Cena and Styles, Vaquer and Rollins, and WrestleDream Weekend — WWE, AEW October 6-12 - Gimmick Infringement

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
And now Gammick and Fringemen. Welcome everybody to the Gimmick
Infringement Podcast. I am Brad Winchester with me as always
is my tag team partner Tyler McDowell, Blank and Tyler.
It is good to be home. It is cloudy in Arizona.
I want to say it's cloudy in the Old Pueblo,
but I was looking north today and I saw much

(00:24):
larger clouds heading your way. When we're getting hurricane remnants
around here, the weather has not really changed the temperature
all that much. Unfortunately. I came home and I thought, oh,
it's gonna be great. I saw the weather forecasting to
be around eighty nine. It was ninety nine when we parked.
I hate it. I can't wait for it to cool off.

(00:45):
I hope you're staying dry. How you doing today? This
is my friend. It's good to see you.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
We are trying our best. There was a lot of
rain this morning, like waking up to rain, which is
not something we experienced in the valley very often, so
it was good. I'm sporting my first sweater shout out
to YouTube Meers first sweater of the season here on the podcast.
So yeah, man, I'm just so happy to see you.
It's the conclusion of fall Break as we enter our

(01:09):
fourth year of gimmick Infringement. Again, thank you all. I
don't want to say this for the end of the episode.
That figure we put it here, Brad, as we've done
the past couple of weeks. So thankful for four years
of gimmick Infringement. If you've been with us from the jump,
if you just joined us recently, if this is your
very first episode, we are so grateful that year here.
So man, my heart's filled with gratitude. It's It's been
a really relaxing fall Break. I'm here with one of

(01:31):
my favorite people in the world, ready to talk pro wrestling,
the pop culture.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that's you.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
WWE a w golden badge. I finally saw him in theaters.
I believe we even have a Sunday when you have
kids ye mixed with a possible Texas theme promo. We
do love our Texas audience. So yeah, man, my heart
is full today. I'm excited for the second quarter that
we're going to get into with the school year, hopefully
lots of wins and lots of joy ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
How you been, Brad? How was Texas for listen. Texas
was great. It was a fun I got to go
to the beach. I got jelous tell you. I did
not tell you this part. For first of all, beautiful weather,
like beautiful weather. Our government is a show. I have
to bleep that out, I believe, because within the first
ten I don't think I can swear, but it is.

(02:18):
It is a train wreck. We got there. I don't
have it in here right now, but I have like that.
There's a stoneware mug. It's kind of got like a
little bit of green in it and a brown stoneware
bottom to it, kind of black green. You've seen it
on this show. I've definitely used the cup. It's sort
of shaped like almost like a like a tea kettle

(02:38):
shape with an open top. I got that there the
last time we were there, like four years ago now,
because it was twenty twenty one when we went the
last time to Corpus Christi, to San Padre Island and
to the beach, and it was closed. It was closed
because there was nobody there to run it because it's
a national park, so you still got to pay to

(03:00):
get in. We did not shout out to Flora, shout
out to Brett for sharing vehicles, so we could use
your military ID and go in there for free. It's
crazy that teachers don't get in for free. Just wanted
to throw that out there. But we didn't have to
pay the fee to go in, which was wonderful since
nothing was happening there because everything was closed. The beach

(03:20):
was happening, though, and you know what else is happening
in a giant and jellyfish bloom. I got into the
water about two feet out. I thought like, I'm probably
not going to spend a lot of time swimming, but
I was like, I really want to go in the ocean.
It's the ocean. I'm here. I got like two feet out,
immediately saw a pink jellyfish float by about that big,
and it's known as a pink MEMI. I found that

(03:41):
out on the way home, going like what the hell
was that? About twenty minutes later, saw another one. A
little while after that, saw another one, and we all
decided to go out in the water. Fray was jumping
over the waves, you know, and then we saw what
we thought was a two foot long floating plastic bag.
But then but then Brett saw tentacles sticking out of
this thing, which was a different kind of jellyfish. They

(04:02):
have Portuguese man of War around there, which technically earnt jellyfish,
but you don't want to aff around with those. You
don't really want to be in the water when there's jellyfish.
The next day, somebody was taking a walk on the
beach and took a video of it, and Flora sent
it to me and my sister in law, and it's
just a dead jellyfish washed up on the beach every

(04:23):
like five feet. They're just everywhere. Never seen one in
the while before. To see that many in rapid succession
kind of terrifying, But we got to talk. I'm not
going to cut a full blown promo here, but driving
in Texas, Okay, Texas got a lot of things figured out.
One of them is on all the state highways they

(04:45):
have intermittent passing lanes and there's a like get out
of the way law, So if you're going to go slow,
once you pass, you have to go in the right lane.
You're done now, you can't ride in the left. Get
out of the way. There are staggered passing lanes, especially
when we were going home, we were heading toward El
Paso before we got on I ten, there was these

(05:07):
passing lanes where it's when you're going uphill, it splits
the two lane roads have a passing lane. It'll open
up on one side going uphill, so that like the
semi trucks have to pull over because they're not gonna
be able to get up to speed going up the hill,
and you can pass them as soon as you're over
that hill. Lane ends, and they're every like mile or
two where you have these passing lanes and it's it's

(05:27):
kind of awesome. The worst part of all of this
is the parking lots. It's it's the exchanges where you
got to like simply turn left. None of them makes sense.
They got places where they got lines in different colors,
but none of them are where you're going. It's like
where are the other side's gonna go? But from where

(05:49):
you are, it's real weird. It doesn't make any sense.
I can never understand what's going on. It's probably been
a minute since you've take TICKN the Cortero exit. So
when they renovated the the I guess the underpass underneath
I ten, they moved one of the lanes so that
it's like if you're in there, you're going straight and

(06:12):
if you want to turn left, you've got to be
in the left plane. I think it used to be
two left turn lanes. I can't remember, it's been so long,
but they have dotted lines telling you, like, hey, follow
the line, now you know where you're going. Texas didn't
really have those the same way the parking lots. They're like,
whoever designed airplanes and their seats for comfort also designed

(06:33):
Texas parking lots. Let's just cram as many cars and
vehicles into small spaces that are impossible to get out
of as like just the worst. So I'm not going
to miss their stupid parking lots. I'm not going to
miss how dumb the the turning lanes are, or just
trying to get like back onto a road because there's

(06:56):
like not fronted roads, roads that are frontedge roads but
aren't frontage roads. Know how to describe them, real weird.
I'm not going to miss any of that. I am
going to miss the people there were really nice. Shout
out to l Passo. I love that city. And here's
the biggest reason why we stopped at an hib Tyler
and I know you haven't had the pleasure of an

(07:16):
hib HGB shout out, agib I love this store kind
of like a like a fries hib pluses or like
Uprise meets Cabela's. No way else to describe it. The
middle of it is like rolling the barrel smokers and
offset chamber cookers, and you can buy lumber basically there.
Uh if it's for smoking. We definitely brought home some

(07:38):
some logs. I got some post oak ready to go
where we find a good deal on a brisket. I
got all the stuff going on, and I wore my
Willow shirt on the road. We had to stop and
pick up some supplies as we were driving, and I
might have to take that back. It might have been
in Fort Stockton where we stopped at the HIB on
the way to l Pass, but still out. I'll passa

(08:00):
very good coffee ploices there. I had to stand by
the bathroom waiting for the ladies to come out. Three
different people Tyler walked by to tell me how much
they loved my Willow Nightingale shirt. They saw that team
were like, that's a great shirt. Everybody's like that. There's

(08:23):
I think there's this this idea that if you're on
a border town that if you're by the border that
nobody's gonna speak English. It's America, so they might speak
Spanish too. I don't know what else to say, like
it's it was awesome. Also I don't know learn Spanish.

(08:45):
It was like it was a fun trip. I loved
going there. I don't like driving to Texas, mostly because
of how long it is to just get through it.
The points. Would you hit the signs that are like
forty miles to the next gas station, miles to the
one hundred miles to the next gas station. Like when
you hit those signs, you go like why am Why
am I even here? Why does this place exist? Why

(09:09):
why even bother? Like it's just endlessness, void grass dirt.
It's crazy, picturesque beautiful. I don't really want to cut
a promo on Texas because I really do enjoy going there.
If I can find a place where I felt like, yeah,
this is a place I should live, I would. But

(09:30):
we're getting hurricane remnants right now and that's enough. I
don't need the actual proper hurricanes, or I'd moved to Houston,
I believe, the fourth largest city in America. So it's
it's a great statement I can't recommend traveling all of
the back roads. I recommend taking the interstate. But I
promise you if you take I ten or whatever interestate
it is, and you go through Amarillo, You're gonna have

(09:52):
different kinds of regrets because it is it is the
same level of boring, but flatter and smells more like
cowboop mm.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Hmm, lots of sense, I would imagine. I think I
told you off air, Brad. I've had a few people
in my life moved to Texas within the last year,
and I hear I hear good things about it. I've
driven through it once. It was a long journey to
your point. I didn't know about the parking lot, so
that is new information for me. I'm just glad you
had such a positive trip. Man.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's yeah, I got barbecue and you've got you absolutely
very early you find a place that has proper post
of Texas barbecue run by Latinos like we did. You're good,
you made it. Oh that cream corn. I'm still thinking
about it.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
This was this was a positive trip and the fact
that you're able to also you went through Fraise Lanes
as well, and so she's having these American Americans she's
having these amazing, amazing experience. She's having these experienced. Shout
out to her incredible parents of seeing life outside of Miranda.
As much as we love Miranda, as much as we
love area own, there was such a vast world out here.

