May 22, 2024 • 61 mins
AntMan and Michael are back this week to cover the exciting weekend ahead, featuring WWE's King and Queen of the Ring in Jeddah and AEW's Double or Nothing in Las Vegas.
From analyzing key matchups like Gunther vs. Randy Orton and Lyra Valkyria vs. Nia Jax to special guest appearances, including author Zach Haydorn discussing his new book on Steve Austin, this episode is packed with insights, predictions, and a few surprises.
Whether you're a hardcore wrestling fan or new to the scene, WrestleChat Podcast offers a perfect blend of analysis, humor, and passion for the sport.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When it comes to professional wrestling. If you are talking
about it, we are talking about it. Welcome to the
wrestle Chat Podcast with the Yeah Man. Yes, Welcome to
the wrestle Chat Podcast Live here Tuesday on YouTube, on Facebook,
on x and on Instagram. Thank you guys so much
(00:20):
for joining us. My name is the ant Man. His
name is Michael Glavin. It's time to talk some wrestling.
You ready to do this tonight? Mike? Hang on a second,
that's on mute Michael's Mike, Oh, you chose to mute yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Why to be here, aunt, Let's talk some wrestling.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It's funny. I clicked this so there's a button that
says the unmute. I click it and goes you can't unmute.
They chose to mute themselves. I just think it's funny
that the the technical things that pop up every single week,
there's always one. There's always one. Michael. Welcome to Tuesday.
Welcome to the wrestle Chat Podcast. Excited to talk about
a big weekend in wrestling. First, I got to say
(01:03):
off the top that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend.
This is the weekend we remember those who gave up
their lives to serve our country and keep us free.
Memorial Day is about remembering those men and women that
did that. So before we talk about wrestling, before we
talk about grilling Burger's, before we talk about installing the
new kiddie pool in the backyard, I want to say
(01:25):
thank you those who gave it all. We would not
be here today and be able to do what we
do if it weren't for them, So we remember them
this weekend Memorial Day weekend. A couple of big shows
happening this weekend, King and Queen of the Ring and
Jetta Saudi Arabia that is on Saturday, and then of
course Double or Nothing with AEW live from Las Vegas.
(01:48):
This is their signature, this is their big one, that's
the one they started ae W with and the card
is stacked, it looks huge. We're going to run over
some key matches from both of them, and a little
surprise coming up a little bit later on too. Plus
we got a buddy named Zach who is going to
join us on the show. He has written a book
(02:09):
and it's called Stunning the Artist Here The Artistry of
Wrestling with Steve austin Man, a book about Steve Austin
has already got my vote and he's going to join
us here on the zach Hato. I'm going to join
us here on the show coming up a little bit
later on too, So I'm excited to jump in this.
We got a lot to get to. You want to
start with King and Queen of the Ring? Sound good
(02:32):
to you? All right, we've got the first let'sten. We
don't really know who's going to be battling for King
and Queen of the Ring quite yet. Friday, we will
see the final matches first. We know that Gunther is
going to be in that final match, but he's going
to be taken on Randy Orton or Tomatanga and I
(02:53):
a little bit of me and I don't we don't
have time to really dive into it here. A little
bit of me was disappointed to see that La Knight
lost that match. Now, I think it ended with setting
some other stuff up which could lead to some great
matches down the line for La Knight. But it kind
of feels like slipping on a rock every time he
starts to take off. Do you have that similar feeling
(03:15):
when you see what they're doing with La Night right
now or is there is too much better stuff going
on right now.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
No, I do agree with you, but to kind of
take it off to the side a little bit, king,
King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring traditionally
is to give a little bit of gas behind not
necessarily a new talent, but a newer talent. And you know,
we all want that to be l a Knight. We
(03:42):
want him to have that kind of coronation moment. However,
when he did lose, my sights turned toward Gunther. Now
we don't know how this is going to shake out.
We don't know what the plan is. Toma Tonga versus
Randy Orton, you would think that would go a particular way,
(04:03):
but I thought that with the La Night match too,
So I don't know if they're setting something up for
this new incarnation of the bloodline, but I think we
would all agree that seeing Gunther Randy Orton would be
quite a match. And my hope at this point is
that we're gonna see Gunther as the King of the Ring,
(04:24):
just because I think he needs that push, that solidification
into the main event picture.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And I think that that's somebody we talked about from
the very beginning. Man keep an eye on Gunther after
losing the Intercontinental title. I'm a feeling they're gonna be
setting this guy up to just launch it into the stratosphere.
And King of the Ring has kind of been that
launching pad for so many in the past, which we've
addressed here on the show as well. To see him
in the finals, you gotta be thinking, man, we know
(04:53):
without a doubt, no matter who which of the guys
he faces, it's gonna be a hard hitting match. Did
you notice Jay's chest at the end? Everybody's chest at
the end of a Gunther match is always red, But
I feel I felt like I hurt a little bit,
just sympathy pains for Jay Uso after that match.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Gunther is the is the Shamus of this generation.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Man oh man. We got Queen of the Ring too
in the In the final match, Lyra Valkyria won a
big one on Monday, and she's gonna take on Nya
Jacks or Bianca Belaire. And I mean, there's been a
battle between between Bianca and Nya for for a while
off and on here and there, and it feels like
(05:39):
Nya's kind of always been the nemesis of of two
or three people at different times, and she's always the
one that it's the mountain you gotta climb, And it
feels like that for Bianca if she wants to be
in this. But man, what a site that would be
to see little tiny three foot two or whatever she
is Lyra Valkyria, And yeah, Jack's go at it for
(06:01):
the Queen of the Ring. Could you see that?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I think I could. And let me tell you I
the women's division is in desperate need of some fresh
blood in the in their main event picture. I'm not
taking anything away from Bianca, from Becky, from Naya, from
all all these women, but all of them have climbed
(06:26):
the mountaintop and a lot of them have had feuds
with each other quite a bit. And so you know,
I'm excited at the premise of Lyra Valkyria just because
she's new and she's fresh, and and let me be clear,
I'm not dismissing everybody else. I still want them here.
I'm you know, they've got a lot of miles left
(06:48):
on them, a lot of great stories to tell. That's
not what I'm saying. But when you have a program
that is centered around a title shot, I feel like
we don't need to see something that's already been seen,
and so I'm hoping that regardless of what the combination is,
that we get that Lyra Valkyria is gonna take.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
That thing home well. And not that it would be
bad to see Pianca in a match and also be
holding the women's tag title, but it always feels like
if one of them has a tag title, it kind
of almost alludes to the other person winning, or at
least does in my book, I may be wrong in that,
but it always kind of feels that way. It's like, Okay,
you've got other things you got to take care of.
(07:28):
Your mind somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right, Statistically, you're right. If you look back in history
tag jams that have been in competitions or this that whatever,
they usually don't fare well.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah. Well, And psychologically it makes sense too that your
mind would be somewhere else. You've got other things you've
got to take care of. Some for sure matches that
we know now, all those other ones we're going to
know after Friday's SmackDown, of course, because the pay per
views on Saturday or the pls on Saturday, so we'll
know on Friday who is going to be facing home
(07:59):
for the crowns and what I do love and I
applaud the new regime at WWE. On Another point made
here is that the actual crowns that they have look
stinking legit. They're not making no. I mean, the other
ones are like like one step up from you know,
(08:19):
some cosplay stuff. These are like has anybody checked with
the King and Queen of Jetta of Saudi Arabia that
they didn't rip these from? These look legit? And I'm
just waiting for him to show up in the in
the shop, I mean for collectors.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, for the lolow price of.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
We do have Becky and Live going head to head
for the Women's World title on Saturday at King and
Queen of the Ring. This has been, and I don't
know why I'm saying this, this has been an unexpected
feud that I'm actually really excited to see. Now. I'll
applaud both women for actually making me interested in seeing
(09:04):
these two, especially on the short notice that we really
got after of course Rhea had to drop the title.
I say it a short notice. I mean it's what
three weeks that we've had to build to this match.
I'm interested in Live Morgan again. It felt like she
was always kind of floating a little bit in my
mind that she really didn't have a direction or she
(09:24):
was searching for a direction. She was always kind of
kind of flighty feeling, you know, from her walk to
the ring to how she did a promo to now
she's super focused. She knows what she wants, and maybe
that's part of it. Maybe they've actually they clued her
in on where she's going and what she's doing, that
she can attach herself to a story and move in
(09:46):
that direction. But I mean it kind of has me
questioning if she doesn't walk out of there with the
Women's World title, how are you feeling about this match?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Michael well An, let me tell you something. It's not
hitting for if I'm being honest. Becky lost it WrestleMania,
and then a week two weeks later, she's in a
battle Royal grabs the title.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I think rumors said she was supposed to take some
time off, so a lot of things with her were
wrapped up and she got thrust back into the picture.
I don't dislike Becky, but I feel like she's been
a little stale. She's kind of riding that fence between
what I consider the old school the man gimmick and
(10:35):
the half seth rawlins. I'm gonna wear a bunch of
crazy stuff gimmick and it's not really hit for me.
Liv Morgan I like as well. I've loved some of
the stuff she's done in the past. Her story was
with Rhea Ripley, and now Rhea's on the shelf and
her situation has not been set up in my opinion
(10:57):
for this to hit now. With that said, they can
deliver a great match and I can be thankful I
saw it and they can win me over. But if
I'm being honest, it's been a little bit kind of
for me leading into this match. But they're two great competitors.
I know they're going to put on a good wrestling match.
At least we'll see what kind of story they can
(11:18):
tell in the ring.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
We both had that feeling about Becky in the past,
mainly before Mania. We had that discussion anyway, But you're right,
it feels like who's rating who's closet? Are you getting
Seth's close or he's he getting yours? Yep, exact wonder
We've got Sammy Zain, the Intercontinental Champion, taking on This
(11:39):
is a three way match taking on Chad Gable and
Bronson Reid. Triple threat matches are always questionable because I mean,
you know, listen, Sammy doesn't have to be pinned in
order to lose the title. And that's always an interesting
point in the story because it has happened before and
then many times it doesn't happen that way at all,
(12:00):
and it's always it seems to be tricky to get
a one on one inside of a three way match,
and the way and the creative way that they have
done these more recently have fared pretty well, at least
in my opinion that I think that they've done a
good job of getting one person out of the ring
and it making sense for them to be out of
(12:20):
the ring or down on the ground and not just
taking a nap or eating a snack underneath the ring. This,
you know, it's going to be interesting to see, interesting
to see what they do here. And you also have
one guy that is significantly bigger, significantly larger than the
other two where you would think the advantage may go
to him, so at any point you would know most
(12:41):
times you would see maybe the two smaller guys teaming up.
I don't know if I really see that with Sammy
and Chad, though, what are you thinking on this match?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
No, I'm really excited for this match. You've got three
guys that really know how to work. So I look
at it from a wrestling perspective, a match perspective, and
I look at it from a story perspective. From a
wrestling match, it's gonna be just freaking fantastic. Like it's
it's gonna be the one to watch. I would consider
this the sleeper match of the card. From a story perspective,
(13:11):
I do have some constructive criticism. Chad and Sammy stands
alone as it is. There's tons of story there, there's
tons of heat there. That's great. Bronson is where I'm
a little uneasy about his involvement. Let me tell you why.
It's nothing that Bronson has done. He's a great character,
he's great in the ring. I really really like him.
(13:34):
I would call what he's got is suffering from what
I would call the bray Wyatt booking. Bray Wyatt went
like two years where he did these amazing promos. He's
the eater of worlds. He just this ominous, amazing presence
and loses every single match with any type of stakes
(13:57):
there is. Yeah, he might win on a RAM into
Monday night, but if there's a pay per review match,
you can be guaranteed that bray Wyatt's losing that match.
And I feel like that's the same thing with Bronson. Like, man,
he's got a great look, he's good on the mic,
like he is a force to be reckoned with. But
his booking leading into this match has just made me go, Okay,
he's there, He's a third wheel, and that's not his fault.
