11:49] Speaker 1: Tokyo Dome. And it happens in January. And I didn't
[1:11:53] Speaker 1: think Adam Copeland was going to be in the ring
[1:11:55] Speaker 1: in January of 2028. So it felt like next year
[1:11:59] Speaker 1: or bust. And Tony Khan was very coy on the
[1:12:03] Speaker 1: media call on Thursday when people were asking him about this.
[1:12:06] Speaker 1: They specifically asked him about the possibility of Copeland working
[1:12:09] Speaker 1: the Tokyo Dome and Wrestle Kingdom because there's a lot
[1:12:13] Speaker 1: of AEW guys that look like they're working Wrestle Kingdom
[1:12:15] Speaker 1: this January. Would he be among them? And Tony didn't
[1:12:19] Speaker 1: say yes. He didn't say no. He was very coy. Why? Because,
[1:12:23] Speaker 1: of course, Adam Copeland is 100% going to wrestle on
[1:12:27] Speaker 1: the Tokyo Dome card in January because it's his last chance.
[1:12:31] Speaker 1: Now we know this is his last year. There will
[1:12:34] Speaker 1: not be a 2028. It's now or never. We know
[1:12:37] Speaker 1: he wants to do it. Tony Khan is not going
[1:12:40] Speaker 1: to say no. How is Tony Khan going to say
[1:12:42] Speaker 1: no when it looks like there's going to be no
[1:12:44] Speaker 1: less than three or four or five AW guys like
[1:12:47] Speaker 1: MJF and Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay
[1:12:52] Speaker 1: who are going to be working the Tokyo Dome next year? So,
[1:12:55] Speaker 1: of course, he will be able to work that show.
[1:12:59] Speaker 1: Where is his retirement match going to be? Where and when?
[1:13:02] Speaker 1: I don't know, again, if he's going to go all
[1:13:03] Speaker 1: the way to the end of the year, but what
[1:13:04] Speaker 1: I said on Wednesday when I did the live review
[1:13:07] Speaker 1: of the post-show, the finale in Toronto makes all the
[1:13:12] Speaker 1: sense in the world. So we may be looking at
[1:13:14] Speaker 1: WrestleDream or Full Gear in Toronto next year. But he's
[1:13:20] Speaker 1: wrestled a lot of big names in this company, but
[1:13:22] Speaker 1: not all of them. There are many of them that
[1:13:24] Speaker 1: he has not worked with. He's wrestled Jon Moxley. I
[1:13:27] Speaker 1: never need to see that match ever again. He's wrestled
[1:13:30] Speaker 1: Christian Cage multiple times, and I think we will very
[1:13:35] Speaker 1: likely see them wrestle again. Some people might even think
[1:13:38] Speaker 1: Christian is the appropriate final opponent for him. I don't
[1:13:41] Speaker 1: know that I... I don't know. I'm kind of indifferent
[1:13:44] Speaker 1: towards it. I can see it, but I'd rather he
[1:13:47] Speaker 1: not be in the ring with Christian just because we've
[1:13:49] Speaker 1: seen it so many times, if that is going to
[1:13:51] Speaker 1: be the last, last match. But, you know, I could
[1:13:55] Speaker 1: see that being a possibility. But he's worked with Malakai Black,
[1:13:58] Speaker 1: Brody King, Penta... pack but it's been all tag team
[1:14:03] Speaker 1: or multi-man matches this year outside of that win over
[1:14:06] Speaker 1: josh alexander on wednesday that was his one and only
[1:14:09] Speaker 1: singles match not just singles win singles match in 2026
[1:14:14] Speaker 1: was on wednesday there are plenty of matches on the
[1:14:18] Speaker 1: table for next year mjf is to me mjf is
[1:14:22] Speaker 1: the most natural one will osprey okada kenny omega Hangman Page, Swerve.
[1:14:33] Speaker 1: As far as who should be the one to retire him,
[1:14:35] Speaker 1: I think MJF would be a good choice. I think
[1:14:39] Speaker 1: Kyle Fletcher, if you want to use somebody who isn't
[1:14:41] Speaker 1: a made man yet like MJF is, but is kind
[1:14:44] Speaker 1: of on his way to that, as a heel, Fletcher
[1:14:47] Speaker 1: would be a great choice. And again, maybe they look
[1:14:50] Speaker 1: at it and go, we got to do edging Christian, right?
[1:14:53] Speaker 1: And that should be the appropriate final match. If Christian
[1:14:56] Speaker 1: was going to retire next year also, I would agree.
[1:14:59] Speaker 1: And I would say, you know what, you could do
[1:15:01] Speaker 1: a double retirement match and have them wrestle each other. But,
[1:15:04] Speaker 1: I mean, there's been no indication that Christian is planning on,
[1:15:07] Speaker 1: you know, calling it a day next year the way
[1:15:09] Speaker 1: that Copeland is. But if Copeland was going to win
[1:15:12] Speaker 1: like Sting did in his retirement match, then I guess
[1:15:15] Speaker 1: Christian would make sense. I'd rather not see Copeland go
[1:15:17] Speaker 1: out there and just, you know, like I mentioned Fletcher.
[1:15:21] Speaker 1: I'd rather not see Copeland beat Fletcher, you know, in
[1:15:24] Speaker 1: his final match. I know Sting, they gave Sting the
[1:15:28] Speaker 1: win and his, I don't know. The Sting thing is,
[1:15:30] Speaker 1: to me, that's a different situation. To me, that's a
[1:15:33] Speaker 1: very different situation. Sting was a guy who was protected.
[1:15:36] Speaker 1: He didn't lose a single match his entire run there.
[1:15:39] Speaker 1: This legendary guy, even older than Copeland is, and it
[1:15:43] Speaker 1: was a tag team match and not a singles match.
[1:15:45] Speaker 1: And it was this feel good moment with the tag
[1:15:47] Speaker 1: team titles and everything. So that, to me, It's a
[1:15:50] Speaker 1: different situation. I'd rather not see Copeland in his final
[1:15:54] Speaker 1: match win the AEW World Championship and then just kind
[1:15:57] Speaker 1: of give it up and ride off into the sunset.
[1:16:01] Speaker 1: Him winning the title next year, though, I think there's
[1:16:03] Speaker 1: a very real likelihood and a very real possibility of
[1:16:05] Speaker 1: that happening. It'd be very interesting to see people's reactions
[1:16:10] Speaker 1: if that were to happen. Because when they pitched a
[1:16:13] Speaker 1: similar story with Jeff Jarrett last year, everybody freaked out.
[1:16:18] Speaker 1: And I was one of those people who were like, man,
[1:16:20] Speaker 1: I don't have any interest in seeing this. You cannot
[1:16:25] Speaker 1: tell me that they are thinking about putting the AEW
[1:16:27] Speaker 1: world title and telling this story with Jeff Jarrett. And
[1:16:31] Speaker 1: Tony Khan saw the feedback because a lot of people
[1:16:33] Speaker 1: felt the same way. And it obviously spooked him. And
[1:16:37] Speaker 1: the story got dropped. We never even got a match
[1:16:39] Speaker 1: with him and MJF. Forget the whole world title hunt.
[1:16:42] Speaker 1: And Tony, again, he had second thoughts. He had cold feet.
[1:16:45] Speaker 1: And he pulled the plug on the story. And I'm
[1:16:46] Speaker 1: glad he did. Well, if that's how you felt about
[1:16:49] Speaker 1: the Jeff Jarrett story, then how can you say the
[1:16:52] Speaker 1: same for Adam Copeland? Is your argument that, well, Copeland
[1:16:56] Speaker 1: was a bigger name, at least for a period of time,
[1:16:59] Speaker 1: than Jarrett was? And so it's okay to put the
[1:17:03] Speaker 1: quote-unquote old guy in there and put the world title
[1:17:06] Speaker 1: on him? Wouldn't that be hypocritical if you felt like,
[1:17:10] Speaker 1: oh my god, I don't want to see this with
[1:17:11] Speaker 1: Jeff Jarrett? But I'm okay with them putting the belt
[1:17:13] Speaker 1: on Adam Copeland, really. Well... I don't know, there is
[1:17:17] Speaker 1: a little disconnect there. I'm of the opinion that I
[1:17:20] Speaker 1: don't want to see either one of them hold the
[1:17:21] Speaker 1: world championship. I don't need to see Adam Copeland as
[1:17:25] Speaker 1: the AW world champion. But if they tell the right
[1:17:28] Speaker 1: story and they tell it a certain way, I could
[1:17:30] Speaker 1: be convinced that maybe for the sake of the story,
[1:17:33] Speaker 1: you know what, it would make sense to have them
[1:17:35] Speaker 1: put the belt on him. I mean, I'm just saying,
[1:17:37] Speaker 1: sitting here right now, do I have an appetite to
[1:17:39] Speaker 1: see him win the world title? No, I really don't.
[1:17:42] Speaker 1: I could be convinced, but I'm not feeling it right now.
[1:17:46] Speaker 1: just like I didn't feel it with Jeff Jarrett either. So,
[1:17:50] Speaker 1: Copeland enters. We got our first in-ring interaction with Copeland
[1:17:53] Speaker 1: and Takeshita. Copeland tried a spear. He ran into a
[1:17:56] Speaker 1: blue thunderbomb instead. Okada saved Copeland only to hit Takeshita
[1:18:00] Speaker 1: with a Rainmaker and eliminate him, all while flipping the
[1:18:04] Speaker 1: man off with the cheesiest smile on his face. So
[1:18:07] Speaker 1: Speedball and Takeshita, they got bounced before the Iron Man
[1:18:10] Speaker 1: portion even began. And with Samoa Joe entering last at
[1:18:14] Speaker 1: number eight, That commenced the 15-minute countdown for Phase 2,
[1:18:19] Speaker 1: and the match shifted to Iron Man rules. Collect the
[1:18:23] Speaker 1: most pinfalls or submissions in 15 minutes, and you're the champion.
[1:18:27] Speaker 1: It's as simple as that. And we got the best
[1:18:29] Speaker 1: part of the entire match, as Joe made his way
[1:18:32] Speaker 1: out to the ring for Part 2. Ricochet tried to
[1:18:35] Speaker 1: catch him with the tope suicida, but Joe just walked off,
[1:18:38] Speaker 1: and Ricochet splatted on the ground. I swear that shit
[1:18:42] Speaker 1: will never get old. That shit will never get old
[1:18:45] Speaker 1: to me. Best moment of the entire night. I don't
[1:18:48] Speaker 1: care what anybody says. so then the muscle buster planted
[1:18:53] Speaker 1: Darby Joe gets a pinfall that gives him one point
[1:18:56] Speaker 1: right as Joe hits a tope on Osprey Ricochet pinned
[1:19:00] Speaker 1: Darby as well so Ricochet got his point Ricochet then
[1:19:04] Speaker 1: missed a handspring on Copeland, who hit a full Nelson slam. Okada, though,
[1:19:08] Speaker 1: snuck in behind with a Rainmaker on Copeland for a pin,
[1:19:13] Speaker 1: giving Okada a point. That may be important when it
[1:19:17] Speaker 1: comes to who Copeland may be wrestling at the Tokyo
[1:19:19] Speaker 1: Dome in January. I think Okada against Copeland would be
[1:19:23] Speaker 1: the likely match, maybe for the international title. So Ospreay
[1:19:27] Speaker 1: missed a hidden blade to Ricochet. The two of them
[1:19:29] Speaker 1: traded some reversals until Ospreay hit a styles clash for
[1:19:33] Speaker 1: a pin that put the champion on the board, finally,
[1:19:35] Speaker 1: with one point. Darby, though, flew in with a cough drop,
[1:19:39] Speaker 1: and he pit, what, a cough drop? He flew in
[1:19:41] Speaker 1: with a, Jesus Christ, he flew in with a coffin drop. Yes,
[1:19:46] Speaker 1: he could tell that Will Ospreay was, he had some
[1:19:49] Speaker 1: phlegm in his throat, so he flew in with a
[1:19:51] Speaker 1: cough drop. What a nice guy he is. Oh, my God.