(11:03):
So she's going to be taking a very global trip
next year, next summer, but before then, she is having
these great experiences with her parents and seeing the pictures
and videos that you sent my way, Man, it just
makes me so happy. It sounds like this fall break
was a w It was it was a big win.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
It was a big dub. And when we had a
good trip, it was a lot of try and fourteen
plus miles each way, plus plus an eight year old
who's got a pee every thirteen seconds.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
That's also part of the child vacation experience experience as well,
right though.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
The bladder control. It's really it's really fun when you
hit those forty to sixty to one hundred miles an
hour and some of the next thing, I gotta go
potty bad. Well that's good, that's real good. Well, we're
gonna test your endurance here, Tyler. Not the place we
got to test our endurance with with Freya is at
the movie theater. I don't think we've ever made it

(11:56):
through a movie without a pe break. But that's okay.
I bet you did for this, but I don't know.
I don't know how good it was, So we're gonna
find out. Play the music. It's time for GI at
the movies Hymn edition, and now it's time.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
For GI after the movie, right, Wichester, you have big
feelings about Texas parking lots.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
I have big, big feelings about this movie Him now.
I have been excited since even the poster dropped, since
Jordan Peel tweeted about it back in April. And here
we are, Yeah, here we are now in October and
I went to the movies. Although it's film, the film
is not available via streaming, but I did go to
our local hearkens now happened quick check this out? Yeah,

(12:45):
increasingly fast, and I'm glad I did. I think this
is a film to be enjoyed in the theater. And
we'll talk about whether it's worth seeing streaming here in
just a moment.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Man, The debate around Him is fascinating, and I knew
that the film was very divisive going into it. Some
people really enjoyed it. A lot of people did not.
So this is just director Justin Tipping's latest effort. He's
the director behind one of my favorite films of twenty sixteen,
a movie called Kicks, which was kind of a cult.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Classic in a way.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I really really enjoyed that. I actually went to the
No no, I know, Maherschela always no no.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
That was a younger error. Yeah, yeah, totally different. Yeah,
this is the Kicks was an original ip about a
kid in search of these really nice pair of sneakers
I believe Jordan's actually and just kind of like a
day in the life piece, really good film. I saw
that the Harkins at Tempee. That's the only theater for
the poster.

Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I was in Tucson at the time, and the Harkins
in Tempe was the only theater.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Year near us showing it. Sorry.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, my boy Kevin and I drove to Tempe just
to see it. He still says it's his favorite film ever. Wow,
I really enjoyed Kicks.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
So just the Tipping is back with him and the
movie follows the story of Cameron Caid, an elite college
quarterback who is the presumptive number one pick in the
next NFL draft. However, Kate's future is in question after
suffering a mysterious attack from a crazed fan that leaves
Kate with the head injury. So to get his draft

(14:21):
stock back and to really regain his mojo, he is
invited by Marlon Wayans, who plays this character Isaiah White,
who is the quarterback, the veteran quarterback for the fictitious
San Antonio Saviors team. So Cad has to go to
White's compound for a week of training and if proves himself,

(14:46):
White tells him the Saviors will in fact draft Kid
number one, and Kid will effectively be White's successor. Now, Brad,
I tell you, Isaiah White is effectively the black Tom
Brady in this film. He's one eight Super Bowls. The
Saviors are the best team in this league. The film
doesn't call it the NFL, but it's clearly a play

(15:06):
on the NFL.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
And he has to go.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Okate has to go to this compound and what could
possibly go wrong, Brad, It is it's a remote desert location.
We've seen this go wrong before. When leads have to
travel to a remote location, they have to turn in
their phones immediately. And everything goes wrong from there. So,
without giving away too many spoilers, Brad a few points
I want to hit on here. Tyreek Withers, I should say,

(15:33):
plays Cameron Kid. He's a younger actor. He was the
lead in an episode of Atlanta. He also starred in
I Know What You Did Last Summer, the reprise of
that film that came out earlier this year. So this
is by far hit his biggest role to date. And
although the story is fictitious, the film does critique the
collegiate and professional football system that seems to chew up

(15:58):
and spit out prospects year after year. While watching this film,
I thought about what my mom has said year in
and year out when we're watching like the NFL or
the NBA draft combines or even trade seasons. She always says,
this is modern day slavery. And I would usually still
do laugh at that, like a mom, you're kind of wild,

(16:19):
and like that's that's that's quite the phrase to say aloud.
And she loves the NFL, loves the NBA as much
as you and I do, Brad. But she's always said, oh,
they're like measuring these guys wingspans and making them runch
like this is for sure modern day slavery, and this
film is very much in that spirit of critiquing, particularly
the football system and how brutal and violent it is.

(16:41):
Marlon Wayne's is exceptional. Julia Fox plays Marlon Wayne's wife
in the film. She plays Elsie White. She's spooky in
all the right ways. Again, I can't emphasize enough this
is the best work I've seen Marlon Wayne's do of
his career, particularly in the in the drama space Tyreek
Withers does it really fine job, Brad. There are several

(17:01):
get Out homages that I enjoyed. Yeah, Yeah, And Jordan
Peele as a producer, not a director, but a producer
of this film, and you can just see points in
the story to artistic, creative decisions that are made that
are like, oh, this is very much in the spirit
of get Out. But what I want to tell you, Brad,

(17:22):
you dealt with Texas parking lots. I don't know if
there were potholes out where you were, yes, but there
were plot holes in him. I really wanted to love
this film. I want you to see this and I
want our audience to check it out simply due to
how beautiful it was, and the way it was shot

(17:42):
and the colors and the artistic direction of it is
very ambitious. But my goodness, Brad, the plot holes are tough.
When I tell you, the last fifteen minutes of this film,
it was the equivalent of have you seen that one
Carlton Banks fresh Prince of bel Air half court shot? Yes,
where he throws he throws it up and it's just

(18:04):
it's sailing, maybe it's going to go in, and then
it just completely This is the backboard that was the
last fifteen minutes of this film. It is very, very
divisive for me. It was a complete miss and really
soured my outlook on the film. I in one way,
I can respect how Tipping and company really went for

(18:24):
it with the last fifteen minutes, but there are just
so many plot holes and so many questions I have,
and I really left the film angry thinking this could
have been so much better. And the performances by and
large are really solid to strong, but it was the
Carlton Banks gift at the end of this So I
think it's worth checking out just to be a part

(18:45):
of the conversation and continue the dialogue around particularly football.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Brad. I don't know that.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
There have been many horror movies based on sports, but
football is the clear leader for if you're going to
make a film that is filled with scares, that is spooky.
Football has been in our lives for decades, just saying
choose me, pick me to have a film be framed around,
particularly a spooky societal critiquing film. So I thought there

(19:14):
was a lot to be said about the critiques of football,
But by the end of the film, the plane just
wasn't landed on some of those critiques. So we're checking out.
But if you can avoid paying for this film, wait
till it arrives on your streaming platform of choice, which
again you are paying for. But I wouldn't go to
YouTube and buyer rented immediately. Lots to like about the film,

(19:38):
especially how pretty it looks, but plot wise, definitely some
holes that are are pretty inescapable, much like your driving
experience in Texas.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Perhaps, Okay, well, good to know. I watched I watched
Salem's Lot that came out, I believe last year on
HBO Max. It was a remake, a faithful adaptation of
the novel, according to description, with just dreadful character development
throughout the whole film. It was one of those things
where it's like visually stunning, beautiful movie, a lot of

(20:10):
good scares and stuff. But I feel like the movie
could have used an hour or two. They could have
part one and part twoed it like they did with it,
and it would have been pretty good. Which I also
finally watched on the on the car ride, and yeah,
I had a lot of fun catching up on horror movies.
Have been in a horror movie kick because I don't
have watched any in probably eight or nine years because

(20:31):
of reasons that are afraid, But I had a lot
of fun. I'm glad you caught a movie in theaters.
I'm glad I will be catching it at my house
like I have these horror movies. I'm just sad to
hear that. But we also haven't had like a proper
Jordan Peele movie yet in a while, right, like producing,

(20:53):
being a part of it, writing things doing that.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
We have different than and it showed in this film.
I think his name attached got people to the theater.
I know, Funky Man, same thing right right, box office
much better film than him box office wise. I think
Jordan Peel's name is always going to add value to
any project. But I don't know that this was a
smashing success at the box office, and I think in
part because the reviews were so critical right away. If

(21:19):
you go on Roger deeper dot com, him has a
half half star review out of four and points were made.
Man thought, I thought it's at least a one star
one and a half. But overall, just the film, it's
one of those where you leave the theater and you think, man,
if it just if it went left instead of right
here here or here if we ironed out this particular

(21:40):
plot element, or why Cameron Kaid would turn in his
phone like it just twenty twenty five, but characters still
do that. It had the potential to be I think
a three star film at the very least, but it
just it. There were some glaring omissions that let it
to not fulfill its potential. But it's beautiful to watch, man.

