AJ Lee, Saudi WrestleMania, All Out, and Tony Khan’s Possible Dynasty 2027 — WWE, AEW September 8-14 - Gimmick Infringement

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
At now Cammage Infringement.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome everybody to the Gimmick Infringement Podcast. I am Brad
Winchester with me as always as my tag team partner
Tyler McDowell.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Blanket. Tyler took a week off, but we didn't really
take a week off.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
We both kicked out articles last week. You can go
to the website check it out. My voice also took
a week off. It is eighty percent done with vacation.
I think I'm still not obviously, I'm still not all
the way there, but I'm just happy that I could
see you and that we get to talk this week.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
So happy being said, how you doing it?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Likewise, I'm grateful eighty percent. We'll take it. You actually
read my mind. The first thing I was going to
mention today was going to be promoting our two new
articles on the side. So if you visit Gimmick infringementpod
dot com you can find both of our pieces. My
piece is entitled Al it's a tribute to Al Longmire,
barber community leader of many years in Hussan who passed

(01:01):
away earlier this month. And Brad, your excellent piece is
entitled Survival Mode about the start about so much about
the start of a new school year, about mindset, mindset,
mindset shifts, about joy. It's another great piece from Brad.
No surprises there. So yeah, we were riding, we were watching,
we were listening. Of course, today we have a jam

(01:22):
packed episode, two movies to review. We got stands on
the docket, We got highest to lowest. Steph Watch has returned.
Wwe talk, aw talk what happened here? The fallout of
Charlie Kirk's assassination. From a media standpoint, A Rose is back.

(01:43):
The next lead for The Bachelor Wrette was named. We
are going to talk about that. I'm incredibly excited to
see you and to get into all our conversations for today.
How you been good?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Resting? Still coughing a lot, like more than I probably
should be. And it's felt like a donkey kick me
in the chest most of the week.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
This was a weird week to have that happen to
I think part of it is, like, you know, you
get sick, you have to have a rest well. Rest
in my world has been less RESTful than I think
any other world. If I were in my classroom, it
would be different. But when I my classroom involves ladders
and lots of stairs. I did a lot of up

(02:20):
and down the staircases this week, moving things up, moving
things down, moving things back. Even last Saturday, I went
to the school because a kid had a whole bunch
of equipment to donate to the school for our program,
and I met up with her and her sister and
unloaded it. Their church was getting rid of some mold
audio equipment, and it was a lot of fun to
kind of go through all this stuff and think like, Okay,

(02:42):
you brought all this stuff, but we're the power cables.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
There's no power for any of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Luckily, we have eight hundred extra cables that I was
planning on getting rid of.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Anyway, it was a weird week. It was a really weird.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Week with all the stuff happening in the news and
me simply not being able to brag to people about
the packers because we had a Spirit week thing going on.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
I couldn't wear my stuff. It was a lot of fun.
I'm so tired.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
As soon as we're done here, Tyler, it's gonna be
edit with the you know, production team, of course, and
then go write twenty seven thousand letters of recommendation plan
for a meeting to plan for a lesson that doesn't
occur until Thursday, where I don't know what that's even
gonna look like because it's Thursday. It depends on their progress.

(03:31):
We're literally building something. I'm not gonna be like, Okay,
you got ahead, so stop to wait for my evaluation.
That's not how I'm gonna do things. So it's gonna
be really interesting to see how this goes because I
have absolutely no idea, man, but I got I got
some downtime. I got some downtime, and I had some

(03:52):
some time to watch a movie for the first time.
And you and I were talking about Highest to Lowest
this summer with Emily Lera Jones in our summer preview
movie preview, and I know you've been excited for this,
so let's get into it. It's time for GI at
the movies. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on
Highest to Lowest because I was this close from watching
it last night.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Play the music, and.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Now it's time for Gi Apple move.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
So some background for Highest to lois Spike Lee's latest film.
I don't know if you saw this, Brad. It was
playing in such limited theaters around the State of Arizona.
It was only in Scottsdale at a roadhouse Cinemas, and
I want to say maybe one in Chandler or Mesa.
They had none in the West Valley. So I said, okay,
when this film drops on Apple TV, I am renewing.

(04:48):
We are renewing the Apple TV subscription, Apple Plus, I
should say, and we're gonna make this happen. Because it's
a Spike Lee joint. It's been my background here do
the right thing nearly since the inception of Brad. I
love me some Spike Lee, and this film did not disappoint,
So let's talk about it. We have the reunion of

(05:08):
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. It's been years since they
work together on a film. I want to say the
most recent one was Inside Man, which was we're talking
a decade plus since that was released. Yeah, why right? Yeah, yeah,
A long long time ago. I was I was still
in Tucson the last time these two guys linked up.
So the story, it's a remake. It revolves around this

(05:30):
character named David King, played by Denzel, who is the
founder of Stack and Hits Records. Jeffrey Wright, another talented actor,
plays plays King's right hand man. Yeah, these two are phenomenal.
They're the best part of the movie. Ice Spice even
makes the cameo asap Rocky had a lead role playing
the main antagonist. He actually did really well. And so

(05:53):
my first official note here of while I was watching,
was a question to myself and thus our audience and
thus you does any one and loved their home state
as much as Spike Lee? This dude res This man
reps New York so hard in everything he does. From
the fashions of the art. This movie actually starts with
a two minute homage to New York City. There are

(06:14):
these wide, panding shots of the city while Oh What
a Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma by Gordon McRae plays. It's
really great. You get the New York of it all
from the jump. Other cameos Rick Fox former Los Angeles
laker who my mom had a crush on when I
was a kid. He plays the head coach at Long
Island University, where Denzel's son plays. In the story, it

(06:36):
does and this film is about King selling Stack and
Hits records and now coming to terms with where he's
at in his career as this media mogul. And he's
ultimately trying to buy back the company, but he's hit
some financially hard times. It ends up being where his

(06:58):
friend Jeffrey Writes ends up kidnapped in this film, so
someone tries to extort him. They mean to kidnap Denzel's sons,
but Denzel's son, but they kidnaped Jeffrey Wrights. So the
first half of the movie is a lot of exposition.
This movie clocks in it over two hours. First half
is a lot of exposition and background into King and
his family and what exactly is going on with this

(07:20):
extortion plot, and then the second half is just sheer action.
Brad and I would say the second half was much
more consistent and a much more fun watch than the
first half. So there's a seventeen point five million dollar
ransom that King must pay if he wants to get
Jeffrey Wright's son back. And again, that money would have
been easy for King to pay years ago, but now

(07:41):
that he's fallen on, you know, financially difficult times, that
ask is not a foregone conclusion that yes, we're gonna
pay it. Even though King and his family live in
this beautiful high rise condo in the heart of New
York City. David King in this film is described again
the character who Denzel plays. He's described as having the
best ears in the business, but with the coldest heart.

(08:04):
So it very much is a reflection on where is
King added in his career. And it's kind of that
classic internal conflict in many ways, I know you and
I enjoy in literature. And Danzel just kills this part
as you would expect him to. Other cameos, John Tuturo
is on the subway during the second half of this film. Yeah,
his action sequence, he's so great, which I won't spoil.

(08:27):
So Spike brings a lot of his friends back into
this movie. And there's this part where John Tuturo, wearing
a Yankee jersey on the subway, looks into the camera
and yells, let's go Yankees. Boston sucks. And again this
is right into the camera. So the love letter to
New York.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
That's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yes, that we get here and in many of Spike's films,
it really makes me happy as a moviegoer. There's even
a Puerto Rican Dave parade featured in this film. There
were cameos from Anthony Ramos, Rosie Perez of Do the
right thing famous and the soundtrack, Brad Spike really brought it.
James Brown's The Payback plays as Jeffrey Wright and Denzel

(09:07):
Washington are driving to find asap Rocky, the film's villain
that that main antagonist, right is Washington's driver, while Denzel
shadow boxes in the passenger seat as they're going to
find this guy again, while James Brown plays. So it's
the best. It's one of the best, I should say
sequences in the film. I really love that scene. There's

(09:30):
also a scene with asap Rocky and Denzel. I think
it's the scene the movie's strongest by far, and it's
reminiscent of previous Spike films. With this moment of extended
dialogue between two characters playing off each other and going
back and forth. It's captivating and it really steals the
entire film. Last thing I want to say, Brad, I

(09:50):
think if there were a lesser actor playing this part,
this lead that Denzel had, I would be so focused
on Wait, this is the same guy who plays Rob
McCall and the Equalizer. Couldn't the Equalizer just off all
these villains and you know, we could have this movie
be a clean forty five minutes, he saves everybody and
then we move on. But this character of David King

(10:11):
that Denzel Washington portrays the performance is so different enough
that I didn't even once think about Denzel's previous role
as McCall and the Equalizer fighting off bad guys and
like click, yeah yeah yeah, ten seconds, yeah yeah yeah,
yeahah yeah. I thought about at the beginning of the film,
I'm like, oh, people are mistreating Denzel and his loved ones.
He can just Robert McCall would take care of this

(10:33):
in half the time. Denzel one of the greatest actors
of our time. This is another example of him shining
him and Spike as a duo. Fantastic and this film
is really fun. I highly recommend it again. It's on
Apple's it's streaming now, and I think you really like
it awesome.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
I'll check it out because, like I said, I saw it.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
I wanted to see it the summer I saw I
think two movies this summer that we're actually in theaters
and everything else is gonna wait.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Shout out Fantastic four. You saw a Fantastic four and
there was another.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
One Superman, Superman, Superman.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Because I can I.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Take Frey to this thing. Is that going to be
like Jurassic Park?

