All Episodes

September 1, 2025 93 mins
Brad and Tyler met up in Phoenix over the weekend, and they still have a lot to discuss. They recap attending the Arizona Wrestling Federation's Overdrive XII event, including a memorable appearance by Cedric Alexander and Fallyn Grey's ascension within the industry. Later, they share their WWE Clash in Paris reactions, debate what's next for HOOK following his return to AEW Dynamite, and more.

Other topics include
  • Cracker Barrel's Switch-Up
  • Micah Parsons Goes North
  • Taylor Swift's Engagement
Follow the show for exclusive updates.

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Web: gimmickinfringementpod.com, 19mediagroup.com
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0:00 Intro
7:50 Live Event Jones — AWF Overdrive XII and Fallyn Grey
26:07 Steph Watch — Tyler Demands a Title
34:05 WWE — Clash in Paris
1:03:58 It’s a Work — Cracker Barrel's Commitment to Herschel
1:29:35 What We Missed — Best Day Ever for White Women and an Awkward Transition
1:32:40 Closing
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
And now Gammick in Fringemen.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome everybody to the Gimmick Infringement Podcast. I am Brad
Winchester and with me as always is my tag team
partner Tyler McDowell, Blank and Tyler. It is Sunday. Clash
has happened in Paris. Wrestling events happened in Phoenix. Iconic
locations were visited and honored, I think is the right

(00:29):
word this week. I don't know if you can call
it as a location, but it certainly happened in that location.
But before I pass it to you, I want to
say Happy birthday to my dad, Dale Winchester. Happy birthday.
As we record this, it is his birthday. I'll be
calling him after record. He's having a party right now
and hopefully having a lot of fun with some friends

(00:51):
up in Wisconsin. Tyler, how are.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
You well, Happy birthday to your pops. Shout out, shout out, Dale.
I can't wait, can wait to hear how your conversation goes.
That's incredibly special. I didn't know you were gonna mention that.
I didn't know it's his big day. That is That
is the proper way to start out this episode of
GI Brad. This is one of those special editions because
I just saw you yesterday. That doesn't happen very often.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
No, so it's a bit like a fever dream for me.
I just feel like I'm here and then I'm gone.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
It just happened.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I still smell like sunscreen.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, yeah, that's unscreen, that sunscreen perfew, that sunscreen fragrance.
Yeah yeah, man, No, it was great to see you.
I'm still right in that high of the event we
went to and getting to chop it up with you,
and it was one of those where we actually got
to grab food and catch up and then watch some wrestling.
It was. It was the perfect combos. I know. We'll
get into that in our audition of Live Event Jones.
Like you said, we'll talk about w w E clash

(01:44):
in Paris. We have a w questions for each other.
I want to talk to you about a cracker barrel
theory that I have, so.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
We're gonna have a feeling. I know what it is
because I probably share that theory with you.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah. Yeah, interesting. We're gonna cover a lot of bases.
But I am doing well. I'm grateful today. How are
you doing.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm doing pretty well and I could tell I'm fighting
off something, fatigue, a cold, something I caught cleaning out
that shop. Who knows. I could tell you that it
might be because we were crammed like sardines into a
pool hall to watch some grabs last night. When I
say I've never been closer to a person to watch
a wrestling show, I mean that kid was basically sitting

(02:24):
on my leg for the first third of the event.
He kept backing up. He like scooched his chair and
the chair would slide back, and I was like, I
can't move. My knee is on his butt, it's on
it right now, and there's nowhere for me to go.
How many times do you think we got up last night?

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I could confirm. I actually want you to know that
I have this in my notes for our live event recap,
specifically specifically you're seating at all that came? It was crazy. Yeah,
we got up. And what's interesting is that we were
sitting next to two women there were to our left
who warned us, Hey, these seats not great because we're

(03:04):
gonna have to get up a lot. And I didn't
really process at the time. I was like, Oh, okay,
no worries, you know, thanks for the heads up. I
didn't realize at the time. You and I would literally
get up a couple dozen times during this event for
either fellow patrons to go to the bathroom or get food,
or for staff to walk through to drop off beverages
and food. Man. So it was crazy. But I will
say shout out to the people of Phoenix, shout out

(03:26):
to the wrestling fans here, because generally people were kind.
They said thank you, they said excuse me, And for
any of our viewers who have been to any semblance
of a live event, wrestling show, concert, et cetera, you
don't always get that. So I take the wins where
I can get them, and I'm glad people were at
least appreciative of our willingness to not only, you know,

(03:47):
move our legs, but also just get up, because yeah,
we were packed in there. Man. You even estimated there
were probably about five hundred people at Bullshooters.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's probably way way over estimating. My guess is it's like,
looking back, it's probably like three fifty to four hundred.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
But it felt like five hundred.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
That place was full, and it got loud and and
it was it was cool. Like, don't get me wrong,
it was cool. One of my favorite things was when
we sit back down, because you sat closer to the aisle,
we had to have like back all the way out
of our chairs, stand by our trash can while people
got through, and then you'd go back in and I
sat down, and the look on the woman that sat

(04:24):
behind you looking at you sitting down and looking at
the chair, just just this look on our face while
you're doing it, like this is a problem right here.
I'm like, where do we go, ma'am? Like we don't
want to be this close to you. This is this
is the setup. It's a packed house, it's it's a

(04:46):
very popular event.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
The perils of and maybe I don't know if we've
officially gone into a lot of them Jones territory. It
feels like we're here now, Brad, this is the These
are the perils of general admission. You know. We weren't. Yeah,
we were just we were amongst our fellow everyday people.
And when your general admission, sometimes you got to just
get in where you can fit in.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, And I think to that to that end, having
having VIP it makes it makes sense. But I think
wrestling shows in particular, and then we'll get into Lavavan
Jones here. This is just in general, are this sort
of weird space. It's like every wrestling event is sort
of like a music festival where you have all these

(05:31):
different bands and different groups that are just there to
perform for the festival but aren't part of a giant company.
You know, like these are all individual brands working under
this umbrella like AWF is putting on the event and
booking the shows, but like they're independent for a reason.
They're independent contractors that are getting paid to go work.

(05:52):
And you know, like having the VIP pass is usually
means limited access. But Tyler, you know, we were waiting
in line and general admission, We're like, allright, cool, now
the general emission, we're probably gonna have like one hundred
people there for VIP. We'll get in and find our seats.
Place was already packed and we were like eighth in line,

(06:13):
so it was it was crazy how many people were
already there when we were waiting in line to get in,
like a bunch of jabronis where I was like thinking, oh,
we're gonna have great seats, we're gonna get pick of
the litter, And it was like the place had already
filled up. I was like, this is wild Man, but
in that wrestling space in particular, if you want to
get autographs or or see your favorite talent, especially with
the talents, it's booked only for that card, Like like

(06:36):
people will talk about in a minute. I don't want
to spoil it. We'll save it for lab event. Jones was,
you know, like, how do you get access to it
and have the time to do it? If you don't
do the VIP event, it's more income for the company.
All of those things matter logistically. I don't know how
you pull it off in any way that makes sense.
They managed to put on a pretty good show that felt,

(06:56):
you know, it felt like an indie show, but it
felt safe. There wasn't any other There wasn't really any
point where I was like, I'm worried about this getting
out of hand, other than we were joking about the
one exit door on either side and having eight million
people in a room and some of them they're not
getting through that door if they don't turn sideways. So
there's there was a lot of there's a lot going

(07:17):
on in there, like a lot going on. I saw
so many canes and walkers and scooters and wheelchairs that
I could think is like, in the event of an emergency,
I don't know what's going to happen with these folks
that need to get out and hurry and they are
going to need assistance cause I don't know, man, But

(07:39):
I never felt like it was any danger and it
looked like they had everything put together pretty well. It was.
It was a fun thing, but we got to talk
about it. So let's formally get into it. Play the music.
It's time for live event zones.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Brad. It's been a minute since we've had a live
event jokes, it's been since aw double or nothing. Surely
you and I, you or I have been to something
live since then.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
I don't even think we called that live event shones
because we were gonna talk about it anyway.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Because it was a pay wow.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Okay, so I don't think we ever got into it.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well, this is a glorious return. You let us right
into this perfectly man, Arizona Wrestling Federations Overdrive, the twelfth
anniversary of this this massive annual show. I'm going to
get right into my notes here, Brad, and what I
will say about this show is the bullshooters of it all.

(08:45):
Can we just start there. We've spoken about it on
air before, so good. I think I've hyped it up
sufficiently enough. Can we start with the location? What did
you think of Phoenix's infamous pool hall Bullshooters? How was
Bullshooters for you?