(22:01):
I think directionally visually you'll really appreciate. I think our
audience will really enjoy watching it. But when you think
critically about the plot, you may leave with some big feelings,
like like Brad in Texas.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, cinematography always here for is beautiful. There's some really
beautiful movies that aren't good movies that yeah, they just
look really, really good. It's been a long time since
I watched The Happening. I would never watch it on
purpose again. And I wonder what it looked like. I
can't remember. I'm too busy laughing at how people were
dying in that movie. But you brought up somebody important,

(22:37):
the only kid that we want to talk about around here,
I guess right here. Shout out to Pete, Peter, gave
me this, your your pops, give me this. This is
what a guy. Yeah, this has been in the background
for a while, but I can never get it clearly
in the shot. I got the belt back there, I
got some aw figures back there. But it's really hard
to figure out a spot for him right now, especially

(22:58):
since it's that time a year. It's it's Christmas time,
and I got another I got another set going up,
this time a set, a train set. Uh, we'll be
going up later in the year as we round out
the Christmas stuff. That's not the most important part. That's
not the most important couple of words in GI. But
we know what the most important words in GI are.

Speaker 5 (23:21):
Stuff.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Come on, when I tell you Brad Winchester, I have
never been more excited for a Steph Watch than I
am at this very moment. I woke up this morning
with the rain in the background, grateful and excited that
we live in where stephanieva Care not only exists but
is thriving. Brad, Lady Washington, you could say, late, I

(23:46):
guess the dishes of Steph Watch. We're going to get
right to it here. Stephanie got hair face Tiffany Stratten
on Saturday at Crown Jewel Perth. Lat Preemira was heavily
featured in promotion of the event, which lead me to
believe she was going to including an event for Australian
Youth and then actually at the kickoff event live dreamed
on YouTube the day of SmackDown. Leading up to this show,

(24:09):
I just felt like, man, they're really pushing uh Steph
As one of the basest of this event, she has
to beat Tiffany Stratton. As you and I pleaded for
our last week's edition of the podcast. She got promo
time and she well let me actually rewind first, Brad,
she won the match. That is a spoiler. We will

(24:30):
share a case you didn't see it. She defeated Tiffany Stradden,
and the night ends with not only Seth Rolins being
victorious in the ring with Triple H, but Stephanie Vakira
right there as well.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Brad.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Not only do I love that she's being booked in
such a strong manner, but I really appreciate it. Admire
the promo time she's being given again, whether it's on TV,
whether it's at these events kicking off to the premium
live events if you will, that's not too redundant. I
love that she's even microphone time. And learning a language

(25:02):
is hard. We know is her first language. Great concept
for a tea Learning a language is super difficult, and
to be able to speak that language in front of,
you know, potentially hundreds of thousands of people on any
given week. I just really love how we continue to
see her sore and this is just another huge moment
in her career and her ascension in WWE. Right, it

(25:25):
was a year ago that Stephanie Vauquier was last September
September twenty twenty four when she debuted in NXP and
to think we're already here where not only is she
receiving huge reactions from the fans. Not only is she
the Raw women's champion, but now she won this match
against Tiffany Stratten. It has the Crown Jewel or the

(25:48):
Dynamite Diamond ring. It just filled me with so much. Joey,
you are a big fan of Stephanie Vacuaier. She is
quite literally in the background of all of our words
here on YouTube. She's thriving me and I can't wait
to see what's next. I think that Rhea Ripley rivalry
is not too far down the line. She said as
much when asked what's next for her and what does
she want on the on the Crown Jewel post show

(26:11):
that that rivalry, that potential rivalry is going to be
big for for gi Riea is a favorite of yours,
Steph is a favorite of mine. I'm just so glad
that she's soaring right now. Man, this is this is
very remarkable and someone's for sure on the main roster.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Seventy back care Let's go La Premira Steph. Watch we up.
I am. I'm looking at the Forbidden to Our twenty
twenty four card because it was in June thirtieth, Crazycedes
sixty Yes Mercedes been a title for title Againstephanie Vacquaire yep.
But then we also had Tony Storm versus Mirror Shirkawa
Mina Sirkawa in a trios match that who cares, let's see.

(26:48):
But it was Mariah May versus Sorea also on that card. Wow, yeah,
pretty pretty uncanny, like pretty pretty amazing, uh looking back
at it a year ago, and we also had Zach
Saber Junior versus Orange Cassidy and Brian Danielson who was
still wrestling. Shingo Takagi was his opponent for that. John
Moxley against Nanto will Osprey versus Swerve. But to have

(27:12):
two women's talent, one is currently with the NXT brand,
one of them is currently running the WWE brand. It
is really cool to see where Stephanie Vakere has had
an absolute rocket strapped to her back since June thirtieth,
twenty twenty four. Shout out to opportunities for wrestlers to
showcase their talent, because I don't know that Stephanie Vakiera

(27:33):
gets into the w W the way she does if
she doesn't have that moment on Forbidden Door where everybody's like,
holy crap, look at this. This is insane and she's real,
real good. And then to have Mariah maybe showcased for
an entire year of her life to be a champion
and be in that great storyline, one of the best
of all time with Tony Storm, and now to be

(27:54):
I just I think it's so cool to watch all
these women get opportunities to wrestle elsewhere, to go whatever
their dreams are, and to go accomplish whatever they want
to do. But to watch Stephanie's ascension has been a lot,
a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
And shout out to persistence. The human element of this
is always cool to me, whether it's Mariah may now,
Blake Monroe and NXT, whether it's Stephanie Bakier to now
not only work for to be thriving in the company
that said no, you're not ready years ago, and to
put the pride and the ego aside, to not feel like,

(28:29):
oh no, I'm ready, Come on, you're missing out, to
take that feedback to work on your craft or I say,
to master your craft, and to reach a point years
later where you become so undeniable right like you're gorgeous,
you're powerful, you're motivated, and to just be undeniable in
the way Stephanie Bakier is Brad. It's just an amazing

(28:51):
human piece. It's an amazing human study that man, we're here.
She probably thought about maybe hanging up her boots at
various times, especially yeah at first try out and at
first no, but to just double down on yourself and
work on your craft and to not only reach NXT,
to not only reach the main roster, but for us
to exist in a time where she just beat Tiffy

(29:12):
time and she's in the ring at handedly, She's in
the ring at the end of the show equal to
Seth Rolins.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, that's amazing. That was the best Part's.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Been a face of w WE for a decade now,
like and I think this will lead us into our
w WE conversation Brad. Crown Jewel Perth for me easily
one of the strongest efforts from WWE all year. I
think when we look back, when we have our year
in review podcast, which is shockingly not too far away,
two events come to mind for me in terms of

(29:42):
w we's best best efforts. Evolution and Crown Jewel Perth.
The decisions that were made on the show, the entering work,
it was total pun intended, phenomenal which leads me to
my question for you. So, knowing you the way I do,
I wanted to frame this question around joy and who

(30:04):
are four superstars that you were most excited to see
within the last week in WWEE And that's where my
question is gonna land us. So, first, we had the
reunion of Alistair Black, not even the reunion, but really
the first time we've seen Alistair Black and Zelina Vega
a real life couple actually on screen working together creatively.