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Are they going to show weapons in the Yes, they will.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Show weapons, which I'm excited to watch, but I will
be watching that by myself. I can't even get Jess
to watch Alien Earth right now because she just not
in the mood for horror. And I'm like, I just
rewatched the entire Alien franchise and the Predators franchise, except
for the first two when I was sick. When I
was out those days, I just watched all of them

(11:34):
over again, and I was hyping myself up for Alien Earth,
and I was like, you're ready to watch it, I'm
not in the.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Mood, and I was like, I'm not feeling it's gonna.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Anyway, uh, Tyler.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
I watched Stands on Paramo tell Us about Stands eminem so.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I love these to Paramount Plus on occasion if I'm
feeling Mission Impossible or or or Pray is feeling some SpongeBob.
Paramount Plus is like the home of Nickelodeon and a
lot of these other films, so you can get Jurassic
Park or excuse me, Transformers and Mission I Possible and
a bunch of other properties that are on there that
a lot of people love, but it's difficult sometimes to

(12:08):
find stuff that.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
It's not HBO Max and it's not Netflix.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
They're not going to have the same type of TV
show options, although there's some great shows that are on there.
And this movie happened to be on Paramount Plus it stands,
and it was an Eminem produced. He's one of the producers.
I think he's one of the executive producers for this.
And it's a quasi biography but primarily focused on the fans,

(12:37):
but also you can't talk about the fans without talking
about the way that shifts throughout Eminem's life. And I
just thought it was really cool talking about his background
and why him coming up from like such a unique
experience and then going into battle rap and be poor
and having his house be condemned and then torn down
or burned down or whatever happened to it. All of

(12:58):
those things and then him being open about mental health
and his struggles are what really resonated with a lot
of these fans enough where these fans then can sometimes
become a little bit over zealous, and there's a term
for it, and I've already forgotten about it, but one
of the Stands legitimately got his PhD in I believe

(13:21):
psychology or psychiatry, but one of the things he focused
on into study was that sort of.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Phenomenon that happens when you get to.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Sort of hear about a person's life and kind of
see a window into a person's life that you start
to feel like you know those folks. It's sort of
like non reciprocal friendship, but I can't remember what the
name of it is. Well, anyway, they're talking about that,
but it'll jump around a lot. And in the transition
between what m was like before and what he was

(13:54):
like after Proof's death, watching like interviews of him on
TRL with Carson Daily and he's up there with D
twelve and they ask him a question to bring the
mic to him, and he just is sort of puffy
faced and doesn't look like he's there. To transition out
of that, and then to cut to the fans who

(14:16):
they're interviewing, talking about how sad they were for him
and how much they wanted to help him, and then
cut into their own struggles with addiction or their own
struggles with you know, losing people, but ultimately going like
this is why this person resonates with them so much.
It's not just because he's a good artist. It's not
just because he makes catchy tunes. It's because he is

(14:40):
open and vulnerable. And that's just not something that was
happening until then. There were even some statistics they dropped
where it was like before and after eminem mental health
references and songs went from like seven percent or something
to forty five percent. And it's that transition of just
openness happened.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
But to have a song.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Kind of made up inspired by over Zella's fandom about
a guy named Stan who does all of those things
and I don't want to go into that that music
video always made me uncomfortable. What was a good reminder
of how people can take things too far?

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (15:21):
The word stand in that sense becoming a term or
just hearing people say less so now, but like we
stand is so strange to me.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
It's it's the way I feel about.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
When when people are like, yeah, I can't wait to
watch Big Brother, Like man, did you read the book?

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Like you out of your minds? That's that's what I
think about.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
What yes, yes we are as.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
A big brother Stan is a crazy sentence.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
To me, listen, listen, We're put We're connected, We're connecting
all the dots.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
But it's perfect right like that, that's the idea of
like we have these cultural shifts and phenomenon that happened
and so strongly that it shifts the way our culture operates.
Somebody co opted co opted Big Brother for the name,
and it's stuck. And now there are generations plural of
kids that grew up knowing Big Brother as a TV
show and not knowing what the reference was of Big

(16:15):
Brothers always watching like BB watching like that's the double
speak stuff, right you?

Speaker 1 (16:21):
He checked out. You can watch the live feeds of
this season a Big Brother on Paramount Plus on the
same mapp.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
I'm saying, like it's wild to me, but I really
liked it. Final note, I have a couple things that
I wrote down really really short. I thought the production
was great. I thought some of these fans are wild.
The stories are crazy. It's really compelling. There were parts
where I was like I can't look at this like

(16:47):
one of them, this this woman from from Michigan got
like the Eminem Robin costume made for herself stuff stuff
like that where I'm like, I'm not that committed to
any I'm not that committed to single thing. The closest
I'm getting is like Freya wants me to dress up
for Halloween.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
I got you. I'm gonna go all in. But after that,
it's like, I'm good. I like that. The ending felt
very right now, because.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
I don't know if you remember when Houdini came out,
or if you've listened to Whodini since it came out
or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
The very beginning of Houdini.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Starts with the music starting to play and it's Paul's voicemail.
I just hey, am I just listened to the album
Good f and Luck, And that's kind of how the
song starts. Well, the end of this is hey, it's Paul,
and it's like another voice memo to kind of end
the thing. I thought it was really cool to like
break it all full circle and feel like it's sort
of part of the eminem Marshall Mather's Slim Shady universe

(17:48):
but totally separate, and that it's just talking about how
people reacted to all those characters and him as a
person and then just those personalities within himself cranked.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Up to eleven. But it was very raw.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
I thought it was like, honest, I'm always worry about
in an executive produced thing by the person involved being
partial biography. But like there's interviews with people who exactly
you would expect, They sit down with Tray for a while,
and there's just all kinds of stuff. It's really cool,
So you get a little bit of background about Eminem,
how he started, how his career progressed, and within all

(18:21):
of that, the fans that came along for the ride,
and I think it's really really cool, totally worth your time.
I highly recommend it, especially if you're a fan of
hip hop and obviously of Eminem, or if you're just
a fan of like why are people so obsessed with
things like this, because it's a good question to ask,
it's a great question, and how betrayed people felt, like

(18:41):
in the UK when he canceled the tour because he
was just tired. It wasn't even like drugs or our
people died. He was just like, I'm so dead, I
need to take a break. So but even him talking
about like coming out after recovery and doing recovery.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
And having it be like a bomb, him going like, yeah,
it was horribly received.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
But but him acknowledging that like everybody hated it was
was kind of hilarious and it's it's funny because like
sometimes on the worst albums, you end up getting like
one song that's incredible.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
There's there's always stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
There's always the positives in the bad days, bringing it
full circle to us in our jobs.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
But it's really resonated with me.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
And maybe it's because I'm definitely not a stand but
I've always enjoyed Eminem's music. H going going all the
way into to the you know, high school enough where
if I show kids my senior picture, they tell me
I look like Eminem, which kind of pissed me off
because I've never died in my hair.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Okay, uh, that's that's all I got.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Ill. I had an idea, but then you brought up
that last part about your high school picture, and now
I'm very intrigued. I think we're.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Covering more in white tea to school either, Hey not
a white And if I if I ever do again,
it's it's for Brian Danielson.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
There you go, the Yes movement. I think Recovery had
loved the Way You Lie with Rihanna. They still play
that on the Radio. That song is released the test
of time, Brad, we have so much wrestling to get into.
We must start with the two most important words here
at canmic infringement. It's not for Steph watching.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
It might be we are buffering my friend.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Mm hmm that it feels right, Brad. Let's get into it,
like really, I've just given up on the production. You know,
we gotta look for works for some new folks. Yeah. Yeah,
we'll talk after the episode. But it's Steph watch man.
It's been a minute since we've spoken about Stephanie va Quire,
so Adam Pierce made it official since we were last
on air. He made this official on Raw. Stephanie Vacquire

(20:50):
faces EO Sky at WWE Wrestle Palooza, which somehow is
this weekend. It's on Saturday night. They're gonna be fighting
for the vacant Women's Championship hip formally held by Naomi.
It's a big look. Yeah, it's a big look for
Steph to be prominently featured on this card. I don't
remember the last time I've seen her wrestle in a match, bra.

(21:10):
It seems like they've really been holding her back to
have this moment, have this match be the big deal
that it is. Unless I've missed her action on RA
I know she was double dipping and doing some work
on SmackDown. It just seems like I haven't seen her
compete in several weeks, which I'm not happy about. But
at the same time, going back to your m an endpoint,
hopefully this has been a time of rest and recovery.

(21:31):
Because you remember the schedule she was cutting a month
or two ago. It was crazy. Remember that money in
the bank weekend in the summer heading into the fall,
where she wrestled like three times and seventy two hours
or forty eight hours. It was ridiculous. And yet I
still think there is that fervor and that momentum for
her on the main roster, so she must win this weekend.

(21:52):
We love Eosky, this is well documented, but this is
Stephanie Vakre's moment. This is her match to get the
w I think she's going to leave Indianapolis as the
new Raw Women's champ. We know that Wrestle Palooza is
the first show of the ESPN era. I think this
is going to be the most important night in Stephanie
va Care's young WWE made roster career.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
I think you're right, and I also am I'm this
weekend is going to be crazy. This weekend is going
to be crazy, like there's a lot of wrestling that
it's happening this weekend.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Again, I'm sick now.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
I feel like I have to go to bed after
this just to get ready for this weekend.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
But you got that Thursday evaluation. You got wrestling all
day Saturday, big time. Brad Winchester.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
We are building things in the shop. We are built.
We are so busy. And also I'm I'm just I
just want to play border Lance Tyler. I did get
some time in yesterday. It felt pretty good. It was
it was later, but I got some time in.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
That game is fun. Oh so good.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
We have to talk about a lot of wrestle and
we're going to get into the WWB questions. But just
catch us up the last time, the last time we
spoke on this here podcast, aj Lee was not back
in the WWE.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
So let's get into it.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I can't believe that, and that's exactly where I want
to focus our conversation, at least for my question. So
we know Andrade has gone from WWE. We know that
its official WrestleMania twenty twenty seven will be in Saudi Arabia.
But I want to talk about something that makes me happy,
So let's light it up. Aj Lee is back. This

(23:33):
return the return on SmackDown Now, which will be about
a week and a half ago. This return, Brad felt
special before her music even hit. Then the music hits.
Her entrance, along with the Becky beat down and the
celebration that followed with her partner in real life, Cea
and Punk, it became one of my favorite wrestling moments

(23:54):
of the year. I want to know what did you
think of the moment? And granted we saw lat week
on Raw her interaction with Becky. They made the mixed
tag match official for Russell Palooza Becky and Seth versus
Punk and aj But again, if we're thinking back to
AJ's return on SmackDown, what did you think of the
moment and describe why you believe fans connect with aj

(24:18):
Lee in such a profound way.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
The exact same way that they connect with Eminem.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
She's open, honest, and raw, and I think she wasn't
that way when she was doing her run.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
I think what happened was.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
They knew about the relationship with her and seem Punk,
they leaned into that and they turned aj Lee into
aj Punk toward you know, like that.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
That's basically what happened.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
She hadn't had her own version of a pipe bomb,
and that never really felt like It's not that it
didn't feel authentic, it just felt forced. But her character
and her physical appearance she yoked always has been shredded
the way that they described it in her in her

(25:05):
book after her diagnosis and her struggles with mental health
and all of those different things, and having the vile
things that were being said about her and her appearance
in the ring is crazy to me because she's beautiful
and she's so good and I don't I don't know
what she looks like in a w W ring now

(25:25):
at a live event, but we saw like snippets of
that as she worked. She's been working with people kind
of since she left right like she's been doing in
ring work, she just hasn't been directly doing it.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
But having her come out.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
As soon as that little like the lead up to
let Light It Up played, that crowd went nuts and
it was earned, and it was because it sort of
felt like, you know, like with any of the other
talent edge and really anybody that's been gone that was

(25:58):
able to come back where they didn't think, we didn't
think we'd never see them again. Like you know, that's
let's say three four years from now, there's a big
match and somebody's getting beat up and you hear y'all
want to go big, and then the piggy walks out.
He's wearing the singlet, Like that place is going to

(26:19):
go insane, because we know what it's like to have.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
To lose things.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
We know what it's like to work hard and then
have it not quite pay off. Anybody that's ever auditioned
for something or tried out for a team, or you know,
made the team but didn't get that spot. You know,
anybody that's ever been there, We've all tried for something
and didn't get it, and that will always resonate or