(14:20):
So I'm not blaming Bronson for anything he's done. It's
just the booking. And so this really feels like a
story between Chad and Sammy and Bronson's just kind of
there throwing and so I'm waiting to see what becomes
of that, and I'm hoping this could potentially be you know,
maybe he doesn't win the match, but maybe this could
be a big moment for Bronson where he really smashes
(14:43):
the other guys and kind of brings himself back up
to kind of a better status, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I'm with you on that that when you see a
guy the size of Bronson Reid and he doesn't act
like the guy who's the size of Bronson Reid. It
doesn't match up in my head. So we talked about
psychology earlier. This one. You gotta put him together. Put well,
look what they're doing with bron Breaker right now. He's
destroying everybody he walks by, and you could do that
(15:12):
with a Bronson Reed. Not the exact same way, but
you could do something with him where he's like, okay,
this makes sense. He just runs through every person he
comes in contact with in that ring, and I am
with you, I'm disappointed they haven't done that with him
yet because he's very, very believable in that role. Man,
let's move to the big one, the WWE Undisputed Championship
(15:36):
Match and no longer now for the US Championship Match
not titled for title, and man, I gotta say on
Friday Night, Logan Paul continues to lean into the strengths
that he has. He has some really good strengths in
the ring. He knows what he can do and what
he can't do, and some of the things that he
(15:57):
can do are pretty significant. He is leaning into just
being a slimy dirt bag heel and it is so
so good the entourage you bring out your log I mean,
it makes sense you would bring if you're a heel
and you want to try to weasel your way out
of a verbal contract, you bring the attorney to have
(16:19):
a written contract. Again, of course he looks. I mean
he's in a double breasted suit, just a dirt bags,
hanging with dirt bags is what it looks like. Are
you threatening my client?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Did they have to pay him for that line? Was
that speaking role?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's saton card or something?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Doesn't he He probably should? He probably should, man, But
for that whole thing to because it was I was
questioning it and I said it to you, like, okay,
so Cody's going to be because I know he's not
going to lose the Universal the undisputed title, so he's
going to be walking around with the undisputed and now
the US title. And then they're like no, no, no, no,
that's not going to happen either. How you feel it
(16:57):
about this match for Saturday in Jedda.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, like you said, I'm I'm super stoked on it. Logan.
Paul has yet to disappoint. I think it's gonna be
just a really enjoy you know, people people refer to
the summer movies as popcorn movies like here, don't don't,
don't overthink it, just come grab some popcorn and sit
and enjoy. And that's what this match is like. I
(17:22):
would honestly say that a few years ago, in previous regimes,
there would be matches like this where the finish is
very much telegraphed and you know exactly what's gonna happen,
and you were bummed because it's like, uh. But but now,
like the pairing of it, the story going into it,
(17:42):
it's just great. And so yeah, nothing's really gonna happen
except a great wrestling match, but I'm going to enjoy
the heck out of it. And and and honestly, when
this was starting to cook, I wasn't as doubtful about
the whole US title thing being on Cody, because if
you remember, Seth Rollins did that just a few years
(18:04):
back with Sting, he was the WWE Champion and the
Universal Champion and so uh or excuse me, the WWE
Champion and the US Champion and uh. And so I
was like, oh, hey, maybe maybe they do want to
give that to Cody. It wouldn't wouldn't surprise me. I
don't know how you get it off of him.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What it had a story too, he would be a
he'd be a triple crown winner, yeah, or Slam champion,
that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah and uh and so regardless though everything worked out perfectly,
it's gonna be a great match.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And I gotta say this. You know there were people
in the media, you know, former WWE talent that was
taking shots at Logan Paul. Well, if I would have
been given enough time to rehearse as much as Logan
has rehearsed as who cares? Who cares? That's called doing
your job and doing it well. So whatever we get
(18:57):
from Logan Paul, whether it's called in a ring or
it's got eight hours of rehearsal behind it, good for
him because it's gonna deliver something.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Big from Monday as well. Speaking of kind of wrapping
things up before King of the Ring, ww raw numbers
were up nine percent from last week. They did better
than the NHL playoffs. I know, we both kind of
kind of feeling like things it's time to heat things
back up, and we're starting to feel that. But the
(19:27):
numbers of people watching are astronomical. With WWE right now,
it's gonna be fun King of the Ring starts at
twelve noon Central starts at one o'clock there where you are, Michael,
And I'll be honest, I don't hate those over listen.
I'm not for most of these. I'm not going to anyway.
And to have a Saturday afternoon, you have wrestling, and
then you get to do whatever else you're gonna be
(19:49):
doing over the weekend, and then Sunday you get to
come back and you get to watch another pay per view.
On Monday, you don't have to go to work. It's
fun weekend for wrestling, and we're gonna get to go ahead.
And is that I think there's a place you wait
in there? I don't know. We work again, theology, Yeah,
something like that. We're going to talk about as double
or nothing when we come back here on the wrestle
(20:11):
Chat Podcast. Thank you so much for hanging out with us.
Love that you guys are here with us, hanging out
on the wrestle Chat podcast, doing it live right now
on YouTube, on Facebook, on x and on Instagram wherever
(20:33):
you're watching from. Thank you so much. A comment, leave
us a comment, say hey, something you want to talk about.
We're here to chat with you guys. As well. If
you're listening to this on Wednesday morning, thank you for listening.
Wherever you choose to listen to the podcast, Please hit
subscribe and leave us a rating that helps so much
it costs you absolutely nothing. My buddy Zach Haydorn is
(20:54):
going to be on with us, coming up here in
just a little bit. He wrote a book on Stone
Cold Steve Austin. Let me take that back. It's called Stunning,
and it's about the entire career of Steve Austin, so
not just the stone Cold part, but even back to
the very beginning. We're gonna talk with him. Come up
in just a little bit. Coming up on Sunday is
ae W's Big One Double or Nothing Live from Las Vegas.
(21:15):
Want to hit a few of those matches. We're gonna
start off with two former WWE guys, Adam Copeland and
Malachi Black. These two are going at it for the
TNT Championship. But not just a regular match. No, no, no, no,
what is it? What is it? Your friend? Says nay
Nay oh Nna. I like that. I like see if
(21:37):
we can borrow that. If he hasn't trademarked any oh
na na, This is going to be a barbed wire
steel cage match. The steel cage. No, no, that's not enough.
We need some barbed wire barbedie match. No that's not enough.
We need to steal cage. Let's put him together. We
got this match. Who do you see walking out or
stumbling out or rolling out of that match? Bloody and
(21:59):
bad with the t n T Championship, Michael.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I can't. I can't say that. I can't even think
about the match finish because I'm just like, why must
there be sharp objects in a wrestling match? I maybe
maybe it's just for effect. Maybe it's just gonna be
around the top and they won't interact with it or whatever,
(22:25):
But I don't like it. I statistical likelihood says they're
gonna interact with it. But yeah, I'm not stoked on it.
Let's not. I mean, Adam Copeland's on borrow time for
his career anyway. Anyway, Malachi Black probably still has quite
a few years left in him. I just don't want
(22:46):
him to have to wrestle any any less than they
can because of some stupid barbed wire. But I don't know.
I'd probably see Adam Copeland retaining, but I don't care
in context of barbed wire. Let's just let's just not
do that.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You've never watched g c W, have you?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Oh, I've seen I've seen clips and highlights. There was
something circulating. There was something circulating today. And there was
the the the the square staple things that they used
to put trusses together, those plates that have the nails
(23:25):
on them. Yes, yeah, it was I think it was
GCW or his.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
M l W one of them.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And they were taking them and putting them on a
guy and then punching them into the skin and on
the head and.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So like trust is for your house, like like ballasts
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, huh, there's there's square plates that have a bunch
of nails that are on the and they just so anyway,
I shouldn't have got off topic, but let's not.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Let's not.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Let's not let's not say we did.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I don't think there. I don't think you cegi the uh,
let's go to one that. I don't think that there
right now, there's no barbarar in. But I do anticipate, well,
only because this match has been absolutely phenomenal when it's
happened in Japan. I don't see why it would be
in any different happening in Las Vegas. Willow Nightingale versus
Mercedes Monette Mercedes first match in ae W for the
(24:24):
TBS Championship this past week Last Wednesday. Probably. There's always
been talk about Mercedes Monee's promos in ae W. They
haven't really been up to par, but her her strong
suit has been in the ring, and that's I don't
think that's questionable at all. She is absolutely fantastic in
(24:45):
the ring. We just have yet to see her in
the ring in ae W, and so all we've had
to go on is how she spoke on MinC and
it hasn't been great. Last Wednesday awesome really built up
to this match, and with it being her first match
and for a title, do you more than halfway expect
Mercedes to walk out with a TBS Championship Michael.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Maybe, I'm not sure. There's there's other things that could happen.
We could have some interference to set up an infeud.
We could I don't know, because that is a great question,
but I think there's enough variables in play that it's
it's not certain, but I'm excited to see her wrestle,
(25:29):
especially against Willow that's gonna be fantastic. I do question
the the the cost versus number of matches ratio at
this point for Mercedes. So I'm excited to finally see
her get in the ring and uh and uh do
(25:49):
what she does best, which is just absolutely kill it.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Maybe once she's on she doesn't not wrestle for the
rest of the time she's there. That could be it.
We've got your girlfriend, Timeless Tony Storm taking on Serena
Deeb for the AAW Women's World Championship. I will say
that this whole thing with Tony Storm, We've talked about
this before, has just been phenomenal. Talking about someone Jericho
(26:18):
Jeric is always recreating his character. This is someone that
we haven't really seen outside of that same character as
she was when she was in NXT. It was the
same Tony Storm that went from NXT to WWE and
then showed up in AEW until Tony Storm became Timeless,
and once she did, where has this character been our
(26:42):
entire lives? She's been absolutely fantastic. Have you loved her
work in this?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, I mean just in general speaking about Timeless Tony
Storm in general. You know the character I want to
clarify something you said. The character is just the icing
on the cake. It's really her ability to craft promos
around the concept of her character that is just incredible.
(27:09):
You know, when they pop up, I always watch them,
even if I've seen him a bunch of times, just
because the delivery, the timing, the vocabulary, the just the
smoothness of the whole thing. She's just so good. But anyway,
all that to say, this is gonna be a great
match aw Women's World Championship. Lots of stakes involved, Serena deeb,
(27:32):
nothing to nothing to underestimate there. It's gonna be a
good match. I mean, I don't I don't have anything
else to say other than this. This is rustling, I mean,
this is this is gonna be great. So it's it's
gonna be a fun thing to see.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Coming up tomorrow at seven am, an exclusive interview that
I had with Swart Strickland is going to drop on
our YouTube. So if you're not subscribed there hit subscribe.
You don't have to watch it at seven am, especially,
you know, you don't have to wake up said an
alarm to watch that. But it goes live at seven am.
You can watch it tomorrow. It is a fun talk
with Swerve Strickling, our first time ever being on together.
(28:09):
There's a little clip of what to expect from our
conversation that will drop tomorrow. This is your first real
test as the champ. Things have escalated quickly. It got
very personal very quickly, as well as it seems that
things tend to do with with Christian Cage. How do
you mentally prepare to face a veteran like him.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
It takes a lot of It takes a lot of honestly,
It's it's all mental. Like physically, I've gotten my body
of the shape, the best shape that's ever been in.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
But now it's a mental thing.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's anticipation, it's learning your opponent and like kind of
like the week's leading up, you've seen a lot of
attacks on me and stuff, and.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
One thing I've been seeing was me stay down. I've
always gotten back up.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I've always like pulled something from that, you know, in
all these people putting more things in front of me,
you know, like mobile embassy turning on me and everything,
I've still got back up and beat all them down
to get to Christian.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I'm clearing all the.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Negative things that were coming from the past to haunt
me to get to him.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Fun conversation with Swerves Strickland and you can check that
out coming up tomorrow seven am goes live on our YouTube.
Left for you to see that Swerve gonna be taken
on Christian Cage for the ae W World Championship at
a W double or nothing to be in the ring
at this point with a legend like Christian Cage at
(29:38):
the level that Swerve Strickland is at. He is the
ae W champion and he's in there with somebody who
could credibly be a threat to the new champ only
thirty days into his reign. Do you see Christian also
has a lot of people on the side. Do you
see Christian coming out with that title or see Swerve
(30:00):
beating all the odds, having something up his sleeve and
leaving double or nothing with the title that he brought in.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Michael, I think this is one of those matches where
it's just one big question mark. It could go either way.