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I have moved out here for seventeen years of my
nineteen year teaching career. I spent a twenty four ish
living in the Midwest Upper Peninsula, and then two years
more living in Wisconsin for a couple of years. It
is the first time in southern Arizona or Arizona in general,

(09:22):
that I ever felt like I was walking into a
Midwest establishment. There was the immediate like Tyler, maybe I'm
wrong about this, but you can't smoke inside that place.
But if you were to visually show this place to anybody,

(09:42):
they're gonna say it smells like cigarettes. Like there's no
disputing this. Like it. You look at it and it's
like that stale beer and cigarettes is what that is.
I saw the pictures online and I was like, Okay,
it was an empty pool haul, and then I walked
in and it was like people with like tank tops
on and like their tats were out. None of them
were in shape, like all of these things right, like

(10:05):
that you would see at a bowling alley somewhere in
the Midwest. And the summer pictures, the classic pictures of
beer with the lines on them, you know, the giant handle, Like,
all of that stuff was in full effect. All the
ads on the top for local places, radio stations, uh events,
the early early aughts logo for bullshooters, the like's just

(10:29):
the the all of it was like, we know what
we are, we know what we are, and we are
not going to stay away from what we are. You
get what you think you're gonna get. I thought it
was awesome because of that, because it felt super for me.
It felt super familiar. It felt like we're about to
go have a good time in a place that probably
has a vending machine full of cigarettes. And also like

(10:52):
like that's that's all I can think is like it remind.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Cigarette machine is crazy, Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Mister Donut was right down the street from the Bolorama
and Escanaba, Michigan, And in mister Donut cigarette vending machine
you had to put in your money, pull a glass
tab out, and your your your box of cigarettes would fall.
I don't know what the how cigarettes were when I
was a kid. I just wanted to buy the pack
cigarettes out of the super cool machine. Actually know what
I was gonna buy. I was like, you know, like

(11:20):
you get the football helmet.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Right, Yeah, you were, you were worried, you wanted.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
I just wanted to pull the lever. I don't care
what comes out of there, I get it. My whole
goal was something arose. I think that was like the
best that place gave me, really nostalgic vibes. We got
in line. Vibes changed a little bit. Vibes changed a
little bit from there because then it was like people
losing their minds about it not opening precisely at six

(11:45):
pm to let them in, and it was like that
took you log it off and people were shouting and stuff,
and it's like, it's six oh six, it's six o
it's six oh six. Have you never gone to a
show before? Do you not know? It's six soh six?
Look Look at the venue. Look at the venue. This

(12:07):
isn't Broadway. Okay, this isn't like the people. Somebody, the
person getting the tickets didn't get a master's degree in
hospitality management. Freaking relax, man, You're about to go see
a wrestling event, go have a good time. Just wait
for the line to get in so we all get
in safely. They're not letting us in because they're afraid

(12:29):
of what's gonna happen. We all go sprinting in in
the middle of a a match, b people already all
over there, and see people trying to serve drinks, get
people that need accessibility options into their seats, and you're
out here going you're taking too long. Good Lord, That's
that part got me. But it's in terms of the

(12:50):
physical venue. K. I'm not gonna lie that HVAC was
struggling towards the end of the night like a lot. Uh.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
It was.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
It was cool, it was warm, but it was it
was still cool at the started the night, But the
end of the night, I was like, yeah, I'm starting
to get kind of hot. All the water in my
body had evaporated. It was the driest mouth I've ever had.
On the way home because I just didn't want to
leave to go get something to drink. I should have
just grabbed the lady that we got out of the

(13:17):
way for six hundred times, who was serving people and
was awesome. Every time she looked at us and was
like I'm sorry and we had to get up.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, we told your job it's killing it. She was
very kind.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I agree, she was awesome. So I I thought, I
thought it was great. The show was great. I thought
AWF did a really good job with with production. Their
their video packages that they had to set up. The
matches are are better than some that aw put out
because they don't even use motion graphics all the time.
I so a shout out to their media team for

(13:53):
whoever he's doing that. But sound guy, you got to
turn the game down. Man, you gotta turn the game down.
It's just crusty people shouting into a mic. You got
like all the way down, output all the way up,
or you gotta you gotta get a bigger monitor system.
That's that's really it. And like those are expensive as

(14:14):
all balls. So just turn the game down a little bit,
will be in good, good shape. But I thought other
than that, it was it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Man.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Most of the fans there were were fans are wrestling.
Some of the fans there were problematic. And the look
on your face, I gotta stress this to the audience
of I couldn't tell if it was disbelief, fear, shock,

(14:47):
but you had this look of just deep deep concern
and what the bleep is happening is? And about you?
Right out of the gate, we had the first women's
match on the card. You popp for Mohabi Desert and
then and then I can't remember the talent's name came
out to the ring. She was awesome. All all the

(15:07):
talent last night were a ton of fun. And then
a fan said something stupid about being a woman, not
being able to work that stuff like not being just
stuff you shouldn't be saying when you look like that,
and she unloaded on this dude, un loaded on this guy,

(15:28):
and I find I found myself going, yeah, yeah, she's right.
I know she's a heel. She's right. I'm agreeing with
her taking this dude out. I thought that was awesome.
But your face, I I was I was convinced you're
gonna be like I think we should go like. I
was convinced you were gonna say it.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
That is something I would say at this point in
my life. I just didn't know. I didn't know what
was for the show and and what was the work
versus the shoes. I didn't know what he said, and
usually in these type of smaller venues, you can hear
just about everything. Yeah, but like you said, Brad credits
to the crowd, because people were up the whole night
in terms of just their engagement and their participation. And

(16:11):
the case of this guy, he literally stood up and
got into a back and forth. I guess you know.
It wasn't anything where he had to be escorted out
of the venue or what have you. But yeah, like
you said, when you mix just general dorks with alcohol
with uh, you know, just lots of people and you
want to be memorable and and and what have you,

(16:31):
just things can happen. And you and I have had
these experiences at wrestling shows at Big Time arenas, Desert
Diamond Arena, the PHX Arena, so you know, if stuff
can happen there and people can get real colorful and
real spicy, you know, at the Local Bullshooters, naturally you
got to be prepared. But clearly I was not prepared
because yeah, I was like, man from the first match,

(16:51):
like we really can't have nice things.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
I just wanted to say that that you made it
a franchise, the.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Local Bulls from a jump, Yeah, yeah, well and I
called it infamous, but you know, when I look up
the definition for infamous, that's not necessarily a complisation. Yeah, yeah,
for sure, it's just it's it's a well known establishment.
I'm glad you had a good time, Brad. Let's not
bury the lead. We obviously we were at overdrive for
one main reason, and that was the support I have

(17:20):
the shirt on Arizona's own Falling Gray. Let's go, Brad.
One of your former students at Miranda High School. You
met Gray through the theater program. We got to meet her.
So right after the show, as most indie shows, how
this process goes is once that final bell rings, everyone
starts to go into the hallway to meet the wrestlers

(17:44):
and form a line at their boots. So, luckily you
when I hire her that final bell, we went right
into the hallway. We were I think second in line
for Falling Gray's booth, and you got to reconnect with her.
I got to meet her for the first time. What
an incredibly kind, talented person. Like already I was already
a fan just based on the work and her ascension

(18:06):
in the industry only being a couple of years into
the business, but then actually getting to meet her and
interact with her for a brief period. So humble, so sweet,
and seeing you two interact, you know, from Newsy's All
the Way to AWF Overdrive, it just it filled my heart,
It filled my cup. I was I was just so
overjoyed by that. So she was phenomenal. She did not

(18:29):
win the women's four a way, but there were.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
A certain way about that.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah yeah, and that that match ended pretty abruptly. So
not only were we and our feelings about fall A
Gray not winning, but then the match itself ended a
bit abruptly. Priscilla Kelly won this match. Suprise, Yeah, surprise,
roll up. So she's now the interim women's champion there
was on a Wrestling Federation and she will go on
to challenges Shatzi At next month to a WF event

(18:56):
to crown a new AWF women champion. This title was
previously vacated by Elena Black, who stepped away to take
some time off for mental health and for all the
right reasons. But just quick notes, Brad in terms of
what stood out to me, first to Brad's Bullshooters experience
and then second Falling Gray, we got the tea. This

(19:17):
is a Falling Gray Podcast. Can't wait to see what
she does from here. Big shout out to her. We
hurt people chance for Cedric Alexander, amazing, amazing, love that,
like you said, knowledgeable fan base. There were lots of
women in the audience. I was really I don't know
what people may conceive of local indie shows or especially
if they have him been to an AWF show or Bullshooters,

(19:39):
but there were a lot of women in the audience,
and you pointed this out, Brad. There were fans of
all ages. There were kids there, there were people our
age there, there were older fans there. It really you
and I have said this on air on multiple occasions.
Wrestling to me is such a microcosm of American society
because you just get all different types of people into

(20:01):
this venue for entertainment, people with different political beliefs and
backgrounds and life experiences and ethnicities, and it just wrestling
continues to be such a fascinating form of entertainment in
that regard. But yeah, lots of women came through, so
it was great that it wasn't just a bunch of
dudes packed in to you know, watch some grabs, but

(20:23):
it was it was a diverse fan base, finally, lots
of sampunk tis. There were even we want Cross chants
during the main event featuring Matt Cardona, which I think
threw him off and threw me off as well, because
you know, Killer Cross is not walking through that door,
at least not tonight. And there were also we want
Chelsea chants aimed at Matt Cardona as well as Chelsea's

(20:46):
husband Clap clap cloud and of course in character as
a heel that got under Matt Cardona's skin. But I
would imagine the person probably felt really good about Yeah,
I'm married to I'm married to a baller, and yeah
I being known as Chelsea's husband is not a bad thing.
So super fun event. Brad would definitely go again any
chance we can to support Falling Gray. Check her out

(21:08):
across the socials at Falling Gray f A L L
Y N Gray g R E Y. She's amazing and
meeting her was definitely the highlight of the night.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Oh for sure, Yeah, yeah, yeahyah. Getting to watch her
because she's relatively young too, in not just in general,
but in the business. It's it's wild. I never got
to have her in the classroom, but I got to
work with her kind of with with Newsy's. It was
one of those things where I was trying to trying
to make sure that the printing press stays working and
that when people go on the set it doesn't collapse

(21:39):
and kill the orchestra. So when you get to cross
paths very often, but there was there was one rehearsal
I remember saying like, hey, you're great up here, keep going.
I doubt she remembers that. For some reason, I remember
that because she just stood out, and you know, we
did the show and every night I'm like, that kid
is is so good? And somebody else referenced it that

(22:00):
they have an award named after over at Mountain View,
they named an award after one of the particular ensemble members.
At one point they're like the you know, the the
Tyler McDowell Blanket Award for being a standout for an
ensemble cast member. So it's like people would come up
and see this person in the chorus and just be
like that show was great. Who was the kid that was?