(26:47):
feel like we've earned it but had it taken away
for some reason, like something gets canceled or maybe you're
sick or whatever.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
That's aj Lee, and we know her story. She published
her story, she's spoken about her story. Other people have too,
and I have not once.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I'm sure they're out there, but I have not once
ever ever seen anything negative published about this person ever,
Like who's mad at aj Lee? Like who's upset about
People might be jealous of her and have felt that,
like they're not on the show and aj Lee is
and I've been working really hard and all that stuff,

(27:26):
But I guarantee they also feel super good about her,
and I hope they get it. You know, if I'm talent,
I always want to be on the show. And my
mindset is I deserve to be there because I think
I'm one of the best in the world. So this
person goes back after a long hiatus. We don't know
if she can work. All that stuff that goes out
the window because it's aj Lee. Because number one, look

(27:49):
at her. Number two, what a story. Number three, it's
the same thing with the stand stuff. We kind of
feel like we know her because we got to peek
into her life a little bit. We don't know where
at all, but we got to peek into our life
a little bit. They never get into substance. I can
hear that story all the livelong day. I don't know

(28:09):
what kind of tonnail or fingernail clipper this person is.
Is this an over the trash in the bathroom person,
or is this out on the couch and let it
lie and hopefully I get it afterward.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Person an essential questions.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
There's little things like that, those little idiosyncrasies that drive
you crazy about a person or make you love them
and you're in the endear you to that person. Like
we don't know anything about these people, not anything that matters,
not the little day today things.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
So to see the crowd react like that, and of
course they also feel connected because it's see them punk,
you know, right that doing that in Chicago made a
lot of sense to me. Super excited for it, super
excited for her. I thought her promo was one of
the best, most important promos that we've had in a

(28:56):
long time.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Akin to.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
What felt like old life beef between l A. Knight
Andrew McIntyre. Uh, transitioning that into a promo where La
Knight went out and talked about mental health. AJ going
out there and being open and talking about it and
having having the.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Crowd sheer for mental wellness is I got nothing, man.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
The closest thing I have to that is people applauding
and doing a chant for Anthony Bowen's being gay, right.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Like that's that's probably the next closest.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Thing where it is reuniting with Max Gaster, which I
have in my aw know, get baby, it's it's.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
We'll see the parking the parking lot afterwards, like I
did this for the legend.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
I don't care about Max.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
I did it. I did it for Jerry Lynn.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
We'll see, we'll see it.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
That's a big moment w W WE We've not had
many mental health cheers like their p there p. I
think even you could tell a j Lead was taking
a back, like, oh, I thought they would applaud from
my mental journey, but I didn't expect. I mean she
said therapy, you know, and Jess and then they did
it because they love Ajle and we love Ajle and

(30:05):
we love mental health journeys. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think
it just as a people were more aware of it, Brad.
But what you said is is so interesting to me.
There really is a tangible contrast between both cm Punk
and aj Lee. In terms of Cmpunk is one of
the most polarizing figures in the history of wrestling versus
his life partner aj Lee, seemingly beloved by everyone, and

(30:29):
yet what they share amongst other things is their fan
bases really ride for them like few wrestlers. People just
really gravitate not only to them as artists, but who
they are as people. And you know, aj Lee's from
Union City, New Jersey, So if you're from Jersey, I
gotta I gotta stand out for you and applaud you
and support you. I haven't seen an aj Lee match

(30:53):
in so long. So she left WWE in twenty fifteen.
There's a whole segment of the fan base who haven't
seen her work a decade.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Ever, Yeah, this is such an exciting time for her.
She even said in the ring, I'm aj Lee. In
case you don't know me, I'm your favorite wrestler's favorite wrestler,
I said, talk to stuff. It's true. She's been credited
by countless to tell me when I'm telling lies. Of
course they would be together. Of course they would end up,

(31:22):
you know, being each other's person and getting married. So
I think you and I have predicted I know I have.
I forget what your prediction was, but at least the
past two or three royal rumbles. Oh, this is going
to be the one that aj Lee returns. This is
going to be the time She's going to be a
surprise entrant. I'm glad that they waited. This made so
much more sense to further the CM Punk and Seth

(31:44):
Rollins rivalry, to give it a fresh coat of paint.
Dare I say, to give Becky Lynch a new challenger
at continuing to elevate the Intercontinental Championship. I would expect
aj versus Becky to be an IC title program after
this match at Wressell Palooza. But I'm just so happy
aj Lee is back in wrestling, that fans are being

(32:05):
introduced to her and her art. And like you said, Brad,
I continue to be a sucker for mental health journeys,
whether it's from people we know personally, whether it's from celebrities,
for folks to say, yo, even though I'm on TV,
life can get really hard. And I was diagnosed with,
you know, being bipolar, and I needed to take a break.

(32:29):
I needed to find myself. I needed to work on myself.
It got really dark and here I am now. I
made it through the mud. I made it out the mud,
and I'm doing well. I'm excited, and you know now
chant therapy, therapy, therapy, it was just so beautiful and
it made me. I think it really transcended wrestling and
it was just a nice It was a nice exhale,

(32:50):
was a nice reflection on particularly in these past ten years,
particularly in twenty twenty five. Some days it feels really
heavy to exist, Brad. It feels like there's so much
going on, and it's nice to know that we're not
in this We're not in this alone, and even our
our favorite wrestlers, you know, face some of the struggles
that we might on a given day. I'm so happy

(33:11):
she's back. I'm sure this tag match is going to
be a blast, obviously. I mean, he could end up
mean inventing the show. At this point, there's so much
excitement and hype around it. AJ Lee's back. What it's
time to be a wrestling fan.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
I do think that the funniest thing that came out
of all of that was Naomi saying big Gym is
gonna get slapped when he gets back.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
In the door after robbing me.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yea good.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
I was cacklid.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
It's like, what, what terrible timing to finally get through
reunite and as soon as she leaves, aj comes back.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
I felt real.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Bad, but like that'll be a fun reunion as long
as everybody's healthy and able to return. You never know
with the stuff, and I just feel so good for
everybody involved, especially seeing Punk. And on that note, I
wanted to say, like, this is one of those times
where I went, Okay, he is polarizing, but it's another

(34:01):
good reminder if we really don't know why.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
He popped off the way he did.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
For all I know, he's got his own mental health struggles,
because what do you do when it's just an abrasive
personality that is like I'm in fight or flight all
the time writing that article about survival mode and thinking
about like, well, that's just anxiety manifesting itself in a
certain way, Like I wouldn't want to feel like that
all the time. I don't want to punch people too,
so I don't. I don't really know anything about this man.

(34:29):
I don't know anything about their real lives, and trying
to be a little bit better about not just going like,
well it seems like it's this, or it seems like
it's that I have no idea. We don't know these people,
and I just hope everybody's good, because ultimately that's all
it really matters. So Tyler, I wrote down. Aj Lee returned.
Brock has also been back. WrestleMania is going to Saudi.

(34:54):
The ESPN deal right now, the Disney bundle deal in
ESPN deal, if you get it now, is certainly only
five dollars less a month than it will be when
it goes up to full price. At least that was
the initial thing I saw. It'll go from thirty nine
to ninety nine to for no commercial jones for Hulu
and ESPN and Disney, plus to forty six ninety nine

(35:17):
or forty four to ninety nine or something like that,
and some of them I thought forty nine ninety nine.
I'm not actually sure what the set price is going
to be. I have it right now because I really
wanted to watch Red Zone, and then I found out
they hadn't ironed it out. It's ten dollars more a
month for Red Zone on top of the ESPN stuff,
So I believe I'll be canceling this soon. Okay, So, Tyler,

(35:42):
with all the pros and cons of the past two
weeks of WWE, where do you stand right now?

Speaker 1 (35:52):
I'm less excited about the ESPN deal than I was
when we last recorded. I remember our production team put
a clip our social media team, how about that clip
online about me expressing my excitement what a time wrestling
is cool again, this set and the other And I
believe that when I said it, But now I'm recognizing
or I'm reckoning with the fact that, yeah, this thing

(36:12):
is not free. Brad and the Peacock era, the Peacock pricing,
which I still want to keep. By the way, if
I want my dateline, I want my NXT content. But
now if I got a transition to ESPN, it costs
money that is quite significant. So money part aside, because
I'm sure all of us are audience included, can lament
not wanting to pay more for content that we previously

(36:35):
had at a lower price point. The re odd season
of it all, the brock Lesnar return of it all
just not for me. I recognize for some audience members
the re odd season partnership not a huge deal. Brock
Lesner coming back not only not a huge deal for some,
but they're actually really excited. I mean, obviously it's been successful,

(36:57):
Brock's been getting great pops every time he's appeared at
SummerSlam on SmackDown. I'm sure people are going to be
tuning in to see him versus John Cena. That's also
another featured match on the wrest of Paluza card. But
this does nothing for me, so I'm less excited, and
as a WWE fan, I just feel so conflicted when

(37:19):
watching this product and following this product and deciding whether
to support this product, because on one hand, we have Stephanie
Vacher versus Eo Sky, we have aj Lee's return match
on the same card that features Brock and Sina, and
I'm here for the Sena farewell tour. I just don't
know that we need Rock Lesner. And you could argue, well,

(37:41):
if Sena requested him, given their history, he's having these
last matches. It's more than just hey, we want to
bring Brock back just to show that we can do
whatever we want to move forward. But this is in
the wake of them canceling the media scrums following the shows,
and that began at SummerSlam. The night Lesner would appear,
I would surmise in fear of questions they would get

(38:01):
about Brock's return, given that he was mentioned in the
Janelle Grand lawsuit against Vince McMahon. So I don't love it.
The announcement of WrestleMania being in Saudi Arabia for twenty
twenty seven. I don't know if you watched that press conference, Brad,
but I tuned into some of it and it felt
so it was giving black mirror. Yes, it was uncomfortable

(38:23):
to watch. You had like they did this just the
tour met me. You had Bianca, there, you had Steph there,
you Seth was there. We love Seth, but talent didn't
seem visibly excited about it. It just seemed like, Hey,
we're getting a huge bag from his excellency in Saudi Arabia,

(38:45):
and we knew this was going to happen eventually, but
here it is. It's official TKO ri Odd season. We're
just running things. We're running the combat sports entertainment world,
and you know, either get with it or don't tune
in and go on from there. So I continue to
feel conflicted about where I stand with WWE. The reality
happens to be that some of my favorite performers in

(39:06):
wrestling work for this company. In Stephanie Baker's case, they're
doing really well, and they're on the precipice of having
huge moments, and I want to tune in for that
I think with the ESPN deal price point wise, WWE's
making it really difficult fiscally for me to be able
to support and follow the product as much as I

(39:28):
want to. So I'm conflicted. I'm concerned about where the
product is headed. But coming off the strength of the
bloodline storyline, the Roman Reigns Rain business was booming, and
this is them cashing in on how hot the company's been.
You and I spoke on our last episode. SmackDown is

(39:51):
coming here. It's going to be at Arizona State University's campus.
Prices are crazy, It's going to be at the Hockey Arena.
They're running a show in Prescott Valley for NXT NXT
Halloween Havock in Prescott, and then they're going to be
here for Raw once again on December first. But the
ticket prices are crazy. Yeah, and I don't think I'm going.
I don't have tickets to any of these events at