(30:25):
That was on Friday, and then less than twenty four
hours later for us on Crown Jewel Perth, excuse me,
John Cena versus AJ Styles tore the house down. AJ
Styles bringing back the TNA trunks was everything that I
needed at this point in my life as a huge

(30:45):
JJ Styles fan, especially TNA AJ that era to see
him and John Cena have this match that was a
love letter to their colleagues, yes, and some of their
biggest rivals, and just overall love letter to wrestling and
again Steventy bock Care winning earlier that night, but we
already dedicate our love letter to her. But then also
again to have oh Man, Alistair Black and Selena Vega

(31:08):
working together that leads me to be really excited about
the future of SmackDown. So either direction you want to
take it, Brad, knowing you the way I do, I
suspect all four of these superstars made you very happy
over the last forty eight to seventy two hours. How
optimistic are you feeling about the potential pairing on screen
pairing of Zelena and Alistair? And then also, I think

(31:29):
we just need to hear your thoughts on AJ versus
John Cena, because if that match isn't in our Match
of the Year conversations in a few months, I'll be
very shocked.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, Okay, Alistair Black and Angelina Vega reuniting or uniting
however you want to look at it on screen. I
think it's a cool moment because we all know it's
actually going to be something that's sort of well, it's
kind of part of my question, so I'll try to
hold back on that part. I think the only issue

(32:03):
I had with it wasn't them reuniting. It was that
they did a basically a last man standing no DQ
match that was better than the one on the pay
per view that I don't I don't even know what
to say. It just felt like another. It was fine.
It was the the Roman and In Bronson match was fine.

(32:27):
I guess uh, but the match on SmackDown was better
with Alistair Black and Damien Priest and then you get
Selena Vegga. I think it's really cool pairing. I like
Heels Alina was really fun with Andrade. I think that
this this could be really interesting. I think it's something
that quite honestly, I think the characters need. I don't
know what do you do with Alistair Black right now?

(32:51):
Because it's cool that we have all these other stories
and these other feuds going on, but I don't know
that any of them peel like. I don't know what
the word is. It's just is it important. They don't
feel important. They might be interesting, but they don't feel important.
And I think that's one of the things to have
a problem with this. AJ Styles John Cena match however,

(33:13):
felt very important. It felt fan driven. First of all,
they were demanding it. We got to get this before
they're both done, because how many times have they wrestled before.
I don't I literally don't know the answer. I have
no idea.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
A handful, probably not two matches in the past three Yeah,
I mean they were in a rivalry, a very memorable rivalry,
but actual matches exactly.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Maybe maybe they had three, yeah, and then not accounting
house shows and stuff like that. I'm sure they did
that at some point.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
But this was a dream match for wrestling fans for yes,
years upon years, the top guy in w WE versus
the top guy in DNA, and they played into that
to your point.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
And I love that. I'm sure John Cena did the
right in like they said, like John Cena, and I'm
sure he had a part in it or it was
like his creative idea. AJ style seemed legitimately shocked because
he was wholly bleep hitting in the ring and smiling
and breaking character and stuff, and he's like the very
definition of total NonStop action, the true leader, the best

(34:15):
Bullet Club member of all time or whatever. But dropping
TNA and Bullet Club in the ring was really, really cool.
I don't think anybody would be mad about that. I
don't think there's an entity in New Japan aw that
we'd be mad at something like that, because you're acknowledging
wrestling history and the importance of where that character came
from to get to the WWB. The grind in TNA

(34:37):
turning into Impact and aj just being like, all right,
you're not gonna pay me, I'm out of here, going
to New Japan, to having a really memorable run with
Bullet Club and then having that be parlayed into his
debut at the Rumble, and I believe twenty sixteen and
you have he interrupted or an interrupt. He debuted when

(34:58):
Roman Reigns was in the ring, when they're him when
nobody wanted that, and then Johnson he got John Cena.
This is so fun. I think they need to stop now.
With John Cena pulling out all of the honorary finishers,
I think that needs to to halt now because because
I think he's gone through them all, except he's established
an expectation expectation now by doing it in like back

(35:21):
to back matches almost because I don't count count the
brock lesnar thing. If you do that too much, it's
gonna end up being like just too much, and you're
playing into seeing Punk's five Moves of Doom, except it's
other people's moves of doom, and uh, I don't know
that that's great, but it is good for the nostalgia.
I thought it worked really well in this match. I thought, Uh,

(35:45):
there was one spot. It was when AJ was getting
John Cena into the styles clash where he like bent
down to bump it that he accidentally like gave Seena
pile driver to get ready to jump to the styles clash,
and he was like dunk right on his head and
I was like, damn, John O, hey, he's not going
like that part got me. I've thought it was a
ton of fun. I think I think everything was right

(36:09):
about this. I think they did it all right except
for one thing. And I'll keep to myself for now,
but I think Zelena and Alistair Black. You know how
much I love both of them. I think this is
a great move for them. I think this will give
them something fresh or creative to do. I can't wait
to see what plays out of it. Hopefully this leads
to some pretty fun stuff. Since we've had a mixed

(36:29):
tag match in WWE recently, maybe we get some more
of that stuff. Maybe this leads to title runs for
both of them with a bigger title. I don't know.
I don't know where this goes, so I'm excited to
see it. We know where it's going with John Cena,
I don't know where it's going with aj Styles. He's
been getting a lot of love and flowers, but he's
also been taking a lot of l's and big matches,

(36:50):
so I'm not super sure where this goes with him.
I also don't know how much time he has left,
so I'm just glad they got this moment in that
hot crowd. That was a ton of fun. That match
was a lot of fun. He didn't see it, go
out of your way to watch it. It was a
lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Likewise, it's easy to forget just how much these two
guys have meant to my wrestling fandom over the years.
I mean, the rivalry was great going back what that
must have been ten years ago, and the fact that
they were able to run this back to your point, Brad,
largely based off of the fan not only request, but
the fan demands that wait, no, during Johnson's retirement tour,

(37:31):
we need to see this. And to add on to that,
AJ Styles saying that he is going to hang it
up in twenty twenty six because it's his decision and
needs to spend time with his family, and oh man,
you have two absolute giants of the industry hugely responsible
for furthering the wrestling business over this generation, over the

(37:53):
last fifteen or so years. The fact that we were
able to see these two guys, both healthy, both do
their thing as you put it, in front of an
exceptionally hot crowd in Australia. It was again total pun attended.
It was phenomenal. It just checked all the boxes and
I'm so glad we were able to see it. And
to your point about Zelena and Alistair, both characters need this,

(38:15):
this union at this time. I can't wait to see
what's ahead.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
It's going to be.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
I'm sure one of my favorite creative decisions on SmackDown
for the rest of the years. It's a great time
that both them need it.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Yeah, I wonder what this does for I got questions
about Cody and Seth too. Seth was definitely the right
call in the circumstance. That was easy.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
I just Cody's like four and oh against him since
it came back to w it was although the mass
wasn't in favor of Seth, it was it was time.
I thought creatively what they did with him doubting himself
and Paul Hayman saying, well, if you lose again, dude,
I might need to find someone else to work with.
I actually thought that was done really well.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I enjoyed. I enjoyed the tension behind that. Yeah, and
the backstage to set it up, excuse me, where Pabab
is like, Okay, if he wins, this is what we're
gonna When he wins, this is what we're gonna do,
and then the Bronze were like what if he loses?
And Paul comes back on screen to go, you know
what happens and then walks away. I was like, it's great.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Basically, yeah, that planning, that stuff, planning that little seeded
down and Cody's beating this man so many times, yeah
that it's like, oh, well, yeah, maybe there's a shot
that Cody does win, but Seth should win and and
uh and he did, which, like you said, totally the
right call. I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
And I'm glad we got like the the Mercedes mineo
Kata moment of the two champs coming out with the belts.
I did. I did appreciate that. It just felt like
the way that Stef cut that promo at the end
without really being interviewed, it felt like something was going
to happen there, and then fireworks happened for about twenty
five seconds straight and then nothing happened, and then stuff came

(39:58):
out and then it ended. I thought there would be
more there, But I'm not mad at it. I think
it's fine. It ended with that, and I guess what
else do you end with? But I don't know that
it Furthered a lot of storylines, and if it ended
a lot of them felt like a weird ending, weird place.
But to your point, that card the worst match on
there wasn't a bad match. It was like a fine

(40:20):
standard no DQ match, and everything else was pretty solid
on there. I thought it was a very good show overall. Tyler,
my question, I have tradition here, Okay, tradition. There are
very few places that love themselves some tradition more than
professional wrestling companies and talent. Often that includes the bookers.
So Tyler, John C and Age Styles had a really fun,

(40:42):
really memorable match that I think most degree should have
made evented the Evening. Okay, in an era of we
know the deal with wrestling, do we need to maintain
the mystique and allure of the championship titles as the
quote most important thing end quote when there are bigger
more important matches.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
I may surprise you with my answer, I do think
maintaining that mystique is the priority, there's something to be
said for a championship match on the men's side or
on the women's side. We've been asking for a women's
title match to may have been an aw pay per
view since about twenty twenty three, and I'm hopeful we're

(41:25):
getting closer to that point. But in the context of WWE,
even with their lineage and their prestige and their reach, yes,
I do believe it's still extremely important that a title
match main events your premium live event. And frankly, Brad,
I was completely okay. I thought it was the right
decision to close the show with Seth versus Cody, not