[1:19:54] Speaker 1: He flew in with a coffin drop, and he pinned
[1:19:57] Speaker 1: Ospreay to give Darby one point in this match. Now,
[1:20:00] Speaker 1: what did I tell you coming into this? I said,
[1:20:02] Speaker 1: first of all, Will Ospreay needs to be pinned by
[1:20:04] Speaker 1: somebody in this match. Of course, he's going to win
[1:20:07] Speaker 1: the thing overall. But whoever gets a fall on the champion,
[1:20:11] Speaker 1: you are setting up your challenger for full gear. And
[1:20:14] Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be Darby Allin. They've
[1:20:16] Speaker 1: only had one match before. It was two years ago
[1:20:18] Speaker 1: in the C2. Darby beat him, and it only... The
[1:20:22] Speaker 1: way they've been doing things, it only made sense to me, right?
[1:20:24] Speaker 1: He got his win back over Moxley. He finally got
[1:20:27] Speaker 1: a win over Okada. Now he's going to do the
[1:20:30] Speaker 1: same thing with Darby. So here Darby pins him. Only now,
[1:20:35] Speaker 1: in the middle of the match, did Excalibur even mention,
[1:20:38] Speaker 1: by the way, that if we get a tie for
[1:20:40] Speaker 1: the most points, that we're going to have a sudden
[1:20:42] Speaker 1: death overtime. They never mentioned that at all earlier in
[1:20:45] Speaker 1: the show or in the days leading up to it,
[1:20:47] Speaker 1: but they mentioned it here. And the fact that we
[1:20:49] Speaker 1: ended up not getting a sudden death, I'm not even
[1:20:52] Speaker 1: sure why they brought that up, to be honest with you.
[1:20:55] Speaker 1: Because we ended up not getting one. I could see
[1:20:57] Speaker 1: some people being disappointed. Well, why would you mention it
[1:20:59] Speaker 1: if we weren't going to get it? But we got
[1:21:00] Speaker 1: no overtime. So Copeland and Darby, they go at it
[1:21:04] Speaker 1: until Darby gets a Lamahistral cradle and he gets the
[1:21:07] Speaker 1: flash pin. So now Darby has two points. Darby tried
[1:21:11] Speaker 1: for a code red on Osprey, who just kind of
[1:21:13] Speaker 1: flicked him off, blasted Darby with a hidden blade, and
[1:21:16] Speaker 1: he got the pin. So Ospreay gets two points now,
[1:21:20] Speaker 1: or he's now up to two points in this match.
[1:21:23] Speaker 1: Ospreay and Ricochet, they battle up on top. Ricochet landed
[1:21:26] Speaker 1: an avalanche hurricanrana. Ricochet had a big run of offense
[1:21:30] Speaker 1: here on everybody, even outside, until he got back in
[1:21:32] Speaker 1: the ring and he got speared through the ropes by
[1:21:34] Speaker 1: Copeland to the floor where both men crashed through a
[1:21:37] Speaker 1: table that had been set up at ringside. Copeland was
[1:21:40] Speaker 1: the only man, by the way, at this point with
[1:21:42] Speaker 1: zero points. Then there was a spot here where Darby
[1:21:46] Speaker 1: jumped off the steps at Joe, who caught him and
[1:21:49] Speaker 1: slammed him with a uranagi down, spine first onto the
[1:21:52] Speaker 1: ring steps. And I don't mean the flat part. I'm
[1:21:55] Speaker 1: talking the edge of the fucking stairs. So then in
[1:21:59] Speaker 1: the ring, Ospreay tried an ass cutter. Joe did the
[1:22:02] Speaker 1: casual walk off. Ospreay, though, put on the brakes. So
[1:22:05] Speaker 1: you knew it was coming. But then he tried again
[1:22:08] Speaker 1: and Joe walked away again. And this time Ospreay crashed
[1:22:10] Speaker 1: and burned. When will they learn? When will they ever learn?
[1:22:16] Speaker 1: Joe hit the running senton. He locked in the coquina clutch.
[1:22:19] Speaker 1: Ospreay was struggling. He got to his feet. Joe, though,
[1:22:21] Speaker 1: sank in the hooks. He took him back down to
[1:22:23] Speaker 1: the mat. And after a little bit of a struggle,
[1:22:26] Speaker 1: Ospreay tapped out. So not only did Darby pin the champion,
[1:22:30] Speaker 1: but Joe tapped out the AEW world champion, which is
[1:22:34] Speaker 1: a much bigger deal than Darby Allin getting a flash
[1:22:38] Speaker 1: pin on Ospreay. So with three minutes left in the match...
[1:22:42] Speaker 1: Joe wanted a muscle buster. Osprey fought out of it
[1:22:45] Speaker 1: right as Copeland hit a spear to pin Joe. So
[1:22:48] Speaker 1: Adam Copeland gets on the board. Ricochet springboards off the top.
[1:22:52] Speaker 1: He took another big spear and Copeland got another quick pin.
[1:22:56] Speaker 1: So after going from zero to two in a matter
[1:22:59] Speaker 1: of seconds, all of a sudden things are getting really
[1:23:01] Speaker 1: interesting here. And we got our first interaction ever with
[1:23:05] Speaker 1: Osprey and Copeland. Osprey signal for the hidden blade. He whiffed.
[1:23:09] Speaker 1: Copeland caught him with an impaler DDT. Now we got
[1:23:12] Speaker 1: 60 seconds left on the clock. Copeland struggles to his feet.
[1:23:16] Speaker 1: He charges at Ospreay, runs into an Okada dropkick instead.
[1:23:20] Speaker 1: Copeland then ducks a Rainmaker. He hits a spear, and
[1:23:23] Speaker 1: he covers. He has the match won, seemingly, and the title,
[1:23:27] Speaker 1: before Ospreay blasts him with a hidden blade, and he
[1:23:30] Speaker 1: scores the pin on Copeland with four seconds left in regulation.
[1:23:35] Speaker 1: That gives Will Ospreay three points. As the clock ticks
[1:23:40] Speaker 1: down to zero, time expires, and Will Ospreay survives clockwork
[1:23:44] Speaker 1: carnage to retain the AEW world title. And the crowd,
[1:23:48] Speaker 1: it sounded to me like the crowd disliked the ending
[1:23:51] Speaker 1: because of just how abrupt it was, or a lot
[1:23:53] Speaker 1: of people probably thought they were going into an overtime
[1:23:56] Speaker 1: period and we didn't get that. It felt too contrived
[1:24:00] Speaker 1: with Ospreay, right? Naturally, he pulls it out with seconds
[1:24:03] Speaker 1: to spare on the clock. We've seen this time and
[1:24:06] Speaker 1: time again in wrestling. And so it just felt very contrived.
[1:24:10] Speaker 1: After the match, Copeland, he gives Ospreay a very angry shove. Ultimately, though,
[1:24:14] Speaker 1: he offers his hand. Ospreay accepts. Copeland then pulls him
[1:24:18] Speaker 1: in close, says something to him that we can't hear,
[1:24:21] Speaker 1: but clearly he's pointing at the AEW world title. And
[1:24:25] Speaker 1: so it ends with Ospreay, three falls, Copeland two points,
[1:24:30] Speaker 1: Joe had two points, Darby had two points, and I
[1:24:34] Speaker 1: think everybody else had one. Ricochet had one, and Okada
[1:24:37] Speaker 1: had one. And the only two men to not make
[1:24:40] Speaker 1: it to that final round again were Speedball and Takeshita.
[1:24:44] Speaker 1: On the match overall, it was good. It was definitely
[1:24:50] Speaker 1: not my favorite match on the show. It was good
[1:24:52] Speaker 1: enough to say like, okay, if they wanted to bring
[1:24:55] Speaker 1: the concept back, here's what needs to be done to
[1:24:58] Speaker 1: make it better and improve it. It was not a
[1:25:00] Speaker 1: situation where when it was over, it's like, oh my God,
[1:25:02] Speaker 1: what a pile of shit. I never want to see
[1:25:04] Speaker 1: that again. So I guess in that regard, you can
[1:25:07] Speaker 1: call it a success. But I said this earlier, and
[1:25:10] Speaker 1: this is my takeaway from this. I would have enjoyed
[1:25:14] Speaker 1: this match more, and I think it would have played
[1:25:15] Speaker 1: out better if this was not contested for the AW
[1:25:19] Speaker 1: World Championship, especially at a time when we had a
[1:25:22] Speaker 1: man who just won their world title on their biggest
[1:25:26] Speaker 1: show of the year, and there was not a person
[1:25:28] Speaker 1: alive who honestly believed that Will Ospreay had a shot
[1:25:33] Speaker 1: of losing the AW world title on this show. This
[1:25:36] Speaker 1: is a concept where If the title had been vacant,
[1:25:40] Speaker 1: it adds an air of unpredictability to this that was
[1:25:43] Speaker 1: missing here. That's what this match was lacking. So I
[1:25:46] Speaker 1: think they could keep the concept, tweak it though, use
[1:25:50] Speaker 1: it as a gimmick for TV, like they do with
[1:25:53] Speaker 1: Blood and Guts. That last half, that stage two, needed
[1:25:57] Speaker 1: to be longer. But you couldn't do that with a
[1:25:59] Speaker 1: card that was stacked with that many 20-minute matches. Almost
[1:26:04] Speaker 1: every match felt like it went a minimum 20 minutes
[1:26:06] Speaker 1: on this show. And you knew the main event was
[1:26:08] Speaker 1: going at least 30. So there was no way that
[1:26:11] Speaker 1: you could... Well, I shouldn't say that. Tony Khan will
[1:26:14] Speaker 1: be like, challenge accepted. Hold my coffee cup. But realistically,
[1:26:19] Speaker 1: as late as this show ended, you can't extend the
[1:26:21] Speaker 1: match out any longer without cutting from somewhere else. And
[1:26:25] Speaker 1: it would have been better if they would have cut
[1:26:26] Speaker 1: one match, maybe two. You still would have had a
[1:26:29] Speaker 1: full card. But just add an extra 10 minutes to
[1:26:32] Speaker 1: the Iron Man portion. Again, the Iron Survivor in NXT,
[1:26:36] Speaker 1: that's 25 minutes. That sounds about right. But here's one
[1:26:40] Speaker 1: of the things that drove me nuts watching this match.
