0:01

Who cares about your team winning the

0:03

Super Bowl when your team could win

0:05

the off season? My name is Danny

0:08

Heifetz and I host the Ringer NFL

0:10

Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Ben Solak

0:12

and Craig Horlbeck. We cover trades, free

0:14

agency, the draft, obviously. We cover quarterbacks

0:16

and there are a lot of good

0:18

quarterbacks this year. And the team's at

0:20

the top of the draft. Washington, New

0:22

England, Chicago, big teams with big histories.

0:25

Listen to the Ringer NFL Draft Show on

0:27

Spotify. Cold

0:32

open question of the week, Kaz. What's

0:34

up, shoes? More iconic

0:36

entrants. The

0:39

Undertaker or

0:41

Sting coming down from the rafters. Oh,

0:44

gosh. One of the

0:46

lifelong age old questions.

0:49

I personally appreciate Sting's entrance

0:52

just because I'm a timely

0:54

person. And sometimes I just want to get

0:56

stuff to do. I got stuff

0:58

to do. So just propelling

1:00

down the rafters. Cool, quick,

1:02

awesome, effective. Undertaker's

1:05

entrance, though awesome, though

1:07

awe inspiring. You know, by

1:10

the time you hear that first gong, you

1:12

can at least make one quick run to

1:14

the to the beer spot before and get

1:16

back before the match starts. So

1:18

I'm going to go with Sting on this one. Yeah.

1:21

Yeah. I should have put Undertaker's American Badass

1:24

entrance in there, too. Is that

1:26

a little bit faster? More

1:28

of the music? And

1:31

it is a lot more as loud

1:33

as hell. Those motorcycles are extremely loud

1:35

in the arena. Man,

1:37

love the Undertaker, man. But yes, Sting,

1:39

just for the fact that we don't

1:41

get to see the propeller as

1:44

much for obvious reasons,

1:46

for logical reasons. But I

1:49

got it. I got to

1:51

say it sure felt fucking good to see that

1:53

last night. It sure did. Revolution

1:55

is this weekend. We got a lot of stuff

1:57

to talk about, including the passing of two. for

2:00

Wrestling Legends. Let's start the show. What's

2:03

going on, jabronis? It's pitch mr.

2:05

perfect, Skyler Astin. Hey,

2:07

this is Bruce Prichard. This is roast

2:10

battle season one champion, Mike Orange. Let's

2:12

eat, Steve Kizzee. This is

2:14

Trey Kirby. Mr. Grr. WWE

2:16

superstar, the legit boss, Sasha Banks.

2:19

Hi, this is Lillian Garcia. Hi, Mr.

2:22

Linones. I'm Sisqy and I'm

2:24

the one else. I'm AJ

2:26

Styles, the phenomenal one if you will,

2:28

and you, Mr. Rodriguez. You're listening to

2:30

the Wrestling Legends. You

2:32

are listening to the M.A.F.E.

2:35

Man Show. The

2:37

M.A.F.E. M.A.F.E.

2:45

Welcome to the M.A.F.E. with Kaz.

2:47

How you doing, man? I'm doing good,

2:49

buddy. How about yourself, bro? Pretty

2:51

good. Pretty good. We have a big

2:54

pay-per-view this weekend. Just coming

2:56

off the heels of Elimination Chamber and Perth.

2:58

I feel like you have to say Elimination

3:00

Chamber and Perth is one giant

3:02

block. And obviously we're

3:04

on the road to WrestleMania. We got some WWE

3:06

stuff to discuss. Before we get to any of

3:09

that, though, we had two icons of totally

3:11

different sorts from the pro wrestling world that

3:13

passed away in the past couple of days.

3:15

Oli Anderson, who fans, well, fans

3:17

of our age will recognize as

3:19

a member

3:22

of the four horsemen and the

3:24

Crockett and WWE WCW days. On

3:28

again, off again, obviously, as years

3:30

went on. Most

3:33

people probably know him as a booker.

3:36

But also Virgil, aka

3:38

Mike Jones, aka Vincent in WCW,

3:40

aka Soul Train Jones, to

3:43

me as a kid in Memphis,

3:46

passed away as well. Both

3:49

these guys had totally different lives, totally

3:51

different careers. And

3:54

yet both of them sort of

3:56

occupied a pretty outsized space in

3:58

their post-wrestling careers. Ollie

4:00

is this sort of legendary booker,

4:03

anti Vince McMahon,

4:08

Squirge, notable

4:10

racist. Yeah. I mean, there's always Ollie

4:12

Anderson stories floating around and Virgil in

4:15

his sort of like half

4:17

life as a dude who went

4:19

to sell his autographs for lots of

4:21

money and tried to, you know, was

4:24

always out there hustling and stuff. But

4:26

like WWF Superstar Virgil, everybody

4:29

knows the sign. Everybody's seen the pictures that was

4:31

almost had almost as big a footprint as

4:33

his as his in-ring career did at least,

4:36

you know, in the modern

4:39

era. Oh, what do

4:41

you want to start? Let's start with the start with Ollie first.

4:44

Yeah, Ollie

4:47

Anderson. Not

4:51

his real name. I

4:54

think everybody knows that. His

4:57

name is Alan Rogowski. It

5:01

was inducted into the, I mean started off

5:03

wrestling under his real name, where I was

5:05

Rock Rogowski, whatever, but became famous as part

5:08

of the work brother of Gene Anderson, part

5:12

of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, just

5:16

one of the great tag teams of all

5:18

time. Obviously, so

5:21

was his later tag team

5:23

with Arne Anderson, another work

5:26

relative. But

5:29

he worked all over the place. He worked in the

5:31

AWA, worked for Crockett a couple of times where, and

5:33

of course, most famously in Georgia,

5:36

where he was a minority

5:39

owner, I guess, and booker for Georgia Championship

5:41

Wrestling when it was sold to Vince McMahon,

5:45

you know, Google

5:47

Black Saturday if you want more info on that. Yeah,

5:51

but and then when they, when

5:53

Vince took over, He went

5:55

rogue, got some, teamed up with

5:57

some NWA guys and started.. Image

6:00

of Wrestling from Georgia. Which.

6:03

Went. On Tbs on Saturday mornings and

6:05

and perform better than doubled of us

6:08

show with when that in the sought

6:10

that they bought away from Georgia Championship

6:12

Wrestling. And then

6:14

eventually they did dangerous him. Georgia was

6:16

sold to Crockett. And. That's

6:18

how. And that's how

6:21

only and is a bear. It ended up booking

6:23

several times. You. Know some sort

6:25

of notorious moments like the Black Scorpion

6:27

gimmick. Obviously,

6:29

like I said, was a member of the can have

6:31

a founding member of the Four Horsemen. And

6:34

would come back. To become

6:36

a member or/mentor as.

6:40

Numbers necessitated. By

6:45

yeah. Many he was

6:47

on screen. And. I remember

6:49

as a kid men. Go. To. Charlotte

6:52

to visit my family in turn

6:54

on that Crockett Broadcasts. A

6:57

man that ruff bearded. Out.

7:00

Of Potbelly or barrel chested is the more

7:03

appropriate turn of phrase here, but. Body.

7:05

Mean it. Just as

7:07

it is, remember him growling at the

7:09

camera is pointing added camera me you

7:12

know, sitting on my grandparents bed and

7:14

just. Mad he was

7:16

he was. He is frightening individual. At.

7:21

Germany only Anderson memories. Ah,

7:25

I'm. I'll be honest,

7:27

or though right leg ah got.

7:29

The. Memories of him with Arn Anderson

7:31

are obviously over. You know that the

7:34

type theme. For and through those

7:36

vivian that the way or that. Ah,

7:38

I'm. Every one of our first. Taksim

7:41

the I saw like obviously back

7:43

in a day with the road

7:45

warriors and in out later on

7:47

the members of for horse member

7:50

of the fourth month but I'm

7:52

in I'm I'm arrest them to

7:54

resume ah rude or house. a

7:57

ton of memories with them to be honest

7:59

in the lobby I'm aware of his history.

8:01

I'm aware of everything that he's

8:03

meant to the business, especially to the

8:05

horsemen and especially to just wrestling down

8:07

south. But um, you know, he's

8:09

one of those folks that even though he was

8:11

before my time, his name sort of preceded him

8:14

sort of like that sort of uh Now

8:17

I don't want to say folk tale

8:19

sort of thing But you know you

8:21

hear those names about the romanticized real

8:24

tough guys Of the

8:26

old uh professional wrestling guard and

8:28

you know when you just hear names get

8:30

tossed out by old og's, you know Oli

8:32

anderson never was too far behind,

8:35

you know, so whenever you get

8:37

to you know, watch old up old

8:39

matches on wwe network or peacock

8:42

or um just seeing

8:44

the old four horsemen Promos

8:47

with all those guys together. Obviously, you

8:49

know, there's so much Charisma that takes

8:52

up that that group, you know

8:55

those are rick flairon, you know by the

8:57

enforcer on anderson but You

9:00

know oli anderson had his role there too.

9:02

And uh, you know, obviously He's

9:06

uh infamous for a lot of other things.

9:08

Uh, especially when it comes to Uh,

9:11

just like you said being a a

9:15

real deal racist Don't go

9:17

old racist. Uh, there we have a we have

9:19

a great article in the ringer.com right now by

9:21

alverley bateman and een douglas Um

9:23

about oli anderson that that goes deep

9:25

on that stuff um You

9:28

know, we said it a million times on the show when this stuff's

9:30

come up. It's just like There's

9:32

no excuse for it. And yet if you're you know

9:36

If you're gonna erase every racist from

9:38

pro wrestling history, then there'd be no wrestling Oh,

9:41

yeah, then enjoy hope then maybe enjoyed

9:43

this year's wrestlemania. I don't know um

9:47

but But I mean but

9:49

only but only with yeah only with

9:51

a very specific sort of like just

9:54

Almost cartoon villain racist, you know, I mean

9:56

the way like he he and

9:59

and and really But the sort of epitomize a

10:01

lot of the the way that the that the

10:04

booking and promoting went back then like he

10:06

hired Thunderbolt Patterson made Thunderbolt Patterson allowed him

10:08

You know to become a star and then

10:10

kept him on because he was a star

10:12

But like just it was always a bottom

10:14

line consideration and always showed the man it

10:16

seemed like he was constant disrespect. So

10:20

you know And

10:22

only Anderson also seems like the sort of dude who

10:24

was just never going to think never going to to

10:28

reconsider whatever

10:30

feeling he had at a given

10:32

moment, right never gonna never gonna think deeply

10:34

and reconsider the sorts of points of view

10:36

he certainly You

10:39

know he ended up You know kind

10:42

of feuding with Rick flair after Rick

10:44

went to WWF and came

10:46

back to WCW Despite

10:50

their shared history their shared success And

10:54

then of course the flip side is the story

10:56

I'm gonna botch it is that is it you

10:58

know I think Vince tried to keep him on after he

11:01

Bocked a Georgia territory and

11:04

only Anderson just said, you know, fuck you and

11:06

like years later Years or some sometime later

11:09

Vince just tried to like introduce him to

11:11

Linda or something and only just said fuck

11:13

you And that was it, you know, that's

11:15

like the extent of their relationship. Hmm Okay

11:18

but uh, but yeah, I mean

11:21

just did just did I Mean

11:23

listen, I understand this it's a it's a

11:26

it's a loss to the wrestling community obviously

11:29

the fabric of the history

11:31

professional wrestling is so Complicated

11:37

that you know, there's certain people

11:39

that you have to for better or for

11:41

worse You know

11:43

acknowledge their contributions to it, you know,

11:46

so That's where I'm

11:48

at with it. Well, only Anderson and you

11:50

know, and I'll always be that towards

11:53

it, but you know, I Mean

11:57

there's even like the level of racist out

11:59

there where where it's almost humorous, where it's like, I

12:05

don't know if you've ever seen that old Chris Rock stand up when

12:07

he was like, some people aren't racist, they

12:09

just live too long. And it

12:11

was just things that were just like

12:13

drilled into their head as kids that

12:16

is just so inherently racist that

12:19

they're too old to change at this point. But

12:21

the best, I mean, they said it, he

12:25

said it referring to like Donald Sterling,

12:27

and he's basically saying like, I

12:29

said he didn't want her hanging out with him, I

12:32

said he could hang out with her, this is Bill Burr, mind

12:34

you, it wasn't Chris Rock, it was Bill Burr, sorry about that.