I could see, you know, from an outside, you know,
non k fabe perspective, that maybe Tony wants to give
a nod to Christian knowing that he's you know, in
(30:29):
the later years of his career. We don't know how
much time he really has left, but but maybe he
wants to give him that nod for for another World championship,
you know. On the other hand, Swerve is just on
an incredible run that would be a shame to be interrupted.
And so.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
While let me say this, while on very very different levels,
and let's put all of that aside, it's interesting that
both champs from WWE and ae W both were for
lack of a better term, and without breaking it all down,
(31:11):
we're seated by the fans. We got Cody Rhodes in
the match because of the fans, Swerve strickling, it's also
their work. I'm not again, I'm not breaking this down.
I just want to say that this is sometimes the
fans are we are surprised by who walks out with
a title, or we're like, okay, I can kind of
(31:32):
see that this is the one, it feels like and
the first one that I really feel in ae W
that has been that's our champ, whether you put the
title on him or not, so you might as well
put the title on him. Yep. And that's what it's
felt like for Swerve, and so I'm excited to see
him in this match and see what he does with Christian.
I mean, just listen. That's what I would think is
(31:52):
if I were Swerve, I just just listen to whatever
whatever Christian wants to do in that match. We talk
about a lot more. We talk about his time in
the service. We talk about, yeah, he was in the Army,
how that played a role in his life today in wrestling,
and also his I mean his battle with Hangman Page.
Those things are brutal. We talk about all that with swer.
(32:14):
If you could check that out tomorrow seven am on YouTube,
I hope you'll do that. My buddy Zach Haydorn from
Brass Ring Media has written a book. It is called
Stunning the Artistry of Wrestling, and I'm butchering the title.
I'm so sorry, Zach. I'll get it right before he
pops in here. But we're gonna talk with Zach coming
(32:34):
up next, and want to anything on that one we
need to hit before we jump over to Zach.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I think we're good man.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's gonna be a fun weekend. I'll say that, for
all things considered, it's going to be a fun weekend.
And I hope you hope you stay safe and remember
what the weekend is all about. But man, we've got
King of the Ring, King and Queen of the Ring
coming up on Saturday twelve noon Central, one o'clock Eastern,
and then seven o'clock on Sunday a ae W's double
or Nothing. Looking forward to that. We're back with Zach
(33:05):
talking about that new book coming up here next on
the wrestle Chat podcast. You know this right here is
(33:26):
this is an example of an actual productive Twitter slash
x interaction. Zach Haydorn, the founder of Brass Ring Media, writer, podcaster,
and now author.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Zach.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
The barrier for entry, you know, to be a writer
is you know, it's one thing to become a podcaster.
It's much much less than it than it used to be.
But man, author, in my mind, there's still something that
sets you up in another category when you obtained that title.
My man, congratulations on your book. It's called Stunning the
Wrestling Artistry of Steve Austin. Thanks for being on today, man,
(34:03):
good to see you.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Oh, good to see you too. It's great to be here.
I've always admired your work, so being on the show
is really cool and thanks for having me. It's been
a busy week and weekend, but I you know, it's
I've been looking forward to this all uh all weekend long,
So this is great.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Have you always wanted to be an author? Is that
something you inspired to be?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah? I mean, when I I will, I think it'd
be disingenuous to say that I've always inspired to be.
But once I started really kind of writing in the
wrestling space for the Torch and you know, just doing
work there and and and kind of honing the craft
like in that space, like early on, I was like, ah,
(34:45):
I think I do want to try that. I do
have a you know, an idea for it, and it
just took a took a little bit to to kind
of build to that moment. But really it was when
I started writing, you know, for writing about wrestling consistently
where I thought, Okay, now only do I have the like,
the skill to do it, but I have you know,
the the topic that I would want to do it on,
(35:07):
and and and an interesting one at that. So yeah,
So it wasn't something that I was like, oh man,
I'm bored to be an author, but it kind of
grew out of other projects that I that I took on.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
That's really cool. Why why Steve and why a book?
I mean a lot of people go to your turn
to doing mini docs on on YouTube and you see
those all over the place all the time. So it's
kind of that two part question, why Steve Austin and
why a book?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Well, I'll start with the second one first. I just
I think there's something cool about, you know, producing books
on wrestling, Like I think you know, podcasts and video
and audio. I mean those are great, obviously, you know
I and I do those a lot throughout throughout the week.
But there's something about a book that you know, it's
(35:57):
once it's printed, it's out there, Like it's out there
and it's going to stay out there in some form
or fashion. Maybe it's at a karag sale or something
you know, at some point, but I mean it's there,
it's on this earth, and it's real and you can
hold it. And so that coupled with the fact that
I like to read and I like to read about,
you know, professional wrestling, there's something there's just a level
(36:20):
of detail you can put into a book that you
can't do, you know, when you're podcasting or what or
when you're doing some kind of YouTube show like we're doing. Now,
there's just an extra layer that you can go to
when you write a book. And that's you know, not
just for my book here, but that's why I like
(36:41):
to read, you know, wrestling books and books in general.
It's like you do get kind of an added detail.
So that's why that's why I wanted to get a
book out there. And then as far as Steve Austin goes,
I mean a couple of things went into picking him.
One of the projects we had early on in writing
the book was narrowing down the overall kind of theme
(37:01):
of the work, which was the art of wrestling. Like
that was the first kind of like pitch where this
project started was want to write a book on the
artist the art of wrestling. You know, wrestling's in art form.
People should know that. And here's how I think we
can do it. And you know Jonathan Snowden at Hybrid Shoot.
You guys probably know him for his work with MMA
(37:22):
projects and he's the author of the Ken Shamrock Book,
which is really great. If you haven't checked that out,
you should. But he was the one that kind of
was like, hey, you know, the art of wrestling could
be a ten thousand page book, you know, I mean,
you can cover that from multitude of different angles, and
there's just so much there. It's a little bit it's
(37:44):
too big, it's too broad. So what if we hone
it in and talk about like the art of one
wrestler's career and just look at that and try to
examine the types of things you want to look at
in that broad pitch, but focus it on one specific
uh professional wrestler, one specific in ring guy. And I
(38:07):
was like, that's a really good idea and that that does.
It puts the focus on something directly and we can
keep the overall theme that I was looking for. So
that's I'll be got to like, Okay, we're gonna do
it on one subject. And then when I was picking,
you know who this was going to be, I wanted
somebody that was a big star, you know. I wanted
(38:28):
it to be somebody that had success, not just as
an artist in the ring, but someone who people knew,
someone who had an impact on the business, and someone
who had like a career that you can kind of
go through and and and watch like start to finish.
And so you know that obviously put some modern, more
(38:48):
modern wrestlers at the forefront because they're theirs. Stuff is
easy for people to find. And and then when I
and then so I narrowed it down to a few
subjects in that department, and and Steve Austin just resonated
because I think when I think about the art of
wrestling and overall, again, that's the story we're telling within
the book. It's about reaction. It's about crowd reaction, it's
(39:13):
about investment, it's about like, yes, you know, it's about
the moves in the ring too, but that's a means
to an end. It's a means to connect with your
crowd and pull a reaction out of them and manipulate
them in the right way. And when I thought about, like,
who really does that the best? Or am I mind?
Who does that the best? Like Austin is right up there.
(39:34):
I mean he he yeah, I mean and it's not
just with his hot run, you know as stone cold,
but all throughout his career, like when you watch it,
and hopefully what I what I try to do in
the book is paint a picture of him developing his
work from his rookie year in nineteen eighty nine to
you know, his last match with Kevin Owens, and you
(39:56):
can see just a common thread of man, if nothing else,
I'm going to get the crowd to do what I
want them to do. And that, to me is like
the art of a professional wrestler is pulling that reaction
out of somebody and using their real time like feedback,
whether it's a boot or a cheer or sitting on
their hands to kind of impact what you do next.
(40:17):
And when you watch Steve Austin matches, and as I
detail in the book, you know, he spends a lot
of energy doing that and making sure that they're with
him on that ride. And so as I started kind
of researching and watching like his stuff in a really
kind of focused way, I was like, Yeah, it's got
to be him. It's got to be him. He checks
(40:38):
these boxes and it's going to be really fun to explore.
The last thing I'll say on why Steve, He's got
a really interesting career arc, Like it's not all of
that long. You know, his hot run isn't all that long,
but man, it burns really hot when it's hot. And
so we cover his career in different eras, Like so
(41:02):
we start with his rookie year, we talk about stunning
Steve Next, then we do Hollywood Blondes and post Blondes,
a c W Austin the ring Master, like early Stone
Cold Stone Cold Heel Austin. We cover that, and then
we cover the finish off his career. So it's really
kind of a neat way to organize like looking at
(41:27):
a career because it's like really like chaptered out in
different eras, and so that was appealing to us. It
means to just execute the book, like how do you
do it? That was a you know something where I'm like, okay,
we can I can do this. I can do this.
And so the result is what you're looking at behind you,
a fully flushed out project on the on the artistry
(41:48):
of Austin.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
It's a giant version of the book.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yes you're reading that one.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah you got a special Yeah, well I'm I'm I'm
getting older in my eyesights. You know, I have to
have a bigger print what I do. Love you mentioned
it you started with his career where it started at
wcc W, at the Chris Adams Wrestling School. As cool
as I So, I grew up in southern Oklahoma, and
so I saw the ads for the Chris Adams wrestling school,
(42:16):
and I had an uncle that lived in Dallas, and
I begged, I'm probably eight nine years old something like that,
begged my mom to let me go to Dallas for
the summer so I could be in the Chris Adams
wrestling school. You can just see a nine year old
me and a stone cold Steve Austin you know school, Yeah,
exact exactly. And you do. You take it all the
(42:37):
way through Ko and stone Cold at WrestleMania thirty eight,
Steve's last match, Stunning Steve Hollywood, the Hollywood Blondes, e
C w ring Master. You covered it all. What's your
what's your personal favorite version of stone Cold? Well, I
guess of Steve Austin because stone Cold is one of those.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
Right, it's one piece. It's definitely well, I'll answer it
some two ways. I mean, like my personal favorite too,
just to like it's in general, it's definitely like the
hot Steve Austin Stone Cold run nineteen ninety seven, ninety eight,
ninety nine, Like it's just it's so fun and the
I mean, you know, you could watch Attitude era episodes
(43:20):
of Raw now and kind of go ha. Not sure
that holds hold stuff. But for Steve Austin's Stone Cold
like the there's nothing like it. Those crowd reactions are
just passionate and loud, and it's like it's nothing that
we'll probably ever see again in terms of like the
universally loved babyface at that level. Just it just was.
(43:44):
It was a confluence of things. It was a confluence
of you know, the right time, the right crowd, the
right culture, Steve as a performer, like coming together and
kind of having like everything click for him at the
same time. It all was right there and it all
kind of happened as it's once in a lifetime thing.
So that's definitely my favorite like era of Steve stone
(44:06):
Cold and Steve Austin. I really enjoyed writing the Hollywood
Blonds chapter though. That is my favorite chapter. It's right
just because you know, I've seen Hollywood Blonds matches of course,
you know, in the some of the ones even that
I write about in the book are our matches that
I had seen prior. But it's really fun, Like I
(44:30):
had a fun time writing that chapter because you get
to see Austin kind of come out of his shell
a little bit more like he you know, he's not
like he was ever this like really like closed off guy,
you know in the ring, but Brian Pillman like opened
up another side to him. And I know we you know,
everybody talks about E c W being like that time
where hey, Austin like finds his voice and and it's true,
(44:53):
I mean he does, That's not incorrect. But I think
that there's a kind of a forgotten era where he
really does develop another part of his personality, and that
is Hollywood blondes. And in addition to that, like Austin's
a good tag team wrestler, he really understands the psychology
of wrestling as a tag team and he's talked about
tag team wrestling being you know, one of his favorite
(45:16):
parts of professional wrestling, and and you see that here.
And so I don't know that I just I don't
know that I had an appreciation for that era of
his career until I wrote that chapter. So that was
probably the funniest chapter to write. Nice, but it's hard
to argue with stone Cold in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
I mean it is, you know, it is hard. And
you know what's interesting too, is that you can see
this as you read this, or if you go back
and and watch videos on YouTube or what have you.