(22:23):
She was that person she was like didn't have a
main part or you know, a bunch of lines or
anything like that, but like just kind of stole the
show because she's so expressive, and last night I was like,
oh my gosh, she gets it because you have to.
You have to be big. You can't just go up
there and be boring. And if something something happens and

(22:45):
you're surprised, you can't just go, oh crap, or you
know what MGF usually does, which always pops me. But
it's got to be like big. My eyes have to
be popping wide and just you know, like I have to.
You have to do everything to let the crowd know
that something bad just happened. And I thought she did
a wonderful job of that. But to your point, so humble,

(23:06):
My favorite part wasn't just getting to reconnect briefly because
she had a line. My takeaways were there is a
pretty established AWF fan base. They knew the chance, they
knew the talent, they knew who the heels were, who
the baby faces were there along for the ride, and
it seems like this is probably a pretty regular outing

(23:27):
for these folks, and really cool supportive wrestling scene in Phoenix.
I had no idea how good that was. The Other
thing is that the AWF has to find a bigger venue.
Bullshitter's fine, but like if you get that kind of
talent while you're building talent who are going to take
off and get signed, Like you're gonna need some more seats,

(23:48):
and that space is pretty cool and it's super tight
and all that stuff, and it works out. But man,
it's you ran out of room. You probably could have
sold a couple hundred more tickets and that show sold out,
which is incredible because that means the talent probably got
to sell a lot of merch to autographs. They got
it paid because the tickets sold all of that stuff.
I just I just man, I can't say enough about

(24:11):
how she interacted with the little girl who was ahead
of us, and that was the part, and that she
was like so happy that we were there, but also
like I lost. I lost that.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
I was like she said, she said, I crashed out. Yeah,
that's okay, that's.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Literally I was trying to finished that match by accident,
so I wanted to see, Like, I was like, I
gotta get a cool shot of this.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
We put it out.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
She got she got caught by s l S. It
took a gnarly bump onto the apron. It was just
a dead thud, and then Priscilla Kelly pulling up after
Zia looking outside the ring, like what's going on down here?
And then just womp one, two, three, roll off.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
The crowd was shocked. They were shocked. Was that was
that not the the weirdest night reaction by the crowd?

Speaker 1 (25:00):
It was.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
It wasn't like an oh, it wasn't cheery, and it's
just everybody went and it was the weirdest sound I've
ever heard. Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
It was.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
It was crazy. But I thought all the women showed
up and showed out, huge, huge, huge thanks to Falling
Gray for inviting this out and getting to see her.
That was just such a special moment. I can't wait
to wear my tea. I can't wait to take a
shower first when I when I tell you that I
got into the driveway and then walked in the house

(25:30):
and immediately sat down to be in a meeting to
then go right into this, I'm like, I am ready
to rinse off the pool water. I'm struggling here, and
then it's time for laundry and we're going to get
that phone. Falling Gray tea ready to go for uh
for for Labor Day.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
I think that's gonna be Labor day. Labor Day Weekend
two k twenty five, That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, Tyler, we're huge fans of women's wrestling around here.
I don't think that's a secret. Even watching the show
or listening to the show for any length of time,
you know how we feel about women's wrestling around here.
And there's one particular women we focus on more than
almost any other. And it's time. I don't think we've
done it in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
It's time, Stuffy, It's time for my favorite segment of
the week, Stephanie Baker Appreciation Brad. It's Steph Watch. I
wish I had more to say. I am in my feelings.
I almost crashed out today because Stephanie Bacaer did not
have a match at Clash in Paris, which is not

(26:31):
a surprise, but for weeks and really going back to
Evolution two, the best pl of the year, mind you,
we can talk about that maybe in a little bit.
When she won that Battle Royal, she then earned the
right to challenge the Raw Women's Champion at Clash in Paris.
So for weeks I've been looking forward to her having
a big match on this show and possibly winning her

(26:53):
first title on the main roster. Obviously, with news of
Naomi expecting plan and change, we big shout out to
Naomi doing some of the best work and wrestling in
all of twenty twenty five. Plans have changed and now
on the September first edition of Raw, Adam Pierce will
announce who will face Stephanie back Here for the vacated

(27:15):
title and when it will occur. Stephanie back Here has
got to win the match. It doesn't matter who it's against. Brad,
I don't know if you have any favorites in terms
of who she's going to challenge. It'll matter to me.
La Premire has got to win that match. I would
love for the match to take place tomorrow nights or
by the time we release this tonight on Raw. At
most we wait till the September eighth edition, but Adam Pierce,

(27:39):
this has got to get done. I am not waiting
longer than a week. You know who needs to go over.
It is La Premier's time. Let's do this thing.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Where do you want it in one week?

Speaker 1 (27:51):
I want it on Raw. I don't even know where
Raw is going to be on September eight, It doesn't
matter to me. That's where we crown stuff like here,
if not, if not tonight in Paris have.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Another World's collide event happening though soon too.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Right we do at UNLV on the I think the twelfth,
a week from this Friday.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
I have a feeling that's where it's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Wow that, I mean, you got a main event right there.
If you're not doing the king o versus Dame as
the main event, Stephanie Bachaier versus it'sert name.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I was gonna say somebody from Triple A could could
challenge for that, but maybe they do Attorney. I don't know.
Maybe there's a surprise there. I don't see that.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's a great that's a great call, right if you
if you need to move tickets, because I don't think
there's been any matches confirmed as of this recording for
that show. If you want to, if you need to
move tickets, man, let's let's do it. That's the right crowd.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
It's still in the States. Like all of those things
make sense. You're gonna get that w W fan base
out there for sure. Plus you'll have that Triple A.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
I don't know that. I want to say style. It
just has a different feeling to it where it feels
more like pro wrestling and less like WWE pro wrestling.
I think that hopefully that makes sense. You're not getting
I don't think fitn Balor's using a puppet on a
raw to fight a dude with a puppet, you know

(29:08):
what I mean? Like, I don't. I just don't see
that happening. But I know them being like, yeah, yeah,
you could do it on Worlds Cloud. You do in
the Triple A show, have fun, make it be pro wrestling.
We have this other product that are are you know,
our stakeholders expect at Netflix, at at Fox, we can't
be doing that stuff because this is what we promise them.
I'm sure that that's some sort of content agreement, but

(29:28):
you could do all of that stuff if that's something
that fits with what Triple A does. But also having
Stephanie vauc Carer there, total no brainer and then having
her challenge somebody else, giving that not only to WWB crowd,
but a Triple A crowd. I think it's just it's
good for everybody involved. It's gonna get eyes on that.

(29:49):
I feel like that's where it needs to be. That's
probably where it's going to be. But I'm with you
if they're If it's still not happening by the end
of September, then everything needs to go. The whole thing
needs to get down.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
And god forbid, I don't. I don't have any idea
when the next Saudi show is. But if there is
a world in which we have to wait for Steph
to have a match there, if she has a signature
match at whatever that next show is, I'm gonna be
disappointed because I will not see it. You and I
haven't even talked on this episode yet about Clash in Paris,
which I know we'll get into in a moment, being

(30:23):
the final WWEPL on Peacock. You and I have exchanged
messages now that the luster were off of WWE signing
with ESPN, and how excited we were that wrestling is
mainstream and more people can watch it than ever. Now
it's now it's set in oh we got to pay
thirty to forty dollars to watch wwpl's. I don't feel

(30:44):
as uphoorkas I did a few weeks ago when I
was happy for the business. So I love your idea
of world's collide. I do agree with you, though I
do not want to wait past in this in your
world September twelfth. I can't. We can't wait any longer.
And when the match does happen, whoever it is against
Stephanie Backer needs to win. This is her time. I

(31:07):
will accept no other options.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Saturday, October eleventh is Crown Jewel, but that's in Perth,
so either way, that's a long time away.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, do it sooner. And then w WE Hits Hits
Up the Valley SmackDown's gonna be at su at Mullet Arena.
And then this was announced since we last recorded rad
NXT Halloween Havoc is gonna be at Prescott Valley. What
an interesting Yeah, that one, that one shocked me. The
family sent holds about five thousand. It's about an hour

(31:38):
or so from the greater Phoenix area. Yeah, really interesting.
I've not heard of a major wrestling show happening, but
shout out to our our audience in Prescott. That's a
that's a great look for them. I'm sure tickets are
gonna move and I'm excited to see what that card
ends up looking like.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
You know what, Phoenix has got a lot going on,
Arizona's got a lot going on, right, we have we
have that on September twenty seventh in Phoenix. AWF is
also hosting Retribution. We will get to see a couple
of matches that we got confirmed tonight or last night.
I think right we have Priscilla Kelly is the champion.

(32:14):
We'll be facing Shatzi Blackheart for the AWF Women's Championship.
That that sounds fun. I don't know. I think my
money would go there before before having to go donate
plasma to get SmackDown tickets because it's the only way
that's happening now.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
In case you're wondering. In case you're wondering, we do
not have tickets for any of the upcoming WWE shows,
including Monday Night Raw December first back in Glendale, because
tickets are crazy.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
It'll be spend the night, go to Bullshooters, spend another
night to drive back, then to just go to Smack
daw straight up and sit at the top row in
the back where if I yelled, it'll take twenty five
minutes for it to reach the ring.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Listen. Desert Diamond Arena recently unveiled some new renovations.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
I've not been since, but were they eat where they
painted over the coyote logo, but you can still see it.
It's quite bat in front of the Arnals.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
It's quite possible. What I will say is, as that
December one raw gets closer and I'm assuming Steff will
still be championed by then, it's going to be hard
to not get tickets to go to that. But I mean,
good for the business and good for the talent, right,
hopefully they are the beneficiaries of these increased prices. But yeah,

(33:35):
the game has changed, Brad. Even since you know, a
year ago when we were able to tend a couple
of different events, prices have gone up and now you
mixed out with the new streaming requirements. And we love
this thing. Man. We dedicate, we dedicate a lot of
our time at our income to this entertainment we love.
But it's because bringing it back full circle, the performers

(33:56):
are so good at what they do. And while Clash
in Paris was not my favorite show of the year,
I thought there were definitely some standout performances.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Well, let's get into it then, because we are a
little long in the show and we haven't talked WWE
outside of Steph, so let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, let's get into a clash in Paris. Thirty thousand
plus fans filled the arena in France. Okay, Brad, there
were to my count six matches on this show. Big
spot for Bronson reed to open against Roman reigns. Roman
ends up winning, only to get well. He wins, He

(34:35):
chokes out Paul Heym for revenge, only to get beaten
up again by the Vision. Bron Breaker comes out of nowhere.
As Roman is signing Jordan's and throwing them into the crowd,
bron Breaker comes out of nowhere, spears him through a table.
More spears occur. We'll throw in a few tsunamis a
stretcher spot, and then we move on. But this literally