[1:26:44] Speaker 1: So many times here in AEW, even on this show,
[1:26:48] Speaker 1: on this very pay-per-view, let alone in their pay-per-view main
[1:26:52] Speaker 1: events where it's just ridiculous. How many times do we
[1:26:56] Speaker 1: see people hitting finishing moves and people kick out? How
[1:27:01] Speaker 1: many false finishes on this show alone? How many false
[1:27:03] Speaker 1: finishes in the tag team title match alone on this
[1:27:05] Speaker 1: show did we see? Okay, earlier on the same card.
[1:27:09] Speaker 1: People hit these big moves. They hit their finish. The
[1:27:11] Speaker 1: guy kicks out. They do this. Another false finish. Another
[1:27:13] Speaker 1: false finish. Another false finish. Another false finish. How many
[1:27:17] Speaker 1: times do we see this on these AEW shows? More
[1:27:19] Speaker 1: than any other wrestling promotion that I pay attention to.
[1:27:23] Speaker 1: In this match, with the world championship on the line,
[1:27:28] Speaker 1: How many times, especially in that second portion of the match,
[1:27:32] Speaker 1: we had somebody hit one finish and they got the pin?
[1:27:36] Speaker 1: And normally that would be great. I wouldn't sit here
[1:27:39] Speaker 1: and have any complaints about that because I think that's
[1:27:41] Speaker 1: one of the biggest blights on wrestling today, that there
[1:27:43] Speaker 1: is no such thing anymore as a finishing maneuver because
[1:27:45] Speaker 1: everybody kicks out of them. Therefore, you can't call them
[1:27:47] Speaker 1: a finishing maneuver. They're just a maneuver. There is no
[1:27:51] Speaker 1: such thing anymore as a finishing maneuver. And I wish
[1:27:54] Speaker 1: there was a way to put the genie back in
[1:27:55] Speaker 1: the bottle and make that change, but I understand... That's
[1:27:58] Speaker 1: not going to happen. But watching this match here and
[1:28:02] Speaker 1: watching people go down to one move where if this
[1:28:05] Speaker 1: was anything but clockwork carnage, you know for a fact
[1:28:08] Speaker 1: that this guy would have kicked out of that easily.
[1:28:10] Speaker 1: Will Ospreay is like Mr. Indestructible. It's like the way
[1:28:14] Speaker 1: they're booking Obafemi right now in WWE. But we've seen
[1:28:16] Speaker 1: Will Ospreay do this before where he gets hit with everything. Everything.
[1:28:21] Speaker 1: And he kicks out. Because that's how you hype up
[1:28:24] Speaker 1: a super babyface, right? They got to kick out of everything.
[1:28:28] Speaker 1: So then watching people not do that here, it's like, what?
[1:28:31] Speaker 1: Doesn't make any sense. This goes against everything that AEW does,
[1:28:36] Speaker 1: and they're going to be right back to it next
[1:28:37] Speaker 1: month at Full Gear, and we're supposed to pretend like, okay.
[1:28:40] Speaker 1: one coffin drop puts this guy away what one move
[1:28:43] Speaker 1: here this guy's pinned with the world title on the
[1:28:47] Speaker 1: line there was no urgency to it it just felt
[1:28:49] Speaker 1: like people were taking pins left and right that didn't
[1:28:51] Speaker 1: make any sense in the context of how AEW does
[1:28:53] Speaker 1: stuff it was ridiculous ridiculous So that took me out
[1:29:00] Speaker 1: of the match a little bit. Copeland was the story, though,
[1:29:04] Speaker 1: coming out of this. He had zero falls going into
[1:29:07] Speaker 1: the homestretch. He ended up with two and came a
[1:29:10] Speaker 1: hair away from a third fall, which would have given
[1:29:13] Speaker 1: him the world title. And we know he's going into
[1:29:16] Speaker 1: his final year, right? Who knows how many of these
[1:29:18] Speaker 1: opportunities he's still going to have. They teased Ospreay and
[1:29:22] Speaker 1: Copeland very heavily at the end of this and again
[1:29:24] Speaker 1: in a backstage segment later where Ospreay confronted him in
[1:29:28] Speaker 1: the hallway and said so. 2027, is that true? Is
[1:29:32] Speaker 1: that it? And Copeland said, yeah, that's it. And Ospreay said,
[1:29:37] Speaker 1: save a spot for me. So we're getting that match.
[1:29:40] Speaker 1: Just a matter of when. And that should be in 2027.
[1:29:43] Speaker 1: Full gear is way too soon, number one. Number two,
[1:29:45] Speaker 1: you had two guys who had falls. One by pin,
[1:29:48] Speaker 1: one by submission over the world champion in this main event.
[1:29:51] Speaker 1: One or both of them should be getting the next
[1:29:53] Speaker 1: shot against Will Ospreay. And maybe what they can do
[1:29:56] Speaker 1: is on TV between now and then, you do Joe
[1:29:58] Speaker 1: and Darby. Let Joe beat Darby and do Joe and
[1:30:01] Speaker 1: Ospreay for the world title of full gear. Because if
[1:30:04] Speaker 1: you give me the choice, I would much rather see
[1:30:07] Speaker 1: Ospreay and Joe again. Even though Ospreay beat Joe, I
[1:30:10] Speaker 1: think it was in the Owen, and Ospreay actually never
[1:30:13] Speaker 1: has gotten a win over Darby, I'd still rather see
[1:30:15] Speaker 1: Ospreay and Joe for the world championship. But you can
[1:30:18] Speaker 1: have Joe wrestle Darby and decide on a number one
[1:30:20] Speaker 1: contender that way. Potentially, I guess you could do a
[1:30:24] Speaker 1: three-way match in the main event. But that should be
[1:30:28] Speaker 1: what full gear is. And even World's End, whatever they're
[1:30:31] Speaker 1: going to do at World's End, save the Copeland stuff
[1:30:33] Speaker 1: for next year. Don't they have a Dynasty pay-per-view coming
[1:30:36] Speaker 1: up in February that's overseas, Liverpool or somewhere? Maybe they
[1:30:39] Speaker 1: do it on that show. Yeah, that would be a
[1:30:41] Speaker 1: big main event for that show. Also, don't forget there's
[1:30:44] Speaker 1: the very real possibility that Tony Khan could be planning
[1:30:47] Speaker 1: something for April when WrestleMania goes overseas to Saudi. If
[1:30:50] Speaker 1: he wanted to plan some big domestic show, a dome
[1:30:53] Speaker 1: show or something, Ospreay and Copeland in Copeland's retirement year
[1:30:57] Speaker 1: for the World Championships, That could be a draw for
[1:31:00] Speaker 1: him as a main event. So I would say we're
[1:31:02] Speaker 1: looking at February or April. Probably no later than that
[1:31:07] Speaker 1: when Copeland would get that title match. I don't think
[1:31:09] Speaker 1: you could put this off for another year. I think
[1:31:11] Speaker 1: that would be ridiculous. Plus, who knows? Tony Khan may
[1:31:13] Speaker 1: want to give him a run. It may not be
[1:31:15] Speaker 1: enough for him to give him a world title match.
[1:31:17] Speaker 1: He may want Copeland to win the belt and get
[1:31:19] Speaker 1: a few months defending it. You know, maybe Copeland goes
[1:31:22] Speaker 1: heel and we get Like the old heel edge, and
[1:31:24] Speaker 1: he's going after the world title, which, I mean, look,
[1:31:27] Speaker 1: if that's what he does, I certainly hope it works
[1:31:29] Speaker 1: out better than the John Cena heel turn did. So, yeah,
[1:31:31] Speaker 1: we're looking at that for further down the road. When
[1:31:34] Speaker 1: this show was over, we had a lot of really
[1:31:37] Speaker 1: good wrestling matches and a main event that was good
[1:31:40] Speaker 1: but not great, and this is not the sort of
[1:31:43] Speaker 1: concept I would use again as a pay-per-view main event unless, again,
[1:31:46] Speaker 1: there was a vacancy. Short of that, this could be
[1:31:49] Speaker 1: a good TV gimmick. You kind of retool it, you
[1:31:52] Speaker 1: tweak it, you make some changes to the timing of
[1:31:54] Speaker 1: it and the formatting of it. You can bring it back,
[1:31:57] Speaker 1: but as far as like an annual WrestleDream main event
[1:32:00] Speaker 1: for the World Championship, yeah, no thank you. That I
[1:32:03] Speaker 1: have no interest in. Okay, let's get into your questions here.
[1:32:08] Speaker 1: We got a fat mailbag, so let's light this thing up.
[1:32:11] Speaker 1: TheSolomonster at gmail.com is where you can reach me. Please
[1:32:15] Speaker 1: include your name and where you are from when you
[1:32:17] Speaker 1: write in. That will help your chances of getting your
[1:32:19] Speaker 1: question answered here on the show. Sam from Lancashire, UK.
[1:32:25] Speaker 1: Could we get Roman Reigns against Oba Femi prior to WrestleMania?
[1:32:30] Speaker 1: With Reigns this year beating Punk, Jacob, Rollins, Penta, Punk, Jacob, Jingleheimer, Schmidt, Rollins, Penta,
[1:32:36] Speaker 1: LA Knight, and I don't know why I thought of that.
[1:32:38] Speaker 1: And likely Sami Zayn without assistance. Could we see Oba
[1:32:42] Speaker 1: as the guy that Roman does need the troops for?
[1:32:44] Speaker 1: Oba also seems to be killing time now until Mania.
[1:32:47] Speaker 1: If they were to collide before Mania, say at the Rumble,
[1:32:50] Speaker 1: Roman could beat Oba with the help of the Usos, Fatu,
[1:32:52] Speaker 1: and Solo, and possibly reunite with the Wise Man, who
[1:32:55] Speaker 1: must be bored shitless of watching TV backstage. It would
[1:32:59] Speaker 1: make the winner of the Rumble feel less obvious, as
[1:33:01] Speaker 1: they will be challenging for the title currently held by
[1:33:04] Speaker 1: Sami Zayn. Oba could secure his spot against Roman at
[1:33:07] Speaker 1: Mania by either winning the Chamber, if it's a number
[1:33:09] Speaker 1: one contenders match, or beating the other four members in
[1:33:12] Speaker 1: a gauntlet match. Well, I don't need to see the
[1:33:15] Speaker 1: gauntlet match, but I think the rest of this is,
[1:33:17] Speaker 1: you know, it's well thought out here. Is it possible? Sure,
[1:33:20] Speaker 1: it's possible. I really don't think they want Roman and
[1:33:23] Speaker 1: Oba touching, though, in a match until WrestleMania. I don't
[1:33:27] Speaker 1: think they want them touching probably at all until WrestleMania,
[1:33:29] Speaker 1: but certainly not in a match. So I would be
[1:33:31] Speaker 1: kind of surprised if they wanted to give that first
[1:33:33] Speaker 1: match away at the Rumble, you know, or some other show.
[1:33:37] Speaker 1: So I'm going to say no. That probably doesn't happen.