12:37

And he was like, I bet Donald Sterling thought

12:39

he was like this hippie racist, he was like,

12:41

dude, I said he could have sex with a

12:43

man, he could hang out with him, just don't

12:45

take pictures of him. And

12:48

I guess only Anderson was that sort of racist, where

12:50

it was like, he came up in

12:53

the super duper racist,

12:57

racist region

12:59

of the South where, person

13:03

with that sort of power in that

13:05

company probably willed it in ways that were- No,

13:07

he's from Minneapolis, but then yeah, he sort of

13:09

came of age, I mean, that's not the Minneapolis,

13:12

back then it was some bashing racial equality, but like,

13:15

yeah, made his name down in Georgia and Florida

13:17

and stuff, and the Carolinas. Anyway,

13:20

you're right, you're right. I'll be

13:22

that person to be on someone's

13:24

passing to bring

13:27

up their worst traits or whatever, but

13:29

this is pro wrestling, it's a complicated form

13:33

of entertainment. And it's complicated, and I recommend that

13:36

everybody read the piece by Ian and Oliver

13:39

on the ringer.com for some

13:41

in-depth stuff. Now, we also

13:45

lost an

13:50

icon of the racism conversation

13:53

for a totally different reason. An

13:57

icon of the racism conversation, what

13:59

an obituary. Very difficult on assume

14:01

that Virgil My Jones passed

14:03

away this week. Ah,

14:06

As a set of top ah. I.

14:09

Remember when Soul Train Jones first

14:11

pumped up. And Continent

14:13

Wrestling. I

14:16

thought it was awesome Just based on is. Just

14:19

first from oh against him

14:21

you know, hallway wall, And.

14:26

Then, of course, this is probably one

14:28

of my earlier memories of. Wtf?

14:31

Hiring somebody who I knew exactly who

14:33

he had been just prior. Right where

14:35

they hire somebody, change his name, repackaging

14:38

pretending somebody. totally different. Hims like now

14:40

I remember so Three Jones and very

14:42

know exactly who that is. Rob.

14:45

See. Pops Up is virgil. Ah,

14:49

Tao. Davenport.

14:52

Cosa. Wins a worldwide an editor

14:54

during the.coms Is working on a piece

14:56

right now with Cbs Today about about

14:59

Virgil Seven talking to him about in

15:01

a lot. Ah, But.

15:07

Were the first than the were manservant

15:09

pops up and like the third sentence

15:11

of the saying, i'm just like we

15:14

gotta go in on Mansour What? the

15:16

Mayor of Manservant only exists as a

15:18

you don't have to say slave frayed

15:20

and mean it off What is more

15:23

them would it was another man Reserve

15:25

ends in the World in Nineteen Eighty

15:27

Eight or whenever that was like the

15:29

insects. Absolutely crazy. The

15:32

So yeah, he's a man service one of the

15:34

body already. On first or

15:36

it's or would. Be

15:38

the butler though, that's just friends are

15:40

not labor movement once abilities. But

15:44

it's oh, he's silesia the the sort

15:46

of body guard/ And

15:48

are no personal assistant for the Million Dollar

15:50

Man Teddy Brc. Who. Was as many

15:52

people point supposedly time based on Vincent

15:54

man and river said told me one

15:56

time I'm as interviewing him that Vince

15:58

gave was a cat russian. Put.

16:00

Up and fancy hotels game. The limo is no,

16:03

no, you gotta live the lights You gotta be

16:05

You know you gotta be this character. In.

16:07

Lansing is hilarious he disliked

16:09

also. Gave. Him a the

16:12

off of mans are many websites

16:14

ah got gallery below his grave

16:16

you owe like honestly I'll be

16:18

on as right like it's it's

16:20

it's a weird. I'll

16:23

say this about Virgil. man. The.

16:25

Fact that we can lead to have a

16:27

laugh about talking about home. says.

16:30

A lot about what he sort of brought. As.

16:32

Far as entertainers concern especially from the

16:34

per of in pursuing as as a

16:36

weird and fucked up for entertainment. Bad.

16:40

A. Guy would bat sort of character.

16:43

And be input in that situation.

16:46

I'm. Lot

16:48

of sad people today, man cause he brought

16:50

a lot of joy. right leg whether on.

16:53

Purpose or not and a big up and

16:55

it a day we get lost in the

16:57

what this entire thing of all about. and

17:00

a big up have a very very core.

17:02

Of Sports and it's Empresa Wrestling

17:05

it's about. can you make some

17:07

memories of me and all my

17:09

earliest roughly memories. Well.

17:11

As a fan. Watching. Of my

17:13

dad's Lap or far Rockaway Queens. Is

17:15

was in the Million Dollar Man called as little boy

17:18

up to dribble a basket. You

17:21

know the when somebody. An

17:23

item it out a at the you

17:25

know at the last Rebel. And

17:28

also does he know seeing this guy

17:30

like about this is in I'll do

17:33

my own eyes on seems low blighted

17:35

triple A basketball. About way

17:37

for money. And. I saw

17:39

that know my summer I might have

17:41

been like to and we would bereaved

17:43

as a maybe maybe was enough adverbs

17:45

we can at the Big Lie food.

17:48

And will look. Over.

17:50

Your was a guy who mean this is my

17:52

first. Thousand of them are for Assad's watching wrestling

17:54

label. My first. Ever things

17:56

I've seen on Tv that involves.

17:59

You know the score is. circle. And

18:01

then you grow up or at

18:03

least you get a little bit more hip to what

18:05

the character is of what was going on and everything

18:07

like that. And you're just

18:09

like, wow, that is,

18:13

that is insane because eventually yes, he

18:15

gets to come up into that's the

18:18

whole point of doing this, doing these

18:20

wildly insensitive, uh, you know, uh, characters

18:22

at a time is because you know, you

18:25

got to go right from wrong, right? Like, like

18:27

the million dollar man was a baby face. Like

18:29

the guy was supposed to be somebody who was

18:32

hated. He was doing stuff that made you hate

18:34

him. And Virgil to

18:36

his credit, man, made a

18:38

lot of memories in the WWF, you know, and

18:40

those old man Jones is, is where he made

18:42

his name. And obviously he got to end the

18:44

BOOO is Vincent and the, the,

18:48

the memes online and stuff like that.

18:50

But you know, when you talk

18:52

about the golden, quote unquote

18:54

golden era of WWF, you know what

18:56

I mean? I'll talk about the whole

18:59

Colgan, the heart foundation, the Mr. Perfect

19:01

era, like the straight up, you know,

19:03

action figure. I'm a fan. I'm

19:05

a kid. I just watched stuff because it's

19:07

cool. And it's Saturday morning cartoon type of

19:10

stuff. And Brazil was

19:12

one of the first wrestlers that I

19:14

had a core memory with. So yeah,

19:16

it's wild man. Like it was a

19:18

piece to me. He

19:21

was, first of

19:24

all, we said it before the man

19:27

servant, if DVR, he was based

19:29

on McMahon, it's not insignificant that

19:31

his man servants was named Virgil,

19:33

which was dusty roads had Booker

19:35

of WCW. His name, everybody

19:37

knows that that's what the name came from.

19:39

And then Vincent, when he went to the

19:41

NWO went to WCW was a sort of

19:43

redirect, you know, got your back at that.

19:46

But for Vince, for Vince to

19:48

say like, Oh, no, you're like, you know, this is

19:50

this is what I think of you. You're like, you're

19:52

you know, I'm the rich guy. You're the you're you're

19:54

my you're my, you know, Butler

19:57

is a is is, you

19:59

know, I mean, it's a rib, it's

20:01

a joke, whatever, but it's fraud. I

20:04

mean, it's loaded in its own way,

20:06

but it's not. But to go with

20:08

your Sam before, it is

20:11

100% accurate to say that Virgil was

20:13

the most famous black wrestler in WWF

20:15

for a significant period of time. Oh,

20:17

for sure. If you go back through

20:19

the cards, I mean, when he

20:21

was fighting against Dibiase, I think

20:25

at that WrestleMania seven and the

20:27

SummerSlam that followed that he, I

20:29

think Coco Bewear worked pre-show matches

20:31

both times. You

20:35

can back up further than that. I mean, it's like at the

20:37

91 Royal Rumble, I think Saba Simba was in the

20:39

Rumble. No, I mean, no other black guys on the

20:42

card at all. Um, and

20:44

except for Virgil, you know, I think he worked a

20:46

tag match at some point. I mean, it was the

20:48

one right before, but I mean,

20:50

he was, he was it. And,

20:54

um, it

20:56

says a lot about that character, about that

20:58

wrestler. Um, he was, he really was

21:00

a star. Now he really didn't give, he really

21:03

didn't get the opportunity or maybe didn't take the

21:05

opportunity, whatever to become a super duper star from

21:08

that. I think probably more of the former. I

21:10

don't think they really knew it. I don't think

21:12

they really realized the, the, the,

21:16

his significance at that moment in time. Um,

21:19

but yeah, man. I mean, it was,

21:21

he was a good time. He was, he was fun to watch.

21:24

And, and I mean, as

21:26

a kid, race

21:29

aside, you understood that story, right?

21:32

You were always pro Virgil. And you know,

21:34

there has never been a time where you

21:36

weren't pro Virgil. Um, and

21:39

yeah, it just, it made

21:41

sense. Love those, love those candy

21:43

striped tights. Yeah. I mean, and

21:45

on top of that, I think I'd

21:48

like to say, you know, social

21:50

media Did him well, right?

21:52

Like I Think history would be kind

21:54

to him because of sort of the

21:56

second life he found on social media,

21:58

just being. I'll dig up

22:01

the. Photo. Of him at the

22:03

autograph signing or viral him to sort

22:05

of the in and on the joke

22:07

him not be afraid to take himself

22:09

the you know too seriously you know

22:11

and I'm That's always something I appreciate

22:13

about anybody who's been through as much.