(34:59):
felt like it took an hour the first hour of
the show, between the entrances, between the match, between the aftermath.
It felt like something I had seen on Raw multiple
times already. Of course we know, and this actually shocked me.
I didn't realize the set on commentary. Roman Rains has
only worked four matches so far this year, but given
his schedule, his limited schedule that he has earned, you

(35:23):
gotta give him the treatment of okay, if we're not
gonna see him till maybe November. He doesn't just disappear,
but he actually gets taken out. If anything, I think
this would have been a cool opportunity for Bronson read
to go over, because I'm expecting Roman Reigns to come back,
and let's say, you know, at Survivor series gets he
gets his revenge right the come up ince on the vision,

(35:44):
I thought, if anything, okay, well maybe this kind of
goes back to the solo Sokoa January sixth, Netflix premiere,
where you know, I think sometimes Roman rains can afford
to lose a match. He's a made man in and
this could do wonders for talent, not only to share
a ring with him in these spots, but actually to
go over once in a while. Regardless, I enjoyed the match,
it just all of it just took too long for me,

(36:06):
particularly the aftermath. I just felt like it was a
bit excessive. And the suspension of disbelief that you have
anywhere from six to fifteen staff members out there in character,
between backstage folks to medical personnel. They just let robed
raids get beat it up time and time again. Like
you're telling me, twelve guys can't you know, can't corral

(36:30):
two performers. It just the suspension of disbelief sometimes, even
as a diehard wrestling fan, kind of takes me out
a bit. But happy for the talent involved and particularly
for Bronson.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Reading this case, well, Roman's filming Street Fighter, so he'll
be gone for three weeks and hopefully back after that.
So my guess is within a month he'll be back
on TV. I don't know, probably exactly a month, but
you know, it's August thirty first, we have all of September.
Maybe the move is Perth. Maybe he comes back for

(37:01):
Perth because it's you know, it's middle October, which is
quite a ways away, but it is you know, their
next is that their next big pay per view? There's
got to be one in between. There is Survivor Series
in between.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
There oh wres Yeah, well Wressell Palooza is the same
day as All Out September twentieth, and then Perth, and
then I believe that next one would be Survivor Series
in November in San Diego. Sorry forgot about Wrestling Wrussell Palooza.
How could you forget? That's that's the next big one.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
It's because of the name, that's what it's why I
forgot because it sounds it sounds like a con like
not like a con artist con It feels like people
are gonna go to sign posters at Wressel Palooza. Yeah,
before a big event which was not called Wressell Polusa.
Wressel Paluza opens before Summer Slam, so you could go
and get your favorite anyway. Cool. Uh really excited for

(37:56):
that one, But I have nothing to add why at
six retained? What do you what do you make of
all this with with the street profits beefing with each other? Uh?
You you compared them to Grand Theft Auto characters, not
realizing they came out actually dressed with Borderlands masks on.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, admittedly you you are shameful. You are in the
right to call me out. I completely missed the note
about the Borderlands partnership, so you're right. I hit up
you and Mike's Steph. Shout out to Mike. Steph will
reference him here in a few minutes because these characters,
the outfits for the Profits reminded me of characters from
Grand Theft Auto Vice City, a game that I love.

(38:34):
By the way, it's it's PS two D.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
It's it's the Tank right. The white tank.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, yeah, it just I have this is an ode
to Tanisha Singleton. I have questions after this match, my notes,
street profits split incoming question mark. We've thought about the
possibility of this for years. Uh, they're really leaning into

(38:59):
these teases as of late, where maybe there's a path
that I would expect Angelo Dawkins to turn on Montese Ford.
I just think it's time. I think, frankly, both talents
could use a fresh coat of paint and chart out
on their own as singles competitors. I have been driving
the bus for the Montese forward for world title contention

(39:20):
for years. You've been you've been riding shot with me
on that bus and it just hasn't happened. But also,
Angelo Dawkins could really show people, Yo, I get montes
Ford is often thought of as the star of this team,
but yo, I can do. I can do Swantons, I
can I can work with anyone on the roster and

(39:41):
be phenomenal. So so that that's my first question is
when is this going to happen? Because now that we
got the teas I needed imminently, why it's six still relevant?
Question mark, which may sound kind of blasphemous, but I wonder, Brad,
have they fallen into the trap of spooky characters holding
gold to soon? Because I remember when the Fiend debuted,

(40:03):
and I'll never forget in my mind this really happened
in no short order when it was the Fiend versus
seth Rawlins at that infamous Helen a Cell match in Sacramento,
when the Fien won the title, and I think we
just had a collective moment as a fan base of Wait.
I don't think the Fen character would want gold. I
don't think the Fiend would care about winning championships. I

(40:26):
think the Fiend just wants to take your soul and
and whatever else. So I wonder for the yat six.
I'll never forget their debut of committing multiple homicides in
guerrilla position, And so now what are we less than
a year since that debut and they're holding gold their

(40:48):
heels because Uncle Howdie cheated for them to win.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
I think this act cares.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, I think this act still has potential, But to me,
we fallen so far, are down from where that debut
originally started, and I just wonder if them having gold
is actually more of a hindrance than it is, you know,
propelling them into into an important status on the cards.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
I'm with you, and I think the place that they
could have or should have gone or could still they
should be doing what the Death Riders did. Like imagine
them just winning it and going like none of you
deserve it. You're all broken and leaning into that part
of that character, right, Like we're going after these people
because they need to be taught a lesson, very much

(41:36):
like the Fiend every time he wrestled somebody that their
character changed. Right, have them do that, but just be
like the tag team division is a mess and they
don't deserve any of this unless a true contender shows up.
We're not We're not even gonna let you approach winning anything,
and we're keeping them for ourselves. And then just hold
the titles hostage rather than carrying about the titles, because

(41:58):
why would you care about it? Like I understand, like
why a wrestler would care about a wrestling title. I
get that part, But to your point, like, if they're
part of the Wyatt family, bray Wyatt being the leader
of the Wyatt family, bray Wyatt's character never really cared
about that stuff either. They just put the belt on him.
I was watching the Firefly Funhouse flashback as somebody posted

(42:20):
where it's like it just feels like something's missing, and
then the universal title appeared in his hand. There it is,
And I was just like, I like that idea that
he has it in the fun House, but I hate
that he brings it out ever, Like keep it in
the Funhouse. You're holding it hostage, like you're just doing
it because chaos. I would love that, And I think

(42:44):
that would fix everything if you just make them go
out and like take people out do stuff for a
purpose to tell a story, but like keep the belts
off of them. They're Orange Cassidy at that point, like
they just they don't need a belt to be beloved
and to have a good story. And I think they
could do a lot there.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Yeah, And and part of it too is I've been
a bit inconsistent at watching their journey on TV just
with my own fandom, so I think i've I've also
particularly over this summer and maybe missed important points in
their in their storyline just to figure out, Okay, I
know their champs, I know you know they had that
that that that crash crash filled match at WrestleMania with

(43:23):
the ladders and tables and and that that was fun.
I'm glad everyone to my collection walked out safe from
that match. But yeah, I just I'm continuing to monitor
where they're at because there was so much fanfare for
them when this when this started. But we've seen, particular
with spooky characters, but particularly with Bray White and Wwe,

(43:45):
how you had these perpetual starts and stops. And I
wonder for the Wyatt Six under this new regime, and
because so much of the luster is paying homage to Bray,
I would hope that they don't get lost in the shuffle,
and maybe them having goal can ensure that because they
will be an important part of television every week. I'm
just really interested interested to see where both of these

(44:07):
teams go from here, the Wyat six kind of as
a group at large, because I'm not too invested in them,
but then also for the profits, because if you tease
a split and you don't give it to the fan base,
what are we doing both of these guys, Angelo and Montes.
It's time for them to spread their wings and do
their own thing, and I think we're getting closer to that,
which is good. Moving on to the next match.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Brad, I don't disagree with you Tyler before please, I'm
aren't you a little worried that this is going to
be the new day?

Speaker 1 (44:38):
All right?

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Move on, moving moving on, moving on. You don't have
to answer moving on, okay, because you were like, Archie,
what are you gonna do? We're gonna tease a break
up and not do it, and like we've right, yeah
really did it? We saw it live?

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Actually yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're right around that time,
right before a week before the official split, yeah, which.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Ended up not being a split only from Big right.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
I think once that was in November. I can't believe
that was nearly a year ago. That's crazy, Back back
when we could afford seats the shows. Good, good, good times. Okay,
next match. My notes. I love Scottsdale's own Nikki Bella.
It's hard for me to be objective when we discuss her.
This match, Nicki Bella versus Becky Lynch for the IC

(45:22):
Women's Championship not the best match of the show, but
the right woman won. Becky is the right person to
hold the I seats ile right now, and I think
back to Brad. This is going back to in the
vault for Marana High School when you and I were
working together. I don't remember exactly what meeting we were at,
but I remember being in the library and I was

(45:43):
wearing a Becky Lynch The Man shirt. So I think
to when she was in her the original The Man
era and how we would talk about it at work.
You know, she was inarguably the biggest pro wrestler on
the planet in any promotion anywhere, and so her holding
this title, as we you knows, wwe works to establish

(46:06):
these these secondary championships, respectfully, the US title on Julia, which,
by the way, what are we doing with Julia? We
gave Julia the title, but can we give her a
match on a meaningful show? Can we give her a storyline? Heeran,
Keana James are together. Okay, happy for Keana, but what

(46:26):
are we doing here? So if we're gonna make these
titles matter, I think Becky Lynch holding the IC title
is definitely the right move. I know we'll talk about
her in regard to the main event, but I just
think back to when I was totally into the Man character,
and that really wasn't that long ago. So shout out
to Becky for holding it down. For becoming a mom
and you know, getting back into the ring and getting

(46:48):
back in her bag. I just love that Nikki Bella
got this match as well. I know there were some
spots where it wasn't necessarily the most seamless match, but
just grateful to be able to see her work and
glad she getting her flowers and she's Nicky Bella. It's
hard for me to be objective shout out to her
because I thought, I think her being back in wrestling