[1:33:40] Speaker 1: I mean, look, it wouldn't be the worst idea in
[1:33:41] Speaker 1: the world, right? Like you said, he's beating everybody by
[1:33:44] Speaker 1: himself Oba could be that guy where he realizes oh
[1:33:47] Speaker 1: shit I need help I can't do it by myself
[1:33:51] Speaker 1: gets that first win and like you said it makes
[1:33:54] Speaker 1: the Rumble winner less obvious because how is Oba not
[1:33:57] Speaker 1: the early favorite to win the Rumble right he clearly
[1:34:01] Speaker 1: junked his title shot they don't even they don't even
[1:34:04] Speaker 1: talk about it anymore so he's gonna have to win
[1:34:06] Speaker 1: the Rumble anyway but if he doesn't there is the
[1:34:09] Speaker 1: chamber he could always I mean that would then make
[1:34:11] Speaker 1: the chamber winner obvious but I mean look at There's
[1:34:14] Speaker 1: going to be an obvious winner either way, no matter
[1:34:16] Speaker 1: what you do to at least one of those matches.
[1:34:18] Speaker 1: But it would open the rumble up to somebody else,
[1:34:20] Speaker 1: whether it's Kevin Owens or somebody else maybe that we're
[1:34:24] Speaker 1: not thinking of. So I don't hate the idea. I
[1:34:27] Speaker 1: don't see them wanting to do that first match anywhere
[1:34:31] Speaker 1: but WrestleMania, though. Lem from Brooklyn. How far fetched do
[1:34:36] Speaker 1: you think it would be for The Rock? To be
[1:34:38] Speaker 1: the higher power that is eventually revealed to be the
[1:34:41] Speaker 1: one bankrolling 946. If we ever get that pie-in-the-sky match
[1:34:46] Speaker 1: of Rock and Reigns, it could be the catalyst behind it.
[1:34:50] Speaker 1: To answer your question, very far-fetched. As in, there is
[1:34:55] Speaker 1: zero chance of it happening. So it's nice to think
[1:34:59] Speaker 1: pie-in-the-sky and come up with these fantasy scenarios, but the
[1:35:02] Speaker 1: answer is no. Rock has nothing to do with 946.
[1:35:06] Speaker 1: Brad from Connecticut. First, I need to say I was
[1:35:08] Speaker 1: listening to you in the car the other day, and
[1:35:10] Speaker 1: I looked in my rear view of my two kids,
[1:35:12] Speaker 1: age two and one this week, and I realized, fuck,
[1:35:15] Speaker 1: I've been listening to this guy for a long time. Like,
[1:35:18] Speaker 1: long enough ago that being a father would have been
[1:35:21] Speaker 1: insane back then. Thanks for doing the work and giving
[1:35:24] Speaker 1: us all great content every week. Well, you're welcome. I
[1:35:31] Speaker 1: take that as a compliment. I'm also... Sitting here going, wow,
[1:35:35] Speaker 1: that's kind of his very polite way of saying, you've
[1:35:38] Speaker 1: been doing this a long time, brother. You gotta blow
[1:35:42] Speaker 1: some of that dust off, you know? I try. I
[1:35:45] Speaker 1: try to dust myself at least every other week. Says,
[1:35:48] Speaker 1: my favorite wrestler of all time is Edge. With him
[1:35:51] Speaker 1: announcing his retirement and his goal of working the Tokyo Dome,
[1:35:54] Speaker 1: who do you think would be his opponent at Wrestle Kingdom?
[1:35:56] Speaker 1: I feel like Okada would be the best way to go,
[1:35:58] Speaker 1: but wanted your thoughts. Also, any chance we could see
[1:36:01] Speaker 1: him in the G1? The G1. I don't know if
[1:36:06] Speaker 1: he would survive the C2, let alone the G1. I
[1:36:10] Speaker 1: think there's practically no chance of seeing him in the G1.
[1:36:14] Speaker 1: I don't think his body could hold up to it.
[1:36:17] Speaker 1: But also, in his retirement year, I don't know that
[1:36:19] Speaker 1: Tony wants him gone for four weeks. They're really going
[1:36:24] Speaker 1: to probably build a big story around this being his
[1:36:27] Speaker 1: retirement year. And I don't think they want to... send
[1:36:31] Speaker 1: him elsewhere for an extended period of time like that
[1:36:34] Speaker 1: in the middle of the summer. So the G1, I
[1:36:37] Speaker 1: would say no. Okada, yeah, I just talked about that
[1:36:40] Speaker 1: in my WrestleDream review. Even some of the stuff they
[1:36:42] Speaker 1: did in the Clockwork match last night would seem to
[1:36:44] Speaker 1: kind of give us a hint about who his opponent
[1:36:47] Speaker 1: might be at the Tokyo Dome, and I think Okada's
[1:36:49] Speaker 1: a safe bet. Darren from Atlanta GA says, Says, I
[1:36:55] Speaker 1: like your intergender war games match idea with 946 and
[1:36:59] Speaker 1: the Bloodline, but how about this as an idea to
[1:37:01] Speaker 1: start the match? Have Naomi and a member of the
[1:37:04] Speaker 1: Bloodline start off against Jada and a member of 946.
[1:37:08] Speaker 1: Since WWE is not going to allow man-on-woman violence, you
[1:37:12] Speaker 1: get a tornado mix tag of sorts, and then in
[1:37:14] Speaker 1: timed intervals, you get your traditional war games format. Um,
[1:37:21] Speaker 1: I wouldn't do it that way. I mean, I guess...
[1:37:24] Speaker 1: You're not wrong in that that might be how WWE
[1:37:27] Speaker 1: feels like they have to do it. I'm not really
[1:37:29] Speaker 1: a fan of doing it that way. And I think
[1:37:32] Speaker 1: it's a moot point anyway, because I think we're getting
[1:37:34] Speaker 1: five guys against five guys. On the flip side, though,
[1:37:40] Speaker 1: we have Matt from Adelaide, Australia, who did not like
[1:37:44] Speaker 1: my original pitch for a War Games match for the
[1:37:47] Speaker 1: WWE Championship. Which, by the way, I have noticed that
[1:37:51] Speaker 1: it has gotten more traction now. On social media, whether
[1:37:55] Speaker 1: they got it from me or they're just coming up
[1:37:56] Speaker 1: with it themselves, the idea is resonating with more people.
[1:38:01] Speaker 1: But not with Matt. Matt is not one of those people.
[1:38:03] Speaker 1: He says, I'm just going to cut to the chase.
[1:38:05] Speaker 1: I don't like your idea for War Games. Your idea
[1:38:08] Speaker 1: is exactly why there should not be a War Games
[1:38:10] Speaker 1: match locked into Survivor Series every year. It's becoming the
[1:38:13] Speaker 1: new hell in a cell. Survivor Series main event should
[1:38:16] Speaker 1: be an Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. Sami
[1:38:20] Speaker 1: Zayn defends against Kevin Owens, CM Punk, Gunther, Finn Balor,
[1:38:24] Speaker 1: and Johnny Gargano. And I know what you're thinking, but
[1:38:26] Speaker 1: what about the Elimination Chamber? Well, for the same reason
[1:38:30] Speaker 1: that Hell in a Cell or Survivor Series War Games
[1:38:32] Speaker 1: PLEs have started to become boring and repetitive, so has
[1:38:35] Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber. Gimmick matches should only exist as last resorts,
[1:38:39] Speaker 1: a rarity used only when necessary. Bring back No Way Out,
[1:38:43] Speaker 1: without the Chamber match attached to it, and get rid
[1:38:46] Speaker 1: of the War Games aspect of Survivor Series. So it's
[1:38:50] Speaker 1: not that you hate the idea so much that I
[1:38:53] Speaker 1: pitched as much as the fact that you think it
[1:38:56] Speaker 1: would be better suited to the Elimination Chamber format, which,
[1:38:59] Speaker 1: by the way, I don't disagree with. But see, I'm
[1:39:02] Speaker 1: being practical here. And what I'm telling you is that
[1:39:05] Speaker 1: I don't see this dragging out with all of these same,
[1:39:07] Speaker 1: you know, different challengers. They're not going to be able
[1:39:09] Speaker 1: to get to February or possibly March because the Rumble
[1:39:13] Speaker 1: is in February, right? I mean, the Elimination Chamber last year,
[1:39:16] Speaker 1: when they did the big John Cena heel turn, I'm
[1:39:18] Speaker 1: pretty sure that was March 1st. So for all we know,
[1:39:21] Speaker 1: the Chamber won't even be until March. This would be
[1:39:24] Speaker 1: the match to do now. That's why I pitched it.
[1:39:27] Speaker 1: I don't disagree with you that some of these gimmicks
[1:39:29] Speaker 1: are tired. Look, Money in the Bank. I feel the
[1:39:31] Speaker 1: same way about Money in the Bank. I'm ready for
[1:39:34] Speaker 1: Money in the Bank to go back to being a
[1:39:35] Speaker 1: WrestleMania gimmick. But here's the thing you're missing. You can
[1:39:39] Speaker 1: wish and hope for all of these different things. There's
[1:39:42] Speaker 1: a reason why they're doing it. Because the Elimination Chamber
[1:39:45] Speaker 1: is a big show for them. And it has them
[1:39:47] Speaker 1: selling more tickets now. to their February or March PLE,
[1:39:52] Speaker 1: which would just be no way out without any sort
[1:39:54] Speaker 1: of real gimmick, the Elimination Chamber actually carries consequences, typically,
[1:39:58] Speaker 1: for WrestleMania. It's a selling point for that show. That's
[1:40:02] Speaker 1: why they do it. Money in the Bank has its
[1:40:04] Speaker 1: own pay-per-view. Why? Because it sells well. If people weren't
[1:40:08] Speaker 1: buying tickets to go see Money in the Bank, there
[1:40:10] Speaker 1: would be no Money in the Bank PLE anymore, just
[1:40:12] Speaker 1: like there's no fatal four-way ple anymore there's no bragging
[1:40:16] Speaker 1: rights ple there's no taboo tuesday ple or pay-per-view i
[1:40:21] Speaker 1: guess it would have been back then so i don't
[1:40:24] Speaker 1: disagree with you but there's a reason why these shows
[1:40:27] Speaker 1: are not going away i'm glad they got rid of
[1:40:30] Speaker 1: hell in a cell and i think there might have
[1:40:32] Speaker 1: been another tlc they got rid of tlc chamber's not
[1:40:36] Speaker 1: going anywhere brother Money in the bank is not going anywhere.
[1:40:38] Speaker 1: And war games probably isn't going anywhere either. But I
[1:40:41] Speaker 1: agree with you. War games really should be reserved for
[1:40:43] Speaker 1: when there's a real need for it. Same thing with
[1:40:45] Speaker 1: blood and guts in AEW. And if you don't have
[1:40:47] Speaker 1: a good enough story or a good enough feud, blood
[1:40:50] Speaker 1: feud between two warring groups to really warrant doing the match,
[1:40:53] Speaker 1: then don't do it. But practically speaking, they're going to
[1:40:57] Speaker 1: do it anyway. And there's nothing that you or I
[1:40:59] Speaker 1: are going to be able to say to change that
[1:41:01] Speaker 1: unless all of a sudden these gimmicks are not selling anymore.
[1:41:04] Speaker 1: But that's why they do them. So I'm just being
[1:41:06] Speaker 1: practical when I pitched the idea. I said, look, you
[1:41:09] Speaker 1: do this at Survivor Series in a War Games format,
[1:41:12] Speaker 1: or we probably aren't going to get it at all.