22:16

As much crap as the I can imagine

22:18

he's been through, especially in that business. I'm

22:20

so you know, Everybody.

22:23

Had up Olive Garden for night in

22:25

arming for most from Be Sauce for

22:27

the for the for the boy and

22:30

I'm. Marathon. Piece of

22:32

or as a row doesn't bear athena such a

22:34

virus or I like. People.

22:36

Buy a lot. but a lot. but

22:38

it it's it's It's always weird. Like

22:40

once a wrestler pass who are me?

22:42

you know, more than anybody, bestselling author

22:44

and it on that subject, but the

22:46

wrestler dies. It's always like. This.

22:49

Instance: Sort of like. Transformation

22:52

into. Your. Youth.

22:55

Because. You know you see them. It's like to

22:57

see them on Tv other time and then one day just

22:59

don't. And. Then like it sparingly

23:01

and and they pass away and then immediately

23:03

he think about the first time you saw.

23:06

These people are like a lot of my

23:08

this when you're young Black Sabbath. So with

23:10

their formative years near life yes. And.

23:12

I said it's a million times as a million times

23:14

but the hard about but went been resting. What makes

23:16

it vertically difficult is like. Saying. The.

23:19

Wrestlers don't age Mckeever. The I literally

23:21

don't seem to age the way that

23:23

like Whole Hogan looks. Basically the same

23:25

that he looked forty years ago River

23:27

but like or but the. But.

23:29

When I when they retire they just and live on

23:31

in your memory. Yeah. right? And you

23:33

know, always have this sort of like. Present.

23:36

Tense about them even as they get older know

23:38

they pass away like I don't I don't know

23:40

all the and this look like at any point

23:42

the past ten twenty years of his life you

23:45

know and so on. and so to me he

23:47

that angry guide pointing at the tv camera

23:49

while with in years old random with and the

23:51

stripes version every one Virgil we seen around virtual

23:53

would good to me like whatever like he when

23:56

he was out there sign autographs guzman of autographs

23:58

or whatever like he was he. The look

24:00

like Virgil, you know, and it's it's tough is

24:02

that they'll always be. So.

24:05

Always gonna be those stars does. And in.

24:08

You. Know that that makes it hard, but that's

24:10

also kind kind of awesome. And I

24:12

mean that's. Virgil. Virgil

24:15

will always be Virgil Yahoo

24:17

always be there. Yet. Anyway,

24:22

Or of committee Virgil My Jones

24:24

who can. Get

24:30

a bunch of chris take arguments. We

24:33

gotta get through. Roof You never know

24:35

what would he missed. It is Maxine debris

24:37

stuff. Yeah. He

24:40

added a bit. Fishy. Resin

24:42

the match on the way or the crowd

24:44

was chaining you Suck. Get. A

24:46

big crazy reaction. The.

24:49

Been a lot of people coming on with had

24:51

met a analysis on top of a that we're

24:53

going to just come off the top rope with

24:55

our own. Angry Ripley jumped online and defended or

24:58

and basically said you know. We're.

25:00

All learning like of with people you know

25:02

basically like i don't come to your job

25:04

in this sense and say you suck. On.

25:09

Ah, Dave Meltzer. Said.

25:12

Out of read the code you're if you're wrestler, get mad

25:14

at the company for putting her in that position. Don't get

25:17

mad at the fans. And the fancy big

25:19

fancy a bad massive got the right to boo. And

25:21

even if they see a good match, this good got

25:23

the right to boo. Ah,

25:28

Is it there lion? I think we're getting way too

25:30

sensitive. Many get ripped on this because it was women,

25:32

but that's just my feeling. Ah,

25:36

If. You're prose as pride part of being pro

25:38

wrestler. In.

25:41

A but get just booing somebody or thing

25:43

you such as across outline of Behavior fan

25:45

that fans should be doing okay. I.

25:48

Agree that it. Does all

25:50

going to say like a broken clock of right

25:53

at least twice day issue than that? Think he

25:55

has a point here? Oh boy I think I

25:57

might. Here's my my only thing I'm a later.

26:00

Yeah, I Cuz

26:02

I do agree with that statement But

26:05

also I've been a part of those crowds I've

26:08

been a part of giddy crowds amped-up

26:11

crowds Crowds that

26:13

were excited to Chant

26:15

together had their voice heard everything else

26:19

That I did not enjoy because

26:22

I felt like The

26:25

fans were kind of the rest and the

26:27

wrestling business they would say oh the fit the audience was trying to

26:29

get itself over But it's

26:31

almost like you're just finding something you

26:33

can chant because it's transgressive because it's

26:36

because it'll get it somebody because Will

26:39

be the crowd that did that that's gonna go

26:41

while it's gonna go viral on Twitter. You

26:44

know, it's like you really care that I Find

26:47

it hard to believe that any one person in

26:49

that crowd Cared enough

26:52

about Maxine Dupree's ring work

26:54

that they would have like said Like

26:56

like if you would ask them with

26:59

a microphone outside the arena what the low part of the

27:01

night was that they would have even Mentioned it. I

27:03

just think it's a I just it's a it's a it's a

27:06

it's a mob It's mob mentality and that's the

27:08

that's the part that I don't I don't think

27:10

there's any argument You shouldn't say that say whatever

27:12

you want as long as you're nothing like racist

27:15

or sexist or like explicitly offensive

27:17

to anybody around you the

27:20

but My thing

27:22

is you it's just incredibly mean-spirited

27:24

and incredibly like like

27:27

Just harsh on the product and I

27:29

don't actually believe that anybody cares about

27:32

it I just think you're being

27:34

dicks because you're together in a room. I Do

27:37

think there's a small part of? Maxine

27:40

Dupree being The

27:42

looking the way she looks that plays a little bit

27:45

into it when it comes to wrestling fans She's not

27:47

a good wrestler. I'm not trying to defend. I mean

27:49

what she's got on the cheese cheese cheese green Here's

27:51

my thing. Yeah, like I think there is I

27:53

think obviously when you when you those

27:56

wrestling fans in my opinion Bell

28:00

see somebody who looks the

28:02

way Maxine looks, who is

28:04

beautiful girl, that isn't necessarily like

28:06

Rhea Ripley built or anything like that,

28:08

but they see, you know, marketability in

28:11

her. And I

28:13

guess in the, in the eyes of some fans,

28:16

there can be that thing

28:18

in the back of the head where they feel like she's being

28:20

forced, right? And then they turn

28:23

it. And then that's when it turns. But

28:25

in my opinion, man, there's, you

28:27

said that if you pulled a bunch of those fans and

28:29

said what the worst thing on the show was, you don't

28:31

think they would say Maxine Dupree don't think they would care

28:34

or not. I think in some

28:36

ways, that's probably the best thing that could happen

28:38

to her. Right? Like, maybe they do care.

28:41

Maybe they do care that

28:43

much. Like a lot of times the

28:46

hardest thing to do in WWE or professional wrestling

28:48

in general is to get people to give a

28:50

fuck. So I think now

28:52

that, you know, she

28:54

has this thing, I mean, I don't

28:57

know how much, how big it will get, but I

28:59

think, you know, when the woman's champion is commenting on

29:01

it, it goes viral on social media. Melchis talking about

29:03

it. Like now it's a thing where people are going

29:05

to watch

29:08

her a little bit more intensely. And

29:11

I think this is a great opportunity for her to

29:13

take that, take

29:15

the, the booing, take the,

29:17

all the, all the terrible things that are said about

29:19

her and use that

29:22

as motivation to become better. I

29:24

mean, we've seen it

29:26

so many times over the years, people

29:28

start off just absolute non wrestlers and

29:32

evolve into extremely

29:34

solid entering people with

29:36

incredible characters that take them to heights

29:38

that people would never see. And I

29:40

think Maxine de Preis in a unique

29:43

position to do that. As far

29:45

as the fans are concerned, I agree with you,

29:47

man. Fans have the right to boo. If a

29:49

match is bad, they can boo. If

29:51

the match is good, they can boo. As long

29:54

as they're not, you know, people being

29:56

racist, being hurtful,

29:59

being. infringing on

30:01

somebody's livelihood or anything like

30:03

that, say whatever you want. But

30:06

at the same time, I'm

30:08

hoping that this could be something where

30:11

she takes it and not just that,

30:13

like WWE uses it. It

30:15

should be said that, I mean, her gimmick is that she's

30:18

a bad wrestler. It's implicitly

30:20

funny that she's a part of

30:22

Chad Gamell's group. She's in a

30:24

wrestling academy, that's the gig. She's

30:27

in a group with a bunch of

30:30

Olympians and Tazawa,

30:34

and she's learning how to wrestle. Like that's part

30:36

of it. So, sometimes

30:40

we lose the plot when it comes to professional

30:42

wrestling, right? Like sometimes we forget that the point

30:44

is to be entertained. And

30:47

I think she got the entertainment thing down

30:49

pat. Lots

30:52

of times the thing that is bad

30:54

in the moment turns out to be great in

30:56

the long run. And I think that could be

30:59

one of those examples. You know, so. I

31:01

think you're right. I think you're right. I

31:03

don't think there's anything wrong with booing, telling somebody they're

31:05

bad, all that kind of stuff. I just my thing

31:07

is just don't be a jerk. Like, what are you

31:09

really what are we doing here? Like, is that is it that

31:12

much fun? Are you going to go home and like tell your

31:15

friends that didn't go to the show how cool it

31:17

was and everybody chanted, you suck at a house at

31:19

a wrestler at a house show? Is

31:21

that cool? You can do

31:23

it. I'm sure I'm sure they get

31:26

a kick out of it. Like, bro, look how many

31:28

views I got in this video, bro. But you're right.

31:30

You can be quotes. We did me, bro. Look at

31:32

this, bro. Like, you can take people. People

31:36

love it. Like we were actual

31:39

human beings with families and lives and, you know,

31:41

we have more things to worry about. But I

31:43

think the problem is to set

31:45

a negative part about that. Yes. People

31:48

do really care about

31:50

being noticed by the women's

31:53

world champion, by getting under the skin of

31:55

somebody by saying like it's never

32:00

made sense to me, but I've seen it

32:02

way too many times where people legitimately do

32:04

live to get the gotcha, to get

32:06

the reaction. That's why my golden rule of social

32:08

media is never react. Never react.

32:11

I see all those idiots and our

32:13

mentions. That's all about me, talk about

32:15

the show, talk about being

32:17

WWE, I hear all that shit. You'll

32:19

never get an ounce of my attention.

32:21

Don't sell, never sell. Never

32:24

sell. They always say that the opposite of

32:26

love is not hate, it's

32:28

apathy. So

32:30

yeah, maybe she can take something from this because these fans

32:32

aren't apathetic towards you, they're hating her. That's

32:35

real emotion, you can get something out of the

32:37

crowd. So yeah, maybe this is a growth opportunity

32:39

here. My reaction, instead of just chanting

32:41

along with people being mean, is actually

32:43

apathy. If somebody's wrestling in

32:45

a match and I'm so disinterested that, because

32:48

I don't think they're fun to watch, that's when

32:51

you go get a beer. You know, that's when

32:53

you take a walk. So

32:57

yeah, maybe I'm the real villain here. You

33:00

see Matt Riddle on Ariel's show? Oh

33:03

yeah, he overshares it. Talking about his

33:05

suspensions. I don't think he has any other mood except

33:07

for overshare, but yes. He

33:11

said every time he busted it was, going

33:14

to the strip club and doing cocaine. He

33:19

said, I also said you're allowed to smoke weed. So I'm

33:21

glad that that's officially on the record now, this

33:25

sage source. Did any of his stories shock

33:27

you? I

33:32

would say the cocaine was a little shocking.