(47:08):
is definitely a big win, even though I know she
wasn't going to get the win in Paris. I think
it's a huge w that she is involved in wrestling,
and I think with these recent wins, Becky Lynch is
also starting to build some additional cache and who knows,
maybe get back to that point. I don't know if
you can necessarily replicate the magic of the original the
Man character, but I'm glad that she is back to

(47:31):
being a centerpiece of w WE programming.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Completely agree and shout out to Becky for debuting a
new finisher.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yes, the Lynchpin, right cool name.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yeah, I can't diget that that hasn't been done yet.
Right manhandleslam, I get it. But Becky Lynch Lynchpin.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah, Ricky bell even hit the manhandleslam while Becky were
in the match. There were parts of this that were
really fun. I wish because you know how it is
online Brad when sometimes people will clips her in moments
and if it looks messy or if it looks like,
you know, there's a mistake.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Or watching me yeah, yeah, and again it's not a
live performance. Yeah, right, stuff makes me.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Crazy, exactly exactly, and particularly for you know Nicki Bella
who who has taken a lot of time off and
is now wrestling still relatively infrequently. I'm glad that she
stepped in the ring and hopefully I know it's been
reported that you know, she signed on to frequently appear
and especially to wrest on some of these bigger pl
So if she has a match at wrestl Palooza or

(48:33):
you know, going down to the shows in Perth for
Crown Jewel or even Survivor Series in San Diego, you know,
our neighbors, the state next to us, I'm excited to
see the potential feuds and dance partners for Nicki. I'm
just so glad she's back, and you know she seems
to be be doing well and again just getting her
flowers after what seemed to be an incredibly challenging personal

(48:57):
year for her last year. I'm just happy that she
seems to be doing well and she's reminded of how
much people enjoy her.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Completely agree, We're just lucky to be able to watch
that's that's it's really it because the people that are
criticizing all that stuff like probably trip getting the mail
on the regular, so to be like, oh, this really
complex move that they just did physically live in front
of thousands of people in a foreign country after traveling
and they're like, oh, it wasn't perfect and seamless, and
it's like, yeah, a badger, you fell getting the mail.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
We don't think about that, the travel involved and the
you know, being away from your family and in her case,
you know, having kids. Much like Becky and much like
many of the right, even Roman reigns struggling.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
How we're in fifteen minutes away from my home, yet
I feel like death, Like I can't imagine going, like we.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Don't want to fly to Paris, right, And also this
is before we talked about the final few matches on
this car. Because I know you tweeted about this, thinking
about this this era we're in now with wrestlers and
the relationship to fans and how fans off and don't
know boundaries, and so that I know that video came
out online of Ria Ripley being crowded by fans as

(50:06):
she was trying to get into a vehicle. So then
there's that element which I guess has always existed, just
celebrity hysteria, but now with social media and hey, I
have my phone, let me get this picture with you,
and let me get this video with you, and what
talent have to experience at airports and just walking around cities,
especially someone like Rehea Ripley or like a Becky Lyncher,

(50:27):
like Nikki Bella, and for all performers, but I would
say particularly for the women as well, there's just that
safety aspect where there are a lot of fans who,
because they have unlimited, seemingly unlimited access to you in
your life, they think they know you, they think you're
their homegirl, their homeboy, and they can just roll up
on you and it's like, yo, this is a person.
So shout out to Ree Ripley for getting on her

(50:48):
Instagram story and saying yo, if if you all don't
know my boundaries, I'm gonna bring the real rear ripley out.
And what did you put in your what did you
put in your tweet? These dudes in them, These dudes
are fortunate they didn't get one piece, like come on now.
So there's also there's also that element is when you
and I go to when you and I go to work,
we're not surrounded by fans trying to take you know,
videos and photos of us.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
But the other thing too is they're they're going out
there to take videos of a character that's just the
woman playing the characters going to her car.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Exactly leave her alone, the person versus the character.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
For funny, Matthews talking about when he found out like
he loves her and he's like, I'm I'm gonna marry her,
uh and then saying like I'm too scared not to
when he put her in a triangle choke. Did you
see that Van Vliet?

Speaker 1 (51:33):
None of you.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
He had her in a triangle and it was like
tap out and and she said no, so he squeezed
it a little harder and it was like just tap out.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
No.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
He said, I had her in a full choke I
was squeezing my legs in my arms as hard as
I could and she would not tap out and then
ended up like my legs were shaking. She got out
of it and she like got me afterwards. It's like
she's terrifying. I've ever seen anything like it, and it's
like I had to.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
This is this is this is my person?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah yeah, it's like and she's my best friend. And
it was like, that's that's that dude. And if you've
ever seen what that dude looks like, that dude is like,
couldn't do it to her. She's too strong, way too tough.
And those scrawnie jabrons running in the parking lot are
like running up to her face with a camera, Like
she can't just grab them with one arm and throw

(52:25):
them into outer space right, dock them with the space
station and it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
And for background, this isn't you and I, you know,
trying to virtue virtue signal for Internet Cloud. Ria Ripley
mentioned this, Uh. There have been recent events with Roxane
Perez and then also Elena Black, the artist formerly known
as Corey Jade, went on that TMZ podcast and also
mentioned part of what led to her going on this
mental health break from wrestling was, you know, working dates

(52:54):
across the country at indie shows, and there are fans
where they just don't know boundaries and they think.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
They'll know you. Isn't an embarrassing I would think. So
we're gonna you're gonna have a selfie of a blurry
rear ripley in the background, and you're going like it
like you did something like and you're gonna post that
and everybody's dunking on you and telling you what a
piece of crap you are, and you're like, look at
I did it? Look at how cool this is? When
are you looking at this stuff?

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Like? What is it? Why would I?

Speaker 2 (53:18):
I don't even want that picture?

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Like that's weird, right right?

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Do that to somebody's mem walking out of like Kroger
Like it's weird.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yeah, and it's And to me, this transcends wrestling in
that you know, in our well maybe not just in
our country.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Actually I'm just mad now, Tyler, Well, yeah, because we
we we we do have mad like great things going
off on.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
You got the signal. I'll finish by saying this. We
do have a fascination with celebrities, clearly, not only in
our country, but worldwide. You brought up a great point
in that wrestling is a bit different because we conflate
the character with the person. You know, sometimes we forget
and sometimes wrestlers use their real names, but we forget

(54:04):
there's the character that we see online that maybe we
follow on social but then there's a person who is
totally different. And it's unfortunate that you know, some of
the fan base, I would not say the majority, but
some of the fan base is still needing to learn. Yo,
this is a person you gotta for all the reasons
you said, Brad, whether we're we see them on the street,
whether we're talking about their matches, you can be critical,

(54:26):
but I think you also brought up a really good
point in that sometimes we forget the people behind it.
They're traveling, they have lives, they have mental health challenges,
and you know sometimes that may impact how you perform.
I know it does for me in my own job.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Ye, I just don't have the tickets. So you go
to see that character and you're sitting in the audience,
take all the pictures you want, Like they know they
expect it there, but they don't expect that at Barnes
and noble rap in the self help section exactly when
they're there with their niece looking at legos or something
on the eure up there, like, hey, weirdos, man, it's
just weirdo behavior. I believe I refer to them as dweebs,
but like we totally behavior, do we It's just an

(55:01):
underused word, man, You gotta brings it back. Weep is
such a good word. It's just such a old great word,
not as old as a good old fashioned Donnie brook though.
What are your thoughts about verge Seamus? I have none?

Speaker 1 (55:16):
I wrote four. I wrote three words actually for this
match russe one cool.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Had to have three words, but two periods. That's hilarious, okay.
John Cena defeated Logan Paul by pinfall. This this was good.
This is a good. How many finishers? Five?

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Five different finishers?

Speaker 1 (55:40):
I believe something like that. Five finishers. I have four
words for this match. Two period yeah, yea, I wrote
sina one makes sense your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
I loved that John Cena kind of did a shout
out to all of his opponents, especially the ones he's
not gonna be able to run back matches.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
For styles Clash.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
The end of days, the like we have all these
different I thought that was a really cool shot, especially
for talent that's not the company anymore. I just thought
that was super cool. Like, I don't think he's going
to be doing her top rope her like a Frankensteiner's
not coming out at this stage. We've seen him do
it before. But I just think it was really cool.

(56:28):
Well maybe maybe I'm wrong. I also wasn't expecting the
U the Spanish fly. I wasn't expecting stuff to get
busted out that that happened. I thought it was fun.
I I hated that it was it was John Cena
versus Logan Paul on his kind of retirement tour. But
if the plan is to have Logan Paul be a

(56:50):
more of a full time wrestler and rather than a
part time wrestler, it's indisputable that he's great in the ring.
He's so good, and his character is great because he's
easily hateable, and it's it's just Logan Paul kind of
cranked all the way up. So I have no problem
with that. It's it's it's a draw people. People enjoy it.

(57:10):
It makes you root for the baby face a lot more.
And uh, I don't think there's anything wrong with that part.
I have my own personal feelings about that, but if
it's good for business, it's good for business. And I
thought John Cena doing that match with that person, uh
right person one made Logan Paul look even better. All
of all of those things happened in that match that

(57:31):
ultimately doesn't really matter, right, It's it's just another one
of his matches. And I think a lot of people
are gonna go what should be against somebody else on
this retirement tour? Okay, I agree, who is it? Dude?
You just stop all the stories so you can have
a match. So it's it's just you know, it felt
like the right, right time, right place. You get two

(57:53):
big stars and do you give it to Paris to
have a fun night. They got a ridiculous move set
out of John Cen and everybody walked away going, oh,
that was pretty cool. Having one women's match on the
card and having it being the shortest match is how
I felt walking away from the show last night, going like, hey,

(58:14):
the premiere women's match was the shortest one, and it
was the one I was most excited about last night
for a variety of reasons. At the AWF show. I
was I was excited about Becky Lynch Nickibella by no stretched.
I think it was going to steal the show. But
I also thought, like, Okay, it's not a great look
when it's shorter than everything else. Finally, Tyler, we have
Seth Rowlins beating CM Punk, Jay Usso and La Knight,

(58:38):
and I saw somebody online say this. It was one
of the dumbest things I've ever seen. Becky Lynch helped
Seth Rowlins in a surprise turn on CM punk. It's
all I have.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Yeah, so, and this is where we give a tip
of the cap to form a multi time guest in
front of the show. Dear friend of the show, Mike Steph,
host of the Salty Lots of Mike Steph podcast. Check
him out. So Mike thought this was predictable set that
Becky Lynch would be the mystery assailant to join Seth

(59:19):
Rollins the vision team, but Mike brought up an interesting point.
Brady hit us up and said Seth is still getting
babyface reactions, and so perhaps him being paired with his
real life wife Becky Lynch on screen with Becky generating
heel reactions, maybe this could be a way to establish
more of a heel set because he's doing dazardly things.