[1:41:14] Speaker 1: And at least then it would break up the monotony of, oh,
[1:41:17] Speaker 1: the bloodline in War Games. And this is before the
[1:41:19] Speaker 1: 946 stuff really started to come together. So I'm a
[1:41:22] Speaker 1: little more bullish on that now than I would have
[1:41:24] Speaker 1: been a month ago, because I like what they've done
[1:41:27] Speaker 1: with some of the 946 stuff. It makes it a
[1:41:29] Speaker 1: little more interesting than it looked like it was going
[1:41:31] Speaker 1: to be. but it's still the same bloodline shit every
[1:41:34] Speaker 1: single year of war games. You know, this was my
[1:41:38] Speaker 1: idea of trying to change it up a little bit,
[1:41:39] Speaker 1: but still maintain the format. Calvin from Anaheim. What do
[1:41:45] Speaker 1: you think WWE will do with Roxanne Perez after they
[1:41:48] Speaker 1: decided they wanted to run back Tiffany Stratton for Money
[1:41:51] Speaker 1: in the Bank? When do you think they will push
[1:41:54] Speaker 1: the newer stars in Roxy, Julia, Blake Monroe, and Sol
[1:41:58] Speaker 1: Ruka back? to main event status and have them challenged
[1:42:01] Speaker 1: for the Women's World Championships. I mean, look, your guess
[1:42:07] Speaker 1: is as good as mine. Any of those women, maybe
[1:42:10] Speaker 1: not Soul. Soul does not need to be rushed into
[1:42:14] Speaker 1: a world title reign or a world title program yet.
[1:42:19] Speaker 1: She has time yet. Blake Monroe, to me, she's ready
[1:42:22] Speaker 1: for it now, honestly. Julia, I mean, Julia's ready for it,
[1:42:27] Speaker 1: but realistically, it won't happen with her. It's not. It's
[1:42:31] Speaker 1: just not going to happen. Roxanne Perez, I'm not convinced
[1:42:34] Speaker 1: it's going to happen with her either. I hope so.
[1:42:36] Speaker 1: Roxanne's really good. Blake Monroe's the only one of the
[1:42:40] Speaker 1: names that you just mentioned where I'm sure she will,
[1:42:42] Speaker 1: at some point, probably next year, be challenging for, if
[1:42:47] Speaker 1: not holding, a world championship on the main roster. Roxanne's
[1:42:50] Speaker 1: only path, really, I think, is through Liv Morgan and
[1:42:53] Speaker 1: whatever story they might want to tell with the Judgment
[1:42:56] Speaker 1: Day stuff. Kobe from Mississippi. We all know WWE squandered
[1:43:01] Speaker 1: an obvious story by not having Roxanne Perez win Money
[1:43:05] Speaker 1: in the Bank, but I wanted your opinion on what
[1:43:07] Speaker 1: I think they should have done that would have led
[1:43:08] Speaker 1: to WrestleMania. Keep Liv Morgan winning the championship back, but
[1:43:12] Speaker 1: have Roxanne win the briefcase. Let the tension within the
[1:43:15] Speaker 1: Judgment Day build until the Royal Rumble, where Roxanne cashes
[1:43:18] Speaker 1: in on Liv and takes her title. Liv chases the
[1:43:21] Speaker 1: belt heading into WrestleMania, of course, but here's where Raquel
[1:43:24] Speaker 1: comes in. She loses her Intercontinental Championship with Roxanne in
[1:43:28] Speaker 1: her corner while Liv is absent, leading to arguments over
[1:43:32] Speaker 1: who has really been the better friend to her. I'm
[1:43:35] Speaker 1: sorry you lost the belt, but I was there. You
[1:43:38] Speaker 1: should have had me at ringside. I would have helped
[1:43:40] Speaker 1: you retain. Then to further mix things up, Raquel wins
[1:43:44] Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber, turning Liv and Roxanne's Mania match into
[1:43:47] Speaker 1: a triple threat. This would give all three women motivations
[1:43:50] Speaker 1: beyond simply wanting the title. You'd have months of built-up tension,
[1:43:55] Speaker 1: friendships falling apart, shifting loyalties, and even betrayals, making the
[1:43:59] Speaker 1: road to WrestleMania far more interesting and unpredictable. What do
[1:44:02] Speaker 1: you think about this? I think you've put more thought
[1:44:05] Speaker 1: into this than WWE probably would. I'm not really enamored
[1:44:09] Speaker 1: with the idea of building everything around the Judgment Day.
[1:44:13] Speaker 1: I'm not really a big fan of that. You had me.
[1:44:15] Speaker 1: I mean, look, I was with you there. That's why
[1:44:17] Speaker 1: I picked Roxanne to win Money in the Bank. When
[1:44:20] Speaker 1: I saw Liv win the belt back last weekend, I'm like, well,
[1:44:22] Speaker 1: this was stupid to not have Roxanne win the briefcase.
[1:44:26] Speaker 1: So I would have absolutely have done that. I would
[1:44:30] Speaker 1: not have had her beat Liv for the belt at
[1:44:32] Speaker 1: the Rumble necessarily. Look, I mean, I don't hate it,
[1:44:38] Speaker 1: but it doesn't get me excited. You know, it doesn't
[1:44:41] Speaker 1: get me up out of bed in the morning, that idea.
[1:44:46] Speaker 1: Nicholas from Long Island, New York. I wanted to get
[1:44:49] Speaker 1: your thoughts on this backstage altercation between Enzo Amore and
[1:44:52] Speaker 1: Curtis Axel in 2017. This was recently revealed by Enzo
[1:44:56] Speaker 1: on an interview with Maven, and it appears to be
[1:44:59] Speaker 1: tied into the story of Roman Reigns kicking Enzo off
[1:45:02] Speaker 1: the tour bus. The more stories like this that get
[1:45:05] Speaker 1: told about Enzo reveals how toxic he is, as no
[1:45:08] Speaker 1: major promotion except for a brief appearance in TNA has
[1:45:12] Speaker 1: touched him. Heck, Enzo even burned a bridge in that
[1:45:14] Speaker 1: Maven interview by saying, fuck AEW and criticizing them for
[1:45:18] Speaker 1: allowing backstage fights to leak. In regards to Curtis Axel
[1:45:22] Speaker 1: with the story being told along with his issues with alcohol,
[1:45:25] Speaker 1: does it paint a bigger picture as to why WWE
[1:45:27] Speaker 1: never went all the way with pushing him? So on
[1:45:33] Speaker 1: the Curtis Axel thing, Heath Slater is the one who
[1:45:37] Speaker 1: actually told that story years ago. So if Enzo said
[1:45:40] Speaker 1: something about it, it's because Heath is the one who
[1:45:42] Speaker 1: told it in a shoot that he did with James Romero.
[1:45:46] Speaker 1: And it was basically, it's, it's a nothing story. I mean,
[1:45:49] Speaker 1: they were on a tour bus once and I think
[1:45:51] Speaker 1: Enzo had some music playing very loud on a speaker.
[1:45:55] Speaker 1: It pissed off Axl who apparently, according to Slater, when
[1:45:58] Speaker 1: he gets in a mood, he could be very grumpy.
[1:46:02] Speaker 1: And so I think he grabbed the speaker and like
[1:46:04] Speaker 1: tossed it or rolled it down the, uh, the center
[1:46:09] Speaker 1: aisle of the tour bus. And so after he felt
[1:46:13] Speaker 1: bad about it, he was like, I'm going to go apologize.
[1:46:15] Speaker 1: And I guess when he went to go confront Enzo,
[1:46:18] Speaker 1: Enzo thought he was coming to fight when he really wasn't.
[1:46:21] Speaker 1: He was going to say, I'm sorry and to apologize,
[1:46:23] Speaker 1: but that's not how Enzo took it. And I don't
[1:46:26] Speaker 1: know who threw the first shot. I guess Enzo maybe,
[1:46:28] Speaker 1: and they got in a fight and they had to
[1:46:29] Speaker 1: be separated. Does that explain Axel's lack of success? No.
[1:46:36] Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know When he was actively working there,
[1:46:39] Speaker 1: I don't know if he was an alcoholic, if he
[1:46:41] Speaker 1: was having substance abuse issues back then, or if that
[1:46:43] Speaker 1: came later. That I don't know. I just think some
[1:46:47] Speaker 1: guys have it and some guys don't. And he just
[1:46:49] Speaker 1: didn't have it. You know, I mean, could he have
[1:46:51] Speaker 1: had more success? Sure. I mean, he did win the
[1:46:53] Speaker 1: IC title. They put Heyman with him. The whole thing
[1:46:55] Speaker 1: was a bust. I don't know what personal problems he
[1:46:58] Speaker 1: may have been dealing with, but I never saw in him, like,
[1:47:01] Speaker 1: what his dad had. You know, his dad was... His
[1:47:06] Speaker 1: dad was a special talent. And as with Ted DiBiase Jr.,
[1:47:12] Speaker 1: as compared to his father, and just there's a certain
[1:47:15] Speaker 1: level of charisma that some of those old school guys
[1:47:18] Speaker 1: had that their sons didn't have. And you need that.
[1:47:23] Speaker 1: If you want to get over and pushed as a star,
[1:47:26] Speaker 1: you've got to have that in some way. And they
[1:47:28] Speaker 1: didn't have it. That had more to do with him
[1:47:30] Speaker 1: not having success than anything else. Ari from Goa, India.
[1:47:36] Speaker 1: I was watching Stardom's all-star Grand Queendom and was in
[1:47:39] Speaker 1: awe of Saya Kamatani's entrance for the title match against Sayaka.
[1:47:44] Speaker 1: Watching that show reminded me of how much I wanted
[1:47:46] Speaker 1: Julia and Stephanie Viqueur to get that final boss stream
[1:47:49] Speaker 1: in for their presentation in WWE. Do you feel like
[1:47:52] Speaker 1: the WWE women's entrances slash presentations are lacking some sort
[1:47:57] Speaker 1: of it factor at the moment? After watching Money in
[1:47:59] Speaker 1: the Bank, I can't shake the feeling that compared to
[1:48:01] Speaker 1: Stardom and even AEW, The women's presentations leave me wanting
[1:48:05] Speaker 1: more from them. No, you're not wrong. In fact, Blake
[1:48:09] Speaker 1: Monroe just debuted finally on SmackDown, and they actually made
[1:48:13] Speaker 1: her entrance less memorable. She had a more creative, unique
[1:48:17] Speaker 1: entrance in NXT, and they stripped it away. They don't
[1:48:20] Speaker 1: do it anymore on the main roster. She comes out
[1:48:21] Speaker 1: wearing feathers now, like she's a chicken. I mean, that's
[1:48:26] Speaker 1: just kind of what she reminded me of. Look, I mean,
[1:48:29] Speaker 1: a very sexy chicken. I've never been that attracted to
[1:48:32] Speaker 1: chicken before, and I like chicken, but I don't know
[1:48:35] Speaker 1: how I got off on this topic here, so we're
[1:48:37] Speaker 1: going to move on. But look, When you look at
[1:48:39] Speaker 1: the women's entrances, Liv Morgan got a big entrance at
[1:48:42] Speaker 1: WrestleMania this year, singing her song. She was doing all
[1:48:45] Speaker 1: these weird, you know, sexual poses and stuff with her dancers.