(40:12):
the moment. I want to see Steph look here. I
want to see her live, but I also don't want
to transfer money out of my savings account just to
get in the building for that. I'm conflicted. How do
you feel.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
I want to see the talent that's that's the part
that sucks, is like.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Am I am I committed to seeing these pls outside
of the really big ones, I haven't been super into
the other plas, Like they're fine. There's some there's awful
good matches, but like the last one was Cheeks, there
were like the last two matches were pretty good, but
the rest of the card was mid at best. It

(40:54):
wasn't like a performer standpoint. I just didn't care about
any of it. It's just like doing it to do it,
you know. So Mania and Riod is going to be
probably the one of the biggest spectacles ever because they
have a trillion dollar budget. They're gonna make more money
than they'll ever even imagine they could make by having
just a stadium that's an absolute sausage fest loaded with

(41:17):
people that we're gonna have fireworks and like craziness.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
I'm sure it's gonna be bonkers, right.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Undertaker with Papa maybe Stone Cold returns for a match.
I mean, I'm sure there's going to be.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
I always find that stuff interesting, given given what we know.
But I'm gonna leave that alone because I don't want
to make it a political commentary here. But I always
find that fascina anyone that's like, yeah, we can go
because they have money. Cool, But yeah, after the rest.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Of that, it's about the bag. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
So I just.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
When all the internal reporting and external reporting and anecdotal
evidence and evidence evidence suggests that everybody's miser but when
they go on these trips, well all the women are miserable.
If they go on these trips, then it's kind of
hard to defend it when you have your female stars

(42:12):
also saying how excited they are to go, which feels
like a I work for this company and I don't
want to get in trouble kind of line. I thought
the choice of personnel that they had there was interesting
as well. You have some of your top talent, your
top female talent, especially.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
There.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
You have seth Rawlins there, Tyler, who looked happiest in
the in.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
The group of talent, maybe the undertaker.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, everybody there was grimacing. Otherwise, everybody looked like they
were attending a funeral.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
And Morgan even popped up. We haven't seen Morgan in
months since her injury.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
So I think I think the fact that everybody looked miserable,
and I don't know if that was a travel thing,
or if they were told to put on a face
of professionalism or what because professional detached does look miserable.
Everybody gets hostile, resting face. But it just felt like
a man, we're doing WrestleMania in Saudi. We can't even
have our family and friends go. We can't maybe passports

(43:12):
and all this stuff. And do I feel safe having
them travel? And what if there's another conflict like what
happened last time where they were worried about canceling it?
Like what There's so many factors that go into that
where the UK has been doing wrestling stuff with WWE
for decades and they don't get the first WrestleMania out
of the States or out of North America. I thought

(43:33):
that was really fascinating and likely they feel pretty betrayed
by the whole thing. But you know what, it's access
and it's they are trying to become a global thing,
not a totally American thing. I think you sent me
an article about Vince McMahon made tickets affordable for families

(43:54):
so families could go.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Somebody did Mike step said that shout out stef escape somewhere.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Static that was his, But the article was critical of
it right, it was like and that's why it was
a big mistake.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
And it's like, we.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Live in a time where it's like it shouldn't be
affordable for families to go. It should be so expensive
that only the wealthy can go to a pro wrestling
event where we use terms like carnie to describe how
it used to run.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
And now we're going like it's a premium ticket price.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Like that's cool for the business and for like the
spectacle and making money and everything, but it's like you're
gonna limit access to all these people that want to go,
especially kids.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Who are your future marketable audience.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Taking that away hurts that part and then makes this
exclusive club that it becomes like an unreachable thing when
when little little Ralfie wants to go see SmackDown over
and press it, but tickets are two ninety for the
nosebleeds or something.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
So I don't know that that part like bums me out.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
It becoming such a business model and making premium ticket
prices even more than what is already affordable. Because we
went to a pay per view live, we went to
an aw pay per view, and the pricing from when
we went to dynamite collision to the pay per view

(45:20):
was what would you say about triple No, it was
sixth the same tickets that we had that were going
to be like, let's just move us to where we
sat for double or nothing. That price that we paid
for that ticket would have gotten us into like almost
the front.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
But then you flip it and put it in.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
A pay per view, My bad, and suddenly we're we're
pretty far back. We're higher up, we have great seats,
but we're not super close. So I just think I
think about that a lot to go from what we
paid to go to SmackDown. We're money at raw in
our case, to hey, the announced Macdown's going to be
here right when it got really hot, and it was

(46:04):
one hundred and fifty dollars more for those seats.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
That's nuts, it is and granted and they well, that's
exactly why I mulled arena esu's hockey Arenaough, let's say
it's seats at max I want to say, forty five
one hundred five thousand, much less capacity than a desert
Diamond arena in Glendale at West Gate. So you could
argue you've got to recoup the money somehow. But Brad,
like you said, it's just we see this across sports

(46:29):
as well, not just with ww ticket prices. Unfortunately, you're
pricing a lot of fans and families out. That's just
the reality. It's not only is the live event experience
unreachable for a lot of the fan base, but now
even the app how to watch it at home that
costs additional money. And that's just to your point. If

(46:50):
the calculus, these decisions would not be made. If researcher
did improve that consumers will pay for it. So ultimately,
everyone has to decide how they want to support the product.
And what a time we're in now where there's more
wrestling to support than ever, and it's up to each
fan to decide, you know, what they want to consume.
You and I we documented this on the show. We

(47:12):
attended an indie show in Phoenix recently to support Fallen Gray.
So you have Arizona Wrestling Federation, so maybe this is
a chance where you lean into your your local promotions
and maybe give some of that money to you know,
pay what was it twenty twenty five dollars to watch
an AWF show live? So there's options, there's choices, to
be made. It's just unfortunate that I think where you

(47:34):
and I were this time last year, Oh w W,
We's coming to Arizona. Let's go, We're going to make
it happen, And now it's oh, well, it's kind of unspoken.
It's probably not going to happen this time, but you know,
maybe maybe uh maybe maybe next year when they come through.
It's unfortunate, but let's get let's get Tucson a show.
By the way, it's been years since wwe went to
two soon for an actual televised event. One oh for

(47:57):
TELEVI before before SAT. I remember Smacked and I want
to say the main event was then Dean Ambrose versus
AJ Styles. That had to be I think I think
it was legit twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen. I was
still working at Flowing Wells. Oh my, this is before
we knew each other. Yeah, so that's at the top
of the list as well, along with with giving gist.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Show yes we haven't even had know since we went.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Check this out. Along with giving the GI hosts and
audience members a discount for this ESPN app and this access,
let's also get a show back in Sucson. Come on now,
Southern Arizona deserves it. But also thank you for showing
love to the valley too.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
Yeah, but if we can do Green Bay, if we.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Can there you go by Wisconsin, There you go. There's
two hundred thousand people there. There's nine hundred and fifty
thousand people in Pema County. There's like three hundred thousand,
four hundred thousand up Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
We probably see that will fill up.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
Yes, yes, get.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Him out there. In fairness, we need a new place
for that to happen. Tyler, It's time. We got to
get into it. We got to move on. It is
time to talk about some uncomfortable conversation stuff through the
lens of the media, the fallout conversations online. This is
so interesting to me. I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

(49:13):
Person with a journalism background, play the music. Is time
for what happened here?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
What happened here? So, outside of wrestling, the biggest news
story last week was, of course, emanating from or Utaw,
the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Of course, we're not going
to go through all the details. If you're tuning in,
Brad and Ira, quite sure you've heard about this. You
may have even seen the video of his assassination, and

(49:50):
what a time. We're living in brad where, you know,
you can log on an app and in one moment
see a wrestling meme and in the next moment see
someone being killed in real time quite you know, quite
graphically at that. But as you said, you and I
spoke during the production meeting about how we wanted to
approach this topic and rather than again all the details

(50:12):
about the story and the manhunt and the capture, we
really want to look at it from a media standpoint,
because this felt really unique to me in we have
a specific example here. PHNX, a company that's gained a
lot of popularity in Arizona, especially in the valley. They
fired the company. The parent company, All City Network, fired

(50:33):
a longtime SUNS reporter Gerald Borgay for tweets that he
put out in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. And
there were commentators across the political aisle who also were
in trouble for their comments following Kirk's assassination. So Borgay tweeted,

(50:54):
amongst other tweets, quote political differences are not the same
thing as spewing hateful rhetoric on a daily basis, and
refusing to mourn a life devoted to that cause is
not the same thing as celebrating gun violence. Just so
we're one hundred percent clear on that, and I believe
Borgay was responding to someone else's tweet there. And then finally,

(51:15):
amongst other tweets, Borgay wrote, quote, he was a father
half of y'all. Didn't give a damn about doing anything
to stop gun violence when the victims of mass shootings
were all caps literal children. Last week, tragically, students at
a Denver high school were murdered, Borgey continues, and those
kids were in bigots spreading genocidal propaganda, or a mindset

(51:38):
he directly fed into with his Holy Grail of ironies.
So many people, and this was on Twitter. Many people
on Twitter were supporting Borgay's commentary, many others were not
happy with what he said, and thus the tagging of
PHNX and All City Network began. And then a few
hours later or maybe even the next day, PHNX put

(52:00):
out a tweet that lets people know that they've parted
ways with Borgae and the classic The comments of our
talent don't reflect the values of our company, Brad, This
was pretty striking to me for a couple different reasons. One,
for anyone that follows the Suns, especially here in the valley.
Gerald Borgay, over the last ten years has become one of,
if not the premier writers covering Phoenix's most popular sports franchise,

(52:25):
So for him to be gone so quickly was pretty jarring.
And then secondly, as you mentioned, I remember being at
the j School studying journalism at the University of Arizona
years ago, and there was this talk from professors and
amongst students about, Wow, this is a changing landscape. You know,
the days of just specializing in one area of the business. Oh,

(52:47):
I'm going to be a newspaper writer, I'm going to
be a TV reporter, I'm going to do this or that.
Those days were gone. When I was there, starting in
twenty eleven, the vibe was really you have to know
the trade in and out. You have to be be
able to do a little bit of everything to be
a viable candidate for journalism jobs. I think now if
we fast forward to twenty twenty five, we're also in

(53:08):
this new era. Not just that you have to have
to be talented and versatile in all the aspects of
the profession, but also how you utilize your social media
is incredibly important being a professional, right, a professional who
isn't necessarily putting their opinion one way or the other,

(53:30):
but also maintaining your own ethics and your own standards
to be authentically you. That's a dance that I would
say even you and I do as teachers, is how
do you kind of walk that fine line between not
being a robot but having those professional standards of Okay,
I have this tweet in the drafts. I stand on it.