But you can you see a lot of now that
we're we're past stone Cold's prime, you can look back
on the very first like the stunning Steve stuff in
(45:54):
the USWA or WCCW and and you can see so
many characteristics of of stone Cold because he didn't have
a character to play. Then he was just him and
you see so much of it there in the raw
form and then of course refined and ready to go
in the attitude era. Does Steve have a copy of
(46:15):
the book?
Speaker 3 (46:18):
It's en Root. Yeah, it's we're working hard to get
him on. Initially, like when we started the project, we
kind of had an idea of can we you know,
can we approach him, uh to at least be like
a sounding board for some of this stuff. But man,
I mean the business of a book is interesting. You know,
(46:40):
there's we knew. We found out really quick that, like
his other contractual obligations, we're not going to let him,
you know, participate in something you know, uh you know,
not a part of w W E and and that
official business.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
So but no, he's good.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
He's gonna get a copy hopefully, and uh yeah that'll
be cool just to know hey, that he has it,
and you know, whatever happens that happens after that.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yes, of course I would think it would have to
be cool for him to be able to see in
one book that you know, he didn't have to go
back and think about or do anything, but it just
go oh yeah, oh yeah. And these revelations as he
goes along, things that he may have forgotten or things
that he hasn't visited in a while he can do
in this book. So I'm anxious to hear what he
(47:26):
thinks about it once I hope box arrives.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
Yeah, yeah, I hope. So that'd be really cool. And
and you're so right to call out that, you know,
there are one of the like hypothesis of the book
going in was can we identify like threads and things
about his work in the Ring that build it to
(47:53):
that like hot run, because you know it kind of
is that in nineteen ninety seven, like fam like he's
hot all of a sudden and in your going But
and that's true, you know, and again that's not inaccurate.
But when you watch the entirety of his career, you
could see these little things like along the way that
build like him figuring it out like, Okay, that worse.
(48:14):
I can connect with the crowd this way, you know,
I can look at him and man, I can make
sure that I have him, and like all these things
are like building up and then bam, he puts it
all together at the exact right time. And that kind
of jolted, you know, jokes that whole Stone Cold run.
But it's not it's not an overnight success. It's years
(48:36):
of like working on his craft and altering what he's
doing to to get to where to get to where
he is. And you know, I think we do a
good job of showcasing that in the book, or at
least I hope.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
So I just got it, and I'm excited. I started
right at the beginning, so I'm in that WCW US
yeah part right now. So I'm anxious to to get
into that and get it to the meet and and
potatoes of the book.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
We uh.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
You know a lot of people credit the E c
W promos that he was doing to set up the
stage for for Stone Cold, but man, you and you're
talking about it here. But also if you go back
and watch some videos too, and and see some of
his promos in the stunning Steve Austin back in back
in the territory. There were the the ingredients, they were
(49:27):
all there. He'd refined it when he got to E. C. W.
Although it still looks very raw, it was even more
raw than that. It was just him pissed off, hated
the world or the person in front of him, and
ready to tear him apart. And it was. It was
fantastic then, and it just got better if if there
was another uh, this book is successful and and it
uh it does great work and and and provides a
(49:51):
lot of great stuff for you and your family and
and and the business. Who is the next person? Who
is another star that you could see doing a book
like this with?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
So I hope that I get that opportunity. That'd be
a great, a great thing. I love to write another one.
There's two names that kind of stand out, and it
would be because they're both different types of entering guys
than Steve Austin was. I definitely would want like somebody
fresh in that regard. The first one would be Seawan Michaels.
(50:21):
I think that would be an interesting kind of.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
It's just an interesting character to examine, different kind of wrestler,
you know, but just as crisp and just as good
as a as an n ring artist, So he'd be
really interesting. He's also has a lot of different eras
of his career, just like Austin does with Rockers, and
like the ic title Sean Michaels d X Shawn Michaels
(50:46):
like his runs like the top Guy like, so there's
a lot of errors there that you can that you
can you know, dive into. The other one would be
a bigger project for sure, but one that's enticing because
of it and kind of getting it all on paper,
and that would be Rick Flair. I think that'd be
a really interesting project to do too. Obviously a lot
(51:06):
longer of a process, and I you know, I think
part of the fun of that would be just tracking
down all the video that you need to kind of
go through to go through his whole his whole catalog
and his whole library. So that'd be fun. But I
think he'd be a really good person to look at
two in this kind of in this kind of fashion.
So those two are at the top of the top
(51:27):
of the list for something for book number two if
it comes to fruition, both.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Super Solid as well. Is there anyone that you see
on TV today, Zach that has the potential to leave
you know, a similar impact on the business as Stone
Cold did.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
A similar impact. Wow, that's I mean, it's hard, it's
a yeah. I mean honestly, like, no, I don't think
that there's a person out there right now that that
is on trajectory to like have as big of an
impact as a Stone Cold did as Stone Cold. I
(52:07):
mean there's just so many like not just business metrics,
but like just the idea that hey, if stone Cold
doesn't get hot as hot as he did, we might
not be talking about a WWE right now. And that's
like genuinely true, like like he helped bring that company
from the from the depths back back into into prominence.
(52:28):
So I don't know that there's anybody just on on
that level. I think there's some really big stars. I mean,
with no question about it. I mean, Cody Roads today,
I think, is you know, arguably the hottest babyface since
Stone Cold. I mean you have seen it in there,
of course, and you think you can kind of debate
(52:49):
that with him, but you know, if it's not John Cena,
there really is nobody that's comparable. So I think so
Cody like is on a trajectory. But again it's a
different The context around Cody Rhoad and his where when
he's on top is just just different. It's just a
different WWE, It's a different wrestling landscape. I think on
the AW side, you know, I think Will Osprey has
(53:12):
the potential to do some really good work. I think
he's a really good character. He like embodies that aw
brand of n ring but also can cut a promo.
So I think he's somebody somebody to watch. But in
terms of like on the Austin level, I mean, that's
just such a high bar that it'd be inauthentic. It's
(53:35):
almost like, yeah, it could be this guy, because really
it probably won't be.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
It's almost detrimental to the person to compare.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Yes, yes, yes, it's just too hard of a mountain
to climb. And it's like, you know, and I don't
think you could have said, like, hey, is there ever
going to be another whole Cogan Like I think realistically
your answer to that in nineteen ninety two would be no,
like there's not exactly and you know, and then sure
enough something happens and you kind of you get something
(54:04):
as big or bigger. But I just don't think in
good faith you can say, yes, this guy's going to
be have as much of an impact on the businesses
Steve Austin. Just it's just not in all likelihood, that's
not good, that's not.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
True, stunning the wrestling artistry of Steve Austin. The book
is out now. Where can everybody grab it?
Speaker 3 (54:26):
Yeah, you guys can all grab it on Amazon right now.
That's the best and easiest place to get it at
The turnaround time to get it from you clicking order
to your house is pretty quick. Right now. We have
paperback copies. Of course, you can get an actual hard
copy of the book, but there's also the editions. There's
kindle editions up there, and the price points are all
(54:47):
very efficient if you will. So I hope you guys
check it out. I mean, it's a it's a it's
a project. It's an independent project, a labor of love.
On my end. Hybrid Shoot is the publisher, and they
are a a small independent publishing company that supports you know,
authors and artists like me that are just trying to
(55:08):
do something fun and and and also you know stay afloat.
So you're supporting not only me and the project and
getting a good book, but you're supporting supporting independent publishing
as well, which is really important. I also want to
call out Kathore Jensen did the art in this Uh
he did the art in the book. He did the
cover that you can see right there. It's phenomenal. They're
(55:30):
all original pieces of art in the in the book.
He took the book itself and just just drew different
parts of different matches that we talked about in the
book from start to finish, and so, uh what what what?
We We went to him and we're like, hey, you know,
we need some art for this book, like once one
(55:51):
a chapter would be really cool if you could do that,
it'd be great this book. Now, when he turned it back,
over one hundred pieces of original art from the match credible.
This is incredible. He did an incredible job. Hal Haney
does the cover art on the back, also incredible work.
So you get some good written words, I think, but
also some really good uh some really good artwork. So
(56:14):
check it out for that too. It's really really cool
stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
What's another reason that you'll want the physical copy too?
I have the version to have it immediately, so before
we jumped on here. But also I'll have the I
have the the hard copy in the mail to me too,
so I can I can flip through the pages. I
like doing that and also see that artwork up close
and personal as well. You mentioned that you you used
to you write for the Torch you now have you're
(56:40):
the founder of Brass Ring Media. Correct, that's correct? Yes,
what was the what was your inspiration and kicking that
thing off?
Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah, you know, I'm glad you asked. Thank you. So yeah,
brashs Re Media. We've been around for nine nine months okay,
funny months, so a new ish endeavor and yeah, yeah,
like so, I spent a lot of time like I
was the Benjie editor at se Scoop, so I was
an assistant editor for Wade for a long time at
at PW Torch, and I just it just got to
the point where I was like, you know, I kind
(57:11):
of want to go out on my own and do
my own thing in this space and try to carve
out our spot and what I like most about, you know,
covering the wrestling business is not so much like Okay,
I'm gonna break this news story, I'm gonna break that
new story. But it's more so putting some context around
the stories that that break, like how do you how
(57:34):
do you analyze them the right way? And that's what
we do at Brass Ring Media. So you know, whether
it's like we're live on our YouTube channel four days
a week Monday through Thursday with myself and other hosts
providing like real time analysis on the current happenings in
pro wrestling, whether that's news or whether that's like stuff
that happens on shows or reviewing shows or previewing shows.
(57:56):
Like we really take the approach of we're gonna, you know,
we're going to cover this from an analytical perspective and
just what works, what doesn't work, who's over, who's not?
Is this good for business? Is it not? Like? Where
where's everything at? That's our that's our brand, that's our space,
that's the kind of part of the WWE AW pro
(58:19):
Wrestling ecosystem that we're trying to own. So if that
sounds like something that you like, you can definitely check
us out for free on a multiple multiple different platforms.
As I said, we're on YouTube, you can subscribe to
that for free. All of our written work in terms
of our features and our editorial columns and our you know,
our show review columns are all on substack again for free.
(58:41):
It's just brash Ing Media on YouTube, brash Ing Media
on substack, and we will be the first thing that
pops up. Once you do that and you want a
heavy dose or a heavier dose of what we do,
we do offer Brashping Media membership. It's four out a
month for all access to everything. You also get special
member only podcasts. You get a member only audio and
(59:04):
video reviews of major pay per views and ples. We
have a discord community that I manage of folks just
hanging out talking wrestling that our members. Also a special
kind of special piece of content for members only of
brass Ring Media pertaining to the book. Starting this week,
will be producing a kind of a companion podcast to
(59:27):
the book where we we're not we don't read the book,
but we kind of go through the matches, watch those
matches together and provide you know, some audio content around that.
So that will be available to all members, and we'll
start that project this week. So it's a good time
to give us a shot, a good time to try
us out against four dollars. And you can find us
on Patreon, Patreon dot com, Backslash Brass Ring Media.
Speaker 1 (59:51):
That is incredible. That's that's worth the that's worth the price. Yeah,
just go through the book and watch the matches and
talk about them together. That's a that's a lot of fun.
And I know firsthand too that it's it's it's hard
to carve your own space in a very very niche
product as it is. Yes, and it's awesome to see
(01:00:15):
another good dude doing it. And if you don't follow
Zach on on Twitter, that that is a great follow
as well. I mentioned that at the top of this
is the product of a cordial conversation on Twitter. I
don't know Zach, Zach didn't know me. We're just both
wrestling fans. I wasn't a jerk. He was in a jerk,
which seems to be the only thing that gets news
(01:00:36):
on Twitter or x is the all the trash talking
and the things you would never say to someone's face
happens on that platform. Or that's at least what they
make you believe. This right, here's an example of what
happens when just normal guys that are wrestling fans start
a conversation. It was really good to have you on today.