33:35

I would say that. I mean, he

33:38

did overshare just a little bit. I

33:40

ain't gonna hold you, but I respect

33:42

the candor. I respect the ability to

33:45

own the mistakes and own

33:47

your sort of BS. I've

33:50

been on this show a lot saying I'm a

33:52

Matt Riddle fan. Like I'm a fan of his

33:54

work. I think the dude could work

33:56

his ass off. I think he's

33:59

hella charismatic. I loved the

34:01

arcade bro stuff, but you

34:03

kind of get the feeling that the stuff that was

34:07

maybe in his way before

34:09

even coming to WWE was eventually going to

34:11

show its head. And that

34:14

was it. I mean, he was in rehab for a while.

34:17

He talked about that. He was extremely open with, with

34:19

my man, Ariel, Hawaii this week. And

34:21

I think tomorrow tonight,

34:23

actually, he's an MLW for intimidation

34:25

games. Still,

34:28

I mean, he's been

34:30

through it like he is. I don't

34:33

know, man. This might, this might come off wrong. So

34:36

I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm

34:38

going to tiptoe around the land mines as much

34:40

as I possibly can. But there's when somebody

34:45

doesn't necessarily hide

34:47

their bullshit or sort

34:49

of owns it. You know what I mean? I

34:54

have less of a, I have a much easier

34:56

time being like, this guy's going to figure it

34:58

out. Right. And maybe that's my,

35:00

maybe that's my, you know, terrible

35:03

sort of personality trait. I can sort

35:05

of always see the good in, you

35:08

know, people that might be a little messed up. But

35:12

you know, like it's not like he doesn't

35:14

know what he was doing. It was kind

35:16

of crazy. And even if he

35:18

mentioned that interview, he was

35:20

talking about how he just felt like he wasn't going to

35:22

get fired any day now and living under that sort of

35:25

stress, uh, sort of relieved

35:27

them after it finally happened. So

35:29

it is, it is, it's

35:34

crazy, man. Like

35:36

I thought Matt

35:38

Riddle was earmarked

35:40

for superstardom in WWE. And I think for the most

35:42

part he was right. Like I think he was, once

35:44

he was on the main roster, he got some pretty

35:46

good looks. The NXT survivor

35:49

series with him, Keith Lee,

35:52

you know, Gunther, you know,

35:54

against Roman against Seth, those teams like that

35:56

was such a great, great time

35:59

to fight. and NXT. So,

36:02

you know, seeing that he was partying

36:04

with porn stars and doing cocaine

36:07

and clothes and going to, you know,

36:09

rehab and stuff. I'm like,

36:12

I guess. Yeah, that tracks

36:14

that tracks. But, um,

36:16

it sounds like he's getting back on the right track

36:18

and sort of just handling himself. And to be honest,

36:20

man, like maybe that's the best thing for him. Um,

36:23

I've always kind of, I've always been a fan of

36:26

his work, man. I always thought he was a talented

36:28

cat. So he was funny. Well, I'm kind of, you

36:30

know, kind of back and forth on religion. I'm actually

36:32

more interested to see him now than I was at

36:35

any point during his main roster career in WWE.

36:37

But, um, but yeah,

36:40

I mean, whatever. He's just, he's

36:43

done enough stuff outside the ring that leaves

36:46

me a little bit cold in the guy.

36:48

Um, but yeah, the, the, he was, he

36:50

was very open. He was very open. He certainly was earmarked

36:52

for success. It was clear that Vince McMahon liked him a

36:54

lot. Um, and

36:56

yeah, I knew a lot of people who are

37:00

often almost always right. You saw him and said,

37:02

like, oh, this guy's a sure thing, you know,

37:04

and that, and, and, uh, nothing's

37:06

a sure thing in pro wrestling. Um,

37:09

especially when you sort of, I don't know if

37:11

live the gimmick is the right word because

37:13

it's not like he's one of these dudes

37:15

who's like wrestling persona took, took him over.

37:17

I think he was already that dude and some

37:20

of them that came through in his persona, but

37:22

anyway, um, yeah, I thought he was going to

37:24

be the guy to, I thought he was going to be the

37:26

guy to like usher in the

37:28

weed era of WWE. Like

37:30

they were making like, they were making like

37:32

weed shirts and like being overly referenced to

37:34

it. Like they brought in RVD. It just

37:37

got legalized. I'm like, Oh man, Matt

37:40

Riddle's about to be like one

37:43

of the faces of marijuana and professional sports.

37:45

Like he had, he had a

37:47

huge opportunity here. Um, obviously

37:50

that didn't happen, but you know,

37:52

it's, it's wild. What could change

37:54

in the few years, you know, but yeah, I mean,

37:56

obviously he's also done some stuff outside

37:59

or been, you know, I think

38:01

there's been some out of the ring stuff that

38:03

will turn people off and Matt Riddle, obviously, and

38:07

with good reason. Some

38:12

people can't get out of their own way, no

38:14

matter how talented they are. In some

38:17

cases, they like it that way. They

38:19

live better that way. Going

38:22

on a massive podcast with

38:25

Ariel Hawani and knowing you're about to New

38:28

Japan TV champion right now.

38:32

I'm telling

38:35

people, not only remind the people that you

38:37

had failed drug tests, but exactly why you

38:39

did. Good

38:42

luck New Japan and MLW. Speaking

38:48

of MLW, do you see that they

38:51

settled the lawsuit with WWE and MLW

38:53

won $20 million? Really?

38:58

That's right. Brian, I'm not just imagining that.

39:00

They won $20 million? Yeah,

39:03

they settled out of court, that antitrust.

39:05

Well, I'll be damned. That's crazy.

39:09

I just want to give a shout out to

39:11

my best friend, Court Bauer. That's

39:16

hilarious. I'm actually supposed to link with Court

39:18

Bauer today. I was actually going to the

39:20

show. I've been out the loop. I have

39:22

no idea that that happened. I think

39:24

that's true. Now you're having me second-guessing it, Brian. What

39:27

is it? Read what you have

39:29

in front of you because now I've messed it

39:32

all up. From the

39:34

rest of the reserve online, February 27th. We

39:37

know the financial terms of

39:39

WWE and MLW's antitrust lawsuit

39:41

settlement. Okay,

39:43

let me switch forward. The two promotions

39:46

reached a settlement in December 2023. Financial

39:49

details were not disclosed at the time, but

39:51

they were made public in TKO

39:53

Holdings Group 2023.

39:56

Business meet released on Tuesday. The report

39:58

reveals that WWE agreed to... pay

40:00

20 million dollars in the loss.

40:02

Damn. My

40:05

guy. No, I'm just kidding. I

40:09

was about to say, maybe I should go to the show tonight.

40:11

Like, hey, what's up, court? I'm just kidding.

40:15

Oh, man. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I had

40:17

no idea about that. That's wild. Yeah.

40:19

No, just DM him and say like, I'd love

40:21

to be able to come tonight, but I've got

40:24

some unforeseen medical bills with my kids that I

40:26

can't really afford to come out. Yeah,

40:31

no, I mean, that's pretty

40:33

incredible. Pretty incredible. Especially since WWE has been

40:35

stealing from us forever. Do

40:41

we have a case? I

40:43

mean, there's only a couple of things we

40:45

called on this show that they kind

40:48

of rolled with. They say, if

40:50

they cut in checks, we call my

40:52

lawyer. Damn. That's

40:56

a lot of money. See, Meat Madness was canceled.

40:59

And I've ever called, Cal

41:02

called it for the beat meat classic. The

41:04

big meat classic? Yeah, what

41:06

are they calling it now? They call it Meat

41:08

Madness. No, but it's not. Isn't it called something else

41:10

now? Oh, yeah. Some circus

41:13

thing, Battle All-Star Battle Royale.

41:15

Yeah. You know,

41:17

shout out to my boy, Amit Saran

41:19

and Danny Johnson. He DMed me. Well,

41:22

he texted me as this was happening. As

41:25

his idea for the

41:27

meat meaty man invitation. Are you ready for this?

41:30

It would be a 300 plus pound gauntlet. And

41:34

the bigger you are, here's the kicker, which I

41:36

thought was just freaking genius. The

41:39

bigger you are determines the later you

41:41

enter in the rumble. So

41:43

just as people are coming on to

41:45

just get bigger and bigger. So

41:49

dudes are trying to like, like,

41:51

put on weight for the match.

41:53

I put on weight until the

41:55

rumble so they can get a later

41:58

car like they weigh. you before you go

42:00

out and then they just send

42:02

you out there. You can do Ivar, Bratz,

42:05

Doreen, Omos. The

42:07

Ovi is so funny, like just seeing those promos

42:09

leading up to the show, folks

42:11

are eating steaks and pancakes. Like weights

42:13

in their tights or whatever, just

42:19

trying to weigh themselves down. That'll

42:22

be comedy. If

42:24

they do meet madness, and I know Tony

42:26

listens to the show, if they

42:28

do meet madness, you got to steal that. Give Danny

42:30

Johnson the credit and just steal it. Go

42:33

by weight, have

42:35

people just eating backstage in

42:37

the week leading up to meet madness to

42:40

pass the meet threshold. The

42:43

person who weighs the most, but

42:49

here's the thing, if you weigh the most, you're probably a little

42:51

lethargic, you know what I mean? Take us on top and get

42:53

into the ring. I

42:56

don't know, you got to be able to manage that meet

42:58

before you get there. And

43:04

then the winner becomes the super

43:06

heavyweight champion, bro, and then every

43:08

year you defend the super heavyweight

43:10

championship and then meet madness, Battle

43:13

Royal, or the big meet invitational.

43:15

I love it. I love it. That's absolutely

43:17

great. I know I bring this up

43:19

all the time, but I said

43:21

it as a joke, and I honestly think it might one

43:23

of my best ideas ever. Was

43:26

when 205 Live was on and nobody really cared, even

43:30

though they're elite wrestling, they should have just made it

43:32

205 and 305 Live. Everybody

43:35

has to be under 200 pounds or over 300 pounds. If

43:42

there's one match style that you could watch

43:44

endlessly for the rest of time, it's a

43:46

big guy, little guy. That

43:50

could be the whole thing. And

43:52

then their, their road to WrestleMania is like

43:55

the person who wins the big meet invitational

43:57

rumble and the person who wins the 205.

44:00

Live Invitational

44:02

and then they just have a

44:04

match like big guy versus little guy, David versus

44:06

Goliath Invitational sponsored

44:08

by, I don't know, Broughworth is something

44:10

like that. I

44:14

don't know. Sponsored by Broughworth. It's

44:16

just amazing. Not even a brand,

44:18

just Broughworth. Just the brand. The

44:22

Broughworth Council of America. That's

44:26

amazing. Like

44:29

a Porky Pig logo. He's like,

44:31

I'm Porky Pig and I approve

44:33

this Broughworth message. And just,

44:35

I don't know. I think he

44:38

would be like the spokesman for the

44:40

brand of Broughts. Oh, God.