(53:50):
I believe I'm in the right. I feel this in
my soul. But if I put this out it could
result in me losing my job and my income. So
I found it fascinating that the sheer volume of commentary
coming out following Kirk's assassination was not only rapid, but

(54:13):
it led to some pretty significant names across sports and
pop culture, you know, leading to their layoffs. And in
Borgeie case, it seems so fast that you know, it
seemed like instantly he was kind of the face of
phn X and one of the faces of all cities
network footprint in the Valley to being gone. I just
want to quickly add here, Brad, this is coming off

(54:35):
All City Network laying off staff last year, which of
course you know always hits home dust. We never want
to see people laid off. And then also you have Gannett,
the parent company of the Arizona Republic, speaking of journalism,
recently buying out notable writers, including veteran opinion columnists Laurie Roberts, E. J. Martini,
l Via Diaz. It's a new error for journalism, and

(54:58):
unfortunately for monetary reasons, for reasons such as as Borgaie's tweet,
you know, folks losing their jobs right pretty quickly. So
all that exposition being said, Brad, what did you think
of the fallout? And just again, as someone who was
in the business of being a commentator, this balance between

(55:22):
you know, having those professional standards but also still maintaining
your own authentic, authentic thoughts that you want to share
on social.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Most of the thoughts I want to share on social
I don't like because I listen, man, I didn't even
post that, like until my day of my graduation for
my master's degree.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Most people in my life didn't know I was in college.
I don't.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
They don't need to know it not everybody needs to
know my thoughts about Charlie Kirk. Like putting it out
there is usually some form of like either I'm so
said about a thing, I need to say it, or
it's finally something happen I get to go dunk on
people like you see it with elections, you see it

(56:08):
with all kinds of things, and people are going to
not interpret what you said. They're going to interpret the
reason behind what you said. So you could do the
same thing with Charlie Kirk if you really wanted to,
like you said some terrible misogynistic, racist, homophobic stuff, why
do you say it?

Speaker 3 (56:27):
So not?

Speaker 2 (56:27):
What did he say it? And what does that mean?
It's you know, like if you unpack it and go like, well,
why is he saying that? If it's like, well, I'm
insecure because I see what these things happen and I
feel like I should have gotten that job because I
only know white things and I am white.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
And this is why I think the white thing is
a problem. I don't know, like you.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Can unpack the why you could unpack why you would
respond to these tweets to feel like you have to
say something where you don't have to. You're choosing to,
or maybe you were so overcome with emotion that you feel.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Like you have to.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
I told you before we started in the production meeting,
I was looking at Facebook. I haven't been on Facebook
since since this happened, and I saw a couple of
colleagues posts of stuff and it was like, I am
so upset about this, and it's like, honestly shit last
week about these kids dying. And you work in a school,
so it's stuff like that where I just you know,

(57:19):
and and saying stuff that I just think is just
flatly wrong. I don't mean like wrong morally, I mean
incorrect information because you're blinded by this zeal that is
so strange. I want to I want to say this
to make it make a point without going too far
and getting myself fire. Stephen Colbert said something in an

(57:41):
interview where they were talking about his faith and he
was being interviewed he's on somebody Else's show, and he said,
because you've been pretty like open with your faith but
also your belief in separation of church and state, and
he was like, well, I don't believe in separation of
church and state because I'm worried what will happen to
the state. I'm worried what it'll do to my faith

(58:02):
because if you take your faith and wrap it up
in a ball and put it in this politician, and
then this politician doesn't win or does the wrong thing,
it means your God was wrong, and it means God
was wrong, and.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
That hurts my faith.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
And I think that's such an important element to all
of this is people not conflating. Are people misconflating state
craft with faith and trying to merge them together, and
they've never spent supposed to You're not supposed to merge
them together. The Bible is explicit about that, and I
think people don't get that, like the render under Caesar, right,

(58:41):
Like you're supposed to get the state what it needs
because you were a citizen of heaven. It's it's principle
of dual citizenship. So when people are like, no, God
would want you to do this law, it's like God
wants you to follow his laws, his laws.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
Did you not read it?

Speaker 2 (58:59):
It's written down, We literally refer to it as the
Word of God, and you just forgot it exists?

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Like what? So having these like ironic.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Not knowing hypocritical responses to things from people I know
and love about something they know nothing about. We saw
Charlie Kirk die. We don't know Charlie Kirk. We know
Charlie Kirk's stuff. He said openly and publicly. I want
to go back, like, and I just wonder, like how
much of that was Charlie and how much of that

(59:30):
was character work to make money or to inflame a
base for some other reason, because what was said, there's stuff.
I'm sure he said stuff that I was like, Yeah,
that's a good point.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
I don't know what it is because it's hard to
get to that point when you hear like black people
are better off being slaves, Like that's the kind of
stuff where it's like, Okay, I no longer I'm gonna
take anything this dude says seriously, because that's crazy. That
is crazy talk. So am I gonna dunk on people

(01:00:02):
for being murdered?

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Though? No?

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Am I gonna somehow alter my day because of it?
Not necessarily, but like, I'm also not gonna go out
and publicly start giving my opinions about death because people
are gonna interpret it as you're okay with somebody being murdered.
My final thing here is that you'll know this website

(01:00:27):
probably well. I had this poster on my wall. I
was trying to pull it up because I can't remember
what it was. I need everybody that got this far
to go to your logical fallacy is dot com right
now and to start reading through them, because I want
to say, like five or six of those are firing
off at all times on social media, and and and

(01:00:50):
one of them will just I'll this, I'll just use
this one.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
And it's and it's the ad Hominem attacks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
It's it's it's attacking. They break it down in ways
that are clear attacking your opponent's character or personal traits
in an attempt to undermine their argument. We have relied
so much on this to go like, well he's an idiot.
Well that doesn't defeat the argument that just says he's
an idiot.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
That does nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
So there's been so much of this going on, like
one opinion or the other doesn't matter, which instead of
like going like, no, argue against the argument, don't argue against.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
The person, that I can't even.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Go on social anymore because it's like every time I'm
on ex I feel like I'm attending a Nazi rally,
and I'm just trying to see what's going on in
the world of wrestling, and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
It's just slippery slope.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
If we allow A to happen, then Z will consequently
happen too.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Therefore A should not happen. We don't what. No, we
don't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
So it's all that if then stuff it's like going
a hypothesis is going to occur. It just makes me
sad because I think everybody says the right things at
a time like this. The one thing I'll say is
that almost everybody has said, like, this is wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
You shouldn't be murdering people.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Gun violence for any reason is wrong, including the people
that are like gun advocates are also saying, yeah, this
is wrong. This is not what we mean when we
say we want to have our Second Amendment rights. It's
not go murder someone. That's wrong. The problem I have
with it is the I'm suddenly a detective and it's

(01:02:33):
this person's fault or this group's fault, or that a
murderer murdered.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Why.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
I have some theories, but that's the thing. Saying why
I think it happened is what would get me fired
and it's probably why Gerald was exited. It's because we
can't just put stuff out there that implies they deserved it,
that this is the reason it happened.

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
Here's who to blame any.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Of that stuff. Somebody died. I feel real bad for
their kids. Thoughts and prayers.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Right right, just processing what this means. And I'll say this,
I don't know how much Charlie Kirk and I agreed on.
I would say probably just about nothing bright, or at least
the character like Charlie Kirk. Probably both like everything. Yeah,

(01:03:35):
I mean maybe we like pizza and that's about it.
What I'll say is because his connection to Arizona is
so visceral. You know, I think you and I before
we recorded, agreed that we couldn't not address the fallout
in the aftermath. I mean, his his funeral, his public
funeral is going to be in Glendale. It's going to

(01:03:58):
be at the same place where you'll watch it. No,
I take that back, because we haven't watched wrestling at
State Farm Stadium. We watched across the street at Desertamn Arena.
But it's going to be where the Arizona Cardinals play,
and I'm sure thousands and thousands of people will be there,
including Donald Trump, you know, President Trump, and a lot
of people in the White House. They're going to converge
onto the valley, I mean turning point. USA. Kirk's organization,

(01:04:21):
which has been undoubtedly incredibly successful in bringing in a
new generation of conservative voters. Their headquarters are in Phoenix.
So what comes next for that organization? What happens you know,
after a week from today when his public funeral occurs.
Who knows, but there is no question you and I

(01:04:42):
spoke about this as well. There were so many candidates
for who wanted to be the young face of conservatives
in America in this second age of Donald Trump. There
was the Nick Fuentes is, the Theo Vonns of the world.
It could have been any number of these people, but
Charlie Kirk stood above as having this singular gift to

(01:05:07):
get people excited about conservatism, about their candidates, and particularly
Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. So, man, it's interesting,
I know you and I are timelines, like you said,
were filled with not only wrestling takes, but Charlie Kirk
related posts. One of them for me, happened to be
Gerald Borgay, and now he is his Bio is former

(01:05:29):
Sons reporter, so we'll see what's next for him. We'll
see what's next for phn X as an organization. Since
I graduated from the Jay School, it's been less of Okay,
you graduate and you work for these sort of historic publications,
the Arizona Republics and the New York Times as if
you will. Now there are these other upstart organizations where
people graduating from journalism school, maybe not even graduating, but

(01:05:53):
are looking to get into the business. You know, they
can go to these organizations and begin their career, continue
their career. But as you it out in our text
conversation during the week, I wonder what those contracts look
like where Okay, on the content side, you could be
doing great work, but then how do you conduct your
own social media? Which is something you and I and
other teachers across the country also implore our students to

(01:06:15):
think about. Is yo your digital footprint? That thing follows
you and it can it could potentially haunt you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Well, I tweeted out the only thing I get tweeted
on that day because I.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Don't know what's a tweet? What do I say?

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
Yeah? What what do you even tweet? In that situation.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
The timeline was flooded, flooded with Charlie Kirk. It was
Kirk everywhere, So I put a Quirk memo. I'll just
put a gift of Captain Kirk from the nineteen sixties
Star Trek up because I don't know what else to say.
One final thing I will say, I looked at the
news because I wanted to see what.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
The fallout of the fallout of the fallout.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Was, so I looked up Cheryl Borge, New York Posts
Suns beat writer gets fired after a series of controversial
Charlie Kirk posts. NBA reporter fired and wake a Charlie
Kirk social media post.

Speaker 3 (01:06:59):
That's the big lead.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Let's see Front Office Sports Panther staffer. Sons reporter fired
for Charlie Kirk posts easy Central pH and X Sports
Sons writer Jeryl Bourget fired after Charlie Kirk posts soap
Central GoFundMe for Phoenix Suns reporter Drel Bourge raises over
seven thousand dollars as PHNX dot Todd. I'm not opening
that crap the defector.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
You ready for this, I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
NBA reporter fired after accurately describing Charlie Kirk's beliefs, right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
I saw that it's just it's just crazy, man.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
And in that whole news organization, the whole thing is.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
Like the defector, and I struggle with and we speak
about this in the various forms of entertainment we cover.
You have the character, you have the person we know
on screen versus wondering who is the person in real
life outside of the cameras. If your rhetoric is attacking

(01:07:58):
black women, attack black and brown communities, and then it's
a tragedy like this happens. As you pointed out, Brad,
you were thinking about what do I even say online?
Do I even address it? My thing is, I'm just
going to sit back and reflect and not put anything
out for public consumption. Not everyone needs to know. But
I also understand if you feel passionately about something, you

(01:08:20):
feel passionately about your values, and you decide to tweet
that out, that's a decision you have to make where
maybe you are willing to risk your occupation and maybe
you are going to bet on yourself. But I know
this is going to continue to be a topic, Brad,
particularly in our home state here in the desert, heading
into next weekend when again that is that there will

(01:08:40):
be that public funeral for Kirk at State Farm Stadium.
And I just hope when these situations come up. Sometimes
I think about Freya, you know, our favorite, our favorite
third grader, your amazing daughter, and I just wonder, when
she's our age, what does society look like, social media,
how we treat each other andpathy, the rhetoric that's around politics.