(01:00:56):
Grab the book. It is out now. It's called Stunning
the Wrestling Artistry. Steve Austin Man Sack, it's good to
talk to you today. Thanks for hanging out on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Thanks so much for having me Man. Hopefully we can
do it again soon and hopefully we can get you
over on ours. And yeah it's it's I'm glad you
called it out. Yeah, this is just hey, two people
like just chatting it up in a good way and
you know, building a relationship from there. So I thank
you man, Thank you for the support based all your listeners,
for for giving a book a shot, or given breast
(01:01:24):
ring a shot. It's been a pleasure, so I appreciate it.
When it comes to professional wrestling. If you are talking
about it, we are talking about it. Welcome to the
wrestle Chat Podcast with the Yeah Man. Yes, Welcome to
the wrestle Chat Podcast Live here Tuesday on YouTube, on Facebook,
on x and on Instagram. Thank you guys so much
(00:20):
for joining us. My name is the ant Man. His
name is Michael Glavin. It's time to talk some wrestling.
You ready to do this tonight? Mike? Hang on a second,
that's on mute Michael's Mike, Oh, you chose to mute yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Why to be here, aunt, Let's talk some wrestling.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It's funny. I clicked this so there's a button that
says the unmute. I click it and goes you can't unmute.
They chose to mute themselves. I just think it's funny
that the the technical things that pop up every single week,
there's always one. There's always one. Michael. Welcome to Tuesday.
Welcome to the wrestle Chat Podcast. Excited to talk about
a big weekend in wrestling. First, I got to say
(01:03):
off the top that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend.
This is the weekend we remember those who gave up
their lives to serve our country and keep us free.
Memorial Day is about remembering those men and women that
did that. So before we talk about wrestling, before we
talk about grilling Burger's, before we talk about installing the
new kiddie pool in the backyard, I want to say
(01:25):
thank you those who gave it all. We would not
be here today and be able to do what we
do if it weren't for them, So we remember them
this weekend Memorial Day weekend. A couple of big shows
happening this weekend, King and Queen of the Ring and
Jetta Saudi Arabia that is on Saturday, and then of
course Double or Nothing with AEW live from Las Vegas.
(01:48):
This is their signature, this is their big one, that's
the one they started ae W with and the card
is stacked, it looks huge. We're going to run over
some key matches from both of them, and a little
surprise coming up a little bit later on too. Plus
we got a buddy named Zach who is going to
join us on the show. He has written a book
(02:09):
and it's called Stunning the Artist Here The Artistry of
Wrestling with Steve austin Man, a book about Steve Austin
has already got my vote and he's going to join
us here on the zach Hato. I'm going to join
us here on the show coming up a little bit
later on too, So I'm excited to jump in this.
We got a lot to get to. You want to
start with King and Queen of the Ring? Sound good
(02:32):
to you? All right, we've got the first let'sten. We
don't really know who's going to be battling for King
and Queen of the Ring quite yet. Friday, we will
see the final matches first. We know that Gunther is
going to be in that final match, but he's going
to be taken on Randy Orton or Tomatanga and I
(02:53):
a little bit of me and I don't we don't
have time to really dive into it here. A little
bit of me was disappointed to see that La Knight
lost that match. Now, I think it ended with setting
some other stuff up which could lead to some great
matches down the line for La Knight. But it kind
of feels like slipping on a rock every time he
starts to take off. Do you have that similar feeling
(03:15):
when you see what they're doing with La Night right
now or is there is too much better stuff going
on right now.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
No, I do agree with you, but to kind of
take it off to the side a little bit, king,
King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring traditionally
is to give a little bit of gas behind not
necessarily a new talent, but a newer talent. And you know,
we all want that to be l a Knight. We
(03:42):
want him to have that kind of coronation moment. However,
when he did lose, my sights turned toward Gunther. Now
we don't know how this is going to shake out.
We don't know what the plan is. Toma Tonga versus
Randy Orton, you would think that would go a particular way,
(04:03):
but I thought that with the La Night match too,
So I don't know if they're setting something up for
this new incarnation of the bloodline, but I think we
would all agree that seeing Gunther Randy Orton would be
quite a match. And my hope at this point is
that we're gonna see Gunther as the King of the Ring,
(04:24):
just because I think he needs that push, that solidification
into the main event picture.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And I think that that's somebody we talked about from
the very beginning. Man keep an eye on Gunther after
losing the Intercontinental title. I'm a feeling they're gonna be
setting this guy up to just launch it into the stratosphere.
And King of the Ring has kind of been that
launching pad for so many in the past, which we've
addressed here on the show as well. To see him
in the finals, you gotta be thinking, man, we know
(04:53):
without a doubt, no matter who which of the guys
he faces, it's gonna be a hard hitting match. Did
you notice Jay's chest at the end? Everybody's chest at
the end of a Gunther match is always red, But
I feel I felt like I hurt a little bit,
just sympathy pains for Jay Uso after that match.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Gunther is the is the Shamus of this generation.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Man oh man. We got Queen of the Ring too
in the In the final match, Lyra Valkyria won a
big one on Monday, and she's gonna take on Nya
Jacks or Bianca Belaire. And I mean, there's been a
battle between between Bianca and Nya for for a while
off and on here and there, and it feels like
(05:39):
Nya's kind of always been the nemesis of of two
or three people at different times, and she's always the
one that it's the mountain you gotta climb, And it
feels like that for Bianca if she wants to be
in this. But man, what a site that would be
to see little tiny three foot two or whatever she
is Lyra Valkyria, And yeah, Jack's go at it for
(06:01):
the Queen of the Ring. Could you see that?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I think I could. And let me tell you I
the women's division is in desperate need of some fresh
blood in the in their main event picture. I'm not
taking anything away from Bianca, from Becky, from Naya, from
all all these women, but all of them have climbed
(06:26):
the mountaintop and a lot of them have had feuds
with each other quite a bit. And so you know,
I'm excited at the premise of Lyra Valkyria just because
she's new and she's fresh, and and let me be clear,
I'm not dismissing everybody else. I still want them here.
I'm you know, they've got a lot of miles left
(06:48):
on them, a lot of great stories to tell. That's
not what I'm saying. But when you have a program
that is centered around a title shot, I feel like
we don't need to see something that's already been seen,
and so I'm hoping that regardless of what the combination is,
that we get that Lyra Valkyria is gonna take.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
That thing home well. And not that it would be
bad to see Pianca in a match and also be
holding the women's tag title, but it always feels like
if one of them has a tag title, it kind
of almost alludes to the other person winning, or at
least does in my book, I may be wrong in that,
but it always kind of feels that way. It's like, Okay,
you've got other things you got to take care of.
(07:28):
Your mind somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right, Statistically, you're right. If you look back in history
tag jams that have been in competitions or this that whatever,
they usually don't fare well.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah. Well, And psychologically it makes sense too that your
mind would be somewhere else. You've got other things you've
got to take care of. Some for sure matches that
we know now, all those other ones we're going to
know after Friday's SmackDown, of course, because the pay per
views on Saturday or the pls on Saturday, so we'll
know on Friday who is going to be facing home
(07:59):
for the crowns and what I do love and I
applaud the new regime at WWE. On Another point made
here is that the actual crowns that they have look
stinking legit. They're not making no. I mean, the other
ones are like like one step up from you know,
(08:19):
some cosplay stuff. These are like has anybody checked with
the King and Queen of Jetta of Saudi Arabia that
they didn't rip these from? These look legit? And I'm
just waiting for him to show up in the in
the shop, I mean for collectors.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, for the lolow price of.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
We do have Becky and Live going head to head
for the Women's World title on Saturday at King and
Queen of the Ring. This has been, and I don't
know why I'm saying this, this has been an unexpected
feud that I'm actually really excited to see. Now. I'll
applaud both women for actually making me interested in seeing
(09:04):
these two, especially on the short notice that we really
got after of course Rhea had to drop the title.
I say it a short notice. I mean it's what
three weeks that we've had to build to this match.
I'm interested in Live Morgan again. It felt like she
was always kind of floating a little bit in my
mind that she really didn't have a direction or she
(09:24):
was searching for a direction. She was always kind of
kind of flighty feeling, you know, from her walk to
the ring to how she did a promo to now
she's super focused. She knows what she wants, and maybe
that's part of it. Maybe they've actually they clued her
in on where she's going and what she's doing, that
she can attach herself to a story and move in
(09:46):
that direction. But I mean it kind of has me
questioning if she doesn't walk out of there with the
Women's World title, how are you feeling about this match?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Michael well An, let me tell you something. It's not
hitting for if I'm being honest. Becky lost it WrestleMania,
and then a week two weeks later, she's in a
battle Royal grabs the title.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I think rumors said she was supposed to take some
time off, so a lot of things with her were
wrapped up and she got thrust back into the picture.
I don't dislike Becky, but I feel like she's been
a little stale. She's kind of riding that fence between
what I consider the old school the man gimmick and
(10:35):
the half seth rawlins. I'm gonna wear a bunch of
crazy stuff gimmick and it's not really hit for me.
Liv Morgan I like as well. I've loved some of
the stuff she's done in the past. Her story was
with Rhea Ripley, and now Rhea's on the shelf and
her situation has not been set up in my opinion
(10:57):
for this to hit now. With that said, they can
deliver a great match and I can be thankful I
saw it and they can win me over. But if
I'm being honest, it's been a little bit kind of
for me leading into this match. But they're two great competitors.
I know they're going to put on a good wrestling match.
At least we'll see what kind of story they can
(11:18):
tell in the ring.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
We both had that feeling about Becky in the past,
mainly before Mania. We had that discussion anyway, But you're right,
it feels like who's rating who's closet? Are you getting
Seth's close or he's he getting yours? Yep, exact wonder
We've got Sammy Zain, the Intercontinental Champion, taking on This
(11:39):
is a three way match taking on Chad Gable and
Bronson Reid. Triple threat matches are always questionable because I mean,
you know, listen, Sammy doesn't have to be pinned in
order to lose the title. And that's always an interesting
point in the story because it has happened before and
then many times it doesn't happen that way at all,
(12:00):
and it's always it seems to be tricky to get
a one on one inside of a three way match,
and the way and the creative way that they have
done these more recently have fared pretty well, at least
in my opinion that I think that they've done a
good job of getting one person out of the ring
and it making sense for them to be out of
(12:20):
the ring or down on the ground and not just
taking a nap or eating a snack underneath the ring. This,
you know, it's going to be interesting to see, interesting
to see what they do here. And you also have
one guy that is significantly bigger, significantly larger than the
other two where you would think the advantage may go
to him, so at any point you would know most
(12:41):
times you would see maybe the two smaller guys teaming up.
I don't know if I really see that with Sammy
and Chad, though, what are you thinking on this match?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
No, I'm really excited for this match. You've got three
guys that really know how to work. So I look
at it from a wrestling perspective, a match perspective, and
I look at it from a story perspective. From a
wrestling match, it's gonna be just freaking fantastic. Like it's
it's gonna be the one to watch. I would consider
this the sleeper match of the card. From a story perspective,
(13:11):
I do have some constructive criticism. Chad and Sammy stands
alone as it is. There's tons of story there, there's
tons of heat there. That's great. Bronson is where I'm
a little uneasy about his involvement. Let me tell you why.
It's nothing that Bronson has done. He's a great character,
he's great in the ring. I really really like him.
(13:34):
I would call what he's got is suffering from what
I would call the bray Wyatt booking. Bray Wyatt went
like two years where he did these amazing promos. He's
the eater of worlds. He just this ominous, amazing presence
and loses every single match with any type of stakes
(13:57):
there is. Yeah, he might win on a RAM into
Monday night, but if there's a pay per review match,
you can be guaranteed that bray Wyatt's losing that match.
And I feel like that's the same thing with Bronson. Like, man,
he's got a great look, he's good on the mic,
like he is a force to be reckoned with. But
his booking leading into this match has just made me go, Okay,
he's there, He's a third wheel, and that's not his fault.