[1:48:50] Speaker 1: But that was WrestleMania. So at WrestleMania, they give you
[1:48:53] Speaker 1: a special entrance. Generally speaking, you're right. The women don't
[1:48:57] Speaker 1: really get that on the main roster. Look at Tekla
[1:49:01] Speaker 1: last night at WrestleDream. She got that cool entrance on
[1:49:03] Speaker 1: the spider and everything like that. Yeah, outside of WrestleMania...
[1:49:08] Speaker 1: You're probably right. Kevin from Washington, D.C. Last week, you
[1:49:13] Speaker 1: got a lot of questions about 2001. I wanted to
[1:49:16] Speaker 1: know how you felt about the year 2004. There were
[1:49:20] Speaker 1: definitely some match gems that year, but there were also
[1:49:22] Speaker 1: some overall forgetful shows between Unforgiven, SummerSlam, Armageddon, and the
[1:49:28] Speaker 1: Royal Rumble, especially since its winner is now scrubbed from history.
[1:49:33] Speaker 1: I also feel like SmackDown's creative run was also over
[1:49:36] Speaker 1: at this point. The first few months were promising between
[1:49:38] Speaker 1: that aforementioned Royal Rumble winner and Eddie Guerrero's title wins,
[1:49:42] Speaker 1: but with JBL and Triple H still in the reign
[1:49:44] Speaker 1: of terror, combined with Brock Lesnar and Goldberg's departures and
[1:49:47] Speaker 1: Randy Orton's botched face turn, it seemed like a rough
[1:49:51] Speaker 1: time to be a fan. How do you feel about 2004?
[1:49:54] Speaker 1: 2004 is not one of my favorite years. And you're right,
[1:49:58] Speaker 1: it hurts that a good chunk of that year was
[1:50:01] Speaker 1: built around somebody who is now erased from history. And
[1:50:06] Speaker 1: even if he wasn't erased from history, it would, it
[1:50:08] Speaker 1: would hit different. It doesn't hit the same. Yeah. Thinking
[1:50:11] Speaker 1: back to that moment at WrestleMania, thinking back to, you know,
[1:50:15] Speaker 1: and he had some great matches, you know, Benoit had
[1:50:16] Speaker 1: some great matches that year, but yeah. Yeah. It just, uh,
[1:50:21] Speaker 1: I mean, look, the Eddie Guerrero moment at no way
[1:50:23] Speaker 1: out him winning the world title and getting that short run.
[1:50:25] Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun. And that was memorable,
[1:50:29] Speaker 1: but you're right. The SmackDown run, that great SmackDown 6 era,
[1:50:33] Speaker 1: and all that great SmackDown television we got in 02
[1:50:36] Speaker 1: and 03. I don't ever think back and think, what
[1:50:39] Speaker 1: a great year SmackDown had in 04, right? Even if
[1:50:43] Speaker 1: it did, I don't remember much, honestly. I mean, Kurt Angle,
[1:50:46] Speaker 1: I think, was made the GM at one point. My
[1:50:48] Speaker 1: memories are very vague. JBL started out with that gimmick,
[1:50:52] Speaker 1: that main event gimmick. And he did a good job
[1:50:55] Speaker 1: with it, but it's still fucking JBL, who was in
[1:50:57] Speaker 1: a tag team for years. And they had this urgency
[1:51:01] Speaker 1: to create a new star because Brock had left. And overnight, overnight,
[1:51:06] Speaker 1: he shows up in the cowboy hat, in the suit,
[1:51:08] Speaker 1: and he's got a book because he wrote a book,
[1:51:11] Speaker 1: a finance book. But it was such a departure from
[1:51:15] Speaker 1: everything else they had ever had him doing on television.
[1:51:17] Speaker 1: It was like they pushed the reset button overnight. And
[1:51:20] Speaker 1: this shit takes time. I didn't buy into it right away.
[1:51:23] Speaker 1: He became a good heel in the end, but I
[1:51:25] Speaker 1: didn't buy into it right away. And God knows Eddie
[1:51:27] Speaker 1: Guerrero did the best he could to try to get
[1:51:29] Speaker 1: this guy over. But outside of some memorable matches like
[1:51:33] Speaker 1: Eddie and Brock or the WrestleMania 20 main event, I
[1:51:38] Speaker 1: don't have any real fond memories of 04. I don't
[1:51:42] Speaker 1: find myself pining to go back and watch old matches
[1:51:46] Speaker 1: from that year or old shows from that year. In
[1:51:50] Speaker 1: many ways, because Brock left, it was a rebuilding period
[1:51:53] Speaker 1: for them, at least on Fridays. But yeah, I don't
[1:51:57] Speaker 1: really care much for 2004. I really don't. Julius from
[1:52:02] Speaker 1: the Bronx, Simon Miller from WhatCulture made a stupid comment
[1:52:05] Speaker 1: about Kane's in-ring skills in a video a while back,
[1:52:08] Speaker 1: saying he never had a good singles match. Do you agree,
[1:52:11] Speaker 1: and can you name your favorite Kane singles matches? Yeah,
[1:52:16] Speaker 1: I think if he said that, I think that's nonsense.
[1:52:19] Speaker 1: Kane and Triple H, they had a chain match at
[1:52:22] Speaker 1: Judgment Day in 2001. I'm not going to sit here
[1:52:24] Speaker 1: and tell you it was a five-star classic. I remember
[1:52:27] Speaker 1: liking that match. I thought it was good. Kane and
[1:52:30] Speaker 1: Kurt Angle, They had multiple matches, but they had a
[1:52:33] Speaker 1: match on SmackDown. I want to say it was 2001
[1:52:37] Speaker 1: for the U.S. title. That was really good. He had
[1:52:41] Speaker 1: a couple of good ones with Daniel Bryan. One was
[1:52:43] Speaker 1: on a pay-per-view. I forget which one. And they had
[1:52:46] Speaker 1: what I remember being one of the better casket matches
[1:52:49] Speaker 1: that they've ever done on SmackDown. And casket matches in
[1:52:51] Speaker 1: general are not good. And it's not really a great stipulation.
[1:52:56] Speaker 1: It doesn't lend itself to a great match if you're
[1:52:59] Speaker 1: looking for work rate, if you're looking for a great
[1:53:01] Speaker 1: wrestling match, right? But I remember them having a really
[1:53:04] Speaker 1: good one, actually. And look, I enjoyed the first blood
[1:53:08] Speaker 1: match with Austin at King of the Ring 98 when
[1:53:11] Speaker 1: Kane won the belt. And their little match on Raw,
[1:53:14] Speaker 1: their rematch the next night where Austin won the belt back.
[1:53:17] Speaker 1: Not everything has to be a five-star classic if it
[1:53:19] Speaker 1: has enough heat. Kane, back then... You go back to
[1:53:23] Speaker 1: the early days of Kane, that character, okay, was super over.
[1:53:28] Speaker 1: Has a heel, has a baby face, and he also
[1:53:32] Speaker 1: had the benefit of being able to work with guys
[1:53:35] Speaker 1: who were super over. Austin and Rock. And so he
[1:53:40] Speaker 1: had a lot of memorable matches. I guess if maybe
[1:53:43] Speaker 1: he's looking for five-star classics and fucking wrist locks and
[1:53:49] Speaker 1: surfboards and that sort of thing, then sure, you could
[1:53:51] Speaker 1: say that Kane didn't have a lot of good singles matches.
[1:53:54] Speaker 1: But I just rattled off a whole bunch to you.
[1:53:57] Speaker 1: I liked him. Julius had another side question here. I
[1:54:02] Speaker 1: just learned from a Tom Green YouTube video that Samoa
[1:54:05] Speaker 1: Joe had a match with Balls Mahoney. In 2004, it
[1:54:08] Speaker 1: was surprisingly good, and Balls was apparently in the best
[1:54:11] Speaker 1: shape of his career. Were you ever aware of this
[1:54:13] Speaker 1: match taking place? I was, only because I saw highlights
[1:54:17] Speaker 1: of it in a YouTube video once. And I forget
[1:54:21] Speaker 1: what promotion. It wasn't Ring of Honor. Maybe it was
[1:54:27] Speaker 1: Jersey All-Pro. I forget what promotion it was. But yeah,
[1:54:30] Speaker 1: I was aware of it. I wasn't up until a
[1:54:33] Speaker 1: few years ago. But yeah, I was aware of it.
[1:54:36] Speaker 1: And from what I recall, Balls, he was in good shape,
[1:54:40] Speaker 1: and it actually was a hell of a match. Dak
[1:54:43] Speaker 1: from St. Paul, Minnesota, because the strap match has come
[1:54:45] Speaker 1: up a lot recently in Be the Booker, I had
[1:54:48] Speaker 1: a quick buy-sell-rent for you. Buy-rent-sell on a strap match,
[1:54:52] Speaker 1: a bull rope match, and a dog collar match. Hmm.
[1:54:58] Speaker 1: It's like the triad of terrible stipulations here. Well, the
[1:55:02] Speaker 1: bull rope, I'm going to sell on the bull rope match.
[1:55:04] Speaker 1: I don't like bull rope matches. So it's between the
[1:55:08] Speaker 1: scrap match and the dog collar match. Dog collar matches
[1:55:12] Speaker 1: tend to be more brutal and violent. I will buy
[1:55:15] Speaker 1: on the dog collar match. I will rent on the
[1:55:17] Speaker 1: scrap match. I will sell the bull road. Jack from
[1:55:23] Speaker 1: San Diego. I recently saw that in promoting money in
[1:55:26] Speaker 1: the bank, WWE has been highlighting previous matches but leaving
[1:55:30] Speaker 1: out wrestlers who no longer work for the company. For example,
[1:55:33] Speaker 1: they showed the 2011 Money in the Bank without ever
[1:55:35] Speaker 1: showing Daniel Bryan or Bryan Danielson. Some people have argued
[1:55:39] Speaker 1: that it doesn't make sense for them to, quote, promote
[1:55:42] Speaker 1: wrestlers who don't work for them anymore. But I would
[1:55:44] Speaker 1: argue this. Imagine if you were watching the premiere of
[1:55:47] Speaker 1: Breaking Bad Season 5, and in the recap for the
[1:55:50] Speaker 1: previous season, they never showed or mentioned Giancarlo Esposito as
[1:55:55] Speaker 1: Gus Fring because he was no longer on the show.
[1:55:58] Speaker 1: It would be ridiculous. Does this kind of thing bother
[1:56:01] Speaker 1: you as much as it does me? Do you think
[1:56:03] Speaker 1: it's silly to not include wrestlers who were part of
[1:56:05] Speaker 1: specific matches or storylines when it is warranted? Or do
[1:56:08] Speaker 1: you understand WWE's perspective on things? I understand why they
[1:56:14] Speaker 1: do it. And they would totally show him if he
[1:56:18] Speaker 1: wasn't working for the competition. Do I agree with it? No.