(01:09:03):
Is it going to be any healthier when she's our age?
I certainly hope so, man, because if it continues the
way we've been doing this, I just I just think
there has to be a better way that we that
we treat each other, and that we get to elected
office and we get fame and we become a millionaire
living in Paradise Valley, Like, there's got to be a
healthier way to do this together as a people. I

(01:09:24):
can only hope that phrase generation is gonna figure this
out better than we have attempted to do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
I hope so, because because the empathy is running real
thin in America right now, and I.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
Don't get it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
It's it's the people deserve time or that's all about
me time.

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
And it's weird. It's so weird.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
And we're in a very scary place right now. As
I'm I'm printing out, I was telling you about like
the stuff I'm printing for phrase k Pop Demon Hunter's
costume because her and a friends want to dress like
the girls from K Pop Demon Hunters, so they got
the clothes they I'm working on the big weapon thing
for for Freya. For for treating, I'm gonna have to

(01:10:08):
potentially say something about K pop and how Freya would
love to go to Korea someday. And after the fiasco
that was that South Korean plant being rated this past week,
I don't know if that's going to happen because the because.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
South Korea is pissed, like pissed at us.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
And I don't know that there's a lot that you
can do that's not going to be a formal apology
from our our leaders, and I just that's never gonna happen.
I just you know, that's never gonna happen. So I
hope they can figure it out because right now I'm
just kind of scared. I've heard a lot of political rhetoric,
uh recently about like, you know, how.

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
Close will we be to World War three?

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
You think?

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
And people are like, if it doesn't happen in the
next three years, then I don't think it'll happen.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
But if it does, it's going to be in the
next three years.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
And it's not Russia, it's China, and making somebody that's
so close by, neighboring to China, who has had talks about,
you know, settling things down with North Korea. There's why
would you want to make things worse in terms of
state craft? And then you have all this turmoil in
the States itself. It's a scary time. It's a really

(01:11:19):
scary time. And I hope we as a people figure
it out quick because like lots of things are screwed
up right now, and instead of blaming each other or
everybody else, we should probably be blaming each other, to
be honest with you, but we have to take a good, long,
hard look at ourselves and go what do we want
as a society?

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
What do we want as a country?

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Because I believe we can be the greatest country in
the world, and right now we're barely a country. And
I love it here and I love this country and
what it could be.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
I don't think this is.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
What anybody wants right now, and it's just kind of
a kind of a scary time. And on that house note, Tyler,
let's talk AW transition.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Jones, Transition Jones indeed here So speaking of an immense
wrestling weekend, Brad all Out. It is occurring on Saturday.
It's another matinee pay per view from AW. It's going
to be emanating from Toronto. I'm excited about this show.
We know injuries have plagued much of the top of

(01:12:17):
the AW roster, particularly in the men's division. But that
being said, several matches have been added to the card
since our last episode. I would say, basically the entire
card since we were last on here. So here's my
question for you, looking at the card, looking at the
names who are featured, whose stock could rise the highest

(01:12:38):
with a win at All Out on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
Oh, out of everybody, out of everybody, that's so hard.
I can't even remember all the people I have to
look back at.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
I would say some matches are foregone conclusion. Hayman is
going to defeat Kyle Fletcher.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
I think so too.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
But but uh, there's Tony Storm. Maybe Tony Storm drops.
Maybe this is your moment for Tela.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
No, I won't be for Tecla if anybody, I think
it'll be stat I could see Jamie hayter and and
Tony Storm mixing it up, Tecla flipping over to get
ready to do her strike while they're beating each other up.

Speaker 3 (01:13:21):
Maybe they go over the top rope and then that's uh.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Well, while Tecla is all twist it up, Chris gets
in there and ends her and wins the chip.

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
It finally gets that big belt. I could see that happening.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
I think, uh maybe because it's the main card, I
think it might be Gates of Agony.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
I think they're the ones. I what was it?

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
Bishop Khn beating the crap out of uh? And and
Bobby lashleyar was a total leona. I can't remember, but
they were hosting each other on Collision. I think it's
dynamitically and I can't remember. The week is blurred together,
and even Danielson was like, look at these two, I
want to see this like us two. They're beating the
crap out of each other. I was like they were
laying it in, like hitting. Bobby's getting beat up pretty hard. However, However,

(01:14:16):
I thought chemistry wise, this week in the ring there
were some There were some ugly moments. There are some
ugly moments. I thought Hangman and and Josh had had
like negative chemistry. Josh Alexander almost died there. There were

(01:14:37):
a couple of moments of under rotation on some of
those suplexes. Maybe it's because it's Josh Alexander's eighteen feet tall,
but like they were on the apron, it looked like
it kind of looked like he was picking up for
the brainbuster for Hangman, that it was supposed to be
like a fight out of it, and he punched him
in the chest a couple of times and then did
it again. I think he couldn't get him all the
way up. I don't know if he was just struggling

(01:14:58):
to get him up on that safely that side or what,
because we know he's plenty strong enough, but it just
felt like awkward. And then there was a couple of
moments with Riho having to stop mid run back up.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
I figured you were going to mention that it didn't
look great.

Speaker 3 (01:15:12):
Well, she looked.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
She looked really good when she was wrestling, but it
was like you throw ninety people in a ring and
you have to have chemistry, having it with one person.
Total different ballgame than when two people are fighting over
here and you're supposed to need somebody in the face,
and you get ready to do it because you don't
want to lose, like you don't want dead spots in
the match, But then they're still fighting when you get there,
it's like, all right, oh, I got to back.

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
Up and wait.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
I think Rijo and Mercedes are going to tear it
down in a singles match. It was just because it
was a multi woman thing. So I'm going to say
Riho kates of agony.

Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
After that. I don't know, I don't know. I'm ready
for the big I'll run.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Yes, it's it's it's it's he's been great overdue.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
He's been great because Jericho's been gone. And it's not
because Jericho's gone, it's because that's.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Forced Big Bill to be on the mic. HM Keith
hasn't been on the mic.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
He's been like hype man behind him, but like Big Bill,
I am ready to get for a world champion Big Bill.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
Guess how old Big Bill is. I looked this up.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
Let's see, he's been doing stuff with aw for a
while now, Enzo, what was that twenty fourteen.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
It was a minute ago.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
So I'm gonna say thirty eight, thirty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
Yeah, you nailed that. He's thirty nine.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
It's now we're easy. Yeah, it's now. It's now we're
never and given given the names, you are missing the
swerve Strick lends the will Ospreys. Unfortunately, Wardlow is injured again.
I believe fifle Select reported that a pectorals injury when
he gave the area to Prince Nana at the end
of the last paper. He really sucks or during that match, yeah,

(01:17:04):
after that, Yeah, to your.

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
Point, to your point, I think Big Bill's crowd work
has been impeccable. And if Andrade was released, I imagine
that means he's a free agent.

Speaker 3 (01:17:17):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
I don't know, because it might be released with a
ninety day or or a thirty day or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
Right, we didn't know that that part, I don't. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
I don't know because I didn't see any reporting, and
even if it exists, I didn't see it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
No, I didn't see that. I shout out to John
Alba and the team at SI the taking. I think
they were one of the first, along with fight Full
and and maybe another entity to report that onuded. It
might have been snowed, it might have been yeah, but
I don't. I don't think as of this recording, we
have the specifics in terms of one you would be
available to wrestle with another company, and I could see
if there is a delay.

Speaker 3 (01:17:49):
Well, he he.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
Parted amicably with aw and left on good terms, so
I could see them bringing him back. They were like
handshakes and hugs and all that stuff. So I would
love to see him come back because I love his entrance,
and there was.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
So much more for him to do in aew as well.
There was just ah, there was there was more here.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
Going back and working where my wife works now that
the climate's better there made sense. But when you have
all these other stars that, yeah, I think they went
like he doesn't resonate with the fans.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
It's like, well, he didn't give him a reason to right, like.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Have him do stuff that's not just losing a big
match in a cool way.

Speaker 1 (01:18:20):
And he and Charlotte split and right exactly, you know,
we be spoken about if you're you know, do you
want to if if you are together with someone at
your workplace and then you split, it's not necessarily easy
to the idea of going to work and seeing your
person that's kind of feeling wonders, right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Like they put him in the match to have the moments,
but not to win the match.

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
Right exactly, And then randomly he's partnering with Ray Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
But which makes me worried about Ray, Yeah, because because
either they're going to have to put him with Penta
or they're gonna keep Pensa on the singles rung, which
he has earned and he's awesome, but because Ray is
so much smaller than him, I don't know, what do
you do with Ray that you don't have in somebody else.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
And they brought out They brought out Pensa at the
Triple A World's Collide show on Friday. He was one
of the first acts to get and well it was
They did the national anthems and then A transitioned to Penta,
who got the crowd fired up. No Ray Phoenix, but
just Penta. Crowd was all there for him, and then
we got to the graps. So they've really invested in Pensa,

(01:19:24):
and particularly out of that duo, Pensa obviously is moving
the merge. He's getting these big moments and he's resonating
with the fans in a way that probably predictably unfortunately
Ray Phoenix has not quite yet. But Pens is obviously
just a completely different character than.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Ray Phoenix to that point, like having a very large lucador,
which Penta essentially is a big dude that's a lucator.
Ray w has found that spot for the beast Mortos
where you sort of have that there now, like he's
way that's like Rhino being a Lucador.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
He does resemble physic muscularity, the giant legs and the
fridge the fridge kind of look.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
But yeah, but he moves like Ray Phoenix, which doesn't
make any sense. So indeed, when you have Hologram who
could do the Ray Phoenix set, and you have all
these other guys, you have to have a personality that
stands out in the W. I could see Derata or
Mortas in that in that Unified Championship match. I hope

(01:20:27):
hopefully it's Piece Mortos instead of Derrata, but that one
could work really well too. But to keshto Kata and
whoever wins to be there, I could see whoever wins
there taking like kind of like what's his name Oh,
I'm blanking on his name as a Carter, the new
japan white dude cowboy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's Clark Connors.