(14:20):
So I'm not blaming Bronson for anything he's done. It's
just the booking. And so this really feels like a
story between Chad and Sammy and Bronson's just kind of
there throwing and so I'm waiting to see what becomes
of that, and I'm hoping this could potentially be you know,
maybe he doesn't win the match, but maybe this could
be a big moment for Bronson where he really smashes
(14:43):
the other guys and kind of brings himself back up
to kind of a better status, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I'm with you on that that when you see a
guy the size of Bronson Reid and he doesn't act
like the guy who's the size of Bronson Reid. It
doesn't match up in my head. So we talked about
psychology earlier. This one. You gotta put him together. Put well,
look what they're doing with bron Breaker right now. He's
destroying everybody he walks by, and you could do that
(15:12):
with a Bronson Reed. Not the exact same way, but
you could do something with him where he's like, okay,
this makes sense. He just runs through every person he
comes in contact with in that ring, and I am
with you, I'm disappointed they haven't done that with him
yet because he's very, very believable in that role. Man,
let's move to the big one, the WWE Undisputed Championship
(15:36):
Match and no longer now for the US Championship Match
not titled for title, and man, I gotta say on
Friday Night, Logan Paul continues to lean into the strengths
that he has. He has some really good strengths in
the ring. He knows what he can do and what
he can't do, and some of the things that he
(15:57):
can do are pretty significant. He is leaning into just
being a slimy dirt bag heel and it is so
so good the entourage you bring out your log I mean,
it makes sense you would bring if you're a heel
and you want to try to weasel your way out
of a verbal contract, you bring the attorney to have
(16:19):
a written contract. Again, of course he looks. I mean
he's in a double breasted suit, just a dirt bags,
hanging with dirt bags is what it looks like. Are
you threatening my client?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Did they have to pay him for that line? Was
that speaking role?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's saton card or something?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Doesn't he He probably should? He probably should, man, But
for that whole thing to because it was I was
questioning it and I said it to you, like, okay,
so Cody's going to be because I know he's not
going to lose the Universal the undisputed title, so he's
going to be walking around with the undisputed and now
the US title. And then they're like no, no, no, no,
that's not going to happen either. How you feel it
(16:57):
about this match for Saturday in Jedda.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, like you said, I'm I'm super stoked on it. Logan.
Paul has yet to disappoint. I think it's gonna be
just a really enjoy you know, people people refer to
the summer movies as popcorn movies like here, don't don't,
don't overthink it, just come grab some popcorn and sit
and enjoy. And that's what this match is like. I
(17:22):
would honestly say that a few years ago, in previous regimes,
there would be matches like this where the finish is
very much telegraphed and you know exactly what's gonna happen,
and you were bummed because it's like, uh. But but now,
like the pairing of it, the story going into it,
(17:42):
it's just great. And so yeah, nothing's really gonna happen
except a great wrestling match, but I'm going to enjoy
the heck out of it. And and and honestly, when
this was starting to cook, I wasn't as doubtful about
the whole US title thing being on Cody, because if
you remember, Seth Rollins did that just a few years
(18:04):
back with Sting, he was the WWE Champion and the
Universal Champion and so uh or excuse me, the WWE
Champion and the US Champion and uh. And so I
was like, oh, hey, maybe maybe they do want to
give that to Cody. It wouldn't wouldn't surprise me. I
don't know how you get it off of him.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What it had a story too, he would be a
he'd be a triple crown winner, yeah, or Slam champion,
that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah and uh and so regardless though everything worked out perfectly,
it's gonna be a great match.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And I gotta say this. You know there were people
in the media, you know, former WWE talent that was
taking shots at Logan Paul. Well, if I would have
been given enough time to rehearse as much as Logan
has rehearsed as who cares? Who cares? That's called doing
your job and doing it well. So whatever we get
(18:57):
from Logan Paul, whether it's called in a ring or
it's got eight hours of rehearsal behind it, good for
him because it's gonna deliver something.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Big from Monday as well. Speaking of kind of wrapping
things up before King of the Ring, ww raw numbers
were up nine percent from last week. They did better
than the NHL playoffs. I know, we both kind of
kind of feeling like things it's time to heat things
back up, and we're starting to feel that. But the
(19:27):
numbers of people watching are astronomical. With WWE right now,
it's gonna be fun King of the Ring starts at
twelve noon Central starts at one o'clock there where you are, Michael,
And I'll be honest, I don't hate those over listen.
I'm not for most of these. I'm not going to anyway.
And to have a Saturday afternoon, you have wrestling, and
then you get to do whatever else you're gonna be
(19:49):
doing over the weekend, and then Sunday you get to
come back and you get to watch another pay per view.
On Monday, you don't have to go to work. It's
fun weekend for wrestling, and we're gonna get to go ahead.
And is that I think there's a place you wait
in there? I don't know. We work again, theology, Yeah,
something like that. We're going to talk about as double
or nothing when we come back here on the wrestle
(20:11):
Chat Podcast. Thank you so much for hanging out with us.
Love that you guys are here with us, hanging out
on the wrestle Chat podcast, doing it live right now
on YouTube, on Facebook, on x and on Instagram wherever
(20:33):
you're watching from. Thank you so much. A comment, leave
us a comment, say hey, something you want to talk about.
We're here to chat with you guys. As well. If
you're listening to this on Wednesday morning, thank you for listening.
Wherever you choose to listen to the podcast, Please hit
subscribe and leave us a rating that helps so much
it costs you absolutely nothing. My buddy Zach Haydorn is
(20:54):
going to be on with us, coming up here in
just a little bit. He wrote a book on Stone
Cold Steve Austin. Let me take that back. It's called Stunning,
and it's about the entire career of Steve Austin, so
not just the stone Cold part, but even back to
the very beginning. We're gonna talk with him. Come up
in just a little bit. Coming up on Sunday is
ae W's Big One Double or Nothing Live from Las Vegas.
(21:15):
Want to hit a few of those matches. We're gonna
start off with two former WWE guys, Adam Copeland and
Malachi Black. These two are going at it for the
TNT Championship. But not just a regular match. No, no, no, no,
what is it? What is it? Your friend? Says nay
Nay oh Nna. I like that. I like see if
(21:37):
we can borrow that. If he hasn't trademarked any oh
na na, This is going to be a barbed wire
steel cage match. The steel cage. No, no, that's not enough.
We need some barbed wire barbedie match. No that's not enough.
We need to steal cage. Let's put him together. We
got this match. Who do you see walking out or
stumbling out or rolling out of that match? Bloody and
(21:59):
bad with the t n T Championship, Michael.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I can't. I can't say that. I can't even think
about the match finish because I'm just like, why must
there be sharp objects in a wrestling match? I maybe
maybe it's just for effect. Maybe it's just gonna be
around the top and they won't interact with it or whatever,
(22:25):
But I don't like it. I statistical likelihood says they're
gonna interact with it. But yeah, I'm not stoked on it.
Let's not. I mean, Adam Copeland's on borrow time for
his career anyway. Anyway, Malachi Black probably still has quite
a few years left in him. I just don't want
(22:46):
him to have to wrestle any any less than they
can because of some stupid barbed wire. But I don't know.
I'd probably see Adam Copeland retaining, but I don't care
in context of barbed wire. Let's just let's just not
do that.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You've never watched g c W, have you?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Oh, I've seen I've seen clips and highlights. There was
something circulating. There was something circulating today. And there was
the the the the square staple things that they used
to put trusses together, those plates that have the nails
(23:25):
on them. Yes, yeah, it was I think it was
GCW or his.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
M l W one of them.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And they were taking them and putting them on a
guy and then punching them into the skin and on
the head and.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So like trust is for your house, like like ballasts
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, huh, there's there's square plates that have a bunch
of nails that are on the and they just so anyway,
I shouldn't have got off topic, but let's not.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Let's not.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Let's not let's not say we did.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I don't think there. I don't think you cegi the uh,
let's go to one that. I don't think that there
right now, there's no barbarar in. But I do anticipate, well,
only because this match has been absolutely phenomenal when it's
happened in Japan. I don't see why it would be
in any different happening in Las Vegas. Willow Nightingale versus
Mercedes Monette Mercedes first match in ae W for the
(24:24):
TBS Championship this past week Last Wednesday. Probably. There's always
been talk about Mercedes Monee's promos in ae W. They
haven't really been up to par, but her her strong
suit has been in the ring, and that's I don't
think that's questionable at all. She is absolutely fantastic in
(24:45):
the ring. We just have yet to see her in
the ring in ae W, and so all we've had
to go on is how she spoke on MinC and
it hasn't been great. Last Wednesday awesome really built up
to this match, and with it being her first match
and for a title, do you more than halfway expect
Mercedes to walk out with a TBS Championship Michael.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Maybe, I'm not sure. There's there's other things that could happen.
We could have some interference to set up an infeud.
We could I don't know, because that is a great question,
but I think there's enough variables in play that it's
it's not certain, but I'm excited to see her wrestle,
(25:29):
especially against Willow that's gonna be fantastic. I do question
the the the cost versus number of matches ratio at
this point for Mercedes. So I'm excited to finally see
her get in the ring and uh and uh do
(25:49):
what she does best, which is just absolutely kill it.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Maybe once she's on she doesn't not wrestle for the
rest of the time she's there. That could be it.
We've got your girlfriend, Timeless Tony Storm taking on Serena
Deeb for the AAW Women's World Championship. I will say
that this whole thing with Tony Storm, We've talked about
this before, has just been phenomenal. Talking about someone Jericho
(26:18):
Jeric is always recreating his character. This is someone that
we haven't really seen outside of that same character as
she was when she was in NXT. It was the
same Tony Storm that went from NXT to WWE and
then showed up in AEW until Tony Storm became Timeless,
and once she did, where has this character been our
(26:42):
entire lives? She's been absolutely fantastic. Have you loved her
work in this?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, I mean just in general speaking about Timeless Tony
Storm in general. You know the character I want to
clarify something you said. The character is just the icing
on the cake. It's really her ability to craft promos
around the concept of her character that is just incredible.
(27:09):
You know, when they pop up, I always watch them,
even if I've seen him a bunch of times, just
because the delivery, the timing, the vocabulary, the just the
smoothness of the whole thing. She's just so good. But anyway,
all that to say, this is gonna be a great
match aw Women's World Championship. Lots of stakes involved, Serena deeb,
(27:32):
nothing to nothing to underestimate there. It's gonna be a
good match. I mean, I don't I don't have anything
else to say other than this. This is rustling, I mean,
this is this is gonna be great. So it's it's
gonna be a fun thing to see.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Coming up tomorrow at seven am, an exclusive interview that
I had with Swart Strickland is going to drop on
our YouTube. So if you're not subscribed there hit subscribe.
You don't have to watch it at seven am, especially,
you know, you don't have to wake up said an
alarm to watch that. But it goes live at seven am.
You can watch it tomorrow. It is a fun talk
with Swerve Strickling, our first time ever being on together.
(28:09):
There's a little clip of what to expect from our
conversation that will drop tomorrow. This is your first real
test as the champ. Things have escalated quickly. It got
very personal very quickly, as well as it seems that
things tend to do with with Christian Cage. How do
you mentally prepare to face a veteran like him.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
It takes a lot of It takes a lot of honestly,
It's it's all mental. Like physically, I've gotten my body
of the shape, the best shape that's ever been in.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
But now it's a mental thing.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's anticipation, it's learning your opponent and like kind of
like the week's leading up, you've seen a lot of
attacks on me and stuff, and.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
One thing I've been seeing was me stay down. I've
always gotten back up.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I've always like pulled something from that, you know, in
all these people putting more things in front of me,
you know, like mobile embassy turning on me and everything,
I've still got back up and beat all them down
to get to Christian.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I'm clearing all the.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Negative things that were coming from the past to haunt
me to get to him.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Fun conversation with Swerves Strickland and you can check that
out coming up tomorrow seven am goes live on our YouTube.
Left for you to see that Swerve gonna be taken
on Christian Cage for the ae W World Championship at
a W double or nothing to be in the ring
at this point with a legend like Christian Cage at
(29:38):
the level that Swerve Strickland is at. He is the
ae W champion and he's in there with somebody who
could credibly be a threat to the new champ only
thirty days into his reign. Do you see Christian also
has a lot of people on the side. Do you
see Christian coming out with that title or see Swerve
(30:00):
beating all the odds, having something up his sleeve and
leaving double or nothing with the title that he brought in.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Michael, I think this is one of those matches where
it's just one big question mark. It could go either way.
I could see, you know, from an outside, you know,
non k fabe perspective, that maybe Tony wants to give
a nod to Christian knowing that he's you know, in
(30:29):
the later years of his career. We don't know how
much time he really has left, but but maybe he
wants to give him that nod for for another World championship,
you know. On the other hand, Swerve is just on
an incredible run that would be a shame to be interrupted.