(41:46):
just because it's for a belt. In this case, it's
interesting because it's the Crown Jewel title. It's not an
established title per se that's defended. But given the storyline,
given the history between Cody and Seth, I mean, this
has been going on. It's Cody debuted re debuted in
WWE at WrestleMania going on what now three four years ago,

(42:07):
So the storyline, the champion versus champion of it all
but even heading into the nextwepl whether it's NXT, whether
it's WWE Proper again, whether it's AW Yes.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
For me as a wrestling fan, there is something to
be said to maintain the mystique and the lineage of
a title match, a title program main eventing your show.
Now you may have a one off where there is
a match that doesn't include the title that can main event.
I might be thinking of WrestleMania Night one from back
in April when you had that triple threat for the

(42:40):
custody of Paul Hayman Roman versus Seth versus c im Punk. Yeah,
that's a pretty unique situation where I was okay with it,
But I lean toward title matches closing these shows. In
the context of Crown Jewel Perth. To me, they made
the right decision by having Set and Cody close it out.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
I agree with you for the for the most part.
Just what happened after a scene in Styles mm.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Hmm, right, yeah, uh that, and we didn't mention n
e O were successful against the Kabooki Warriors.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
It was good.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
It was a really good match for sure, two of
your biggest stars in the company and Rio. I'm sorry
Eo and Rio Rio.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
But when you take that match, you put it in
there as a breath freshener, and that makes me not
feel super awesome about that, because that match was really good,
and I love these women, and I don't want to
go like, oh, I'm exhausted after the emotional whirlwind that
was John C University a j Styles, and now more
stuff happens. That's how I felt about the the the

(43:46):
the Becky and Becky and Seth versus Punk and AJ.
I turned the show off thinking it was over right.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
Yeah, that's a good rebuttal Drew versus Cody wasn't giving
me the same as.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
I forgot it was on the card because there's so
much time in between matches in wwpl e's it's like
twenty seven minute ring entrances, forty five minutes of commercials,
and then a match that's eight minutes long if women
are in it.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
So it's like, you're going to get this slimpkin ad
whether you want it or not. Bred gosh, so you're
going to You're gonna get this American whiskey ad, whether
you're gonna buy it or not.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
So it's your point. I tend to agree when the
story is right. This one is like a no brainer
because it's title versus title for so I had no
problem with that one. That one makes sense. But I
also think, like, have them both ended, flip them around
if you need to. But when you have women's title

(44:39):
versus women's title, and then men's title versus men's title,
you did bookend the show, okay, but not quite because
what opened the show. So it's going like, the women's
title versus title is not going to be the thing
that opens. They're not all main events. You're not calling
the women's title versus title the main event, and it'll

(44:59):
be kind of a It kind of reminded me of
when Big E lost in his title versus title, where
it was sort of a bit of an elongated squash match,
not really, but like Stephanie was clearly winning that match
and then did clearly win that match and then got
to speak in the ring, which was really cool. I
believe the last at least pl main event with women

(45:22):
in it was Elimination Chamber with Rhea and Naya in
twenty twenty four. After that, it was I believe WrestleMania
Bianca versus Sasha. That's shocking so at PL's That's That's
what I'm saying. It feels different because some of these

(45:44):
titles feel a lot more important. I think they've opened
probably more, I'm not sure, but and I could have
this wrong, but I was looking at this, this list
that was compiled of every Women's WWB pol main event
match definitively ranked and reviewed. Okay, but it was updated recently,
so that's it was updated in July anyway, so I
could be wrong. There could have been one since July,

(46:06):
but I can't. I don't know off the top of
my head. I don't know. There probably was, was Mania,
was there? No, there wasn't one this year, so I
got nothing maybe Summer Slam, and I'm forgetting because it
was two nights. I also don't I don't know how
to count those. When it's like, yeah, the main event
of night one and the main event of night two,

(46:26):
I feel like there's one main event and then there's
the intermission event, and uh, intermission's just twenty four hours long,
or I guess twenty hours long if you account for
ring entrance is twelve hours long. Sure, yeah, yeah, So
I have a really hard time with it sometimes when
I'm like I don't like this. This match is definitely
more important. Well, Brian Danielson's last match is this match? Okay,

(46:50):
main event it I don't care if it's chaponship without even.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
At wrestled Palooza. This was the perfect response to me, Brad,
kudos to you on this one. Salute emojis all around
Russell Palooza. The mixed tag match much more fan investment
in aj Lee's return than Cody versus Drew. There was
no chance Drew was winning that match. All of us
were tuning in yeah for aj Lee's return. I even

(47:15):
think I even think of last week we spoke about
Bad Bunny being the super Bowl upcoming super Bowl performer.
I think of Backlash Puerto Rico. What if my favorite
pls of the decade, you could have closed that show
with Bad Bunny versus Damian Priest. Instead it was Cody
versus brock Lesner for the championship. So yeah, there are
there are countless examples of what are fans really invested in?

(47:39):
What did we really show up for physically or you know,
on our on our TVs. And yeah, quite often I
would say in aw as well, quite often it's not
necessarily that title match. But how important is it that
the title match closes it? Yeah, the fan in me,
the kidd in me, is so like, yeah, I want
the men's or women's title to be that very last match.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yes, And I still think that the champion is the
brand ambassador and all that, but this is sure Cody's
Cody's the face of WWE, period, and he lost to
the other champion, the other brand ambassador. And that's and
that's why I'm always like, I don't really get ww's
model all that much. Like Cody's our guy. He's the
guy he lost, and he's the guy with the championship,

(48:23):
and he lost the other guy with the championship because
there's two of them. So Seth. Seth is starting to
feel more relatable every day as he's like, no, this
is I built this company. He's like, hey, he's got
it right. Cody left, Seth is here. He's getting his moment.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
He's getting his flowers since Russell Main, as he should.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
But these flowers also feel like dead ones. He's getting
a lot of the attention and the accolades and we're
saying all of the things, and the crowd is singing
his song does not feel the same. It just doesn't
feel the same. And I don't know what that is
because Seth is one of the greatest of all time
to ever do it, period full stop, and uh, I
don't know. I'm still thinking about John Cena's missed punt

(49:03):
that in that match with JJ Styles and how kind
of sad that kick look. Tyler. I saw a lot
of kicking, a lot of kicking this week. Little baby kicking,
pray A kicking me kicking, all kinds of kicking. Play
the music. It's time for another round, like four straight
weeks now of someday when you have kids, play.

Speaker 5 (49:24):
The music and now it's time for fun doll someday
when you have kids.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
That's all, okay, okay, Tyler.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
I got to meet my nephew this week. Noah is awesome.
Noah is so much fun and so expressive and really
enjoys getting tickled and Freya being a great big I
was really into it. She's never really been around a

(50:04):
family member, a baby family member before. She's never been
the oldest in any situation in our family. Everybody else
is older. We got kids that are in late elementary, junior,
high high school age, college age that are all older
than her. She's in third grade. And to have a
baby in the family, a baby up in the mix,

(50:25):
has been a blessing. I wish to live closer, but
watching Freya play with Noah and just get to know
what it's like to be around a little kid and
take care of them, and the responsibility and how awesome
it is. She was so so excited. It was awesome
to watch. Now a couple of things, Frey, I also

(50:49):
experienced her first blow up. She's had plenty of blowouts.
Blowouts are exactly what they sound like. I don't know
if you've ever had the delight and the pleasure, Tyler,
but when you're holding on to an infant and you
hear something, a gurgling, and then they kind of, uh, oh,

(51:10):
we know what that means. You know what that means.
And Fray was looking at him like, oh, oh, oh, oh,
I see something, I see I see something, I smell something.
It was so funny watching her slowly figure out what
happened that epic moment. Really so you saw the wheels turned.

(51:33):
I sent you a very cute picture of her on
the last day we were there, of them sitting in
the chair together. Yes, two minutes later is when we
realized what had happened. Uh, it was it was moments
before disaster. Uh. And because because no one's getting a
little antsy sitting there like get me out of here,
We're like, okay, he just wants his mom picked him
up and he was fine because he was off of

(51:54):
the disaster. Tyler a blowout. Oh wohuld you have to
make decisions? Is it clear it or is it Burnett?
It was, it's just watching watching Noah and which they
refer to Jess and Freya both not Noah but baby Noah,
Baby Noah. Were wanting to see baby Noah. There's no

(52:15):
other Noah's in our family. First of all, so what
are we doing? Second of all, how long is it
before one of you call him baby Yoda? It's going
to happen, And it did. Jess was the first one.
We were in the car talking about getting home. Oh,
baby Yoda needs a break, and I will Baby Yoda
just call Do you just call this child your nephew,

(52:36):
your your blood relative, baby Yoda? Pretty sure that happened? Wow? Okay,
but I knew it was gonna I knew it was
gonna happen. At some point you called it, but it
was really wonderful being around the family. Seeing Frey I
get to interact with her, her aunt and uncle and
especially her little baby cousin was awesome. It was a

(52:56):
joy to watch her fine joy in another child as
a child, so it was like getting to watch her
discover and experience this new thing was really really heartwarming.
Final thought is she brought her silicone baby, Raisin with
I don't know why Raisin, but it's it's it's made
out of silicone. I don't know how else to describe it.