[1:56:24] Speaker 1: Is it going to harm their business? I'm not saying
[1:56:26] Speaker 1: they have to, like, promote him or harp on him
[1:56:31] Speaker 1: or talk about him. But if what you're talking about
[1:56:34] Speaker 1: is accurate, to cut him out completely or to not
[1:56:37] Speaker 1: even show him, it's a level of silliness and pettiness
[1:56:41] Speaker 1: that is very much on brand for WWE. It does
[1:56:45] Speaker 1: not cause any harm to their business whatsoever to at
[1:56:49] Speaker 1: least show the person. To pretend that they don't exist
[1:56:52] Speaker 1: just because they're working for AEW or back in the
[1:56:56] Speaker 1: day when Vince was at the helm, it would have
[1:56:59] Speaker 1: been the same if it was a TNA person. It's
[1:57:02] Speaker 1: all just petty, silly bullshit. It's stupid. It's very, very stupid.
[1:57:08] Speaker 1: It's part of your history. Everybody knows who he is.
[1:57:12] Speaker 1: And it's part of your history. Again, it doesn't harm
[1:57:14] Speaker 1: you at all. It doesn't take away from your presentation
[1:57:17] Speaker 1: at all. You're just being petty assholes. Rehan from Hanover, Germany.
[1:57:23] Speaker 1: I want to get your thoughts on Mark Jindrak and
[1:57:25] Speaker 1: Charlie Haas. Could WWE have done more with Haas like
[1:57:29] Speaker 1: they did with Shelton Benjamins? They've tried for a while
[1:57:31] Speaker 1: with a singles push in 04. No wonder I didn't
[1:57:35] Speaker 1: like it. But it went nowhere. And what about Jindrak? Originally,
[1:57:39] Speaker 1: he was planned to be the fourth member of Evolution.
[1:57:41] Speaker 1: Maybe he could have worked later in a program with
[1:57:43] Speaker 1: Randy Orton and Batista. Yeah, I never really cared one
[1:57:48] Speaker 1: way or the other about Mark Jindrak, so no skin
[1:57:51] Speaker 1: off my back. I think things worked out exactly the
[1:57:53] Speaker 1: way they were meant to. I think fate intervened and
[1:57:55] Speaker 1: everything felt Like it fell into place exactly as it
[1:57:59] Speaker 1: was supposed to with Big Dave in that spot. Wouldn't
[1:58:02] Speaker 1: change anything about it. Charlie Haas, a talented wrestler. I
[1:58:07] Speaker 1: never got to see his brother. I know they were
[1:58:09] Speaker 1: a tag team in Division I. Russ passed away from
[1:58:12] Speaker 1: a heart attack at a very young age. And that's
[1:58:15] Speaker 1: how we ended up with Haas and Benjamin as a
[1:58:17] Speaker 1: tag team instead. So I don't know what kind of
[1:58:20] Speaker 1: team the Haas brothers would have been. And I never, again,
[1:58:22] Speaker 1: I never saw them back then, but they were a
[1:58:25] Speaker 1: great tag team. Like, that label as the world's greatest
[1:58:28] Speaker 1: tag team, man, that was the truth. They were a
[1:58:30] Speaker 1: really good team. I can tell you, though, I had
[1:58:34] Speaker 1: absolutely no desire to see Charlie Haas as a singles star.
[1:58:38] Speaker 1: There was nothing about him or his presentation or his
[1:58:40] Speaker 1: promos or anything like that that made me go, man,
[1:58:42] Speaker 1: you know what? They really missed the boat on that
[1:58:44] Speaker 1: Charlie Haas singles push. Like, at no time did I
[1:58:48] Speaker 1: ever say that or think that or feel that way. So, yeah, no.
[1:58:53] Speaker 1: Could they have done more with them? I mean, they
[1:58:54] Speaker 1: could always do more with people. Should they have done
[1:58:56] Speaker 1: more with him as a singles? Eh. You know what?
[1:59:00] Speaker 1: I mean, Shelton Benjamin, he was the freak athlete. He
[1:59:03] Speaker 1: was the one who I feel like they could have
[1:59:04] Speaker 1: done more with. And not that he was this super
[1:59:07] Speaker 1: charismatic guy with great promos. That was always his weakness.
[1:59:12] Speaker 1: But he had something, just in terms of his athleticism,
[1:59:15] Speaker 1: like he had something that Charlie Haas did not have.
[1:59:18] Speaker 1: So I think they could have done more with Shelton. Charlie,
[1:59:21] Speaker 1: I feel like, was never going to be a star,
[1:59:23] Speaker 1: like a single star on his own for them. So,
[1:59:26] Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think there was anything else they
[1:59:28] Speaker 1: could do. Kenny from Cottontown, Tennessee. On the Wrestling With
[1:59:34] Speaker 1: Regret channel, there was a video on whose reign of
[1:59:36] Speaker 1: terror was worse. Triple H from 2002 to 2005 and
[1:59:41] Speaker 1: Jeff Jarrett from 2002 to 2006. The video cites Jarrett's
[1:59:46] Speaker 1: being worse because he was proven to be box office
[1:59:49] Speaker 1: repellent in both WWE and WCW. He was the only
[1:59:53] Speaker 1: one he could trust to be the top guy in TNA, quote-unquote,
[1:59:56] Speaker 1: because he owned it. He was the boss, unlike Triple H,
[2:00:00] Speaker 1: who didn't have final say because of Vince McMahon, and
[2:00:02] Speaker 1: he held back more promising talents like Monty Brown, Christian Cage,
[2:00:05] Speaker 1: and AJ Styles. And it was longer than Triple H's run.
[2:00:09] Speaker 1: Do you agree? Well, not for me personally, because I
[2:00:14] Speaker 1: was watching Raw throughout that period, and I hated a
[2:00:17] Speaker 1: lot of his stuff. I had to sit through that.
[2:00:20] Speaker 1: With Jarrett and TNA, I wasn't watching it. I mean,
[2:00:24] Speaker 1: I was aware of it. I wasn't watching it week
[2:00:26] Speaker 1: to week like I was WWE. So it didn't bother
[2:00:30] Speaker 1: me as much as it might have bothered the people
[2:00:32] Speaker 1: who were watching it. But I just think overall, Triple
[2:00:35] Speaker 1: H's run was worse and far more damaging. I'm sure
[2:00:39] Speaker 1: it drove off far more fans than Jeff Jarrett did.
[2:00:44] Speaker 1: Jarrett's logic, if you watch those Dark Side of the
[2:00:46] Speaker 1: Ring episodes this season, was... He had to be in
[2:00:51] Speaker 1: the spot that he was in. He had to be
[2:00:52] Speaker 1: the champion. He was the only one he could reliably
[2:00:56] Speaker 1: put the belt on. Because he was the one guy
[2:00:59] Speaker 1: that he knew would be loyal and wouldn't leave to
[2:01:01] Speaker 1: go to WWE. Right? Because it was his company, so
[2:01:05] Speaker 1: he knew he wasn't going to leave. And there may
[2:01:07] Speaker 1: be some truth in that. But it is still a
[2:01:10] Speaker 1: very self-serving answer. Well, I'm the only one I can trust,
[2:01:14] Speaker 1: so therefore nobody else can have it. We can't put
[2:01:18] Speaker 1: it on a newer guy or a younger guy because
[2:01:20] Speaker 1: then WWE may play games and they may try to
[2:01:22] Speaker 1: steal them away. You know, it's kind of funny how
[2:01:25] Speaker 1: here we are 20 years later and the more things change,
[2:01:27] Speaker 1: the more they stay the same. TNA has the exact
[2:01:29] Speaker 1: same problem right now. That doesn't mean, though, that you
[2:01:32] Speaker 1: don't try with someone like Leon Slater, which thankfully they are.
[2:01:37] Speaker 1: With Triple H, it was always self-serving. Always. Always. He
[2:01:42] Speaker 1: wasn't interested in putting anybody else over. Not until he
[2:01:45] Speaker 1: handpicked his Evolution guys to try to help elevate them.
[2:01:48] Speaker 1: And even then, he didn't do any favors at first
[2:01:50] Speaker 1: to Randy Orton. Batista he put over when the time
[2:01:53] Speaker 1: called for it. He put him over in a big way.
[2:01:56] Speaker 1: But almost everyone else not named Shawn Michaels. Like, look
[2:02:00] Speaker 1: at every WCW guy that they put in front of him.
[2:02:04] Speaker 1: Booker T. Scott Steiner. Now, granted, Steiner looked like shit
[2:02:09] Speaker 1: because of the drop foot. I mean, that Royal Rumble
[2:02:12] Speaker 1: match was a disgrace. But still, like, Goldberg, Sting. The
[2:02:18] Speaker 1: Sting one still angers me. Goldberg, at least, he put
[2:02:22] Speaker 1: over in the end, and Goldberg won the world title,
[2:02:24] Speaker 1: but only after he got killed dead with the sledgehammer
[2:02:27] Speaker 1: in that Elimination Chamber match. And then a few months later,
[2:02:31] Speaker 1: the belt was right back on Triple H anyway. RVD
[2:02:35] Speaker 1: in 2002, who was supposed to win the world title
[2:02:38] Speaker 1: from him, until he didn't. On and on and on.
[2:02:42] Speaker 1: He was a very good heel. I'm not saying he wasn't,
[2:02:44] Speaker 1: but that run was awful. It was bad television. It
[2:02:49] Speaker 1: was bad for business. It certainly didn't help their business
[2:02:51] Speaker 1: in any meaningful way. He was never any kind of
[2:02:53] Speaker 1: big draw. And it was insanely counterproductive for everyone else
[2:02:58] Speaker 1: that had to share a roster with him. He's always
[2:03:01] Speaker 1: come off as very insecure, even though he had a
[2:03:04] Speaker 1: very cushy spot on top. And he really had no
[2:03:06] Speaker 1: reason to be. Like, that was always my read on him.
[2:03:11] Speaker 1: Very insecure, very high on his own supply. Even now,
[2:03:14] Speaker 1: some of these comments he'll make every, you know, here
[2:03:16] Speaker 1: and there about fans and social media and all that,
[2:03:18] Speaker 1: any sort of criticism, very insecure, even to this day.
[2:03:23] Speaker 1: The Triple H run was worse. St. Clair from Los Angeles.
[2:03:30] Speaker 1: Two unrelated questions. First, what wrestlers that were stars in
[2:03:33] Speaker 1: another company had the most disappointing run in WWE? My
[2:03:37] Speaker 1: first two thoughts would be Vader and to a lesser degree,
[2:03:40] Speaker 1: big show oh vader vader has to be at the
[2:03:44] Speaker 1: top of the list for me guy was a monster
[2:03:46] Speaker 1: in wcw and in japan never felt that way in
[2:03:50] Speaker 1: wwe outside of maybe his first couple of nights in
[2:03:53] Speaker 1: but you could also add sting to that list right
[2:03:56] Speaker 1: he waited too long and when he came in he
[2:03:59] Speaker 1: jobbed to triple h at wrestlemania and then he got
[2:04:01] Speaker 1: hurt and he got forced into retirement I would call
[2:04:04] Speaker 1: that a disappointment. I don't see how anybody could look
[2:04:06] Speaker 1: at the run that Sting had in 2015 and call
[2:04:09] Speaker 1: it anything other than a disappointment. Again, he got hurt.