And so.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
While let me say this, while on very very different levels,
and let's put all of that aside, it's interesting that
both champs from WWE and ae W both were for
lack of a better term, and without breaking it all down,
(31:11):
we're seated by the fans. We got Cody Rhodes in
the match because of the fans, Swerve strickling, it's also
their work. I'm not again, I'm not breaking this down.
I just want to say that this is sometimes the
fans are we are surprised by who walks out with
a title, or we're like, okay, I can kind of
(31:32):
see that this is the one, it feels like and
the first one that I really feel in ae W
that has been that's our champ, whether you put the
title on him or not, so you might as well
put the title on him. Yep. And that's what it's
felt like for Swerve, and so I'm excited to see
him in this match and see what he does with Christian.
I mean, just listen. That's what I would think is
(31:52):
if I were Swerve, I just just listen to whatever
whatever Christian wants to do in that match. We talk
about a lot more. We talk about his time in
the service. We talk about, yeah, he was in the Army,
how that played a role in his life today in wrestling,
and also his I mean his battle with Hangman Page.
Those things are brutal. We talk about all that with swer.
(32:14):
If you could check that out tomorrow seven am on YouTube,
I hope you'll do that. My buddy Zach Haydorn from
Brass Ring Media has written a book. It is called
Stunning the Artistry of Wrestling, and I'm butchering the title.
I'm so sorry, Zach. I'll get it right before he
pops in here. But we're gonna talk with Zach coming
(32:34):
up next, and want to anything on that one we
need to hit before we jump over to Zach.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I think we're good man.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's gonna be a fun weekend. I'll say that, for
all things considered, it's going to be a fun weekend.
And I hope you hope you stay safe and remember
what the weekend is all about. But man, we've got
King of the Ring, King and Queen of the Ring
coming up on Saturday twelve noon Central, one o'clock Eastern,
and then seven o'clock on Sunday a ae W's double
or Nothing. Looking forward to that. We're back with Zach
(33:05):
talking about that new book coming up here next on
the wrestle Chat podcast. You know this right here is
(33:26):
this is an example of an actual productive Twitter slash
x interaction. Zach Haydorn, the founder of Brass Ring Media, writer, podcaster,
and now author.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Zach.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
The barrier for entry, you know, to be a writer
is you know, it's one thing to become a podcaster.
It's much much less than it than it used to be.
But man, author, in my mind, there's still something that
sets you up in another category when you obtained that title.
My man, congratulations on your book. It's called Stunning the
Wrestling Artistry of Steve Austin. Thanks for being on today, man,
(34:03):
good to see you.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Oh, good to see you too. It's great to be here.
I've always admired your work, so being on the show
is really cool and thanks for having me. It's been
a busy week and weekend, but I you know, it's
I've been looking forward to this all uh all weekend long,
So this is great.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Have you always wanted to be an author? Is that
something you inspired to be?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah? I mean, when I I will, I think it'd
be disingenuous to say that I've always inspired to be.
But once I started really kind of writing in the
wrestling space for the Torch and you know, just doing
work there and and and kind of honing the craft
like in that space, like early on, I was like, ah,
(34:45):
I think I do want to try that. I do
have a you know, an idea for it, and it
just took a took a little bit to to kind
of build to that moment. But really it was when
I started writing, you know, for writing about wrestling consistently
where I thought, Okay, now only do I have the like,
the skill to do it, but I have you know,
the the topic that I would want to do it on,
(35:07):
and and and an interesting one at that. So yeah,
So it wasn't something that I was like, oh man,
I'm bored to be an author, but it kind of
grew out of other projects that I that I took on.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
That's really cool. Why why Steve and why a book?
I mean a lot of people go to your turn
to doing mini docs on on YouTube and you see
those all over the place all the time. So it's
kind of that two part question, why Steve Austin and
why a book?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Well, I'll start with the second one first. I just
I think there's something cool about, you know, producing books
on wrestling, Like I think you know, podcasts and video
and audio. I mean those are great, obviously, you know
I and I do those a lot throughout throughout the week.
But there's something about a book that you know, it's
(35:57):
once it's printed, it's out there, Like it's out there
and it's going to stay out there in some form
or fashion. Maybe it's at a karag sale or something
you know, at some point, but I mean it's there,
it's on this earth, and it's real and you can
hold it. And so that coupled with the fact that
I like to read and I like to read about,
you know, professional wrestling, there's something there's just a level
(36:20):
of detail you can put into a book that you
can't do, you know, when you're podcasting or what or
when you're doing some kind of YouTube show like we're doing. Now,
there's just an extra layer that you can go to
when you write a book. And that's you know, not
just for my book here, but that's why I like
(36:41):
to read, you know, wrestling books and books in general.
It's like you do get kind of an added detail.
So that's why that's why I wanted to get a
book out there. And then as far as Steve Austin goes,
I mean a couple of things went into picking him.
One of the projects we had early on in writing
the book was narrowing down the overall kind of theme
(37:01):
of the work, which was the art of wrestling. Like
that was the first kind of like pitch where this
project started was want to write a book on the
artist the art of wrestling. You know, wrestling's in art form.
People should know that. And here's how I think we
can do it. And you know Jonathan Snowden at Hybrid Shoot.
You guys probably know him for his work with MMA
(37:22):
projects and he's the author of the Ken Shamrock Book,
which is really great. If you haven't checked that out,
you should. But he was the one that kind of
was like, hey, you know, the art of wrestling could
be a ten thousand page book, you know, I mean,
you can cover that from multitude of different angles, and
there's just so much there. It's a little bit it's
(37:44):
too big, it's too broad. So what if we hone
it in and talk about like the art of one
wrestler's career and just look at that and try to
examine the types of things you want to look at
in that broad pitch, but focus it on one specific
uh professional wrestler, one specific in ring guy. And I
(38:07):
was like, that's a really good idea and that that does.
It puts the focus on something directly and we can
keep the overall theme that I was looking for. So
that's I'll be got to like, Okay, we're gonna do
it on one subject. And then when I was picking,
you know who this was going to be, I wanted
somebody that was a big star, you know. I wanted
(38:28):
it to be somebody that had success, not just as
an artist in the ring, but someone who people knew,
someone who had an impact on the business, and someone
who had like a career that you can kind of
go through and and and watch like start to finish.
And so you know that obviously put some modern, more
(38:48):
modern wrestlers at the forefront because they're theirs. Stuff is
easy for people to find. And and then when I
and then so I narrowed it down to a few
subjects in that department, and and Steve Austin just resonated
because I think when I think about the art of
wrestling and overall, again, that's the story we're telling within
the book. It's about reaction. It's about crowd reaction, it's
(39:13):
about investment, it's about like, yes, you know, it's about
the moves in the ring too, but that's a means
to an end. It's a means to connect with your
crowd and pull a reaction out of them and manipulate
them in the right way. And when I thought about, like,
who really does that the best? Or am I mind?
Who does that the best? Like Austin is right up there.
(39:34):
I mean he he yeah, I mean and it's not
just with his hot run, you know as stone cold,
but all throughout his career, like when you watch it,
and hopefully what I what I try to do in
the book is paint a picture of him developing his
work from his rookie year in nineteen eighty nine to
you know, his last match with Kevin Owens, and you
(39:56):
can see just a common thread of man, if nothing else,
I'm going to get the crowd to do what I
want them to do. And that, to me is like
the art of a professional wrestler is pulling that reaction
out of somebody and using their real time like feedback,
whether it's a boot or a cheer or sitting on
their hands to kind of impact what you do next.
(40:17):
And when you watch Steve Austin matches, and as I
detail in the book, you know, he spends a lot
of energy doing that and making sure that they're with
him on that ride. And so as I started kind
of researching and watching like his stuff in a really
kind of focused way, I was like, Yeah, it's got
to be him. It's got to be him. He checks
(40:38):
these boxes and it's going to be really fun to explore.
The last thing I'll say on why Steve, He's got
a really interesting career arc, Like it's not all of
that long. You know, his hot run isn't all that long,
but man, it burns really hot when it's hot. And
so we cover his career in different eras, Like so
(41:02):
we start with his rookie year, we talk about stunning
Steve Next, then we do Hollywood Blondes and post Blondes,
a c W Austin the ring Master, like early Stone
Cold Stone Cold Heel Austin. We cover that, and then
we cover the finish off his career. So it's really
kind of a neat way to organize like looking at
(41:27):
a career because it's like really like chaptered out in
different eras, and so that was appealing to us. It
means to just execute the book, like how do you
do it? That was a you know something where I'm like, okay,
we can I can do this. I can do this.
And so the result is what you're looking at behind you,
a fully flushed out project on the on the artistry
(41:48):
of Austin.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
It's a giant version of the book.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yes you're reading that one.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah you got a special Yeah, well I'm I'm I'm
getting older in my eyesights. You know, I have to
have a bigger print what I do. Love you mentioned
it you started with his career where it started at
wcc W, at the Chris Adams Wrestling School. As cool
as I So, I grew up in southern Oklahoma, and
so I saw the ads for the Chris Adams wrestling school,
(42:16):
and I had an uncle that lived in Dallas, and
I begged, I'm probably eight nine years old something like that,
begged my mom to let me go to Dallas for
the summer so I could be in the Chris Adams
wrestling school. You can just see a nine year old
me and a stone cold Steve Austin you know school, Yeah,
exact exactly. And you do. You take it all the
(42:37):
way through Ko and stone Cold at WrestleMania thirty eight,
Steve's last match, Stunning Steve Hollywood, the Hollywood Blondes, e
C w ring Master. You covered it all. What's your
what's your personal favorite version of stone Cold? Well, I
guess of Steve Austin because stone Cold is one of those.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
Right, it's one piece. It's definitely well, I'll answer it
some two ways. I mean, like my personal favorite too,
just to like it's in general, it's definitely like the
hot Steve Austin Stone Cold run nineteen ninety seven, ninety eight,
ninety nine, Like it's just it's so fun and the
I mean, you know, you could watch Attitude era episodes
(43:20):
of Raw now and kind of go ha. Not sure
that holds hold stuff. But for Steve Austin's Stone Cold
like the there's nothing like it. Those crowd reactions are
just passionate and loud, and it's like it's nothing that
we'll probably ever see again in terms of like the
universally loved babyface at that level. Just it just was.
(43:44):
It was a confluence of things. It was a confluence
of you know, the right time, the right crowd, the
right culture, Steve as a performer, like coming together and
kind of having like everything click for him at the
same time. It all was right there and it all
kind of happened as it's once in a lifetime thing.
So that's definitely my favorite like era of Steve stone
(44:06):
Cold and Steve Austin. I really enjoyed writing the Hollywood
Blonds chapter though. That is my favorite chapter. It's right
just because you know, I've seen Hollywood Blonds matches of course,
you know, in the some of the ones even that
I write about in the book are our matches that
I had seen prior. But it's really fun, Like I
(44:30):
had a fun time writing that chapter because you get
to see Austin kind of come out of his shell
a little bit more like he you know, he's not
like he was ever this like really like closed off guy,
you know in the ring, but Brian Pillman like opened
up another side to him. And I know we you know,
everybody talks about E c W being like that time
where hey, Austin like finds his voice and and it's true,
(44:53):
I mean he does, That's not incorrect. But I think
that there's a kind of a forgotten era where he
really does develop another part of his personality, and that
is Hollywood blondes. And in addition to that, like Austin's
a good tag team wrestler, he really understands the psychology
of wrestling as a tag team and he's talked about
tag team wrestling being you know, one of his favorite
(45:16):
parts of professional wrestling, and and you see that here.
And so I don't know that I just I don't
know that I had an appreciation for that era of
his career until I wrote that chapter. So that was
probably the funniest chapter to write. Nice, but it's hard
to argue with stone Cold in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
I mean it is, you know, it is hard. And
you know what's interesting too, is that you can see
this as you read this, or if you go back
and and watch videos on YouTube or what have you.
But you can you see a lot of now that
we're we're past stone Cold's prime, you can look back
on the very first like the stunning Steve stuff in
(45:54):
the USWA or WCCW and and you can see so
many characteristics of of stone Cold because he didn't have
a character to play. Then he was just him and
you see so much of it there in the raw
form and then of course refined and ready to go
in the attitude era. Does Steve have a copy of
(46:15):
the book?