(53:17):
The baby looks pretty realistic, except Freya likes to brush
the hair on these things, and this thing's got like
just absolutely crazy missing patches of hair, and it had
a cap on it and it looked bald and the
cap came off. And the scare that went through the room,
the shock that went through the room at the reveal
of this like alopecia that happened to this baby was

(53:41):
one of the funniest things I've ever seen, because Flora
jumped back and like ah, and then everybody was just
laughing because it was like just crazy because I knew
I thought it was the other baby. She's got two
of these things and I thought it was the one
that was that came in the way babies come in
with very little hair on their head. This thing was like, yeah,
it was haunting, so really funny moment. A lot of

(54:04):
those this trip, A lot of really funny things happen.
A lot of fun happened, lots of baby laughs, lots
of baby snuggles, lots of blowouts, lots of things that
look like massacres. There's these little free to things. You
put a like a berry in it, and it's mesh
so the babies can eat it without actually getting the
solids into their mouth, so they can basically smush the

(54:25):
juice out of it with their gums. Easiest way to
say it looked like a crime scene on his white onesie,
and I said, like he's wearing a onesie he would
wear to a match with color in it. To really
sell it. This Noah is a cmpunk fan, is what
this is. It's all I could think the entire time
is I see like just all the color, all the color.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Tyler, because everything is wrestling.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Because everything is wrestling, And I hope you get to
experience that someday when you have kids.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Baby Noah absolutely beautiful, well Brad Wrestling. We are not
and with our conversation not at all. We need to
discuss some ae W because Wrestle Dream is this Saturday
from Saint Louis. The show is headlined by Chris stat
Lander versus Tony Timeless Tony Storm and Samoa Joe versus

(55:16):
Hangman Page. I have less of a question and more
of a demand for you on this one, wrestl Dream Weekend.
Give us a bull prediction for the show. M hm.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
I'm trying to find the card for for everything on
here because I can't remember any of it. Those are
the only two that I've I've been I've been like.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
We're running back the demand versus Hurd Synde Kids.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
So Darby Darby Mox is the one I can earn.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Oh, Darby that may end up being the main event.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
What do you think? I don't think so. I think
it'll be.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
What if we gets what if we get stat versus Tony?
What if that's our first men's pay per view made it?
Probably not for this one.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Wouldn't be mad at it. It's uh, where where is it?
It's It's is it Saint Louis, Saint Louis? Yep, Okay, yeah,
I don't. I don't know. Man Stat versus Timeless Tony
Storm needs to be the main event. I think. I

(56:26):
think Hater versus Tackle is going to rule.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
Yes, I I.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Think that that tag that tag match is going to
be fire.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
That's what I'm gonna say. One of the two things
that I think is going to happen here for Berdie
versus the Callous Family, it's either Okata and Takashtar are
gonna leave reluctant tag team champions, which I would love
to see, or it's the thing that gets them to
start throwing haymakers at each other in the ring and
we finally have a split, probably, which I hope is
what happens. Kyle Flesher versus Mark Briscoe is going to

(57:01):
be so much fun. So many brain bass busters are
going to happen in that match. Brainbusters and pile drivers
are going to be everywhere. But I think Drastic Express
versus the Young Bucks, it's going to be really fun.
I want to see Jurassic Express win and I want
to see the Young Bucks lose their money again. I
just think it's a funny gimmick at this point. How

(57:24):
can you sleep on hang Man Adam Page versus Samoa Joe,
though I don't think. I don't think Joe wins. I
think we'll go bold prediction. Maybe Hook gets himself involved there,
but I doubt it since he's been doing other stuff.
I got nothing, I got nothing. I feel like Champions

(57:46):
are gonna leave Champions, with the exception of probably the
tag Champs, I think everything else is staying the same.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
It seems like it's a fairly predictable show. Are we
in line for a Samoa Joe heel turn? Can I
interest you in that?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
You can always interest me and heal Samoa Joe. He's
already been working that way, But like, do you need
to have heal samo Joe or just him being Samoa
Joe because Tomojo is sort of a heel to begin with,
but she's always.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
He's always operated on that that tightrope. But we're gonna
love it a cheer for him regardless, but yeah, he's well.
It just makes you think of the Ops in general.
I still fantasy book the demand to beat the ops,
which leads me I think, okay, maybe the ops will
remain quote unquote good guys for a little bit longer,
but this, this surprising feud with Hangman Page has reminded

(58:36):
me how much I've enjoyed Samoa Joe when he's a
definitive heel in aw he Low KEI had one of
the best aw World title reigns. It was one of
the shorts.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
It's so good. But he was just a badass heel. Yeah,
and it worked. Yeah. I would love to see that again.
I would love to see him do that all over again.
I give him the belt, I don't care. I just like,
who do you have take him down? Is that when
you finally flip Big Bill? My goodness, I'm over it,

(59:07):
but it's it's uh. I need Big Bill to split
off from this tag stuff that he's doing with with
Keith and just start doing a singles run. I would
love this week being I'm tired of losing. I'm doing
this on my own, and then him break off, get
get jumped by somebody, and then have him turn and
then go full I'm gonna just nuke everybody with a

(59:27):
big boot and just kill him in the ring. I
think that would be great. I don't see any of
that happening. The only thing I could see is maybe
maybe has it been enough time for Ruby to come back.
I don't know who other What are the other releases
that happened recently that might show up? You know we
already have Andrade, right was it? Who else got released?

(59:51):
I can't even remember, Well, wes Lee is the one. Wesley.
It's just that one's crazy. I can't believe that one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Yeah, that in this past week, and there were some
other NX two releases, but nobody with the same name. Idea,
if there were AW pay per view that could benefit
from a surprise, this one feels like one that really
could because I don't know that. I don't know that there.
I mean, you and I are going to tune in,
and we know how AW always delivers on pay per view.

(01:00:20):
I wonder. I mean, in some ways, it kind of
reminds me of All Out, which feels like it was
just yesterday, but it was, you know, several weekends ago.
That car didn't necessarily scream oh you must tune in
to see this, but it ended up being one of
my favorite shows of the year. So I wonder for
Wrestle Dream, is it going to be enough to just
have excellent, fast paced in ring action or are we
going to get that plus to your point, Brad, maybe

(01:00:43):
a surprise that could really make this a memorable show
and remind viewers, hey, even if the show doesn't seem
to have all of the hype around it, you still
got to tune in because you know the Graps are
going to deliver. And with us at AW from Tony
Kan the thought being you never know what's gonna happen.
That was so much of the mystique around AW circa

(01:01:04):
twenty nineteen to twenty twenty two. If you and I
would tune it a dynamite and there would be this
air of we don't know what's gonna happen, we don't
know who's gonna pop up. I wonder if I'll get
some of that at Wrestled Dream, or if just simply
you know, the the d reaction is going to be
enough because you and I are going to tune and
I'm sure it's going to be an exceptional show. I
wonder if we'll get help any of those surprises. Wesley

(01:01:25):
is the first name I thought of, but a Ruby
return post maternity would be great if she's ready. Other
than that, yeah, we know Osprey's out for a while.
We expect Sport to be out for a while. Kenny
Omega has popped up recently, but you know, we got
Jurassic back. Like you said, Andre Day's here.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Do you do you think that you get a Naito
cameo after he kind of buried what AW is doing
with Okada very publicly. Do you get Naito coming in
because his contract's done with New Japan they couldn't come
to an agreement. Yeah, but he's been floating around out
there since May, so I don't know, Yeah, probably, probably not.

(01:02:06):
Maybe this this current era of AEW is really about
elevating some of the people who have been on the
roster for a minute, who have been waiting for their spot,
or circa Chris Statlander or an ascending talent like Kyle Fletcher.
Where really Q four the rest of this year? If
I'm him, I'm thinking, No, I'm and he's been doing this, Brad,
I'm gonna tell people I've arrived and you know with

(01:02:30):
it with a program that is sayans MJF again, will Osbray,
Swerve Strickland. Who is your guy who was a face
of this place outside of Hangman page. If I'm Kyle Fletcher,
if I'm you know, named the people on the roster
Jurassic Express, Yeah, so on and so forth, like, Hey,
I am that person that bet on me because there
are some heavy hitters who are who are not around

(01:02:51):
right now, especially on the men's side. Yeah, and I'm
bracking my brain. I was looking people up, like I
don't know who's a f aailable who's there. I have
absolutely no clue. It doesn't sound like there's really really
a whole lot to go on right now. So I
don't know. We'll just move on because I don't I
don't know what else we could do as a surprise.