[2:04:13] Speaker 1: And who knows, if he didn't get hurt, maybe he
[2:04:14] Speaker 1: would have won the title. Maybe he would have had
[2:04:16] Speaker 1: better matches. We'll never know. But it was a disappointment.
[2:04:20] Speaker 1: DDP and the way he was used. Please. Stalking the
[2:04:26] Speaker 1: Undertaker's wife. Going through her underwear drawer. Sniffing her panties.
[2:04:31] Speaker 1: This is how they brought in DDP? A guy who
[2:04:33] Speaker 1: was legitimately over there for a while in WCW, a
[2:04:36] Speaker 1: former world champion. You're going to tell me that that
[2:04:39] Speaker 1: was anything but disappointing? You're lying. And Shinsuke Nakamura, I'll
[2:04:45] Speaker 1: throw him on there too. Great in NXT. Very disappointing
[2:04:49] Speaker 1: run on the main roster when you compare it to
[2:04:51] Speaker 1: how much of a star he felt like in New Japan.
[2:04:55] Speaker 1: Second question, I was a huge fan of Too Cool
[2:04:57] Speaker 1: back in the Attitude Era, and I was thinking, do
[2:04:59] Speaker 1: you think WWE will ever mention them again given how
[2:05:02] Speaker 1: and where Brian Christopher passed away, as well as Scotty's
[2:05:05] Speaker 1: relationship with AEW? Not saying they'll have a proper induction
[2:05:09] Speaker 1: into the Hall of Fame, since the time to do
[2:05:11] Speaker 1: that was with Rikishi, but maybe a legacy induction or
[2:05:14] Speaker 1: a DLC in a future game down the line. Yeah,
[2:05:18] Speaker 1: I could see that. I could see that. I mean, look,
[2:05:20] Speaker 1: they put Necro Butcher and fucking New Jack in the
[2:05:24] Speaker 1: DLC in the video game. I don't think it's too
[2:05:26] Speaker 1: much of a stretch to think that at some point
[2:05:28] Speaker 1: Too Cool would work their way in there. So yeah,
[2:05:31] Speaker 1: I mean, I don't see them going into the Hall
[2:05:33] Speaker 1: of Fame or anything as a team, but to have
[2:05:36] Speaker 1: some sort of Legends arrangement with like Scotty and the company,
[2:05:40] Speaker 1: to have them in the video game. Again, he would
[2:05:42] Speaker 1: have to be unaffiliated with AEW or any of these
[2:05:44] Speaker 1: other places. But yeah, I could see that. I don't
[2:05:47] Speaker 1: think it's like a burnt bridge thing. And we'll end
[2:05:50] Speaker 1: with this. I'm going to save some of these for
[2:05:53] Speaker 1: Uncrowned on Tuesday. But Noel from Brawley, California. On the
[2:05:58] Speaker 1: October 4th sound off, you answered a mailbag question where
[2:06:01] Speaker 1: you ranked the Michael Myers masks from best to worst.
[2:06:05] Speaker 1: In honor of the new Crystal Lake series on Peacock
[2:06:07] Speaker 1: and being a fan of the Friday the 13th films,
[2:06:09] Speaker 1: I wanted to piggyback off that question and ask you
[2:06:12] Speaker 1: to rank the best and worst of the many masks
[2:06:15] Speaker 1: of Jason Voorhees. My personal favorites are the OG hockey
[2:06:19] Speaker 1: mask from Part 3 and the 2009 remake hockey mask.
[2:06:23] Speaker 1: I also like the Part 2 and 2009 sackhead looks
[2:06:27] Speaker 1: because I find them both creepy and unsettling. Well, you
[2:06:31] Speaker 1: nailed it with Part 3. Part 3 is my favorite
[2:06:33] Speaker 1: of all the movies. That's where the mask is introduced.
[2:06:36] Speaker 1: There are some people who probably just assume he's been
[2:06:39] Speaker 1: wearing it since the first film. Nope. It got introduced,
[2:06:44] Speaker 1: I think, midway through Part 3. Part 4? which was
[2:06:47] Speaker 1: basically the same mask, but there was a, an ax
[2:06:51] Speaker 1: wound to the head, which was kind of cool. So
[2:06:55] Speaker 1: part three, part four and part six, I think are
[2:06:59] Speaker 1: the best. Uh, I don't hate the sack look from
[2:07:02] Speaker 1: part two, but he looked better once it came off
[2:07:06] Speaker 1: at the very end. Like they made them look all
[2:07:08] Speaker 1: like horrific. And I like how at the end of
[2:07:11] Speaker 1: that movie that they ended it in the most nebulous
[2:07:13] Speaker 1: way possible. Like, Did Paul survive? Did Jason survive? Like,
[2:07:18] Speaker 1: obviously we find out in part three that he did,
[2:07:21] Speaker 1: but we never do learn whether Paul survived or not.
[2:07:24] Speaker 1: I like to think that he did. What a great way,
[2:07:26] Speaker 1: by the way, to reintroduce that character all these years
[2:07:29] Speaker 1: later if they ever wanted to do a direct sequel
[2:07:31] Speaker 1: to part two, like with him as a character in
[2:07:34] Speaker 1: the movie. Somebody had to call the cops at the
[2:07:37] Speaker 1: end of that movie, right, to tell them where to
[2:07:38] Speaker 1: find the cabin. It had to be Paul. The mask
[2:07:43] Speaker 1: in part nine sucked, though. as did the space mask
[2:07:46] Speaker 1: that Jason wore in Jason X, even though I don't
[2:07:48] Speaker 1: hate that movie the way some people do. It's kind
[2:07:50] Speaker 1: of a guilty pleasure for me. But yeah, the mask,
[2:07:53] Speaker 1: relative to most of the other masks, is is not
[2:07:56] Speaker 1: good but part nine to me i god i fucking
[2:08:01] Speaker 1: yeah don't get me started uh crystal lake by the
[2:08:03] Speaker 1: way i have not people have asked me if i've
[2:08:05] Speaker 1: watched it yet i have not started watching it yet
[2:08:07] Speaker 1: i know all eight episodes are dropped on peacock on
[2:08:10] Speaker 1: i think thursday i am looking forward to diving into
[2:08:13] Speaker 1: it i might start tonight actually I might start tonight.
[2:08:16] Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to getting into it. It's the
[2:08:18] Speaker 1: first real, like, Friday the 13th content that's been, like,
[2:08:21] Speaker 1: officially released since probably 2009. So, I mean, my God,
[2:08:26] Speaker 1: it's been almost 20 years. So I've tried to stay
[2:08:29] Speaker 1: away from the review. I know the reviews I saw were, like,
[2:08:31] Speaker 1: kind of mixed. I'm trying to stay away from that,
[2:08:34] Speaker 1: and I'll just kind of judge it on my own
[2:08:36] Speaker 1: once I have a chance to sit down and go
[2:08:37] Speaker 1: through it. But anyway, some great questions here. Keep emailing me,
[2:08:42] Speaker 1: thesolomonster at gmail.com. Again, I still had a few left.
[2:08:46] Speaker 1: From David and who else do we have here? Trout
[2:08:50] Speaker 1: Wayne and a few other people. I'm going to get
[2:08:52] Speaker 1: to them either on Tuesday or next week on The
[2:08:54] Speaker 1: Sound Off. And hopefully a whole bunch of new ones. Also,
[2:08:58] Speaker 1: I've put out a couple of new YouTube shorts. So
[2:09:01] Speaker 1: if you didn't see them, go check those out. I
[2:09:05] Speaker 1: might actually, you know what I might consider doing? This
[2:09:08] Speaker 1: could be a cool idea. If maybe every now and
[2:09:10] Speaker 1: then I take one of these questions and Just kind
[2:09:14] Speaker 1: of show it on screen briefly and answer it in
[2:09:17] Speaker 1: like a short. Maybe we'll do that. So anyway, just
[2:09:20] Speaker 1: email those questions in. You never know when or where
[2:09:22] Speaker 1: they may be answered. But go check out the shorts content,
[2:09:25] Speaker 1: all the other content on the channel. I'll be live
[2:09:27] Speaker 1: after Raw this Monday. Dynamite on Wednesday. Smackdown on Friday.
[2:09:33] Speaker 1: I'm seeing Clayface later this week. Maybe I'll throw a
[2:09:35] Speaker 1: short up with my Clayface thoughts as well. So we
[2:09:38] Speaker 1: got a lot of content going up there. Please subscribe
[2:09:41] Speaker 1: to the channel. Make sure you're subscribed. Alert bell is
[2:09:44] Speaker 1: in the on position so that you get notifications whenever
[2:09:46] Speaker 1: new content goes up. There will be a brand new
[2:09:50] Speaker 1: Uncrowned Wrestling show dropping on Tuesday as well. And then
[2:09:52] Speaker 1: back here with you next Sunday for episode 986 of
[2:09:57] Speaker 1: the Solid Monster Sounds of as we get a little
[2:10:00] Speaker 1: bit closer to Halloween. So until then, be well, stay safe,
[2:10:03] Speaker 1: have yourselves a great rest of your weekend and week.
[2:10:06] Speaker 1: And I will see you back here for 986 next Sunday.
[2:10:10] Speaker 1: Until then, take care, guys. The Sala Monster sounds off.
[2:10:15] Speaker 1: I watched the Raw after Money in the Bank. At
[2:10:18] Speaker 1: least it ended well. Smackdown didn't even have that. Terrible
[2:10:21] Speaker 1: television show tonight. This show tonight was just so boring.
[2:10:24] Speaker 1: In the middle of this show, there was a segment
[2:10:26] Speaker 1: with Alexa Bliss and Tatum Paxley. They were in the
[2:10:28] Speaker 1: middle of the ring. They were in a promo segment
[2:10:30] Speaker 1: right before Fatal Influence came out. And there was a
[2:10:33] Speaker 1: fan in the front row on the left side who was...
[2:10:35] Speaker 1: I don't know if he was falling asleep or he
[2:10:38] Speaker 1: was already asleep. Ugh. But he was dozing off and
[2:10:41] Speaker 1: God knows what he paid for that ticket. OK, you're
[2:10:43] Speaker 1: in the front row. This is not fucking green shirt
[2:10:46] Speaker 1: guy or the guy with the long hair who's always
[2:10:48] Speaker 1: sitting with his mom or whatever. This guy paid whatever
[2:10:50] Speaker 1: he paid for that front row ticket to this show.
[2:10:53] Speaker 1: And he was falling asleep. It was only when Fatal
[2:10:56] Speaker 1: Influence came out because they blasted their music that this
[2:10:59] Speaker 1: guy finally woke up. And I knew at least he
[2:11:02] Speaker 1: was conscious and he had a pulse. But that really
[2:11:04] Speaker 1: summed up this show tonight in one image. I saw that.
[2:11:07] Speaker 1: I said, this guy is my spirit animal. That's who
[2:11:09] Speaker 1: he is. The Sala Monster sounds off. Since 2007. Bringing
[2:11:13] Speaker 1: you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check out
[2:11:16] Speaker 1: the weekly live streams, bonus content for subscribers, and follow
[2:11:19] Speaker 1: The Sala Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and X. The Sala Monster.
[2:11:24] Speaker 1: I love you so much.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.