Speaker 3 (46:18):
It's en Root. Yeah, it's we're working hard to get
him on. Initially, like when we started the project, we
kind of had an idea of can we you know,
can we approach him, uh to at least be like
a sounding board for some of this stuff. But man,
I mean the business of a book is interesting. You know,
(46:40):
there's we knew. We found out really quick that, like
his other contractual obligations, we're not going to let him,
you know, participate in something you know, uh you know,
not a part of w W E and and that
official business.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
So but no, he's good.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
He's gonna get a copy hopefully, and uh yeah that'll
be cool just to know hey, that he has it,
and you know, whatever happens that happens after that.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yes, of course I would think it would have to
be cool for him to be able to see in
one book that you know, he didn't have to go
back and think about or do anything, but it just
go oh yeah, oh yeah. And these revelations as he
goes along, things that he may have forgotten or things
that he hasn't visited in a while he can do
in this book. So I'm anxious to hear what he
(47:26):
thinks about it once I hope box arrives.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
Yeah, yeah, I hope. So that'd be really cool. And
and you're so right to call out that, you know,
there are one of the like hypothesis of the book
going in was can we identify like threads and things
about his work in the Ring that build it to
(47:53):
that like hot run, because you know it kind of
is that in nineteen ninety seven, like fam like he's
hot all of a sudden and in your going But
and that's true, you know, and again that's not inaccurate.
But when you watch the entirety of his career, you
could see these little things like along the way that
build like him figuring it out like, Okay, that worse.
(48:14):
I can connect with the crowd this way, you know,
I can look at him and man, I can make
sure that I have him, and like all these things
are like building up and then bam, he puts it
all together at the exact right time. And that kind
of jolted, you know, jokes that whole Stone Cold run.
But it's not it's not an overnight success. It's years
(48:36):
of like working on his craft and altering what he's
doing to to get to where to get to where
he is. And you know, I think we do a
good job of showcasing that in the book, or at
least I hope.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
So I just got it, and I'm excited. I started
right at the beginning, so I'm in that WCW US
yeah part right now. So I'm anxious to to get
into that and get it to the meet and and
potatoes of the book.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
We uh.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
You know a lot of people credit the E c
W promos that he was doing to set up the
stage for for Stone Cold, but man, you and you're
talking about it here. But also if you go back
and watch some videos too, and and see some of
his promos in the stunning Steve Austin back in back
in the territory. There were the the ingredients, they were
(49:27):
all there. He'd refined it when he got to E. C. W.
Although it still looks very raw, it was even more
raw than that. It was just him pissed off, hated
the world or the person in front of him, and
ready to tear him apart. And it was. It was
fantastic then, and it just got better if if there
was another uh, this book is successful and and it
uh it does great work and and and provides a
(49:51):
lot of great stuff for you and your family and
and and the business. Who is the next person? Who
is another star that you could see doing a book
like this with?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
So I hope that I get that opportunity. That'd be
a great, a great thing. I love to write another one.
There's two names that kind of stand out, and it
would be because they're both different types of entering guys
than Steve Austin was. I definitely would want like somebody
fresh in that regard. The first one would be Seawan Michaels.
(50:21):
I think that would be an interesting kind of.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
It's just an interesting character to examine, different kind of wrestler,
you know, but just as crisp and just as good
as a as an n ring artist, So he'd be
really interesting. He's also has a lot of different eras
of his career, just like Austin does with Rockers, and
like the ic title Sean Michaels d X Shawn Michaels
(50:46):
like his runs like the top Guy like, so there's
a lot of errors there that you can that you
can you know, dive into. The other one would be
a bigger project for sure, but one that's enticing because
of it and kind of getting it all on paper,
and that would be Rick Flair. I think that'd be
a really interesting project to do too. Obviously a lot
(51:06):
longer of a process, and I you know, I think
part of the fun of that would be just tracking
down all the video that you need to kind of
go through to go through his whole his whole catalog
and his whole library. So that'd be fun. But I
think he'd be a really good person to look at
two in this kind of in this kind of fashion.
So those two are at the top of the top
(51:27):
of the list for something for book number two if
it comes to fruition, both.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Super Solid as well. Is there anyone that you see
on TV today, Zach that has the potential to leave
you know, a similar impact on the business as Stone
Cold did.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
A similar impact. Wow, that's I mean, it's hard, it's
a yeah. I mean honestly, like, no, I don't think
that there's a person out there right now that that
is on trajectory to like have as big of an
impact as a Stone Cold did as Stone Cold. I
(52:07):
mean there's just so many like not just business metrics,
but like just the idea that hey, if stone Cold
doesn't get hot as hot as he did, we might
not be talking about a WWE right now. And that's
like genuinely true, like like he helped bring that company
from the from the depths back back into into prominence.
(52:28):
So I don't know that there's anybody just on on
that level. I think there's some really big stars. I mean,
with no question about it. I mean, Cody Roads today,
I think, is you know, arguably the hottest babyface since
Stone Cold. I mean you have seen it in there,
of course, and you think you can kind of debate
(52:49):
that with him, but you know, if it's not John Cena,
there really is nobody that's comparable. So I think so
Cody like is on a trajectory. But again it's a
different The context around Cody Rhoad and his where when
he's on top is just just different. It's just a
different WWE, It's a different wrestling landscape. I think on
the AW side, you know, I think Will Osprey has
(53:12):
the potential to do some really good work. I think
he's a really good character. He like embodies that aw
brand of n ring but also can cut a promo.
So I think he's somebody somebody to watch. But in
terms of like on the Austin level, I mean, that's
just such a high bar that it'd be inauthentic. It's
(53:35):
almost like, yeah, it could be this guy, because really
it probably won't be.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
It's almost detrimental to the person to compare.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Yes, yes, yes, it's just too hard of a mountain
to climb. And it's like, you know, and I don't
think you could have said, like, hey, is there ever
going to be another whole Cogan Like I think realistically
your answer to that in nineteen ninety two would be no,
like there's not exactly and you know, and then sure
enough something happens and you kind of you get something
(54:04):
as big or bigger. But I just don't think in
good faith you can say, yes, this guy's going to
be have as much of an impact on the businesses
Steve Austin. Just it's just not in all likelihood, that's
not good, that's not.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
True, stunning the wrestling artistry of Steve Austin. The book
is out now. Where can everybody grab it?
Speaker 3 (54:26):
Yeah, you guys can all grab it on Amazon right now.
That's the best and easiest place to get it at
The turnaround time to get it from you clicking order
to your house is pretty quick. Right now. We have
paperback copies. Of course, you can get an actual hard
copy of the book, but there's also the editions. There's
kindle editions up there, and the price points are all
(54:47):
very efficient if you will. So I hope you guys
check it out. I mean, it's a it's a it's
a project. It's an independent project, a labor of love.
On my end. Hybrid Shoot is the publisher, and they
are a a small independent publishing company that supports you know,
authors and artists like me that are just trying to
(55:08):
do something fun and and and also you know stay afloat.
So you're supporting not only me and the project and
getting a good book, but you're supporting supporting independent publishing
as well, which is really important. I also want to
call out Kathore Jensen did the art in this Uh
he did the art in the book. He did the
cover that you can see right there. It's phenomenal. They're
(55:30):
all original pieces of art in the in the book.
He took the book itself and just just drew different
parts of different matches that we talked about in the
book from start to finish, and so, uh what what what?
We We went to him and we're like, hey, you know,
we need some art for this book, like once one
(55:51):
a chapter would be really cool if you could do that,
it'd be great this book. Now, when he turned it back,
over one hundred pieces of original art from the match credible.
This is incredible. He did an incredible job. Hal Haney
does the cover art on the back, also incredible work.
So you get some good written words, I think, but
also some really good uh some really good artwork. So
(56:14):
check it out for that too. It's really really cool
stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
What's another reason that you'll want the physical copy too?
I have the version to have it immediately, so before
we jumped on here. But also I'll have the I
have the the hard copy in the mail to me too,
so I can I can flip through the pages. I
like doing that and also see that artwork up close
and personal as well. You mentioned that you you used
to you write for the Torch you now have you're
(56:40):
the founder of Brass Ring Media. Correct, that's correct? Yes,
what was the what was your inspiration and kicking that
thing off?
Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah, you know, I'm glad you asked. Thank you. So yeah,
brashs Re Media. We've been around for nine nine months okay,
funny months, so a new ish endeavor and yeah, yeah,
like so, I spent a lot of time like I
was the Benjie editor at se Scoop, so I was
an assistant editor for Wade for a long time at
at PW Torch, and I just it just got to
the point where I was like, you know, I kind
(57:11):
of want to go out on my own and do
my own thing in this space and try to carve
out our spot and what I like most about, you know,
covering the wrestling business is not so much like Okay,
I'm gonna break this news story, I'm gonna break that
new story. But it's more so putting some context around
the stories that that break, like how do you how
(57:34):
do you analyze them the right way? And that's what
we do at Brass Ring Media. So you know, whether
it's like we're live on our YouTube channel four days
a week Monday through Thursday with myself and other hosts
providing like real time analysis on the current happenings in
pro wrestling, whether that's news or whether that's like stuff
that happens on shows or reviewing shows or previewing shows.
(57:56):
Like we really take the approach of we're gonna, you know,
we're going to cover this from an analytical perspective and
just what works, what doesn't work, who's over, who's not?
Is this good for business? Is it not? Like? Where
where's everything at? That's our that's our brand, that's our space,
that's the kind of part of the WWE AW pro
(58:19):
Wrestling ecosystem that we're trying to own. So if that
sounds like something that you like, you can definitely check
us out for free on a multiple multiple different platforms.
As I said, we're on YouTube, you can subscribe to
that for free. All of our written work in terms
of our features and our editorial columns and our you know,
our show review columns are all on substack again for free.
(58:41):
It's just brash Ing Media on YouTube, brash Ing Media
on substack, and we will be the first thing that
pops up. Once you do that and you want a
heavy dose or a heavier dose of what we do,
we do offer Brashping Media membership. It's four out a
month for all access to everything. You also get special
member only podcasts. You get a member only audio and
(59:04):
video reviews of major pay per views and ples. We
have a discord community that I manage of folks just
hanging out talking wrestling that our members. Also a special
kind of special piece of content for members only of
brass Ring Media pertaining to the book. Starting this week,
will be producing a kind of a companion podcast to
(59:27):
the book where we we're not we don't read the book,
but we kind of go through the matches, watch those
matches together and provide you know, some audio content around that.
So that will be available to all members, and we'll
start that project this week. So it's a good time
to give us a shot, a good time to try
us out against four dollars. And you can find us
on Patreon, Patreon dot com, Backslash Brass Ring Media.
Speaker 1 (59:51):
That is incredible. That's that's worth the that's worth the price. Yeah,
just go through the book and watch the matches and
talk about them together. That's a that's a lot of fun.
And I know firsthand too that it's it's it's hard
to carve your own space in a very very niche
product as it is. Yes, and it's awesome to see
(01:00:15):
another good dude doing it. And if you don't follow
Zach on on Twitter, that that is a great follow
as well. I mentioned that at the top of this
is the product of a cordial conversation on Twitter. I
don't know Zach, Zach didn't know me. We're just both
wrestling fans. I wasn't a jerk. He was in a jerk,
which seems to be the only thing that gets news
(01:00:36):
on Twitter or x is the all the trash talking
and the things you would never say to someone's face
happens on that platform. Or that's at least what they
make you believe. This right, here's an example of what
happens when just normal guys that are wrestling fans start
a conversation. It was really good to have you on today.
(01:00:56):
Grab the book. It is out now. It's called Stunning
the Wrestling Artistry. Steve Austin Man Sack, it's good to
talk to you today. Thanks for hanging out on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Thanks so much for having me Man. Hopefully we can
do it again soon and hopefully we can get you
over on ours. And yeah it's it's I'm glad you
called it out. Yeah, this is just hey, two people
like just chatting it up in a good way and
you know, building a relationship from there. So I thank
you man, Thank you for the support based all your listeners,
for for giving a book a shot, or given breast
(01:01:24):
ring a shot. It's been a pleasure, so I appreciate it.
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