(01:03:12):
I can't think of anybody that's not currently there or available.
Maybe Dan Housing shows up, who knows you?

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
And I have wanted Keith Lee for I've just stopped
saying his name on Yeah, me too, because it's like
I don't want to get disappointed. But if I am
to throw out a name.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Keith Lee or Britt Baker.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
A really happy I hope we see Britt Baker again.
Can I interest you into christ Jericho return?

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
So let me roll into my let me roll into
my question here. So Aboushi is injured again, this time
for for longer than I think they thought. Uh, sounds
like a broken collarbone. Okay. The main event on Collision
was a mixed trios match, which was a lot of fun.
Uh love me some Willow. So many many feuds feel

(01:03:56):
a little bit to me like they're overstaying them. They're welcome,
they've been there for a while, they keep going. Nobody
has a clue what's going on with Jericho. Juts out,
MJF is out, is what I try to say. They're
easy for me to say, is out for a little bit.
The women's division is a lot of fun, but the
storylines feel a little stagnant. Tyler, where are you at

(01:04:17):
with the state of storylines in aw right now?

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
It feels like a down period for sure. I do
love that we're seeing Willow consistently, and I saw earlier
she's announced for the pre show for Russell Dream, which
which makes me happy. Megan Bain is a priority, also
very important. But yeah, storyline wise, it does seem to
be a down period, and I wonder how much of
that is the some of the top of the star power,

(01:04:42):
the top of the proverbial food chain being m I
a versus or in conjunction with the creative not necessarily
being at its hottest right now, right, we still have
the Death Riders around you, and I would have been
totally okay if the Death Riders ended in March or
at the very latest post speaking of Texas, this is
the Texas episode of gimmick infringement. If Death Writers ended

(01:05:06):
after all out all in Texas, and yet we are
still here where they are a prominent part of weekly storylines.
Pack is back, he thought Orange Cassidy this past week
on Dynamite.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Yeah. Man, it's a down period.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
And to me, it's not just about some of the
lack of star power at the top of the card,
because aw is known for having an insanely deep roster.
It really is the creative being as you pointed out
in your question brad overstaying, it's welcome to me. That's
clearly the case with Death Writers, who are still arguably
the most important creative going on week to week. But then, also,

(01:05:44):
like you said, some of the other stories not necessarily
hitting for me. For example, the don Kallis family, there's
like fifteen members there. I don't too many, and you
pointed out we're probably on the verge of them losing
one of their most important members in Kenoskia.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
But right now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
It just was like, Okay, we have the death Riders,
we have Don Kallus adding people to his family, we
have some of these other storylines that just are bedrocks
of aw right now but aren't hitting for me maybe
the way they are for other fans, And if I
can just spotlight this, Brad, I'm super intrigued with the
title reign of Chris Statlander with Hangman Paige. I've been

(01:06:25):
fairly down on it, and Hangman had no question my
favorite Men's World title reign to date in company history,
and this second reign, even though we're just a few
months into it, it's been long enough now where I'm
scratching my head thinking, oh, I wanted more?

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Is this gonna be? Is this gonna be?

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
It?

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Is this going to be all that we're seeing? He
fought Kyle Fletcher last month, great match, we know Kyle
Fletcher had no shot of winning that ye and then
for Wrestle Dream facing Samoo Joe, I would argue Tomojo
has no shot of winning this match. I'm sure the
actual about is going to be fun, but given how
great Hangman's first one was and the redemption storyline, we

(01:07:05):
still have the redemption storyline here. But kind of, yeah,
I kind of. I've just wanted more and I've expected more.
So for me, the conversation really does in some ways
start and end with Man. Hangman's range just hasn't The
second reign hasn't started out as hot as I was
hoping it would.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
Yeah, and I completely agree with you, And I think
we're still involved with the death writers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
We don't need that. We already know he should be done.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Yeah, we're done with that. Movie needs to stop. It
needs to stop. It's like sting in nWo, like let's
move on, please, my god. And I think it's the
The part is, the reason we started rooting for him
is because his character shifted so much, and we fell
in love with his character. Why do you shift back?
Like he could still be like, uh, you know, like

(01:07:54):
a lighter persona who's a good guy, But like keep that, like,
I'm just gonna beat the ever living crap out of
you for doing something to me. I'm not going to
hold back. I loved unhinged Hangman, and I didn't feel
like he was ever really a heel. He was just unhinged.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
That was the beauty of his story. Great creative yep.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
I mean that's that's basically like John Moxley. That's that's
Dean Ambrose just unhinged. That's the whole gimmick, just unhinged.
We're not going asylum here, but like let hang man
just be now he's like looking at cows and it's
just this is who I was supposed to be the

(01:08:33):
whole last fine, cool, I get it. It's a personal journey.
I think that's really cool. Him finding a place that
he belongs. I think that's really cool. And also and
also I want to see you back with the mustache.
And I want to see you wearing that black jacket.
Get get that tan jacket out of here. For much
we just want the stash and the black jacket. I
want the jeans and the like the biker looking jacket,

(01:08:55):
the stash, and I want you to go up there
keep the theme. We could keep ghost Town triumph, but
like I need I need to go beat people up again,
and not just win matches. I need you to beat
people through a pulp like their house on fire on occasion.
I need those things to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
I did enjoy when he mentioned that in the promo
celebrating six years of dynamite. You know, I've I've lit
someone's house on fire, I've dressed as this person, I've
lost friends.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
I was like, Yeah, there's been some great creative.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
On AW over the last six years, namely through the
main character of the company in Hangman Page, But overall,
it does seem like it's in a down period right now,
and I hope heading into two Q four these last
few months, I guess we're already than Q four these
last few months of AW, I hope they're able to
regain some of that creative momentum, because there's no question,

(01:09:44):
week in and week out, the end reingproduct is as
good as you're going to see on American television. How
do we reignite some of that creative particularly when there's
been roster movement and you know people have been banged
up or or needed time off.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, well, I'm sure we'll figure it out.
I I am interested to see what happens after the
Samoa Joe thing and if he has to go to
a darker place to beat Joe, because you had known
Joe will. But I have a lot of questions and
I'm glad Hangman's getting you know, like a lot of
the ogs, like you said, really supporting those talent. I'm

(01:10:20):
glad he's getting his attention and his deserved do his flowers,
you might say, Tyler, it's time once again to get
into a rose from Tyler to play the music.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
And now for a rose from GI's most eligible Bachelor.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
All right, Brad, a rose this week? Well, I'll say,
who's going to go to in just a moment. Obviously,
we're continuing with the second season of The Golden Bachelor
starring Mel Owens. This update, I'm going to entitle a
hot girl Peg in honor of that hot girl Meg Megan,
the Stallion era from a few years a girl a
few years ago. Easy for me to say. Peg is

(01:11:08):
a contestant on this season and last week's episode, episode four,
officially we're already here began with a one on one
date Peg and Mel and this took place at the
California State There. So pause to ask you a question,
Brad with Chester, have you ever been on a date
at a state there?

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
I have.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
How was that experience for you? It's a lot of fun.
As a young person, quite a bit of fun. Good good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
I thought maybe you were gonna zag here. Okay, fantastic,
I have no.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
You got think about it like this. Okay, you got
you got a place that as heightened e motion, right,
like you go and go on a ride and it's
scary or terrible, but you shared experience. You get to
be together with those things. You get to go do
the Let me show you how manly I am by
not yacking over any of these milk bottles. You co
look like a total stud. Yeah, yeah, totally. We already
got the strength challenges or whatever. Then you can laugh

(01:12:01):
at how poorly you know, with with elevator, elevated hoop
for made out of elastic, all of those things. Yeah,
all of those are so much fun. And uh there's
like the art exhibits and go see the animals. It's
like a little bit of everything there where you can

(01:12:21):
go and have a shared experience and talked to each
other the whole thing. So yeah, I think opportunity. Yes,
go on the ferris wheel, have some alone time off
up top, look out at the fair. Go like, it's
so beautiful up here, it's so are you you know
that kind of stuff like, yeah, give me the give
me the fair all day long. Now as an adult,
that can kick Rocks.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
Well, maybe we're too closer to getting Brad back invested
into the Golden Bachelor here, So I wanted to start
there Brad, because that again is how the episode began.
Perform check out, Yes, yeah, yeah, performing at this California
State Bear. So they stayed in the confines of the
Greater La Area where Casey and the Sunshine band Wow.
So so Peg was dancing to case Mel. She got

(01:13:03):
Mel to warm up a little bit and dance with her,
so that was fun. Later on in the episode there
was a group date, which for me was the dreaded
photo shoot. This time it was set on the beach.
It was giving wedding theme Golden Wedding, where at any
given moment there were three or four women with Mel
posing for this photo shoot. I believe it was for
People magazine and spread in there, so functionally it served