Speaker 3 (01:20:49):
Clark Connors.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
I knew it was a c super talented. I think
he actually resides in Arizona.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
His promo, I think before Forbidden Door.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Was very awesome. He's so good, very good.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
When his contract is done, he's he's coming stateside for sure.
I think he's too good to not be on like
giant broadcast television all the time. So to answer your
question that was like fifteen minutes ago, I'm gonna say,
I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say it's and I think
it has to be.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
Them that that is the correct answer. I love that.
I want them to beat the hurt Syndicate. The hurt
Sydicate don't need a win. They're already made. Ricochet times
GA are not made yet. They have a ton of potential.
I think all of us agree that it makes sense
to put these three guys together. You and I were
calling it for for months. This is the move. These

(01:21:43):
are the two guys Ricochet needs to add to his crew.
Them getting a win at a pay per view against
an established team like the Hurt Syndicate would be an
incredible look and would completely rise their stock. And frankly,
I still think they should be the ones to beat
the Ops to become the new trios champ. So I

(01:22:03):
love that pick. Brad Techla winning would be immense I
think getze Bag and You have a better shot of
winning their match than Techla does. To your point, but
Techla's been booked incredibly strong and if she were to
be the woman to leave Toronto with the AEW Women's
World Championship, that that that would be huge for her stock. Yeah,

(01:22:24):
and I'll just to add here and it's a credible
We haven't even spoken about c n C versus FTR,
which I believe is going to be the main event
of the show. That's the main reason the two men
it has to be right.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
Well, no, they always they just do a world title
match unless it's anarchy.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
It's true. Yeah, and I wonder if we'll get other
surprises because hanging in for sure will be Fletcher, But
I wonder if if there will be some surprises that
we don't see coming.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
In the show. I think that one I know MGF
is fighting Brisco later on.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
Yeah, Tables attack on.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
I'm sure it's going to be hang Man and Fletcher
either closing out the show or almost closing out the show.

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
Maybe they put the women's match last.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
I don't know, but you know MJF is gonna cost him,
so I'm sure it ends up getting to a DQ.

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
So we have a triple threat down.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
The road with Fletcher with MGF with Hangman Adam Page
uh and maybe that's where he uses his contract up
so we can get in there. Maybe he adds it
before that match happens. I don't know, Probably not since
he's doing a hardcore match with with Brisco, but.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
I could see that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
I can also see the Hurt Syndicate losing as baby
faces because that's what Rikasheton gets a vegany you're doing
to them right now, and then during a beatdown, maybe
Rikoshet gets another member with him in his crew. Maybe
that's how Sad comes back. Maybe this is how we
get said.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Yeah chanting, I would love it bullshooters. So they yes,
they were, Yes, they were, we were laugh for that.
I'll just close out by big up in You for
the Big Bill call. I'm really excited Freddy Kingston to return.
It's perfect you are missing baby faces on the men's roster.
Insert Eddie Kingston. He for sure is beating Big Bill

(01:24:04):
in Toronto. Either of these guys from a stock perspective,
will do great by winning this match, the presumptive winner
in Eddie Kingston's return match if he gets the dub Okay,
we're missing Osprey, We're missing Swerve. You know we're missing
Kenny Omega as well. His schedule is really infrequent. Eddie
Kingston slot him into one of those top baby face roles.

(01:24:26):
But Brad, as you said, if Big Bill were to
get the win, I think that would also do wonders
for him, or even if he just has the great
showing that you and I expect he's been over with
international audiences in a shockingly awesome way. If he gets
a great reception from Toronto, if he looks good in
that match. Given where the men's roster is at, and

(01:24:47):
given the uncertainty round where Chris Jericho has been on
aw TV, I could see this being an avenue for
Big Bill to also be propelled on that car because
he's been great really since he's debut in aw Given
where the roster is, I think there's a need for
stars to step up and big bills at the top

(01:25:08):
of my list as well.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
If Jericho comes back, I need him to come out
to Judas. That's it, it needs to I need him
to fly.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
I think it's been long enough that the fans would
be would be invested in.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
I'd be down. I'd be happy about that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
Like I can, I can still separate art, art and artist,
and I think Kevin Chris Jericho back is a good thing.
I don't necessarily see him wrestling all the time, but
I love having him involved. You can put him in
an MVP role where he gets physical and not in
the ring necessarily, like this past week seeing m VP's
and loafers in the air holding on to his cane, Well,

(01:25:44):
that was hilarious to me.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
I don't know what it was. That's just that poppy huge.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
But like Darby, Darby and Mocks, I can absolutely see
Darby losing because of Daniel Garcia to further that storyline,
to heat on Daniel Garcia, which I don't think it will.
I think it'll end up creating a wheeler utic situation.
We're all just so ready for Daniel Garcia to be
like a bigger star throwing him in with the Death

(01:26:11):
Riders just feels like he's gonna get swallowed by everybody else, and.

Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
I don't want that to happen. Tyler my question.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
I'm glad we spoke and said we'd get this under
about fifteen or an hour. Kyle O'Reilly jumping one full
mile out of the ring to kick a seated John
Moxley was crazy. It was in a tag match with
a newly healed Daniel Garcia. Okay, a couple of things.
What do you think about Garcia joining the Death Riders

(01:26:40):
for contacts he did not join the BCC back in
the day. Or an alternate question. I'll leave this one
for you and you get to pick this is. I
wrote this one down to you. In twenty twenty seven
WrestleMania weekend. Does TK run a true forbidden door during
that time and get the US large independent promotions together?

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
I'll go with the Ladder first. That would be brilliant.
I didn't even think about the potential of AW attempting
to counter program WWE in fact of w's biggest event,
given that they won't be in the States for WrestleMania. Yeah,
I could see that, and you know, TK, I think
we could see in the past he's been a bit petty,

(01:27:24):
or he's been he exercised pettiness when responding to pettiness,
so that would make a lot of business sense. I
don't know that the move to Saudi Arabia for WrestleMania.
I don't know that people are going to change their
minds about it. It seems like people are pretty down on
the idea to begin with, So will that happen? I

(01:27:48):
could see it, for sure, I really could, especially if
wrestling fans. If the vibe around this decision kind of
remains at where it is, where people are universally down
on it, for sure, that would be and for you
to couch it as a forbidden door and have it
in the States, Yeah, Brad, let's go with it. The
first question you asked Daniel Garcia finally turning to the

(01:28:11):
dark side and joining for forces with John Moxley and
the Death Riders. I'm here for it. I had to
accept weeks ago that the Death Riders is going to
continue for a long time. I was ready for it
to just end after all in but it is not.
It gives something substantive for Garcia, and like you said,

(01:28:32):
there were teases of him joining the BCC years ago.
So for it's come full circle now and for him
to align with Max, I'm here for it, man, I
think Garcia and they said this, They mentioned this in
the promo. Garcia was really on the verge. Actually they
didn't mention this. Jerry Lynn mentioned this to Max Caster
and Anthony Bowens, particularly the latter. He said, Okay, you
went on your own for this single's career and now

(01:28:54):
you're fledgling in the mid card. The same words he
said to Anthony Bowens. You could say about Daniel gar
he had a very forgettable TNT title run. Not his faults.
I put that on creative and where is he now?
Him aligning with Mox and the Death Riders at least
gives him something substantive and puts him in a better

(01:29:15):
position than him just being the guy who dances and
who is a great technical wrestler. But what does he
ab to show for it? So I like the move.
I've accepted that the Death Riders are here to stay
and I won't good things for Daniel Garcia. So I
actually think that was the right move. And for him
to be in a future feud with Darby, I think

(01:29:36):
that's a good look for DGI at this point in
terms of where he's at on the roster. What's a year.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
I don't hate it to your point, like him not
having a title, him not having any you know, meaningful
feuds right now or super meaningful storylines.

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
This gives him something to do. I think it'll build
his credibilities so that ultimately when he does turn again
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:30:02):
H he just had so much momentum. Forget the TNT
title run like that, that was too late to begin with.
But I think him joining with Jericho really killed all
of the momentum back when he was with two point zero.
That was around the same time the due stuff got
screwed up, and like every all these young stars were
building building building, and we just kind of crapped on them.

(01:30:24):
And then I think what saved that was like the
influx of different new talent into AW And now we
see this opposite thing happening where we have an outflowing
of bigger names because they were built up well enough
where it was like all right, off to wwe go
live your life, go live your dreams whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:30:40):
Stephanie Vaka debuted in.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
The States in the wh and is now with WWE.

Speaker 3 (01:30:48):
What is her name?

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
Blake lake Monroe, I was like money, no lake Monroe,
Me and Mercedes. I got Mariah may Uh and and
then be coming really successful for a year and then dipping.
You got Miro going back as Russev. That has all
been just wolf you have Andreda leaving that didn't last. Curious,

(01:31:13):
curious to see what happens with Alistair Black because it
hasn't been great. His character work has been really good,
but they haven't really given him anything awesome to work with.
It's been a little weird.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
You know, there's a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
Of places for talent to work, but we've talked about it,
like do you have meaningful work?

Speaker 3 (01:31:33):
Does your work matter to you? Does it give you something?
I can't speak for the talent for for me, I
can go like, no, it doesn't matter to me.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
I think TK has to do this as an opportunity,
Like we already have.

Speaker 3 (01:31:47):
What's his name?

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
I can remember his name. They do the Big Gay Brunch,
WrestleMania Weekend. Oh yes, yeah, so AF he does big
the Big Gay Brunch and there's wrestling shows and all that.

Speaker 3 (01:31:57):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:58):
I think that should be continued. I also think that
you could do that at the same place because I
think was it starkad or whatever it's called now it's
not Stark. I think it's Stark, but it's something star.
They do the thing where it's like a giant wrestle
con and there's some matches and stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
I believe that's the same weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:32:16):
So all wrestling things do wrestling, big heavy promotional things
on WrestleMania weekend. And if you create a hub, maybe
it's Atlanta, maybe it's New York, maybe it's la maybe
it's Phoenix, maybe it's somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (01:32:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
I was looking it up because I couldn't remember what
it was in April. It's Dynasty, So you could and
that's the perfect one to do it for is do
Dynasty but have a kind of an.

Speaker 3 (01:32:44):
All in type feel to it. You could make that
all weekend. You could do a pay per view.

Speaker 2 (01:32:51):
That last two nights and do them in the morning
or I guess in the evening, since WrestleMania will likely
be on at nine am our time, Like, do that
in the evening and it's not counter programming in that
sense that it's you know.

Speaker 3 (01:33:06):
It's different time of the day.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
Yes, we just get to Binge Wrestling for a weekend
if we want to, or we have a WrestleMania weekend
without it being in Saudi Arabia, And there's a lot
of breadth there.

Speaker 1 (01:33:19):
And Brad, you have fans who it's an annual tradition
for them to go to WrestleMania year in and year out,
regardless of location. So to your point, yeah, I'd even
consider it not us, not us based on our earlier conversations.
As you pointed out, if for us in the States,

(01:33:39):
WrestleMania is going to be shown at you know, let's
say nine am. I think there's a real there's a
real want and an expectation that Okay, well what else
am I going to watch you know later on the afternoon,
like you said in the evening. So this could be
a really fantastic opportunity for AW to capitalize on a
very unpopular decision by w w U E that and

(01:34:01):
you have so much time to plan this right as well?
It isn't Yeah, this doesn't happening next month. It's not
six months from now. You've got a lockdown venues and
this or that. You have a year and a half
to to make this happen, and who knows.

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
What what the partnership with T and A is going
to look like at that point. Sure a lockey imagine
it'll still be there, but you never definitely you never know,
Like they don't petered.