44:45

Oh, man. Sponsored

44:47

by Broughworth. Let's

44:51

talk about Rampage. We've been going through

44:53

a while. I'm Rampage. I mean, Revolution.

44:55

It's like Revolution. AEW Revolution. We've never

44:58

thought about Rampage. Ha ha ha. Just

45:00

kidding. Sunday, March 3rd, 8 p.m.

45:04

Sting's last match. Singing

45:07

Darby Allen versus the Matthew and Nicholas Jackson.

45:09

I love that the announcers are just seamlessly

45:11

calling them by their full names now. As

45:13

if they, like

45:16

Excalibur's out there like, I've known these guys their whole careers.

45:18

Matthew and Nicholas. Like, you've never called them Matthew and Nicholas.

45:20

You've known their whole careers. I guess he's going to get

45:22

fired if he doesn't say it that way. He's going to

45:24

get fined. Yeah, they're going to get fined if they're not

45:26

speaking about them nicely. Yeah. Let's break

45:28

down this match first, because this is a big match. This is

45:31

the main event. This is the big deal. This is Sting's last

45:33

match. You know what occurred to me for the first time? What's

45:36

up? I was watching, when I

45:38

was rewatching the clip of Sting coming

45:40

down from the rafters, and somebody was like,

45:42

Sting's last entrance ever, or second to last

45:44

entrance ever in AEW, or in Pro

45:46

Wrestling ring. It never occurred to me that

45:49

because he retired, he's going to be gone. I

45:52

just thought we were just ending the... I

45:55

mean, this could obviously be defined either way. Yeah, that

45:57

we're just okay. There's not going to be any more

45:59

match. But I'll still be there. But if he do you

46:01

think he's gonna be gone gone Maybe

46:04

he wants to be thing is the only person who

46:06

could really do that with like who I believe it

46:08

if they if they said it right, I Mean

46:12

I feel like uh I

46:15

think he's gonna be gone gone, right? Like yeah,

46:17

I think when it comes to well, who knows

46:19

right? Like we're talking about a wrestling retirement here

46:21

who really stays gone. All right, but I mean,

46:23

there's no real Okay, I mean if you think

46:25

that there's no real reason to retire formally

46:30

If you already unless you're gonna be gone gone

46:32

if you're staying because you already have the work-life

46:34

balance or the whatever the work balance You would

46:36

hope you only wrestle when you want to wrestle,

46:38

you know, you're not out there on the hit in the road Thank

46:41

you monsieur. Yeah, yeah, you mean you have exactly the

46:43

career you would want to keep it going for another

46:45

decade So unless I mean if you if you want

46:47

to take six months off, I'm guaranteed the answer is

46:50

yes you know the flip side of

46:52

that is the only real argument for Why

46:56

he would do it now Otherwise is that he maybe he

46:58

wants it he he wants to give the fans a good

47:00

match on the way out the door And he's like ten

47:02

years from now whatever I'm not gonna be able to do

47:04

it So like at least now I could like put on

47:06

a good show to whatever extent I don't know.

47:08

I don't know if he's gonna be gone gone But

47:10

it feels like he's gonna be gone for a little while because they're

47:12

making a big deal about this Staying

47:14

in Darby Allen with with their

47:16

friend Rick flair I'm not

47:21

I'll try not to make any very good jokes

47:23

dead are gonna add the Greens Robe Coliseum. We're

47:25

going at it Hmm. What do you think

47:27

it's gonna happen? Do you think that sting and Darby

47:29

Allen are gonna? Retain these

47:31

title belts. Do you think they're gonna be they're

47:34

gonna walk out the champs and then and then Darby will

47:36

have to relinquish them or find a new partner or they're

47:38

gonna have a tournament or whatever or Do

47:41

you think that the books the books

47:43

somehow eat out the win and stings last match thing by

47:45

the way? Is

47:47

28 and 0 in a ew hmm so

47:53

My sports entertainment mind

47:55

believes you got to go out on your back. You

47:58

got to give the young bucks and but some

48:00

heat gives thing his

48:02

only loss in AW, obviously. But

48:06

this is Tony

48:08

Khan's AW. One

48:12

thing I've noticed with AW

48:14

and Tony Khan is for the most

48:16

part, they do right by the OGs.

48:21

And if I'm Tony, I have

48:23

no problem sending Sting home on

48:26

a victory as the champion, Darby

48:30

Allen relinquishes the title the

48:33

very next Wednesday on Dynamite in Boston,

48:36

it looks like. And you follow

48:38

up the success of the Continental Classic with

48:42

the tag team Continental Classic. And

48:45

you get it cracking once again. I

48:47

mean, the tag team division at one point

48:50

was the hallmark of AW. And

48:53

I think it's sort of kind of been on the

48:56

back burner for a few months, I

48:58

would say, maybe the past year, honestly. But

49:03

if this leads to a tag team Continental Classic, I'm

49:05

all in because the initial Continental Classic I think

49:07

was a great idea. They got

49:09

the teams for it for sure. They got the teams for it, obviously.

49:13

It did really well for them. And I've

49:16

always thought the natural progression after the success of

49:18

the Continental Classic was doing

49:20

great. After the success of the Continental Classic was

49:22

to do a tag team version of it. And

49:24

this would be the perfect time. Darby

49:26

would say, there's nobody else I'd want a team

49:29

with. There's no reason for me to hold

49:31

this title. You lay it

49:33

down right next to Sting or you just put them

49:35

both on Sting shoulders and let him walk out with

49:37

both titles or something like that. And

49:39

then he just started new. And

49:41

then he gives the young buck something to

49:44

be crazy over for

49:46

the next several months with people that they

49:48

can work with that'll be around for

49:50

a while. But it also wouldn't shock me if

49:53

they do Breslin booking 101 and

49:56

screw Sting over, give him his only loss in AEW,

49:58

send him out on his own. back and then, you

50:00

know, call it. But I think

50:03

AW is in such a unique position

50:05

right now. Obviously they're never going to have

50:07

an opportunity like this again. This is like, this

50:10

is like there's Sean Michaels last match

50:12

to undertake a last match. The Ric

50:14

Flair last match. Like they have one

50:16

of the true actual real deal living

50:18

breathing icons. They

50:21

could have Rick Flair's last match too. It seems like if they want

50:23

to that too, they have

50:26

an opportunity to do something different. This is a

50:28

guy who brought, who's brought them their biggest, I

50:31

think state side house in a long time

50:33

since probably punk. And I think

50:36

they gain a lot by sending that crowd home happy

50:39

and giving them a memory that they can live with

50:41

forever. Instead of just doing the same old screw the

50:43

guy over and get him out of here. This is

50:45

thing, right? Like it's not anything.

50:47

Oh yeah. This is someone who is

50:50

on a Mount Rush more of a

50:52

lot of people's pro wrestling

50:55

fandom. He is one of

50:57

the greatest of all time. He's an iconic figure.

50:59

You have a great opportunity to not just let

51:01

him go out on his, on his, on his,

51:04

the way that he probably deserves to go

51:06

out, especially given you go out on your

51:08

shield or whatever. But a lot of fucked

51:10

up sort of ending already in his career.

51:13

Funny is looking back on his career. I'm

51:15

still shocked at how significant he

51:17

is. He has been to AWW, how central

51:20

he has been to AWW. Now obviously he's

51:22

never been in one on one match the

51:24

title for the world championship or whatever. But

51:26

when he first popped up in AWW, I

51:28

never imagined

51:32

that we'd be having this kind of event commemorating

51:34

him. You know, like it's just, it's,

51:37

it's, I mean, it's

51:39

just, it's kind of surprising. And it shows how, how just

51:43

incredible he is that he doesn't actually have to

51:45

do that much to sort of be the center

51:48

of attention to be like the most significant person

51:50

in the promotion. It would

51:52

have been kind of interesting to see what a Sting singles

51:54

run in 2023, 2024 would have looked like, you know,

51:58

I mean, just to sit like have a champion. championship

52:00

tournament and puts the thing he's 28. No, why can't

52:02

he be in the you know, turn and why don't

52:04

we? Wouldn't you love to see sing versus Joe or

52:06

sting versus Adam Copeland or sing versus you know, I

52:08

mean, aren't there like a bunch of matches that you

52:11

would just just want to get out of the way.

52:13

Anyway, this is it. This is the last one. I

52:16

wouldn't mind if they won. Let me do the,

52:19

you know, do something with Darby Allen

52:21

picking a new partner or handing over the titles or

52:23

whatever. I wouldn't mind that they lost although it's

52:25

not what I would choose because I think that you're right, you

52:27

can get the heat from that and and

52:30

you know, the books can do something

52:32

with it. They can start coming out and sting

52:34

pain along with their sting blood and

52:39

family blood, I guess but but

52:42

I think that the

52:44

other there's a third way that I would probably

52:47

be dissatisfied with if they try to split the

52:49

difference, right? If they try

52:51

to do a thing where it's in no

52:53

contest, the sting gets the moral victory but

52:56

you know, the titles get held up or

52:58

like whatever. I don't know. I guess if it

53:00

would be easier if the Bucks were champs then you could do

53:02

a thing where it was like, you

53:06

know, we went to time limit draw

53:08

or like, you know, there was some

53:10

sort of like schmazzy ending. You could

53:12

you could even do a thing where

53:14

like, could you because AW pay per views

53:17

are always seven hours long, right? Can

53:20

you do it? Can you run a gimmick

53:22

where stings contract expires at midnight and

53:25

so like halfway through the match or like, you

53:27

know, 20 minutes into the match, he has to

53:29

stop wrestling and then bugs is be it's

53:32

like almost the clock guys like, yeah, you're

53:34

not sorry. The referee is just like points

53:36

at his watch and he starts pointing to

53:38

the back, you know, just a big that's

53:43

so silly. Uh that'd

53:46

be funny as well. Um I'll

53:48

be asking something Dave. No, that's why I don't

53:50

think that's that is silly and ridiculous but

53:52

if you try to split the difference, that's where you end

53:55

up. I don't mean it's gonna be that silly but it

53:57

will probably feel similarly silly, right? I mean, it's gonna be.