(59:41):
He's still wearing the outlandish clothes, but he has the
theme song that we all love to sing, and it's
just kind of this juxtaposition of Okay, he's supposed to
be the most evil character on Monday Nights, but at
the same time, the fan reaction doesn't necessarily match that,
because you know, even in the back during the promo
before the match, Brad Seth Rollins was saying, I am

(01:00:04):
the greatest wrestler in the world and this that and
the other end fans were like, yeah, we love you.
You're very good at this. So Mike brought up an
interesting point there, Brad, But yeah, this was very predictable
WWEE commentary and the like, we're leaning really hard into Okay,
Paul Hayman's out a local medical facility. I think that
actually said hospital. So that's progress. Brown Breaker and Bronson

(01:00:27):
Reid will not be interfering in this match, like for
real this time, and Seth was even saying, Okay, I
gotta do it on my own. So who is in Paris?
I don't think they're gonna fly out Omas. You know
Omas can't get a phone call and in two hours
being yeah again, suspension of disbelief. I don't think you
can just get to Paris in two hours just like that.

(01:00:50):
So Becky makes all the sense considering we knew she
was already on the card, and I think both of
them have even alluded on screen lately to being each
other's spouse in real life. So it would seem that
maybe the plan has been in motions if you keep yeah,
exactly my hot husband and yeah, yeah, so so I
do like, oh wow, there were some of those sprinkles,

(01:01:11):
no pun intended for myself, there were some of those sprinkles.
Oh yeah, this this, this would finally thank you, this
would finally come to fruish. So yeah, I'm not mad
at it. I love that they're leaning into the power
couple that they are in wrestling, and I think it's
actually really cool, and frankly, it was needed that if
we're going to have a new member join the Vision,

(01:01:31):
that it would be someone from the women's roster, and
why not have it be Becky Lynch. Of course, all
the speculation online leaving the show Brad is could this
be the avenue to get an AJ Lee return to wrestling.
I don't know if you saw after the show, CM
Punk took a fan sign that said see him Punk,

(01:01:51):
bring back aj Lee. He took it from a fan
in the audience. He looked at it, you know, made
a hmm, this is an interesting idea, and then asked
it back so we get aged ly back from this.
I love it even more.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
I saw him also at a live event go up
to the security guard. Did you see that video of him?
Like going help somebody help? And he's crawling up to
the barricade like no, grabbed onto this. This older lady
who's like working security for the event just arms over
the top. It's like, will you help me? And I
like everybody's cackling.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I did it. I saw the fight events. Yes, I
saw the fireful select report that he was skipping at
a recent live show over there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I think a clear all of them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Oh to his wifey agent.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Of course. I just think a going back to the
indie shows. I think every wrestler at there in their
hearts that have ever worked those indie shows loves the
indie shows. I think seth Rawlins even said like main
events in WrestleMania, beating these giants, soiled out stadiums and
beating these arenas and all this thing is great, But

(01:02:57):
I would give me a five hundred person four two
hundred person crowd that is, you're just right there, and
he misses that and loves that, and I think all
of them do, because you're like, you're not interacting with
the person in the top row. You're interacting with somebody
five feet away from you. And then you feel way
more invested in that crowd because you can see every

(01:03:17):
person in the room, which probably positives and negatives, because well,
you know, sometimes you're eight and sometimes you catch a
beer right in the face for doing nothing but taking
a nap. It's just what happens, Tyler. Sometimes you take
a nap after you visit a restaurant because you get
so full. Sometimes that restaurant happens to serve breakfast all day,

(01:03:38):
and it's in the news a lot. But I can't
wait to hear your thoughts. It's time for It's a
work Cracker Barrel edition.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
We were not going to leave aslet I say, we're
not gonna leave August, because we're recording this on August thirty. First,
of course, our episode will drop on September one. We
were not gonna leave August or start September without addressing
the cracker barrel situation. Brad, you heard about the story.
I heard about the story. Maybe our audience did as well.

(01:04:24):
Cracker Barrel went on a media tour to promote their
new logo. They were going to past tense. They were
going to get rid of the old school demand next
to a barrel, cracker barrel, come through. That's not their tackline,
but you know, come through, have good eats. And they
were just going to change it to cracker barrel. The words,
you know, brown lettering, yellow background. There it is. So

(01:04:48):
their CEO, I believe, went on like the Today Show
and again made the full media to that, hey, we're
unveiling this new design. And after we got feedback from
all of our great customers and our managers and da
da da is only within a week or so later
to totally reverse course. And this is after pushback from
namely the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and

(01:05:12):
maybe some other people online that oh, you're leaning into
world culture. Why get rid of something that works just fine?
And so Cracker Barrel this past week ends up putting
out a statement and says, we heard you. We listened
to all of our amazing fans. We are keeping the
old logo, Brad Winchester. I'm here to tell you the

(01:05:33):
media tour spotlighting promoting this new Cracker Barrel logo and
a new era for the restaurant. It's smelling like a
complete work. I've thought about it, and I don't buy
it for a second. I think this was just a
shrewd way to get extra publicity for the restaurant. I

(01:05:54):
think there was always the plan that we're gonna get
eyeballs on us, but then we're just going to revert
back to what we we're doing. We will see if
it pays off, because I know many people who like
Cracker Barrel who did not vote for the president and
do not appreciate that Cracker Barrel has removed DEI language
and and other things from their website and from their

(01:06:15):
other media assets over over the summer. So I'm interested
to see where it happens. I love their pancakes. I
have some fond memories at Cracker Barrel, Brad. I don't
know about you, but the sea, the rocking chair with
the checkers, and the gifts store where you can buy
like Elvis Presley and Rudy gunp.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
All kinds of crap.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Chrispin ornaments. Yeah, I have a I
have a lot. I have a lot of affinity and
a lot of nostalgia for Cracker Barrel, even though I
get aesthetically. You know, one may be surprised to hear that,
but my family's dying to have plenty of Cracker barrels.
I have friends that go there, like I said, of
all different backgrounds and persuasions and political affiliations. So I'm

(01:06:56):
interested to see what happens next. But Brad, this feels
like a total work to me. I think it was
completely unnecessary. But we'll see how Cracker Barrel does of
the remainder of the year with their their sales.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
I don't have any fond memories of Cracker Barrel whatsoever.
Nothing tied to that. There was none anywhere near where
I lived, so it just simply wasn't a part of
my childhood. Like I'd heard of them and stuff. But
there's Upper Peninsula Michigan, Like, what's your favorite memory of
going to a Perkins Tyler? Yeah, never been there?

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
You go, So that's what that's what I'm saying, so,
have you been to the one off the Miranda exit.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Yeah, I've been. I've been there, and like, I love
the Country Store, I love I love the peg game
at every table, like all that that that pancakes syrup
is Come on now, the pancakes syrup is great. The
pancakes themselves having that crispy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Edge but fluffy. They know what they know, they know
what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
That's really good stuff. Yeah, and I and I love
I love the food. But I feel like it's not
hard to figure out what's going on in the logo,
And what's going on in the logo is kind of
in the name. It's the first word and it's not
it's not barrel.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
There's a white guy in the logo in case you
haven't seen it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Dude is way too full of himself too. That the
swag that this guy is putting on like that m
F is just like leaning into a feeling himself looking
at like, hey.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
It looks like he just he just stepped off the
set above mice and Men.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
Yes, giving definitelyfinitely have. He has his comments about Curly's wife,
like for sure, he's like, yeah, we're going down to
Miss kiddies like that's yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
That never stopped me or my family from going into
Cracker Brow. I don't know what it is because aesthetically.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
It's like like Tyler, it's good and the people good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
The people are usually friendly in my experience.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
They are its people. It's just like I think it
was just like the the whole. I mean, granted, I'm
in a position where I don't care, like because I
don't I don't need to care, I don't have to care,
but I don't care because because Cracker and the title,
it just feels like I'm going home. So like when
I walk into that country store, I feel like, all
right cool, And I think there's something about like the

(01:09:08):
old timing nostalgic feel about it that just feels like
it that makes it feel welcoming, even if it's not,
or if it's just layers layers of coating it's it's
it's hard to it's hard to know, and I'm trying
not to overanalyze things anymore because like I miss Aunt Jemima.

(01:09:30):
I just miss her. I miss her face on the label,
I miss saying hello to her in the morning, Like
Miss Buttersworth is just not the same. And now it's
a some some kind of mills farms or whatever it is,
and it's a windmill on there. I don't want that.
Where's the nice lady on the bottle?