Speaker 3 (01:34:24):
Out until they bought it. So it just sort of depends.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
Because you have g c W, you have m l W,
you have PGW, you have you have so many different
opportunities to get people involved. Yes, because on top of
that you have R O H in New Japan and
a W and CML You already have the partnerships you've created,
but now get get Matt Cardona in there and maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
Like literally former a w F, former a w F champion.

Speaker 2 (01:34:52):
During that weekend, do a King of the Indies tournament
where you have like a champion from each have to
battle their way up to fight Matt Cardona for his
Internet Belt or whatever all the way to the top
of that would be a lot of fun. So you
get somebody from MLW and somebody you get Nick Gage
against I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
Know, Darius Lockhart or something like. There's so many different
things you could do that would.

Speaker 1 (01:35:18):
Be as a bad JOm that my brain, my brain
needs the process I said, I just think it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:23):
Makes no sense to me, but I think it could
be a ton of fun to have all these different
things colliding together. Or you have Ocata do an open challenge,
same thing, and uh bring that was like Night of Champions.

Speaker 3 (01:35:35):
It was Tournament of Champions or whatever from the eighties.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
I think pre WrestleMania that Vince McMahon ran where we
got a like three minute Nikki the Dragons Nicky Rick
the Dragons team. I can't even talk, uh steamboat macho
man merging the two names in together, and I'm creating
like a little Nikki in my head.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
I don't know what's happening.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
I probably need to get the coffee that's sitting out
on the table right now. That's what's happening, Tyler. Lots
of possibility, TK. If you see this Phoenix, Okay, Tyler,
I feel a little bit like, maybe, oh, we're not.

Speaker 1 (01:36:17):
We're not We're not skipping this. This must happen.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
No, no, no, no, We're doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:36:20):
But I want to maybe maybe I feel like I
was lied to a little bit. If you run back
the tape, you were out on this franchise and I'm
looking at this and it says, it says a rose.

Speaker 1 (01:36:37):
It does, so.

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
I'm curious to hear what happened here. It's not the segment,
but uh, it's time for a rose from Tyler.

Speaker 3 (01:36:47):
So play the music.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
And now for a rose from GI's most eligible Bachelor. Okay, Brad,
they got me, they got me back, which maybe isn't
surprising to some of our audience. This franchise we're speaking
about w WE and how I feel conflicted all the time.
This franchise always leads me to feel conflicted. Brad. Yes,

(01:37:16):
we're talking about the Bachelor, the Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise.
I didn't even tell you I was locked in for
the final two episodes of Bachelor in Paradise. I didn't
confess that to you, but I thought I'd wait on here.
I know they got me, they got me back. It
is it is. It is, uh the gift that keeps
on giving. It is something I'm not willing to give
up in my life yet, and thus I have to

(01:37:36):
report to you in our audience, a new Bachelorette lead
was named. This is a brand new name for me.
It's pretty unforgettable once you hear it. Taylor Frankie Paul.
Great wrestling name potential right there. Yes, of Tiktops. Yeah,
it should be affiliated with MJF or something. Taylor Frankie

(01:37:56):
Paul of Tiktops, of Mom Talk, and some of our
audience may know her from the Secret Lives of Mormon
Wives fame. She has been announced as the next lead.
She was fine for this position. She put a TikTok out,
I believe earlier in the summer expressing her interest in
wanting to be the next lead. And here we are.

(01:38:19):
She made this happen, so Brad. She is already famous,
She already has three kids. She has shared that her
desired age range for a partner is between twenty seven
and forty two. She's thirty one, by the way. And
whoever her person ends up being, she says that they
must move to Utah. So clearly, I'm not her person,

(01:38:42):
I'm not her man's. I have no shot at being
on this cast.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
And that great week to try to convince somebody to
go to Utah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:48):
Yeah, oh god, yeah, this is the Utah episode of
Human Her Frenchmen as it were. So Taylor Frankie Paul
is next up, Brad. Now mind you, we have a
new season of The Golden Bachelor coming out later this month,
and then we'll get to the Bachelorettes. So this is
probably a winter situation, I think I heard even maybe
as lead or as early, depending on how you look

(01:39:11):
at it. As January is when Taylor Frankie Paul season
can start. They're going to be filming it soon. To me,
my takeaway here, Brad, why this matters. It's really indicative
of what you and I have documented for months, which
is the Bachelorette franchise looking for swings to take. Some
of the swings have missed, but some of them are

(01:39:34):
proving to at least their up conversation and regenerate interest
in the franchise. Bachelor in Paradise, the way they shot
it looks completely different than seasons past, and now what
do you do to regain interest in the Bachelor and
Bachelorette series now, which they've tried in the past but
not in a long time. They're choosing someone. They're choosing

(01:39:57):
a lead completely outside of the franchise. It's not someone
from a previous season or a previous finalist. They're going
outside and they have chosen Taylor Frankie Paul to be
that person. She has a fan base. She is a
noteworthy name for any audiences, and there seems to be
a lot of excitement for her being selected as next stuff.

(01:40:17):
So I will report back when we have new news
this year. But we have a new lead. People are excited,
and this again is the Utah episode of Kim the Convernement.
Here we go. Utah is a beautiful state. By the way,
I enjoyed my time. I enjoyed my time in Salt
Lake City.

Speaker 3 (01:40:32):
It was cool u Zion National Park, Park City. I
love Park City.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
Salt Lega is really really beautiful Salt Lake super summer
and stuff. I would live there in a heartbeat if
it weren't for some of those other things. But also,
I don't want to live in winter anymore. I want
to be able to drive to winter and then drive
right back if I if I need to.

Speaker 1 (01:40:53):
I'm just super a quick stay. I'm gonna go back
to this. I'm gonna go back to the South.

Speaker 2 (01:40:58):
Everybody's like, why don't you fly back home? Don't you
fly to the up or Michigan for Christmas? The answer
is pretty easy. I've I've been.

Speaker 1 (01:41:05):
There, I've been there, I've done good, didn't w w
E Slash TKL also announced that Salt Lake City is
going to host a t k O weekend. I think
there's gonna be uh SmackDown maybe w W E p
L E and then a UFC show. I think. Also, yeah,
you saw SLC in particular, was in the news for
that as well. And Taylor Frankie Paul lives there.

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
Taylor Frankie Paul.

Speaker 1 (01:41:28):
Taylor Frankie Paul what a name? I know? You saw
you saw the rundown for our episode. You said tl
T TFP? Is that a new education act? I thought
it was that a new wrestler? Is tf I? Taylor
Frankie Paul Brett.

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
That a rose TFP? I thought, oh man, they have
a new bachelor OUTE. What is TFP? Like maybe you
screwed it up. It was like maybe it was supposed
to be a be TVP or something like the Batchel
to not Paradise. I don't know, the Patrick provo.

Speaker 3 (01:41:58):
Maybe maybe still in Utah? Tyler? What do we miss?

Speaker 1 (01:42:03):
What did we miss? I am going to be very
quick with this. The WNBA playoffs and actually I mean
it when I say it, not like I say it
all the time and then I go on for two
or three minutes. This is my one update Brad Winchester.
The WNBA playoffs are here. I am wearing my Valkyries hat.
I am rooting for the Mercury today against the New
York Liberty. Very exciting series. Natalie Nicasse, coach of the

(01:42:27):
Golden State Valkyries, was named the AP Coach of the Year.
Golden State had a fantastic inaugural season. Yeah, very cool.
She's done a great job there. The Mercury are poised
to make some noise during this postseason. They got a
tough matchup in this first round, the four versus the
Five going up against the defending champs and Natasha Cloud
and company from New York. I'm super locked in for

(01:42:49):
this series. I think Phoenix has a great shot to
win it. In fact, I am picking them. Asia Wilson
and the Aces are on a tear. They're doing their thing,
so this should be a really fun postseason. The WI
can't wait to talk about it with you on our
next episode.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
I just want to say that when we sat down
with Dez, you can go.

Speaker 3 (01:43:07):
Back in the archives and check it out. Who who
picked the Mercury.

Speaker 2 (01:43:12):
I just I just wanted to say that you guys
were like, no, it's Minnesota or where it's New York
and that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:16):
It's like, okay, all right, I.

Speaker 1 (01:43:18):
Think the Mercury ready to do stuff with it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:21):
And I was like, you didn't. I actually didn't pick
the Mercury. I thought they weren't gonna lose, but I
thought they were gonna make some noise in the playoffs,
which is exactly what we're talking about right now.

Speaker 1 (01:43:30):
First games of beach, you got home court advantage. I
love the pit I love the confidence. You deserve your credit.

Speaker 2 (01:43:34):
And you know what, the NBA, the w NBA is
so fun because each year feels a little bit unpredictable.
You never know what you're gonna get out of that league,
where the the NBA feels like almost we know who
the top four teams are going to be, even if
people get hurt, like they're going to be the top four.
And in the W it's like, I don't know what's
gonna happen because you can have the one of the

(01:43:55):
best players in the world and still be Dallas like
you can.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
That's rough man, that's this.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
This offseason is gonna be very interesting that for that
franchise Tyler. We covered almost everything that I had on here,
Ad Andrade, Charlie Kirk, the w W Presser, and ag Lee.

Speaker 3 (01:44:15):
We talked about all of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
The only thing I'll say is that since we started
the NFL is back, we have not watched a while.
I actually found out because I forgot it was even Thursday,
let alone Thursday Night football. I missed almost all of
the Packers win, and I turned it on right in
time to see Craft score the touchdown at the end.

Speaker 3 (01:44:38):
It was really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:44:39):
I picked Golden to be on my fantasy team sort
of as a flyer, thinking that giant, awesome rookie receiver,
but he has not had the season I was hoping
for having two catches for fifteen yards. Hopefully that opens
up later on in the year. But my Packers are
looking pretty good. If you want some good NFL coverage,
head over to the nineteen Media Group channel and check

(01:45:00):
out check out Hidden Gems Football. Our friends Molim and
Mike are on there. Mike Staph of GI Podcast. I
don't want to call it fame, it will say infamy.
He and melwar doing really good work over there, so
go check out what they're.

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
Doing too well, said shout out to the entire nineteen
Media Group team putting out great, great content. We hope
you support them the way that you support us. We
thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. Brad,
I think the people missed us. We had to deliver.
This has to be our longst episode of the year,
maybe of all time we have.

Speaker 2 (01:45:33):
You know, we've got over two before so nont yeah, yeah,
early days, early days.

Speaker 1 (01:45:38):
Okay, Well, we had we had to give the people
what they want, have got that episodes. We are so
grateful for your support. You know how to tune in
and follow us. We're here every single Monday on YouTube.
We're at gipod nineteen and across the socials, I should say,
we hope you all have a great week. We will
be here next week, same time, same place to discuss

(01:45:59):
pro wrestling and pop culture. We'd love to know your
thoughts here on YouTube in the comments. We love those
five star reviews on your audio platform of choice, and
once again, we thank you for tuning in. We will
see you next time. Give the Confringement is a part
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AJ Lee, Saudi WrestleMania, All Out, and Tony Khan’s Possible Dynasty 2027 — WWE, AEW September 8-14

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}AJ Lee, Saudi WrestleMania, All Out, and Tony Khan’s Possible Dynasty 2027 — WWE, AEW September 8-14