54:00

You got to you got to either go with the

54:02

win or go with the loss and you don't it

54:04

need a definitive ending to To the one of the

54:06

more remarkable careers in pro wrestling

54:08

history. Dave. Let me ask you as far

54:10

as Best

54:13

moments as a wrestling

54:15

fan. Where does The

54:17

legend's last match land

54:19

on your list? Oh like

54:21

in general, um general like I love I

54:23

love a good surprise return I think as

54:26

a prize return is like top three moment

54:28

the wrestlemania main event Introduction

54:32

is up there. I think it's a top five

54:34

moment um The

54:38

end of the royal rumble is always

54:40

fantastic to me But there's

54:42

something about like a legend's

54:44

last match like Well,

54:46

there's not that many of them, right? There's not that

54:48

many retirement People joke

54:51

about the dudes like terry funk or even flare who

54:53

retired a bunch of times But

54:55

that's that's in some ways the better way to do

54:57

it, right? It's like the boxing like it's like the

54:59

boxing thing where boxers always retire They

55:02

always announce their retirement Before a

55:04

match when there's the most eyes on them, even if

55:06

they're not at all convinced they're going to retire You

55:08

know, it's like you win a big match It's like

55:10

what's next like only got one more left in me

55:12

I'm gonna fight and then i'm gonna retire and then

55:14

everybody cares so much more about the match because there's

55:16

this retirement Vending even though they all know it's a

55:18

scam, right? It's almost

55:21

a better way to do it because when somebody

55:23

announces they're going to retire half the time you

55:25

don't believe them And

55:28

most guys just sort of trail off They just

55:30

sort of take some time off and it becomes

55:32

years off and whatever and so like but in

55:35

the moment though Like in the moment in the

55:37

moment. Well, let's not even take it I

55:39

was just gonna say you should you could take into I mean

55:41

you can bring back in Like

55:43

the last three undertaker wrestlemanias, right? Those almost

55:45

felt like his last match every time and

55:47

those were awesome. So like that actually helps

55:50

the case but um

55:53

I mean the best last match ever was was

55:56

michael's flare and that wasn't actually flair's last match

55:58

But the but they were best for That was

56:00

all in the ring. That was all HBK. That was all

56:02

good booking, good match construction. You got to

56:04

believe that there's a bit of the young bucks

56:06

in there that know that. And want

56:08

to say like, not only is this going to be Sting's last match,

56:10

but we want to get from

56:13

a phenomenal match as his last match. Oh, that's

56:15

why it's the bucks. They're

56:17

going to make it. It's going to

56:19

be an insane match. But yeah, this is a big

56:21

deal. I mean, the last matches are, I mean, an

56:23

announced retirement match. And again, it's a big match. And

56:25

again, not talking about the gimmick of like you, you

56:28

know, like loser has to retire. Is

56:30

there few and far between in pro wrestling? And there's certainly

56:32

a few and far between on this scale

56:34

because there's very few people of Sting's star star. I

56:37

mean, of his level of stardom. Who have

56:39

gone as long as he has and who get to retire on their own

56:42

terms. I mean, just really, what is

56:44

the list? How many people just

56:47

like called their own shot like that? There's

56:49

just not too many people. And

56:51

I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I

56:53

mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, yeah, the concert can't be there. You know,

56:55

there's a lot of people who would like to go just like that. And I

56:57

mean, like, let's like, you know, they can't be all their own shot like that.

56:59

There's just not that many. It's him. I

57:02

mean, Undertaker but the Undertaker also was like 20 minutes later

57:04

talking about how he would, you know, if his body would let him still

57:06

keep going, he would still be doing it. It's

57:10

pretty crazy. So I

57:12

mean, to answer your question, yeah, last match is really awesome. I

57:15

don't think there's much we can even have to compare this to. It's

57:18

going to be it's going to be incredible. I

57:21

mean, the new crow, by the way, the new crow. Yeah.

57:24

Remaking the movie. Who was it? Somebody

57:26

tweeted Sting stole his gimmick from the crow. And

57:28

now the crow is stealing their gimmick from Darby

57:31

Allen because the dude is like shredded and has

57:33

the tattoos all over his face and stuff. It's

57:35

pretty crazy. Like a carbon copy

57:37

of Darby. What's your what's your favorite thing,

57:39

Dave? You got a favorite thing? Early

57:42

crow Sting was obviously pretty, pretty

57:46

impossible to hate. Although I was a comic. I

57:48

am a comic book nerd. And so I mean, I did

57:50

I did have a little bit of that gatekeeper. He like,

57:52

oh, really? I'm just going to steal the crow's gimmick. Everyone's

57:54

going to pretend that's cool. I still, I mean,

57:59

sir. for Sting is still the iconic

58:01

one for me. Well,

58:07

growing your hair out in the pro wrestling world is

58:09

always awkward. Sting

58:13

had that period where Sting had like the

58:15

mom haircut and the face paint was kind

58:17

of rough. That was kind of rough, yes.

58:20

I don't know why. I

58:22

always joke about Sean. Sean Michaels being grown

58:24

out as mullet was actually was the worst,

58:27

where he was like the icy champ. And

58:30

had like hair gel slicking his side hair down on his head.

58:35

And then it would always- The beard though, the beard was cool

58:37

with it. Well, okay. Fine.

58:40

Is this Blue Truck Sean Michaels? Like just

58:42

came back from losing a smile, Sean? No,

58:45

it's before that. But anyway, regardless,

58:47

growing your hair out in the pro wrestling

58:49

world is always kind of awkward. Shouts are

58:51

Rhea Ripley, who's somehow doing it totally tastefully.

58:53

I don't know how they can- Brian had

58:56

an awkward speech. What? Daniel

58:58

Bryan before he was in the Jess movement. Yeah.

59:02

I don't know how they haven't just come up. They don't have

59:05

hair gel. So they don't have

59:07

hair gel that just works, that is just

59:10

solidifies your hair permanently. Like, isn't there

59:12

a solution here where you're just like,

59:14

it's just slicked back for six

59:16

months. And then all of a sudden you like get the stuff

59:18

taken out and it's, and it looks in

59:20

as long. I don't know. I

59:25

remember at the time I was like, I

59:27

would love to see a Sting, I

59:29

would love to see whatever the post-Surfer Sting would

59:31

have been if it hadn't been the Crow. Just

59:35

like, is there like a version of Sting that's

59:37

just long hair, but still in like bright face

59:39

paint, or like maybe just in

59:41

simpler face paint, in black tights or something?

59:43

Like I've always kind of wondered what that

59:46

would be. But that was it for me. I

59:48

mean, I was just such a Surfer Sting fan.

59:51

I don't even like calling them Surfer Sting. That's just what

59:53

it's come to. But- Music was everything.

59:56

And dude, every time he got screwed over by his friends, he

59:58

would make fun of it now. I was right there. with them.

1:00:00

I was the perfect age group,

1:00:02

you know, I was just like,

1:00:04

Oh, yeah, stay. What's that guy

1:00:06

doing? I thought you were nice.

1:00:08

But yeah, I mean, and just, yeah,

1:00:11

but the crow sting was great too. I mean, there's just so

1:00:13

many great. There's those two. That thing

1:00:15

looked cool. Looked cool?

1:00:18

Yeah. I like especially on the

1:00:20

Funko Pop. Yeah, I was, but I like

1:00:22

I was looking for Halloween one year. Why

1:00:26

were you crow sting? Why did you choose? Oh,

1:00:28

you're crow sting. I thought you meant wolf back.

1:00:31

No, I was not. No, that's too much

1:00:33

red. Couldn't do that. But

1:00:35

now I was a crow sting for Halloween

1:00:37

one year. And I thought I pulled it

1:00:39

off pretty good. Everybody loves Sting, man. Like

1:00:41

he's so quintessentially nineties too, right? Like, you

1:00:44

see like the old pictures of him with

1:00:46

like the freaking the

1:00:48

V tank tops and the, I don't

1:00:50

know, the Zubaz pants and the high top

1:00:52

and lecture. Like

1:00:55

it's so nineties. It's so like, it's

1:00:57

such a time capsule and it's crazy

1:00:59

that he stayed relevant all

1:01:01

this time. And even like, gosh,

1:01:04

even like people shit on his like WWE run a

1:01:06

little bit, like, yeah, the rest of mania. Yeah. Yeah.

1:01:09

The rest of mania

1:01:11

Mets was kind of a wonky finish

1:01:13

and, um, you know, the

1:01:15

injury would set the Rollins suck. But like that,

1:01:18

his debut, like his, his, his return,

1:01:20

you know, at survivor series, one of

1:01:22

the craziest pops I've ever heard of

1:01:25

my life at the way, you know,

1:01:27

just the music and the presentation was

1:01:29

awesome. Like he's just, he's

1:01:31

a unique central figure in

1:01:34

the history of this industry.

1:01:36

And, uh, man, it's crazy

1:01:39

that he's, that he's done this

1:01:41

for this long. So I can't wait to watch

1:01:43

it this weekend. I'm a salute it. I'm gonna

1:01:45

have a brew skew watching and join it. And,

1:01:47

uh, man, staying, staying just

1:01:49

fucking rules, man. Like he's just, that's all you

1:01:51

could say about him. Like he's just, he's just

1:01:53

a guy that says he

1:01:56

rules. He's awesome. That's true.

1:01:58

It's true. We gotta run the

1:02:00

rest of this card. Orange Cassidy versus Roderick Strong

1:02:03

for the international championship.

1:02:06

Is there normally in

1:02:08

this situation, we say, is there any chance that

1:02:10

the champ loses? I

1:02:14

actually feel like Roddy

1:02:16

Strong's gonna win because

1:02:20

the undisputed

1:02:22

kingdom could use it. I

1:02:26

love how much you hate the undisputed kingdom.

1:02:29

It's my favorite thing. They

1:02:31

could definitely use some momentum. I

1:02:34

think Roderick Strong's gonna win. Orange

1:02:38

Cassidy's been awesome, but they

1:02:40

gotta do something with this group to make people give a

1:02:42

damn. And I think taking the title off of Orange Cassidy

1:02:45

is the perfect thing to do. I

1:02:47

think Roddy Strong wins this one. I

1:02:50

mean, I think that the only argument sort of in

1:02:52

a vacuum is Roddy Strong, the member of this group

1:02:54

you wanna put the belt on first. I know this

1:02:56

is such so in the weeds, but

1:02:59

if Adam Cole were healthy, then I think

1:03:01

you would say, well,

1:03:03

let's concentrate on Adam Cole getting some gold.

1:03:05

But he's not healthy. Wardlow,

1:03:08

you could compare it to,

1:03:10

but Roddy Strong is the right guy for this title. And

1:03:12

I think Roddy Strong is a

1:03:14

little bit plug and play. He's sort of as

1:03:16

big as you make him out to be. And

1:03:19

I think that this is the right move. I

1:03:21

would totally, I think he's gonna win. But personally,

1:03:23

I would put the title in. He's the

1:03:25

type of workhorse that is supposed to have that

1:03:28

type of title. And

1:03:30

I think Orange Cassidy sort of set the bar on sort

1:03:32

of like workhorse, the workhorse mentality of

1:03:34

that title. And I think Roddy Strong is perfect

1:03:36

to sort of have it. And

1:03:38

we get people caring about that faction once again.

1:03:40

I'm calling Roddy Strong to win this. I'm

1:03:44

glad we agree. Samoa Joe

1:03:46

versus Hangman Adam Page versus Swear Strickland

1:03:48

for the AEW World Championship. Did you,

1:03:52

there's been some suspect logic in AEW

1:03:55

this week we were talking about

1:03:57

it before the show came on. I'm not sure why Sting

1:03:59

was waiting in the room. rafters to watch his

1:04:01

two friends get beat up, although that is

1:04:03

a very kind of quintessentially sting thing. I'm

1:04:06

also not sure what in,

1:04:09

in storyline. Hangman

1:04:12

Page's plan was here to

1:04:16

get injured in the match last

1:04:18

week, but it's fake to wave the cameras

1:04:21

off. I'm not sure why you

1:04:23

wave the cameras off to convince your opponent

1:04:25

of something because that's working the fans.