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
That's what I want. I grew up with the ante
mama as well. Man, It's a yeah. I remember many
many Saturday mornings for sure. I remember on Saturday morning's
going to crackerber. I was just that cracker barrel, like
a few months ago, before all this went down, before
they started getting in the work business.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
However, before I was before when I said I think
I actually agree with you, I one hundred percent agree
with you. I feel like this was definitely like a
move to be like I know it'll generate buzz. Let's
change the one thing we know we can't. But do
we talk about it on here? I can't even remember.
I had conversations about how like McDonald's and all these
buildings look exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
Now you mentioned that, I believe you said that down here,
what building.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
That sells pizza? Do you know if it's something else
that that building sold pizza? It's pizza hut? No building
was shaped like that ever, if it wasn't a pizza hut,
that weird triangle thing with a top on it that
was a pizza hut. The end cracker barrel has the
same facade, and they were trying to corporate it up
to get away from that, because then you can get

(01:10:49):
these modular buildings that everybody else has. That way store closes,
you can sell it as a mattress firm or whatever
else you want to do, because it's not specifically a
pizza hut. Because every time those clothes, like some mom
and pop restaurant shows up to run that because nobody
else will take it because you're not going to go
to a place that looks like a pizza hut. So
I understand from a marketing sense, it's going to be

(01:11:11):
cheaper to start franchises, to renovate and then to gobble
up property and then should just resell that property. Should
a store close because it's too expensive. Now you own it,
the franchisees have to rent the Basically they buy the store,
but not the property. It's it's weird how that stuff works,
so that at the store closes, it's on the property

(01:11:31):
the place owns, and then that company can then sell
that property to somebody else and make a ton of
money off of it, and it's it's just weird and
feels greasy. No pun intended, because you know Cracker Barrel,
but I think like this just felt like a way
to generate buzz. They were never going to change that.
What's his name? Herschel?

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
I think I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
I saw I think it was Herschel, and I.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Thought, is it that guy's name? Is Herschel in the logo?

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
That guy's name? When I looked at him, I was like,
that that guy is a Cody or.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, I don't know. White guys could be named Herschel.
But also I also know someone.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
White from the nineteen twenties and thirties.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Sure, yeah, Malcolm as well. When I met a white Malcolm,
I was like, oh, it could also be my world change. Yeah, well, okay,
I'm probably gonna go to Cracker Barrel.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
And I have several I have several like I'm just
gonna shut the hell up and I'm gonna leave hershel lot.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
I think I think we've I think we've stayed beaten
this to death.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Yeah, I f You're like, if we've really cracked this open, Tyler,
we got to talk about aw we do.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
We do, okay, so we'll get right to it. Here.
A W has a residency at this twenty three hundred
Arena in Philly. Lots of E. C. W memories, of course,
I love to see Taz get his flowers. I'm glad
they posted that to YouTube. I saw correct me if
I'm wrong, Brad, that aw's planning to air that celebration

(01:13:03):
for Taz on Dynamite this week, which is really cool.
That he is being inducted into the twenty three hundred
Arena Hall of Fame, certainly earned. I want to ask
you about his son first, right, Oh, I didn't realize
that that would make sense.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
I thought he was the first one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Wow, But let's do it. You don't have to tell
me twice. Speaking of Taz, his son Hook returned to
AW on last week's Dynamite. You may have received multiple
messages from me over the last week regarding my love
for his new theme song. I just I dig it.
I'm glad he's back. Of course, he interrupted Wheeler Yudah

(01:13:39):
and choked him out. He did the same thing actually
on roh what was that death? Before dishonored that event
on Friday as well. So Hook is here. I want
to know, Brad, and I kind of teased this last week,
but I didn't really get your full thoughts on it.
I think back to a few years ago when Hook
debuted and we were all just amazing that what we

(01:14:00):
were seeing, like, Oh, Taz's son can really go and
his presentation is unique, and he has the music and
he has the charisma. And here we are years later,
and I don't know that he is I'll just say this,
I think in terms of what AW does from a
character perspective, in terms of the younger members of their roster,

(01:14:21):
I don't know that there's a more important character who
they need to get right with their return than Hook
right now, because there was a lot of momentsma Originally
it kind of fizzled out. Dare I say? He was
FTW champion for a long time, then he broke away
from the ops and is still not totally good with them.
But we'll see. To my point, Brad, I'm excited Hook

(01:14:44):
is back. I have no idea what's to come for him.
I just hope it's substantive and it's interesting. Where are
you at with Hook? And for you thinking about the
young talent that AW is developing, How crucial. Do you
think it is that aw does something meaningful with him?
And if anything, what are you hoping that is? Do

(01:15:04):
you see a reunion with the Ops? Do you see
him maybe charting his own path? What say you now
that Hook is here?

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
I think he needs to chart his own path? Number
one and number two, I think that it's incredibly important
because they assigned him to another deal, and I think
it's a multi year deal. Did I hear five?

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
I can't remember how many years, but I didn't hear
the year, but I know I know there were reports
what last year from Fightful Select that Hook's contract was
running up, and of course the fan base said, oh, well,
we could totally see him in n XT and you know,
even even his vignettes Brad with the action figures and
the chips, it's like this is just so unique and
the Batman esque spotlight, like they really have something here.
I just wonder what does that translate to now that

(01:15:44):
he's re upped.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
I don't know, he's I feel like the closest comp
to what he does is I don't know, do we
have anything Daniel Garcia.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
Maybe maybe, And even then it's different.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
So different, well, the character not at all. But I'm
just thinking in ring there's not like a lot right, Like,
he is so unique that I think they needed to
really keep presenting him the way they've been presenting him.
I don't think he needs to go back to the ops.
I think there's stories to tell with him as a
solo artist. I think we don't what does Hook want?

(01:16:22):
I don't I don't have a clue what's going on there,
But I would love to see him start doing stuff
that God's honest truth, like the feud for me for
Hook that I think would have legs and would be
a lot of fun Jack Perry. If they can get
Jack Perry back, I think a Hook healed Jack Perry

(01:16:42):
feud would be a lot of fun. I just think
that would be something that they could They both could
benefit from that because I don't know what's going on
with Jack Perry. I don't know who he pissed off,
but he's just been gone forever and I assume he's healthy.
But I would love to see him come back because
he's a lot of fun to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
And remember that was the match, that was the match
at what was it all all out? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Where it was the real glass pal you remember that,
But I think both of them are into I mean, granted,
back then Hook was.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
Free scapegoat Jack. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
I was gonna say both of them. Yeah, we were
rooting for Hook back then and maybe booming Jack Perry.
But but both characters are in a different position now,
and I would imagine it, Like you said, Brad, you
were really wise to bring this up. If Hook is reupted,
I would imagine part of the negotiation process, especially with
his dad being who his dad is, part of that
had to be discussion about creative and Okay, I was

(01:17:38):
FTW champion, I had some matches. I supple some dudes
on their dome safely. But what is next for me now?
In this what I would classify as like Hook two
point zero, okay, new new music, knew this or that,
But what's that gonna lead to? Yeah, and who are
the dance partners gonna be? And Jack Perry, like you said,
we haven't seen him in in a minute. I wonder

(01:17:59):
if hookens up going for now that the f TW
title is defunct, do we see a future TNT program?
Probably too soon for a unifying after Okada program. I
mean that I mean that would be that would be
a fun that would be I don't maybe we're not
there yet, but tnt seem I don't think so Ei.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
There but seems yeah, yeah, yeah, I could see. Yeah,
I'm big I'm a big hook fan, and I think
they're as long as they don't stick him in the
death Riders and it. And it feels like they're working
you to out of it a little bit because he's
getting a little bit more you don't like the old
wheeler right, Like he's doing little comments and stuff backstage

(01:18:38):
and everybody's like, hey, shut up. Like I kind of
love that, Like he's leaking out because he didn't really
want to be in there in the first place, and
they sort of pulled him in reluctantly, so we know
he never really wanted to be there, So like him
coming out would be a fun story to tell. Maybe
he and Niths form a team and go after the
tag Belts. I don't I I could see that happening too,

(01:18:58):
Like there's a lot of ways that this could go.
I don't know. Does he do something with Hobbes? Is
that why he's mad at the ops because he was
with Hobbes for the FTW stuff when Ricky was there, like,
what what does all of this look like? I'm intrigued.
I guess that's the point is I just want to
see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Yeah, no, no, me too. I was just thinking back.
I think I said all out Earier was actually all
in that all London was first s last match. Yeah,
that was on the on the on the pre show.
Yeah man, I'm I'm intrigued. And and this is really
what WWE is facing as well because that fatal four
way match that closed clash in Paris. Okay, you have
l A Knight, seth Rawlins, j Uso, and cm Punk,

(01:19:39):
all men who are in their late thirties or even
their forties with a w Okay Hangman Page's Champ Hayman
is a younger man as his MJF. But a lot
of those other acts, the young bucks, Kenny Omega, you know,
you continue on for some of those those top folks.
Of course Chris Jericho, who we haven't spoken about him,
but maybe on his way out of the company the

(01:20:00):
end of the year. What's that next class that you're
really raising up in aw I remember when we had
our Fantasy Draft episode here on GI and I think
I drafted hook like number four Brad I was, I
was really going for it, and I wonder because I
was so high on man. I don't know what the
next five years look like for this guy, but there's

(01:20:21):
so much intrigue around him. Let's just see what happens.
I thought would be a little bit further along now
storyline wise, but I just think his presentation is so unique.
He's totally his dad's kid in that regard, his dad's son.
Excuse me that, whatever it is, I just think creatively,
not just in ring wise, but I think creatively we

(01:20:42):
could be we could be onto something really good. I
have no idea what it is, but I would love
to see some new dance partners thrown in there. And
I agree with you that although I do want to
salvage that op story, I think him branching off on
his own actually is going to be the more fruitful
move At this point.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
I'm still surprised that he didn't end up in Blackpool
Combat Club to begin with that one. That's always felt like,
why wouldn't you do that? Like it's just the dude
is like he's doing judo throws and fights like a fighter,
not like a wrestler even though he's doing wrestling moves
his throws and stuff. It's like it's it's like shoot
style stuff. He makes a ton of sense in that

(01:21:20):
group where it's like, all right, you need somebody to
go choke someone out. Who do you got that's better
than that? Like have him go do it? Him and
Mox doing like Mock's doing a bulldog and then Hook
getting in there and doing a tas mission the red rum, right,
like that's come on now, no brainer, h Tyler. Mine
is mine is pretty simple. I actually scroll up to
find it here because I was looking at my notes.

(01:21:43):
What do you think? This is very simple? What do
you think of after going to the live event? The
difference between the twenty three hundred arena experience and what
it looks like on television? What are your what is
your viewing enjoyment for the arena, and what do you
think it's like being in the arena for both talent

(01:22:05):
and fans.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
And this is thinking of our AWF experience. Yeah, at
both shooters at a smaller.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
I'm just thinking like it's small, small venue.