(01:13:25):
a purpose that it would go to a magazine. But
this reminded me of that cheer competition from earlier in
the season where it just felt like this, I don't
think we should be watching this, Why do we need
a wedding photo shoot? Part of I think an Achilles
heal of this season of Golden Batch, Brad Is, there
have been some decisions from production to make this feel

(01:13:45):
more like a traditional Bachelor season and part of the
charm correct me if I'm wrong. Part of what you
and Jessica enjoyed about the inaugural Golden Batch was it
felt like a complete one to eighty from a traditional
Bachelor season, and it was more wholesome the contestant. It
was less about creating villains and creating rivalries, and it

(01:14:06):
was more about the contestants getting along and having the
shared experience of, you know, being worried that time may
run out for them before they find, you know, the
love of their lives. So even this wedding photoshoots to me,
was indicative of I don't really agree with some of
the dire I say, creative decisions around how they're shooting
the second season and Melt just in general as a

(01:14:27):
dud and is a bit of a charisma vacuum to
borrow us saying from my co host here. So I
just don't know that he is the right lead. I
still feel that way, but alas later on in the episode,
finally Rock Sane, Robin, and Jerry were eliminated. Jerry a
sistem was the first contestant to receive the only contestant

(01:14:50):
to receive the first Impression Rose. So this continues a
long tradition of whoever gets the first Impression Rose, regardless
of the season, is typically cursed and is not gonna
make it to hometowns, and it's certainly not gonna be
the lead's final pick. So unfortunately Jerry's gone again as
our rock, sand and Robin. But what I want to
tell you, Brad is this episode was important because we

(01:15:13):
saw the development of a heel. We know how this
goes seemingly every Batch season. For this season it appears
and Nicole is going to be the heel. She's from Florida,
and on this episode she alluded to during some group
conversation perhaps wanting to be on the show for the
incorrect reasons for fame, to become an influencer, to leave

(01:15:36):
with a brand deal. So she in some ways essentially
kind of verbalized that, and she is being shot and
maybe she's being produced to be the villain of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:15:46):
Again.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
I just don't think we need that on The Golden
Bachelor or The Golden Bachelor Red. Save that for the
other seasons, but not for our precious golden, So I'm
interested to see what happened. She was not eliminated, but
there's been some part of the previews for this week,
for episode five, the way they've shot it, some of
the mystery has been always this going to be when

(01:16:08):
I was gonna say, Gary, yikes, when Mel maybe changes
his mind and has that conversation with Nicole about hey,
are you here for the right reasons? Because the relationship
is very physical right now, but it's all signs seem
to point to eventually he's going to eliminate her because
he fears that she's here to get a brand deal,
not to you know, buy for his heart if you will.

(01:16:29):
But I really like Debbie Debbie Shine during the group
wedding photoshoot. She has not been married before. She was
engaged once but has ever but has never worn a
wedding dress. So not only does she have a strong
connection with Mel, but she just seems to be a
real one And I'm excited to see how she progresses
on the show. But that being said, my Rose is
going to peg peg was the winner for me this week.

(01:16:52):
She I think she's gonna make it far. I think
she's a lot for hometown, So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
I don't know how old is she is she under sixty?
You know what she is not? But Bell Bell clearly
has to get over that. He put his foot in
his mouth and he uh. I think he's going to
be just fine. Peg, Debbie.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
They're front runners, and if you've learned anything from this episode,
he can make infringement. Brad. I think it's that state fairs,
state fairs. Maybe maybe that is a good Maybe that
is an ideal date if you're looking for for data ideas.
Arizona State Fair is still going on.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
It's it feels like it's always going on. Yeah, I
think it's still going on. You've got another week or so.
Maybe the Pma County Fair that happens once a year
and guess it's a big deal in these here parts
of the spring. And yeah, down in Houghton. I believe
I've never been to the Pima County Fair. Can you
believe that? Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
Maybe I'm just not a state fair guy.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
I'm shocking. What do you What do you mean, Tyler?
I will tell you that if you go to the
Pma County State Fair. How do I this? You already
know who's there. Okay, Tyler, what do we miss?

Speaker 5 (01:18:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
We miss two important items. Number one a final wrestling
note this Saturday, not only do we have aw wrestl Dream,
but we also have a shay close to midnight. You
can visit AHA wrestlingas Wrestling dot Com for information on
how to purchase the streaming LEAKHA is also launching a
Patreon this week, so very exciting time for Darius Lockhart

(01:18:28):
and company out there in North Carolina. For this specific card,
Brad aw Women's champ Charity King Defenseer title for the
first time against Aliyah James. Anytime Aliah James pops up
on a card, I am going to tune in take
my money. That match should be amazing. Darius Carter versus
Billy Dixon TM versus Ugly Gang to crown the INAUGURALHA

(01:18:50):
Men's Tag Team Champions is happening, so really big show.
And then finally, Brad Winchester. The WNBA Finals finished. Since
we last recorded. We can't have nice things. The Phoenix
Mercury not only lost, they got swept by Asia Wilson
in the Las Vegas Aces. But it is not all bad,
not at all. If you visit gimmick infringement pod dot

(01:19:12):
com you can find the whole history of the original
articles that Brad and I have written and have published,
the most recent one being entitled The Year of Asia,
in which I reflect on Asia Wilson winning her third
WNBA Championship along with her fourth MVP and just really
making a case for being the greatest player of her generation.

(01:19:35):
So really loved watching her ball. Unfortunately it was at
the expense once again of myself and you and all
of the Phoenix Mercury fans. So shout out to Asia, though,
what do we miss, Brett?

Speaker 1 (01:19:48):
Well, it's tough because I was watching on my phone.
I also caught articles on my phone. My internet kept
cutting in and out. I got a shout out from
a message from Eric Aday. Shout out to her and
her covered season absolutely on fire. Please give her a
follow on Twitter, Instagram, wherever else she is these days
part of phn X Sports and her coverage is awesome.

(01:20:13):
But she wished me a happy birthday, Tyler. My birthday
was on Facebook. I saw October October something like October eighth,
nineteen twelve. I don't know what the hell happened.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
You listen, you look good. For nineteen twelve. I look great.
I told you you look good when we first chopped
on this call.

Speaker 1 (01:20:31):
These these these blemishes on my face are from wearing sunglasses.
All I did was put on sunglasses for too long
and my face is breaking out. But while I was
not getting connected to that, I was getting the news.
So the only thing that we missed is we didn't
get to talk about how sorry I am for all
the fellows circumcised folks out there who probably have autism
because of it. According to our what is this name

(01:20:52):
or health secretary or health lord whatever, we're calling this
this monarchy. Now, I'm not really sure, but guy with
a terrible voice said that I probably have autism. That's
what we missed. Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
No transition Jones, other than to say I'm proud of
myself because I caught that on Facebook and I was
about to tie. I was actually about to text you
when with your happy birthday and wa wait, yo, this
this is not accurate. It's not May, it's October. This
is this is the.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
Worst part error. I posted a thing saying thank you
for the birthday wishes. It's not my birthday. I was
not born in October. I didn't see that. Okay, people
were commenting happy birthday honest yeah yeah, but like they
meant it. There's no chance they read past the first line,
which is thank you for the birthday wishes, like read
the whole thing, your Broni's listen.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
You are, whether it was your actual, real government birthday
or not, you are loved and you are appreciated.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
I am, and it was really nice getting all that
love for no reason because I intentionally tried to hide
my birthday. I don't want the happy birthday posts. I
don't want that stuff, like if you know me, text me.
I don't want the other stuff. That's just not who
I am. I've never been like that. I get it well.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
Regardless of what RFK Junior thinks you are, you appreciate
ideas of dang best tough ending with an RFK impression
to close out this episode, that's a sign that we
have gone over time and we need to get out
of here. Brad, thank you for being here. We thank
all of you for joining us. Enjoy wrestling, and enjoy

(01:22:20):
all that I'm sure is to come in the world
of pop culture this week. Let us know your predictions,
let us know your thoughts from WWE to aew to him,
to Golden Batch, to road trips with the fam. You
know we appreciate hearing what resonated with you. You can
drop us a comment here on YouTube. You can reach
out to us across the social spaces at gipod nineteen.

(01:22:40):
Five star reviews on your audio platform or platforms of
choice are always appreciated. Again, we thank you for being here,
dare I say, for rocking with us for four years
and you know we'll see you next week. Gimmi Confringement
is a part of nineteen Media Group. You can listen
to us on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you find podcasts.
You can also find us on YouTube via the nineteen

(01:23:01):
Media Group channel. Please like, subscribe, comment and share.

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Cena and Styles, Vaquer and Rollins, and WrestleDream Weekend — WWE, AEW October 6-12

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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;}Cena and Styles, Vaquer and Rollins, and WrestleDream Weekend — WWE, AEW October 6-12