1:04:29

But your opponent is should be oblivious to that. As

1:04:31

we all know, wrestlers don't even watch the wrestling

1:04:33

shows after they come on, so I'm

1:04:35

not sure what the deal was. And then to limp

1:04:37

backstage. Uh,

1:04:39

and then leak out that it was that

1:04:42

you're just a good worker. You're not really

1:04:44

hurt. Then start the show off with the,

1:04:47

the, the, or, you know, start,

1:04:49

start the segment off with this, you know, microphone saying,

1:04:51

I'm not going to be able to appear in the

1:04:53

match and blah, blah, blah, just for swerve to come

1:04:55

out and to sort of say,

1:04:57

you know, I know we've had our

1:05:00

differences, but blah, blah, blah. And then Joe to come

1:05:02

out and say, I'm going to kill whoever shows up.

1:05:05

All of these things have to fall into place just

1:05:08

to hit swerve with a crutch, which in

1:05:10

theory you could have just done at

1:05:13

any point over the past. Three months.

1:05:15

Yeah. Yeah. Uh,

1:05:19

I mean, the crush doesn't hurt more because

1:05:22

he thought you were using it for real purposes,

1:05:24

two minutes ago. Right. And also

1:05:26

you could have just literally hit him

1:05:28

with the crutch at

1:05:30

the match, right? You

1:05:33

could have, you could have, you could have milked that just a

1:05:35

little bit longer. I don't know. Um, I

1:05:37

think personally, it probably

1:05:39

was done to serve the

1:05:42

official, as an official heel turn

1:05:44

for hangman Adam page. And, um,

1:05:46

they'll probably have a crutch there on Sunday, right?

1:05:49

They'll read the correct will be involved in the

1:05:51

match somehow on Sunday. Yeah. And

1:05:53

funny enough, bro, starting

1:05:56

to make me think he's going to win. Oh,

1:05:58

really? Starting to make. think he's going to win at one

1:06:00

point. I was like, okay, they're definitely setting them up so

1:06:02

he can eat this pin and we can eventually get the

1:06:05

Mojo's work. But I don't know something about

1:06:09

this sneaky ass, dirty

1:06:12

ass hangman Adam page. It makes me think

1:06:14

he might sneak out of

1:06:16

there with the world title. I'm going to hang man,

1:06:18

Adam page. And then we do page

1:06:20

swerve one more time, have

1:06:22

sort of jumped through a bunch of hoops because page knows

1:06:24

he can't beat them. And then

1:06:27

finally you have swerve hangman for

1:06:29

the last time for the world title. And

1:06:33

you go there. So I think I'm thinking

1:06:35

this might be a hangman upset. What

1:06:38

do you do with Joe in this though? You

1:06:40

just wrote, you wrote ex champion Samoa Joe totally

1:06:42

out of your fantasy booking here. I

1:06:44

did. But Joe is

1:06:46

what I like to call, he's,

1:06:50

he's unflappable. Like he's never, I don't

1:06:52

know. I don't know. He's a conductor.

1:06:55

He's never loses heat. I guess like

1:06:57

he could lose the title on the

1:06:59

very next Monday or the very next

1:07:01

Wednesday he could just come

1:07:03

out, get a microphone talk shit and he could be

1:07:05

right back in the picture. And I

1:07:07

think, you know, people love

1:07:09

Joe and people love a pissed off Joe.

1:07:12

So if there's a way he gets screwed

1:07:14

over by a newly healed hangman, Adam page,

1:07:16

I think that benefits Joe more. And I

1:07:18

think that eventually benefits swerve

1:07:20

the most as the person that we

1:07:22

all know can beat this dude's ass,

1:07:25

but is ducking him for obvious

1:07:27

reasons. So I'm thinking that's

1:07:30

the way you go. I

1:07:33

don't hate that. Did we get there? I feel like

1:07:35

I don't remember if we got to

1:07:37

Adam page is going to actually win last, last

1:07:39

week. But anyway, I kind

1:07:42

of, I'm

1:07:44

attempting, it's attempting

1:07:47

arguments. I think that it,

1:07:49

I think that what we're talking about on Monday, I think

1:07:51

was, was the pitch basically that

1:07:54

some Ojiro retains so that

1:07:56

he can lose to Osprey

1:07:58

or Okada and just sort of crown

1:08:01

them and then have the chase from

1:08:03

from hangman or swerve happened. But I

1:08:06

think your argument actually makes a

1:08:08

little bit I don't know if it makes more

1:08:10

sense. But there's something definitely seductive about the sort

1:08:12

of new era coming in. And

1:08:17

letting it be the end of the sort of

1:08:19

phase one. Adam hangman page

1:08:21

story, right? Like he like this guy who was

1:08:23

basically the next big thing at the start of

1:08:25

the company, finally achieved what he's going

1:08:28

to achieve. And now the

1:08:30

company is introducing two dudes who are going to

1:08:32

be really hard to get booed. You

1:08:34

know, I mean, that needs a

1:08:37

pop yesterday was huge. And that's

1:08:39

to say nothing of swerve where he's got of

1:08:41

how the crowd's gonna go nuts for an aggrieved

1:08:44

Samoa Joe. There's just

1:08:47

so many big baby faces. Maybe Yeah, maybe that's

1:08:49

it. Maybe this is just like diabolical heel hangman

1:08:51

pager. Okay, I'm in. He talked me into it.

1:08:53

Let's do it. Now,

1:08:58

I'm going to stick with the basics on this next

1:09:00

one. Timeless Tony storm versus the honor

1:09:02

Parazzo. We could talk

1:09:04

about how great this match is going to be how much I'm

1:09:06

excited to be here to see this match. But

1:09:09

timeless Tony storm is going to retain because

1:09:11

yes, the next because right around

1:09:13

the corner is Mercedes Monet and that's and that's

1:09:16

the that's the money match,

1:09:18

right? No, I mean, you

1:09:20

need the institution of Tony storm

1:09:23

to be the first you know, to be

1:09:25

what what Mercedes is going to go up

1:09:27

against, right? Absolutely. Deanna

1:09:30

Parazzo great. But

1:09:32

the timing couldn't be worse, right? Like you

1:09:34

are the trap game

1:09:36

for Tony storm. Right? Yeah, get

1:09:39

past this one. And

1:09:41

you know, you know, Mercedes is coming. So

1:09:43

yeah, I agree with you. I don't have

1:09:45

much insight on this, especially on time. It's

1:09:48

not even just like, we're just

1:09:50

giving this Tony storm. She's still doing some

1:09:52

amazing work. So it makes all the sense to keep

1:09:54

it there. Tony's gonna win this. Okay,

1:09:58

Eddie Kingston versus

1:10:01

Bryan Danielson. And

1:10:04

a continental crown championship match, that's Eddie Kingston's

1:10:06

title, obviously the inaugural continental

1:10:09

crown champion. As

1:10:11

Danielson loses, he has to shake Eddie Kingston's hand.

1:10:13

I love that they will never stop milking. The

1:10:16

Eddie Kingston is despised by people in

1:10:18

real life storylines. This

1:10:23

is gonna be a lot of fun. This is the Bryan Danielson match

1:10:25

I wanna see. I love Eddie

1:10:27

Kingston, love watching him work. Not every Eddie

1:10:29

Kingston matchup is one where I'm just like

1:10:31

drooling over it in advance.

1:10:34

But he always comes through. But Eddie Kingston versus Bryan

1:10:37

Danielson, man. I would pay 50 bucks just

1:10:39

to see that. Oh

1:10:42

yeah, this is gonna be my match of the night, in

1:10:44

my opinion. And I

1:10:46

think you gotta put Bryan Danielson over. And

1:10:49

I think he wins. How

1:10:51

many times are we gonna save this though? Because

1:10:53

I gotta see him with some damn gold in

1:10:55

AW for one. I

1:10:58

gotta see him with some damn gold in AW

1:11:00

for one. I know, but you said you gotta

1:11:02

put him over. And if AW has proved anything

1:11:04

over the past several years, no, you absolutely do

1:11:07

not have to put Bryan Danielson over. You can

1:11:09

have him lose every title match that

1:11:11

he's in. I'll put it like this. The

1:11:13

Eddie Kingston Danielson match the first time

1:11:15

was billed as, if

1:11:18

they fought 99 more times, Bryan

1:11:21

Danielson would have won 99 times. That

1:11:23

was the one that Eddie got over

1:11:25

Bryan. And they made it that way.

1:11:28

I think they go back to it and the

1:11:31

bum stuff with

1:11:33

Bryan Danielson and all that, I

1:11:36

just think it'll make for a cool visual. I wanna see

1:11:38

him with all three of those belts walking around. I

1:11:41

agree, it's perfect for him. It's perfect for him. It

1:11:43

would be so perfect. Talk about elevating

1:11:45

a title. Danielson can make that into the

1:11:47

cheer champion. He can make that into just

1:11:50

the most important title in the company. Absolutely.

1:11:54

Yeah, that would be really awesome. Well,

1:11:56

if you wanna talk Magic of the Night, and I agree with you, it's

1:11:58

probably gonna be it, but if you wanna talk about it, about potential

1:12:00

matches of the night. You got Will

1:12:02

Ospreay versus Kenos Kitakshita coming next

1:12:05

on the list, if anything. If

1:12:07

there's any other competitor, well,

1:12:11

I guess you could put Blackpool versus FTR on there, but

1:12:14

that's the big one, right? Ospreay

1:12:16

versus Ospreay in his debut match

1:12:18

is a full-time AEW talent versus

1:12:20

Takeshita, his stablemate. Who knows if

1:12:22

we're gonna see some shenanigans, some

1:12:24

sort of Don Callis

1:12:26

family turn of some former

1:12:29

fashion. Regardless, from bell to bell, this is

1:12:31

gonna be a clinic. My guess is

1:12:33

the first two thirds, it will be an

1:12:35

absolute just like friendly-style clinic, and then

1:12:37

we'll get some real heat, and it'll turn,

1:12:40

it'll get a little bit more rugged. But

1:12:46

this is a real toss-up. I think that there's a real

1:12:48

strong, obviously, Ospreay has to win. It's his first big match

1:12:51

in AEW argument, but this isn't the main event. This is

1:12:53

just, you know, it is what it is, and you could

1:12:55

definitely see a world where he's dominant,

1:12:57

but, you know, the Callis family turns

1:12:59

on him or whatever and

1:13:02

he loses the match because of it. I

1:13:05

almost think Takeshita's,

1:13:08

I'm just gonna, I'm going with Takeshita. I think it's, I don't, I

1:13:10

think this is, yeah,

1:13:18

I don't think there's any way that this is

1:13:20

actually a friendly. I don't think this is actually

1:13:22

just an exhibition. I

1:13:24

think that there's gonna be a turn, and I think

1:13:27

the turn will, I think that if it's

1:13:29

the turn at the beginning of a storyline and Ospreay doesn't need

1:13:31

to win, he's coming, you know, everybody

1:13:33

knows who Will Ospreay is, everybody that matters to

1:13:35

AEW. So I think it's gonna

1:13:37

be a great match. I think Takeshita's gonna win. I

1:13:41

am gonna agree with you, Joo. I

1:13:43

think Will Ospreay is coming in as

1:13:46

a mega, mega

1:13:48

babyface, which, you know, shouldn't

1:13:51

surprise anybody. And the best way

1:13:53

to be a babyface in AEW

1:13:55

is to be against Don Callis. So,

1:13:58

be a babyface. Equesta's

1:14:01

story has been against Big Masters. He said

1:14:03

it shouldn't surprise anybody, but it kind of

1:14:05

should surprise. I mean, it's he's worked. He'll

1:14:07

most of his crew. But

1:14:10

he's been in a day. He was a heel over there. He

1:14:12

was in the cows family last time we saw him at AEW.