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
Yeah, yeah, it's real cool and it's completely different. And
you and I were talking about this when we were were.

Speaker 2 (01:22:17):
Dark actually Dark takes well, yeah, yeah, you and.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
I were talking about this because you know, we've been
blessed to be at several shows now together and completely
different venues from the Phax Arena right, huge venue seats
tens of thousands of people, versus Arizona Financial Theater for
Dynamite earlier this year, which was much smaller, the Desert
Diamond Arena at Westgate, and then now all the way
to to Bullshooters. Yeah, from as it's pretty jarring to

(01:22:44):
see Dynamite there because I remember the early days of
Dynamite them filling these again, these huge basketball arenas, and
now I do enjoy because it was time to pivot.
You and I spoke about this at nauseum on the show, Brad.
It was time to pivot, to try out different arenas.
And I love that each arena Aw's visited, or each venue,
I should say, has its own character. And I love

(01:23:05):
say during the Death Writer's entrance or during some backstage segments,
we can see the different nuances and the different architecture
of each place. And now going to the twenty three
hundred Arena, which is a location that a lot of
us have nostalgia for going back to the ECW days. Yeah,
I think it's really cool because if we just rewind
to the origins of AEW, ECW in many ways, was

(01:23:29):
kind of the spiritual predecessor for an AW. Tony Kahan is,
I don't know if he's used that quote, but he's
really said as much as recently as last week when
they return. So understanding the history and how, you know,
an ECW led way for an AW to be created
really cool in a spiritual way in that regard, and
then also just from a TV viewer perspective, I really

(01:23:54):
enjoyed the aesthetics of it. Even the entranceway paying homage
to ECW, I thought was really cool. I could only
imagine being in the building for this show. There were
less than a thousand people in twenty three hundred they
sold it out. It must be it must be pretty neat, man,
because you and I really enjoyed. We didn't enjoy the
lack of leg room at Bullshooters, but the fact that

(01:24:15):
you could hear, you know, the ring, you could really
hear the move, you could just really Again, this goes
to something we've kind of thread throughout the show. When
you're at these smaller venues, you can just really appreciate
the performance art of it all right, the spectacle of it,
and of course going to a show and seeing Pyro
and all that, that's incredibly fun. But then also if

(01:24:38):
you get the chance to go to a smaller show
such as Dynamite the twenty three hundred Arena, I would
imagine just it really unlocks a different part of your
fandom because you are so close to the action and
you can just really, again, I think, acknowledge and appreciate
those parts of the show that maybe you don't necessarily
when you're you know, ten twenty thirty rows up at

(01:25:00):
at a bigger ven you so I dig it and
it reminded me of being a kid and watching ECW
and discovering wrestling for the first time.

Speaker 2 (01:25:07):
I loved it. I think it's great and I exactly
agree with you. I think the first time I thought
that way, and it might have been one of the
first actual different kinds of venues, was when they came
to the the Arizona Theater HM, when we went to
the Dynamite Collision tapings. That was I think that might
have been the first one because there was no back seating.

(01:25:28):
It was like the stage was used as the stage.
It's that was the end. The entrance was the stage
for the theater, and and right off of the stage
right wing was the announced table. And then you had
the ramps and we sat down on the floor. And
then like when the with the barricade was was like

(01:25:49):
essentially the the actual barricade built into the theater for
the front row seats. So it was it was really
cool seeing that in like the orchestra pit and then
having it shoot straight up into the air where it's
this is a theater to do that and have like
Tony Storm go out into that that balcony through the theater,
having people fighting up in the in the boxes, the

(01:26:10):
gimmick bales, the gimmick balcony is exactly what I was thinking.
This is such a funny reference. Oh, it's such a
good reference.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
All of that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:18):
I think it's great. And then to have it at
a place that is you know, not only did Tony
Khan establish a residency there because of what it meant
to him and going to his first wrestling show was
an ECW event and what ECW did to impact the
business and affect a EW and and having taz on commentary,

(01:26:41):
which he's done for what twenty twenty five years something
like that. He's been doing it for a long long time.
I don't I don't think he gets nearly enough credit
for the longevity of his broadcasting career and he's been
doing it at a high level, but to also have
his his career honored and that's and we know what

(01:27:02):
that space means, and allowing other people to view it
maybe for the first time, to go like, why are
we here? Oh, because this space is important. They're acknowledging
the history of the place. I just think that's so
cool because it's like a bit of a history lesson
based baked in with your your sports entertainment and you're
pro wrestling and I you know, like we've talked about
how that first One Night Stand is one of our

(01:27:25):
favorite pay per views of all time. It certainly is
for me because of the nostalgia, because of the talent
coming back out and going like these are basically cameos
that are happening. But to have at the the ROH event,
the Blue Mini come out with Athena and Billy Starks.
I don't know if you caught that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:44):
Oh, I did yeah, thank you Tony komfor posting it
on YouTube. I was shook when I saw it's free
right now, of course I let a click. Yeah, I saw, Yeah,
I saw. I saw a good portion after.

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
I was really excited.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
Yeah, the blue Meani with the little they hit the
little dance here for Yeah, Mina hit the dance. I'm
here for it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
Yeah it was. It was awesome. So like just acknowledging
all the people that came before to go, this is
what happened, and here's why we're here. And also we're
gonna put on our show for you to honor this space.
Doing both of those things. I think that's so cool.
Now a casual fan flipping through seeing that that just
watched Clash turning that on mich go, huh, but I'm fourteen.

(01:28:27):
What happened to all the people like they might not
have a clue because they don't understand the history, right.
Maybe they watched the thing because it's like it's awesome
because the graps are good and you find out a
little bit. Maybe they check out ECW and get mad
when they find out wwe ultimately put the nail in
that coffin.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
And how cool is it for the fans who the
fans infiliate are the fans who are traveling there. This
past week they saw the reunion of Hangman and Kenny Omega.
This week they're getting Mercedes Manett defending the TBS title
against Alex winsa amazing that's wins that wins. Do you
think Alex Windsa is Okay? I don't either, thank you,

(01:29:06):
but shout out to her. She's she's had. He is
having an amazing run. It's gonna make sure with the company.
Really cool for the fans to be able to see that, Okay,
that was signaling my exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:29:17):
Being able to see it too, just to feel a part.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
Of it, being able to see Mercedes in a you know,
a very intimate venue like that's I mean, I I'm
being long winded. I hope that main events dynamite. I'm
really excited for that match, and I think Mercedes is
winning just like you.

Speaker 2 (01:29:32):
But shout out, it's gonna be the best match of
the night for sure, Tyler. It's that time.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
What do we miss It is that time? I don't
think we missed much, but I do have two items
I wanted to address. It was the engagement that nearly
broke the Internet. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. They're tying
the not Brad. When is the last celebrity wedding that
has been this big of a deal. I tried, I

(01:30:00):
was going to research it before we came on, and
I just get it royal, But it has to be
the Royal wedding, American wedding wise celebrities, is there anything
in recent memory that compares to Swift and Kelsey? This
is the one.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
No, this is the one.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
I think it's going to be. It's gonna be.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
But I also be I also don't care about these
things like at all, So I like, at all at all.
Something this might have happened. Then I would have missed
it because I was like, oh man, there's reruns of
the animated Batman show on TV right now. Click like
I was. I was thirty eight when this happened.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
I have no idea, Yeah I have.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
Cool pop pop, pop culture. Yeah, two of our words
are our world's entertainment, sports. Yeah they're colliding. And yeah,
I'm certain we will talk about about this.

Speaker 2 (01:30:49):
Oh yeah, I'm gonna I'm tuning in because it's relevant.
But I also have that on my notes. I said, Tuesday,
August twenty sixth the greatest day in American history for
white women. Taylor Swift, can we can we go that?
Hold on? Hold on?

Speaker 1 (01:31:07):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:31:09):
Starbucks Fall flavors came out on that day too. Wow,
Pumpkin Spice Latte and and Swifties.

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
And the Cracker Barrel logo is back.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
And the Cracker Barrel logo is back for the Well,
you know what I'm gonna say there, I'm gonna leave
it alone.

Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
Okay, we will, we will leave that one.

Speaker 2 (01:31:27):
I just we should just leave that should just be.

Speaker 1 (01:31:30):
That should be it should do. I got, I got,
I gotta get this off. Well this there's no transition
from white women into into wrestling. But eleven is this Saturday.
It's Charlotte and the inaugural say Cracker.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
So I'm glad you It was gonna get worse.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
Shout out. Shout out to Darius Lockhart and the team
Black owned Wrestling Company at in North Carolina grad the
inaugural Women's champion will be crowned this Saturday. Aliyah, James
Maya World Khan again, the aforementioned Darius Lockhart, and more.
Our schedule to wrestle at osh A eleven. As we
await streaming information, you can follow the company at ah

(01:32:10):
A Wrestling that's a se Wrestling or a wrestling dot com.
What you got be.

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
Not a lot I have. I only had the swifty thing.
I also had two things we talked about, the cracker
barrel logo and Taz getting his flowers after Dynamite, which
we get to watch this week anyway in its entirety,
even though it's already up online. You can check it
out then, but I'm glad the masses will get to
experience that. I'm sure there are other things that we missed,

(01:32:39):
including Mikah Parsons is a Green Bay packer.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Thanks, Yeah, I was. I wasn't even gonna I wasn't
even gonna step on your territory. I was curious to
see if you were gonna bring that up. Congratulations, this
is a big moment for you. It is.

Speaker 2 (01:32:53):
It is not as big as the shower is going
to be. The second We're done here, say.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
I love it, Brad, We love you all. Thank you
for tuning in. We hope you have a RESTful and
a safe Labor day. You can follow us at gipod
nineteen for exclusive show updates and more. We will see
you next week. Gimmconfringement is a part of nineteen Media Group.
You can listen to us on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or

(01:33:21):
wherever you find podcasts. You can also find us on
YouTube via the nineteen Media Group channel. Please like, subscribe,
comment and share.
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