1:14:14

I agree with you. But I feel like he's that he's a

1:14:18

baby face that nobody should be surprised

1:14:20

by more than anything else because

1:14:23

he chose AEW over WWE or you know,

1:14:25

I mean, that's that's his baby face cred

1:14:27

right there. Yep. That's part of it. That's

1:14:30

part of it. And the bros and saying

1:14:32

that he had to finish his obligations

1:14:34

in New Japan before he came

1:14:37

here was big pop for them. And on top of

1:14:39

that, the

1:14:42

AEW fan lives and dies with the style of

1:14:44

Will Osprey. He's

1:14:46

like it's almost like they signed like it's like they

1:14:50

signed LeBron James, right? Like he is

1:14:52

there. He is everything pro

1:14:54

wrestling is supposed to be

1:14:56

to the to the diehard AEW fan.

1:14:58

So it's going to be hella hard

1:15:00

to get that guy booed for a while. So just

1:15:02

run with it. To catch

1:15:04

his beaten Omega, he's being Jericho. He's had these

1:15:08

high profile sort of

1:15:10

singles matches where he's always came out on

1:15:12

top. I agree

1:15:14

with you, Dave. This might be another one of those

1:15:16

matches where, you know, he's the Omega

1:15:18

for a reason or the Alpha for a reason.

1:15:22

And then, you know, you run it back with them again later

1:15:24

in the year. So I think you

1:15:26

have to catch the wins. We're

1:15:29

just going to agree. I hope you agree on the rest of

1:15:31

these because we can't end the show until we agree on everything.

1:15:34

Christian Cage versus Nick. Sorry.

1:15:36

Where's Daniel Garcia for the TNT championship?

1:15:38

I mean, it feels like it would

1:15:41

be this isn't coming out of nowhere. These guys have been

1:15:43

shooting for a while. But after Christian's

1:15:45

reign, it feels like it would be crazy if he just

1:15:47

dropped the belt. I'm going with Christian on this one, even

1:15:49

though I think Garcia is going to get his

1:15:51

hands on this belt eventually. Because

1:15:54

I'm only going with I'm going with Christian mostly

1:15:56

because I picked Roddy Strong. You know, I don't

1:15:58

think we're going to have like multiple that

1:16:01

kind of where long term champions are

1:16:03

dethroned in one night. And

1:16:06

there's just a million different ways that Garcia can lose

1:16:08

this match. Yeah,

1:16:13

I think there's too many ways to Garcia's lose this

1:16:15

match also. I do

1:16:17

think AWS has big plans for him. And

1:16:20

I just don't think it's right now.

1:16:24

I don't know man, it seems

1:16:26

like, I

1:16:28

think I'm gonna go with Christian also man. I think I'm gonna go

1:16:30

with Christian on this one. FTR

1:16:34

versus John Moxley

1:16:36

and Claudio Castagnoli from Bloodpool Combat Club.

1:16:38

That was a fun little match they

1:16:40

had on Dynamite last week. And

1:16:44

I am very, very

1:16:46

excited about this match. I don't always

1:16:51

love every Moxley match or

1:16:53

Claudio match for that. I mean,

1:16:55

I'm like 99% on FTR. There's

1:16:58

FTR matches that when they announced them just like,

1:17:00

okay, I could watch that but I'm not too

1:17:02

excited. But this matchup has

1:17:05

got me. This matchup is gonna be freaking great.

1:17:07

I mean, this match I'm so excited about this.

1:17:09

Just so excited. Just a little, I

1:17:11

was excited before they went at it on Dynamite and now

1:17:13

I'm even more excited to see the rematch. So in

1:17:17

terms of who's gonna win, I

1:17:19

don't freaking know man. This

1:17:22

is the hardest one in the whole thing. Maybe, maybe aside

1:17:24

from the six man to Carl. But

1:17:30

because of that, I'm just gonna go champ. I'm just

1:17:32

gonna go champ. FTR retains. I'm

1:17:36

going with FTR also. They're

1:17:38

in North Carolina. They're home. You know

1:17:40

what I mean? The home field is

1:17:43

in it. So if for any

1:17:45

reason more than that, I think

1:17:47

this smells like an FTR win

1:17:49

for this tag

1:17:51

team match. And

1:17:53

last one, it's not meat

1:17:56

madness. It's the All-Star Scramble Match.

1:18:00

The winner received the future a

1:18:02

w world championship match christian carrico

1:18:04

line heart christian or go against will see.

1:18:07

I'm versus ward low versus

1:18:09

powerhouse hobbs versus lance chart lance

1:18:11

archer versus hook versus brian

1:18:14

cage versus magnus versus don't

1:18:16

a marten. I

1:18:24

don't know i don't know

1:18:26

you can see you can see what's left of

1:18:29

the. The meat gimmick here radio

1:18:31

ward low and hobbs and archer

1:18:33

and cage. I'm. But

1:18:38

you know they got some nice high flyers in here to

1:18:40

now i mean i really have no idea really

1:18:43

have no idea who do you think is going to win. I

1:18:46

personally love to see hook when this he

1:18:49

had a great showing against mojo last time out.

1:18:52

So he's going to come back from one more time i think

1:18:55

him winning this would you

1:18:57

know look good on it but. I

1:19:01

smell like a ward low win to me

1:19:03

you know he had a great promo last

1:19:05

time out. What

1:19:08

not be mad at him going up

1:19:10

against Adam page or some oh Joe

1:19:13

probably not for the world

1:19:15

title. Adam page

1:19:17

could definitely be a guy who's who do you think

1:19:19

we get the biggest pop who do you think the

1:19:21

crowd wants to want to win. Probably

1:19:25

war probably ward lower hook right like

1:19:28

those two you know I think

1:19:30

after the promo two weeks ago people are back

1:19:33

you know paying attention to what war those going to do and the

1:19:35

first thing is going to do. hook

1:19:38

my hook might be number one i'm not in the hook demo

1:19:40

so I don't know. i'm

1:19:43

not going to make the case there either way. But

1:19:48

I want to make the argument for powerhouse hobs. I

1:19:52

think the crowd likes him more than everybody else in this

1:19:54

match maybe excluding hook. And he's a heel.

1:20:00

I think that the idea of Hobbs looming in

1:20:02

the background with this money in the bank briefcase

1:20:04

or whatever it's gonna work out is

1:20:08

more interesting and give that to the Don

1:20:10

Cowles family let them be just add another

1:20:12

layer to it. I'm

1:20:15

gonna make him my pick because it's a six or no

1:20:17

it's like eight how many people in this match eight. A

1:20:21

people in the match so I'm just going with my

1:20:23

sentimental favorite. But

1:20:25

I think that he I think that powerhouse odds is. More

1:20:28

over than word low. Probably more

1:20:31

over than Chris Jericho at this point in the

1:20:33

very light in a specific in a w fan

1:20:35

specific sort of way and. Definitely

1:20:38

over in the rest of the guys with the possible

1:20:40

exception. Of of

1:20:43

hook. So

1:20:47

who are you going with you're going with word low. I'm

1:20:50

going with low I think I think hook could use the wind

1:20:52

I think will be cool for hook to get the one but

1:20:54

I think I think after that promo were. You

1:20:59

think hook is. Yeah

1:21:01

we're really controversial question here I

1:21:03

mean it isn't even a take. It's

1:21:08

hook a weird name for a wrestler.

1:21:15

I mean I've gotten used to it I definitely

1:21:17

I definitely thought it was weird when he debuted

1:21:19

and I've gotten used to it over time and

1:21:21

now people say hook I don't think twice about

1:21:23

it. But

1:21:25

hook. I mean.

1:21:30

Is there going to be a world champion named just hook at

1:21:32

some point or do we have to go through the whole station

1:21:34

to the cross where he takes on his real name or whatever

1:21:36

it maybe it's fine maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

1:21:39

I like hook I like I

1:21:42

like hook I like the I

1:21:44

like the hook signal in the

1:21:46

sky like chanting the name I

1:21:48

like the action Bronson I like one syllable names wrong.

1:21:50

I think it looks a perfectly

1:21:52

fine day rather

1:21:54

than I mean powerhouse Hobbes is necessarily. you

1:22:00

roll up the song and you... Well, it's

1:22:02

just funny because AEW is all these like, it's either

1:22:04

the real names or the gimmick names that

1:22:06

people have had for so long, they're kind of silly, you

1:22:09

know, like without any real question

1:22:11

being thought being put into, you

1:22:13

know, is

1:22:16

it really worth keeping that name? Is it worth,

1:22:18

you know, it's whatever. But

1:22:21

Hook is just a weird one for me. Anyway, I

1:22:23

hope I'm gonna go to the powerhouse ops. Anyway, that's it.

1:22:25

That's the end of the thing. We gotta, it's the end of the show

1:22:27

too. We gotta get out of here. We've been going forever. There's a lot

1:22:29

of news this week. You want to get your plugs down

1:22:31

on the way out? Yeah, man, Fanatic

1:22:34

Sports Book. Catch me on Count Up Monday,

1:22:36

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. You can catch me on

1:22:38

SNY Sports Night, Friday Night, smoking

1:22:40

league basketball. Catch me all over

1:22:42

Peacock, talking WWE stuff. And my

1:22:45

gosh, if you didn't catch Auche

1:22:47

Wrestling, this, Auche Wrestling this past

1:22:49

weekend, go on Auche wrestling.com, watch

1:22:52

the full show, myself, Chris Leon,

1:22:54

commentary, Bronson, Teddy Long, Sunny Kiss,

1:22:57

Priest Colvin, Darius Lockhart, Darius

1:22:59

Carter, incredible

1:23:02

card, Mia Friday, Jada

1:23:04

Stone, the King

1:23:07

B's, new NWA Women's Tag Team

1:23:09

Champions. Shout out to them. Chanel

1:23:13

Rauche, Jocelyn Navarro,

1:23:16

incredible card, incredible

1:23:19

show, check it out. You

1:23:22

can find me here. You can find me on the press

1:23:24

box. Be sure to listen to all the great shows on

1:23:26

the Ring of Wrestling show feed. GP, The Masked Man Show,

1:23:28

and of course, Wednesday Worldwide, speaking of which. Thanks

1:23:30

to our producer, Brian H. Waters. Thanks to

1:23:32

our EP, Ben Cruz. Thank

1:23:34

you all for listening. Apologies

1:23:36

always, Jon Moxley. We'll see you back here

1:23:38

next week, Humanoids. Thanks.